Shrimp Egg FooYoung

I saw this recipe from Foodnetwork and decided that it should make a nice dish. It was a very hearty dish indeed, packed with the goodness of veggie and protein (from eggs and shrimp). We ate this along with the leftover Chicken Cacciatore from yesterday's dinner. Shrimp Egg Fooyoung somehow reminded me of another japanese dish- okonomiyaki. This is like the Chinese Version of that, minus the yam flour. According to the recipe, the Shrimp Egg Young should come out in one piece,like a pancake, but I haven't master the skill of flipping such a big omele yet, so it comes out like normal stirfry veggie with eggs.... As long as it tastes nice, i can live with the horrible presentation.

Shrimp Egg FooYoung

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
2 cups shredded cabbage
6 eggs (I used 5 eggs, 6 eggs were insane for just the two of us)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup sliced bamboo shoots
1/2 cup cooked small salad shrimp, or large dice medium cooked shrimp
2 tablespoons green onion tops, sliced, for garnish (more to add to the egg mixture)

Preparation:

Place 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large pan and cook onions and cabbage over- medium high heat just until tender.
Remove from heat, drain excess liquid, and reserve.
Whisk the eggs in a bowl and mix in soy sauce, spices, drained cabbage mixture, and bamboo shoots. (I added a handful of chopped green onions)
Using a non-stick pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and heat.
Ladle about 4 ounces of the cabbage mixture into the hot pan, as you would for pancakes, and sprinkle the small shrimp evenly on top of each.
Cook for about 3 minutes, or until edges start to brown and when jiggled, it slides in the pan.
Flip and cook another 2 to 3 minutes until cooked through. Garnish with scallions.

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So what if it's Valentine's Day

It is just another day, or at least to me it is. I decided that we should not do anything fancy on this day. Afterall, we never really celebrated V days together in the past 7 years because of OCT's oversea study. Though we are together this year, I decided we should not give this day any special attention than any other day.

We had Chicken Cacciatore with roasted herb-potatoes, and brocolli for dinner tonight. Chicken Cacciatore is an Italian dish, which means chicken cooked in the "hunter's style". Seriously, I have no idea of how a hunter cooks. But the recipe seems easy enough to follow, and the name sounds cool. Not to mention, I have lots of chicken thighs to get rid of!

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
2 chicken breasts with skin and backbone, halved crosswise
2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/2 cup all purpose flour, for dredging
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 ( 28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons drained capers
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves

Preparation:

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with 1 teaspoon of each salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour to coat lightly.
In a large heavy saute pan, heat the oil over a medium-high flame.
Add the chicken pieces to the pan and saute just until brown, about 5 minutes per side.
If all the chicken does not fit in the pan, saute it in 2 batches.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
Add the bell pepper, onion and garlic to the same pan and saute over medium heat until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes with their juice, broth, capers and oregano.
Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce.
Bring the sauce to a simmer.
Continue simmering over medium-low heat until the chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes for the breast pieces, and 20 minutes for the thighs.
Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a platter.
If necessary, boil the sauce until it thickens slightly, about 3 minutes.
Spoon off any excess fat from atop the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with the basil and serve.

4 Servings

Though it's just another day, I believe a little gift exchange wouldn't hurt....

From Man to Hong: Heart-shaped egg sandwich, idea courtesy of leeyy.

From Hong to Man: Starbucks card. (so that I don't have to pay when I indulge in my cafe mocha + other goodies when I visit Starbucks alone next time!)

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Citrus Glazed Chicken Thigh

I was really frustrated about the limited choices of vegetables we have over here. Tonight, when I asked OCT what vege he would like for dinner, he said brocolli.. And I was thinking, oh, not again!!!

After rummaging the contents of fridge, I decided to cook celery + mushroom for a change, and used the leftover egg white to cook tomato omelet. The main dish of the night was citrus glazed chicken thigh. A recipe I had set my mind to try awhile ago.

