Someone Made Me Eat This: A Second Helping

Tonight, I'm beyond grouchy. I'm hungry and my husband is complaining about how tired he is because he got up at 4:30 this morning. Not for work, mind you. So he could watch that damn World Cup.

Oh gee, let me go get you some more tea because I'm not tired after working all day with a bunch of hyperactive children while 8 months pregnant. I'm not tired at all. Someone is totally going to be buying my ass something fancy for my birthday in 2 weeks. You watch.

To top off being tired, I'm hungry. Because THIS is what someone made me eat this evening, which might just be even worse than yesterday's offerings...

What is this sloppy mess, you ask? It's tofu with spinach, carrots and shrimp. While hideously revolting in presentation, it is not the worst Chinese dish out there. If you get invited to a big Chinese shindig, someone will usually order something like this (with a slightly more appealing presentation) but because there are always other much more exciting offerings, I tend to skip over it. Tonight, I had little choice because the other alternatives were even less appetizing.

I tentatively took a bite out of this thing. Chinese people love these flour patties. Some are filled with meats or vegetables and others contain a sweet filling. Or should I say "sweet" because Chinese people have a totally different perception of sweet than Westerners. They love red bean paste, which is what this thing happened to be filled with. I don't mind red bean paste. I've grown used to it out here. But the problem with these was there was too little paste inside and the exterior was chewy and gave me the overall impression I was eating a box that had been lightly topped with red bean paste. In other words, blech!

MIL served this to Raelynn. It looks better than what I was given but not by much. She always makes noodles or wontons for her. I think it's nice she makes sure Raelynn has something to eat but at the same time, it makes me nuts because when I cook for my kid, I expect her to eat what we're eating, except when what we're eating is too spicy and in that case, I happily make something else for her. I don't want Raelynn (or the baby, once she begins eating solids) to think that I will cater to everything she wants to eat like a short order cook. I hope this isn't potentially disastrous in the future.

Fortunately, this was not offered to me. My husband explained it was like a Chinese version of Korea's kimchi. I love kimchi but haven't really been able to handle the spice from it. So I gladly ignored this spicy Korean ripoff.

To help supplement my meal, I heated up some duck my husband had picked up earlier in the week but there wasn't much of it to fill me up. And of course, that damn xifan was served as well. It didn't cook because the crock pot shut off when the power glitched. I told MIL that she needed to push the start button again but she didn't listen. Moron. When it finally was finished and offered to me, I politely declined, saying I was too full.

At least she was nice enough to clean up and do the dishes. She wants me to rest, which I appreciate. Of course, I try not to think about if she cleaned my dishes properly. God. Now I'm thinking about that. Ugh. Anyway, while she did that, I got Raelynn ready for her bath. It was a bit hot in our house this evening because the wind wasn't pushing through the windows, so Jeremy turned on the A/C. And MIL was fine with that. Until I went to give Raelynn that bath. Mind you, the A/C was only on in Raelynn's room at this point, but she wasn't getting undressed in her room. MIL started freaking out about it and I begged my husband to explain to her that if A/C was so harmful to people, then everyone in Florida would have died from it. I practically had to jump in front of her to keep her from shutting it off.

Yes, let's turn off the A/C. So I can be even more uncomfortable while I'm pregnant. Add to my anger of not getting enough food to eat because the food you served doesn't appeal to me and I'm downright stabby this evening. Oh, and if there was any doubt about how Raelynn feels about A/C, let me just tell you...when I finished dressing her and drying her hair, she went into her room and sat on her chair, facing the flow of the A/C. I asked her what she thought about it and she let out a deep, relieved sigh and said, "This is soooo nice." That's my girl!

At least it's the weekend now and we can eat decent food tomorrow and Sunday. Stay tuned for torture by way of barfy food after the weekend!