Jiao Zi Just Like Mom Used to Make

This past weekend we took a little trip back to Kansas City and I had an opportunity to do some cooking with my Mom. We decided to give Jiao Zi (Chinese Dumplings, pot stickers, etc.) a try. Having had some initial training while living in Beijing I was optimistic that we could come out victorious in this challenge! We decided to go with the traditional mixture of pork and leek filling. As it turned out they were not too bad for a first attempt and we now have a pretty good idea of what will be improved on for the next time!



Here's a couple of shots of camera shy Mom rolling out and filling one of the wrappers



One of the steps involved in the process

Showing off the stuffed jiao zi prior to cooking. Not the prettiest ever made, but edible!


One of the side dishes, Sichuan style cabbage and glass noodles. The other side (not pictured) was Sichuan style green beans! Yum!








The rest of the weekend was spent clowning around with our grandson and meeting up with some old friends.

Of course I couldn't resist trying this on!

One of my old track and cross-country team mates (John) who has been managing Ponak's (our favorite Mexican restaurant)for nearly 20 years now! If you're in the KC area stop by Ponak's and say hey to John for me!


One of the guy's (Darrell) that I used to run around with from our old neighborhood. It was fun remembering stories and people we grew up with while talking with both of these good friends!







It was a short trip, but it was good to get back to KC even for just a couple of days!

Why Do I Own a Camera?

About a week ago we celebrated the anniversary of our first date, on St. Patrick's Day! This year we decided to celebrate by making our own corned beef from scratch and it turned out great, but did I take any pictures? No!

This past Friday evening Lightnin prepped 2 different types of ribs, Orange ribs and Root beer ribs (using a local KC brand root beer courtesy of my Christmas present from Bro J). Again they both came out fantastic, but did I take any pictures? No!

This last Saturday it was an absolutely beautiful day so we met up with two other couples with motorcycles and rode, pretty much all day. It was a very scenic route and we even took the camera with us, but did we take it out and grab photos from the road? Again the answer is NO!

So my question to myself at this point is: Why do I own a camera?

Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll try to answer that question!

Seen in Beijing...

Lightnin here...just a few of the things we saw in Beijing. I"m pretty sure they are self explanatory! You may have to click on one of the bumper stickers to be able to read it. It's also my favorite!



















And yes this was in China too!

The Hutongs of Hou Hai

I snapped these few pictures of the hutongs as we walked through them on our way to the Black Sesame Kitchen. These are the most traditional style of housing in and around Beijing. They are not only shops and restaurants, but the owners typically live here too!






















I think that's about it for this last trip to Beijing so I hope you enjoyed it!


It looks like the weather is finally turning for the better here so pretty soon you'll see some pictures from the road as we tour around on the bike!

Cooking School at Hou Hai

I had the pleasure of attending a dinner at the Black Sesame Kitchen in Hou Hai, a suburb of Beijing, with a couple of our friends. Unfortunately Lightnin was ill and was not able to go with us on this adventure!

The Black Sesame Kitchen is not just a place to eat dinner, but they also teach cooking classes on Chinese cuisine. It's a tiny place located in the hutongs (back ally's) of Hou Hai and you sit sort of family style with friends and strangers depending upon how many people you have in your group.

This is a picture of Michelle and Sissy, in the forground, the managers of the restaurant and school. Although it's not exactly a flattering picture of Sissy

The menu for that night

Me posing with the head chef

The head chef showing the proper technique for cooking Jiao Zi (pot stickers) to Sissy and one of the assistant chefs

Pan full of Jiao Zi

Beer braised duck and sitr fried shitaki mushrooms and vegetables

The conversation was so lively at our table that nobody else even noticed this picture being taken

Possibly one of the strangest textured foods: Black Sesame sticky rice balls










The food was fantastic, as well as the atmosphere, but the most fun part was being able to watch and interact with the chef and staff while they were preparing the meal!

I should also mention that I have in my possession an autographed copy of the book "Serve The People" whose author, Jen Lin-Liu, is the founder of the restaurant. The book not only gives you recipes and instructions for cooking Chinese, but stories that provide an insight/understanding about life in China.

A Snowy Evening in Beijing

Sorry to bounce around a little bit, but the Saturday evening after we first arrived it snowed about an inch. We had decided to meet our friend Aaron and head over to Tim's Texas BBQ to see some of our old friends there.

