I slacked on posting a blog yesterday – a rarity apparently when your parents call to check in on you because its been a day and a half since your last post. However, it was Friday and I wasn’t about to intrude on an impromptu date night with my husband to type a blog about Chinese food and ribbon cutting ceremonies that could easily wait until today. It was well worth my absence.
Thursday night’s fried rice and crab rangoon experiment turned out to be pretty pleasing! I have a few minor tweaks in mind for the next time I make homemade Chinese takeout, mostly to enhance texture, but for a first-time attempt it was surprisingly delicious.
The fried rice was simple. I used brown minute rice, bits of sliced pork, scrambled egg, chicken broth, soy sauce, and diced veggies (carrots, red and green bell peppers, broccoli, green onion, and bamboo). In the future I’ll add in peas and baby corn as well. The rangoons were slightly more work, but still easy enough. I combined low fat cream cheese, crab meat, minced onion, a tiny bit of milk and light mayo, garlic salt, and green onions in a small bowl. I dropped a small scoop of the filling into square wonton wrappers, sealed them with water and threw them in the oven on 350 for 15 minutes. Aside from being baked instead of fried, they tasted quite similar to the ones you get at Chinese restaurants!
On Friday morning I got to watch a ribbon cutting ceremony with the Cincinnati mayor, an obnoxious pair of massive gold scissors, every media & television outlet in a 100 mile radius, and the lead researcher/archeologist/underwater explorer for the recent Cleopatra findings yesterday morning at work to usher in the grand opening of Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt. Cincinnati is the 2nd of only 5 U.S. cities to have this National Geographic special exhibit, so it’s a big deal and it was pretty sweet. After work I headed over to the CCM Starbucks on the UC campus to enjoy my relaxing weekly treat of a chai latte while I immersed myself in an enjoyable memoir for several hours and waited for Ted to finish work for the day. Ted introduced me to a member of the theatre faculty who hails from San Antonio. We had a great conversation about the area and it was so nice to talk to someone from home and have them understand all the streets, highways, traffic patterns, surrounding cities and weather! After that Ted & I went out for a beer and dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. We finished off the night at home, cuddled up on the couch watching an action movie. It was an excellent night of talking, hanging out and enjoying each other’s company – especially since Ted’s work schedule has been so crazy lately.
I had a great, busy day at work again today while Ted got a lot done on his first day off in a long time! We had coupons to use up before the end of February, so after I finished work we met for Skyline Chili (a local Cincinnati favorite – Greek chili with spices like nutmeg and cinnamon) and Baskin Robbins ice cream this afternoon (another great date! Reminds me so much of our life in Lansing when we were dating!). Then Ted ran off to work for the night and I went home to fetch more memoirs from the library (I’m addicted), grab a few basics from Kroger, and read myself to sleep.
I took this picture of an amazing sunset we had the other night. I’m adoring the glorious warm, breezy weather and the great sunsets that come with it!
Also, my wonderful mother sent me pictures of Sancho. Lest you think this blog is really about anything other than my handsome fur-angel (silly you), let me set the record straight: my blog is subject to constant Sancho appearances, simply because there is no such thing as too much Sancho.
Happy weekend!
