Another way of "Piled Higher and Deeper".......... With FOOD!!!

Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐

2013-01-29T12:18:00.004-05:00

After being out of job for a little over one month, I have adjusted pretty well as a housewife. Things are very different from before. Without another source of income, I now have to watch more closely over our budgets every month. After all, it is important to start financial planning. Thus, I have been hitting the gym for a few hours longer everyday to work myself out so I am left with little energy to go to the mall. Very nice strategy for any shopaholic!

Today I would like to introduce another dish...very spicy and yet enticing to your palates.

Mapo tufu
Mapo tofu sauce
ground pork
tofu
chopped green onions (optional)
soy sauce and chilly sauce ( optional, add if you find flavor from that box of sauce is not strong enough)

basic ingredients you will need

Stir fry ground pork and then add the packet of sauce. Continue stirring to cook ground meat well. Add extra soy sauce and chilly sauce if necessary.

Add tofu previously being cut into cubes. Gently stir the mixture.

Ready for plating!

Beef stew with Udon noodles

2013-01-18T13:19:00.001-05:00

It has been a pretty cold winter this year across the states. Stew is one best natural remedy to keep cold at bay.
I will like to introduce a simple dish of beef stew today.

Basic ingredients: potato, carrots, onions, chopped garlic, mushroom, beef

Basic ingredients: diced tomatoes, lemon/lime juice

First, cook beef over medium heat until medium rare. Add chopped garlic and onions. Cook until onions soften.

Add the rest of ingredients.

Add one can of diced tomatoes and one can of chicken stock ( optional). Seasons with salt and black pepper. I also squeeze lemon juice to bring in citrous taste.

Cook over low to medium heat for about 45 min. Before this dish is done, prepare udon noodles aside.

Vegetarian Alfredo pasta with tilapia filet

2013-01-16T22:24:00.001-05:00

It's my husband's birthday today. This afternoon, I have made some efforts to learn Alfredo pasta recipes online and made a quick visit to the supermarket to pick up ingredients.

I have eventually come up with my own version of this dish.

Vegetarian Alfredo pasta
Angel hair
Alfredo sauce
mixed color peppers
chopped onions
mushroom

In heated pan with olive oil, cook chopped onion until slightly brown.

Add mixed color peppers and mushroom.

Add Alfredo sauce. Mix well with vegetables. Cook at medium heat for 2 min.

Add pasta that is prepared ahead of time.

Mix pasta well with vegetables and sauce.

Tilapia
Tilapia filet
lemon juice
salt
black pepper

In a heated pan with vegetable oil, add filet. Sprinkle salt and black pepper and squeeze lemon juice evenly over fish.

Cook over low heat. Flip filet over when one side is cooked. Allow both side to cook well.

Plate and serve!!

Chicken soup in sesame oil (Mayu chicken) 麻油雞

2013-01-12T14:11:00.000-05:00

Mayu chicken is one of the most traditional dish people in Taiwan eat during winter time to keep cold at bay. It is also one popular diet among women post-childbirth by the virtue of its high protein contents as well as low cost for preparation.

Mayu chicken
chicken drumsticks/or chicken wings
ginger slices
black sesame oil
Taiwanese rice wine

Heat up sesame oil with medium heat. Add ginger slices. Gently stir to fry until golden brown.

Add chicken drumsticks. Cook over high heat.

Cook until chicken turns slightly brown.

Transfer everything to a crackpot container.

Add plenty of rice wine and water at ratio of 1:1. Cook with crackpot for approximately 45 minutes.

Mayu chicken is served while hot!

Rice with Japanese curry rice and grilled pork

2013-01-09T20:25:00.001-05:00

I would like to share another pork-related dish today.

I have previously described how the curry was made. No further elaboration will be needed here.
The highlight of this dish is the grilled pork.

Ingredients:
pork slices from pork ribs (preferably with fat attached to the lean part)
sliced green onion
chopped/sliced ginger
salt
black pepper

Lay evenly marinated pork (with salt and black pepper). Grill at 300F for 30 min or until grease from the fat part melted out, leaving slightly browned and crispy texture of meat. Sprinkle salt and black pepper generously while grilling.

