Eating from the hot pot

It looks like fall has packed its bags and left the building. It got cold and rainy/sleety yesterday here in Chicagoland and it looks like that unpleasantness is going to stick around awhile.

With the weather turning cold, thoughts turn to foods that warm. A typical Midwest winter dinner doesn't center on the hot pot, but ours did last night. And it was delicious! We've been trying to get together with some friends who recently returned from a big trip to China so we could trade Asian travel stories and last night was the night.

Derek and Mari put on a wonderful dinner. It was a traditional Asian hot pot meal. Think a really hearty soup, chock full of Asian elements. It was really fun to watch it all being prepared. The vegetables that made their way in were tremendous and the fish, meat, and dim sum just made it all the more amazing. I had made some bao (did chicken this time) to accompany the hot pot. We had a great time talking over our travels through Asia and then we moved onto Europe and our mutual experiences there.

We also found ourselves talking about our mutual university experiences. Mutual in the sense that we all went to the same university, but I was once again reminded that I'm old. We got to talking about my recent visit back to campus to visit Our Lady of BYU and Mari mentioned a French class she took in the JKHB. I mentioned how surprised I was by the renovation, which I thought had been done recently. Turns out it was done while she was an undergrad there, which wasn't so long ago. Shari reminded me at that point that I'm old. And I guess I am getting there.

Since I am old, per my family, I felt no guilt today in literally taking it easy most of the day. I gave blood this morning and took the counsel of the folks there to rest up today. So I holed up in the basement, watched a few episodes of "The Office" - Season Four on DVD, and have been laughing a lot. You just can't get enough of watching Michael Scott mowing down Meredith in the first episode. Good times!