PhoenixHeartsWithSnowyFlower

Weather: REALLLLY REALLLLY HOT
Feelings: Kinda good actually even though still recovering from flu-like symptoms
Mood: Taking shower

When was the last time I got sick? I think I get sick too easily these days or about to get sick then recovered. Well, I passed the "sick" threshold over the last weekend. I was not too sick since I was able to go out and did some stuff that were needed but sick enough that I had to take two Advil pills. Taking medicine is a big deal for me. I don't like medicine not because of how it lowers your immune systems, as some say, but because it gets rid of some symptoms but then gives me some other symptoms that last even longer that I don't like. Normally, I would get sick and I would endure it without taking any medicine if i could and then I would heal within about 2 or 3 days.  If I have to either do something that requires me to heal quicker or get rid of the symptoms then I would take some medicines. In this case my "sick" symptoms would go away in one day. But then I would develop mucus in my throat and nose, which leads to some coughing, which would require me to take additional medicine. These symptoms would normally last for at least 3 days and up to 1 week. If I heal "naturally" I would skip this "mucus" phase. I wonder to myself all the time if this happens to anyone or is it because I am doing something wrong. Maybe I am just weir like that.

I haven't been cooking like I usually did for a long time...almost 1 year already. From now on, or until I am busy again, I will cook something every week. I was going to post a dish that I cook yesterday but then I found that I had this post sitting here unfinished since April and it's one of my favorite dish. It's basically cauliflower stir fried with chicken gizzards. Here's what it looks like with a bowl of white rice.





I'll call this dish: PhoenixHeartsWithSnowyFlower

Recipes:

One package of chicken gizzards

One cauliflower

Oil, Fish sauce, sugar, pepper, mushroom powder or MSG if you prefer that.
Garlic

Directions:

Clean the gizzards real good and cut them into smaller pieces. There is usually a yellow layer on the gizzards that you have to peel off here and there. I usually also clean them with salt by sprinkling some salt over them and then massage and mix them with both my hands.

More cleaning. After washing them I boil them for a couple minutes and then put them in a mesh container to dry as I prepare the cauliflower.

Cut the cauliflower into pieces as shown below in the picture and wash it. Let it sit and dry in a mesh container while you continue onto the next step.

Sauteed some garlic with oil and then add the chicken gizzards and mix it a little first. Quickly add some fish sauce, sugar, mushroom powder, pepper, and a little water. Stir fry it until you can eat the gizzards. Add more of the sauce if necessary after taste test. Take off the stove when it's done.

Create a mixed sauce by adding mushroom power, sugar, pepper, and fish sauce to a small bowl. Add some hot water and mix it well. I always make this for stir frying any veggies.

Sauteed some garlic with oil and then add the cauliflower and the chicken gizzards. Pour in the mixed sauce and mix the cauliflower and gizzards evenly. Mix it regularly until the cauliflower is as cooked as you like.

It seems like a lot of work for this dish and it is. It takes me a while to cook it myself. I forgot to time myself and it has been a while so I can only guess....about 40 minutes I think. It's worth it though...to me that is. I like cauliflower and I like chicken gizzards so 40 minutes is not much and you can eat it like 3-5 times or once if you're an BIG eater. Oh shoot, I forgot to eat my own dinner!!!

******Tips******

You will want to clean the gizzards real good since it's an internal organ.
You don't have to make the mixed sauce but, to me, it distributes the ingredient more evenly to the veggies.
If you over cook the gizzards they will be super chewy. So you if get experienced enough you can stop stir frying the gizzards a little before you can actually eat it since you will stir fry them again with the cauliflower.

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BleedingFriedEggs

Weather: Hot and humid!!
Feelings: Sick. Tired and hungry
Mood: Wanna eat my food...but I guess I wanna write this blog too.

