Something I missed yesterday: If you don’t know what Mongolian Spots are then you need to learn. Mongolian Spots are pretty normal in non-Caucasian babies. They are most often located on the bottom and lower back, but they can be anywhere. They usually look like bruises, often large bruises that, if they were bruises, would [...]

There are a few things that new parents need to be aware of when their baby is first placed in their arms in China. Ways the baby has been raised that are different than the way Americans and (I assume) most Europeans will raise the child. If you don’t understand these things, life is going [...]

I hadn’t planned on turning this into a long term series, but that’s kind of happened. If you’re just tuning in you can read the first post in the series here and then keep hitting the link at the top right of each post to get to the next post in the series. The first [...]

  Because I don’t think you can figure out how to make jiaozi from just reading the recipe, I found a few youtube videos showing how to make them. Everyone’s technique is just a little different, so I’m showing several of them.    This guy crimps both sides at once. This keeps filling from squirting out [...]

A few things I’ve picked up from my talks with people: Like Christmas, part of the memories here are of the whole family being present. Food prep is a huge part of things. And these two things are a huge part of our own celebrations now. The cool thing I’ve discovered is that we actually [...]

As we near this year’s Spring Festival I thought I’d talk a little bit about it. And that is the first thing to say, I think. In China it isn’t called Chinese New Year. It’s called Spring Festival. Let me ramble for a bit, first. I’ve noticed that in China, when they celebrate Christmas, they [...]