The other day I tried making meatballs for the first time.  I am trying (albeit unsuccessfully) to cut back on my meat intake.  But if I eat meat, I try to get it from the organic butcher store.  There's one in my neighbourhood called The Healthy Butcher.  

I added the usual salt, pepper, a bit of oregano, an egg and bread crumbs to the ground beef.  The breadcrumbs were from a couple of dried up pieces of toast that I had left in the toaster oven from breakfast.  I didn't have a clue how much bread to add so I just tossed both slices in.  The meat seemed a bit dry so I added a splash of milk.  I knew it did something to the texture of meat.  As I closed the fridge door, I tried to remember if it was for meatballs.  I doubt it - I think it was more suited for Spaghetti Bolognese (?)
 

I also wanted a bit more flavor so I decided to add some onions.  Then I thought why not brown the onions first.  I browned about 2 medium sized onions that had been finely diced.  I added that to the meat and rolled everything up.  I didn't make big meatballs which in hindsight I should have.  These were just about an inch across.  But I had a lot of onions which was a problem. 

As I was browning the meatballs, the onions were falling out in the hot oil.  I kept ladling them out. 

It was kinda messy.  The meatballs kept sticking to the bottom of the pan even after they had
browned.  So a lot of them cracked open when I turned them.  I still had some tomato sauce from last year's Farmer's Market and I gently simmered them in it.  I didn't want to overcook the meat. 

The end product - the taste was good, the texture was a bit too soft and I wished the meatballs were
bigger. 

I'll have to try this again another day. 

Today was my first day back at work after an extended Christmas break.  I was checking emails and voicemails daily but that's the price to pay when you're working in a small team.  In the past 12 months, I've been survived a couple of "workforce reduction", lived through a "realignment" of my team, watched my workload gradually grow and watched my stock options expire worthless.  I did however received a very small bonus so that's better than a kick in the butt. 

I have no idea what this year will be like at work.  There are lots of rumors but no one really knows.  If they give me a "package", I just hope it's big enough to pay off my mortgage.  It's unlikely I'll get a job in I/T again.  My skill set is not technical - it's all the "soft" skills.  I was chatting with someone the other day about surviving all the layoffs .  He remarked that I must have  a lot of special skills.  I shook my head - it's a combination of luck, hard work and fate.  Maybe someone likes me.  I've been on the side that selected people to be let go - I try not to dwell on it. 

If something does happen to me at work, I'm not all that stressed about that anymore.  I now see it as an opportunity to do something else.  I'm a lot more calm about it now than before.   It won't be a smooth road.  I should do more preparation (finances, education...) in the event that does happen.   If it doesn't, then that's fine - I'll have more security and hopefully some new skills. 

In the meantime - anyone want some desserts? 
I got these from Nadege Patisserie.  You can read about it here as their website isn't up yet.
http://www.blogto.com/bakery/nadege-patisserie
http://www.torontolife.com/daily/daily-dish/opening-daily-dish/2009/08/05/just-opened-nadege-patisserie/

This was caramel tart with salt crystals on top.  I was surprised how well
the salt matched the caramel.

They called this the Marie-Antoinette.   I liked it but my bf wasn't crazy about it.
I'd chop off my head for more of it. 

I haven't made this dish before but it seemed simple and my bf gave me some basic advice.  I also incorporated what I do when I make soy sauce chicken.   I had a hunk of pork butt shoulder that I diced into stewing size pieces.  I left the bone in.  I heated up a pot, added some oil, let it heat up, added shallots, ginger and a bit of garlic.  

I then browned the pieces of pork.  I think I should have used smaller batches but it turned
out fine in the end.    

Once they are browned, I added some light soy sauce, a bit of water and some sugar.  I figure the stewing liquid will reduce and I didn't want it to become too salty.  It does take a fair bit of sugar to balance out the saltiness but I didn't want to add all of it until the very end.  I made sure there was enough liquid
to cover the meat.  You can leave all the shallots, ginger and garlic in the pan. 

* 

The stew simmered for a few hours (about 2 or 3).   I kept the heat on minimum stirred it every so often.  I checked after the first hour to see if the meat was soft.  I wasn't too worried about the oil and the fat, I figured all that stewing would render most of it out.  You could also refrigerate it overnight and scoop out
any fat. 

I took out the piece with the bone and the meat fell off it.  I kept tasting the
soy sauce and adjusted the level of sugar to suit my taste. 

I simply served it over some freshly cooked, steaming hot rice.  The meat was
very tender and just flaked away so easily.   I also had a side dish of
veggies and oyster sauce. 

You can make this a day ahead of time (say on a Sunday) so that when
you get home from work on Monday, you don't have to spend that much time
in the kitchen.

