Nha means House

I am so sorry for disappearing, but hopefully I am going to be appearing on a regular basis now.  Ever since my last posting…my life has been jammed packed with all sorts of happenings and activities.  Just a quick update. I’m pretty much working as a staff member at The Herbfarm and having an amazing time. It’s tiring but I am learning a lot.  This year is completely differently from last year.  Different crew, different chef and more acreage too!  The farm has increased by one more acreage, so now we have six acres, plus we are adding in an orchard on top of it.  I’m looking forward to summer and fall when we can harvest all the goodies that are being planted right now.

Last week, beside weeding and tilling, we planted into the grounds romesco, kale, collard greens, and raspberries. We also pulled up tons and tons of leeks and parsnips that were planted last year and utilizing the brassica yellow flowers, rosemary flowers, nasturtium flowers  and pineapple sage flowers.

Another debate/discussion that has been happening is what direction should I take this blog. I feel really torn because some people has mentioned that I should just focus on food and others has said any topics that falls under the “home/nha” category.  When I first started this new blog, I wanted it to be more about what I was interested which happens to be about food and also about crafting.  The debate is which one should I focus on?  To be honest I am still passionate about both and want to share what I am cooking and making.  Another person also mentioned that I should just start another separate blog, but to be honest, it is already really time consuming to do one, so two will be very hard for me to do right now. So I’m going to leave it you to my readers…what would you like to see more?  Food with farming/gardening or all the other topics that might randomly come up?

On a side note, there is an amazing giveaway happening that I think you should enter.  The Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything iPhone app – Not Martha and Seattle Tall Poppy are both hosting the exact giveaway and giving away five copies each…meaning there are at least ten chances for you get it! Unfortunately I have already brought the app and used it.  My review – I really love this app and love the smiple and easy to use layout very much. 

Pros, I love that fact that it’s great to use while you are grocery shopping or just brainstorming for ideas on what to make on the fly.  Another plus is I do not have to write down the ingredients and worry about that I missed an item that I forgot to jot down and buy.  Second it’s better and lighter than lugging the big book around. Also at $1.99 this is a great investment to future really good meals, plus a great way to preview the book before it, which I think you should purchase anyway. 

Good Luck and I hope you win the free app download!

I have been collecting lots of picture for my ideal kitchen, but it won’t happen for a long time, maybe another decade or so.  I am happy with my kitchen, though I wish it had more cabinet and counter space, and I wish the space was larger to accommodate more cooks.  I have a lot of friends that love to cook and several people has asked me to giving them cooking lesson, which I am seriously considering but my kitchen probably wouldn’t allow more than two students at a time.

This morning I woke up to early and started browsing through my RSS feed and came across this kitchen and realized this is exactly what I want, and Gwyneth Paltrow had it!  Check it out – found via Bijou Kaleidoscope.  Check out the two white gorgeous chandeliers, her grill stove top and her two ovens and the black glass cabinets. Love Love Love!  I also love her huge woodblock island and that she has such a huge window on one side, and she also has sky lights to bring in more light. Just lovely…I am in love and totally want!

Here are some more random pics that I have been saving for a long time. I’m sorry I can’t give credit out, but if you recognize, please let me know and I’ll update it!

Here’s another view of her kitchen that I have had for a long time and didn’t even realize it belong to her

As you can see, I am loving the color black or the dark charcoal grey and white combinations with open space and lots of lights and windows.  I think that is a must for me because I love the outdoors and cook so much with fresh and local ingredients, aka my P-Patch! 

As for the appliances, I had a Viking stove when I had my catering business and would go back to them hen I get my stove top and a definitely two ovens because most dishes do not cook at the same temperature.  If possible two dishwashers, one for the heavy duty items and another for all the glassware and chinaware.  I would love to get a Sub Zero fridge and wine storage too since we are talking about my ideal kitchen.  Plus a walk in pantry area to store all the dry items and to store all my heavy duty food equipments and machines.  I think also really important is to have a heavy duty hood over my Viking stove because I believe in searing and grilling your food before cooking it.

What is your ideal kitchen?

