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Inspired by Sophia’s “food profile” post, I kept thinking of what defines myself….well, first start, in terms of drink:

I drink lots lots of waters every day, especially when I am at home and need to hold a warm cup at hand all the time. Besides morning cup of Joe (sorry, still addicted!), I drink various kind of “weird” drinks. Need something really thick , creamy, sweet , and fresh???  try this Mocha Milk Tea I just got in the newly opened Asian grocery store. Mocha is pronounced as “mo cha”(green tea flavored), instead of “mo ka” (chocolate)

The milk tea originated from Hong Kong ( I guess), made with black tea and real milk, with splash of sugar or condensed milk. It have a coffee-like color, velvet texture, taste very creamy , with the distinct flavor from black tea. This Mocha milk tea is made of green tea powder that is extremely popular in Japan.  The green-colore makes me feel I am drinking veggies (well actually I am not!), that’s the very reason I was attracted!!! Lightly sweetened, according to my sweetness tolerance scale:-P, and very creamy. In terms of taste , I would give it a 4/5. what’s that 1 point missing?  well, it has hydrogenated oils which are bad for your health. I know its bad, but still drinking it!! oh man. plus, there is some green tea powder will be left at the bottom of the cup…which is kinda bitter flavor!!

Sibling sweet teas is always a pleasure in the afternoon. No wonder there is a milk tea brand called “3:15 milk tea” , haha :-D .  Another special tea I would like to introduce is the Home-made Korean Barley Tea :

The Barley tea has a toasty taste, with slight bitter undertones, and perfect substitute for the coffee if you are craving something thing that has a bold roasted flavor. In addition. Barley tea is very good for your health: (http://www.teabenefits.com/herbal-tea-benefits/barley-tea-benefits.html)

  • Barley tea may help supplement daily nutrition levels.
  • Barley tea may help improve blood sugarlevels.
  • Barley tea may help in reducing bad cholesterol levels.
  • Barley tea may help protect against certain forms of cancer.
  • Barley tea may help facilitate proper digestion.
  • Barley tea may help in cleansing the body of toxins.
  • Barley tea is believed to be good in relieving early symptoms of colds.

Nice huh. Now comes the very simple steps of making Barley Tea:

heat a frying pan, NO OIL!!  pour in Quaker medium Barley. Stir it constantly, for about 10 minutes, should be like this :

When it became brown colored, turn off the heat. and let it cool down completely.

Seal it in an air-tight bottle, should be able to stay fresh for a couple of weeks. (not empirically tested though, I drink them all within 3 days! :-D )

Boil a Barley Tea, please , so yo can get the maximum flavor from the roasted barley. for 1/3 cup of Barleys, pour in 5 Cups of water, bring it to simmer for about 15 minutes, till the water become clearly browned too.  Then enjoy!!

For the Barley leftovers: you can mix in honey and have it as a bowl of high-fiber grains:

Or, use the crunchy and chew barley in your favorite breakfast cake recipe:

I used : about 1 cup of Barley, 1/2 cup of boiled green beans, 2 cup of flour, 1/3 cup of starch, 1/4 cup of sugar, and some pumpkin spicy.

Enjoy your teas with a sweet side:

or with this cute mocha mochi :

I hope you all have a good cup of water, dear blog friends :-D

Hey Friends, we here Maryland, BLIZZARD again!!! This might be the heaviest , craziest snow storm I have ever seen in my life.

Look at my poor car buried in the snow like a big BUN….oh man. what I am gonna do with it…..

He is in much better shape than mine!!!!

Good news is finally the sky cleared up around 6pm. Guess good work out tomorrow!!! I am gonna dig my car out !

Cold days make me think of this Chili. actually, I am wondering , why it is called chili, instead of warmy???? it’s so hot and fulfilling !

So I decided to call it Warmy :

I used:

Cheating!!! (Shhhhh….)

Yes, I use a Chili Mix :-D that makes my life much easier after whole day brain spinning at programming….Compared to the sweeter alternative Cincinnati one, I prefer the Terlingua Red Chilli in  Hard Times Cafe. It’s redder, spicier, and flavorful.  But tons of beef normally makes my digestion system protest the day after. Therefore, I intended to make this version more vegetarian.  So if this one doesn’t turns out like the one in the HTC, please bear with me  and simply enjoy the veggies :-D

Steps:

1. Brown the beef till the fat comes out.

2. Use the fat to saute onion and carrot. Till onion releases some water.

3. Now , adding a can of tomatoes, crushed please.  and pour in all the juice.  this adds a sour and sweet flavor to the dish. Then, add in 2 cups of warm water to the pan.

