kaffir lime chicken

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INGREDIENTS
1 chicken breast, sliced into bite sized pieces
2T fish sauce
1tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
about 2 tsp palm sugar
10-15 kaffir leaves, fine chiffonade
1 stalk of lemongrass, minced
small knob of galanga, sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 red chili, sliced
2 tsp oil

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Marinate chicken in fish sauce, soy sauce, palm sugar and pepper
  2. Heat wok with about 2 teaspoons oil till smoking
  3. Add galanga and lemongrass and saute for 1 minute.  Then add garlic and kaffir lime 
  4. Add chicken and stir-fry till cooked on outside
  5. Add chicken broth, cover, lower heat and simmer till chicken is cooked
  6. Add cornstarch mixed with a bit of broth to thicken as needed
  7. Add chili before serving with hot rice

an eco-friendly fast ride

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B was super excited getting his new car!  The diesel engine makes it cleaner burning and more efficient while providing more torque which translates into a faster ride.  I’ve only driven it twice, but it takes a lighter touch to drive it.  One little press of the gas and there she goes!  We took the car out for a little drive around that harbor that night

We’ve had the car now for just under 3 weeks now and filled the tank only after driving about 400 miles. Pretty cool!

pumpkin bread/muffins-includes low sugar version

2011, baking

The change in the weather led to my craving for autumn flavors.  I found a recipe for pumpkin bread from a popular website with 5-stars out of 4,500 reviews!  How can more than 4,000 people be wrong?  It helps that it’s almost impossible to mess it up, and there isn’t too much technique involved.

When I went to the store, I could only find the 30oz can for pumpkin puree, so I made 2 different versions:  the original recipe and a healthier version.

INGREDENTS (ORIGINAL)                                     INGREDIENTS (HEALTHIER VERSION)
15oz pumpkin                                                              15oz pumpkin
3 1/2c flour                                                                  2 1/2c flour
2c white sugar                                                              1c white whole wheat flour
1c brown sugar                                                            1c Splenda
4 eggs                                                                          1 1/2c white sugar
2/3c water                                                                   1c brown sugar
1/2c oil                                                                        1T agave
1/2c applesauce                                                           4 eggs
2t baking soda                                                             2/3c water
1 1/2t salt                                                                    1/2c oil
1t cinnamon                                                                 1/2c applesauce
1t nutmeg                                                                     2 1/2t baking soda
1/2t cloves                                                                   1t cinnamon
1/4t ginger                                                                    1t nutmeg
1/2t cloves
1/4t ginger
1 1/2t salt

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Cream sugars and eggs till smooth
  2. Then add water, pumpkin, applesauce and oil and mix until smooth
  3. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients VERY well!
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until just combined, but should not have pockets of flour.
  5. Pour into prepare containers…I was able to make a dozen muffins and a 8in square cake.  Also yield a full loaf pan plus muffins.
  6. Bake at 350 until toothpick is clean
    1. Muffins took about 28 minutes
    2. Loaf took a little over an hour.  Will yield 2 loaves.
    3. Square cake took about 35 minutes

So could I tell the difference between the two versions??  Well, in terms of texture, both versions had a tender crumb and turned out moist.
The version with the Splenda was not as sweet which I didn’t mind, but it was missing that slightly crisped edges, but a small price to pay to cut the sugar by a third.

Can you tell the difference?  Low sugar version is on the right

behind the camera

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Today we used my anniversary gift to B: an intro class to photography.  B had gotten a new DSLR just before our trip to Utah.  We both had no experience using it, and luckily, just using the auto setting did a good job at capturing all the beautiful scenery.  But we wondered what all the other buttons on the camera did.

He headed out early in the morning to a studio in Little Italy.  I was in a cool warehouse with arched ceilings lines with wood and brick walls.  The class introduced us to the different auto settings that can be used, aperture (to get fuzzy backgrounds), shutter speed (to capture action), photo composition…Definitely a lot of info that will take a lot of practice be to second nature.
After lunch, we walked around Little Italy and the harbor to snap a few photos and practice what we just learned.  Here are a few shots:

I think that B has a better knack at picture taking.  He has an eye for a nicely composed shot.  So I think that we’ll make him the family photographer:)

blushing beauty mocktail

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Tonight we are going over to a friend’s house for an Italian-themed Bon Voyage party for two friends travelling to China.  Yes, I know, an Italian dinner for a China voyage?
I wanted to bring a festive non-alcoholic drink, since the hostess does not drink alcohol.  I wanted something that was autumn-hued to celebrate the new season.  Some thoughts that came to mind:  lemon and mint, basil and mint, grapefruit and cranberry, cranberry and lime….then I came across a recipe on the internet which apparently was adapted from a recipe from Rachel Ray.

