Volunteering!!

Reattachment of left ear.

Reconstruction of the right ear.

Face and Neck grafts of a burn victim.

This is Bao Bao. He has reconstructed knees.

Knee number one.

I have been volunteering twice a week at this rehab clinic rehabing after reconstruction or surgery). I get to work with Jing Mei who is an amazing nurse and who is able to help me with my medical Chinese!!

Elsah Landing Chicken Curry Soup!!!!

The adventure began when Steven, a friend and co-worker of Whitney's, mentioned that we should combine our cooking strengths: mine being SOUP and Whitney's being CURRY. Thus, began the Chicken Curry Soup Adventure of 2010.

Elsah Landing Restaurant located in Elsah, Illinois is the creator of this delicious dish, but Whitney and I added a little Yunnan twist!!

The Original Recipe: "Chicken Curry Soup" will be in black.

Yunnan Chicken Curry Soup will be in yellow.

Ingredients: 4 cups water, 1 frying chicken cut up, 6 peppercorns, 2 stalks of celery, 1 peeled onion, 1/4 cup butter, 1 medium onion finely diced, 1 cup carrots finely diced, 2 teaspoon curry powder, 2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1 cup evaporated milk, 1 apple peeled and sliced.
Ingredients:1 live chicken (killed by the chicken man) cut into pieces, enough water to cover chicken two stalks of celery and one whole onion, said celery and onion, no butter but a dash of oil, 1 onion finely diced, 3 carrots coined, 1 head of cauliflower cut into small pieces, spoon upon spoon of curry powder (not measured), cinnamon to taste, 2 table spoons cornstarch, dash of salt to taste, dash of sugar to taste, dash of pepper to taste, 1 can of evaporated milk, 1 apple peeled and sliced.

Directions: combine cut up chicken, peppercorns, celery, onion, and 4 cups water in large sauce pan. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, or until chicken and vegetables are tender. Cool. Remove chicken from skin and bones, cut into bite sized pieces and set aside. Discard skin and bones. Reserve and strain liquid for stock.

Saute diced onion and carrots in butter in medium saucepan over low heat until onion is golden but not brown. Add curry powder and saute for an additional 10 min. Add chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook over medium heat for 5 min. Stir cornstarch mixture into simmering stock. Add salt, sugar, and reserved chicken. Add milk. Heat but do not boil.

Garnish each serving with an apple slice.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Directions: Take fresh chicken home and attempt to chop into pieces. Save feet for Chinese roommate and friend. Place mangled bits of chicken into large pot with peeled onion and two stalks of celery cover with water. Simmer for an hour to an hour and a half. Cool for two hours. Remove chicken from bones and skin, discard. Place chicken and vegetables in container in fridge. Place broth in large container in fridge. Next day, saute diced onion, carrots, and cauliflower in wok with oil until onions are golden. Add spoon of curry powder and saute until all vegetables are covered. Add chicken stock. Stir and taste. Add two more spoons of curry powder and a dash of cinnamon. Heat for a while. Stir in cornstarch mixture. Add pepper, salt, sugar to taste. Add chicken and apple slices. Let simmer for a while. Add can of evaporated milk. Simmer for 30min. Accidentally boil briefly. Turn down heat. Simmer until guests arrive. Makes 5 servings because it is soooo good!!
Photo Evidence!!!

This Lucky Chicken we did not pick out for our dinner!!

This Rooster had a section of his chest feathers missing and in their place were those funny looking white protuberances.

This was the winner for being intimately involved with our curry dish!!

To see the process that occurred behind the counter of chickens by our friendly Chicken man please download the video labeled Dinner on my blog.

Now that our chicken is dead, naked, and gutted he (she, but we named her Victor) goes into this lovely plastic bag.

We are finally home and ready to begin this long process. See how happy I am??

Left handing holding bony chicken legs and right hand holding open the plastic bag, I am beginning to freak out....it felt so gross-like the legs were already broken.

