GZ Tai-Tai

Malaysia is calling me

I have been craving Malaysian food lately. I also have been thinking of Malaysia a lot lately too. I am not sure why our trip this summer did not include a stop over, probably did not work out with our schedule or the price was too high when we were booking our trip.  We recently went to a BBQ of sorts at a Malaysian friends home and had beef rendang and a few other malaysian treats. That seemed to help but the last few weeks, I have had the bug to go to Malaysia again. Perhaps we will make it there for our Chinese New Year holiday, we will see. In the mean time I must cook something Malaysian to suppress my appetite.

Hubby has always wanted me to make Laksa, I make Rendang pretty often, but not often enough if you ask him. So I decided to make Laksa, or at least, see if I could do it and if I could find the ingredients. Well yes and no, some of the ingredients are found easily enough but some others are not but I did my best with what we had and what I could find and it actually turned out quite good. I will try to give you the recipe or at least what I used in this version of Penang Laksa. Some of the ingredients and methods I use are not very traditional, I am sure  some will scoff, but, hey it got me what I wanted and that was a taste of Malaysia.

Hot Artichoke Dip, Hot Crab Dip and Hot Chili Dip

Hot Artichoke Dip

1 cup mayonnaise

1 Cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tin artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Combine the above ingredients. Pour into a baking dish and heat for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Serve with crackers or bread.

 

Hot Crab Dip

1 can drained crab meat

1 large Pkg. Philadelphia Cream Cheese ( room temp)

2 Tbsp. Chopped green onion

1/2tsp. Horseradish

1 Tbsp. Milk

¼ tsp. Salt

dash pepper

1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

 

Combine ingredients. Mix well.

Bake 25 min. @ 350 degrees Fahrenheit  Can use shrimp meat instead of crab.

 

Hot Chili Dip

1 pkg cream cheese 8 oz

1 can chili without beans

Heat together. Serve with Chips.

If you have a fondue pot to keep this warm this works well or if it cools down just warm in microwave.

 

Mexican Layer Dip

 

 

1Can Refried Beans

Salsa enough to cover the beans

Sour Cream

2 tsp. Taco seasoning or Chili Powder (optional) Chili powder I use enough for a nice color and taste as I season. 

Shredded Cheese ( cheddar or Montery Jack )

Green Onion

Olives

 

Mix Sour Cream with Taco seasoning or chili powder.  ( If you don't want to use the seasoning or chili powder that is ok just use the sour cream plain.)

 

On a plate spread refried beans, Cover beans with Salsa , then spread sour cream (or sour cream seasoning mixture) over salsa  carefully. Cover with shredded cheese, sprinkle green onion over cheese, sprinkle olives over green onion.

 

 

You can also add lettuce and tomato for layers and Guacamole is nice too. I just use what I have on hand.

 

What a pain! Ouch!

Fighting a really painful ear infection and on top of it I have a weather headache! Finally we had a powerful shower, wind and thunder blow by us and I have a bit of relief on the headache. Not complete but at least I am not in tears like I was before the shower blew through.
Time for more medicine in the ear and Breakfast at Tiffany's just started on Cinemax. I am going to go cuddle up with a blanket and a cup of tea and watch it and wish Expat Daughter were here to watch with me since it is one of her favourites!

Layered Salad

Layered Salad

1 large head lettuce

¼ cup sliced onion

½ cup chopped celery

1 6oz can water chestnuts sliced

1 pkg. frozen peas not thawed (today we will use thawed peas)

2 cups mayonnaise

3 tsp sugar

Grated parmesan

½ lb. bacon cooked crisp and crumbled ( can use bacon bits )

3 or 4 tomatoes cut in wedges

Hard boiled eggs-sliced

 

Layer in a large bowl:

Lettuce, onions, celery, water chestnuts,peas.  Then spread mayonnaise over peas and seal to edge of bowl. Sprinkle sugar on mayonnaise, then sprinkle cheese, and bacon on top with tomatoes and eggs.

Let stand several hours or overnight.

Taco salad and dressing

                                                                                 

 

1 head Iceberg lettuce                                                            

1 onion chopped

1 pkt of Taco Seasoning

4 tomatoes chopped

1 avocado peeled and sliced (optional)

½ lb. Cheddar cheese shredded

1 lb. Ground beef, cooked

1 15-oz. Can kidney beans

Black olives sliced (optional)

1 9-oz. Bag Doritos – crushed, you can crush part of the bag and leave the remaining chips whole

1 bottle of Kraft French salad dressing or the dressing recipe below.

 

Dressing:

1 10-½ oz can tomato soup

¾ cup vinegar

2 Tbsp. chopped onion

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. celery salt

1tsp paprika

1 cup salad oil

¾ cup granulated sugar.

 

Combine all the dressing ingredients and blend in blender.

