Kat's Notebook

My not-so-quite grandma’s egg noodle recipe

Katkat — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:48:36 +0000

When I first came to the US, I stayed with my grandmother for a while because work was nearer at her house. My grandmother that time was still spry and very energetic and independent. She always loved to cook and care for her family and friends. Of course being a beloved granddaughter, she fawned over me and took care of me instead of the other way around. I believed my leap in weight that time was due to her cooking.

I was missing my grandmother’s cooking for a long time now. She couldn’t cook anymore because she has Alzheimer’s. She couldn’t remember if she seasoned a particular dish already or not so she keeps on seasoning. So the dish would be ruined. Recently I kept remembering this particular egg noodle dish that she makes when I was staying with her. Unfortunately I didn’t observe her while cooking her delicious dishes. I would regret that I didn’t learn her famous lumpia shanghai. Her ginataang halo-halo however I was able to recreate. Anyway I was craving for her egg noodle dish so I tried to remember what was in that dish. I resorted to google search for the sauce/flavor then put my own garnish for the dish. Forgive me for the estimated measurement of the ingredients.

A Chinese Egg Noodle Recipe

1 pack fresh egg noodle
garlic, coarsely chopped
onion, thinly sliced
carrot, thinly sliced in diagonal length
shiitake mushroom, thinly sliced
small shrimp, shell removed
pork loin or beef steak, thin slices
spinach/green bok choy, blanched
scallop ball, thin slices
spring onion, sliced in 2 inches length
chili flakes

Marinade:
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp water
1/4 tsp chili flakes

1. Prepare the egg noodles as directed by the packing instructions. (If there’s no instructions, cook in boiling water for 1-3 minutes then drain.) Set aside.
2. Using 1/2 of the marinade sauce, pour over meat and let it marinate for 15 minutes covered in the refrigerator.
3. I cooked each ingredient separate so that I don’t overcook them. In a deep pan/wok with hot cooking oil, I cook the meat first (drained of its marinade) then set it aside. Next the mushroom, then the carrot, then the shrimp.
4. I cooked the scallop balls in boiling water for 2 minutes (I cooked it at the same time with the egg noodle) and set aside.
5. Saute garlic and onion until fragrant. Add the meat, shrimp, carrot, mushroom and saute for few minutes before adding the egg noodle with the scallop ball. Pour the rest of the marinade into the noodle and toss the noodles quickly.
6. Add the green bok choy/spinach and spring onion and toss with the rest of the ingredients and cook for 3 minutes. Add chili flakes and salt to taste.
7. Serve warm.

This was a heavy but satisfying dish. It wasn’t similar to my grandma’s egg noodle dish but it was still yummy. This dish is very versatile, you can add whatever garnish you can think of. The scallop ball was definitely a hit. However I would look for a different sauce recipe next time. I liked the spiciness of this recipe but I was looking for more salty flavor. I didn’t like the hoisin flavor much. I would also add more bok choy in it because the “bitter” taste of the bok choy gives the dish more dimension to its flavor.

At last my egg noodle craving was satisfied!

No free Japan flights :(

Katkat — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:06:44 +0000

Last year, there was news that the Japan Tourism Board is planning to give away free 10000 flights to foreigners visiting Japan for 2012. Well…it’s not going to happen. Darn. I am hoping I would be awarded one those tickets. According to an article, the reasons for this not happening are:

Why the change of plans? Well, for one thing, the giveaway was going to be quite costly. For another, though, there were concerns that it would seem insensitive "for the Japanese Government to give people free flights to Japan when the cities, towns and villages devastated by the tsunami are still in desperate need of funding for reconstruction."

What’s more, such a giveaway could offend donors who generously opened their wallets after tragedy struck:

We also would not want people thinking that the generous donations given from around the world to aide those affected by the disaster was being spent on giving people free flights.

Oh well. I guess I have to resort to the old method: saving up money to go back there again.

Travels 2011 rewind

Katkat — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:28:02 +0000

2011 brought me to a lot of places. I seemed to have this mission of exploring the world and checking off the places in my travel bucket list. I also would think that it would be the end of the world in 2012 so I should visit these wonderful places before the end happens. Fortunately it didn’t so I have time to travel around the world still. Now if I can only find a travel buddy…

Coron, Palawan, Philippines – Jan 2011

After the new year, I went to Coron, Palawan with my sister. I was so glad to have visited this place. It was truly a paradise – one long stretch of white sand after another. Blue skies, clear water, white sand, solitude – it set the bar high when it comes to beaches. I also was trying for a tan but it didn’t work.