Do you know what's the hardest part about writing my blog? No, no...besides the fact that I am trying to write in proper English and never mind about me using big words. It's coming up with the name of the dish I prepared. It has been a couple posts but it hasn't got any easier. So from now on I'll just name all my dishes with the first thing that pops into my mind. Hopefully, it'll be as cool as the one I thought of today. Hey, if you think you have a better name then prepare it and write your own blog about it!!

Today recipe is a quick and dirty one. Well, just quick, I like my food clean. It's basically fried eggs with tomatoes. Why go all the trouble of frying eggs with tomatoes? If you have to ask, it's because it tastes much much better than regular fried eggs...duh! The time it took me to prepare was about the same time it took to cook two cups of white rice in my rice cooker. Actually, I finished a little before the rice finished cooking which included washing and cleaning the knife, cutting board, and bowl, etc.. Here's what it looks like on a bed of white steamed rice.

I'll call this dish: Bleeding Fried Eggs
Recipes:

3 Eggs

3 Roma tomatoes

Fish sauce, pepper, sugar, mushroom powder.

Garlic (optional)

Directions:

Wash and cut the tomatoes into small chunks.

Break the eggs into a bowl, mix it up with fish sauce, sugar, pepper and mushroom powder. Season the eggs to your liking.  

Stir fry the tomatoes first. Flavor it with fish sauce, sugar, pepper and mushroom powder.

Pour the egg mixed over the tomatoes.

Lower and heat and cover the frying pan with the lid. It's done in about 5 minutes. It might be a little drippy but that's just the juice from the tomatoes.

The whole process should not take you more than 20 minutes and it serves two people. Well, maybe after your second try then it will take less than 20 minutes. It's good enough just to eat this with plain steamed rice but I went a little further. I ate it with the following plus a fresh chilli from my chilli plant...oh yeah!

I guess I just like veggies. But be careful about eating too much veggies, it may give you high cholesterol. No? It gave me high cholesterol. Ok, I am kidding. That was a joke from one of my coworkers. You have to know the whole story for it to be funny. More on the cholesterol at another time though. Enjoy!

******Tips******

If you don't mind garlic then it's a good idea to fry some chopped garlic to golden brown first before adding the tomatoes. This will give you an extra flavor and better aroma. Between the time I covered the frying pan with the lid, in the last step above, those five minutes, I washed and cleaned all the equipments that were used to prepare the ingredients.
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The habanero plant I "stole" from another of my coworker's office. 

This was when I first took it home.

I guess this was about 2 weeks after.

This was about 1 month later. It looks like it's growing pretty well...maybe it needs a better pot.






More on my chilli plants later. I am excited!!! There's going to be lots of chillies this summer.

Porkee Congee

Weather: COLD...well, not that cold but still cold enough.
Feelings: Sick. :(
Mood: Watever

Who out there thinks the flu shot makes you vulnerable to the flu? Or the flu shot makes you get sick easier? For the past, I don't remember how many years, I did not get a flu shot and this year I got one back in late September or early October. For the past 6-7 years I have not gotten sick. I almost got sick a couple times, sneezed a bunch, running nose a bit, aching body, and feeling tired but haven't gotten sick sick. Today, I already am sick or on the verge of getting sick. So, if I do get sick I'll have to rethink about getting the flu shot next year. Although, the temperature last night did suddenly changed quickly and I didn't have the proper blankee so that might have caused whatever I am feeling right now(aching body, tired, semi stuffy/runny nose).

Every time I felt I was about to get sick I tried to stuff myself, preparing for the worst. I guess you can call it pre-emptive strike. Well probably not, but it's almost like that. I am preparing energy in advance so my body will have enough fuel to fight since when I am actually sick I can't eat much. Plus I make enough food that will last for at least 2 or 3 days.

This is what I made preparing for the worst this time:

It's basically rice soup with pork. I guess it's called congee.

I'll call this dish: Porkee Congee

Recipes:

Ground pork

Rice

Garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, mushroom powder.

I used 2 cups of rice and 2 lbs of ground pork. That's A LOT! It'll feed about 10 people. Do some basic arithmetic from that and used as much as you want.