4. according to the instructions, I am supposed to use only 1 tsp of chili power. I already seal the rest and ready to stew. BUT. Thank God I tried. It’s NOT spicy at all!!!! So I add another tsp, still, not taste like chili!

Hmmmm….

alright, I am just being bold and pour in the whole bad of chili powder. Finally it taste very chili!!

5. Cover the pan ( you are supposed to do. But I don’t have the lid). and stew for like 10 min.

Ready to eat the home made chili!!! I topped with the left over 6 cheese Italian, you can top with cilantro, sour cream, and paired with corn bread as the HTC will serve. Its just a little bit spicy, with sweet flavor from caramelized onion and sauteed tomatoes.  It’s such a warmy dish on a snowy day :D

Hey Chefs, today I am gonna bored you with tons of real bread pictures. I am so excited with my very first yeast-bread experience that I am gonna devote all this post to my sweet-scented osmanthus -ed, medlar -ed, walnuts -ed, black sesame -ed, banana filling -ed, bread.

The snow definitely increase my productivity in terms of cooking.

isn’t that beautiful?!  we are getting much more snows this year, and for the weekend, another Blizzard is on the way. Gonna be really bad this time, for 20 inches of snowing.  stay home , stay warm, and stay focused….of food  :-D

alright, onto food:

So I made this bread for the first time of my life.

Somehow I am kinda avoid making anything yeast-related, pizza crust, buns, bread of course, for weired reasons. I have heard about my grandma complaining about “yeast is not ready!” or ” the buns fail becoz of the yeast”, or “yeast is dead”, all the time while she was making buns when I was really young. Guess that create a really bad impression of yeast in my childhood. So from then on, I am just not willing to try any bread recipe. Huh. isn’t that silly :-D well, the “dark” days are over!!! I am so glad I conquered my fear for yeast!!!

Here comes this brave trip :

I follow the instruction and recipe, step by step, very closely for the first time. simply because I want a success for my first bread experience.  1 bag of yeast (25g) dissolves in 1/4 cup of warm water, stir and wait till the bubble comes up ( about 5 min).

Mix in the following ingredients :  3. 75 cups of flour( I don’t know why the recipe use this kind of strange amount, but I just follow it!!)     1/3 cup of sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp of salt.   1/2 cup of warm water. and the yeast water.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. I am tired ….so the dough doesn’t look that smooth , huh :-P . But the dough does RISE well!!! Yeah!!

For the fillings, I use:

sweet-scented osmanthus , banana, 2 tsp of black sesame, 2 tsp of walnuts, mixed well.

Now we fill the dough :

Test your skill to seal it!!!!

Give your imagination free rein:

I use the sweet-scented osmanthus and medlar

Bake. Patient. Please.  300. oven for 40 minutes.


Ta-dah!!

Very home-made style!! (well, I meant to say it’s not perfect). but the crust looks very bready, and crusty: take a closer look (are you getting bored? sorry!!)

and the fillings is naturally bananaly sweet, specially nuts flavor from crushed walnuts and black sesame, and touch of sweet scented osmanthus.

The inside of the bread is so soft and perfectly sweetened, and the outside is so crusty and crunchy. oh that burned medlar? its  like burned raisin. Never feel so good after baking – its a GIANT LEAP for me!!!

Enjoy my dear blog friends!

