Spiced Holiday Cookies

 

 

This spiced holiday cookies is like a gingerbread cookie without the molasses.  I created this recipe because I don't buy molasses.  But yet I wanted to make a ginger based cookies with other spices and thus this was the result.  My girls had been bugging me to make gingerbread man cookies ever since they seen the Christmas lights in my neighborhood.  My youngest almost ask me every day is it Christmas yet?  How many days away is Christmas?  etc.

That's all the motivation I needed as I know my youngest loved to help me decorate the cookies.  She helped decorated more than half of the cookies, it was fun for her and easier for me.  This cookie is crispy with the fragrant of spices.  I hope you like it!

I'm submitting these cookies to  Aspiring Bakers #14: Creative Christmas Bakes (December 2011) hosted by Hankerie.

Stir-Fried Curry Shrimps (炒咖喱虾)

The inspiration of this dish came from chatting with my mom on instant messenger.  While chatting, she happened to mention that to whip out a prawn (we call it prawn in Malaysia and not shrimp) dish is very easy for her, just need to slice onion and add curry powder.  And it sorts of stick to my mind and I want to make it too.  I kicked mine up a notch by adding more spices and bay leaves and this easy shrimps dish was really delicious.  See the black gooey stuff there?  It was really flavorful and little Edda kept picking on that black gooey stuff to put on her rice.  Hahaha...she even ate 5 of these shrimps, usually she only had 2 or 3 the max.  Thanks mom for this great dish!!  :)

Did you notice that I started to cook shrimps dish again?  The last shrimp dish I cooked was back in April, 2011.  I very seldom prepare a shrimps dish, I just use it in fried rice or add it in a noodle dish.

Korean Meal 2

My second set of Korean meal.  Except my potsticker is a Chinese version without any kimchi, not the Korean mandu. Banchan, clockwise from top:  candied lotus root, seasoned spinach, seasoned mung bean sprouts with chili powder, seasoned spicy chayote and lastly Chinese chicken chives potstickers.  Not very authentic as it was served without kimchi as I believe all Korean meal has to include some sort of kimchi.  I am still not a fan of kimchi yet so I don't even attempt to make that.  :P  So, I usually would just prepared the banchan that I like to eat.

Chicken Chives Potstickers/ pan-fried dumplings

I made a big bag of chicken chives dumplings and freeze it.  On the day when I don't have any leftover for my girl to bring for her school lunch, I just boil (healthier and faster) this dumplings and let her bring to school.  She loved boiled dumplings and she always finished it.  If I had some cut broccoli, I would par-boil that and added in with the dumplings for her to bring to school.  Easy for me and delicious for her.

Candied Lotus Root (yeongeun-jeonggwa)

 

Jeonggwa is a traditional Korean confectionery made by boiling/ simmering plant roots, fruits and seeds in sweet syrupy sauce.  Usually served along side other banchan, as a dessert, snack or appetizer.  The one I have here is yeongeun or lotus root (served as side dish), there are ueong jeonggwa made with burdock (served as dessert), saenggang jeonggwa made with boiling down ginger, danggeun jeonggwa made with carrot just to list a few.

This candied lotus root keeps well in the refrigerator.  Edda liked it a lot, both of us had the most of it.  Love the chewy bite and sweet flavor!

OoShirts and a Giveaway!!

First of all, I would like to thanks ooShirts, a rapidly growing customized apparel company located in Berkeley, California for sponsoring this t-shirt for my giveaway.  They strive to provide the best quality product at the lowest price, and to make sure the ordering process is fun and easy.  And I got to test it myself.  The website is very user friendly and I had no problem finding a t-shirt and make a design on it.  I wanted to upload my logo on the t-shirt at first but it failed to pass the ooShirts graphic artist as my resolution was not high enough.  I received a call from them on the same day and they were helpful as in explaining that for a full color print I needed at least a 150-300dpi resolution.  My logo resolution was only 72 dpi and I couldn't find a replacement, hence I just used the texts and colors provided by their website.  My design got approved on the same day and they sent me the artwork proof two days later before it went into printing.  Overall, the customer service was excellent, I had a problem and they worked with me on the same day until it got resolved.  It said that my t-shirt would be ready on the 23rd and it was shipped on the 23rd.  I received it 5 days later.

If you are looking for a customized apparel company for your office, school, event, family, sport team, marketing, holidays, give ooShirts a try.  They have a user friendly and easy to use website and great customer service to answer all your questions.  If you are a first time user at ooShirts and intend to order 12 or more t-shirts, please use my referrer code: qyuyevh when checkout so that I could get the credit and you would get a slightly expedited shipping.  Thank you and hope you would have the same good ordering experience as me.

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Now on to the GIVEAWAY!!  This giveaway is open to all my readers around the world, except family members and relatives.  All you need to do is to leave a comment and tell me what you would love to receive as a Christmas present.  One comment per person please and for an additional entry, like my Facebook page and leave a comment under the giveaway post on my Facebook page that I created just for this.

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This is a white unisex t-shirt size Large, front and back as seen on the photos. 100% cotton preshrunk.  I would run this for 2 weeks until December 13th mountain time 11:59pm.  Entry older than this would not be accepted.  I will have one of my daughters to draw the lucky winner on the 14th and winner will be announced on the 15th.  I hope to get it ship out to you asap.  Okay, GOOD LUCK to those who enter! :-)

Steamed Glutinous Rice with Chicken and Shiitake Mushroom (蒸香菇糯米鸡)

I don't know who wouldn't love a bowl of steamed glutinous rice.  I ate this while growing up in Malaysia and now I passing this dish to my daughters.  I hope when they grow up, they will learn how to cook this and pass it down to the next generation as well and let the tradition continue.

Instead of the usual waxed sausages, I substituted it with the waxed pork belly that was given to me.   I was out of dried shrimps so this was without it.  But this dish won't be as flavorful without the dried shrimps.  Best to serve it with chopped scallion, crispy fried shallots and chili padi.

Waxed pork belly courtesy of a Chinese chef who works in our friend's restaurant.  His departure gift as he will be leaving here for good and back to China to be with his daughter.   A bit sad as no more special treat from him.  :(