Directions:
Put rice into a big pot, rinse, and put it on the stove with a lot of water. Rice will expand a lot when you're making congee so put about 5-6 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. Don't go over board with the water, you can always add more water later.

Combine the ground pork, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, and mushroom powder.

Use whatever you want, I use my right hand, and mix it up real good.

By the time you finished with mixing the ground pork the rice should already expanded enough for you to add the pork. You shouldn't let the rice expand too much since you will let it sick for about another 10 minutes later after you add the pork.

Now the tricky part, getting the pork into the rice congee. I use my hand to squeeze a handful of the pork and "sprinkle" it over the top of the pot. The point is you don't want BIG lumps of pork, or at least I don't want that. After adding the pork, let it sit until it cooks and then you'll need to flavor the whole pot with salt, pepper, sugar, and mushroom powder.

The final product!!

Quick and easy, should be done in less than 30 minutes.

Oh, using two cups of rice and 2 lbs of pork was a little overboard for my pot. I had to take some out to a smaller pot. I am ready for my flu or whatever it is. I also pre-make this, and its several other versions, often for breakfast. It's quick and easy breakfast in the morning. Pop a cup of it in the microwave before you do your morning "beauty" routine and snort it right before you leave the house...3 minutes breakfast...max.

******Tips******

You'll need to skim and throw away the milky stuff at the top of the rice congee when it's cooking. After you add the pork, this will get worse and you'll need to do it more often.

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P.S. I think I won't ever be putting the amount of salt, pepper, sugar, and mushroom powder in my recipes nor directions. Everyone's taste is different so put as much as you like. I probably won't put the amount of garlic or onions either. I am not too fond of those things so I don't use a lot. It's also a preference so go wild if you like.

Bitter Bitter Egg

Weather: It's nite time. Clear sky, not too humid outside but not cool enough either.
Feelings: Tired, a little sleepy.
Mood: wanna eat some watermelon.

I just ate a bunch of food. Well, that was over an hour ago. It was good. Something new too, that I've never tried before. Kinda interesting. It was "bun ca" or that's what my friend called it. Some kind of fish soup and we ate it with vermicelli noodles with lots of veggies. I eat a lot of fish but I usually don't know what the name of the fish. I should put some effort into learning the names of the different type of fishes. Anyway, there was also papaya salad with beef jerky. This was kind of strange to me since we ate that papaya salad with soy sauce. Of course the soy sauce was mixed but I've always had it with fish sauce. However, they insisted that papaya salad is supposed to be eaten with soy sauce. Strange. It was ok but I prefer mine with fish sauce. I ate 3 bowls of the "bun ca" though. That was good. Plus I was super hungry. I am always super hungry after swimming which I did just that right before. If you're wondering, probably-most likely-definitely not, I swam 16 laps today. It's a big improvement for me.

Ok, today I'll post a dish that I promised a while back. I guess some people make it too or something similar but I will credit this to myself since I made it up without any guidance or hints from anyone or anything. It's basically eggs fried with bitter squash.

I'll call this dish: Bitter Bitter Egg
Recipes:

1 bitter squash

2 eggs

Oil, Fish sauce, sugar, pepper, mushroom powder or MSG if you prefer that.
Garlic (optional)

 

Just in case you don't know what an egg looks like. :P

Directions:
Wash, gut and cut the bitter squash into small round pieces.

Break the eggs into a bowl, mix it up with fish sauce, sugar, pepper and mushroom powder. Season the eggs to your liking.

 

Stir fry the bitter squash. Season it with  fish sauce, sugar, pepper and mushroom powder to your liking.

Once the bitter squash is done, pour the mixed eggs over it. Spread it out evenly over the squash. Cover it up with a lid and wait until the eggs are done and you'll get what's in the first picture.

******Tips****** 

The bitter squash is a little too bitter for me. So in order to get rid of some of the bitterness I boil a pot of water and throw the already cut up pieces of the squash into it and stir around a little. The longer you leave it in there the less bitter it becomes but also the more cooked it will become. You probably don't want to leave it in there for too long.

