Simple Pleasures: A la mode

I haven't really been keeping up with this blog lately, but then again I haven't been doing much to blog about. Been feeling kinda sick these past few weeks and my usual after-baby's-in-bed activity now consists of crawling up to my bed and trying to cocoon away in a darkened bedroom. Alas, my mind keeps on going and thinking of all the pretty first birthday dresses I could be making for little friends or lovely treats I could be baking up or even simply folding up the weekend's laundry.

So today, I vowed to grin and bear it and do something productive. Unfortunately for our bedroom floor the task I chose was not to sort underwear and fold shirts. Instead I decided to satisfy a two week long craving for apple pie. This craving began at the supermarket when I noticed ice cream on sale... normally we make our own, but who am I kidding? My stomach is barely allowing me to prepare dinner somedays, much less stir up some custard afterwards. So I bought some vanilla ice cream which then begged the question, how should we enjoy it?

My absolute first thought was fresh from the oven apple pie, but not having the time to make it that day we settled with Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae Sauce from Nigella.com which made the perfect amount for three consecutive days of warm saucy bliss. Still, it wasn't apple pie... so today the inevitable happened - pie was made, melting ice cream ensued.

Textural Goodness: Stir Fried Nian Gao with Napa Cabbage

There may have been a napa cabbage shortage in Korea in the fall, but there's definitely no shortage of cheap napa cabbage here. Yesterday, I looked into the fridge and pondered about what I wanted to make with the rest of a huge head of napa cabbage. We'd used part of it for hot pot earlier, and another part of it in a stir fry, but it was just too massive... Then I remembered this dish:

There is a phrase in Chinese which refers to the texture of foods, 口感 (link to a site that will allow you to hear this phrase pronounced in Mandarin and Cantonese). And there are many Chinese dishes that are purely about enjoyment of textures - nian gao (or neen gow) is definitely one of those dishes. I've blogged before about the sweet version of this rice cake in my CNY cooking post, but this post is an ode to the savoury side of nian gow.

Savoury nian gow is made from non-glutinous rice and can be enjoyed in almost any dish where you would like to add some chewy goodness. I love it added to hot pot as a carb component or stir fried with veggies and meat to form a quick one dish meal.



Stir Fried Nian Gao with Napa Cabbage Yield: dinner for two + two small children with some leftovers 
1/2 - 2/3 lb pork, thinly shredded or ground
6 - 8 leaves napa cabbage, cut into medium pieces
4 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb nian gao, sliced into thin discs/separated
1 Tbsp cornstarch
soy sauce
oyster sauce

Marinate the pork in cornstarch and about 2 teaspoonfuls of soy sauce. Let it sit while you prepare the other ingredients.

Chop up your cabbage, mushrooms and garlic.

Check the nian gao you bought to see what kind of preparation is needed. Nian gao is usually found in the refrigerated section with fresh noodles and the soup meatballs. The supermarket I went to had this type and the long rod-shaped ones (which are better for soup/hot pot). This kind was pretty convenient since it was actually pre-scored into small thin rectangles which cooked really easily right in the wok. Although I kinda like thicker, chewier pieces - so if I can't find the thicker discs next time, I may cut up the rods myself to get even thicker, chewier slices of nian gao. If you are using thick slices of nian gao or really dry nian gao you may want to consider soaking them first in some warm water to soften them up.

Heat up your wok to medium-high, add some oil and throw your pork in. Cook until almost all traces of pink are gone. Don't worry about brown bits sticking everywhere as you cook. The veggies contain so much moisture, they will basically deglaze your pan for you later.

Toss in the cabbage, mushrooms and garlic. You could definitely also have green onions, julienned carrots, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms or whatever else you like. This is just what I had on hand. A lot of people will use Chinese mushrooms instead of button mushrooms, but I didn't want the nian gao to have any rivals in the texture arena of this dish.

While I waited for the mushrooms and napa cabbage to wilt and release most of their moisture. I separated my nian gao into its tiny slices.

