Chinese Chicken Corn Soup

This one was a hit with my family members. They love it! I will definitely be making this over and over again!

Chinese Chicken Corn Soup

Cook Time: About 30 minutes
Yields: About 6 bowls

Ingredients
• 2 (14 ounce) cans reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 (14.75 ounce) cans cream-style corn
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 egg whites
• Green onions, sliced

Directions
1. In a medium stock pot combine water, broth, and chicken. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and add onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Simmer about 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
2. Remove chicken from pot and allow to cool slightly. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred or cut into bite size pieces.
3. While the chicken is cooling, in a small bowl mix together the corn starch and about 1/4 cup of the broth. Mix until no lumps remain and then add the cornstarch mixture to the stock pot. Bring mixture back to boil and stir constantly until well mixed.
4. Add the creamed corn and chicken pieces to the broth then season soup with sesame oil.
5. Reduce heat and slowly add egg white while swirly the soup with a fork to break the egg pieces apart. The eggs should cook and form strings similar to egg drop soup.
6. Serve hot and garnish with green onions.

Coconut Shrimp

My favorite: YUM! This is my version from what I found online. I like my version much so much better!!

Coconut Shrimp.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp - peeled and
deveined
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup ice water
2 cups shredded coconut
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup Dijon-style prepared mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce


DIRECTIONS:
1. Peel & wash shrimp. Dry well on paper towels.
2. Mix together flour, cornstarch, salt and white pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and the ice water. Stir to blend.
3. Pour the coconut into a shallow pan. Dip the shrimp one at a time into the batter, then roll the shrimp in the coconut. Once coated, place each shrimp into a frying pan of oil heated to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Fry the shrimp in the hot oil until lightly browned; about 4 minutes.
4. Make the dipping sauce: combine marmalade, mustard, honey and hot sauce in a small bowl. Mix well. Serve the shrimp and dipping sauce side by side.


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Twice-Cooked-Coconut-Shrimp/Detail.aspx

Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Here is the first of many recipe I'll post! Enjoy!

Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Marinade:
• 1 pound block tofu, cut into 1" cubes
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• 2 tbsp. dry sherry
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
Vegetables:
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 cup small cauliflower or broccoli florets
• 1 cup peas or snow peas
• 1/3 cup red pepper, slivered
• 1 tin sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
1. Combine marinade ingredients in a large bowl (garlic-sherry).
Gently stir in tofu cubes, cover and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
2. Heat oil in frying pan and add onion, cooking 'til softened.
Add other veggies (in usual stir-frying order from slow-fast cooking veggies) and fry 'til desired cookness.
3. Add tofu to the veggies.
Stir 1 tbsp. cornstarch into marinade and pour over vegetable mixture.
4. Reheat until the tofu is hot.

http://www.ivu.org/recipes/chinese/tofu-and.html

New Year, New Concept

It is a New Year and we all should have some sort of resolution(s) to the New Year. I hope that everyone had wonderful year and wish this one will be much more spectacular. For me, I have been thinking of what I should start doing more often, blogging. I've been out of touch for nearly a year and I figured that I did not have the passion and/or just being lazy to blog this past year. I figured that I must have something that I am passionate about in order for me to blog about it. Like food, not just my opinion about food but blogs about food that I cooked or will be cooking and my experiences while preparing the different dishes throughout this year! Lets see how far this will take me...

Ok, you are probably wondering if I recently saw Julie & Julia (which I did) and that I am trying to do what Julie was doing with Julia Child's cooking. Not exactly! I'm not trying to become that at all. I am just trying to expand my recipe book by cooking various food that I (we) enjoy. If I do see a recipe I like, I will most-likely steal it...hehe...vice versa, I would be sharing the recipe as well. :)

My first food posting that I will share will be the latest cooking I did, which was on Monday night, MLK Day, celebrating my mother's Birthday. I had 12+ people over and I made tons of food. Read on the next blog to see what I made...

Shopping for Snowboarding Gears?

