Jade’s Mom’s days…

Very easy to make, takes more or less 30 minutes to cook and so delish!

Ingredients:

1 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

250 gr bacon, sliced

1 pack champignon mushroom, sliced

200 ml cream (can substitute with milk)

1/2 cup grated parmesan (or according to taste, just add 1 tablespoon at a time)

Parsley, pepper (to taste - I didn’t use salt because bacon and parmesan are very salty)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 pack pasta (300 gr), any kind. We like Fusili or Penne because it’s bite size and kid friendly (no fiddling with twirling the pasta, just stab with fork and eat)

How to make:

Brown the bacon in a non stick pan, it will melt away the fat. You can fry them to crispy bites, but I prefer not to. Scoop them up (try to drain the oil) and set aside, leave the oil in the pan.

Now, saute the onion in the melted bacon fat … mmm … add in garlic, then the mushrooms.

Meanwhile, in a big pot, bring water to rapid boiling. Add salt and pasta. Cook for 10-12 minutes. Stir frequently … Oh, just read the direction in your pasta packet … ^_^ …

Put the bacon back into the pan, mix them up. Pour in cream and parmesan, add some parsley and pepper. Stir some more and turn off the heat.

When the pasta is al dente (just try a piece, when it’s not chewy then it’s done), turn off the heat and drain the pasta into a colander and put them back into the pot. Stir in the beaten eggs slowly over the hot pasta. Mix in the sauce. Serve while hot!

Jade loves it … She jumps with joy every time I cook it for her and shouts "Too yummy!!"

That’s it for now, I’ve got to run down and get her some more pasta … ^_^;

-L

No, this isn’t a review about the Disney Pixar movie (which I love, btw) … I made the dish the other day, and it tastes good, I thought I would share the recipe here … I found the recipe from SmittenKitchen and New York Times (google ‘Confit Byaldi’).

It’s a vegetarian dish and very healthy (I would imagine) and it’s a great way to get kids to eat vegetables!

Ratatouille Recipe

(makes 2 small dishes, I’m guessing 4-6 servings)

Ingredients for sauce:

1 orange bell pepper - cut in half, broil skin side up till charred, cool and peel the skin, then chop

1 onion - peel and chop

3 cloves garlic - peel and chop

3 tomatoes (I used garden tomatoes from cilember) - soak in boiled water for 1-2 minutes, then peel the skin and chop

Basil, Thyme, Parsley, Salt, Pepper - to taste

Olive Oil

*Optional:

250 gr ground beef

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon sugar

Vegetables:

1 long-ish eggplant (mine was a little fat, so I had to half them) - slice with a mandolin (I didn’t have one, i just sliced the veggies finely with a knife)

1 medium zuchini - slice

4 roma tomatoes - peel the skin and slice

(1 yellow squash - slice … I couldn’t find them in Ranch Market, if you happen to find any, let me know so I can buy one for next time)

How To Make:

Sauce: Pour some olive oil in saucepan. Saute the onion and garlic until translucent (10 min). Add bell pepper and cook 3-5 min. Pour in chopped tomatoes and spices, stir. Add white/red wine and stir for 5 min.

Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Spread the sauce on the bottom of a baking dish and then arrange the veggie slices around the dish. Drizzle olive oil on top and cover losely with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes or until the veggies are soft (I did a fork test). Sprinkle some cheese on it (I used Gruyere cheese and a little parmesan) and broil it for another 5 minutes, uncovered (to melt the cheese). Voila!

You can serve it with bread (Jade ate it with some croissant) or rice or pasta.

*Update:  By popular demand, I made this dish again. This time I added 250 gr ground beef and a little ketchup to the sauce and it was even yummier (Jade said "MMM too yummy!"). I didn’t bake it this time, I stewed it in a covered saucepan (because we didn’t care about the food’s apperance anyway) and just toss it with cheese (Gruyere, Emental, Parmesan mix) … Yumm! Jade asks for more and more. ^_^

Happy Chinese New Year!

In January we traveled to USA, mainly Los Angeles, just the 3 of us. We took the Singapore-Los Angeles direct flight, almost 16 hours on the plane. It wasn’t bad at all, Jade slept for almost 10 hours and she didn’t bother us too much. There’s a movie/game system on board and that kept her occupied and quiet. Heh heh.