Taipei, Taiwan – Jan 2011

This was the last leg of a jetset life. I was travelling to different places for almost 3 weeks starting on the Christmas of 2010. Why Taipei? I had relatives there and I didn’t have anyone to go with me so better go to where I know some people. There were many places to visit in Taipei however because of the rainy and cold weather, I decided to stay put in my aunt’s house and just roam the nearby areas. I enjoyed my time there: the food, the shopping, and my relatives. I would love to go back just for those three reasons.

Washington, DC, USA – Feb 2011

I decided to visit my friend in Maryland near Washington D.C. It was an enjoyable trip especially going to the museums and important landmarks. I loved the architecture and the free entrance to the museums. I still have yet try the local food there. I’m planning to visit again this year because my friend said there are still more places I have to see.

Cebu-Bohol, Philippines – May-June 2011

I went back to the Philippines for my sister’s wedding. And of course I couldn’t pass up the chance of travelling around the Philippines. Before while I was residing there I couldn’t do much of exploring because I didn’t have money. However now I could travel to these places. Not only was I able to enjoy my time in both Cebu and Bohol because of their beauty, I was able to have bonding time with my parents and younger brother.

Seoul, Korea – June 2011

During a transit layover in Korea, I decided to take part of the free tour they have for transit passengers. I chose the Myungdong tour because it has shopping, my favorite pastime. Because I didn’t really plan to go shopping, I didn’t have enough money with me to buy which was unfortunately because Myungdong has a lot of cute and pretty stuffs. I was only able to buy one skirt. Hopefully next layover I have over there, I would be prepared and shop my heart out.

San Francisco, USA – June 2011

I wanted to insert this here because I was literally became a tourist of San Francisco once again when my friend visited me here in the Bay Area. I went to places in San Francisco that I had never been to and was truly awestruck by its beauty. I didn’t know this exist in my backyard.

Las Vegas, USA – July 2011

I’d been to Las Vegas before with my aunts but going there with friends was a completely different experience. I had fun hanging out on the hotel’s pool, drinking up some cocktails, and partying in the club past midnight.

Japan – Oct 2011

My biggest trip of 2011 was Japan, my dream travel destination. I loved Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. I was able to embark on this adventure with my sister. I wished I was there longer to tour around the area more and of course shop some more. Maybe next time I will time it on a cherry blossom season.

God is so good He blessed me with these trips. I hope 2012 won’t be any different! and I hope I can find a travel buddy.

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

My Hit and miss New Year’s Resolutions

Katkat — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:54:05 +0000

New Year means a new everything – goal, perspective, aspirations, changes, etc. It inspires people to improve from the past and change for the better. Last year I made some new year’s resolutions. It was a half-hearted attempt to set some goals in my life. Well it was more like half-hearted in my actions to complete them. Let me go back to my new year’s resolutions of last year and decide if I’m going to make a new one this year.

1. Take up dance class and learn how to dance (ballroom or hiphop) – well I didn’t get to enroll in a dance class. However I am going to start on Zumba this month! I don’t know if that will teach me some dance moves though.

2. Improve my tennis skill level – sad to say I didn’t pick up my tennis racket for the whole of last year. It was really bad of me.

3. Travel to Japan – Mission accomplished! I was able to travel to Japan in October with my sister. I had so much fun!

4. Study and pass the part 2 NBDE – I’m still on the studying part. Hopefully I can take the exam on the 1st quarter of the year.

5. Apply for dental school – Zero.

6. Skydive – take this one off my bucket list. It was a very exhilarating experience which I don’t want to repeat…maybe.

7. Hike at Lassen Park – no hiking last year. Bummer.

8. Get my Operation: Julia and Julie going – this one is trailing along slowly. I have had new recipes posted so that was good.

So it is true that new year’s resolutions tend to fail. I have failed in mine. Learned lesson: not to make new year’s resolutions again.

My Christmas and Birthday haul

Katkat — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:52:00 +0000

Growing up I have a love-hate perspective with my birthday being too close on Christmas. I love it that the happy feeling I have during Christmas goes on all the way to my birthday. I love that my birthday is on a school break. Then I hate it that my birthday is many times overlooked sandwiched between Christmas and the New Year. A lot of times my family/relatives would give me only 1 gift combining both Christmas and birthday presents. Because my birthday happens on a school break and a busy holiday, a lot of my friends forget or were unavailable to celebrate my day.

Anyhow, for my 2011 birthday, I had separate presents for Christmas and birthday, I was able to celebrate my birthday properly with a family dinner and outing, and I got to have a party in tandem with my aunt’s birthday and the new year’s eve celebration. For those people who know me very well, I’m very choosy with my presents. I even had to send out a birthday gift registry to my aunts so that they can give me the things that I really wanted. I also had a hard time thinking what presents I want to receive because most of the time I had already bought it myself.

