Salted Vegetables & Tofu Soup (咸菜豆腐汤）

I always like salted vegetables and tofu soup, a bit of sour & salty taste, serve with rice...wow, tasty!

I was so excited to find the mustard vegetables when we went to Asian market as i missed this soup so much since we came to State.  Though the mustard vegetables does not taste quite like the salted vegetables, but it did satisfy my crave for the salted vegetables & tafu soup for now.  :)     

Ingredients:

• 1.5L water
• 200g salted vegetables (cut into pieces) 
• 100g lean pork meat (sliced)
• 1/2 package of a medium firm tofu (cut to cube)
• 4-5 mushrooms (soak in water for 'bout 20min, then cut into pieces)
• 2 tomatoes (sliced)
• Salt (to taste - optional)

Step:

1. Bring 1.5L of water to boil in a pot, add the pork meat and salted vegetables
2. Cook on medium heat for 20mins 
3. Add the tofu, mushrooms, tomatoes and simmer under medium-low heat for 30-40mins
4. Serve warm with rice, tasty!

Note:

• Add 1-2 sour plums to complete the taste (i will always add this when i cooked in my hometown, since this is not easily found here, i omitted it this round)
• The measurement of the ingredients serve as a reference as i normally cook using my judgement and preference on how much to put for each ingredients.  ;P  

Spinach Egg 'Soup'

Called this Spinach Egg Soup as don't know what will be a better name for this dish.  I treated this as a veggie dish instead of a soup dish as i will normally still prepare a pot of savory soup when i have this dish in the menu.  :)

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• Pork meat (sliced)
• 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 or 2 eggs
• Salt & sugar (to taste)
• 1 TBSP olive oil (or vegetable cooking oil)
• Water

Steps:

1. Place a wok/stir-fry pan over high heat, add the oil, swirling to coat the sides
2. Add the garlic and sliced pork meat, cook and stirring until fragrant
3. Add the spinach and water, continue cooking in medium-low heat
4. Add the egg and stir till incorporated
5. Add the sugar and salt, stir well
6. Transfer to a serving plate and serve 

Notes:

• Dried shrimp or Ikan bilis can be added for a richer favor if preferred

Berries in Season

The only fruit season that i know in the past was durian (king of fruit in M'sia), only now i learnt the different fruit season here in State, e.g. strawberry in season in June; blueberry, raspberry in July; apple in August; pumpkin in Oct etc.  With berries in season in July, we bought the girls to Ducky's Peachy Pick Farm for berry pick experience on 1st weekend of July.

It was a sunny day with 30 degree celsius.  The girls were still had fun under a pretty warm weather, sweating picking their berries.

1) "La...La...La, am going to the strawberry farm to pick my berry...'

2) "Searching...searching, where is my berry...' 





3) "I found it!..." 




4) "My pick....a big one."

5) "It's sweet & juicy!  Thumbs up!'

6) "See, who have more?"

7) "Time to rest & play."

We brought home 'bout 3 pound of berries...

Besides strawberry, there're also blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry at home.  Other than eating them raw, i've turned it into a series of berries cupcake, batch after batch.  Can't remember how many batches i bake, felt like a small scale cupcake 'marathon' for me...haha.

Of course, we can't finish all the cupcakes by ourselves but shared those with friends.  My girls were happily helping to pack it and 'gift it'.  :)

Prawn Noodles (My simple version)

Bored with rice sometime, i will prepare noodles instead and a soupy one is always my favorite option for my girls.  A soup noodles with prawn added, my simple version of prawn noodles.  ;P 

• Egg noodles, 1/3 of a package 
• Chicken/Pork meat (sliced)
• Prawns (devined with head on)
• 1 carrot (thinly sliced)
• Vegetables (e.g. Celery; Spinach etc)
• Salt to taste
• Water

Steps:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the chicken/pork, carrot, continue cooking to return to a boil
2. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cook for 20min
3. Add prawns and vegetables, continue cooking for another 15min 
4. Meantime, cook the egg noodles according to the instruction given in the package in a wok/sourcepan (i.e. cook the egg noodles uncovered in boiled water, stir occasionally according to the suggested time)  
5. Remove from pot, drain well and transfer to a serving plate, pour in the soup once the soup is ready & serve

Steamed Egg

A simple dish, but which i only know how to prepare it recently (that shows how 'good' my cooking is... ;P). 

