making jio zi

Today we made jio zi, a boiled dumpling with meat and vegetables inside, traditionally its from the northern parts of china. My language helper if from the north and so we made her mothers "recipe". Its not really a recipe it's "does it look, feel, and smell right then its good" kinda recipe.

Here is my language helper and Elias with part of me (it was my turn to kneed the dough)

After the dough is kneeded till your arms just about fall off then its ready!! It has to be very elasticy or it will fall apart when boiled. You roll the dough into little circles (which is a skill in its self) and then fill with the raw mixture. This has pork, onion, soysauce, salt, pepper, fennal, and a little oil.
This is me stuffing and folding the little dumplings.


And making them pretty. They cant just taste good they also have to look good to. Not to mention that if there not sealed well then in the heavy boil of the water they will come apart then they don't look so good either !


Here are some of the finished produces just coming out of a boil, add cold water, boil, add cold water , boil cooking cycle. If there not cooled in between then they have a chance of exploding as well.

To eat you simple make a garlic and soysauce mix, dip, and consume!

I told my language helper that although they were the best jio zi I had ever eaten that they were mafan (trouble)! I think we made some were around two hundred of them to feed my family, her and a couple of friends! It was fun and also a great way to learn language and culture as well as getting to eat something delicious!

Soccer

Rob has had a chance the last few weeks to play soccer with a group of guys here. He's in a league that plays every Saturday. GO figure, Robert finds people to play soccer with any where we go!! This game was held in an outlying village about 20 minutes by taxi and a 15 minute walk from our house. Robert is #5 and friends of ours on the team are #'s 10 & 3.



The boys and I were able to go this game and the boys had a blast! At half time they decided to take the field and get some play time in!!








Elias took this picture of Rob.






The village is in the background. It was a beautiful area as you can see! We had a wonderful time and a full day!


Sorry there are no pictures of Micaias in this one he was to busy chasing his new found friends, a little black dog and a big white one, to take a pictures!

WE were able to take a taxi almost all the way to the field on the way there but on the way home it was a fifteen minute walk out to get back to an area that we could catch a taxi or van back home! Like I said it was a wonderful day and we hope to repeat it again soon!

Thanks for visiting with us for a few minutes! We hope you day is well. You are all in our thoughts!

cookies!!

Ok so it may seem like a small thing to make cookies! But when you cant tell very well if its baking powder or baking soda (labels in characters) and chocolate chips are a little harder to find than going to the local walmart well then cookies are the greatest thing in the world and a huge accomplishment!!! :0)
So bask in our triumphs with us!!

My handy helpers


My handy helpers on sugar!!


The best part was that they were good enough to eat!!


And the BIG one!! We had roberts language helper coming so Elias said we needed to make a big one for him and if Elias had had his way we wouldn't have fit it into the oven but we scaled it down a little!

Thanks for being part of our day! See you soon!

Our new apartment!

Ok, so you've been wondering were we are living. Well here it is in a nut shell!! I will try to walk you through so you get a feeling for it.

Here are the boys saying "HI!" Our entrance.

As you step through the door to the right are the doors to our bedrooms. The boys are the left one and ours is the right one.



The boys bunk bed


Elias has the top, so this is his space


Isaias and Micaias share the bottom


Micaias proving his bed is comfortable! :0)


More of their room: wardrobe and coloring table.


Roberts and my bedroom. (built in wardrobe in the back, huge blessing)


There is about a foot at the end of the bed so you really are seeing the whole room!


If your headed out the boys room the this is the sight you'll see. Our room it to the left and the main door is straight ahead, well if you look past the shoes!! And around the corner to the left is the bathroom.


Bathroom: its split into two parts.....

The sink and .....


Washing machine!

Part two past the sink is the toilet and bath area.


Bathroom door to the left and straight ahead is the living room.


The boys hanging out watching "Kung Fu Panda"


The view from the far wall looking into the dining room. The balcony is right behind me.

From the living room into the balcony. Sorry its so dark its the rainy season so the sun wasn't helping this day!!

The view from the balcony.


Coming through the balcony towards the dining room. And Elias making a silly face! :0)
As you go through this entrance directly to the right is the door to our office.


The door to the right.....

and looking back at the door you just walked through!

Rob hard at work ( I think he's actually playing games in this picture!!)


The office door to the left and now your standing in the dining room looking back at the living room and balcony.


Dining room


Elias hard at work making peanut butter cracker sandwiches. Behind him is the entrance to the kitchen.


As you enter the kitchen this is the first view you'll see.


To the right of the door .....


And to the left. I'm thankful for the long kitchen! ( for those who saw the pictures before we left this is were the big shelf was.) The refrigerator is to the left, covered in painting of course!

Ok, so in a nut shell you've seen all of our apartment! Hope you enjoyed your stay at the Johnston house, please come again any time! Maybe next time you can come for real!! :0)
The view outside and the food are much better that way!
Take care and we will talk to you soon!

Micaias 1st birthday

On April 14th Micaias turned 1! Its amazing to think that he is one already! We concider it a privilage to be given the charge to be his parents!

Isaias had a pooh bear birthday so Elias said that M couldn't have it but he could have a Tigger one!

He had a blast opening his gifts and started to really get into it by the end.