On Welcoming the New Year

Happy New Year!

I love this time of the year. It is time to review, reflect and reconnect. It is also time for new beginning. Every year, I think about new year's resolution, and every year I "fail". This year, I decided to not have "resolution" for the new year, but I have a "New Year Intention". The difference is that I do not have to "accomplish" it, therefore, I cannot "fail" it. I simply have to live every day with this intention in mind. So, here it is. My "new Year's Intention" is to

"丁寧に生きる” (= LIVE MINDFULLY).

May your new year bring you joy and growth in you life...

Cooking for Mrs. C...

For the past almost three months, I have been very busy in my kitchen. I am cooking for another family.

When my husband and I decided that I stay home with our girls, I (as a financial manager of our household) was a bit nervous. A few months into my staying home, I also started to get the itch. I NEED TO MAKE SOME MONEY. I had been working full time for 13 years before I went on maternity leave with my little peanut (and did not go back to work), and I was not completely comfortable with the fact that I am not making any Mula. Then an email came from my old supervisor asking if I would be interested in short term part time position. I was tempted, of course, and looked at every possible way for this to work, but in the end it just was not worth it, with the cost of daycare, gas price, being away from our girls, pumping breast milk, etc. It was just about then when Mrs. C. asked me if I would be interested in cooking for her family. At first, I did not take her request too seriously, or rather I thought "this is too good to be true". As I talked to Mrs. C. about what she wants and how she wants this to work, however, I started to think that this might actually work. The first weeks was a trial, and yes, it was definitely a trial. Since then, Mrs. C. and I have been tweaking our arrangement. The best part of this arrangement is that I LOVE this job. There is not one job until now that I wake up in the morning, excited to "be at work". Mrs.C. and her family are semi-vegetarian, so many dishes I make are vegetarian dishes, which works for me because my family is Pescatarian. This week, I made something new that was requested from Mrs.C. When I saw the recipe, I was a little skeptical because the only spice it calls for is 2 tablespoons of Curry powder. But it turned out very tasty. I think the vegetable broth gave it a very good flavor, and it is full of vegetables.






Vegetable Curry (Adopted from Rainbow Vegetable Curry from The Vegan Chef)


1 large red onion, cut into half and slice it
2 Tbl Sp olive oil
2 Tbl Sp unbleached flour
2 cups vegetable stock (I used Rapunzel Vegetable Cubes)
2 Tbl Sp curry powder
1/2 Kabocha squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups broccoli, cut into small florets
2 cups cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 cups carrot, sliced 1 cup red pepper, destemmed, deseeded, and diced
1 cup orange or yellow pepper, destemmed, deseeded, and diced
1 - 14 oz. can coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 salt
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper

In a large pot, saute the red onion in olive oil until soft (5-7 minutes). Add the flour, stir well to coat the onions, and cook for a few minutes while stirring constantly to slightly cook the flour. Add the vegetable stock and curry powder, stir well, and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add Kabocha, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, red pepper, and orange pepper, and stir well to thoroughly coat the vegetables with the broth mixture. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the remaining ingredients, stir well, and simmer an additional 5-10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. 

Serve it with steamed Basmati Rice.

Serves 6-8

Blueberry Muffins

IBack in June when blueberries were in peak season, I went a little crazy, and bought a flat crate of blueberries a few times. 

This picture only shows 9 baskets but in a flat crate, there are 12 baskets of blueberries. I paid $40. Yes, it was a lot of money to spend for blueberries, but its season is so short and they are so delicious, I could not resist. At home, I washed, dried, and froze them in bags. I probably froze 8-10 one-gallon plastic bags full of blueberries. They are of course the best fresh, but we enjoy eating them frozen as is, in pancakes, quick jam, smoothies, and of course in blueberry muffins. I like to bake them in small muffin cups. My family loves them so much that when I make these, they are gone in a few minutes. 

Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used coconut oil* here. You can also use melted butter) 

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries 

Pre-heat oven for 400F

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, white sugar, salt and baking powder) 

In a 1 cup measuring cup, combine vegetable oil and egg. Add milk until the combined liquid measures 1 cup (may need a little more than 1/3 cup milk) and whisk together.

Add egg/milk/oil mixture to the combined dry ingredients. 

Add blueberries and fold. 

Line your choice of muffin tins with liners and pour muffin mix in each cup. 

Bake them in the pre-heated oven for 18-25 minutes depending on the size of your muffin tin. 

To check if muffins are done, insert a chopsticks or a skewer stick into the muffin. If it comes out dry and clean, muffins are done. If you see wet muffin mix on the stick, bake them for a few more minutes. 

* notes on coconut oil: coconut oil solidifies at 76 degree. During the summer, my coconut oil is in clear liquid form, but in winter it is white and solid. If your coconut oil is solid, simply warm it up in a microwave. You also need to have other ingredients (milk, egg, and blueberries) at room temperature before combining them with coconut oil. Otherwise, your mixture will become very very thick. If using frozen blueberries, I would thaw them before adding them to the mixture or add the, frozen and fold them quickly. 

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They depend on me...

