Mason Jar Salads

If you are a fan of Pinterest,  you would have seen the use of Mason Jars for everything from storage, planting, lighting to premixes. Recently, in an effort to eat more healthy, I made some Mason Jar Salads. Really easy! Just gather together mason jars, your favorite salad dressing, salad greens and tomatoes. You can also include beans, cucumber, olives and even fruits if you like. Essentially, whatever you normally use to make your favorite salad.

The main thing is to keep the salad green away from the salad dressing. The first layer in the jar is the salad dressing. I like adding the tomatoes, carrots or cucumbers next. For some jars, I added pears cut into cubes. The layer on top of the salad dressing should be firmer to `lift' the salad greens away from the dressing. Fill with salad greens. Top with nuts or fruits if you like. Mandarin orange segments, watermelon cubes, and berries are good choices. These Mason Jar salads last for about a week. I was addicted to these salads, sometimes I would have a jar for lunch and dinner!! A little shopping, a few minutes of assembly and you are set for the week. Delicious!!

 Layers- salad dressing, tomatoes, salad greens.

 Grab and go Mason Jar salads for work

 Shake the mason jar to distribute the salad dressing

Poppy seed dressing and the addition of chickpeas. Yum!

You can add grill chicken to make it a complete meal

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

My daughter L is sitting a little under the weather was wanting soup. We had bought a huge bag of broccoli from Costco with every intention of making Panera Bread wanna be Broccoli Cheddar Soup!! The Crusty No Knead Bread I made last night was begging to be dipped in the soup.

It was quite good although we lighten it up a bit since we were having not just one bowl of soup! Instead of the 2 cups of half and half, I use 1 cup each of whole milk and 1 cup of half and half. I have even use just whole milk and have been happy with it. Just nothing less than whole milk.

No Knead Crusty Bread

Like the rest of the world, I spend a ridiculous amount of time on Pinterest, getting ideas and being inspired. A few days ago, I came across a Pin showing a No Knead Bread. It look so delicious and the recipe was too easy to be believed. I mean all you do is literally just combine all the ingredients together and let it proof! The unbelievable thing is, it only require 1/2 a teaspoon of yeast!! So make sure that yeast is active and fresh. I tested and threw out some doubtful yeast.

 I had been itching to make a crusty bread using my Le Creuset  Dutch Oven. I whipped out my little jewel that I had been hoarding for awhile - the silver the replacement knob that would allow my Le Creuset Dutch Oven to be used in a scorching 400-500 F oven ( the normal Le Creuset Knob is not rated for such a hot oven). Swap the knob and I was good to go.

I made the dough at 6 am on Sunday morning intending to bake the bread that evening. As it turned out, we spent the day watching "Lost" on Netflick and staying cool. In the end, it was too hot for me to think about turning the turning on the oven. So I pop the dough in the fridge to slow down the proofing. So instead of proofing the dough for 12-18 hours, it was more like 36 hours!!! It still came out beautifully crusty and delicious. So that was my adaption.

The search for perfect Madeleine

Madeleine have been on my mind lately...To be exact the delectable Lemon Madeleine I made a couple of year ago. It  was of those reader requested recipe of something they ate at a restaurant, in either Gourmet or Bona Appetit magazine. I remember closing my eyes in bliss, biting into the tender crumbed Madeleine deliciously perfume with lemon zest. You know what is coming right? Yes, you guess it!! I lost the recipe. I cannot remember if it contained honey, if I chilled the dough or did I add baking powder that is frown upon by the purist. So now begins my quest for the perfect Madeleine recipe.

A Clean Dog

With all the travelling we did this summer, the garden was not all I neglected. Frasier has been looking pretty scruffy not to mention doggy. Two days ago I gave him a bath. Today, I finally shave and groomed him. Here are the before and after pictures.

Scruffy, stinky but oh so adorable. Most of the time, I prefer him looking this way but as his hair grows longer, he tends to "pick up" stuff from the garden. Frasier is an outside dog. He often gets mistaken for a Labradoodle when he looks like this.

Clean, still adorable but half the dog he was!!! Poodles are all hair if you can tell.

White Meatball

On Tuesday, I went to Sprouts Farmers Market in Eastlake to buy some corn for my son A. For the past 4 years he has had braces on his teeth and has not been able to eat corn on the cob easily. Imagine, not being able to eat jagung, the pasar malam favorite!! Long story short, that day, he finally had the braces removed and his first request was for corn and some apples.

While I was there I stopped by the meat department. Meatball came to mind!! I decided I would experiment and make a different kind of meatball, a healthier meatball. That how I came up with the White Meatball - Turkey and Pork, the other white meats. Even if I have to say so myself, they turned out pretty delicious. So delicious that I am blogging about it before I wash the dishes!!

Weed Fest!

What do you expect when you leave a vegetable garden unattended? All I can say is that the weeds look very healthy. In fact, a lot healthier than the few tomato and pepper plants I had in those beds! While, the beds looked chook full of seeds, it was actually fairly easy and fast to remove most of the weeds.

Kale, Culantro (mexican cilantro/ vietnamese ngo gai) with its purple flowers and... lots of weeds- clovers, spurge, dandelions, grass to name a few.

A dog just as neglected as my garden. Frasier desperately needs to be shave and bath!! My faithfully dog happily following me around the garden