Happy Lunar New Year everyone! I always told myself due to us observing both Western and Lunar calendars, we have twice as many opportunities to start the year off right! Ever since we moved from Taiwan to Texas, the Lunar New Year celebration has not been the same, I remember the school children normally take Winter break at this time, working Mom and Dads would get around a week off also. This was a time I got to hang out with relatives, visit certain folks from out of town and enjoy the festivities together, also collect red envelopes, the most exciting time indeed. Now a days I try to have some traditions around my own home, so little girl can learn about the culture and hopefully pass the fun to her children. On Lunar New Year’s eve I would clean the whole house, since no cleaning is allowed during the New Year celebration, I would make sure to have oranges and flowers in the kitchen, they represent good fortune and make me happy. Most importantly there’s the cooking, my Mama made this wonderful New Year’s cake, I cut them into rectangular shapes, dip in egg then pan fried  golden, oh they were so good! There were also boiled and pan fried dumplings, then some tea eggs to top everything off. You can see the photos on Weeknite Meals’ FaceBook page here>

Anywho, let’s talk about today’s recipe! Chinese people like to eat dishes that represent good fortune during the New Year’s celebration, for example, the dumplings look like the silver and gold ingots Chinese folks used as currency, the Tea Eggs symbolize golden nuggets. The Golden Tofu are made to represent gold bricks, and who doesn’t want some in their home to bring in prosperity and more good fortune in the new year! I had fun making this, the family had a great time eating ‘em gold blocks, I hope you will give it a try also!

Ingredients:

1 box firm tofu
1 egg
1/2 T sesame seeds
3 T corn starch
1/3 cup panko
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T teriyaki sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2T oil for frying

Directions:

1. Slice the tofu and cut them into rectangle shape to represent gold bricks, set aside to drain
2. Mix panko with sesame seed on a plate, set aside
3. Beat the egg, add minced garlic, set aside
4. Put corn starch in 1 bowl, set aside
5. Coat the tofu in the following order: dip in egg, then corn starch, then panko mix
6. Heat up the oil with medium high heat, add the tofu pieces and pan fry until golden brown. (Optional: I served them on top of a bed of sauteed spinach), plate and sprinkle with salt/pepper to taste, then drizzle teriyaki sauce or soy sauce. Enjoy!

Hello friends! How’s your 2012 so far? It’s amazing we are already more than half way done with January, so far I am still sticking with my New Year’s Resolution of “Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments”, hope you are doing well with your resolution also!

My fellow foodie friend Kath from My Funny Little Life recently posted a blog of some of her favorite things, in there she included a MP3 player, it got me thinking that maybe I can incorporate music into my week night cooking routine also. Normally I listen to “Vocal Trance” from Digitally Imported while working, don’t laugh, I know it’s ridiculous that I listen to dance club music while designing, but it’s been going on for years, and it really gets the creative juices flowing, or at least the beat keeps me productive. I’ve recently downloaded their app onto my iPhone, so now a days when it’s time to cook, the headphones are plugged in, and I feel so happy prepping and cooking away! Do you have any routine that helps with making everyday chores fun?

OK, let’s talk about today’s recipe! A few months ago I re-organized our bookcase, when my hubby was doing most of the cooking, the gourmet in training that he is purchased every single cookbook there is along with every single spices one would ever need. The spices have come in very handy, though the cookbooks got buried with the rest of our stuff. Now everything’s organized, I’ve pulled out the Asian ones and study them from time to time. The Chicken in Lemon Sauce is from “The Asian Kitchen” by Lilian Wu, it’s a beautiful hard cover and with detailed step by step photos. I received many praises from the family about this (there’s a slight modification from the original recipe), hope you will give it a try also!