As I was in search of snowboarding gears, I've been to numerous shops around town for great bargains at the end of this season. It's seems like most of the stuff was sold out or it didn't have my size. So, I decided to look online for bargains. I've never bought anything online for snowboarding gears but I have purchase numerous items online including, LCD TV, DVDs, toys, etc. I've pretty much stumble upon a site that's a division of SummitOnline.com called SNOWBOARDINGFUSION. I thought the items were cheaper and was a bargain. Boy, was it my mistake! I made a purchase March 5, 2009 and they didn't shipped the item (1) March 10, 2009. When I received a confirmation from UPS about my shipment, via email, I called the company right away and was put on hold for approx. 15-30 mins because it was shipped GROUND, not 2nd day air as I requested. When I talked to the girl that worked there, Amber, a Internet sales associate, she confirmed to me that I was going to get my item 2nd day air because I paid for the item to be shipped to me 2nd day air. So, I waited till the day it was suppose to come in and when I didn't see anything that day. I've called the company again. And once again, the same girl picked up. I told her that my item was not here and wanting her to fix their mistake. I expected her to call the UPS and have that item expedite the shipment through UPS but she choose not to please her client. Coming from someone who has experiences working with UPS (previous job), she could have told UPS to expedite the shipment to next day service to please an unsatisfied client. All she told me that their nothing they can do but the item is schedule to be delivered the following week. Which sucks because I needed it that weekend. So, since I made a purchase March 5th, don't you think I should get the item before March 15th?? I'd say so but I didn't get it before my snowboarding trip but I got it a day too late! Hmmm, I think they just lost a customer because I was planning on purchasing from them again. But now, I will go out of my way and even pay more for better service. I will be searching for sites that I buy from now that's not part of Summit Sports. I don't recommend them unless you like getting what you purchase weeks after.

Overall, I rate this site/company an F for FAIL in customer service and expedite in shipping. Do you know that they charge $3.95 for Shipping?? Who charges customers for shipping?? I've never had to pay extra for shipping.

For those out there looking for deals for snowboarding gear, try another site that's not part of Summit Sports. Let me know if you found some sites that good in customer services and expedite in shipment. I like to purchase some more snowboarding equipment or perhaps I'll just support my local sport stores.

Brian Head Trip

We woke up before the break of dawn to take this trip to Brian Head. Crossing three different States to reach our destination and as I drove I thought it was too hot to be snowboarding. We did not see any snow in the mountains so we figure that it was going to be a hard snow. While driving, my entire passengers were passed out! Thanks to coffee, I was able to drive us up there. We ended up being late because we left an hour later than expected. I assure you, there was plenty of time on the slopes. Snow conditions = good, weather = great. We had some newbies, so lesson were in order for them to learn the skills acquired. The slopes were great and I was able to get my skills back after missing several seasons. Now, I'm ready for the next one. Mammoth here we come!

a blog much due

I guess I haven't been blogging for awhile now. I've been meaning to get to it but I guess I've been busy. I'm suppose to be baking right now but I decided not to because I'm missing the cup cake liners. I know I have to run to the market soon but my son is taking his nap, a much needed nap! So while the coffee is brewing and just casually having a relaxing morning watch shows on Noggin, I do have much to blog.

My son just turn 6 months this past week and we took him, and the family, to Sears to have our portraits taken. Not really realizing that we're gonna have to invest a bit of $$$ in his pictures but I think it was worth it. We pretty much paid for the copyright and is able to make as much prints as we want. They have expensive packages but we went for the cheapest one and took home the CD and print them from Sam's Club that very day, while we are still waiting for our Sears prints sometime on March 24. The pictures turned out well, and of course, my son was soooo photogenic! Overall, we're please that he was easy to work with during the photo shoot and the outcome of the pictures.

Aside from that this week, we're just been prepping for our day trip to Brian Head. There were originally 9 or 10 of us going and now it more like 4 or 5 going. People just started flaking out, I never really expected much because I've been disappointed on people flaking out all the time. So, it was a no brain-er that there were going to be people flaking out. It really doesn't matter, I've learned to only count on a hand-full of people who are true to their words. So, we ended up canceling our van rental, which turns our great because it's saving us money, and we're just chipping in for gas. I hope the snow is nice to my bum-bum and to my friends who are taking lessons for the first time! Wooohooo!

We're suppose to go to the park and have a picnic with some friends and their babies. Yah! I'll finally take the little one out with his little friends. I'm suppose to be making sandwiches and baking before we leave at 1pm and it's already 11:15am. Ooops! Well, I better get going now, so until you read again, so long!