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Third t-day in Beijing

 

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This past Thursday we had our third thanksgiving here in Beijing, yet this is the first one we had without visitors.  In the past my parents and my sister would visit and we would have a take-out thanksgiving dinner prepared by a local western restaurant.   This year, since we would not be entertaining guests, I decided to make a homemade dinner given I had the time. 

Of all the ingredients one needs to make a traditional thanksgiving menu, the turkey is by far the most exotic.  Finding an imported one is not that difficult, but there isn't one on every grocery store shelf.  I was able to track down a 12lb imported frozen turkey for our feast.  The only downside is that it was a butterball, so i couldn't do a brine.   I gathered (with the help of amy) all the ingredients and began the serious cooking wednesday night after work. 

For our dinner, we invited some american friends with two small children the girls' age.  It was nice to have guests and they brought the wine.

Our menu was this:

• Roast Turkey with homemade pan gravy
• Sausage and Herb Stuffing
• Homemade Green Bean Casserole
• Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Rustic Rosemary Bread with Herb Compound Butter
• Green Salad
• Pumpkin Pie
• Apple Pie (supplied by our guests)

I was very happy with the turkey.  It cooked a little faster than I was ready for, but at 165 she must exit!.  It was juicy and the white meat the next day was still moist. 

I actually wasnt very happy with the gravy this year.  I usually make great gravy supplementing the pan drippings with a roasted garlic chicken au jus recipie from my balthazar cookbook and reduce the hell out of it.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I went more traditional and used a buerre manie method which made it artificially thickened instead of being reduced.  I'll know next time to stick to what works.

I also was disappointed with my stuffing.  It was beautiful with apples and dried cranberries, and I had great sausage from the german butcher.  But it was a little to fruity for me.  I like my stuffing with more root vegetables, sauage and the strong fennel seed aroma. 

The green bean casserole was awesome.  I tried alton browns recipe and it worked well for this classic, and nothing comes from the can!

The mashed potatoes were great.  I have been using the same recipie for ages and it always works.  Just don't ask how many calories.  It was made easier with a new hand mixer I broke down and bought.  After doing all the whisking by hand for a couple of years here (voltage issues with my other toys), and said enough is enough.

The bread was great!  And I let it get really brown and crusy to give it the rustic country look.

The pies were good and I was able to use the kids pumkins from halloween to make the pumpkin filling.  I roasted it a few weeks ago and froze it. 

We had a great time, and it can't be minimized how awesome it is to have an ayi to manage the cleanup.  At work the next day I had my first of many delicious turkey sandwiches.

Though not the same as at home, and of course missing our family and friends, it still amazes how you can create normal in a non-normal environment.   See everyone soon!

 

 

What to do when your gym goes bankrupt...

over the last 1.5 years, I have become more regular in my pursuit of fitness via both diet and exercise with good results.  one of the advantages of living in nice expat housing is you get access to usually nice fitness centers.  Our apartment complex had one of the nicest gyms in town.  It was very western in its design and equipment, and had a really good selection of free weights.  It was actually manged by a third party, but over the last year, that third party has gone through some financial difficulty.  they shut down for a week in the spring, and agreed to reopen at the cost of the apartment's management company until a new buyer could be found.  They agreed to keep the place open through this transition.  Bally's agreed to buy this place in August and began the transition.  It turns out there was some disagreement between both parties so in late September they just put locks on the doors, and posted some unclear document in the window saying basically, we will open when we are ready. (this putting locks on doors unannounced and places just disappearing happens ALOT here - very strange)   Fast forward to today, they space is still empty and no work is being done.  Who knows when it will be open, but my guess is nothing will happen before January and that's probably a stretch.  

