March 11, 2011

updates and more

Zach got his braces off last week! He is now wearing a retainer. I didn't realize a retainer is this big hunk a plastic that you put in between your upper and lower front teeth and you basically bite down on it. You can't talk with them on, you can't eat with them on. He has to wear them for 4 hours during the day (not consecutive) and then all night! I don't know how he does it. Zach is such a trooper. No complaint. He just puts that retainer on, slobbers away, mumbles, and goes on to whatever he's doing - playing Wii, playing computer games, practicing his violin.

Zach has been reading The Hunger Game series. He blew through the first two because they were so exciting. He's sort of stuck on the 3rd one. Not as much of a rush to get through it and see what happens. I think I was that way too. You don't want it to end. Well, now it's going to be a movie. I'm not sure if Zach will be mature enough to watch it with all the violence. We'll see whenever the movie comes out.

Asia is my little soccer star. She's at practice right now. She has a soccer practice (indoor) from 6-7:30 PM. Apparently she wanted to stay for the 2nd session too. She's going to be one tired girl. Good thing. She can eat a snack and then go to bed. She played an indoor match last weekend and she even got a chance to play goalie! All the girls were excited to try it out.

This weekend, Zach has his first chess tournament. I'll try to remember to update my blog on how he does. Asia and I am going to the Market District to see Aarti Sequeria. Hee hee! She won The Next Food Network Star two years or so ago. Asia and I watch her cooking show - Aarti Party. She makes Indian Food look easy. Another cooking show I'm hooked on is called Chinese Food Made Easy. And yes, the host, Ching, really does make it look so simple! She's British and she and Aarti actually sound very similar. I made a version of one of Ching's dishes tonight - mushu chicken. And sort of combined it with her Egg Fu yung which is actually a Chinese street dish. I always though it was some Americanized attempt at chinese food. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chefs/ching-he_huang

Of course, I never have on hand the ingredients I need so I used old corn tortillas that have been wrapped up in my fridge for about a month. No mold, so it's still good. You just lightly toast them over the stove burner and they're good to go. Then I marinated the chicken a little in soy sauce, black vinegar, and mirin (rice wine). Cooked up the chicken with some minced garlic. Spread a little hoisin on the tortilla, put in a few julienned carrots, onions (didn't have green onions, some fried leeks, a few drops of Sriracha sauce (vietnamese chili paste), and some slivers of egg omelet. Yum!