Sausages

Just like Christmas in western countries, Spring Festival is the most important and meaningful day in China. It is the day that Chinese use to celebrate the New Year. Every year during Spring Festival which usually last a few weeks, there would be numerous strings of sausages hanging in my home yard. All of them were made by my grandparents.

In Spring Festival, we used to get lots of pork, especially large ham, from relatives and friends. Since the pork was too much that couldn't eat them all, my grandparents made them to sausages to keep long.

I like eating sausages sold in supermarket, but I have to say that no sausage could taste better than that made by my grandparents. One reason is that the purchased ones have less meat but more starch than our homemade ones.

Making sausage is a very complicated process. I saw my grandparents working on that a few times. First, my grandma cut a chunk of meat into small pieces. Fat meat and lean meat were mixed together. And then she add sugar, salt ( a lot), Chinese liquor and ginger in the meat. I don't remember the accurate amount of each ingredient she put, but it's not a big deal since personal preference depends a lot. After one or two attempts you may find the best amount of each ingredient for you.

The difficult part is to inject the meat into the sausage coating. My grandpa tied one end of the coating with a line and injected the meat from the other end. He made a funnel with a plastic bottle. He cut the bottle in half and used the upper part. Afterwards he inserted the bottleneck into the open end of sausage coating and poured the prepared meat into the coating through the plastic funnel. Air should always be prevented from getting into the sausage coating.

Our family could keep eating the sausages for two months after Spring Festival. Sausage is attracting me to go home.

Skyline

This past weekend I went home with a buddy of mine. He lives in a small town in Indiana called Milan. I don't know if anyone reading this post has seen the movie Hoosiers. If you haven't the movie is based on the basketball team in 1954 won the state championship. This was back when all schools played each other no matter what size the school. Milan was a small one A school that went and won the state championship. Anyways that is really the only thing that Milan is known for.

When I went there the other weekend my buddy took me to this restaurant called Skyline. I had never heard of this place before and the way my buddy talked about it it was suppose to be the best place in the world. So we went there and pulled up to the drive through. My buddy expected me to know what I wanted but of course since I had never been there I had no clue what they had. So we sat in the drive through for about ten minutes waiting for me to decide what to get. Skyline has just about everything. From cony dogs to spaghetti to wraps and salads. So I finally ordered I got two conies with onions. When I took my first bite of this cony I was amazed it was great. I loved it. The cheese itself was to die for so fluffy and perfectly shredded. The chili and hot dog were cooked to perfection. I was in love.

Little did I know my stomach didn't really agree with me. Even though the meal was delicious it wasn't long till it came back out if you know what I mean. Lets just say it was not a good afternoon. I would warn not to go there if you have a weak stomach. Other than my bad experience I loved the place and would go back in a heartbeat.

Skyline is located in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida. Mostly in the southern parts of Indiana.

Non-Pathogenic Gelatinous Mold

So I was drinking my Arizona tea the other day and I noticed something floating in my cup (ew). This was the second time that this had happened to me. I wasn’t sure what it was or if it was harmful, and it definitely weirded me out, so I googled “What’s that stuff floating in my Arizona tea?” And you would be surprised with how many results came up.

The first one I read said that it was some sort of preservative powder and that if you stirred it or shook it, it would go away. Well I shook it and nothing happened. It was still floating in my tea. Wtf?

The next one I read said that it was actually a mold (which is what I thought it might be) that grows when the bottle loses its air tight seal. It said it is a non-pathogenic gelatinous mold that won’t harm you if you drink it. EW! That was in my tea!

I noticed that this only happens when I’m at the bottom of the jug, like the last 2 cups. If I pour a cup and see mold, I just pour it out. You’d think this would gross me out so bad that I’d never wanna drink Arizona tea ever again, but you’re wrong. I love my Arizona tea so much that I will still buy it! I might just start buying the cans though instead of the gallon jugs.

(This is my final post. So long and farewell. It has been interesting.)

Candy That Sucks! and Candy That I Wouldn’t Buy but Would Still Eat

I love candy so much that I really can’t think of many candies that I really just think suck. Here’s what we’ve learned that I don’t like from previous posts: black licorice, really cheap chocolate like Palmers, Bit-O-Honeys, Pay Days, butterscotch or cinnamon hard candies, and candy corn. About the only other candy that I can think of that I don’t like is watermelon flavored candy. It doesn’t REALLY taste like watermelon…not that I even like watermelon…

I can honestly say I’m not a huge fan of jelly beans either unless they are Jelly Bellys. I don’t buy them though because they are so expensive. I usually get them in my Christmas stocking and when we go camping over the summer. Whenever it rains, we sit under our camper awning and eat them. You pull out a jelly bean, examine it, look it up on the chart, tell everyone what flavor you think it is, eat it, then tell everyone how it was and if you were right about the flavor. I know it sounds lame, but when it’s raining and there’s nothing else to do, it’s quite entertaining.