So what does one do?  Its a good excuse to do nothing, but I have made too much progress to stop.  I could buy a membership at another Gym (but gyms here are uncommon and its not like there is an equinox on every corner).  Logistically and financially it just wouldn't make sense...and what happens when the new place opens? Don't want to double pay for a membership and month to month is not an option here (annual contracts prepaid are the norm with this and with many other things)

When my parents came last April they brought a pull up bar and some resistance bands I had purchased and had shipped to them.  I thought that I could use these in the short term to build strength.  For cardio, I could run (but I hate that)...or I could use my occasional stairs workout.  We live on the 30th floor here in Beijing and walking up the stairs to our apartment is a good challenge.  I used to do one or two circuits for exercise.  I thought, if I did a few more it would end up being a really good source for cardio.  To climb up to the 30th floor it takes about 5 minutes and its about 522 steps...do a couple of circuits and that's a good exercise routine.

I tried many different exercises with the resistance bands (and actually snapped two of them), but I found so ones that work and don't risk the snapping.  But I cannot do any leg exercises with bands as that's where the snapping problem happened, so I use stairs for leg strength.

So my plan now is like this:

Cardio:

1. M-F ride my bike to work every day (26km round-trip each day - moderate pace for safety reasons - i used to ride harder, but it ends up being a little dicey and as you'll see below, I don't really need the intensity)
2. After each upper body strength session, do 4 up and downs in the stairs (4x a week)
3. Anaerobic HIIT 2X a week
   1. Down, up stairs warm up
   2. Repeat the following sequence 6-8 times:
      1. Down 8 flight of stairs, rest 1 minute
      2. Sprint up 8 flights of stairs going every 2 stairs

Strength:

1. 2X a week:  Back/Chest exercises:  
   1. Pullups - 40 reps broken into as many sets as needed
   2. Pushups - 125 reps broken into as many sets as needed
   3. Back resistance band bent over rows - 3X25
   4. Incline/Wide grip decline pushup supersets - 3X24
   5. Resistance Band Good Mornings (using broom handle on back, standing on band loops) - 3X30
   6. Hanging Leg Raise - 3X20
2. 2X a week: Shoulder/Arm exercises
   1. Standing Miltary Press - 4X20
   2. Flyes/Front Raise superset - 3X30
   3. Upright Rows - 3X12
   4. Shrugs - 3X30
   5. Tricep pushdown - 3X30
   6. Bicep curl/Hammer curl superset - 3X40
   7. Plank 3X1:30
3. 2X week: Leg Strength
   1. Warm up, down, up and down stairs once (30 flights)
   2. Repeat the following sequence twice using the stairs
      1. 15 Right Leg Lunges (every 3rd step)
      2. 15 Left Leg Lunges (every 3rd step)
      3. 30 Alternating Leg Lunges (every 3rd step)
      4. 30 crossover Lunges (every 2 steps - 3 is too dangerous)
      5. 30 side crossover lunges (every 2 steps)
      6. 30 side to side(skater) (every 3rd step)
      7. 30 regular side lunges with hands behind head (every 3rd step)
4. 2X week: Plyometrics
   1. Warm up and down stairs once (30 flights)
   2. Repeat the following sequence 3 times:
      1. Jump up and back 1 step with both legs X 20 - rest 1 minute
      2. Jump up and back 2 steps with both legs X 20 - rest 1 minute
      3. Jump up and back 3 steps with both legs X 10 - rest 1 minute
      4. Jump up and back 4 steps with both legs X 5 - rest 1 minute
      5. Jump up and back 5 steps with both legs X 1 - rest 1 minute (this one is scary, sometimes have ot put my hand on the wall)
      6. 15 Knees to Chest tuck jumps as fast as you can - rest 1 minute

So that's what I do...its a lot when you write it all down, but with some creativity, you can get a damn good workout without all of the fancy equipment.  My weight is slowly dropping still, and my strength is increasing.  Pullups is an area where I have seen dramatic improvement.  I can now do more in a max set than when I could in college (13 is my new max and then it was 10)  I still want the gym to open because I'd really like to lift weights, but this routine as a stop gap is working.

I wrote this post to demonstrate that you need to really be creative here sometimes.  I've stated many times about how this place really doesn't have a good service mindset.  This issue with the gym is an excellent example of that lack of a service mindset.  No one is concerned that is closed and no one cares that no one knows when it will be open - even though these are literally multimillion dollar apartments and a gym (and the pool that goes with it)  is basically a requirement.  So as an expat, you have to improvise on many things...and this is one annoyingly detailed example.