I can’t wait to tell you about my visit with Martin, I’ve got a ton of photos plus a video to share with you showing off Martin’s awesomely talented knife skills. I just want to go on record and say, move over, Jackie Chan..the Yan man can carve a whole chicken in 18 seconds flat. one handed. blindfolded. and riding a unicycle. In fact, I think that Martin and his amazing cleaver deserves to star in a high-action video game. Simply put, this man rocks.
Oh yes, to answer your question, his accent is REAL. He totally made fun of me for even asking!
I haven’t had the chance to put together the post for Martin, cuz as you can see, I’ve spent my entire weekend remodeling Steamy Kitchen! Each time that I come up with a major SteamyKitchen.com redesign, I complain that CSS is the sound of brain matter leaking from my head. This blog coding is hard stuff!
In the end, though, I may not keep this design – it’s loading very very very slow – and I’m trying to figure out why the slideshow is lagging a few seconds before it works correctly.
So, please be patient while mama tries on this new dress! Give me a shoutout and tell me what you think. I’ve got more spiffy things to launch on the site, but it’s gonna take some time because if I have to edit the CSS, HTML, PHP or JS one more stinkin’ time, I might just HICCC: huddle in a corner and collapse with a armful of chocolate. Will you tell me how long it takes for the slideshow to render on your computer? Just hit refresh and count. It takes me about 4 seconds – which is 3 seconds too long for my opinion.
I’ve stayed up late the past 3 nights and tonight…Scott left me a trail of jello shots to lure me back to bed so I can get some rest.
Now that’s one sexy man.
Instead of showing you some the of photos that are going into the book, I thought I’d show you one that isn’t.
This is a photo of Indonesian Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce. I do looooove the photo, however, I’ll have to re-shoot.
Let’s play! Can you guess why?
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Note: this was written for the lovely wedding issue for the Tampa Tribune
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The Chinese culture is filled with food traditions and symbolisms, so much in fact that I could never keep up and remember them all. During the entire 6 days surrounding my wedding, I deferred to my mother to tell me what to eat to please the Gods of good fortune and fertility. Oh, did I want to have some grapes? I had to eat five of them, not one less because that number that I must not utter, one less than five, means something bad in Chinese. In fact, I am choosing each and every word very carefully in this column so that in case YOU are the one getting married, I do not want to be blamed for any misfortune!
My wedding with Scott was a nice blend of his culture (Scottish-German) and mine. We exchanged vows at Pebble Beach’s legendary 18th hole (ok, Scott just corrected me and said “fairway” not “hole” because I don’t think they’d let 10 pairs of three-inch stilettos aerate the baby-soft skinny grass at the hole), but included Chinese customs throughout the entire week
One custom that we opted out of was serving a whole roast suckling pig at the wedding banquet. According to the Chinese, the pig symbolizes the virginity of the bride, and um, you know where I’m going with that. I say, no sense in pretending or misrepping what is not true, because that would be a lousy way to begin a marriage! Plus, where the heck would we find a whole suckling pig in the middle of a gucci golf resort? Can you even imagine the chef struggling to fit the fat pig on his fancy rotisserie grill?
There is one tradition that I would like to share with you, eating noodles. For birthdays, new year and weddings, noodles are served to represent long life. Don’t be tempted to cut the noodles, or you’ll be “cutting your life short.” You may not be Chinese, but really, there’s no harm in covering all your bases. I mean, who knows what deity drew the short straw and was appointed to be in charge something so boring like “lifespan?”
So, I created one easy dish that covered all your important bases – sort of cramming in as much good fortune as possible on one plate. The sesame seeds and pea pods in the noodles symbolize fertility (remember, if you don’t want children, substitute with any greens, bean sprouts or sliced bamboo shoots.) Shrimp, in Chinese, is pronounced “haa” which sounds like laughter, and may your marriage be full of happiness.
And of course, this column has 688 words, my way of wishing you a smooth path to double prosperity.
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The next time anyone asks me, “don’t you want another kid?” or “are you going to have another baby to try for a girl?”
All I have to do is flash them this photo:
The playroom that was I had spent the previous 2 days sorting, scrubbing and organizing:
I think they are building a secret railway from our home to DisneyWorld.
Thank you Scott for cleaning up this mess afterwards!
Update:
AHA!!! Found this article today! “Stay at Home Moms Worth at Least $117K/yr”
GOOD LORD! What brand of happy pills is she on?
WIth 18 children, I’d be using a lot more than my index finger scolding that child!
