Welcome Back Dear

After 4 long weeks of being stuck in some foreign country, Theresa is back. Safe and sound in Canada.

Where the food is less questionable (and in some cases, actually edible), the people are more tolerable, and if she gets sick or injured she doesn't have to bribe the doctors to insure that she's going not going to die.

I'm not kidding about the last part.

Oh China...

Anyways I'm looking forward to our dates before I head to China myself. My main objective is to buy her things. See, I gave her a decent amount of Yaun before she left. I told her to spend it on herself and buy something nice.

I specifically tell her NOT to buy me anything. I repeat, DO NOT BUY ME ANYTHING.

So, what does she do with the money? Well, she donates a good chunk of it to her tour bus driver who got into an accident that wasn't his fault. However, the tour company couldn't care less and were still going to charge him for repairs. Theresa decided to help him out with the costs, and that's fine with me.

Then she spends the rest of the money on a gift.

For me.

So, other than trying to get back at her for failing to follow instructions, I'm trying to make our dates cater to whatever problems she encountered while overseas. We tried to communicate as best we could via emails. And from those emails I've narrowed down the most common complaints she had while she was there was:

1. Why is this internet so terrible?
2. I miss Western food.
3. Am I going to die if I eat this? It tastes so good but it might kill me if I keep eating.
4. I really hate all this "fancy" Chinese food we're eating.

Yeah... I wouldn't eat that either...

So my other goal is to take her out to eat. Especially now that I'm more confident in my driving skills we can go to a greater number of restaurants and later in the day. In the past, a huge problem we had was being unable to go out for dinner due to the amount of time it took for Theresa to bus home.

Well, we could get dinner near her place. BUT most of the restaurants near her side of the city are terrible. We would know, we've been to a lot of them. But this isn't a problem now! Now we can go to restaurants on MY side of the city. And she can get a ride home.

Unless something like this happens.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to bake/cook something for her too. So hopefully I can get that done in time as well.

A Summer of Possibilites

Awesome, my 4 month long summer break is finally here. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. It always feels odd, not having the threat of an oncoming exam or paper breathing down your neck. Being able to sleep in, relax and goof off.

So much spare time.

Free!

Usually at the start of each month I do a recap of my progress on a list of goals I've set for myself. But let's be honest, how much progress was I going to make during finals month? But now that I have time, maybe I can get some work done.

I haven't gotten any proper exercise in weeks, I haven't practiced baking or cooking, done any book or game reviews, job hunting has gone poorly and who know what else has been neglected lately. But hopefully that can and will change in the coming weeks.

I've got a new pile of work for me now.

I've been sleeping better, so I have more time and more energy now so that means I can get back to trying to not be a scrawny twig. Oh, and that means I'm healthier or something too. Exercise is good for you, blah blah blah.

One of the things I want to do for Theresa before she heads of to China is cook her a proper meal. Usually the most I've been able to do is supplement her lunch with a simple soup or something to that nature. So it be nice to cook her something decent.

Any ideas? Some good steak recipes? I want to make a leek and potato soup, maybe a potato gratin. Thing is, I have no idea what works well together for a lunch. Sure I could just slap together random recipes together but if they compliment each other that be nice.

I don't want her eating some monstrosity like this.

The job hunt is not going well. Most research jobs are either already taken or I don't qualify for them. Same with a lot of the other jobs offered by the University. I've applied for what I can but from the looks of it the best I've got is working at FutureShop for 4 months.

And that's assuming I get an interview. I sent an application a while back, still nothing. Same with the other job I applied for. Getting a bit discouraged here because it's not like jobs are jumping at me, begging to be taken.

Very worried about this happening.

But all in all, I think I should try and relax a bit. My family has confirmed that we will be going to China again this summer. If you haven't read my first experience in China, you can see it here.

Which means that my blog posts will probably be reduced to about once every week. I won't be able to visit anyone else's blogs. Actually, there's a very good chance that I'll have no internet. I mean, I can get past the Great Firewall of China, that's no problem, but it will be a problem if I have no internet.

A nightmare come true.

But we'll see how things go. I've still got 4 months left. Let's see how things turn out.

Belated Valentine's Gifts

Valentine's day was last week. Also happening last week were the crapload of exams, group projects, presentations, and meetings that Theresa and I had to endure.

Needless to say, we barely saw each other let alone had time to do anything.

Oh yeah, so romantic.

Fortunately, we have a week long break right now to catch up and relax. Also due to time constraints and being a poor student I wasn't able to get her much this year.

I managed to grab her a charm that resembles her favorite Team Fortress 2 hat from Fossil. As well as a new computer mouse because her current one is absolute garbage. Now we can properly work together in whatever computer game we chose.

Probably more Team Fortress 2.

I also got her a copy of Bridesmaids because it's the kind of movie I think she'd enjoy. She loves watching movies together and now that I think of it, we have a massive backlog that we still need to get over...

And if you've been paying attention that's only 3 gifts. And if you know anything about me, I love the number 4.

I need a 4th gift.

I however, will.