 

Salad Assembly:

Brown the ground beef and onion with one packet of Taco Seasoning. Let the beef cool before assembling salad.

Tear lettuce into bite size pieces and put in large bowl. Add tomatoes, avocado, cheese ground beef, olives and kidney beans. Pour half of the dressing over salad to lightly coat. Add more to taste. Toss. Top with Doritos. Toss break up Doritos as you toss the salad.

Spinach Dip

 

2 pkg.  10oz each frozen chopped spinach – thawed

1 can 8 oz. water chestnuts drained, and finely chopped

1 cup sour cream

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup finely chopped green onion (about 9)

½ tsp dried tarragon or parsley (if using fresh 2 tsp)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground mustard (dry)

¼ tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

Squeeze excess water from spinach until it is dry.

Mix spinach with the remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. To blend flavors.

 

Below is the recipe I wanted to do, but, I could not find the Knorr dry soup mix here in China. You should be able to find this in your home countries though. (Lipton also has a vegetable soup mix but I could not find that one either. ) However if you cannot find either you have a recipe you can use instead.

 

 

 

Five Cup Fruit Salad

Five Cup Fruit Salad

1 cup sour cream

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup mandarin oranges, drained

1 cup sweet coconut

1 cup mini marshmallows

 

Mix  all together and refrigerate before serving.

 

We blended pineapple slices to make crushed pineapple.

 

Party Foods

This week I hosted the cook club at my house. I decided to do American recipes as I am asked time and again by members and non members about easy recipes to make. Many of the easiest recipes to make are American food recipes because they are made up of boxes, cans or packets of mixes. It is a lot easier now to find many of the cans, packets and so forth to use in many recipes than it was 10 years ago in China. Though I did have problems with one recipe I wanted to make and found out I would have to borrow from someone who brought in the ingredient from her home country. Well I nixed that idea and found a recipe for the same thing to use that did not call for the packet, my survival instinct at work perhaps but, I wanted to make sure the girls could make all these recipes while they are here in China. They should all be able to find the items in their home countries or an equivalent that will work.  We also watched a video that explains the history of American food. When we lived in the states we had taped the show, when we happened upon it a few months ago we burned DVD 's for each member to have and watch at home.
I will post the recipes we made and a photo of each in the coming days.  The recipes were from family,and friends and even that great Lutheran Church cookbook that is such a treasure trove of all those great dishes we ate at the potluck dinners when I was a kid.  It was a fun class to prepare for because of the memories it brought me of home, all those parties,family get togethers, and church functions over the years. It was difficult to choose which recipes to teach..I picked several, maybe too many ...... but now the girls have some easy recipes they can make this summer when they host a family gathering in their home country.

The dessert was Seven Layer Magic Cookie Bars we substituted white chocolate chips for the butterscotch chips cannot get those here. I wish!

It seems so little compared to what they lost

This week has been busy, just the normal things that I usually do grocery shopping on Monday needed a lot of fresh veg and fruit. Yesterday I baked bread and did some things around the house organizing and all that mundane boring stuff.
Today was some of the same along with finalizing a pile of things to take to the school for the Earthquake victims. I had a quick trip to the supermarket near our home to pick up 100 Kilos of Rice and some dried beans, canned fish and  canned meat to add to the pile of clothes, shoes, sleeping bags, blankets, towels, quilts and assorted canned fruit, cereals, canned broth, noodles, nuts, raisins, a  bit of tea, and last but not least soaps and shampoo that I have been gathering up to donate. 

When I was in the supermarket with the cart groaning from the weight of the rice many people were looking at me, this happens a lot to me anyway, but I seemed to be getting extra help from the staff. Which was really nice because they were coming to me and asking what I was looking for, instead of the other way around. Amazing since the supermarket was extremely busy, I am so grateful for all the help I was given to find the canned meat,fish, and dried beans.
When I got home and unloaded the car with the help of the driver and aiyee I looked at the pile in the living room and thought to myself it looked so small compared to all that the earthquake victims had lost.
Expat Son came home soon after, just as I was closing the garage door, having thanked the driver and said goodbye. On Son's way in the garage I asked him how much stuff was at the school for the Earthquake victims, he said, there was quite a lot. Good, I said , the people really need the donations, he agreed and then he went in the house. He looked at the pile of things I had in the living room, and he started to laugh, he was so amazed at all the stuff that we were giving to the victims. Then he asked if I
was taking it to the school, he was afraid that he would have to take it all on the bus. I of course, said yes, he had to load it on the bus and carry it into school. Oh no.... he said, I laughed and he knew I was joking!

I am keeping all those people in my prayers and in my heart, I know it will be hard for them to recover from this tragedy as most of them have lost loved ones as well as their homes. All you and I can give them is material basic survival items, we cannot replace their mothers,fathers,brothers,sisters,daughters,sons, grandparents, or friends.

I only hope the little bit I have done will help in some way.