My Utterance

Chinese Chicken Corn Soup

2010-02-04T20:56:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-20T00:23:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-03-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

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!

Chinese Restaurant

2009-02-09T00:31:00.000-08:00

So we tried what we consider to be one of the best Chinese restaurant in Vegas. That right! We found one, it's called K J Kitchen. It's one the better Chinese food we've been searching for in a while.

K J Kitchen
(702) 221-0456
5960 Spring Mountain Rd Ste 1
Las Vegas, NV 89146

We had a to-go order for the first time we ate there. It was pretty good not knowing what to order, everything we've order was fairly tasty. This time, we went with a few friends. We had five or six dishes; stone pot egg plant, braised green beans, sizzling tender beef, Hong Kong style shrimp noodles, whole duck, deep fried sea bass and a comp soup.

egg plant = softness (I usually don't like egg plants but I ate more than one egg plants)
green beans = most delish, right amount of crunch and tasty
tender beef = this is my second time I had this, just as good as the first time I've tasted it
noodles = so so, just like any other noodles I had
whole duck = it was ok, it wasn't the greatest duck I've had
sea bass = oh so goodness. it was sooo good, I think I had two or three pieces of this one. right amount of texture and flavor
comp soup = was good too. very tasty

The only thing that we expected was a comp dessert but all we got was a bill with fortune cookies, which the cookies tasted awful, so was the fortune. ehehhee

So, we hit up Tea Planet for some snow ice drinks and butter toast. That was yummy.

We had a great time, great food and great friends. Overall, our night out was great. We'll definitely be eating at KJ's again. If you have been there and have a favorite dish in mind, let me know. I'd like to check it out next time.

D

my mind has gone blank

2009-01-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I blogged and over the past weeks I had so much to talk about but now my mind has gone ka-phut! I've been busy this week planning and coming up with ideas for the baby shower I'm throwing for the Kuo's. This is a shower they much deserved. It's exciting to welcome a new little one into this world and I'm sure they'll love every moment of it!! I didn't expected it to be quite a lot of work but it is. Perhaps, having my son around and him needing my every attention doesn't help with the planning. I just hope it turns out to be a great shower and that everyone enjoys this special day for the Kuo's! I guess I'll have to take lots of pictures because this will surely be an exciting shower.

Another note, I want to mention was a recent trip to a great food place we encounter in Vegas. A Korean Restaurant, yup, you heard that correct! We've been searching for a good places to eat and this place is pretty Tasty! It's called Won Mi, the dishes are tasty. We tried several items. The grilled beef was delish. I have to say that the spicy beef and leek soup is my fav. You'll definitely need plenty of napkins and some cold water on the side. Then I had the hangover soup, pretty good too but the serving portion tends to be kind of small for this dish. Then our friend tried the chapchae, wow! Tasty indeed and this dish was huge, it will feed like 2 people. My husband and his friend had the hot pot bimpop. This was ono too! So, we've pretty much enjoy all the dishes we had at Won Mi and will definitely go back.

We're hoping of finding some good places to eat in the Vegas area, so let us know if you have some good restaurant in mind.

Here's the address of the place, try to check it out! Let us know what you think!

WON MI

5300 Spring Mountain Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89146

(702) 437-2500

A New Year

2009-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

I hope that last year was a good year for all of you because it was surreal for me. I gave birth to a beautiful boy. Couldn't ask for a better kid! He's truly amazing and it's sooo wonderful discovering new things with him. He truly is just a happy-go-lucky baby!

I've been thinking of a New Year's resolutions but I wasn't sure if I was going to go through with it. It seems like my life is unstable right now. I feel like I don't know what I want to do. I realized that this year, I'm not getting any younger and I'm just confused as a high school junior whose undecided of which college to go to. Probably feeling overwhelm by the fact that I'm probably better off with a job right now because we all know that bills are definitely not paying themselves. I know that I really don't mind doing what I was doing earlier but I know that it's not what I want to do the rest of my life. I'm sure some people are content in what they got but I feel that that job is just not for me and I know that I can do better. BUT WHAT? I guess that's my resolution, answering it! I feel like there is something waiting for me, that will challenge me and that I'll enjoy waking up daily to. In everything that I dipped my feet in, it's not enough, it's not challenging enough, it's...just not it!

