Blueberry Cream Muffins

The kids love blueberry muffins so I've been on the hunt for a good muffin recipe.  I've tried a couple already, but they weren't all that good.  I came across this recipe for Ann's Awesome Blueberry Muffins and everyone loved it.  I halved the recipe and made 12 large muffins instead of 24.

Here is the recipe halved.

Ann’s Awesome Blueberry Muffins


2 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 cup blueberries


1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2) In a large bowl, beat eggs. Gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating while slowly pouring in oil. Stir in vanilla. In separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda.

3) Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream. Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

4) Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.


I rolled the blueberries in flour and a little bit of sugar to keep the blueberries from staining the batter purple.  The kids loved the muffins except for the blueberries.  They thought they were too tart.  DH and I liked this recipe alot.  I think next time though, I may try it using canned blueberries.  That way the blueberries will be sweet and not tart.  I think my kids would like them better.  I still think this recipe is a keeper!

Maybe a little bit overdone but they were still nice and moist.

General Tso’s Chicken

One of DH’s favorite dishes is General Tso’s chicken.  I found a recipe online awhile ago that we really like.  I have modified the recipe a little since I am trying to get away from using corn starch.  Corn starch is used a lot in Asian cooking to thicken sauces and to make fried foods like sweet and sour chicken or pork.  The recipe as written makes a really good General Tso’s chicken dish.  We thought it still tasted great using flour instead of corn starch. I have made it both ways.  Serve the dish with plain rice.  This dish is definitely one of our family favorites…enjoy!
Here is the original recipe:

Sauce:

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1+1/2 tsp minced garlic

1+1/2 tsp minced ginger root

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup cooking wine ( I did not use cooking wine)

1+1/2 cup hot chicken broth

1 tsp monosodium glutamate (I never use msg)

Meat:

3 lbs deboned dark chicken meat, cut into large chunks

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp white pepper

1 egg

1 cup cornstarch

Vegetable oil for deep-frying

2 cups sliced green onions

16 small dried hot peppers

1) Mix 1/2 cup cornstarch with water.  Add garlic, ginger, sugar, 1/2 cup soy

sauce, vinegar, wine, chicken broth and MSG (if desired).  Stir until sugar

dissolves.  Refrigerate until needed.

2) In separate bowl, mix chicken, 1/4 cup soy sauce and white pepper.  Stir in

egg.  Add 1 cup cornstarch and mix until chicken pieces are coated evenly. 

Add cup of vegetable oil to help separate chicken pieces.  Divide chicken into

small quantities and deep-fry at 350 degrees until crispy.  Drain on paper

towels.

3) Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot.  Add onions

and peppers and stir-fry briefly.  Stir sauce and add to wok.  Place chicken in

sauce and cook until sauce thickens.

The changes I made were:

For the sauce, I omitted the corn starch. Then after stir-frying the onions and peppers, I added 6 Tbs. all-purpose flour and stir-fried briefly.  Then I added the sauce and the fried chicken pieces and cooked the sauce for 10-15 minutes until the sauce thickened.

For the meat:  I added all the ingredients except for the cornstarch and the oil.  There is no need to add the oil since the pieces were not being coated in cornstarch. I mixed the chicken pieces until they were thoroughly coated.  Then I coated each chicken piece with all-purpose flour.  I deep-fried the chicken pieces until they were crispy.  Then I added the chicken to the sauce.

Solar Power for Ford Focus EV

Photo from: green.autoblog.com

DH loves cars and is always ontop of new things that are going on in the car industry.  He just sent me an email about the Drive Green For Life Program.  The program is the result of a partnership between Ford and Sunpower Corp. (a solar energy provider).  It allows a Ford Focus Electric vehicle to be charged via solar panels on the roof of your house. This offsets the amount of electricity that is needed to charge the vehicles at night and therefore lowers the monthly operation cost of the vehicle.  Also, because the Ford Focus electric vehicles run entirely off of electricity stored in the car's battery, there are zero emissions.  The cost is roughly $10,000. 

