Char Kway Teow

A few months ago I had such a huge craving for char kway teow. I am not sure why I could not find any fresh or frozen cockles from the Asian grocery stores that I visited. Then I decided to visit this Asian grocery store which is slightly future from my house to test my luck and I was happy to find some frozen cockles! It was a little expensive because I remember paying about $3 for a packet and this time it was about $5. Anyway since I was craving for it I still bought a packet. Using my seasoned cast iron pan I made a yummylicious char kway teow. I had char kway teow all week long for breakfast!  I was I heaven! It was also very tasty since I made it several times in a row (able to perfect it) and used my season pan. When I finished my cockles and hubby happened to worked near there he even offered to buy me more cockles since I had none left!

Recipe from Lily
Ingredients:

1/2 lb kway teow
1 tsp chopped garlic
3 tbsp cooking oil
3 - 5 prawns,
3 - 5 thinly sliced Chinese sausage
150g cockles, scalded and shelled (if available fresh then this is a must)
a handful of beansprouts
3 sprigs of chives, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 egg

Seasoning:
1 tbsp Chilli paste(sambal olek)
1 tbsp light soya sauce
Pepper to taste
A little dark soya sauce for colour
A little water

Method:

1. Heat wok with 3 tbsp oil until hot and fry Chinese sausages until fragrant, then add l tsp chopped garlic . 

2. Add about prawns and fry until cooked.

3. Push all the fried ingredients to one side and add in kway teow. Stir-fry the kway teow and add seasoning and sprinkle with a little water to mix.

4. Spread all the ingredients around the kuali and create an empty space in the centre, then crack an egg into it and add a little more oil. Cover the egg with all the ingredients and stir-fry evenly.

5. Add cockles if desired and mix in a handful of beansprouts and the chives. Do not overcook.

Remove the dish to a plate and serve hot.


This is Lily's recipe and I have adapted her recipe to suit me depending what I have at home. I've even made it with glass noodles before too! I love my char kway teow with cockles so every time when I make this this the cockles is a MUST!

Last month I went to an Asian grocery store they had frozen abd fresh cockles too. I guess a few months ago it wasn't in season? It was on sale again for $3 instead of $5 a packet.  I was so excited or kiasu and stocked up 6 packets! I am afraid I will run out of it or cannot find it again. I find that the more often I cook this dish the better it taste. Not sure if is in my head! Will be making Char Kway Teow really soon again! Drool!!!

Yummy Steak Marinade

Hubby is not a huge fan of steak.  He said that he's never made a really piece of steak at home so he rather not make them at home and go out to have a yummy piece of juicy steak once in a while.  I've been wanting steak off and on here and there and I rather make it at home sometime (so much cheaper than going to a steak house). We went to costco to get some steak for $7.99/lb (don't remember what cut). We divided them into two slices and when I have craving for steak I will defrost a packet to thaw. We got 6/8 pieces in a packet hence my stash is almost gone. Only one more packet left.

Anyway I was browsing in food.com and I came across this steak marinade recipe with excellent review! I decided to give it a try when I made steaks for our Valentine's Day dinner and I never looked back! This recipe is super yummy and not only I love it so much hubby loves his steak too!

Clean your fridge soup aka "Weight Watchers Cabbage Soup"

I've heard of Weight Watcher's cabbage soup for a long time (I used to work in a weight loss place though not with weight watchers) but I've never ever thought of cooking it for the fear that it will not taste good. It's been pretty cold lately and I've been looking for some really simple and quick soup to make for dinner. My baby is not a big fan of meat at all and he much prefers vegetables and soupy food so I thought this would be the perfect dish for me to make.

I love this recipe so much because it is so versatile and you can adapt it with what ever vegetables etc you have at home.  My recipe is actually ball park on what I had at home and is not specific.

Ingredients - Original recipe from here

3 cups of broth- Chicken, beef or vegetable

2-4 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 chopped onions

2 cups chopped cabbage

4 tomatoes-skinned, deseeded and diced

1/2 cup of pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce (one of the recipe asked for 1tbsp tomato paste)

2 cups chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Pour broth, garlic, onions, carrots and green pepper into your pot (I used my dutch oven pot) until it boils for about 30 minutes (My homemade broth was still slightly frozen)

2. Put the rest of the ingredients in and let it simmer for about 30-44 minutes or until desired tenderness.

This soup is so very simple yet so very sweet and yummy!!I was very surprise that it actually tasted so good. My little baby ate 3/4 bowl of it and nibble from my bowl too. He absolutely loved it. Even my hesitant hubby was surprised that it actually tasted good! His only complain was that it does not have any meat. He even requested I made more and add meat so he can take it to work next week!!

You can add all sorts of vegetables like celery, bak choy, egg plant, zucchini, etc. I chose to use pizza sauce because I have a huge bottle at home. Hubby wanted to make some pizza and we were at Sam's club and we actually bought a huge can of it. I froze half of it and half of it actually went moldy. Since I  didn't want to open a can of tomato paste because I had a bunch of pizza sauce in my freezer I decided to use it. I also have a few container of chicken broth that I pre cook when I've accumulated a bunch of bones so I have home made broth when ever I need them. 

If you are looking for an easy soup recipe this is would be a recipe you should definitely try! Also if you are looking to lose weight and need to jump start your diet this soup would be ideal!

Rain Forest Cafe

When I first move to the United States in year 2002 my sister took me to Rain Forest Cafe in Mall of American, Minneapolis.  I thought this place was pretty cool and I always wanted to go back there especially with the hubs. We never made it there!

So when we moved down here to Texas and I saw Rain Forest Cafe again I always wanted to go there again with him but the wait for a table is forever long. Last Sunday hubs and I decided to take our little guy shopping and since we were there so early there was no waiting at all and we took the opportunity to dine there.

