Mandarin Mondays: 感冒 (Common Cold)

I mentioned recently that our whole family caught a cold over the weekend. It really isn't anything serious, and our boys already got over it in one day. My husband and I still have the sniffles, but it isn't anything terrible. We're taking extra vitamin C, eating well, and drinking lots of fluids, and we will probably be over this bug shortly.

To the Chinese people though, catching a cold (gǎn mào, 感冒) is a very serious matter. If fact people often go to the hospital here when they catch a common cold. Usually, they are simply given an IV and sent home, possibly with some pear medicine for a sore throat or some other kind of medicine.

Most people also still really seem to believe that having a cold (gǎn mào, 感冒) is related to being cold (lěng, 冷). That is, your internal temperature is too cold (lěng, 冷) and thus you are sick with a cold (gǎn mào, 感冒). There are other diseases that they believe are caused by too much internal heat. One person I know says this includes pink eye. Even people we know who are pretty aware of germs, wash their hands frequently, and take extra precautions when preparing food, will still pile on the sweaters and blankets when they have a cold. It is just the way it works here. And you definitely shouldn't tell any Chinese people that you have a cold if you are wearing anything less than 3 sweaters and a parka, even in the middle of summer, because you will get harshly scolded and tell you to go home and put more clothes on.

I actually find it kind of ironic that the words cold (gǎn mào, 感冒) and cold (lěng, 冷) in English are the same, but different in Mandarin. I would definitely expect it to be the other way around because this belief is so ingrained into their culture.

Family Fridays: Speeding Up and Slowing Down

It feels like this year just started, I blinked, and suddenly it is June already. I am more than halfway through this pregnancy, Andrew will turn 2.5 years old this month, and Aaron will turn 4 years old this month. Amazing.

Maybe we needed to slow down a little bit around here, because this weekend all of my students canceled for various reasons, and we all came down with colds. Nothing serious, although to the Chinese colds are a very serious matter, but we'll be hanging out at home most of the weekend. It will be a good chance to catch up on some rest and projects around the house.

DIY Lemon Cake

In the winter months, we seem to consume all things pumpkin. But now lemons and other fruits are in season, and I'm baking with lighter flavors. You definitely need fresh lemons to make this cake taste right, but it is a very easy recipe. We love this simple lemon cake topped just with lemon curd. If you want to make a layer cake you could use the lemon curd as filling and top with buttercream frosting. The lemon curd is also great for topping scones, toast, or muffins and sounds very fancy when served at something like a ladies' tea.

Homemade Lemon Cake Recipe

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (or I often use the concentrate from when I make homemade lemonade the easy way)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1–2 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
2. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan (or two 8 inch round cake pans).
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 30–40 minutes until lightly brown on top and toothpick comes out clean.
4. Allow to cool.

Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe

 briefly adapted from allrecipes

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (or I often use the concentrate from when I make homemade lemonade the easy way)
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2–3 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest

1. Combine eggs and sugar in a double boiler. Then stir in lemon juice, melted butter, and lemon zest.
2. Simmer in a double boiler for 10–15 minutes or until thickened.
3. Pour through a strainer to remove any egg white particles if necessary.
4. Allow to cool; the curd will continue to thicken. Spread on cooled cake or enjoy on scones or toast. 

Mandarin Mondays: 杨梅 (Chinese Waxberry)

While fish heads, chicken feet, and some other delicacies here, may not particularly be our favorites, one thing we do love about the food here is all the different fruit we get to try. This region, because of it's mild climate and long growing seasons, has a exceptional amount of fruit and vegetables all year long. Like most of the world, the people here mostly eat seasonally and locally grown produce, with very little imported. But because of the abundance and variety available in this area, this is very easy to do here and get a well rounded diet and not get bored. We definitely appreciate this about this area because as Americans we are particularly spoiled by the notion that we should be able to have virtually any type of produce at any time of the year. This just isn't the case for most of the world, and many areas of China have vastly different climates and much less variety of produce.

One of our favorite seasonal fruits this time of year is the Chinese Waxberry or Chinese Bayberry. Although since we have only known these in China, we never call them that and only use the Mandarin name yángméi (杨梅). These taste like a cross between a raspberry and a cranberry to us. Our boys absolutely love them, which sometimes surprises the Chinese people, because they can be quite tart.

Recently, Nate took the boys to pick some growing in our apartment complex. This batch wasn't all the way ripe so they were more sour than usual. I ended up boiling, mashing, straining out the pits, and then adding sugar to make yángméi pancake syrup. It turned out great and the boys were super excited with their special pancake sauce.

Family Fridays: Potty Training Update

Andrew had a bit of a breakthrough this past week in that he actually learned how make himself go number one. So he has been going right away and having much fewer accidents. Yesterday, he stayed completely dry all day, and today as well.

