Pasta Pasta!

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

This week in an attempt to cure my doldrums on returning to post I decided to finally crack open the pasta making attachment I got for Christmas this year.  And I have to say WOO HOO for the proper equipment!  I made pasta by hand once a long long long long long time ago, but the resulting mess was horrible.  The noodles were thick and spongy and just generally unappetizing.   Plus it took FOREVER!  With that in mind I blocked off a huge chunk of time for pasta and sauce making, but swish swish!  I was done in half the time.  I LOVE MY KITCHENAID!  The pasta making attachment zipped the dough through in no time, and then lickety split cut up the pasta into thin noodles.  I am so excited!  We can have fresh pasta all the time!

escape plan

The events in the Middle East over the last month has highlighted one of the things that I fear the most about the foreign service.  An unplanned evacuation.  As a foreign service family there are a lot of hardships and difficulties that we deal with on a day to day basis.  Most of them are minor and can be dealt with, or ignored.  You know, not understanding the local language, frustrations over local customs that you might not understand, not being able to find a peanut butter that you like, etc.  Not a big deal.  But as the events in Libya have shown sometimes things can go from unpleasant to serious in a matter of weeks, if not days.  Or they can go from bad to worse in a matter of hours.
Since they evacuated the embassy in Egypt I've been trying to figure out what we would do in such a situation.  We have an emergency bag packed.  It's got a change of clothes, our passports, toothbrushes, Honey's rabies certificate, etc.  But, like in Libya, what if we have to evacuate quickly.  What would happen to Honey?  What about all the pictures and the little things that I've collected over the years that have some sort of emotional significance (like Babes' first pair of shoes)?  Would that stuff get packed up if things stabilize?  Will it get torched by the locals?   And poor Honey, the thought of having to leave her behind breaks my heart.  DH claims it's my fault for wanting a dog, but she has added so much to our lives, I can't imagine leaving her to her fate.
There are so many things to be thankful for while we live overseas, but there is also danger, frustration, and loneliness.  And yes, we signed up for it, and yes, we know it's a possibility that the country we are living in could destabilize under your feet, but it's a price we are willing to accept because we think the work the Embassies and consulates do overseas is very important.  

New Hope

The past two weeks have found me in the suburbs and surrounding areas of Philadelphia.  In an effort to do something different I met a friend in New Hope and Lambertville.  I think this is one of those "revamped" small towns that now cater to the antiquing set.  It is basically a town that consists of a main street, and several smaller streets that spoke off the main one.  There are lots of furniture shops, restaurants, coffee houses, and general kitsch shops.  Very very cute, and very very expensive.  I know I'm cheap.  Yes, I admit it.  I'm cheap, but I will sometimes pay for something if it's quality (not always, I like to shop on sale), but this is a recent development.  DH has been working hard to get me to spend more than $50 on a pair of shoes, or pay more for the expensive phone that will last longer than a year.  And I have slowly started to listen.  But this stuff is expensive!  Which is unfortunate, because some of the furniture they had was really cool, funky, and a little odd.  Perfect for us!
But that's ok, I figure we can save up (that's my answer for everything)!  In the meantime, as we were meandering the shops I noticed some hand knit items, so I casually wandered over to see how much they were, just curious.... and I was BLOWN AWAY!  Yes I used all caps on purpose.  I saw socks for $15 a pair!  Scarves for $80 and those little knit flowers that I love to do for Zora and can churn out in an hour $12!!!!!!!!!!!  People have said that I should sell my stuff, but I always thought that what I would have to price them at, no one would pay, but I guess I was wrong.  SO CRAZY!  I'm totally going to open a knitting boutique next year!  TOTALLY!

The US

As you can probably tell, I'm in the US now.  Firmly ensconced in the in-laws house in Philly, well, the suburbs of Philly.  I've been visiting friends.  I've got internet - unfettered internet, I've got a cell phone, and a new ipod touch.  We have a car, an ATM card, and credit cards, and stores glorious stores!  Oh and grandparents!  Life is good.

