My Birthday

Every year it's the same old story. Boy craves red velvet cake for his birthday. Boy's mom sends boxed cake across the ocean. Boy waits 3 weeks until the actual date of his birthday. Boy reads directions. Boy bakes cake. Boy mucks it up. Boy decides that cream cheese frosting makes him just as happy. :)

Such is my story for the third year in a row. I promise I follow the directions (at least I did this time). The first couple times I forgot to add either eggs or water. Usually it turns out looking like a dense red brownie. Somehow, though not surprisingly, I messed it up again. In the spirit of playing with food (as I haven't quite grown out of that phase of my life), I decided to decorate.

Meet Mr. Red.

He was happy until I started eating out his brains "return of the living dead" style.

Luckily, the second layer turned out better.

My New Oven

After 2.5 years of living in China, Chinese food is starting to get boring to me. Well, it isn't so boring. I do still love it. Maybe I just haven't found that really good restaurant yet like Up Down in Yichang. Another reason might be that there isn't an easily accessible Snack Street with all the goodies and quick foods that I have been spoiled to. And yet another reason could be that I have access to all kinds of western food products. Yeah that could be it. So in the spirit of consumerism, I decided to buy myself an oven in which I could cook all the western dishes that I remember from home. Unfortunately I don't have any casserole dishes so Tator Tot Casserole has been put on the back burner for now. This weekend I decided to break in my new oven with Italian Stuffed Tomatoes. I really wasn't in a gourmet mood. I just had 2 tomatoes left over from last weeks food plan and thought what can I do with tomatoes in my oven. They turned out ok. I used a recipe that called for 6 tomatoes. I only cooked two. I now know that the recipe doesn't include enough cheese. I used the same amount the recipe called for with 6 tomatoes and it still wasn't cheesy enough. Plus I should add some more bread crumbs. All in all it was a neat little experience. I am psyched about Tator Tot Casserole for next weekend. Yes, tator tots are sold here in Shanghai. I can't wait!

Finally

It is over. Just this last Sunday night, China ushered in the new year. A little behind, right? Actually, the new year holiday the Chinese people just celebrated is based on the lunar calendar. Where as our new year in the states is always on January 1, the lunar new year can range from sometime in January like this year and sometime at the end of February. It always is a source of great consternation for me. In planning my vacations ahead of time like most people do, I frequently inquire about such dates as the Chinese new year. No one ever knows until a few weeks before. Of course, I suppose I could utilize this great thing called the internet to do things besides Geo-challenge like look up the exact dates for the Chinese new year. Maybe next year.

Anyway, as part of the new year festivities, Chu Si (the fourth day of the Chinese new year) is as my boss calls it, Wealth God Eve. The simple explanation is that if you make lots of noise on this particular day (my last night, Thursday the 29th), the god of wealth will hear you and come bless your household. I didn't do a lick of noise making, but my neighbors sure did. If racket (in the form of firecrackers from 10 pm to 12:30 am and then restarting around 4 am) is any indication of the level of wealth that will fill a person's house over the next year, you will all want to be very nice to me because I am going to be rollin' in it! Money money money money...MONEY!

And now I am going to sleep for I am sleep deprived.

Egg Nog

This blog is in honor of my mom who makes many holiday things possible for me. I love to drink egg nog each year at Christmas. Since I live in China, good milk products are hard to come by, plus the great malamime milk scandal of 2008 just made the problem worse. but because of my mom, I had egg nog! It was quite simple actually. Find carton of milk from a company that has proven itself as reputable through the malamime scandal and add to it a few tablespoons of egg nog powder. Viola! Instant egg nog. Now, we all know that instant products are never as good as the real thing, but I must say that it was incredibly good. From the smell to the taste to the texture, I felt like I was drinking real egg nog. This and a mango paste filled pastry makes for an amazing bed time snack! Thanks mom for making my day!