Lazy Monday

After enjoying a long weekend and not cooking I tend to get a wee bit lazy to cook on Monday! I’ll end up making something simple and quick or like today, leftovers which where still yummy….

I dug deep into my fridge (and my head) to see what I have and what I should make for dinner…… Then I saw the big bag of potatoes and thought about Bobby Flay’s grilled potatoes salad with lobster… As I did not have most of the ingredients to attempt his recipe, I decided to make my version of roast potatoes. Yet, half of me wanted mashed potatoes and I know hubby absolutely loves mashed potatoes. Unable to resist temptations,  I made both since I wasn’t making anything fancy for dinner and was just merely reheating frozen stuff and leftovers. =)

I’m thankful for Seyda who gave me some delicious Turkish dish from Friday’s lunch. I feel bad, not remembering the name of this baked yummy layered dish made from phyllo like dough (but thicker), feta cheese, yogurt, leek, spinach, etc….. It’s slightly like a lasagna, but different in its own yummy way!! Please make more of this Seyda!! =) I will happily finish the whole tray!!

So, tonight’s dinner was a combination of different stuff; Mashed Potatoes (Top Left), Crab Cakes (Top Right), Spiced Roasted Potatoes (Bottom Right) and "Turkish Lasagna” (Bottom Left). It looked and felt like I had some Tapas going on! =)

It Wasn’t That Bad Afterall…..

Wimbledon + Breakfast + Lunch + Wine + Great Friends = AWESOME (FRIDAY) DAY!!

Beer + Kettle Corns + Pizza + Horror Movie + Great Friends = AWESOME (FRIDAY) NIGHT!!

Everyone had Friday July 3rd off since the next day was a public holiday. Our plans of going camping and leaving town for the weekend obviously did not happen with the weather threatening to spoil it. We still had fun, doing more indoor stuff and sneaking some outdoor activities in whenever the weather looked sunny! =)

The day started with some awesome breakfast plus lunch and oh yeah wimbledon semi-finals (on tv) at Seyda & Rob’s place.. Not forgetting the many bottles of wine we finished when we were there. We continued the second part of the day with an attempt to do some kayaking near my house. Unfortunately, they were not open (so much for open everyday Weds-Sunday till the sun sets!) Boo!

We ended up heading to my place with a couple bottles of quite expensive yet unique beer! Hubby set us up for a scary/horror movie to watch. I made from kettle corns  (yes, from scratch…..which I still need to prefect the recipe before sharing). And before I know it….we were all munching on kettle corn (and later wings & pizza), tasting / testing beer and (for me) one hand covering my eyes  anticipating scary looking figures to pop out!

Nothing much happened over the weekend except indulging in more food on Saturday and a trip to Home Depot to get some paint for a room makeover! =) … Sunday was a stay-at-home-day with Wimbledon in the morning! And it was worth watching the longest Wimbledon match with Roger Federer winning to claim his 15th grand slam title! =)

PS: I’ll try to do a write up on those beer we tried that night later! =)….

Happy 4th July!

Happy Independence Day! And have fun enjoying those expensive fireworks display in the city or local town. Hubby and I are unfortunately not big fans of fireworks and huge crowd…Therefore we’re staying home (no holiday getaway..*sobs*), enjoying each other’s company and watching some of our favorite tv show. =)

Wimbledon Men’s Finals tomorrow… FEDERER Vs Roddick! Yay!! No prize in guessing who I’m rooting for tomorrow! =))

Homemade (Sweet) Soy Bean Milk

I love drinking sweetened soy bean milk and unfortunately do not get the chance to drink it that often. The only time I drink them is when I get them from Chinese grocers. In recent years, with all those food safety problems with food products from a certain country, I have been trying to avoid drinking them unless it’s freshly made or if it’s manufactured in a more reputable country. =)

Anyways……this would be my second time making soy bean milk. It’s not that tough to make a pot of fresh soy milk and it’s definitely comforting to know that there are minimal preservatives (if not none) in that glass of soy milk!

 

SWEET SOY BEAN MILK RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Soy Bean
• Water
• 3/4 – 1 Cup Sugar
• Pandan Leaves, Knotted (**Optional)

Method:

Wash, clean and cover soy beans with lots of water, overnight (about 12-14 hours). The bean will double/triple in size and you will also see some loose hull floating. Discard water and hull. Fill the bowl with water again, and with two hands rub the beans to remove as much hulls as possible. Once this is done, drain the beans and set it aside. I ended up with 5 cups of reconstituted beans.

Add one cup of beans and 2-1/2 cups of water into blender and process until beans are finely blended. Pour mixture into a cheese cloth and hand squeeze liquid into a pot till beans are dry. Remove the insoluble content (okara) from cheese cloth and set aside in a bowl. Repeat step until all beans have been blended squeeze out. If you like, add 3-4 cups water to the okara, let it sit for 5 minutes and pour mixture into cheese cloth and squeeze out liquid. If not, just add the water directly into the pot. The okara can be used in other cooking if preferred.

Boil soybean liquid with pandan leaves over medium high heat for about 20-25 minutes. Stir milk constantly and add sugar to taste at the last 5 minutes. This should give you about 13-14 cups of homemade soybean milk! Serve soy milk warm or cold. Store soy milk in refrigerator for up to 3 days. I like my soymilk chilled. =)

The beans on the left have been reconstituted after being soaked for about 12-14 hours. The beans on the right are dried soy beans.

Hello July!

The month of June wasn’t much fun…BOO! Thanks to the plentiful days of rainy and gloomy weather we’ve been getting in the Northeast! The start of July isn’t looking very promising with more gloomy dreadful looking weather today. And according to weather.com, we will get more icky yucky weather 7 of the next 10 days. BOO!

With the July 4th long holiday weekend coming up, we’re in a limbo of things to do and places to go…thanks to the rainy forecasts! =( We might need to hold back on the outdoor activities and come up with Plan B.

Enough of the wet weather and lingering cloudy sky…… I want to enjoy my summer, I want the sunshine!  Rain, rain pretty please go away!