San Fransisco

I lived in Southern California for 9 years...  The last two years of high school, summers and winters in college, and three years of law school, but I have Never been to San Fransisco.  I know, I know, it's shocking, but SF was nine hours away by car and expensive by plane, and I never found the time, or the travel partners to get up there. 
So it was with great excitement that we planned to make a 2 1/2 day stoppover in SF on our way back to the East Coast for vacation.  Unfortunately, during the same time we planned our trip things in Cairo heated up.  Now how, you might ask, do the protests in Cairo effect a trip to SF?  Well, I'm glad you asked, see DH is a consular officer, these are the people in an embassy or consulate who issue visas, passports, and perform general American Citizen services.  When things in Cairo went to pieces most civilized countries sent extra diplomats to the area to help their citizens in Cairo safely evacuate to another location.  The US is no exception.  DH volunteered to help process American Citizens in trouble, those who might need, visas for family members, or update passports, or birth certificates, or the like.  He was gone for less than a week but missed SF altogether.  In the grand scheme of things, not a tragedy, and generally speaking, I am capable of traveling on my own and having a perfectly grand time without him, but!  And it's a big but!  It IS a big deal when you are traveling to a new city, jet lagged, AND with a jet lagged 3 year old. 
Even with all that, I LOVED SF.  It feels like a newer cleaner East Coast city with the beautiful California skies and coast line.  It's hard to say how much of my impressions of CA are colored by Chengdu.  After months of gray colorless skies and damp cold weather, the pale blue skies of CA, the beautiful sparkling water, and the general greenery of the city were like music to my tired eyes.  The people were also blessedly polite.  I almost wanted to shop and by things because I found every thank you, every have a nice day, every smile to be a salve on the wounded veneer of my heart.  I KNOW Californians are not that polite so I know at least this was due to the wretched grumpiness of my dealings with people in China. 
But I loved it so. 

Shanghai

I finally published this post that I started way back at the end of January....

I'm finally back from my whirlwind tour of China with my sister.  When I worked in the consular section in Beijing I always thought it was crazy that Chinese business men would go to America for a week and see 10 American cities.  But, this is the second whirlwind tour of China that I've done, so I guess it's not that crazy.  After spending several days in Chengdu, Sis and I flew to Shanghai.  While in Shanghai we stayed in the French Concession.  Granted we were only there for a day, but Shanghai is a very pretty place, even with snow melting into mud puddles on the street.  As we breezed through (no time to stop and look, we only had a day to see everything we could) the streets I couldn't help but notice the little bakeries, the small clothing shops, and even tinier coffee shops.
Unfortunately we had to whisk ourselves right out of the French Concession and into the very heart of Shanghai.
It is easy to see how Shanghai can be considered to be one of the cities of the future.  It is growing at an amazing rate, clean and modern.  In comparison to Chengdu, traffic flows nicely, people follow traffic laws, and pedestrians stay on the side walks and in cross walks (for the most part).  The Shanghainese are fashion conscious and stylish. 
When I see Shanghai, I am reminded again how Americans are losing sight of what's important.  Yes, American cities are at a disadvantage, after all how many US cities can boast a population of several million people, but still, the city center in Shanghai is bustling.  Lights, shops, eateries, all centered around a fairly busy pedestrian street.  The subways are clean and efficient, and there are buses that connect the distant parts of the city (so I'm told, Chinese busses still scare me, the maps are in Chinese, and the streets often fly by too fast to read a map). 
Seeing all this, I wonder what the world expo was like.  I'm sorry I missed it, I've been told it was a sight to behold.

cool Picture

I just love this picture

From Blogger Pictures

New Year!

It's the New Year (yeah I know I'm late) and we are already back in gear! After the child and husband mutinied I was forced to leave the tree up an extra week, but it's finally down. I don't know why, I think it's parental influence, but having the tree up past New Year feels a bit like clinging to the old year. I like to have Christmas done and put away so that we can get onto new business!
My sister is coming this week and I plan on taking a TON of photos and we're doing a bunch of traveling so I hope to take some time to update the TRAVELING part of my now non-travel related blog. Maybe I should change the description of my blog. Because really it's now more about stay at home mommying overseas. We don't travel NEARLY as much as we used to. *SIGH* I miss it. BUT little sis is coming and then we are headed back to the US to try to visit EVERYONE, and then when we get back, well I don't know.
But for now Happy New Year everyone!

