Our kitchen has arrived

Since we got our shipment, the kitchen seems so much more like home. Here are some pictures that show how we're fitting enough for a family of five in a tiny kitchen. Not bad, eh?



We shipped our refrigerator magnets we've collected from travels, just because we could!

We bought the storage rack here, but I'm glad threw the baskets into the shipment.







Kitchens have a drying rack in a drawer for small plates, bowls and chopsticks. Some of them are actually an appliance, with heat or air or something. Ours isn't that fancy. We wish it was a washing machine.

I'm particularly proud of the spice cabinet. I shipped the organizers. Look how great it is!







We moved this cabinet into the dining area to hold dishes. The bottom has our bakeware, cookbooks, and the snacks I buy for my other blog, awaiting review.














This is the first dinner with our newly shipped spices: Couscous with Chicken. Here's how to make it:

Saute some cubed chicken, diced onion and garlic. Add 1 Tbs cumin and 1 tsp paprika, and a dash of turmeric. Stir. Meanwhile cube carrots, bell pepper (any color), zucchini and eggplant, adding each as you cube them (hardest to softest). Stir frequently. Add chicken broth or bullion and water. Simmer over low heat until vegetables are soft. Add tomato wedges (they will just heat through). Serve over couscous or rice.

Not as good as the couscous our friend Nadia made us in France, but it will do. We have to do what we can!

Family Food: Curry Chicken

We haven't been doing to badly, eating-wise. We eat a lot more Chinese food, of my own making, plus approximations of our old favorites, minus the Mexican food (that has been sorely lacking, and I plan to rectify that, soon). But the family have been liking the stuff I've been making, well more like inventing, for dinner each night. I can't cook exactly like I did in the US, in part because some ingredients are different, but mostly because I'm lacking my kitchen equipment, which is still sitting in a warehouse in Shanghai. We should get our things on Tuesday. We hope.

One new creation that has become a favorite here is curry chicken. The little convenience store has packages of frozen pre-cubed chicken for cheap, so I stir-fry those with some onion and garlic. When it's about browned, I add cubed potatoes and carrots, then curry paste (powder would work), chicken bullion and a little water. I let it simmer in the wok until the vegetables are tender, then add broccoli and/or cabbage (cauliflower would be good), cover and cook it a minute more, and it's done. If I think the sauce isn't thick enough, I add a little cornstarch and water at the end. We eat it over rice, which is already waiting, thanks to my trusty rice cooker.