Bath Salts

I made some bath salts with epson salt, sea salt, baking soda, food coloring, glycerin, and lavender oil I got from Provence.

It was kinda moist, I'll do better next time.

Law My Guy

I made glutinous rice chicken. 

I soaked the last of my lotus leaves in water.

Salted eggs, dried scallop, and shitake mushrooms with Chinese sausage.

Glutinous rice on the bottom and the filling on top, then more rice spread on top.

Wrapped tightly in the lotus leaf and tied with the lotus leaf stem.

All done.

Huey, Duey and Louie

Three fresh ducks for Mama Day dinner.

I broke them down to pieces including a large bowl of fat. We were going to make duck confit with the legs and thighs, make soup from the carcass and bbq the breasts. The miscellaneous parts (beak, tongue, and feet) were braised in low s-ouh (old water).

We salted and rubbed some herbs of Provence onto the legs and left it overnight in the fridge to sweat.

 We rendered the fat in the oven for more than 4 hours.

So much duck fat.

 Emmmm, cracklings.

The next day, the salt and herbs were washed off the legs and cooked in it's own duck fat for 4 hours. You don't need so much duck fat as we used to confit it because you'll end up with more from the leg and thigh skin.

Duck broth. We later added vegetables to the pot.

 Roasted French green beans and tomatoes.

Potatoes fried in yup yup, duck fat.

Duck breast bbq'd to a nice pink.

 After the legs were done in the oven, they were browned on an iron skillet for a nice crisp skin.

I love duck. Duck is gooood.

Ahhh! Ghost

Vegetable Garden

We spent last Sunday making a raised vegetable bed at Louie's parent's place. It was a lot of work.

We went to several nurseries and got an assortment of vegetables, Cali-flower, butter lettuce, bell peppers, jalapeños, kale, zucchinis, tomatoes, cucumber, sweet basil.

We didn't have enough room in the bed, so we planted at other spots in the yard.

They also grow a lot of their own Chinese vegetables.

Funny Carrot or Funny Carrots?

These carrots or this carrot came to me from a Costco bag of organic carrots. Another photo to add to my deformed produce pictures. I titled this piece..."Funny Carrot or Funny Carrots?"

Here are some more photos from my collection vault...

Boobsimmon (young)

Lemon Head

Lemon Teapot

Boobsimmon (old)

Kefir

Last year, I started to make kefir for the pro-biotic/culture benefits. It's like yogurt, but it's suppose to be healthier. It's also more expensive, so that's why I wanted to make it myself. It's way easier than making yogurt.
My first batches smelled very yeasty and it took a while to subside and "balance" out.
I put my kefir grains in milk and the next day it turns into kefir.

Strain and let it soak in milk again. I do this everyday.

My kefir grains grow pretty fast, so if anybody wants to try this out let me know.

Pork Gyoza

I like Gyoza, one of my favorite dumplings. I made the filling with pork, cabbage and an assortment of spices and sauces. No MSG please.

I used leftover wonton wrappers that I had frozen previously. They were the square kind, so I cut them into circles with my circle shaped cutter.

Next time more salt in the filling, but it was okay anyways because we dipped it in sauce which has a lot of salt anyways. MMmmmmmm, sodium.

Chocolate Cake

I made chocolate cake.

With marsh mellow frosting.

The type of chocolate you use is very important. Get the good stuff.

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Jamon Serrano

We got this Spanish cured ham from the mail. It's fun to get stuff in the mail, except for bills and junk mail.

It was cut up into quarters and vacuum packed. Save for later.

We sliced one of the quarters up and it was goooood.

Very addicting, kinda like chips. You keep eating it and eating it.

Piroshkis

I like Piroshkis. I used this recipe, but cooked the onions first before adding the beef and I added cheddar cheese. I love cheese.

 Dough.

 Dough and filing.

Fried and baked.

 I made the dough too thick. I'll do better next time. Still good, still good.

Soap

I made my first batch of soap a while ago. I used coconut oil, rice bran oil, olive oil, and some almond oil.

I used the stick blender and made the mistake of mixing too much to reach trace, so it was pretty thick.

The next day it firmed up.

I cut it out into blocks and shaped some to look like Mcdonald's chicken nuggets. One of my favorite shapes.

I want my next batch to be made out of animal fat. Won't be for a while though since I have so much soap to go through.