Dejah

Something new for me: white bitter melon. Taste the same. Not sure if it was more expensive as it was given by a cousin who found it at a Chinese supermarket in Winnipeg. Cooked it the same way as I usually do with the green melons: fermented black bean garlic sauce. Used pork instead of beef this time as I was prepping a huge amount of pork for Char Siu.

Grandson wanted to learn how to cook fish that isn't dry, so we teamed up and cooked up pickerel and new taters (parboiled then finished in Ninja toaster oven. We just did my usual, brush the fillets with mayo and coat with fine cracker crumbs. He took home leftovers and a package of frozen fillets to cook another day on his own. Breaded pork loin chops in mushroom gravy. I find lean pork chops often dry cooked "naked", but this way, always tender and juicy. A can of Campbells mushroom soup with added fresh sauteed mushrooms work great. The pan is finished in the oven. Corn is lovely at this time, and I have an over-abundance of green beans. I think green beans, purple ones and Romanos have taken over the mysterious zucchinis that appear on door steps. I have been finding bags at the door as well as harvesting from my small patch in the glower bed - the only edible i plant! LOL! Steak, leftover noodles, and Romano beans with fuyu Walmart had chickens on for $1.97 / lb! Cut up 2 and did up a tray of Citrus Marinated Roast Chicken. Shared with our very helpful bachelor neighbor, and some leftovers for lunch next day. Was given 3 Kohlrabi, so made soup with pork bones. Opened the last can of Fried dace, added some lapcheung to stir-fried Shanghai Bok Choy Dessert was the most expensive Dragon Eyes I have ever eaten! I didn't realize they were 12.98/lb! I bought 2 bundles to share with my brother, and realized when I got to the car, I paid $44.00! But they are a rare treat here, so I kept them and savoured every one!

I'll be making Ukrainian Borscht as well later today. The recipe I use is similar except I add a can of Pork and Beans at the end, something our Ukrainian Baba friends did. And of course, LOTS of dill added while cooking and before serving.

My Scottish/English hubby will only eat green beans if stir-fried with spicy tofu. He also likes a couple of cubes when we have roast chicken and also with congee.

Tofu and Gai Lan in Oyster sauce - lunch for vegetarian granddaughter: Luncheon with my CPLS( Crazy Plant Ladies). Picture after attack with chopsticks! Yaki Udon Noodles - no meat so good for vegetarians Quick stir-fry shrimp in spicy tomato sauce Wonton Soup for a couple of friends driving from Brampton, Ont. to Kelowna, B.C

I love this stuff, cooked with a couple of squares of spicy Fuyu (fermented tofu). The leaves deteriorate quickly, so needs to be cooked as soon as purchased when they put it out in the veg cooler.

Been such a busy couple of weeks with granddaughter visiting from St. John's (vegetarian), and different visitors and "babysitting" 2 granddaughters every day the past week. I was exhausted by Sunday! Vegetarian granddaughter wanted mainly plant-based burgers, tofu, gai lan, ramen, Everything Bagels and cream cheese, and pie! Hubby and I enjoyed the tofu and gai lan, but we also need our meat! LOL! Some meals: Picked up a couple packages of Marinated Short Ribs on sale @ SS. Took a long time in the IP! Beets, green beans, and some leftover chicken and rice. Have been making a lot of wonton soup for lunch with company. Eating leftovers for supper. Granddaughter had noodles and veg in the broth and banana cream pie that I had made for guests- her favourite, from a family recipe While looking for the Nagano pork shanks again, didn't find any (for the ingredients list!) but did see the pork chops, again marked down. They were good, just simple seasoning of salt and pepper onto the cast iron skillet. Again, too expensive on a regular basis ($7.00 / chop before the $3.00 markdown), but the quality is definitely better than regular chops. Romano beans, the only veg in my garden producing lots! Supper with the carnivore granddaughters, their Dad, after he finished work. They DO love their steaks - medium rare! One loved perogies; the other loved Cantonese noodles. Made their favourite dessert: Canadian Cheddar Cheese Apple Crisp, warm with Vanilla ice-cream With just the two of us, Home-style Chinese food! One of the Chinese elders gave me a big bunch of Goji stalks, the leaf ones for soup. Have fond memories of the soup, with pork and a salted egg swirled in just before serving. Had picked up small chickens on sale at Walmart, $1.99 / lb. Usually pretty safe on the first day of the weekly sale. Did a big dish of bone-in chicken steamed with lap cheung and shitaki mushrooms.

