Kale salad with I.T.I dressing

I.T.I = Italian Thousand Island dressing. 
I made this amazing and healthy salad with mix of Italian salad dressing and Thousand Island dressing. Turn out so yummy and refreshing. The key to this kale salad is that you must keep covered in the refrigerator  for an overnight. Kale will turn soft and tasty.

Simple ingredients:

• Italian salad dressing
• Thousand Island salad dressing
• Honey 
• Kale leaves, cut or break into bite sizes

Easy to make:

1. In a large bowl, mix equal amount of Italian and Thousand Island dressing, drizzle some honey and mix till blend. If you like it more sweet, add more honey; if you like it little more sour taste, add more Italian dressing.
2. Stir in kale leaves and make sure all leaves covered with dressing. Keep covered for an overnight. 
3. Sprinkle some raisins, cranberries, or nuts as you prefer.

Qian Long Cabbage 乾隆白菜

You will need:

• Napa  cabbage leaves, break into bite sizes, dry
• 1 Tsp Peanut butter ( or sesame paste)
• 3 Tsp dark vinegar
• 3 Tsp Honey

Easy to make:

1. mix peanut butter with vinegar till the paste turn thinner. Set aside.
2. mix honey and cabbage, then pour the peanut butter/vinegar paste on the cabbage.
3. Mix till blend.
4. serve as cold salad.

乾隆白菜的主料：

　　白菜(200g)　　

　　乾隆白菜的调料：

　　芝麻酱(1汤匙)　　老陈醋(3汤匙)　　蜂蜜(3汤匙)　
将白菜叶洗净后用手撕开, 将老陈醋放入芝麻酱中搅拌均匀, 加入蜂蜜继续搅拌, 将调好的料汁浇在白菜上.

家常美食网小窍门：

1、白菜取白菜叶，最好用手撕，容易入味；

2.现将醋放入麻酱中，将芝麻酱搅拌开；

3.三者之间的用量可以根据个人口味调整，喜欢吃香的就多放一点芝麻酱，喜欢吃酸甜口味的可以多放醋和蜂蜜，醋要用老陈醋。

I tried with lettuce (too much water) and head cabbage (too dry), the best is to use Napa cabbage (Chinese cabbage). If add more vinegar and honey to make the paste lighter texture, you can use it as a salad dressing too.

Amigurumi Crochet - my new hobby

These little crochet amigurumi animals or dolls are so cute to hang on your handbags, backpacks, in your car, or as a key charm. I learn how to crochet them from watching youtube or get ideas from ravelry.com. It is fun to make them by mixing your favorite colors.

Creative Dumpling 创意饺子

Use the juice of spinach to make a flour dough and use water to make another dough. Follow the instruction shown on pictures to make these cute cabbage looking dumplings. Use the Gaozi recipes for the fillings.

Baked Egg Muffin

This is an easy and healthy way to make egg omelet. They can be eaten hot or cold. You can put any vegetables, cheese, meat as you like. Here are some examples that I used...

• Vegetables: tomato, avocado, bell pepper, onion, mushroom, broccoli, etc.
• Meat: bacon, lunch meat, leftover chicken, turkey, etc.
• Eggs: I used 3 large eggs to make 6 muffins. Tips: do not add water or milk in the eggs.

Easy to make:

1. Lightly spray the bottom of a cupcake baking pan with cooking oil. 
2. Dice all vegetables and meat to small pieces and divide into each cupcake tins.
3. Beat the eggs with a fork and pour into each tins about 1/3 full. Sprinkle pinch of salt and some cheese on the top of each muffin.
4. Bake 15-20 minutes on 350 F degrees.

You can also use Hostess Twinkies maker or cupcake maker to bake these omelette. It only takes about 8 minutes to make, use only 2 eggs to make 6 omelette twinkies.

Detox with Napa Cabbage 白菜排毒

Napa cabbage, along with bok choy, is one of the popular leafy-cabbage vegetables in mainland China. Napa’s sweet, crunchy, and celery-flavored leaves are one of the most sought-after ingredients in the far East-Asian cuisine. Undoubtedly, Chinese cabbages are increasingly being used in the western,

白菜含有豐富的維生素A、C、鈣、鎂等，多吃白菜對女性會有很好的護膚及養顏效果，此外，有研究指出，日本女性罹患乳腺癌的機率之所以比西方女性低，是因為常吃白菜的緣故，白菜中含有的鉬，可以抑制人體內亞硝酸胺的產生，因此對於乳腺癌有預防作用。

这是一个道家的奇效秘方，不仅清肠，排宿便，甚至可以清除五脏的毒素!每个人在家就可以做到，而且没有风险副作用。

大白菜，以叶为主(少量菜帮)加水煮，不加油盐，可适量放少许辣椒、花椒或是去皮生姜(生姜皮性寒，姜肉性热)。每天肚子饿了就吃，连吃三天，不吃别的食物，第三天除了吃白菜叶外可再喝些白菜汤。白菜要煮得烂一点。这种吃法排毒效果奇佳，对便秘或者肠胃不健康的人是一次大扫除。如果每个月能坚持一次，或者一次能增加到七天更佳。吃了以后会排出宿便，刚开始黑色，吃的时间长的会排出果冻一样的宿便，坚持二十一天以上的人会排出五种颜色的大便，那是把五脏的毒都清了.....