Absorb excessive grease using paper towel.

In heated pan, mix grilled meant with green onion and ginger.

Quickly mix them over medium heat until ginger and green onion slightly brown.

Stir-fried salted pork slices with mixed vegetables

2013-01-07T18:26:00.004-05:00

I made a huge decision to quit my post-doc job and moved to Indiana late last December so that I could live with my husband. Over the past 2 weeks, I have adjusted pretty well to the new environment, new life and "new career as a housewife".

The most important mission of my day everyday is to make nutritious and yet healthy meals for my husband.

This evening, I would like to share a dish I put together from random ingredients I found in the fridge.

Stir-fried salted pork slices with mixed vegetables
Sliced pork marinated with cooking oil, minced green onion, lot of salt and black pepper for a few hours
Frozen mixed vegetables of your choice

With medium heat, first fully cook marinated pork.

Add mixed vegetable. Cook with high heat just long enough to cook the vegetable and yet retain its crunchiness.

Dish is ready for serving!

Spicy salmon

2012-11-01T19:39:00.001-04:00

My husband is coming to visit me tonight. It has almost been one month since last time we saw each other. To welcome his visit, I have made a special dish.

Spicy salmon
fresh samlon fillet
minced ginger
soy sauce
sugar
Korean chilly paste
chopped scallion

In a hot non-stick pan, add fish, and ingredients mentioned above.

Simmer at low to medium for 10 minutes.

Put salmon on a plate. Leave some sauce in the pan. Add scallions and quick mix with medium heat for 20 seconds. Pour and sauce on top of salmon.

Ready to serve.

Let's go green green green! Pesto pasta with cilantro!

2012-10-24T19:53:00.002-04:00

I apologize for not being able to keep up with my blog recently. Things have been going quite crazy with work as well as life.

Green summer is long gone. I would like to share a summer-like dish today by using only green ingredients.

Pesto pasta with cilantro

Oopps...I realized I just lied. There is actually more than green in this dish.
I decided protein is essential for the proper function of my body and I can't possibly leave it out. I threw in a few pieces of Italian sausage to complete my meal.

To complement my pasta, I also made tofu-egg drop soup with squid meatballs.

Now I can proudly tell you I have a very balanced healthy meal for dinner. For your record, I had 2 plates worth of serving tonight.

Mid-autumn (Moon) festival feast

2012-10-01T19:49:00.002-04:00

It was Mid-Autumn (Moon) festival under lunar calendar yesterday. The leader of our jogging club organized a gathering at a local Chinese restaurant, where we made special orders of 10 main courses that we usually don't get to order on menu. Here are some highlights:

Life is good!!!!

Simply pasta with brocolli

2012-09-26T19:56:00.000-04:00

Nothing beats a simple meal after a long day of work.
It is easy and fast. My dinner was ready in 30 minutes.
The ingredients should be pretty self-explanatory.

Gwa Pao 刈包- Taco in Taiwanese style

2012-09-26T19:52:00.001-04:00

I made this dish while visiting my husband last weekend. It is one poplar kind of local food in Taiwan.
I miss home!

Gwa Pao

Ingridents:
Pork (preferably with the fatty parts)
onions
garlic
seaweed
Five-spices powder
preserved vegetable 酸菜 (I don't have it today)
Gwa Pao
peanut powder
fresh cilantro

Just cook pork with ingredients listed above.

Taiwanese stick rice

2012-09-16T15:51:00.001-04:00

The sticky rice is one major type of rice used in preparation of different main course or dessert.
I really miss the most traditional and simplest way of cooking sticky rice. It is very similar to fried rice but there is no "fry" component to it. The taste is definitely very different.

Ingredients:
glutenous rice
pork ( sliced in small pieces and marinated)
onions ( not in traditional recipe, I just added it for a personal touch)
mushroom( I didn't have it today)
baby dried shrimps

soy sauce
black pepper

Seafood fun in Seattle, WA

2012-09-16T15:38:00.004-04:00

I was away for job interview in Seattle,WA for 4 days.
Besides the beauty of the city itself and nature surrounding it, the biggest thing I love about Seattle is its abundance of fresh seafood!
I would like to share a couple of snapshots I took during my stay.


Original lyster

Spicy tuna cocktail

What are you looking at??!!!


I wish I could eat them all!

Really proud of this picture. I took it a few minutes before landing.

Baked zucchini and tilapia fish

2012-08-12T18:57:00.000-04:00

After one week of feasts from my friends' visit, I have officially gained 5 pounds!!!!!
This is my new record in terms of speed of weight gain as well as overall weight. I have never been able to loose weight at the same amazing exponential speed!
The most fundamental reason for this speedy weight gain is because of the simple fact that I have not hit the gym for over one month due to injury on my left foot. I made my first move to loose this evil chunk of flesh by swimming this afternoon.
To make perfect complement to my exercise, I also have to cut down carbohydrate intake. Thus, for today's dinner, I chose to bake everything.

Have an assort of spices and olive oil ready.

Marinate sliced zucchini with olive oil and spices of your preference.

Marinate tilapia the same way as above.

Bake at 350F for approximately 30 min.

osso buco-beef stew

2012-08-10T23:56:00.000-04:00

Reunion is always a great thing.
2 friends of mine recently visited us from Nebraska and Taiwan. Inspired by Giada's osso buco recipe, my roommate and I decided to cook this special dish for our special friends.

Osso Buco
veal shank
all purpose flour
black pepper
white wine
garlic glove
thyme
vegetable oil
onion
tomato paste
celebry
carrots
potato
mushroom

beef shank

Season each beef shank with salt, black pepper , and then sprinkle with flour

Slight brown beef shank over medium heat in vegetbale oil. Set aside.

Using the same pan, put the ingredients as shown.

Add tomato paste and chicken stock. Also add white wine.

Add browned beef shank. Simmer over small heat for 1 hr and 30 min.

20 min prior to finish, add trottole.

Corn Beef

2012-06-11T23:19:00.000-04:00

I came across this dish while attending a friend's party last year. I got the recipe from that friend and re-created it for my roommate's farewell party.

Corn beef
ground beef
frozen corn
sliced onions
black olives
sliced boiled eggs (boiled the day before)
fish ( cooked ahead)
sugar
lettuce

Ingredients as mentioned

First, cook onions over medium heat, then add beef.

Stir well while cooking.

In a separate pot, cook corn well.

In a baking pan, spread a layer of beef.

Add other ingredients as shown.

On top, spread one layer of corn. Sprinkle some sugar over corn.

Bake at 400F until corn turns golden brown ( approximately 30min).

Ready to dig in! mmm....

Macaroon experience III

2012-04-21T01:10:00.000-04:00

After my last not-so-sucessful attempt to make macaroon months ago, I decided to revisit the recipe and gave it a shot tonight.
Thanks to the previous experiences from failure, I think I am getting a hang of it. Macaroons turned out so much better than before.

Mix 1 1/4 cups of confectional sugar and 1 cup of almond flour. Set aside for later.

Add a pinch of salt to 2 egg white. Using mixer, beat egg white until foamy. Then add 1/4 cup granular sugar slowly while mixing.

Continue to whip until stiff glossy peak forms.

Add the almond flour and sugar mix from step 1.

With a rubber spatula, gently fold until well incorporated.

Pipet batter on baking sheets. Bake at 350F for approximately 7 min.

Teriyaki chicken with plums

2012-04-12T21:01:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine recently bought a new house. I am invited to their house-warming party tomorrow evening after work. I have to cook my dish ahead of time since I won't have time to go home after work before the party starts.
Making up a Asian dish with whatever ingredients I can find is definitely one of my strength!

Teriyaki chicken with plums
chicken meat
crushed chilli
preserved plums
onion
garlic (chopped into pieces)
soy sauce
sugar
sesame oil

Chicken was marinated with soy sauce, minced garlic, black pepper, crushed chilli, sugar, a few plums and sesame oil for 30 min.

Cook thoroughly using medium to high heat. Add onion when chicken is half way cooked.

Done!

Simply sushi

2012-04-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

Cooking for one person is certainly not as easy as cooking for two or more people.

Ever since my fiance moved to another state for work, I have become too lazy to cook tedious meals for myself. Cooking has also become harder in the sense that most of our cooking gadgets have gone with with him. I was left with very limited number of cookware: one pot, two pairs of chopsticks, two spoons. There are definitely not enough things for me to throw a party.

Today, I made a really simple dinner tonight by creating sushi in my own way.

3 ingredients: shredded pork, avocado and eggs were used.

How to cook without enough basic kitchen gadgets? - Fried brussel sprouts with fish cake + noodles

2012-04-01T23:30:00.001-04:00

We recent moved into a new apartment in a different state because my finance got a job offer there.

The entire moving process was smooth and almost effortless since movers were hired to take care of the entire process. We were blessed.

The only small problem we faced was that the movers could not deliver our furniture and other belongings until almost 2 weeks after we have moved to that state. We ended up staying in the hotel for 10 days and the rest of 4 days in a empty apartment.

Our new apartment has a brand-new kitchen which excited me at the first sight. I could not wait for our kitchen gadgets to arrive to start cooking.

To overcome some "technical difficulties" in the kitchen such as the absence of a chop-board, we have made a temporary disposable one.

We managed to cook great simple meals for the most fundamental purpose of "filling up our stomach".

A pair of lovely hands were slicing brussel sprouts and fish cakes


A very simple but elegant dish is unveiled!

Fish cake noodle soup, with Chinese dumplings and vegetables.

Spicy squid with ginger and red chilli pepper

2012-03-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

My fiance found a post-doc position in another state recently. We held a small farewell party for him last night at a friend's house.
Here are the highlights of what we had:

my dish-spicy squid with gingers and red chilli pepper


dumplings

Add caption

Fish porridge

2012-03-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

Today is not only a big day for all women in the world ( Hooray to International Women's Day!!), but a special day for two friends of mine.

They got married!!!!

My fiance and I were invited to be their witnesses at the court in the City Hall this morning. This was my first close-to-be -wed experience. I have been excited about it for days. The ceremony was simple and quick. Before we realized, they have been pronounced "husband and wife".
I enjoy every moment in life whenever happiness can be shared. It's always a blessing to be able to participate in those wonderful moments with friends.

I lost a potential job interview opportunity today because the company found someone for that position before I got a chance for the imminent phone interview. Well, that's life and my life will go on just as well.

For dinner, I made another healthy seafood dish.

Fish porridge
fish fillet ( cut into big chunks)
baby carrots
preserved Chinese vegetable 冬菜
sesame oil
rice wine
any green vegetable for presentation
white pepper powder

Slowly cook the rice until half cooked before other ingredients are added.

Chicken broth with Chinese pickles

2012-02-27T19:41:00.000-05:00

Today I would like to share with you another creation of mine. It is something I put together from ingredients available to me in the fridge.
It kinda tastes like my grandma's dish.

Chicken broth with Chinese pickles
chicken drumsticks
Chinese pickles
fermented cummingcordia,Sebastan Plum Cordia
garlic clove

After the chicken drumsticks are well cooked, leave them in the broth overnight so that the meat will absorb the flavor of the broth well.

New Zealand lamb from Outback Steakhouse

2012-02-21T20:25:00.000-05:00

A lot of friends shared our happiness today.We decided to go out for a more elaborate celebration tonight for dinner.
Outback Steakhouse was out top choice because of its lamb dish. I can never prepare lamb well enough to get rid of its smells myself.

I felt kind of guilty for indulging myself in this feast and skipping the jogging tonight.

their free appetizer: bread

House salad

New Zealand lamb with Cabernet wine sauce, It is also served with fresh mixed veges and garlic mashed potatoes.

Haddock with portabella

2012-02-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

There is a great reason for celebration today.
My finance got a job offer somewhere and he is ready to move up to the next level of his career. This also means that we will have to separate temporarily until I get my own job around the same area. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can be together again.
To celebrate this occasion, I have made a nice healthy seafood dish tonight.

Haddock with portabella
haddock fillet
sliced portabella
spicy black beans paste
wine vinegar

I broke the fish into 3 pieces by accident while trying to plate it and was not able to hide the broken lines well.

Life is treating me quite well as I am now eating this fish while watching NBA game (NYK vs NETS).