There are sooo many candies that I would eat but would never buy. Tootsie Rolls, Skittles, Starburst, York Peppermint Patties (which my roommate just offered me and I ate), Three Musketeers… I LOVE Almond Joys when I have them but I never buy them for some reason.

This list really could go on and on.

(After writing this post I am really craving a Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bar. I used to buy those fairly often, but haven’t had one in a while. I actually think I might go get one.)

drinks

In my previous posts, I was talking about food all the time, now I want to write something about drinks.

My favorite drinks are juices, not cola, not coffee, not alcohol. When I eat in the university dinning court, usually I choose from only two options-apple juice and grape juice. Occasionally I may get a cup of milk if the juices are not available. In China, the juices are not real juices because producers put many additives in the juices. My mum never allows me to drink juices with food colors. As a result, sweet tea is my first choice in China. There is a great variety of sweet teas. Tea with milk is especially popular in China.

I really like Sprite and Coca Cola Cherry, but I seldom drink them for health sake. Drinking too much carbonated beverages will cause fatness and osteoporosis, and is also harmful to teeth. Coffee is a good stuff for me when I have to stay up late to work on papers before due date.

It seems alcohol is what American teenagers long for but can't obtain legally. I heard about some college students who are below 21 drink alcohol on the sneak. Personally I have no special interest in alcohol and never drink in America. Chinese government and schools have no prohibition of drinking alcohol for all ages. That means I can drink alcohol publicly since I was born. I did drink alcohol in China, about five times a year, and I never got drunk. I remember the first time I drank was in primary school. Almost every time I drank alcohol was in public occasions like family party or classmates' reunion. My father is a doctor. He suggested me drinking a small cup of wine everyday because it's good for health and blood vessels. I don't do that since I don't like the flavor of wine. Most Chinese teenagers are the same as me. A normal student will not buy alcohol from a shop, unless soft drinks are sold out. On the contrary, lots of men who are above 30 drink alcohols every day, and often get drunk.

Candy That I DO Like and Think is Worth Buying

So it has been pointed out that I talk a lot about candy that I think sucks and candy that I wouldn’t necessarily buy but would eat if handed to me (I’ll do a post just on this later). So I’m writing this post on candy that I DO like.

You may think that my favorite kind of candy is something chocolaty because I talk about chocolate so much, but you’d be wrong. My favorite candy is actually Smarties. I actually love all candy that is that kind of texture/consistency. I love Bottle Caps, candy necklaces, those little Lego block candies, the sticks in Fun Dips (which I think they need to sell on their own). Not so much Sweet Tarts though because of their tartness.

It’s kind of hard to explain why I like them so much. I like the fact that they’re sweet and they crunch and turn kind of powdery as you chew them. I don’t know…the flavor tastes good to me. Especially the coke and root beer flavored Bottle Caps.

My favorite chocolate candy is definitely Reese’s Fast Breaks. They are better than just Reese’s cups because you feel like you get more with the candy bar instead of two cups (I don’t know if you do or not) and they have more flavors and textures than just regular Reese’s. (If you haven’t noticed, I’m big on the texture of my food.)

I also really like Twizzlers. Twizzlers I don’t buy as often but I still love them. Sometimes I go on crazy Twizzler kicks. My favorite Twizzlers are the cherry pull n peel ones although I like the original strawberry ones too. The cherry ones have a better flavor and, although they get stuck in your teeth more, they aren’t as chewy as the strawberry ones. I HATE the black licorice ones. EW!

Cravelatte

I am addicted to Prairie Farms Cravelatte milk and coffee. It is so delicious! It all started when my boyfriend came to visit me at school. We wanted something for breakfast so we went to the convenient store in the basement of my dorm. I was going to get a chocolate milk but then I saw the Cravelattes.

I really like cold coffee so I thought I would try it. It was love at first sip! The milk was the perfect thickness and was really creamy and the coffee flavor was perfect! I get one about twice a week now!

If you like cold coffee, I suggest trying the Prairie Farms Cravelatte! It is made with 1% low fat milk and is about 320 calories for a pint which costs about 89 cents.

Salted Duck Egg

As what I sail before, Chinese eat nearly everything from animals. Duck egg, quail egg and pigeon egg are good stuffs like chicken egg. Most Americans eat chicken eggs every day, but may feel strange about duck eggs. I like to eat salted duck eggs as breakfast. The flavor to me is no worse than chicken eggs.

The main reason that duck eggs are not as popular as chicken eggs is because duck eggs are smelly. Even fresh duck eggs taste putrid. Therefore Chinese never eat fresh duck eggs, they salt the eggs in order to get rid of the smell. Salted eggs of course are very salty, but still very delicious. Usually people eat them together with congee or rice to weaken the salt. Duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs. The eggshell is light green. All kinds of nutrition in duck eggs are more than chicken eggs.