I love Yeung Chow Fried Rice.  This was probably the first dish I fell in love when I was a greedy and hungry boy.  It has everything I want - meat, a bit of seafood, a bit of veggies, rice (of course!), a nice balance of saltiness and a hint of sweetness.  If you have a kickass gas cooker (I don't), you can get that lovely wok hay  (Mike - I want to cook in your kitchen).   I love the textures of the rice and all the ingredients inside my mouth.  This is the version my mom taught me. 

Note: I didn't take pictures of all the steps.  If my hand was a bit oily, I didn't want to touch the camera.  Sometimes I found myself fiddling too much with the camera instead of focusing on the cooking.  If my mom was watching me, she would no doubt be going "ai ya... what are you doing?"

The ingredients are simple. 
Rice:  I like to cook this ahead of time (a day ahead is great).  If not, cook it several hours ahead, spread it out to let the steam escape. 
 

BBQ Pork:  dice them into small sexy little chunks.  If the store gives you
the BBQ sauce, save them for the rice later on.

Shrimps:  Cut them into smaller pieces.  I gently floated some pepper and corn starch on top of the and then caressed them them in a bit of soy sauce and sesame seed oil.  Give them a very gentle stir and put them in the fridge (covered) until it's time for them to jump into the wok. 

Aromatics: shallots and green onions.  Dice the shallots and slice the green onions.  Separate the whites of the onions, the greens of the onions and the shallots into distinct piles.  (guess I forgot this step)

Other ingredients:  soy sauce, chicken stock (optional), sauce from bbq pork, fish sauce, oyster sauce (I don't use oyster sauce but I know some folks do), a bit of sugar, green peas (frozen is fine) and scrambled eggs.
- defrost the peas in some warm water and tell them to wait patiently. 
- scramble some eggs in a bowl (two eggs for a wok sized serving is fine).  Add a bit of salt, pepper and a couple of drops of oil to the scrambled eggs.

Give those sexy BBQ pork a taste of the wok - heat up some oil, add a bit of shallots, throw in the bbq pork, quickly stir everything up. 

 

Now in between cooking, you'll need to clean the wok under hot water and scrub with a brush.  If your wok has a nice wooden handle - good for you.  If your wok has 2 small metal handles on the side - use oven mitts.  If you don't, you'll learn to swear in Chinese (or in any language) very quickly. 

Cook the shrimps in the same manner, get the oil nice and hot, add the oil, add some shallots and maybe some of the green onions, and stir fry those suckers.  Just when it's about done, add a splash of sherry and maybe a bit of soy sauce afterwards. 

Repeat the wok washing... and go scramble some eggs.  (not pictured). 
If your rice is dry you can probably just add the eggs right into the rice and cook it there.  If your rice is
still a bit moist and sticky, I would cook the eggs separately and add them to the rice at the end.

Cooking the rice:  get the wok up to temperature again, add the oil, wait for it to heat up, add the shallots and the whites of the green onions.   How much oil depends on how much rice you have.  If you find it
starting to stick, add a bit more oil.   Start stir frying like the iron chef or else the rice will burn.
Try to separate the rice so that it's not in clumps.  Once it's gotten nice and stir fried, you can add
a bit of soy sauce, fish sauce and/or oyster sauce.   

If you have some chicken stock, add just a bit to give it some more flavor.  You don't want
the rice to be wet.  Now add all the other ingredients (BBQ pork and a bit of the sauce, green peas (drained), shrimp, the remaining green onions, scrambled eggs) into the orgy. 

Adjust your seasoning at this stage, make sure everything is nicely mixed. 
If you're adding the uncooked eggs, make a bit of a well in the centre of the wok,
add the eggs in there and it'll cook a bit faster, keep stirring so that everything
cooks.  You almost want each morsel of rice to touch the surface of the
wok. 

When it's done, serve promptly - best enjoyed with a cold beer.

At this time, you can pause to take a picture.  If you're eating by yourself,
it's ok to moan in ecstasy as you enter into the orgasmic stage.  If you're
eating with someone else, then you need to be a polite host. 

p.s.  I hope I didn't forget anything. hahahaha

It's been awhile since I've posted any pictures. Now that I'm slowly getting comfortable with my laptop, I've installed the s/w that came with my camera to enable me to download pictures. I also picked up a memory card reader as well over the holidays.

The Christmas dinner went well. No drama, lots of laughter (thanks to my brother) and full bellies. I made a few things ahead of time although I think I could have done with one less dish. I coudn't take that many pictures because everyone was waiting. I also didn't plate the soup (someone was stingy with the meatballs). The soup is wintermelon with crab meat. The stock is from pork bones, lean pork, dried scallops, mushroom stems, ginger and I threw in some left over celery leaves. The pork meatball has soy sauce, corn starch, egg white, sesame seed oil, a bit of water, a bit of pepper and some finely chopped dried salted radish that I rehydrated. I made the stock 1 day ahead to save some time.

