Playing Catch up - December Challenge in January

Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!!!!! So you have noticed I totally did not do anything in December. You are correct ha! My husband totally spoiled me and cooked almost every meal for 2 weeks. What can I say? He is a keeper. I have no where to brag so I am bragging here LOL! He spoils me every week to a date and his leadership in this household allows me to breathe as a wife. Financially, he has grown to be so responsible. Physically, he challenges me to eat healthy and stay fit. Spiritually, let's just say it's so good to know God speaks to your husband so as a wife, you can completely rely on his partnership with the Lord. There is nothing better than to be married to a godly man, full of integrity and wisdom. He is super protective of me and is willing to do the grunt work to keep this family tight knit. There. ;-) That's why I didn't cook much in December. 

First thing in December I made: Basil Pesto. It was super good. It smelled delicious. I cut 2 cups of my indoor basil, shredded cheese, put 3 cloves of garlic, olive oil, if you like nuts you could put pine nuts or walnuts. I had bought store brand basil pesto so I made two pizzas, one with the fresh pesto, one with processed. Seriously, the fresh pizza was the BOMB.

Second thing I made, Cheesy chips. I shredded cheese, put oil in a pan, baked it till it was crispy. As you can see, this was over cooked. My son started to vomit right when I turned the oven off and I left the pan in the oven and this was what happened. It was super crispy though and still good. My kids loved it.

No I did not make this pomelo. This is a fruit I used to eat, growing up in Hong Kong. It was good but nothing compared to the ones I had as a child. In my opinion, you have not had fruit till you have traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, or Thailand for their fruits. Take your pick for your next vacation!

Last on the menu, kale chips. Yes, the ones my lil sister introduced me to! YUMMY YUM YUM!!!!! It was  a piece of cake. I literally ripped out the leaves, drizzled oil and salt, spread it on a pan, put in the oven till I thought they looked crispy, and voila! My babies loved them.

I don't know what food I am going to do next, I was thinking trying to make apple crisps. What do you think? Which recipe should I try out next for January? Comment below.

December Challenge - Kale Chips

I know I said I was going Greek but that was a full month ago and now I want to eat kale chips HA! Go figure.

The recipe I am going to try to follow is on my younger sister's blog. She's got some great and sensitive taste buds on her tongue and is awesome at cooking. I'll be back in a couple of days with those kale chip pictures from my own kitchen. Tomorrow is Wednesday, AKA grocery shopping day. So... see you soon!

Oh Here's the recipe 

Going Greek

Next month, I am wanting to cook Greek food. My kids and I went to a Greek festival while my hubby was preaching in Atlanta. Now I am completely hooked on cooking their food. Go figure!

I want to make Domathes, Greek Lemon Rice, and Athenian Chicken. I have no idea what ingredients I will need yet. But I am determined to make a Greek meal for my family! SO FUN!

Greek Festival Pictures

November Challenge - Almond Milk

I had a hard time deciding what to do this month because I have so many recipes and things I want to try. I finally decided on seeing if I could make almond milk from scratch.

This is what you need
1. 1 cup Raw Almonds
2. 4 cups Water
3. Sweetener


Step 1
Soak 1 cup of almonds overnight

Step 2
Strain the almond and blend the almond with 4 cups of water

Step 3
Add sweetener (I used agave. You can use vanilla extract, stevia, etc)


Step 4
Strain the milk and put it in a container. Milk will last 3-4 days in fridge.

This water from soaked almonds can be used to water plants because of its high nutrient content!

This is the almond residue from the blended almonds. I baked it for almond meal! Click here for suggestions on how to use almond meal.

As you can see, my kids loved the almond milk I made for this month's challenge. It was so easy! Definitely try this one, y'all!!

Drum Roll Please..... Challenge #2

Balsamic Vinegar Pearls DONE!

Here's my step by step. I actually failed 3 times before I succeeded.

I put the olive oil in the fridge for 3 hours at first. After 3 failures, I decided to follow another set of directions from another video and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes. I forgot about it and left it in there for an hour. LOL

Remember the weird agar-agar? Read this post for more on agar-agar. I ended up using a coffee bean grinder and made them into about 4 oz. of agar flakes! I was so proud of myself :-)

 Now I heat 1 cup of balsamic vinegar at medium and whisk in 1 tbsp of agar flakes. I heat this mixture till it lightly boils. Then, I let it cool down till it is around room temperature.

 

 

As you can probably tell, these 3 pictures above are the failed attempts. This is what I figured out. As I put in more and more pearls, the temperature of the oil quickly ascends. And as the olive oil warms up, my agar pearls disintegrates! So the 4th and last attempt, I dropped the pearls slower and intermittently put the oil back in the freezer for a minute. And here it is!!!! Beautiful!!! When you put these pearls in your mouth, the agar  quickly melts on your tongue and gives you a potent dosage of balsamic vinegar. YUM!!!

Dried Anchovy

I KNOW what y'all are thinking!!! "What IS THAT?" "NAsty!" "Ewwww" hahaha Tell me I am right. I'm looking for a cooking syringe so I can make those balsamic pearls. And in the mean time, I have to keep my kitchen busy with experiments!

I got a pack from an Asian market this weekend because I have eaten them a long time ago in Hong Kong. Growing up, our maids from the Philippines always let us taste their meals, and this is one of the dishes i really liked. Then when I was in Malaysia, my Chinese Malay friends made something similar for me at my farewell feast. So I got curious and decided to satisfy my craving. 

It was purely an experiment but it turned out really yummy, and yes, people, FISHY! LOL I washed half the pack in water, put it in the pan with a little oil and a dash of salt. Now, here's the fun part, I remembered it tasted sour, so I experimented with fresh lime juices. I also put a bit of garlic and ginger in it and served it cool.  My little 3 year old had a problem with the fishy eyeballs at first, but quickly got used to them haha... My husband and kids LOVED this dish! Don't you want some? ;-) You know you wanna try this. 

Balsamic Pearls - Challenge #2

How did your sourdough starter come out? I was so glad to have made it. My family loved the bread and the pizza! So how about another challenge for October? I promise this challenge is shorter and less time consuming.

We are making Balsamic Vinegar Pearls! Watch this video! It's different than the first one I had found and posted but it actually gives us more details about it.

I went to an Asian market to find agar-agar. I had originally thought it was a type of sugar because in the video I saw, it was from a packet, like sweet n' low. LOL But agar is a red algae! It is a vegetarian thickening agent, compared to gelatin, which is from animal sources. Read on it here in this article.

Here are the varieties of agar-agar I saw. I was very surprised because 1. of their different colors and 2. they looked like bars of plastic!

Anyway, you know what I chose! I am a health nut! I got the one without the dye. In this challenge, I only need a tablespoon I think... so... I am not sure what I am going to do yet, but I will find out!

I will be back to post what I did and how I did on this challenge!