Every night at 1am and 3am, I have one wish which will never come true: I wish men could breastfeed... (Translate: i wish my husband could breastfeed...) Whenever Sophia starts crying Ely would call me, "mama! I think baby needs to breastfeed!" Yes. Yes. I know she does...all the time... As I nurse Sophia, I cannot stop thinking about the fact that we, women, feed our offsprings. The survival of our species heavily depends on us. I look at Sophia, who almost doubled her birth weight in two months, and I am amazed by this very primitive (yet important) function of my body: feeding our babies. For us humans, feeding our offspring does not stop when our children stop nursing. The end of nursing is just one milestone. Parents are responsible for feeding our children for a very long time. In my family, the primary person to feed the family is, of course, mama (= me). I was looking at Ely's baby pictures, and came across a lot of pictures of homemade baby food and toddler food. Although I highly recommend to make your own baby food, I know it is not for everyone. It takes time and effort. Ely is now old enough to eat the same meals as ours, and her health continues to depend on me. The other day, a terrible thought came to my mind...what if something happens to me... Who is going to feed them? At the dinner table, I told my husband, "I have one wish. Can you promise me that the girls will continue to eat good home cooked meals if something ever happens to me?", "please do not feed them frozen and boxed food." Of course, my husband did not take me seriously, and said, "nothing will happen to you." I am not expecting  anything to happen to me. I was talking about the "what if" situation, and yes, I am serious. My husband knows how to cook. He makes good pasta with tomato sauce, and super juice, and some sandwiches, but he cannot raise our girls feeding on only those foods day after day. I told him that it would be nice if he can expand his cooking repertoire, and he agreed. He hasn't quite entered the kitchen to do so yet, but I am hoping in the near future we will have a cooking date in our kitchen.

Tequila Cilantro Pasta

This recipe was adopted from a recipe I received from my friend Lisa. The original recipe is called "Tequila Chicken Fettuccine". I make this without chicken and replace chicken broth with vegetable base broth.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound dry spinach fettuccine

OR

2 pounds fresh spinach fettuccine

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro reserved for garnish

2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic

2 tablespoons minced jalapeno pepper (seeds and veins may be removed) - I usually omit this because it becomes quite spicy for my daughter.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (reserve 1 tablespoon for saute )

1/2 cup chicken stock (preferably homemade) - I replaced this with veggie base broth using Rapunzel vegetable broth cube. 

2 tablespoons gold tequila

2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice or lemon juice if you don't have lime 

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 medium yellow bell pepper thinly sliced

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:

Cook 1/3 cup cilantro, garlic and jalapeno in 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Add stock, tequila and lime juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until reduced to a paste like consistency. This will take a while. Do not rush this step. You need to be patient. You also need to be attentive to the pot so that it will not burn. 

This is how it should look. 

Meanwhile cook onion and peppers, stirring occasionally, with remaining butter over medium heat. When the vegetables have wilted (become limp), add soy sauce and quickly toss and add reserved tequila/lime paste and cream. Bring the sauce to boil and reduce the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally. You don't want to continue boiling it as the cream starts to separate. Taste it and add salt and pepper if you like. Turn off the heat. 

Prepare rapidly boiling, salted water to cook pasta; cook pasta accoding to the direction. When sauce is done, toss with well-drained spinach fettuccine and reserved cilantro and parmigiana cheese. I this picture, I used spinach spaghetti. 

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Feeling grateful...

Where did the time go? It has been more than two months since I visited this space. What has been happening at our Makery? Not much in the kitchen or sewing department, but super busy welcoming and loving our new addition to our lives... Baby Sophia!! There has been a lot of challenges with her birth, my post partum, and everyone's adjustment, but I am happy to report that we are finally settling down. And "making" is slowly coming back to our lives...MY life. 

Today's post is not about making or cooking. It is dedicated to the amazing women I recently met, and the importance of a support system and community. 

6 years ago, I left Chicago where I consider it my second hometown to start a new life with my husband in Orange County. For the longest time, I had blamed him for uprooting me from my friends and family. Although I met a few very good friends in Orange County, I never felt that I had a community or good support system outside of my workplace. I often felt lonely and sad. All I had was my husband and later my daughter. But had it not be those few good friends I met though work, I would have been depressed or worse, and I am grateful for the friendship. When we decided to move to the Bakersfield area, I again had to make new friends and community. I am a friendly person, but I am more of an introvert and not the one to go up to someone and introduce myself. In fact, I met my very first friend because my husband took our three years old to a story time, and he started talking to her. Now, we became very good friends and our daughters became good friends.

She introduced me to a group of mamas in Bakersfield who regularly meet with their children to play and chitchat. But this group has become much more than a play date group for me. When Sophia was born two months ago, I had such a hard time trying to recover from giving birth, nursing, taking care of our three years old, and taking care of the household. My own family not being here, I had little support. My husband helped as much as he could but taking care of a three year old can be difficult. I was exhausted, depressed, cried a lot, and felt guilty that I was not doing enough for my girls. I became short with my three years old, raised my voice at her quite often, and cried later on because she did not deserve for me to be like that with her. Then, these mamas did something amazing for me. They got together and delivered meals for one full week! Each of them took turn, prepared the meal for me and my family, and delivered to our door. By the time they started the meal delivery, I was so exhausted, i was serving my family cans of soup for dinner. That is a warning sign for my physical and mental well being. One of my supervisors once asked me how I would know if I am deteriorating mentally. I couldn't think of anything because I often do not realize When I am tired or overworked until I explode (often toward my husband). Now I know. If I stop cooking and a can of soup is becoming my family dinner, watch out! So, these deliveries were a gift from the universe. Most of these amazing women did not even know me well yet. All they knew was that there was an overwhelmed mama (me) who did not have much support and needed help. All of the women are mamas of small children, which means their hands are already full. Yet, they did this for me and my family. 