I thought I would list the items in my fridge because I thought you might be interested and I’m trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight…

• 10 containers of Yoplait yogurt, a good source of calcium!
• one bottle of Martinelli’s Apple Cider, unopened
• half a gallon of vanilla soy milk, apparently both my husband and I are lactose intolerant
• three pounds of unsalted butter, because I can’t live without butter as all my friends can contest
• three cucumbers
• less than half a bag of mini sweet bell peppers
• one head of romaine
• some feta cheese and parmesan cheese
• freshly laid eggs, only four left, must make a note to call and see if I can pick up more
• a small container of honey butter that I made a couple of weeks ago
• a jar of delicious pickled vegetables that my aunt made me a long time ago…I won’t mentioned the date but I think it’s still good.
• half container of sour cream
• a bit of cardamom cake left over from last week
• half a jar of colossal olives stuffed with jalapeños
• a jar of red wine vinegar cherries, delicious with some stinky cheese and red wine…must remember to pull that out for dinner this week as an appetizer dish
• a container of red miso paste…mmm maybe we’ll have a salad with a red miso vinaigrette
• half a jar of harissa , I think I need to buy some tri-tip roast and make this dish
• on the door, as this is an Asian household, it’s a requirement for us to have a wide assortment of condiments and I mean wide, from jams, jellies, ketchup, bbq sauce, a nice selections of pickled vegetables, and lots of different Asian sauces

hmmm for dinner I think we will have creamy parmesan polenta with 4-minute poached eggs with some pickled chili bamboo shoots and maybe later on tonight I’ll make chai tea using this simple recipe. 

Filled with lots of sewing, baby showers but especially books.  Here’s a list of the books on my night stand waiting to be read.

• Jim Butcher’s fifth installment of the Codex Alera series, Princeps’ Fury
• The Girl with the Dragon Tatto and The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
• Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon (I really need to work on my seed list)
• Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Liar by Justine Larbalestier
• Never After by Hamilton, Galenorm, Liu, and Shinn

Over the weekend, we just received a baby shower invitation for this weekend!  I knew it was coming but I was hoping for a little bit more notice because I wanted to make my friend a special baby quilt for her first baby but now I’m going to have to cut corners and improvise to make something great by this Saturday. Luckily IKEA came in and helped me out.  I went there today with two other friends and stumble across this cute circles and animal print (after I finish the quilt – I’ll post a pic to share).   I’m thinking about using the circles as my guide to free motion quilt the blanket. We also ordered something from their registry and I hope that it will come before Saturday. 

Tomorrow night I’m thinking about making this dish, mainly because my friend, Jonathan, just gave me 5-lb of dried pinto beans and I have some ground turkey on hand.  I also plan to make some jalapeño cornbread to go with it.  Chili and cornbread just go hand and hand together. Don’t you think?

Over the weekend, Lisa and I went to Molbak’s for their Indoor Plant & Container Sale, where you can save 30% on all indoor plants and containers, plus if you part of their reward program, you get an extra 10% off.  I brought a Meyer Lemon mini tree and a white gardenia plant and I’m thinking about going back and getting another lemon tree.  They were really inexpensive, especially after the 30% + 10% off.  My parent brought one and they were able to pick 15 lemons off their tree last year and I want to do the same this year and make more Meyer lemon curd.

Things that I am looking forward to going in the near future:

• The NW Flower and Garden Show, February 3rd to the 7th
• The Sewing and Stitchery Expo, February 25th to the 29th
• Valentine dinner at Cafe Juanita, February 14th
• Warlords, April 2

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• and of course Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, November 19th

This is my absolute favorite dog ever, Ziggy, because he is adorable, well-mannered, loveable, fun and everybody in the neighborhood loves him.  I have been dog-sitting him since November and he has been a wonderful guest.  Today I got to pick him up from my neighbor, Diane, and the best part Ziggy was super excited and came up running up to me with his tag wagging and he jumped in arms and seriously tried to lick my face.  He’s so cute. I will be so sad to return him but on the good side I know where he lives and can visit him. He’s been a wonderful and fun guest.  I love this little guy.

I would like to apologize for not blogging much the past couple of months.  I have been so busy trying to complete all my handmade presents of socks and quilts for my family.  It left me no time to think, research or write anything for this blog, but I plan to change that this year.  Here are two quilts that I made. This is a simple blues and orange squares.  I really love how bright and cheery it is.  It’s 100% cotton on the front but the back is blue polka dots fleece.

The next one is my favorite lap quilt that I made so far. It’s a appliqué by McKenna Ryan’s Once Upon a Star Patterns – All Wrapped Up.  This was a very simple way to appliqué using fusible webbing.  The fabric suggested was a little bit too boring for me so I ended up using some Japanese cotton fabric I had on hand to use in the “presents” and then I found some gorgeous Japanese style water wave with some metallic stitching on the border.  You can’t tell from the picture but I use metallic thread on the presents and penguins to give it a little something special.  The hardest and longest part of the quilt was the hand quilting using sashiko quilting, but I love the end result.  It gave a lovely structure and gave the quilt a wonderful texture to it. I love the little baby penguin on the top popping out of the present. This was a really fun quilt to make.

