FRIED RICE with King Crab Meat

Since I am Asian, a lot of my non-Asian friends often ask " How do you make fried rice?". Fried rice to me is something that I make when I don't have a lot of stuff and when I feel some what lazy because it's so easy to make. Fried rice recipes vary depending on personal preference and/or what you have at home. The essential ingredients are oil, rice, and soy sauce. The rest is up to your taste and or what is readily available to you. Throw in any vegetable and/or meat you like. Make it vegetarian if you don't like meat. My favorite is seafood fried rice. I had some frozen King crab legs in my freezer that weren't enough to make a meal for my family unless I got creative, so I decided to make fried rice with the crab meat.


Lump King Crab Meat



Garlic in a lil oil and butter ( I love butter in my rice)


Add vegetables.


Add crab meat.


Add eggs.


Cook the eggs on one side of your pan/wok.


Add rice (cooked and cool). Add soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.


Sprinkle green onions.


Mix well but be careful not to break up the carb meat too much.


Start eating!

Cute Chicken Pot Pies

I bought some really colorful and cute ramekins for only $1.99 each, so I put them to good use a couple weeks ago. This is how easy it was :









1 egg
1 pkg frozen puff pastry, thawed and cut into circles big enough to cover ramekins
2 split chicken breasts, boiled and chopped (save the broth)
1 cup potatoes, peeled and cubed (cooked until almost done
1 cup carrots, peeled and cubed (cooked until almost done)
1 cup celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
5 TBS butter
1 TBS all purpose flour
1 tsp Cajun seasoning powder
1 1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup chicken broth or water
salt and pepper, to taste


Pre heat oven to 375 degree C.
Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add garlic, onions and celery. Cook about 3 min and add the flour and stirred for a couple more min. Add carrots and potatoes. Sprinkle seasoning and cook for 3 min. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer till it thickens. Transfer into ramekins and place puff pastry on top. Brush pastry with egg. Make an X in pastry for steam to escape and bake for about 20 min or till puff pastry is golden brown. Enjoy!





































ENJOY!!!!!

Stuffed Pork Loin

Two Saturdays ago, pork loin was on sale for only $1.49/lb, I bought a piece for less than six bucks and made a food network meal! It was my first time butterflying a whole pork loin. I went on YouTube and learned it. It was not very hard. I just needed a good knife. I used Paul Dean's recipe from
Here
but left out the sage cause I didn't have any. Also I served it with some gravy.

Chopping the veggies and fruit

making the stuffing



stuffing

Into the oven


Start slicing..


Yum!

4 Layer Red Velvet Cheesecake

It's mid January and the last week or so I was searching for the perfect cake or cupcakes to make around Valentines Day next month. I knew I wanted to make a red velvet cake or cupcakes since I've never tried making one. So I printed a couple of recipes and bought some ingredients. I was planning to make one this month as a trial before Valentines Day. A few days passed and didn't make a cake yet but I had a conversation with a friend who was telling me how good the Red Velvet Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory is. That night I searched for images for Red velvet cheesecake and found one that caught my eye at this LINK.
As I was reading her blog, it turned out that she used my favorite cheesecake recipe from the food network for the cheesecake part ( 1 of the 4 layers, YES IT IS VERY TALL and time consuming to assemble, but worth it). So even though I didn't get home from work till 11:30pm, I started baking when I got home. Stayed up till 3 AM and also had to put in one hour for making the frosting and assembling the next morning but WOW the outcome was very rewarding. My honey helped me with taking pictures for this post.
This is not a Red Velvet Flavored Cheesecake, instead it is a 4 layer cake with 3 layers of red velvet cake and 1 layer of Cheesecake in between. For the red velvet cake, I used the recipe from HERE.
However,I used all purpose flour instead of Cake flour.Enjoy!!!


red velvet layers


cheese cake layer

cream cheese frosting

ready to frost

Most difficult part was the assembly....especially when my 18 month old wanted attention from mommy right in the middle of it



Decorating..the fun part!

Well worth the effort ( a big two day long process, but guess what! We now get to enjoy it for days 'cause it's such a huge cake)

Thai Yellow Curry Chicken

Today I woke up late so I had to make something quick but yummy. I promised my coworkers that I'll bring Thai Green Curry for lunch but it turned out that I didn't have all the herbs I needed to make that, so I made yellow curry instead. I was so excited to post my first recipe and paid close attention to how much of each ingredient I was using. Here it is:

2 large pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size

4 medium potatoes (I used Russet), cubed

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of Garlic, minced

2 TBS Thai yellow curry paste (you can get this at most Asian stores or buy it online)

2 TBS sugar

1 TBS fish sauce

2 TBS oil

1 can coconut milk (8.5 oz)

1/2 cup water

some green onions or cilantro for Garnish

Heat up the oil in a pan with medium heat. Add onions and garlic to oil and cook for 1 min. Then add chicken and the curry paste. Cook for 3 min mixing the paste with chicken thoroughly. Then add potatoes,fish sauce,coconut milk, water, and sugar. Let this simmer and when the potatoes are done, the curry is READY! Add salt or sugar to your taste and garnish with some herbs or green onions. Serve it with steamed Jasmine rice.
Tip: I like to boil my potatoes in a separate pot until they are half way done before adding to the curry.


Yellow curry paste, coconut milk and potatoes





Green Onions for garnish

Ready!

Shall we begin...

So this is my very very first blog. . I have been reading other people's blogs and been wanting to start my own. Here I am. I have my own blog now. I am glad, excited and of course nervous since I want things to be perfect yet I still have lots to figure out how to become a problogger...
I have taken pictures of the things that I made in the past, mainly food and some crafts. So I have lots of pictures to post already but here is the challange i face today. I DON"T MEASURE OR FOLLOW RECIPES EXACTLY :( So I'll now try to change my ways and start taking notes as I cook or make something.
When will I find time for blogging..I am not sure but I am going to try my best. After work...when everyone is asleep I guess. This will be fun since I will be sharing with all of you about the things that I love..food and crafts.