Egg Soup with Broccoli & Kani

What do I have for today? It's my second year celebrating women's day here in Vietnam, which I don't usually celebrate back home. Today all the ladies in the office had a free lunch at my favorite Cafe called KITA. Our managing director paid for our pretty pricey and generous meal. Then at night I had dinner at Geisha with bunch of close girl friends. I don't know exactly the origin how our world initiate the celebration of women's day but regardless of history, it's worth celebrating!

The world is evolving and changing very fast along with our women today. More and more female creatures turn to be a successful monster or giant Godzilla in the modern universe. They learned to be tougher and better than most men as they rise from the ranks of corporate ladder, politics, arts, entertainment and business. Women are dominating more male territories so the male species are slowly threatened by the rapid growth of female dominance. I would like to cite myself as an example as a strong and empowered woman. My desire and dreams are driven by my ambition and ability to make things happen according to my own design and not dictated by trends or influence of peers. I am decisive and passionate that's why most men are often intimidated to me. I guess they shouldn't. You know why? At the end of the day the difference between men and women is-- we are softer hearted. I couldn't agree less to that. There's more to learn about women and they are limitless to be discussed in one post. So to wrap this post up, I'd like to leave you guys a light soup recipe that most women would definitely like.

EGG SOUP WITH BROCCOLI & KANI

Ingredients

• Eggs

• Chicken Stock

• Kani strands

• Broccoli

• Milk

• Cornstarch

• Onions

• Salt & Pepper

• Butter (of course)

Procedure:

Heat pan with butter in medium temperature then saute onions. Add kani strands then add salt and pepper. Beat the eggs and set aside. Add the chicken stock to the sauteed onions and kani. Bring to boil then add milk and egg. Dissolve little amount of cornstarch with water then add to the mixture. Lastly add broccoli then boil it again then put off the heat and serve it with any bread. Mine I served it with Pandan sliced loaf bread.

Happy Women's Day! :-)

big hug,

joanie xxx

Tahu Campur Semarang

Siang panas terik jadi terinpirasi untuk makan tahu campur semarang dan taraaaa hasilnya enak slurrppppp kuah sambel kacang dengan kucuran kecap manis kesukaanku terus ditambahin juga dengan potongan gimbal udang alhasil makanpun tambah semangat .....lupakan diet.....

LASSI / CHAAS / BUTTERMILK

A perfect cooler in summer. This flavourful lassi is also good for digestion. This is the recipe of my maid Valli ( Chennai ). I miss her and all the yummy food she used to cook for us.

Ingredients:

Curd .............. 1 cup

Water ............ 5-6 cups

Cumin seeds ... 1/4 tsp. ( roasted and crushed)

Black pepper powder .. 1/8 tsp.

Asafoetida ................. a pinch

Ginger juice ........... 1 tbsp. ( grate the ginger and squeeze out the juice)

Coriander leaves ... 1 tbsp. ( crushed)

Mint leaves ........... 4-5 ( crushed)

Salt ................... to taste

Method:

Blend/churn the lassi with water and add all the ingredients mentioned above.

Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Cheezburger of the Day

On Being A Eucharistic Minister

... and getting choked up.

At our church, my wife and I serve as Eucharistic Ministers, as described here. Nearly every time I do it, something happens that chokes me up. I always intend to blog about it, but because our Sundays are usually full of things to do, I don't make it to the keyboard until Monday morning and by then I've forgotten. I'll try to do better in the future as these tiny anecdotes are such a big part of Catholic life.

Yesterday, I was giving out the Blood of Christ. An elderly couple who had sat directly behind us and greeted us with great affection came to take the chalice from my hand. Their hands were shaking with palsy so badly that I was worried they might spill the wine all over the floor. When they got to me, they held hands and in that warm and loving grasp, they damped the shaking of their bodies so they might drink.

I'm sure that the remainder of the people who took the cup from me wondered why I had tears in my eyes. It was as lovely a thing as you might hope to see, a snapshot from years of holding each others' hands. It might have started when they were bashful, pure-hearted lovers in grade school and continued through the joys and trials of a life together to arrive at the point where I got to witness it in a fleeting moment before the altar.

Awesome.

Wow, 50 posts... done.

Its almost like its someones birthday !!  This is the 50th post for this blog :)) Amazing.  Thank you all for dropping by.   Of course , as soon as I put some pressure on myself to write something fantastic... my brain shuts down the writing side ....  So if you were expecting some glowing report , or recap .. well I'm sorry Hahahaha!!  What Ive decided to highlight today,  is a few of the new series I'm working on.  More of a glimpse of the future, than  a view of the past.

Good Food, Cheap :
Showing how you can eat good food, even on a tight budget with tips and tricks for saving you a bundle. Whether its how to find the best bargains, batch cooking , starting from scratch or buying a whole loin and cutting it up yourself.. it all helps.  

