Happy Tang Yuan!

Today I'm talking about Tang Yuan. My favorite little white and pink balls. Nom Nom Nom.

Tang Yuan is eaten during the Winter Solstice. Tang Yuan literally means "round balls in soup." The balls, which you can buy frozen or make from rice powder. They sometimes contain stuff inside. My favorite are the unstuffed ones, but they could contain sesame, red bean, and other random chinese desert stuffings.. You know what they are. My grandmother always make this congee with Tang yuan in it an it's so delicious with Longan and peanuts and red beans. Today, I'm just making plain ones... still good. Here's how:

Ingredients:

1. 1 tbsn Sugar

2. 2 cups Glutinous Rice Flour (aka Mochiko Flour or Sweet Rice Flour) note: the box may say gluten-free flour, this is because glutinous rice flour doesn't actually contain any gluten.

3. optional: food coloring.

Combine ingredients in such a way so it makes a little ball of rice dough. I usually start with flour and slowly add water into the mix until it becomes moldable but doesn't stick to your fingers.

Divide into 4 balls and apply color then, break into smaller balls at about 1/2 inch in diameter.

If you make a lot, you can place the extra the little dough balls into a plastic bag and freeze them until use. I made mine fresh. Boil sugar and water an place the little dough balls into the pot. Like gnocchi, the dough balls are done when when they float to the top.

Done! and Enjoy!

Nom nom nom. Happy Winter Solstice!

Sunday Funday

This weekend, Ben took me skiing with two of our friends. Ben attempted to teach me how to snowboard (which I dutifully took to naming skiiboard all weekend to piss him off). It was kinda fucking cold but it was fun.

My Skateboard-Skiiboard-Snowboard thing.

We drove allllll the way to this place called Cascade Moutain in the mids of Wisconsin. It's full of people with too much time on their hands and way too much cold weather. First things first about snowboarding is that you gotta make sure you stay warm. I didn't get goggles 'cause I'm not hardcore enough. Ben is hardcore enough. He has goggles.

My refection shot didn't really work.. but that's me.. sorta.

I didn't get a good picture of the slopes cause my hands were too cold to use my iphone, but basically if you picture like... a big hill.. with snow and lots of skiiers... That's what it looked like. On the second day, I didn't really snowboard at all cause everything hurt from the first day of biting the snow. I mostly sat in the lodge and read Interview mag. Something I learned: snowboarding is mostly about keeping your balance so you don't fall down. Something that would have come in handy would be whiskers... or a tiny umbrella I could hold above my head like a wire walker. I wasn't reminded to bring any of those things so I fell down a lot and into a tree. Such is life.

Anyways.. next time, I'm gonna remember to bring warmer clothes and a lot more energy. Ben wants me to get good so I can snow board with him down double D's. I just wanna get good to justify an airbushed snowboard with a picture of spirit horses running though misty rainbows. Something reminicent betwixt a MLP DVD cover and those Indian spirit horses that run though shallow creeks.

And blend.