Ingredients:
4 skinned chicken thighs, flattened and cut away fats, then cut into 1/2 inch stripes
1tbsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp cornstarch
3 stalks of green onions, cut into 3 long sections per stalk
1 lemon
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rice wine
2/3 cup chicken stock
4 tbsp cooking oil

Instructions:
1. Toss chicken strips with soy sauce, then cover with 4 tbsp of cornstarch
2. Peel the lemon, remove lemon zest and cut into fine strips, reserve aside.
3. Juice the lemon, , mix with sugar, rice wine, chicken stock.
4. Mix remaining corn starch with some water and blend well, reserve aside
5. Heat the oil and cook the chicken in small batches for 3-4 minutes, remove and drain on paper towel
6. Add the green onions sections and garlic to the pan, stir until fragrant
7. Add the reserved ingredients (lemon juice mix, corn starch mix and lemon zest) bring to a boil, add the chicken pieces back into the pan and toss with sauce to coat evenly, enjoy with white rice.

How’s everyone’s 2012 going so far? January is usually a bit slow for me business wise, so I was a little surprised at the work load there are this week, it’s definitely a great surprise though, because to tell you the truth, I am ALL PARTIED OUT from the festivities of last year’s holiday season, so routine and normalcy is very welcoming! Below is some photos of the parties we had at our place, if you would like to see more photos of the food, please visit the album on Weeknite Meals’ FB Page Here>

Some photos of our Christmas Eve and New Year Eve festivities

The house is back to normal now, everything seems to be more spacious and airy. We are planning some minor home improvement projects, it’s a little nerve wrecking, because I am not the most handy person in the world. Though we are excited about what’s to come, there will be some before and after photos coming your way when I get up the nerve to tackle these tasks!

OK, let’s talk about the Pork and Egg crock pot stew recipe. Since I have been pretty busy with work, this week’s menu has been pretty simple. I already have a super easy and fabulous Spicy Beef Noodle crock pot recipe, though I didn’t have any stew beef laying in the freezer, so after some research, this pork stew recipe looks to be the thing to work with. It’s got a lighter broth, and the family seemed really to be taken by it. Little girl asked me for “LOTS of Pork and LOTS of soup” in her next day’s lunch box, hubby also praised the taste and tenderness of the pork. Looks like I will be making this dish pretty regularly, hope you will give it a try also!

Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/8 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/8 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Chinese rice wine
• 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
• 2 pieces star anise
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1.5 pounds lean pork stew meat
• 6 eggs
• 6-10 fried tofu cubes
• 1 package of dry rice noodles

Directions

Hard boil the eggs, peel the shell and reserve aside.

Combine all other ingredients (except noodles and fried tofu) in a 5-to-6-quart slow cooker. Add the pork, then cover and cook on high 4 hours.

Add the hard boiled eggs and fried tofu into the crock pot, cook on high for another 2 hours.

Cook the rice noodles according to direction, once done divide into bowls, ladle the broth, egg, tofu and pork onto the noodles, add some vegetable if your prefer. Enjoy!

Adapted from Food Network

Hi everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I am enjoying the second week of Christmas/New Year holiday season, chilling with little girl and hanging out with friends. The potluck party we threw on Christmas Eve was a huge success, adults and children all had a blast, as the host/hostess, hubby and I were thrilled! If you are interested to find out what dishes were served, please check out Weeknite Meal’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/weeknitemeals

Even though most of the food were consumed, there were still quite a bit of turkey left (hubby fried two turkeys, one and half were gone by the end of the night), I shredded the meat and kept them in the frig to make this wonderfully comfort soup. The original recipe was from Laura in the Kitchen, hubby found her video on YouTube and we were extremely pleased with how the soup tasted, I’ve made some minor adjustments to suit our preference (the original recipe called for 1 whole tablespoon of chilli… For a spicy food lover like me, that was still way too hot!) Enjoy!

