Tuesday, September 07, 2004
chinese adventure in a midwestern kitchen
(and just for the fun of it, I changed the setting on my blog to show the date of entries in Polish so now you all have to figure it out! hint: Today is Monday, September 6, 2004)
Anyway, my Chinese-American friends should have fun with this one.
Where should I begin? I found an Asian market a few days ago while we were in Minneapolis so I decided to take advantage of it. I'd been wanting to cook for Amanda's family anyway. I've never had too much trauma/drama when cooking for hosts in the past so I thought it would be good and well. But no-- everything went crazy.
What happened you might ask??? Aiyaa! My rice sticks said it would only take 3-5 minutes to cook. I cooked them for 5 and begin to mix it with other ingredients before I discovered that they weren't quite ready. So we reboil it, I waste the sauce, and when it finally is thoroughly cooked, it expands and totally overflows out of the strainer it had previously all fit in.
What else, you ask??? Let's see..I also decided to make boba lai cha (milk tea with tapioca balls...sorry, if you're non-Asian and this makes no sense to you) but the tapioca was totally sticking together and-- yes, AND--I forgot to buy those big straws at the Asian supermarket!!!
Not enough drama, you say??? Well, let's turn the heat up-- literally. I started a fire. Yes, you read right. I started a fire. (Grease under the burner.)
Laughter is definitely a good thing. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Fortunately, Amanda's mom was there and she's so wonderful. She started laughing hysterically and we both lost it. She said it's the most fun she's had in a long time and that made it all worthwhile to me. All in all, they enjoyed the meal and they were very gracious about dinner being almost 1 hr late.
P.S. I think I cooked enough noodles for 11-12 people. There were only 6 of us. The moral of the story: Confucius says, "Don't trust what they say on Chinese packages." (Ok, he didn't really say that. I did.)
(and just for the fun of it, I changed the setting on my blog to show the date of entries in Polish so now you all have to figure it out! hint: Today is Monday, September 6, 2004)
Anyway, my Chinese-American friends should have fun with this one.
Where should I begin? I found an Asian market a few days ago while we were in Minneapolis so I decided to take advantage of it. I'd been wanting to cook for Amanda's family anyway. I've never had too much trauma/drama when cooking for hosts in the past so I thought it would be good and well. But no-- everything went crazy.
What happened you might ask??? Aiyaa! My rice sticks said it would only take 3-5 minutes to cook. I cooked them for 5 and begin to mix it with other ingredients before I discovered that they weren't quite ready. So we reboil it, I waste the sauce, and when it finally is thoroughly cooked, it expands and totally overflows out of the strainer it had previously all fit in.
What else, you ask??? Let's see..I also decided to make boba lai cha (milk tea with tapioca balls...sorry, if you're non-Asian and this makes no sense to you) but the tapioca was totally sticking together and-- yes, AND--I forgot to buy those big straws at the Asian supermarket!!!
Not enough drama, you say??? Well, let's turn the heat up-- literally. I started a fire. Yes, you read right. I started a fire. (Grease under the burner.)
Laughter is definitely a good thing. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Fortunately, Amanda's mom was there and she's so wonderful. She started laughing hysterically and we both lost it. She said it's the most fun she's had in a long time and that made it all worthwhile to me. All in all, they enjoyed the meal and they were very gracious about dinner being almost 1 hr late.
P.S. I think I cooked enough noodles for 11-12 people. There were only 6 of us. The moral of the story: Confucius says, "Don't trust what they say on Chinese packages." (Ok, he didn't really say that. I did.)
Sunday, September 05, 2004
more than a month!
I can't believe it's been more than a month since I've blogged. Well...I guess I can. It's been kind of a crazy month.
We've now completed the third week of a new mission. Here's this tour's lo-down:
Unit name: Marquette Catalysts
Area: WI, MN, SD, ND, IA, NE (most of our time will be in Wisconsin and if you don't know what those abbreviations mean- for you Americans, atleast-- you should find out!)
The team: myself (I'm the unit leader-- whoo hoo...); Amanda & Jordan Hammond
And now... the details...or at least a couple of things that make us really unique...
1. We're a singing team again--yea! "Marquette" is usually a drama only unit but the singing thing was a special perk for Amanda & I. Music is our life and blood.
2. Amanda and I joined Covenant Players at the same time and we missioned together our second tour in the ministry four years ago.
3. Amanda is now pregnant and due in November and so...
4. We have a semi-home-base unit meaning we still go to all those states but we spend most of the time around her home area and I now have a room in her parent's home for the next few months...her family's wonderful and they've very graciously taken me in.
5. We've got a good amount of experience on this unit (--Amanda's been a unit leader as well) which means I get to delegate an awful lot and we put plays together really quickly.
Of course a lot of the things that are great blessings on this unit can also surface as great challenges. Experience sometimes makes us less teachable and more married to our own ideas and ways of doing things. Being fast line-learners means that sometimes you don't put in as much effort as you ought to or you leave things to the last minute. It's also really hard to be a leader to your friends-- especially when you were friends first. (One of my past unit leaders used to always tell me that...now I understand even more clearly why he felt that way.) Still, I love my unit and I think every unit is a gift from the Lord-- even when you have times where it might not look or feel that way.
Ok. Now my blog is complete...for the time being.
I can't believe it's been more than a month since I've blogged. Well...I guess I can. It's been kind of a crazy month.
We've now completed the third week of a new mission. Here's this tour's lo-down:
Unit name: Marquette Catalysts
Area: WI, MN, SD, ND, IA, NE (most of our time will be in Wisconsin and if you don't know what those abbreviations mean- for you Americans, atleast-- you should find out!)
The team: myself (I'm the unit leader-- whoo hoo...); Amanda & Jordan Hammond
And now... the details...or at least a couple of things that make us really unique...
1. We're a singing team again--yea! "Marquette" is usually a drama only unit but the singing thing was a special perk for Amanda & I. Music is our life and blood.
2. Amanda and I joined Covenant Players at the same time and we missioned together our second tour in the ministry four years ago.
3. Amanda is now pregnant and due in November and so...
4. We have a semi-home-base unit meaning we still go to all those states but we spend most of the time around her home area and I now have a room in her parent's home for the next few months...her family's wonderful and they've very graciously taken me in.
5. We've got a good amount of experience on this unit (--Amanda's been a unit leader as well) which means I get to delegate an awful lot and we put plays together really quickly.
Of course a lot of the things that are great blessings on this unit can also surface as great challenges. Experience sometimes makes us less teachable and more married to our own ideas and ways of doing things. Being fast line-learners means that sometimes you don't put in as much effort as you ought to or you leave things to the last minute. It's also really hard to be a leader to your friends-- especially when you were friends first. (One of my past unit leaders used to always tell me that...now I understand even more clearly why he felt that way.) Still, I love my unit and I think every unit is a gift from the Lord-- even when you have times where it might not look or feel that way.
Ok. Now my blog is complete...for the time being.
