GZ Tai-Tai

Still here

I have been away from the blog for too long.  A friend asked me what happened ? Answer…. it is way too easy here at times. I can go anywhere and have a great dinner or lunch of any cuisine. I know, a bad excuse.  I have missed the cooking, perhaps I just needed the break, while settling back into our life in the states. I don’t know?  I hope to be a bit more active on the blog though in the future. Recently finding out our daughter has type 2 diabetes may be the inspiration to get going on this blog again. I want her to be able to enjoy the food she eats, as well, as make sure that it is healthy for her.

Let me tell you what we have been up to most recently. Hubby has been on sabbattical for several weeks this summer. We have been doing a lot of work around the house and in the garden. Hubbies latest project was to build a new pool shed, that houses the heater, pumps and various other pool equipment. Thanks to the help of my Dad and his skills the two of them have it complete. The electrician was here wiring and fitting new boxes and a light inside the shed. Everything is as it should be now all up to code. My next big project is to paint it.  The roofers will be here later this week, putting a new roof on the house and they will roof the shed too.

We have been working, hard but we also have taken some time out to have a little vacation. We went to Victoria BC in Canada for a week. The last time hubby and I were there was for our honey moon 26 years ago. It was cool to see it again after so many years. While we were there we took a whale watching excursion on a Zodiac a tiny boat that seats 13 people including the captain. This was very cool! We saw several whales and one even swam under our boat and popped up on the other side! The whales are beautiful creatures. If you have the chance to visit that area  definitely do the whale watching, you won’t be disappointed. We used Orca Spirit for our whale watching excursion. We also visited The Butchart Gardens and had a lovely, Afternoon tea for lunch. This was very girly, but the boys enjoyed it too. Another must see if you are in Victoria BC.

We have been enjoying the abundance of fresh berries that our local farms grow. We have made several batches of jams this Summer.  Strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, black and blue berry some sugar free and some with sugar. We have also been freezing the berries so we can enjoy them over the winter months ahead.

Here are a few photos of jam making and our trip to Victoria BC.

My helper

Hard at work mixing the berries and sugar.

 

Strawberry freezer jam

There be whales here!

lots of whales!

 

Butchart Gardens

The legislative assembly building

another part of Butchart Gardens

Onion Gravy

 
This recipe originally comes from The British Food Bible. I have used the recipe on several occasions with good results. I think, I like it best, made with Port.  I have tweaked the recipe on occasion  using a spoon of marmite or vegemite with some boiled water when I was out of liquid stock.  The recipe below has my adaptations in italics.

Onion Gravy

adapted from The British Food Bible

3 onions, sliced thinly - I use two softball size red onions

70g butter  - I use 50g I find the full amount is too much

125ml Marsala, port  - I like port best it is not as sweet as the Marsala.

125ml vegetable stock  - My family likes it best with Marmite or Vegamite mixed in boiled water to make stock.

salt and pepper

Brown the onions in the butter on medium heat until soft and caramelized. Pour in the port or Marsala and the stock. Stirring occassionally let the liquid reduce to a lovely thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. 

Toad in the Hole

 

For this recipe you will need a hot oven and a blender. I have tried making Yorkshire pudding with other methods, and had poor results. I have never had a problem with this recipe.  I use the same batter to make an oven pancake without the sausages, served with a sprinkling of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. 

Any kind of nice sausage will do. I used half British bangers and half chicken and tomato sausages.

Toad in the Hole

6-8 sausages

5 eggs

250ml milk

250 g flour

75 g butter

Heat oven to 220C (425F). Place the butter in a 33 x 23cm (9x13) baking pan rub it around a bit to coat the bottom of the pan and leave the rest of it in the middle it will melt once it is in the oven. Place your sausages in the coated pan and prick the sausages with a fork. Place the pan in the oven to melt the butter and the sausages will cook a bit too.

While the sausages and butter are busy in the oven you will be busy with the batter.

To the blender add the eggs half the flour and half the milk. Blend this and then add the rest of the milk and flour blend again for about 1 minute.