I must said that it lived up to it's name, as the citrus taste was very prominent. I preferred the plain old salt+ sugar marinade combination over this new recipe. But if you are in the mood for something sweet & tangy, you can give this a try. I must add that the chicken thighs were smooth and juicy nonetheless.

Citrus Glazed Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
2 teaspoons bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
1/2 teaspoon grated lime rind
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
12 (2-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Place first 7 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag.
Add chicken; seal bag, and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour, turning occasionally.
Remove chicken, reserving marinade.
Preheat broiler.
Place chicken on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray;
broil 8 minutes on each side or until done.
While chicken cooks, place reserved marinade, flour, and salt in a small saucepan, stirring with a whisk until blended.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat, and cook for 1 minute or until thickened.
Serve sauce with chicken.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 thighs and 2 1/2 tablespoons sauce)

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Banana Split Cheesecake

Yesterday, OCT accidentally deleted all his work in his computer. That included all the photo records of his mice, which was important to him.Luckily the techical support staff managed to recover it for him.

Out of immerse gratitude, he offered to bake something for him. And added that his wife is a good cook.He even told him that my specialty was cheesecake...Of course I am glad that he appreciates my cooking, but I warned him not to brag anymore in the future. (Because I am REALLY NOT that good!) Sometime OCT's enthusiasm and appraisal in front of our friends really put me in a very awkward position. I mean, my stuff are obviously edible, but it's not VERY GOOD, as he always trumpets.

My relentless effort to educate him to be more modest and humble doesn't seem to yield....So, he offered the guy Cheesecake. He called me and passed the decree.
"I asked what would the guy like. But he said no need." OCT said
"Oh, so?" I asked.
"I asked if he likes cheesecake, and said you are good at baking cheesecake!"
"Then what he said?" I asked anxiously, and had a foreboding.
"He said ok!" OCT announced airily.
"You should have asked me first! We can make him scones. I still have A LOT of unbake dough in the freezer, you know? Or make biscottis that can last longer...."
"emm....so how? I told him already. But never mind, we can still give him scones"
"......."

Of course, we made cheesecake eventually. But what cheesecake? I asked OCT. He wanted Banana Cheesecake. (Because we have some bananas, he reasoned) I did a quick check on the recipes from a few websites that I used regularly, and decided on the recipe below. As OCT happily brought a piece to his lab this morning, I cut a generous piece for myself as brunch. It was nice and light, with a hint of sour cream, and the mashed banana goes well with cream cheese, not overly sweet, but definitely refreshing.

Banana Split Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust: (I used store-bought crust to save time, and face...it looked more professional than my self made crust)
1 cup packaged chocolate cookie crumbs (such as Oreo)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine, meltedCooking spray

Filling: ( I halved all the ingredients here)
3 (8-ounce) blocks fat-free cream cheese, softened ( used 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1 (8-ounce) carton low-fat sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar (used slightly less sugar)
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana ( abt 3 Del Monte's if you are making a full recipe, or more)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Toppings: (Skipped, altogether. I preferred not to add extra toppings)
1/3 cup canned crushed pineapple in juice, drained
1/3 cup strawberry sundae syrup
1/3 cup chocolate syrup
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
16 maraschino cherries, drained


Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. To prepare crust, combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl; toss with a fork until moist. Press into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.

To prepare filling:

3.Beat cheeses and sour cream at high speed of a mixer until smooth.
4. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar, banana, flour, and vanilla; beat well.
5. Add eggs, 1 at a time; beat well after each addition.
6. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until almost set. (It should take slightly less than an hour to bake, mine was done in 40 mins)
7. Cheesecake is done when the center barely moves when pan is touched. (Switch off the oven when the side is firm, not the center. Add leave the cake in oven. This prevents cracking)
8. Remove cheesecake from oven; run a knife around outside edge.
9. Cool cheesecake to room temperature.
10.Cover and chill for at least 8 hours.
11. Top each serving with 1 teaspoon pineapple, 1 teaspoon strawberry syrup, 1 teaspoon chocolate syrup, 3/4 teaspoon pecans, and 1 cherry. (This is really optional, the cheesecake is tasty enough without topping)

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 wedge with toppings)

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Dinner updates

I guessed I haven't tried much new recipes after last week's gathering. For my own record purpose, let me briefly jot down what we had for dinner this week.

