Blog feature: I Am Baker

Hello, everyone. 

I feel like I just died and went straight to cookie heaven after viewing this cookie gallery by Amanda at i am mommy. Please please please check out her cookie gallery. I felt like a kid in a candy (cookie?) factory when I found that site. Her work is beautiful, and she is nice enough to share her tips/tricks!

While I am super jealous of Amanda's mad skills, I am also inspired by her creative designs, non-dessert recipes, and how proudly she displays her faith on her blog. I would love to be as bold as she is. Although I am a Christian, I cannot say that I am totally comfortable identifying myself as such when introducing myself. I have a fear that doing so would allow others to judge me prematurely based solely off of my faith. Does anyone else have that problem? I don't think that it is embarrassment, because I'm not ashamed of my salvation, but why aren't I more proud of it? Gonna have to work on that one a little bit more...

Beef Broccoli Stir Fry

Hi, my name is Chau, and I'm Asian. That means, I love rice and eat a lot of stir fry dishes. Beef and broccoli? It's one of my faves, but my recipe isn't like those I've seen on the internets. Unlike Martha Stewart's, it doesn't have apple juice and cider vinegar listed in the ingredients, and I disagree (am grossed out) by Emeril's use of orange blossom honey in his stir fry recipe. I think a stir fry should be simple, easy, and edible. That's pretty much it. 

Beef and broccoli stir fry (adapted from Wandering Chopsticks)

2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets (I also cut the stem into 2 in. pieces)
Optional: 3 carrots, sliced diagonally and 2 c. of mushrooms, cut in half
1/2 to 1 lb of beef sliced thinly into 2 in strips
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of medium onion, sliced or diced as you prefer
2 tbs each of hoison and soy sauce
2 tbs veg oil (I prefer a light mist of Pam)
1 tbs fish sauce (optional)
2 tbs corn starch (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

1. After slicing the beef, marinate it with the soy and hoisin sauces. If you want a thick sauce, add corn starch to the marinade.
2. Place broc and carrots into a microwave safe bowl, cover, and microwave for 3-5 min. until the veggies are slightly cooked but still firm. 
3. Sautee onions in oil until soft, add minced garlic. Cook over med-high heat until fragrant.
4. Add the meat! Cook until meat is just about to lose all of it's pinkness, rather than fully cooked. I do this to prevent the beef from overcooking and become tough.
5. Add the slightly cooked broc and carrots. Allow it to soak in the juices/sauce a bit before stirring the pot to let the veggies and meat cook together.
6. Taste the sauce. If you like more flavor, add salt, pepper, fish sauce, soy sauce to suit your preference.
7. Just before the veggies and meat are at the point where they are cooked to your liking (I like my broccoli to still be a bit crisp), add the mushrooms, stir them all together, place a lid on it, and turn off the heat. (I like to let the residual heat finish the cooking, because there's less chance of the vegetables becoming too soggy that way.)
8. Serve with steamed rice, and love. Lots of love.

Any stir fry is cooked in basically the same way depending on your combination of meat and vegetables. If I'm cooking with pork, I like to add ginger and only use fish sauce. Chicken has no fish/soy sauce, but loads of extra garlic and ginger. I suggest you experiment to find what you enjoy best. Whatever you do, don't add apple juice or honey, because it makes babies cry and angels lose their wings.

Owl cake

My friend, Jin, had a birthday in December. Now that it is February, I thought it was an appropriate time to post a photo of the mini-cake I made for her. Jin loves two things: me and owls. I can't tell which one she adores more just yet, but I'm thinking it's me.

H.B. WCG! (Happy birthday WCG!)

Not my best piping work, but I was pretty pleased with the owl itself. I found the idea here, but used a 4 in. brownie rather than a cupcake, and also split a non-creamed half of an Oreo to make little ears. I think the original tutorial calls for ganache, but chocolate frosting worked fine.

I wanted to write an owl joke, or maybe an owl-related pun here, but I just couldn't do it. I would have to punch myself in the face if I did.

Snack time

Kids can be picky about their food. The other day, I watched as my nephew ate half of a tomato. I was so excited that he was eating anything that I didn't even think to stop him.

When you're a nanny, you sometimes have to be creative when it comes to food. If the kid can play with his food, then some of it might actually be eaten.

Unless, you're just playing with pretzels and peanut butter as your nephew sleeps.

Leftover mashed potatoes

The holidays are over, but did you notice that it's still cold outside???

Garlic mashed potatoes with neufchatel cheese

On New Years Eve, we had pan seared steak, garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli with cheese. Don't worry, it was delicious. However, I found that I had a lot of leftover mashed potatoes, with nothing to accompany it. 

