Temple fair pt 2 -what to eat (picture heavy)

One of the main things that Chinese people like to do is eat.  I think that might be one of the reasons that I like China so much. They take food and eating seriously and there are so many different types of Chinese food that you can eat for a week on nothing but Chinese food and still not eat the same thing twice.  Temple fairs are just an extension of this love.  The street food available at a temple fair is wide and varied.  There are bugs and sea creatures on a stick, sugar juice, rice balls that are thrown at a peanut powder, fried things, noodles, meat on a stick, and so on....And while I did not sample a great variety of things while I was there, I did take lots of pictures....  Enjoy!

At the Temple Fair pt 1 (picture heavy)

Chinese New Year, is the biggest holiday in China.  Despite communism and all the years of suppressing Chinese culture, Chinese New Year is still celebrated in a big way.  It's one of the few days of the year when you will actually see people in a temple in China burning incense, and giving offerings.  The cities themselves empty out as everyone goes home to visit family.  For at least the first two days of the NY almost everything is closed.  From the big foreign chain stores, to the tiny mom and pop shops on the corner.  You can almost walk down the center of the streets because there is no one out.  Not only is it traditional to celebrate with family, it is also traditional to celebrate with fireworks.  And while this year was subdued compared with last year, the displays were impressive.  (I have video, but I can't post it here) The back yard fireworks displays (or middle of the street firework displays) could rival those of any US city's fourth of July celebrations.  And that is just any one display, and there are hundreds.  From about 11:30pm-1 or 2 in the morning each firework display is like the grand finale at a 4th of July display.  It's a solid wall of explosion like sound.  Our poor dog.  

One of the other things that people do is go to a temple fair.  A temple fair is, well a fair outside a temple.  There are vendors selling food, drinks, clothes, trinkets... well almost everything.  A picture is worth a thousand words, and while I could describe to you the chaos of a temple fair, I will let you peruse these pictures so that you can get a feel for it. 

On the plane with Babes

My child is a professional traveler.  No, she's not on the plane every week, or even every month, but at least several times a year we are flying somewhere, and at least once a year the flight is over 8 hours.  I'm sure I've said this before, Mr. Business Man, but my child and I are NOT going to hold you up for your flight, so no cuts!  At 4 1/2 my child can get off her own shoes, and coat and put them in those stupid plastic bins for x-ray.  I have been doing these flights often enough that I have packed our carry-ons strategically so that I can pull out the liquids (of which we usually only have the minimal amount, I carry an empty water bottle until we get through security, but there's sanitizer, lotion, chapstick...) the computer, AND get my own shoes off and through security faster than Mr. Business Man and his stupid laptop and expensive shoes. 
But that's besides the point (sorry for the rant).  Tips for flying on the plane with a 3-5 year old girl (I imagine these tips will work for a boy too, but the toys will be VASTLY different). 

From Blogger Pictures

I ALWAYS pack Babes her own carry on bag.  She has a back pack with wheels, that's just the right height for her to pull.  This makes her feel grown up, because she's got a bag like mommy's AND it's got most of her toys in it.  This way it's separate from my stuff and she's got it in her control.  It's usually a surprise what's in it.  When she was younger it was always new toys and books, but now we have a closet shelf of toys that are only brought out for plane rides. 
In the picture are: a magnetic dress up set (about the size of a book), a coloring book and color set from target, play doh, woodkins (another dress up but with actual cloth), a read along book, sansa shaker (an MP3 player that she can operate by herself loaded up with books, and her music), child sized head phones (this is important even if you don't bring an MP3 player because the plane headphones will just fall off), coloring books, books to read, colors, stickers, strawberry shortcake and my little pony.  I also made her a notebook, with coloring pages, and letter practice pages, and places for her to put stickers, and a few games that we could do together.  Not pictured but also useful is a playmat which gives the ponies and Strawberry a place to live.  We've also had a lot of use out of magnetic paper dolls, but as you can see my child REALLY likes dress up. 

