Stir-fried Chinese Eggplants

Eggplants, one of our family's favorite dark-colored vege. The most concern issue in cooking eggplants is the amount of cooking oil needed. I personally think that cooking with traditional Chinese wok is faster, but this requires slightly more cooking oil.

Ingredients:
3 median long Chinese eggplants, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp cooking oil

sauce:
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 sugar
a pinch of salt and white pepper

Directions:
1. Heat cooking oil
2. Arrange the eggplants even in the wok, heat for 2 minutes
3. Slightly stir and turn the eggplants, cover and cook for 2 minutes
4. When the eggplants are mostly translucent, pour in the mixed sauce
5. Turn into small-medium flame, cover the wok and cook until the sauce is fully absorbed

Note: Reduce cooking oil if you are cooking with flat bottom wok or pan

Sun-baked Local Black Olive Fruit

Oh, what a satisfied when finally I got to taste my favorite local fruit since childhood, after five years being away from my home country. There are couple of ways to prepare this seasonal fruit. The simple way is to 'cook' the fruit in lukewarm water until it is soften. Then, serve as it is or season with salt or soy sauce.

Below is my simple yummy sun-baked recipe:


Ingredients:
300g Black Olive
3 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1/2 to 1 Tbsp sugar

Directions:
(1) Wash and rinse well the black olives, let air dry aside
(2) Mix the marinate sauce: soy sauce, oil and sugar
(3) Pour the sauce unto the olives and coat them well
(4) Sun bake under the bright sunlight for about 2 hours, or until they are tender
(5) Serve with plain rice

Note: Click for a better look photo

My Favorite Sport in this Summer

Biking is the most common activity in Boulder, Colorado, especially during Summer time. Children like biking very much. Since very young, I see people biking along the Boulder Creek. I wish one day I can bike like the adults. Biking is a great exercise that makes me fit. It also helps me to be well mentally and socio-emotionally. 

Coconut Milk Dessert (Kuih Bakar)

This dessert received many good comments among my American and Chinese friends. I like to bring this to a potluck event because it is easy to prepare, good at taste and it tells where I come from. We personally like the fragrance and the taste of coconut milk with roasted sesame seeds. Beautiful refreshing color too.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk, reduced fat
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
2 cup all purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 cup frozen blueberries

Children Festival

Another Summer event for me. Yeah! Early in the morning, we wake up and get ready for the Family Housing Children Festival at NWCC. There are some interesting activities going on there. Let me share some photos with you all. Station No.1 is face painting. I got my favorite bug- butterfly on my face. Then, I requested two tattoos on my hands.

children are deserved to have fun ;p

Easy Fried Firm Tofu

Ingredients:
1/2 cake of firm tofu, bite sized
3 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/2 tsp rice vinegar (optional)
1 tsp canola oil
a pinch of toasted sesame seeds (garnish purpose)

It's my Summer Break

What should I do during this long 3-month Summer break? Trust me, I have no idea, indeed... but I do know that I have taken up most of my mom's day time. She needs to come out with a variety of meaningful activities to fill my free time. Thanks to BolderBoulder. None of us ever participate in this annual race, but it was my first memorable fun activity at the beginning of my Summer break. How could that be?

Beef Cheesy Stuffed Bell Pepper

Ingredients:
1 cup of jasmine rice, cooked
2 red bell pepper, halved and seed removed
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard source
1/4 cup low fat yogurt
1/3 cup ground beef
1 tsp garlic salt

Orange Frosted Lemon Cake

It's June 1st! This is a big day. A birthday for many people - my middle school roommate, my gone-too-soon brother-in-law and also the special one my ... (shh ...). My little princess told her dad "Daddy, shh..., Mom and I are gonna to make you a cake. Shh..., it's a surprise!" (^-^)

Well, today is also the great harvest celebration for Dayak native people in East Malaysia. Happy Gawai Dayak to my old friends. 

Chicken Floss 鸡肉松

Ingredients:
1/2 chicken breast, unskinned
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp canola oil
1 small shallot (red onion), thinly sliced

Simple Healthy Wheatgrass Juice

Wheatgrass is so so great to our body.  What so great about wheatgrass? There are about 40 benefits listed in wheatgrasskids.com. Among those, wheatgrass which is high in oxygen helps our brain and body tissues function at an optimal level. Wheatgrass as the best source of living chlorophyll can heal our body both inside and outside. Wheat grass juice itself often comes with bitterness. With apple, the following recipe gives a sweetness and a very refreshing healthy juice for your body.

