Learning Pakistani Food Cooking

This is such an unique experience for us learning how to cook Pakistani Food.

After we experienced several middle eastern restaurants, we fell in love with this exotic and healthy cooking style.

So this weekend my husband invited his best friends to our humble home and L, who is Pakistani, taught us to cook the delicious food.

Actually there were 2 dishes and rice. We didn't have much space on our modest table, so there was only one plate on the photo. It is called cholay with ingredients like tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, chickpeas and three kinds of spices: Coriander Powder, Cumin Seed Powder, Chili Powder.

After we tried the first bite, Oh My God! It was so fresh and delicious. We loved it and ate with great pleasure and appreciation. Thanks, L for teaching us cook this fantastic plate. And luckily they did not care that I was actually with a cold. :P

And amazingly I saw the first snow of this year while we were enjoying a cheerful dinner with friends.

Eating Organics

I just read International Herald Tribune and there is an article getting my attention.

Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician and author in Danville, California, decided to eaten nothing but organic foods for three years to find out the impact on human body.

Why 3 years? The reason is "that was the amount of time it took to have a breeding animal certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

"Organic farmers don't use conventional methods to fertilize the soil, control weeds and pests, or prevent disease in livestock. Organic methods often lead to higher costs, and consumers can pay twice as much for organic foods as for conventional products."

Dr. Alan Greene said: "If you don't eat meat at every meal, if meat becomes more of a side dish than a centerpiece, you can fill the plate with healthy organic food for about the same price."

Hey that is so true and hopefully inspiring to us people to think about what to eat is what we will become.

The report indicates that: "Greene said he was inspired to go all-organic after talking to a dairy farmer who noted that livestock got sick less after a switch to organic practices. He wondered if becoming 100 percent organic might improve his own health. Three years later, he says he has more energy and wakes up earlier."

In Dr. Greene's latest book, "he advocates a "strategic" approach, urging parents to insist on organic versions of a few main foods, like milk, potatoes, apples and baby food."

Seriously, that is something that we need to put into our considerations.

note: the original article: One man's 3-year experiment in eating organic food - all the time ->
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/04/healthscience/snparker.php

Turkey Recipe from Christine

This year we are not having Thanksgiving holiday at home but following our tradition of years: go traveling. We'll travel to Dover/Delaware, Atlantic City/New Jersey, Princeton University, The Barnes Foundation/Pennsylvania.

However, my dear friend Christine gave me this turkey recipe for the future need.

Attention: If you buy turkey from supermarket, it is frozen. You have to buy 2 days earlier. One day for defrost, and one day for the herb/beer to sit long enough.

1. bath turkey with beer for around two hours (don't put too much beer otherwise the turkey will lose juice in the beer. You can adjust the beer by your own judgment. There is no strict rule.)

2. rubbing salt & pepper inside/outside

3. put herbs such as rosemary etc. inside the stomach & put the turkey over nite

4. Then before you cook it, boil the butter, not too hot, just warm

5. Pour lemon juice into melted butter. Brush all over the chicken. (Since lemon will burn/cook the meat, only brush it before cooking. Lemon is good for chicken/seafood. Remember, only put lemon before you cook.)

6. The more butter you put, the more delicious the turkey tastes. (But we don't want our hubbies die in heart disease...)

7. Seal the tray with aluminum foil and cook per the time instructed

8. Unveil the foil, brush the butter once in a while (inside the oven) to keep the skin look nice

reference site: http://www.the-perfect-turkey.com/how-long-to-cook-a-turkey.html

All right, though I don't know which year I'll use it for cooking turkey, but Christine, my friend, many thanks for your generous recipe that I will use it for sure some day in the future.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone!!!

Food deflation

Last Sun. we passed by Wendy's and saw the 99 cents promotion hamburger deal.
No kidding. 99 cents!!!

Just in another corner, Boston market offers $1.99 for whole chicken if you buy a family package.
Wow, that is amazing to know food price has been deflated that much. And it's obvious that the business is really facing a severe challenge in this recession.

However we'll never dare to try them. Who knows what kind of meat they use? :P

Gas price drops below $2.5

Today the gas price drops below $2.5 per gallon. That is really unbelievable to us.

It was only a few months back that gas was almost $5, and now it may go even lower.

When gas price was high, we noticed that people were driving less but now it seems that the traffic is picking up again.

Anyway, it is a good news for us to drive to northeast coast in the coming Thanksgiving though. :)

Pride and Prejudice - Political Chapter

2008, an important election year for many countries.

In the long process of debates and arguments, each party holding their believes for their candidate and sometimes irrational.

While we discussing who should we vote and how to make the decision, I cannot agree more to my husband's comment: people should not always vote for the only political party they believe but see the policies of each candidate to decide whom to vote every time.

Though I agree with him, I cannot help to think how did I decide to vote in those years in Taiwan. Can I really choose rationally not because of the color of the party flag?

Now looking back, I am glad that I didn't vote for Chen who might be a good lawyer, election speaker and promoter, city mayor, but not an integral man that requires courage and judgment. That is why he was corrupted totally by the total power he gained during his presidency.

Now Chen Yunlin, the China counterpart of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) visiting Taiwan and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) protests accusing President Ma of selling out to the Chinese. Some violent bleeding happened during the demonstration.

Friends told me they are so tired of these news making them very upset. The instability definitely shakes the foundation of society and turbulence people's mind. When Pride and Prejudice come and take over people's ration, all we see are comedies, one after another.

In USA, after Obama being elected as the next President, it is a huge step for African Americans undoubtedly. However, it is still long way to go to let racist problem really being abolished on this land.

Baby Boomer politicians will stick with what they believe but they will fade away. The society and the future is for the young generation. Same as for my hometown, if education cannot give people logics of thinking, independent judgment, then sadly the next generation will need to live with the consequences caused by their indulgent pride and prejudice.

Go to play FREE RICE to help end hunger

"For each answer you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger." ~ Free Rice website

http://freerice.com/index.php

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide education to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Go! Go! Go! And PLAY!!!

So far I have tried 7 categories:

1. I started with English vocabulary, I was not doing very well and sometimes asked the help of my husband, so very soon I skip it to the next one.

2. Spanish vocabulary: Oh My God! That is so easy and within a few minutes I reached to the highest level (level 10).

3. Famous Paintings: I thought I am good but it is more difficult than I imagined. I went up to level 6 and then down to level 2 by guessing wrong some unfamiliar works for me. After half an hour or more, I finally got to level 8 when I really felt exhausted by that. However, I enjoyed it as well, so I will come back to train myself on this subject later.

4. World Capitals: I am good in Europe and Latin America but quite bad in Southeast, Africa and Middle East. And after a while I lost the interest and moved to the next one.

5. Identify countries on the map: this is fun but frankly speaking I have a lot to learn on this too. hahaha

6. Mathematics Multiplication table: Oh My God. This is totally designed for 10 years old kid. So if you are not good at all the above subjects, go to this one and it definitely will help a lot with high speed to get tons of rice to help end the hunger.

7. English grammar is a easy one too though I missed some grammatical details when did the answers.

And today my contribution to that is 12420 grains of rice!

You may go to "options" to Remember my personal rice donation total from the last time I played when I start FreeRice.

This is an awesome website to play, learn and to help. Hope everybody enjoys it.