Posts Tagged 'giveaways'

Custard Shrimpfu Surf and Tuft…Say What?

Hope I’ve caught your attention. Hello everyone! Thank you for all of your well wishes while the kiddies and I were recovering from our colds! It really makes my day to see all your comments and emails :-D And that thank you also goes out to those of you who read but don’t comment (absolutely nothing wrong with that) cause then I know at least there’s someone out there reading my bloggie. I’m happy to say that the kids and I have recovered from our colds. But here’s a peak at what happens when Mommy is ill:

On Sunday I started feeling better so that day was dedicated to getting things back in order. The OCD in me couldn’t take it anymore. The laundry got done, floors got swept, vacuumed, and swiffered, dishes got washed, every countertop got wiped down and sanitized, garbage got taken out, and the fridge, microwave, and range all got cleaned as well. The only thing that didn’t get cleaned were the toilets. Maybe I’ll leave that for the hubby keekeekee.

So much better wouldn’t cha say?!

Phew, I never wanna get sick again. Oh speaking of getting sick, how many of you get your yearly flu shots? I usually don’t get the flu shot and I’m usually fine. I think the longest I went was 3 years without having a cold. But this past Christmas we went on a cruise with the little ones, so not wanting to take any risks we all got our H1N1 shots, plus the flu shots, plus whatever else shots we had to get. As soon as we got back from the cruise I got sick. It was almost like the flu shot weakened my immune system…hmmm…go figure. So from now on I’m not getting a flu shot. Anyone else experience the same thing?

Anyways, here’s the recipe to that tofu, spinach, and shrimp dish I told you I would post. This dish, like the other dishes I make is very easy and non time-consuming. My dishes have to be simple and easy cause I don’t think my brain could handle more than 5 ingredients. Teehee. I wished I could create such delectable and uniquely wonderful dishes like many of you do but the simplicity of my klutzy brain doesn’t allow for that. So with that said I’m proud to share this simple recipe with you. And by the way, these measurements are just a guideline as to approximately how much you can use of each ingredient. If you’ve experienced trying to learn Chinese cooking, you’ll agree it’s usually a bit of this, a little of that, a dash of this, a drizzle of that type measurements rather than the teaspoons/cups measurement.

Ingredients:

  • 3 teaspoons chopped garlic
  • 15 – 20 medium-sized shrimp peeled and deveined (I used more)
  • 2 packages of tofu
  • 2 bunches of spinach
  • cooking oil
  • white cooking wine

sauce:

  • 1 tablespoon chicken broth powder
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1/2 cup water

In a small bowl mix all the sauce ingredients together and stir until you achieve a smooth consistency. Set aside for later use.

Slice tofu into approximately 1 inch thick slices. This is the type of tofu I like to use. I luv luv luv this tofu because the egg inside gives it a custard-like taste and texture. If you’re allergic to eggs there is another type that doesn’t have eggs. I’m pretty sure you can get these at any Chinese supermarket.

In a pan or wok heat up 2 teaspoons of cooking oil on high heat and pan-fry the tofu on each side until a golden brown colour. Take out the tofu and place them on a plate for later use.

Yeah yeah, so I need a little work on making my slices evenly sized.

In a pan or wok heat up 1 tablespoon of cooking oil on high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. Cook till the garlic turns a golden brown colour and throw in the shrimp. Toss the shrimp around until they are 3/4 cooked (pink, translucent colour). Scoop out the shrimp onto a plate and set aside for later use.

In a wok heat up 2 tablespoons of cooking oil on high heat and add 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic. Cook until the garlic turns a golden brown colour. Throw in 2 bunches of spinach, add 3 tablespoons of white cooking wine and cook for about 3 minutes. Once the spinach is cooked, throw the shrimp into the same wok as the cooked spinach. Pour in the sauce mixture. Cook and toss together for about 2 minutes or until the sauce coats everything. Turn off the heat and plate.

If you’d like, rather than cooking the tofu off the start, you can cook the tofu at the same time that you’re cooking the spinach so by the time you’re done, the tofu is still hot rather than sitting there all that time getting cold. I didn’t do that cause hello, simple-minded klutz here remember? If you do decide to make this dish, I hope you enjoy it. But most of all don’t forget to invite me ;-)

Thank you to those of you who suggested names for this dish. I really enjoyed reading them. I should do this more often. Check them out:

Michelle @ Lucky Taste Buds wrote, “Hmmm maybe “Custard tofu shrimp”?? hahah I think i fail”

The Line That Divides Us wrote, “that last dish looks scrumptious! shrimpfu! hahahha.”

