Everything In Soup

Are you wondering why I named this soup Everything In? For pure simple reason because we needed to go away for a 4 days vacation to South Dakota and I needed to clear my fridge. I had some tofu leftover, half open canned of button mushroom, some leftover baked chicken breast and a packet of Enoki mushroom that won't keep long in the refrigerator, so I just dumped everything in a pot of chicken stock. I added a canned of corns, a bundle of "Tang Hoon" (vermicelli) and 2 beaten eggs. I also thicken the soup with potato starch and tada, a bowl of yummy and feeling soup to last us for a day. So good for cold weather too!


Closer look of my ingredients.

I made similar soup before which was named Golden Prosperity Soup by a reader. I made that for Chinese New Year.

Rice Dumplings/ Zongzi

Zongzi is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival which falls on the fifth day of the Fifth month of the Chinese calender. You can read more about it here. I decided to make Hokkein Bak Chang this year (Meat Dumplings) as it was easier to prepare for me. All items ready for wrapping. I added dried scallops with my dried shrimps this year. The other ingredients were Chinese dried chestnuts, Chinese dried mushrooms, 5-spices pork and for my glutinous rice I added mung beans in it.


Nicely wrapped waiting for boiling. For the rice that was soaked overnight, the boiling time was only 1.5 hours. However, I didn't prepare enough rice, so I had to use the glutinous rice that was not soaked and for that the boiling time took 3.5 hours.


Zongzi that was done and ready to be served.


The inside was packed with ingredients. I didn't make Zongzi last year and I sort of lost my touch because my Zongzi turned out not salty enough. Luckily it can be saved by sprinkle some salt on top before serving. Enjoy and Happy Duan Wu Jia!

South Dakota Vacation

If you have noticed that I have been missing in action for couple of days, that was because we went to a little family vacation to South Dakota. We took a spontaneous four days three nights trip to South Dakota. I literally only had two days to plan this trip, as I am a planner while my hubby is the spontaneous kind of person. Luckily with the help of the Internet, anything is feasible and I managed to find the lodging and places to visit in time. I will guide you through our visit to South Dakota with short illustration.


We first arrived at Mouth Rushmore National Memorial in the afternoon. Just nice to have a quick lunch at the cafeteria and walked around the area.


Bright sunny sky after our lunch, nice for photo shoot.


Evy enjoyed her chocolate chips mint ice-cream after lunch.


Edda loving her strawberry shortcake ice-cream.


Then, we took a stroll at the 1/2 mile loop Presidential Trail. The last 1/4 mile was stairs.


We stayed at Palmer Gulch Resort in Black Hills National Forest, 10 minutes from Mt. Rushmore. No cellphone signal here.


Enjoying the free continental breakfast.


Cosmos Mystery Area- unusual happening happen in this area where water flow uphill and ball rolls uphill. We couldn't stand straight in this room as well, some unexplained forces at work here. The tour guide was trying to show us his Matrix move here. Haha...


The ground is level and yet one seem to be taller standing on one side, how is that possible? Definitely blow our mind! $9.50 for adult and kids free.


Bear Country U.S.A. - A place fulled of black and brown bears, I think at least hundred. I never seen so many bears in my life before. The animals roam freely in this 200 acres natural Black Hills habitat.


This black bear just enjoying himself walking back and forth at the entrance and blocking our car from entering.


Timber wolves and bears run wild here. They have Elks, Big Horn Sheeps, Mountain Goats, Arctic wolves, mountain lions, reindeer, Dall Sheep, miniature donkey, buffalo, Grizzly bears, lots of small animals and baby bear cubs too.


Cool up close and personal experience with wild animals.


We even got a bear bite souvenir here, look at our bumper. Luckily my hubby didn't drive his favorite car.


One of the many tunnels at Custer State Park.


Sylvan Lake Area at Custer State Park.


Peter Norbeck Visitor Center at Custer State Park.


Wildlife spotting along Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park.


Wildlife Loop.


Bison herd at Wildlife Loop.


Casually walking by our car.


Rocky Mountain Goat spotted at Mt. Rushmore area.


Second longest cave in the world. Named for the jewel-like Nailhead and Dog-tooth Spar crystals which line over 143 mile of passages.


234 feet under the surface. Temperature in cave is 49'F. Evy didn't enjoy the cave, too dark and scary for her.


Walking up and down 723 stair steps along a 1/2 mile loop in 1.5 hour tour. I was sweating at the end of the tour because I had to carry Edda. What an exercise!


Storybook Island- home of fairy tale and storybook characters for kids.


Storybook Island train ride ($1/ride). My girls loved this place but we couldn't stay long because we had a long drive home.


And back to Colorado!

The trip was enjoyable. The taxes and prices were cheaper than Colorado and we got to see lots of wildlife. If you loved nature, wildlife, hunting, fishing, horse trail riding and camping, you will like South Dakota. But be warn, this place is pretty rural, certain places have no cellphone signal and Chinese restaurants are only found in Rapid City.

Crispy Baked Fish Fillets

Since I had a successful crunchy baked chicken strips the other day, I thought why not try it on fish fillets. We loved baked fish and it would be an extra yum if the baked fish is crunchy right? I was out of the cereal that I used before, so I had to make my own coating for my fish. I was trying with the combination of homemade bread crumbs, walnuts and cornflakes. The resulted fish was not as crunchy as my chicken strips, I think I know the reason. I did not use a lot of the cornflakes, also my cornflakes was crushed too finely. The walnuts and bread crumbs did not give out too much crunch, only the cornflakes. So, make sure you don't crush the cornflakes too fine and pat it on a lot. Added nuts just because I wanted to add more nutrition to my girls diet. By the way, both my girls loved this crispy baked fish as both of them asked for more after given two pieces each. I definitely make it again with just cornflakes and walnuts. This coating is healthy as cornflakes came packed with vitamins and minerals, and walnuts is high in omega 3 fatty acids and an antioxidant food which are heart healthy.

Stir Fried Chicken with DOM

What to do with the leftover Benedictine DOM from the confinement? I know I supposed to drink a little each night before going to bed, but I just never do it. A bottle of this is not cheap at all and I really like the sweet fragrant taste, throwing it away is definitely not an option. So, I used it in cooking! The alcohol content will evaporate during cooking and leave us with the sweet DOM smell. So, instead of using the Chinese cooking wine or Japanese rice wine asked for in a recipe, I just substitute it with DOM. I have used it in making spaghetti sauce too.

Ginger Scallion Fish Fillets

This dish was inspired by a dish we ordered at a Chinese restaurant in Denver. Theirs was drier and managed to keep the fish fillets from broken out. Mine was wet because I needed the stock to cook the fish fillets without the fish broken too much. Anyway, here is my version of the Asian-style ginger scallion fish fillets. You can use any white fish to make this dish, perhaps a more solid white fish would be ideal. Regardless this dish is delicious and healthy.