it happened in the kitchen when mom wasn't looking...

Two weeks of cooking in Kinmen...

-twice-baked potatoes, ranch chicken, whole wheat bread & pumpkin pie
Comments: Delicious. Yummy yummy yummy. In the interest of full disclosure, the chicken & potatoes recipes came from here, but I had to make some changes due to Kinmen's lack of certain "key" ingredients. The potatoes were mashed with cream cheese (which you can purchase at any friendly neighborhood bakery), green onions, garlic, milk, and a tiny bit of cheddar (uninteresting side note: You cannot find real cheese anywhere in Kinmen. The choices that we have cheese-wise are make your own, plastic, powder, or slightly gooey plastic. If you plan to visit, please bring cheese! as an aside to the aside: cheese does not ship well...it turns green. So, while the gesture would be appreciated, it would be sadly wasted.)

As for the chicken, we actually had all the ingredients, due to a weird/chance importation of mustard & sauerkraut from Germany at our local "slightly-more-interesting-food-than-the-average-place" store. The whole wheat bread was made in the bread machine lovingly provided by our church, and the pumpkin pie was made using Grandma K's pie crust recipe & Grandma M's blender pumpkin filling recipe, but with a lot more cinnamon, because I'm a little psychotic when it comes to cinnamon. Both found in the Basics & More, because I'm a creature of habit like that.

-homemade ravioli & focaccia
Thoughts: There's a possibility (if I'm ever bored for a whole day) that I might try making ravioli again; but anyone considering trying it out, BE WARNED. It takes hours and hours of doing the same four things: scoop the meat, dampen edges, cover with dough, press to seal and start over. This could be a tiny bit monotonous for those with the patience of Job. For people like me, it's mind destroying and creativity imploding and [insert more bad things here]. The hungrier and bigger your "family" the longer this process will take.

Possible solutions to this problem: make a big sheet of homemade pasta rather than using individual "wonton" wrappers. Also, might have better flavor with a homemade ricotta filling as opposed to the unidentifiable and strangely flavored pig parts I used here.

The focaccia turned out fine, basically pizza dough with spices & cheese, for all intents and purposes. I'm not complaining. :)

-home cured corned beef & boiled potatoes & cabbage, & apple crisp Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Verdict: interesting.
I've always thought St. Patrick's Day was really neat. I mean, I wear green, and I kiss people and say "blarney, there's a leprechaun," and talk about how my great-great-great grandma was Irish. Or maybe not so much... Amanda, one of the junior high teachers here (who, while not technically on our IBLP/King Car team, hangs out with us a lot) was excited about trying corned beef for St. Pat's.

Obviously, it's impossible to get corned beef in Kinmen, and it isn't possible to make it; unless you did something off-the-wall like bringing TenderQuick and pickling spice with you from the States, which I did, two years ago. Finally being put to good use...

The quick story on the beef: I used a dry rub recipe because I was too lazy to boil things on a school day and threw the raw groatiness into the fridge for a week. On the day of, I stuck it in the crockpot with some more spices/bay leaves/etc. and let it cook all afternoon. Amazingly, it turned out - pink and flavorful! I wish I could say the same for the cabbage and potatoes... The apple crisp was yummy soul food though, so it was easy to get over the Vegetable Failure.

-original plan: steak & cheese sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, vegetable pizza, brownies & sundaes (in honor of Drew's birthday)

I'm getting a little carried away with myself, but I've got to give you some background here:
Another thing about living in Kinmen that I may never have mentioned, is that it's foggy in spring. This is Debilitating Fog, which makes it impossible for planes to fly. If you've lived here, you know the drill. For those of you who've never had this special experience: it means that you will not get any news via newspapers, because airplanes bring those in. There will not be any fresh food at 7-11, because airplanes bring it in. There will not be any cream cheese at friendly bakeries, because airplanes bring that in, too. You will have to teach class by yourself, because airplanes bring teachers back from weekend trips to Taiwan. If the nature-imposed embargo lasts long enough, there won't be any milk left at 7-11 either, because...say it together, class... the airplanes bring it in. I don't know if you've seen a pattern here, but this is how we roll.

The point of that information, was that yesterday, Teresa, Micah, Mother & Sister of Micah, and Andrew were all stranded in Taiwan because of fog, and that kind of negated the need for a birthday party...what with the birthday boy across the strait somewhere. So, the

Revised plan: steak & cheese sandwiches, Greek-style salad, brownies

Which, I suddenly ran out of steam to tell the world about...or maybe it's that I remembered that I need to correct a high schooler's autobiography, make French onion soup & baguettes for dinner, play badminton with a little kid I know, and plan my Wednesday lesson before I can sleep tonight. That kind of killed the blogging spirit. @@

Wednesday class.

We teach a 3-hour long Wednesday "English camp" every week for 5th and 6th graders. It's specifically geared towards phonics learning, but in the off chance that that comes across as somewhat boring...we usually spend an hour doing something 'fun.'

For a little more background on the students:
My kids come from the 3 "country" schools near us. There aren't many students at these schools to start with, and even fewer who actually want to learn English. (These kids are from the 'Tai' crowd, which could be described as the betel-nut chewing, blue truck driving, "Hello Baby" yelling section of the populace. Or just Taiwanese rednecks, if that's easier to understand)


This semester, most of my students were forced to come to class by their teachers or their parents. Due to their attitudes in class, I feel just a little unsuccessful as a teacher--but still successful as a friend, as long as we're not in class! I now know how my parents felt all those years. Please forgive me of my errant ways... :|

Attendance was at an all time low last week, with just 9 kids from 1 school. We made the most of it by making egg parachutes and dropping them from the 3rd floor. Even bored kids enjoy doing destructive things like breaking eggs!

Actually, I don't have anything to complain about. These kids are loud in class, but they still line up, which warms the cockles of my somewhat ragged heart. Ask anyone, if there's one thing I'm seriously obsessive-compulsive about--it's lining up. You should here me yell in my sleep during summer camps. Uh, yeah...that was a slight digression.

Overall, I'd rate the class as mostly not bad. I'm pretty sure I need extensive remedial coaching on how to teach phonics, but that's beside the point.


I am able to sleep at night only because I tell myself that someday they will eat apples, instead of epples. There will come a day when the teacher is a bad egg instead of a bed egg. I visualize them understanding that a bud does not fly in the sky, and that a bird is not an unopened flower. A duck can never have a boat tied to it, and a dock does not quack! The teacher is ugly, not ogly! When avery studint con say avery vowal weeth perfact eccuracy... please, may that day come soon...

cat-kind.

I saw this in an alley as I walked home from school the other day, and I nearly gasped in horror. Why do we need to keep kitties on our lovely green earth? Haven't they done enough harm to the human race already? Can't we just eradicate them, please?

If you've never seen cats jumping from rooftop to rooftop over your head, leaping through the air in front of your face, yowling all through the night under your window, slinking past you in dark alleys, or emitting a feline, sneaky vibe of Hatred for Humankind from their unblinking eyes...yeah. I rest my case, with a shiver and a "Good riddance!"

the return...

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged actively, and today I decided that it was time to change all that.

Turn over a new leaf. Have a new beginning. Or mostly, just try to keep my grasp of the English language from totally slipping into oblivion.

Here's what to expect:
If you know me well, due to procrastination, not much. hehe...
but the Plan is to share about my teaching experiences, cooking/baking endeavors, island exploration, books I've been reading, answers to prayer, cool photos, and the hard things God is teaching me...

My hope is that this blog will give my American family and friends a taste of my life in Kinmen, and that both in writing this blog and living "farawayacrosstheocean", that God will be glorified.