Ingredients
4 cups of Chicken Stock
3 cups of water
1 Large Onion, chopped
1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Jalapeno, seeded ad chopped
4 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp of Chili Powder
1 Tsp of Cumin
1 tsp of Dried Oregano
1 Tsp of Coriander
1 28oz can of Hominy, drained and rinsed
1 pound of cooked Turkey, shredded
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

For Topping,
Lime Juice
Chopped Avocados

Process,

1) In a large pot over medium high heat, cook together the onion, jalapeno and garlic in the olive oil for 4 to 5 minutes or until the veggie are staring to cook down. Add the ground cumin, coriander, chili powder and oregano and cook for 30 seconds.

2) Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.

3) Add the hominy and turkey, season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes.

4) Ladle into the serving bowl and top with some fresh cilantro, chopped avocados and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Laura In The Kitchen

Happy Holidays! I wanted to wish each and every single one of my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Are you done with all the shopping and holiday preparations? I don’t plan on braving the street today much, except to eat at a Brazilian steak house tonight, where the wait staff walk around with skewers of assortments of meat and we stuff our faces until we can’t move… Sounds delightful right?

If you are looking for a super simple Christmas food present to give, I have a great recipe to share. I’ve started making giant coconut macaroons since last Christmas, they were pretty good but not moist enough, the funny thing is I followed the Mexican tres leches recipe, which you would imagined would be super juicy with 3 milk’s involvement. Anyway this year I stumbled across a recipe in Food & Wine magazine, after a little modification, the giant macaroons turned out moist and fabulous. Hope you will enjoy it and let me know how you like them!

Ingredients:

• 2 14oz bag of sweetened coconut flakes
• 1  14oz can of condensed milk
• 14 oz of sour cream
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp almond extract
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2tsp salt

Instructions:

• Prep the baking pan with parchment paper or non-stick aluminum foil, I used cupcake cups for easier handling and gift giving
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Pour the coconut flakes into 1 large mixing bowl
• Pour the vanilla and almond extract into the condensed milk can and mix well
• Mix condensed milk and sour cream into the coconut flakes, make sure they are distributed evenly
• Add the salt into the egg white and beat (with a electric mixer) vigorously until it foams and harden, this process took about 4-5 minutes on high
• Fold the egg white foam into the coconut flake mixture
• Use your hand or an ice cream scooper, form the coconut mixture into large ball shapes, mine are about 1.5 inch in diameter, this batch makes around 24 macaroons
• Bake the macaroons for 30 minutes, at 15 minute mark, switch the pan on the top shelf with the bottom, front and back to make sure even heat distribution.

Optional: You can choose to drizzle the finished macaroons with dark or white chocolate to make them even more festive! Happy Holidays!

Hello Friends! I hope you are done with holiday shopping and is prepared for Christmas festivities! We don’t actually do much gift exchange in this household, but little girl and all her cousin do get gifts from “Santa” and each other, the funny thing is I normally look for great deals online for next year’s presents, in fact I am already done with 2012′s Christmas shopping, it’s a great feeling knowing a year in advance that there’s no need to mess with holiday traffic and last minute mall craziness!

I am honored to be one of the blog sitters for Nami @ Just One Cookbook while she’s traveling with family at Taiwan. When I first received the assignment, my Mom and I were discussing what to make, then all the sudden my sister said “Pearl Balls”! Our eyes light up, because this is truly a dish that EVERYONE fights over during Chines New Year! The following is Nami’s blog posting, you can also visit her blog directly here. We’ve become great friends and I’ve looked to her recipes many times to feed my hungry family, they are satisfied every time and I  truly appreciate her generosity in sharing her world of yumminess!

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Unlike other guest bloggers that I’ve met through food blogging, I met Cindy in a different way.  I was introduced to her by our mutual friends because they think of us as a “food blogger”.  Cindy lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and a daughter so we haven’t actually met in person yet.  But we started to talk frequently and discuss food and family life.

