tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830091454393640142024-03-14T01:52:50.466-07:00Stirring the Food & Flipping the PageA combined love for cooking and readingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-90027049742555040302014-01-23T09:33:00.001-08:002014-01-23T09:33:51.876-08:00The Valley of MemoriesI know it's been half a year since my last my post, so let me update you on what happened.<br />
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I fnished my semester of teaching. It was fun, challenging, and exhausting. I also had to leave my apartment for a month and a half because of a bedbug situation. Amidst all the chaos, I managed to take the GRE and applied to 5 Ph.D programs. Don't ask me how I did it, I'm just happy that it was all over.<br />
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So to relax from all that craziness, I had an incredibly relaxing winter break where I practically did no work. I did, however, finish Amy Tan's new book, the only book I vowed to buy this year before I'm moving out of state in May.<br />
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The Valley of Amazement, another heart-wrenching story of mother and daughter, in a different setting this time from her previous mother-daughter stories. This time, the mother was American, not Chinese. Nonetheless, the novel focuses still on the complex relationships that sometimes seemed to be marred only by miscommunication but in actuality something bigger. For the name of love, they suffered and rejoiced and searched. In that enternal search for love, Violet, both as a daughter and as a mother, also struggled with her identity as a "bastard" child, a mixed race, a Chinese, or an American. Her mother, Lulu, on the other hand, was wounded by love and grew to be inable to express her true feelings to her daughter while leading a life she was forced into. But a central theme was survival. Regardless of the lives they had, they survived and carried on and were granted the happy ending, if not so bittersweet.<br />
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It wasn't Tan's best work, but it was a true Tan's story. While I found the first few pages hard to get into, the story gradually picked up speed and took me to an interwined world of love and pain of people who would try to survive only to be haunted by the past. But there was humor, and moments of endearment, fonding memories.<br />
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I think the cruel thing about memories is that they may over time charr the painful past even more as we choose to remember only the pain. Yet we also get to glorify memories if we choose to remember the beautiful. Because sometimes we have no real proof of the past, we choose to remember the beautiful memories as something more beautiful. Thus was the case with the fruit tart and my American mom and me.<br />
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When I came to the States in high school, mom and I shopped at a grocery store called Super Fresh. We were so familiar with the store we knew where everything went and how the aisles were organized. Since then, my American parents had moved from that area and Super Fresh was closed. But one thing about that store always stood out in our memory, especially for my mom and me. It was the fruit tart they sold.<br />
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I can't remember the first time we had it, but I remember she bought one to celebrate my high school graduation from Towson. It was so delicious that I often thought I could take a spoon and eat a whole one by myself.<br />
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Years have gone, and I have forgotten the exact taste of the tart. I had it at a time when I wasn't very atuned to cooking and baking, and I didn't have it often enough to have real tangible memory of the flavor after so many years. I just know it was divine.<br />
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Mom said she remembered the filling was made of cream cheese, so I went online and found a recipe, which, accordingly, is not the classic fruit tart recipe. But it used cream cheese. So we decided to stick to this choice. And I knew I finally recreated the divine taste when my mom said it tasted just like Super Fresh's.<br />
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Thank you so much,<a href="http://www.joyofbaking.com/EasyFruitTartRecipe.html" target="_blank"> Joy of Cooking</a>!<br />
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Note: we didn't have heavy cream, and I decided to do what I always like to do, use what I have to make the best of it. So I used a whole package of cream cheese instead of two and added vanila soy milk to unthicken the filling. It worked out great.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-15995281749078132052013-07-30T10:25:00.001-07:002013-07-30T10:25:10.346-07:00How much can happen in one day?About two years ago I watched the movie <i>One Day </i>because of Anne Hathaway, now I'm finally reading the book and finding it a bit too long as I try to recall the movie. One single day every year has been shaping their lives, Dexter and Emma. I can't wait for them to get together yet I know as the end draws Emma's life will be coming to an end too. I like sad stories. Happy endings are such a cliche in Hollywood, I'd rather see something that makes my hear twist. It's the longest book I've read this summer and my heart if yearning for a happy ending that I know it's not giving me. Well, I didn't ask for it.<br />
Each chapter happens in one day. So much can happen in one day. Lives are changed in one day. But when one day becomes every day, they seem to be much more mundane. I have had a rather mundane summer, one might say, my first summer in the United States. I have been staying at home most of the time, away from the heat, chained to the desk in front of my computer working, studying, and playing. I have been cooking more, but my upcoming jobs in the fall require thorough preparation and all the other excitements are also calling for diligence. I didn't go to the beach, not just because I can't swim or my fat body would look horrific in a bikini, but because I have been working on two syllabi for the two classes and three sections I'm going to teach: Business Writing and Freshman Composition. I've read about four or five books and have finally finished one syllabus that is looking rather like a syllabus. Thank God!<br />
Thus my summer has been mostly a one-day summer where every day is pretty much the same and not at all like Dex and Emma's one day. Here's the run down: I struggle to get up early but still consider myself lucky if I can sit down by 10am. I have breakfast and start the Chinese TV show on Youtube which will be the background music as I begin working on either GRE or my classes. I make one big meal in the middle of the afternoon and go back to working. I eat fruit and snack for dinner, and then put my books away when it's 9pm. I play around and read till I fall asleep, which is not always before midnight as I planned before the summer. Intermittently throughout the day, I play games on my phone to take a break away from work. I know, pretty boring. But every once in a while I would have a rather interesting day, yet not always in a good way.<br />
Yesterday I finished my first syllabus, a draft, but a quite mature one. As I turned to my bed around 10pm I saw a small bug near the box spring; it jumped as I approached. I grabbed bug spray and sprayed it and it ran toward the corner under the bookshelf. As I was waiting for it to get out, another one showed up, exactly the same. They looked like grasshoppers. I finally smashed them with paper towels and flushed them down the toilet. Then I thought I'd better check behind the bed. Dried bug skins, shells or whater ever in between my bed and the wall. I pulled the bed away from the wall and started cleaning, killing, spraying, Debugging! Just as I thought I had finished killing whatever was in sight, shells or eggs, a big one appeared on the floor out of nowhere. I quickly pressed down my paper towel and picked up the dead body. It was quite a fright! Once again I feel grateful to my boarding school experience in suburban Beijing where bugs were regular visitors in the dorm and I somehow became the designated exterminator. When the bug extravaganza was over, I realized that my toilet had become clogged for some reason. The day was not over!<br />
And it dragged on till today when the toilet is still not functioning normally I went out and bought a plunger. By the way, do you know how expensive they are? The cheapest one at Target is about nine bucks! I came home to fix the toilet with all the confidence as an exterminator. After thirty minutes, the situation is not improving. I gave up and called the maintenance. I guess I can't be a bug exterminator and a plumber at the same time.<br />
So, my days are not all that mundane after all. At this point, it's probably not very appetizing to talk about food. I shall wait till next time to tell you one of my better adventures.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-40910703286353185032013-07-02T10:56:00.003-07:002013-07-02T10:56:54.257-07:00The Illusion of Separateness in a HotpotYou might have heard of this saying from somehwere: every person can be linked to another person within a six-people chain. That means, through a link of within six people, you can be connected to anyone. It may be stretching a little, but many wonderful stories stem from some unknown chain events. This past month Simon Van Booy brought us his new novel: <i>The Illusion of Separateness</i>. I read his first novel and a collection of short stories because I had heard of his name through a chain of Wikipedia article reading. "If Margueritte Duras and Scott Fitzgerald had a son, he would be Simon Van Booy." I was just beginning to read <i>The Great Gatsb</i>y at the time and have been in love with Duras for years, so I had to read him.<br />
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Six people, six lives, seemingly unconnected, live through the darkest and most painful moments of their lives across the ocean, continents apart. But there's a chain, an invisible connection that has brought significant impacts on their lives. Some of them have never known who others really were or have only encountered them once. Everything was so beautifully woven and unveiled bit by bit in the book. Van Booy has once again, took my breath away.<br />
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"Love is also a violence, and cannot be undone." It's a story of love, pain, and the illusion of separateness.<br />
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The best dish in the world that can express the same concept is Hotpot. I'm not really sure if it's one word or two. I suppose either way works, but I prefer one word, another sign of union. The Chinese hotpot is similar to the French fondue, except that it's a much bigger scale version and requires more ingredients and connects more food together.<br />
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A trip to an Asian market made my day. Spicy soup base, thin beef brisket, Asian greens, fish balls, a simple hotpot warmed both my stomach and heart. Tastes just like home.</div>
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Spinach, beef, fish ball, tofu, frog legs, mushroom, shrimp, fish, tripe, anything you can think of can be put in a boiling pot and cooked together as you dip in and dip out from the pot to your bowl. Sesame paste as a sauce base with pickled tofu, spicy sauce, a bit of cilantro. Ready to serve! You think these things can't go together? Sure they can! Anything is possible in a hotpot. The world is a hotpot.</div>
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Global village, tossed salad, or hotpot, whatever the metaphor, the world is in your boiling soup. No matter how different you are, you all participate in enriching the flavor of the soup and you all absorb the flavor of the soup. You swim together, you hold hands, you go through pain and love, you hug one another, you land in the bowl together. Each one of you is essential in making the flavor as a whole. Separeteness is only an illusion.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-34220297462201021052013-06-10T12:10:00.001-07:002013-06-10T12:10:07.990-07:00Home Away From HomeSummer days reading began with<i> Under the Tuscan Sun</i>, I saw the movie a few years ago and bought the book right before I came to this country two years ago and had not read it until recently. After I moved into a studio, living by myself for the first time, I decided to go through my bookshelf and find some easy reading: books that I can enjoy reading once and then sell back to the bookstore to save some space on my bookshelf. When I started this book, I realized how appropriate it was for summer time.<br />
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The long, strenuous process of restoring an old house in the Tuscan country is fascinating and almost dreamy. I'm beginning to think that maybe I should try to make more money so that I will have enough saving to have a dream come true one day. It is indeed fortunate to be able to do what you want to do and like to do, even if you have to pay a little price, whether it be the labor and frustration of restoring a house aged of centuries, or moving away from home.<br />
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Frances Mayes in her book and I have one thing in common, we are both building a home away from home. While she's literally building a home, I'm only developing a more emtional bond with my surroundings. And to create a sense of home, sometimes one has to recreate the images of home. That's part of the reason I've been cooking more Chinese food lately. The feeling of being away from home has been more present as I hear news after news about my friends getting married and having babies back home, especially since I wasn't present at many of such joyful events.<br />
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My best friend from college just got married ten days ago. I had helped her order a Vera Wang wedding dress form the States and shipped it to her back home. I was supposed to be one of her four bridesmaids but couldn't return home this summer due to visa issues. It was the second time that I missed the chance of being a bridesmaid for a best friend. Looking at her pictures, I felt happy and sad at the same time: happy for her wedding, sad for me not being there. This is the price I pay for my dream: to miss the important events in my friends' and family's lives.<br />