I love the yolk of duck eggs very much! Perfect duck eggs have oily and golden yolk. When I was a kid, I only ate yolk and left all eggs white to my parents. The egg white is much saltier than the yolk, it is still very salty even eating with congee.

One easieset way to make salted duck egg is salting in water. First you have to prepare a crock. Then put duck eggs in the crock and pour water to just cover the eggs. After adding salt which is half the weight of eggs, seal the crock. Ten days later you cna eat. Before eating you should boil the eggs for sure. Boiling is the only way to cook duck egg.

Now go and try a food you never taste before. I assure you would love the flavor!

Cheesburgers

One of my favorite things to make and eat are cheeseburgers. I like to make them because they are easy to make and everyone I know likes them. The way I like to make them is I like to make them thin. I normally don't like the big thick burgers like all the fast food restaurants have now days.

I like to make mine thin because they taste much better. Here's how I make my cheeseburgers:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 head of lettuce
• 2 tomatoes sliced
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 jar of pickles
• 6 slices of American cheese

First make the patties. Take a chunk of meat and smash it until it is nice and then. Repeat six times or until all the meat is gone. Next take some all purpose seasoning and sprinkle a little bit of seasoning on each side of the patty. After that is all done place the patties on the grill watching them close because they will not take long since they are so thin. While the patties are on the grill prepare the lettuce tomatoes and onion. Right before you take the patties off the grill put the cheese on the patties and let the cheese melt on the patties. When the cheese is melted take them off the grill. Next all you have to do is toast the bun and enjoy a great cheeseburger.

Boy Scout Popcorn

My roommate has a crazy uncle who is always sending her packages and things that she doesn’t want (like a subscription to the Wall Street Journal). The last thing he sent was three boxes of Boy Scout popcorn. She was not happy because she’s not a huge popcorn fan.

I, on the other hand, was thrilled! I love popcorn and especially Boy Scout popcorn. My family used to buy it from a friend I had in band. I don’t know what it is, but Boy Scout popcorn tastes better than any popcorn I’ve ever had!

My roommate told me I could have as much as I wanted, so of course I started sampling. The three different boxes are the cheese lover’s collection, the chocolate lover’s collection, and the sweet and savory collection.

The first one we opened was the sweet and savory collection. It has a bag of cheddar cheese corn, a bag of caramel corn with almonds, cashews, and pecans, and a bag of chocolatey triple delight. The cheddar cheese corn is delicious! It has the perfect amount of cheese. The caramel corn is really good too. I really liked the nuts. It has a good balance of sweet and salty. The chocolatey triple delight is the best out of that box by far! It is popcorn drizzled with milk chocolate and white chocolate. Amazing!

The next box that we opened was the chocolate lover’s collection. It has another bag of the chocolatey triple delight, a bag of white chocolatey pretzels, a bag of chocolatey pretzels, and a bag of chocolatey caramel crunch. We haven’t opened the white chocolaty pretzels yet, but I’m sure most people know what those taste like. The chocolatey pretzels also taste like they sound. They’re pretty good. The caramel crunch is amazing! It is caramel corn coated in milk chocolate. Definitely the best out of what I’ve tried!

We haven’t opened the cheese lover’s collection yet, but I’m sure it’s delicious!

Tortilla Chips

So towards the beginning of the school year, I was in a friend’s room and she offered me some chips and salsa. I asked her what kind of salsa it was, because it was the most delicious salsa I have ever tasted, and she told me that her mom made it. Soo…for my birthday, her mom made me a jar. (Thank you Mrs. D! That was very nice of you!)

I didn’t have any chips so I went and bought some. I never realized how many different kinds of tortilla chips there are. I ended up getting Tostitos scoops with a hint of jalapeno because I love jalapeno and had never tried them.

Oh. My. Gosh. These are by far the most tasty tortilla chips I’ve ever eaten! They are delicious and the jalapeno flavor is perfect! They are so good that you can eat them plain and not feel like you’re missing something (aka the salsa)!

I am not a huge fan of the scoops though. They seem to be more brittle than other tortilla chips and they weren’t actually all that easy to scoop. I’d much rather have normal triangle shaped ones or round ones. I also kind of like the dipping strips which I didn’t know they had until recently.

Unfortunately, I think they only have the jalapeno ones in scoops (which is disappointing)…but they’re so tasty, I don’t even care. I’ll still buy them!

I also recently tried the Tostitos with a hint of lime. EW! They were disgusting! The tangy lime taste was way too weird to be in my tortilla chips and the salsa didn’t really hide the flavor.

