Chinese Food Rookies

Last week, I had the privilege to help couple high school kids for their school fair, they asked me to teach them some authentic Chinese dishes. I love teaching people about making Chinese food, especially young people. Being very honestly, I had my doubt when I first met "my apprentices". They didn't know what shallot was, and couple of them are vegetarian who didn't even try most of the dish I made for them. Really, I didn't think they could pull it off.
When I was helping them yesterday, I got to know them a little better, I'm impressed by their dedication and the decision to do the best they can. At that moment, I knew they will be just fine.
After going to the fair today, I'm so proud of my apprentices, they really came a long way.
Here is their final products:

There are: Potato Chicken, Satay chicken, pot stickers, Chow Fun with Veggie. Everything tastes great, even my kids ate some. (That meant a lot!)

Good Job David, Katie and Andrea!!! A++++ for you all!

Our CopyKat recipe - Cedar Roasted Salmon

Doesn't it look yummy? If you like salmon and a lot of veggies, you would love this recipe. After Jeff tried this dish at Mitchell's fish market, he was determined to make it himself. I found him the recipe from the website, then he tried to make it, now he calls it his dish.

 For those who wants to try out the dish, click Here for the recipe. Let me know how you like it. If cooking is not your thing, you just have to bug Jeff a lot so he will make it for you.

 

Meal Plan

For the past couple days, I have been working on a meal plan, hoping that might help us to budget better. I started writing menu which we usually eat at home, and some new recipes I want to try. Here is want I came up with so far.

• Grilled Steak and Shrimp, Corn Bread, Green Salad
• Bulgogi (Korean BBQ Beef),Spicy Pickle Cucumber and Rice
• Hamburger, Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad, Grilled Veggies (Jeff wants to try some gourmet burger recipes)
• Wingers' wings, Potato Skins, Blue Cheese Pear Salad
• Lemon Caper Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato Risotto, Green Salad
• Cedar Plank Salmon (Jeff's dish)
• Taco with Cafe Rio Sweet Pork, Garlic Lime Rice
• Manicotti, Garlic Bread, Green Salad
• L& L Grilled Chicken, Poke, Stir Fry Veggie and Rice
• Lasagna, Olive Oil Bread Rubbed with Garlic and Tomato, Oven Roasted Veggies
• Grilled Chicken, Potato Salad, Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad
• Honey-Citrus Glazed Cod with Grapefruit-Orange Relish, Grilled Potatoes with Spicy Tomato Mayo (New dish I'm going to try; got the recipe from Bobby Flay's Grill it Cookbook)
• Pineapple Green Curry, Chicken Satay and Rice
• Lamb Burgers, Oven Bake Fries, Apple Snicker Salad
• Creamy Tomato Penne, Garlic Bread, Grilled Asparagus
• Sweet and Sour Chicken Patties, Stir Fry Veggie, Pot sticker and Rice
• Artichoke Chicken, Garlic Noodles (new dish), Green Salad
• Buffalo Wings, Corn Bread, Green Salad
• Potato Chicken, Cream Cheese Wantons, Stir Fry Veggies and Rice
• Crane Asada Taco with Spanish Rice, Green Salad
• BBQ Ribs, Oven Roasted Veggies, Mashed Potatoes
• Scramble Egg with Shrimp, Char Sui Pork Chop, Stir Fry Veggies and Rice
• Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables, Mashed Potato
• Chipotle-Honey Glazed Chicken, Evelyn's Favorite Pasta (New dishes)
• Chicken Quesadilla, Corn, Green Salad
• Lettuce Wraps, Asian Roasted Chicken, Stir Fry Veggies and Rice
• Grilled Steak, Pasta Salad, Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushroom
• Parmesan Chicken with pasta, Blue Cheese Pear Salad, Toasted Olive Oil Bread
• Tomato Beef, Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Rice
• Shrimp Alfredo, Blueberry Jello Salad, Greed Salad
• Artichoke Spinach Penne Bake, Garlic Bread, Stir Fry Veggies
• Mango Chicken Salad, Homemade Rolls
• Braised Lamb Shank with veggies, Mashed Potato, Strawberry Pretzel Salad
• Soy Sauce Chicken, Pot stickers, Stir Fry Veggies and Rice
• Beef Stroganoff, Greed Salad
• Kulua Pork, Poke, Grilled Veggies, Macaroni Salad
• Spam Fried Rice, Pot Stickers and Stir Fry Veggies
• Cream of Broccoli Soup, Homemade Rolls
• Award Winning Chili (Jeff's recipe which he won 1st place in our ward's chili cook off) with Corn Bread
• Yum Woon Sen, Pad Ka Prow, Red Curry with Rice (Google it if you want to know what they are)

I often wonder what people eat for dinner, and once awhile have hard time to figure out what to cook. I hope I will give you (whoever is reading my blog) some new ideas for your meal plan. I usually don't make things that are complicated or expensive, so if you see something you like, I would love to share with you my recipes, so let me know.

Frist Attempt

When we were living in Utah, Jeff always went to his parents house when we needed strawberry jam. My mother-in-law always has homemade strawberry jam in stock. Now we are 1800 miles away, I have to do things myself.

I never thought Jam making is such a easy task. From now on, I don't think I can buy jam from the store anymore. I tried a recipe from a blog called our best bites, it turned out pretty good, I just thought it was a little too sweet for me, I'm going to go easy on the sugar next time.

Everyone should try to make their jam, unless you have a mother or mother-in-law who does it for you. "Homemade is much better!" as my husband always says.

Jamba Juice BOGO

Yeah for Spring Time! Let's have a jamba juice to celebrate the warm weather and all the fun we can have outdoor.

Here is a buy one get one free printable coupon for Jamba Juice.

http://www.jambajuice.com/20thcoupon/index.html

Enjoy your JJ!

Cherry Blossom 2010

We have been out there in Pennsylvania for about three months, we have already be to Washington D.C. 3 times already. Jeff and I were debating if we should go to cherry blossom since my sister wasn't in town, but we figured that we most likely won't be this close to D.C., we should just take an advantage of it. So we did, it was great!

For Girls Only!

When I was a little girl, my mom always kept my hair short and I envied all the girl with long pretty braided hair, I wished I could look like them. Now I have a little girl of mine, I'm trying to learn all different ways to do her hair. Recently I came across a blog about how fun it is doing little girl's hair, I found a few hair-dos that I love, here is one of them.

Isn't she adorable? I love it. It's not hard to do at all, as long as your little girl would sit good for you and leave her hair alone after you make it all pretty.