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Maybe I'm a little homesick. But that can be easily fixed with a warm plate of stir-fry.<br />
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Although pork is not a popular meat in Western cuisine, it is very prevalent in China. Many simple stirfries contain only a vegetable and pork slices or cubes.</div>
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So I made my wonderful celery and pork and green bean and pork stirfries, best with rice.</div>
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Perhaps stir-fry is the easiest and hardest dish in the world. It's easy to prepare, but it almost never comes out with the exact same flavors each time. The temperature of the wok and the amount of spices all affect the final outcome. However, it's the spontaneity that marks the fun label of stir-fry. All you need it vegetable oil, salt, soy sauce, and maybe some Chinese five spices. How much, you ask? Trust your gut!</div>
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However, there is a trick when cooking meat. Make sure you add some cornstarch to the meat after you cut it into thin slices and coat it well till you don't see any more starch. If it's too dry, add a little rice wine. You can also add some rice wine when you stirfry the pork, which you do before the vegetables.</div>
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Always cook the meat first, then remove the meat and cook the vegetable, then add the meat back in. Celery and grean beans can both take a long time to cook, but make sure they are tender. If you want, you can boil them in water first before the stirfry, which would speed up the process.</div>
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This is my home away from home. What would yours be?</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-30025502047441312072013-02-05T20:22:00.003-08:002013-02-05T20:22:21.831-08:00The Suspense of ChiliTo celebrate Ravens' winning the NFL Championship this year, I got up Monday morning to make chili, for the first time in my life. You should know, I'm not a morning person. I don't get up just for anything if I didn't have to. But my love for food is strong enough to pull me out of bed. And you know who else loves food? Alfred Hitchcock.<br />
I love Alfred Hitchcock. Period. I've seen most of his movies, some quite a few times. It doesn't matter how great contemporary horror movies are, Psycho remains the all-time classic. Period.<br />
One of the earliest books I've read about Hitchcock said the Master of Suspense described how you could produce suspense in a story: If you are showing some people playing poker and that later they will be bombed, you should begin by showing there's a mysterious package just under the table and then show the people playing poker. I later learned in screenwriting class that it's part of something called "dramatic irony" where the audience knows what's going on, but the characters in the movie don't. It creates tension and excitement in the audience, and you have to keep watching to see what happens later.<br />
Yes, I do read non-fiction, once in a while. And it shouldn't surprise you if I'm reading anything about Hitchcock.<br />
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The book discusses the whole process of how the movie came into being: from how the book came about to why Hitch picked it to all the details in produciton and post-production. It's like a huge Wikipedia article about Hitchcock and the making of Psycho. As obssessed as I am with the fat genius man, I find myself more and more fascinated about his work. Is it possible?<br />
The movie adaptation was great. In fact, I watched the movie before I started reading the book. But now that I'm half way through the book, I still think that the movie is just as great. It seems to have a different focus from the book. The movie shows a lot tension between Hitch and his wife Alma while the book has been solely centering on the production of the movie.<br />
I love the scene from the movie when Psycho's premiere turned out to be a great success, Hitch brings Alma to the front of all the blinking cameras and says to her, "You are my favorite Hitchcock blond." Alma says, "I have waited for you to say that for over 30 years." And Hitch says, "That, Darling, is why they call me the Master of Suspense."<br />
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So have you been wondering what kind of chili I made? Did my suspense work?<br />
Here's my recipe, I'm calling it the Super Bowl<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Super Bowl</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 lb groud beef</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2 stalks of celery, chopped</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2 onions, chopped</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5 cloves of garlic</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 green pepper, chopped</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 can of diced tomatoes</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 can of red kidney bean</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 can of corn</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1 can of tomato paste</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">canola oil</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">chili powder</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">cayenne pepper</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">paprika</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">oregano</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">cumin</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">garlic salt</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">black pepepr</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">corn starch</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1/3 of a bottle of Guinness beer</span><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Brown the beef in a pan then remove to a plate, don't drain the fat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cook the celery and pepper in the fat with a little canola oil, when slightly cooked remove to a separate plate.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cook the onions and garlic for about three minutes then put the meat back in till the onions are clear. Add the canned tomato with juice and the tomato paste.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When well mixed, pour everything into a pot and add water just barely covering the content. Add the celery and pepper.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let it reach a boil and then add corn and kidney beans.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the chili is cooking, add all the spices and salt and pepper till you like the flavoring. (I know I use way too much garlic probably, you don't have to. My boyfriend Mr. Judd would tell you it's disgusting, but even though I love him, I don't think his opinion is valid since he hates onions.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Add the beer and after a while add some cornstarch till you like the thickness of the chili and turn off the heat. Mine cooked for about 30 minutes tops.</span><br />
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I know I probably put in a lot of stuff that normally don't go together in chili, but I think the great thing about chili is that you can basically put anything in and it would still taste great!<br />
Good Evening!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-16987729012811099182013-01-16T12:08:00.001-08:002013-01-16T12:08:08.798-08:00Everything Beautiful Began After<br />
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The title of the book is so beautiful I don't know how to talk about it using a different title, so I decided to steal it for this post. Noted: this is not plagiarism.<br />
I can't believe I never knew about Van Booy before. And he had a workshop in Beijing when I was in Beijing! Somehow, however I managed to miss him on my reading lists, I came around to finally meet him, through this beautiful story of Rebecca, Henry and George. This one book is enough for me to want to read everything else he's written and he will write.<br />
Van Booy is a philosopher. Love is his main subject of study.<br />
Everyone can be a philosopher on love, but he has the power to reach into your heart and twist your brain. The softest emotions, the gentlest feelings, the hardest pain and the toughest adventure in life all float around you in his beautiful manifestation of love. It's a book where you want to write down every single sentence in your notebook.<br />
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I'm sorry I have not been here for a while. I'm apologizing to my readers, to my self, and most of all, to my blog itself. I never forgot about you. I was forced to travel downhill on a side road for a little while, and then I got back on track. Now I'm moving forward again. Everything that I thought was beautiful was taken, lost, wiped, erased. But everything truly beautiful has just begun after. It's just a matter of how you define beauty. In Van Booy's story, it's a woman, a love, a city, a life, an adventure, a discovery. In mine, it's a book, a love, a movie, and a dish. So I decided to catch up with my serious cooking adventure.<br />
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I might say that this may be my best presentation of food so far. A recipe from Saveur Magazine, <a href="http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Shrimp-and-Grits-1000070097" target="_blank">Shrimp and Grits</a>.<br />
My American Dad grew up in Virginia eating grits. However, My American Mom has never liked grits. Over dinner, my Dad commented on how it was almost a miracle that he was eating grits in his own house. My mom's comment was, there's so much cheese in the grits, so much flavor, of course it tastes better now. I also have to admit that this my first time cooking grits and eating grits. And it tastes just as beautiful as it looks!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-31284331781706463172012-09-02T13:47:00.001-07:002012-09-02T13:47:30.645-07:00The Cheesecake Fantasy vs. The American DreamI was first introduced to cheesecake when I first came to the States. I remember my American mom bought this collage of different flavored cheesecake from the grocery store and I had fallen in love with this magical creamy delicacy since then. Then I went back to China, and my romance with the cheesecake became a long distance relationship where at the beginning I lived on beautiful reminiscences and then gradually got lost once again in the colorful Chinese gastronomy and alienated from the American desserts. But I was reunited with my estranged lover at T.G.I. Friday's in Beijing.<br />
Now that I'm back in the land of cheesecakes, I have recuperated my love, and I was found whole again.<br />
I remember the first time McDonald's was opened in my hometown in China my aunt took me and my cousin over there for a meal after she got her first paycheck. I took a bite of the Big Mac served in a brown box and was instantly disgusted by it. She bought us many other things as well, but only the disgust I felt towards Big Mac remained vivid in my memory. Who could know that only years later I had acquired a convenient love for the American fast food that was fast invading Chinese market. It was delicious, it's fast and it's American. Fortunately we have passed the era that Ha Jin descibed in his story about the American fried chicken restaurant in China that caused much conflict in the community purely because of the fact that it was considered capitalist and thus bad. The western culture has learned to not only expand to this vast consumer market but adapt to the local tastes. KFC now sells breakfast in Chinese style and meals with rice. I imagined myself eating these wonderful food when I would be in the country of their motherland. It was part of the American dream.<br />
However, I've hardly ever eaten at a fast food place in the States, maybe five times total in the course of a year. I have learned that there's much more to the Western cuisine than McDonald's and KFC and preferred to cook myself, as you probably have figured out by now.<br />
The cheesecake fatansy is realized once more and the American dream is on her way to be realized, I think I shall push it forward more by attempting to make cheesecakes: the task that almost seemed impossible.<br />
So here it is, my <a href="http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/3D-Chocolate-Cheesecake" target="_blank">3-D chocolate cheesecake</a>, well technically it's 2-D because I didn't use chocolate graham crackers, you know me, I wouldn't make a single recipe without making a little subsitution.<br />
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And I realized I don't have a cookie sheet deep enough for me to put boiling water in to bake the cheesecake, therefore the old saucepan had to do.</div>
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When it's chocolate, it has to be a little messy haha.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-18620834362651273342012-08-10T14:34:00.000-07:002012-08-10T14:34:44.462-07:00Friends of the SteakTo make up for my lack of reading during the summer, I have started searching for books my advisor suggested I read. It excited me that I would have an excuse to buy books at Ukazoo again, yet of all the titles I was only able to find Alice Munro's work since he didn't give me any specific titles of her short stories. So finally I read <i>Friend of My Youth</i>, an interesting story written in a interesting way about interesting people. A story told by the main character's mother about a friend of her youth and how the young woman now begins to protray this friend in her own head in a different way from what she was told. If it's just about the friend, then you would think about whether you have a friend like that, who at one time in your life fascinated you so much yet then faded away as a mystery to you forever. Then there's more to this story. While Flora was this wonderful, innocent woman who never had anything she deserved but slaved her entire life for others' benefit, she was conceived by the daughter as a woman who was just as black as she was white. She had her own flaws, and she was just as responsible for her misfortunes in life as other people who had seemingly caused the misfortunes. In her mind, Flora was a total different person from what her mother believed she was. In a way, she saw what her mother really was through her memory of Flora. Then you wonder, what friends are, why some people become friends, and if you are friends, does it mean that you match one another? Does it mean that you go well together? Does it mean that you love one another?<br />
