PRgal

Lazy, lazy Friday, so we ordered in. Shared a goat cheese and village salads with my husband as well as a very substantial one person portion of pasta with veal sauce and vegetables. For dessert, we had ice cream and sorbet - hazelnut, chocolate-y chocolate (ice creams) and a lemon and blackberry sorbet (think Nutella with jam). :)

Didn't think of that (we rarely make it, but should), so it went to compost. Oh well, next time.

Bought a whole roasted chicken from the grocery store yesterday and ate half. Tonight, the rest will be "repurposed" into a noodle dish with shredded kale and carrots.

First of all, I am saddened to hear of the death and may Victoria rest in peace. However, nannies and other childcare providers are a very real situation. Not everyone can have a parent staying at home. Practically everyone I know either sends their children to daycare or has someone come in on a daily basis to help. It's just a way of life, especially when both parents work.

The 40-something guys I see in my circle look younger than Jeremy does. And they have stressful jobs. Some might be a little chunkier than they were at 20 and may have lost a bit of hair, too. Maybe ranch life is different from the mostly lawyers, doctors, accountants, marketing, creative and financial people in my circle.

Slowcooked turkey drumsticks with zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes served over "detox salad" from Whole Foods (basically a mix of broccoli, cauliflower, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, carrots, currants and a few other ingredients). Too lazy to make a side dish - LOL!

I saw a few minutes of it. Jeremy hasn't aged all that well. Stopped watching because the billionaire guy was too creepy.

Baked eggs and salad tonight. :)

I only wear flipflops at the pool and at home (can't help it - my parents are from Hong Kong and that's standard at-home footwear). I don't think they belong anywhere else. Don't like Crocs (and their imitation) either. Question: When I was a little kid, it was very standard for girls to wear dresses to birthday parties. This was until we were about 10 or 11 (so up to 1990 or so). It's much more casual now. I've also heard from other people my age that they didn't grow up dressing up for parties. Many of us also dressed up for picture day at school (often skirts and blouses or dresses for girls and some boys even wore ties). Was my school's culture just weird? It was very solidly middle class.

Good gawd...I wonder what those skinny jeans DO to their balls... *runs and ducks*

Went out to a casual middle eastern place tonight. The hummus and moutabaal (baba ganoush) were AMAZING (as were the falafels), but beef skewer was overcooked (chicken was ok, though).

I'm actually interested in seeing an interesting take on discrimination - either Junior or Zoey date someone of Asian descent and has to face the kid's very ignorant immigrant parents.

Off topic question: Was this the season finale? Are we not going to see any new shows until September?

Hi OhioMom, I'm (East) Asian and I relate to this show more than Fresh off the Boat. I see this as not only a family sitcom, but culture clashes between the generations as well as socio-economic clash. Junior and the rest of the kids grew up very privileged and blind to the struggles that Dre faced growing up. This is similar to me - my parents are immigrants and my dad did not have much money growing up. However, by the time I came along, my parents had cushy jobs in the corporate world, a nice house in the suburbs and supporting not only me, but my mom's parents. I grew up with piano lessons, Brownies and eventually, a private school education. I am aware of my dad's upbringing, but it's not something that I can probably fully understand.

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.