Official Google Blog: Imagery for Qinghai, China earthquake

Anyone who has Google Earth installed should take a look at this link. It shoes some up to date pictures of the area of the earthquake. It is unbelievably sobering. Download the KML file, and then open in Google Earth. Wow. Zoom out and look at the just how remote this place is. There has been some criticism about the level of help that arrived. These pictures helped me have a bit more perspective on that!

Official Google Blog: Imagery for Qinghai, China earthquake

Souptoys - New News and Featured Playsets�

Man, this is a really fun thing to play with! Not just for your kids, though that is what is geared towards! I installed and played for 15 minutes before I realized I had found yet another TIME WASTER! So, maybe not good for me, but great for the kids when they are bored! And considering how bad the weather has been in Shanghai, you might need something to keep them busy! I would have taken a picture of my screen to show you how much fun, but am embarrassed at the pile of cast of toys I left laying on the right bottom of my screen...

Souptoys - New News and Featured Playsets�

Interesting Packaging

So, this happens a lot, Chinglish on items you get or purchase here in China. I have determined that the fascination must be with the Latin characters, as more often than not, the actual usage of those letters in a word or phrase does not make sense. However, this one is especially hilarious!
After Easter, I grabbed a bag from our stock of recycled bags and put all of Natalie’s Easter Candy into it.

And more than a week later, we still have some candy left. Last night, I was sitting at the table just staring at the bag (wishing I could eat a chocolate egg, but that should be another post) and finally read the stuff that was written on the outside of it. Imagine my surprise when I took a good look and read a VERY inappropriate phrase on it! [Note to keep the blog a bit cleaner, I will not type it, but check out the top left corner of the picture below!

So of course I emptied the bag and placed the bag into our “We love China” box. Oh, and to explain how this happens, we can blame myspace, facebook, etc. When I googled that specific phrase, I received 20,800,00 hits primarily due to social networking entries. Oh, and don’t forget Big telling Carrie he loves her on Sex and the City Season 02, episode 10! Someone in China watches that, sees that the phrase takes off and decides it would be perfect on a bag printed cheaply and used for fake market purchases.

Shanghai Aquarium Visit

Last week, the Concordia elementary school kids only had to go to school two days. So by Friday, they really needed to get out and let off some steam. There is only so much DS you can play! Suzanne Crew’s original plan was to head to the zoo. Unfortunately the Shanghai weather was not good that day and we decided having the kids tramp around in the rain and maybe ending up sick was not not worth it. (There are baby pandas there so we want to get to see them sometime!). So off to the Shanghai Aquarium!

 

This was a cute picture of Aerin and Natalie. I have three other from this set with Natalie making goofy faces.

  

Three penguin-huggers…

Walking/running through the tunnel.

It seemed like the kids ran and yelled through the whole tour. Or maybe it was just Natalie. Seemed to catch her every time with her mouth open telling someone to “look at this” or “this is so cool”. Needless to say they had fun. And the Coldstone Ice Cream afterwards helped seal it as a great day. The best part was that they were tired!!!

   

This trip also turned out to be great way to get totally frustrated with how to manage the lighting when taking photos. I already was getting a bit testy trying to figure out how and when to flash, but this trip sealed it. I have included the few pictures that I took that seemed like I got it almost right. Even then, there is too much light on three of them.

Oh, well. I guess that is the cost of improving a hobby or skill. Expectations just keep going up!

 

Funny, but this turtle covered his eyes with his flipper after I flashed the camera right in his face!  Made me feel bad!

Digital Home Thoughts: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

I have been researching good photo book creation sites, and ran across this review. It is very extensive and a great place to start if you are also looking. I have not created accounts for all of these. But I've used Shutterfly (didn't work well in China), Snapfish (hated it), and Kodak Gallery. I am going to try out the AdoramaPix now! Enjoy!

Digital Home Thoughts: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

U.S. Navy Captures Pirates After Gunfight - WSJ.com

Wow, Somali pirates attack the Navy. That just seem really stupid, right? ANd why don't pirates have cool names anymore, like Bluebeard or Blackbeard? The pirate mentioned here was referred to as Mr. Fanah. That seems strange.

U.S. Navy Captures Pirates After Gunfight - WSJ.com

Recipe - Cranberry – Sweet Potato Bars

Finally got around to baking these yummy bars again. Haven't made them since moving to China. The recipe calls for Sweet Potato baby food, and that is not always so easy to find! I made these for Natalie when she was a toddler, she loved them. It tastes a bit like cobbler, though without the extra fruit. They are also pretty good as an ice-cream topper too! You can throw one into the micro for 10-15 seconds and then onto a big bowl of vanilla ice cream.


I used to make these with a mixture of dried fruit and fresh fruit. The ones I made today, I threw in about a cup of fresh cranberries. But remember that plain, fresh cranberries are really sour! If you only use fresh, you may need to add a bit more sugar. And there are lots of other dried fruit you can use, such as apricots, mango, peach, etc. Whatever you like!

Also, I don't worry too much about using exact measures for this recipe. It is pretty forgiving. I am careful about how the dry/wet ratio so that they are not too dry or too moist.

Walk on the Promenade

Saturday we spent a family day and went to the fake market, took a walk on the Promenade near Huangpu River, and ate at Hooters. Not your typical family day, but our family day none the less. Thought I would put up some pictures from our walk. The weather was not great, but there was a TINY bit of sun. Cold though. I think it is never going to warm up here in Shanghai.  We didn't get the Promenade until after 4pm, too much shopping at the fake market I guess. There were lots of people as this is a holiday weekend. Chingming Jie is Monday, which is Tomb Sweeping day. So, hard to get a picture without heads in the bottom. The pictures here are of the Bund, across the river in Puxi. They have been doing reconstruction over there for months. Last weekend was the first weekend it was open. You can see from one of the pics that the Bund walk was FILLED with people. That is why we decided to stay in safe Pudong!

One of the funny things was seeing this woman "grooming" her husband. I got a few pictures, and she seemed non-plussed that she might be attracting attention.

Natalie had some ice cream from Hagen Daaz and then we headed back to the Super Brand mall for some shopping. Had to buy an Easter outfit for Natalie. She picked it all out on her own. And you can tell she is a girl because she told me she HAD to have the shoes that went with the outfit she wanted. And you can tell I am a woman, as I bought them! Then we ate at Hooter's. Tom loaded some video to Facebook. 

Recipe - Xiaolongbao

This is definitely not an easy thing to make, but I think it is worth it! I took a class last week, but wanted to try this myself to see what it really was like!  Plus Ayi had never made either, so we did together. It started yesterday with a trip to Metro to purchase a Pork Leg. Considered butchering myself, but decided my neighbors wouldn't appreciate the extra drama on the street! So, instead picked up a cut I needed at Metro. For anyone considering doing this, I included a picture so you can see. All the fat and skin are still on it. This is the leg, so the bone inside is pretty small. You might also see pork shoulder or pork hoof. I think the leg is best because it maximizes the fat ratio!  More on that in a minute.


What makes these so good is three things in my mind. First, the skins should be thin. If too thick, then top where the pleats come together just taste like dough, no flavor. Second is the soup jelly that is rendered out of the pork leg. This is what becomes the soup inside the dumpling skin that make xiaolongbao so good!  Third is using minced pork that has enough fat in it. If you don't, you will have a little hunk of pork surrounded by this beautiful broth. 

Ok, so let me say a bit about the soup jelly you will be making for this recipe. You will probably see that basically what makes xiaolongbao good is that the soup inside is about 30-40% fat. Of course that is why it tasted so good. It will probably seem a bit gross, but it really is the key to good soup inside these. So, get over it! Wash the leg before cooking. Here in China, the butchering is not always a clean cut, so wash the small shards of bone out the ends. 

Don't worry if this takes a long time to get right. This was my second time making today, and I focused on getting the dough the right consistency and pleating. I totally could not pleat the first time.  Was happy that today I did finally get how to pleat. Whew! Still suck at it, but at least I have a starting point. Not so happy with the skins we made. Not nearly thin enough. And I need to get a steamer set up that works a bit easier.  Special thanks to Suzanne for the moral support and teaching me the tick for pleating!




RECIPE

Recipe - Fennel and Celery Salad

So, I finally have time to get back to trying some new recipes and tastes. Last night, I tried a recipe from Bon Appetite, though of course I modified to adjust to our tastes a bit. Natalie didn't love it, but she didn't hate it! I take that as a good sign. Oh, and got to use my favorite red bowl for serving it!


Fennel and Celery Salad
This is a nice salad that is easy and kid-friendly. You can substitute Italian parsley for the cilantro if you prefer the taste.


ingredients:
3 celery stalks, cut crosswise into paper-thin slices
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed, halved vertically, sliced paper-thin
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup toasted salted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
2 tablespoons olive oil, preferrably good extra-virgin
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese shavings (about 1 1/2 ounces)


preparation:
Combine celery, fennel, parsley, and pumpkin seeds in large bowl. Whisk oil and lemon juice in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper; toss with vegetables. Toss in most of cheese; top with remaining cheese. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Migrated Blog

Due to some ftp policy changes on Blogger, I have moved my blog from my own website to blogger's site. And yes, I am planning on actually updating more often! My website is WAY out of date, so am in process of redoing that too. For now, FaceBook is about the level of output I can do. I hope to increase the communication in the near future!

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