The challenge is always how much water should i add to the egg, sometime it turned out too soft, sometime too hard.  Finally i got it right on my 3rd attempt - not too soft nor too hard.  However, i forgot to measure how much water that i have added on it as i always cook using judgement (agak-agak in hokkian)...i tried to recall how much water i added  to come out with the below recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs (slightly beaten)
• Pork meat (minced)
• 1 green onion (chopped)
• A handful of dried shrimp (chopped)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/3 sushi nori sheet (tear into fine pieces) - optional

Steps:

• Beat the eggs in a heatproof bowl
• Add in all the ingredients and mix till all incorporated
• Place the bowl in a wok/deep pan, cover, and steam over medium-high heat until heated through (i use a rice cooker steamer and when my rice is cooked, so as the dish)
• Remove the bowl from the wok/pan, sprinkle with the nori pieces
• Serve warm

Quick & Nutritional Corn Soup

This is one of the soup that i used to cook when i worked, a recipe that i cut out from a local newspaper and kept for years.  What attracted me then was its simple recipe with a soup ready in 30min, which was what i needed when i worked with not much time spent in my kitchen.  You will find that the soup tasted amazingly even without pork or chicken meat.  My family loves this soup, especially enjoy eating the corn after a meal.  :) 

Ingredients:

• 1L water (i put 1.5L water sometimes)
• 2-3 corns (cut into half or quarter)
• 2 potatoes (peeled and cut into pieces)
• 2 Onions (peeled and sliced)
• 4 tomatoes (cut into slices)
• Pitch of salt (to taste - optional, i omitted it)

Step:

1. Bring the water to boil in a pot, add all the ingredients and cook on medium-low heat for 30mins
2. Add a pitch of salt (if desired)
3. Serve warm 

Fried Asparagus with Egg

Asparagus is one of the most nutritionally well-balanced vegetables.  It is an excellent source of folic acid, rich in fiber and contains significant amounts of the nutrient inulin which often refer to it as a 'prebiotic'.  The valuable amounts of inulin serve as an ideal food source for certain types of bacteria (like Lactobacilli etc) that are associated with better nutrient absorption, lower risk of allergy and lower risk of colon cancer.  It is a digestive support food which support the digestive health.   

Instead of serve plain, sometime i would add an egg and dried shrimp to the fried asparagus.  Sometime, i will just add the tomato & shredded carrot for a colourful asparagus dish.  

Ingredients:

• Asparagus
• 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 or 2 eggs
• Dried shrimp (optional)
• Salt & sugar (to taste)
• 1 TBSP olive oil (or vegetable cooking oil)

Steps:

1. Trim off the tough ends from the asparagus, cut the asparagus on the diagonal into 2-inch pieces
2. Place a wok/stir-fry pan over high heat, add the oil, swirling to coat the sides
3. Add the garlic and dried shrimp, cook and stirring until fragrant
4. Add the asparagus and stir fry till tender, add some water if necessary
5. Add the egg and continue stir fry till incorporated
6. Add the sugar and salt, stir well
7. Transfer to a serving plate and serve 

Asparagus health benefits source: WHFoods 

Alaska Cruise: Back to Seattle (Day 8)

Here came our last day at Sea.  With a mixed feeling, we were about to debark the ship.  My 5yrs old went to the camp house to say goodbye to the camp house coach and we took some picture with the friendly Carnival team - the dining room staff that were with us for the 7 days comfort dining experience, our stateroom steward - Jonathan and the camp house staff.

We arrived Seattle in early morning at 7pm and the debark process was a smooth one.  We left the ship at about 9am when our number were called, during then, we were at our breakfast table enjoyed our last meal on ship. 

It was a shower rain day when we debark the ship.  We waited at the terminal while daddy went to pick up the car at the parking lot. 

We then brought the girls to KidsQuest Children Museum at Bellevue Washington.  The girls had a fun time at KidsQuest and we had our sushi lunch prior to heading home. 

My 2yrs old spent almost the whole visit on this scarf shooter

Art time!  Girls had fun making their hat and drawing with the special stationery

My 5yrs old's drawing of what she saw on her 1st ever cruise trip -
rainbow, mountain, glacier, ice berg..  

Our sushi lunch

It was indeed a relax & memorable vacation to us.  I think i was hook.  As soon as we were back to home, daddy & I were talking about our next cruise trip destination already.  :P 

Alaska Cruise: Victoria, Canada (Day 7)

The capital of British Columbia, also known as the Garden City - Victoria is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

We have a relax time at sea for the whole day while we headed to Victoria port of call, arrived only at 7pm. 

My 5yrs old went to the camp house and came back with
face painted and her 1st place colouring contest page

Yummy Yogurt Ice-cream

Golf time again...

A surprise visitor came to our stateroom balcony

This is the port with the shortest time ashore.  As we have visited Victoria few years ago, we did not purchase any shore excursion, but just have a free and easy visit to Victoria downtown after taken our dinner at Empire restaurant which started only at 6:45pm.  Pardon me that we didn't manage to take any photo of the food for this day since we were rushing to go down the ship.  :P

Getting ready to visit Victoria downtown

We took a taxi to Victoria downtown which cost almost the same as the shuttle since there were 4 of us.  We spent a beautiful evening at Victoria downtown with the girls visited the famous ivy-covered Empress Hotel, charming Inner Harbor and the majestic Parliament Buildings.      



 

 

We have a cosy night indulged in the beauty of Victoria.  


Passed by beautiful fisherman wharf on our way back to pier



Time to get back to the ship...

For this last night on ship, we were greeted good night with a beautiful 'heart' and a lively 'sea-lion'.