Aidell's Chicken & Apple Sausage and New Teriyaki Pineapple Meatballs

It all started one day very long ago when I was in middle school and we were shopping around Costco.  They had a big demo pavilion set up with multiple hot plates going.  The product was Aidell's sausages.  They had cut up so many slices of the sausages and had all the different flavors to try out.  One kid that stood next to me said that he had 17 pieces of it already.  I laugh now, thinking back on it because when I first popped the piece into my mouth, it was love at first taste.  We ended up buying the chicken & apple flavor to try out at home.  It had become our go-to sausage if we wanted to purchase some because it was pre-cooked and all you had to do was heat it in the pan.

I had a moment of the same "click" with my trip this past weekend.  I drove back to NJ for a weekend visit and of course, I had to drop by Costco to pick up some things.  We cruised around getting the items we were looking for and we took advantage of the "free lunch" (we went around 1:30pm) that Costco offers.  Of the items available (cheese, mozzarella sticks, pork loin..), we were surprised by the meatballs offered near the meats/packaged section, not the freezer aisle.

There were meatballs available so I had one.  It was flavorful and not dry at all!  It was a juicy chicken meatball and as I tasted it, my eyes lit up.  I checked out the sign and found out it was Aidell's Teriyaki Pineapple Meatball.  It was a brand I trusted and loved and I quickly grabbed a pack from the shelves to bring home with me.  It was Costco-sized at 46 oz (2.875 lbs) for $20 and split into two vacuum-sealed packages.  As with their other products, it is pre-cooked.

They recommend that you have it with rice or other plainer fare.  I had to make something quick for lunch today so I took some macaroni pasta I had leftover in the fridge, chopped up an onion and chopped up the meatballs to match the size.  I cooked the onions first (S&P), then add the meatballs, and added (accidentally add a little more than I intended) marinara sauce to it.  Added some basil and mixed it all up for a hearty pasta.  I thought the flavor might be weird because of the teriyaki from the meatballs, but it actually tasted perfectly good with the tomato sauce. :)

I was hungry and it was so delicious so I didn't get to take a picture of the pasta for you!  Sorry!

Cake Mix Cookies

Making cookies out of cake mix is the easiest thing ever.  I used Pillsbury Golden Butter cake mix, 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup melted butter.  You pour everything into a mixing bowl, mix it up with a spoon and viola--you have cookie dough!  I really like this particular mix because of the butter.  The cookies are so buttery and absolutely delicious.

It makes about 3 dozen normal-sized cookies.  I used these adorable mini cookie cutters to make little hearts and stars so I ended up with a lot more.  When you throw them all together into a container...it just oozes cuteness!  These would actually be perfect for a gift for the holidays or any special occasion.

Steam-Fried Dumplings (Guo Tie) and Xiao Long Bao

An easy go-to to keep in the freezer are dumplings! They are actually quite quick to prepare and so tasty if done right. Typical methods for dumplings are either to boil it in water or to fry them. The method my mom taught me works wonderfully and it's so easy!

1. Add some vegetable oil to a heated pan at medium-high to high.
2. Layer in the dumplings so that their flat bottoms touch the surface of the pan.
3. Add in water to cover the dumplings a little under halfway.
4. Let the water boil until it dries out. This takes about 10 minutes for smaller amounts and possibly 20 minutes for a large pan filled all the way.
5. Once the water dries completely, watch for signs of crisping on the bottoms and take them off the pan when it's fried to your desired crispiness.

Five steps, frozen food, hot pan and oil and water. So easy!

Now, for the mini pork buns (xiao long bao), I tried steaming them as restaurant ones are always steamed. That turned out much harder and to be a lengthy process. I used the same technique as I did for my dumplings (since these were also frozen) and it works just as well for the xiao long bao! The only thing you have to be careful about is keeping the buns placed spaciously in the pan so that they don't touch each other. Once they stick together, it will tear a hole in the skin more easily and then all the delicious juices will escape. So, after steam-frying the xiao long bao with the same technique, I carefully transferred them to a plate. When I bit into them...ooooh so juicy and meaty! I even tried packing some for lunch after cooking them and it turned out just as tasty after coming out of the microwave. Success.

Taiwan-Style Beef Noodles

Homemade is always the best!

Far as I know, this is the Taiwanese style of Beef Noodles. Made for me by my dear friend's mom--she even made noodles from scratch! Oh, deliciousness all around. I'm not able to take spicy foods very well so I ate all the beef, noodles, and veggies but could barely drink the soup. I attempted to make this on my own at home but I'm afraid I still need better skills and timing to pan-fry the beef just enough with the sauces so that the flavors really blend.

The noodles from scratch. (These were whole wheat but still great!)

Rainbow Jello Shots

Who can resist?