Home is a Place allows Mistake.

Is your home a place that allows mistake? Is your home a shelter for children's fragility? Children can be clumsy and messy in their growing process. E.g. children often spill their drinks, mess up while eating their food. The scientist kids tend to take apart their toys and study about them. The persistent (stubborn) kids will insist in their own choice which leads to common mistakes like wear the wrong clothes for the weather, match their clothes awkwardly, refuse to put on the shoes for outing etc. But, can moms accept these and handle them well?

Salmon Rice

Here it comes the recipe from my hubby. This is his great cooking. We like the aroma and the taste very much. The sweetness of the rice just not gonna stopping you from having it more. Hmm...yum yum! Honest compliment and please cook more often. Sometimes wives need to relax and give them the opportunity. They can do real well! No doubt that the world top chefs are male! So, ladies, learn to let go. And, gentlemen, take up the challenges, show us your great gift!

Udon Noodles

Japanese dishes are just too attractive to try due to less greasy and very much of soy sauce flavored in most of the cooking. Udon noodles and salmon rice are my husband's favorite kitchen cook, while the only one that I am confident with is sushi. This time, I have to give the udon noodle a try since we got the noodles already and the salmon has been cooked with rice last Saturday. Not disappointing, instead many thanks for the thumb up compliments from my hubby and my little princess!

Chicken Dumpling

We prefer wanton. In United States, dumpling is always served in many Chinese functions. I learned the wrapping method with the homemade skin 4 years ago in our small student group. I never really know how to wrap with more content inside and little flowery at the sides. My little princess fall in love with dumpling when she ate the dumpling made by Vivian, a sister who just moved to Arizona. Vivian got the skin (more like wanton tofu skin) from Safeway. That is the best skin we ever had for dumpling.

There is No Perfect Mom

It's no secret that mothers like you, are my heroes. Through sleep deprivation, chauffeuring duties, lack of personal space, 24/7 maid service and never ending to do lists; our abundance of unconditional love is astounding to me. ~ Kelly Matzen

Be thankful for those who still can spend moments with (or at least talk to) your moms on Mother's Day. For those who being apart from mom, reflect on those sweet memories you had in the past and continue to live out your mom's wonderful motherly love.

What to do with Home made Chicken Stock?

Well, the most convenient way to prepare a meal is having some stock ready.  Making your own chicken stock at home is healthier to eliminate sodium, color or preservative where often found in the stock from groceries store.

(1) Angel Hair in Chicken Stock
Ingredients:
1/3 package of angel hair (serve 2 adults)
fresh spinach
fried shallot
salt and pepper taste
eggs

Directions:
1. Cook the angel hair according to the package instruction
2. Drain the water and keep the angel hair
3. Cook the spinach in the stock, about 4 minutes
4. Add in egg, one for each person
5. Sprinkle with fried shallot and green onion (optional)
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste

(2) Smooth Egg Drop Corn Soup
Ingredients:
1 ear of fresh corn
1 tbsp corn starch
1 egg 

Directions:
1. Cook the fresh corn in the stock for about 8 minutes
2. Pour in the starchy syrup into the boiling soup
3. Lightly beat the egg and add little by little into the starchy soup, stir well every time the egg is added
4. Season with salt and pepper
5. Sprinkle with green onion or dried oregano

Note: To top up the flavor of the soup, add a little bit of black vinegar.

Korean Chicken Rice

Besides the salad dressings, another great thing I learn from Cooking Matters is cutting a whole chicken without breaking any bone, then prepare home made chicken stock. This is so cool and guess what? This is the very first time I managed to cut a whole chicken beautifully after full time self-cooking for 10 years!

Home Made Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
Chicken back and other bones
1 stalk of celery
1 onion
water enough to cover





Directions:
1) Put everything in a crock pot (slow cooker) and low heat for about 5 hours.
2) Sifted the excessive oil. Oil is easier to remove after fridge.

Note: Feel free to add in carrot too. It is wise to blanch the chicken with boiling water (no salt) in advance.

Haitian-style Chicken (modified)

Recently, I attended 2 classes from Cooking Matters to learn more about preparing healthy and affordable meals. I like their slogan "No Kid Hungry".

