The first minute I arrived in Denver, Diana pulled me aside to tell me there was a surprise happening at Hugo’s citizenship party the next day. I tried to keep a straight face, because, well, there IS a big surprise happening at Hugo’s citizenship party, but I didn’t know Diana was in on it…

Diana whispered quickly that they were throwing a Mexican-themed party as a joke, and that their friends had already started preparing Mexican food, drinks and decor, and man, wasn’t Hugo going to be surprised when he saw it?

Hugo’s surprise for Diana involved a ring. (And wow, it was incredibly hard to keep that quiet. Stick and I could never be Secretkeepers. Stick would forget and just let it slip in conversation, and I’d post the Order of the Phoenix’s secret address on my blog.)

On the morning of the party, Diana left to help the friends hosting Hugo’s citizenship party prepare Mexican food and hang up the pinata.  Meanwhile, back at Hugo and Diana’s house, Hugo was getting ready for something else:

After a bit of maneuvering with Karena, the hostess of Hugo’s “citizenship party”, Diana was inside waiting to surprise him with a sombrero and a margarita, and Hugo was at the door, waiting to surprise Diana with a ring and a bouquet of roses.

I guess she likes roses.

Skyping the family (PS: More photos here, Silvana!)

Obligatory Ring Photo

Oh, and Diana’s surprise? Turns out Hugo thought the Mexican theme was pretty good too!

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Mile-High Romance

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Hey, anyone want to see Stick proposing to me on Spanish TV?

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Sabado Gigante

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I was on Sabado Gigante this weekend! Stick thinks I should probably say that “we” were on Sabado Gigante, but you can probably guess that the guy on his knee, in the Beijing duck restaurant, proposing to me is Stick. (If you don’t want to reread the story, we ran into Don Fransisco at Da Dong Roast Duck in Beijing a few months ago, and he coerced Stick into proposing on Unavision camera.) We’ve been promising to get married in regards to car insurance, but telling our friends and family not to pressure and that it’ll happen when it’s the right time.  Don Fransisco, it seems, has some pretty serious powers of persuasion.

Stick just happened to catch it as he was flipping channels, but he managed to get most of the show TiVoed, and I’ll post it the clip once I figure out how to get it off the TV, or when someone else puts it on YouTube. If you happened to see it, the couple laughing hysterically at the whole thing are our dear friends Hugo and Diana. Actually, now that I think about it… it was Hugo who wanted to go to Da Dong and Diana who recognized Don Fransisco… I kind of wonder if they set us up!

“Hey, did you watch Stick’s proposal?” I asked Char, Stick’s stepmom, when Stick’s parents came home the next day, “It’s saved under Sabado Gigante on your TiVo!”

“That little %&$#! He didn’t really propose!” Char said. “He just said ‘I want you to be my wife’… that doesn’t count!”

Related: Stick’s Sabado Gigante proposal!

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Sabado Gigante

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We set out for Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant last night, our second trip in Hugo and Diana’s visit. (Hugo may not be so fond of living ducks, but he loves them on a plate!) When we went inside, we said hello to some other foreigners. They were a camera crew, setting up to film at another table. We watched them for a while until we saw the star.

“Is that Don Fransisco?” Diana asked. “That’s Don Fransisco! I’m in the same room as Don Fransisco!”

Hugo checked with one of the production guys to confirm, but it was true. Don Fransisco, the host of Sábado Gigante, a Saturday variety show on the Spanish channel back home, was interviewing one of the Da Dong chefs.  Diana was completely starstruck. It was hard to understand her with all the squealing and bouncing in her seat, but I think she said he has a singing contest on his show where the Spanish inquisition hauls off the losers.

We were eating and giggling about being in the background of an Unavicion TV show, when we saw that Don Fransisco and his camera crew were on the way over to our table!

Don Fransisco came around and asked us how we’d met each other, where we were from, and what we were doing in Beijing, and so forth. He spoke to Hugo in Spanish, but to the rest of us in English, and then turned to camera to repeat our answers in Spanish. Don Fransisco asked what Stick and I did in China, and then asked “Are you married, or a couple in the modern way?”

“The modern way.” Stick said.

“Yeah, I’m still waiting!” I said, pointing to my ringless finger.

“Still waiting? Get up!” Don Fransisco made Stick get up, and come around to my side of the table, and get down on his knee. There we were, surrounded by the Unavicion crew in a peking duck restaurant, with Stick on one knee saying all the words a girl wants to hear, and then waiting for them to be translated into Spanish! High romance!

Related: Stick’s Sabado Gigante proposal!

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Beijing Gringos

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The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati is part cookbook and part travel memoir. Between recipes, Maria shares travel adventures, like meeting her now-husband, and misadventures, like the Italian-language student who asked for a shower, instead of a cookie.

High romance, good food and foreign-language misadventures… Naturally I was pretty excited to be part of Maria’s virtual book tour. I loved the food in Rome, possibly a little too much but then I was recovering from a year of di san xien and mystery dumplings. I also got ask Maria a few questions.

Meg: How can I keep my attempts at white sauce from becoming a curdled mess?

