Me and Lily planned an x-mas dinner for our Chinese friends. it was about 12 people. Lily can't cook that meant i had to cook it all. I am pretty happy with the outcome despite the circumstances. It took days to find a proper ham that wasn't suspiciously chinese. i couldn't find cloves, cinnamon! cranberries(they did have one box of frozen that was $20!!!!!), dinner rolls, pumpkin pie or any pie for that matter, dr. pepper, an oven, vanilla, ice. The pots and pans we all had were not big enough to cook for 12 people. that meant the ham had to be cut in half and cooked in sections, same with the potatoes, yams, etc.... that meant double the cooking time and trouble. Not to mention the wicked hang over i had from the night before from partying with those singers and entertainment peeps.
here i am bright and early forced to go buy materials for xmas dinner despite the fact that i wanted to lay my head down on the road and have it run over by a coal truck. the people i ask don't know why they painted these trees with the beetle repellant paint in the middle of the winter. it's like that all over beijing now.
this ham we finally found at the german butcher. i was a little suspicious of this one. because well, this is china and you never know what you're gonna get even if it says so on the wrapper. i was less supicious of this one than the other ones i saw written in chinese at the other western stores. This 11 pound bad boy cost $51!!!! western food is such a rip off. anyway this one was supposedly smoked and cooked already. all we had to do was heat it up. easy right? NO! THERE ARE NO OVEN'S IN BEIJING. This means i had to slow cook it in a wok with a orange soda (would have been better with dr. pepper) one half at a time.
lily or her roomates didnt have proper serving plates, etc... or proper anything for that matter but that is understandable because they don't really cook.
2 of lily's chinese friends were assigned to make a chinese soup before so they brought over the ingredients and made this amazing soup with four different kinds of mushrooms. thats a mushroom she's holding
we had stove top stuffing, ham glazed with dijion mustard and brown sugar then crisped in the little toaster oven for 20 minutes. Also mashed pototoes, sweet yams, broccali cheesy rice, wheat bread, chinese mushroom soup, fresh salad, farfell cold pasta and corination chicken made by david, chinese sweets, banana chocolate cake, mango icecream, beer, wine, and a gingerbread house. I think it turned out ok. the ham actually came out great. but by the time i was done i couldnt really eat because i had been cooking all day.
my roomates. thanks for coming over 3 hrs late with the silverware and plates so we had to eat on paper plates and use chopstips to eat mashed potatoes and stuffing guys.
they were having little squabbles all night. they are always fighting at home too. nana once said that it is fun and its practice. huh?
the ginger bread house
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