A SNOW PICNIC

santa has come, santa has gone, i forgot to put out cookies for him, but he was still good to me. i received big girls gifts like industrial style chairs and cast iron kitchen accessories and a snazzy vintage pyrex pie plate. a lot has changed since the furby/tamagotchi/overhead projector years. 

we celebrated with a roast and lefse and one of my gifts to eggboy: the pleasure of my company while watching lawrence of arabia. it's his favorite movie, but as you may have guessed, my favorite movies are rom coms and made-for-tv christmas movies.

it was actually last christmas when i presented him with a homemade "i will be in the same room as you while you watch lawrence of arabia" coupon, but it has taken us this long to get around to it. and, surprisingly, i was not completely uninterested. peter o'toole was a hunk. and those camels! they brought back such fond memories.

on christmas eve day, the eggfamily and i bundled up real good and headed to the farm for a little snow picnic inspired by asian shaved ice, baobing. we brought all sorts of tasty sweets and plopped them on fluffy mounds of snow before feasting till our brains froze over and wrestling each other to the ground.

it was a balmy 13ºf. really quite lovely.

oh what is that? you want to have your own baobing snow picnic?

here is what you will need:

-clean deep snow

-snow pants or a towel to sit on, fuzzy gloves, other warm apparel

-chopped fruit

-condensed milk

-red bean paste (i made my own from this recipe, it is so easy! but if you don't live in the middle of nowhere, you can just get it at your neighborhood h mart or the equivalent)

-brown sugar syrup (i actually forgot about this part...oops)

other fun toppings: mochi bits, matcha green tea powder, nuts, sesame seeds, candy...

and then all you do is:

1. make a mountain of snow

2. sprinkle on the toppings to your heart's desire

3. enjoy!!!! and then wrestle in the snow and try not to vom.

-yeh!

 

 

FORTUNE COOKIES

when none of you responded to my open tweet call for help in writing fortunes for my fortune cookies, i got worried. is this going to be more difficult than i think it will be? do the fortune cookie fortune writers actually have a difficult job and should we just give them a break when we get an utterly undecipherable fortune? (like that alliteration?)

it was a difficult task. my first few fortunes were pretty awful and i'm glad that you can't really read them in the photos, thank you low f-stop. 

and then i thought of a formula. it's based around twitter because writing a fortune cookie fortune is a lot like composing a tweet. it has to be quick and to the point, but it differs from twitter in that instead of talking about yourself or the general population, you have to talk about "you." ok here it goes. how to write a fortune cookie fortune::

1. go onto your twitter feed or someone else's twitter feed, and extract a few of the most fantastic tweets. i'm going to gather a mix of tweets from a few of my favorite tweeters:

@conradtao: in my brain, the word "macrobiotic" is always spoken through a vocoder

@contessatura: there are two types of people in the world: people who say they text while peeing and dirty liars

@gmpaiella: Well, there's a dominatrix in my kitchen.

@mattmarks: This crappy sitar patch just MADE this track.

@nattivogel: If it isn't already some racist "Royals"/Hobbit mash-up called "Lorde of the Rings" floating about, I resign from the Internet

2. put these tweets in the second person and in future tense:

in your brain, the word "macrobiotic" will always be spoken through a vocoder

there will be two types of people in the world: people who say they text while peeing and dirty liars

Well, there will be a dominatrix in your kitchen

A crappy sitar patch will MAKE this track.

If it isn't already some racist "Royals"/Hobbit mash-up called "Lorde of the Rings" floating about, you will resign from the Internet

3. alter the words a bit so they're magical and fortune-like:

steer clear of "macrobiotics," for this word will forever in your head be sounded through a vocoder.  

it is time you come clean about your potty texting habits.

beware the dominatrix in your kitchen.

the answer to your frustration lies in the crappy sitar track.

your "Royals"/Hobbit mash-up, "Lorde of the Rings," will go viral and you will achieve more internet fame than two girls one cup. 


alright i think i'm going to be speaking in fortune speak for the next 24 hours. 

here you will find my recipe for homemade fortune cookies. you will love them so much more than regular ones. they are chewy and almondy and last week i ate six in a row. (that's a lot of fortune, you know.)

this completes my chinese food posts for a merry jewish christmas! i am off to tend to some red bean paste...

merry christmas eve!!!!

-yeh!

 

WINNIPEG

i have an idea! let's go to a place that's colder than the one we're in now. was essentially the thought process when we last minute decided to take a day trip to canada this weekend. and what eggboy was thinking when he grabbed his one year expired passport and failed to realize it until we arrived at the canadian border, we will never know. but being the honest, soft spoken, innocent farm people that we are (he is), we somehow got through (?!?) and then celebrated with the sweet canadian sounds of arcade fire as we drove through the sprawling snowy fields and into winnipeg.

first stop: obviously dim sum

you know, there is a gigantic weight off of my shoulders now that i know that the end to a painful dim sum craving is just over two hours away from my new home. if ever i express this craving and then suddenly disappear from the social media world (on account of roaming charges), you will know exactly where i am.

egg and i bopped all around town for the remainder of the afternoon. we stopped in shops of the record, stationary, and cake variety, we met a saskatoon berry (have you ever had a saskatoon berry? it is like a blueberry!), and all the while we had our bomber hats glued to our heads because, sweet lord, was it cold! again, though, i'm finding i really don't mind the extreme cold when i'm aptly prepared with three pairs of socks, three sweaters, and my sorels.

a solid block of time was spent with those hudson bay stripes. what is it about those stripes? when we tracked down the entire section of them in the hudson bay store, we immediately hyperventilated in unison out of such excitement. because we are silly americans and we like those things and yes we do spend entire minutes petting the wool blankets, dreaming of the day that we'll acquire one.

we also found a bakery that makes a hudson bay striped cake! oh, for cute.

as if the shortest day of the year could get any shorter, the sun went down at around four. it really didn't have far to go. it felt like it was setting from the moment it showed itself. so through the night we drove on home, but not before eating curry and picking up a pair of fleece lined leggings. oh yes, i am never taking these off.

-yeh!

 

 

BACON + EGG DROP SOUP

you guys, i can't contain my excitement for the winter solstice this weekend.

do you know how much daylight i get up in these parts? how much time i have to shoot photos?

like, zero hours.

ok maybe two.

it makes me so stressed sometimes, i could spit!

some days i force myself to stare at the window as the sun goes down (at 3pm) just so that i can get an ounce of vitamin d. i hear people around here go to tanning beds to get their dose.

i feel like i really have to scramble to get things done.

oh did someone say scramble?

....today in my merry jewish christmas preparations, i have made some scrambled eggs cooked in soup! it is perhaps the easiest and most magical way to cook eggs. it's an old favorite of mine, and watching the eggs cook as they get swirled into the broth is about as exciting as christmas day. well, sort of.

bacon + egg drop soup 

based on a recipe that i wrote for the beautiful but sadly defunct online magazine, the violet.

makes 2-4 servings

ingredients

4 c chicken broth

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks scallions, minced

1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

6 strips bacon (any kind- i use turkey), prepared and chopped into 1-inch pieces

soy sauce, to taste

red chili flakes, to taste

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp cornstarch

3 eggs

clues

combine the first 8 ingredients plus 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper in a large saucepan over medium high heat. bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

in a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of broth. set aside.

in another bowl, beat eggs with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. slowly drizzle into the soup, stirring gently. and then slowly stir in the cornstarch mixture.

taste to adjust seasonings, and enjoy!

 

-yeh!