Lovely!!!

Almost out of the bag!!!

VICTORY with VICTOR!!!!

So what you are looking at here is a dead chicken. This is what one looks like. The chicken breast you buy at the grocery store came off of one of these. Most people in Yunnan eat the neck and parts of the head even. The nice Chicken man even gave us Victor's heart, liver, and perhaps some other organs. We did not use Victor in an economic way like most Chinese.

We cut off Victor's neck and head and threw them away along with the organs. The feet however, we attempted to save for Jian Juan (Whitney's roommate) but sadly we forgot to refrigerate them and found them sitting on the counter in the morning. So we didn't feel safe giving them to her after a night out on the kitchen.

This picture is only here to prove that Whitney was a part of this whole adventure and that she did cut up part of this chicken.

First wing to make it into the pot!!!

This is Victor's carcus after it simmered for an hour, cooled for two hours and then Whitney and I picked all the meat off of the bones. I am sure that we missed some.

After this whole experience, both Whitney and I agree that this soup was perhaps the most delicious chicken soup we have ever eaten let alone ever made. We agree that we will make it again. However, we have some changes that we will make. 1. neither of us have good knifes and therefore, next time we will ask the Chicken man to cut the chicken into pieces for us. That will reduce the drama of breaking bones in ones own kitchen. 2. we will not attempt to make this at the end of a long work day. 3. get a bigger pot so that we can make more at one time.







I hope that this has been interesting, educational, entertaining, and mostly tasty. I encourage all of you to attempt this recipe. Perhaps don't be quite as involved like we were with Victor, but go and buy a whole chicken at the store and try it at home!! I guarantee that it will rock your socks off!!

Dinner!!

It took all of 3 mins tops to pick the chicken out, agree to it's price, poke it's airway, shove it in a bucket, then remove it, shove it into a pot of boiling water, and finally shove it into a defeatherer. When it came out it was bald. all in 3 min. so we took it home. Download it here: http://www.box.net/shared/static/dnzqmk9mse.avi

Of Course!

Liu Wei Wei teaches you Chinese for a minute and a half.


http://www.box.net/shared/1pera8dld2

My Chinese classes used to be mostly in English but now my class is majority in Chinese. It makes my brain hurt but I can understand most of it. What I don't I have been told I will get eventually.

This lesson is reviewing a dialog in our book. Mali and Luolan are discussing something they read. Luolan asked Mali if she understood the reading and Mali says yes. She uses the word for some which in Chinese can be used with or with out repeating what is the some of. In this case Mali says that she understood some of what she read and some she did not. She asks Luolan if she can repeat the reading and Luolan answers of course.

Liu Wei Wei then illustrates the different ways to use of course.

Can you sing a song? Do you wash clothes? In your home do you do housework? At home do you cook? Dang Ran!!!

Official June Newsletter!!!

Awake, thou wintry earth -Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forthYour ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

June is finally here. The flowers are just beautiful here. The roses, bogenvelias, purple and white flowering trees are providing pleasant scents throughout the neighborhoods. June marks my 9^th month anniversary of my stint in China. I feel fairly confident in my arrangement here. I have a strategy and a routine. I have been enjoying getting to know Kunming more.

Earlier this year, around March, I was really struggling to go to school, get out of bed, or go outside. This was a typical 6^th month culture shock way to feel and for those of you who knew about this struggle and kept me in your thoughts, Thank you so much, for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time I want to tell you that it was a hard couple of weeks but that as my dear friend Laurel told me once, “Winter is not forever” and neither did my struggle to live and be happy here in Kunming. The kicker to this rough time in my life was the bus system, here in KM.

