Chinese New Year’s Special

It was one of those rare nights when both roommate and I are busy in the kitchen. She’s busy making food for her coworkers and her family, and I was busy making food for all three of us. That’s right you heard me. Three.

The Lisa Special (fried rice) sizzled in the still warm wok as I went downstairs to greet our weekly houseguest. Let’s call him P. The story of how we met can be saved for another time, but it’s not too different from finding a stray puppy. Felt bad for him so I gave a dish of food out of pity. Now I have a big, black dog wagging his tail and lavishing affection everywhere I go. Figures.

I would poison him, but I haven’t quite figured out how to dispose of the body without incriminating myself.

Back to the matter at hand, roomie was baking sticky rice cakes (Nian Gao) for Chinese New Year’s. It is family tradition to eat these, and there are several variations easily found online. She found one from Jeannette’s food blog here.

Nian Gao Recipe
You can use one can of coconut milk (13.5 ounces) and add enough milk to make a total of 3 cups liquid. This cake is best served the next day.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour

• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk

• 1 1/2 cups low-fat milk

• 1 1/4 cup organic sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts) or untoasted black and white sesame seeds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Place coconut milk, milk, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and oil in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Add rice flour while stirring. Mix well. Add nuts if desired, or sprinkle on top. Pour into a parchment paper lined 13x9x2 pan.

3. Bake for 1 hour.

4. Let cool. Cut into slices/diamond shapes.

Step 2 of instructions

She might have doubled the recipe to make 2 rice cakes~ But look, our almond bits from Snowballs baking episode!

Another angle to give an idea of thickness.

It looked really easy. And talk about repurposing… she used our leftover almond bits from our last baking episode for the topping! Genius~

As we waited for the rice cakes to finish baking, I served everyone a generous helping of my fried rice. Roomie beamed and deemed it delicious. I smile and turned expectantly to P.

The idiot was too busy dousing my creation in hot sauce. It was more red than anything else after he was done.

“What are you doing?!” I exclaimed. My careful rationed nuances of garlic powder, scallions, pepper, oyster sauce, and other random crap were being drowned out in the sharp spiciness that is sriracha.

P spared me an indolent glance. “It adds to the flavor.”

I crossed my arms and glared. After a second, he looked up again. Doggy senses must have alerted him of the imminent threat to his safety because he quickly changed gears, smiled, and spouted some nonsense about his ill-functioning taste buds and the food not being “hot” enough.

I stared at him for another good second. Rolled my eyes. There was nothing to do about it. In a few minutes I sat down next to him with my own dinner, and the three of us proceeded to watch “My Sassy Girl.” For those who are not familiar, it’s a really entertaining Korean romantic comedy. What’s ironic about this movie is that it was my dad who first asked me to watch it with him. And now I’m sharing the movie with these two, both fast becoming important people in my life.

The cake, finished and lightly brown~ Yum!

The Nian Gao was done in 45 mins. I reflected upon the symbolism of the cake as I chewed a small piece. On one hand it’s good luck to eat the cake, to bring in more prosperity as a result of Chinese wordplay. The other meaning of sticky rice is to represent unity of family.

I look up at roomie and P, sitting upright at her desk and sprawled out on the couch, respectively.

It did feel like home.

2013 White Elephant: Part II

What’s better than one holiday party? TWO of them!

This past holiday season I was fortunate enough to attend TWO holiday parties for work: 1. One hosted by my boss and his wife AND 2. A company-sponsored event

Like my boss’s holiday party, the company-sponsored party also included an annual white elephant gift exchange. And like most white elephant gift exchanges, our department was infamous for re-gifting very random (and often recycled) items.

So, what did I decide to bring to the gift exchange this time around?

By now, we’ve probably all heard of the infamous by E L James: Fifty Shades of Grey. But, what about… FL Fowler’s Fifty Shades of Chicken?! Yes, it’s a real book. And, yes, the cashier at Barnes & Noble (as well as the customers next to me) chuckled and gave me the are-you-serious glare when I went up to the counter to tell them I was picking up a book called Fifty Shades of Chicken.

Who wouldn’t want a parody cookbook that will help you spruce up your kitchen life? And, as an added bonus, you can even break the ice at your dinner party with this book. So, naturally, I thought I’d add some light humor to the holiday party with this gag gift: Fifty Shades of Chicken accompanied with scissors, twine, and flavor injector. That way, if the person wasn’t too fond of the book, they could at least make good use of the other items.

Surprisingly, I actually received something useful AND something that I really wanted (but that may be because I was the very last one—#43). I waited at my seat, patiently keeping a lookout on what was “steal-able,” what was “locked-in,” and, most importantly, what I really wanted. And when it was my turn…I nonchalantly turned around to one of the ladies behind me and asked her to hand this over:

I must admit, I was hesitant about “stealing” this away from her because, after she stole this very cookie press from my boss, I overheard her plans of having hours of fun with her daughter. I felt bad that I was depriving her of some mother-daughter bonding time. In my defense, I wanted to have some fun, too!

I know that this in no way excuses my action during the gift exchange, but I do hope that the cookies I made for my colleagues at least kind of makes up for what I did to that poor lady. This time I decided to make…chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. This is my rendition of Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies (except there aren’t any coconuts or pecans).

Please beware that this recipe calls for THREE STICKS of butter and TWO bags of Ghirardelli milk chocolate. This is probably not something I’d like to disclose to anyone before giving them the cookies, for I fear I may scare them away. But, that’s what makes it even more delicious, right?!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Ingredients

And of course…presentation is (almost) everything! For me, the presentation is just as important as the taste. If it doesn’t look presentable, people won’t be as eager to try it, which is why I try to package my baked goods as nicely as possible.

Last year, I found these adorable Martha Stewart easy-to-assemble red boxes at Michael’s (the snowman/santa claus box was from Target):

This year, I found these cone-like Martha Stewart packages (half of them were filled with snicker doodle cookies and the other half are filled with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies):

Personally, I like the red ones more. I like the red bold look—it looks much more festive.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
1.5 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Salt
1.5 Cups Butter (at room temperature)
1.5 Cups Granulated Sugar
1.5 Cups Light-Brown Sugar (packed)
3 Large Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
3 Cups Milk Chocolate Chips
3 Cups Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
_____________________________
*Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes

Similar to the snickerdoodle cookies, I also used a teaspoon to scoop out the dough and rolled it into a round ball. Since my cookies run on the smaller side, I usually put them in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. If you want soft, melt-in-your-mouth cookies, then leave them in for 7:30-8 minutes. If you want crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, then leave the cookies in for 10 minutes.