Getting back into the cooking groove

[Lellyj]

Hi all

I have a lot of catching up to do on the forum and have had some time off from cooking as my husband and I snuck away to Sth China last week to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  Thought some of you might be interested, so I'm sharing here.

Our school has traditionally low attendances on the day before Melbourne cup day, and with Cup Tuesday itself off, I only had to take 3 days leave without pay--I felt like a naughty girl going away in 4th term, and I'm paying for it majorly now as I struggle to write my end of year reports--but it was so worth it!  We had an amazing time!!  I started hatching this plan when I realised the actual anniversary was the day after Cup Day, but decided we couldn't afford it, however I'd been discussing it with my mum and dad and they, amazingly, gave us the bulk of the trip as an anniversary present! And looked after our two teenage boys. How lucky are we?!  (To any overseas people out there--yes in Victoria, Australia, you really do get a public holiday for a horse race!) Originally we were going to go to Hong Kong and have a few days in Guilin area in China, but when we looked into it, we decided it would be good (and cheaper) to go to China for the whole 7 days.

The food was AMAZING, although not much of it thermomixable due to the very high temperatures used for cooking.  We did a cooking class in Yangshou, at the Cloud 9 Cooking school--higly recommended.  We chose our menu and then went to the market to buy key ingredients, it was fascinating.  I picked up a great tip for frying tofu, which I will share in the new non-thermomix recipe section sometime soon.  I'm also including a picture of my husband and I in Longshen tucking into eggs and garlic chives, local bacon and dried bamboo shoots (which are soaked before use), and bamboo rice--a local dish which is sticky rice, flavoured with local sausage and sweet potato and pumpkin.  They put the rice, flavourings and water in a piece of baboo and seal it off with a piece of corn cob and then cook it on the fire until the bamboo blackens and the rice is cooked. Yum!

Ah well, it's back to reality, and cooking for me, now.  Can't say that I feel overexcited about it at the moment, but at least thermy makes it easy!

PS I'm including a pic of Mark and I, on our big day, 25 years and 1 week ago!

[judydawn]

Thanks for sharing your news with us LellyJ - loved the photos and how nice to include your wedding photo as well. Aren't parents wonderful when they are so generous and then to top it off, have the boys as well - you are very lucky. Happy Silver Wedding Anniversary.

[Very Happy Jan]

Congratulation LellyJ. Great photos. How lovely of your parents to give you such a wonderful anniversary gift.

[Lellyj]

Oh wow, thank you so much, Judy! And Jan!  We did feel that 25 years was something worth celebrating. Yes it was a very generous--and unexpected gift!  I feel very blessed to have such wonderful parents and aim to try to be so generous to my children--if not helping them out financially, in other ways. Thanks again for your good wishes!

[Cuilidh]

What a great trip and wonderful present.  Guilin is a very beautiful area, we loved it up there and Yangshou is one of our favourite places in China - it has probably changed a great deal since we were last there about 18 years ago, but we used to love the restaurant called Minnie Mao's (with a big Micky Mouse drawing on the wall).  We used to cycle quite a lot around the area but then the local children started running in front of tourist bicycles hoping that they would get injured then forcing you pay out huge amounts of money or else they would get the authorities to hassle you - it was all very unpleasant and took the joy out of visiting the region, which was a real shame.  I still have lots of silk scarves which we bought on our trips there - they are amongst my favourites to wear.

Your cooking class sounds great, I don't think they had anything like that when we were there, but back in those days I wasn't particularly into cooking - I can only remember a big martial arts school.

[Cornish Cream]

Congratulations on your Silver Wedding Anniversary Lellyj.How wonderful to spend it in China,loved all the photos.

[Vivaroo]

That's a lovely story to share, congratulations!

[achookwoman]

Lellyj. Thanks for sharing your 25th. With us.  love the photos.  Look forward to the next 25.

[Carine]

Thanks for letting us know a bit more about you Lellyj.  Sounds like you had a terrific 25th anniversary trip.  You both look so happy!  Cooking together is a nice way to spend some time together.  My hubby helps me in the kitchen from time to time but the kitchen tends to be my domain 

[Halex]

Wow what a fantastic anniversary trip. How exciting.

H

[Bedlam]

Congratulation and thank you for sharing, I agree 25 years is definitely worth celebrating and a mid term get away, what a treat.

[obbie]

Fantastic photos. Glad you had a great anniversay.
Holidays are great.

Robyn

[CreamPuff63]

robyn is your avatar a picture of you? the reason I'm asking is korrick joined recently and has the same avatar. I asked if you had changed forum names and she said she was new. A mystery....

[judydawn]

I also made the comment that Robyn had the same avatar and asked her who the picture was of   Just who is that woman then if it isn't Obbie/Robyn/Korrick 

[Yvette]

Lucky you glad you had a great time