He has still been not wanting to go number two on the potty, but this evening he finally said he had to go and then finally did. He got a tiny ice cream cone to celebrate that prestigious achievement! So this was the first day without any form of accidents. I'm sure we still have a ways to go before he is really good at this whole potty business, but we've come a long way baby.

DIY French Silk Pie

As a kid, my parents would take turns taking us on mother-daughter or father-daughter dates to different places to spend some one-on-one time together. One of the places we often went to was Baker Square, where I would almost always get French silk pie. Probably because it was chocolate, and this pie was amazing there.

Well, recently I was having a craving for French silk pie, so that's what I asked my husband and boys to make me for mother's day. It turned out amazing, especially considering we only have a hand crank mixer, so my awesome husband whipped up the perfect fluffy filling with just that and a lot of elbow grease. If you have an electric mixer or especially an electric stand mixer this recipe would be a lot easier.

This recipe is slightly adapted from allrecipes. The filling either makes a thick regular 9 inch pie pan full of filling or a thin 9x13 pan. We made a 9x13 pan and topped it with a lot of whipped cream and chocolate chips. This was a good choice for us because it is such a rich filling. This recipe does have raw eggs in it, so if you are in a high risk group or worried about consuming raw eggs you can buy pasteurized eggs, pasteurize you own eggs, or just skip this recipe.

Homemade French Silk Pie Recipe

• Pie crust (1/2 of this recipe make one regular pie pan, 1 whole recipe will make a 9x13 pie pan)
• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 4-8 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (depending on how dark your cocoa powder and how dark you want your filling)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• whipping cream whipped for topping pie
• chocolate chips or chocolate curls for topping pie

1. Prepare pie crust using this or your favorite recipe and let cool.
2. For the filing cream together butter and sugar. Blend in cocoa and vanilla.
3. Beating in one egg and beat until thoroughly incorporated. Up to five minutes per egg for optimal consistency, even with a regular electric mixer. Repeat with each remaining egg. Keep whipping until fluffy.
4. Spread in cooked and cooled pie shell.
5. Top with whipped cream and chocolate as desired and refrigerate until serving and for storage.

Mandarin Mondays: 鱼 (Fish)

Last week, a friend of mine taught me how to make steamed fish (yú, 鱼) in a traditional Chinese way. I am not a huge fan of fish, but this was quite good and Andrew (our two year old) couldn't get enough.

First we went to the market so my friend could pick out a fish. After she bought the fish they gutted and scaled it for her.

We took it back to her apartment where she put it on a plate with fresh herbs. She also place a dish with soy sauce and oil on the side. Then this whole plate goes into a wok on a wire rack to keep in elevated out of the water in the bottom of the wok. The wok should already be steaming hot when you put the plate in, and then you simply cover and steam the fish for 9 minutes. It has to be 9 minutes exactly, per instructions. Then you pour the sauce over the fish and eat!

DIY Easy Dark Chocolate Cake

This is the recipe for the cake my guys made for my birthday. It was absolutely awesome with chocolate ganache and caramel sauce on top, but I am sure it would be great with regular frosting on top as well. I think it would be hard to go wrong with this cake as a base for a dessert recipe.

Homemade One Bowl Dark Chocolate Cake recipe

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 9x13 cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, and oil, mix until well combined. Stir in the boiling water last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake 30–35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mandarin Mondays: 下雨 (Rain)

May is usually when the rainy season begins. Right now, many people are hoping that it will begin in earnest soon because we have had a very dry winter (dōng tiān, 冬天) and spring (chūn tiān, 春天). While this made for a very nice mild temperature and climate, the city could use the water. Today was the first rain (xiàyǔ, 下雨) this May (wǔ yuè, 五月). We'll see if this starts a trend.

Family Fridays: My Birthday

This past Friday was my 26th birthday, and it was a lovely day. My husband and boys spoiled me.

Pastries from local Western bakery, yummy start to my birthday.

Nate and Aaron baking an amazing dark chocolate cake for me.

Even Andrew got to help.

Relaxing with Andrew and new baby.

A sweet friend of mine made me a chocolate, chocolate cake.

The boys were very excited about an extra surprise cake.

Nate brought back McDonald's double cheeseburgers.

Double cheeseburgers taste amazing on this side of the world.

My sweet honey got me beautiful flowers.

Aaron went with daddy to get the flowers and brought me this rose.

He bought it with his very own cuteness!

He also managed to get me a birthday balloon
from the pharmacy with his cuteness.

Andrew found a balloon in the house to give me too,
little sweetheart.

Aaron wanted to play party games.

Cards and gifts from Nate and the Boys. My sweet honey also wrote
me a computer program so we can organize our family videos better.

Amazing dark chocolate cake, with chocolate ganache,
caramel sauce, and chocolate chips on top.

Yea, for cake number two!

We continued celebrating the next day by going
to Chicago Coffee for pizza. The boys enjoyed coloring
with our friends there.