Check out this article to learn more about the partnership between Ford and Sunpower Corp. for solar charging Ford Electric and Hybrid vehicles.

I think DH really secretly or maybe not so secretly wants to get one of the new Ford Focus electric vehicles.  I have to admit, they are pretty darn cool and of course, let's not forget, environmentally friendly as well :)

Chinese Braised Soysauce Beef and Eggs

Growing up my mom would always make braised pork or beef with soysauce eggs. Alot of times she would also cook seaweed along with the meat and eggs.   I loved eating these dishes with rice or noodles.  The other day I was craving some braised beef and eggs so I decided to make my own.  The only problem is that my mom makes it with a spice packet.  I used to get the spice packet in Chinatown in Houston.  I looked online to see if I could find a recipe to make the dish without the use of the spice packet.  I used the basic recipe for braised soysauce eggs from the RasaMalaysia website with some alterations and additions.


Basic Recipe

6-12 hard boiled eggs
4 cups water
2-2 1/2 Tbs. dark soy sauce
3 Tbs. soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbs. sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2-3 star anise
1 spiced tea bag (optional)
salt to taste

Additional Ingredients

1/4 to 1/2 lb. of pork or beef (very lean cuts of meat are not as desirable--some fat is better--I used beef stew meat)
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbs. fresh ginger chopped finely
2 stalks green onions-cut in long pieces
2 red chilli peppers
1 tsp. powdered cloves (I think dried cloves would be better)
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. coriander seeds
1/2 tsp. white pepper powder
3 tbs. cooking wine (optional--my mom uses cooking wine. I didn't use any).

I chopped up 2 cloves of garlic and about 1 Tbs. of fresh ginger.  I chopped 2 red chilies.  I also cut a few stalks of green onion.  I stir-fried these in about 3 Tbs. of oil to flavor the oil.

I chopped the beef up into bite size pieces.  I dusted the meat with flour.  I added a bit more oil to the pan and then I browned the beef with the garlic, onions, chilli, and ginger.

I put the beef into the crock pot.  Then I added the rest of the ingredients (water, soysauce, spices). 

The dish turned out pretty well.  DH liked it.  The girls loved the soysauce eggs and my son really liked the beef.  It didn't taste exactly the same as the way my mom makes it...I think the spice packet really makes a difference.  Still, I liked it overall. 

I saved the stock.  It is good for a few days in the refrigerator and the flavor seems to improve with age.  Today I will probably make the girls some more soysauce eggs and my son some more braised beef.  I'll use the leftover stock to make a soup to put over some noodles.  We'll probably have that for lunch.

Chalkboard Paper

We are not sure how long we will be living in Jakarta exactly so I have been trying very hard not to accumulate alot of things.  We came over with a few suitcases and that is how we plan on leaving.  The kids used to have a big chalkboard easel that they liked to play with.  A while ago, I saw an image online of a child's room that had been decorated with cut out images from chalkboard paper.  The images were in the shape of flowers and kids could then color on the chalkboard paper with chalk.  Back then I thought it was a great idea, but I never did follow up on the idea.

 I recently decided to read up on chalkboard paper and found that you can use black contact paper the same way.  I meant to put in an order for black contact paper before we left to go back to Texas so that I could pick it up while we were there.  I forgot to order the paper.  Luckily, my sister-in-law, who happens to be an elementary education major, had a large roll of black contact paper.  She had affixed a large piece to their refigerator for her kids to draw or color on.   She offered to let me have as much black contact paper as I wanted.  I cut out a piece that I thought would be a good size for my younger daughter's room.  Both my girls love it!  The chalk adheres really well to the contact paper.  The paper can always be removed without damaging the walls.  I've left contact paper on for years and it doesn't damage the walls.  However, on flat paint, it does seem to leave a little bit of a sticky residue.  It's not really noticeable though. 