A tale of two Christmases

We have come to that time of year when the annual battle between Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas begins. On one side of the battle are people who are not Christians, or who firmly believe in the separation of church and state and the freedom for everyone to practice their own religion. On the other are people who are Christians, and know that most of us in the US are Christians, and that even though we say we are a secular country we all know deep down that the US is a conservative Christian country.
Unfortunately, the issue is not as cut and dry as it seems. I have argued this with my mom on countless occasions because, even though I'm Christian, I don't believe that we should force everyone to say Merry Christmas. I'm for keeping Christmas a religious holiday that we celebrate in our own ways and not making it a mandatory observance for everyone.
In the US there are two Christmases. You might try to deny it and say that no, Christmas is the biggest religious holiday that there is and that's all there is to it. But you'd be wrong. Take a look at the Christmas decorations, specials, cards, and entertainment. You have your religious, Christian celebrations filled with the birth of Christ, nativities, and celebratory songs. Then there is the secular Christmas, dominated by Santa, reindeer, snowmen, gifts, and songs about Santa and snow.
And while we are forcing everyone to celebrate Christmas the secular Christmas is gaining ground. If you look at the Christmas specials they show on TV only one or two even mention the nativity or the birth of Christ, the rest are all about Santa, presents, and snow. All of the decorations in the stores are of the secular kind, and most of what people focus their attention on are presents. This was amply demonstrated last year when DH was talking to his language teacher about Christmas. He mentioned that I was going home for Christmas because it was a big Christian holiday and his teacher said that she had no idea that Christmas was a Christian holiday.
I know that it is the case here in China. There are Christmas decorations out everywhere and I'm fairly certain that most of the people with decorations in their windows are not Christians, nor do they have any idea what the holiday is about other than Santa and presents. Is this what the founders of the "stores against Christmas list" were after? Did they want to create a holiday that everyone celebrates, but which has no meaning? I think the fundamentalists are shooting themselves in the foot by insisting that everyone honor Christmas, pretty soon they are going to wake up to a world in which Christmas is presided over by Santa.

To market, to market to buy a ......

For today's adventure I went off to the great big lotus market (called hehuachi in Chinese). I've been to this market once before about two months ago. It is huge and sprawling and a bit overwhelming. Last time I went I had to take a taxi, which took me 45 minutes. However between then and now the new subway line has opened up and getting on the subway and heading north took maybe half that time. Unfortunately as we were on the subway heading north there was a HUGE fight on the train not half a car away from us. From what we could tell, it was between a man and a woman who didn't know each other, and it might have started over a seat. But they were angry. They were pushing, shoving, kicking, yelling, screaming... I'm talking high drama. I was impressed with the security though, by the time we got to the next station there were security waiting to take them off the train. I swear, the pent up anger in people here.
Ah, but the market. This market is crazy. They have just about everything there. For example, today the people in my group bought Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, stationary, wind chimes, ribbon, painted pictures, seat cushions, fabric, metal snaps, buttons, wall stickers, and toys. We could have also bought rugs, plastic flowers, purses, cross stitch kits, costumes, aprons, blow driers, irons, and furry pants. Plus hundreds of other things that it would take me all day to name.
I think it would take you at least a year to go through every single stall there. Every where you look someone is selling something or other and for cheap. I didn't even bargain at most places because the price was so low to begin with that I couldn't see how the people would make money. For instance a bought about 30 buttons for a dollar. How are you going to make that cheaper, and is it even worth it. Sure I could have gotten it for 75 cents, but why?

One of those women

So yesterday I went to my first Holiday Planning meeting as a wife of a diplomat. I have always avoided such things in the past by either working or leaving post. But this year I am in town and my child is too big for me to say I'm too busy. *sigh* I've crossed over and become one of "those" women. It's not bad I guess. I am involved in what happens over the holiday, and I can steer events towards things that I like or Babes likes, but still.
I knew this before though. We've only been at post 3 1/2 months and I've already been to 3 maybe 4 potlucks and I'm pretty sure we've got at least 3 more before the end of the year. So I've decided that I need a casserole warmer. But all the ones I have found are so old fashioned. You know, big sunflowers on the top and what not. I've decided that if I'm going to knit or crochet one I need to put something cool on top. But so far I can't find a 3 dimensional pattern for a Darth Vader helmet or tie fighter. *SIGH* I might just have to make the lame sunflowers.

Spiced Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins

From Blogger Pictures

Thanks to Halloween and our regular vegetable delivery I have found myself with an over abundance of pumpkin. I cooked some, pureed it and stashed it in the freezer and I'm going to put some in Chili tonight, but this morning for breakfast I decided to try to spice up my regular oatmeal muffins and combine it with a pumpkin gingerbread recipe that I found on the internet. The result was very good, if I do say so myself. Here's the recipe:

Spiced Oatmeal Pumpkin Muffins

• 1 C flour
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/2 C pumpkin puree
• 1 C leftover cooked oatmeal
• 1/2 C molasses (I'm wondering if this could be reduced to 1/4)
• 1/2 C raisins
  

1. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients
2. In another bowl mix together eggs, pumpkin, oatmeal, molasses and raisins
3. Add to dry ingredients mix until just moistened
4. Spoon batter into lined or lightly greased muffin cups
5. Bake at 350 until muffin centers are slightly firm.

