Chinese New Year

To honor Chinese New Year we had a small family celebration.  The year of the Water Dragon - they said it will be a good year. 

I pulled out a pre-made hot pot seasoning that we bought in Beijing last year.  It called for 2 liters of water and the two seasoning packets. I'm not sure what was in them - but it smelled great (probably not very good for us though!)

I mixed up Mongolian Dipping Sauce out of the Joy of Cooking. And a quick sweet and sour sauce for the boys.

We had mushrooms, pea pods, napa cabbage, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, green beans, shrimp and finely sliced chicken (I frozen the chicken breasts slightly and ran them through the cutting blade of the food processor.)

We moved the electric wok to the end of the kitchen table and I cooked at the table. The boys thought it was fascinating. Salad Chef (all of 2 years old) ate as things came out of the wok, but Sous Chef waited for his complete bowl of soup to be finished!  I cooked the chicken first, fished it out and then cooked the shrimp. Then everyone got to make up their own plate of vegetables to simmer for a few minutes. Lastly we added a packaged of rice noodles for a few minutes to soften. 



We all had a great time, and next time I think we'll just follow the recipe for the Mongolian Hot Pot in Joy of Cooking (you can google it - Joy of cooking - Irma von Starkloff Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker, Maria Guarnaschelli - Google Books )  We'll use our own assortment of vegetables, since the more vegetables we can get into the family the better!  I still have two pre-packaged Hot Pot meals from Beijing but I think they are on the spicier side.

Mongolian Dipping Sauce (slightly altered from the original)

Mix together:

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup fermented black beans
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1 tbs minced ginger
1 tbs chili paste
2 cloves minced garlic

Finger Food Friday

A few weeks ago we declared Friday "Finger Food Friday". It was a huge hit with the children.

Empanadas - the Sous Chef and I used our Turnover Set to cut out store bought pie crust and fill it with leftover taco meat. We served it with a dip made of equal parts salsa and Greek yogurt.

Next on the menu was California sushi rolls - sushi rice rolled with carrot, pepper, avocado, cucumber and crab meat (well - the fake stuff).

Then I put out the plate of leftover stuffing. I don't think there were any leftovers but there was good conversation. A chance to share our Bummer and Blessing (what's the worst/best part of your day), what did we learn today, what are we doing this weekend?

The boys have requested Finger Food Friday again.

Random Food Pictures from the Last Two Months

Family life, holidays, and just living have gotten in the way of blogging.  But here are a few things we made over the last few months.

 

 

The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen: Healing Chicken Ginger Soup - this has become one of my go to Chicken Soup Recipes - we all love it

Gluten Free Chex Mix with GF pretzels, rice chex, corn chex, crispix, kix and peanuts

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This year we made the relish with two little helpers!  I just couldn't resist those chubby little fingers. We also got quite a few whole cranberries in our relish this year!

Knead Nurture Know: Nana's Cranberry Relish

This is what happens when you make 3 batches of bread with a 2 year old. 

Our bread set to rise for sandwiches, pizza dough and more. Yes we apparently eat a lot of ice cream

Pizza - by the Sous Chef

One BIG Word

Bloggers all over are posting their lists, their resolutions, their goals; their advice on cleaning, eating healthy… and the list goes on and on.

Ali Edwards has posted a New Year’s post for the last several years encouraging you to choose a word for the year; One Little Word 2012 | Ali Edwards. One Little Word to focus on, to inspire you.  Several years ago my word was cultivate; at the time I was cultivating a baby, a garden, a home, and my relationships. That year I really wanted to focus on growth.  In the middle of that year my father passed away, and I haven’t chosen a word since.

 

ELEPHANT

Yup, my word this year is ELEPHANT.  A gentle reminder that the insurmountable tasks I have set for myself can only be done one step at a time. My word just might become the family motto (a la New Year’s Family Motto Board for 2012 | Make and Takes)

 

Goals for the year include:

• Organizing - our play room and office and getting on top of a filing system for us that actually works for us
•  Getting Healthier – I want to develop the habit of exercise, I had it three years ago, and it’s gone now. We are also trying to eat healthier and have discovered a number of food issues that the family has (gluten, yeast, corn, dairy…). I’d love to have a good rotation of meals that we can all eat and enjoy.
• Making the family run smoother – routines are key to this and though we have a few routines that work, I’m sure we can improve this. Our eldest thrives on routine and we need to work together to make routines that will work for him.
• Pursue hobbies – I want to sew, I want to scrapbook and I want to learn to play guitar.....

 

There are all those social idioms; seeing pink elephants, a white elephant, elephants never forget, the elephant in the room…. And on it goes. But I’m focusing on eating the elephant. When taken all together our goals seem rather lofty but if we take them one day at a time, I’m sure we can make a dent in that portly pachyderm that weighs between 6 and 8 tons. 

 

So when we are overwhelmed, the walls are closing in, behavior has gone off the charts, or we’re just a little bit behind in our chores, one of us needs to yell “elephant” and remind each other that one step forward is all we need to take.

I need to sit down and flesh out my goals a little more fully, set some mini goals in there with the larger goals, make them managable and realistic.

 

So we are going to try to eat some elephants one bite at a time.