I made two other quilts but forgot to take pics of it. So if my brother and sister is reading this, can you take a pic of the quilt I gave you and send them my way so I can post it up. Thanks so much!

And on a ending note…don’t forget to take your vitamins.  We did and this is the vitamin we are taking.  It’s has your daily intake and it’s a gummy candy.  What a great way to eat your vitamins for the day. (Next to it is a present that Girlrobot brought for me a soy sauce ‘paper crane’ ceramic.  It is really cute. The best part this was not the only ‘paper crane’ ceramic I got this Christmas! Raindrop Stitches gave me a one too.  Hers is different that it’s a hanging ornament – very delicate and so beautiful.)

I really believe in volunteering and helping out the community and have volunteered at Seattle Children’s Hospital, The Herbfarm, Rotary International, Salvation Army, United Way and countless other.  Disney this year is giving out an extra incentive to volunteer for just one day in your local area.  All you have do is  volunteer at a participating organization and you can go to either Disneyland in California or Walt Disney World in Florida free for a day. This opportunity is good from January 1 to December 15, 2010. Go here for any further FAQs.

Lisa from Ke Ai Kitty, forward me the Disney’s link where you can look up all the different organizations participating in this program.  The site makes it very simple to use.  You just enter your zip code in and then a list of all the organization and description of what the organization does and what they would like to you to help shows up. You go do your day of service and then come back to the website and redeem it for you free pass.

You will have a wide variety of different organization to choose from, just in my area, 184 different opportunities came up for me!  Now the hardest part is deciding what to do.  Here’s couple of items that came up for me in the Kirkland’s area that I thought sounded really fun and interesting to me and close to my house.

• Opportunity:  Be a Juanita Bay Park Ranger (I always wanted to be a Park Ranger!)
• Organization Served: City of Kirkland
• Verifying Organization: City of Kirkland
• Location: Kirkland, WA 98033
• Distance: 0.0 miles
• Minimum age: 18
• Date: Scheduling to be arranged

• Opportunity: Magnuson Park: Environmental Restoration in North Seattle
• Organization Served: EarthCorps
• Verifying Organization: EarthCorps
• Location: Seattle, WA 98115
• Distance: 5.0 miles
• Minimum age: 18
• Date: Scheduling to be arranged

I’m planning on going in June when two of my cousins are graduating from college, one from UCSD and the other from UCSB.  Congrats to the both of them.  I remember when they were born over two decades ago and now they are officially adults.  Oh man…I am old now!

Also a shout out to my friend, Mandy from Raindrop Stitches, she is doing a book giveaway at her site.  Go check it out.

before my husband and I have to head on home to Seattle.  Time flies by when you are having so much fun, even in Oklahoma! I love my family so much and we have the best of times, whether we are all sitting with seven laptops on, including our parents, playing poker with a bunch of people, where it cost you a dollar to play and five dollar to buy back in; being introduced to new board games each year, last year was Ticket to Ride and this year, Puerto Rico; or just hanging out and acting goofy with the little ones.  In just the past few years, my older sister has added two more great kids to make the total of four little munchkins running around the house. My little sister got married to a wonderful guy and getting ready to close on their first house together. I got married and brought a home and looking to start a family soon.  The biggest thing that is going to happen is that my father is going to retire this year. I am really looking forward to what this year will bring.

Here is a video that my husband shot with the iPhone (again the iPhone rocks.) I love this video because it shows how young at heart and silly we still are, and the fact Zachery, the little guy in the blue pajamas, racing across the screen three times as we are trying to race each other around the house on the coaster cars, apparently he thought we were too slow and said so as he zoomed past us each time.  I love those cars – they are so much fun, especially if you have hardwood floor and have a good circular pathway.  These cars are called the rolling coaster children’s ride-on car, they are operated by moving the steering wheel back and forth, no batteries or pedals required, and potentially they could go up to 5 mph! 

I also have to promote an iPhone app, called “Words with Friends”.  This is one of the best word app I have ever played and very much like Scrabble; and the best part, you can chat with your opponent as you play.  For the past week or so, my husband and I has been seriously trying to beat Girlrobot, but we have no luck.  Though there was one point where we scored a 76 word point and thought “aha! we are going to beat her”, and then she turns around and put out the word, “TAUNTING” with triple letter and triple word points, and scores way ahead of us again.  She is just amazing… play with her and let me know if you can beat her (I will be so impress if you do!).  You can find her by “Girlrobot” and myself by “SweetPosie”.

