Dejah

Hot dog for lunch: Kirkland / Costco Polish Beef Sausage / weiner, on a Villagio sub bun, diced onion, cilantro, watercress, and a squirt of sweet & spicy mustard. Hubby had Jalapeno peppers with his. I had radishes.

A dinner I made with leftovers from the care packages that went to the kids. Black Bean Garlic Beef & Bitter Melon over Ho Fun. Good fresh Ho Fun is hard to find. At our local store, they are packed so tightly and vacuum sealed that they basically crumble when they hit the wok. Now, I use the dried noodles that I hydrate before cooking. They retain a bit of chew and so easy to stir-fry. I love the fresh noodles when I can get into the big city Chinese grocery stores. Had tofu and bell peppers in the fridge that needed using up. So, it was spicy tofu. ground pork, onions, and peppers in spicy toban sauce. Tossed in some ground up Szechuan peppercorns for that extra zing! A former colleague is married to a Chinese lady who has not done much Western cooking, like his favourite - lemon meringue pie. They were coming into town for apptns, so I made him a pie last night for pick up today! I only gave them half a pie as his wife is keeping close tabs on his calories!🤪 It helps us out too as we don't want to eat a whole pie!

Lunch - a riff on Vietnamese Bun Mam using a cube of seasoning from my Chinese grocery store haul yesterday in the big city;-) Also had rice noodles. Added some meatablls from leftover wonton filling, a few little shrimp, Thai basil, fresh beansprouts, Shanghai bok choy, and some green onions. Very satisfying!

@ShelbyYour siu yook / pork belly looks pretty darn good to me! Do you use the method / recipe on https://thewoksoflife.com/cantonese-roast-pork-belly I've only ever made it once 'cos I love the crackling too much!

Great combination! Fondant potatoes - did a goggle and will have to try these. They look delicious!

I am pretty sure 2 of my granddaughters are named after characters from Firefly as both sets of parents are big fans. Our oldest granddaughter is Inara Jane (Jane for Tarzan's mate as my husband is a huge Edgar Rice Burroughs fan (creator of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars)and maintains the company's website ERBzine.com . Our youngest granddaughter is River Jade Galaxy. She's the one kidlet who would appreciate everything in the care package! @Shelby: You noticed all the seafood I had in my paella. 😋 I don't have your option of having seafood shipped in, but the frozen works well, and I am able to access them readily in town. I got tired of picking fresh clams and mussels in the store only to have half dead by the time I am ready to make supper. The kids and kidlets enjoyed the food in the care packages. It was a joy to see them - albeit outside and no real hugs and kisses. Thank goodness the polar vortex moved on. It was 5C! I did a LOT of shopping in Chinatown in Winnipeg - happily tired after unloading the car. Was glad I picked up the fresh rice rolls AND Ong Choy - water spinach. These are two favourite foods and made for a quick supper after we got home. I pan fried the rice rolls and sprinkled on sweet soy sauce at the end. Ong choy was stir-fried then stirred in a couple of cube of Fuyu - fermented tofu. Added a quick stir dry of beef and supper was on the plate! We had lunch while shopping at Costco. Due to Covid, their seating area is closed, but we had to have their $1.50 hot dog and drink. We love their Polish Sausages, but had to miss out on the diced onions this time. Picked up fries too and we ate lunch in the car. I did pick up packages of the sausages for home. Divided the 15 up into bundles of 3 and froze for future lunches. They are hard to find once BBQ season starts in earnest!

Have not seen our kids or kidlets in Winnipeg (3 hour drive) for many months other than on zoom. Will head in tomorrow for an early Monday morning appointment. Kids hinted for a care package of Ma-Mah's comfort food. I made up wonton filling and froze it in packages to take in so they can make them when they want a feed. The filling has ground pork, shrimp, and waterrchestnut, so it's a tad fancier than usual. Today, I did up 5 dishes, using lots of fermented black beans, garlic, etc, which the kids love: Black bean Garlic Beef & Bitter Melon for daughter and son Black bean garlic Beef & Bell Peppers for s-i-l and d-i-l who do NOT like bitter melon🤪 Gai Lan and Ho fun for our 13-year-old vegetarian granddaughter. The same with added beef for the carnivores Steamed Black bean Garlic Pork Ribs for all carnivores And Cantonese Shrimp Chow Mein for the youngest kidlet, 7 year old River who loves everything! She's the most adventurist of our 5 grandchildren. I also have 6 packets of Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf for her - her favourite dim sum For our supper, we'll have bits of this and bits of that which wouldn't fit into the containers!

I believe there was a thread called "Regrettable Dinners". This one was in terms of appearance, but actually, tasted not bad. It's one of Jamie Oliver's Quick and Easy 5 ingredients meals - Gnarly Peanut Chicken - a riff on Chicken Satay. We enjoyed the lime, chili, and chunky peanut butter, but if I make it again. I would really thin down the sauce (chunky peanut butter, lime juice, red chilis)and do a heavy drizzle rather than a slather. What attracted my attention was the crisscross scoring on the chicken breast. It looked pretty when seared, and took in all the flavours. It also cooked quickly. Cumin Lamb Stir-fry with Cardamom Basmati rice.

One of our favourite sand pot dishes is salty fish. chicken, tofu, and rice.

