Happy Chinese New Year!

Posted on January 23, 2012 by amoment2think

Photo by kennymatic via Flickr Creative Commons

Today is Chinese New Year and it’s the year of the dragon! From what I understand, Dragon years are suppose to be good ones, full of fortune and prosperity. 2012, did you hear that?

I love Chinese New Year. To me, one of the best things about any holiday is its food. I am more then happy to jump on any holiday bandwagon that I can, particularly if a good part of the holiday is eating great food. Without a doubt, Chinese New Year is one of the best holidays for great food.

I grew up eating a lot of different international cuisines, but Chinese food was one of the first I was introduced to. As a kid, Chinese food was a regular treat for our family. There was a family run restaurant in our neighbourhood that had some of the best Chinese food I have ever had. I have no idea how authentic it was, as I know many people who have grew up or spent time in China criticize the North Americanization of what we think of as Chinese food here. What I do know is that there are dished we ate at this great family run restaurant that I have never found any where else. Some of the dishes I have seen again, but no one makes them as well. I remember learning to use chop sticks at an early age. Calgary has a small Chinatown and I remember going there as a kid too. I loved it. I have no idea how young I was when I first tried Dim Sum (Chinese Brunch), but I do remember eating it when I was in junior high and high school. When I moved to Vancouver to go to University I remember being if awe of the Chinatown here. Each year there is a Chinese New Year Parade, which I love going to, despite my cautious approach to anywhere crowded. Essentially, I have a long standing love of Chinese food and Chinese New Year.

So, I thought, in honour of the New Year, I would share with you my very very favourite Chinese Dim Sum dishes. So if you see them and haven’t tried them before, I highly recommend going for it!

#1: Sticky Rice

sticky rice 300x225 Happy Chinese New Year!

Photo by Deb Flickr Creative Commons

What is so lovely about this rice is the flavour. It is wrapped a bamboo leaf and then steamed, creating this almost tea-like flavour to the rice. As the name implies, the rice inside has a glutinous like quality to it. Tucked in the middle of the rice is, well, some stuff. I am never really sure what it is exactly- a combination of meat and vegetables. Normally I prefer to know exactly what is in my food, but when eating Dim Sum I follow different rules. If it tastes good and others are eating it- I am in.

#2: Sesame Balls with Red Bean Paste

sesame balls 199x300 Happy Chinese New Year!

Photo via The Unseasoned Wok via Flickr Creative Commons

I find it absolutely fascinating that beans are turned in to dessert in a number of Asian cuisines. I am just starting to make peace with beans and lentils, as a healthy and yummy addition to some dishes that I regularly make. But as a dessert– I am all over them. I don’t want to know how much sugar they put in that red bean paste to make it so good- but it is good. Really good. This particular dessert is a thick, sweet and yummy red bean paste inside a chewy, glutinous rice dough, deep fried and covered with sesame seeds. It may not sound good to someone who hasn’t had the pleasure of trying them before, but they are. Trust me.

#3 Steam Buns with BBQ pork

steam buns 300x200 Happy Chinese New Year!

Photo by Geoff Peters via Flick Creative Commons

I have seen a couple articles about these buns (called Bao) in recent foodie articles. I anticipate they are rapidly making their way into mainstream eating. They are a slightly sweet, soft, cake type dough, steamed with meat inside. The classic is the BBQ pork bun. They sit perfectly on the divide between sweet and savory and are warm and satisfying. They are also on my list of foods to try and learn how to make this year, along with Vietnamese Pho soup.

If you can, try and get your hands on these treats and join in the celebration today!

Survival Strategies for Sick Parents

Posted on January 20, 2012 by amoment2think

photo by Enokson via Flickr Creative Commons

One of the hardest things about being a parent is that when you are sick you don’t get to just lay in bed and recover. You just don’t. When you don’t have kids you can live on cans of soup and ginger ale and just let the dished pile up. When you are a parent, you have to, you know, take care of an other human being and they, quite frankly, don’t care two hoots that your not feeling well.

I am finally, (FINALLY, knock on wood) recovering from a three week cold. Three weeks. I am sure that part of the reason it took three weeks to recover, rather then five days, has something to do with the fact that I couldn’t really just rest. There is still a child to feed, dress, put to bed, drive to the dayhome, keep entertained on the weekend and the evenings. And even with a loving supportive husband who does a lot and did a lot more when I was feeling particularly crappy, there is still a lot to do.