I have cooked spinach & feta pasta (again), with cheesedogs on Monday night. (I knew the cheesedogs were unhealthy...but i kind of like cheesedogs....). Ok, I must admit that I was lazy to cook on Monday night. So I resorted to what was the simplest. Both OCT and I disagreed with Feta Cheese. So bye bye Feta, I think I wouldn't have you in my grocery basket anytime soon.

Tuesday, we invited Ade over for dinner. I tried the meatloaf recipe that had received rave reviews from other cooks. I thought it was nice, despite the fact that it wasn't firm, as the picture of the recipe showed. You know, sometime you followed the instructions to a T, and got the taste exactly as it was described, but it just looked quite different from what was featured in the magazine. Well, since we didn't see Ade as an outsider, or guest, so I guessed that's ok. (I hope) We paired that with stirfry cabbage, tofu with mushroom and plain rice. Quite a weird combination, as meatloaf didn't exactly fit in a Chinese dinner. But this was just the kind of thing I liked to do. "Rojak" meal, i called it. It's not exactly western or chinese.

Wednesday night, we had Spaghetti with Vodka sauce, sauteed spinach with garlic, carrot with balsamic vinaigrette and the leftover meatloaf. As usual OCT protested the distinct smell of alcohol, but admitted that he couldn't detect the slightest taste of alcohol in his spaghetti.

Left:Spaghetti with Vodka Sauce Right: scones as my lunch

I must include the meatloaf recipe here, because i really like it and I hope you will try it too!

Meatloaf 101

Ingredients:
4 slices white bread, torn into pieces
1 3/4 pounds ground beef
3/4 pound ground pork
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into eighths
2 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 large egg
3/4 cup ketchup
4 teaspoons dry mustard
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400°. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse bread until fine crumbs form. Transfer to a medium bowl; add ground beef and ground pork. ( I only used ground beef)
2. Place onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and parsley in food processor; pulse until finely chopped. Add to beef mixture; combine using your hands. Add egg, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons dry mustard, salt, and pepper; combine thoroughly, using your hands. Place in an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch loaf pan. (I cut everything down, painstakingly with a knife. How I wished I have a food processor!!! Oh, and I used a 9" aluminium disposable loaf pan)
3. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup ketchup and 2 teaspoons dry mustard, and the brown sugar; stir until smooth. (I used normal yellow mustard)
4. Brush mixture over top of the meat loaf. Place the pan on a baking sheet to catch drippings, and transfer to oven. Bake until a meat thermometer inserted in the center reaches 160°, about 1 1/2 hours. (If the top of the meat loaf gets too dark, cover with foil and continue baking.) Let meat loaf stand 15 minutes before slicing. ( I second guessed the doneness because I don't have a meat thermometer!)

Serves 8-10 people (No kidding!It was really filling)

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Chinese New Year II

Last Friday's Chinese New Year dinner went on well. I managed to put together some dishes that I could cook confidently on a daily basis (such as brocolli, eggplants and tofu). I also tried the beef stew with bak kut teh packet again with extra prawn this time. OCT thought this should turned out to be like the big prawn noodle he had back in Singapore.

I personally like this beef stew with prawn dish very much. We had the leftover as dinner the next day. It was really fun to have our friends here last Friday, and made up for the Chinese New Year dinner BP hosted at her place, in which we unfortunately missed.