I thought about making llapingachos, an Ecuadorian dish that my friend Paula in NC introduced to me. It's basically a mashed potato patty that is stuffed with cheese, and then fried. Oh sweet merciful mother, I salivate when I think of them, they're THAT good. However, they're a little indulgent, and after eating my mama's cooking for a month, I wanted to make something a little lighter. After a quick google search, I found these recipes, and settled on a mashed potato soup.

Per my usual style, I didn't have all the ingredients called for in the original recipe, and made up my own halfway through. I did my best to take photos of the entire process...Here's what you do:

Chop up some garlic and onions/shallots.

Pop them into a medium pan with a little bit of oil. Once they're soft, plop in the mashed potatoes.

Realize that your pot is too small, and then...

...switch to a bigger pot.

Remember...every single step is extremely important! Do not skip any of the steps! 

In the original recipe, you would have added chicken broth and later cream, but I had a quarter of a jug of skim milk that I needed to use up before the expiration date! So guess what went into the soup instead?

"Skim milk adds creaminess, but is healthier!" I said.

I also had about 2 tbs. of neufchatel cheese leftover, and a third of a block of cheddar leftover from our NYE dinner. So those were also added in once the soup was hot.

Slice up some green onions for garnishing...Oh yeah, most recipes will tell you to fry up some thick cut bacon, and then saute the garlic and onions in the rendered fat. I baked some pre-cooked Oscar Meyer bacon, and crumbled it instead. I'm so clever.*

Potato soup and the Huffington Post...Does this make me a douchebag?

Once all the cheeses have melted, add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with shredded cheese, green onions, crumbled bacon, sour cream, etc. It's a pretty simple soup, but is a great way to use up leftovers. Really great for a cold day.

What do you do with your leftovers?

*Lazy

Taco Bell

From Seattle Weekly's online site. Yet another reason never to eat at Taco Bell...

Beefy Crunch Burrito from Taco Bell

A man walks into a restaurant. He goes straight to the back and opens the walk-in refrigerator, then climbs in and locks the door. Employees call police, they show up, pry open the door, and find the man dead . But he apparently didn't die of the cold, and there are no signs of violence. So what happened?

New Year, holla holla hollaaaa

My mom has been visiting for the past 3 weeks, and it has been wonderful to eat some of my favorite dishes everyday. It's also been great to show her some recipes that I've learned, such as French bread or oatmeal peanut butter cookies.

My, what an oddly shaped loaf you have there.

I love cooking, and find great joy in it, but there is something so comfortable about standing in the kitchen with my mom. I don't know how to describe it...The other night, I made a pot roast for dinner. My mom stood in the kitchen as I browned the roast. Still watching, she started telling stories about our family during the war.

During the Vietnam War, she was 24 years old, my oldest sister was 4, second oldest sister was 3, and my brother was only 6 months old. While our father fought with the South VN army against the Viet Cong, my mother was trying to escape from north VN to the southern part of VN. So with 2 toddlers and a baby, she fled. Along the way, they found food wherever they could, and often ate spoiled scraps that Communist army wives threw out.  

Your (oldest) sister was 4 years old, so she was old enough to beg for food. Afterward, she would share it with your (other) sister...Your brother was just a baby, but the (Communist) soldiers had taken the hat I used to protect him from the sun, so his skin was all red and peeling. 

I cannot imagine the pain of having to coach your children on how to beg for food, or the desperation that my mom must have felt watching her newborn's skin redden and crack from constant sun exposure. I don't know how they survived, but can only attribute it to God's grace. I don't understand any of their struggles from that time, but can appreciate that it enabled me to live a good life in America.

Sometimes I wonder, is my adoration of food too extreme? I love food, because my family loves food. If we have something good to eat, then we love to share it. We find comfort in the kitchen together, and I think we laugh harder and louder when cooking together, or sharing a good meal. It probably stems from the knowledge that we almost didn't have this life. My family survived for a month on rotten and foraged food, and today we are able to appreciate the pleasure that good food brings. They suffered greatly, but God saved them, and He's continued to bless our lives. God has enabled me to appreciate His creations that aren't just nourishing, but absolutely delicious. He brought my family out of war, starvation, and desperation, and now 27 years later, I am blogging about food. This amazes me. As the new year begins, and I reflect on the past, I am thankful that my life is so abundant that I can taste/create good meals, and I am thankful that I am able to share it with all (6) of you. I am so blessed. Happy New Year, everyone.

Mom and I playing with Kyle in the snow.