TGI...S?

I woke up this morning and thought, "TGIF!"  This week has been good, but it's seemed to go by reeeeeaaaaallllllyyy sloooooooowwwwllly.  I'm glad it's Friday.  Then I realized that it's not Friday in New Zealand.  They're Friday has come and gone.  In fact, while it's about 10am here, it's just after 3am on Saturday morning there.

I guess Texans and New Zealanders can never really bond over it being Friday.

Signed,

American Roomie

Justin Bieber

The Jamerican and the Kiwi Flatmate are out of town, so I threw a party.  A Justin Bieber Party.  That's right.  I'm 29 years old, and I'm a Belieber.  I sent an email out to my friends hoping for someone to watch the Justin Bieber: Never Say Never movie with me, and to my surprise, five people came (including the Murder Mystery Waitress).  I popped some corn, and they brought snacks.

Our setup gave us slumber party flashbacks.

And when it was all said and done, five other twenty-somethings and contracted Bieber fever.  It's contagious.


Signed,
American Roomie

Digging a Hole to China

When you were little did you ever try to dig a hole to China?  I tried once in the playground at the park, and I got about .000000048% of the way there.  For those of you doing the math, that's about 2 feet.  It's a good thing I didn't get all the way through though because I would have ended up somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
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I asked the Kiwi Flatmate if she ever tried to dig a hole to China as a kid.  She hadn't.  Digging straight through the Earth from New Zealand wouldn't get you anywhere near China.  In fact, if would spit you out into the northwestern part of Spain.  Perhaps New Zealand play grounds are filled with abandoned attempts to dig holes to Spain?
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Signed,

American Roomie

American -> New Zealand Dictionary: sprinkling

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We've needed rain in Texas for a while!  I went out for a run this morning, and when I got back, the Kiwi Flatmate asked me about the weather.  
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"It wasn't too hot or humid," I said.  "It's sprinkling a little bit, so that kept me cool."
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"Sprinkling!"  she said.  "What's that?!"  
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"Like rain.  Just a little bit of rain.  What would you say?"
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"Spitting.  It's spitting a bit."
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Spitting!  Who wants to go outside when someone's hawking loogies?  Hmmm...does that mean that when it's poring rain in New Zealand that it's drooling?
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Signed,
American Roomie

What'd you say?

I've gotten used to the Kiwi Flatmate's accent, and she says that even she usually forgets she has an accent.  But the other day, she was reminded of this during a taxi ride home.  
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She told the cab driver our address, "East blah blah Street" and the driver had no clue what she said.  "Aces bleh bleh Street"?  She repeated the word "East" several times until he got it.  
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"You're not from around here, are you?"  he said.  "You must be from somewhere far away, like Tennessee."  
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"Nope," she said.  "New Zealand."
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"Oh, is that near the Netherlands?"
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"Nope.  Australia."
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"Ah, down in the bottom half."
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"Yup."
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Thankfully the cab driver is the first American she's met that hasn't known where New Zealand is.  I know where New Zealand is, but now I'm wondering...where's Old Zealand?  Or is Old Zealand just called Zealand?  
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Actually, I have an idea where it is.  Maybe it's where you go in your dreams?  Get it?  Z-land?
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Signed,
American Roomie

The No Recipe "Kiwi" Lime Pie

She did it!!  She made a Key Lime Pie without a recipe!!!!!
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Two weeks ago, I challenged the Kiwi Flatmate to make a Kiwi Lime Pie without using a recipe.  Two days later, she accepted the challenge, and yesterday, when I came home from school she was in the kitchen debating about whether or not to add more lime juice to her mixture.  
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To me, baking without a recipe is a thrill seeking adventure that you really, really hope doesn't go wrong - like going commando.  To the Kiwi Flatmate, recipes are extraneous information - like the directions on a shampoo bottle.  Here is what she whipped up:
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The Kiwi Flatmate's "Kiwi" Lime Pie Ingredients
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* About 18 key limes, juiced

* Plain cookies for the crust

* Sugar (not used), 1 can of condensed milk, butter (crust), 2 eggs

* 1 bottle of Peppermint Schnapps

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You might be wondering how the Peppermint Schnapps fit into the equation.  That was the rolling pin for making the pie crust.  She crushed up the cookies, mixed the crumbs with butter, and rolled it out in the pie pan.
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Then she made the filling.  She first mixed lime juice and egg yolks, but it was too limey, so she added the condensed milk.  Then she had to add more lime juice to make it less sweet.  She didn't want to waste the egg whites, so she whipped them up into a meringue.  Finally, she put it in the oven set at somewhere between 300 and 400 F, and she didn't even set a timer.  We have no clue how long it was in there.
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After it had cooled, I had a slice, and it was........
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......delicious!  Sweet, light, and very yummy.  
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After we ate the pie, I googled a Key Lime Pie recipe.  Here is the first one that came up:
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5 egg yolks, beaten
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice
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Nearly identical.  I'm extremely impressed, and I certainly wasn't expecting this. I guess you could say I was sur-pie-sed.
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Signed,
American Roomie

Best Way to Eat a Mango: American, New Zealand, and Jamaican Methods Compared

It turns out that the Kiwi Flatmate, the Jamerican, and I all have completely different ways of eating a mango.  I love mangoes, so I was excited to learn some new ways of slicing and dicing.  Here is a comparison of the three methods:

Peel and Slice:  The American Roomie's Method

The way I have always eaten a mango is by first peeling the skin with a knife.  Then I slice off sections of the fruit half moon shapes.  This results in slippery and satisfying mango pieces. 

pros:  visually appealing, nice slippery taste in mouth, easy to serve to others

cons:  difficult and time consuming to prepare, messy to eat with fingers, requires a knife

Slice, Score, and Flip:  The Kiwi Flatmate's Method

The Kiwi Flatmate slices half of the mango off and then scores the fruit by slicing vertically and horizontally.  Then she pushes on the skin side of the mango half until the fruit flips out.  This provides cubes of mango that can easily be bitten off.  

 

pros:  pretty much mess free, easy way to get cubes of mango, the flipping part is fun

cons:  requires a knife, sometimes difficult to flip

Skin and Eat:  The Jamerican's Method

The Jamerican washes the mango, bites into it, peels the skin back until there is enough fruit revealed to take a solid bite.  She keeps peeling with her teeth and eating as she goes until all that's left is the pit.

 

pros:  no knife required, the awesome feeling of biting into a mango like you would an apple

cons:  messy, lots of strings in teeth, can't really share with someone else (but then again, mangoes are so good, why would you share?)

Which mango method do you prefer?

Signed,

American Roomie