Just For Fun 2

Saw this at Daily Affair and decided to play along. What Your Pizza Reveals

People may tell you that you have a small appetite... but you aren't under eating. You just aren't a pig. You are a very picky pizza eater. Not any pizza will do. You fit in best in the Northeast part of the US. Your taste in food tends to favor what's rich and comforting. You prefer food that will definitely satisfy you. You are generous, outgoing, and considerate with your choices. You are cultured and intellectual. You should consider traveling to Vienna. The stereotype that best fits you is upper class preppy. You don't anything too ordinary or vulgar.

What Does Your Pizza Say About You?

Whole Grain Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

I was first introduced to Aglio e Olio by Rainbows. Aglio means garlic and Olio means oil in Italian and she said this is one easy pasta to prepare. Indeed she was right, and any easy recipe I wanted to try. And I was introduced to whole grain pasta by watching Racheal Ray. Anything whole wheat and whole grain is to my liking because it speaks an healthier choice. So, I purposely searched out whole grain pasta to try, if it's good then next time I will just stick to whole grain pasta, unless the other one is on-sales for a price that I couldn't refuse. I bought some beautiful grape tomatoes the other day and I thought why not I just added some to it. Since I was not used to eating plain pasta, I took out some sea scallops and cut it into half.

Verdict: I really like the whole grain pasta. It was not hard like what I have read. It's as al dente as the white pasta. And it makes me feel healthier by eating it. As for the aglio e olio, I found it kind of plain, needed an extra dose of salt to bring out the flavor. Being a true Asian, I even added some sesame oil! :P Here's my version:

Ingredients:

1 small box of whole grain spaghetti

8 sea scallops, half and seasoned with lemon pepper seasoning

Extra-virgin olive oil

Lots of chopped garlic (~5 cloves)

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, half

Salt and black pepper to taste

Korean Sesame oil

Method:

1. Cooked spaghetti per package instruction. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat a saute pan with some EVOO and pan-fry the scallops until cooked. Dish out and set aside.

3. Heat EVOO and add in garlic. Fry until golden and add in the crushed red pepper and grape tomatoes. Mixed well and turned off the heat. Add in the spaghetti & scallops (along with the juice). Season to taste with salt, black pepper and a drizzle of sesame oil.

I submitting this post to Presto Pasta Nights for this week.

Just for Fun!

Saw this at Rainbows's blog and decided to play along! Hehehe.... Just trying to kill my curiosity. Here's the direct link if you want to play too. :D

Your Blogging Type is Confident and Insightful

You've got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into brilliant blog. Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights. A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time. You blog for yourself - and you don't care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is!

What's Your Blogging Personality?

Short Clip of My Girls Eating

Sharing a clip of them eating at Texas Roadhouse recently. Edda was cleaning the plate of onion blossom (our appertizer) and Evy was enjoying her favorite ceaser salad. Hubby ordered his usual full rack of BBQ ribs and I decided to try something different and ordered the pork chops. The pork chops was a disappointment, hard and dry (overcooked for sure). I made better pork chop than them and I would never order it again.



This embeded version is not as clear. Not the camcorder fault.

Black Pepper Chicken

The Chinese restaurant buffet here that we frequent served a very delicious black pepper chicken. We just discovered it recently and both my hubby and I loved it very much. It was on the sweet side and the marinade and flavor just perfect. Since I was trying to think of something different to cook with the chicken breast that I took out, I remembered this dish. Also remembered that I had some black pepper premix in my fridge, which resulted in my version of black pepper chicken. Got to say theirs still tasted better, but this was not far behind. :P The sauce was very good with rice.



Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, sliced
Celery, about 3/4 cup - 1 cup
1 small carrot, sliced
1/2 small red onion
Black Pepper powder premix (or substitute w/ white pepper, black pepper & chicken stock granules)
Dark soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar

Method:

Heat oil in a wok. When heated, fry the chicken until cooked. Add in all the veggies, stir fry to cook the veggies. Add in a little water and all the seasonings. Fry until mixed well and serve.

Stir-fry Kailan

Instead of the usual oyster sauce Kailan, I loved to cook my Kailan this way. We liked to order Kailan cooked in garlic when we eat out in an authentic Chinese restaurant. But at home, I like to add ginger slices into mine. This is one of my older home cook recipes. Have been cooking this for years and still doing so.



Ingredients:

Few slices of gingers
2 cloves of garlics, chopped
Kailan
Salt & soy sauce to taste
Some water
1/2 tsp. chicken stock granules
Cornstarch mixture

Method:

Heat oil in a wok. When heated, add in the ginger slices, fry until fragrant, add in the garlics. Then, add in the veggie/ Kailan. Fry until Kailan is a bit cooked, then add in the salt. A little water and chicken stock granules. Fry to mix well and lastly thicken it with the cornstarch mixture. Serve hot.

Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins

I wanted to create a healthier version of muffins. What makes a normal muffins healthier? I was playing with the combination in my head. One that has carrots, walnuts and raisins, without any butter, with a little heart healthy canola oil and makes with whole wheat flour! Sounds great right? I didn't want to experiment with 100% whole wheat flour because I was afraid that the muffins would be dense and I like my muffins soft. So, I used a combination of whole wheat flour and cake flour. I love it, the whole wheat carrot muffins turned out great, soft and delicious. What's best is it's less guilty!


Sharing with you my recipe:



Ingredients:

(A)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cake flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar

(B)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded carrot (about 2 small carrots)
1/4 cup canola oil

(C)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins (coated with a little flour)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400'F. Lined the muffin pan with paper cups.

2. Add (A) in a big bowl. Whisk to combined. Make a hole in the middle and add (B), mix until blended. Add (C) and stir with a spatula until just combined. Scoop the batter into the muffin pan.

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

~Yield 18 muffins