Thanksgiving and Other Foods

Anyone who knows anything about China Doll knows she can't cook. 

Is it cereal then milk, or milk then cereal? I never cared enough to find out. But recently, I've discovered what I thought was cooking inability is actually just a giant inferiority complex. Who would believe they were a proficient cook when their mother is Her Royal Highness of Culinary-land, perfecting recipes on the very first try and taste testing foods and saying things like, "needs cumin" when a) it tastes fine to me and b) what the heck is cumin.

But with my small kitchen and limited resources, I've been pulling together some awesome meals. My MVP moment is when, too lazy to go out and buy materials, I threw together a delicious meal with only the foods in my house. Balsamic-orange chicken, yum!

Food often tastes better than it looks, OK?!

I also used some Keebler pre-made graham cracker crusts (couldn't make home-made here) to bake mini apple-pies.

Leftovers meant cinnamon-nutmeg apple oatmeal the next morning.

My friends and I have been taking turns hosting Sunday night family-style dinners. It's a nice way to start/end the week and it reminds me of home. 

Lela's chili night

My turn to host, Evan and I made minestrone and ate bread from a local German bakery. I cooked for ten people! And no one died!

Fancy, huh

It was also a good excuse to hard-core clean our apartment.

But my crowning achievement was Thanksgiving. Natalie hosted everyone in her beautifully decorated apartment. Formal dress required. It was especially wonderful because Sophie came to visit from Hangzhou! We each provided different parts of the meal, and I was assigned stuffing. I've never made stuffing before in my life. I didn't even like stuffing until a few years ago. But hot damn, I ROCKED it. I used Smitten Kitchen's Apple-Herb Stuffing for all Seasons recipe, and it was super delicious.

Exemplary of Evan's artistic style

STUFFING!

The glorious plate

For actual Thanksgiving, we had dapanji (大盘鸡), which reminds me of a wintry Western stew based on the tasted and the fact that it has potatoes, meat and egg noodles. Plus, we had fried bread, bing, (餅)... I like to think it was in honor of Hanukkah. And for dessert, macaroons!

大盘鸡 and 餅 

Cooking in China takes a lot of creativity because I'm very limited by ingredient and cookware. I have only one hot plate (that is currently broken. But that's another story) and a toaster oven that has three settings: broil, bake, and toast. I also didn't bother buying a ton of cookware because I knew it would only be for one year. All measurements must be converted to mL. What makes me so proud is that I'm pretty much always winging it. I've always been able to cook, but only after following the recipe exactly. But now, I can eyeball and approximate, which is exciting.

Anyway, I know chicken and apple pie aren't that interesting, but it was high time I learned how to cook more than scrambled eggs and sauteed veggies for myself so I'm pretty darn proud. China Doll is officially a master chef.