Usually I like having a food related theme as one of the gifts. I know a lot of you asked why I baked brownies if I don't like them, and if no one in my family likes them. Theresa likes them, that's why I tried to learn how to bake these. I'm considering trying another brownie recipe sometime this week, expand my repertoire.

Taking her out to eat isn't really an option because she considers finer dining to be "overpriced" IF I'm paying. When she's paying, then it's suddenly ok to be eating there. Yeah I know she's looking out for my wallet but a gentleman doesn't let a lady pay, simple as that.

Lastly, I could try and cook for her. Not sure what I'd cook and how I'd be able to do it. Be slightly odd to burst into her house one day unannounced and go "HI DARLING, I'M HERE TO GIVE YOU FOOD POISONING COOK YOU A DELICIOUS MEAL."

Looks legit.

Anyways, I still have time. I'll figure something out. I'll see you guys on Wednesday.

Resolutions Update

I was actually serious when I said I was going to keep track of how well I've been following my New Year's Resolutions. An update at the beginning of the month should be enough, let's see how I've been doing.

Goal 1:

So I've been following the push-up guide and it's coming along I think. I'm a bit behind schedule because I'm kind of a weakling and some days, I just can't do the required number of push-ups.

It's been way too long since I used a picture of Byran.

Thus I've had to repeat some days until my puny body is capable. If my math is correct I am currently able to do 100 nonconsecutive push-ups. This is coming from the guy who started out barely able to do 20 so that's an improvement. It's really not that hard to commit to this, I tend to do a set after a round of Starcraft, a chapter of studying, etc. etc..

Goal 2:

I found this goal of trying to earn more money to be too vague. I'm working twice a week now at my part-time job but I don't that really counts. I'm adding on paying back my parents for my tuition. At my last count it was at $5500. I have less than $3000 in the bank. I need to find a way to pay them back and still be able to buy things for myself.

I haven't been sitting around in January however, I've been reapplying for that internship and right now, it's pending. The application is sitting in some bureaucratic nonsense and the job list opens up in two weeks. I was told I'll probably get in but that's not helping my nerves, at all.

This van is "probably" legit.

Goal 3:

This goal has been going well. In January I not only tried to make a different soup, but I also semi-successfully baked brownies. I know a lot of people have asked on my progress on the hollow book and all I can say is that I'm almost done cutting.

If you find a neat guide or recipe feel free to suggest it on the comments. I seriously look through these and consider doing the ones that are within my ability.

Goal 4:

Believe it or not, I did read a book in January, I just never got around to doing a review of it. Expect a post on it sometime in the near future.

No it was not this book but I wish it could have been.

And that's my update so far, I'm on track at the moment. Yeah, my goals may not be the most amazing "I'm going to change the world and become the next Ghandi!" types, but they're realistic, and I'm actually following them.

How are the rest of you fairing?

Cooking for the Wei Family

There are reason why I've been making an effort to try new recipes and becoming better at cooking. And one of those main reasons is to one day cook a proper and complete meal for my family.

But, cooking for my family is not easy. I would know, I've tried unsuccessfully in the past but I'm not giving up. I'd like to say it's not because I'm a terrible cook but more because it's hard to accommodate for everyone. I have no idea how my Mother does it each night.

Sorcery and magic probably.

My Father is probably the biggest problem for me. First, he's a vegetarian, fish counts as a meat, egg doesn't. With these restrictions it generally means that I need to cook an entire separate vegetarian dish just for him. And I need to make sure I make enough to actually feed him.

Also, he hates onions and garlic, anything even related to them he also hates. So no leeks and sometimes even chives. This further reduces the number of vegetarian recipes I can use or variations of other recipes. Often if I'm modifying a recipe to cook for him I'm removing quite a lot and whatever I've made tastes really bland at the end.

I'll be honest, I think his favorite food is whatever Mom cooks for him. Which is sweet but a pain for me.

I hope you don't mind me "cooking" you this forever Dad.

My Mother and sister aren't much better. Mom prefers Chinese food (surprise surprise) and both of them hate fatty, deep fried, greasy or anything that would qualify as "rich" food. At least my sister likes soup BUT only if it's chunky. She hates blended soups.

And then we have my brother. He hates soup, he hates pasta, and he hates my cooking. He likes meat and prefers to cook his own food.

Myself? I'm not too picky as long as it's not vegetarian, Chinese and I'm not allergic to it.

Why do I even bother?

So we got quite the predicament here. What with all these restriction and my limited abilities. I'll keep trying though, I'll eventually work something out.

Feel free to suggest recipes or other things for me to try. I'm getting tired of looking through cookbooks.

Italian Wedding Soup and Updates

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who offered help and suggestions with improving my blog and/or getting my own domain. I will be trying to get in touch with a few of you sometime in the near future, don't take offense if I don't send you an email. It's not that I don't like you or anything but I can only ask so many people for help!


Now let's get to cooking.

I love soup. It's way up there on my list of favorite things to eat. Coincidentally, soup is the only thing that I can ever cook with any consistency.

