December 15, 2009

Our first homemade chocolate cake

I've been to the USA for 2 years and 3 months and today finally husband and I make our first chocolate cake.

The ingredients are:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk

1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease bottoms of squre cake pan. Line bottoms of pans with waxed paper. Grease and lightly flour bottoms and sides of pans. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total). Beat in vanilla.

3. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just combined. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.

4. Bake in a 350º oven for 35 to 40 minutes for 8 inch pans and 13x9x2 inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for 9 inch pans or until a wooden toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Peel off waxed paper. Cool thoroughly on racks. Frost with desired frosting.

December 11, 2009

My favorite Christmas song for 2009



Alvin and the chipmunks have been my favorite Christmas song singers since my 20. This year I'm so glad that I can get them back to my life.

Enjoy this song "Christmas Don't Be Late". :D

August 9, 2009

Broiled Lamb Chop

This Sat. finally my husband prepared Broiled Lamb Chop for friends in potluck lunch. We actually wanted to make braised lamb shank, but unfortunately we cannot find lamb shank in Whole Foods one day before, so we changed it to lamb chop.

We soaked the lamb with red wine for about 10 to 15 minutes to remove the strong smell and then rubbed some lemon juice onto the lamb, light coat it with olive oil. Then we rubbed the spice mix (mostly salt, black pepper and rosemary, and also a bit of curry, garlic and thyme) over lamb evenly and marinated it over night in refrigerator.

The rest went easy, just put it into the oven and broiled it for about 16 minutes (8 minutes each side). That's it. I am very glad that my husband succeeded in making this dish so that we all enjoyed it. :D

June 8, 2009

This is me and ZoZo....

Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com
Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

Hahahaha.... This is the first time I show myself with dear husband ZoZo here in my blog. Though it is not 100% accurate (ZoZo is not so slim and I don't wear skirt that much), but that is the closest image I see ourselves.

April 28, 2009

Southern Italian Cuisine Class @Whole Foods

Yesterday we went to our 2nd Whole Foods Cooking Class: Southern Italian Cuisine.

Chef Egg gave us a tour of Amalfi Coast learning and trying two delicious plates:

Linguini with Roasted Tomato Sauce & Seabass with Orange and Fennel

We learned about sea salt and olive oil and also enjoyed watching and playing with the kids around us.

It is so fun and we want more... :D

April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day!


To celebrate this special day of our dear Earth, I watched a very meaningful TV program with my hubby last night: Poisoned Waters.



If you are interested in this 2-hour long documentary, you may go to the link to watch. It will definitely motivate us to rethink about our daily choices when see the human impacts on the environment pollution.

Let's do little changes to help it to survive as long as it could.

What do you wait for? Spring is already here, go shopping in Farmers market and keep yourself healthy supporting the local harvest. http://www.localharvest.org/

April 20, 2009

Italian Meatballs

I think meatball is international. Every people love it.

To start, I chose Italian meatball recipe this time:

Ingredients

1 pound combined beef, veal, pork (must be fresh)
3 large eggs
1 cup grated Romano Locatelli Cheese
1 cup bread crumb
1 clove garlic - minced
1 teaspoon salt

Preparation (All mixing is done be hand)

In a large bowl mix beef/veal/pork with eggs. Then add bread crumb, cheese, and salt. Finally add minced garlic in stages. Add a little garlic, then mix. Add some more, then mix. This way all the garlic does not end up in one meatball. Now, it's time to roll up the balls. Average size is roughly 2 inches in diameter. Will get around 18 to 20 meatballs per pound.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Looking-for-a-Great-Italian-Meatball-Recipe?&id=58232

April 17, 2009

Our first Whole Foods Cuisine Class

We've moved to Silver Spring for 12 days already and last night we joined our neighborhood grocery store Whole Foods for Free Cuisine Class.

This first cooking class is about Indian cuisine and our teacher is Rupen Rao, an IT engineer.


We learned how to cook Butter Chicken with Cumin Rice in 20 minutes and also Baby Corn Saag (Palak Makai). Rupen not only taught us the cooking technique but also explained the nutrition details and health suggestions on cooking.

We have to say it was a very practical cooking lesson and we loved the food he demonstrated. By the way, he even has a personal website: www.RupenRao.com Every one could go there to get his authentic Indian cuisine recipes.

February 10, 2009

Are American bad bankers capable of apologizing?

This morning I heard the British bankers are apologizing to the public for what they have screwed up the society with the financial mess they caused.

My husband commented: See? Have you ever seen any American banker apologize for what they've done?

To me I really don't know whether they don't feel shame anymore or they are too shameful?

February 3, 2009

This is how 2009 will be...

Every so often my husband and I would go shopping in the Rockville area and see that more and more shops and stores are closed due to recession.

Last month the Gaithersburg Borders was closed, so is Sam Woo, a Korean restaurant on Rockville Pike, and a Shell gas station.

Bennigan's chain restaurants were all shut down for chapter 11.

Not mentioning Anne's Linen in our neighborhood and the jewelery shops are facing the difficult situation inevitably.

~ to be continued ~

We are in a world of excess. Never is enough. Now it is time to pay back...

January 30, 2009

Economic Stimulus Package


Today I read the newspaper The Christian Science Monitor and this caught my attention. The illustration clearly show those sectors the $817 billions distribute to.

I don't know how American government could generate this huge amount of money other than printing more bills in order to rescue this economic crisis but I do understand government must do some remedy to pull up a little bit the worsened economy.

The huge tax cut would benefit most of the Americans in the coming tax season, especially for many unemployed people it is somehow helpful for their temporary cash shortage problem.

As to the world currency, that is such another topic to watch. Will US dollar be depreciated soon? And will gold price be arising continuously as investors' security hedge in such a shaking crisis period?

As to Jim Rogers talking about euro won't be around in 20 years, that is a serious thing to consider for our investment sake...

January 9, 2009

What else you could recycle to get money back?

Last week we sent an used cell phone to a company called Elecycle Technology International LLC and today we got a $8 check from them.

That is not bad at all. And I cannot stop wondering what else we could recycle to get more money back? :P

Some business is doing something quite silly. They give you a program like "if you pay extra money, we will take your old items for recycle." Obviously that is not what we are looking for.

Anyway, we'll keep on looking..... However, still "reduce" is the best remedy. Don't forget. :D

January 5, 2009

How to start a new year? You can't miss watching this.

During the New Year Holiday, I noticed that in our community garbage bin was so incredibly full with neighbor's junks.

I believe all the world over consume especially in holiday season. People give gifts out, go shopping, eat more and so generate more garbage.

Some people told me that X'mas trees here will be processed for recycle. And I really cannot believe that saying because I saw people just dump their used X'mas trees in the garbage bin. Recycle? No chance!

2009 won't be a very prosperous year for most of the people when the world economy is going down and more business are closing.

This website provides a 20 minutes story to tell everyone a meaningful story. A story about you and me and the future generations. It is worthy to watch it more than any trashy Hollywood film, if we care.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/international/index.html

Before we buy another iPod or another computer or another useless but fancy items, think before we take out the credit card. Do we really need them or just create some trash later to burden this globe?