Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Summer in April

Hi Everyone!

It sure is hot here in So Cal.  I don't know what happened...it was pouring last week then all of sudden this heat wave.  That's ok, it gives us more reason to utilize our pool.

I've been wanting to showcase this beautiful dress for a while now...just never got the chance to after we returned from Taiwan.  It is so much work just pose for pictures!  I have to put extra makeup on , curl my hair, decide on what to pair with the dress, etc.  I have a whole new appreciation for fashion bloggers now!  I'm getting a haircut tomorrow,  so I wanted to curl my hair one more time before I sport a brand new 'do.  Most moms can relate...it's such a pain having long hair when you're dealing with kids.  I find myself putting my hair in a ponytail almost all the time.  The time has come to part ways with my long hair.  See you next year!

Enough about the hair.  I wrote this post to tell you about my clothes.  I saw this Alice & Olivia dress online one day and just had to have it.  I love it because it has a halter top, which is not very commonly seen.  Nevermind that it completely exposes my back; I can only wear it when I go out with either my husband or my girlfriends.  ;)   I LOVE this dress.  I wish I had more opportunity to wear it!  Hint, hint to the hubby!  ;)

The color of the dress is silver, I'd normally go with silver accessories, but I thought the red in my Saint Laurent clutch would pop against the silver background.  And since there was gold on the clutch, I paired my accessories to match the bag.





Dress: Alice & Olivia, old; for the life of me I can't find it online anywhere, but here's another really cute Alice & Olivia dress
Shoes: Badgley Mischka, super old; these here by Ivanka Trump are similar
Bag: Saint Laurent Ligne Y Clutch
Bracelet: Hermes H Bracelet 


Thanks for reading, happy shopping!

Xoxo,
Lin

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Three's A Crowd...Pleaser!

Happy Tuesday morning, everyone!

Today I wanted to share recipes for three dishes.  Two of which I made last week, and one that I made last night.  Everything is easy-peasy...the third might be a little more time-consuming, but this one isn't mine really, I followed a cookbook.  So maybe you can at least incorporate the first two dishes in your dinner plans tonight!

These are the dishes: Broccoli Beef, Tofu with Shitake Mushrooms, and Lemon Chicken.

I. First up, Broccoli Beef.  Honestly, I don't make this often.  Don't get me wrong, my family loves this dish, even the most picky eaters like C would eat even the broccoli on this dish.  But gosh, is it ever so time-consuming for me to have to peel off the broccoli "skin" on the stems!  My boys are picky enough that they will only eat the broccoli stems, and if I don't peel of the broccoli skin, then they won't eat them.  But if your family isn't as picky as mine, then you don't have that to worry about!

Ingredients:

2-3 bunches of broccoli (depending on your family size)
1 piece of steak (any kind will do)
2 tsp of salt
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 cup of oil
1/2 cup of water
Marinade for beef (see my previous posts here for recipe)

Steps:

1) cut beef into 1-2 inch wide slices, place in marinade and set aside.  let marinade for about 10-15 min
2) wash then cut broccoli into bite-size pieces
3) heat 1/2 cup oil in pan
4) when oil is heated, toss beef in.  cook until just about done, scoop up, set aside.
5) heat remaining oil in pan, toss in garlic pieces.
6) when garlic is golden brown, toss in broccoli.  stir until coated with oil, then toss beef back in.
7) turn heat down to medium, pour water into the dish, cover and let cook for about 10 minutes.
8) turn heat back up, toss the dish and cook about 2 minutes, scoop, and serve!




II. Second dish, the Tofu with Shitake Mushrooms.  For my dish I used silken tofu, and although they don't hold up too well, they are delicious.  If you like your tofu to remain in the rectangular shape, then I suggest you use firmer tofu.  

Ingredients:

1 box tofu
5-6 shitake mushrooms
2 stalk green onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, sliced
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup oil

Steps:

1) If you're using dried Shitake Mushrooms, first soak them in warm water.  If not, just cut the mushrooms into fours
2) cut tofu into small rectangles, about 1 inch long and 2 inches wide.
3) heat oil in pan, throw in garlic when heated.
4) throw in tofu first, toss and let cook about a minute, then toss mushrooms in.  
5) pour soy sauce in dish, turn down heat, cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
6) when just about ready, toss green onions in.  Serve!




