Yellowstone National Park Trip 3

 

Black Pool, West Thumb Geyser Basin

Black Pool

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West Thumb Geyser Basin, Big Cone

Mud Volcano, there was a ranger tour guide here and it was really informative.  We got there just in time for the 1.5-2 hours tour, it was long but really worth it.

We missed some attractions, either because it was raining or we were short of time.  I think 6 days to a week is the best time to spend if you plan to visit Yellowstone.  Too much driving to do as the park is really huge.  And that was not including hiking or walking on the many trails.

 

Lower Falls

 

Lower Falls, girls with their cousin

 

 Upper Falls

 

Upper Falls

At Hatchet Resort (where we stayed), 30 minutes from South entrance.  When we tried to reserve the rooms, the hotels inside Yellowstone were all fully booked.  Heard that it need a year in advance booking if you plan to stay inside.  Next time, we will stay at Jackson Hole since we still drove all over there for Chinese food!  If you loved wilderness, stay here, it's a resort, so it basically have everything, nothing else in close proximity.  Like the sale clerk said, it's as wilderness as you get.  But if you love Chinese food or any other food other than the restaurant offers, and love to scroll along downtown, shopping and looking for some night life, stay in Jackson Hole. 

Red Bean Mochi Cupcakes

I first heard about mochi cake through A Food Lover's Journey.  I looked through the recipe and it is a lot like the baked nian gao that I did for Chinese New Year except probably half the recipe called for.  It is an interesting idea to bake it in cupcakes and I wanted to give it a try.  Since I love red bean flavor and have some red bean paste on hand, I made mine into a red bean mochi (glutinous rice) cupcakes.

It tasted like "kuih" (a Malaysian cake), soft, sticky and slightly chewy with red bean flavor.  You can certainly substitute the milk with coconut milk to make it richer. This recipe of mine stays soft even after three days in a container.  Best eaten within three days, might go bad after that. One thing to note though, the paper will be hard to unwrap on the first day it was baked, but easier on the second day onwards.

You can buy the red bean paste in a can at the Asian grocery stores in the U.S. for those who are interested.  Feedback to me when you try this red bean mochi cake.  I had made it twice and loved it!

~Yield about 12-18 cupcakes (about half of the normal paper cup size), depending on the cupcake paper size and how much batter you add.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 1/4 cup milk

1 tsp. baking powder

200g red bean paste (sweeten) from a can

200g glutinous rice flour (about 2 cups)

Method:

1.  In a big mixing bowl, add in eggs and sugar.  Use a hand whisk or electric whisk and whisk until light and well mixed, sugar dissolved.  

2.  Add in oil and milk, hand whisk until combine.

3.  Stir in baking powder and red bean paste, whisk until smooth.

4.  Lastly, add in glutinous rice flour, whisk until well incorporated.  The batter will be watery so don't have to be alarm.  Use a soup ladle and fill the paper cup almost to the rim.  The cake will sink down a little after you take it out of the oven.

5.  Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 20-25 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack and store in air-tight container.

Yellowstone National Park Trip 2

Grand Prismatic Spring Area, Midway Geyser basin

 

Mammoth Hot Springs

 

Mammoth Hot Spring

Mammoth Hot Spring

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Spring

Girls came down to look at animals

 Can you spot them?  We also saw a coyote and black bear but didn't manage to take picture.

 

Bull Elk  

 

White-rumped deers (female elk?)

Herd of bison. 

We didn't see wolf pack, moose or grizzly bear, they were not easily seen.

Yellowstone National Park Trip 1

We drove there with our relative from Singapore, spent 5 days and 4 nights there (June 9-13, 2010).  It was about 9 hours drive and we got there in the afternoon.  We didn't go into the park on the first day but we drove to Jackson Hole for dinner.  This was the second day of our trip, via South Entrance.