Enjoy!

Halloween

From Blogger Pictures

Look at this picture. You would think I took it in the US. But no, I am still in China. One of the local neighborhoods put together Halloween trick or treating for the kids. There weren't a lot of houses participating but for my 3 1/2 yr old it was perfect. She got to walk around in her costume knock on the doors of houses, some decorated spookily, and do her trick or treat thing. How awesome is that?

This week's bounty

From Blogger Pictures

So this is what came in our bag this week. Not as exotic. Lots of potatoes and greens. But it's good that we like cabbage, especially fried up with garlic.


Although, is this grass? The closest thing I can come up with is wheat or barley grass.
And of course the ever mysterious:

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

In other news I've been playing around with Picasa and blogger and trying to work out how to post pictures on the blog without tearing out my hair--the great firewall makes it very hard to post pictures to blogger (blogger being blocked of course) but Picasa is not and so far this seems to be working. We'll see.
I am working on a travel post, so pictures of Xian and Beijing to come!

Purple sweet potatoes!

As previously mentioned we are part of an organic farm co-op and last weeks delivery bag held a bunch of potatoes.... or so I thought. I was all geared up to make mashed potatoes or something when I washed them.... imagine my surprise, then when I started peeling them and discovered this.

From Blogger Pictures

That's right, these bad boys were bright purple inside. I was put out for a minute, but I had actually purchased a few of these from the store and was able to look up the chinese name online. These are called chestnut sweet potatoes. In English they are just referred to as purple sweet potatoes (an english search for chestnut sweet potatoes yields squat). They are apparently popular in Filipino cuisines.

From Blogger Pictures

I looked around for a recipe that would not require too much effort as dinner time was fast approaching. I decided on making a sweet potato Gnocchi with walnut cream sauce. The purple sweet potatoes have a much milder flavor than regular sweet potatoes, even though they are bright purple.

From Blogger Pictures

I think it might be cool to serve this to guests, after all how often do you get purple gnocchi?

food glorious food!

Today I finally got around to cleaning out my refrigerator to see what was in there. It turns out that I still had quite a few vegetables? in there. Our weekly delivery from the local organic farms has been both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand I am able (forced) to try out all sorts of new and unusual vegetables that I wouldn't necessarily have the courage to try. On the other, I usually have no idea what the things are that arrive in our weekly bag. Also, while some of my experiments with winter melon have proved edible, winter melon is by no means something I want to eat all the time, yet we get a LOT of it. Anyway, here is what I found in my fridge. Some of these things are obviously some sort of potato. I think they might even be sweet potatoes not of the orange variety (I even have purple sweet potatoes but more on that later). I have no idea what the big thing in the middle is. I think it might be bamboo.... but I could be completely wrong.

From Blogger Pictures

There were also some really big radishes included, but I can't find the picture, and I want to post this!
We also bought some tiny bananas. I have been told that they are super sweet, but I will of course, never try them since bananas of any type make me gag (I have only just recently been able to contain my revulsion enough to be able to make banana muffins, but it's still horrible!)

From Blogger Pictures

But they are really cute.
Anyway, I am going to stop here so that I can post this tonight. Coming up Buddha's fist and Purple sweet potatoes.

Long time no post

I see that it has been almost a month since I posted. Well, I've been busy! First off our shipment came which means that I had 150 or so boxes to unpack. That's a whole lot of boxes. Then to make matters worse our maid quit the day the boxes came. Which was not a problem for the unpacking I would have been very annoyed had she tried to help put stuff away, but it was a problem for the clean up after the boxes were empty. I probably shouldn't complain I didn't have to move myself. I just stood around and watched while the movers came, put our stuff into boxes, and then waited while they brought the boxes to my house and even opened some of them and unpacked them.
But aside from unpacking everything and getting it all put away I've been cooking using our surprise organic vegetable delivery. We've joined something like a farm subscription where we get a once a week delivery of fresh vegetables to our house. It's a little like the Iron chef because I get a green bag full of mystery ingredients and have to come up with something delicious to feed one husband and one toddler to eat for dinner. Luckily I have more than an hour to do this in, but it is more challenging because I often have no idea what the things are in the bag. I have taken some pictures and I will post the mystery vegetables and what I've done with them soon.
And finally I've been knitting up a storm... or rather a cloud of clothes? I've made myself a tube top, a REALLY large sock (which I unraveled) and a purse that I gave away before I took pictures. I am currently knitting Babes a sweater and I will post pictures of everything.... I am going to try to get back into the habit of posting more regularly but it is tough. I can either watch tv and knit for an hour while Babes has her quiet time or I can come here and type..... well, you can see what has usually won the day... Promises Promises!

