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

Texas Weather = New Zealand Weather

Yesterday was cold!  Instead of the spring-borderline-summer weather we've had lately here in Texas, there was a cold front Sunday night.  Today the high temperature of 62 degrees (17 C) tied the old record low maximum temperature for this day set in 1966.  Brrrrr!  


You know, it almost feels like fall weather.  I think this is what's called a New Zealand May Moment, or what the kids call a NZMM*.  Since the seasons are reversed in NZ, fall is just ending, winter is setting in, and highs have been in the low 60's (16 C).

 

Check out today's weather maps for Texas and New Zealand.  Same color...hmmm...Maybe the fact that the Kiwi Flatmate and I are living together is causing the temperatures in these places to sync up?


Signed,
American Roomie


*I just made that up.

New Zealand -> American Dictionary: Jandals

Last week, I quizzed you all about the Kiwi meaning of the word "jandals."  Here were the results:  

50% of the respondents were correct!  Jandals are a New Zealand word for flip-flops.  I had no clue when I first heard the Kiwi Flatmate use it, but it makes sense.  After all, it's only one letter off from sandals.  I dig the word and will start to incorporate it into my vocabulary.  I can't say the same thing for the term thongs.  I looked up some other names for flip-flops/jandals.  Can you match them with their respective country or region?

Term                       Country

Slops                       South Pacific

Chinelo                    South Africa

Zories                      Greece 

Go-aheads                U.S. (East Coast)

Sayonares                Brazil

Leave your responses in a comment below.

Signed,

American Roomie

How to Prevent a Facebook Attack

1.  Do not leave the house with your computer on and in a common area such as the dining room table.


2.  Do not stay permanently logged into your Facebook account.


3.  Do not share a house with the Kiwi Flatmate.


If you do not follow the steps listed above, your Facebook account will be attacked.  Multiple times.  Here is the latest strike by the Kiwi Flatmate:

It is true that every New Zealander I've met is cool, smart, and funny; however, my sample size is 1.  

Signed,

American Roomie

PechaKucha

Last night, the Jamerican, the Kiwi Flatmate, the Murder Mystery Waitress, and I went to PechaKucha night.  If you haven't been to one of these events before, you should definitely go here and find out about one in your city.  Presenters show 20 images for 20 seconds each.  Their talk coordinates with the slides, which are on an automatic timer.  It makes for fast-paced, informative, and usually funny presentations.  

Seaholm Power Plant

The events are held in different locations each time, and last night we were at the Seaholm Power Plant, which was very eerie and we kinda felt like we were in Batman.  The speakers were two artists, two musicians, a trailer park food blogger, a photographer, a furniture designer, a burlesque dancer, and a group of four guys that we weren't really sure what they were.  


Southpaw Jones, a local musician, completely stole the show with the short, funny songs he made up to go with 20 random slides the organizers had picked out for him ahead of time.  This morning I've been listening to his music online.  I was hoping for songs as playful and hilarious as what I heard last night and was not disappointed.

But the most interesting fact I picked up last night was from artist Bieli Liu.  Not only was her art awesome, but she also told us about the Chinese legend of the red string of fate.  According to this, the gods tie an invisible red thread around the ankles of two people who are soul mates.  I read more about the legend on wikipedia, and I really dig it.  I also realized that these guys must be soul mates:

Signed,
American Roomie

Do Jamaicans eat...

Yesterday I posted about how the Jamerican told us that people don't eat pizza in Jamaica.  I found that hard to believe, so I googled, "Do Jamaicans eat pizza?"  The third result from the search was Answers.com - Do Jamaicans eat cats?  This surprised not only me but the Kiwi Flatmate and the Jamerican.  Who would think to ask whether or not Jamaicans eat cats?  Then the first result on the second page was do Jamaicans eat hamsters?  Craziness!


The Kiwi Flatmate tried to google the same thing, and after she had typed, "Do Jamaicans eat...", Google autocomplete gave this:

We started playing around with the autocomplete, and this is what we got for New Zealanders:

And for Americans:

So from this, we can conclude that internet users around the world often wonder whether Jamaicans eat cats, whether New Zealanders eat Christmas, and whether Americans eat too much.  Only the last one is not surprising.

Signed,

American Roomie

Canned Spaghetti Pie and a Country Without Pizza

We eat a lot of pizza at The Red Door.  Last week, there were 2 pizzas delivered here.  Then we got a notification from our property managers that they have secured a deal with a local pizza company giving us 25% off any order on Mondays.  Enter pizza number 3.  

