Amanda Roberts's Blog, page 22

World AIDS Day – AIDS in China

Today is World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day “is held on 1 December each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died.” While many developed countries are seeing infection rates drop and have increased their awareness and support for AIDS victim, many developing countries are seeing the numbers rise, along with fear and scorn for those affected by the disease.

In China, cases of HIV/AIDS are increasing, though it is unclear whether or not this is from an increased infection rate or from more cases being diagnosed. It is most likely a combination of the two. While China has been making strides in informing people about HIV/AIDS, there has been a stark increase in the number of cases among gay communities. In an age where homosexuality is becoming more accepted and the Internet allows people who were previously isolated to connect, homosexuality and STD transmissions through homosexual encounters are on the rise. Even though more people are able to connect to homosexual communities, most homosexuals are still very much in the closet, so it can be difficult for them to seek and receive medical care.

This is something that, in the past, the Chinese government would have simply ignored or hidden. In the mid-1990s, hundreds of thousands of rural people were infected with HIV/AIDS by government-run blood donation stations that reused materials. The government tried to hide what had happened, but then tried to take credit for stepping in and helping stop the epidemic that they had caused.

After the World Health Organization announced its findings that nearly half a million people in China have been diagnosed with AIDS (undiagnosed numbers are still much higher) and that the most at-risk group is homosexual men, the government is already reaching out to try and increase awareness to fight this frightening trend.

Premier Li Keqiang visited AIDS patients over the weekend and vowed to “ensure that more work is done for the prevention and treatment of AIDS, adding that China is willing to cooperate with other countries to combat HIV.” The country has a long way to go, though, since many people, even people who should know better, are still woefully uneducated about HIV/AIDS and many antiquated superstitions about victims persist.

When I lived in Changsha and was volunteering at the Butterfly House, I had the pleasure of meeting a tiny, HIV positive baby within days of her birth when she was abandoned by her mother. The baby was malnourished and suffered from a yeast infection because hospital nurses (people who should be the most educated about AIDS) had been too afraid to touch her. I was very proud of my goddaughter Zoe, who thought nothing of such silly notions and cuddled the little girl like any healthy baby. I don’t know exactly what happened to that little baby, but I do know there was a waiting list of mommies and daddies who couldn’t wait for the chance to give her, and other babies like her, a safe and loving home.

 

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Doing Good This Holiday Season

I have no problem with the commercialism of the season. The giving of gifts, while spurred by corporations, usually comes from people’s hearts. But there are many ways you can spend your money, some ways better than others. Shopping local, supporting small businesses, and giving to those who are less fortunate are all excellent ways to spend your money.

One organization near and dear to my heart, The Butterfly House in Changsha, is running an IndieGoGo campaign to try and raise money to support the amazing work that they do here in China.

The Butterfly House in Changsha was, for many years, the only palliative hospice care for orphans in China. There is now a Butterfly House in Nanjing, but it is run by the same kind people.

In China, children with severe (or even minor) health issues are often abandoned because of China’s one-child policy and terrible health care system. But many of these children could be saved with a little loving care and advanced medical treatments. Even those that can’t be saved, though, deserve to be loved and have a dignified end. Every life is precious.

The Butterfly House to date has 27 children in their two homes, has cared for 131 children, has provided palliative/end of life care for 70 children, has provided 16 children with life changing surgery, has helped 10 children find adoptive families (4 more currently on the waiting list), has placed 3 children in long-term foster care, and has helped 11 families stay together. Those are amazing accomplishments, and each number is a beautiful story.

Even though the Butterfly House takes donations year-round, their IndieGoGo campaign is hoping to generate some much-needed funds to support more babies in both houses and to provide more life saving and life changing surgeries.

This season, why not set a little money aside to send to these precious butterflies in China. Every little bit helps!

The Butterfly House Website

The Butterfly House Blog

The Butterfly House on IndieGoGo

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Planning the Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner While Living Abroad – The Pumpkin Pie

Hi everyone. Welcome to my sixth post dedicated to helping you plan the perfect Thanksgiving dinner while living abroad. I first wrote about making sure you have all the right utensils and about how to prepare the all-important turkey. I followed up with how to make stuffing from scratch, how to make a delicious river of gravy, how to make mashed potatoes, and how to make drop biscuits. Today, we are going to round out your Thanksgiving feast with a pumpkin pie!

First off, I’m not going to talk about how to make the crust. This is for 2 reasons. 1) Crusts are hard to make but should not be hard to purchase. Even though “pie” is not popular in China, egg tarts are. So just use egg tart shells and make mini-pumpkin pies. 2) You can completely bypass the shell altogether by using dumpling wrappers! Why not bring a little China to your Thanksgiving dinner table?

