Tea - Self Sufficient

We planted one chocolate mint the year before and one pepper mint last year. Finally they are taking off this year. As a matter of fact, they grow too well, almost dominating the whole herbal area. I believe that they will eventually if I don't do anything to suppress them.

Making tea is the best way to consume them. Now I am self-sufficient on mint tea.

Pepper mint:

Chocolate mint:

Fresh mint tea:

Popovers

I love foods presented on King Arthur Flour website. They have so many easy-to-make yet tasty recipes. This popovers is not an exception.

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, warmed in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before cracking
• 1 1/2 cups milk (skim, low-fat, or full-fat), lukewarm
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

1. Put the baking rack in the oven to the lower position (I used 2nd position from the bottoem). Preheat the oven at 425F (Trial and error proved 425F works better for me than 450F).

2. Immerse eggs in hot tap water for 10 minutes. Microwave heat the milk to lukewarm.

3. Whisk the eggs, milk and salts till well mixed. (Kitchen Aid works like a charm.)

4. Add the flour to the above mix and mix well, one minute is enough.

5. Pour the melted butter to the mix and blend well. It is a very runny batter.

6. Spray a standard 12X muffin tin thoroughly with Pam.

7. Pour the batter to the muffin tin, filling up to 3/4 full.

8. Bake at 425F for 18 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 350F without opening the oven door. Bake for another 10 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the popovers in the oven for another 3-5 minutes. The ideal color will be dark brown, but not burned.

The texture of this popover reminds me of the Dutch baby pancakes we eat often. Smooth, buttery and eggy.

2010 Easter Egg Fun

2010 Easter - The Feast

Asparagud Chicken Roll

Wednesday evening, I decided to make a pasta dish with the fresh asparagus, of course, with meat as well. Hubby came up with an idea to roll the chicken around the asparagus. So here comes this nicely represented asparagus chicken pasta dish.

Chicken thigh was flattened using the flat side of the meat tenderizer. Tooth picks were used to secure the rolls. Sauteed in olive oil till the chicken was done.

Cooking in the pan:

Close to be done:

Dinner Severed:

Enjoy:

Blueberry Scones

We picked so many blueberries last summer that we still have a couple of gallon ziploc bags of them in the freezer. I therefore look for proper ways to eat them. One day, I came across this one. Flax seeds, oat meal, non fat yogurt, egg white.... all sound healthy and tasty. Most importantly, this recipe did not disappoint me at all. Everybody loved the scones. My 2 years old daughter ate two in no time!!!! I also baked another batch using black raspberries (also picked in the summer!!!), yummy yummy. My husband and I agreed that they were the best scones that we have ever eaten.

Quinoa with beets and Brussel sprouts

Quinoa is a relatively new food, but very trendy. I have been wanted to cook it for so long, however, I kept forgetting to buy some. Finally last weekend, I bought some in the bulk fruit/grain section in Wegmans and it is organic!

Tonight, I forged this dish in my head by playing colors. I cooked the Quinoa in chicken stock, so I got this yellowish hue. Brussel sprouts were boiled in water then sauted in olive oil with garlic and a little bit mushroom. Beets were from a tin, so I simply rinsed them and added to the veggies. When the Quinoa was done cooking, I added it to the mixed veggies, topped with some toasted pine nuts and ready to serve. (I forgot to add the pine nuts before I remembered to take the picture.) It was very health and pretty tasty.


I will definitely make this dish again, with whatever veggies in hand, and I will add some meat, too. Because my husband thought I forgot the essence of a meal for this dish. :-) Guess I will never become a vegetarian.

Cheesy Pull-apart Bread

My husband often finds interesting baking recipes for me to try. This weekend, he sent me this one. After skimming it, I was very intrigued by both the ingredients and the look. I didn't have the Vermont cheese power, and the more than one foot high snow on the ground killed the idea of driving out to the store, so I substituted it with Parmesan powder. The original recipe suggested to use a round cake pan or deep casserole dish. I used this 8X8 baking dish, and it worked out just fine. I also extended the baking time from 15+20 minutes to 15+30 minutes.

Ready for the Oven:


Fresh out of the oven:


After dinner:


We ate almost half of them because......... they tasted so so so good. I will definitely make it again and again.

Golden Eggroll

After cooking the Lion's head dish last weekend, I got some ground meat left. It gave me the perfect chance to try a new recipe out: ground meat wrapped around with a layer of cooked egg.

Egg wrapper:

1 egg
2 Tbsp starch
1 Tbsp water

Heat a pan on medium/low heat. Mix the egg well and pour on the pan sprayed with some non-stick cooking spray. Swirl the pan to evenly distribute the egg mix. Cook till the egg becomes solid.