Speaking of last Saturday, it was really disastrous.We went shopping in the afternoon and missed the return shuttle by five minutes. Since it was still early (4:50p.m) we decided to walk around in the mall while waiting for the next shuttle that was supposed to come in 25 mins time. The shuttle was late because of rain, and we reached the Hilltop campus at around 6:30. We needed to take another shuttle to go home. We waited, and waited frustratedly in the rain for another 45 mins before the shuttle turned up. By the time we reached home, it was already after 8:30p.m! Both of us were exhausted and hungry, so we decided to have instant noodles and dumplings as our first Chinese New Year Eve dinner as a family...

Back in Malaysia, my mum used to cook A LOT during Chinese New Year to entertain. There are relatives on the first day of CNY, church friends on the second day and her women fellowship friends on the third day. It has been the culture. As my mum put it - Festivals are time to share your joy and love with others. I couldn't agree more. If there's one thing that my parents has imparted to me, it would be to share.

These are some photos taken during the dinner and our young friend Jon played lion, with his little brother Ben as sidekick- our entertainment after the dinner!

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Baking on Thursday

Last Thursday was Groundhog day. I asked OCT what was that supposed to mean. He told me that it meant a bad day, when you would not have any luck in whatever you do. Not convinced, I did a search on internet to look for the answer myself. And this was what i found:

"In traditional weather lore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks."

Ok, so Groundhog day doesn't mean an unlucky day. Then why did I overbake the muffins that OCT supposed to bring to his lab breakfast? And my Mocha Cheesecake turned out to be ugly dark brown? OCT insisted that Groundhog Day was not my day, and I shouldn't continue to bake the pineapple tarts.

I ignored him and proceeded with my pineapple tarts nevertheless. And here's how they turned out:

Thank God! They turned out fine!

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Chinese New Year Dinner

To make up for the new year reunion dinner we missed last Saturday, OCT and I decided to invite a few close friends over for dinner tomorrow night. OCT was very excited about it and started to discuss about what to cook for tomorrow night.

" We can cook Singapore style prawn noodle soup, sweet & sour prawn, soya sauce chicken, all of which are my specialties!" He suggested enthusiastically.
"Huh? But I have tried none of it! Are you absolutely sure they are delicious?" I answered unbelievably.
"OF COURSE!!!" OCT said confidently.
"But you have to work tomorrow...so leave the cooking to me" I demanded.
"So what are you going to cook?"He asked. At this point, he walked to the kitchen and opened our fridge to see what we have, I joined him. Hoping that this would give me some inspirations. But nothing came.....

We have chicken breast, prawn, half a packet of beef stew, 2 pieces of pork chops, dumplings, 4 tubs of Edy's ice creams, 1 tub of Ben & Jerry, pie doughs, pizza in the freezer. And mostly vegetables and dairy products in the fridge. Again, we ran out of eggs.

"Can we cook western? or fusion?" I suggested.
I can't remember what he said. In gist, he thought we should cook chinese food.

All that's in my mind at that point was unfortunately, which cheesecake should I bake; and what side dishes to make...Desperate, we resorted to the Chinese cookbook he collected over the years here. OCT went on to do his "research" and methodically go through the ingredients required for the dishes that he eyed on. As usual, I was skeptical about chinese cookbook. I had heard too many bad things about chinese chef who didn't share their recipes in its entirety. They will leave out certain procedure and let you figured your way out. Of course, there are some good people out there who share unselfishly. But I rarely followed these recipes.

"How about cooking chicken cordon bleu? You said it's nice right?" I ventured.
"It's too bland" OCT answered.
"Lasagna? spaghetti?" I asked hopefully.
"Your lasagna is too sweet and spaghetti is not a good idea"
I gulped. Defeated.

Oh no! So what am I going to cook?

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Dinners

(Left: Red-wine beef stew; Right:Bak Kut Teh Beef Stew)

In search of the best home-made beef stew, I tried a recipe from a cookbook that used lots of red wine and another, using the bak kut teh packet OCT brought over from Singapore. It's Western beef stew vs the Chinese's. Unfortunately, there was no clear winner. I shall keep trying....