At some point during my 21st birthday celebrations, this jello shot was deemed "The Happy Rainbow." It was fun to make and a total beauty once complete.

Follow your usual recipe for jello shots and simply layer. The first layer was blue, then yellow, then topped off with red. As soon as one layer was firmed up, we added the next layer in. Instead of waiting for the jello mix to cool to a room temperature however, we did add the layers in when they were still a little warm. The end effect was beautiful, truly producing a rainbow when under the proper lighting. From above, the jello shot looked like a murky red shot, but once you cut it out and plate it, they are jiggling cuties!

The taste was the same as any other jello shot granted that the alcoholic contents might've been slightly stronger, but fun all the same.

I should also note that this was my first time making jello shots and the recipe I was following apparently told us to add a little more alcohol than normally used in one shot. Oops.  Since my shots had too much alcohol, the shots weren't as firm and more jiggly jello.


Standard Jello Shots

• 1 box of Jell-o mix
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup total of cold water/vodka mixture

The key to making a jello shot is the amount of alcohol you add.  You follow the directions on the box as if you're making a typical jello, but substitute in a portion of the cup of cold water with vodka.  Now, I had mistakenly followed one site that said to use a lot more vodka than normal.  We ended up with very alcohol-laced jello shots. Some people suggest 1/2 cup or 1/3 cup of vodka.

For the rainbow shots, we mixed the jello for the bottom layer, blue, first.  Then, after firming it up in the fridge, we mixed up the next batch, yellow.  So for each layer, you're making the jello shot mixture and pouring it into the cups.  I found it extremely useful to mix it in a pot with a spout or to use my measuring cup to pour in the mixture.

Hope your foray into jello shots is just as adventurous! ;)

Shrimp Scampi

I love making scampi. The best part is the wonderful mix of flavor and aroma!! (And of course, the buttery goodness!) My first shrimp scampi recipe came out of The Costco Cookbook (2004?). Nowadays, I mix ingredients off the top of my mind and just follow the basics for great cooking.

I peel all my shrimp bare to save the hassle of picking off tails or shells while eating. Heat up a stick of butter in the pan and brown some fresh garlic in it. Squeeze lemon juice into the raw shrimp. Throw dried herbs into the pan for flavor (generally oregano, parsley, basil) and then, when the pan is bubbling with the buttery mix, sear the shrimp. The dried herbs should mix well and add more onto the shrimp as you cook, if it's not spread well. I like to add garlic powder in after cooking the shrimp in the dried herbs for a bit. Once the shrimp are almost done (about 3 minutes), pour in some white wine. I usually pour about 3-4 tablespoons of it for about 25-30 shrimp. Let it simmer more until the heavy wine scent lifts and you're ready for plating. If you like, garnish with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. I was told that my scampi tasted better than Red Lobster's but perhaps because it's made with love. :)

Yum! Serve it over spaghetti or thinner spaghetti. If my pan is big enough, I like to toss the spaghetti with the scampi in the pan over a little heat to get the noodles to soak up the flavor. Otherwise, serving separately stick works just as well.

Chinese Lion Head Soup

In an attempt to make a hearty soup for dinner, I wanted to recreate something that I loved from one of my favorite restaurants, Hunan Cottage. My absolute favorite dish is their Lion Head Soup. Knowing that they probably use a great stock that I cannot imitate, I expected my soup (and the lion's head meatballs) to not be on par with theirs.

I Googled for a recipe and used the first one that popped up in the list because of the picture. You can judge a lot for recipes based on the picture. If it looks like what you want to make, try it. The picture for this recipe looked somewhat similar to the soup I usually have at the restaurant. I followed the listed ingredients and steps with a little alteration in the cooking style. Instead of boiling the meatballs directly in the soup, I fried them in a pan before adding them to the soup.

The end result? It was great! Granted, my lion head soup didn't have the same taste as the restaurant, the meatballs' texture and the napa soaking up the flavors were similar in that aspect. I was very satisfied with the results.


Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 egg
- Cooking (rice) wine
- Soy sauce
- 2 tsp Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce
- 1-2 tbsp cornstarch
- Chinese-style or plain chicken broth (I used about 2-3 spoons of powder and added it to the water)
- Napa or a smaller veggie similar to napa (about 4-5 pieces depending on size, chopped)
- Salt
- 3-4 sliced pieces of ginger, minced ginger for meatballs
- oil for frying the meatballs (I used less than inch of vegetable oil in a small pan)

Meatball mix:
- Add ground pork to a bowl.
- Add in egg, a dash of soy sauce and cooking wine. I didn't add it but you're supposed add minced ginger into the meat.
- Mix thoroughly.
- Add cornstarch and mix.
- If desired, add some salt and other seasoning, like chives.
- Shape into meatballs. I made mine about 1.5-2 inches in diameter so that it cooks better.

