thankful for food

we had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner. it was great to see all the aunties, uncles and cousins. i actually ate alot and for the turkey disliker like me ... the turkey was juicy and tender to perfection and i had two slices. theodore had stuffings and array of desserts from cheese cake from mousse fantasy to pumpkin pie with whipped cream. he preferred sweets more than anything.

this year i mashed potatoes again. it has become my trademark for thanksgiving. i had to think of different kind of stuff i can add to the mash. i put some hickory smoked bacon this time and it tasted smoking. jp and i also did some experimentation with potatoes. we made potato gratin. it needed some tweaking before we can actually present it one day for thanksgiving. so look out for it one thanksgiving!

review: beard papa's

yummy ...
i had to try them since they said they have the best cream puffs in the world. it tasted like a vanilla eclair. i bought the regular cream puff and it has real vanilla bean in it. the pastry shell is extremely fluffy. you have to eat it right away once the filling is filled into the pastry puff so the puff itself does not deflated over time. and they fill the pastry when you order it. a dozen of them for $17 dollars. they are worth every penny.
i went to the one in west la on sawtelle.

now tomatoes

hmm ... i love spinach and now it is off my grocery list for a while and now tomatoes! i can avoid not eating in a restaurant, but not shop for them as part of my diet that is just going too far. most of the veggies i do clean them and then cook them. i rarely eat raw salad bowl if i do i triple wash them even if they do come in a bag that said prewash ... i don't really trust those packaged veggies. whatever are printed on the packages you still have to clean it ... don't be lazy because food poisoning is no fun.

i had food poisoning a couple of times and it all came from eating meat product i bought from carl's jr. (it was always from the same place. the one located on santa monica blvd before 26th street. the carl's jr i go to often was inside campus of USC and i had no problem there.) it was an immediate reaction after 30 minutes to an hour after i ate ... my stomach cramped up and i was forcing myself to vomit all the bad stuff. after 2 hours of going back and forth to the bathroom vomiting i felt much better. i just drank a bottle of water to stay hydrated and just went to bed without anything else. the whole experience was exhausting. so better be safe than sorry ... laziness just doesn't cut it.

homemade baby food

i started making baby food with fresh chicken soup and sometimes with fresh beef soup. mostly adding potatoes, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. this time around i am going to add beans and rice with some minced meat. i just blend them all together using my everyday blender.

if you want to start making baby food, i would go with a regular blender rather than getting a smaller one. i made 18 to 20 packages of 2.5 ounces of baby food and it last me a week and a half. i freeze them by reusing the gerber plastic containers. i find those very handy dandy. or you can use ice cube trays.

i also would like to try the food mill so i can add some variety of food my husband and i eat so the baby can try some too.

recipe: fresh chicken soup

this is a real kitchen. i have been experimenting with making fresh chicken soup ... as in from scratch. my mom always says never use frozen chicken so she went to the market ... a chinese market to get the chicken. you can pick out the one you want and they will do the rest.

simple chicken soup

1 fresh chicken
2 pieces of lean pork meat 6 ounces each
1 ginger
3 bunch of spring onions
3 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine
1 pinch of salt

the lady in the market doesn't really help you get rid of the chicken fat so you have to do it yourself when you get home. cut away all the chicken skin and excess fat as much as possible. use a very sharp knife.

place the chicken and lean meat pieces (those meat help give the soup its complement flavors) in a pot and fill it up with water to cover partially to the tip of the chicken. place pot on the stove. turn on the fire to HI.

peel ginger, slice it into several pieces and use the flat part of knife and bang the slices till a bit of juice comes out. place the ginger slices in the pot. clean and cut the spring onions and add them to the brew as well as the rest of the ingredients.

when the water reached to a boil lower the fire till the water only bubble up onces or twice and cover.

slow boiling for 3 hours ... keep checking your soup 1 hour at a time.

after 3 hours let the soup cool and get rid of the excess oil floating on the top layer. best is to place the pot of soup in the refigerator after the pot is cooled. it is much easier that way to scoop the excess oil out.

when you want to enjoy a bowl of soup reheat and savor the flavor!

any question?

korean bbq grill

our friends took us to a korean bbq in torrance. it is a great place. not a really big restuarant. since we are all meat eaters we had several platters of beef. what i find interesting is the grill. it is a round one inset in the middle of the table and i like the design of the grill because it doesn't splatter oil as much as the conventional rectangular shaped one that i often see in korean bbq places.