gonna kick myself in the am

[Cehrabehra]

ugh....I have so much to do... cleaning, shopping, cooking... and all I want to do is take a nap. And at this point I've wasted all of my good energy on... thinking about pie lol But not MAKING pie, oh no... none of that. So now all I have energy to do is take a nap. And I can't go shopping tonight because people are insane in lines here after work. I've had to wait in lines for 40 minutes before... and that's with people paying cash and buying hardly anything, and EVERY line open and every line 8-10 people deep. And it's not a chinese holiday - it's just the evenings or the weekends... all the freaking time!!!!

but an hour or two of sleep couldn't *hurt* right?

 

[Imdanny]

I hope you can get some rest soon!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Oh I took a nap and flaked off and then had to go into town this evening (40 min drive in, 40 min drive back) and couldn't find any marshmallows so I'm going to have to MAKE some lol I couldn't find several things... I'm really nervous about tomorrow. I have one oven and it's about 1/3 the size of a normal american oven. The 7kilo bird is going to be stuffed in there.

I posted on facebook a while back, "... thinks living with an ayi is like living with Amelia Bedelia." oh it's so true... today I roasted 3 pumpkins and was letting them cool when she arrived. Then later before I left I removed the pulp and set it aside to puree later when I returned. I got home and she'd fed it to my family with dinner, which was chinese pork with peppers lol So much for having enough for 3 pies! I now have enough for one. I even pointed to the pumpkins and then to the pictures of pumpkin pies on my laptop and said in chinese "I cook this." Lost in translation....

There's no such thing as american sausage here... so I also am in the process of making my own sausage. I don't want breakfast sausage or italian sausage so I kind of made up my own thing... we'll see if it works!

 

[TooPatient]

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I hope your pies turn out wonderful. Your experiences in China are so interesting! I can't imagine cooking Thanksgiving dinner without having access to at least the basic ingredients and my small (but much more appreciated after reading your post!) oven.

Please let us know all about how your dinner went! (pictures are always fun to see too!)

 

[JewelFreak]

Oh, I would LOVE to hear more about your Chinese Thanksgiving & other adventures! Keep 'em coming! I can dig some of your troubles but most are more exotic than my experiences living in Holland. Sausage we could find, but no such thing as hash (corned-beef variety, I mean; plenty of the other!) so I made my own -- by hand, since I had no food processor. I still laugh at the disasters I produced due to meat's being cut differently -- I couldn't recognize anything. Got what I thought were pork chops once....after no success eating them, we could have re-soled our shoes with them. Holy mackeral, like chewing rocks! Never did find out what it was I bought.

Would love to hear more when you have time. Sorry about the pumpkin pie, but it's gonna crack you up someday!

--- Laurie

 

[Steel]

I had to post: Every time I read the title to this thread I read " gonna kick myself in the arm". Every time....

BTW: kudos for making marshmallows, my DH loves marshmallows if only* he knew they could be made at home! Shhh lets not tell him!

Happy baking. And no kicking yourself in the arm

*Edit

 

[Cehrabehra]

Oh, I would LOVE to hear more about your Chinese Thanksgiving & other adventures! Keep 'em coming! I can dig some of your troubles but most are more exotic than my experiences living in Holland. Sausage we could find, but no such thing as hash (corned-beef variety, I mean; plenty of the other!) so I made my own -- by hand, since I had no food processor. I still laugh at the disasters I produced due to meat's being cut differently -- I couldn't recognize anything. Got what I thought were pork chops once....after no success eating them, we could have re-soled our shoes with them. Holy mackeral, like chewing rocks! Never did find out what it was I bought.

Would love to hear more when you have time. Sorry about the pumpkin pie, but it's gonna crack you up someday!

--- Laurie

oh man... I can relate to the different meat cuts thing... especially in Ireland, but I got used to a few of them and now I MISS them!!! Here in china I stg they just hack at stuff - there's no rhyme or reason. The ONLY thing I can recognize is pork loin. I have never seen a new york steak and what they call a rib eye (delmonico to those on the east coast) doesn't look like one to me.

I was in amsterdam last year and I loved it - was only there for one day, but I saw enough to want to go back... very easy to find beautiful things to take pictures there and I couldn't believe how inexpensive flowers were - I'd be bringing them home daily!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I hope your pies turn out wonderful. Your experiences in China are so interesting! I can't imagine cooking Thanksgiving dinner without having access to at least the basic ingredients and my small (but much more appreciated after reading your post!) oven.

Please let us know all about how your dinner went! (pictures are always fun to see too!)

Last thanksgiving I was at an aunt's house and everything was done for me... this is quite the contrast. PLUS we're sort of doing it with a friend but we have such vastly different ideas of what thanksgiving should be.... she wants stove top stuffing at noon and I want cornbread apple pecan stuffing with home made sausage and stock at 6 It diverges from there lmao! I almost wish she'd just tell me she doesn't want to do it now.... plus our sons have been not getting along... but that's another thread ::sigh::

 

[Cehrabehra]

I had to post: Every time I read the title to this thread I read " gonna kick myself in the arm". Every time....

BTW: kudos for making marshmallows, my DH loves marshmallows if only* he knew they could be made at home! Shhh lets not tell him!

Happy baking. And no kicking yourself in the arm

*Edit

funny because I've read it that way myself and I wrote it!

A really good way to make marshmallows is to put some peppermint extract in the marshmallow then dip the tops in chocolate and sprinkle them with crushed candy cane. I ended up not making them because my friend beat me to the punch and I'm okay with that - she said it was super easy so we're going to make the ones I mentioned above closer to christmas

Also - they have weird marshmallows here... my kids were given CORN flavored marshmallows for halloween lol When I was looking to buy some last night I saw a bunch of stuffed ones - stuffed with things like yoghurt, pineapple, blueberry, etc.

 

[Cehrabehra]

btw - we're having turkey day here on friday since the kids and dh had work today... plus when we get up in the am you guys will be eating so it's still kinda thanksgiving

 

[JewelFreak]

what they call a rib eye (delmonico to those on the east coast) doesn't look like one to me.

I was in amsterdam last year and I loved it - was only there for one day, but I saw enough to want to go back... very easy to find beautiful things to take pictures there and I couldn't believe how inexpensive flowers were - I'd be bringing them home daily!

The steak probably doesn't taste like one either, does it? I miss some of the meats i got used to too. The other side of that coin is springing things on locals they haven't heard of. When we had fancy dinner parties I sometimes served meat loaf, a complete unknown there. People slavered & drooled & raved about this marvelous American invention, cracked me up. It's all the perspective you're looking from -- in Japan, the Japanese thought I needed to be locked up when I wanted a whole dinner of sashimi, shook their heads & murmured, "Laurie-San, we only eat that for appetizers." Who knew?

The flowers in Holland were really great. We bought 10 long-stemmed roses for about the equivalent of $5. Always had a big vase of salmon-colored tall, tall roses on my mantle. Our condo was crammed with plants of all varieties too, that was wonderful; it was like giving away my kids when we moved & I had to find homes for them. What I miss most of all about Europe are the church bells on Sundays, a wall of beautiful sound. You must have had that in Ireland.

Cehrabehra, how in heck do you MAKE marshmallows at home?

Hope your turkey, in whatever form you & friend manage, is super. Good luck with the kids -- maybe a day together will force them to work it out.

--- Laurie

ETA: I thought you were kicking yourself in the arm too -- tried to imagine how you were gonna do that.