So here was the haul for 2011:

1. Gift cards: $25 Amazon gift card from my cousin, $25 Old Navy GC from my aunt, another gift card for a restaurant from my aunt

2. Plush pajama set from my aunt and uncle – finally I have my own set after my mom took ownership of the other set.

3. A pair of gloves with removable finger covering from my cousin – even though it’s a small thing, I truly liked this gift. I had a running history of losing my gloves so now I got a new pair again!

4. A pillow pet from my brother – I named my pillow pet Strawby the second. Strawby the first, given to me by my sister, was left in the Philippines.

5. Red money envelopes from my aunts for my birthday – they didn’t have time to buy my gifts so they gave me money instead. Cool!

6. A set of mini muffin pans and a Silpat from my aunt – love love love these gifts. Thank you my dear aunt for enriching my baking tools.

7. A fossil bracelet from a coworker.

8. A set of lotion from a coworker.

9. A coming-soon Sony cybershot camera that my mom promised me.

I know they’re not a lot and not too expensive but I’m thankful…thankful for all the thoughts and love expressed in the gifts.

Counting my 2011 blessings

Katkat — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:01:00 +0000

2011 has been a very good year. I thank the Lord for all the blessings He has showered upon me and my family. One of the reasons I blog is to be able to remember such blessings that came into my life. As 2012 unfolds, I’m taking time right now to be thankful of what 2011 has been to me.

1. Good health – I have been in good health for the past year. I don’t recall having been sick except for the occasional morning allergies. I don’t have any medical insurance so I always prayed to God that He protect me from injury or illness and He answered my prayer.

2. Steady income – I have been employed full time for the past year and I am also blessed with a part-time work which supplemented my main income.

3. A loving and supportive family – even though my family members live in different parts of the world, we maintained to be close and in contact with each other. My eldest sister and I were able to travel together to Japan. While my dad, mom, younger brother and I were able to spend quality time in Cebu. My sister who got married in June 2011 is now expecting the first grandchild of the family.

4. Good friends – I was able to connect with college friends who had migrated in the US and was able to spend fun time with them.

5. Travel opportunities – a lot of places in my travel bucket list has been ticked off this year. I was able to travel to Coron, Palawan, Taiwan, Washington DC, Bohol/Cebu, Seoul, Las Vegas, and Japan.

6. Learned and tried out new sports – I was able to do rock-climbing, yoga, kickboxing exercise, and sky-diving.

It’s really heart-warming to remember these things that happened in 2011. I thank the Lord for His faithfulness and love for me and my family. And I know He will continue to be faithful and good in 2012. To God be all the glory.

Have a blessed 2012 everyone!

Happy New Year everyone!

Katkat — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:17:00 +0000

Hello guys! I hope you have a good start in 2012. In my succeeding articles I will become nostalgic and look back on 2011 to have a proper goodbye of the past year and a proper hello of the new year. So what’s happening in 2012? Well all I know are: the Summer Olympics in London, it’s the year of the Dragon, Dec 21 2012 is the Mayan prediction of apocalypse, and it’s a Leap Year!

Anyway whatever happens in 2012, I pray that we all cherish each day and thank the Lord for His goodness. Let us hang on to His promise in Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Happy New Year everyone!

Falalala at Global Winter Wonderland

Katkat — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:14:53 +0000

After my birthday dinner celebration, my family decided to go to the Global Winter Wonderland in Santa Clara. I got GetMYPerks vouchers which allowed me to buy the tickets for half its price (12USD). Before arriving to the event, I already have lowered my expectations with this place having read user reviews from Yelp and having heard not-so-glowing comments from my aunt, who went days before.

Global Winter Wonderland is situated beside Great America Theme Park. It occupied a portion of the park’s parking lot. There was a 10USD parking fee which was ludicrous in my opinion so we drove and found a street parking directly across the place. It was a cold and slightly long walk but we were fine with it considering we would only be there for an hour. We arrived late in the evening which was good because that way the place was all lit up.

Why is it named Global Winter Wonderland? Because a lot of their light displays were miniature imitation of world iconic places. The place was small and contained few small rides. There was a big tent that housed food and boutique stalls. The main event was the light displays only. Anyway here are pictures to show you instead of me rambling vague descriptions…

A lot of the displays had Chinese theme that was because the event was sponsored and produced by Chinese company. In conclusion, the place wasn’t that remarkable. The lights were the main highlight. I didn’t feel like hanging around after I completed the circuit so it was a quick watch-and-leave. It was a good thing I didn’t pay for parking and full price of the tickets.

