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!