After I pour the eggs into the stir fried bitter squash, I like to poke around a little to move the eggs around so it will cook evenly. Also, I lower my heat so it doesn't burn the bottom when it's done.

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I need to go take out my contacts. My eyes are so dried I can hardly open them. Someone proof read for me and grade me on my writing and grammar. I hope I get and B-.

Instant Noodles w/ an Egg

Weather: It's nite time, actually it's passed 1am. Pretty cool outside.
Feelings: Tired, kinda numb all over, but for some reasons not sleepy.
Mood: I feel like doing something active.

Most of the time I like to think of myself as an intelligent person, well, maybe half the time...hmmm...maybe a quarter of the time...ok, sometimes...rarely. Ok, I feel pretty dumb most of the time. More on the dumb part later on some other post...since being dumb is a big part of my life. I tend to always do things the wrong way first before doing it right; sometimes I'll exhaust all the wrong ways before I get it right. Anyway, if I was any smarter I would probably be able to think of some good name for the dish that I am going to post below.  It's basically instant noodles with and egg in a microwave. Maybe I can call it "Microwavegg instant noodles" or maybe "Micro-egg instant noodles" or maybe I am just to dumb and will never be able to come up with a good name for a dish. :( Anyhoo...maybe I'll hire someone to name my dishes for me. Anyone wants to apply for the position? Here's the final product:

That little red blob is chili sauce, if you're wondering. It probably doesn't look good but it tastes pretty good. There are a couple of steps to do this but it's pretty easy.

I'll call this dish: M-egg I-Noodles or Meggi Noodles

Recipes:

One pack of instant noodles*

One egg

Directions:
First, break the noodles into a couple pieces and all all the ingredients from the bag into the bowl. I like to break mine into 4 pieces.

 

Crack an egg on top of it.

Add hot water from the sink or watevuh source you like and mix it up. No need to mix it that well.

The next couple of steps are basically the same thing. Put it in the microwave on high for 1 minute then stir then put it back into the microwave again for 1 minute...then repeat until done.

After 1 minute:

After 2 minutes:

After 3 minutes:

After 4 minutes:

Note how the liquid gets cloudier and cloudier until the last minute. It's pretty easy, takes a little effort but it tastes pretty good...I think.

******Tips******

My favorite type of noodle to use is the Mama pork flavor instant noodles. It's almost plain so you can do a lot of things with it.

If one bag of noodles is not enough for you then you can use two but then you need to also use 2 eggs. The hot water from the faucet is not hot enough to do this way for 2 bags so boil some water for it. And put it in the microwave for about 1.5 minutes instead of 1.

You don't need to always do 4 minutes. When I had a better microwave I only needed 3 minutes. When I was doing this I needed an extra 30 seconds at the end to make the liquid clear. So basically, repeat the last steps until the liquid is clear.

The bowl is HOT at the end so use a napkin or something to hold it when you touch it.

*************

Ok, sleeping time...all this writing makes me sleepy. Nite!!

p.s. I still remember I need to post the other two dishes I promised from the previous post.

Taro Taro Goodness

Weather: Dark, clear sky, and it's hot.
Feelings: Tired
Mood: I wanna shower

I did something for the first time today. No, not cook taro for the first time. I bought something with the intention to sell. Well, I bought things to sell a couple times already but those are different. Those were cheaper and I know for sure I'll make something out of it, if only 10 or 20 bucks but I know for sure. This time it's a lot of money and I initiated the purchase myself. Oh well, I have 14 days to sell it otherwise I can return it and get a refund. So no risk at all. That's why I bought it in the first place. ^_^  <-- Does that make me look...ummm...what's that controversial term? LOL

I cooked 3 things after I got out of work today. Took me a whole 1 hour and 40 minutes. That's including preparing, cooking, and cleaning. I'll post only one of those dishes today and maybe I'll post the other dishes tomorrow or the next day, if I remember. It's basically a taro soup.

