Jewelry making at Jenny's!!!

On Tuesday, Christy Hilbish and I went to Jenny's apartment to make jewelry with some of the Chinese staff there. I actually did not make a lot of jewelry... I had fun taking pictures and talking with people! :)

After we finished making jewelry, some of us stayed to have dinner together! I tried a lot of new food... one that is worthy of mentioning is DONKEY meat! Never thought I would eat donkey... It wasn't bad, kind of tasted like beef. One exciting thing- Jenny is willing to teach me how to cook Chinese food! Not sure when my first "lesson" will be, but hopefully it will be soon!

(<--Jenny and one of the little girls making a papercut of a bird!)

Jaozi....

On Friday I went to Ruth's house to learn how to make Jaozi. I also was able to hear her daughter Esther play the violin! Esther has only been playing a year, but she sounds much better than a first year player! I remember playing songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "Go Tell Aunt Rhody..." She was playing songs a lot more difficult! I wish I knew how to add a video... maybe later!

After we had chatted for awhile... and I had tried playing Esther's violin we started to make Jaozi. Jaozi is a chinese dish that is pretty popular here. I am actually not a very big fan of jaozi, but it was fun to learn how to make a traditional chinese dish. (This was actually the first time that I ate more than a few pieces, so maybe it is growing on me:) Ruth's daughter, mother, and her mother's friend came over to help!

(meat, veggies all mixed together!)

After grounding up the meat and chopping the vegetables, you place the vegetables in oil that has had peppercorns sauteed in it... you remove the peppercorns and place the veggies in the oil to soak up the flavor... then you mix the vegetables with the meat...

To make the wrapper, you mix flour and water until it makes a dough. You then pack the meat concoction in the wrapper and fold it over. (They were much faster and neater than I was at the wrapping and folding!) Finally, you boil the jaozi in water.

(jaozi before it is boiled...)