The first week coming back has been crazy…but so far so good. Catching up with friends give me excellent excuse of dinning out….although my stomach is kinda satiated from all the authentic Chinese food at home. I am a bit slacking in cooking at home…but totally open to lunch or dinner outside. obviously my belly is calling for some variety….Dinning out always ends up with food replication or recreation at home for me :-P

My friend and I went to a small but cozy family style Korean restaurant. As a big fan of kimchi appetizers, as always, my appetite is totally flared up. Man. how come I become ready in front of food so quickly even though I know I just gained several pounds at home (don’t ask me how much, I am not dare to weigh myself yet!!! haha)

I can barely turn my eyes away from a small plates of sweet and sour radish. it’s pretty light, not as its spicy companions. it suddenly reminds me of the traditional pickle radish in China. Our pickled radish is normally darker than this one, and saltier. This one is sweeter. Can I make some at home and have little bit every now and then?

pickled stuff always sounds intimidating to me due to its complex procedure. But somehow I have the confidence that this one gonna be really easy. So if you got some radish and happen to have white vinegar at home, this recipe is for you!!!

cute it into desirable size.

Procedures:

1. about 1/4 cup of salt, rub into the cubed radish, and wait for about 15 min till the excess water comes out of the radish.

2. Mix in 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of white Balsamic vinegar (which also adds a bit sweetness).

3. Store in the fridge over night.

Ready to eat!! it’s surprisingly fresh, light, slightly sweet and sour. Like its delicate taste. It’s such a wonderful accompany for dinner table :-D

The other day my previous roommate come back to U.S from Japan. She obviously miss American food!! Since she already have hamburger and Chipolet  , we decided to give Applebee’s a try since in that way, she would have much more varieties to choose from. Applebee has some new menu items that look really enticing…..

Spicy Shrimp Diavolo

the waitress is impressed how I correctly pronounced D-I-A-V-O-L-O as a Asian NOT born in America.  I have absolutely no idea of what does that word mean. but I am always over-adventurous in trying out new items on the menu. this one is no exception.

So I do some research later:

Fra Diavolo (Italian for “Brother Devil”) is the name given to a spicy sauce for pasta or seafood. Most versions are tomato-based and use chili peppers for spice, but the term is also used for sauces that include no tomato, or that use cayenne or other forms of pepper. According to chef Mario Batali, the spicy sauce is an Italian-American creation and is rarely served in Italy.

Yupp! that’s exactly the sauce I had in that pasta. The shrimp was grilled to its perfection, and the chunks of fresh tomatoes gives lots of surprise!!! it’s been a long time since I had pasta. This one definitely rocks. Perfect portion if you decide in the beginning to have some dessert.

maybe I kinda frightened my friend’s with my tolerance level of sweetness. But May I recommend this triple chocolate melt down to my dear blog friends if you need to impress your accompany the sweet endings :

Chocolate lava (not that sweet but very chocolaty), chocolate cake, and melting hot chocolate that flowing out of the chocolate mountain.  Sided with icecream, the bipolar temperature of two sweets just make the ending conversation sweeter and warmer !!!

Life is short, so have some dessert.

Hey My Dear Blog Friends!! I am back!!
I went back home (China) for two weeks, get fully replenished and rejuvenated!!! that is a last-minute decision – sorry for the lack of ‘missing’ notice :-D
I haven’t seen my parents for 1 year. time flies, and they look older than last year – that makes me feel guilty. many kids like me left their parents and chasing their own dreams. when we look back, they just wave their hands and being fully understanding and supportive. They are inevitably older and older – yet we can not fly back right away to be with them. Maybe the excuses are – we have so much to finish and there are so many constrains. Parent’s love is unconditional love. there is no one else in the world would love you unconditionally like they do. I begin to wonder what is our love to our parents- can we do the same? can we treat our parents with the same patience, passion, care, understanding??? I will try my best. what I did this time is transform their living style to be more healthy. I make my Mom to start practicing Yoga, and my Dad to start paying attention to the fat and cal in his diet. I need them to live longer, healthier for at least another 30 years!
it’s always nice to be home. Home-made food, wandering around the farmers market, watching Chinese TV shows and reading Chinese newspapers. oh I love the feeling of being at home. there are quite a few nice newly opened restaurants in shanghai, and we tried some of them. A very typical dinning out of our family is like this :
three appetizers:
Greens and Flavored Miced Tofu. very light and fresh.
Papaya and Lili.
Sweeten Lotus root with sweeten rice filling. this is my favorite – I have sweet teeth :-D the lotus roots is soaked in the (cane sugar) syrup over night. filling in with sweeten rice and steam for a loooooog time till the flavor is well blended.
three main dish:
Sauteed fish and peppers.
Goose and Tofu soup. it’s like the thickened version of chicken soup. Very tasty !
Soysauce Pork Stew with hard boiled eggs. This is my Dad’s favorite – I know it’s high in cal, fat and sodium….but why it taste so good????
one dim sum:
Cornish pancakes. very little ‘cake’ but lots of corn!
one soup:

