Party Season!!!

I will be away from my computer for a while. Going back to my home country - food paradise - Penang. Meanwhile, my "ON DIET" plan will be on hold until next year. Hahahahahaa...because I have too many parties to go (family and friends gathering, food hunting, Thanksgiving, year end pot luck, Xmas, New Year..bla bla).

I think I will keep a record for the goodies that I am going to eat from now until new year. It will be a lot!!!!! I believe! :-p

Till then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING, feel free to eat and have fun!! :-)

Harmony Place

I am taking a break for cooking. Too busy and also because of Tom was out 2 weeks to China for a business trip. I felt so down for being home alone and got no motivation to cook at all. Fortunately, Cici volunteered herself to keep me accompanied, she is really a sweet pretty girl. Anyway, I kept myself really busy to clean the house, re-arranging some furniture and getting some home decors to surprise Tom when he is back.

That wasn't cost me too much for this project. I searched over all the places that got the best deal and good quality stuff, browsing on the internet to get some extra discount coupons. Tom is quite satisfied with my arrangement. I made it a little bit like Balinese style as I like bamboo and natural wood a lot!!!

I forgot to take the photo before I do the decoration, but managed to find some old photos taken about 1 year ago for the comparison. It was fun and satisfied to make our home nicer.

I picked up a Chinese character 和 (means harmony) wall decor for our entrance. For me, have a harmonious family is very important. Old people said "家和万事兴" - means a harmonious family is a sign of prosperity (not sure if I translated it correctly, no matter what, it is a good sign.. lol).

I didn't want to spend too much money right now because eventually we will be tearing a lot of things for remodeling, our first project will be the master bathroom, I think we will do 95% of the work by ourselves (have to hire someone for the plumbing). I will try my best to post the progress pictures to share.


I moved the tea table that was sitting beside the couch to the entrance, hang up a piece of bamboo panel to hide the ugly window.


Moved a rack to this place and set it up with a pot of plant and some essence flowers.


I am so happy that I found these bamboo panels on sales (50% off) at JC Penney and got another 15% off with online coupon, it is supposed for window panel, but I used them as a divider of our living room and dining room, that really gives our room looks like a little bit Ballinese effect! LOL!! I re-arranged the table that was at the back of the love seat to side at the wall and put a pot of silk orchid on it. Just love it!


Got a new set of table cloth, place mat, bamboo runner and curtain from ROSS ( a place you could get a very good deal for some unique home decor and small furniture).

Do you like my decor?? Look at below photos that were taken before...


Tom and Cici were playing guitar hero....LOL!! You can see the plain entrance behind them.


Tom set up a welcome home banner when I got back to US last year. This photo was taken from living room, we just had a love seat and coffee table set up as a divider between living room and dining room, I didn't quite like it as you can look through all the rooms...


This is the dining area taken on Chinese new year, we had Hot Pot in new year eve..., curtain was plain white and everything not quite well arranged yet.

Lemon Grass Pork Skewers

I have a big bunch of lemon grass growing perfectly in my back yard, besides just using it for curry and sambal prawn, I guess I could use it for something else. Like this lemon grass pork skewer, just something which came into my mind while I was looking at my lemon grass and wondering what else I could make.



The pork skewer is full of lemon grass aroma and delicious. I may use ground chicken or beef for the same recipe someday. I just used what ever seasoning I have and feel might be a good match with lemon grass - nothing complicated - just be creative and follow your taste buds.


1. 220g ground pork
2. 3~4 stalks lemon grass - pre-soaked for at least 1 hour, lightly crush the end of the stalk.

Marinate :
1. 1 tsp turmeric powder
2. 1 tsp curry powder
3. 1 tsp corn starch
4. 1 tsp oyster sauce
5. 1/8 tsp salt
6. 1.5 tsp soy sauce
7. 1/8 cup of finely chopped onion
8. 2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
9. 1/8 cup chopped green onion
10. Some red chili flakes

1. Mix all the marinate ingredients and finely chop again with the ground pork until well combined.
2. Marinate for at least 1 hour or longer for better better taste.
3. Rub the marinated ground pork on the end of the lemon grass stalk.
4. Grill over the pre-heated grill at medium high heat for about 6~7 minutes for each side.