Anyway, I will say this recipe is at Asian's finger tips. I personally modified the ingredients and the cooking steps to come out with a different dish. Frankly speaking, this is far more better than what I ate at the class ;p

Easy and Quick Macaroni Salad

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup macaroni, cooked
8-10 shrimp, browned and peeled
1 egg, fried
Some fresh spinach
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
1 tsp honey

Furry Melon (Mao Gua-节瓜) Beef

Furry melon is another light green squash with furry outer skin, It is good for soup, stew or even simple egg fried. The wonderful of this recipe is that no water (or stock ) is added. It just pure melon and beef. To make the beef nice in flavor, marinate in advance the beef slices or beef stew for at least 24 hours in fridge.

Recovery Time or Time Out? You Decide.

When your child is misbehaved and out of control. Love and Logic suggests Recovery Time (or Bedroom Time) to let a child calm down and have a quiet time to think instead of being punished in anger and frustration, then later being lectured. This is quite different than Time-Out discipline approach.

The followings are the suggested steps for this Recovery Time/ Bedroom time (not bedtime, don't misstate).

My Writing of Chinese Character

Mom starts to worry about my Chinese writing as I need to pick up this writing skill as soon as possible to get ready for my coming schooling in her home country. She taught me once 上 and 下. I can remember well and I wrote 上 right away. Then, I continued with my last name 怡. This time, I did better because I positioned them well.

Egg Tarts 蛋挞

Egg tart, 蛋挞 is a great dessert, the most popular in Hong Kong cuisine. It looks simple, but the most difficult part is molding the dough in tarts.

Make Early Childhood Parenting Fun

It was so excited to attend the Love and Logic "Early Childhood Parenting Made Fun". This 5 series workshop is instructed by Cyndi Goldfarb who raised up her two successful daughters with the principles of Love and Logic. I read books and articles from Love and Logic, I agree with and comprehend most of the principles because they are so biblical. However, it just so comforting to know that most successful parents don't try everything at once. We are asked to try one or two simple skills at a time ;)

Black Fungus Chicken Soup

Black fungus also known as cloud ear fungus or 木耳, is very common in Asian cooking, believed to be healthy obesity diet food.

It contains very high Iron, 20 times as celery,7 times as pork liver. Eating regularly will nourish blood, keep countenance beauty, and prevent Iron Deficiency Anemia. Fresh black fungus is dangerous to eat as it contains poisonous matter. But most of the poisonous mater will disappear after dried under the sun.
 
(http://www.healthy-chinese-recipe.com/obesity-diet-food-black-fungus.html)

Bean Curd Chicken Soup with Shittake

Ingredients:
8 oz chicken breast, bite-sized
4-5 shittake, soaked and cut
half package of dried bean curd, soaked and cut
2 garlic, smashed
2 ginger, thinly sliced
1 medium size carrot, sliced
salt to taste

Steamed Salmon with Asparagus

Ingredients:
6 oz salmon
small carrot, thinly sliced
3-4 asparagus, diagonally cut
1 Tbsp soy sauce
little lime/lemon juice
little onion, thinly slice
garlic, minced

Steamed Trout

Yeah, Spring is here, so does the great trout! According to wikipedia, trout is either freshwater or saltwater fish, which belongs to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. We missed trout so much during the Winter. Steamed trout just a perfect refreshing dish that we love.

Simple Fried Rice with Fried Chicken

Guess what? The alternative to KFC fried chicken is the fried chicken from local groceries store like Albertsons, King Soopers or Safeway. This time we got one bucket from King Soopers, served with fried rice. Check on the simple recipe below. This yields two adult servings plus one little child ;)

Ka Ja Ma - Hakka Chicken

I brought this herb to United States and many thanks to the Auntie at Sg. Maong's market who taught me the simplest way to cook Ka Cha Ma. This is such a delicious and healthy dish, especially good for ladies. There are only four ingredients in this dish and it takes about one to two hour to prepare and cook.

Play is Important. Why?

Play is important for children. Play is the way children learn. Play is a child's job. Through play, children learn about themselves, their environment, their surrounding people and the world around them.

Research showed that play promotes healthy physical growth, social, emotional and cognitive development in children. Studies also show that quality play has important link to future success in academic.

Sharing Books with Children. How?

It is never too early to introduce books to your child. Whenever you read to your child, s/he looks at the picture and hears your reading, her/his brain cells begin to make connections. Repetition is a great way to learn for young children. Young children will not feel boring to hear the same stories over and over again. In fact, it helps strengthen brain connections.

Easy Money with Swagbucks. How?

For those who surf and search for any reason such as research, study, email, social network, entertainment and so on, why not earning easy money while doing what you are already doing every day? In the following, I am gonna to give general information regarding Swagbucks and some tips for easy earning.