So if you like jalapeno, I suggest trying the Tostitos with a hint of jalapeno next time you need tortilla chips. You won’t be disappointed!

Gingerbread Houses

I’ve always wanted to make a gingerbread house. Then I did…and it was an epic fail.

We used one of those kits which was probably our first mistake. I would’ve liked to make one from scratch but it seemed like too much work.

The main problem with the store bought one was that the pasty icing stuff wasn’t sticky enough. First, we stuck all the walls together and started sticking candy to them. That went well.

When we went to put the roof on…it slid off, knocked over the walls, and candy started falling off. We tried to get that thing to stay together for over an hour and finally gave up. Like I said, EPIC FAIL!

Needless to say, I will never buy another gingerbread house kit as long as I live. I will however decorate a gingerbread house in the presence of an expert who does all the prep work for me (aka the baking of the walls and roof and the making of the pasty icing stuff).

My First Cheese Ball

Around this time every year, my dad buys a cheese ball from a guy at work who sells them for a church fundraiser. Since I only eat them once a year, I always forget how good they are. Soo…This year for Thanksgiving I decided to make my own cheese ball.

I looked online for a recipe for almost an hour and couldn’t find one that sounded good, so I decided to take ideas from a couple different recipes and make my own. It was really easy and fairly quick to make.

Here’s the recipe I came up with:

2 – 2oz. pkgs. chipped beef
2 – 8oz. pkgs. cream cheese
1 tsp. Lawry’s seasoned salt
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
green onions (as much as you want)
walnuts

1. Set out cream cheese to soften.
2. Chop the chipped beef, green onions, and walnuts into small pieces while you wait.
3. Mix the cream cheese, Lawry’s seasoned salt, and Worcestershire sauce with a mixer.
4. Stir in the chipped beef and green onions.
5. Refrigerate until it’s hard enough to form into a ball.
6. Coat the ball with walnuts and refrigerate.
7. Serve with your favorite crackers and enjoy!

Everyone at Thanksgiving loved my cheese ball and I was really happy with how it turned out! I am definitely making another one for Christmas!

(Sorry my picture is a little blurry.)

Scrambled egg with tomato

Scrambled Egg with Tomato is a cuisine that every Chinese family can easily cook. Actually it always would be the first cuisine when a novice starts to learn cooking because it's the simplest one. I learned it about ten years ago when I was a small kid.

I have a friend who didn't know anything about cooking when he planned to study in America. His family worried that he couldn't take care of himself abroad, especially in eating. A few days before leaving for America, his mother taught him two easiest Chinese dished, one of them is Scrambled Egg with Tomato. My friend immediately grasped all procedures after his mother just showed him once. Now he is in America and he cooks the two dishes every week. If I was him I couldn't repeat cooking the same two dishes every day, it's murdering my appetite! However, he told me his American roommate more than once spoke highly of his cooking skills. I was really shocked! If he can be praised for cooking, I can be awarded master.

So when you want to learn a couple of Chinese cuisine, there is no doubt you should get started from Scrambled Egg with Tomato.

This week I have to be busy in the kitchen because dinning courts and restaurants are closed during Thanks-giving. Since I don't want to spent much time on cooking, I cooked Scrambled Egg with Tomato today. I only used eggs, tomato, salt and oil. Here are my procedures.

Cut a tomato into several lumps;

Crack three eggs and stir them in a bowl, add a little salt;

Heat plant oil in a pot and put the fluid eggs in;

When the eggs become solid, scramble the egg until fully solidified;

Get the eggs out and scramble the tomato with the remaining oil in the pot;

A few minutes later, mix the egg with tomato and scramble together for a while.

Sounds easy, right? Now start your learning from Scrambled egg with tomato!

Post-Thanksgiving

Yesterday my family had Thanksgiving lunch at my grandma’s house. I had soo much fun and everything was delicious! I ate entirely too much!

We had turkey, ham, chicken n noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, candied sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables, broccoli salad, a cheese ball (that I made), homemade bread, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, raspberry cheesecake, rhubarb pie, some sort of berry pie, and mincemeat pie. We had sooo many leftovers but the good thing about that is that we got to take them home and eat them the next day!

The sweet potatoes (above and below...and yes, those are actually my grandma's) rocked as usual and remain my favorite food as well as my aunt’s. There was only one bowl this year so my aunt and I strategically placed it in front of us. We fought over the leftovers later though!

After eating, we let our food digest and then it was Aggravation time! We played 5 games and I was out to kill! I sabotaged my fellow players as often as I could and in return they sabotaged me. I got a first, 3 seconds, and a fourth (out of 6 players).

After Aggravation, we just sat around and talked and told stories til almost midnight.

I can’t wait to do it all again for Christmas!

P.S. – I couldn’t find my sister on tv in the Macy’s parade.