Chinese extravaganza! (now with pictures)

So here, I have a lack of friends. (Don't cry for me...COME VISIT!) But I have an 8 year old and a 10 year old kind of at my mercy. For example, on Wednesday we have the maids come, and so we like to get out of the house. This means I get to choose a museum to go to :)

It also means that tonight, when I decided I was craving chinese food, that I could force the children to make it with me!

So I made Fried Rice, ala Sister Okabe. And we made shuijiaos (swey jows)-- pot stickers! (though apparently the name shuijiao is just for the boiled kind and I fried some of them... I think the kids enjoyed it,

My dad served his mission in Taiwan, and one of the things we do on a semi-regular basis in our house is make shuijiaos. I came across this recipe recently, and it piqued my desire to make some. I talked to my mom this morning and she told me that Dad always said 1/3 lean beef, 1/3 pork and 1/3 cabbage. This recipe used 1/3 sausage rather than just pork, and it was delicious!

1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb sausage (just jimmy dean regular sausage)
1/2 head of cabbage shredded
2 cups carrots shredded
2-3 green onions
a largish scoop of minced garlic
a medium scoop of minced ginger

You mix all this together then wrap it up in wanton/pot sticker wrappers (check out the farm girl's recipe/pictures)

At home we always boiled them, for 10 ish minutes (you want to make sure they're done so you don't get raw pork...). Farm Girl give instructions on how to fry them.

Boiled

ALSO, I LOVE her dipping sauce, it way good... Just one part rice wine vinegar, one part soy sauce, and then I added more garlic/ginger, and you could add hot sauce for a kick if you want to.

B voted that he liked the boiled ones better, and I think I do too; they tasted like home. K and dad liked the fried ones.

Now I just need some dessert!

coming soon: a healthy eating killer.

For serious. 

My friend Meagan is visiting here in MD, and invited me over, and we made the most delicious, amazing, wonderful cookies.

Here's the hint:

Yes! It is as awesome as it looks! Rainbow Cake with lemon curd filling and whipped cream frosting.

So The family I work for had their Aunt Mary come into town and it was her 70th birthday! (Also, K's been going CRAZY at home with her broken leg.) So we decided to go all out on the cake!

I'd seen the rainbow cake a long time ago, and thought it might be time to pull it out! I followed Oven Love's link to Wisk Kid: Say it with Cake and used it for our cake recipe!

White Cake (but not really)


2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
2 1/3 c (466 g) sugar
5 egg whites, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 c (375 g) flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 c (355 g) milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring. Liquid will not be vibrant enough!

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line well! how ever many 9” cake pans you have (We had 2 and just reused them).

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter. Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each.

When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and let cool.



I left the parchment on the bottom of the cakes for stability until we stacked them as the layers were quite thin.

While the Cakes were baking/cooling. We tackled the lemon curd.

LEMON CURD FILLING
We doubled the recipe found here.

3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

This is not my picture, it's from the recipe, but it's good to know what it should look like!

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil. (AND DON'T LET IT SCORCH!)

This is not my picture, it's from the recipe, but it's good to know what it should look like!

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

We used most of it for the cake, but some of it was left for snacking :

Finally the WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING!

It's just basic whipped cream: 2 cups heavy whipping cream, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 Tbsp sugar. 

But the recipe I used said to mix the ingredients in the bowl you'll use and let them all chill together for 30 minutes or so in the fridge. 

(Were I to do this again, I would make 3 cups worth of whipping cream.)

So we started stacking the cakes, purple on the bottom, red on the top. On each level we piped a circle of whipped cream to keep the lemon curd in, then spooned lemon curd into the center. 

Then we covered the whole thing in the whipped cream frosting. 

When you cut it, it looks like this:

And when you eat it, it looks like this (for about 30 seconds before you DEVOUR the rest of it) 

Seriously friends. This might be the best cake I've ever had. Moist, delicious, light and airy... Oh my YUM!

Keeping my hands busy

I recently told someone that I am unable to keep my hands still while watching TV (perfect example is right now; I'm watching TV and blogging/uploading pictures). The exception to that is when I have someone's hand to hold,  (which might be one of my favorite pastimes). Alas, I'm sitting on my futon alone (yes, I have a futon-- the mattress comes in tomorrow and the comfort level will increase 500%! Don't worry, I stole giant couch pillows for the time being). Anyway....

Another problem I have is that I always like to be going. My life in Provo moved at what felt like 100 miles an hour (except when I worked, then it slowed down a bit) but I got to Colorado and needed something to do that didn't involve going to the mall, or out to eat, or frankly spending money. I don't need more stuff!

So while wandering through Hobby Lobby one day, I saw a crochet pattern and eureka! Decided to purchase yarn to make a baby blanket for my dear friend Rachel's expected baby. After all, if I won't be able to see baby Julia any time soon, I might as well make something for her! So I did, and here's how it turned out!
(I hope she's gotten it in the mail already!)

I LOVE it! So... if you're having a baby, and I like you, you might just get something from me, because It's become an addiction. I have another one in process, here's a sneak peak :)

but in white, and with a WAY better border :-)

Baked strawberry pie

The Chefs:

So I had never had strawberry pie baked before, only fresh. But, K insisted that we we make a strawberry pie with a lattice crust. So we went off to my first trip to the commissary (I'm certain not my last.) We got everything we needed and this is the pie that came out (and boy was it delicious!)

Baked Strawberry Pie

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
1 1/4 cups white sugar (I did less sugar, probably 3/4 cup and it *might* have made the pie runny rather than syurpy, I'm not sure)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh strawberries
2 tablespoons butter

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Place one crust in a nine inch pie pan.
Mix together sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Mix lightly through the berries. Pour filling into pastry lined pan, and dot fruit with butter. Cover with top crust, and cut slits in the top. Seal and flute the edges.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the crust is slightly browned.
See, easy peasy! 

AND: Here's the amazing pie crust recipe that we used (I can't tell you how tempted I was to just grab a pillsbury crust)

2 1/2 c pastry flour

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 c shortening

8-10 Tbsp ice cold water

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl

Cut in shortening with a pastry blender till pea sized

Sprinkle 6 Tbsp water over flour, tossing lightly with a fork or rubber scraper. Add remaining water 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing with fork and press to side of bowl till all moistened. 

Divide dough in half and gently pat into 2 lightly flattened balls. 

And Success! It was a beautiful pie (considering help from a ten year old) AND it was delicious (despite being slightly soggy.)

lemme just run an idea by you...

Ok, so I've WAY neglected this blog! BUT I promise to repent because, let me tell you, I have domestic stuff to do!

I just moved from well... Utah to Seattle to Colorado to finally Maryland. Upon arrival, it became apparent that the floor plans given to us were... less than accurate. My bedroom was little more than a VERY room with a closet and a bathroom attached (the dimensions we thought were for the room included the bathroom and the closet). Needless to say my queen sized bed wouldn't fit in there (and even a twin would have been way cozy). SO the (exciting) solution is that my queen sized bed stayed set up in a room in the basement, and I keep the upstairs room as a TV/dressing/sitting room. Sweet huh?

So for the sitting room,

I'm thinking about a black and white theme with occasional splashes of color. I've been blogs stalking for a long time, and have found some things I really like.

*I want to make another wreath out of a book.
*I saw these a while back and thought they'd go well on the bathroom and closet doors:
 (and they're WAY easy)
* and some sort of lamp with a cool lamp shade
*these pillows :



And I may have to make this:

For my bathroom (they're q-tips, sweet huh?)

i got a glue gun for my birthday, I'm excited to put it to good use :)
Any ideas/thoughts are fur sure welcome!