III. The last but not least, is Lemon Chicken.  For this dish, I actually followed the recipe in a cookbook called Quick and Easy Chinese, 70 Everyday Recipes, by Nancie McDermott.  You can find it here on Amazon.  I made the dish exactly as the book instructed, but I'd do some things differently next time.  I find that there were too much of certain ingredients, so next time, I'd cut down.  And I'd also marinade the chicken strips with my marinade (referenced above in the Broccoli Beef recipe) beforehand.  Because without marinading them first, I find them lacking in taste.  

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 lb bonelss, skinless chicken breast (or thighs, which is what I used)
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 lemon juice
1/2 cup oil
2 stalks green onions, thinly sliced like the picture below

Steps:

1) cut chicken into strips, marinade and let stand for 10 minutes
2) mix flour and salt in a bowl, dip chicken in them and set aside
3) in a sauce pan, combine chicken stock, sugar, ginger, soy sauce, salt, and lemon juice.   
4) in a small bowl, combine cornstarch with water.  mix.  
5) bring the chicken stock mixture into a gentle boil, then add the cornstarch mixture.  Bring to a boil again.  Then cover and remove from heat, set aside.
6) heat oil in frying pan.  place pieces of chicken in the oil.  cook each side for about 1-2 minutes, then transfer them into another dish.  
7) when chicken is done, pour lemon sauce over chicken, and sprinkle green onions over the dish.


Sunday, April 20, 2014

Double Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  We sure did.  We had a family Easter brunch with cousins and grandma, the boys and I then went to another Easter BBQ while Daddy took a nap with K.  Needless to say, we had a lot of yummy food.  The kids had fun hunting Easter eggs; K only gathered the pink ones.  What can I say, she's special like that!  ;)

Anyway, I've been making this double chocolate banana bread for a long time, but this is my first time making it into muffins.  They're SO delicious, and such a good way to use up your old bananas.  I got this recipe from Pinterest, I can't take credit for it.  But the only thing I changed was the baking time.  Instead of baking for the suggested 60-70 minutes, in muffin pans, you only need to bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

The recipe is from this website:
http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2009/05/double-chocolate-banana-bread

Don't forget, if you want to make them into muffins, reduce the baking time to only 30  minutes!


Xoxo,
Lin

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Chicken Noodle Soup

Hi There!

Ever since I got back from Taiwan, I've been trying to get the fam bam back on track.  It took a while to get over the jet lag.  I probably cooked a whopping total of once last week.  But this week is a little better, therefore I was able to make some delicious dinners.

Yesterday the boys had Chinese tutoring right after school.  We didn't get home until 5:30 in the evening.   So I decided to make a pot of Chicken Noodle Soup.  So easy and quick, and it's got all the nutritious stuff in there.  Here's the recipe:

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
7 quarts water
1 whole chicken
6 stalks of celery
4 carrots, peeled
3 small onions
6 Roma tomatoes, or 3 beefsteak tomatoes
3 tablespoons of salt
half a package of pasta (I used min wheels, but any shape will do)
cilantro, chopped up into tiny pieces

Optional
I couldn't find celery in the Japanese market I went to yesterday, so I substituted celery with cabbage and mushroom.  Perfect for my husband because he hates celery.  And sure enough, he loved the soup last night!

Steps
1) Fill pot with chicken and water, cook chicken until boiling.  Dump water.  This step is to clean the chicken and cook off all the bacteria.
2) Fill pot with fresh water again, cook chicken until boiling again.  Turn down heat and let cook with a soft boil.  You will let chicken cook like this for the next 2 hours.  Flavor the stock with salt.  Add or subtract accordingly.
3) Chop all vegetables into 1-inch size, set aside
4) Cook pasta according to package directions, when done, set aside.
5) When chicken is about an hour into cooking, throw all the vegetables and pasta in
6) Throw in cilantro 15 minutes before soup is done.  
7) You can flavor your own bowl of soup with a few splashes of Tapatio sauce if you'd like.  Adds a kick to the soup.  