The beef stew was a bit of a mess. I had some frozen lean angus meat from the farmer's market. I used two bags only to find the second bag mislabelled. It was strips of beef. Oh well... c'est la vie. I made this the day before as well.

The poach chicken was actually drumsticks, thighs and breasts. I poached them in water seasoned with a bit of salt, ginger, green onions and some celery leaves (from the beef stew). I then pulled the meat out and served it with ginger, salt, green onions with oil. I save the poaching liquids and bones to make some more chicken stock.

I also made a chow mein with pork, shrimp, musrhooms and some baby Shanghai bak choi. This was the only dish I really cooked at my dad's place. I chopped all the garlic, scallions etc... ahead of time.

The dessert was red bean soup. But my brother brought a cake so we had that instead. Grrr.... I didn't take a picture of that. The travelling chef will now rest. I still have leftover beef stew in my fridge along with left over turkey dinner. It'll take awhile to finish that as I'm eating out the next couple of nights. I guess I'll have turkey for breakfast.

p.s. Xanga in a Mac / Safari seems a bit different. When I choose a photo, it used to display the photo with my text. Now when I choose a photo, it just gives me some html code to paste in with my text. I guess I'll have to get used to this. It's the same thing with adding a link.

Before I moved out of my parent's place to my own condo, I always tried to eat with them every Sunday.  After I moved out, I kept to the same routine.  I would always go back home for some home cooked meals and mom would always give me some food to take back home.  After awhile, I would do a bit of cooking at her kitchen - nothing fancy, just helping out here and there.  It seems so long now.  After she got sick I started to help out a bit more.  Sometimes I would ask her for certain recipes.  Sometimes she would try and teach me the complex ones but it was hard unless you were actually there to watch her cook.  She also never measured.  It always depended on the ingredients and the quantity.  Sometimes you had to add a bit more spice, salt, ginger or garlic... it all depends.  She tried as much as possible to teach me without jamming me into my brain.  Sometimes I would try to tell her it's ok - we can do it next time. 

After she passed away, I started to cook on Sundays more.  Sometimes my sister would make dinner and sometimes I would.  I was frustrated that basic things like oyster sauce, sesame seed oil, ginger, garlic are sometimes missing.  So I had to bring my own.  I would always make the soup ahead of time and then heat it up at my dad's place.  I would have all the raw ingredients like meats, all sliced up and marinated.  The veggies would all be washed and bagged.   All I had to do was cook rice and cook the food when I got there.  It was a bit of a mini production. 

When I stir fry on the wok, the clanging sound of the spatula scraping and hitting the sides of the wok will inevitably bring my dad into the kitchen.  It was kinda strange the first few times.  He always did the same thing when mom was cooking and they would joke a bit.  He'll be going "You aren't done yet?  I'm hungry!"  Of course she'll ask him "Then how come you weren't helping in the kitchen?".   There are no jokes though for me, just him looking over my shoulder and asking what I'm cooking.  I tell him and he'll watch a bit before wandering off.

My mom's kitchen is very quiet now.  The wok hasn't been used for quite sometime now.  I still check the cupboards and see all the spices, sauces and oils.  The sticky drawers are still sticky.  It's a small kitchen and I sometimes wonder how mom was able to cook so much out of that small kitchen.  She knew where everything was.  The extra box of corn starch - yes, bottom drawer on the left.  More ginger - behind you on the right.  Sesame seed oil - upper shelf on the right and more downstairs if needed.  While everything is still there - the heart and soul of the kitchen isn't there anymore.  I rarely cook there anymore. 

When I read your entries on cooking, I can see the joy and the respect you have with food.  Good food is meant to be shared with loved ones.  When I see my bf making a feast in his kitchen - I know there's a lot of love and care that he puts into his dishes.   It's the same when I watch my brother and his wife cooking for their guests.  I hope you all will have or continue to have a lively, loud and wonderful smelling kitchen that's full of love.  That's what the soul of a kitchen needs. 

I did nothing today on my day off.  I would have made a sloth looked energetic.  Well - I did do some laundry but that's about it.  I didn't sleep well last night.  It was 3 AM and I was still going strong.  I got out of bed by 9 as the construction / renovation started at that time in the unit above.  It's going to be like this for another month and a half.

Nothing but pictures today.

Here are some flowers to brighten up your day.

My orchids are doing remarkably well.  I water them every week and feed them about once a month.
They get the morning sun and that's about it.  This plant just continues to bloom and bloom. 

