Photo of the day #9: Steamed mutton dumplings

One word: YUM.
These cabbage and goat meat dumplings are KICK ASS. I can seriously go on about them all day. They remind me of the ones you can get in this one little shop in XingJiang, with the dough skin super soft and moist, and the tender meat filling just dripping with juice. My mom made these today, as they are a childhood favorite, and I fell in love with these dumplings all over again. Who says mothers aren't good matchmakers?

BTW I'll be gone for the next 4 days on a trip, so stay tuned for more posts next week!

Carribean Cruise Prt. 2 (St. Thomas and Puerto Rico)

I've been hit with a lot of cravings lately, and as usual I gave in to them quite completely. My latest is apples and peanut butter, which I tackled readily with a large spoonful of all natural peanut butter and an organic apple. You can get this preservative-free peanut butter that's made with just peanuts and sea salt, no sugar added, at Costco and it's pretty great. The first time I tried it I didn't really like it since I'm so used to peanut butter filled with sugar, but then I started to really taste the peanuts coming through and now I love it.

Also craving steamed broccoli like mad. And chocolate. Not sure 'bout that combo though... bacon and chocolate sounds a helluva lot better. But bacon and broccoli? That I can do!

Now on with more pictures of the cruise!

 

I don't have that many pictures of St.Thomas, since we went snorkeling and I don't have an underwater camera, so here're some shots I took as we left the port with our tour guide.

We went snorkeling, kayaking, and hiking. It was a super fun and tiring day, especially because I went for a refreshing early morning run and watched the sun rise.

Puerto Rico:

Near the capitol building

We went on a tour of the Bacardi rum distillery first, had many free samples of rum and coke as well as a bartending lesson in how to make a mojito.

The Bacardi bat symbol! Maybe the creators of Batman got drunk on Bacardi one night and dreamed up a comic book superhero with that symbol.

Into old San Juan- we visited the castle and then went shopping!

And that's it! I didn't take any photos in Grand Turk since it was just beaches and tourist shops. Hope you enjoyed it!

Carribean Cruise Prt. 1 (Nassau, Bahamas)

Okay, I am more than a little bombed right now and quite irritable due to the fact that there aren't any fruits or vegetables in the house right now because we cleaned out the fridge before we left and I am CRAVING fresh produce like mad. So expect this post to be mostly pictures and few words. They do say one picture is worth a thousand words, so enjoy the bazillions (499, to be exact, but I'm not going to bore you guys with all of those) of pictures I took. And if you are trapped somewhere cold with no hope for escape at the moment, then you are free to weep and drool in jealousy.

We only stayed in Miami for like two hours before we boarded the ship, so here's a pic I took from the bus window as we were leaving the airport.

And our cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty:

I didn't take many pictures of the fare onboard the ship (which was pretty good though not spectacular, which is to be expected since they were feeding over 5,000 people onboard including crew members) but since I did hit the omlette bar hard every morning, I decided a picture of the wonderfully fresh, deliciously customized omlette was well deserved.

Bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, just a little bit of cheese, and extra mushrooms! Yum...


Our first day ashore: Nassau, Bahamas
The water was a shade of blue that seemed almost fake, and the beach was gorgeous. The Carribean, as a whole, just had a much more laid-back vibe than the harried pace of the North. For that week onboard, my sole objective was to relax and, like my friend Kiko so nicely puts it, "pull the broomstick out from up my ass."
We spent the day at the beach there since there wasn't really much else to do, and I tasted my first raw whole coconut.

My dad's sand creations; and yes, people were staring at my PhD degree holding father as he was hunkered in the sand building replicas of famous tourist attractions.

Behold; The Great Pyramid of Giza:

Tian-An Men in Beijing (the big gate with a huge portrait of Chairman Mao on it)

Next to the memorial of a great Communist leader, he built the white house.

And my first whole raw coconut! Didn't taste too bad, but wasn't as bittersweet as I expected. Just tasted like stale water.

And after the day was done, we caught the sunset, which was much more exageraated and radiant out at sea. It slowly creeped down the horizon, and I took a ton of pictures of it at different stages.

And that was our first relaxing day ashore during the cruise. Make sure to check back for prt. 2 of my vacation, possibly plus my sudden epiphany for the making of a candied bacon sandwich.

Happy New Year Everybody!

Family dinner: Healthy Fried Rice

I made some very healthy fried rice for my family today, as I'm trying to eat healthier and amp up my workouts in preperation for the carb onslaught that is the holidays- I live a mostly hedonistic lifestyle and diet, but since I have an great affection for fresh produce and work out pretty much every day of the week (4 super-intense workouts a week and 3 less intense toning ones), the damage isn't too bad. I also happen to live in a family where I didn't even know what butter, hot dogs, donuts, or graham crackers were until I was seven or eight. However, I do try to keep to a mostly unprocessed diet when I'm not craving sugary carbs too much, so here's a healthy recipe for delicious restauraunt-style fried rice!

RECIPE: (Serves 6)
*2 cups of brown rice
*1 cup of shrimp, roughly chopped
*2 cups of broccoli, steamed
*2 teaspoons soy sauce
*1 teaspoon salt
*Pinch of black pepper, to taste
*1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely diced
*1/2 an onion, roughly chopped
*1/2 a tomato, roughly chopped
*3 cloves garlic, finely diced
*1 teaspoon lime juice
*1 tablespoon vegetable oil

PREPERATION:
1.) Prepare rice according to instructions on bag or cooker
2.) Steam broccoli, prepare and chop all the vegetables
3.) Bring water to a boil and cook shrimp

4.) Stir fry rice, vegetables, shrimp, and other ingredients in the vegetable oil for about 3-4 minutes or until nicely mixed
5.) Turn the heat to low, put lid on, and let steam for another 10-15 minutes, occasionally stirring to
make sure it doesn't stick or burn