As I'm not getting any younger, I'm feeling more and more depressed. I know that I really have no one to talk to! It's not like the people around me don't understand. I'm sure they are very supportive in what I want to do but I feel alone when it comes to this. I feel like this is a challenge in itself and who knows when I'll really discover what I want to do or who I want to me. Should I just throw in the towel and accept what my parents had planned for me? Like any other Asian parents, they really are the guide in what we should do and whom we should become.

I really don't know at this point. I'm just glad that I was able to go to the gym today and let go of some stress that's been accumulating over the pass months.

Well, I have one hopeful mystery to be looking forward this year, the growth of my son! And also, I've signed up for some 10K mud run in mid June. Hmmm, I guess today was the first day of my training.

I wish you all to find yourself this year, if you haven't already, and cherish the memories of your love ones because time DO fly by fast. Before you know it, it will be then end of another year!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2009!

Snowin' in Vegas

2008-12-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

Yay! It's so true. On Monday morning, it started snowing in Vegas and we spent most of the morning watching snow fall. My mother-in-law's place actually had snow in her yard. It was so cool to see snow in Vegas and we didn't have to be in Mammoth or Brianhead. Only if the little one was a bit older so he'll be able to play in the snow. Oh well, next time! Wished I took some pictures of the snow.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving dinner was great, we had a very typical turkey dinner with lots of pie. I think we had 4-5 pumpkin pies and 3 pecan pies. I didn't eat like a starving child because there were some extra pounds that I needed to work on after the baby was born. I am very grateful for the very first Thanksgiving with our new addition this year. We're truly blessed! Everyone seems to really enjoy the new little addition and he sure had all the attention. We're just enjoying every moment we can and are looking forward to Christmas. Almost all the X-Mas decorations are set-up, all we need are lighting and door decorations.

I hope that everyone took the time off and spend it with family and friends. Do try to get together at least once a year because we're definitely not getting any younger. No matter how crazy your family may seem, there's always another that's far worst! Be patience, be kind, be giving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Black Friday Weekend

2008-12-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

OMG! Was it crazy or what?!? I knew I wasn't going to wait outside the store, like I did several years ago, so I got up casually around 4-ish and did some shopping online (Amazon = awesome!) while I was still in my PJ's. Then decided to meet my family up at Frys (keep in mind that I've never gone to Frys on blk Friday). I notice that parking was kind of hectic but I got my parking space fairly quick. I've arrived there around 6-ish. I thought that all the electronic was gone by then and was pretty optimistic about their appliances still being available. We got inside, it was SOLD OUT! I was fairly shock! So, I said that we had to go else where to shop for deals on appliances this blk Friday. As I was heading out, we saw some deals on Blue-Ray Discs and I decided to buy them. As soon as I was heading towards the check out line I've notice these snake-lines going in and out of the aisles. It seems like the lines never end! Then I remember distinctly as I enter the store I saw an employee holding a "end of line" sign, which had balloons attached to sign. I then realize that the lines actually starts when I enter the store. Literally! If you can imagine the line starts at one end of a U and then ended at the other end while weaving in and out of each aisle. Yup, that's what I went through! It was truly a marketing genius! Why was it pure genius you ask? Because all of the customers had to see everything in store and perhaps they'll pick something up along the way. Not only that, but there were employees walking around trying to sell the "protection plan" and other items that might go with those LCD HDTV. Boy, it was sure tempting to snag the deals they had that day! It took us nearly two-hours to check out. Not so sure it was worth the wait for those Blue-Ray Discs I brought but when I think about it, I've saved several hundreds. I just wanted to know how much their sales number increase that day! Ka-Ching!!
Then we're off to Sears for some appliances and saved thousands. This was a pretty decent place to shop. The crowd was just right. Not too busy at all! We snag some deals on a frig and washer/dryer. From there, next stop was Target. There was just a few minor things that we're eyeing at Target so going there wasn't a priority. The crowds died down around 11:30-ish and getting in and out of there was a breeze. Our final stop was at Macy*s home, OMG! The sheets was a bargain. That's if you're looking in the clearance section and their morning specials. We ended up snagging a few items because their morning special was coming to an end. This pretty much conclude my Blk Friday shopping. Overall, we got what we wanted and I'm glad that at the end of my day, it was fairly successful.

Questions:
Am I going back to Frys on Blk Friday day? No, if I'm going alone but YES, if I have someone going with me(one will do all the shopping and the other will stay in line).

My Very First

2008-11-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

Yes. Indeed. This is my very first entry in My Utterance blog. I've decided that there's so much going through my mind and I have no place to express it. I figure that I should start blogging again since I have so much to say...

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