I got these from the local market.  The lady said the weather hasn't been cooperating.  I guess it needs
a few sunny and hot days to sweeten them.  But it was still good.                                                  

I found this unusually shaped strawberry at the pint I got from the farmers market too. It's almost 3
strawberries in one.  Despite the odd shape, it was pretty sweet.                                                 

Apple pie (also from the farmers market) and ice cream.  I got this for my dad.  It's his favorite dessert.
 

Well... this is mostly pictures.

I took a quick walk at a local park in the early evening.  The sun hadn't set yet and it was just gorgeous.  There were people sitting on the park benches, jogging, playing ball, tossing frisbees, walking their dogs, climbing trees, playing soccer with hockey nets and exercising.  This was the tail end of a fitness class.  There were others who were stretching and about 3 practicing martial arts.  I didn't feel comfortable taking a closer shot.  As it was, a couple at a nearby park bench frowned at me when I took the picture.

I saw something more along my fitness level.  But I didn't have
something to throw so no working out today.   I think they drew
this wrong though.  I don't remember the first 2 squares as being
adjacent to each other. 

Food pictures...

Steamed oyster with black bean sauce.  I had this at dimsum a few weeks ago.   I can see someone's finger
on the right just about to snatch my food away.

Fresh strawberries from the farmer's market.  I'm lucky that there are 2 of them (albeit small markets) within walking distance from my condo.  These strawberries were very sweet.

Ground pork with bitter melon with black bean sauce.  I used extra garlic, ginger and shallots.  Oh my... if I wasn't watching the amount of rice intake, I could have polished off 2 bowls of rice.   

This may sound a bit weird.  When I see guys, especially guys that are younger than I am, drive nice cars, or have nice gadgets, or have a nice house, or enjoy a luxurious life style - I get these pangs of envy and jealousy.  I wonder how they got the money.  Was it their parents or did they earn it? 

These feelings first reared their ugly head when I was in my teens.  I've long tried to suppress them but every so often they surface.  They are usually accompanied by a mixture of anger, resentment, sadness and self pity.  They remind me of the times when I didn't have a lot of things.  Don't get me wrong - I had food on the table, a roof over my head, clothes on my back and an education.  I remember wanting a bike.  All of my classmates had one.  The kids in my neighborhood had one.  We could never afford one.  My dad didn't have to explain why we couldn't get a bike.

Fortunately these feelings go away - usually in a few minutes.  The odd time, it'll linger on for awhile.  Then it's simply logic that chases it away.  I don't know why these feelings show up from time to time.  Is it insecurity or some unresolved issues or who knows?  I don't know why I'm even writing about it.  It just feels so ... silly.

Food pics.
This is pork riblets made with fermented red bean curd.  This is the first time I've tried this recipe.  I got it from a site called House of Annies.  I've always wanted to try this.  My aunt walked me through a few steps a couple of months ago and I used the recipe as a guide.  It's a dish my mom used to make.  It was good for a first attempt.
The meat was falling off the bones.  The sauce has this pinkish color and it's really hard to describe the taste.
Maybe one of you can take a stab at it.

On work nights, it's usually something simple.  This one is basically whole wheat spaghetti with a
meat sauce.  I've simply added some ground beef and onions to a basic sauce (it was on sale).  The
spinach was from the weekend farmers market.  It was very good and didn't have a lot of sand. 

 

There are times when I have to prune my subscriptions.  Every so often, I'll look at the blogs I subscribe to and prune a few.  Either there blogs have gone in a different direction or they have stopped writing altogether.  I've pruned a couple of "friends" too.  I don't understand some of their mass messages.  The other reason I'll unsubsribe is if I don't get any feedback on any of my comments.  Gee... I am not looking for a response to every comment.  But surely one out of 20 or 30 must have struck a chord.  Anyways... no hard feelings. 

I used to subscribe to a couple of the more popular blogs in Xanga.  They are the ones you see in the front page of Xanga.  I thought they would be interesting and thought provoking.  There were a couple of interesting and funny entries.  But the rest weren't.  But I felt as if I was an outsider looking in and wondering when I could be accepted.  The comments weren't interesting either.  Most of the time when I read your blog, I'll also check out the comments.  If I find someone who made an interesting comment, I'll check out their blog.  It's one of the way for me to find new blogs to read / subscribe.  

Ok - end of whining session.
I made this steak and mushrooms.  The steak was cut up into cubes and the browned.  I didn't want my dad to cut too much.  The mushrooms were a combination of white and brown mushrooms.  I added some onions as well.  They went into the pan that I used to cook the steak so it picked up a lot of the flavor.  I used a bit of sherry to deglaze the pan.  I added some scallions, garlic and a bit of mustard.
 

I had extra mushrooms so I used it in an omelette the next morning.