6 cups ruby red grapefruit juice
3 cups diet ginger ale
1 cup cranberry or pomegranate juice
1 cup peach nectar

After tasting it, I think that a little lime juice would balance the bitterness of the grapefruit and cranberry and the sweetness from the peach.  I’ll try that next time.

girls reunited!

dining, friends, travel

I had the best weekend spending it with three of my bridesmaids back in the City.  We reminisced as we strolled through the Cal campus, caught up on life and love, explored one of my favorite parts of town and tried some new eats in the best city ever!  What was so great is that even though we hadn’t seen each other in over a year, we talked and chatted as if we had seen each other a week ago.

We started the weekend waiting over a hour for a seat at the counter for brunch at Plow in a neighborhood I had never really been to.  We traded plates so that we could share and try the lemon ricotta pancakes, fluffy French toast and a soft egg scramble.  We then drove over to the Ferry Building and walked along the Embarcadero and caught a glimpse of the planes flying overhead for Fleet Week.  We caught the Filbert Steps toward Telegraph Hill for another view of the City.  On the way back down, we cute across through the Levi’s headquarters, a beautiful building with floor to ceiling windows and warm brick.  It housed a small museum that had jeans from different eras starting from the 1880s.

Dinner at Delfina was a culinary adventure, at least for me.  We ordered mildly seasoned grilled sardines, crostini at green pea, white bean and rustic chicken liver pate.  The pastas were delicious including a square spaghetti with breadcrumbs and roasted cauliflower, spaghetti with squid ink, gnocchi with ragu and trips in tomato sauce.  Dinner with accompanied with an Italian red: Carmignano – Capezzana 2003 Toscana.

We saved room for Bi-Rite ice cream.  It’s apparently the new place for gourmet ice cream.  We shared scoops of ginger, salted caramel, honey lavender (my favorite) and strawberry balsamic.

After dim sum the next morning, we headed to the East Bay and tried to remember all the names of the buildings on our old campus and visited the new East Asian library.  A walk down Telegraph surprised us.  Although establishments we remembered, like Espresso Express who made bulgogi sandwiches, Musical Offering-the classical music shop and cafe in one, Bancroft Clothing Co, Avant Card, Jenny’s Healthy cafe, Le Petit Cheval, La Burrita, Fat Slice, Blondie’s, Yogurt Park, Ned’s Bookstore, Rasputin’s, Amoeba, Cafe Milano, Steve’s BBQ, Thai Basil, IB Hoagies and Durant Cafe were still there, so many commercialized places replaced the old shops and restaurants.  BUT….Top Dog was still there to serve up Lemon Chick, Bratwurts and Kielbasas!  AND we were also able to get a GIANT tossed salad of beans, avocado, tomato, carrots topped with poppy seed dressing just as I remember it (but sans sprouts)!

The weekend was great to listen and talk about relationships since we all in different stages of relationships.  Once again, I felt very lucky that I found my perfect guy and happily married.  Hopefully they didn’t mind hearing my perspective as a married person.  It was a wonderful girl’s weekend, and I really hope that we do an SD version very very soon!  But nevertheless, I was so very happy to be back at home snuggled up in bed with B on Sunday night 🙂

My version of Pasta alla Norma

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I don’t really know what the authentic recipe is, but I’ve been making a version of this for a few years.  It was inspired by a dish of penne with melanzane at Pasta Pomodoro in the Bay Area.  I always loved the meaty eggplant, to gooey mozarella and added chili flakes to the dish always.  I haven’t been to Pasta Pomodoro in years since there are so many great restaurants in SF, but now I can make this at home.  Next I’ll attempt to figure out how to make their Cavatappi Pollo!

On this particular day, I used a home grown tomato that weighed probably a pound!  Thanks Cheryl!

INGREDIENTS
Pasta (about 1/2 pound)
1 huge tomato
2 sweet saugages out of the casing
Chili flakes
1 eggplant cubed to 1 inch
1/2 c white wine
basil roughly chooped
~6oz fresh mozarella
Pecorino cheese
EVOO

Take the cube eggplant and salt liberally, set aside to exude water
Boil water and make pasta, set aside about 1 cup cooking liquid
Place eggplant in the microwave for about 10 minutes to allow steaming and water removal.  This will result in faster cooking time and less oil use
While eggplant is cooking, fry the sausage and add chili.  Cook till browned, remove from the heat and set aside.  Remove all but about 2T oil in the pan.
Add tomatos and allow to cook down.  Add eggplant.
Once tomatos and eggplant are a little browned, add wine and allow alcohol to evaporate, season to taste

new cookbook on the shelf

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I’m very excited for my new addition to my cookbook library, Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook:  2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America’s Most Trusted Food Magazine.  It’s a collection of the pain-staking tested recipes featured in the magazine of the same namesake.  I’ve made some of their recipes I had from the recent subscription I had to the online site and year’s magazine subscription included last year’s Thanksgiving turkey which was a hit!  Looking forward for many more delicious meals thanks to Cook’s Illustrated.