Eileen Likes To Eat

I am loving Rachel Ray’s Express Lane Meals cookbook more and more, especially after cooking last night’s meal.

Chicken with Scallion-Lime Sauce and Sweet Carrot Rice

This dish had 3 components: chicken, rice, and sauce.  The chicken was seasoned with thyme and lime zest.  It already tasted great eaten by itself.  But the scallion-lime sauce was AMAZING!  I absolutely love this sauce!!  The lime sauce made me want to eat more and more.  I don’t normally like carrot, but adding grated carrot to the rice disguised the carrot flavor that I don’t like, and actually added some sweetness to the rice.  The 3 components can definitely be made separately for other dishes.  I would make the chicken again, and added it to a salad.  The scallion-lime sauce would be great with fish as well.  Maybe even good with grilled steak.  The sweet carrot rice can be a side for any dish.  If you don’t want to make the entire dish, I strongly recommend trying the scallion-lime sauce.  It is super delicious!

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March 2nd, 2010 | Category: COOK | Comments (3)

This is another recipe from Rachel Ray’s Express Lane Meals.  It’s called Wafflewiches.  Instead of bread, Rachel Ray used waffles to make sandwiches.

Wafflewiches

The Wafflewiches were super easy to make.  It was a twist on the traditional Monte Cristo sandwich, which is made with ham, turkey, cheese, and French toast.  I love the combination of sweet and savory.  Cranberry sauce plus honey mustard was super tasty.  I tossed some salad, and made oven baked sweet potato fries.  The finished plate looked like it came from a restaurant.  Dr. P said he would pay $12 for this plate at a fancy cafe.  haha….

We love Wafflewiches!  I think kids would love this, too!  You can find the recipe HERE.

March 1st, 2010 | Category: COOK | Comments (5)

I have a lot of cookbooks.  I mean… A LOT!  I read cookbooks cover to cover… for fun.  Then I put them on my bookshelves… for decoration.  But what’s the point of buying cookbooks if I am not going to cook anything from them?  So yesterday I picked one of the book from my bookshelf, and randomly turned to a page, and that was going to be dinner.  The book I picked was Rachel Ray’s Express Lane Meals.  Every recipe in the book can be done under 30 minutes.  I like fast and easy recipes.  The page I turned to was Chicken, Chorizo, and Hominy Stoup.

Chicken, Chorizo, and Hominy Stoup

A “stoup” is a dish between soup and stew.  I used andouille sausage because I couldn’t find Chorizo at Sprouts Farmers Market.  I was afraid that the sausage might make the stoup too greasy, but not Sprouts all natural andouille sausage.  It was a very lean sausage and full of flavor.  There were a lot of vegetables in the stoup, onion, celery, kale, and hominy.  Hominy is this giant corn kernel.  I found it at the Mexican aisle in the supermarket.  This stoup was pretty spicy because of the chipotle pepper in adobo sauce.  Dr. P loved the spicy stoup.  I like the flavor of cumin and coriander a lot.

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February 27th, 2010 | Category: COOK | Comments (4)

Last night Dr. P had to work late so it was dinner for one. I made “eight treasures” spicy sauce noodle for myself.

八寶辣醬麵 Eight Treasures Spicy Sauce Noodle

It was good, and only took 5 minutes to make.

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February 23rd, 2010 | Category: COOK, NEW | Comments (3)

Dr. P has been telling me that he’s been craving for Ay-Chung’s Oyster & Intestine thin noodle soup.  I never thought I could make something like that at home.  But I did it!

大腸麵線 Intestine Thin Noodle

I didn’t have any oyster, so just made it with intestine.  I was also missing chopped cilantro, bamboo shoot slices, and Chinese black vinegar.  But the flavor was there.  Dr. P and I both still thought it tasted really close to the restaurant version.  So how did I make it?

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February 22nd, 2010 | Category: COOK | Comments (4)

There are a lot of us Asian people eat that non-Asian people would consider “weird”.  Tofu that smells like stinky feet, intestines that poo poo passed through, blood, brain, snake, turtle…. you name it, we eat it.  But those are the dishes that I grow up eating.  So one night I made “weird” food dinner for Dr. P to try.

鹹蛋蒸肉 Steamed Turkey with Salted Egg

Sorry for the photo of the eaten dish.  haha…  I didn’t plan to write about the dish and didn’t take a picture after cooking it.  Then I had some, and it was really good so I decided to write about it.  The weird food in this dish was salted duck egg.  You can buy those salted duck egg in any Chinese supermarket.  I made the dish with ground turkey meat because that what I had in my fridge.  You can also make it with pork.  I used about 1 pound of turkey, chopped the egg white from 2 salted egg, saved the yolk, and mixed the egg white with the meat.  Seasoned it with some soy sauce, white pepper, a little cornstarch, and water.  Placed the meat mixture in a bowl or plate, put the yolk on top, and steamed.  It was super easy to make.  The meat pie is great with rice or porridge.

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February 1st, 2010 | Category: COOK | Comments (3)

One of my favorite supermarket in Irvine is Sprouts Farmers Market.  Their produces, meat and seafood always have high quality.  The market feels like a cross between Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.  I bought 4 lobster tails there.  The sale price was $2.99 each.

Lobster Tails with Garlic Butter

It was my first time cooking lobster tail.  I just cooked it like how I would cook shrimps.  haha….  I deshelled the lobster, and wrapped the lobster tails in foil with garlic butter.  Garlic butter was made with butter, minced garlic, and chopped parsley.  Sprinkled some salt and pepper on the lobster tails, and baked at 450 degrees in the oven for about 12 minutes.  So the lobster tails turned out to be a little undercooked.  We had to pop it back into the microwave for a few seconds.  But the garlic butter was tasty.

I’m still not sure if I cook the lobster tails properly.  Should do some research on how to cook it….  Any suggestion for my next lobster tails dinner?

December 24th, 2009 | Category: COOK | Comments (2)

Beef and Bok Choy Stir-Fry is another dish I cooked from Real Simple Magazine’s recipe.  (RECIPE HERE)

Beef and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

I always had trouble cooking beef slices.  Somehow it always turned out to be too dry and tough.  My mom taught me that by adding some cornstarch to the beef and let it sit for about 10 minutes before cooking will result in perfectly tender beef slices.  I tried the method, and it worked!  The beef was juicy and tender.  Dr. P and I LOVE the sauce from this recipe.  I don’t really like ginger, but somehow really enjoyed the grated fresh ginger flavor in the sauce.  I could also taste the rice vinegar, and it was very appetizing.  I ate way too much rice because of this yummy sauce.

This dish was so easy and fast to make.  Absolutely love it!

December 22nd, 2009 | Category: COOK | Leave a comment

I really like the magazine “Real Simple“.  One of my favorite section in the magazine was their food & recipes.  All of the recipes in the magazine consist of a few simple everyday ingredients.  The recipes is also easy, fast and delicious.

Tilapia with Peppers and Olives

I made Tilapia with Peppers and Olives (RECIPE HERE) for dinner last week.  I bought fresh Tilapia from the supermarket.  It tasted so much better than the frozen tilapia.  The fish didn’t need much flavor except salt and pepper because it tasted so fresh.  Also the sauteed onion, red bell pepper, and olives had tons of rich flavors.  The onion and red bell pepper was sweet, the olive was salty, and the lime juice added some sourness.  It tasted Mediterranean.

We both love the taste of the dish.  It is also a very light and healthy meal.  Definitely will make again soon!

December 21st, 2009 | Category: COOK | Comments (3)