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I then wonder why in cooking certain foods only go with certain foods, and whther there is a limit to the combination. I have to confess I tried once the mixture of avocado with kiwi and bacon, and it didn't turn out so well. But last night, I embarked on another one of my own recipe endeavors and created something very interesting: A steak bruschetta. The original recipe is from the magazine Taste of Home, but I almost never really followed it except for the idea. All the time I was wondering if these vegetables would be friends of the steak.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Steak Bruschetta with BBQ sauce</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">three stalks of celery</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one container of cherry tomatoes</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">slices of bread, baguette prefered</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chop the vegetables and sautee them in the pan, season with salt and pepper.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grill the steak and cut into small pieces if you can, or you can cook them in a pan as well, season with BBQ sauce.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mix the vegetables and steak, set aside.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grill the bread with cheddar cheese on one side.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Spread the veggies and meat mixture on top of the cheese and sprinkle with parmesan cheese on top. </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-10314843084519395722012-08-04T07:18:00.002-07:002012-08-04T07:18:32.280-07:00The Return of the CookAfter a long a lazy vacation, coming back to the blog seems to be a wake-up call that pulls me back into reality. The blog site is blocked in China, so for two months I had no access to my lovely blog. Don't ask me why it's blocked, probably for the same reason that Facebook and Youtube are blocked and the same reason that diabetic patients should be completely shunned from sugar. But it's good to be back, it's always good to be back, no matter where I am. I have grown so used to having two lives in two countries that moving from one to the other doesn't cause me any discomfort at all; in fact, I don't even feel the difference any more. The countries have blended so well in my head like an all-berry smoothie that there's no way for me to tell exactly how many berries there are any more.<br />
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Before I bring out today's plat du jour, I do have one confession to make and hope that my advisor doesn't see this, or if he does, would forgive me nonetheless. I finished perhaps only three books this entire summer: one from the Hunger Games trilogy and two Chinese collections of proses: none of which were on the reading list that we had discussed before. Although I did get started on a collection of short stories by Ha Jin, which was interesting and very educational. I now have tons of questions about the very little English reading I have done, and they keep piling up as I'm catching up now with some Garcia Marquez.<br />
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One thing I did get from having two cultures coexist in my head is a combination of two flavors in writing and in cooking, which I greatly appreciate.<br />
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Last night's return to the American kitchen dinner was a big failure according to Chinese standard, but according to American standard it was perhaps only different, and according to my endearing boyfriend Chris's taste, it was pretty good. Oh what can I say, someone who thinks eating fried fish with its head and tail is weird should not be considered a valid judge for food, haha.<br />
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It may give the impression of purely Chinese stir-fry, but true Chinese would tell you they normally don't stir-fry potatoes with red bell peppers, and they would not recognize that zucchini in the left plate. All in all, it was a culturally merging dinner, mixing the Americna ingredients and Chinese cooking style together. The failure was that I had lost some touch with the flavoring and the spices. It seemed that Chinese dishes are usually much more flavored and have more tastes while a lot of American dishes would consider rather blend; of course, the western habit of adding salt and pepper is a totally different habit whereas in Chinese cuisine the dishes are always well seasoned enough before they are brought out on the table. So, it turned out that although I felt like I shook the salt dispenser more than enough it still was blend to my taste. Oh well, my cooking skill needs just as much time to adjust as my jet lag.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-27252552969607281532012-05-23T12:27:00.000-07:002012-05-23T12:27:14.066-07:00Should we always make our own pie crust?I have been putting off posting this vegetable tart recipe I made a long time ago, simply because it's such a long recipe due to the number of ingredients in it. But the recipe itself is really not that complicated, and the result was fantastic. However, before I tell you about the recipe, I think we should have a little discussion about the making of pie crust.<br />
I have always tried to make my own pie crust; in fact, I have never bought a pie crust from the store. I insist on staying true to my cooking ethnics and making everything from scratch if possible. Nonetheless, pie crust, like any other pastry, requires meticulous work and precise measurement, none of which I can pride myself on. Therefore, I brag about my making my own pie crust, but I never say it's really really good. But I try, you see, and that counts.<br />
Why do we admire so much people who make their own pie crust? Is it just because we think we can't do it? No, everyone can make a pie crust. It's because we admire their commitment to the craft of cooking, I believe. Back in the time when ready-made pie crust was not available at grocery stores, endearing mothers and grandmothers made their own pie crusts; sometimes it almost feels like we are losing the tradition when our hands reach out to the frozen pie crust in the gigantic freezer in the store.<br />
Are we losing the tradition?<br />
I ask myself the very question when my hands touched my new kindle. I had been debating about whether I should get one or not, and my strong commitment to the texture of paper and the smell of ink had been keeping me away from this new fruit of modern technology. But I finally broke down and asked for it for Christmas, while my books were screaming at me calling me a traitor.<br />
For the record, I did not touch the electronic monster since I opened the box on Christmas morning. But I have been feeding free and bargain books into it. When Amazon allowed me to borrow the kindle version of <i>The Hunger Games</i> for free, I finally started using it. And I have a confession: so far, I have loved every single second of it, and there's no problem of reading, if anything, it saved the time of page-turning and saves a lot of space. Am I losing the tradition?<br />
Everytime my finger swiftly touched the right lower corner of the screen to flip a page I felt an incredible sense of anticipation, and it cost so much less energy than flipping a paper page: my laziness got the upper hand you see. I threw a glance at my bookshelf after I closed my kindle one night; I could barely smell their unique scent, and a slight feeling of guilt passed in my heart before I closed my eyes.<br />
After I finished <i>The Hunger Games</i>, I put down my kindle to another hibernation and returned to my paperbacks, yet I knew that was not just because I missed them so much but because most of the books I wanted and needed to read were still in paperbacks. Guilt strike number two. Once I resumed the touch of the thin paper, I began to feel extremely calm, and the rush and excitement that kindle brought was vanished as if a husband returning to his endearing and considerate wife after a flashlike affair with a naughty mistress.<br />
I know some tradition would never be lost.<br />
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Roasted Vegetable Tart <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/01/roasted-vegetable-tart" target="_blank">(from <i>Bon Appétit</i> Jan 2012 issue)</a><br />
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The recipe is intimidatingly long, so I spared you the reading on my blog after going through my own long post. I do want to admit that I had two ovens working at the same time to roast the vegetables and lost track of time and temperature(Damn the Harter double ovens!!!), so I almost burned the pastry. I also believed any vegetable can be used so I used asparagus and broccoli that are not in the recipe, so my tart was very thick. One last confession: due to the lack of spices in the Harter household, I ended up omitting the fennel bulb and fresh thyme leaves, for which reason I vow to make this again in the future with much more precision.<br />
But it was delicious after all!!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><span><br /><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-83029363306787834562012-04-23T09:21:00.002-07:002012-04-23T09:21:33.481-07:00Find Where Your Roots areDuring our trip to the Shenandoah National Park, I noticed my American mom was reading a book called <i>Tiger's Wife</i>. I was not particularly happy after reading about the author on the book cover: the girl is only a few months older than me and she has already published in <i>The New Yorker</i>, <i>Harper's</i>, <i>Atlantic</i> and has won numerous awards. Oh some people say you don't have to be published to prove you are a writer, but what kind of writer doesn't want to get published?!<br />
So I went on reading the synopsis of the book and learned that this Belgrade-born author moved to America when she was 12 after the Yugoslavian war, and the novel is set in a Balkan country one and a half century ago: a family saga that's about a heroine and her relationship with her grandfather.<br />
I was not surprised by the setting of the story, because American writers of different ethinic backgrounds usually tend to write about their own cultures. Think about my favorite writer Amy Tan and the one I'm currently reading, Junot Diaz. People tend to dig out their roots and bring them out in the open. It's what they know the best and what they can sell the best.<br />
But is it stereotypical for a Chinese American writer to write about China or a Dominican American writer to write about Dominic Republic? Do I, a Chinese writer, have to write about China? Sometimes I so want to break out the stereotype but realize it is what I know the best. I can't write about a cowboy's life in Arizona because I don't know about it, but I can write about a Chinese beggar who spends her days on the streets of Beijing because I know about it. So I guess there's nothing wrong writing about your own culture, and you don't have to break away from the culture to jump out of the stereotypes.<br />
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To go back to my own roots, I picked up Chinese cooking again after a long dry spell of home cuisine since Chinese New Year.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eggplant stirfried in soybean sauce</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had to use a lot of oil stirfrying eggplant as it absorbs a huge amount of oil when you fry it, but the salty soybean sauce makes you forget about the grease and highlights the taste to the Nth degree.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sweet and Sour pork</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You would never have guessed what made it sweet and sour is a combination of ketchup and sugar; although, I do have to admit that the color of the dish is not entirely professional, I may have to work on this one later: it may be an issue of measurement in terms of the proportion of ketchup to sugar.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sour and Spicy potatoes</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Don't be so impressed by the thin strips of potatoes, they are really not that thin: my Dad would not be particuarly impressed let's put it that way. You may not be able to see, but there's some dried red chili peppers there somewhere. The color is supposed to be lighter since you are supposed to use rice vinegar, but apparently I didn't realize Emily had cleared out our kitchen and all we had was balsamic, which is not exactly Chinese. So here you go, still sour though.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tnCBqoFshno/T5V_EYCJzII/AAAAAAAAALo/fdPr_agOpzE/s1600/DSC04494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tnCBqoFshno/T5V_EYCJzII/AAAAAAAAALo/fdPr_agOpzE/s320/DSC04494.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The rice had tiny cubes of potatoes and sweet corn in it. In case you didn't notice, I have a lot of potatoes to kill.</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-16241695238378719402012-04-15T10:52:00.000-07:002012-04-15T10:52:13.598-07:00Creativity Rules!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmOYkhCR-SI/T4r-6kmzT-I/AAAAAAAAAKo/jtCmyL4A7gk/s1600/41KP8lBvGBL._SS500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lmOYkhCR-SI/T4r-6kmzT-I/AAAAAAAAAKo/jtCmyL4A7gk/s320/41KP8lBvGBL._SS500_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you have not heard of this book or have not read it, you need to go to the library or Amazon or Barnes & Nobles or wherever you get your books and find a copy and start reading right now! Well, maybe after reading my blog.</div>