We rented a van and stayed at my uncle Ferdinand’s house. Jade has lots of fun playing around the house. It has 2 stairs and she loves to play hide-and-seek with Dana (Auntie Lenny’s niece) and trying to run away from us when it’s bath time or bed time (grrr) … Breakfast time is her favorite, she likes to sit at the kitchen island and have cereal or toast with warm milk.

Food is a difficult issue there. She doesn’t like fancy restaurant and prefers In-N-Out all the time. Which isn’t so bad, but extremely boring for us. Shabu Shabu House is another one of her favorite, we went there 5 times for lunch! The old guy (Yoshi-san) still remember us! That was surprising! He took a look at Jeff and say "How are you? How is Jakarta? Wah, now you have a daughter, how nice!" … He was very nice to Jade and pats her head. On the very last day we went there very late (2.15pm) and they were closed and turned down many people (when we walk up there they warned us "it’s closed already" but we still went anyway) … so we went in and sat down inside. The oji-san looked and us and sadly said "we’re closed already" but Jeff gave "but it’s our last day here, we leave to Jakarta tonight" excuse and he lets us stay. YAY!

Our trip to Big Bear Lake was fun for Jade and Jeff. I thought it was a waste of 3 days, but Jeff really enjoyed the trip, he went skiing 2 times. The snow was really thick because it rained heavily for a few days before we got there. I never saw snow covering the road up to Big Bear before, it’s the first time I see that much snow up there. It was almost comparable to Mammoth.

I didn’t do much shopping as most of the clothes are winter items, so we mostly do window shopping. We went to The Grove twice and Jade likes it because it has trolley service running up and down the strip mall (from Farmer’s Market to The Grove) and she likes American Girl store. I bought her an Ivy doll. I thought the thing costs around $30-$40 because I saw lots of girls carry 1-2 boxes of dolls. I was surprised when the cashier ring up the total after tax to $97!

We went to Disneyland 3 times! We bought a 3-day Pass on-line and went there on the 2nd. It was CROWDED, luckily we used the Fast-Pass, spent the extra time for sight-seeing and eating and got on a few rides with minimal waiting time. The second time we came we went to California Adventure Park and had a blast. They have great rides and Jade’s favorite is "Hollywood Tower of Terror" where they load you up in an old elevator and fling you up and down, it was fun. We get to meet and take pictures with characters, we didn’t have autograph book at that time (I regret that, on the 3rd trip we bought a book and had a lot of fun hunting autographs). She loved the High School Musical Parade and had a blast dancing with the cast members. On our 3rd trip we went with Tanny (our friend’s daughter). She and Jade got lots of signatures from the Princesses and other characters. Tanny wanted to ride with me all the time (her dad’s divorced and her mom lives in Taiwan, maybe she misses her mom) … Jade’s a good sport, she lets Tanny ride with me as she sticks with Jeff.

Seaworld San Diego … We tried to discourage Jade and told her we can go the The Grove and ride the trolley instead, but she insisted "I WANT TO SEE SHAMU!" …. so off we went … She wanted to get splashed, but it was cold! and we didn’t bring any change, so I insisted we sit to the side and a bit further up. It was a lot of fun for Jade … After that we tried to have dinner at Phil’s BBQ, but Phil’s on vacation … We ended up eating at Yoshinoya, which was good because apparently Jade likes it.

Las Vegas has changed, big time! It’s amazing how they keep revamping the strip. We went there with Tanny and her dad and stayed at a double suite in Mirage, the kids loved it! Mostly Jade loved the big bathtub. We went to the Secret Garden where they keep dolphins and tigers and lions. Then we went to Circus Circus where the kids had LOADS of fun winning stuff, we had a BIG haul. We saw the Blueman Group. It was ok … it’s like a concert with comedy skits … The kids like it … I would much rather see a Cirque Du Soleil act though (ie: O, Ka, Love, Mystere), but it might be too much for a young child like Jade. I got sick due to very dry weather and loads of second hand smoke. That’s what I hate about Vegas, indoor smokers. Blech.

Overall the trip was a lot of fun for Jade, Jeff got to ski, I got sick … nevertheless, it was great and I would love to go again in summer time.