We are going to make the pumpkin pie filling from scratch because pumpkins are usually easy to find and the pumpkin puree is not that hard to make.

What you need:

1 small pumpkin (1 cup pumpkin puree)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp allspice powder

½ tsp ginger powder

1 egg

6 oz evaporated milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

12 dumpling wrappers (made from scratch or purchased) or 12 egg tart shells

1 cup of oil for frying

Preparing the Pumpkin

Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Don’t be afraid to scrape the sides and get all that stringy stuff out.
Place the pumpkin into a steamer basket on the stove (you can cut the pieces smaller if they don’t quite fit). Steam pumpkin, covered, over high heat for 20-30 minutes or until it is soft.
Scoop softened pumpkin meat out of the rind. Puree pumpkin meat in a blender until smooth.
Done! You will only need 1 cup of puree for this recipe. If you have extra puree, you can freeze it and save it for future dumplings or increase the rest of the recipe to make lots of dumplings (not like they will go to waste since they will be eaten up so quickly!).

Making the pumpkin pie filling for dumplings or egg tart shells

Mix together 1 cup of pumpkin puree with the sugar, spices, egg, and evaporated milk.
For pumpkin pie dumplings:

Spoon mixture into dumpling wrappers and pinch closed. If the mixture is too runny to work with, put the mixture into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to set up.
To fry dumplings, preheat oil for 30 seconds on high heat, then lower heat to medium. Cook dumplings on each side for about 3 minutes or until golden brown.


If you are using egg tart shells:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius)
Fill the shells about 3/4 of the way full with pumpkin pie filling.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the tops are golden.


Serve hot or chilled.

You can find the Pumpkin Pie Dumpling recipe, along with almost a hundred more, in my cookbook Crazy Dumplings, now available on Amazon! 

Dumplings. Wontons. Jiaozi. This remarkably simple food is found throughout Asia and in Chinese restaurants and kitchens around the world, but have you ever filled a dumpling wrapper with chicken? Lobster? North American Plains Bison? Hardly anyone has! The Crazy Dumplings Cookbook features over 100 recipes with some of the craziest and most delicious dumpling filling recipes you will ever see. From Chicken Taquito Dumplings to Timey-Wimey Dumplings to a dumpling for your dog, Crazy Dumplings will show you all the crazy things you can stuff into a dumpling wrapper for an easy meal or snack.

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Planning the Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner While Living Abroad – The Biscuits

Hi everyone. Welcome to my fifth post dedicated to helping you plan the perfect Thanksgiving dinner while living abroad. I can’t believe how close Thanksgiving is getting! I’m going to have to move up the frequency of these posts to get done in time for the big day!

I first wrote about making sure you have all the right utensils and about how to prepare the all-important turkey. I followed up with how to make stuffing from scratch and how to make a delicious river of gravy. Yesterday I explained how to make the best mashed potatoes ever. Today we are going to move on to fluffy biscuits!

Two important things: 1) We are going to make drop biscuits instead of the more traditional round, buttermilk biscuits because buttermilk biscuits simply have too many variables and require a lot of counter space, something many kitchens in China don’t have; and 2) biscuits require butter, so like I pointed out in the mashed potato recipe, these might not be possible for you or could require significant planning.

Biscuits

Drop biscuits are super easy to make and a lot of fun. Make sure your hands are clean before starting this recipe because they are going to get messy!

Preheat your over to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (230 degrees Celsius) and lightly grease a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 cup cold butter with your hands. Yes! Get your hands all up in there! You want to squeeze the butter together with the flour until the mixture resemble coarse cornmeal.

Once the flour/butter mix is done, add 1 cup of cold milk. Blend together with a spoon or fork. Drop batter on to the baking sheet by the spoonful. You should be able to get 12 biscuits out of this recipe. It’s OK if you need to add more batter to one biscuit or take some batter off of a few of them to make an extra one. Whatever! These biscuits are flexible and don’t have to look perfect.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve hot with honey, jam, or cranberry sauce.

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Planning the Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner While Living Abroad – The Mashed Potatoes

Hi everyone. Welcome to my fourth post dedicated to helping you plan the perfect Thanksgiving dinner while living abroad. I first wrote about making sure you have all the right utensils and about how to prepare the all-important turkey. I followed up with how to make stuffing from scratch and how to make a delicious river of gravy. Today, I’m going to explain how to make the best mashed potatoes ever!