Serves at least 8 adults as a meal!



Xoxo,
Lin


Thursday, April 10, 2014

Taiwan in Pictures

Hi there!  They say pictures speak a thousand words.  So of course I had to talk about Taiwan with not just my lovely Hemingway-esq prose but my Ansel Adam-esq photography too. ;)  Ok, all cheesy jokes aside, I finally uploaded all the pictures on my computer!  I took some of these photos, and my uncle and cousin took some too.  I will post as many as I find interesting and as this post will allow.  :)  Warning - a lot of good stuff up ahead! 

1) Fun Kids Stuff

Baby Boss - kids get to try different "professions" and earn Baby Bucks
 
Mechanics
Magician - she made her own balloon sword!
Artists
Stylist - K got to style her own Barbie!
Robot Engineers - this one you can't get in unless you made enough Baby Bucks  from your previous "jobs"

K in Her Pizza Chef Gear
Pizza Chefs Hard at Work!
Enjoying the Fruits of Their Labor!



Taipei Children's Recreational Center - It's not very big, with only about 7 rides, each ride costing about USD $0.60.  But there are arcade games, snacks, and a couple of playgrounds too.  The ice cream is imported from Korea and it's extra delicious!  We went on a weekday so there were barely anyone there.  It's like enjoying Disneyland w/o the lines!  It was awesome!

Spinning Tea Cups!
Can you tell the boys were SUPER excited to ride their own motorcycles?!
Swings - didn't move too fast.  But K wasn't able to go on it.
Mini Farris Wheel
Enjoying Korean Ice Cream with Grandma
Even K got to "drive" her own car!
Of course we had to ride Thomas the Train in the Arcade
One of the Playgrounds
Dragon Boat
Merry-Go-Round



Ferris Wheel - supposedly the tallest Ferris Wheel in Taipei?  It was pretty high up, and we had a clear bottom so I was pretty freaked out!






Swimming - on days we don't have any plans, I take the kids swimming at our hotel.  We stayed at the W Hotel



Clay Model Making - on the top floors of most of the department stores, there are instructors that will assist children in making clay models.  It takes about 40 minutes to an hour to make it, and costs less than $15 USD.  It's amazing what they can make with clay!  

The boys trying to choose which clay model to make




2) Food

I apologize I can't recall the name of this restaurant, but it's where my extended family gathered to celebrate my two uncles' birthdays.  This dish that this young lady prepared is consisted of deep fried sweet potatoes, glazed with maple syrup, then dipped in cold water to harden the syrup.  The lady then used a fork to make hair-like strands of maple sugar with a fork.  It's amazing, really, what she did.  Then she made the whole maple sugar thing into some kind of sculpture.  I was beyond impressed.

Hard at Work

The Result - pretty amazing, isn't it?


This here is from the Shabu Shabu restaurant my cousin brought us to.  At the end of our meal, the waitress used the leftover broth and made it into congee (rice porridge).  Oh.My.God.  It was so delicious.  Why doesn't any of the Shabu Shabu restaurants here do that?!
Congee

Shabu Shabu sauces

Taro and Red Bean Dessert

Before we left, I treated my uncle, aunt, and cousin to a meal at our hotel.  The food is so good.  The Peking Duck had all these parings to go with it.  The squash was cooked in chicken stock that's been cooking for 4 hours.  And the pumpkin soup had chicken stock mixed in it with bits of crab meat.  K thoroughly enjoyed every bite of food!
Peking Duck Pairings

Squash with Chicken Stock

Pumpkin Soup - yup, that's a fleck of gold on top!

Tofu Stuffed with Pork


 Fruits - shown here are bell fruit, and dates





 Boba Drink - this one is milk tea sweetened with brown sugar.  Boba, in case you don't know what it is, is tapioca balls.  When cooked right, they are so deliciously chewy and sweetened just right....which is about every single boba drink in Taiwan!