Steamed Scallop with Mung Bean Vermicelli (蒸鲜贝粉丝)

Long story cut short, I am in a hurry, just wanted to share this recipe really quick! This is one of my favorite dishes whenever I dine in seafood restaurant. I couldn't get the small fresh scallop with shell here. So, made it with the giant scallops just to satisfy my crave. :-p




1. 280g scallop (about 6pcs)
2. 30g or as needed mung bean vermicelli
3. Sauce :
i. 2~3 cloves of garlic
ii. 2~3 ginger slice
iii.2~3 chili padi
(finely chop # i~iii)
iv) 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
v) 1/2~1tsp tsp soy sauce or to taste
vi) 2~3 tbsp water (add more if extra mung bean vermicelli is used)

4. Garnishing
i. 1 tsp shao xin wine (optional)
ii. 1 tsp garlic oil
iii. green onion and cilantro
iv. crispy garlic (蒜油酥)

Steps :
1. Boil the water in the steaming pot/pan.
2. Arrange the scallops on a bed of mung bean vermicelli in a steaming dish
3. Mix well all the ingredients # 3, and pour into the scallops.
4. Steam in high heat for 8~10 minutes.
5. Before remove from heat, add in garnishing ingredients # 4.
6. Serve warm.

My Messy Garden 2

It is time to update how is my very first vegetable garden going on. Bad news and good news. The bad one is about 20 of my pumpkin were killed by a pile of bugs, we didn't know what kind of bug was that, but, there were too much of them just covered up the whole patch of pumpkin and killed it.

The good news is we have about 7~9 water melon growing now!!! And more winter melon too. Yay!!!! Tomatoes are growing out there, that was accidentally planted from the seeds in the compost made from vegetable scraps and egg shells.

More pictures here!!

Tomato


Rosemary


Jalapeno pepper


Water Melon


Winter Melon - harvest soon. The size is perfect for me to make 冬瓜盅

Grilled Chicken Calzone

Tired of pizza? Lets try some calzones! It is an Italian turnover made from pizza dough stuffed with fillings like cheese, ham, vegetables or other varieties of ingredients. I had my first calzone many years ago, it was stuffed with baby spinach and cheese. I liked it so much but didn't know what was it called because back at that time, I was still very new to western meals.



I described what it looked like to Tom recently and he told me it is "calzone". I immediately checked it out from wikipedia and found that it is quite simple to make.
Since I had some leftover canjun style grilled chicken, I decided to make some grilled chicken calzone with my pizza dough recipe. It turned out great. :-)



Here are the ingredients and steps :

1. 1 Pizza dough cut to 4 portions (please click here for pizza dough recipe)

2. Filling (according to your preference)
a) Canjun grilled chicken - cubed
b) Grilled green pepper and onion - sliced or cubed
c) some shredded cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese
d) pizza sauce
e) some black pepper
f) some butter
g) some Parmesan cheese powder

Steps :

1. Pre-heat the oven at 450F
2. On the floured surface, roll each portion of the pizza dough to approx. 6" circle.
3. Spread about 1.5 tbsp pizza sauce on the half circle, leave about 1/3 edge.
4. Add in chicken, pepper,onion slices shredded cheeses, sprinkle some black pepper.
5. Fold dough over filling to form a half moon shape.
6. Seal the edge with a fork.
7. Baked in preheated oven for 30~35 minutes or until it turns golden brown.
8. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese when serve (optional)

Dong Gui (Angelica sinensis) Chicken Soup

I am being overloaded - feel really exhausted. I am working a few extra hours per day for the past 2 weeks(wanna save some flexible vacation hours for my days off to go back to Penang at the end of Nov.) I need some energy enhancement food - tadahhhhh -I need some energy enhancement food - tadahhhhh - Dong Gui (Angelica Sinensis) Chicken Soup. I didn't put too much Dong Gui as I wasn't sure Tom would like it or not, fortunately, that was not too hard for him to accept it.

Here's my very simple energy soup.

1. 12g Dong Gui slices (add more if you like it tasted stronger)

2. 1lbs chicken (I used drum sticks as they were available in my fridge)
3. 500ml water.
4. 3~4 dried dates - un-pitted
5. Some wolfberry
6. Few slice of Yok Chuk (Polygonatum odoratum) - optional
6. Salt to taste

1. Gather everything except salt into a double boil dish.

2. Cook for 3~4 hours.
3. When done cooking, skim the excessive oil if necessary.

3. Season with salt before serve.