What is SwagBucks?
Simple, earn FREE stuff by getting reward from your search and easy participation at SwagBucks.com. As stated in the website, Swagbucks.com allows web users to earn virtual currency by doing the things they do every day - search the web, shopping at their favorite retailers, and by engaging in other activities such as phone recycling, submitting polls, and completing special offers.

What is the requirement?
Simple, internet access and one unique swagbucks account.

How much does it cost? Not a dime! It costs ZERO, $0.

How to earn?

Easy, do this whenever you have access to Internet:
1). Everyday, vote the daily pool -> 1 swagbuck; check on the Trusted Survey -> 1 swagbuck; login the page or toolbar -> 1 swagbuck

2). Type in the name or url for any website you want to visit in the toolbar or in the browser search box or in the SwagBucks.com, even checking email or social networking
For instance, at Swagbucks toolbar or SwagBucks.com search box:
type in "gmail.com", "facebook.com", "dailycamera" and hit enter; at browser's search box: type "s mail.yahoo.com", "s facebook.com", "s today's weather" and hit enter.

Note: you may download the toolbar here after your registration.


3). To earn extra in free time:

• Watch SwagBucks TV to complete the 100% metric -> 3 SwagBucks
• Complete the tasks -> big bucks, 8 to 110 bucks.

4). Earn as your friend earns.
If your friend willing to sign up to be your referral, you earn whenever they earn for searching the web (ONLY on searching). No worry at your friends because they lose nothing at all for signing under you. This is like earning into your account and cheering your friend at the same time.


Who is eligible?
Hmm.. guess what? I am not very sure, but I see something like this at the Swag Store. Advanced search filtered by: United States, Canada, United Kingdom. Perhaps you can email to ask about your eligibility for your current resided country.

So, this is very rewarding to me. I joined in February 4, 2011. I have received four Amazon e-gift cards (by March 27) and 23xx points which enables me to redeem another five e-gift cards!

Friends, no hesitate, sign up now and get your first 30 SwagBucks. Happy earning!

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior?

Amy Chuo being called the Tiger Mom, has wrote this: Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior? Read the article and listen to your heart, what is your response?


My first question, are we pushing our young children too hard in doing something beyond their stage of ability or their interest? Are we trying to realize our own dream through our children and

Stimulating Activities for Young Children

From previous post, we see the possible negative effects to a child when a parent removes fun and silliness from a childhood, but impose pressure for a greater self-defined dream and success.

The followings suggest some developmentally appropriate stimulating activities for different stages of a child:

Every Child Deserves a Healthy Childhood

Perhaps you all heard of Neverland, a fantasy ranch with amusement parks in California. Neverland Ranch was a home to the most successful entertainer of all time, Michael Jackson. He called himself Peter Pan, a boy who never grows up. He was such a genius in singer-songwriting, dancing, recording etc; yet he was an innocent and humble child-like (not childish) adult.

Choose the Best Environment for your Child (updated)

If parents understood the importance of the early years of their children, yet they still need to send them to care center for some good reasons, please consider the following criteria in choosing the best environment for your precious child.

It is common that parents will choose a provider whom they trust, probably with rich experience and good reference.

Family Mealtime is Important to Children. Why? So?

Mealtime is more than just eating. It is an important time in the life of your child. The good news is that the number of families that eat together at least once a day has increased from 52% in 2003 to 73% in 2010 (Source: American Dietetic Association Foundation - Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey, 2003 and 2010). What are the benefits of family mealtime?

Who Does a Child Need in the First Years?

Focus on the Family emphasized the importance of a home to the little children. Attachment in home helps children learn to trust which is essential for having healthy relationship in life. It is worth to ponder on the following great words. 

Snow Pea Leaves with Shrimp

This is our first taste on snow pea leaves. This is so yum for quick stir fry with garlic and shrimp. Thumb up!

Ingredients:
1/3 bag of snow pea leaves
2 big garlic cloves, minced
6 big tiger shrimp, peeled and cut into 3 parts
2 tsp canola oil

The First Years of Your Child Are Essential

Scientists continue to prove that the first three years of children are the most important that last forever. This has been recognized by thinkers and educators throughout history. Chinese old saying goes "三岁定终生“! Tremendous physical growth and learning occur between 0-3 ages. The followings briefly address the Piaget's stages of cognitive development and the Erik Erikson's (EE) stages of personality development: