Turkey and wild rice soup

After we took off the meat from the turkey, I broke the bones into smaller pieces and dumped it in my beloved 6.5 qt crockpot along with celery, carrots, parsley, and onion. I covered it with water and let it cook overnight for 10 hours. In the morning, I had a pot full of turkey stock. I made soup with this stock:

Turkey and wild rice soup - crock pot version - adapted from crockpot365.blogspot.com

home made turkey stock from thanksgiving turkey carcass
1 cup celery (whatever that's left over in the fridge from all that cooking)
1 cup carrots
1 onion diced
bits of turkey that was still on the bones
some left over turkey meat to add meat volume, diced
some left over low sodium chicken broth (I don't like left over broth in an opened can so I thought this was a good chance to use it up)
some water (I didn't think there was enough liquid so I added some)
salt
pepper
1/2 cup wild rice (that's all I had)
3 handfuls of spinach from the bag
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
sprinkle of sage

dump everything in the crockpot and cook on low for 10 hours. The crockpot is on right now so it will be done by tomorrow morning and we can eat it for breakfast or lunch.

This soup is good because it allows me to use all the left over uncooked veggies from dinner. It also allows me to use the turkey bones. It makes me feel like I used everything that the turkey offered (I did use the neck and giblet to make stock which I used along with turkey dripping and a bit of turkey fat to make gravy). Thank you, turkey, for all that you gave us for the wonder meal and a few more meals to follow. By the way, I got this 19 lb turkey for free at my local grocery store. Isn't that amazing.

Next morning....
I had the soup and I thought it was OK. Something seems to be missing. It's not perfect but it's nice to have soup on demand in the fridge.

Cranberry Cider

Given that I love my crockpot so much and I now have 3 of them, I thought I would use it more for our Thanksgiving dinner. Turns out, I really had to force myself to use it - to make cranberry cider. My house mate from college, Roseline, and her family came to spend the evening with us. They have a son who is the same age as Sisi. Terran and the little boy had a blast running around the house and pulling out all the toys. Terran is a really good host to the kids that come to our house. Sisi hasn't quite learned the skill yet. She just throws a fit when anyone touches her toys and dolls.

Cranberry Cider Crockpot version - adapted from Paula Dean

3 cups apple juice
4 cups cranberry juice cocktail (Paula said to use cranberry juice but when I looked at what I bought at the store, it was only 20% cranberry mixed with other corn syrup etc.)
8 whole cloves
1 cinammon stick
1/4 cup brown sugar

dump all in a crockpot and cook on low for 4 hours.

I am sure it would be pretty quick to make on stove top. But there's a lot going on on stove top so it's nice to get something in the crockpot and out of the way.

I thought it may turn out too sweet but it was actually good. It's a warming drink. I will make this again for Christmas. We also served wine but I didn't have any cuz I'm knocked up. I'm getting tired of skipping alcohol. Next year, I will make cranberry martini and get drunk.

days before thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It's an American Holiday that I embrace and love to celebrate. It's a time to get together with family and friends. And time to share time.

This year, my sister had to make an emergency trip back to Japan, so we are celebrating with my friend and her family.

SO here's my cooking check list:

Weekend before: shop for grocery and start defrosting turkey (done)
Monday: Make cranberry sauce (done)
Tuesday: buy french bread for stuffing; buy turkey brining bag; make brine and cool overnight
Wed: brine turkey over night; make mashed potatoes
Thur: Make stuffing; Make brussel sprouts side dish; make dinner rolls; cook turkey; make gravy; make cranberry cider (in crockpot!); heat cranberry sauce; heat mashed potatoes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you notice....

That family relationships get more and more complicated and weird as we grow older?

sick

My Terran has been sick since Thursday. He had a high fever for about 2 days. It came down but he's not his normal self. He's coughing, needy, and grumpy. My poor baby. Is it swine flu? Who knows. The doc won't say because he doesn't know either. I just want him to get better so that I can feel safe again.

My birthday came and went. It was actually nice. Pat was busy entertaining his parents who are in town for 10 days, and also trying to get them to interact more with our kids. So I took off for a few hours to do a little this and that. Pat also said "hey, can you pick up a cake and some flowers for me?" I had no problems picking up my own gifts so I did that.

Now, Terran is still not all that well. I just want him to get better....

black bear black bear what do you see?

Black bear black bear what do you see?
I see chubby (and delicious) children looking at me.

Brown bear brown bear what do you see? was Sisi 's favorite book a few weeks ago. Now the book has become our reality. This morning, I received an email stating the following:

Lawrenceville Safety Alert
Black Bear Sighting
November 12, 2009

Please be aware that there was a black bear sighting at Lawrenceville site last evening, November 11. Use extra caution when walking the grounds. Do not feed or approach wildllife that may be present on site.

Security has added additional monitoring of the site. If you should see a bear, please report by calling ext. 3333 or use an on-site call box.

Thank you,
WCNJ Facilities Operations

This is at the site where my husband goes to work and kids go to school everyday. Seeing wildlife in our area is nothing new. Deers roam around, racoons, rabbits, turtles, birds, that type of wildlife. But a black bear is definitely something new. The daycare is well fenced off. But the infants and the pre-school children look like a gorgeous holiday meal from a bears perspective. Should I be worried???

Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken

I've been nostalgic recently. I wonder if that means I'm getting old - or maybe just pregnant. Usually, I am nostalgic about food. I think about food a lot these days.

So the other day, I suddenly remembered having dinners with Pat at Versailles Cuban Restaurant on Venice in LA. We'd walk there from our apartment and it was always well worth the trip. Pat told me that when he did the LA marathon, he went there by himself after the race and ate the entire plate. The portion is huge so I usually only ate about a half of it. But always so good.

Versailles on Venice is 2,748 miles from our little home in Lawrenceville. It would take us 1 day and 18 hours to get there by car. Add in the LA traffic, it will take at least 5 days. That's a bit far so I decided to make it myself.

SO here's what's cooking:
Versailles Famous Garlic Chicken
black beans
fried plantains
rice

I didn't take a lot of photos while I was cooking but here's what I made:

THE chicken: I get a little squeamish playing with a whole chicken so Pat helped me a lot on this part. This is the chicken before I stuck it in the oven. Behind the chicken is my new and awesome 6.5 qt crockpot. It's programmable - very techie! The black beans are already starting to cook in there. Next to the chicken are some plantains. I was going to make this the weekend before when the plantains looked just right. But I put if off another week and the plantains basically turned black. I actually think I cooked it at the best time. The blacker the better.


The plantains - oh so sweet


The plantains - oh so fragrant


The complete meal with Chicken, black beans, plantains, and rice. When I took a bite of the chicken, I screamed and started to cry. It's been so long since I had Versailles's Chicken and can't remember how it was exactly. But the chicken that I put in my mouth just flooded me with memories. I immediately screamed for Pat to come and take a bite. He was waaaay impressed!



Versailles Chicken recipe: adapted from kookoonoodle.com

1 Whole Roasting Chicken
1 Bulb Garlic finely chopped
1 TBSP Sea Salt
Juice of 5-6 Limes
1 tsp Chili Powder
3 Onions, chopped
1 Cup Chicken Broth

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Wash and pat dry the chicken. If you are squeamish like me, get someone else to do the job. Pat loves playing with raw whole chicken. Place chicken in roasting pan. Get someone like Pat to loosen the skin under the breasts and legs of the chicken. Combine the chopped garlic with the salt to make a paste. Spread most of the garlic salt mixture under the skin of the breasts and legs, then rub the remaining garlic salt all over the top of the bird. Sprinkle some chili powder all over chicken.

Cover the entire chicken with the sliced onions.

Pour the lime juice over the chicken and onions.

Sprinkle some more chili powder over the onions. (I didn't have chili powder so I sprinkled paprika - it's the same color....)

Roast in the oven for 20-minutes per pound or until done. Every 30 minutes, rotate the pan and baste with 1/4 cup or so of chicken stock. I also scooped up the lime juice from the bottom of pan and poured over chicken ever 30 minutes. It will come out super moist and delicious with lots of lime flavor.

plantains:
heat up plenty of canola oil in pan.
Cut plantains and fry them up until done.

black beans in crocpot:
OK. I am giving up my dream of becoming a food blogger. Writing recipe is tedious and boring. Check out this website for black bean recipe in crockpot. I never follow the recipes exactly due to lack of ingredients in my fridge and pantry. Just close enough is OK.

Rice:
I guess the rice that the Cubans eat is different from the rice that the Japanese eat. But we hardly ever have any other types of rice, other than Nishiki - medium grain rice. In my opinion, it's really the best you can easily get that's grown in the USA. So we ate this cuban meal with Japanese American rice. It was perfect.

Overall:
The flavors came together perfectly. When I tasted the black beans out of crockpot, I thought it lacked flavor. But eating it with the limey garlicky chicken and the oh so sweet plantains, the black beans were really just perfect. And of course, the rice ties everything together. This meal was truly exciting to make and to devour. Being able to make this gives us one less reason to go back to LA. I'm really starting to love Lawrenceville - now that I can have this chicken here in my home!

someone stole my car??!?!?

I did get my H1N1 shot yesterday (pregnancy priority) and I'm still glad that I did it. I updated my facebook status about it and got a comment 2 minutes later from a facebook friend that I had not seen since the last millennium - basically saying that I had made a mistake in getting the vaccine and that swine flu is overrated. OK, whatever, asshole. I didn't want to deal with this kind of comments - especially from a single male with no kids to take care of and no fetus in his non-uterus.
I guess by posting anything on facebook, I am putting myself out there for all kinds of opinion. Though I should appreciate differences in thought, I just can't deal with it right now; it's too personal and I don't need criticism about motherhood. So I deleted my status and felt much better. *Don't you think about leaving any comments on this blog post!

Tonight was another night. I knew that Pat was going to be home late from a conference so it was no big deal that I finished dinner with the kids and was ready to give them bath. Then I got a pathetic sounding phone call from my husband, Dr. Chow.
Dr. Chow: I need your help.
the wife: what?
Dr. Chow: I parked my car off site in Plainsboro and now I can't find it.
the wife: So why don't you walk around and look for it?
Dr. Chow: I've been walking around for the last hour.
the wife: .... (utterly speechless)
Dr. Chow: Either I'm looking in the wrong place or my car has been stolen!
the wife: WHO is going to steal your beat up old Subaru with strollers and carseats! So what do you want me to do? Pick you up?
Dr. Chow: yes....
the wife: OK.

So I loaded the kids in my car, gave them lollipops and zoomed across townships to where my poor (and stupid) husband waited. Sisi was quiet, obviously tired but enjoyed sucking and crunching on her orange pop and Terran had a blast on this unexpected adventure. After awhile, I started to think it's funny, so I told Terran to ask dada what he did with his car as soon as we saw him.

We found my poor (and stupid) husband in a dark corner of an unknown deserted street. He was frustrated but I told him that we are going to drive around to look for the car tonight. It would be easier now since there were almost no cars. When I entered, I saw that it was a gigantic parking area (almost like an airport economy parking lot) but each lot was clearly labeled lot 1, lot 2 etc.

the wife: so which lot did you park in?
Dr. Chow: .... I thought lot 6 but it's not there. I walked around a few times.
the wife: ....
the wife: OK, we will start from the end.

I drove to the dark corner labeled lot 20. Pat had not been there. It was pitch black and spooky. I was glad that he had called me instead of walking and searching alone in this darkness on foot. There was one unfamiliar car. So we worked our way down to lot 19, 18, 17 and found a familiar looking green wagon in lot 16. It took 3 minutes.

the wife: that looks familiar.
Dr. Chow: how was I suppose to know!
the wife: because you left it there!!!!

Pat was exhausted, frustrated, and clearly ashamed of his dumbness.
I almost felt sorry for him, but no, not really. I, too, was exhausted from the long day at work, extra pregnancy weight, and now this, but it was funny. And I can definitely use this against him when needed.

Swine flu vaccine for pregnant women

I thought long and hard about this one. I don't do that often for much of anything so you can see that this is important.

CDC and my OB both recommend pregnant women to get themselves vaccinated. Of course, they are not the pregnant ones. This is a medical recommendation and not a personal one for them. For us, the knocked up ones, it's very personal.