Cindy started blogging about her recipes when she started to cook at home more often to save money.  What I admire about her is that she has a full time job as a business owner/web & graphics designer during the day, and she still tries hard to cook healthy meals for her family.  Her site, Weeknite Meals, features mainly Chinese and other Asian dishes that even full-time working parent can come home and prepare in a short time.  Her recipes are fool-proof as she had prepared all the recipes after her work hours.  I’m especially happy to introduce her site to all the busy moms/dads who want to feed children good meals.  You can also visit her online at Facebook.  Please welcome Cindy with her traditional Chinese New Year’s dish.  I actually had this dish for the first time in Taiwan this time, and it was so delicious!  I am going to make this myself soon.

Welcome Cindy!  Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I live in the great State of Texas, where it’s pretty much Summer all year long. I am married to a fun and wonderful husband, we have a sassy little girl, an old sweet dog, and a mischievous bunny. I am a Graphics/Web Designer by trade, Mom/Wife 24/7.  Been known as a terrible cook for years, in fact hubby refused to eat my cooking so we resorted to eating out every single night. With the economy down turn, the beginning of 2009 I decided to start cooking at home to save money, with mad online recipe searching skills and determination, the family actually seem to enjoy what I’ve come up with, which encourage me to experiment more with cooking.

Please tell us a little bit about your blog.

I started Weeknite Meals in 2010 to keep track of recipes in case my daughter wants to learn how to cook when she’s older, also to share photos of the food we enjoy.  Most of the recipes I cook are Asian, it’s not that we don’t like non-Asian food, it’s because the few times I tried to cook non-Asian, they turned out disastrously. My blog includes recipes that I’ve tried and enjoyed, though after cooking for the past few years, lately I’ve started to modify and come up with recipes of my own, I also started to include tid bits of my life, so Foodie friends can get some insights into my life.

How do you feel about your own food blogging experience so far?

I LOVE food blogging! Well at times when I get stressed out with the design business, I do tend to disappear from the blogsphere. But the food blogging community is a super supportive one, and even when I am not posting, I am always reading.

If you can give one advice to a new food blogger, what would it be?

I am relatively new at blogging, so still learning as I go. I would suggest newbies to set up a “Foodbuzz” account, I met so many lovely people there! Instead of searching blindly on Google, the Food Buzz community has an extensive database of people with similar interests as you, which makes finding and following other bloggers much simpler.

What would you advise to a new cook or someone who wants to start cooking at home more?

Since I started cooking due to the economical downturn, saving money was a big goal. By cooking mostly Asian food, it meant most likely I had the ingredients in my pantry already. If you are starting to cook, try to build up your pantry and maybe stick with recipes from similar regions, it will make your life much easier and wallet much fatter!

Thank you Cindy! From here I will let Cindy take over and show us what she prepared. Enjoy!

Hi all! This is Jeno from Weeknite Meals. I am so honored to be chosen as one of the Nami’s guest food bloggers while she’s on holiday break. I am honored to share one of my family’s old time favorite Chinese New Year’s dish: Pearl Balls! This is something we only got to eat once a year when families visit, and due to a house filled with guests,  we only got to eat a few Pearl Balls at a time. I’ve always imagined it’s a difficult dish to make, this is why a seasoned cook like my Mom would only make it once a year. Come to find out that’s not the case at all! In fact we really had a great time cooking together (Well mostly my Mom did the cooking, while I took photos), my little girl and her cousins devoured so many as their afternoon snack, and still asked for more to take home for the evening. I hope you will give this recipe a try and let me know whether you like them as much as we do!

Pearl Balls Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of sweet rice (soak in water overnight, drain and set aside right before you are ready to prepare)
• 1 pound ground pork (try to buy the ones with a little big more fat content so the pearl balls won’t come out too dry)
• 1 tbsp green onions, chopped
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp MSG (optional)
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 6 water chestnuts, peeled, smashed then minced

Instructions:

1. Except the sweet rice, mix all other ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Grab handfuls of the mixed ingredients, pat them in your palms to make the mixture stickier.
3. Start boiling water to prepare the steamer, layer cheese cloth on the bottom of steamer (Optional).
4. Make meat balls, about 1 inch diameter each.
5. Roll the meat balls in sweet rice, make sure all sides are covered. Now the meat balls should resemble beautiful pearls!