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I have had this book for I've forgotten how long. I bought it in China and while packing books to mail to the States last summer, I chose randomly from the countless books that I had not read this particular one. And I still hadn't started until recently. But I was instantly hooked when I began flipping the pages in bed one restless midnight. When I reluctantly turned off the light after 40 pages, I was almost too excited to sleep.</div>
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Okay, now you want to know why this book is so amazing, aside from the fact that it won the Pulitzer. But has the title triggered your curiosity yet? Everything about this book screams creativity at the top of its lung: the title, the story, the language. It is simply <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">UNIQUE.</span></div>
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Oscar is a Dominican American guy who grew up as a fat sci-fi nerd, constantly being bullied and made fun of. But he was good at what he knew, science ficiton and video games. He even wrote sci-fi stories himself. </div>
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Junot's writing is hilarious and true. While reading, you feel like he's talking to you, telling you the stories in person. He doesn't shy away from profanity and idioms; forget about picturesque and beautiful prose, life is all about the brutal truth! Not everything has to be Nabokov; when your subject requires an unconventional language style, you shouldn't hesitate to adopt it. It may work amazingly well.</div>
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Now you know why I study creative writing!</div>
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Obviously, creativity rules not only in literature, but also in cooking. I bet you already knew that from my previous posts that I am a novice adventurous cook who doesn't always follow instructions. And, I make up stuff. What's wrong with a little creativity in the kitchen? You won't find out whether it's good or bad until you mix what's impossible into what's possible. Because in the kitchen nothing is impossible, but your palate may disagree.</div>
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So this was my adventure the other day.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cc7RB4WagPs/T4sHqiSfQ5I/AAAAAAAAAKw/CzSLZHcC41o/s1600/DSC04481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cc7RB4WagPs/T4sHqiSfQ5I/AAAAAAAAAKw/CzSLZHcC41o/s320/DSC04481.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm not yet very good at naming new recipes, so for the moment this is called Italian veggie wrap, a little ambitious I know. I just happened to have some old soft tortilla wraps and some celery, carrots and cabbage. Oh yes, the cabbage was from the cabbage rolls I made weeks ago. A lesson learned, cabbages stay good for a very long time in the fridge. PS. measurements don't matter in this recipe, follow your heart.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Italian Veggie Wrap</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">cabbage, cut into 1-inch wedges</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">stalks of celery, chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">carrots, chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Herbes en Provence seasoning</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">olive oil</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Drizzle the cabbage wedges with olive oil and roast in the oven at 350 for 50 minute until the edges are brown. Sautee the celery and carrots in a saucepan in olive oil until a little soft. Add a can of tomato sauce, cook and season with herbes en Provence seasoing and salt and pepper. Add the cabbage into the mixture and cook till well flavored.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meanwhile, toast the tortilla wraps in olive oil until </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">crunchy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">both sides are brown on the edges.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wrap the veggies in the tortilal wrap and enjoy!</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YpwHu-6KMFA/T4sJ6tyuLxI/AAAAAAAAAK4/5FzNjGTrBbI/s1600/DSC04478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YpwHu-6KMFA/T4sJ6tyuLxI/AAAAAAAAAK4/5FzNjGTrBbI/s320/DSC04478.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I bought brie cheese that day, hmm, double creamy, Trader Joe's also rules!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-71655652439636325442012-04-04T20:00:00.002-07:002012-04-04T20:00:35.447-07:00A Melting Pot or a Tossed SaladI'm beginning to think one of the reasons that I like America so much is because I like being part of the melting pot, or the tossed salad, whatever it's called now. Even if most people are American born, they most likely have different cultural backgrounds, let alone you never stop meeting people who are actually foreigners, meaning who don't have an American Citizenship, like me.<br />
My birthday party says it all.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xxHzj0UpSeU/T3z_J3_SEcI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/ijvNLQpvDbg/s1600/IMG_3818.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xxHzj0UpSeU/T3z_J3_SEcI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/ijvNLQpvDbg/s320/IMG_3818.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Take a look at this group picture and guess how many countries are represented in it.</div>
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China, Malaysia, South Korea, America, France, Ghana, not that many really, ha ha. We come from four different continents, can you imagine?</div>
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Unintentionally, I cooked various finger food that in a way demonstrated a level of cultural diversity as well. I know, I made my own birthday cake, then I made my own birthday party food, no, I <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">made up</span> most of them, you'd think I'm crazy or pathetic, but if you truly know me, you would know how much I enjoyed every minute of it. The stress I had running around in and out of my kitchen, cutting beef at one point and then seasoning zucchini the next second. Oven door was opened and closed almost continuously. I was running out of baking sheets and pans. May I remind you, I'm a poor international graduate student, I make enough money to pay for school, but then I live off my parents on rent and everything else, so it's not really surprising that I can't afford elaborate cooking wares; it probably also explains why I enjoy subsituting or omitting ingredients in my cooking a lot: I simply don't have the extra money to buy everything. But I manage to make it work. It's not perfect, but it tastes good. And since I can't taste the pictures and recipes in the cookbooks, I'm off the hook on that one! I know, I'm not a perfectionist, and I give myself a lot of excuses. But life shouldn't be that hard. It's the joy of cooking that counts the most, don't you think?</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qYB8fz1mBB4/T30B7dXlR0I/AAAAAAAAAKA/0k5fl2EJBRI/s1600/IMG_3795.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qYB8fz1mBB4/T30B7dXlR0I/AAAAAAAAAKA/0k5fl2EJBRI/s320/IMG_3795.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ryX6Vs8P6nk/T30CAScCeII/AAAAAAAAAKI/dHyzeTRCW0g/s1600/IMG_3797.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ryX6Vs8P6nk/T30CAScCeII/AAAAAAAAAKI/dHyzeTRCW0g/s320/IMG_3797.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Sadly, during the frenzy of cooking and partying, I didn't manage to take a lot of pictures. However, I will probably make some of these things again in the future, and when I do, I promise to provide more pictures.</div>
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So, here's my menu:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mini beef kebabs with bell peppers and zucchini</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 package of thin sliced beef, four slices, cut into 2-inch squares</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 zucchinis, cut into round pieces</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 yellow bell pepper and 1 red bell pepper, cut into 2-inch pieces</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Spread the peppers and zucchini on two separate baking sheets, toss with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until a little softened. Meanwhile, season the beef with salt and pepper.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Skewer the veggies and beef with toothpicks and bake them in the oven until the beef is done, about 15 minutes, try not to over bake or the beef may get too chewy.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MhZLrV9DutI/T30CCzgT6gI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/_9dPt6x9UKc/s1600/DSC04428.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MhZLrV9DutI/T30CCzgT6gI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/_9dPt6x9UKc/s320/DSC04428.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tuna Salad with avacado and celery</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 cans of tuna, drained</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 ripe avcados, peeled and mashed</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5 chalks of celery, chopped into 1-inch pieces (I know in the picture there's no celery, but that's because the picture was taken the night before when I was testing the recipe without the celery. My roommate suggested to add something crunchy, so I added celery the next day for the party.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3/4 cup of mayonnaise</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mix the tuna and the avacado. Boil the celery till it's softened but still crunchy, and drain it. Mix the celery with the tuna and avacado and add enough mayonnaise as you see fit.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Spoon out a generous amount and spread it on top of a slice of baguette, Enjoy!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Baked Potato with Mushrooms (Sorry, this is the one that I don't have a picture of.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5 medium-sized potatoes, cut vertically into 1-inch thin pieces, resembling the shape of a slice of baguette</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 containers of sliced mushrooms, browned in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper (remember not to crowd the mushrooms!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bake the potatoes in the oven at 350 coated with olive oil till they are softened but can still be picked up without being smushed, about 15 minutes.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Spread the cooked mushrooms on top of the potatoes and serve. If the potatoes have cooled down, stick the topped the potatoes back in the oven for five more minutes to warm them up.</span></div>
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I did promise to show you a picture of the inside of my cake, so here it is:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zC1u3EqbTVw/T30JZXTf8kI/AAAAAAAAAKg/O086vVZP8tY/s1600/DSC04464.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zC1u3EqbTVw/T30JZXTf8kI/AAAAAAAAAKg/O086vVZP8tY/s320/DSC04464.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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For your information, I decorated it with the number "16," as it was, you know, my sixteenth birthday, haha.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-64523946836076998612012-04-01T14:27:00.000-07:002012-04-01T14:33:24.838-07:00The Family Rolling PinA week ago during my spring break cooking frenzy I made a pizza. I had thought that making the pizza dough would be extremely hard, and I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't exactly right either. Following Brittany's recipe for <a href="http://www.giveagirlacookie.com/2011/06/shaved-asparagus-pizza.html" target="_blank">Shaved Asparagus Pizza</a>, I managed to create a rather reasonably looking dough, except then I realized I didn't have a rolling pin in the house. May I remind you, I was in Chris's house, and why would a guy who had only big boxes of sliced cheese, a huge container of soy sauce, a big jar of mayonnaise and countless coke zeroes in his fridge, ever, ever, have a rolling pin in the house?! Arrgh... I thought I had come prepared!<br />
This is the rolling pin I have in my apartment.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rfrubNFhQA4/T3i-wZfFMtI/AAAAAAAAAJY/-2wXXV-8JUQ/s1600/DSC04465.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rfrubNFhQA4/T3i-wZfFMtI/AAAAAAAAAJY/-2wXXV-8JUQ/s320/DSC04465.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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It may not look like a regular rolling pin that you normally see or use, but it has seen many good years and bad years in my family and is certainly a very well traveled rolling pin.</div>