While waiting for the delivery, the Kiwi Flatmate told the Jamerican and I about how growing up her mum would make pizza by baking dough covered with canned spaghetti and mozzarella cheese.  I suggested that we make it one night.  That was quickly vetoed.  The Kiwi Flatmate said it wasn't very delicious.  I guess it's just one of those things that you ate when you were little but that you kind of want to forget.  Like bites of straight butter.  Or raw hot dogs.  (My mom denies it to this day, but when my sister and I were little, if we asked for a snack before dinner, she'd sometimes give us a raw hot dog.)


I asked the Jamerican what kind of pizza she ate growing up, and she said they don't eat pizza in Jamaica.  I didn't believe her at first.  Maybe this was her version of a drop bear, but evidently, it's just not a thing there.  It's hard for me to imagine a life without pizza.  What would you eat at slumber parties?  How would you learn about fractions?!


A quick internet search turned up the site www.lifewithoutpizza.com.  I immediately wondered if it was about Jamaica.  Nope.  It's a blog about a guy who gave up pizza for lent.  Each post describes how much he would like to eat pizza.  Now that Easter has arrived, he can snarf his favorite food again.  It's a good thing that guy doesn't live in Jamaica.  


Signed,
American Roomie

Kiwi-Lime Pie Challenge Accepted

The Kiwi Flatmate has accepted my challenge to make a Kiwi-Lime Pie without a recipe.  She will attempt this as soon as the spring semester has finished. 

Here are the rules:

1.  She will create the pie without consulting a recipe or the internet.

2.  She has the option of using a pre-made crust.

3.  The Jamerican and I will judge the pie based on overall appearance, taste, overall impression, and level of creativity.  

I'm a little nervous to see what she comes up with, but I think it's got to be better than this:

Pork, egg, and bacon pie...heart attack city!

A pork, egg, and bacon pie?  That sounds like a pig's nightmare!


Signed,
American Roomie

Jandals

If the Kiwi Flatmate comes downstairs, takes one look at you, and says, "Wooooaaah, nice jandals!" what does she mean?  


Don't Google it!  


Do you have a guess?  Don't think too hard.  Go with your first answer.


New Zealanders, feel free to respond too.  Today you're the teacher's pet!  


[Update:  When the Kiwi Flatmate read this post, she laughed and said, "You didn't feel the need to tell everybody how when you first heard the word you mistook it for genitals."  Ha ha, I had totally forgotten about that.  Selective memory.]

Recipe Smecipe

Today I made a Rustic Strawberry Tart.  As I prepared it, I thought about how there are two kinds of people in the world:  the kind who use recipes to bake and the kind who don't.


The Kiwi Flatmate is a member of the latter category.  When she bakes, she is particularly proud of the fact that she does not use a recipe.  She's much more daring than I am.  My strict adherence to recipes started several years ago after I tried to invent "Thanksgiving in a Skillet."  Ground turkey blended with potatoes, cranberry sauce, and green beans not only looks pink and gross, but doesn't taste good either.  Since that incident, going crazy in the kitchen for me means adding pecans when they aren't called for.  Wait.  Instead of going crazy, would that be going nuts?


The Jamerican shares my view.  "I don't think I've ever baked something without using a recipe," she said.  "I sometimes stray from the recipe, but I don't want to go in trying to make a cake and end up with a pie."


So is the Kiwi Flatmate any good at baking, you might wonder?  This is an official challenge to her.  One kiwi-lime pie please.  No recipes.  Just you, the ingredients, and the kitchen.  Go.

Itchin' to Scratch

Ever had an itch you just can't help scratching?  Earlier this evening, the Jamerican came home with ant bites on her ankle that would not stop itching.  I suggested taking an Advil pill and rubbing it on the bite to alleviate the itch.  The Jamerican was skeptical that this would work, and rightly so since that wouldn't have.  I was thinking of a home remedy I had read involving aspirin.  


Instead, the Jamerican turned to the Kiwi Flatmate for help since she studies public health.  The Kiwi Flatmate came to the rescue suggesting that the she tickle herself somewhere between the bite and her head.  The tickling, the Kiwi Flatmate explained, would confuse the nervous system by interrupting the signal of the itch being sent to the brain.  The Jamerican tickled the upper part of her leg.  It didn't work.  Then she tickled right above the ant bite.  It worked!  Not only did she no longer itch, but she was smiling from the tickling!  


I love this anti-itch, mood enhancing cure!  I almost can't wait to get a bite and try it myself.  Scratch that.  I can wait.  Wait!  Don't scratch that...Tickle it!

The Jamerican tickling her foot.

Buying Books: The Untold Story...Now told

Kiwifruit is green and so is the Kiwi Flatmate.