Apologies for late response. Unfortunately, I had already tossed the package the shanks came in. Have tried to find the product again, and they are a no-show at the moment. Found a recipe on-line: http://www.gourmetmum.tv/easy-recipes/slow-roast-pork-shank-with-red-wine-jus.html The veg mentioned and herbs were strained out and just the red wine sauce in with the package. They were good but expensive. Good trial as pork shanks are not readily available. Lamb, always. Beef shank, usually cut into slices!

It was in the meat cooler with other pork items, not frozen. They had other cuts, but these were BOGO. I vowed never to buy marinated meat in cryovac after a couple of disappointing purchases, but I can never resist a sale. LOL! It was $17.99 for two, and they were quite meaty. We had some meat leftover and had that with crusty buns for lunch next day. They turned out pretty good. I was in the store a couple of days later and they were all gone. Took the shanks out of the package with the wine "jelly", put them into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes while I cook the rest of the supper. There was fat, so I made mint sauce for them. It worked.

Picked up Nagano Red Wine Pork Shanks at Safeway sale. They were fully cooked, so quick to have ready. We had mint sauce to cut the richness. Mashed new taters, bets, and yellow beans from farmers market: Chorizo sausages, savoy cabbage, Jasmin rice Beets are plentiful, so I made my first ever batch of Ukrainian Borscht. It was chock full of vegetables (celery, potato, yellow beans, peas, onion, beets0. Added a can of pork and beans and leftover roast pork. It was good, especially with sour cream and fresh dill. Enjoyed it with crusty rolls, followed by cherry pie a la mode! Panko coated pickerel, green beans, beats, rice, and quick pickle (English cuke in sushi seasoning)

That chunk of pork roast keeps on giving! Finally! Used the big pork roast bone still with meat clinging to it = congee. At serving, added Century egg, pork slices, fuyu, pork floss, chili radish, cruellers. It was rather hefty with all the add-ons! Safeway rotisserie chicken, unfortunately not cheap like Costco, gravy, new taters, and mixed beans with fuyu. Had granddaughters up for supper - picky eaters! They are at the stage where one says she likes it, the other says she doesn't! At least, with steak, they will both eat it IF medium rare. One wanted perogies, the other Cantonese noodles. One ate the corn, the other the beans! Forgot to take a picture of the food plated, but this is the leftovers.

Haven't made this traditional steamed ground beef with spicy Sechuan presereved turnip for a long time. Eaten with Jasmin rice and stir-fried Shanghai Bok Choy. Shrimp and Pappardelle alfredo with my very first Rhubarb Crisp! Cool enough day to use the oven: Roasted a chunk of a huge bone-in pork butt, rubbed with whole grain mustard and fresh Rosemary. Tossed in new potatoes and carrot chunks for the last 60 minutes. Choice of applesauce or @Shelby mustard sauce.

For the sheet-pan oven shrimp boil: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. I used baby potatoes, cut into halves, and corn into 2" chunks 3 batches of seasonings: 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons Old Bay, ½ teaspoon coriander, 1 teaspoon dried dill, ½ teaspoon s Kosher salt,and several grinds black pepper Mix the potatoes with the olive oil and seasonings (Old Bay seasoning, coriander, dill, salt and pepper). Place on parchment (or reusable liners) lined baking sheets and bake 10 minutes. Mix the corn with the olive oil and same seasonings and herbs. Remove the baking sheets from the oven, flip the potatoes and add the corn. Bake for 12 minutes. In the same bowl, mix the shrimp with the olive oil and seasonings. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and add the shrimp. Bake for 10 minutes.

Some recent meals: One-pan Oven Shrimp Boil Prosciutto-wrapped Pork Loin Roast with @Shelby's mustard sauce and perogies Stir-fried Nian Goh (rice cakes) BBQ Rib steak Fresh supply of Lake Winnipeg Baby Pickerel with Cavendish fries Sheet-pan Beans and Chicken with Herb Vinaigrette After seeing Liuzhou's Ants Climbing I wanted Fun See Lemon Herb and Butter Steelhead Trout with Lemon flavoured rice Wonton Soup followed by Saskatoon pie a la mode!