When the butter has melted take the pan from the oven and give the batter a quick blend again. then pour the batter over the sausages and butter, quickly. Then put back in the oven cook for about 30 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

You can serve this with onion or brown gravy.

A light dusting of Snow

We have had rumours of snow at the end of last week. We did eventually get a light dusting of snow and ice, but not the "Arctic Blast" that some news reporters are calling it. I really have to laugh at how the media sensationalizes even the weather.  Telling us to be prepared etc as if we are living in the Arctic or even some of those states that really have hard winters.  As a child that lived in the Eastern USA, I have never seen as much snow here, in the Pacific Northwest over the years, as we would get in one Winter back East.  I get a good chuckle though and I am not the only one it seems, some of hubbies work colleagues from the East are getting some good laughs too.

I took the Daughter to the doctor yesterday she has done something to her knee and now has to keep it immobilised for several weeks and then we will go from there. On the way back home, I had to run some errands... one of those was to pop into the bread store outlet, I needed to re-stock my freezer with bread for lunches.  I was trying to figure out why in the world there were so many people in the store?  Then it dawned on me several hours later, that it was because people were shopping for Thanksgiving and perhaps stocking up for that "Arctic Blast". 

I guess it will take a while for me to get into the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping rush. I am just not used to that whole bit right now. I never started shopping for Christmas until  two weeks before the holiday in China, because we would go to Hong Kong for the shopping trip and our visit with Santa.  It looks like I will be shopping later here in the states too.  I still need to make a list, get the lists from the kids and hubby and figure out a budget.   I would rather skip the  Christmas shopping and the gifts, and just go someplace warm, but I guess that won't be accepted by the other members of the family. 

Sorting out an appetizer for Thanksgiving this afternoon, and making a comfort dish for dinner.  A recipe will come soon.

 

 

Autumn

It has been a while since we have experienced a real Autumn. I really enjoy the sunny cool days with all the colors of the leaves that are on the trees and those that have fallen.  I am not that thrilled with the wet days as the cold seems to go deep into my bones, my daughter reminds me when I complain, that it will be colder and wetter as we get into Winter. I am keeping a positive attitude about that, perhaps I will have to force bulbs like I used to do in the Winter, so that I would have color around me on those bleak, gray, cold and rainy days.

An update for those of you that are interested. The house is getting there, furniture is placed in the rooms we want, however there will be some re-arranging going on for a while. The kitchen is kind of in dis-array yet as I have some things I want in there, and some things that will get moved out and other tools will be brought in.... The kitchen was just kind of thrown together with items to get by for cooking. I still need to work on the cupboards in the kitchen, they are deep but I cannot seem to get to anything that is located in them, which means I need to decide on an organization system, to make finding food and appliances easier. This is part of the reason I have not had the desire to cook and post. Well, that and the sheer newness of being able to get something quick at a nearby restaurant or deli in the grocery store to feed my family.  It really has been very cool to get delicious food so easily with very little effort. Almost liberating!  There has also been some disappointments in the food or ingredients when I have made dinner. An example is the curry I made the other night, it was good, but not great. I know it was the curry paste that I had used was a different brand than what I was using in Asia. Luckily I did find the one I used in Asia and the other one the inferior one is now gone.   Not knowing the product and or the product not being as authentic, or as good as the products I used in Asia can be frustrating and disappointing to me. Having said that, with the Asian markets in abundance in the area that I live, I have found many of those ingredients and products I was using in Asia. Then my husband says I can make it fresh like I used to do. He makes me feel like such a slacker sometimes, I guess that is why I love him so much!

Soccer season is over for my son and he will be looking to get involved with something for the Winter. I have no clue what he will want to do, I just hope it is something rather than nothing. I am hearing talk of hockey which is exciting... but I cringe at the thought of a puck hitting my handsome boy in the face. Yikes!  School is going good for him despite his lack of American history knowledge. He has been positive about the move and his new school, he has a easy going attitude and I guess that is half the battle with relocations and kids.

The photo above is taken from our driveway. We had some sun breaks last week between showers and the colors of the trees in our neighborhood are amazing.

I will leave a few photos I took at the farm too when we went pumpkin hunting in October.

