DIY: Paper flower ornament

Hat tip to The Butter Flying for the idea, but as tempted as I was to buy one of these, I'm struck by how ridiculously easy this looks to make myself.  Cut different flower shapes, string together, and hang!  Three or four of these, in different sizes, are definitely going in either my bathroom or kitchen.

Stepped on a Duck

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, 'We only have one rule here in heaven: don't step on the ducks!'

So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one. Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw. St. Peter chains them together and says, 'Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!'

The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very very careful where she steps. She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid her eyes on; very tall, muscular and handsome.  St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.

The happy woman says, 'I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?'

 
The guy says, “I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!”

Cool elephant made out of old car tires

seen in a front yard in Berkeley. the tusk is an old car exhaust!

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Sent from my iPhone

For dinner tonight: Mushroom Chicken Fried Rice with Garlic Snow Pea Shoots

My favorite thing to do is to improvise fried rice. Here's what I had lying around...

4 eggs
2 cups of cooked white rice
4 cups of brown/wild rice medley
3 cups of chopped button mushrooms
1 lb of grilled and diced chicken breast
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of white pepper finely ground
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 cloves of garlic, diced finely
1/4th of an onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons peanut oil

I heated my cast iron wok for about 5 minutes on medium-high, drop 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in, and cracked the 4 eggs in. Scrambled with my spatula, then removed from the pan. Turned the heat to high, and used the other 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and browned the garlic. Once the garlic was brown, I put in the mushrooms and cooked those down a bit until softer, then dropped in the chicken and onions. Then I added all the rice and other ingredients including the egg, and cooked for about 5 minutes stirring constantly. It came out perfect, and now I have enough food for the rest of the week.

As for the snow pea shoots:

3 lbs of snow pea shoots (man it was huge, but it cooks down a lot)
4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 tablespoon white pepper
4 tablespoons peanut oil

Heated the peanut oil and browned the garlic on high heat, then dropped the whole mass of snow pea shoots into the wok. Here's where it's interesting. My Dad always told me to NOT to stir immediately, but instead let it cook down on high heat. It gives the bottom shoots a darker texture, and then maybe 3 or 4 minutes in, turn over once and mix a bit. Towards the end, I added the white pepper.

So there you go-- It's hard/impossible to mess up fried rice, and snow pea shoots (found only at your local Chinese market) are a great veggie companion. And actually it's the soy sauce / oyster sauce / rice vinegar that really brings the whole dish together, I find. Bon Appétit!

Skipping Foodie Tuesday but giving you: Egg-white Quiche

I had almost 1 dozen egg whites to use up after I used the yolks in my eggnog.  The other day I was at Costco and saw egg white quiches and knew that's exactly what I wanted to make, esp. since I had an extra pastry shell in the freezer. 

I was very vigilant about the pastry shell this time--I pulled it out halfway through baking to poke out the air bubbles forming.  I sauteed broccoli, onions, and mushrooms before adding them to the bottom of the pastry shell.  Sprinkled goat cheese, then laid out 6 slices of canadian bacon on top, and then poured in my egg/milk mixture.  Next time I would use more egg and less milk, again.  Topped with the rest of the goat cheese and a bit of mozarella.  Turned out a beautiful golden brown!

On the menu tonight... Pan-seared Fresh Salmon with a Lemon-Herb Reduction and Buttered Brussel Sprouts

I got my new cast-iron wok tonight, and had Mark and Sanny over for dinner promptly after seasoning it. Cast iron woks are heavy as heck and require seasoning, but so far I've been impressed with the amount of heat the wok dishes out. This is the first time I've felt like I've had a wok that's hot enough to properly cook at the right temperature -- flimsy IKEA woks just don't cut it on an electric burner.

I bought 2 pounds (4 fillets) of Fresh Atlantic Salmon fillets from Safeway, descaled it with a serated knife, and dropped it on the very hot preheated wok with a tiny bit of oil in there. Literally dropped it, because I actually splashed hot oil on my arm have about 5 or 6 big red second degree burns on my right arm from it now. ARGH. Luckily Mark ran out and grabbed some aloe for me across the street. I seared the salmon in the wok on high heat for 3 minutes, then transferred the fillets to a pyrex baking dish for broiling 4 inches from the top heating elements for another 3 minutes. Salt, pepper, and top it off with a light lemon-herb reduction, brown rice and buttered brussel sprouts.

The lemon-herb reduction was a simple mix of about 1/4th of a cup of finely diced fresh sage, thyme and parsely, half a stick of butter, and 2 cups of chicken broth boiled down to a nice sauce. I threw in a table spoon of corn starch to thicken it just a tad.

Since moving to South of Market, I've basically become completely domesticated. The dearth of cheap good food in the area and the lack of a car has resulted in a 300% increase in my cooking. Now if only my cooking safety skills would catch up.

It's kind of like in The Sims when your sim only has 1 or 2 levels of cooking proficiency, and promptly proceeds to chop off his own hand or burn down the house. Yeah. Kind of like that.

First time making pancakes from scratch--successfully.

Behold, homemade chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup and bananas!

I only tried making pancakes from scratch once before.  I've been meaning to try Reggie's Rule-of-1 pancakes for a while, and I finally did this morning.  Results: decidedly superior to the store-bought mix (even TJ's!).  I actually didn't use a whole egg, but rather all egg whites, because I had them left over from the eggnog I made.  And I 1.5x'd the recipe.  Other than that--no changes.

The texture was perfectly fluffy but the pancakes had a sort of bland taste... I wonder if using buttermilk or even just adding a bit of salt would make any difference in flavor.

Thanksgiving saga: Last of the leftovers

This was the last bit of leftover turkey, from the second Thanksgiving dinner we had with Garry's family, which we used to make... pizza!  I forgot to take a picture of the turkey sandwich I made this afternoon (turkey, cranberry sauce, La Brea Bakery bread, and vegetable tian).