Butternut squash soup

I got a butternut squash from my organic produce box. I had no idea what to do with it until I found this soup recipe. It's so easy and it's great for a lazy lunch.

1 butternut squash, peeled, cubed
1 leek or large onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
dry white wine or vermouth
2 tbls. flour
3 cups soy milk
frozen corn (optional)

Put everything except soymilk in the soup. When veggie has soften, add milk and simmer for 15 minutes or so. Simple simple simple.

Chinese Spareribs

I was in the mood for some ribs and decided to make it the Chinese way. It's very easy to make and it tastes very yummy!

Ingredients
2 lbs Spareribs
1 cup of sherry or dry wine
1/4 cup honey
2 TB chinese rib sauce or fermented soy paste (miso)
2 TB Hoisin sauce
2 tsp chinese five spice

1. Mix everything except the spareribs in a bowl
2. Heat a heavy bottom pot with a little oil, brown the spareribs
3. Pour all the sauce into the pot, bring to a boil.
4. Mix the rib well with the sauce. Simmer for an hour
5. Flip the rib a few times when it's cooking to make sure it is evenly flavored.

That's it!!!

Tomato soup

Ever since summer started, my organic produce box is always packed with fresh tomato. Unfortunately tomato doesn't last very long and I could never seem to finish using them before they start to wrinkle. Today I decided to make a quick search and found a wonderful Tomato Soup recipe. It's very simple but very tasty and satisfying.

Ingredients
1/4 Cup butter
1/2 Onion, sliced
3 gloves of garlic
1 bay leave
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 TB tomato paste
3 big plum and ripe tomato, quartered
2 cups heavy cream or half & half or plain whole milk
salt and pepper
2 slices of bread
Olive oil
1/4 tsp of dried parsley

1. Heat a small pot over medium low heat.
2. Melt butter in pot, then add onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaf for about 5 min.
3. Add tomato paste and tomato, simmer for 30 min
4. In the meantime, cut up the bread to make croutons. Add a bit of olive oil to the cut up bread and bake at 350 degree oven for 5-10 min, until they are hard and browned.
5. Use a blender to blend everything. If you don't like to eat tomato seed in the soup, strain it. I'm too lazy to strain and the seeds don't bother me.
6. Add milk/cream and mix. Season with S&P. Remove pot from heat.

To serve:
Scoop out the soup to a soup bowl. Add a few croutons in the soup, and garnish with a sprinkle of dried parsley.

Shrimp stuffed zucchini

So I had some really nice zucchini and I was tired of chopping it up to make stirfry or pasta dishes. I did a little digging online and found a very easy but good recipe.

Shrimp Stuffed Zucchini

2 pounds small to medium young zucchini
1 pound shrimp, in their shells
1/2 cup toasted, unflavored bread crumbs
1 teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black Pepper in a grinder
1 large egg

-Soak the zucchini in cold water for 20 minutes.
-Drop the zucchini into boiling salted water. Remove when it boils and let cool.
-Half the zucchini length wise, scoop out the seed. Save it on the side.
-Turn on the oven to 450 degrees
-Devein and Deshell the shrimp.
-Chop Shrimp
-Mix shrimp with 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs, the garlic, parsley, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, salt, pepper and the seed that was scooped out.
-Seperate the egg, set aside the white, and add the yolk to the bowl. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
-Grease the bottom of a shallow pan and place the zucchini on it cut side up.
-Sprinkle them lightly with salt. Beat the egg white lightly and brush the insides of the zucchini with it.
-Stuff the zucchini with the shrimp mixture.
-Sprinkle the top of each boat with the remaining bread crumbs and pour the remaining olive oil over in a thin stream.
-Place the boats in the uppermost level of the over for 10 minutes, until the top forms a light, pale golden crust.

Toddler bullying

This has nothing to do with food or money saving tips. It has to do with parenting. My son and I attended a forth of July party with a bunch of good friends who also have kids around my son's age. We haven't hung out much since the kids turned 2, and honestly I didn't have much expectation when it comes to the kids playing.