Quiche is another comfort food that OCT and I enjoyed. We restrained ourselves to indulge only in SPECIAL occasions, like friends visit...and emm...like I have to use up the expiring sour cream....

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Last attempt to finish the buttermilk

In an attempt to use up the buttermilk, we had buttermilk mash potaotes for carbohydrate yesterday night. This is my first time using buttermilk with potatoes, so I was plesantly surprised by how well they went together.

I also baked the chicken leg quarters for the second time this week. And used the pancake syrup in place of sugar in the marinate. I guessed my main intention was to use up whatever that's approaching their expiring dates.

Later after dinner, I dragged myself into kitchen for another round of baking. Only to realise that I ran out of eggs! It was too late to go out and replenish, so I could only make and later frezee the dough for oat and cranberries scones. My last attempt to use as much buttermilk as possible. Still, there's half a carton that needed to go into the bin at the end of the day.

Trust me, after using it to make 3 batches of scones, 2 loaves of banana & nut breads and 2-day portion of mashed potatoes, I tried my best.

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Baking Part 1

(Top left: banana nut bread; top right: pineapple tarts; Bottom left: Chocolate Chunk Scone; Bottom right: more pineapple tarts)

Other than the banana and nut bread that I baked the day before yesterday, the chocolate chunk scone and pineapple tarts were baked just now. Fresh from the oven. Nothing beats freshly baked goods from the oven.

A picture speaks a thousand words. I think I don't have to tell you more..... I shall save my energy for more baking tonight.

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Springcleaning

Frankly, I am not the neatest person among my friends. Well, come to think of it, not many of my close friends are very neat too...That's not my point anyway. You see, I am living in a one bed-room apartment, with a small kitchen. There really isn't much space to be cleaned afterall. Hence, the only challenge that I encoutered in springcleaning is the food in the fridge.

There's buttermilk, heavy cream, sour cream, cream cheese that are expiring soon. Not to mention the vegetable and fruit that we overbought on impulse. I am under tremendous pressure to use them up before they expire....Lately, I have discovered the art of freezing baked goods. Scones, muffin, quick bread, muffin can be frozen for a few months in the freezer. Though I am skeptical on the quality of baked goods after freezing, it has nevertheless offered me a possible solution.What a great invention the freezer is! But that leads me to another problem of limited freezer space. Why? because of the four 1.65L Edy's ice cream that we stocked up, and other frozen stuff we bought. It's amazing on how well-stocked our fridge and pantry are compared to our living room that is almost bare of furniture.

This morning, I received an email from my friend GL, who has also done some spring cleaning in her room, and in her heart. After breaking up with her boyfriend of 5 years, she decided to move on with her life, and disposed all the evidents that reminded her of the journey they took together. She threw away all the photos that they had taken together, the photo frames, the letters, the cards, even her own photos while they were still a couple. It must be difficult, to part with 5-years of memory, and more importantly with someone she once so loved, and later betrayed her. I ponder over the email, and think if my friend has really gotten over it and recovered from her pain. I am unsure. But I know time will heal. And I just want to tell her to take her time. For all suffering make us better, and stronger. ( I am sure she knows this by heart, being the most optimistic person among my close-knit friends).

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Pineapple tarts

Pineapple tarts has always been one of my favorite Chinese New Year treats. Since I can't get hold of any of these this year, I resort to making it myself. Of course I don't expect to conjure up something that's as good as the Singapore/ Malaysia version, but I know I have to give it a try...

After some careful research on the recipes from the internet (as usual), I started my experiment with some uncertainties at the back of my mind. I have made far too many modification to the recipe that I doubted whether my pineapple tart were edible... Here's how they look:

I found them far from the "melt in the mouth" version, as expected. But for some strange reasons OCT liked them very much and almost finished them on his own, though I only made a few pieces to try out the recipe.