Merry Christmas everyone

Katkat — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:21:00 +0000

I want to greet you all a Merry Christmas. I also want to repost this greeting I got from someone in Facebook and I greet you with this message too:

I could wish you joy n peace to last a whole life long.
I could wish you sunshine or a cheerful little song.
Or wish you all the happiness that this life could bring.
But I wish you JESUS more than anything!
Coz when I wish you JESUS, I’ve wished you EVERYTHING!

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

The Macaron Project Part 2

Katkat — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:23:57 +0000

In this article I will write about another technique of making macarons. The Italian/Hot Meringue technique is not a popular method of baking macarons. The extra step of boiling the syrup to a certain temperature and mixing the egg whites with it…it seemed daunting. So why did I look for this alternative method of making my macarons? Because I had a difficult time succeeding with the French/Cold Technique. I couldn’t get the right consistency of the beaten egg white and the almond mixture.

I got the recipe from this site. His pictures were more explanatory than mine. The quantity of the ingredients were slightly varied. I put a food coloring this time (red) to make my macarons look prettier. Having the recipe in front of me and all my ingredients and tools prepared, it was actually easy to use this technique than the French one. Note: words in red are my notes and experiences with this baking.

Basic Almond Macarons

(Italian/Hot Technique)

For the Macarons:
120g egg whites, divided
35g sugar
150g finely ground almonds
150g powdered sugar

For the sugar syrup:
150g sugar and 50g water

1. Process the ground almonds and powdered sugar in the work bowl of a food processor. Most recipes call for sifting, but I think this works better and gets everything combined.

2. Whip 60g egg whites to soft peaks, add 35g sugar. At this stage, I put a dab of red food coloring into the mix. (Only use powder or gel food coloring because we don’t want to introduce any extra moisture into the mix. Experiment with only a little bit till you’re satisfied with the color.)

3. In the meantime, in a saucepan on high heat bring the water and sugar for the syrup to 230 F. on a candy thermometer.

4. Slowly add the boiling syrup to the egg whites and continue to whip on medium – high speed until they are completely cooled and you have a shiny meringue (10-15 minutes). Sorry for the yellow picture there…basically it showed that it was shiny.

5. Mix the remaining 60g of egg whites and the sifted almond/sugar and carefully fold into the meringue. I folded shiny meringue into three parts and I was careful not to overmix this time (folding only 10-15 times) because I don’t want a very runny mix. I got a thicker mix this time compared to the French/Cold method.

6. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the mixture and pipe macarons about 3 inches in diameter on silpat lined baking sheet.

7. Whack the table once or twice to release any bubbles from the piped circles. Let it dry for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the room temperature. If the surface of the circles doesn’t stick to your finger then it’s ready to be baked. I got nicer circles this time and more height than previous batch.

8. Bake at 320 for 15-25 minutes. Check to see if macarons are done by grabbing the top of one macaron and trying to shake it. They are done when the top barely slides against the skirt. If they are not done, extend baking time by two minutes intervals, checking after each extension. I had trouble with this temperature and baking time. I got overheated tops but undercooked insides. It was also more difficult to peel off the macaron from the baking sheet. So I guess next time I’ll try to leave my oven door slightly open as advised by other macaron bakers.

I put strawberry jam in between two shells as my filling. I didn’t have the energy to experiment with fillings yet. I bought this cheap Trader Joes jam which wasn’t to my liking. It was supposed to be raspberry but I grabbed the wrong flavor. Grr. So just add a pea size amount because the filling would ooze out and be messy if you put too many.

So from the picture it looked ok. But it was far from ok. My macarons weren’t successful…again. My mom called it this childhood biscuits we had back in the Philippines, “pacencia” or “egg nog”. It was crunchy which wasn’t how it supposed to be. Macaron should be chewy. The shell must be slightly hollow but have thickness. Mine was thin and crunchy. It didn’t have the hollow part. It looked toasted because of the oven baking problems. It also crumbled instantly when bite on. A good one must retain its shape. Despite all these failed characteristics, my mom was ecstatic and satisfied that I had discovered how to make “pacencia” and I should do it more often. I told her that “pacencia” was not my goal it was supposed to be a macaron. Waaahhhh!!!!

If I were to do the macaron for the Nth time, I would use the Hot/Italian Technique because I got better consistency than the French/Cold Technique. It could be a bit time consuming though because of the extra step.

This was a good macaron I got when I was in Kyoto.

For troubleshooting the macarons, click the following links:

Vivian Macaron

Food Nouveau

Miso Hungry