haha, this translations may sounds funny – its called drunken rice with little balls :-D . the soups is the fermanated sweeten rice with a very special wine taste.
Shanghai is like foodie’s paradise. especially for those who has an Asian stomach. and, for those of you who love pizza – i would recommend pizza hut in shanghai :-D I am not kidding, wide selection of fancy drinks and appetizers, and they have a salmon-wasabi pizza that you don’t want to miss!!!
Now I am back to U.S and will start cooking again!! I will keep on entertaining with food :-D

As a blog “freshman”, it’s so excited to see the “virtual” friend become “real”!!! Sophia organized this meet up and I am so glad that I made it!!!

Maya, Sophia and Me in Zest bistro.

it’s amazing that although the bloggers are someone you have never “met” , but when sit down together, it’s like we know each other so much and can’t wait to share all the stories of our life, and the excitement of blogging, the cuisine experience, the gossip of the blog world, etc. etc. etc. …. :-D . So much fun – and we didn’t stop talking for even one minute !!  Sophia is such a sweet and thoughtful girl – love to heard her opinion of the blogging ; and Maya is a world traveler !! it’s so much fun sharing about the language learning and traveling experience with her!!!

Zest Bistro is on 8th street. small but chic place. I was there a bit early, well for like 20 min I was sitting there “lonely” by myself. and the waiter is REALLY attentive. He stopped by countless time and said ” oh I feel so sorry for you ” ,” oh looks like you are so lonely, I will bring you some bread. “.  ” oh is your friend coming ? you know I normally being late for party and now I realize its really bad “…..alright ……so he brought the bread, he introduce the house specialties, he talked about this party experience…..so. 20 min past by quickly. and I decided to tip him good :-D

I ordered the Grilled Salmon salad , with greens, pine nuts and roasted corn. I was a bit surprised when the waiter ask me “what temperature do you want for your salmon?”…oooops. sorry, I am a bit out. But am I supposed to test the temperature of my salmon?? alright, got it > i said “well done”. it turned out really good. the edges were very crispy, and salmon was still tender and juicy. the greens was  a nice touch . I love the combination.

Maya also ordered the salmon salad. Sophia had this lamb pita. Very fulfilling!!! this bistro had a large selection of lamb. those who LOVE lamb, don’t miss it!

The great thing of dining with blogger friends is that you can take pictures as long as you want, in every angle, for each dish, without anyone staring at you and think ” what the heck is she doing????” and when the dessert menu comes in, everyone began to do the research ” how to incorporate this in to my eats”…”ummm, sweet potato juice? that’s wired! how do you do it???” etc. we kinda full already , so maybe dessert next time :-D

It was a great Saturday!!! I just can’t wait to meet more foodie bloggers and enjoy the wonderful chatting with all those sweet girls !!

(kinda belated) happy new year , to every one of you, my dear friends!!!

I am having pumpkin pie from the thanksgiving holiday….till yesterday….oh my, countless pumpkin pies across entire month. and I am not bored of it ..yet!!! I love its moist, not-so-sweet fillings, and the delicate smell of cinnamon and ginger. adding a big whipped cream. awesome sweet endings.  When I stroll down the supermarket aisles, a can of pumpkin pie filling jumps into my basket for no reason :-D   I miss the pumpkin !!

So here comes this tiny bitty starrized pumpkin pie:

Yeah, I don’t need a big pumpkin pie to pamper myself…as ya know that I have packed 2.5 pounds during this holiday. So I keep “portion control” in mind , and indulge in a tiny bitty sweets . oooops, the star is a bit burned on top…but I’ll convince you why its called a starrized pumpkin pie later :-P

the tiny pie crust :

6 slices of toasted bread.

2 tsp of butter. ( or maybe i used three…)

blend them really well until its kinda stick together.

Press the mixtures into the little cups gently.

the pie fillings:

1. 2 large egg white, beat till perk form.

2. 2/3 can of that pumpkin fillings, 2 egg yolk, 1/4 cup of sugar (do you think that’s too much? …okay…you can get rid of that). 1/2 cup of flour.  Beaten till well mixed.

