Congee

Happy New Year!!!

It's been super cold the past few days. The coldest was 27F. Brrr... But I'm luving the cold if I can stay home. Plus, it's a nice change to the hot Texas heat.

So last Friday (January 6th), I happened to check the radar since it was pouring out. Then I saw it... snow in Sugar Land? Really? I was excited and Camden was too. We decided to venture out... in the cold... in the rain... in search of... SNOW!!!

It was about 45 minutes drive and once we got there, it was nothing but rain... sleet. Bummer. We stopped by Whole Foods instead and bought some pastries for treats and manchego cheese for future dinner. Still was a good trip. Just wish we saw snow flakes.

Since the temperature was dropping, I decided to put my slower cooker to good use. Thursday was making the chicken broth. Friday was cooking congee. After I posted the congee photo on my Facebook page, a lot of my friends asked what it was. Think of it as porridge. Creamy with no cream or milk added. It's an Asian dish with variation of added garnishes. I ate a bowl with pieces of fish with peanuts once and didn't care for the taste. Congee with ground pork was pretty tasty. The one I made last Friday was just chicken broth with Jasmin rice and cauliflower. Just because I've been wanting cauliflower soup for awhile now.

I was told to blend cooked rice in broth in a blender to make it creamy so no slow cooker is required. But the whole point of using a slow cooker is to spend less time in the kitchen. I prefer the dump-it-and-forget-it recipes. Easy pleasy. For my congee, I set the slow cooker on HIGH at around 9am. As soon as I saw the congee bubbling, around noon, I turned it to LOW until 5:30pm dinner.

And be creative with the garnishes and added proteins. My kids ate their congee with grilled hot dogs and potato chips. The top photo was my breakfast congee... over easy egg, scallion, cilantros, fried onions with a lot of hot sauce. Because I like my savory dishes spiceee.

Congee
serve 4-6

6-8 cups chicken broth
3/4 to 1 cup uncooked Jasmin rice
half cauliflower head, roughly chopped
1 inch peeled fresh ginger or 1-3 teaspoons ground ginger (add more for spicier taste)
1 teaspoon black peppers

Garnishes
fried onion
fried garlic
thinly sliced scallions
roughly chopped cilantros
fish sauce
hot sauce

Protein Options
fried or over easy eggs
shredded cooked chickens
crumbled cooked bacons (crunchy and in bits)
thinly slice beef

1. Add all of the ingredients into the slower cooker.
2. Set it on LOW for 6 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours.
3. Stir and serve congee with garnishes and protein options. Add fish sauce and hot sauce to taste.

Congee is extremely hot right out of the slow cooker. Be careful when serving to kids. I spoon my kids' congee in bowls and let them sit out for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Allergy Info: My congee recipe is free from or can be made without dairy, egg (if not garnish with fried egg), corn, wheat, legumes (peanuts and soy), or nuts. If you have fish allergy, use sea salt to taste. If you can have legumes, soy sauce is a good alternative. Read the ingredients listed for pre packaged garnishes such as fried onions or hot sauce, as it may contain soy oil and/or corn derivatives. Or thinly sliced onions or garlic in hot oil until crispy. No hot sauce, no problems. Sprinkle ground hot peppers.

Kale Chips

I haven't really found the time to work on my food blog. Testing recipes now and then for my Something Sweeter bakery and for my cookbook. But you know how things go with having kids. I still have to cook and bake for them.

I've been wanting to post a healthy, easy snack recipes like Kale Chips. I remember one time I told my friend, Melissa, that I would like to bake some kale chips for our snack, and she told me she ate them before. Prepackaged and tasted horrible. When I visited her and made her some, she said they tasted better than prepackaged kinds. Nobody should buy kale chips anyway. They are easy to make. Plus, they taste best right out of the oven. Warm and crunchy.

I've seen a lot of recipes calling for spices, cheese, etc. But seriously, kale chips only need oil and sea salt. Less is more kinda snack. The oven temperature will be up to you. Some recipes called for very high heat 400F degree. Some were in between 300F degrees. My friend Nicole told me to go low and slow to keep the nutrients. So I tested this recipe with 225F degree. Nicole said to go even lower than that but I was too impatient. You decide the oven temperature. The idea is to make kale leaves crispy like chips.

Kale Chips
serve 2-3, depending on how much you make

a few organic kale leaves
cooking oil or spray (olive oil, safflower oil, or coconut oil)
sea salt

1. Preheat the oven to the lowest setting, between 170F to 225F degrees.
2. For each kale, remove leaves from stem then tear them in bite size pieces. Remover any hard stem on the leaves as well.
3. Place the kale leaves on the baking pan.
4. Spray the kale leaves with cooking oil or coat them with cooking oil.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until crisps, about 30 minutes.
6. Take the baked kale chips out of the oven and sprinkle with sea salt.
7. Let the baked kale leaves cool then transfer them to a bowl. Enjoy!!! We actually love them with our family movie afternoon.

Allergy Info: The baked kale chips are free from... well... pretty much everything.

What's up?

So I've been MIA for a long while. Been working and taking care of my family. That's all. But a lot has been going on here...

 

Brek decided this year that he wanted to go to public school. And off he went to public high school. He's luving every minute of it... well, except lunch. I guess going from homeschooling to taking classes at a private school of less than 80 students to 2000+ public high school would be daunting to me. But it's like an adventure for him. He luvs the prep rally. He finally understood the grossness of school lunches. Now I have to deliver hot lunch a few times a week. Wouldn't it be nice if all schools have microwaves?

 

I decided to homeschool Camden this year. When I have to work to make deadlines, he'd sit next to me, playing games on iPad, singing, and sometimes even asking me to help him with some spellings. And it's been like that lately... work, school, work, school. And sometimes, Camden was so loud that I couldn't concentrate on what I was typing. Yup, I decided to videotape his singing. This one was pretty good. He luvs to beat bopping. But sometimes, I'd wonder if he was singing or was that just a lot of yelling.

 



 

I had a chance to take Camden to the library to homeschool him there for the first time. Took a picture of him with his backpack and his Scooby. He was so happy and excited. Plus, it was fun. Then that night, he kept playing with Daddy's Halloween wig. Daddy took a picture of him turning into a rock star. Check out my first meme.

 

 

I haven't baked much. My Something Sweeter bakery has been quiet. Nobody is ordering. Well, I haven't really advertised. I've been contracted with work remotely from home, so that is my focus right now. I didn't realize how much fun it is to actually have a job-job. Here's hoping my company has more projects for me to work on even after my husband finds work.

 

When I had to go into the office to turn in my files, I made time to bake. My coworkers seemed to enjoy my baked sweets. I mean, the sweets were always sold out. Good for my ego, you know what I mean? It's been a good excuse to make the time to bake cookies, brownies, or muffins. I want to bake them chocolate croissants one of these days. And sticky buns. These are yeast dough so they taste best the day they are baked. That will be tricky to bake and bring them into the office the same day. Hmm... I've been waking up at 6am every morning (some days even earlier... how about 5am). Maybe I can.

 

I'm thinking of baking something oatmeal. Definitely oatmeal cookies. Ate one at Whole Foods and it was really good. Couldn't figure out what was in it... tasted like caramel. But you know how that goes. It's gonna take awhile when testing recipes. I hope my kids won't mind taste testing them. By the way, Autumn is here. What are you guys baking? I've been craving bacons... but that has nothing to do with season changed. Well, I'm in Texas so it still feels like summer... hot and humid. Seriously though. If anything is always good with bacons, then bacons must be great any time of the year. Check out my maple bacon cupcakes. Umm... bacons...