Place the pearl balls into your steamer, steam on high for 20 minutes.

Enjoy as an appetizer or a side dish!

Hello friends! Can you believe it’s the weekend again? Fridays are my favorite days out of the week… Friday mornings when the alarm goes off, I get to turn them off knowing the next 2 days I get to sleep in a bit more. My clients are usually more laid back on Fridays also, so there’s less time spent on emails and phone calls, more time spend on actual design work and some cyber browsing. I do not cook on the weekends (Hince the blog name: Weeknite Meals), so Friday nights are super relaxing, hubby brings little girl and I to a restaurant of our choice, and we would order a cocktail or wine to wind down the week. Which day out of the week is your favorite?

While Thanksgiving food shopping, I noticed the pork chops were on sale. I have not cooked them for a while, since no matter what I try, the results never turned out quite like how my Mom makes them. I do notice hubby likes to order pork chops when we go to nice restaurants, so I’ve decided to look for some American style recipes and give them a try. This recipe was real simple and quick, though I was a bit skeptical while cooking. Worried the pork chop would turned out dry and cardboard like… Thank goodness hubby said “It’s good!” as soon as he took a bite, little girl loved it also! It always makes my day when the family enjoys their dinner!

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick, bone-in
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup buttermilk
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Directions

As I am sitting here typing this post, my skinny jeans are about to burst, and I wanted to share with you all the reason why I am in this predicament… Mongolian Hot Pot!

You see my Dad used to tell us that our Grandmother’s family was related with the Chinese emperor, for some reason I always thought we were part Mongolian (the Yang Dynasty), until recently I realized he meant the “Last Chinese Emperor”, who was actually Manchurian… From this information mix up, my heart has always had a warm spot for the Mongolians. So when the popular chain  restaurant “Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot” opened in Houston, I dragged hubby and little girl to check out what the hype was all about. To tell you the truth, I was never a big fan of hot pots, what’s the big deal about cooking your own food items in a boiling pot of semi-flavored broth? Well was I in for a surprise! As soon as we walked in, the smell won me over! The broth was intensely flavored, we really didn’t need any dipping sauce. The only issue with going there was the bill, no matter which combination of items we order, they always end up being quite pricey.

Fortunately recently we found the hot pot spice packages at our local Asian super market, so tonight was our first time trying to recreate this deliciousness at home. All I can say is WOW! We had a good old time chowing down, had to take a nice long walk afterward in the chilly weather… Hubby and little girl proceed to sleep off the food while I struggle with my jeans currently. Looks like the next time we have Mongolian hot pot at home, I will have to cut the food to about half the quantity!

Since there’s really no recipe for this, just follow the package direction if you have access to Little Sheep’s spice packs, please enjoy the photos below:

2 sided pot, 1 side spicy for hubby and I, the other side is mild for little girl.

Frozen tofu, glass noodles, dry tofu sheets

Lettuce, Napa cabbage and bean sprouts

Sauces (really was not necessary)

Tofu puffs, Korean rice cakes, imitation crab meat

Fish balls, fish balls with roe inside, shrimp and squid dumplings

Waiting for the broth to boil

Time to start adding the items into the boiling broth

Close up of our Mongolian hot pot!

Wow, it is almost Wednesday already? Since the beginning of November, my little girl started taking piano lessons on Monday evenings, which means we would grab something fast for dinner, or I would cook something in the crock-pot so dinner time is not so rushed. Tuesday nights I would try to cook something hubby and little girl really enjoy so the family can have a more “homey” meal.