Tell THAT to my mom and all the elders! LOL!

I have a gogi berry bush in my garden, but I seldom use them. When kids were little, they'd pick and eat them fresh of the bush. I use the dried ones in herbal soup.

I usually get the Gogi leaves from our "Chinese elders". Love the soup, a memory of my childhood in Hong Kong when my Grampa would take me out for dinner if Gramma was feeling poorly. When I make it at home, I always add one salted duck egg to the soup.

We always enjoyed the Costco hot dogs and a large fountain drink: $1.50. Their ice-cream cones are double that price! I always bring back a package of their Kirkland Polish Beef weiners: 15 weiners that I separate into 3s. before freezing. Makes for a great lunch / supper when we wanted a hot dog - on brioche buns.

@ShelbyYour meals look great, especially the Peach strawberry galette for dessert ! Lots of thunderstorms and tornadoes all around us. We've been lucky as all extremes, like golf ball size hail and plow-winds - within a 30 mile from us, have gone around our city. Lots of rain, and now of course, weeds and mosquitoes! Forgot to take a picture until after plating: Pork ribs in brown bean paste, eaten with baby bok choy & jasmine rice Hamburger & onion / mushroom green peppercorn gravy. Goes great with mashed taters Pork Katsu, with new taters and asparagus from a Hutterite Colony Chicken fillets from the freezer cooked up quickly with curry and onions, and sesame chicken - both delivered to a friend's home as comfort food in time of loss of a family member There was enough leftover for our supper Seafood Singapore rice noodles

Fabulous meals to catch up drooling about! @Kim ShookThat char siu is spot on! WE have not been starving, but it's been a busy place, everything in disarray as our 2-story cedar house was being sanded and stained. Nearly done after 2 weeks, sometimes stalled by extreme temperatures then major thunderstorms. I have bee planting, planting, planting flowers, but nothing can be moved into place, along with all the statues, etc until all the painting is done. Some meals the last while: Had the 8 and 11 year old granddaughters up one day. Good grief! They DO love perogies and steak. They each devoured 12 perogies and steak Got some fresh asparagus from a Hutterite colony not far from us. Blanched them, sauteed in butter, then topped with toasted nuts, seeds etc: Went well with Shake and Bake BBQ chicken legs Too hot to BBQ, possible? With good A/C in the house, cooked up low and slow, some pork ribs. Corn looked too ripe but was actually really tender and sweet. Love one wok meals when I am busy. Local supermarket had lovely bitter melon - a favourite for hubby and me. Black bean garlic beef & bitter melon Pickerel and vegetables stir-fry: Daughter-in-law was away on a Outdoor Women Weekend where she was going archery, fire arms, and butchering! She brought back lovely lamb and shared some shank meat with us. I did a curry in the IP: Last night: Hamburger steak with onion, mushroom, green peppercorn gravy. Comfort food with mashed taters!

@Ann_THappy Birthday to your Moe! Steak looks fabulous, and great tradition with strawberries! ❤️ Friends and former customers have been talking about the ribs we served at our restaurant. We made our Sweet & Sour ribs #13, using bite-size pieces. The ribs were put thru' a seasoned egg wash, coated with cracker crumbs, and "squeezed" to make sure the coating stays on and the meat more or less "tight" against the bone. The ribs were then deep fried. Man! These were good, and it was always hard to keep the staff away from the bin! These made for great appetizers. To make #13, the ribs were simmered with water, ketsup, sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce. The "broth" must be bright (sour) and sweet without being cloyingly so. Definitely NOT the red sauce we so often see, and my kids called it the Christmas sauce. The ribs are strained into a container in the steam table, and the sauce is thickened with cornstarch slurry and kept in a separate container in the steam table. All we needed to do for orders was to ladle the sauce over the ribs. The ribs may not be "authentic", but they were sure popular with our customers. No one else in our town made them this way. It's labour intensive, but we had the staff to prepare them this way. Two of my Vietnamese ladies used to sit on a low bench after the lunch rush and bread each of these pieces of ribs! We enjoyed them tonight! Had a few shrimp left in a bag, added that to mixed vegetables for a stir-fry.