Follow this link for a list of all the GFC posts:
http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/good%20food%20cheap

Creative Leftovers :
Something that is a constant around here is, leftovers.  This series is all about showing you how to reuse all that extra food , and turn it into something great to eat .  NO matter how great something tastes , eating it three days in a row can be a real chore.

Follow this link for a list of all the CL posts:
   http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/creative%20leftovers


Simple & Easy :


The newest one Ive started , showing you how to eat good food, in about an hour or less.  Just because you don't have much time doesn't mean you can't eat well.

Follow this link for a list of all the S&E posts :
 http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/Simple%20and%20Easy


Farm to Fork : 


This one is going to see a lot of posts this year ,  as I delve further into the whole process of how food is grown , how it gets to your table, and whats in it .  Where to buy the good stuff, and what to avoid.

 

Follow this link for a list of all FTF posts :
http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/farm%20to%20fork



Less Words, More Food : 


The title explains it all :))

Follow this link for a list of all LWMF posts:
http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/less%20words%20more%20food



Appetizers : 


Finger foods, and snacks for entertaining or light dinners.

Follow this link for a list of all APP posts:
http://richfletchersgoodfoodrevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/appetizers


There are a few other series , that are still in the idea stage .  If you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see,  or feedback on the existing series,  please , don't be shy and leave a comment below.   Thanks for making these first 50 posts a success.

Happy Cooking

Rich

Weekend in photos

Life was captured through my iPhone this weekend.



Taking Bella on her daily strolls around the neighborhood. Saw a rocket launch. Spending Nathans Macy's giftcard on work shirts. Dinner at the bar before seeing a movie.


We spent half of our day at home depot. And the other half working in the yard. I planted some new flowers and we also bought a honeybell tangelo orange tree! I can't wait for this baby to start producing some fruit, hopefully next year.


A cute outfit on date night. Our first rose finally bloomed and Nathan cut it to bring inside. It smells soooo yum! This feathered friend stopped by to check out our new little tree. We had a nice relaxing weekend. Did you do anything fun?

sem 5 is over.. =D

Hi people! I just finished my final exam like 5 hours ago. Say chao for sem 5!
Hopefully everyone did well in the exam. Eventhough the exam quite made us exhausted, mentally and finger-ly LOL. All hopes is just nobody fails.
By the way what should I do for these 3 weeks?
hmmmmm.. here is the plan! =D


Tomorrow, I will going Ipoh with Indry, Leni, Cherainne and Trace(as the inviter LOL). Yeah Ipoh, food is coming lalalalala~ And i'm going to play Wii in Trace's house hahaha. I will be in Ipoh from 8-10 March. =)


On 12, my cousin Citra from Jakarta will come here to watch her favorite singer, Michael Buble who will have concert on 13 night. And the next day, my another cousin from Makassar, Pitti will come here too, to watch Super Junior concert on 19th, so before 19 I have to make sure I bring them to spots in KL. Genting, KLCC, Pavillion, dll.. Be a tour guide. =P


On 20th, homecoming! Makassar, yea since "my favorite" cancelled come due to his midterm test, I am the one who going back. Grannie and mom just miss me too much. Lucky him cancelled to come, so I could release the feeling of longing of my women, mommy and grandma. =P


Hopefully everything turns well. =)
And I wont forget to update my blog as well!


Goodbye semester 5! =)

GOOEY CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR MY BIRTHDAY (eggless and healthy too!)

This is the cake I chose to bake on my birthday today, since a lot of my family and friends don't eat eggs.The cake is deliciously moist and tender due to the addition of yogurt, and intense chocolaty too due to the generous amounts of cocoa powder, a keeper all the way for sure, this is my go to recipe for an eggless cake!
The recipe is from the very talented Deeba's kitty and can be found here, I however played around with outstanding results, omitting eggs altogether whilst increasing the amount of yogurt.

 

Ingredients:

Flour – 1 1/2 cups

Wholewheat flour -1/2 cup

Cocoa – 2/3 cup

Instant Coffee – 2 tbsp

Baking Soda – 1 tsp

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Salted Butter – 1/2 cup; at room temperature

Sugar (powdered/caster) – 1 cup

Thick and fresh Yogurt/curd – 2 cups

Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

Coffee Extract – 1 tsp (optional)

for filling-

Unsalted butter-50 gms

Chocolate-75gms

Icing Sugar 2 tbsp

for the frosting-

Full cream milk-2 cup
Cocoa powder-2 tbsp
Sugar (icing)-2 tbsp
knob of butter(1 tsp)

Method:

• Grease well & flour pan you would be using approx 9' one, & preheat the oven to 180C.
• Sift both the flours + baking powder + baking soda + salt + cocoa. Keep aside.
• Beat the butter & sugar. Add the coffee & vanilla extract & beat.
• Now alternatively add the flour mix & yogurt till well incorporated. Don’t over mix. The batter will be quite thick, ie, not a flowing one.
• Turn into loaf tins/round/bundt cake pan level out & bake for 45 mins to an hour/until done. Slide a sheet of foil over the top loosely if you see it browning too soon.
• Once done, cool in pan for 5 minutes, turn out on rack. 
  For the filling-
  Microwave chocolate and butter till beginning to soften, mix well icing sugar(sieved) and beat well ,slice cake in half and sandwich.
  for the frosting-
  Take a small saucepan and add ingredients for the frosting, boil rapidly for 20-25 minutes till thick,add butter, let cool.Drizzle on top of the cake and add silver balls, chocolate savings etc. as desired.

I'd Recommend A Fish Fry

At the end of Mass yesterday, our priest informed us that our parish target for the annual Catholic Appeals fund drive was about 35% higher than normal. The money collected is used for a variety of charities, building maintenance and support for Catholic schools. The increased request was due to the tremendous poverty in the California's Central Valley where unemployment is over 25%. The nature of the poverty has been well-described by Victor Davis Hanson.

On the western side of the Central Valley, the effects of arbitrary cutoffs in federal irrigation water have idled tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land, leaving thousands unemployed. Manufacturing plants in the towns in these areas — which used to make harvesters, hydraulic lifts, trailers, food-processing equipment — have largely shut down; their production has been shipped off overseas or south of the border. Agriculture itself — from almonds to raisins — has increasingly become corporatized and mechanized, cutting by half the number of farm workers needed. So unemployment runs somewhere between 15 and 20 percent.

Many of the rural trailer-house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different from what I have seen in the Third World. There is a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens roaming around the yards.

There was an arbitrary cutoff of water? Why was that?

A Delta Smelt. Photo by Peter Johnsen who runs The Great Salmon Tour project.
ttoes, blogging at Responsibility - Freedom Demands It, points out the mechanics of the situation.

The Delta-Mendota canal and others were built to move water from the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers south to cities and farms in Central and Southern California. The huge water projects in the Central Valley were paid for over many years by State and Federal tax dollars, many, if not most of which, were produced by the richness of the California Agriculture. As a result of the water projects, in particular the Delta-Mendota and Friant-Kern Canals (both completed as part of the Central Valley Project in 1951), farmers had the water they needed to produce much of the bounty of California’s huge agricultural output. Today the canals are administered by the Federal Government (Bureau of Reclaimation).

The Federal Government, under pressure from environmentalists, cut off the irrigation water promised to the Central Valley farmers in order to save the Delta Smelt. The end result: massive poverty and unemployment. So, in order to save tiny fish, social services are being cut and Catholic parishoners are asked to donate more because jobs have been lost and tax revenues are much lower.

There's a solution to all of this, of course, one that lives in your cupboards. It's called a Saturday Night Fish Fry.

Pears

S. Kenney-2011

S.Kenney 2011

Have you ever wondered which pear is sweet?  Which is tart?  Which is juicier than the other?  I often look at the pears and am not sure which is which.  Being close to Mexico now, I notice that the variety of fruit in the stores is quite widespread.  I am trying to understand what is coming from Mexico and S. America and what is being trucked across the U.S.  I was trying to figure out pears the other day and this is what I gathered together.  Now, if I could only keep it straight in my noggin...

Bosc Pear:  (These are the pears I took photos of above)

Eaten fresh, in salads or use in fruit baskets. Bosc pears are grown in California, Washington, and Oregon, Australia, British Columbia and Europe. Available in the US August through May. 

Anjou Pears:
In salads and eaten raw by themselves or paired with cheese. Sweet juicy Anjous are perfect for baking into desserts like tarts. It is commonly used for baking as they hold their flavor and texture even when cooked. They are also good for use in salads. While some prefer to refrigerate their Anjou pears, they are best left at room temperature. Anjou pears are available October through June. 


The Asian Pear:
It is also called Nashi apple, Nashi pear, African pear, Japanese pear, Korean pear, Taiwan pear, sand pear, apple pear, bapple, papple, and bae li. Good quality Asian pears are selected by smell rather than variations in firmness. Unlike other pears that yield to gentle pressure when ripe, Asian pears are ripe even when they are extremely firm.
The only good use for this pear is to eat fresh, and they are sweet and delicious.


Bartlett Pear:
Eaten fresh or in salads, canned, baked or poached. Bartlett pears are the types of pears most commonly used for canning.  They are available July through December. 


Seckel Pear:
Eaten fresh, in salads or canned. Seckel pears are available August through January.