If you follow Weeknite Meal’s FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/weeknitemeals), you would know my lovely neighbor brought over a bunch of HUGE lemons last week. I have always been a fan of smaller lemons with thin peels, they just seem juicier and easier to work with. So when these GIANT ones came along, my initial reaction was “Oh I bet they are going to be all dry inside, and the thick skin would make them hard to work with…” Boy was I wrong! Each lemon yield about 1/3 cup of juice, and they are so easy to squeeze! Little girl and I made frozen lemonade, regular lemonade, and for tonight’s dinner, I decided to try my hand at Asian Style Lemon Fish. The dish turned out very delicious if I may say so, little girl told me she loves it equally as much as the Sweet and Sour fish fillet (http://weeknitemeals.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/sweet-and-sour-fried-fish-fillets/). Hope you will give it a try also!

Here is a photo of the Frozen Lemonade:

Recipe:

Ingredients (2 servings)

• 2 white fish fillets with firm flesh
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• veg oil for pan frying
• 2 cloves of garlic, Minced
• 1 stalk of green onions, sliced
• 2 hot pepper, seeded (optional)

for the sauce:

• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 1/5 cup lemon juice
• 1 slice of ginger
• 3 Tbsps white sugar
• 2 Tsps flour, dissolved with spoonfuls of water
• 2 tsps cornstarch, dissolved with little water
• 2 pinch of turmeric (Indian spice, just for coloring)

Steps:

• To make the sauce:
• Boil water, sugar, lemon juice, chicken powder, turmeric together, once boiling, turn down the heat to simmer, add flour mixture, garlic, green onions and ginger, simmer for 15 minutes.
• To cook the fish:
• Mix flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag, toss the fish fillets in, close the bag well and toss around to cover the fish.
• Pre-heat some oil in a skillet, pan-fry fish over medium heat until they’re done (around 4-5 minutes per side). Bring the fillets out and drain oil onto paper towel if your prefer.
• Mix corn starch into sauce mixture, stir until thickens.
• Drizzle sauce over the pan fried fish fillets, serve with rice.

Recipe adapted from Kitchen Unplugged

Hi All! I know it’s been a LONG while since the last time I posted, work life got the best of me… My motto is try to not be a cry baby as much as I can, and to see the positive in things. So even though the project I have been stressed about has kept me from learning new dishes and interact with you lovely folks more, but I am glad the project has been keeping me busy and that’s all I am going to say about that!

OK, what else has been going on here? Autumn is finally here at Texas, the leaves are turning a little, this really is my favorite season of all! My husband and I met in October, our first date was going to a Halloween party (He dressed as a pimp daddy, I was a pirate). Our little girl is also born during the Fall season, so as soon as October comes around, every weekend seems to be festive! We also made some great friends in the neighborhood this year, last weekend 3 families went on our very first camping trip together… OK I shouldn’t call it Camping, more of Glamping (Glam Camping). The state park we went to has screen shelters, so the tents were set up inside. My husband brought memory foam mattresses so we can sleep at night, he just wanted to ease little girl and I into the wilderness. We had a wonderful time, and waking up to the following sight while listening to bird songs really made me happy (Maybe being away from the computer was a big part of my happiness factor also, who knows…)

Time to talk about the Fried Squid recipe. Just recently I posted a Vietnamese style Salt and Pepper Calamari recipe. It was tasty, but a little cumbersome to work with. The following method produced better tasting, lighter feeling fried squids, it also seem to take a lot less time in the kitchen, so I’ve decided to use this one from now on, hope you will enjoy it as much as my family and I did!

Oil for deep frying
1 bag squid rings, defrosted
1 c cornstarch
2 tbsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Dipping Sauce:
1/2 c Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat oil to 375 degrees. Combine cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a zippered bag. Mix together dipping sauce ingredients.

Toss 1/4 squid in the bag until well floured then spread on a sheet of waxed paper. Repeat with remaining squid.

Fry cuttlefish for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes in the oil then drain on a paper towel. Lightly salt. (The squid won’t really brown but it will turn out beautifully crisp.) Eat with dipping sauce, Voila!

Recipe From Seriously Good