Cook Blog: Spicy Beef Salad with Lemongrass Dressing

I'm a huge fan of salad. Both Asian Salad and Western style Salad. The main ingredient of salad is the dressing. So I want something a bit different. I'm in the mood to make western salad for church but I'll stick to Asian style too. That's why adding lemongrass to the dressing make the difference to this salad recipe. I love the aroma of lemongrass and sesame oil together. They combined each other very well.

Ingredients:

1 pounds beef shirloin steak
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grounded black pepper

Salad

1 1/2 cup sweet basil leaves
1 cucumber, sliced
2 wedged tomatoes
1 Sliced Red Onion

Dressing

1 tbsp less sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp minced lemongrass stalk
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp Chilli Sauce (sambal oelek)
1/2 tsp sugar

Method:

Heat a nonstick pan on medium heat. Season the steaks with pinch of salt and black pepper. Add the steaks to the pan and cook until desired tenderness. Transfer the cooked steaks to a plate and slice.

Prepare the Dressing by mixing all the ingredients together.

Combine the Salad ingredient in a salad bowl. Drizzle the half of Dressing mixture over the salad and toss gently. Place the salad in the place and top up with sliced steaks. Drizzle the remaining dressing on the steaks.

Cook’s Notes:

Sambal oelek can be found at Asian grocery stores.

It has been quite a while...

... and it has been the moments of discovery that leave me gawking at how little I am in this world that is at once unfamiliar, big and scary and magnificent. I want to be who I used to be. That brave girl who is rabbit-headed and dragon-hearted in the face of uncertainty. I want to bet against the odds and to believe that there is more magic than fear in the unknown. I want to prove no one but myself. Above all, I want two hands to shape my dreams (our dreams) and two feet to take me there. Knowing that I've already grabbed by the waist by the most important and solid person in my life, I should fear no more. I know I'm not losing my way when I am with you. 

Cook Blog: Stuffed Mushrooms

I determined to blog more especially on those foods I made but then I never. So I am now writing cook post about making stuffed mushrooms that I just made 2 hours ago. Okay, because I feel like writing something. So blogging is it. This is the second post after I made my first post about how to make your own soymilk.

Initially my husband bought mushrooms because he wanted to make spaghetti. It has been few weeks and he never had time to make it. I have one tomato and half of onion left that I don't know what to do with them. I thought stuffed mushroom would be the best because my husband and I decided not to stuff our stomach with dinner late at 10:30 pm, so he asked me to bake his favorite ready-to-eat Samosa every night instead of heavy dinner. I don't know how he can eat them everyday, that's why I thought preparing this stuffed mushrooms, freeze them, then get them baked when needed is the best choice for now and also he can alternate Samosa with my stuffed mushroom.

Ingredients:

17 pcs of White Button Mushroom
15 pcs of Shrimps, 
1 Tomato, diced
1/2 Onion, finely diced
1 Stem of Spring Onion, chopped
1 Egg Yolk
1 Wedge Cheese (Optional)
1 Cup of Bread crumbs (to add crunchiness)

2 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

Boil shrimps in water for 10 seconds, chop them and place aside.
Wash mushroom, dry them and scoop the stem out of the mushroom to make a hollow inside. Save the cap and finely chop the stem. 

In a bowl, gently combine shrimp, mushroom stem, tomato, onion, spring onion, egg yolk, cheese, bread crumbs, olive oil, salt and pepper all together. 
Use a small spoon to stuff the filling into mushroom.

Place all the stuffed mushroom in the baking pan, drizzle them with olive oil. Pre-heat and bake at 375 F for about 20 minutes. Let them stand for another 5 minute before serving.
You can add ketchup or squeeze lemon juice before serving.

Cook note:

1) Bake them for only 15 minutes if you want to save them to freeze and serve later.
2) You can make stuffed mushroom with other filling by using whatever you have in your refrigerator.

Cook blog: Homemade Soymilk

I'm a big fan of soymilk. Perhaps, I got it from my Dad. I always stopped by to get them everyday before heading to office. I enjoy it as my breakfast and most of time, I have it without sugar. It is very healthy and it's good to add to our diet.

There are many soymilk out there, but it's hard to find a delicious homemade soymilk nowdays. I used to ask my grandma how to make soymilk. She told me briefly and it was hard for me to catch what she was telling me because I know nothing about cooking and plus I was too busy to make my own soymilk.

Now, I can make my own first homemade and of course delicious soymilk! With what I remember from my grandma and what I've been searching through Youtube. Yesterday, I spent more than 6 hours straight just to make almost 2 gallons of soymilk out of 6 lbs soybeans. To my surprise, with my effort and not to mention I nearly burnt my kitchen, my soymilk came out really good. My husband loves it and I love it too. And now I'm sharing my soymilk recipe, except I'll calculate how to make soymilk from 1 lb of soybeans instead, so you're not gonna spend more than 6 hours straight like me! Hehehe Enjoy!

Ingredient:

1 lb organic soybeans

1.05 quarts (1 liter) water

1 Pandan leaf (Asian Vanilla / Slek Toy) to add aroma

Sugar (to taste to your liking)

Method:

Rinse the soybeans throughly and soak them overnight in water. Be sure to add a lot of water because the next day, you'll notice the soybean grow bigger and longer in size. Discard the water and rinse the soybeans 3 more times. Remove the skin as much you can. Drain it and set aside.

In the blender, add the soybeans and water and blend well. Transfer the blended soybeans into a pot. Continue blending the rest of soybeans. Discard the soybeans foam before boiling them. Turn on the heat to medium, add the pandan leaf in the mixture of blended soybeans and bring it to boil. Be sure to stir frequently to avoid burning the soybeans sticking at the bottom of the pot. Once it boils, lower the heat to low and simmer for about 15 more minutes or longer. Remember, the longer you boil the richer your soymilk will be.