 

Love this picture and the reflection from the lake

 

Road construction delay @ south entrance

Old Faithful, both exploded at the same time.  It rained after that, it rained every days while we were there and mighty cold (maybe due to the fact that I didn't prepare winter coat, but it's summer and I didn't expect it to be this cold).

 

One of the hot springs

 

Midway Geyser Basin

 Midway Geyser Basin

Hope I name the place correctly!  If not, correct me if I am wrong. :)

Stay tuned for part 2 and 3!

Minced Meat Noodle 2

I was experimenting DouBanJiang (Chinese bean Paste) in this minced meat noodle dish.  If you have a DouBanJiang in your fridge, did you buy the spicy one or plain one?  I saw two versions and decided on trying the plain one first because I was afraid the spicy one would be too spicy for my girls.  To spice it up, I can always add chili oil or chili paste in my bowl.

I learned this presentation from Chef Chen Kenichi as this was how he served his minced noodle in his cookbook, cool huh?  I seem to only pile it in the middle but this was a great idea from him.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on July, 2nd! 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 carrot, minced

Some Nai Pak or Bok Choy, minced

1 small bag of Enoki mushroom, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. Chinese rice wine (white)

1 heap Tbsp. DouBanJiang (Chinese bean paste)

1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

Salt to taste

A little sugar

2 cups of water

Thickener:  (cornstarch + water) or (potato starch + water) equal amount

I bag of dried egg noodle, cook as package direction, rinsed in cold water.  Mix in with some soy sauce and a little sesame oil, mix to blend well, set aside.

Method:

1.  Cooked noodle as directed above.

2.  Heat a large skillet, when heated, add in oil.  Then, add in ground pork and stir-fry until pork is no longer pink.  Add in garlic and carrot and stir-fry well.  Then, add in veggie and stir-fry well.

3.  Add in Doubanjiang, hoisin sauce and stir-fry well.  Add in rice wine to deglaze the pan.  Add in water, stir well.

4.  When boiling, season to taste with salt and a little sugar.  Add some soy sauce if needed.  Add thickener and stir until thicken.  

5.  Lay some seasoned noodle in a bowl.  Top with minced meat sauce on the side or on top of the noodle.  Stir well and enjoy!  Of course, you can add minced scallion and crispy fried shallots and enjoy with bird eye chili (chili padi) as condiment.

Easy Baked Tilapia Fillets

This baked fish is super easy even for busy working mom or stay at home mom.  Total time in preparation and cooking is less than 20 minutes.  It looks like it has crusted top, but it has not, all it has on top is just spices and salt.

I used Italian herbs seasoning because I couldn't use Teriyaki sauce or Chinese seasoning in this as it needed to be paired with my macaroni pasta.  You can say it was a western dinner night.  :)

Ingredients:

Fish fillets of your choice, washed (I used Tilapia here)

Sea salt grinder to taste

Italian herbs seasoning grinder

Extra virgin olive oil or spray

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 450'F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2.  Place the fish fillet on the baking sheet.  Spray it with cooking spray or drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on top and coat the fish.

3.  Grind some Italian herbs seasoning all over the top of the fish fillet.  Lastly, grind some sea salt on top.  Just the top layer would do, if not it might be too salty.

4.  Place in preheated oven and bake for 10-13 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.  Serve hot and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes with Junior Mints

I had relatives coming over to my house and I wanted to bake something for breakfast.  I really liked my peanut butter banana cake so why not?  I made it into cupcakes because it was easier to consume and I had the idea of using the Junior Mints as decoration on top.  What do you think?  Cute or not?  Since we would be leaving to Yellowstone National Park the next day, cupcake was an excellent idea for traveling.  I just put the leftover in a ziplock bag and we could eat it in the car.  They liked it and my girls would choose to eat this instead of croissant.

The recipe can be found at my post Peanut Butter Banana Cake.  Just instead of using a square pan, you lined the cupcakes pan with cupcakes paper and fill it 2/3 full and decorate the middle with a Junior Mint.  Bake in the same temperature but for only 20 minutes.  Let it cool completely before storing.