I got to spend my Saturday night, hosting my own movie night. The last one I had hosted seemed to gain popularity and now the number of women has doubled! haha Girls night out IS infectious! I introduced the idea of "potluck" to my friends the last time and you should see how excited the women were about bringing food this time! We had a feast! All my movie night friends are either Chinese or Singaporeans (who speak Chinese), so we had some very tasty food dishes! Yum! I used up several of our strawberries in a couple of dessert dishes. Yum! Yum! Food items included, but aren't limited to, chocolate fondue (with strawberries), white cake (with strawberries), sushi, fruit salsa with cinnamon chips, potato and ham salad, cookies, basil and mozzarella pizza, rice krispy treats, etc.
LOTS of desserts, since I was hosting! Americans seemed to be "pegged" as bakers. There are many different kinds of bakers around the world, according to the chinese. If you want a pastry or croissant, seek out a French person. Everyone knows that the best chocolate and cheese come from Switzerland. Americans? Well, chinese people seem to think we make the best baked goods, such as, cookies, brownies, cakes and pies. Seriously. I have friends who have just looked at me and assumed I could bake all of those things - easily! haha Well, they are right! IF I had a better oven, I COULD make all those things easily. But, since my oven SUCKS, I struggle here in China to produce some of those baked goods. Cookies, hands down, are my best product. My asian friends LOVE my cookies. According to them, all cookies in China are hard and not very tasty. It is a mystery to them how I can get them so soft and how easily I can throw them together. I usually add M&M's or white chocolate chips or something to enhance them. Easy, right? Of COURSE it is...for all of you back home. But, it really doesn't come as naturally for the chinese and my other asian friends. Brownies, cakes and pies...well, *shaking my head*, it's a crap shoot. The ovens over here don't get very hot and they are not convection ovens. ALSO...our particular oven doesn't come with a rack...it comes with a metal pan that slides in and out. Grrr. So, those other baked goods usually come out half burnt and half undone. Frustrating! So, I've done what any other American might do in this case...redirected my friends to the wonder of Rice Krispy Treats! hahaha They LOVE them! And their husbands love them too! In fact, my friends now feel like they should make them at home, just to please their husbands! haha Next, I'll dazzle them with stuff like smoothies, and chocolate and banana shakes (have to keep it healthy - HA!) Being American, I'm sure I can find MANY other "traditional" alternatives to the other baked goods I can't seem to make over here. I mean, c'mon, I feel I have all this responsibility now...hahaha!
We watched the movie Twilight. A couple of the women had read the book Twilight after I had loaned out my set to one of them. The movie has some entertaining value, even for people who haven't read the books. As a good friend of mine back home said, "The author really captures that first love." Which is something we can all identify with, even as grown women. The ladies were excited to watch it! ;-)
Sure enough, they really enjoyed it! One of my chinese friends had to get explanations of what vampires are, exactly. She was a little worried that they were real...walking the coasts of the pacific northwest in the US. haha I was so close to having some fun with her on that one...but, alas, I gave her the 4-1-1 on vampire mythology instead. haha She seemed relieved! ;-)
We had a great time and I hope this will become a regular thing with this group of gal pals! As is the "thing" with a group of ladies, we laughed, talked and ate...most of the evening! Oh yeah, we need to watch the movie! hahaha
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