I know the title of this post suggested that I had some kind of tips or strategies. I really don’t. In part, its just an other thing that they don’t tell you about before you have kids that you just have to grin and bear it. But I do have a few ideas. I am hoping you will add to them in the comments. There must be some great strategies floating out there in the collective wisdom that is the parenting community! Bring them on!

Survival Strategies:

#1 Quiet activities: Books, colouring, playdough, puzzles- all of these are your friends. Next time I get sick, the first thing I am going to do is go and buy Audrey a new puzzle. (She is OBSESSED with puzzles right now.) Because those quiet toddler activities are a life saver- they allow you to lie half asleep on the couch while your kid (hopefully) can entertain themselves for 3 minutes.

#2 Cut your to do list: Yes there are still things we have to still do even when we are sick. Like, you know, feed the child. But cut out any of the extras. Do not try to be super women/man. Just don’t. Give yourself a break and permission to leave the dishes or let the laundry go unfolded. (My husband knows this was my strategy all too well. At one point I think we had 3 full baskets of clean laundry for a good 5 days before I finally felt well enough to deal with it. Husband would deal with it, except no one would be able to find their clothing if he put it away. Love you honey!)

#3 Ask for help. Full disclosure- I suck at this one. But I think, as parents, we all need to do it more. The truth is that if you get two toddlers together- they will entertain each other. Sometimes two is easier then one. So it would be great if we felt more comfortable as parents asking each other for help. I’ll watch your kids if you aren’t feeling well, you watch mine. Not all the time, but a two hour nap when you feel horrible is a huge help. I think part of the reason I hesitated to do this this time is in part because I really didn’t want to be around friends and get anyone else sick. But in retrospect, it probably would have been fine with some good hand washing and cover your mouth when you cough techniques. Point being, our lives would all be easier if we pooled our collective time (and sanity) more often.

#4 Okay, I’m out of ideas. Do you have any? What helps you get through being sick? How do you cope when you feel horrible and your kid(s) are full of energy?

Tea Stash

Posted on January 16, 2012 by amoment2think

So Amber (@amberstrocel) wanted to know who had the biggest tea stash. Tea has been a hot topic on twitter recently. Probably because it is cold, rainy and everyone needs a warm cuppa.

I do not have the biggest tea stash. If you had asked me last fall before we moved from Calgary to New Westminster, I might have been in the top 10% of tea stashes. But when we moved I cleared a lot of my tea stash out. The less we could move the better.

I also found there were a lot of teas I just wasn’t drinking. So they sat there and sat there. And old tea is just not good. Besides that, I really try to keep my cupboards full of only stuff we regularly use.

When we moved out here we brought a few teas with us. My husband (@frenchpressme) was involved in choosing the tea menu for the Fratello cafe at the Calgary Farmers market- so we had some really awesome tea samples from that. I also learned pretty quickly where to get the best Tea in New Westminster; The Great Wall Tea Company. (You can also find them on twitter: @greatwalltea) Essentially, we don’t have all that many teas, but the ones we have are REALLY REALLY good.

Here is out at home stash.

In the picture you see:

Back Left to Right: Great Wall black tea, I think it is called Bukhail or Bukkail (hand written, I can’t tell); Green Wall green tea called Hojicha; Roobios tea from Idle (I love making Red tea lattes in the winter and iced Roobios with juice in the summer); Assorted herbal tea from Mighty Leaf.

Also at the back right you will see the BEST contraption for brewing loose leaf tea. It’s called a BREWT and essentially you put the loose leaf tea and water in and then once it is steeped you put it on top of your mug or pot and it drains from the bottom so there are no leaves in your tea. Awesome. I also have a smaller version from an other company that I keep at work.

Front left to right: Great Wall Tea Black Pumpkin Spice in the mason jar; Great Wall Tea Green tea called Kuhicha; AND Great Wall Tea Arbo Grey. Arbo Grey is a specially blend of cream earl grey and 20% lavender that @jenarbo invented and you can get only at Great Wall Tea. It is amazing. Go buy some.

I also have a tea stash at work. It looks like this:

It includes (left to right): Chai, Breakfast Tea, Honey n’ Cream- All from Assam Tea.

Then my Teaopia tea press, just like the one we have at home. And a small travel container of my very favourite “Arbo Grey” tea (mentioned above).