 

 

 

 

Happy Moon Festival

It’s moon festival time. I baked a lovely chocolate cloud cake to enjoy while we look at the moon tonight. We have a lovely full moon that is nice and bright shining in the sky at the moment. The cloud cake was a hit! Much tastier than the dry moon cakes we’ve eaten in the past during moon festival.

Happy Moon Festival!

Vagabonds

At the moment we have been moving from place to place. We were displaced a few nights ago from our temporary housing apartment, because, the washer flooded out the apartment. The laundry was in the upstairs with the bedrooms, and we awoke to the sound of rushing water and fire/flood alarms going off in the apartment.  The management responded quickly to clean up the ankle deep water, kudos to them. However, we were homeless at that moment! I quickly took the kid to Grandma's to stay with his big sister, who has been living there. Then I quickly drove back to the apartment to help pack up our stuff and become transient until we could find a place to go.

Our next stop, the next night was a seedy hotel. Reminded me of the porn hotels you see in old movies. It was dirty and very dated, the only thing missing was the coin operated massage bed and the mirror on the ceiling. That was when I cried.... that was also on the evening of our 25th Anniversary, that we had celebrated earlier on the weekend.  Hubby found us a different hotel on the phone for the next couple of nights. The next morning we left early and  moved to a better place for two nights. We were all very thankful for that reprieve!

We now have been hooked up with an apartment in Downtown Portland in the Pearl district. We stayed our first night, last night. The area is very nice, it used to be very industrial and sketchy about 20 years ago. However, the area has been revived, there are many nice apartments, upscale shopping,restaurants, pubs and bars very nearby to our new temporary digs.

Now that we have hauled 4 huge suitcases, several bags full of groceries and various other necessities all over the Portland Metropolitan area and suburbs.... we are very happy to have a place to hang our hats for more than 48 hours. We are here until Friday 13th when we move to another apartment in the suburbs of Portland.

Last night I cooked for the third time since we left China, the last time was the night that all hell broke out with the flood. That was a great dinner.... pesto chicken, home made baguettes and salad.
Last night the menu wasn't as nice. However, I would say that canned spaghetti sauce with minced beef and some pasta never tasted so good in my life.  Hubby must have felt the same way, he thanked me for cooking. I think we are all a little bit tired of eating in restaurants.
The other great part about being able to cook, is the kitchen in the new place, has an awesome view of the street, seeing all the activity coming down the road while standing at the sink is truly amazing. A simple pleasure! I think I would enjoy living in a city apartment, if I had less belongings. I know rent would be way too much, for the size apartment, I would need, to accommodate all of my things, even after downsizing before we left China.

On top of being vagabonds we have been trying to get our house repaired from the renters. They pretty much trashed the appliances. The stove was repairable and it will now be in the garage at some point I hope to use it for canning and holidays.  The microwave which we put in a few years ago is disgusting even after cleaning.  The dishwasher apparently stopped working at some point and the renters never told our property manager.  So we are replacing 3 appliances in the kitchen.

We need to do a little bit of tiling in the kitchen and the bamboo floors sustained some scratching and some abuse so those need to be worked on by the floor man.  The counters will be re-grouted and cleaned. The painting is done and carpet cleaning too. Although the carpet cleaners will be back for the downstairs as it smells like wet dog. I hope that they can get that smell out...I keep thinking new carpet might be cheaper, hubby wanted to go the cleaning route to start with though. We will see... what happens.

Yes, we are feeling a bit like the money pit at the moment.

The photo above was from one of our last nights in Hong Kong before we left Asia.  It was taken in Ivan the Cossack's Vodka freezer.  I kept saying, that this is the way we are going to feel in Oregon when we get back.... FREEZING!  Not yet, but I know, when the cool weather hits, I will be feeling like I am in Siberia! I don't do well with cold.

I will keep you posted on our next adventures as they unfold... I won't promise a recipe yet! : )

Moving Home

It's been pretty quiet on this blog lately. I have had a bit of a block which I wrote about earlier, also, I have been organizing the Expat house, going through closets getting rid of things that we did not need, and now it is inventory time.