Here's a photo of Lightnin, although you can barely see her

A shot of Lightnin and our friend Aaron, you can see the flash reflecting off the snow flakes!

Both photos were taken in the plaza area of a shopping center called "The Place"







We had a fun time dining, drinking Tsing Tao and/or Tiger, and singing!

The Paulaner Brau Haus

Still covering the trip back to Beijing we'll move on to the day before we left to return to the US.

After completing all of our souvenir shopping in the morning we decided to head back to the room, drop all of our purchases, and walk down the street to the Paulaner Brau Haus to get our fill of good German food and beer before returning to the room to pack.

They start you off with a basket of whole grain bread and pretzels, along with a variety of spreads: schmaltz, liverwurst, and butter







Then came the main course, which we split, a selection of sausage with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut











They also have a good selection of beers, but I stayed with my favorite the dunkle (pictured in the top photo).

Even though this was from the tail end of the trip I've still got a few more pictures and stories to share.

The Train to Tianjin (aka Harbin East)

The Tuesday after we arrived we decided to take the high speed train to the city of Tianjin. It's on the east coast of China, and by this train it's only 30 minutes away. Why Tianjin? Because they have a Bavarian brewery there, that's why! They had an excellent Hei Pi (Dunkle, Dark beer) and the food was a rustic style Chinese, which was interesting and good!

Here's a picture of Lightnin with our friend Aaron and the brewery/restaurant staff in the background


Here are the two of us in the square near the river just outside the main train station


Just in case you were wondering, yes you can get a Bud in China












On the way back to Beijing the train hit a rocketing fast speed of 335km/hr (208mph) and it was a surprisingly smooth ride.

Welcome Back, from your friend Winter!

Have I ever mentioned that I really don't like winter?



Here's what we returned home from our trip to find!












The worst part is that it had melted and re-froze a few times before we returned home to shovel it so it was a mixture of snow and ice. It took me several hours the first day back to clear off the drive!




It was a great trip and with the help of our friends Tracy and Chris we were able to find a couple of replacement SiChuan restaurants. One of our favorites had been torn down along with Tim's Texas Roadhouse, but that's a whole 'nother story that I'll get to later!

Anyway, here's a few pictures of some of the cuisine we sampled at a place called "Spice Spirit":

Spicy Chicken - This was crispy, tender, spicy hot, and delicious!

Numb Mouth Beef - Those little peppercorn things floating around are the infamous Hua Jiao that is the secret to authentic SiChuan cooking! This dish lived up to it's name too!

Lettuce Root - Awesome presentation, and a nice cool soothing side dish to go with the two above

Kung Pao Shrimp - A wonderful sweet, tart, and spicy dish











Stay tuned because there's more photos and stories from the trip to come!

Year of the Tiger

Unfortunately we were not able to connect to Blogger while in Beijing over the past couple of weeks, so I'll have to play a little catch-up here to post some of the pictures from this trip.

I'm going to attempt to load a video and if it is successful you will get a chance to experience a little bit of the Chinese New Year celebration, but this still doesn't capture what it feels like to see this in real life!



You have to understand that this went on every day with firecrackers, larger than our M-80s, starting at 7am and fireworks from sun down until just after midnight. the largest night displays take place on the first night, the 5th night, and the last night of the New Year. The final night is the largest!

We're still trying to get our days and nights back on track and will be posting the rest of the stories and pictures over the next few days!

It's Back to the Jing!

Just a quick note to let whomever it is that still reads this blog know that we'll be heading back to the Jing for a little vacation. So stay tuned, or not, and I'll see if I can't put out a few more entertaining posts while on the road!

That Was Refreshing!

Yesterday after the fog lifted and the temperature rose to a balmy 49F we decided to get the bike out to join a friend of ours on a short run. J-bird had broken his leg back in late summer/early fall and when he said he felt like he was ready to give it a try of course I'm going to join him!


















Lightnin provided this snapshot of us in front of "Best Damn Bar" where we stopped for something to wet our whistles. I'm not sure if we were actually thirsty or just needed to get inside for a couple of minutes to get feeling back in our fingers!

We probably rode for close to an hour total, which was good enough because 49F at 50mph is still a bit chilly even with leather on!

Mini-China Expat Reunion

This past weekend we were finally able to get a group of friends together who had all met while living in China. We were obviously missing a few folks because some still live in China and others have returned to their homes in Europe. (You know who you are, and Lightnin and I were at least able to see some of you on our last trip to Europe!) Their presence was missed, but we still managed to have fun sharing good food, drink, memories of Beijing, and lots of laughter!