A large roll of black contact paper costs around $6 to $7.  Another one of my sister-in-laws said that you can order contact paper through office supply stores like STAPLES so that you don't have to incur shipping costs.  I really like the black contact paper chalkboard.  You can also adhere the black contact paper to a magnetic board to make a magnetic chalkboard.  I might move the contact paper to the refrigerator so that it can be a combination chalkboard/magnetic board and it would also be a good message board. 

If you are interested in using contact paper to make wall decals, check out my post on contact paper wall art.  

Seedlings

Yay!  The chilli pepper seeds the kids and I planted the other day have sprouted!  The kids were so excited to see the seedlings.  I wish we had a nice big yard to plant a garden, but the little plastic buckets seem to be doing the job thus far.  We have lots of room on our balcony.   I think we might consider planting a couple more things.  I got the seeds at Grand Lucky (market in Senayan city area) and I also bought some potting soil there.  The potting soil was very inexpensive.  I got a medium-sized bag for 12,000 Rupiah.  I hope the seedlings keep growing and maybe soon we'll have our own little garden.  It's fun for kids to get their hands dirty.  Having a little garden is also a good way to teach responsibility.  Both of my daughters love to water the plants every day.  I think it is rewarding for the kids to see the plants grow.  I hope that they will survive to maturity so that the kids will get to harvest the fruits of their labor.  I guess only time will tell!

Plastic Buckets

When you eat at KFC or go to the movies and buy popcorn, the food comes in these little plastic buckets.  A friend of mine had accumulated quite a few from going to the movies and had asked me if I wanted them.  I have found them to be quite useful around the house, and the kids like them too.  My daughters carry little toys and stuffed animals around the house in their buckets.  For Easter, we decorated one of the buckets with paper and clip art to make an Easter basket.  I use them to hold crayons, markers, and craft supplies. We also use them as planters.  I punched some holes in the bottom of the buckets and the kids helped me plant some chilli pepper seeds the other day.  We also transplanted some green onions that were left over from a school project.  Who would have thought these little buckets could be so handy?

Relocation

One evening as we were heading back to the ranch house, we saw a baby armadillo in the yard.  DH's mom didn't want the armadillo so close to her house so there was a plan hatched to capture and relocate the little fellow.  The capture and relocation were the highlight of the day.  The kids were so tickled to see the armadillo up close. 

The armadillo was spotted in the yard.

The plan:  Granny will flush the armadillo out with a hoe so DH can capture it with the bucket.

The armadillo was successfully captured and relocated to another area of the ranch.  In case you were wondering, the kids have their hands over the grate because armadillos jump :)

Ranch

DH's family has a ranch in central Texas.  The ranch has been in his family since the early 1800's.  His parents built a home and moved out there a few years ago. DH grew up going to the ranch.  He spent lots of time working at the ranch and also enjoying the outdoors. When we were dating, I got to go and help build a fence.  There's always work to be done on a  ranch.  We want our kids to learn to enjoy the outdoors.  When they are old enough, we also hope that Granny and Grandpa will put them to work so that they can learn the importance of diligent labor.

While we were in Texas, we went and stayed out at the ranch for a few days.  The kids had all sorts of fun in the few days we spent at the ranch.  There is just something about being outdoors that is just rejuvenating for the body and the soul.  Although it is very hot in Texas in July, we still really enjoyed our visit and spent lots of time in the great outdoors.

The squirrels like to come and sprawl out on the concrete under the covered porch to cool off.

Walking over to the shed where the hay and tractors are housed.

Don't the hay bales look tempting to climb on?

Needed a little help from Daddy, but she made it onto the bales of hay.

 

Tractors...they look innocent enough, but there are warning labels all over them depicting the numerous ways you can be injured, maimed, or otherwise killed. I should have taken some pictures of the labels. They'll give you nightmares!

Budding entomologist (she has a serious grasshopper fetish)

The kids love to go fishing!

Hanging out on the dock.

Heading back to the house.

Just having fun being outside.

  

Snack time!

It's just a little bit hot in Texas in July!

Sunset..someone is tired after a long day :)