biscuits & gravy

i thought i would share something with you that would get you to smile, and give you a little of the mental gymnastics that are such a normal part of just getting dinner on the table every day.

so, yesterday had been a long, hard day with the boys. and, on top of it, we have been out of groceries in the house since last thursday - and, i am just now getting to the place where we have our "systems" in place. many more things are becoming routine & predictable - so, i can be a little more prepared. weekends start on friday morning & last until monday morning for us. it's not a cultural thing - except that it is our families' culture. that's when sean is able to shut his brain off from serious overload of job transition, living in a new culture, struggling through language barriers & all of the unexpected things that are a part of all of that. it's when he is able to relax - and i get my honey & the boys get their daddy! during the week, we are all kind of in survival mode. not really, it's just the mechanics are so different. sean heads out the door around 8 or 9am to go to work, but then doesn't get home until 7-11pm depending on the "unexpected factor. so, with that, i have been trying to figure out what those 3 1/2 days look like - the parts that are predictable & how to make our days something that we all enjoy & sean has a haven to come home to after such a long, hard day.

so anyway, with our week last week (out of town trip with all three boys, court hearing, meeting both declan & quin's birthmothers & all three boys had colds) - i didn't get to the grocery store before thursday & thus, here it is wednesday & i am trying to get food in the house for the rest of the week & actually remember to prepare for next week. :) sometimes i get into the game & start to figure out how to win. today is one of them. :)

so, last night, we were down to flour, sugar, olive oil, and . . . ummmmm broccoli. even in the states, that's a challenge. and i had already made pancakes twice. so i thought - ahha! i'll make biscuits & gravy! yeah!!!! but, you need milk & butter to make biscuits & gravy, right? well, not when you have baby formula in the house & olive oil.

so here was the adaptation i used for the recipes: (keep in mind that i don't have measuring spoons or cups of any sort - english or chinese - and to top that off, taiwan uses the metric system & by brain naturally functions on the english system - so, anything that i rig that is an approximation of a measurement can only be found in metric & i am converting to english)

biscuits
2 c. flour - had that, that was easy
1 T. baking powder (which later i figured out that i was using baking soda, no wonder things have had that funny taste - gotta love not being able to read in chinese!)
1/4 t. salt (no prob. just a couple of pinches for measurements)
1/3 c. shortening - ummmmm, can you use the exact amount in olive oil & the biscuits taste right? the answer - YES! in fact, they are very, very moist - just not flaky.
1 c. milk - yeah, i really did - i used canned baby formula with the appropriate amount of water. :)

bake at 425 for 15 min. translation 220 degrees in celcius. not a problem until i remembered that i don't have a cooking sheet - cause to the chinese baking is an wonderful novelty! and, thus, i don't have a baking sheet in my kitchen. so, now what, ummmmmm - ahha! the lid of my stir fry pan was attached with a screw, so i took the handle off & dropped the biscuits on an oiled "baking sheet". only problem there is that the lid was curved in, and so the biscuits slid to the center. they baked just fine, they were just close together & i tore them apart. they were perfectly golden & tasted wonderful, with the exception of that funny "baking powder" that we get here at the rt-mart.

on to the gravy
2 c. milk (yes, again)
2T butter (yes, you can make white gravy with olive oil)
2T flour
salt
pepper (i only had szechuan pepper, which tends to be a little sweet, but we really like it)

the chinese don't really bake - ever. so, any recipes are more approximations to your families' tastes - so again, i was BAKING not COOKING, and doing it all WITHOUT measuring cups or spoons.

surprisingly, sean was like "honey, these are good! they're a little sweet (thanks to declan's milk, shhhh). and now that we've figured out the baking soda vs. powder thing. let's do this again." and honestly, i haven't heard that about any new concoctions i have made since we've been here! mind you, sean loves my cooking. but, there is so little here that is familiar & all of the adaptations that i have to make to put it on the table - let's just say, i feel like a 12 year old in the kitchen - all the time! so, yeahhhhhh!!!!! for biscuits & gravy. not overly chinese, healthy or nutritious, but we were able to make something that we all liked & filled our bellies. see why i'm not ready to leave - i wanna get this whole family meal thing down, so that everyone is like, "ahhh, i love going to the thomson's for dinner!" vain, i know.

such a huge part of this cultural adapting is learning how to accept that you feel stupid 99% of the time & because you feel stupid, you are intimidated & insecure 100% of the time. especially since we are in a chinese culture - we don't recognize anything on a street sign, or on a food label. if we were in a spanish speaking culture, or another romance language, we would be able to make educated guesses on things. it's a really good lesson in what it's like to be illiterate. and - not be able to tell someone what you are looking for, even if you can't read. sean and i are learning how to do the dance, and it's time to leave. i want to drag my heals & do it right for a while. i am finally figuring out the grocery store/getting food into the house system, only to go back to the states, and figure out how to do it there with three kids in & out of car seats & grocery carts that don't have three buckles. adapting again. part of me loves the "challenge" itch - the other part of me is utterly exhausted!