Once the cabbage and mushrooms are basically cooked through to your liking. Add the nian gao and lower the heat to medium (if your burner is super hot like mine :)

At this point, you can add soy sauce and oyster sauce to taste. I probably added about 2 teaspoonfuls more soy and 2-3 tablespoonfuls of oyster sauce. It really depends on your taste and the types and brands of sauces you're using.

Whatever you do, keep turning and flipping the wok contents! Do not stop and try to take pictures of yourself adding oyster sauce! Because as you do, the nian gao starts to soften and, like any rice product, will start to stick. I had a few sticky spots form as I tried to get this picture... but usually if you keep stirring periodically, you should have no problem. Whenever the nian gao is soft enough and the flavouring is to your liking, the dish is ready!

Quick one dish meal for a lazy day dinner.

Quilting Exploits

My first quilt ever, modified from an old magazine clipping.

I would never profess to being a quilter. I've made a grand total of four quilts in my life and only two of the four really qualify as projects that actually involved a lot of piecing together. I have yet to complete a quilt with any sort of quilting more complicated than stitching in the ditch. And I would love someday to create a gorgeous free motion quilt like this talented sewer does.

Sure I have a "Quilter on Board" car decal, but it was given to me for free one day at Fabricland. I think part of my reluctance to quilt is the design factor. I'm not a very creative designer - I can imitate a given design with a certain amount of success, but I'm definitely not the type of person for whom "inspiration strikes". Maybe I don't have enough quilting experience and experienced quilters surrounding me to inspire me to design anything more interesting than this:

One of my four quilts. One of two which were actually original designs.

My other hold up with quilting is strangely not the endless cutting/piecing/sewing, but the constant trimming and cleaning up of little ends of fabric and thread left hanging and fraying off of every piece that you work with. This pet peeve was never more clearly pronounced than with my last quilting project.

This design taken from www.cranstonvillage.com. The original pattern made a slightly larger than twin size quilt, and my final project needed to be a double size duvet cover, so some alterations had to be made. All those little railroad tracks? Sewn from strips of yellow and red fabric. Definitely a labour of love, made for a boy who is practically a nephew to me.

My own son's duvet cover is just two different fabrics pieced and sandwiched together (I know, for shame, a mother not making the effort for her own children :)

So I've been kinda detoxing from this last quilt and now suddenly I think I may want to try another quilt or quilted project. Both the projects I'm eyeing are from Elizabeth Hartman at Oh, Fransson! and both are potentially needed items in my house.

(1) The Mod Mosaic Floor Pillow

(2) Quilted Potholder

Both seem like small enough projects and both offer me the opportunity to try my hand at quilting proper. I'm kinda leaning toward number two cuz it's a much smaller endeavour and I do desperately need new potholders :) Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Covert Recipes: Pasta dough

As a follow-up to my lasagna drying fail, here is the recipe for the pasta dough that tasted good even though it was in a million pieces. I use these basic proportions for most of my homemade pasta and it passes the hubby and kid test for undetectability of whole-wheatness.


Whole Wheat Pasta Dough      For 4-6 servings of pasta

4 eggs
1/2 cup durum semolina
1-1/2 cup white flour*
1 cup whole wheat flour

Mix the dry ingredients together on a clean countertop and form into a shallow mound. Make a wide well in the middle (don't worry if countertop is showing through) and crack your eggs into the middle. Using a fork, break up the eggs yolks and beat the eggs. Once the eggs are more or less beaten, start incorporating small amounts of flour into the egg by scraping the sides of your well with the fork. Do this slowly and try to keep the egg inside your well since it minimizes your mess. When enough flour is incorporated into the egg and it no longer runs all over the countertop, you can switch to a bench scraper or your hands to knead in the rest of the flour mixture. Knead the dough until it is smooth (keeping in mind that the more you knead, the chewier your pasta will get :) Wrap it up and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour before shaping it.**  You could also skip the resting period and store it in the fridge for a few days or freeze the whole ball and defrost it in the fridge overnight when needed.

*You may want to reserve some of the flour and add it at the end when it's easier tell if your pasta dough is too dry or too wet. I find different brands of flour (especially whole wheat flour) really have different moisture and gluten contents. Not to mention your ambient or storage conditions :)
**You can use it immediately but it tends to be very elastic when first kneaded, waiting a bit makes it a lot easier to roll and shape.

Enjoy!

Another look at the lasagna noodles before the fall/fail.

Homemade Lasagna Fail

Thought I'd share this homemade pasta mistake with everyone. A few months ago, I decided to make lasagna for a large mommy group lunch at our place. While I debated on whether or not to use store-bought noodles for simplicity's sake, the homemade variety eventually won out. I had a few reasons, the first being taste/texture, the second being that I like my lasagna with lots of layers of thin noodles (versus thick meat and noodle layers) and the third being that layering a lasagna with the insanely large sheets that I usually make is way faster than using those short and skinny store ones.

I had already planned to have the traditional meat and tomato sauce lasagna, and for variety I also made Martha's Rich Artichoke and Mushroom lasagna and a ground chicken and zucchini in tomato sauce variation. I also figured that I should cut down on my workload and split up the cooking over a few days. So the sauces and fillings were prepared one to two days before and the noodles were made the night before.

Here is a glorious "before" picture of the noodles drying.

Some of you may have already spotted my fatal error in the making. Others may realize what tragedy is about to befall these noodles when I remind you that they were left out to dry overnight... in the winter time... with the heat on in the house... and the humidity at an all time low.

The next morning, I awoke early to get a head start on my lasagna assembly. As I was getting dressed, I thought I could hear the sound of papers? or something? falling downstairs. (Yes I know... cue the clueless music.) I headed downstairs oblivious to the scene I was about to walk into, rounded the corner to the kitchen and actually caught sight of a noodle breaking in half, falling to the floor and shattering into small pieces.

I didn't take a picture of this. I was too frenzied and disheartened to comprehend what I should do next. Foolishly, I contemplated making a fresh batch of noodles. But one check of the clock and the knowledge that I would have kiddies waking in less than an hour shot that idea right out the window.

So I salvaged what I could. Many of the noodles were still hanging on by a thread - I carefully broke them in half and removed them from the rack. And luckily, of the noodles that had fallen, many of them still remained in decently sized pieces (chalk it up to making them as large as I can possibly handle them). Fortunately, I had the foresight to place a large towel under the rack before I went to bed to catch any "flour dust" that may have fallen from the noodles as they dried. That towel definitely fulfilled its noodle catching duties...


So lessons learned:

• Do not hang large noodles over just one rung of my drying rack in the interest of saving space.
• Don't be lazy about cleaning off the kitchen counters to accomodate a few noodles.
• Use clean towels over the backs of chairs for drying racks if I'm still too lazy about cleaning those kitchen counters. (What's a little more laundry?)
• Maybe large, heavy noodles like that should not be left out to dry overnight, with no supervision, in a dry winter home. Perhaps I should have (again) used some clean towels and laid them out in the fridge.
• Finally, realize that when I set myself multiple tasks expecting a perfectly mature and pristine lunch, I should really keep in mind the true nature of a lunch with 9+ mommies and 11+ kids...

Last Minute Birthday Cake

Last weekend we finally got around to celebrating my son's first birthday. A series of unfortunate events (broken toe, strained back, baby sickness) postponed the celebration into this glorious month of March. It was a very last minute affair. My parents kindly brought over frozen and defrosted homemade Peking duck wrappers and store bought roast duck and chicken. While we were in charge of getting a few more take out items to round out the feast, as well as the birthday cake.

The morning started out well enough - we had a nice family breakfast and the kids went off to play with Baba (daddy) while I started baking the cake. It was about 10am when the cake came out of the oven to cool, leaving me plenty of time to make my cake toppers, prepare the frosting, assemble the cake, let it set, and lay some fondant on.

The cake toppers were super fun to make. Kind of like fondant play dough. The boys have both had monkey cakes for their first birthdays. Just a coincidence that their favourite stuffed animal (at the time) was/is a monkey. I posed the the monkeys in two classic poses that often we see our little guy in. They weren't perfect... but I figured the boys would like them and it was just a family gathering anyway.

