A baby churning in the oven….

It’s funny my good friend commented on my last post, because I am planning on leaving you with this picture….

I love Grey’s Anatomy

This is no doubt one of my favorite TV shows. I watch every episode without fail. Here’s one of my favorite scenes that leaves a deep impression on me.

 

Okay, so the whole quote went like this.

Meredith quote:

“It's the most important job in the world. You probably should need a license to do it but then most of us probably wouldn't even pass the written exam. Some people are naturals-- they were born to do it. Some have other gifts. But the good news is biology dictates you don't have to do it alone. You can waste your whole life wondering, but the only way to find out what type of parent you'd be is to finally stop talking about it and just do it.”

Pork overdose!

Lately I found myself craving for chinese food. Like chinese chinese food! Noodles, soup especially! Nothing I can get from the chinese restaurants in my area. I would have to drive about 40 miles to get to the closest “real” chinese restaurant. This is when I beat myself up for not living closer to Monterey Park. Anyway, with no close resources around me, I turned to google for help. I have a couple food blogs that I follow closely. I mean, there are a tons of blogs that have very good chinese/ malaysia food recipes out there. I was overwhelmed with the all the chinese/ malaysia recipes I found on the internet. Finally I narrowed it down to 2 blogs which I have bookmarked for future reference.

• My Asian Kitchen
• Lily Wai Sek Hong

I browse to find recipes that I think I can try at home. Or sometimes, when I crave for something, I turn to their blogs for recipes. They have all the recipes I am looking for and more!

June, a friend of mine that lives in MA, has tons of recipes on her blog as well. I sometimes turn to her for help when I am stuck with something.

For 2 weekends in a row, I have been making lotus root soup, one of my favorite soups! I already know how to make this soup and have been making this soup for awhile. This is probably the only chinese soup that I know how to make aside from ABC soup.

I should have taken the picture of the soup when it was full, not when it is almost empty. So now you see all the leftover stuff I used to make this soup. If you see something that you don’t recognize, they are probably the cuttlefish.

Then on Monday night, I tried to make roast pork (char siew). I was craving for kon loh mee or wantan mee, whatever you call it. I still beat myself up for not having that dish when I was in malaysia in May. Anyway, again I turned to their blogs for help and came up with my pathetic looking char siew. Noodles wasn’t bad. I like it alot actually. Pork was a little on the dry side. I didn’t realize my size of pork was much smaller and roasted in the oven longer than it should. Nonetheless, it satisfied my craving for the night. Will definitely make this again in the near future. I felt like a professional chinese chef when I was preparing the noodles. Soaking it in the hot boiling water, and then to the cold water and back to the boiling water using my spider that was purchased long time ago but never used it.

image stole from here.

That looks like a lot of noodles. In case you are wondering, no, I didn’t eat the whole thing. I shared it with John. ;P Yes, I know, there is no green vege with this meal. I am still working on balancing my meal with some vege.  Work in progress, work in progress…

Okay, so Tuesday night, I made siew yoke (roast pork). This is my second attempt of trying to make siew yoke using the same recipes. Again, the skin didn’t turn crispy like it should. I really have no idea what I did wrong. I followed the recipes to the “T” and still didn’t come out quite right. The meat was delicious but the skin was disappointing. However, I think this batch was definitely an improvement from the first time I made it (about 6 months ago). I love siew yoke, and will definitely try this recipe again until I get it right!

To go with my roast pork, I made brussel sprouts. Some vege in my meal! I usually roast them in the oven but since my oven was busy roasting my pork (and I do not have the privilege of owning a double oven), I was forced to find a different alternative of preparing these guys. I found this recipe online somewhere and it seemed easy enough to follow.

Anything tastes better with bacon! I cooked some bacons and used the fat from bacons to cook my brussel sprouts. Then I steamed them in the water for a few minutes until it was soft. With some salt and pepper, it’s good to go! It would have been tastier if I had some parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top.

Next time, when I have perfected my skills, I will definitely invite some friends over to enjoy these with me. Tonight, on Wednesday night, John and I are working on finishing my char siew, and siew yoke leftover. I am taking a break from the kitchen until we clean up the leftovers in the fridge. I am exhausted from cooking anyway. 3 days in a row is too much for me. Now I just wish we can make it to Monterey Park this weekend for some real chinese food to satisfy more of my cravings!

New door for the closet

After a visit from the Ikea store a few weeks ago, we came home with 3 new curtain panels for our guest bedroom closet. The closet doesn’t have a door. Odd. The previous owner thought it looks better this way, they took the door out. We were told that the doors were in the garage and we can put them back in if we want to.

We didn’t see any so-called closet doors in the garage when we moved in. Since the bedrooms are not in use right now, we just never get around to putting a door in.

The closet in one of the bedrooms. It is currently not in use. Just some junk that we have and never get around organizing.

John measured and cut the curtain panels to desired length. Put in the curtain rails.

 

And finally,

Now, we can hide all our junk in there without being too obvious. Eventually we will put a bed in and turn this room into a guest bedroom. Now we just have to do the same to the other bedroom closet that doesn’t have a door. We got the rails from Ikea, and now we can find a different set of panels to cut to the desired length and size from another store.