Simply cut the Napa leaves to bite size and cook with water until turn soft. Add a pinch of salt for taste. Whenever you feel hungry, eat some cooked Napa and soup. If your body contains toxic, your next day BM may have dark color. After few days, your BM color will turn lighter. That means your body is cleaner. You can start with 3 days, then you can eat as often as you like. Also, you can add other healthy ingredients in your cabbage, such as Goji, dates, ginseng, mushrooms, etc.

怎样挑选白菜：

选购时应挑选球体紧密结实、底部坚硬，且叶片完整、没有枯黄、老硬、腐烂等现象者为宜。

白菜的制作技巧：

1. 可炒、烧、涮、拌、扒等，也可做汤和馅心。
2. 切白菜时，宜顺丝切，这样白菜易熟。
3. 烹调时不宜用煮焯、浸烫后挤汁等方法，以避免营养成分的大量损失。
4. 大白菜在沸水中焯烫的时间不可过长，最佳的时间为20～30秒，否则烫得太软、太烂，就不好吃了。
5. 白菜在腐烂的过程中产生毒素，所产生的亚硝酸盐能使血液中的血红蛋白丧失携氧能力，使人体发生严重缺氧，甚至有生命危险。

白菜的保存方法：

7-14天,大白菜以报纸包裹放置于阴凉处，约可保存一星期；若包裹好再以塑胶袋密封存放于冰箱，则可保存约两星期。

白菜的使用禁忌：

1、白菜一旦做熟了就千万不要隔天食用，白菜中的亚硝酸盐会大大增加，亚硝酸盐被人体吸收后会导致食物中毒；

2、白菜与黄瓜同食，会被黄瓜中的维生素分解酶破坏，降低营养；

3、白菜与猪肝、羊肝同食、维生素C会被破坏。

Puto

Puto is Filipino steamed rice cake. It is easy to find Puto mix in a box in the Asian grocery stores, contains 2 packs (200g. each). You can follow the directions on the box to make bite size puto. I recently bought a stream-bun-maker 馒头机 and have so much fun to make all kinds of steamed buns, cakes, and other Asian dessert. I use this machine made this big puto...so big and so cute, fluffy and so easy to make.

You will need...

• 1 box of White King Classic Puto Mix
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup sugar (use 1/2 cup sugar if like less sweet)
• 1/2 cup cooking oil

Easy to make...

1. Combine all ingredients together and mix until smooth.
2. Pour into the steam-bun-maker. Set the function on "Western Cake" and just wait for the beep...about 56 minutes...and come out like this big cute puto!

Steamed Cake with Steamed Bun Maker 九阳馒头机蒸蛋糕

In China, people eat steamed bread, called 馒头 everyday, but take time to make them. I recently bought a 馒头机 steamed bun maker and have so much fun making all kinds of bread. Using 九阳馒头机 make steamed cake is so easy and tasty. Recipe is very simple and you may already have them at home.

You will need...

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Easy to make...

1. Mix eggs and sugar with an electric mixer, beat until mixture turn white/pale paste, thicken and see bubbles. That will help cake to have fluffy texture. 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix again until well blend and smooth.
3. Pour into the steamed bun maker. Follow the instruction for making "Western cake". It will be done in 56 minutes.

Stir Fry Radish Cake 炒萝卜糕

Radish cake is one of the traditional Chinese food, not eat as sweet dessert. It is a must have dish in Dum Sum. It mixes with rice floor, white radish, Chinese sausage, fried onion, mushroom, steamed, then pan fry before service. 

My dear friend Lilien made me couple radish cakes when she came to visit. Instead of pan fry, I stir fry with roman lettuce and ground pork, sprinkle some seasoning, such as soy sauce, sugar, salt, to the taste you like...ready to eat in 5 minutes. Simple and yummy!

Tips:

• cut the radish cake into cubes better than other shapes, not easy to break into small pieces.
• you can substitute meat with scrambled eggs or no meat for vegetarians.
• you can use any kinds of green leafy veggies.
• add hot pepper if you like spicy food.

For how to make radish cake, visit this link.

Shishito Pepper with Tofu 尖椒豆腐

An exotic delicacy iconic to izakaya (Japanese tapas/appetizers/bar food), the Shishito Pepper has become a ubiquitous and fashionable finger-food of late. Here’s why: Shishito Peppers are enormously delicious and a bit daring, couldn’t be simpler to prepare, are famously finger-friendly, and make perfect appetizers. Note:Shishito pepper is not spicy hot.

All you need...

• 1 bag of shishito pepper, or other kinds of pepper.
• 1 block of tofu
• Salt, sugar, soy sauce and cooking oil

Easy to make...

• Wash and clean the shishito pepper. Cut it open long way and take out the seeds.
• Place cooking oil in the bottom of wok or other cooking pan. Brown the pepper all both sides until turning soft. 
• Add sliced or cubed tofu. Do not add any water. Reduce the heat to medium if necessary.
• Sprinkle some salt, sugar and soy sauce as much as the taste that you like. Stir fry until the sauce is reduced.

Serve with steamed white rice or eat as appetizer.