There's so much controversies against it on the web. There are no good results when I google "pregnant women deliver baby after getting H1N1 vaccine", or something like that. There is also no history to this vaccine. Basically, it says that it's similar to the regular flu vaccine. So that's the fear, the fear of the unknown. No one wants a defective baby caused by a medical intervention.

Then, there is the other fear of swine flu becoming more real and imminent. We've known people who had a suspected case of swine flu - and we work with them. We don't know for sure since they don't test for swine anymore. The doctor doesn't even let you come into the office. They diagnose you over the phone and give you prescription without seeing you. Apparently, the suspected swine had spread to family members....

So here's the thing. I can't imagine that my family would die from it. That's not what I think about. But if any of my kids get sick - whether it's actually from swine, or maybe just somthing else, and if I am not vaccinated, I would not be able to take care of them or hold them to make them feel better - because I'm pregnant. And the thought of that is bigger than any fear.

So that's why I'm going to get the shot in 53 minutes - so that I could be a mom. Hopefully, this means that I am not being an abusive mom to my fetus.

I love the weekends

Saturday was too cold to do much. The low was actually in the 20's. Burrrrr! Since we stayed home most of the day and I had a little time, I made Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup in the crockpot. It's a yummy Taiwanese staple. There's a great place that serves it in Philly Chinatown and I love it there but I'm glad I can somewhat replicate it. It turned out better than expected and it was pretty simple, just like all other dishes that I make in my crockpot. I will post recipes and photos later.

Sunday, morning started out with Sisi and I running to Terhune Orchard to pick up some breakfast. I neglected going shopping on Saturday so we basically had no fruits, no eggs, no bread, and only a tiny bit of milk. Terhune Orchard is just 5 minutes from our house. It has a red barn and Si calls it Old McDonald's and starts singing the song whenever we pass by it. They have sheeps, horses, goats, ducks, rabbits, dogs, apples, and various pick your own fruits and flowers depending on the season. The also have wonderful apple donuts, and apple cider. They also make pies, and sells a cup of small world coffee for a buck. Small world coffee is from Princeton, our neighboring township, and their coffee is really good.
So this morning, we got apples, apple cider, apple donuts, brioche, and some crackers and coffee and rushed home to feed the hungry boys. We were all happy.

After that, we decided to paint Terran's room. Terran was sick last week and stayed home with me one day. But he wasn't that sick so we ventured out to home depot to pick up this and that. And he decided that he also wanted to pick up paint for his room. The color is called luscious mango. The kids and Pat painted happily for the most part. I was the project manager - I sat back and told everyone what to do. I'm good at that.

I changed them into Terran's old clothes. They all started with their own little area of the wall.


Then they moved over covering more territory.


Si insisted on taping her race bib onto her shirt with painter's tape. It kept getting in her way or falling off but she didn't want to be without it.


Si decided that she wants to stand on my chair from the kitchen. I love that chair and hoped it comes out of this without much damage. Terran decided to crawl under it.


Terran wanted to be on the chair, too so they fought a bit but decided to share. It was going well until Terran reached over her head and started painting above her. Then Si cried and said that he got paint in her eye. I freaked out, took Si to wash her eye, and put Terran in time out. That was the end of painting for the kids. After that, Pat finished off the work happily, without distraction....

it's november already

I've been busy, tired, and lazy so I haven't blogged in awhile. But it's already autumn, most of the leaves on the tree in front of our house is gone, and kids and my fetus are growing fast. Both Terran and Si and so curious about my pregnancy and the baby inside me. Recently, Terran has been particularly concerned about how the baby is going to come out from mama's tummy. Here's our conversation on the way home from school - it's not totally PG. I don't really know how to answer his questions or how much information he needs at this point....

Terran: When is the baby coming out from your tummy?
mama: January.
Terran: How is he going to come out.
mama: Same way that you did. I have to go to the hospital and push him out from my tummy.
Terran: But where is he going to come out from?
mama: hmmmm..... hmmmm.... Well, I have a little hole in my body where the baby can come out from when he's ready.
Terran: Where's the hole?
mama: hmmmm.... near my butt.
Terran: Oh.

And he was quiet for about 5 minutes. I didn't really think much about our conversation since Sisi started talking to me. Then as we approached home....

Terran: When is the baby coming out from your butt hole?

I just couldn't stop crying and laughing.