Vegmedso = Veggie Medley Soup!

There are so many reasons why I love vegetables!
(yet I'm still consuming a lot less vegetables than I should be...)
- Veggies are quick to cook, on those days when you don't have time to cook!
- Veggies are healthy and nutritious
- Each different veggie has a different and distinct flavor, which really adds variety, flavors, and colors to all types of meals.

The night when I made the 'Fragrant Steamed Fish' and the 'Oven Steamed Corn' was also the same night that I made the Vegmedso (Veggie Medley Soup).

Making this soup was perfect, because I was so busy preparing the fish and corn (ok, I lied a bit. Jeff did most of the corn...), that I didn't really have enough arms and time to stop and also make a vegetable dish.

So the solution was to make a soup out of vegetables and let it simmer on the stove, while I divert my attention elsewhere.

The soup came out better than I thought!

Whenever I make soup, I try to make the soup out of homemade chicken broth (by boiling chicken bones until all the flavor comes out). I always said that, if I was making soup without homemade chicken broth, then that soup isn't worth making.

However, being tired from a long day at work , and there were two hungry mouths to feed (jeff and myself. my mouth is usually the hungrier one =P), I was desperate to get any veggie soup made. With or without chicken bones.

I searched through the kitchen cupboard and VOILA! I found a can of chicken broth! Homemade chicken broth tastes 10000% better than canned chicken broth, but hey, I was desperate.

Vegmeso:

Ingredients
- 1 can of chicken broth
- 2 chicken-broth-cans worth of water
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 2 med potato, or many itty bitty potatoes (chopped)
- 1 large/long Italian Squash (cut into coins)
- If you are in a rush (like me): Any frozen vegetables of your choice, with the equivalent amount of veggies as listed below:

If you are using fresh vegetables instead of frozen:
- 1/2 carrot (chopped)
- 1/2 canned corn
- 1/2 canned peas
- 1/2 cup of chopped broccoli
- 1/4 cup string beans
feel free to add any other vegetables of your choice!

Instructions:
1) Get a large soup pot, and pour in the canned chicken broth. Turn stove on high.
2) Using the empty chicken broth can, pour 2 cans of water into pot
3) Place chopped potatoes into pot
4) When water boils, turn flame to medium and let the potatoes soften (10 minutes of boiling?)
5) Throw in the rest of your veggies, minus the italian squash.
6) Put in salt, garlic salt, and black pepper
7) Stir then cover the pot for 5 minutes.
8) Put italian squash into the soup, and stir some more.
9) Let the soup boil.
10) When the italian squash turns clear, taste the soup. If you like it, then it's done!

An alternative to lighting up the grill

I love grilled corn.
and corn at Ralphs was on sale! 5 for $1! Woohoo.

However, lighting the grill is such a pain.
Especially when it's 8pm on a week night and you don't plan on throwing a huge BBQ party any time soon.

So my sister told me, that an alternative to grilling corn on a BBQ grill, is to throw it into the oven instead.
But they would come more more steamed, rather than grilled.

That's fine with me, corn is corn. It's always good!

I didn't know how long to bake these ears of corn, and for how long.
But somehow, in the end, they came out so good!
Mm.
I brought in one of the ears of corn into work as my lunch, and it filled me up good!
I was full and happy at work

Oven Steamed Corn

Ingredients
- 8 ears of corn
- tin foil
- an oven

Instructions:
1. Peel out the outer most layer of the corn husk (the dark green leaves), and leave the inner light green husk on the corn.
2. De hair and was corn. Be sure to not rip off any of that light green husk in the process.
3. Break off that annoying stem at the end of the corn.
4. Wrap up the corn into tin foil.

I had Jeff do those top 4 steps!
He did a fabulous job!

Cooking:
1. Turn oven to 360 degrees F
2. Put corn into oven.
3. Bake corn for 1.5 hours. Turning the corn halfway.
4. Let corn cool, then enjoy!

I like my corn plain. They are naturally sweet and juicy. No butter needed.

Acquired Taste

I wrote a post in my Xanga,
in response to the list of foods that are an acquired-taste posted on Wikipedia.

I thought I would mention it here, since it's food-related.

Find my Xanga post here:
http://www.xanga.com/ChibiPenguinGrl/606407202/item.html

steamed fish. soo healthy

I made Asian steamed fish for Jeff last night, because I know he really likes Asian steamed fish, and he never gets any. poor thing.

but darn.....
Everytime I make food, I always forget to take a picture before I CHOW DOWN.
So sorry guys. No picture of the actual fish I made last time.
It's all in my tummy now.

But it was good! I can guarantee that.