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During the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, many Chinese city teenagers of the ages from 14 to 17 were pulled away from their classrooms and sent away from home to the far west or far north to remote villages to learn about growing crops and to help develop the local agriculture. My aunt, was among the generation of the "honorable youth." She was sent to the farthest north province of China, Heilongjiang where she spent several years enduring the unbearable winters. She left home with nothing more than a bundle of clothes and this rolling pin and came back to Tianjin with a local boy that she was to marry. She is turning sixty next year, and she and her husband have been living in Tianjin ever since: he had left his hometown for her and settled in Tianjin. They are now proud grandparents of a little 4-year-old girl. My aunt gave me the rolling pin last time I came to the States in 2003 so I could make dumplings for my host family. I had left it with my American parents when I went back to China in 2004. Now the rolling pin is back in my hands again eight years later. I used it to make dumplings during Chinese New Year this year and to make pie crusts. However, I did not have it with me when I made my virgin pizza.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6gCmSUB-hB8/T3jDAEOypbI/AAAAAAAAAJg/vuaoTybUP8Y/s1600/DSC04413.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6gCmSUB-hB8/T3jDAEOypbI/AAAAAAAAAJg/vuaoTybUP8Y/s320/DSC04413.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Therefore, my pizza was of a very odd shape.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shaved Asparagus Pizza</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pizza Dough</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7tbsps warm water</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 tbsps white wine</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3/4 tsp active dry yeast</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 tsp honey</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 tsp salt</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 tbsp olive oil</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 1/2 cups of flour</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whisk together the water, wine and yeast in a medium bowl till the yeast is desolved. (I didn't have white wine in the house so I omitted it. My pizza turned out to be a little dry and crispy, I'm not sure if it's because of the lack of the wine or because it was slightly over baked.) Mix in the honey, salt and olive oil, and stir until combined. Add flour and mix with your fingers till it forms a dough, add more water, 1 tbsp at a time if it's terribly crumbly.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sprinkle some flour on a clean working surface and roll out the dough, kneading it for about 2 minutes. Coat the inside of a bowl with olive oil and turn the dough into the bowl and rotate till it's coated with olive oil. Cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise till it's double-sized, should be about two hours. It's ready when you press two dingers into the dough and it doesn't rise back.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The topping</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RNSJEcS4Wrg/T3jDD-exKvI/AAAAAAAAAJo/sFhYhjJVWl4/s1600/DSC04411.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RNSJEcS4Wrg/T3jDD-exKvI/AAAAAAAAAJo/sFhYhjJVWl4/s320/DSC04411.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 pound of asparagus, shaved into thin slices with a peeler</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 pound of shredded three Italian cheeses</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one half of a red bell pepper, minced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 tsps of olive oil</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 tsp coarse salt</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a few grinds of black pepper</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">juice of one lemon</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mix the asparagus and red pepper in a bowl with olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Preheat your oven to the highest possible temperature, mine was 550.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Roll out the pizza dough to a 12-inch round, (or in my case, flatten it out with any object resembling a rolling pin, such as a wine bottle, but cleaned of course.) sprinkle the pizza with half of the cheese. Add the asparagus mixture, and top with the rest of the cheese. (I actually didn't measure the cheese, I just kept on sprinkling until Chris said it was enough: he's the cheese lover you see.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bake for about 10 minutes, check around 6, the asparagus should be wilted and the cheese melted and the pizza slightly browned on the edge.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-85610024021009570742012-03-28T20:59:00.004-07:002012-03-28T20:59:50.947-07:00Baking HealsWe are doing a ghostwriting project for the freelance class, it just dawned on me a second ago: if I could have someone ghostwrite a book for me, it could be called <i>Baking Heals</i>. Because it does, not just the mind, but the body too.<div>
So before I could adjust myself back to school again after spring break, my body decided to boycott school with a nasty cold and sore throat. As I finally survived Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday came with a coughing debut. I got up and got dressed but was not ready for a day of work and an evening class. Instead I canceled everything and stayed in bed all day. By the time I got from post WWII to Cultural Revolution in China in <i>The Chinese in America</i> book, I was feeling much better. So I went out to get groceries for tomorrow's birthday potluck. Yes, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">happy birthday to me</span>! I am officially 26 years old now as we speak.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NJx7pp9V-sw/T3PWIAIiwMI/AAAAAAAAAJI/q6A9HDi6DL8/s1600/DSC04439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NJx7pp9V-sw/T3PWIAIiwMI/AAAAAAAAAJI/q6A9HDi6DL8/s320/DSC04439.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Finally, after 26 years, I got to make my own birthday cake. Even though my nose was still running and I was coughing sporadically, I managed to pull the frosting off. It is, are you ready, a double-layered buttermilk chocolate cake with chocolate vanilla cream cheese frosting. I'll post more pictures when I finish decorating it tomorrow and when I cut it at the birthday potluck dinner.</div>
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I used the recipe from <a href="http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/chocolate-buttermilk-cake-425" target="_blank">Good Housekeeping</a>, and for once, I did not change anything, except I added cocoa powder to the frosting, because one can never have too much chocolate!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GQ07TJbniVM/T3PV-QjKNNI/AAAAAAAAAIg/sEoF3mbUYXQ/s1600/DSC04431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GQ07TJbniVM/T3PV-QjKNNI/AAAAAAAAAIg/sEoF3mbUYXQ/s320/DSC04431.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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So the cake batter looked like this on the left; that is, before I dumped it in the pans and before my roommate Emily and I licked the remaining batter.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PYrpITq9RiY/T3PV_zF_YEI/AAAAAAAAAIo/MuAYmh2614s/s1600/DSC04432.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PYrpITq9RiY/T3PV_zF_YEI/AAAAAAAAAIo/MuAYmh2614s/s320/DSC04432.JPG" width="320" /></a>This, is what it looked like after I dumped the batter in the pans and after Emily and I licked the whole thing.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LB1d4iDGRAo/T3PWBgL2qrI/AAAAAAAAAIw/zGavBRLskuM/s1600/DSC04434.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LB1d4iDGRAo/T3PWBgL2qrI/AAAAAAAAAIw/zGavBRLskuM/s320/DSC04434.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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In China we rarely bake cakes. The cakes we buy at bakeries always have this fully frosting that's not as sweet as the American icing. I remember when I was at Towson High in 2003 in my nutrition class the teacher made icing once. She used a whole package of sugar in it, I could still taste the sugar crystals in the icing while I ate the cake. It's waaaay toooo sweet. So, now that I'm making my own cream cheese frosting, I have decided that I would preserve the creamy taste more, just like what I did with the frosting for the<a href="http://chenchen328.blogspot.com/2012/03/green-new-start.html" target="_blank"> green velvet cupcakes</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9H71jaHtINk/T3PWF3CvxGI/AAAAAAAAAJA/kLXl2d1Egb8/s1600/DSC04437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9H71jaHtINk/T3PWF3CvxGI/AAAAAAAAAJA/kLXl2d1Egb8/s320/DSC04437.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S4NNQ9e752k/T3PWD4O0O_I/AAAAAAAAAI4/CqVIa2khojQ/s1600/DSC04435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S4NNQ9e752k/T3PWD4O0O_I/AAAAAAAAAI4/CqVIa2khojQ/s320/DSC04435.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MG_TK8flA2w/T3PWJg3BegI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/QoU7fsc97aU/s1600/DSC04440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MG_TK8flA2w/T3PWJg3BegI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/QoU7fsc97aU/s320/DSC04440.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've also learned the importance of parchment paper the hard way as I gently detached my cake from the pan. Oops! Well, I hope my dear guests tomorrow won't notice the occasional missing chunks of the cake. I mean, you really can't tell after I fixed it with the frosting. </div>
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I was also trying to think of an easier way to put those almond slices on the side without putting them on one by one using my hands: it's a very delicate and hard task. The fact that I don't have a cake stand just didn't help either.</div>
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Are you wondering why I used a spring formed cake pan and a regular cake pan? It just happens to be what I have. Actually, the spring formed pan is from Chris: he didn't even know what it was until I found it in his kitchen! Oh the man needs some serious education!</div>
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As I said, baking heals. I wasn't feeling sick at all as I made the cake and I was certainly cruising the grocery store early on. Really, food is such a comfort that I can just dance in the food store. But now that I turned off the kitchen light my head is heavy as lead again, so I must send myself to bed.</div>
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Good night, my readers, if you do exist.</div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-6958256933568791662012-03-23T12:37:00.001-07:002012-03-26T13:56:50.661-07:00The Greatest ShowI have finally started reading this book that I won at the first Towson reading series two weeks ago. A collection of linked stories evolved around the big circus fire in Hartford Connecticut around 70 years ago. The author, a distinguished writer with a shrewd journalist background, Michael Downs, is also a fantastic professor at Towson University. I am taking his freelance writing class this semester and am thoroughly enjoying the class every week.<br />
The stories begin with the one about a mother and her child going to the circus when the fire happened. The tickets were stolen from her employer: she had wanted her child to see something beyond his imagination so badly that she took the tickets as she was cleaning the house. Ania, a Polish immigrant, worked hard to make ends meet while her husband was away in Europe fighting the war. Then the fire took place. And it would go on changing their lives, and the lives of many other people in Hartford, forever.<br />
I ponder at the title of the book, finding fun, irony, and sorrow. The greatest show isn't always the greatest, is it?<br />
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To learn more about this touching book and its author, you need not go far: <a href="http://greatestshow.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Greatest Show</a>.</div>
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I put on a show yesterday myself. Chris took me to play tennis, the single sport that I was willingly to learn at one point and took a class for two semesters in college but still ended up barely passing it. Did I tell you how bad I am at all sports? I don't like sports: I can watch some sports, but most likely playing is out of the question. So I told him I'd try to learn to play tennis again. And I did better than I thought: I mean, at least I managed to hit the ball over the net for several times. But I was never in a total sporting mood, or as Chris said, there was some laziness in me. There would always be some laziness in me, because deep inside I still reject the idea of me playing sports. So when he asked me to run a little for him I refused. Running is, if you didn't know already, my biggest enemy. All throughout middle school and high school in China, I had to pass running tests and I passed only a handful. I hated it. Once I was done with running tests, I vowed that I would never run again under anyone's command. No one, No one, can ask me to run if I don't want to. So you can imagine our tennis play didn't end quite well. It caused me two glasses of wine and a 1400-word story in the middle of the night and a comfort movie to finally manage to sleep at 3 o'clock in the morning.<br />
I'm stubborn and my self-consciousness is high. There are things I hate to do and if I truly don't want to do it it would cause me physical pain if someone keeps asking me to do it or if I do actually do it. It reminds me of my early childhood when I didn't like taking baths and my mom would nag me all over the apartment for a bath. I would lock myself up in the bathroom, so angry, crying, screaming she was not my real mother. So, I was a stubborn child; I'm a stubborn person. I'm sorry. If you want to try breaking that down, you can try, but I can't guarantee success.<br />
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So I made the pineapple fried rice that I always wanted to make for the first time in bitterness and half silence; it turned out a little blend. I also added too much water to the broccoli, potato hash so it was too watery.<br />
It wasn't the greatest show non whatsoever. But my beloved ate it all; he makes me so happy that I want to cry.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Pineapple fried rice</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Three cups of cooked white rice</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">One pineapple</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">One piece of boneless and skinless chicken breast</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">One small can of peas</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">One red bell pepper, chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">4 stalks of celery, chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">2 carrots, chopped</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Vegetable oil</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Cut the pineapple in half, use one half, save the other for other purposes. Cut out the flesh and chop into small cubes, leaving the hollow half pineapple the shape of a rectangular bowl. Cut the chicken breast into bite size pieces. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Set a wok over medium heat; pour in about 3 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Cook the chicken until it turns white; then set aside in a bowl. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Add one more tablespoon oil and stir-fry the vegetables. Add the rice and pineapple; keep stir-frying till the rice is broken apart. Add chicken, keep stir-frying until well mixed. Season with salt and pepper. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Cook for two more minutes, and then serve in the pineapple bowl.</span></span></div>