At this point I was feeling pretty good about my timing. We had planned to visit friends and see their newborn at around 2 pm and it was still only 11 am. Feeling confident that I had time to spare, we had a bit of lunch and I started mixing up the buttercream. Noon came around and the buttercream was just hardening up in the fridge, while I cut the cake out.

Around 1 pm was when the crushing reality of mommy brain set in. My hubby said to me, "Why does the laptop say it's 2:15?" That was when we realized... It was the beginning of daylight saving time and we had completely forgotten! Suddenly I was applying the crumb coating to my cake an hour later than I thought. In fact, we were already supposed to be well on our way to our friends' house.

Long story short, I threw the half-finished cake in the fridge, sent a quick message to our friends saying we were late and dashed out the door. We were obviously an hour later than we had planned coming home and this made for the quickest fondant layer I've ever laid on a cake. Thrown on in a hurry while the table was being set for a long-awaited dinner and I had some moo shu frying in the wok.

You can see the cracks that inevitably developed in the cheap store-bought fondant as I speed-smoothed it over the corners. Thank goodness I had pre-coloured the fondant earlier or it would have been an even more ghetto natural white colour! So much for my plan of cutting out little green leaves to decorate the cake with :) Thankfully there was more than enough cake to go around and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The monkeys were a big hit with the boys (big brother immediately named one monkey after himself and the other after the birthday boy) and they seemed happy enough to have candles and cake.

Biggest fail of the day? Having everything occur an hour later than planned meant that the kids were up waaay past their bedtimes with sugar highs.


p.s. I wish I had taken a picture of the horrific scene the monkeys made on Day 3. One was missing all its limbs and appendages. While the other had a big bite taken out of his bum. From love to hate in the blink of an eye.

Thinking about Spring: Seedlings

I mentioned before that I've been sifting through old photos... and my eye was caught by this beauty.

Not the photo, but the subject of the photo. I wish we could grow bougainvillaea here.... Luckily though, this started me thinking about my garden, which started me thinking about when I should start my garden, which made me realize that I need to start soon!

Every year I waste time and money going out and buying pre-sprouted seedlings because every year I neglect to start some seeds indoors. The reasons vary. Too morning sick to think about it, too busy to think about it, no room for the trays in the sun, no room for the trays where boys won't get into them, no time or space for anything! But the universal reason is always that I never think about planting until the weather gets really warm and then by that time it's too late.

This year will be different though [triumphant finger raising and avowing]! I have officially blogged about it, so now I need to do it. First task, gotta decide what I want to plant. Here's a sampling of one of our harvests last summer:

We always plant tomatoes, and lots of them. There's nothing I dislike more than supermarket tomatoes, so we plant a lot then I roast/stew and freeze them. (Did you know that tomatoes do not ripen off the vine? The will change colour and soften but never become sweeter... hence the horrendous taste of tomatoes from the store.) Carrots were fun for the kids... Herbs, always herbs... We had eggplants and peppers as well last year, which were really nice. My hubby enjoyed his patch of Scotch Bonnet peppers which he turned into a mean Jerk rub. We had lettuce too, but we now have a resident rabbit who I've been "generously" feeding with my vegetable garden... so the lettuce will have to be on hold unless my hubby builds me the salad table that I've been promised (hint hint).

I think this summer's strategy will be different though -  we're investing in a farmshare with a local farm/CSA (community supported agriculture). So I probably shouldn't overdo it with my own veggie garden. Don't want things to go to waste simply because I didn't get around to preserving them. I was thinking that the kids may enjoy growing pumpkins. Never grew them before because they take up so much room, but since harvest volume will not be my primary aim this year, maybe we can experiment...

Anyway, hoping to get out in the next week and check out what neat heirloom seeds are readily available for those of us who didn't think to order ahead. Wish me luck. I'll probably be posting a picture of my one year-old eating soil and seedlings in the near future :)