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Archives for June 2010
Perfect Steamed Eggs – my secrets
We were told that Lydia liked steamed eggs. Before we traveled to China, we weren’t even sure what that meant. Do they mean hard boiled eggs? Are they in the shell? We learned what it was in China when the petite little miss totally destroyed a family-size helping of the stuff. So, I made it my mission to find a recipe for it and perfect it at home. I tried on our first day home (not recommended to do that as I was nearly comatose with jet lag and emotionally spent). My attempt was a flop. But, since then, I have figured it out (I think…I hope my Chinese friends Tony and Lily don’t read this recipe and laugh at my vain attempt at it!). I’m ready to unveil my very complicated and difficult recipe so that other mothers of Chinese children can make their children smile with a taste from home and maybe some of you mothers of American children may enjoy giving it a try as well–I mean, if you can handle how complicated this recipe is.
Ingredients:
1 egg
about 1/2 cup water
little bit of salt
(so complicated)
Mix the egg and the water very well. This is the key to my technique. Don’t skimp on the whisking, ladies. Whisk it until your wrist hurts. Add a little salt and put in a small oven-safe dish. You can add some fixins if you want to now–bacon pieces, ham, spring onion, dried mushroom–I haven’t tried this though so do so at your own risk. Put the dish in the top steamer tray of a rice cooker–also key to my technique. My attempts on the stovetop got clumpy and, well, gross.
Push “steam” on the rice cooker and let cook for about 15 minutes. Remove when it is the consistency of a custard–it reminds me of a coconut cream pie filling (not in taste, just appearance). There will be a little bit of water on the surface you can pour off (be careful not to pour your entire masterpiece into the sink though. I almost made that mistake a couple times).
No complicated recipe is complete without some photos–this one includes even some after photos because, well, because I couldn’t resist.
Yes, she has egg on her face. But, she’s happy because it’s steamed egg. And, yes, the girl has some serious aversion to staying sitting down in her high chair. I don’t know what’s more challenging–her totally ignoring us when we say “sit down, sit down” about 400 times or a very pretty high chair that is not designed functionally well.
Voila.
Saturday Thatcher Day
I’m an aunt again! Thatcher Andrew was born today at 9:23 am, weighing in at a whopping 8 lb. 12 oz. (what Lydia weighed at 2 mo. old, mind you). My parents, my older sister and her hubby and two girls, and Lydia and I all went to see the baby (and, of course, his mother and father and big brother and big sister). It was fun to celebrate new life and watch the first moments of the siblings meeting their new baby.
As I sat in that hospital room, watching Lydia toddle around and watching my sister and brother-in-law (as well as the whole family) dote on their new baby (“make sure you use that antibacterial stuff,” “Stay close to him in case he starts to cough,” “Oh, look how dry his little skin is,” etc.), I couldn’t help but think about what Lydia’s birth may have been like. I wonder if she was born in a hospital or at home. I wonder who was there when my daughter was born. I wonder if they celebrated her birth joyfully or stayed awake all night, knowing they had few options. I wonder if they knew about her heart condition right away or learned about it later as the sound of her murmur became obvious. I had thought about all this before. But, being with a family and a child only hours old, it all came up for me again. It made me hurt for her that she won’t know much about her first year of life and nothing at all about her first two weeks of life. Perhaps that is why I’m so motivated to take so many pictures now and preserve all I can for her.
How thankful I am that we were able to celebrate the birth of my sister’s third child with joy today. We have much to be grateful for.