Directions:
- Heat a pot of water to boil.
- Add chicken broth, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, and sliced ginger. Add salt to taste.
- Let boil and scoop any scum off the top. Add veggies and let it boil at medium-high heat.
- Heat a pan with a lot of vegetable oil to fry the meatballs.
- Fry meatballs til browned on all sides. Then add meatballs into soup.
- Turn down heat to medium and let it stew for 15-20 minutes.

If you want, cook vermicelli rice noodles separate and add in.

Seasoned Pork Chops with Rotini and Broccoli

Our grill was quite dirty and filled with crumbs leftover from whoever last cooked on it. So, instead of how I usually do pork chops, I decide to pan sear it this time. I mixed salt, pepper, oregano flakes, and parsley flakes in a small dish and then spread olive oil over both sides of the pork chops. After rubbing in the seasoning, it was ready for the pan. I heated the pan up with some butter and minced garlic and made sure it was hot. To sear the pork chops properly, you need a good hot pan to immediately seal the juices in.

I gave each side approximately five minutes and then flipped the pork chops over until they were no longer pink. Press your spatula into the pork chops to test its squishiness and you'll be able to tell when they're done cooking. I added some chopped onions on the side as the pork chops cooked, and let them help absorb the extra oil.

When they're done, plated, it looks and smells quite delicious. I seasoned my rotini pasta with the same mix of herbs as well as with some grated parmesan cheese. The broccoli was cooked in the same pan after I took out the pork chops so it also collected the same sort of flavor while cooking. All in all, a delicious lunch.

Ramen: Cup Noodles

How many of you love to have ramen? RAMENNNN. Being in college, ramen is a staple part of my diet. Of course, it's not the healthiest thing ever, but it's still delicious if done right. And if you're look to eat good ramen and be healthy, your best option is to forgo the flavor packet. That one packet is all the unhealthy ingredients that make it taste so good. If you want to be healthy, just have the noodles cooked plainly and add in healthy ingredients.

With this one, I put in two defrosted fishballs, which are already cooked, into the hot water to warm with the noodles and then topped it with some chopped scallions. (You'll come to see that I love having scallion with a lot of foods as a garnish.)

If you're familiar with ramen, you'd know that Nissin makes the infamous Cup Noodle brand. A big tip out there for all of you lazy bums eating Cup Noodles out of the styrofoam cup: DON'T DO IT. Styrofoam is one of the worst kinds of packaging out there (and it never decomposes, polluting our environment) and it definitely isn't supposed to be in contact with high temperature things, like hot, freshly boiled water. I always rip the seal off (and dump out the dried veggies), flip the cup over into a large bowl, and dump the noodles out. Then I add the hot water and cover the bowl with a plate until the three minutes are up. This one here, that looks oh-so-delicious, is in fact, one of the cups of Cup Noodles. So besides being better for you out of that cup, it always looks so much better this way!

Congee

My favorite get-better-soon meal.

Congee (or rice porridge) is simply rice cooked with a little more than double the amount of water you usually use. Like a good Asian, I always use a rice cooker to cook my rice. The current one at home is a Zojirushi. Our family always bought the "elephant" brand probably because it just works well. We had one of the newer ones without the water on the outside for a while but then we switched back to the older style.

I discovered that I had to cook the rice twice for it to really be soft enough. This probably could've been remedied with just adding more water to the outside of the pot and adding more water to the rice itself as well. I ended up cooking once, adding more water for both, and cooking it again. By the way, congee can also be made on the stove top. It just requires more supervision so that your rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot or burn.

Shrimp & Scallop Scampi

If you're unfamiliar with scampi, you might be better off not knowing the ingredients used to get such a mouth-watering flavor. However, it's really quite obvious most of the time from just looking at it.

First Observation

- It's got herbs.

- The sauce is golden in color.

- Smells wonderful.

Now, if you can distinguish your scents better, you'd smell the tart lemon and perhaps the white wine. If you can really recognize the scent, you'd smell the wonderful aroma of butter.

Now, I'll tell you now, I used a whole stick of salted butter for this bad boy. A stick of butter is nothing though. You may worry but don't, just eat. Indulging once in a loooooong while is okay. And you're not drinking all of the sauce anyway. If you were, about 806 calories from fat just in the butter. So, don't drink the sauce.

I started with browning the butter in the pan on high before adding the seasonings. Fry minced garlic. Throw in oregano, parsley, basil, ground pepper. Mix well and then place the shrimp. For this one, I did scallops separately from the shrimp simply because my pan was too full and I wanted every piece flat for searing. We're searing here so as soon as the shrimp turns color on one side, flip it to the other. Added a little bit of lemon juice as it finished up. Then I took all of the shrimp out to do the scallops as well. You want to adjust the heat if your butter herb mix is turning brown really quickly. (Or you could add more butter but let's not.) Same as shrimp, sear both sides of the scallops.