Mashed Potatoes

Unfortunately, mashed potatoes might cause trouble for some expats living abroad because milk products can be hard to find in some countries, like China. While you can sometimes find milk substitutes (sterilized milk and powdered milk can be used in place of American-style pasteurized milk), there really isn’t a substitute for butter (we will also come across this issue when making the biscuits). So if you are planning to make mashed potatoes, plan ahead and buy the butter online or in the nearest major city.

With this recipe, be flexible. Everyone likes their mashed potatoes a little different (more buttery, stiffer, extra salty, etc.) and depending on how many guests you have, your recipe might need to be adjusted.

As a general rule, you will want one potato per guest. You might adjust this if you have freaking huge potatoes or if you are making a lot of different sides, but it is a good rule of thumb and, really, who care if you make too much. Thanksgiving leftovers are the best.

Scrub, rinse, and rough peel your potatoes, by which I mean don’t worry about peeling the potatoes completely. Potato skins have their own distinct flavor and a lot of nutrients. Of course, you can completely peel them if you want or you could not peel them at all if you like a lot of potato skin in your mashed potatoes.

Uniformly chop your potatoes. They don’t have to be very small, but the pieces should be roughly the same size so they cook uniformly. Cover the chopped potatoes completely with water. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium, and continue to boil the potatoes until they are all fork-tender, about 20 minutes.

After the potatoes are soft, drain completely. Return potatoes to the pot and use a fork or hand masher to start mashing the potatoes. Slowly add in 1 Tbsp of butter, 1/4 cup of milk per potato along with dashes of salt and pepper, mixing and tasting as you go. This way you can be sure to get the taste and texture the way you like it.

Serve warm.

Of course, this is just a simple recipe. You could use cream instead of milk if you have it, you can top it with chives, or you can add roasted garlic. Be flexible and make your potatoes your own!

 

 

 

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Occupy Everything!

Near the west end of the protest zone.

While Seth and I were in Hong Kong for Halloween, we took the opportunity to stop by the Occupy Central protests. It was an amazing experience. If you get a chance to go to Hong Kong, go see the protesters. The area is clean, orderly, and safe. The protesters are pretty much just down there living their lives.

There are hundreds of small tents set up, many for the use of anyone who needs a spot to crash. There is a study area for students. People were cooking, eating, and singing. Many people had set up little swag booths where they were making pins, posters, and jewelry to give out to people to help spread awareness.

Barricades at the west end of the protest area.

The place has become a huge tourist draw. There were many people who, like us, were just there to look, meet some of the protesters, and take pictures. This is a good thing and is not exploitation. The protesters need support, they need to be seen. The more people see what is happening, the less Beijing will be able to react with violence and will, hopefully, have to negotiate.

When we were there, we weren’t exactly sure where the protest was, so we wandered around Central until we found it (it’s actually closer to Admiralty). We started at the far west end of the protest zone. It was pretty empty, actually. There was a blockade, a few police officers tooling around, a lot of tents, and a few people around, but it wasn’t crowded at all. A friend of mine had just been there a few days before, and he had pictures of thousands of people, so I was surprised at how desolate it seemed.

Well, we took some pictures and walked along the main road, which eventually curved up into a bridge. Once we crested the bridge, we found the people. And there were thousands of them. In the middle of the sea of people, there was a stage where people were giving speeches. Later, the speeches turned into parody songs. They sang “Beijing’s Giving In” to the tune of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Tie a yellow ribbon around CY’s streets,” to the tune of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ’round the Old Oak Tree,” and another one that I just can’t recall right now (it will probably come to me in my sleep).

We walked around and were given fliers, stickers, pins, and a few other gifts from protesters. Seth’s highlight was meeting Xi Jinping. Who knew he was a fan of yellow umbrellas? The area has also become a center of art. There are thousands of little origami umbrellas everywhere. There were a couple of statues, one of a man with an umbrella and one of a yellow fist. 

What surprised me was how many middle-aged and even elderly people were down there. Most people think of Occupy as a student movement, which it largely is, but students are not the only ones who love Hong Kong and are fighting for its democracy. People of every age are down there, standing their ground.

I’ll finally do what snow does…IN FREEDOM!

There is a very relaxed, fun air about the place. Everyone is just so happy to be there, no matter what may come. My husband joked, “now I know what democracy feels like.”

The protesters are such an inspiration to me. They are fighting so hard for something I take for granted every day. Even though I have lived in China for four years and plan to live here for the foreseeable future, I’m still an American. The right to determine my own future is something I have always had, but never had to fight for. It was given to me at birth. But the world is not perfect, especially America. Living in China has helped me to see the problems in my own country. But in America, we have the freedom to fight those problems, to make our voices heard, and to make a difference. Don’t waste the chance so many people in the world are fighting for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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