Although most of us that spent a majority of our free time together while in Beijing work for the same company, we come from very different backgrounds and probably would never have met nor formed the strong personal bond that we currently hold had it not been for this common experience. I know that the experience has a different affect on everyone so I can only speak for myself when I say that it was life changing!

I will never forget the friends that I came to know while living on the opposite side of the earth and hope that we can get the entire group together again someday!

Snowy River

Yesterday it finally snowed enough that I was able to get a few shots of the White Water River with snow covered banks.
The White Water River is right across the street from where we live and it feeds into the Ohio river just a few miles away from us.
The bridge in the pictures is the I-275 loop that circles the city.

Pics added to Saturday's post!

We ended up with a dusting of snow, and the rain from Christmas Day has muddied the White Water River so I'll wait until the water clears a bit before I snap some photos.

Christmas Turkey, DUCK!

For 3 days now I have been trying to publish the following post, but Blogger has decided that my Christmas gift from them is not allowing me to upload pictures!
After much effort and frustration I was finally able to upload 2 of the pictures that I wanted and I'll update with the rest when I can get them uploaded!

On Christmas Eve Lightnin headed out to get the mail and spotted this field full of turkey.
Lightnin said there were more than 20 of them















Lucky for them our Christmas Eve menu was already set: shrimp and Lobster bisque, prime rib, potato balls, apple spice muffins, and red wine

The chowder and place settings

Prime rib and potato balls















On Christmas morning our breakfast was that of bacon, Cinnamon rolls and mimosa's. I then spent the better part of the day fighting the rain and blowing wind to smoke the duck that would be dinner, along with cranberry cornbread stuffing and date pudding for desert.

Donald D prepped and going into the smoke
Smokin' goodness!














Today is starting out cold and we're expecting snow later in the afternoon.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Wetland: A Weather Story (part er)

Well the sleet finally stopped and the temperature rose so we were able to get the little car back home safe and sound yesterday.

This morning was met with a cold mist, but at least it was above freezing! Later tonight and early tomorrow morning we're supposed to get rain mixed with ice and snow, switching to rain for most of tomorrow/Friday and then switching over to snow on Saturday. It looks like Santa had better be wearing a rain coat and waders with pontoon attachments on his way through Ohio, 'cause that sleigh is likely to get stuck in the mud!

The Whitewater river has cleared up nicely and is a beautiful blueish green color now so if we do get a decent snow covering on the banks I'll try to get some photos to share.

From Lightnin and I:
Here's wishing everyone out there (even those of you who choose not to send in comments, and you know who you are!) a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For our friends in Beijing: Sheng dan jie kuai le ye Chun jie kuai le!

Winter Wetland: A Weather Story (part yi)

Today has turned out to be interesting!

Our oldest son has come from New York to visit us for Christmas, and so for him to go see his friends while we're at work we need to lend him one of our vehicles, but of the three (running) vehicles that we have only 1 of them is fully weather worthy. So we've been watching the weather to know when he could take the truck and we would take the "little car". This morning's forecast looked safe with only a slight chance of flurries in the morning with warming temperatures and precipitation ending in the afternoon! Wrong again!

Oh it was fine this morning when we left for work, but within an hour the snow started coming down, not just flurries, but actual snow. Luckily the temperature was still warm enough that it melted on impact, so I was able to go to lunch with Lightnin. However, when we left the restaurant of choice it was no longer snowing, oh no, it was now raining and sleeting.

Still no problem as it was still melting on impact. I drop Lightnin off at her place of employment and I head back to mine as the rain/sleet now turns to SLEET. As I turn into the parking lot I notice that the surface has cooled off enough that it is actually starting to stick. Not much else to do except park it, head back in to work, and hope that the temperature rises to at least the warm 38F that the incompetent weather analysts predict so we can drive it home!

To be continued....

First Snow of the Season

This morning we arose to the first falling snow flakes of winter. It only snowed a little over an inch, but the traffic backed up severly! It took Lightnin 2 hours to get into work, about 23 miles away. I'm working from home because the little car just isn't made for this weather. I admit I did give it a try and drove, well slid around the block and headed back home. Luckily I was able to get it back up the driveway where it will stay until the snow goes away!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Thunder and Lightnin!