Coming unprepared turns out to be a bad thing. My son used to be a little bully and I was spending more time telling him to not hurt others or take other people's toys. Finally my little bully is now a little angel. He doesn't bully or take other's people's toys or have tandrums if he doesn't get his toys.

Well that is apparently also a problem when other people condone bullying behavior or are still dealing with their kids' territorial issues.

We brought a ball today for the kids to play with together. My son was more than happy to throw balls with other kids, because what's the fun just to play by himself! I'm very proud that he likes to play with other. I was not as thrilled when one of the girls grabbed the ball, and refused to throw to my son. I made a point with the girl that if she doesn't play with my son, I'll take the ball away because the ball is for everyone to play with. Not to mention, my son kept saying "throw to me. I'll catch". After making a few comments, the girl finally threw the ball to my son, a couple times. And eventually she went off and held the ball. My son was a bit disappointed but he was ok with sharing. I didn't do much because my son wasn't too hurt by it. But thinking back, I realized that I should've follow through with my original comment.

Sometimes I wonder if I should just let the kids duke it out, but if there isn't an equal amount of parenting from both sides, I have to step in. Because my son needs to know how to defend himself too! Next time, if someone refuses to play together, I'll tell my son to stand up and say that the toy is for playing together. And the child that refuses to play together, don't get to play with it.

And there was also another situation where one child was playing with a toy for a long time, and my son really wants to play with it. When that child finally moved on to something else, I told my son that he can play with it. But then the other child came back and took the toy away. At the time, I said that "oh he's not done yet, so we'll wait for our turn". Again, thinking back, maybe I was being too nice to the other child. If the child isn't playing with the toy, he/she loses the turn. That's how I teach my son, and that's the rule that should apply on both sides. What I should have done is to teach my son to say that it's his turn now and he shouldn't have to give it back up. And since my son wasn't sure how to take it back, I should've stepped in and kept the other child from reclaiming it.

Bottom line is that with children, they should learn how to play fair. Even though I cannot teach other children what to do, I should teach my child how to be fair and defend himself when others are not fair, and be prepared to step in if my child's efforts aren't efficient. Being too nice to friends' children isn't necessary a good thing. There is a time for sharing and there is a time when it is okay not to share. A child may misconstrue my effort to be nice as teaching him that he should always give up, and that is certainly not a good thing.

So lessons learnt, I'll have to remind myself to read this blog before my son playdates!

Tomato sauce with hidden veggie

So I was trying to figure out all the wonderful produce from my produce box. Then I found this little recipe and used almost everything from my produce box. This is so heavenly and healthy!

Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 TB veg oil
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup scallop squash(or whatever squash u have. I just happened to have these wonderful squash)
2 TB butter
1/2 white part of leek, sliced
2 lb cherry tomato, cut in have
1/2 TB dried basil (or double for fresh)
1/2 TB dried parsley (or double for fresh)
Pinch of sugar
S & P

Direction

Sautee onion and garlic in oil for 2 min
Add carrot and saute for 4 min
Add red pepper, zucchini for 2-3 min
Add butter, leek for 2-3 min
Add tomato, parsley, basil, sugar, S&P, 1/2 cup water and cover to simmer for 20 min
Blend all in a food processor

This tastes wonderful with some whole wheat angel hair pasta!

Scones

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
  
• 1/2 cup milk
• Choice of flavoring: one of mini chocolate, dried strawberry or dried cranberry
  
• 2 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into a bowl.
3. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, the rest of the ingredients and enough milk to mix to a soft dough. Keep in mind that the sweeter the flavor (e.g. chocolate), the less sugar. But if you're making a plain scone, you probably will need more sugar.
   
4. Turn onto a floured surface, knead lightly and roll out to a 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds and place on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with milk to glaze.
5. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 10 minutes then cool on a wire rack.