Since then, I came to know these women better, and learned that many of them moved away from their family and community. Trying to build their own support system, they found each other. We meet a few times every week, let our children play together, and we talk about different things. I feel comfortable and supported. I am truly grateful for their friendship. I am still physically tired from nursing and running after My three years old, but I am emotionally more stable and mentally clearer. Thank you, ladies. Now it is time to cook!

Comforting Breakfast: Nutella Strawberries Crepe

Finally! I am on maternity leave, 36 weeks now and at home. I had a busy week with Ely and doctor's appointment etc. And I have been riding an emotinal rollercoaster. On Wednesday, I found out that baby Sophia is breech. I cried, blamed my husband (for him not being more supportive or stressing me out or whatever the reason I could find... heck for his hairy chest if that works!) Today is Sunday and I am calmer and more grounded. Of course I called my mother and she did the magic again. She is such Buddhist with her attitude of whatever happens, happens, you just have to face and accept it. She helped me ground myself and remind myself what is most important. My mother is so powerful. And I wonder if I will ever be so powerful and grounding to my daughters as my mother is to me. I look at my daughter and feeling the baby inside of me, I wonder how they will see me in 20 years. Will I be their comfort? Will they call me when they face life's difficulty? Will I be able to comfort them as my mother does me? I hope I will.

So this week, what I needed was a very comforting breakfast. Flour, eggs, chocolate spread and strawberries do it for me.

Nutella strawberry crepe:

1 cup of flour
1 & 1/4 cup of milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
Oil for the pan

Nutella
Strawberries



Mix all the ingredients except oil with a whisk or in a blender until smooth.

Heat nonstick pan, skillet or crepe pan (if you have one).

When the pan is heated, brush oil all over.

The pan needs to be pretty hot.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter and tilt the pan so that the batter covers the bottom of the pan (evenly if you can),

Cook on one side for 30 seconds or so on low to medium heat, and turn over and cook the other side for another 10 seconds or so.

Put the crepe on a plate, spread Nutella and add cut up strawberries, and fold. You can certainly use different filling, bananas, blueberries, whipped cream, etc.

It's spring time!

One of the great things about living in California is we get to feel the spring a bit earlier than many of the states in this country. That comes with abundance of fresh produce available. This weekend, Ely and I (and my big belly), went to a farmers market that we have not been for a long time. We are indeed lucky to have three (!) year-around farmers market in town. Two of them are managed and cared by the same manager and farmers/venders. And the other one is run by different farmers. I honestly love both of them, and we have friend at both markets. We have been going to the one closer to our house during the winter, but I received an e-newsletter about what is happening at the other market early last week, so we had to go check it out. Wow! What an abundance of fresh produce!! We caught up with farmer friends and bought a lot of greens, strawberries, eggs, and potatoes. There was also a new vender, a dairy farm/creamery! I have been looking for a local dairy for a while since we moved here, and I was very excited to see them at the farmers market. They are still about 90 miles away from our house, but they sell their milk in glass bottles, and has variety; whole milk, skim milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, and root beer milk. They also sell ice cream. We bought one 1/2 gallon whole milk, and 1/4 gallon chocolate milk.

The reason why I was looking for a local dairy was because I want to make homemade yogurt, cheese, and ice cream. For cheese, I needed to find pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) or raw milk. Many of the milk at a store are ultra-pasteurized in order to prolong their shelf life. But this one I bought today, is pasteurized. I am a bit nervous and has not had the courage to make cheese at home, yet. But I did make ice cream. I am lucky enough to have an ice cream maker, which makes ice cream making so much easier. I just followed the recipe came with the instruction booklet. But there is no comparison in taste and quality. Homemade ice cream not only allows you to know exactly what goes on into your ice cream, but also tastes much much better and creamy. The recipe does call for heavy whipping cream, which I had to buy at a store. But I am going to make frozen yogurt next time with homemade yogurt. I also made Lavender Lemon Sorbet adopted from the recipe for Lemon Basil Sorbet from the same booklet.

Simple vanilla and chocolate chip ice cream adopted from Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker instruction booklet.

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup chocolate chip

In a mixing bowl combine whole milk and sugar. Whisk it until sugar is dissolved into milk. Add heavy cream and vanilla. You can cover it and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours to over night. I did not do this because I could not wait!

Turn on the ice cream maker, pour the mixture into the frozen bowl and let it mix until thickened. After about 15-20 minutes, add chocolate chips and run it for a few minutes. If it is too soft, put it in the freezer for a few hours before serving.