At the airport, don't let your child sit down.  The temptation is there, you're waiting with a bunch of other adults, everyone is sitting and quiet, you want your kid sitting and quiet too.  DON'T DO IT.  Get up and walk, make your child walk, if you need to sit try to send your kid on quiet, but purposeful runs (ie throw this out, or hey what's that on the wall over there, Oh can you see the plane out that window) or try the mommy says game (it's like Simon says, but easier if your child is not there yet-"Mommy says, touch the ground, Mommy says jump").  Your kid is going to be strapped down on the plane for at least the first hour of the trip so you want to get as much wiggle out as humanly possible (I know for some kids this is not possible but it will make the beginning of the plane ride at least a tiny bit easier, and every little bit counts).

Pack a few snacks, we almost never use them, but they are good for unexpected delays and if their ears get stopped up on take off and landing.  I usually also carry extra toys and books in my carry on in case the surprise toys are not cutting it.
Pack extra clothes-it's always better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.  Kids are messy, and things happen. 
A pillow and a blanket can also be useful but I haven't packed one in awhile, we've just been using the ones on the plane.  

You can also adapt some of the kids games for plane travel. We have a dice game and a couple of card games that travel really well.  And I made a travel spinner for our silly faces game and put the rest of it in a folder and that traveled well too.

After the New Year

I have been busy and I have been lazy.  After we came back from the US for our marathon Christmas visit (5 weeks baby!) there was jetlag, and WHAM right into Chinese New Year.  And like last year, DH was out of town for it.  I thought with DH out of town I would have plenty of time for blogging, knitting, cooking, and preparing the house for moving... BUT NO.  What I did not count on was 1 child who, after spending 5 weeks at the grandparents house, was constantly used to being entertained EVERY WAKING MOMENT.  And 2 dogs who generally got along, but could not be left alone because playing could turn into fighting.  So between the three of my small charges, and the ball tossing, and the dragging, bikes, dogs, balls, and whatever downstairs for daily exercise, by the time evening rolled around I did not do anything at all.  I pulled out my extended versions of Lord of the Rings and I methodically went through all six disks over five evenings.  Nothing like escaping into the reaches of Gondor with some knitting and decaf tea to bring a soothing end to your day. 
I'm not saying it was stressful, or hard, because I only have 1 kid (I honestly don't know how people with more than one do it), just busy and tiring, I'd forgotten how much energy puppies have, AND how long a day is when there is not 4 hours of school to break it up.  It was really my own fault, I did not have enough planned for either the dogs or the little one until mid week, and after that everything went along smoothly. 
SO, I'm done, with that, and I'm done being lazy after that, I've got some posts planned, and some pictures from some Chinese New Year events to post, but until then here are some pictures of some of the things I've been knitting: 
 

 
The big dresses are things that I've previously knit for Babes.  For Christmas, Santa brought her a Madame Alexander doll and I thought she might like some matching clothes for "Christina".  I adapted the patterns from the big dresses myself. 

I've also got a glove and a half of these, but I ran out of yarn on the second day of Chinese New Year, and the yarn store is still NOT OPEN!!!!!! I really want to finish them because the pattern is amazing and so beautiful on.  I would post a picture, but their in the car, waiting anxiously for the opening of the yarn store so I can buy matching yarn!

Back in Chengdu

So you may not have noticed, but we left for the holidays.  We packed up in early December and just got back last week.  I planned a couple of posts out in my head, but never got around to writing them while we were on vacation, so hopefully I'll get around to them this week.  All in all it was a pleasant trip, I got to see my parents, my siblings, my new niece (YEA!), and several friends.  Plus there were blue skies.  People talk about dreary days in the US but while we were there the gray days were relatively few.  It was also really warm, unseasonably so.  It worries me a little.  While I was grateful for the 50 degree days, Philly should not be that warm in January. 
And now we're back in Chengdu for Chinese New Year.  Happy New Year everyone and have a great Year of the Dragon!

a new dress

We're back in the US and currently battling jet lag. Usually I'm a stickler with jet lag.  No naps other than the usually scheduled ones, and you must stay up until regular bedtime, but this time I've been trying to be nice.  Babes and I took a nap the first and second day, and I thought it was going to be ok.  The first day she went to bed at 9 and woke up at 5.  Not good, but not too shabby.  But the second day she was up at 3.  NO GOOD!  So yesterday I was back to my old nazi self.  NO NAPS!  And yesterday she slept from 6:30 to 5:30.  I'm going to keep her up again today and hopefully we'll make it to 6 tomorrow.
Aside from that I've been furiously knitting Christmas presents and I'm almost done with almost all of them (I really hope to finish them so that people have presents under the tree).  It doesn't look like I'll get to my grandmother's shawl, but I know she won't mind that it's not under the tree.  I can't post any Christmas present pictures, but I will post a picture of Zora's dress that she wore on the plane.

I'm a big kid now (or make things easier on yourself)

There's a lot out there on the internet about kid proofing your house, but not nearly as much about making your kid more independent in your home.  I put a lot of thought into making things very accessible for her so that she can do many things by herself.  None of it's perfect, and I don't think any of it is original, but I thought I would share because sometimes its good to have inspiration.  And I also know that sometimes I won't think of teaching Babes something until someone mentions it (like it only recently occurred to me that she might want to learn how to tie shoes).
Anyway, the biggest place you can help yourself out is the bathroom.  Babes potty trained at two (I can't give potty training tips because she basically trained herself, she HATES to be dirty) and I cursed myself for doing it because every hour or so I was running into the bathroom to lift her on the potty, and hold her up to wash her hands.  I eventually ended up putting in two stools, a short one so that she could climb on the potty herself, and a bigger one so that she could reach the sink to wash her hands.  Add to that a towel with a topper so that she can't pull it off the rack and after a while I only needed to spot check to make sure she was cleaning herself and washing her hands well.  I also added a hook at child height so that when she's done with her bath in the evening she can hang up her own towel. 

From Blogger Pictures

In her room, I started off by making sure that she could reach all the drawers with her clothes in them.  Which is actually not that hard since her clothes are so little that she really only needs two drawers.  We used to fight about what she could wear (starting at two WTF?) so now she generally picks out her own clothes (starting around 3).  I try to keep things in sets so that she knows what goes together and only seasonal clothes at her reach. In her closet I took a shower curtain rod and hung it at Babes' height so that she could hang up her own clothes, so whenever she takes off a jacket or a dress she's supposed to hang it up herself (it takes some teaching, putting clothes on a hanger is not intuitive).

From Blogger Pictures

  We also bought her (well actually my Mom bought her) a my Tot Clock, it has a face that changes colors and she knows that when it's blue it's night time and time to stay in bed, but when it turns yellow she can come out and get us because it's morning time.  It worked really well for Babes (I have recommended it to friends and it works for some like a miracle, but not as well for others).
In the kitchen and dining room, there aren't too many things.  I am thinking about making a shelf easily accessible that has snacks and cups, but I haven't done it.  She has just started being able to go into the fridge and get her own tiny oranges and peel them herself which is fabulous.  The only thing I would recommend is a really tall stool so that she can help out with the cooking.  With the very tall stool she can see into the bowls and really see what's going on.  But I only let her stand on it while I'm next to her, it's really tall.

From Blogger Pictures

The other thing is a booster seat for the dining room chairs.  Once again it brings her to a proper height for using forks, knives and spoons and reaching cups and having conversations. 

From Blogger Pictures

Well, that's all the tips I've got?  Do you have something that makes things easier for you? Let me know I'm always looking for tips.

Cold in Chengdu

So the weather has gotten cooler... And I'm sure you're thinking, well it's December it should be cool right?  Well yes and no.  Chengdu is a weird place.  It just dipped below 60 yesterday.  While the weather is mild, it's also damp, which makes it chillier than what the actual temperature says. It's a chill that also seeps.  If you are standing around outside, you don't feel cold at first, but as you stand there it seeps up under your clothes and gets you.  BUT all that being said, it is in the low 60's upper 50's (between 12 and 17 Celsius).  You would not be able to tell it from what the Chinese people are wearing.  NOW granted most of the homes here are built without heaters (something about geography, central planning, and temperatures, Chengdu didn't rate built in heating for their buildings).  So I can some of the extra layers, I imagine that if you get cold, it might be really hard to warm back up.... maybe.  BUT, I have not turned on the heat once in my apartment and it's still a comfortable room temperature.  I'm not in short sleeves, but I also am not in a sweater, and we're not cold.  Here's where it gets tricky.  Chinese people leave their friggin' windows and doors open ALL THE TIME!  Even at the school where we take Babes.  I brought her into school one day, and she was dressed for the weather.  Her teachers FREAKED!  They said the classroom was too cold for her to wear what she was wearing and they pulled a sweater out of her bag and made her wear it.  I looked out the back of the room and the outside door was WIDE OPEN!  I was a little worried when we signed her up that her classroom wasn't heated, but it's not that cold in Chengdu, I figured it would be a learning experience and toughen her up.  But the fact that it's not heated, AND they leave the doors wide open drives me crazy! 
The other thing that I don't understand is the towel down the back.  Go to any public playground during the winter in Chengdu and you will see a bunch of sweating, red faced Chinese kids running around the playground.  They all look about half a step away from heat stroke because despite the fact that they are running around at top speed and often on an indoor playground they are still wearing there long underwear, sweaters, winter jackets, arm warmers, leg warmers, and a towel down the back.  Why the towel,  you may ask, Well, someone I know asked about it.  The towel is there because the kids get sweaty, so they run around, the towel gets all sweaty, and when they're done, they remove the towel and viola!  The kids dry again!  Forget the fact that their hair is now soaked in sweat, and I'm sure they're legs and arms too, but they are mostly dry.   Don't believe me?  Here is a picture I took of Babes' dance class (note some days the window is open in the studio too, which is why Babes is also dancing in a sweater, which I feel is somehow wrong).

From Blogger Pictures

Sorry it's so blurry, I was using the bad camera through the studio glass.   

Good bye Thanksgiving... Hello Christmas!

So I survived the Thanksgiving Extravaganza!  Even though I kept waking up in a panic the whole week before I managed to pull it off and no one got sick (my measure of a successful meal)!  And despite a mishap with the macaroni and cheese (I pulled it out of the fridge to put it in the oven and it was still frozen!) the lunch was on the table and ready to eat at 12:30 as planned.  There were even times in the morning when I was standing around thinking that I should do something, but everything was done (except of course for the frozen mac n cheese).  To make a meal like this involves LOTS of planning.  I started a month before, I picked out recipes, looked around to make sure that I would be able to find all the ingredients for everything I wanted to make, then I made a menu.  The menu went up on the fridge and beside each item I had a make ahead schedule.  Then for the day of the event I had an oven schedule, also posted on the fridge so that everything was cooked and things that needed to be hot were hot, and everything was cooked (except the mac n cheese, which ended up in the microwave and then stuffed in the oven at the last second).  I ended up with twice as much food as needed; a whole extra turkey, an uneaten cake, and a gazillion leftovers!
 This is what a Thanksgiving meal for 20 people looks like before it's cooked. 

From Blogger Pictures

And here are some pictures of the spread.  Thanks to a friend of mine who actually has an eye for photography!  

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

 And the end of Thanksgiving means the beginning of the Christmas season so this past weekend Babes and I decorated the tree to the first playing of Xmas music this year!  I used to have fairly strict rules on when Christmas started and when I would start decorating for it, but since I've been overseas I've realized that it's important for me to decorate because otherwise, in many places, you won't see Christmas.  Oh sure, you'll see some trees and lights, but it's nothing like the holiday spirit that you get in the US.  So every year after Thanksgiving I put away the fall color and bust out Christmas. 

From Blogger Pictures

Mac N Cheese to feed a crowd

Next week we are hosting "The Great Consular Section Thanksgiving Extravaganza!" Ok, well, it's not actually all that impressive, that's just how I refer to it in my head... Anyway, we are hosting DH's section for a Thanksgiving lunch.  All totaled we are looking at about 20 people to come and eat Turkey.  I went to the fish market this morning and bought two 10lb turkeys to serve.  I took my camera, but was too focused on not slipping on the muck to take any pictures, but I intend to go back so I will be sure to snap some pictures next time.
Anyway, last night I made the Macaroni and Cheese to put in the freezer for the extravaganza and I realized that for this I actually have my own recipe.  It tastes very similar to my Aunt P's recipe which uses cream of mushroom soup and old bay seasoning, but since I have neither cream of mushroom soup nor old bay seasoning I can't make that.
Anyway, I made this recipe, but tripled the recipe.  I took the double portion, without the bread crumbs and put it in the freezer for next Wednesday.  In case your wondering, this is what a double portion of Mac n Cheese looks like. 

From Blogger Pictures

The third portion I topped with bread crumbs right away and served it for dinner with sweet and sour cabbage and a tomato, cucumber and basil salad. 

From Blogger Pictures

A shawl for my mamma

At the beginning of the summer I started making a shawl for my mamma.  I started on this idea because I saw this picture of a shawl in the knitpicks catalog and it was beautiful!  (If you're a knitter and have not looked at the knitpicks website then you must go there now!) Anyway, to make a long story short, I did not get to knit that shawl, but started looking around for a shawl to knit my mamma for Xmas because she didn't want anything that would be too hard to put on or take off.  The one I picked is named the Elizabeth Zimmerman 100th anniversary camping shawl (which is a mouthful to say) by Mwaa knit obsession (it's free on Ravelry).  I took the idea from the original idea and held my yarn double and then changed colors as I knit to give it a fading looking. 
To be honest, I never really saw the point of knitting lace shawls...  I'm not 80, I don't generally wear shawls, but by God was that fun!  I found myself wanting to knit on the shawl exclusively.  I had a couple of other projects that I was supposed to do, but this one was so much more fun.  I've already planned out at least two more, possibly even three or four.  I guess what I'm trying to say is.... I get it now.  

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

Lasagna from almost scratch

Last week I embarked upon  an afternoon of lasagna making.  Why, you may ask, would I do this?  Well, I recently rearranged my consumables closet (read-hordes of food) and realized that I have like 12 boxes of lasagna noodles!  So I said to myself, Self we need to make lasagna! Then I looked around and realized why I have not made lasagna before... no ricotta cheese.   BUT have no fear, ricotta cheese is very easy to make.  It apparently only takes 20 minutes (despite THIS websites claim to do it in 5)
I bought some milk, blocked off an afternoon and prepared myself....

From Blogger Pictures

and gathered together the ingredients.  Milk, salt, vinegar, a big bowl, a slotted spoon, and a colander lined with paper towels. 
Then I put 3 cups of milk, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, and some salt in a big bowl and put it in the microwave. 

and I microwaved it for 3 minutes, but....

it was still too milky and had not really separated out. So I popped it back in the microwave some more until

the curds are much easier to see and the liquid was pretty clear.

So I drained it...  And while that was happening

I boiled the noodles (it occurred to me later I could have made the noodles from scratch, but lets not get carried away shall we?)

and made the sauce.

grated the cheese.

And finally assembled the lasagna. 

then it baked for awhile.

And I served it with some stir fried greens and honey glazed carrots and radishes.