Yes, I have been cooking, trying to use up what is left in the refrigerator and the pantry. Usually very quick meals. 

We have said goodbye to many friends that are leaving this Summer and now it is time for us to say goodbye to those remaining. Though it is bittersweet to say goodbye, we also look forward to our future back in the good old USA!

I will leave you with the link to hubbies blog as he says it best in his post. We're Moving Home..

I will also leave you with our leaving slide show with photos  of some memories from our last 6 years here in Guangzhou. We've had some great times with a lot of great friends over the years. We will miss our friends but knowing how easy it is to stay in touch we will re-unite with them in the future.

I will keep the blog going in the future, however it may be quiet around here, for a while as we settle into our new chapter in life.

Farewell Video from GZ Expat on Vimeo.

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

I was in the mood to bake some cookies today... I actually was craving some cookies that I make that have everything in them. Well I did not have some of the ingredients... then I asked myself what is it that I really wanted out of the cookies... I wanted the bittersweet loveliness of dark chocolate, the salty smooth richness of peanut butter and the texture of oatmeal.  Then I searched the internet for those three ingredients and low and behold found this recipe on Epicurous.

The recipe called for chilling the dough, an extra step I just did not have time for today. It also called for grated chocolate, but, I omitted the grated chocolate and added extra chocolate chips.

Below is my adaptation of the recipe or you can go to the link above for the original recipe.

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

3/4 cup peanut butter

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the vanilla and eggs, beat until well mixed. Add the peanut butter and mix well.

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups oatmeal  - In food processor or blender, pulse 1 cup of the oats to make flour. Leave the other half cup of oats whole.

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Add the dry ingredients, to the creamed sugars, egg and peanut butter mixture. Mix well on slow speed of mixer to combine cookie dough. 

20 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

Add chocolate chips and combine into the cookie dough.

Drop by spoonfuls onto un-greased, cookie sheet and lightly flatten the top of the cookie with the back of a fork or spoon. Bake 12-15 minutes at 325F. Remove to racks for cooling. 

Block

Everyone goes through a block of some sort, writers, artists, even me. I have a cooking block and a writing block. I just cannot seem to get inspired lately. Even the things I make for dinner are just so-so and I am tired of trying to think of what to fix for meals lately.

We are three and I find it hard at times to be  inspired to cook a meal that will please everyone. Then there are the moans from my husband who hates anything that is vegetable and or new to his palate.... let me tell you I have struggled with "the picky eater" for almost 25 years now.  UGH!

A simple dinner last night for instance became a struggle to prepare because of the whining about the artichokes that I put in the pasta... Then I have a 12 year old that hears his DAD whining and he starts to whine or he asks " what are you making Mom?" I have to make up a fancy name to a dish that I am throwing together on the fly... so I can hide the zucchini and artichoke hearts from the husband that are in the sauce for the pasta.  Last night it was the pasta sauce hubby was whining about  ' the things" I put in, and here comes, Expat kid and asks " what is it called Mom" My quick response was "Tuscan Pasta Sauce over Spaghetti" I pulled that name right out of my backside.... he then says what's in it .... I reply " Oh, olives, capers, tomatoes, oregano, .... The kid says, " that sounds ok.... Then hubby comes in and whines about the other things he sees...zucchini Eeeew yuck! The 12 year old is braver than his old man!

I do have to admit hubby eats way more than he ever did when we were first married and I do have to give him credit for that..but it sure would be nice to be able to cook a meal and not hear about "the things" that are in it. It really makes me, not want to cook at all!

I know this is a temporary blockage I have right now.... its frustrating.

I have a lonely week of cooking just for me, coming up soon, the boys will be traveling, one for school and one for business. Which most likely means, I will be eating lettuce over the sink, or a bowl of cereal, or an omelet, since I hate eating alone anyway. Unless it is a bowl of popcorn with butter and salt on it,  while watching a good movie.

That is why, I have not been posting much lately. I will post as I get inspired, I hope it happens soon.

The cake is a mix and if you know me at all, I rarely use a mix. I AM REALLY blocked!