A couple of weeks ago, I told the Kiwi Flatmate and the Jamerican that I was going to purchase a book to read.  I was dying to get my hands on American Idol: The Untold Story.  Just as I was about to click "Place Your Order" on Amazon, they both went nuts!  "Why purchase the book?"  "Why not check it out from the library or get it in a book swap?"  "Think of what I was doing to the environment!"  "Killing extra trees for no reason!"  

Plus, I think they might have truly believed that because the book was about a reality television show it would actually do more harm to the environment.  "That's nothing but rubbish," the Kiwi Flatmate cried.  "Any book that has 'The Untold Story' as its subtitle has to be rubbish."  A quick Amazon search seemed to support her theory.  I won't be reading The Untold Story of Milk, Revised and Updated - The History, Politics and Science of Nature's Perfect Food:  Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows anytime soon.  

Nevertheless, I'd had my eye on the American Idol book for a while and really wanted to read it.  I was skeptical that the university library, though extensive, would carry the book (it didn't), and I didn't think it was the kind of reading that is typical of book swap websites (it wasn't).  In the end, I settled for getting a used copy from Amazon.  

It arrived in great condition last Thursday.  This picture is slightly yellow, which is what you'd expect with the weird indoor lighting.  Still, I would have expected that used books would be green.

Signed,

American Roomie

"It's been such a pretty day."

I spent the weekend visiting my sister and BIL.  On Saturday we down to the coast and visited the Texas State Aquarium, which was surprisingly awesome.  We saw all sorts of crazy fish, petted sting rays, met a giant female turtle named Einstein, saw a dolphin show, and realized that the price of Dippin' Dots has only increased 50 cents in the last 7 years.


The aquarium was right on the coast, the sun was out, and it was neither too hot nor too cold.  I loved seeing the waves lap up on the shore and feeling the wind whip through my hair as we walked around outside.  In the evening, after we'd returned home and had dinner, we all stepped outside to enjoy the sunset.  That's when I thought, "It's been such a pretty day."

View of the sunset from my sister and brother-in-law's front porch.

One of the American phrases that the Kiwi Flatmate finds peculiar but charming is, "It's a pretty day."  To her a day is nice or beautiful, but never pretty.  That's pretty funny to me.  I too refer to days as nice or beautiful on occasion, but it depends on the level of prettiness.  The Kiwi Flatmate and I decided that:
1.  A day that is somewhat pretty is a nice day.
2.  A day that is pretty, but not extraordinary is a pretty day.
3.  A day has to be pretty pretty in order for it to be a beautiful day.


Signed,
American Roomie

New Zealand -> American Dictionary: to be puffed

My favorite New Zealand word so far is "puffed."

To be puffed = to be winded, out of breath

Puffed is just a fun word to say.  Puffed corn, puffed rice, puffed pastries.

Things that are puffed look funny.  Take the puffer fish for example.

Or my puffed cheeks.

Or Puff Daddy...

If you read this entire post without taking a breath, by the end, you will understand the New Zealand meaning of puffed.  

Signed,

American Roomie

Pimentos

I had a jar of green olives out yesterday when the Kiwi Flatmate came through the kitchen and gasped, "What's that?!"  I thought, no way she doesn't know what olives are.  She haaaaas to know what olives are.  Of course she knew what olives were, but she wanted to know what the red part was inside it.

"The pimento," I said.

"The what?"

"The pimento."

"What's that?"

She stumped me.  What is a pimento?  I'd never thought about it before.  I asked the Jamerican.

"It's the little red thing inside the olive," she said.  

"Yeah, but what is it?"

"I don't know?  Is it a pepper?  Pimento sounds like the Spanish word for pepper."

The Jamerican's boyfriend, the Long Island Guy, came into the room, and we asked him what a pimento was.

"It's cheese," he said.

"It's not cheese!"

"Yeah, it is.  It's cheese.  Pimento cheese."

"It doesn't even taste like cheese!"

I didn't know what exactly what a pimento was, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't cheese.  I know there's pimento cheese, but I think that's cheese with pimentos in it.  I got out my jar of green olives, so that the Long Island Guy could taste it and confirm he thought it tasted like cheese.

The Long Island Guy trying a green olive to see if the pimento tastes like cheese.

After he had finished chewing, I asked if he thought it tasted like cheese.  "I don't know," he said.  "It took so long for you to take the pictures that it disintegrated in my mouth."

A quick google search confirmed that pimentos are indeed peppers as the Jamerican guessed.  The Kiwi Flatmate didn't know if pimentos come in olives in New Zealand or not because she doesn't eat many olives.  Any New Zealanders out there know if there are pimentos in your green olives?

Signed,

American Roomie