So right before I left, I finally had time to walk around the department store right next to my hotel.  And on the bottom floor it was all restaurants and bakeries.  I wasn't able to take pictures of the food since I had to feed 3 kids, but I got photos of the baked goods.  They are adorable and delicious as well!
Donuts
Cakes
Macarons

3) Shopping

Street Shopping - there are so many street shopping in Taiwan, and street shopping is super inexpensive.  My mother got K a few dresses, with each costing $3.00 USD each!  But of course, it depends what you buy.  :)  I don't think little girls' clothes are made out of anything other than your basic cotton.




This particular picture was taken at one of the many underground street shopping places
As you can see, my mom is pretty happy.  :)  She is releasing her inner shopaholic!  I wrote about shopping with my cousin at slightly more expensive places.  But sorry I can't provide you with pictures!  I was too busy releasing my inner shopaholic!  ;)


Department stores - well, I'll be honest with you.  I had no interest in shopping in department stores at first.  My reasoning is, well, we have department stores here in the States.  Why do I need to shop at the stores there?  Well, I was wrong.  The stuff there in the department stores are not like the ones here.  Most stuff are imported from Korea or Japan, and of course there are stuff made in Taiwan and China.  I guess because it's a different culture?  But stuff there are just...different.  More delicate, I guess.  The only picture I have is a picture of my cousin with the munchkins.  This was after our Shabu dinner, with the restaurant located on the top floor of an especially expensive department store, with Hermes and Chanel and all kinds of other luxury goods stores.




4) Clubbing

I can't tell you which clubs I visited...but everything is seriously within walking distance from my hotel.  My cousin and I took the taxi, and we arrive within 5 minutes.  They're all in one building, one club to another.  It was so much fun.  If you're not into dancing, you can start by relaxing at the lounge upstairs.  Then work your way down...club hopping.  My cousin knew all the ins and outs.  She got us to sit at the VIP seats, we hung out with Taiwanese celebrities and club owners alike.  Let me tell you, I totally had fun, if you know what I mean!  It brings me back to our pre-children days, when my hubby and I would hang out with our friends on the weekends.  ;)





5) Anniversary Pictures

And here they are!  I only posted a few because my hubby is camera shy.  :)  Like I said, the Taiwanese are well-known for this.  It literally took a village to get these photos done.  When I booked the package, I had to select the photographer I wanted.  Then the day after we arrived, I had to choose my outfit and get fitted (they alter the dresses for you the day you try them on).   Then the next day we arrive at the studio for makeup and hair at 7am, and the actual photo shoot took an entire day.  We didn't finish until about 7pm.  We got the family portraits done early because, well, those of you with kids know this.  Kids don't do well with professional photo sessions.  So after the kids did their part, my uncle, aunt, and mom took them out for food and to a local park.  Then two days after the shoot, we had to look through and choose our pictures.  A week later, looking through and checking the re-touched photos.  All in all, the whole process took about 2 weeks, and cost about USD $2,000.  This is considered super inexpensive!  When my hubby and I got our engagement pictures done 10 years ago, at a similar studio but here in the States, it cost us around USD $8,000.  With my Taiwanese package, we got a huge acrylic cover bounded album with 36 retouched pictures, 1 framed 30" picture, 2 framed desktop 8x10 pictures, 2 smaller albums for each of our mothers, and a CD.  BTW, these pictures were taken at the studio called Sophia Ritz.  The daughter of the former Taiwanese president got her engagement photos done here as well.






I love this one because this person shown here is such a fantastic creation!  Ha!  I'm so not like this in person!  ;)

 And that's it for now!  I have so many other pictures saved on another disk, but we can't find the camera that it's sitting in.  :P  But hopefully you got a more thorough look into what Taiwan can offer.  We came for our anniversary pictures but wanted to make sure the kids had fun too.  We achieved both missions with satisfaction.  We all left Taiwan a few pounds heavier, a little less stressed, our wallets a little lighter (ha!), and came back to the US very, very jet-lagged.  But we're happy!  I'm actually going through my day-to-day routine with less stress and more focus.  And I'm more in touch with my family in Taiwan.  I'd say this was a spring break well-spent.  I hope, through my writing and pictures of Taiwan, I have inspired you to put Taiwan in your future travel plans.  It really is a fun place to visit, with something for everyone.  :)  Maybe I'll see you on our next visit there!  ;)


Xoxo,
Lin