3. Mix the pumpkin filling and the egg whites together and get ready to fill the crust.

turns out that my pumpkin filling is too much for the crust…so I made some pumpkin pie without the crust…purely holy moly pumpkins . oh yah!

Now I will show you why its called starrized!!!

ta dah!!!! I drip some chocolate syrup on each pie and use a small knife to carve out some stars . But I didn’t expect them to be burned….T.T  should be checking out them more frequently next time. But I do think that chocolate syrup decorate my pre-oven pumpkin pie well. Love’em .


So my taste bud is greatly satisfied today, haha

Where did I go??? Nowhere.

How come you are so slacking in posting??? No idea.

hehe Just being lazy, and overwhelmed by all the parties, friends gathering, AND enjoy the first X’mas that I officially celebrated in the U.S!!!   alright…I will catch up , yah!

The average weight American gains during the holiday season is 10 pounds…well, mine is 2.5 pounds…(could you please not count that new year party??) :-p . But who can resist the temptation of the aroma in the holiday kitchen ? M’m , just can’t wait to talk about foooood !

The Shepherds Pie is my secrete weapon :-D So for the holiday dinner, it is irreplaceable !!!

The dish is so easy to make, yet the presentation and the flavor definitely stand out in the dinning table!!

Ingredients:

1. half pound of grounded beef (I use 75% lean – oh come on , its holiday, we need a bit nice flavors that comes out of that fat :-D ) I didn’t use lamb  - if you could find them! there are two things that I can never find in our local super market : one is duck (oh I miss it!), the other is lamb….

2. 1 big yellow onion , diced. carrot , diced; 2 Russel potatoes.

3.  Soysauce, TJ’s grill seasoning, 2 tsp of butter, milk, pinch salt.

4. optional: I use some edamame – if that’s your favorite bean :-D

Here is how:

1. Brown the onion, and then sautéed the beef , carrot, edamame.

2. add 1 cup of water, and 3 tsp of soysauce, bring it to simmer for about 20 min…until you couldn’t resist the aroma ….

3. in the mean time, make the mashed potatoes.

Put the sauteed beef into a dish pan, gently press them. It will release lots of juice when it is baked in the oven. if you do not press it ……the juice will pops out and ruin the presentation of the potatoes ….

For the mashed potato, do it your own way :-D I mashed them with 2 tsp of butter, and 1/4 of soymilk, pinch salt.  oh yeah and 2 tsp of real mayo.  haha….I am letting myself go a bit these days….

spread the mashed potato on the dish, scoop by scoop, and make some fancy edges :-P so it has some brownish spot when it comes out of the oven.

alright, last step :

oven, broil, for about 20 minutes.

Smells so good….but I have to wait until the party to eat them!

Gingerbread Coffee Bread

“TJ now has a Gingerbread coffee for you and your family to celebrate this wonderful holidays….”

right after heard it on the radio, we went straight to the TJ and get this Gingerbread coffee !! I had tried it Penera bread and Starbucks,  and instantly enlisted it in my favorite hot drinks :-D well you know that I am not a big fiend of coffee. maybe I am attracted by the gingerbread!!!!

Despite my limited tolerance level of caffeine, I can’t help brew 4 cups of this ginger bread coffee….I shared with my roommate who is so confused “I bet you got insomnia before you finish that big jar….” well. words taken. I stopped after one cup. and make the rest into a gingerbread coffee bread :-D

I have absolutely NO recipe to follow…its just the spur of the moment. I pour 2 cup of Gingerbread coffee into 3 cups of self rising flours, and literate amount of black rice and barleys. I find that putting barleys and black rice into the bread is a great idea to add some crunchiness.

I Knead the dough pretty hard and extreme patient :-D bake them in the 350 oven for about 30 minutes. it surprise me when it comes out as a “bread”!!! I was intentionally make them into biscotti . shhhh….

Hey ! that’s very Gingerbread !!!!  Enjoy!

and I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!!

Guess every body is busy with parties now, end of the year, celebrate with friends and colleagues…. and not surprisingly, so much food leftovers from all the parties. what do you do  with them? I am not gonna toss all the cookies and chocolates and beef stews, just not feel good to throw away food that can actually adds flavors to my routine eats. so today’s eat is all about recycles !

