PRgal

Some places around here serve dessert pizza - usually involves Nutella (or a competing brand) and bananas. Sometimes, there's whipped cream.

Smoked salmon and cream cheese work well for bagels and I've seen it on pizza before. Also, who says pizza HAS to have cheese?

I didn't like mayo until I had REAL mayo (rather than Miracle Whip). I prefer chipotle mayo over the regular kind. That's probably why I add ketchup to potato salad (is that weird?).

For Cinco de Mayo yesterday, I made the rest of an instant rice pilaf I had (it had pinto beans and spices, so it was kind of like Mexican style rice) and served it with a fajita filling like dish made with bell peppers, turkey breasts, onions, pico de gallo and various other spices. Also bought some guacamole and chips (my husband loves chips. I just find them okay). Tonight, I'm just going to be simple and cook ground beef, onions and vegetables. Probably serving it with cauliflower "rice."

That cheeseburger smoothie sounds like something that a pregnant woman might crave, but for the rest of us? EWWW!

Duvets and comforters are similar. The former is smaller, while the latter is bigger (drapes the bed). We called duvet covers "pay doi" (essentially duvet/comforter case) in Canto. I think a lot of "true" English speakers - people who come from English-only homes - are confused as well.

On English: My parents did not really teach me any English despite being fluent themselves (educated in English medium schools or by nuns in Hong Kong) because they did not want me to pick up any accents. I learned and spoke only in Cantonese until I started kindergarten. By the time I was eight or nine, I was speaking English at home, though my parents replied back in Canto. I only spoke Canto to my grandparents. By then, I was pretty much "thinking" in English and became my default language. That's why I have trouble filling in census forms when they ask me my "mother tongue." Technically, a mother tongue is the first language you learned which you still speak. I still speak Cantonese, but it's not my "best" language.

I like both. I'm currently obsessed with Enerjive quinoa crackers (there are three savoury ones and one sweet (chocolate). They used to have berry, but it's been discontinued) and also love some of Next by Nature's dark chocolate bites (especially espresso beans and quinoa)

I have issues with Ben Affleck's demands as well. Everyone's family has its not-so-nice parts. Or at least un-PC by today's standards. I have a great-grandfather who had multiple wives at the same time - completely legal in Macau (and other Chinese areas) back in the 1930s. The family also had mui tsai as servants - indentured servant girls sent to work in wealthy homes as children. The girls' families will be given a sum of money, but the girls don't get a salary. They're supposed to be married off after a certain amount of time, but that doesn't always happen. I believe this occurred until the end of WWII when it was outlawed??

We are ordering in Thai tonight. Earlier in the week, I went to a spring menu preview at an Italian place in town. Only it wasn't much of a preview. The restaurant was over-packed, no chef explained any of the new dishes nor were the dishes passed around the guests (there was no room to do so, anyway). Horrible experience, despite good food. And it was as if they were trying too hard to be "cool," inviting many bloggers who don't even really write about food. I've never had an experience like that. Compare THAT to a wine auction (for the Canadian Opera Company) I went to the following night. Food was passed and there were food stations (one for pasta and another charcuterie).

I blame SJP/Carrie Bradshaw for the whole shoe thing. I don't think women were as crazy about shoes before the end of the 90s/early 2000s. But what would I know? I graduated from high school in '98.

Speaking of lingerie, I HATE buying bras (probably my second least favourite item to buy, wardrobe wise. # 1 would be shoes). I spend A LOT on them because most mainstream brands don't make band sizes smaller than 32. I sometimes buy online at The Little Bra Company, but they're like $60+ a pop! Note on petite pants: I don't know what brands you guys are buying, but premium petite denim tends to be longer - up to a 31" inseam. Pants depend. I think I have a a weird waist length because pants don't always sit properly - ones that are supposed to be just below the bellybutton often slip down to just above the hipbone (my go-to petite lines are Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and J.Crew), so they look droopy. If they're in the right position, then the length is fine provided that I wear flats. I don't think my legs are all that short, even for my height (people have mistaken me as being taller - around 5'4" instead of 5'2"). I've found that petite dresses look a bit short on me. As in they BARELY pass "office appropriate."

But she isn't curvy, either. Most women who're called "stick figures" don't exactly have waists and hips that are around the same size. A lot of women who have that seven inch difference are still called "sticks." Another thing I don't like: People who say that size 0 is a "little girl's size." So you're calling me a child?

So someone who is 4'11, with a 28" waist and 35" hips is still a "stick"? She's slim, but not THAT skinny. She'd be around a size 8, which isn't that small, proportionately speaking for someone her height. That's no stick.

I wear a 4.5 or 5 shoe (US sizes) and often need to pre-order shoes/pay full price! I can't just walk into DSW or Marshall's and expect to find cute stuff. And the lack of waist definition isn't just for very thin women. You can be a size 10 and still lack waist-to-hip ratio (this is coming from a woman who typically takes size 0 or even 00, thanks to vanity sizing).

Eastover leftovers tonight - still have some brisket, matzah ball soup, salad and cheesecake.

Last night was my meatless Good Friday dinner. Today, we celebrated Eastover (PRguy is Jewish) with brisket, matzah ball soup, tzimmies and charoset (catered) along with a non-Passover-appropriate dessert (raspberry Greek yogurt and quark (quark is a kind cheese, similar to Greek yogurt in terms of texture) cheesecake, which I made)

Good Friday = meat-free. We are having vegetarian lasagna and salad. This is the last Friday I go without land meat until Lent next year... :)

I was a bit shocked by the Sylvia Plath line as well when I read it, but I had to look at it from a period perspective. She wrote it at a time when it was acceptable to say that. I won't go around asking schools to ban the book from English class. It's a great study on women's issues among other topics. I don't know if it's just where I'm from, but (as I've probably said before) the most ignorant people I've come across seem to come from either people who are from cultures that have in the past faced a great deal of discrimination (or still do today) or from overly PC liberal types. I've addressed this a bit (yet again) in a recent blog post of mine. :)

Maybe Bow is a cougar?

I think only modern celebrity baby names (especially Pilot Inspektor and North) can beat Pownell and Fleetwood.

If he lives in a big, diverse city, then stereotypes aren't exactly something he would think about on a daily basis. I certainly don't. I don't wake up every morning and think "geez, I'm Chinese. Someone's going to think I don't speak English." I don't think "does that saleswoman at the the luxury department store think I'm going to spend four figures?" In fact, I don't really think anything at all. Most Asians I know don't.

Likely the family was poor and needed to send one or more kids away. Not too different from mui tsai in Cantonese speaking regions of China. My great-grandmother brought along a mui tsai when she married my great-grandfather. I think the girl was around eight or nine. My great-grandmother would have been in her teens. To my understanding my great-grandfather eventually took on the mui tsai as another wife (multiple wives were legal in 1930s Macau. So yeah, she went from servant to sister wife).

So I ended up making zucchini and onions with a mixture of roasted red pepper and "fruit ketchup" (mango, onions, etc...) sauces and some mac and cheese (courtesy of the prepped food section at Whole Foods) with the quinoa cracker crumb breaded turkey cutlets... https://instagram.com/p/0bXyt_SFFO/

Breaded turkey cutlets tonight (i.e. baked "fried" turkey) made with quinoa cracker crumbs. Not sure of sides yet.