Fragrant Steamed Fish

- 1 pound fish fillets (I don't know what kind of fish is best. I just got the cheapest fish at Ralphs)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1.5 stalks of green onions (sliced lengthwise, 2 inches in length).
- 2 garlic cloves (sliced)
- some ginger (sliced)
- 2 tbsp cooking oil

Preparation:
1. Defrost and wash fish. Don't dry the fish.
2. In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, 1 sliced stalk of green onion, 1 sliced garlic clove, half of your sliced ginger.
3. Pour mixture all over the fish (mmm)
4. Place fish into steamer, turn on stove to high.

Cooking Directions:
5. When the water in steamer begins to boil, turn the flame down to a medium-low flame.
6. Let steamer cook for 8-10 minutes.
7. Check on the fish, if the fish flakes, it is done.
8. Don't forget you still have half a stalk of green onion (sliced) and 1 garlic clove (sliced) leftover!
9. Heat up the cooking oil on the stove
10. When cooking oil is hot, throw in the remaining green onion, ginger, and garlic clove (sizzle sizzle)
11. When the green onion looks soft, pour the oil mixture all over the fish.

enjoy!
have the dish over white steamed rice. and be sure to pour the gravy of the fish over your fish and rice.


MMMmmm.
Fish is yum yum!

updates!

updates! yes.. not a recipe this time.

(1) I have uploaded a new Header Banner for my website. It it not the final version because the banner is pixel-y looking, so I will have to redo it on PhotoShop when I get to my other computer.
(....Last time I use a SnipShot + MS Paint combo.... ::grumbles::)

(2) Yes. The veggies in the header banner picture is intended to look blurry and elongated. That was my attempt at being creative, but I guess I obviously failed at that.

(3) I forgot to give credit to my sister Grace, for introducing me to the chicken-roasting-in-the-oven method (from my last recipe I posted)
She is the one that taught me to dry the chicken with paper towels, and to use a dry rub on chicken, and to roast a whole chicken in the oven. Thanks!

It is through observing people cook, or people teaching me techniques (such as my sister), and me reading recipes online, where I learned to use different cooking methods and different food ingredients, and adding a twist to it, in cooking my meals.

So by eating my food, or reading my recipes, you might even notice that I stole something from you and called it mine! Mwhahaha.

My Roasted Chicken

sorry my dear blog.
but the lack of comments on this blog has made me less motivated to blog on the daily basis.

And now the recipe for my roasted chicken is one week old.
I hope I remembered the proportions correctly in my head.
forgive me my poor poor blog = /

Roasted Chicken:

Ingredients:
- 1.5 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp garlic salt
- 1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt
- 4 gloves of garlic, smashed/minced.
- 1 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp any other herb of your choice
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
- medium whole frying chicken - washed, gutted, buttcheek-fat trimmed off.
- 1 tbsp butter
- 3 gloves of garlic, whole

Preparation:
1) Wash out chicken, remove giblets
2) de-fat butt cheeks
3) Wrap chicken in paper towels, place in tightly sealed bag.
4) Let chicken dry overnight in refrigerator.
5) Next day, remove chicken from refrigerator.
6) Combine first 8 ingredients in a bowl
7) Rub the mixture all over the chicken.
8) Feel out the chicken, make sure you get the mixture all over and under every inch of skin and under every crevice. Rub mixture inside the cavity of the chicken also. Then stuff whole garlic cloves up her butt.
9) Let chicken marinate overnight, or for 1 day, or for 2 days... etc. The longer you wait, the more tasty it is. In my case, I actually forgot about the chicken, so the chicken marinated for a good 5 days or so.
10) When you are ready to bake the chicken, take out a baking pan, and line it with foil.
11) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
12) Place butter in baking pan, and let butter slowly melt in baking pan in the oven, when the oven is preheating.
13) When butter is melted, place the chicken in the baking pan, breast side up.
14) Roast chicken breast-side up for 1 hour.
15) After the 1 hour mark, turn the chicken over, and roast the chickn back-side up for another hour.
16) After that hour is up, take chicken out, cut a hole into the thickest part of the chicken. Juices should run clear. If not, then put chicken back in the over for another 5 - 10 minutes.

Enjoy!
Serve with rice and lemon slices.


Here is a picture of the finished product!



















The chicken was perfect: crispy skin, juicy & moist, and the meat just fell right off the bones.
You can see my fork and knife, ready to dig in!

Peasant Ratatouille! Follow Up Post

As a follow up to my previous post, "Peasant Ratatouille"
I made the Ratatouille recipe the day before yesterday, and it came out great!

Here is the photo of the Ratatouille I made:


tadaaa!



So I think that recipe I found was pretty good.
It was very healthy. Only herbs and veggies. No fatty meat, no salt.