Tons of beef stew leftover, plus some pork stew… though I am not a carnivore , I am happy to have some tender beef stews every now and then. So made this Left over Enchiladas ( Not an attractive name, I know, haha :-D

Not a very typical enchilada that packed with cheese. But I love the crunchiness where the tortilla is not melted with cheese.  I guess there is much less calories than the one I had in Austin grill – oh man, that one, is full of cheese and full of ….??? sorry I can only remember I was eating lots of cheese :-P Please don’t blame me if you feel cheese the essence of this dish, haha

I mix the left over bite size beef and pork stews with diced mushrooms. wrap in a tortilla, sprinkle mozzarella cheese and olive. Bake them at 350 for 30 minutes.

Sizzling again!! I just can’t help eat them all. The smoky smell from mushroom well blended with the beef and pork stews, and the tortilla is soooo crunchy!!

You want some as well?

Maybe you all have the experience of bringing back home the left over cookies and cakes from the party….or is it only me???? hahaha, last week we had a department party. everyone else decide to bring back the left over beers….while I was attracted by those chocolate crisps and cookies :-D do i just have a fate of gaining weight ?? hehe. but I had an idea already what I’m gonna use them for.

It’s my M’M Cake. yeah, M1= morning, M2= moist! did I just get my creativity back ??

The cake itself contains :

1. “bean dreg” from cashew milk that I’ll introduce later.

2. 1 cup of self-rising flour, 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of wheat bran, 1 egg, 1 banana.

3. LEFTOVERS!! I didn’t use any extra sugar, instead, I borrow the sweetness from 2 chopped chocolate chip cookies, and 1 scoop of strawberry ice cream cake. for the top, is the finely chopped chocolate crisp from the party.

Sorry I am pretty liberal (again!) in terms of cake ingredients. I am not selling my cake anyway, as long as it taste good, I am 100% satisfied!!!

the ” bean dreg” is actually cashews and sesame. so if you are a NUTS lover as me, you will love the smell when its baking!! and banana just add in another nature sweets for the cake. The red bites (if you can see it) is the ice cream...first time I am using ice cream in my cake, am I nuts????

but I promise, the cake is so dense and moist, and very fulfilling !! it instantly become my new breakfast lover. 2 slices are even not enough !!

last but not least, I am serving some cashew milk with my soymilk maker:

with about 1/2 cup of cashews, 2 tsp of black sesame which is good for your hair and digestion system.  I am STILL excited with my new baby, and have so many thoughts about my morning drinks:

My little pinky piggy friend again being my best accompany for breakfast!! I wish you could try them too!!

Have a good night everyone :-D

Chocolate Covered Katie invents them I guess. M’m M’m soooo good . and yes I know there is a naughty joke about it, and I assume you know as well, hahahaha :-D

I am kinda addicted to Nuts recently, especially NUTS butter :-D (hey wait, aren’t I always ????) and I find my new fav: TJ’s fat-free cottage cheese (middle).  Light and cheesy, only 70 Cal for 1/2 cup.

PB (middle) is the TJ’s raw creamy, unsalted one. very very “liquidly” style. I love its consistency.

AB (top) is the TJ’s raw chunky, unsalted one. very very thick and chunky.

So now you can define my Nuts butter profile: RAW and UNSALTED.

this Banana Hammock definitely hit the spot !!!  can you still sit still and not try it out?? :-D

The other thing I made today is with Gigantic Mushroom I got from super market.

I put a peeler over it, so you can see how big these white babes are:

I am super excited to find them, and the first idea pops up is a Stuffed Gigantic Mushroom

Ingredients:

1. mix silk tofu and corn beef (no salt needed!)

2. clean the mushroom and make the whole BIGGER (like that on the left ).

3. Stuff it and lightly spray on some veggie oil, and sprinkle some TJ’s seafood grill seasoning. I know it’s not seafood – but that grill seasoning has tons of nice herb and spice that I couldn’t forgo !

4. Bake at 350 degree, for 30 minutes.

Ready to serve: -D

The flavor of corn beef well mixed with silky tofu, as well of the mushroom. Smoky, and very filling !  Hope you like it! 

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