Now, there are still a few teas I would like to get. I need some Chai for home. I love Chai, a lot, and I know I would brew it up at home if I had some there. I also need to get some of my favourite green tea. It is called Genmaicha and is green tea with roasted rice. I love it! I am also currently without a good English Breakfast tea, which is an other one of my favourites. A couple more really good herbal teas would be nice too. So I may need to take a trip to Great Wall Tea and splurge one of these days to complete my collection.

But there you have it, my tea stash!

*Just like Amber, I am not receiving any compensation from any of the tea companies mentioned in this post. I am just sharing what I like.

Struggling to Play with my Toddler

Posted on January 13, 2012 by amoment2think

I am sure I have said this before. I think some parents are great baby parents. Some parents are great toddler parents. Some parents are great with preschoolers or school age kids and some shine with teenagers. Given that we are all human beings with strengths and weaknesses, this makes sense.

I think I have also mentioned before that I believe I am a ‘school age parent’. I’m not sure, because, you know, I don’t have a school aged kid, I just have a toddler. But what I do know for sure is that the baby/toddler stage is not where I shine.

Now that’s not to say I don’t think I am a good parent. Despite all the blame the mother messages, guilt over this choice or that, pressure to be the perfect mom and all the other things our society heaps on us as parents that makes this parenting job OH SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT, I actually believe I am a pretty good parent. I am loving, kind, reasonably consistent, reasonably effective with dealing with problem behaviour, and good at being aware of my individual kid and her individual needs and responding as such.

But. I still don’t feel ‘at home’ in the toddler years. They are better then the ‘baby’ stage, where I felt horribly inadequate and lost, but I still don’t feel I am ‘great’ at the toddler stage.

blocks 300x230 Struggling to Play with my Toddler

photo by Hey Paul via Flickr Creative Commons

One of the main reasons is that I really struggle with engaging in toddler play. There, I said it. This one is hard for me to admit guys, because I feel bad about it. How could I not know how to play with my kid? How can anyone not know how to play?

I just don’t. Sort of. There are parts of it I am good at. I am happy to have lengthy conversations with Audrey, letting her take the lead and letting the conversation twist and turn and repeat, as she asks the same questions over and over again and practices that odd toddler cyclical logic. That’s fun, because wow does she come up with some hilarious things. I love reading to her and taking her to the park. I am even happy to put on some music and have a dance off. But when she asks me to draw with her or build lego or play house… I can do it… but its just not fun to me. I get bored quickly and that imaginative play just doesn’t come naturally to me. I just want to go back to knitting or whatever.

Some parents seem to be naturals at coming up with games and activities and crafts to do with their kids. Fun ideas to fill up a rainy day. My brain just doesn’t function that way. I’d rather get in the car and go on an adventure to try and find somewhere (anywhere) indoor for her to play. I’d rather her colour or pretend to cook or play with her puzzles on her own, rather then get down on the floor with her. Oh, that sounds horrible. See! Its hard not to feel like a bad mom for admitting this!

But I know I am not a bad Mom. I am an imperfect human. And my kid will not be ruined for life because I am not good at making up games and engaging in imaginative play. (Also, my wonderful husband who is an amazing Dad is great at this, so you know, its not like A is depending totally on me for this.) It’s how I am built- I have always lived more in the world of ideas then in the world of fantasy. My greatest fear is being put on the spot and asked to do something creative. I like concrete goals and things with a clear beginning, middle and end. Imaginative play was never my strong suit- I always preferred to read a book. I can be creative when coming up with solutions to problems, but other then that, my creative side is lacking. At least that is how it feels to me.

I think one of the hardest things we encounter as a parent is to make peace with our imperfections and the ways in which we aren’t always the ‘perfect’ parent. A couple people have tried to encourage me to embrace my (non existent) “silly side” and just get down on the floor and play. I’ve tried and I will continue to try, but it will never be my strength. Send me in to deal with a tantrum- sure, that I can do. It’s not fun, but I feel much more able to do that then to make up a toddler ‘game’ to play.

But I can’t be the only parent out there that feels like this. Right? There have to be other Left Brain dominant individuals out there that find this equally challenging. Or maybe there is an other aspect of being the ‘perfect’ parent that you struggle with? I figure we all must have our things, right?

I have no idea how to end this post. Confession made. Guilt exposed. Attempt to partially accept my own foibles partially successful. I guess.

Really, I think this is just a call out there to the rest of the parenting world– none of us are perfect, right? Anyone want to join in and confess their foibles?