Sophia @ Burp and Slurp wrote, “Let’s call it…surf and tuft. Because surf = the shrimp (seafood) and tuft= plants = soy= vegetarian = that tofu. LOL! Haha!”

I loved all 3 suggestions. So now you know where the title of my post came from ;-)

And here’s the rest of our dinner: pan-fried salmon which we like to just dip in Worcestershire sauce, and salmon sashimi. With white rice of course.

So just a few things before I leave. I’ve added a giveaways page at the top of my blog to help support my fellow blog friends. Rather than having to go back and add links to my posts, I can just add giveaways to this page. So please check that page every so often for new giveaways. I’ve seen a page like this on some of your blogs so I thought I’d steal the idea, thanks for the idea guys. If you don’t see your giveaway on the page please feel free to shoot me an email lynnchenrocks@hotmail.com with the link to your giveaway and I’d be glad to add it. Hope you’re all having a wonderful start to your week. Until next time friends and family.

Happy Easter/Long Weekend!

We don’t celebrate Easter so this weekend wasn’t too busy for us. However, my mother in-law Wendy came into town to visit for a day on Saturday. Yes, this is the, “I don’t know who Lynn Chen is and why she has a rock”  Wendy…teehee. Doesn’t my hubby totally look like a boy version of her? Anyways, we took her to dim sum at a restaurant called Beijing Beijing. I took a few pics of the food but then I was so hungry I started eating and forgot to take pics of the rest of the dishes so I decided not to post any at all. I’ll probably do a review of this restaurant later some time anyways.

On Sunday we went to our usual pho restaurant in Chinatown called Pagolac. We frequent this place probably every weekend, if not then for sure every second weekend. Does that picture remind you of anything? Say “cheese” Mr. Cow ;-)

Here’s what the inside looks like. Sorry for the dark picture. You know how I’m paranoid about taking pictures with other people in them. I think I may have even shut off the flash on this one to try to quickly snap a shot without anyone noticing…teehee. I just don’t want to disturb anyone while they’re eating and I’m a little bit chicken poop that someone will yell at me. How do you other bloggers do it? Any suggestions/thoughts on this? Or do you just not care cause you’re used to doing it for so long.

Anyways, Gary ordered the Deluxe Rice Noodle Soup (Pho Dac Biet) with spicy soup which had a combination of sliced beef, tenderloin brisket, tripe, and meat balls.

The kiddies had a regular Rice Noodle Soup (Pho Tai) to share, which I forgot to take a picture of.

Don’t worry, we fed Lex as well. We have to make sure nothing is within his reach or it’ll end up on the floor. Isn’t that right fellow parents with one year olds?

I usually order the Pho Tai as well but today I decided to get something different. This is the Pagolac Combination 5A. It’s a vermicelli bowl with grilled pork (I like to substitute for beef), egg roll, shredded pork (I told them to hold off on that), meat ball, and grilled la lop shish-ka-bob. If you’re allergic to peanuts like me, you can ask them to hold the peanuts (which I forgot). Good thing it’s not a “serious” allergy. Or if you’re picky like me and want to substitute an item for something else, I don’t think they charge extra like some restaurants do. I hate that and don’t see why restaurants charge extra for substitutions unless I’m substituting chicken with lobster…haahaa ;-)

Pagolac has three locations: downtown, southside, and westside. The downtown location is on 10566 97 street northwest Edmonton. I’m not sure of the addresses for the other two locations.

After lunch we visited Grandma and Grandpa. See, if we didn’t feed him, how would he have the energy to be such a great little helper. Like I always say, “gotta teach em’ young.” ;-)

So those were the main highlights of our weekend, always centered around food lol. If you celebrate Easter I hope you had a Happy Easter. If you don’t celebrate Easter like me, I hope you had a great long weekend! Before I leave I just want to inform you that the lovely ladies at The Happiness in Health, The Actor’s Diet, and Lucky Taste Buds are all having great giveaways. Check them out before their giveaways end. Oh and since I’m still learning the ropes of blogging, do I assume giveaways are US residents only unless stated otherwise? Some blogs don’t state and since I’m a Canadian resident I usually don’t bother entering unless it says US and Canadian residents cause I don’t want to mess up anything for anyone. Hope one of you can clear that up for me. Until next time friends and family.



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