The Grass is Greener!

...At least this is how I'm feeling after a much-needed trip out to the sunny (and foggy) California coast.

You probably heard about the drought we experienced in the Midwest this summer.  It was hot, scorching on most days and we went weeks on end with no rain.  This weather was punctuated by a fierce pop-up storm at the end of June that knocked out our power for a week when temps exceeded 100 degrees.  It's no surprise, then, that my my garden succumbed to it's miserable fate.

The zucchini and yellow squash were devoured by squash bugs (pictured left). The cucumber plant was ravaged by the cute yellow striped cucumber beetle. The green beans mildewed, and the tomatoes never ripened.  This left me with lots and lots of basil.

I knew that my dreams for my garden were naive, but I never dreamt that my only successful crops (other than the basil) would have been mosquitos and squash bug infestations.

This takes me back to California. To celebrate our 10th anniversary, my husband and I drove down to  Paso Robles and then over to the coast and up Highway 1 to San Francisco. On the way, we passed idyllic scenes of cows grazing in fields by the coast, farm stands piled high with gleaming produce, and green fields ripe with avocados and artichokes. 

Was the grass really greener in California?  The food fresher, tastier, and more beautiful?









While I'm sure that pests and extreme weather conditions are not unknown to farmers on the West coast, what we saw--the olives, grapes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peaches--looked perfectly magical compared to the drought-ravaged produce back home, and it made us think that just maybe, the grass was greener--at least this year--in sunny California.

Spice Cabinet Chinese Lessons

This past week when I needed space for a jar of newly dried basil from my garden, I found myself cleaning out my spice cabinet. I pitched sage, curry powder, and lemon pepper that was way past its prime, and then my fingers touched Chinese Five Spice Powder, or wuxiang fen (五香粉), which is a mixture of spices--most commonly star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and ground fennel seeds.

I turned to my daughter who was nibbling on a snack, “Do you want to hear a funny story about your dad?”

I told her about how my dear husband, when we were first married, loved to cook but didn’t have much experience cooking Chinese dishes, despite growing up in Shanghai.  One day he tried making the ubiquitous Chinese dish Fish-fragrant Pork Slivers (Yuxiang Rousi, 鱼香肉丝).  However, at some point in his youth, he misheard the name of the dish as Wuxiang Rousi, and as a result, thought that the defining spice used in this dish was in fact wuxiang fen, Chinese Five Spice Powder.

Well, fast-forward a few months, and my husband decided to make this new dish for his mother who was in town visiting.  After taking a bite, she exclaimed, “What did you put in here?” “Wuxiang fen,” he answered.  

“The dish is called Yuxiang Rousi not Wuxiang Rousi,” she laughed, barely able to get the words out of her mouth. And to this day, this story brings much laughter around his parents' dinner table.

“Do you get it?” I asked my daughter,  “Daddy confused the word wu, meaning five, with yu, meaning fish.” 

“Yeah,” she said, laughing to herself and repeating “wu” and “yu.”

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If you’re wondering what Yuxiang Rousi is and how to make it, check out Moveable Feast’s adaptation of Sichuan food expert Fuschia Dunlop’s recipe: 
http://moveablefeast.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/mindblowing-fish-fragrant-pork-slivers-yu-xiang-rou-si/ 
and another recipe by Chef Wang:

http://traditionalchineserecipes.blogspot.com/2011/05/yu-xiang-zhu-rou-si-fish-fragrance-pork.html 
(I like his suggestion about putting the pork in the freezer before slicing; my father-in-law does this).

"You want me to eat this?"

“Here, try this,” I handed my daughter a snow pea, just picked minutes ago from my garden and still hot from the stovetop where it was stir-fried.

“Eww,” she wrinkled up her nose.

I thought about my options.  I could force her to try it. I had done this with other foods in the past to little success.  My little drama queen would barely touch the dreaded food to her tongue, whine, gag, and then feign crying. 

“You don’t have to eat it, but I challenge you to try it,” I offered.

My daughter eyed me suspiciously and then brought the snow pea toward her lips. 

I looked down at my plate, pretending to take no interest in her vegetable-eating dilemma.

No longer than ten seconds later, I looked up.  The snow pea was gone and she was licking her fingers.  

“Where did it go?” I couldn’t hide my surprise.

“Oh, it was okay,” as she continued to lick her fingers.

I proceeded to tell my daughter that vegetables grown in a garden usually taste better than those bought in the store. Garden-grown vegetables have robust, complex flavors compared to their bland store-bought cousins. The snow peas tasted both lightly sweet and salty (I added salt when stir-frying), tender and at the same time crisp, and they tasted very green. I know that sounds strange but they tasted green. 

Last night I picked a handful of snow peas from the garden again to stir-fry for an evening snack.  My daughter watched me eat from the bowl of hot peas, and then put down her ice cream bowl to snatch one of the largest peas from me.  “Yum.  These snow peas are so good,” she said as she wolfed it down.

Basic Recipe for Stir-fried Snow Peas

1. Wash snow peas and remove strings (just a personal preference).  Let air dry (this is important so the oil doesn’t splatter when you add the pods to the pan)
2. Heat enough oil (I use canola) just to cover the bottom of your pan (I use a deep sauce pan to avoid oil splatters). High heat will scorch the pea pods so keep the temperature around medium-high. 
3. Add the pea pods and stir or turn to coat each pod in oil (approximately 30 seconds).
4. Add several tablespoons of water (The amount will depend on the number of pea pods you are cooking. The snow peas should not float in the water nor should the water be so little that it makes the oil “spit”)
5. Cover the pan partially and allow the snow peas to cook an extra 2-5 minutes to taste (I like my snow peas a little crunchy so I tend to cook them less).  Add salt to taste approximately 30 seconds before you take the snow peas off the stove.  
6. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Recipes for Summer: Lemonade

I've always thought that making homemade lemonade required real lemons, a juicer, or really strong hands. And while real lemons probably do make the best lemonade, I don't have a lemon tree in my backyard (though that would be very nice!). So, here's the next best thing in four simple steps: 

1. Start with making a simple syrup by dissolving 1 cup of granulated (white) sugar (I use less because I like my lemonade sweet tart) in 1 cup of water over low heat until dissolved.

