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Gong Xi Fa Tsai, Xin Nien Quai Le! Won Shir Ru I.

It’s Chinese New Year – the year of the Dog:

There’s nothing I quite hate as much as being sick. I’m not sick, but I have been fighting off some low-grade mental cotton in my head for the past few days and without much success. It lingers because I’ve had horrible sleep habits of late. Today I decided to make some headway and fight it with naps, liquids, and not skiing (*sigh*). I don’t like to sleep, but when my body needs it, I do it.

However, tomorrow is Chinese New Year which means today is New Year’s Eve, which means I had to cook a lot of specific stuff for the New Year. I made dumpling filling with ground pork, nappa cabbage, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, green onions, ginger, sesame oil, cornstarch, and soy sauce. This filling is also used to make pork meatballs and goes in these little egg pockets. It’s a lot of work being a good Chinese daughter…

Last night I had trouble sleeping because I had clearly eaten beyond my physical capacity (but it was SOOOO good!). I had tremendous pressure in my chest in all likelihood due to gas. The lessons of the dairy-loving lactose-intolerant are never learned… I felt as if I was going to die, but taking a swig or two or three of mylanta helped some. It left me feeling pretty tired and pretty crappy this morning as I dragged my carcass into work.

On the way home, Jeremy drove me up the canyon and I recall passing out halfway – next thing I knew, we were home. I was going to take a nap, but figured I could get a jump on making dinner since the turkey meatloaf had to bake for an hour. I chopped onions, made the sauce, mixed the turkey – all in a haze. When dinner was ready, Jeremy was cutting the servings while I dished out the veggies. He noted that the meatloaf seemed to be missing some bulk. I looked at it, thought, and then realized I had forgotten the egg and the breadcrumbs. So we essentially had meat, without the loaf part. Damn. I didn’t consult my notebook because I knew the recipe by heart, except today. It tasted fine, but it wasn’t meatloaf.

I took a decent nap and then put together my review of The Kitchen which can be found here. It took forever because there were fourteen courses. Sheesh. Just recounting the food made me feel full. Is it possible to desire a man solely for his culinary skills? This shot was taken after 11 courses. Andrew always looks like that, but Nicole is clearly on her way to food coma…