Saturday, January 30, 2010

What's for dinner?

If you have several hours to burn (about 2 hours). I seriously recommend making these for dinner:

Short Ribs
PW Beef ribs

Recipe: PW Short Ribs
Modi: Used bacon instead of pancetta (but I think it didn't change the flavor much), and simmer it on stove top instead of bake it.
This is seriously good. It's like the ones that's served in restaurant. And it took only about 30 mins of preparation, after that simmer it for 2 hours, no need to check it etc. I served it with creamy mashed potatoes and salad.

Pig ear and tongue
Pig ear and tongue

It's really easy. This is more or less the recipe (I didn't measure anything, just eye ball and taste check it)

Procedure:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Place the pig's ear and tongue in the water and par-boil for a few minutes to remove any scum and impurities.

2. Remove the pig's ears and tongue from the water, throw the water away. Place the ear into a small pot. Add enough water to cover the ear. Add the Shaoxing Rice Wine, or sake, soy sauce, sugar, star anise, salt/pepper, five spice and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour, occasionally checking to see that the ear is immersed in the water. Add tongue, and simmer for another 30 min. When done, the ear will be very soft and very dark brown in color. A chopstick should easily pierce through the skin. At the end of the braising, reduce if not already the soy sauce mixture into a syrupy mass, put it in a small bowl for dipping.

3. Let the ear and tongue sit at room-temperature

4. Place them onto a cutting board and slice lengthwise into slivers. Serve cold.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Shaun Pullover

Kai desperately needs sweater now, so I knitted her a simple pullover. I knitted 9 mo size using bulky yarn hoping to achieve a 12 mo size. But I think it came out size 18-24 months.

IMG_9620

Pattern: Basic baby sweater by Amy Bahrt for the pullover and Shaun the Sheep chart from Simple Knitting mag
Yarn: Gedifra Fashion Trend (green), Brown Sheep Bulky (onyx), and LB Polarspun (white)
Needle: US 8 and US 9
Modi: Knitted size 9 mo using bulky yarn to achieve 12 mo size, added shaun the sheep chart, make body and sleeves longer by 0.5". Used Jeny's stretchy BO for the neck.
Ravelled here

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Craft hope

I'm sure you have been talking about it. And I am sure, like me, looking at those faces makes you feel helpless. I am also sure you have heard of Craft Hope for Haiti, but just in case you haven't, take a look here. 100% of the proceeds from the shop go to Doctors without Borders.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Do you want to try?

Kai loves to pretend eating. Just give her a spoon/fork and a bowl, and she pretends eating from it.

Aaaammmm....yum yum

mmmm.....it's goood

Do you want to try some too?

It's good right?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Breakfast Strata

An awesome solution to bread leftovers (mostly bread butts, that nobody wants eat). Plus it can be prepared in advance, except the baking part.

Breakfast strata

I didn't use a specific recipe for this, and didn't measure the ingredients that I used :P
This is the basic idea:

Leftover bread cut or break into pieces (about 3/4") enough to fill the pan 3/4 full.
Whatever filling you want (I used ham, and a can of mushroom)
1-2 cups of grated cheese
4 eggs
1-2 1/4 c milk
salt and pepper to taste

1. Generously butter the baking dish
2. Fill the dish with bread and fillings (ham, cheese and mushroom). Mix it.
3. Whisk eggs
4. Blend milk, salt and pepper into eggs.
5. Pour over bread
6. Wrap it with cling wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning,
Unwrap the baking dish, put it into oven. Bake at 200 C for about 20-30 min or until the egg part set (not jiggly anymore).
Enjoy!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Monday, January 11, 2010

Simple Peanut Butter Cookie

I was in the mood for something fast and easy. Then I came across this recipe. It's really simple and only took 15 minutes from cracking the egg to finish baking it. I forgot to roll the dough in sugar, so, it's too sticky for me to criss cross it. But I think it's still good.
Pardon the half eaten cookie on the tray, forgot to take it out :P

PB ookies
Source

Recipe:
1 cup Peanut Butter, smooth or crunchy
3/4 cup Sugar
1 Egg
sugar for rolling (optional)

preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Combine the peanut butter, sugar and egg in the bowl, mix until fully combined.
2. Take a teaspoonful and roll in sugar, then place on a greased baking sheet. Softly press the back of your spoon into the dough to spread, then use a fork to create the criss-cross pattern.
3. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes then cool. Enjoy!

P.S: I baked it a tad too long, so some of the cookie came out a bit burned and crispy. But some of the not burned ones are chewy.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Banana girl...not

These are videos of Kai eating banana by herself. Kinda.
I gave her a chunk of banana and she basically smeared it all over the place.

On the first video, when I tell her to eat it, she put it into her mouth. If not, she just throws it




Saturday, January 02, 2010

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all an awesome 2010.

This year started off pretty good here. We had a white Christmas (someone said that it only happens about 15 times in 100 years), and miraculously the snow stays until now. Everyday the temperature dipped below 0 degree Celsius, but who cares, there's snow on the ground :)

New Year is one of the best time in Bergen. The whole city lights up fireworks from 11:50pm until around 12:30 am. Afterward, the city blanketed by smoke and the ground by bits of paper from the fireworks. We also bought a few fireworks (the one without noise, so it won't frightened the kids), and lighted it up before bedtime.




We told her to smile, and she said that she's afraid :)