I call this dish: Taro Taro Goodness
Recipes:

About half a dozen taro

About half a cup of dried shrimps

Salt, sugar, pepper, mushroom powder or MSG if you prefer that

Directions:
Add the dried shrimps to water and cook them in a pot.* This will be the broth.
Peel the taro, wash, and cut them into small pieces or any size you want.
Add the taro to the broth.
Season it and wait til the taro turn soft. Season again if needed.

This will make about 4-5 portions. Cooking this alone, preparing, cleaning and all that junk, will take approximately 20 minutes. Enjoy!!

Dang! Took me longer to post this than to cook that taro. Ok, time for that shower!!

*****Tips*****
I like to cut up my dried shrimps and leave it in a hot cup of water for a while, while I peel and cut up the taro. This will ensure your broth tastes better.

Some people like to add "rau om" or whatever it's called to the soup. I admit, it does make it tastes better. I would buy a bunch of it and only use about 5 of them and then throw away the rest. It's cheap but that is such a waste. It's not "that" much better anyway to be wasting like that.
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Mi Tum Lum

Weather: Nice and sunny, probably hot outside, haven't gone out.
Feelings: Don't know, lazy I guess, not bored but lazy.

The usual lazy sunday...slept til noon, woke up do nothing, eat, watch stuff online (south park this time) and waste my day. Oh, I did manage to iron my jeans and my shirts today though so that's a big plus.

Stupid fruit fly flying around. Makes me wanna chase *slap*, damn missed!, it and kill it.

 

Eating this right now. It's not that good and it supposed to be seedless but it has all these small seeds...very annoying. And I pay 6 bucks for it too!!

Damn, this blog thing sucks, all twitchy...like it has to buffer before it let me do anything.

Made that yesterday and still eating it today...and tomorrow too, still have, maybe, 3 more portions left.

I'll call this dish: Mi Tum Lum
Recipes - broth: :

One package of pork bones

Two carrots

One giant turnip

One onion

One can of quail eggs

One can of whole straw mushrooms

One dozen shrimps*

One dozen pieces of chicken gizzards*

One optional can of chicken broth

Recipes - veggies, others:

One bunch of lettuce

One package of bean sprout

Cilantro, chives, lemon, chilli, etc...look at the pictures

Any veggies you like to eat

One bag of egg noodles

 

Directions - broth:

Cook the pork bones for a long time..around 1.5 hrs, longer if you want.*  I like to add about 1 teaspoon of salt, sugar, mushroom powder, and some pepper to cook during this time. To add a little flavor to the meat/bone.
Cut the carrots and turnip into little pieces, like the picture, and put it into the pot with the bones...cook some more. Don't forget the mushrooms.
Put the chicken gizzards in as well. Cook for another 30 minutes.
At this time put the shrimps in. They don't take long to cook.
Use whatever ingredients you like to flavor the broth...I usually only use 4 things...mushroom power, salt, sugar, and pepper.

Directions - Veggies:
Wash carefully any part you wish to eat.

Directions - egg noodles:
Bring a pot of water to boil.
Put in the egg noodles.
Stir it occasionally so it will go soft evenly.
When it's almost how soft you like it then dump it out into a meshed container.*
Wash with cold running water.
Let it dry up, occasionally mix it up so it doesn't stick together like a blob.

******Tips******
For any type of meat, wash and pre-boil it. Meaning put it into a pot and bring it to boiling point and take it off the stove and wash it with cold water. This takes off crap on/in the meat.

Preparing any type of noodle, when you leave it in the pot up to the point of softness you want then it's too late. It'll always be too soft when you take off the stove. So take it off when it's a little hard.

When cooking any broth, make sure you occasionally get rid of the crap that gathers on top of the broth. This makes the brother look clearer at the end.

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Time for me to do something else...maybe to go the mall or swimming. Maybe a little cooking too. I need food to eat for the next few days.

P.S. Don't criticize my cooking too much. I am a trial-error experimental cook after all.