So when Lizzy made an entire blog post about soup and soup recipes I was determined to try and make one. One soup stuck out in particular, the Italian Wedding Soup recipe. Why? Because she decided to add this message at the top:

"First up...simple and impossible to mess up:"

First things though, I decided to omit celery from the recipe because we didn't have any at home (and I hate celery) and I used macaroni for pasta because I'm a poor University student.

And while we're on the topic of first things, first problem I encountered was that a lot of my meatballs decided to fall apart and split in half. :(

Crumbling monstrosities...

Maybe I wasn't gentle enough with them. Perhaps I added too many sauteed onions to the mixture or maybe I should have just thrown them into the soup instead of trying to cook them for a bit first. No matter, the point is, I had misshapen and fragmented meatballs in my soup.

And here we have a final product:

Looks a lot nicer than the stuff in the pot. But looks are deceiving.

The biggest issue I had when making this soup was that it was way too salty. This could be due to the brand of chicken broth I used. Or maybe it's because I decided to use regular ground beef for the meatballs.

And then pour the meat drippings and fat from the pan into the soup.

. . . .

Derp.

But other than that I think the soup turned out fairly decently. So I guess you win Lizzy. Only took me an hour to make and I'm excited to try cooking or baking something else again in the future. Though not the lobster bisque because WHY ARE LOBSTER TAILS SO EXPENSIVE?!

Oh and for those that are wondering, I'm still working on that hollow book. Slow and steady.

Scrambled Eggs and Microwave Brownies

I like cooking, I just never get around to doing it as often as I can and when I do it usually results in disaster. Such as the carbonara that became like fried rice or setting butter on fire in the microwave.

Nothing to see here, move along.

But I found two things that I wanted to try out. Gordon Ramsey's way of cooking scrambled eggs, and 3 minute brownies made from scratch. Don't worry Lizzy, I made proper brownies too, my experience with those will go in another post.

I was always taught to make scrambled eggs by first, whisking eggs together in a small bowl, pouring the mixture into a frying pan, folding the mixture and viola, dry and crumbly eggs. So then I decided to follow this video.

I'm just going to say this now, I love Ramsey.

He cooks it in a pot, breaks the eggs in said pot and the eggs look moist. Completely different from how I've been taught to make scrambled eggs. My turn, I don't go all fancy with the mascarpone cheese, chives or smoked salmon. My eggs look like this:

Ok, certainly not as visually appealing as Ramsey's (I suck at plating) but my eggs were nice and moist this time. Maybe too moist? Next time I think I'll cook them for a bit longer. I didn't get food poisoning so that's always a plus.

Ok, that's one success, let's be adventurous and try this next:

I've seen this and variations all over the place. I've heard inconsistent reports of decent brownies and goopy monstrosities. It's my turn to try it out. and here's what I got:

Yeah... It kind of deflated but tastewise it was a bit bland. My suggestion to anyone else wanting to try the above recipe to throw in things like chocolate chips to make it taste better. Other than that, it was easy, extremely moist and it actually worked. Keep in mind that not all microwaves are the same.

I'm actually kind of proud of myself. Maybe there is some hope for me in the kitchen after all.

Presents for Theresa

Hey my midterms are done (at least, round 1 of them are) so I'm kind of free now! Well, not really.

I wish.

Regulars of my blog will remember my panic of buying my Mother's birthday present. And at the end I mentioned that I had to start hunting for a present for my girlfriend Theresa. Well her birthday is next week so let's see how well I'm doing.

Note before we start, I have a thing for the number 4, thus my goal is to always give my girlfriend 4 gifts. (Somehow Bersercules remembers my obsession with the number 4, I'm not sure why....)

Gift #1:

For those of you unaware of Squishables they make great gifts. Basically they're giant plush animals.

I think this is their second largest one.

Theresa already has both of the turtles offered but recently she really likes koalas. So the obvious thing to do was to buy her the koala Squishable as well. Gift #1, easy.

Gift #2:

This is also easy. On her birthday I'm taking her out to lunch at her favorite Italian restaurant. It's been a while since we've been there so I think she'll like that. I'm hoping I can get the waiter/waitress to give her a slice of cake with a candle in it or something. No singing though, Theresa embarrasses easily though and she'd kill me later.

Gift #3:

A lot of you suggested making things. Good idea, so I've been looking through Lizzy's blog to try and find something that I can bake without dying.

WHO LET DAMIAN INTO THE KITCHEN?!

Ok, I'm not that bad but my baking isn't exactly my strongest suit. Things to note, Theresa doesn't like cupcakes or pastries that are too sweet.

Gift #4:

I'm actually uncertain for this last one. I have a date with her on Sunday so I'm thinking of buying her something then, you know, like an early birthday present. But Theresa is really, really, hard to buy for. As in, she'll see something she'll like, refuse to buy it because "it's a waste/no necessary/I don't need it/[insert stupid reason here]" AND refuse to let me buy it.

I'm still bitter about that dress she wouldn't let me buy her.

Worse comes to worse I'll gift her something from Steam. It's a cop-out gift but I'm kind of running out of options.

Plus, I need to start thinking about Christmas gifts too. Can't use up all my ideas yet.