Once it's done, turn off the heat and let it cool down a little bit. Use the cheesecloth or cloth filter to filter out the the blended soybeans. Try to squeeze the residue and make sure you have all the soymilk is fully extracted. Discard the residue and pandan leaf. Add sugar to taste until it reach to your liking before serving.

Cook Note: Most of recipes I found in Youtube, they blend the soybeans and then filter out the blended soybeans before boiling the milk. It's easier and faster way, but I think boiling the blended soybeans before filter them out help making the soymilk richer in taste. 

Museum: Early Human

After our full day tour around city mall of D.C, we decided to pick a museum to visit. Deep down inside I was thrilled that we finally visit at least one museum. It was nearly 6 pm, but luckily the museum opened until 7:30pm for that day which normally they close at 5:30pm, perhaps because there were many tourists. We went to National Museum of Natural History to see the HOPE diamond--a very popular and most valuable one the in the world.

In that huge museum, there are many, many halls. It's not only about gems and minerals, but they have Insect Zoo, Ocean Hall, Butterflies + Plants, Hall of Bones, Hall of Mammals, Dinosaurs/Hall of Paleobiology etc. But we could only went to see Hall of Mammals and Hope Diamond. THIS PLACE IS TOO BIG TO EXPLORE in just one hour or even a day! My jaw was dropping!

So, pictures below were taken at David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I sneaked out from my group there while the girls were enjoying taking pictures at Butterflies and Plants hall. But a few minute later, I was followed by the boys. I wish to upload all the photos at this place. So I picked some to share.

 I stood there like for some seconds and it went up from ,953 to ,983! *Eyes wide opened*

 

 

Pardon me for some unclear shots. I was dragged to other hall.

 

So we were trying to transform ourselves into early human in the booth. I also got them send my photos to my email too!

There is an app for iphone and android to transform ourselves into an early human too! Try them!

My transformed photo as a homo neanderthalensis, one of the closest relatives of modern humans.

"As a Homo neanderthalensis, you live between 200,000 and 28,000 years ago in what is now Europe and Asia.
You have a very big nose, which helps you survive in cold climates by warming and humidifying cold, dry air.
You bury your dead, use simple symbols, and may even speak a language."

My transformed photo as a Homo floresiensis, which became extinct just 17,000 years ago.

"As a Homo floresiensis, you live just 95,000 to 17,000 years ago on an island in what is now Southeast Asia. You are verysmall…with a brain only about a third the size of modern humans. But you make tools, control fire, hunt a variety of animals, and your small size helps you survive on an island with limited resources."

About the exhibit: The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins offers visitors an immersive, interactive journey through the origins of human beings and the dramatic stories of survival and extinction in the midst of earth’s history of climate change. Learn more at: http://humanorigins.si.edu/



Another place, another story.

I've been married for 55 days now. If you would ask me how I feel to be married, then I must say it is great, it is wonderful. You experience the new feeling that is unable to describe. There are things that we have to admit that it is good to have an extra hand support yours and do it together, you know, like washing dishes, cleaning up the kitchen, collecting the trashes... etc. Hehehe.

Having husband to help with little house chores after he is back from work is wonderful feeling, because I know I wouldn't find this best husband anywhere. This is one of the thing that I most appriciate. But anyway, I don't want to blah blah blah about my husband or how lucky I am here and now. Actually, there are many pictures in my camera--which my husband got me for my birthday few weeks ago, but I don't know what to post and I just have no idea what I want to talk about. In my camera, besides capturing my husband's face, my visit in D.C with my friend, and umm some testing pictures, there are only FOODS pictures that I cooked. Yes, my husband wants me to take pictures of every foods I make. But most of all, he knows I love photography and he wants me to enjoy taking photograph again.

Anyway, I'll try updating more and post what I have in my camera while working on our projects. Have I mentioned I just paint our office and family room downstair? Yes I have. I've done it by myself. Husband said I should be proud of myself, and here I am, I'm proud and pleased with what I have done. But without husband's encouragement and freedom to let me do what I want to do, I would never have done it. I'm glad I can pick up what I want to do and never had time to do it. I enjoy this simple pleasure. Now, I'm writing here as an initial step to get on with my little home projects and I'll try document it here. But right now, let's enjoy random pictures and video together!



There was a winter storm few days ago and we planned to walk down to have breakfast, but it started snowing heavily and I was freaking cold that I can't feel my hands and ears, so we just walked around the house and made this two random video clips. Bleh!

Okay, I'm too lazy to decide which photos I want to post and the computer is so slow, so later! Bye!

Goodbye, unlikely lover!

It’s been a long but good run, me and you. We have so much in common. I can't believe I would find solace in your wild, crazy embrace, even though you’re where I came from after more than two decades together.

This is a question of conquest. In any case, the reason I came out was to see the world and find myself in you and to move on so that I can find my better me. In the end, I think I at once saw more and less than I thought I would. Because of you, I have learned enough to go on with my life. Well, I know you too well and now we have a lifetime history together, you and I, a pair of unlikely lovers or unlikely mother, or whatever.

Let’s spare ourselves the melodrama, but I want to make the promises that I might be able to keep, even though we’re both too aware that there is no space in your embrace for fairy tales, and I’m too much of a cynic.

So anyway, this is me saying I’m leaving for good, for my fairy tales, for my true and lifetime lover though I know it make no difference to you. But I will miss you, you crazy country, crazy city. I can’t help it. I’m sentimental that way. Just do me one last favor and hold on to the bit of me that I’m leaving behind because I have a feeling I’ll be back to you someday. At least, you're where my heart is.