2. Remove from heat and pour into pitcher for refrigeration (If you are pouring into glass, make sure that the pitcher is approved for high heat. I cracked my favorite pitcher when I forgot to look). 


3. Add 1 cup 100% lemon juice (Santa Cruz makes a tasty organic lemon juice) and three to four cups of cold water. 


4. Refrigerate until cold and serve over ice, with a slice of lemon or sprig of mint, or however you like to drink it.

Cheers!

(Adapted from "Perfect Lemonade Recipe" at http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_lemonade/)

Recipes for Summer: Bubbles

Summer is right around the corner, which means that it is time to start storing up on some of the Cheng family summer staples: ice tea, popsicles, lemonade, and bubbles.  I'm still searching for the perfect green or jasmine iced tea recipe (hopefully, more on this later!), but in the meantime, here is a recipe to kickoff some homemade summer fun.

Bubbles

One of our favorite summer activities is blowing bubbles.  Homemade bubble solution is easy to make and will provide your kids with hours of creative fun.

I store my solution in clean gallon orange juice containers. I also write the recipe on the container with a permanent marker (a trick a friend showed me), so when I make a new batch of solution, I don't need to search for the recipe again.


There are many different recipes for bubble solution, but most of them use three basic ingredients:  dish soap (some swear by Joy or Dawn brands), water, and glycerin.  See http://bubbleblowers.com/homemade.html for a list of different recipes (I used the 'Homemade Bubbles' recipe from Kids Domain Craft Exchange).  


Note:  bubble solution should not be sudsy.  I don't know what happened to my solution (pictured above). Next, store your bubble solution. The longer you store the solution, the better the bubbles (or so they say).   When it's bubble time, get your wands out, and have fun!

 Challenge older children by having them use their fingers as a bubble blower: make an "OK" sign with your thumb and index finger, dip the "O" into the solution, and blow gently to form a bubble.

Another fun challenge:  dip the entire palm of your hand into the bubble solution, and using a plastic straw, blow gently into the solution on your hand.  When a bubble begins to form, pull the straw up toward the top of the bubble and continue to blow air until your bubble grows.


What tools and tricks do you and your kids use to create bubble fun? 

"So, when are you going to China (again)?"

A few weeks ago, I overheard my father-in-law ask my husband (over the phone) when we were going to China next.  I gave my husband a knowing look. We've travelled to China twice since we've been married, once when our daughter was fourteen months old, and then three years later, when our daughter was four and our son was fourteen months.

(2006 trip to China)                                                                          (2010 trip to China; stopover in Japan)

Both trips were exhausting, stressful, and required months of planning, largely because we travelled with babies. Both my husband and I had travelled to China by ourselves a number of times before that, and even those trips were tiring and required lots of planning. Keeping a Cheng baby happy on the 14+ hour flight  required backpacks full of extra diapers, clothes, medications, and toys.

Once we were in China, we then faced new stresses and challenges:  how were we going to get around the city with our kids?  What were the kids going to eat when we met family and their friends at restaurants?  Where were the kid-friendly places in Shanghai and how could we get to them?

By the end of our second trip to China, we had tried and true "tricks" for traveling around the city (avoid rush hour), restaurant dining (ask the host to order soup noodles), and keeping the kids entertained (short trips to parks in the neighborhood). But we also made a pact to never again make this long trip with young kids (i.e. under 2 yrs)--it was just too difficult.

So when are we going to China again?

We aren't--at least for now, but we are sending a family representative next fall--my husband.  He'll be going on a short genealogy trip--to collect stories, photos, and information about his ancestors (more on this later!).  He heard many stories when he was young, but in the last few years, several of his family's key story-holders (grandparents and great grandparents) have passed away.  He feels the urgency to record his family history before the stories are lost or forgotten.  By travelling alone, he'll be able to focus on collecting this info and move quickly around the city.

How do you approach family trips to China? Do you travel together or make the trip alone?

Has family history ever been a focus of one of your trips?

Big Garden Dreams

Today, I unexpectedly pulled this from my garden: a winter carrot.



This carrot--grown from a seed leftover from last summer during our warm, snowless winter--got me dreaming about the great harvest I’ll pull from my garden this summer.

  

I have big dreams:  sugar snap peas, sweet yellow onions, carrots, and bush beans are already in the ground. I’ll add brandywine tomato, yellow squash, burpless cucumber, sweet basil, and buttercrunch lettuce plants later this week to fill the beds. 

My mind is racing with possible dishes these yet-to-be-planted veggies will be made into, simple recipes that highlight their full flavor:  tomatoes and basil—made into Tomato Caprese Salad (my absolute favorite summer staple), cucumbers and lettuce—made into a simple salad with homemade olive oil and vinegar dressing, zucchini—sautéed with olive oil and garlic.  I could go on…

This is how I start out in spring, (over) ambitious and idealistic about my garden.  Then in July, when my garden has turned into a jungle, squash bugs devouring my zucchini plants and mildew squelching my bean harvest, I reassess my goals.  I am thrilled to discover a zucchini untouched by the ravenous squash bugs or five slender beans I can save from my many bean plants.

But for now, the carrot has inspired me to dream big.  Here’s hoping for a good harvest!

What are you growing in your garden this year?