Some criqitues and suggesstions that I have for that recipe however:

- The recipe lied! It says "serves 4". I think they meant to say "serves 40" but forgot the 0.
- I recommend halving the recipe, unless you plan on eating ratatouille for lunch and dinner for the next month.
- I did not taste enough tomato. I recommend having 1 more tomato added to the original recipe!
- The recipe did not include any salt. I recommend just a light sprinkle of salt after adding the tomatoes and zucchinis. Just to soften things up and ad a hint of flavor.

Otherwise, everything was good!

Healthy Dessert - what an oxy moron!

Fellow culinary cook, Darren Kim (a.k.a. Rachael Ray's future husband), and myself have put our heads together and created a perfect dessert recipe for the health conscious.

Quick and Easy Fruit Salad:

1) buy some fruit

2) cut that shit up

3) put in bowl
4) enjoy.

if you are awesome like us, your fruit salad should look like this:

Peasant Ratatouille!

"what?! you're mimicking my star dish??"

Ratatouille is one of the best movies ever!

It is way adorable, and it has inspired me to try making my own ratatouille at home.

I have never had French food at a restaurant, and I have never made French food at home.
I hope my first French attempt will not be the last!
The following is a Ratatouille recipe, NOT written by me!


After I make the this recipe (next week?), I will write a follow-up entry, on my results, reactions, critique, and suggestions. =)


bon appetit!

Ratatouille

this looks nothing like the way it did in the movie...

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
• 1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 small eggplant, cubed
• 2 green bell peppers, coarsely chopped
• 4 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped, or 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes
• 3 to 4 small zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preparation:

In a 4-quart Dutch oven or saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 6 to 7 minutes. Add eggplant; stir until coated with oil. Add peppers; stir to combine.
Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep vegetables from sticking.

Add tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs; mix well. Cover and cook over low heat about 15 minutes, or until eggplant is tender but not too soft.
Serves 4.

Recipe found here: http://southernfood.about.com/od/eggplantrecipes/r/bl00810c.htm

Green Zucchini, Italian Squash... same thing

So I have an all-time favorite veggie dish, that is so simple and quick to make, it's perfect on days when I have little time.

Unfortunately, I don't know whether the veggie is a green zucchini, or an Italian squash.
However, because I've seen the names used interchangeably at grocery stores, then so will I .



They look like that
<--







Green Squash-Italian Zucchini

Ingredients:
- 3 medium Green Squashes
- 2 tsp Lawry's Seasoned salt

How to Prepare:
1. Wash and cut them Green Squash lengthwise, diagonally, or whatever other creative cuts you've got.
2. Lightly sprinkle the seasoned salt on both sides of the Italian Zucchini

Cooking:
1. Place 1 tbsp of veggie or olive oil into a skillet.
2. When the oil in the skillet is hot, lay down each Italian Zucchini onto the surface of the skillet.
3. Don't stir fry the veggies! Instead, let each slice cook on their side, until it starts turning golden, and the meat is somewhat translucent.
4. When the the squash is golden on one side, turn the squashes over.
5. When the zucchini is golden on both sides, and thoroughly soft and traslucent, the squash are done!

I enjoy my zucchinis with chicken breasts.
But I will save that chicken breast recipe for another time. =)

-recipe created by Jennifer Lin-

Leftover Pizza Ingredients

When my sister made home-made pizzas last week, she had leftover pizza ingredients that I thought would be perfect to make a scramble.

That's the nice thing about eggs. They're so versatile and so delicious in every way.
And the good news is, the scramble came out great. My sister really liked it. Horrah.

"Eat us! We're irresistible!"

A Fairly Typical Scramble

Ingredients:
- 2 Extra Large Eggs (or 3 medium eggs)
- 1 tbsp. Milk
- 1.5 tsp. Garlic Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Italian Sausage, chopped into cubes
- 1/3 Medium Onion, finely chopped
- 1 Tomato, diced.
- 1 (med.) or 1/2 (large) Bell Pepper (Green or Red), finely chopped
- 1 pinch of salt (optional)
- 1 tbsp of Veggie or Olive Oil
- A handful of your favorite cheese (sh re dd ed)

How to Prepare:
1. Beat the eggs.
2. Add milk to eggs. Beat the eggs some more. (bad eggs! bad!!)
3. Add garlic salt, black pepper, and salt.

How to Cook:
1. Turn stove onto High.
2. Add oil to skillet.
3. When oil is ready (there will be bubbles in the oil), throw in the onion and bell peppers.
4. Saute onions and bell peppers until onions are clear and bell peppers are softened.
5. Add in the sausage cubes, and stir until sausage is thoroughly cooked.
6. Add in tomatoes and the egg mixture, and reduce flame to Medium.
7. Begin stirring and scrambing the egg when the egg is less gooey.
8. Scramble.
9. Stir.
10. Scramble some more.
11. Stir some more.
12. Is it done yet?
13. Turn off flame, and remove skillet from heat.
14. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the scramble.
15. Let the heat from the eggs slowly melt the cheese, into an all-over ooey gooeyness eggy mess. mmm.