Over the Sunday lunch with our friends, he told them that my pineapple tarts tasted like the Bengawan Solo's. That is a very reputable, or rather the most famous pineapple tarts in Singapore. I almost fell from my chair.... Anyway, I am glad to have a supporter who believe in my potential around...His believe in me made me want to come out with better pineapple tarts! So this will be my project this week, and some other recipes to use up the bananas that OCT liked, and overbought from the grocery shopping yesterday..

Before I embark on my baking adventure, it's the weekly chore day on Monday :(

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Falling in love with scone

I am determined to give scones a try after reading an article from Fine Cooking about how EASY it is to make fresh, tender and tasty scones. (not to mention that it's much cheaper to make them myself than to buy from the bakery shop.

On the hindsight, I must admit that it was not that difficult, but it was a bit messy, since the dough for scones was very wet, and meant to be that way."Scones benefited from minimal handling" according to my trusted Martha Stewart's baking handbook. In order to achieve that, I had to use my hands instead of mixer to mix the ingredients and freeze to harden before baking them in the oven.

But it's worth the effort, for the scones that came out freshly from the oven smelt heavenly and the texture was soooooo tender and crumbly, which I like. OCT had a "sore throat" and regretted that he could not eat the scone. According to him, the oats in the scone would worsen his pain...What a polite way to turn down his wife. (Actually he does't like oats)...

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Mad about spareribs

The benefit of being the cook in the house includes cooking what I feel like eating. As a result, we had spareribs again yesterday night. I did some modification with the sauce by replacing the BBQ sauce with the usual marinate combination (soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic, sugar) and some worchestershire sauce + sugar syrup for pancake( I am looking for ways to get rid of this nearly expiring syrup). Also, this time I did not trim down much of the fat. I added the unfinished pineapple chunk from last week, as OCT and I both like pineapples in our dish.

The spareribs were moist and juicy( maybe because of the fat). Though this was very tasty, it was very fattening at the same time, judging from the oil dripping on the baking tray. We ate this with tomyam eggplant, (which is also very oily) and rice.

What a satisfying meal....

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Another week has passed....almost

As I beguiled myself with reading, surfing and sometimes doing absolutely nothing, another week has passed. It's already Thursday today!And I hate to think that I have not been doing anything meaningful this week...

On a positive note, I have successfully dragged myself to do some exercise for the past 2 days. Also, I tried out a new recipe yesterday, with success, much to my delight!
It's tomato salmon in foil. Maybe I am not a good photographer, that's why you can't see the salmon. But OCT and I just loved it. The salmon with tomatoes fillings were cooked in a aluminium foil envelope in the oven. The result was very juicy and tasty fish, with the dripping doubled up as soup. A healthy and delicious way to cook salmon. I will try to take better photos next time when I am baking this, not too long to wait, i believe.

Dinner or rather the night, was ended on a sweet note with a cup of Godiva Hot Chocolate. OCT bought me this from Barnes & Nobles yesterday, a book store near his work place. How sweet~ This has given me some motivation to drink milk. (I don't drink milk on its own since three years old).

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Hawaiian Pork Spareribs

Finally I confronted my fear for cooking pork tonight, after a few unsuccessful attempts in cooking pork dishes. I almost gave up on pork until we found spareribs on discount during our grocery shopping last weekend. I must give piggy and myself another chance, I mused.

After some careful research on spareribs recipes, I decided on a BBQ spareribs recipe with some improvision. I named it Haiwaiian Pork Spareribs because of the pineapples added.


It was absolutely yummy! OCT's fingers were all stained but he didn't seem to care much about that. He had a satisfied smile on his face while licking his fingers clean. I can visually see his stomach ballooning up...

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Weekend cooking & baking endeavour

We had meatloaf for dinner on Thursday and Friday night. It was quite simple to put together, so I decided to give this American adopted Italian dish a go. OCT liked it very much, but I didn't care about it. Surprising it went well with bagel and salad, which I liked. We managed to wash them all down our stomach.