@Kim Shook: Your hubby's pulled pork looks great! I seem to always end up with stringy pork whenever I have ordered it. Lovely selection of meals in your post! @Shelby: Always love seeing your meals! My chicken feet is a once a year effort. SO much work for so little meat. LOL! @Senior Sea Kayaker: The prime rib bone is my favourite of the roast! Quick meals are the order for gardening days! I just plant flowers and herbs, no rook for vegetables. But soon, market gardens! One of my local elder Chinese aunties grow the biggest and best Moo Gwa. Made soup with pork breast bones, part of a melon and some Shitaki mushrooms Followed by Ma Po Tofu. I love fresh mint this! A friend has a cottage up in the lake country. She brought back a package of Kurtwurt, made in Lac du Bonnet. It was smoked, and I cooked it stove top. Been finding Romano green beans, so it's appearing in many meals. I had picked up a couple of packages of Sterling Silver Beef Sirloin Medallions at Safeway. I was disappointed with the first package that I grilled - hit and miss bits of tender and tough. This time, I chunked it up and made stew in the IP. The meat was tender, but fell apart into shreds. Give me chuck or short ribs for the best stew! No spotted prawns here on the prairies. A couple of years ago our local Chinese grocer brought some in, and some of the people who bought and ate became ill. Not sure what the issue was, but the price made ME ill. Glad I didn't buy any. But I do have a local guy who sells lovely frozen shrimp @$25.00 / kg, peeled and deveined. We enjoy those whenever. This week, Giant Tiger had the 21-30 on sale for $5.97 for 345 gm. My supplier had come in yet, so I picked some up to tie us over. Did a quick stir-fry with lots of onion and tomato sauce. Eaten with gai lan and jasmine.

Way too windy for playing in the dirt, so a good opportunity to play catch-up instead! Haven't done chicken feet for a year or so. Chinese grocery store had some big feet in, so I couldn't resist! This is my usual set up outside: deep fat drying on the old turkey fryer burner, and a bucket of ice water to immerse the feet immediately after. This is followed by braising in aromatics for a couple of hours. Delivered some to my brother and s-i-l at 9:30 when I had finished steaming them with the sauce (9 pm!) They called at 10 and said they ate all of them (12 feet!) for midnight snack. LOL! Was hoping I'd have some for the freezer, but after sharing with curious friends, none left! I had also picked up soy bean sprouts at the grocery along with shrimp dumplings. Working down on my reserve of joong from last June! Time to make again once I finish planting all the flowers. First BBQ of the season: Had a request from a friend going thru' a difficult time: our sesame chicken, Soo's #111. Made veg fried rice as well, but the Romano beans and lap cheung were for us! Had another piece of steak left and had thawed shrimp which I didn't need for my friend, so did up the combo for ourselves. Reheated the leftover potato on the BBQ as well. It's been a while since Superstore Flashfood had any protein on for 50% off. Yesterday, at 5 am, I picked up packages of turkey scallopini, so it was Turkey Katsu for supper. Rather than the the heavier katsu sauce, we had mango chili sauce.

Looks SO good! May have to make this once gardening is done!

Hi @Kim Shook: Apologies for late to reply. It's actually spring here and I've been busy playing in the dirt! Not sure what is traditional chow mein, but our Soo's #12A Cantonese Chow Mein has always been a bed of noodles topped with mixed veg and proteins with a light "gravy" of chicken stock and slurry. We used the packages of dry egg noodles, toss into boiling water until softened, cold rinse, drain and keep in the fridge. With each order, we'd toss them into a hot wok with hot oil. We'd let them get a little bit of a crisp on the outside, then plate. Then we'd cook the topping. The sauce can soften the centre of the bed of noodles, but they outer part stays dry, unless you want it softened. I've also made it so it's like a thick pancake. The outside is crispy but the inside is soft. My grands like just the "stir-fried" noodles, with crispy bits but still soft. Lots of sesame oil! Lo Mein is noodles with all ingredients tossed together and a bit of sauce, but not gooey or runny. We don't like those. LOL! I usually use flat noodles for soup, or flat rice sticks for pad thai. I can get "steamed noodles" in the supermarket. They are loose rather than in cakes. Still have to dunk them into boiling water before the wok. But I am expecting @liuzhou to chime in with what he eats IN China.