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The <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">hard part of the recipe was to scoop out the pineapple flesh. The fried rice can be made into any flavor, just make the fried rice you normally like and add pineapple to it. I probably could have added soy sauce, but as I said, I wasn't exactly in a good mood.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">Broccoli Potato and bacon hash (adapted from <a href="http://steamykitchen.com/20996-broccoli-potato-bacon-hash-recipe.html" target="_blank">Steamy Kitchen</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">2 potatoes, cut into 1/2" dice</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">1 clove garlic, finely minced</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">dried basil</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">1. In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon pieces until crisp. Use a slotted spoon to remove and reserve the bacon, leaving the bacon drippings in the pan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">2. Add the potatoes to the pan and brown the potatoes on each side, about 6-8 minutes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">3. Stir in the onions, cook for 2 minutes, then add in the broccoli and the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. Add in 1 tablespoon of water and cover. Let cook for 3 minutes. Check to make sure that the potato is cooked through.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small;">4. Add the cooked bacon pieces back into the pan and season with salt, pepper and basil.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">So instead of 1 tbsp of water I added probably 5, and the result being my hash more like boiled vegetables. Once again, do not cook <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">new recipes</span> when you are not in a good mood.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Needless to say, I woke up with a raging headache and lingering nightmares about playing tennis. And, a still bloated stomach. We finally did it: we ate tooooo muuuuuch.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I ate my ritual dessert breakfast and went out speed walking. After the sweat and some reading, I now feel so much better. I also have to tell you how much I appreciate having such a wonderfully considerate and understanding boyfriend.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-13011186771835440182012-03-22T12:36:00.001-07:002012-03-22T12:36:57.516-07:00Eat Laugh LoveOne of my favorite bestsellers is <i>Eat Pray Love</i>. It's not a classic, and perhaps will never be, but it speaks to the heart of women, and it simply lightens up your mind. I read the book two years ago, and I can still remember the humorous language and the delightful tales along her way of self-searching across the globe. It may seem a little too unrealistic for some people's taste, especially the part where she finds her love in Bali. No one wants to believe in fairytales anymore, come on. But dreams do come true, and you should never stop believing in them and in yourself. And when you find yourself lost in faith, go find it; it's never far away.<div>
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I don't pray, I laugh: that's how I keep my faith. I believe in food and love.</div>
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Just as sweet as the freh strawberries and pears.</div>
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Yes, I have been making desserts these days. One should never stop baking!</div>
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With the new iron skillet I bought myself, I decided to finally venture on the Tarte Tatin: a French pie that was originally made with apples, but I replaced them with pears. The pears are cooked in melted butter and caramelized sugar in the skillet till the juice is thick and you cover the pie crust on top then bake it till the crust is golden brown. Once out of the oven, you simply turn it upside down. Everything about Tarte Tatin is delicate and complicated, so needless to say I didn't totally succeed. But it did turn out okay flavor wise; I mean, after all, Chris did manage to eat two slices before our steak dinner with his mother. God only knows why I wanted to stress myself out even more by making such a difficult dessert before meeting my boyfriend's mother for the first time!</div>
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Oh La Tarte Tatin! There's still so much to learn in the pastry making and caramelizing process.</div>
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I will not be providing the recipes until I feel confident I can make this right.</div>
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Baking is science; it really is.</div>
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The strawberry shortcake I made two days ago, on the other hand, is not too hard, although to make it perfect, espcially to cut the cake in half evenly, is still out of my league at this point.</div>
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If you go to the source of this recipe, <i><a href="http://www.giveagirlacookie.com/2010/05/strawberry-shortcake-cake.html" target="_blank">If You Give a Girl a Cookie</a></i>, you will see how different my cake looks from hers. Sometimes it's all about presentation when you can't taste it, isn't it? Although I'm pretty sure her cake would taste better than mine too: I just tend to make my frosting less sweet what can I say.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">I burned the iron skillet, my cake layers fell apart when I ate it with a fork, but I've been eating them for breakfast everyday and I laugh at myself and I found love in Chris's non-stop fork movement. And that, is all that matters.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-5067131672083704862012-03-21T10:32:00.000-07:002012-03-21T10:32:30.565-07:00A Là Française<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LG7SOQmKfUA/T2oDNvQgpcI/AAAAAAAAAFY/pO0ISZ0R22k/s1600/s4068114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LG7SOQmKfUA/T2oDNvQgpcI/AAAAAAAAAFY/pO0ISZ0R22k/s320/s4068114.jpg" width="209" /></a>In case you didn't know, I consider myself one third Chinese, one third American, and one third French. This is not only because I speak the three languages fluently, but also that I enjoy the food from the three countries as well. After all, this blog was first called "Cooking with Julia Child in Chen's Kitchen." It all started with my first encounter with Julia Child: in the movie <i>Julie & Julia</i>. To imitate Julie Powell, I began my own cooking blog cooking through Julia Child's cookbook, except I'm using the much simpler version <i>The Way to Cook</i>. Now that my cooking endeavor has taken a new direction, steering away from the full concentration on Julia Child, I've also not forgotten about my love for that movie and Child's life in France. But before I step into the dangerous realm of motion picture where I can't keep my mouth shut, let's stay focused on her book. I read this book a year ago. Although I can't really say it's a great book, it's certainly a fun read; it would make you laugh and dream about the legendary French cuisine. You can almost smell the fish in the market and touch the greasy duck. You wonder how a gigantic American woman who could barely chop onions would have developed such passion for French cooking and the French people. Don't get me wrong; the French people are not all that difficult to be around, although you do have to give the stereotypes some credit. I spent my junior year in college in Lyon, France and met some wonderful French people, but the general impression of the country is still not all that amazing as one may think. Not everywhere is Paris, and not everywhere in Paris is Champs-Elysées. But the food, the pastry, and the wine, oh my God, is nothing if not divine.<br />
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Therefore, I took a second shot on the famous Beouf Bourguignon, a phrase every time I say would cause a disgraceful imitation on Chris's part that I shall not mention here. Please don't butcher the French language; I mean, is it really too much to ask?<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Beouf Bourguignon (adapted from Julia Child's <i>The Way to Cook</i>)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tender beef chunks for stew</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 carrots, chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 clove of garlic, minced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Use paper towel to dry the beef( if not dried they may not brown properly). Brown the beef in vegetable oil (again, I understand Julia's love for butter, but we are trying to be healthy here). Remove the beef from the pan and drain some of the fat. Put the beef in a pot and begin to stew in beef stock. Brown the onions and mushrooms separately in the pan. Try not to crowd the mushrooms (but of course I always crowd the mushrooms even though I keep telling myself not to, I still do. What can you do; they still get brown though.) Put the mushrooms and onions in a plate. Clean the fat from the pan and cook the carrots, garlic and tomatoes in canola oil until the tomatoes become soft and juicy. Pour everything from the pan into the pot, mix with the beef and add red cooking wine. Keep stewing for about another 40 minutes. As the beef gets tender and the juice begins to decrease, fold in the mushrooms and onions. Keep stewing till there's almost no juice in the pot. Add some corn starch to absorb the last bit of juice. Serve with baguette or rice. (You know what I served with of course, RICE!!!)</span></div>
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You can also bake the stew in the oven for about 2 hours, but if you don't have that much time but concerned about the tenderness of the beef, I suggest you add a pinch of lemon or lime juice: the acid helps to tenderize the beef. At home, my Dad sometimes puts in a little sugared fruit in beef stew or even beer. You can't taste it, but it makes the beef get tender faster.</div>
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I don't know if you still remember this wonderful delight in the movie, but this is called Bruschetta, or, as <a href="http://www.giveagirlacookie.com/2011/05/fried-bread-heirloom-tomato-salad.html" target="_blank">Brittany would say, "fried bread with heirloom tomato salad."</a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bruschetta (adapted from If You Give a Girl a Cookie)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">slices of crusty bread (I used this marble rye bread that Chris has in the fridge)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">fresh basil (I used basil seasoning, it worked out fine too)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chop up the tomatoes, keep all the seeds and juice. Add basil and a swirl of olive oil just enough to coat the tomatoes. Fried the bread in olive oil until crispy on both sides. Rub the garlic on one side of the bread while still hot. Spread the tomato salad on top and enjoy! (Be careful while eating as the tomatoes do tend to fall off the bread if you don't know how to keep you bread balanced: Chris dropped half of the salad on the plate after the first bite!)</span></div>
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Just so you know, apparently I didn't just go French last night: I went entirely European, with this wonderful Italian pear salad with walnuts and feta!</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pear Salad with Walnuts and Feta (adapted from <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2010/10/20/pear-salad-with-walnuts-and-feta/" target="_blank">the Family Kitchen</a>)</span></div>
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2 pears, cored and thinly sliced<br />
1/4 cup roasted walnuts<br />
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese<br />
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar<br />
3 tablespoons olive oil<br />
freshly cracked pepper</span></span></div>
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Roast walnuts either in the oven or in a small sauce pan over medium heat until just aromatic. Be careful not to burn them. </span>Add spring mix to a large bowl. Top with thinly sliced pears, feta cheese and walnuts. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Add freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Toss salad to incorporate all ingredients.</span></div>
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Another Dinner for Two</div>
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The Spanish Sangria is the final touch of the European endeavor, and, oh please ignore the picture on the fridge: two of Chris's endearing friends.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-9732473556855787902012-03-20T11:07:00.000-07:002012-03-20T11:07:21.459-07:00Asian Infusion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Several weeks ago, I read this book, <i>The Red Thread</i> by Ann Hood, a story about American couples adopting Chinese babies. I picked it up out of curiosity in the library and almost returned it without reading it because I had too many books and too little time, surprise, surprise. But the day before the due-to-return date, I flipped through the pages and saw the name "Chen Chen", exactly the same as my Chinese name; needless to say, my curiosity grew wild again. So I did my fastest reading: I finished the 300-page book in six hours. I ended up crying a river in the library. </div>
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In Chinese we have a saying: every family its own problems. We go through pain and loss, and we find love and comfort again. In the book, the American mothers struggle with their marriages and their desire to become a mother, and the Chinese mothers send their baby girls away in tears. In the end, each girl is matched with a family in the land of freedom and happiness.</div>