Filling:

Out of your imagination. Ground meat, chopped shrimp, veggies, so on and so forth.

Assembling:

Lay a layer of Saran wrap on the chopping board, then lay the egg wrapper on top. Spread a layer of filling, about 1 inch thick. On top of this, lay one sheet of Nori paper. On top, spread another layer of filling, no more than 1 inch thick.

From both sides, roll the whole thing till you are satisfied. Use the Saran wrap to hold the roll in place. Loosely seal the two ends. Steam for 25mins.

Cut into thin slices and serve warm.

Yangzhou Meatballs (Lion's Head; 扬州狮子头)

This is a local specialty in Yangzhou city in the South in China. I heard a lot good things about it in the States. However, I have to admit that I have never had it in China, for one, I grew up in the North when my palate was just being developed; for two, the busy study kept me away from all the luxurious life events, including trying all kinds of cuisines, when I was actually in the South.

This weekend, I was inspired to give it a try at home. I half-followed a recipe I found on a Chinese website (thanks, but I forgot where I found it exactly). As many people already know that authentic Chinese dish does not have a followable recipe. In a written recipe, very often, one will find "a little soy sauce, a little salt and so on". So it is ultimately not followable to me.

My twist to make the meat mix is as following:
1.5 lb ground pork shoulder
1 medium sized potato, fine grated
1 small onion, fine chopped
1 small bunch of cilantro, fine chopped
3 spring onions
1 egg
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
pepper
ginger, fine chopped

Mix above ingredients together by stirring in one direction. I also added about 1 cup of water to make the mixture soft.

Heat up a heavy duty non-stick pan on low heat, add a table spoonful of olive oil.

Shape meatballs with hands, about 4" in diameter, and lay all of them in the pan before turn the heat to high. When it sizzles, add in one cup of cold water along the edge of the pan. Cover and simmer like making pot stickers.

In the meantime, to make the broth in a wok. I used baby cabbage and mushrooms. Simply, saute the mushrooms on medium heat for about 2 mins, then add the baby cabbage, saute for 2 mins. Add half liter of water to the work and boil.

When the juice in the meatball is gone, add the meatballs to the broth in the wok. Simmer for 10 minutes. Done!!!

Chinese Buns

Chinese buns are very tasty, but are kind of difficult to make. Of course, the difficulty is relative to one's cooking capabilities. Asking 10 middle-aged Chinese women in Northern China, I bet at least 8 of them will think making Chinese Buns is a snap. Both my Mom and sister will be in the 8 group.

I have tried a few times to make them. My memory is either the buns were not risen, or collapsed once I opened the steamer lid. After soliciting advices and trial&error, I managed to make decent Chinese buns now.

Evidences:


Closer view:

Inside view:

One day, I took some for lunch at work, a Canadian girl saw it and started drooling. There is reasons for her exaggerated reaction. That is because she lived in Beijing for a semester and impressed in Chinese food served there. Anyway, I nicely shared one bun with her and awarded by her satisfied murmuring, yummy yummy.

Home-Made Granola Bar

My neighbor invited me to attend a hot yoga session during the past holiday season. She offered me a Cliff MoJo bar for the empty stomach afterward. It was so good, not too sweet, had the perfect balance of nuts and oat. More interestingly, it had pretzels in there too. On a health note, it had no high glucose corn syrup. I liked it so much that I was inspired/decided to make them at home.

I found one recipe on foodnet work by Alton Brown. Of course, I edited it according to my memory of the Cliff MoJo bar and add more healthy essences.

I used oat, wheat germ, pretzel (low salt), hazel nuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, raisins, 1/4 cup brown sugar, honey.

They tasted so good. Even my daughter liked it very much, too. I am a bit proud of myself.....

Ready to bake:
The Bars:

2009 Thanksgiving!

2009 Thanksgiving was special! It was because my parents-in-law flew in town to spend it with us. Audrey met Grandma and Grandpa once before when she was only 6 months old, but she was bonded with them almost the moment they got in our house.

On the big day, everybody was busy!

Audrey was busy being cute!

Yes, she had two outfits for the day!

Mother-in-Law was busy scrubbing our baby-crusty breakfast table! Thanks a lot.

Father and Son were busy in the kitchen:

The Bird was ready for the oven incubation:

The Bird was ready for our watery mouths and hungry stomachs:

I was SUPERVISING:
not really. :-)))

Audrey and Grandpa were busy kissing:

All carved:

The feast:

My plate:

It was a big dinner, I did eat all of these AND took more later. I was very much into the Thanksgiving culture here.