The interior is really nice, cool and calm. They make thunder noise every 30 minutes and the animals move then too. Lots of aquarium with lots of different type of fish and even a water fall inside too. Lucky my baby didn't cry like some when the thunder comes out. He cried when we hired someone to make a ballon for him because they were trying to blow the ballon up. lol. We asked the guy to make a dog for him and within seconds he undid his ballon!! What a waste of our money!

I started my meal with a clam chowder soup which was really yummy! Making me crave for it just thinking about it. Taste so different from the can ones! Hubby had a Cesar Salad which I forgot to take a picture of it! Lol

For our main meal I had a pastalaya or something like that. It was suppose to be a spicy pasta with sausage, chicken, shrimp and some vegetables. It was ok nothing to shout about. I actually regret getting this because it was not something I love but would just eat it since is not horrible. It was not bad but it was not something I expected. It also came with their bread which was pretty good but it was slightly oily and so hubs and I didn't eat much of our bread. 

Because I ordered the pasta and it was suppose to be slightly spicy hubby decided to order the fish and chips so that he can share it with our little guy. The fish and chips was pretty good but our little guy didn't even eat much of it so he could have actually ordered something he wanted instead of fried fish. 

I wanted some fries so we ordered a side of fries and instead of chips with hub's fish he got their mashed potatoes instead which tasted very good I would say! I love their fries too! Our little man truly enjoyed the fries and he actually loved dipping the fries with ketchup! At 19 months he now knows how to point at the ketchup and demand ketchup with his fries. Kids now a days you don't need to teach them at all! They just see what you do and learn from you!!

The bill came out to $60 plus without tip for 2 adults and a toddler. We would definitely come back here again sometime in the future if there is not a long line again. 

Rainforest Cafe - Katy Mills
5000 Katy Mills Circle
Katy, TX  77494 
(281) 644-6200

Happy 2013

I figure I should blog before we are too much into 2013. I am not going to give any more excuses or explanation on why am I not blogging more. Every time I promise myself I will blog more and that don't happen and there are so many started post I have in my save folder.  I will just try my very best to blog more that's all I can do.

2012 flew by so very quick for me. I've had ups and downs but the best part is having my little one and being able to be with him all the time is one of god's blessing .  I am so fortunate that I get to spend time with my little guy all the time. He's growing so quickly and I am missing every moment of it already! 

I cannot believe about a year ago we were just in Malaysia and Australia. Those were one of the best memories I can have with my little one. The love and attention he got from family and friends is priceless. I can never ask for better family and friends. 

Let's just hope 2013 will be a better year for me. Let's hope that the bad stuff that happen to me/my family will not repeat this year. Let's hope that nosy people will actually leave us alone and not try and start anything for my family!

Cheers to all and hope everyone have a great new year ahead!

Iphone5 Vs Samsung note Il

*this is NOT a sponsored post. 

Image courtesy of here

We converted to Apple family a few years ago. We practically changed all our electronics to Apple. I blogged about my Apple family here. I was very excited when I heard they were going to release the iphone5 and actually waited patiently for them to launch it.  I was vastly disappointed when they launched it! It was not much different from iphone4s which I was already using. The only different was it was smaller and lighter.

I told hubby that I didn't want the iphone5 since it was not much different compared to iphone4s. Hubby wanted it because he needed a new phone and he much prefers to use iphone for work. 

I started talking to my friends and she recommended Samsung Note (before iphone5 was launched) since I was vastly disappointed with iphone5 I told hub that I wanted the note.  He told me that Samsung was going to launch note II shortly after iphone5.  Since I didn't want iphone5 my next preference was to try note II (hubs actually tried Samsung Galaxy 3 before and didn't care for it). I patiently waited for it to launch here and as soon as we were able to pre order it hubs pre order it for me. 

Image courtesy of here

Finally my Note II came last Friday! I've been using it since Saturday and I'm loving it! I do not have any problem going from iphone to Samsung. I was really nervous I would not be use to using Android phone after being use to using iphone. Many years ago before my first iphone I tried the Samsung Captive before and didn't care of it so I was slightly nervous I won't like the Note II.  This phone is pretty huge compare to the iphone but it doesn't really bother me. Pkus if I want a smaller phone when I'm travelling I can always use my iphone4s or use hubs iphone5. I think I can do so many more stuff with the Note II like blogging etc (maybe you will see more posts?) since is difficult for me to use a laptop because I have a very active toddler that's also currently in his terrible two stage that will not allow me to use my computer in peace!

Image courtesy here

Samsung Note II screen is obviously bigger compared to iphone5 so is more suitable for older people. Even hubs love the Note II but he cannot use android phone for his work that's all if not he would have definitely change to the Note II I'm pretty sure.. If Apple ever really upgrade their iphone and not the same boring one I will definitely not hesitate to go back to iphone. In the mean time I'm definitely mostly satisfy with my new phone! :)

**This is definitely NOT a sponsored post**

Char Chu Yoke or Hakka Braised Pork II

I made the same dish here many moon months ago. I made some changes to the previous recipes and made it even more tasty!! 

Some of the difference I made to my original recipe was

1) I marinate my pork with more nam yue (about 8-10 cubes with more liquid)

2) Added more garlic 

I think this dish taste better (taste more nam yue) with more nam yue. I think I used slighly too much nam yue cause it is slightly salty if eaten just by itself but when you eat it with rice or noodles it taste just perfect!! I used almost a whole bottle of nam yue! LOL. I would definitely use this recipe again because it really hit the spot. I now have a few containers of char chu yoke sitting in my freezer for when I have craving for them or when I run out of ideas too cook or when I'm too lazy to cook all I have to do is defrost one container, boil rice and stir fry some vegetables.