-recipe created by Jennifer Lin-

I like Asian food. It must be because I'm Asian...

I love Asian food, and any type of food that has Asian influence.. mmm. and everything goes
oh-so-good with steamed white rice.









I made this 2 days ago, and I should post it up before I forget!

Asian-ey Chicken: MmMm (excuse my cheesey titles)

Ingredients:
- 6 pieces of chicken thighs (or your choice of chicken meat). (this is equivalent to 2 lbs. of meat I think...)
- 4-5 tbsp. Oyster Sauce
- 3 tbsp. Soy Sauce
- 1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tbsp. Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp. Fresh Grated Ginger (may use 1/2 tsp. Ginger Power as substitute)
- 1 tbsp. Coarsely Chopped Garlic

What You Should Do to Prepare:
1. Defrost, wash, de-bone, de-fat your chicken thighs
2. Wrap chicken meat in paper towels and dry over night in a refrigerator . If you are pressed for time, then pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Get out that annoying excess water from cluck-cluck's bath.
3. To make the marinade, combine the remainder of the ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Remove dried chicken from paper towels.
5. Pour marinade over chicken meat, and mix mix mix...
6. Wrap marinated chicken in saran wrap or a plastic bag. Or use a tupperware instead. Whichever is most convenient. Throw chicken in the refrigerator.
7. I recommend letting the chicken sit in the marinade for 1-2 days in the refrigerator (turning the meat occasionally).
However, I know most people don't have the time to sit and wait, so any amount of time will do: 15 minutes, 2 hours, 2 days; anything is better than nothing. The longer you wait, the tastier the meat.
Of course don't wait too long, or you'll find more than just chicken and marinade in your recipe!

Cooking Instructions:
I prefer cooking this dish on the George Foreman grill, because the fat-drip option makes me feel less guilty about consuming dark meat.

On George Foreman (or any type of grill):
1. Heat up Grill
2. Place chicken on grill.
3. Let chicken grill on one side for about 4 minutes, or when chicken starts getting light grill marks.
4. Turn the chicken over and grill the other side for another 4 minutes (or until desired grill marks =P)
5. Take chicken off grill. Cut it open, if it's still pink, then throw it back on the grill for another minute!

On the stove top:
1. Turn stove on high
2. Heat up 1 tbsp veggie or olive oil on a skillet
3. When oil is thoroughly heated (you'll see little bubbles in the oil), place chicken meat in the skillet.
4. Cover skillet with lid.
5. Let chicken cook on one side, for about 5 minutes, or when chicken starts turning golden.
6. Turn chicken over.
7. Reduce heat to medium and remove the lid.
8. Cook for another 5-6 minutes, or when chicken is of desired brown-ness.
9.Take chicken off the skillet. Cut it open, if it's still pink, then throw it back on the skillet for another minute!

In the oven:
1. Preheat over to 325 deg F.
2. Place chicken meat flat in the pan, and pop into oven.
3. Let chicken bake for about 25-30 minutes, turning the chicken midway.
4. Take chicken out of the oven. Cut it open, if it's still pink, then throw it back in the oven for another 5 minutes!


-recipe created by Jennifer Lin-


Don't forget to consume 5 fruits and veggies a day peoples!

Intro Post!

hello!
I hear lots of good things about Blogger.
What everyone says better be true....

I just had the greatest idea:
to create a blog, logging all the dishes that I made that day (or at my most convenient time)

For those who know me,
I RARELY follow recipes.

- I make things off the top of my head as I prepare and cook meals, and hope that it tastes good (it usually does... phew!)
- I don't believe in measuring spoons or cups. I go by "feel". I find that to be most accurate.
- I get ideas off recipes that I find online, but I make variations based on my personal preferences, available ingredients (what's on sale that week at Ralphs!!), and my previous experiences when cooking with similar foods.

This is why I have decided to keep write a log of all my meals!
Because all my meals are unique every time I make it, and will probably never be made the same again,
I should just write up all the meals that I make, in recipe form, right after I make it, while it's still fresh in my mind!


I will try the best to my capability to write my meals in a recipe format, so myself (or interested reader) could replicate my recipes in the future!

So forgive me, if the measurement for each ingredient is a bit off... I'll try to convert the amount of correct "feel" per ingredient, into a measurable amount.
heh heh heh....

and of course, I won't post up any meals that came out to be a diaster =P


Finally, I *may* also include sides or drink recommendations with my dish recipes.



now...
on to personalize my new blog!