Emily's Delicious Blog

January 22nd is Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit. My girl’s troops and my family had a special celebration for it. My girl's troops had a meeting at the Old Mission Park on January 21st. We learned how to make clove hitch, shear lashing, and tripod. I enjoyed tying the ropes. Next, we had the Court of Honor Ceremony, and we congratulated the scouts who received the NYLT certificates and patches.  Then, the senior scouts talked about the snow camp and summer camp. At last, we celebrated Chinese New Year. We got red envelopes, and we all ate Chinese snacks. After the scout meeting, we went home. My mom prepared the wraps and fillings for the dumplings, and my dad and I made the dumplings.  Making dumplings is our tradition for the Chinese New Year celebration. The dumplings were juicy and delicious. I had a festive Chinese New Year. 

During winter break, I went to Stanford Shopping Center with my friend Selina. First, we went to Tender Greens for lunch. We all ordered our favorite dish.  I had the California Bowl with Chipotle chicken, brown rice, and vegetables, and I ordered a mint lemonade drink.  After lunch, we went to the Anthropologie store. It’s gorgeous but expensive. The chandeliers are stunning and have a modern design. Also, a peacock statue supports a coffee table. Finally, the carpet has an animal print.   Even the walls are artistically painted with light green and dark green. It reminded me of the painting Water Lilies by Claude Monet. In a picture I saw in the store, something looks like mountains or clouds. When you take a closer look, they are formed by many clothespins. We went to another store. I tried some perfumes, and my favorite perfume was J’adore. Selina and I put on some sunglasses for fun. We looked very cool.  What is my favorite store? It’s the American Girl. I liked dolls when I was

In the last two weeks, a destructive storm hit California. Many places got flooded. There were mudslides in the mountain area. The beach was washed out. Many people evacuated.   One morning, I saw my backyard get flooded by the heavy rain. I was surprised! It was still raining, and there was more water gathered. We worried that water would get into the house. My dad thought of getting a water pump, so my dad and I went to Home Depot and bought one. My dad tested the water pump to see if it was working. It worked very well. As a result, the water was pumped out to the street. What a relief!  

I made the meatloaves with the sweet chili glaze. First, I washed the vegetables, minced the ginger, thinly sliced the scallions separating the whites from the greens, trimmed the green beans, and quartered the lime. Then I   cooked the rice. I melted the butter in a small pot, cooked the ginger, and added the rice and water. In the end, the butter should be clear, and the water should cover the rice. I combined beef, scallion whites, and panko in a large bowl and added ginger, salt, and pepper to form the meatloaves. I roasted the meatloaves and the green beans on the baking sheet in the oven. The green bean should look golden brown. The meatloaf should not be pink and should be dark instead.  I brushed the loaves with sweet soy glaze in the last two minutes. They should be dark in color. I tossed the green bean with ponzu soy sauce and sesame seeds. Finally, I divided the rice, meatloaves, and green beans between plates and garnished them with scallion greens. The food is savory and

My family went to Selina’s home to have a potluck for the New Year’s Eve celebration. I ate meat pie with mushroom and water chestnut, shrimp cucumber salad, BBQ pork, stir fry beef with bell pepper, seaweed, and bean curd cold dish, and fried sticky rice cake. After dinner, we played games. First, we played the Uno game. The game was straightforward since I played it many times at school. Then, we played poker. The poker game was a little bit hard; you needed to count the score of the red cards. At last, we played the Scrabble game which was very hard. My mom helped me find words in the dictionary, and Aunt Helen helped Selina find words on the computer using the   “scrabble word finder.”   Our dads played on their own. Selina kept the scores on the computer, and I used the formula to add them. We played for a long time and ate snacks. When we finished the game, the New Year was arriving. We were so happy. Aunt Helen checked the web to see if fireworks were on the New Year’s celebrati