Caramelized Dinner Rolls, modified from The Grand Central Baking Book – Clover Rolls recipe

Plan ahead on this recipe, at least 3.5 hours and makes about one dozen. You will need a standard size muffin tin. This dough takes three risings.

First caramelize your onions and cool.  I like to use a ratio of 2:1 of yellow:red onions, because the yellow caramelizes much better than the red but I love the taste of red onions.  One whole medium yellow onion and half of a medium red onion.  I like to slice it from end to end. 

Make the sponge by adding all the below ingredients and mixing it with a paddle attachment for one minute then cover tightly with plastic wrap for 45 minute until bubbly.

• 14 oz tepid water (I have a sponge have been nursing for six month or so, I replaced this with my sponge. It really adds a more developed taste than normally would get.  If you would like some, let me know and I’ll give you some – I believe in sharing)
• 2 teasp active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp honey
• 10 oz bread flour

Next add the below ingredients to the sponge and mix for two minute on low, then on med speed for three minute, until it is glossy and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

• 15 oz bread flour
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus more for brushing and dipping
• 2 teasp salt
• 2 teasp active dry yeast
• ****add your caramelized onions

Then remove the dough to a clean lightly greased bowl and cover and let dough rise to double its size, about one hour.

You will want to divide the dough up into 12 pieces, 6 oz each, then divide each into three smaller piece, 2 oz each. Round each piece and dip one side into the melted butter, then arrange three balls in each cup with the butter sides touching. Brush the tops of the rolls with additional melted butter and sprinkled a tiny bit of coarse gourmet sea salt, like a smoked or Hawaiian pink sea salt.  Let rise for another 30 min in a warm spot.

Preheat oven to 400 F and bake for 25 minute until golden brown.

Additional thoughts: instead of caramelized onions, mixed in fresh chopped rosemary and garlic, or roasted garlic, or instead of using regular butter, used some compound butter of shallots, lemon zest, thyme, rosemary, garlic, parsley and black pepper.

Verdict: These rolls are fluffy and super buttery.

This is the year where I will…

1. blog more and consistently
2. make the perfect bowl of ramen with the perfect tender roast pork shoulder
3. cook through Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc for the Home, The Grand Central Baking Book and Momofuku’s book, let me know if you want to come over for any particular dishes.
4. work on my cookbook, if you have any suggestions, please let me know
5. do a give away once a month… I have two already that I meant to do last year but never got around to giving away, so come back and check at the end of the month
6. take more pictures of the things happening around me, especially when I am cooking and walking with the dog.
7. have more game nights.  I was recently introduce to Puerto Rico and really enjoyed playing it
8. start planning out my P-patch garden for the year and think of a good vegetable/flower layout.  Last year was kind of chaotic with thirteen tomato plants,  too many flower bulbs scatter around and not thoughtfully laid out.  I also realized I need to plant more herbs, especially sage.  I found out that I was using it more than I thought I would. Mint was great but how do you control them when you are not using them as fast thought you would. 
9. I am still at the Herbfarm and will blog more about it as we progress to warmer temperature.  At the moment all the chickens on the farm have been introduced together, including the Buckeyes, and are happily intermingle together and laying eggs.  The ducks are now big and fat in the duck run inside the greenhouse. The tiny little quails are happily snug in a big stack of straw/hay to keep warm, and the pigs are lazy and fat with their winter coat.
10. I loved my alpine strawberries and this year I plan to make jam this year with them.  My favorite memory was sitting out on the deck and just leaning over and picking them straight from the plant and eating them.  They were like tiny bursts of pure strawberry flavor.  Absolutely delicious.  I can’t wait until they are here again.
11. Sewing. I found out that I love sewing, especially hand sewing doing saskiko style. I have two quilts that I want to start right away when I get back from the holidays. They has been sitting quietly in the back of mind and now want to be made.  Good thing I have two birthdays in February to give them to!

Sticky Pecan Buns made from The Grand Central Baking Book

Verdict: a must do, very delicious and everyone enjoyed them.

The directions were very clear and easy to follow and so exciting to see the buns rise and watch how sticky the buns got with the “Gooey Caramel” Sauce.  The sauce was a winner, and I can see it being used in other baking recipes.  I would give you the recipe here but it is rather long, four pages, but I will give out the Gooey Caramel recipe:

• 4 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
• 7 oz light brown sugar
• 6 oz honey
• 5.75 oz corn syrup
• 1 teasp salt
• 1 teasp vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients in the mixer with the paddle attachment and blend until smooth.  I have already made it three times and deliciousness every time.