Maria: You are talking about beschamel sauce-which is the typical white sauce- typically used in northern dishes once, but now everyone uses it. Especially for a baked dish. For instance you can make a great vegetarian style lasagna with this sauce and veggies and cheese- instead of using the typical red sauce and meat.
But in answer to your question-the best tip I have found that I use in my cooking programs when we teach this sauce is most obviously watch the pot,stay attentive to it. You can’t leave it on its’ own for a minute. But the best thing is to consistently stir it with a wire whisk instead of a spoon. And if you can;t find a wire whisk- a fork may make an okay substitute. But most importantly you must keep watching it because at one point the sauce will be watery and you think yo can leave it alone and then all of a sudden it has gotten thick and sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning in that split second you left it alone. Think of your white sauce like a baby-shouldn’t be left alone.

Meg: When I was in Rome, I had an awesome espresso with Nutella in the bottom. What’s your favorite coffee drink?

Maria: My favorite coffee drink is something similar to what you mentioned. I had it in this great coffee bar that is one of my favorites in Italy. (I just did an interview in San Francisco Chronicle about it on June 4th). In this town called L’Aquila-(famous because it has 100 beautiful churches with so many beautiful works of art) there is a company famous for making this scrumptious candy called a torrone. Now many regions in Italy have their own version of this. But the two famous companies in this town is one family that split up into two companies. The company name is Nurzia. There now is Sorelle Nurzia (Nurzia Sisters) and Fratelli (Brothers and brothers or brothers and sisters Nurzia) Nurzia. The candy is typically made soft or hard and is made up of honey egg whites, and nuts. They use also hazelnuts grown i the Piedmont region and they specially coat their candy with a decadent European style dark chocolate. And for a double chocolate thrill they add a cocoa powder to the candy itself and then coat it with chocolate. The original factory where this candy was started still exists (Fratelli Nurzia) and i the front is an elegant coffee bar. They make a wonderful coffee drink called cafe torronata- which refers to the torrone. They serve it so elegantly also. It is served in an elegant glass they first put a chocolate covered torrone in bottom of glass pour in a normal shot of espresso, wait one minute and let the chocolate begin to melt,then top with fresh panna (whipped cream,dust a little cocoa powder on top) And you have my favorite coffee drink. If you go t L’Aquila and ask anyone in town they can tell you where to find Fratelli Nurzia. best time to visit L’Aquila in end of August when they have their medieval festival- the same festival that has been held for over 700 yrs. You will feel like you are back in medieval days.

To order your own copy of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, visit www.marialiberati.com. Let me know that you’re ordering, via email or in the comments, and you’ll get an autographed copy of the book, a sample of the spice blend, Sapori D’Italia, and a recipe for Tuscan-style bruschetta.

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The Basic Art Of Italian Cooking

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I knew that there would be an adjustment period as Stick and I reaclimated to each other, but I didn’t know there would be a honeymoon period, too. I’m always delighted when Stick gets me a drink or picks up my clothes (which I always seem to leave on the floor, and not in the hot way, either. Well, not always in the hot way). I also like having my WarCraft buddy a few feet away, so we can snark and strategize without using the chat channel.

“You’re like a dude,” he says.

“What?”

“I said ‘You’re like a dude’. You’re a guy.”

“I am not!” I tell him. Sure, I might drink my Gatorade from the bottle, but it’s purely out of consideration for Stick. In our new domestic arrangement, I cook and he cleans, and honestly, did he want me to dirty another glass? (See what a thoughtful girlfriend I am?)

Apparently, in the Stick universe, these form of consideration are somewhat, um, masculine. And funny. To him, I mean, not me.

“What are you working on now, Guy?” Stick asked. That’s exactly the type of cute pet name I’d expect from a boy who calls himself Stick.

“Um… an article about love and compatibility.”

“Right.”

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High Romance

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“What were you doing in Moscow?” the immigration guy at Newark airport asked.

“Transfering planes from China, I was only there for a few hours.”

“What were you doing in China?”

“I was teaching English in Yantai and I had the greatest students ever and they actually paid me money to make up English games and play with middle schoolers! And I — “

“For how long?” he asked, scrutinizing my visas. Then he looked at all the other passport stamps, and started to ask more questions. “And then were did you go?”

“Then I went to Rome for ten days and then I had high romance, because guess what? Stick still likes me! And now I’m going home for Christmas, because honestly, where would I rather spend Christmas than New Jersey?”

“Welcome back,” he said, adding another stamp to my passport, and I was so happy to be home, I almost cried.

My euphoria lasted for about ten minutes, then I found out that the airline sent my bags to the wrong country, and Stick’s connecting flight got cancelled, so yesterday I lost everything (including my boyfriend) to the airlines.

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Scenic New Jersey

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Sorry for the recent lack of content. I don’t have anything to say that’s not ridiculously sappy, and any time I spend blogging is time I’m not spending making googly-eyes with Stick, which he says sweet things like “Great job spotting the ablative absolute, baby!”

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High Romance (Again)

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Stick took me to a little coffeeshop near the Centro for breakfast.

°Itàs been a long year.° I said, over cappucinos at a small table. °I missed this,°

°I missed you too, baby,° he said.

°I meant my sandwich.°

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High Romance

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High romance while defending China from the Mongol hordes.

I have some more Beijing photos and I have a lot more to say but I want to see my sister and my boy as much as I can.

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Beijing Photos

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