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I have some American friends who adopted a Chinese girl, and now she's about to go to college. I often think about how her life would have turned out if she had stayed in that orphanage in rural China. I feel the pain the Chinese mother must have suffered from abandoning her daughter, and I also feel the joy the American families feel when their adopted girl grows into a fine young woman.</div>
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If you think of it, the number of Asian-American families is ever increasing nowadays; not only the families with adopted Asian children, but also the ones with interracial marriages. An article on Yahoo couple weeks ago said that 1 in 7 American marriages is an interracial marriage. The world has become a village, and nowhere is that concept better illustrated than in America. I myself is a living example of being in an interracial relationship: I was born and raised in China, and my boyfriend is one-hundred percent blue-eyed American, with half German half Irish background. We sometimes wonder what our children's eye color would be. He then wonders how I would look if I dyed my hair blond and my eyes blue. Well, I guess the only way to find that out is to use Photoshop.</div>
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So in honor of our mixed relationship, I made an Asian-American mixed meal last night.</div>
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Pineapple Curry Chicken with Rosanne Cash's Potato Salad</div>
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As I always say, Chris is such a picky eater, but of course his explanation is that he has a fragile palate; I'm not even sure "fragile" is the right word. So when he was tasting the pineapple chunks in the curry chicken he squinted his eyes and pursed his lips. I shook my head and kept on eating. I mean, when you make something for the one you love, shouldn't his reaction be "Oh my god honey this is sooooo good!" Instead he gave me this doubtful look and a repetition of "interesting, hmm, interesting, pineapple, hmm, interesting." Fortunately, it grew on him once he added rice on his plate. Bless his heart, the man is an all-time rice lover: he loves rice more than any Chinese person I know. Anyway, the curry chicken was delicious, even though I pretty much changed the entire original recipe.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pineapple Curry Chicken (adapted from <i>Taste of Home</i>)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">half of a fresh pineapple, chopped to chunks</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 pieces of skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 medium-sized carrots, minced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 medium-sized onion or half of a big one, minced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">half of a red bell pepper, minced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">half a clove of garlic, minced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cook the chicken breat in canola oil (I know butter is better, but we are trying to be healthier here.) Add onions, red bell pepper, carrots and garlic. When chicken is 80% cooked, put everything in a medium-sized pot and add pineapple. Add water till it barely covers the food and as much curry powder as you like (it really depends on how much you are into curry, then again, I don't like to measure, go with your heart!) Season with basil, chili powder, salt and pepper. Cook over low-medium heat for 10 minutes, add 2 tbsps of milk and keep cooking over low heat until the liquid is almost gone, then add 1 tbsp of corn starch to absorb the rest of the liquid.</span></div>
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Serve for 2 over rice (according to Chris), with potato salad (according to me)</div>
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Despite his initial reaction to the pineapple, Chris commented that he felt he was in an Indian restaurant and just ordered this dish. Now that, brought a grin to my face.</div>
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Okay I have an interesting insight on potato salad. In China, I always thought potato salad was imported and it's made with mashed potatoes: something I thought was common in western dishes until my American boyfriend said it's totally weird. So, this time I made a potato salad the American style.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rosanne Cash's Potato Salad (adapted from <i><a href="http://www.giveagirlacookie.com/2011/04/rosanne-cashs-potato-salad.html" target="_blank">If You Give a Girl a Cookie</a></i>)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5 or 6 small red-skinned potatoes, boiled whole and cut in half or quaters</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4 or 5 stalks of celery, chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 half of red onion (Brittany omitted this part, I didn't but feel like I should have, the onion is a little strong, but if you like strong-taste onion, then go ahead use it!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 scoops of mayonnaise</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 tbsps of yellow mustard (The original recipe asks for Dijon mustard, sadly I didn't have any in the house, I think yellow worked out just fine if you don't want to buy something that you'll probably only use for one dish at one time.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mix everything together and you have a salad! </span></div>
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The eggs are not mixed in the picture because I had a special request from my dear love who doesn't like egg white and prefers to be able to pick it out. Of course, once he saw the salad, he said with a potato salad I could have mixed it in he wouldn't have noticed. Oh well, it is what it is now. . . picky, picky, picky.</div>
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Sorry this seems to go on forever, I'm still farely new at blogging: I have to learn to keep my posts relatively short.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-77801774499705802032012-03-19T11:25:00.003-07:002012-03-19T11:25:45.131-07:00What We Talk About When We Talk About Cabbage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So last night was the first night of my spring break cooking extravaganza at the Harter's House. It felt nice to cook for the one you love, I have to admit, especially when he says "Honey I'm home!" while sniffing toward the aromatic kitchen. And just to be safe, I began the week with a dish I had made before: cabbage rolls from Julia Child's cookbook,<i> The Way to Cook</i>. Last time I made it for a dinner party and I followed everything from the recipe, but this time I was more comfortable and splurged a little myself. </div>
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I actually never really liked cabbage, because my mom used to make it all the time at home, and she didn't really flavor it much because she liked its natural taste and she said it's good for you that way. I love her dearly, but let's face it, she's not the best cook in the family. My family prides on our male cooks: a situation that I'm attempting to change right now!</div>
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However, I do have to point out that Chinese cabbages are not the same as American cabbages. Chinese cabbage is usually much tenderer, with a consistency in between the American cabbage and iceberg lettuce. That's why when making these cabbage rolls, I had to boil the leaves first to soften them. If I were using Chinese cabbages, I wouldn't have needed to do that. </div>
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For the record, I did eat one leaf out of the boiling water, plain, with no seasoning whatsoever; it tasted fresh like nature; I loved it!</div>
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Aren't they beautiful? This is one of the reasons I love the cabbage rolls so much: they are so pretty, and they just scream out spring!</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Braised Cabbage rolls with Ham and Bread Crumb stuffing (adapted from <i>The Way to Cook</i> by Julia Child)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The blanched leaves from an 8-inch head of cabbage</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">About 3 sups of stuffing</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Canola oil</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One medium onion, sliced</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boil the cabbage leaves in boiling water for 5 minutes till the leaves are softer but can still hold their shapes. Spread 1 leaf cupped side up on you work surface. Spread a cylinder of filling onto each leaf and roll up into a sausage shape, enclosing the filling completely.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Set the iron skillet over moderate hear, with the canola oil, add the onions, and sauté for 5 minutes until limp and translucent. Arrange the cabbage rolls best side up in a single layer over the onions. Season lightly with salt and pepper and Italian seasoning, pour the tomatoes over them. Bring to a simmer for about 30 minutes.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ham and Bread Crumb Stuffing</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 medium onion, roughly chopped</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A 1 1/2-inch cube of Swiss or Cheddar cheese, roughly diced (I used cheddar)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 cups or so scraps or pieces of ham, trimmed of fat</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 eggs</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 large clove of garlic, puréed</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 1/2 cups bread crumbs</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Seasoning: salt, freshly ground pepper, and thyme or sage</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cook the onion in canola oil till limp and translucent. Add the cheese and ham to the onion. Add the eggs and garlic, then the crmbs. Season nicely to taste.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Still considering cabbage slightly a Chinese vegetable, I completed the meal with a plate full of rice muffins, a recipe I found in a cookbook I just received not long ago from my American Dad. The book belonged to his mother, who passed away several years ago at the age of 104. The books is 70 years old; my hands tremble when I flip through the yellowed pages.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5QDjEAC_bKs/T2dpWH16OqI/AAAAAAAAAEA/uKlm-GgL-fI/s1600/DSC04366.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5QDjEAC_bKs/T2dpWH16OqI/AAAAAAAAAEA/uKlm-GgL-fI/s320/DSC04366.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rice Muffins (adapted from The Household Searchlight Recipe Book)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 cup cold cooked rice</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 cup milk</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 eggs, well beaten</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4 tbsp melted butter</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 tsp salt</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3 tsps baking-powder</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2 tbsps sugar</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 1/2 cups flour</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Preheat the oven to 430. Sift flour, measure, and sift with baking-powder and salt. Combine rice, milk, eggs, butter, and sugar. Add dry ingredients. Beat only until smooth. Fill well-oiled muffin tins 2/3 full (I used a 12-cupcake pan.) Bake for about 15-20 minutes.</span></div>
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So this is what we talk about when we talk about cabbage. Even if you use cabbage and rice, this whole meal is still entirely western, but I'd like to consider it having a slight touch of Asia. It doesn't always make sense, but I'm the cook! :-)</div>
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One of the things that doesn't always make sense is Raymond Carver's stories. They don't always follow the rules we've been learning in the short fiction writing class. But then again, creative writing should not be constrained to any rules; just like recipes don't always have to follow the exact measurements.</div>
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Carver's stories are full of pain and loss. Almost all the characters seem to be lost at some moment in their lives. These stories are the best examples for creating conflicts in short stories. </div>
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Now that I think of it, although these stories are not very conventional, they still follow some basic rules in ficiton writing. The dialogues are dynamic and lively, revealing the characters more than plain physical descriptions. Something I'll have to learn.</div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-21172104478611331272012-03-18T10:16:00.000-07:002012-03-18T10:16:21.812-07:00A Green New StartYou know it's a lie when a writer says "I'm writing this just for myself, I don't care if no one reads it." This is what I said when I started this blog. Now I think I just wasn't serious enough a writer, or a blogger. Truth to be known, I really wasn't that serious.<br />
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Still wondering how many people out there are actually reading this, I decided to take it more seriously, hoping that people will actually read this.<br />
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Therefore, on this gloomy Sunday right after St. Patty's Day, barely out of slumber, still in my boyfriend's X-Large "Made in Ireland" shirt, I begin once again this journey of blogging. While our cat Mushu is finding his own way to dreamland on my lap, I struggle to conceal my excitement of this <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Green New Start</span> so that I wouldn't stir him up where his playful paws will likely leave trademarks on my bare arms again.<br />
