Bring on the Spice

Since moving, I haven't been impressed with the selection of Chinese food in SD. SD "spicy" is Asian "mild" at best. I just missed some things, especially Chinese hot pot. On Saturday, we checked out the secret Chinese store, where we found lots of goodies, including "real deal" chili oil, frozen lotus baozi, sachima, tofu skin balls, and spicy hot pot mix.

After a veggie stop at a regular grocery store, we were ready to cook. A little gas burner, enameled iron pot, water, spice mix, and veggies made this Chinese fondue. Between coughs and with our eyes watering, we commented on how wonderful it was...and how spicy. Compare to the Chinese Hot Pot in a previous entry.


The really BIG find was prickly ash or numbing pepper. At the secret Chinese store, I decided to ask the owner because we hadn't found it by just wondering around. She didn't speak Chinese, but she took me all over the store and showed me black and white peppercorns, frozen Thai peppers, and finally (what looked like) numbing pepper in a bag. I added some to the hot pot, and it was definitely the right thing. (click images for larger views)


-吴碧芙

The Cat Came Back

On Saturday, I took a Date to the fine arts center on campus, where there is a photography exhibit going on right now called "Dreams of a Fortune Teller." I didn't know what to expect, but it was really good. The artist collected antique fortune telling artifacts from all over the world, and arranged them in 400 different photos, each photo with a fortune written below it. (Actually, I don't know if all 400 photos were actually displayed, but there were a lot.) The viewer is supposed to only read the fortune under the photo that they are drawn to. We looked at all of the photos, and kept in mind which ones we were drawn to, and then we went back and read our fortunes. It was really unique and fun, but neither of us were impressed with our fortunes.

Finding Rainbows

After a short holiday hiatus, with too many emotional twists and turns to mention on the open Web, I'm starting my first blog of the year. I'm a little older, a little wiser, and I'm looking for small signs of hope and happiness.

After one of my many blunders two weeks ago, I was driving down the highway at night. As I looked over at the moon, I saw something rare and amazing. I've seen sun dogs before, but this was "moon dogs." On a cold night, with a full moon, where there are crystals in the air, the light around the moon takes on the shape of an elongated diamond. Arcs of light appear on both sides. The arcs are the most visible portions of a halo that forms around the moon. I didn't have my camera with me, but this website has a pretty good picture.

I went to my parents' this weekend. I needed to go back to the familiar, to see what hasn't changed. As I drove home this afternoon, I saw a small rainbow projected among and within the clouds.

Please take the poll. It's a new and interesting Google gadget I'm trying out.

-MsLin

Seating for Two

Well, when I moved to SD, I thought to myself: I'll scrimp and save. I don't need to buy a big bed when there's a single bed in my parents' basement. I don't need more than one comfortable chair when I don't have a roommate or any friends in SD, who might want to sit down while visiting me.

It turned out that I did meet a friend who wanted to sit down while visiting me. Since I only had one chair, he decided to sit on my exercise ball, and to sit next to him, I decided to sit on my footstool. This situation being less than ideal, I decided to invest in seating for two.

I found a sale item on Target.com, and asked my brother to talk me into or out of ordering it. In the end I ordered it because it seemed like a small thing that would be easy to disassemble and move, and because it was my favorite color and on sale.

My apartment manager said that they don't accept packages for tenants, so I figured it would be a dilemma to be around to receive the package. But last Monday, when I returned from class, this big box sat inside my apartment. It was big enough to hold the notorious "leg lamp" from A Christmas Story. I'm still thinking of making a fort out of the box.


It was difficult to assemble...That's all I'm going to say about that.

It ended up working out ok, though. It's a very green little couch, with two black ottomans that slide under the seat.


I think it's cute, but nobody else has seen it or sat on it. The birds like to hop around on it, but we're being careful not to get spills and droppings on it. Target.com reviewers said it's prone to water spotting.

-吴碧芙

Mad Hatting Skills

I learned to knit because I needed a hat. My first project might have been a hat, if I hadn't thought that it would be too complicated for myself as a beginner. The yarn is Lamb's Pride again in colors "clematis" and "sea foam." I wanted the hat to kind of match the scarf, apart from the color, so my friend sent a ribbed hat pattern she found on someone's blog.



Perhaps the coolest is the decreases, which causes some of the ribs to come to a point in the back.


This blog is becoming too showcase-y.

-吴碧芙

Re-Finished

I finished my first scarf, wore it, and decided I wanted to make it longer. I thought I would want to wrap it around multiple times in the SD winter. On Friday I was finally able to go to the yarn shop in Sioux Falls to get the seafoam color to add to the ends. So I finished it again, much to the disappointment of Kavi and Roscoe, who thought it was a comfy perch. It's about 8 feet long. The yarn is Lamb's Pride (from Nebraska sheep) bulky weight, which has wool and mohair.


I learned Continental style, which is much faster, and easier on the hands. I cast on a new scarf right away, this one in "cafe au lait," "sand dollar," and "blue magic" worsted weight Lamb's Pride with smaller needles. This is step two in the knitters' evil plan to get me to knit socks against my will.

-吴碧芙

Fire Dragon Fruit

My parents are on tour. Coming back from Texas, they took a turn over to my place, bringing me a "fruit truck." The most wonderful and exotic fruits, which they remembered I liked from when they visited me in China. I have lots of pomelos now. I have a yali pear and fragrant pears.

One of the most exciting was the fire dragon fruit. In China the meat was white with little black seeds, but the taste is the same. Last Easter, I tried to use the bright skin to dye Easter eggs, but they turned out light grey and ugly.


I was squealing as I cut open one of them for breakfast this morning. The birds probably thought I was crazy, but that wouldn't be anything new for them.

-吴碧芙