The day was cloudy and I was tired and really didn’t want to get out of bed, not that I ever do but that day it seemed even harder. I dragged myself out to the bus stop and waited for a bus. Now this morning there were about 25 people waiting at the stop. When bus number 56 drove up about 15 of the 25 people (including me) moved toward the bus, which had like two people on it. I happened to be very near the door once the bus driver opened it and the only person who was in front of me was a very old woman who was all hunched over. She had some difficulty getting on the bus, so I stepped up on the first step and just waited until she got further on the bus, however the entire time (5 min) I was just standing in the doorway of the bus the people behind me were pushing me and not once but the entire time and as I made my own way to the rear of the bus it took all my strength not to lean backward to prevent people from getting on the bus fast. Right there I knew that I would not be able to love these people. Father would have to bring me to a loving place.

Father has brought me through that valley of mild death and I am again enjoying and loving KM these days. In the beginning of May, I traveled to Dali City with a friend and I have been exploring some of Kunming’s own gems, such as Xi Shan Mountain, Da Guan Gong Yuan Park, and Shi Lin Park. I even attended my first Chinese wedding! I am looking forward to the approaching summer and all the events that are ahead of me. I have several people who desire to visit me, a possible trip back to the states for a couple of weeks, and a trip out to the leprosy clinic at the end of July.

My class at school has grown from four people all from England or America to ten people, five of which are from Thailand and do not speak English. This has been very good for me, although extremely hard, because I have to communicate with them in Chinese. Yunnan has had a record drought this year and so my school took our entire class out to a village to donate water and school supplies. I was really excited to go and be a part of this trip and then it got canceled and rescheduled to a day that I had agreed to babysit. But my class went and I look forward to being able to go on the next trip and sharing my stories with you.

One week ago (as I write this), April 14, 2010, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the Qinghai Province in western China killing 2,039 people. I did not feel the physical affects of the earthquake (Qinghai is north of the Yunnan Province, bordering Tibet). Many of the NGO’s in KM are trying to figure out how they can help this area of China, since it is highly restricted to Chinese government organizations.

Please continue to petition Father for my growth in Him, that His love would grow in me in order that I can love those around me, for the thousands of people dealing with grief and destroyed lives due to drought and earthquakes, lastly for my language skills to continue to grow.

I finally got all my Christmas mail, thank you,

Denise

Trash Can Issues In China.

Hiya!!!

I have recently found that my irritations here are not only special to me. Although I deal with these irritations slightly differently than Whitney does, for I only text vent or call a friend, whereas Whitney vents on her blog. Because I forget to include you in my daily issues, this is relatively helpful for me. In this particular post Whitney discusses the joys of a large, normal sized trash can. I concur. However, where Whitney just takes her trash out daily, I have just added more tiny trash cans scattered throughout my home. Enjoy!! http://whitneyheins.blogspot.com/2010/06/coveting-your-trash-can.html

Daily Workout!!

Hello all!!

Right round the corner from my apartment is this vast apartment complex and one of the many wonders it hold is a gym. So, around March I joined it. I have been pretty chicken up until last week. The gym has a variety of lovely options for one who wants to stay in shape. There are weights, treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes, spinning, ping pong tables, pool tables as well as a nail salon and spa.

I have attempted to have a steady exercise routine in the past but once more I am going to try it again. The immense choices here I hope will keep my interest piqued.

Last week or so Whitney and I ventured into the Hot Yoga room to partake of an evening of sweating and holding our own weight suspended from the floor. But the true joy of this place, for me, is the dance classes it offers. Now after last night Whitney and I have decided to take in a different class every week.

My great intention is: Every Tuesday night go to Hot Yoga, Every Wednesday to go to Ballet, and then on Friday, Saturday, or Monday (one of these days) to go to one of the following:aerobics, body balance, classical dance, latin dance, folk dance, belly dance, body combat, hip hop, new jazz, or latin aerobics.

The options are endless for a while. I am currently very excited about the future weeks!! I will try to keep you updated on how long this exercising streak lasts!!!

If anyone has ever wanted to try out body combat just let me know and we can check it out together!!!