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This time I'm coming back with more cooking adventures and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">PLUS</span>: more reading adventures. Growing up in a family full of food-lovers and great cooks, I have finally found my own stand in a kitchen. Juggling my new passion with my old passions, "reading and writing," I suddeny had an idea that almost seemed too impossible to carry out: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">writing about reading and cooking</span>. Finally, it was my devoted boyfriend who articulated the idea of blogging about what kind of dishes would go with what books you are reading: something I'm still not so sure that I can manage to make enough sense of for my readers but am more than willing to try.<br />
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Just so you know, this is not going to be a straight feast of "one book matching one dish" kinda thing, I will more than likely talk about the books I'm currently reading and the recipes I'm making. Forgive me if sometimes there may not be an apparent connection between the two things; I will definitely try to make some most of the time.<br />
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I know you probably can't flip the page while stirring the food, but you can certainly enjoy eating the food while you flip the page. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Flavors are words for the tongue; words are flavors for the mind.</span><br />
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</span><br />
I didn't exacatly follow the measurement of the frosting when I made my St. Patty's Day green velvet cupcakes, but it turned out just fine as it was not too sweet like most frosting but more creamy.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aeQhlBOUhrA/T2YS2ZCBCOI/AAAAAAAAADY/R-3Zo15cHlM/s1600/DSC04358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aeQhlBOUhrA/T2YS2ZCBCOI/AAAAAAAAADY/R-3Zo15cHlM/s320/DSC04358.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5FVHLiJQ3ho/T2YS37sHWCI/AAAAAAAAADg/gTnoS5nEXaE/s1600/DSC04360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5FVHLiJQ3ho/T2YS37sHWCI/AAAAAAAAADg/gTnoS5nEXaE/s320/DSC04360.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I apparently have to teach Chris how to use my camera so the picture wouldn't be blurry...<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Green Velvet Cupcakes (Adapted from "red velvet cupcakes" from allrecipes.com)</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1 1/4 cups flour</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/2 teaspoon baking soda</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/4 teaspoon salt</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/2 cup butter, softened</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1 cups sugar</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">2 eggs</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/2 cup sour cream</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/4 cup milk</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1/2 (1/2 ounce) bottle McCormick® Red Food Color</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">1 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract</span><br />
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<div class="ingredients" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><ul style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:</span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened</span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/8 cup butter, softened</span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 tablespoons sour cream</span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract</span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1/2 (8 ounce) box confectioners' sugar</span></li>
<li class="plaincharacterwrap ingredient" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</ul></div><ol style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="plaincharacterwrap break" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.</span></span></li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="plaincharacterwrap break" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.</span></span></li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="plaincharacterwrap break" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.</span></span></li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="plaincharacterwrap break" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese, softened, butter, sour cream and McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.</span></span></li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">This is half of the original recipe, I made 12 cupcakes.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ironically, I've been reading Iris Chang's <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The Chinese in America</span> </i>lately and the early Chinese immigrants seemed to have had some interesting relationships with the Irish immigrants, especially after the construction of the continental railroad when the hardworking Chinamen began to spread from the west to New York City where they won the employers over with their humbleness and low demand of wages while the Irish people, like the rest of the white immigrants, lost their jobs to the Chinamen. However, the Chinese-Irish marriages seemed to work well. "Irish women often migrated alone, without their families, and sometimes outnumbered Irish male arrivals two to one. It was natural, then, for these women to form relationships with those of an immigrant population that suffered a serious shortage of women." And that population was the Chinese vendors. You would think that the interracial marriages would help change the social status of the Chinese, but apparently the discrimination against Chinese immigrants had not yet fully started at that point of the history.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I think I should just feel lucky that I wasn't born in the 1800s where people would have judged my relationship with my half-Irish half-German boyfriend.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><div class="ingredients" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><ul style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><li></li>
</ul></div></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-38880593050579265512012-02-09T16:44:00.000-08:002012-02-09T16:44:55.016-08:00Fish AdventureI can't remember the last time I cooked fish, or if I ever cooked fish at all. Making Chinese fish dish is out of the question because it's always so complicated. And because seafood is rather expensive here, I haven't cooked fish at all since I've been back in the States again.<br />
So, after a long dry spell of cooking, that is, not totally deprived of cooking, but not cooking anything new for a long time, I decided to pick up Julia's book from the fish section.<br />
Since the last part of 2011, I have grown rather creative in my kitchen, such as substituting honey oats cereal for anything that asks for nuts or oats. I also made up a few recipes that didn't even have a name. I didn't write them down, because they were the spur of the moment, and because they came from my own head I knew I could always make them again, since they weren't exactly outstandingly fabulous if I do anything different in the future, it may actually improve the flavor.<br />
Anyway, let me stop rambling and get back to the topic. I bought the cheapest kind of fish fillet from the supermarket and vermouth cooking wine (I don't know why I didn't buy the wine until today because it's so ubiquitous in Julia's book.)<br />
After going through the recipes last night, I had decided to bring forward my creative gene. I prepared the fish as requested in the braising recipe, covered in flour, then egg and coated with bread crumbs, but instead of cooking in a pan of butter I baked it in the oven, with a base of vermouth and browned onion and mushroom spread on top. Then continuing the braised recipe, I made the butter provencal sauce, with much less of butter, ending up the sauce much less thicker.<br />
The fish fresh out of oven<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FWz7PaFa6jY/TzRnzGqj_rI/AAAAAAAAACg/EL7Kz5dnkmg/s1600/DSC04332.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FWz7PaFa6jY/TzRnzGqj_rI/AAAAAAAAACg/EL7Kz5dnkmg/s320/DSC04332.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">the fish drenched in the sauce and cut up into small pieces (not in the recipes either)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CIX39hYd5E4/TzRoBJWkmfI/AAAAAAAAACo/3XBJyAve-hA/s1600/DSC04333.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CIX39hYd5E4/TzRoBJWkmfI/AAAAAAAAACo/3XBJyAve-hA/s320/DSC04333.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Then I poured everything on top of pasta, because pasta is good with almost anything.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f9PgkQlLfJY/TzRoUK8Y5yI/AAAAAAAAAC4/m8k5VQPSXn4/s1600/DSC04334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f9PgkQlLfJY/TzRoUK8Y5yI/AAAAAAAAAC4/m8k5VQPSXn4/s320/DSC04334.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So there you go!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-34942415126198090682012-02-09T16:27:00.000-08:002012-02-09T16:27:35.651-08:00Apple CrispI can't remember how long it's been since I last cooked from Julia Child's cookbook. I feel like I never stopped flipping through the book but I just realized I didn't cook anything from it until today. Oh, no, that's not true. I made apple crisp more than once over the winter. For a while I was hooked to my roommate's little everyday baking cookbook and baked a bunch of cookies and cupcakes. Then I decided I wanted to dive more into Chinese cooking. Then I just repeated some of the old recipes I made over and over again. In a word, for a while, my weekly Julia cooking had diminished to a vintage point in my life.<br />
During my baking endeavor, I managed to find one recipe in Julia's book that seemed simple enough for me to start, because we all know, the precision of ingredients that baking requires obviously does not match up to my non-measure cooking style.<br />
Apple crisp has enough space for twists and turns.<br />
This was also when I realized that oats, which I didn't have, could almost always replaced by honey oats cereal, which I always have in the kitchen. I must admit I never truly liked apples, I still am not particularly fond of them, and only eat them when I feel like I need to be healthier and be on diet. But I have grown rather attached to the sweet taste of baked apples in apple pies or apple crisps. How American I have become!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-298XotEtUj0/TzRjyPbk8kI/AAAAAAAAACY/2rkbToiqXU4/s1600/DSC03957.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-298XotEtUj0/TzRjyPbk8kI/AAAAAAAAACY/2rkbToiqXU4/s320/DSC03957.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-49783397517880777142011-10-23T17:45:00.000-07:002011-10-23T17:45:00.072-07:00Beouf Bourguignon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eUXIlNFxUyE/TqSzAW2cIkI/AAAAAAAAABg/zdlHk9WpsZo/s1600/DSC03956.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eUXIlNFxUyE/TqSzAW2cIkI/AAAAAAAAABg/zdlHk9WpsZo/s320/DSC03956.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>I'm amazed how long I haven't updated my blog. Not that I haven't cooked anything for that long, but I mainly made just pasta or Chinese and didn't really use any of Julia's recipes.<br />
Finally I came around all the school work and occasional social events back to my regular cooking on the weekend. As a result of over eating in Shenandoah National Park last weekend, I have restrained myself to a vegetarian diet this week, and decided if I could make it through I would make beouf bourguignon on the weekend. Okay, I don't think I lost a substantial amount of weight, but I did get back in shape somewhat. So it's time to spoil myself a little. Actually, the spoiling started on Friday when I had this sudden urge to bake and made shortbread. A sinful food because you can't stop eating it! Anyway, I made my beouf bourguignon.<br />
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I followed Julia's suggestion to dry the beef before brown them and I did not crowd them in the pan. Unfortunately I had used too much mushroom in my chicken meuniere yesterday so I didn't have enough mushroom for today, and I also didn't use small onions as a whole but instead chopped up big onions into big chunks. I think all worked well nonetheless.<br />
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I believe the most important secret to the success is the total use of wine and broth instead of water. I did not add a single drop of water in it but used entirely red cooking wine and chicken broth, with of course, the natural juice from the food and beef fat. I am sure it'll turn out to be even better if I had used authentic burgundy wine and beef broth. But I had to deal with what I had, and it was not bad.<br />
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Like always, whenever I was in the kitchen with my cookbook, I could feel Julia Child was with me.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3183009145439364014.post-63996891253273364842011-10-02T17:57:00.000-07:002011-10-02T17:57:12.574-07:00chicken meunièreChicken sautéd in butter, with creamy mushroom and asparagus sauce. I feel much warmer after eating. The sudden drop of temperature almost made me believe that winer's here. A warm kitchen turns everything so much better.<br />
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The only sadness in the kitchen today is that my cucumber went bad. I had forgotten about it. I don't really like cucumber, I bought it for the possibility of pasta salad, which I had changed into mashed potatoes for the dinner party. It gave up on me after three days! I still can't believe it!<br />
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Anyway, the chicken turned out to be fantastic. Julia's recipe recommended creamy mushroom sauce. I added asparagus because I realized that I bought some. A note to remember in the future: do not buy too much produce at once!<br />
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I also made fried green beans with red chili pepper and a bit of ground beef; a popular Chinese dish. Brown rice went well with the two dishes, and I have plenty left-overs for lunches during the week.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HEGc8vsM_Ns/TokIN8Z6L9I/AAAAAAAAABc/w3s6lKUnqgE/s1600/DSC03887.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HEGc8vsM_Ns/TokIN8Z6L9I/AAAAAAAAABc/w3s6lKUnqgE/s320/DSC03887.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01816895619294382772noreply@blogger.com0