Taxi Taxi

When I came to Chengdu I expected the worst out of its Taxi drivers. After serving in Beijing, where the taxi drivers often did not know where they were going, I had no hope that the drivers of the smaller more provincial capital would be any good whatsoever. I have been pleasantly surprised. From what I understand, Taxi drivers here are locals. You must be a Chengdu resident to drive a cab. This is fantastic! I have only had very few instances getting into a cab where I have told a driver where to go and he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. And usually if I can give a good land mark they can get me pretty close. Why is this unusual, you might ask, well Beijing drivers often were not from Beijing. Chances were they got into the city the week before and were now driving cabs all over the place. Often I'd get into a cab, tell them where to go, and they'd start driving. A few minutes into the ride I'd realize we were going the wrong way and I'd ask them where they were going and they literally had no clue!
I also don't have that problem of getting into a cab and having that frustrating, I want to go to Yashow! Yashow? YAshow! Yashow? yaSHOW! yashow? YASHOW! oh Yashow! Chengdu people seem to have a better time with foreigners speaking Chinese than they did in Beijing. I only have to repeat myself once, and generally I do not get that Look the animal is speaking stare. People seem nice and generally want to help.
The only problem is that Taxis are hard to find. Some people say they are too cheap so drivers can afford to pick and choose who to pick up because everyone can ride. And often it's not just me who can't get into a cab. There are lines of people along the street trying to get a cab to stop. Some days it's next to impossible to get one.

Fighting the hordes

Before I got to China this time I *promised* myself that I would try to contain my China rage (like road rage, but directed towards Chinese people instead of drivers). The last time we came, I spent an absurd amount of time on a one man (well woman) battle to change the way Chinese people do things. For instance, instead of joining the crazy mob of people waiting to get serviced at a counter, I would line up and then grumble loudly at the people who were cutting in front of me. Or, when walking on a side walk I refused to move when honked at by a car trying to park. This time, I said to myself, over and over and over, I would try to do things the Chinese way. Sort of go with the flow instead of swimming upstream.
But it's hard. We've been here about a month and already I've broken my rule any number of times. I've walked slowly in front of black Audis driving on the sidewalk, I've grumbled loudly about my place in the grocery weighing lines, and I've stared aghast at women letting their babies poop on the floors of stores.
I am getting better though, these instances do not work up my blood, I am not super angry for minutes after, I fight through and move on. I've even gotten to the pushing and shoving point, I mean, what good is it to be larger than everyone else if you can't use your size to make people get out of your way? I try to keep it within acceptable levels, though, I move to the end of the crowd, but I will defend my position in the mob with elbows and hips. And, I am ashamed to say, I stole a cab from a guy yesterday (I got fed up after five people took cabs in front of me after coming out of no where) he was hot (I still feel bad about it). Hopefully I don't get too caught up in all this, and I will be able to go back to the civilized world one day.

In Chengdu!

So we have made it to Chengdu. It feels like we've been "going to Chengdu" forever and a day, and it feels weird to have actually made it. We didn't get to come directly here so we did arrive here in the middle of the night (or so it felt) with our traveling circus all jet lagged, but to be honest the flight wasn't that bad, nor was the jet lag any worse than going anywhere else.
Chengdu is a bit of a gray city. I can't tell if it's cloudy all the time, if it's pollution, or what. I think it might be a little of everything because I haven't lived in a place this thunderstormy (yes I just created an adjective) since Texas. Since we've been here there has been a thunderstorm on average every third day. Which is good, because Chengdu is pretty green (compared to Beijing, not Taipei) and I think it's cleaner than it would be if there was not so much rain. The people here are friendlier than Beijingers so you will see smiles on faces (sometimes, though not a lot) and they generally make an effort to understand what you are trying to tell them. I have not gotten that LOOK the animal is talking look here at all.
Our housing is pretty nice, we are in a great/pretty central location. There are three expat restaurants within walking distance of us and a cornucopia of local restaurants as well. We are not too far from several big shopping centers and we can get to the Carrefore and Auschan (European supermarkets) with a short cab ride. There is also an Ikea really close and several Ito Yokado's that we can get to.
On the whole I think the city is going to be a good place to be for two years. DH can walk to work, and there seems to be a pretty active community of spouses so that Babes and I can get out and about without going stir crazy.
More soon when it stops raining everyday. We've been trying to go on an adventure for over a week!