Yesterday, we had Chicken Piccata with stirfry spinach + celery/carrot. Chicken Piccata was a bit like the chinese honey lemon chicken. Except that honey was being replaced by white wine.(lots of it) We started to like the "popeye vege" and decided to incorporate it into our vegetable list. Celery is the only "negative calories" vegetable, according one of my ex-client ( a doctor) and good for those who wants to lose weight.

To keep up with my resolution to bake at least 5 new recipes per month, I baked the pear & walnut muffins and Irish Strawberry & Cream Cheesecake. Both sounded intriguing as I never tried a muffin with pear and walnut in it, neither had I tried cheesecake with Bailey cream in it.

Simply put, I think the muffin's fine...As in they are edible, but not "wow"! I should be more cynical while deciding the "to-bake"recipes from cookbook/website that have rave reviews next time...



Irish Strawberry & Cream Cheesecake is much more spectacular in term of taste and appearance than the muffins. It has a hint of Bailey cream but not too overwhelming.We give some away to friends, in case I can't resist the temptation to finish them myself.

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Some trivial thoughts

Lately, for some unknown reason I have fell in love with bald trees. I marvelled at their branches which stood fearlessly in the face of great adversity, and cold. I marvelled at their tenacity and perseverance, so boldly in the winter...All the qualities that I lacked beneath the layers of clothes and skin.

OCT and I talked about depression. I can't remember how we started this conversation.He said it's common here in US during winter, when people can't go out from their home, and everything seems gloomy. I suggested that the depressed people should be given chocolate, reiterating the benefits of eating chocolate eg antioxidant protection, and most importantly the feel good factor, as mentioned by Dr Sarah Brewer:

"Eating chocolate makes you feel good. It increases brain levels of several chemicals, including mood-altering PEA (phenylethylamine, related to amphetamine), which produces a mild, confidence-instilling buzz. Chocolate also contains tryptophan - a chemical converted to serotonin in the brain to lift mood and increase euphoria - and theobromine, a stimulant that peps you up. Chocolate is also virtually unique in that it melts in the mouth at body temperature, producing a silky, luscious sensation that adds to its appeal and, according to psychologists, is one of the main reasons why chocolate proves so addictive."

We are not sure if chocolate was part of the regimens for treating depression, but I would certainly include chocolate in many of my recipes in an effort to combat depression (though I don't even have the slightest sign of depression).

As I ponder on this, I did a quick check on my chocolate stock at home, and this is what I found. And this is just PART of my full stock not to mention that it's growing every week!

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Weekend Updates

After half of the winter has passed, it finally snowed last Friday, never mind that it only lasted a few hours and the snow accumulated was not really enough to do anything "interesting" (like making snowman or snow angel..)Below was pic taken from my window last friday: Compare this with the sight of my first snow in St Louis:

I think you know what I mean by "not enough snow to do anything interesting".... On Saturday, we went for a walk around the neighbourhood in the morning, and also for me to practise my photographic skill. OCT was quite stressed when he saw me bringing the camera. Because that would mean a highly disruptive walk.(I can stand at one place and take photos at different angles, and get really grumpy if the pics didn't turn out as I wish). It was a quiet Saturday, sunny but cold, brrr.......

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The second good news

Another good news that I received today is my favorite singer Emil Chow has just completed his latest album, after 2 years since his last album.Yes, I have been a big fan of him since young. (Though some friends think that his time has long pasted)

I got the information from Wakin.com. It's a cool site that plays his songs while you surf. He mentioned about his struggle for the past 2 years trying to rush his album, and also some of his thoughts in this site. A must visit for other fellow Wakin fans! This is really good news to me. I have been wondering what has happened to him after his concert tour with Jonathan Lee.... At least now that I know he has completed his album, it should hit the record rack soon. This year definitely.

Time flies when I am happy, and it's time to prepare dinner again.....

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