After all of that is done, put the shrimp back in the pan, add more lemon juice to taste and pour a good amount of white wine to just about equal the amount of the lemon juice. Let it all simmer for a bit before plating. The key here is that you don't add the wine and lemon juice until your shrimp and scallops have been cooked first. Then you'll get the best aromas and tastes from the sauce without overwhelming flavor in your shrimp and scallops. Believe me, lemon juice and wine flavor is strong if you start with it. Also, you won't get a great sear if you add it all in the beginning.

I sprinkled parmesan cheese on top after plating. It doesn't really affect the flavor much but it's makes it a little lighter than just all that butter-garlic-lemon-white wine sauce. I always do scampi over linguine or vermicelli noodles. They are just the right thinness that I like with my sauce. Remember, don't overindulge on that sauce.

Korean-Style Mung Bean Sprouts

Mung bean sprouts are one of few Asian veggies that I actually like. I like the crunch they have when you eat them granted you don't overcook them.

Usually, I cook them Chinese-style--sautéed in the pan with a little bit of water and salt. This time, I Googled a recipe for how to make the Korean-style mung bean sprouts. What I was looking for wasn't technique, but rather just the specific ingredients used to make them taste the way they do. What I found was simple: salt, sesame oil, and a little bit of rice vinegar. These were the main ingredients added to the bean sprouts after cooking them slightly. I added scallion and minced garlic for a little extra flavor as well. Just kept mixing the ingredients and adding things to adjust until I got the flavor that I remember from eating the small appetizer they usually serve in Korean restaurants.

Delicious success!

Pompano Filleted over Linguine

We made a bold choice in picking up fish at the supermarket. Normally, we don't cook whole fish at home because it's just a hassle to cut, clean, and cook. We picked a smaller pompano fish since it looked simple enough and my sister didn't want to really clean it so she cut out fillets from it. It was a tedious process but we did manage to get two larger pieces of fillet while the rest was smaller chunks shaved off the bone as best as possible.

I took it and patted the pieces dry, thinking we might fry it. Instead, I threw in some parsley, basil, and oregano to season it. Rubbing it down good, I added fresh lemon juice and a splash of white wine. Heated up the pan, seared it nicely over hot butter.

I heated up a little bit of my herb mix with butter to make a small amount of sauce to drizzle over the noodles. The result was, although the portion was small, a pretty nice pan-seared pompano fillets over some white noodles. (Asian-style linguine. Hah!) The fillet was so tender and the flavor hit it just right. A very nice lunch at home!

Scallion Pancakes (蔥油餅)

I love these so much. One of my favorites ever since I first had one, scallion pancakes done right are absolutely delicious.

Making one from scratch is quite difficult in the aspect of making the proper dough in so many layers that when cooked, flake so beautifully yet don't lose the chewiness. My alternative is to buy premade scallion pancakes frozen from the Chinese supermarket. To cook, simply heat up a pan, drizzle in the oil and let it sizzle. Generally, I like to dip both sides of it in the oil of the pan before laying it flat to cook. Medium to medium-high heat works great. Always bring up the temperature when you're just about done to get a great crisp on the outside. If you ever want to add an egg, simply scramble it on top of the pancake before flipping it over and you'd have a delicious scallion pancake with egg (蛋餅).

I add some extra style to my scallion pancake by roughing it up. I learned this from watching street vendors in Taiwan make 抓餅 (literally: grab pancakes). The thing is basically a scallion pancake shredded loosely so that it becomes more of a finger food. It's light and the dough is still great but you get more crispy parts than just frying a plain scallion pancake.

The end result--a yummy breakfast!

Snow Ice (雪冰) from Taiwan

This is something called snow ice (雪冰). Straight out of a shop in one of the night markets in Taiwan.

You know how most ice desserts are with the crunchy chips of ice ground up and flavored? This is on a completely different level. The ice is as fine as a fresh snowfall, light and fluffy to the extreme. This one as you can see is loaded with strawberries and strawberry flavoring. The combination of instant-melting-in-your-mouth ice blended with sweet, delicious flavor makes a very happy me! Not to mention, the price is only a little over $1 USD for such a big heap of ice presented in a wonderfully large dessert dish. We shared this one between two people and still didn't finish the entire thing.

My winter break 2010 was spent mostly in Taiwan visiting my family for the first time in a long time. Winter in Taiwan was still chilly (and apparently, chillier than it has been in the past few years) but this delectable dish was great after running around catching the MRT and shopping in three different locations all in the span of a day. Shopping and food is my favorite combination of activities. More like food first, then shopping. In my book, being a food enthusiast > shopaholic.