The Polar Vortex has finally snapped! Last night was only -20C. Today, we are heading to -15C! So may be, we won't need to add the oven heat to warm both the kitchen and us. Had a chuck roast ready to use along with a large daikon. Cantonese Instant Pot Braised Beef with Daikon. Too lean and not enough chewy bits, but it was lovely over Jasmine rice. My favourite part - the chunks of daikon!

The best dim sum experience (outside of China) we had was in Boston when we visited our daughter. Walked into the restaurant, and I was transported back to China - the combination of the servers calling out their dishes, the clinking of chopsticks and tea cups, and the chatter - in Cantonese and my village dialect - Toisanese. It was amazing as we hear mainly Mandarin now with the influx of new immigrants. All your sandwiches look amazing, Kim!😋

From dishes I made for CNY, I had leftover lotus root, re-hydrated tofu sticks, ginko nuts, re-hydrated dried oysters, so I tossed them all together into some pork neck bone broth and made soup. It was a meal in itself. We ate this around 5 pm. Supper for us is usually around 8. Main course was trimmings from a whole beef tenderloin steamed with ja choy (spicy preserved Sechuan veg), stir-fried soy bean sprouts with shrimp, and Jasmine rice. The beef dish was the first real Chinese food I ever cooked for my Caucasian husband - 1966. He loved it then and he loves it now. I've made Paella often with Arborio rice and have been happy with the results . Then a friend sent me a bag of Bomba rice, and I REALLY liked the difference in texture. It's more expensive but it's so worth it for a special occasion, which really is any meal!

Most likely! Good deduction.

Maybe it is a family thing? I know my grandfather and father always asked for it, and I enjoy it too. It is made with Keen's Mustard powder.

Not sure what you mean by "gummy". I've never had that problem even with freshly made ones, taken to friends' home then steamed. These were straight from the freezer into the steamer.

Appreciate your comment on my soups. 😘 The tarts taste pretty darn good chilled as well.

I am not a fan of the sweet tang yuen, which is traditionally served to the family at the end of the 15 day festivities. The savoury variety is served on New Years eve in my family. The broth is usually made with pork. The additions are lap cheong or sliced pork, re-hydrated dried shrimp, shredded daikon (my favourite part).

Ha Looks like we were on the same frame of mind today. Your tarts look fabulous. I just used frozen unsweetened tart shells from the Chinese grocery store. They are nice and flaky and saved me stress. Nearly burned my tongue off as I couldn't wait for that first bite.🤪 We each had one after our dim sum lunch. The har gow, xiao long baos, and nor mai joon were also bought from the Chinese grocery store. It's a little shop and when the owner (a distant relative) brings in special items, she texts me!

Chinese New Year and Valentine's day! Double Whammy Memories of Singapore trip: Coffee Pork Ribs Sous vide Prime Rib Nian Goh: Southern Chinese New Year traditional stirred fried rice cakes. These were dried slices from the store, but my Mom used to make them days before CNY. They were just balls and "gold ingots" of rice flour and water. The nian goh were kept in crocks of water, which was changed every day. When it was time to have them for dinner, Mom would take some out, slice and stir-fry. Sometimes it was with meat and mixed vegetables, other times, it was with lap yook (Chinese wind-dried cured pork) and mustard greens. This meal, I used Chinese mushrooms, various vegetables and beef. The rice cakes had to be soaked over night. They still felt tough when I took them out of the water, but they became soft, silky but still with a bit of chew after adding them to the mix, with broth then steamed for about 5 minutes. Buddha's Delight - traditionally a vegetarian dish but we love re-hydrated dry oysters, so I added a few. My favourite ingredients in this dish is the mung bean noodles and the deep fried tofu soaked with the juices. It's always better the next day! Valentine's Day - Tenderloin steaks seared in a hot cast iron pan, carrot fries and crispy zucchini fries.

Been so lazy! Spend time checking out all the fabulous meals everyone is posting, but then too worn out to post! Have some catching up to do. Steamed Ginger Soy Pickerel Fillets Oven-baked Meatballs in Filo Cups Sous vide and pan seared Bison Steaks with Brussel sprouts and mixed grains / rice.

It's been such a change in our weather. A cold snap has had temperatures around the -30Cs, with night time temp around -40 and windchill -50C. The sun shines but the wind freezes water pipes and knocks out power. We are lucky, staying at home, have power, and monitoring everything. Soup is something that keeps us warm from the inside out. Loaded congee with bones from crispy BBQ pork (siu yook), pork slices, fuyu, pork floss, Chinese crueller, and crackling. Rice vermicelli with leftover crispy BBQ pork (siu yook), bean sprouts Traditional for CNY, but I love this anytime I can find lovely daikon: Savoury Tang Yuen. A little saucer of soy sauce mixed with sesame oil and white pepper for dipping.

Cumin seasoned strips of beef tenderloin, stir-fried with bell peppers and onion chunks. Lightened-up sesame chicken. The strips were just marinated with sesame oil then dusted with cornstarch and pan-fried. My old recipe had chicken strips mixed with flour, cornstarch, egg, then coated with bread crumbs before deep frying. They were SO much better! Used the same simple sauce I used in the restaurant: water, vinegar, 5-spice powder, sesame oil , and red pepper flakes. Hubby's birthday was on the 11th. He asked for lamb chops Rosemary and whole grain Dijon mustard marinated pork sirloin chops - roasted in the oven. Steamed cauliflower and broccoli broiled with cheese and panko crumbs