OooOoo! OoOoreOoo!

My daughter’s birthday is right before Halloween, and she will be celebrating it at her school. That means bringing some kind of treat to share with the kids. She didn’t get to help me make Oreo poké balls a couple of weeks ago, and she keeps asking to make some with me. So I decided to make Halloween Oreos with her for her birthday. I hit up Michaels and Target for cake decorations, candy, and more candy melts. I was a little late in the Halloween shopping game, so pickings were slim. However, good thing is everything at Michaels was 60% off. I also happened to have a big box of Oreos from Costco because they were on sale last month. Woot!

I got black, white, and orange candy melts. I heated them up using low power and in 30 second intervals. If you want the entire melting experience, check out my Oreo poké ball post. Since I was covering the entire cookie this time, I dunked the whole thing into my bowl of melted candy. I used a spoon and a fork to get it all covered, and shook off the excess before putting it on wax paper to dry.

My daughter had a lot of fun decorating the cookies. Her cookies turned out to be more Halloween Candy Oreos than Halloween Oreos.

I got to decorate some too.

Poutine In My Mouth, She Said Poutine In Her Mouth

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I am so pleased with myself. Today, I made something absolutely amazing.

My friend recently visited Toronto, and seeing his food pictures reminded me of when I went to Toronto a few years ago for a race. There was a poutine food truck at the venue, and I had at least one order of poutine each day. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, poutine is a heaping pile of french fries with gravy and cheese curds. Unfortunately, poutine is rarely found on menus around these parts. And even if I did find poutine, a plate of fried potatoes is a big no-no for a low(er) carb diet.

I really wanted poutine. Being a genius at making shit up in the kitchen, I thought about the stuffed kabocha squash I tried a few weeks ago. It had a sweet flavor and starchy texture that reminded me of a sweet potato. I decided to deep fry a kabocha and make kabocha poutine. It was a win. My husband doesn’t even like squash or gravy, and he shoveled a big plateful of poutine into his face. Now, if you are expecting this to taste exactly like the traditional poutine using french fries…well, HELLO?! It’s a squash poutine. It will not taste like potato. But it will taste amazingly good, and satisfy that deep hungry craving for crispy fries drowned in gravy and cheese curds. Oh, and bacon. Of course I added bacon. You can also try a whole myriad of meats and seafood with your poutine such as sausage, duck, lobster, shrimp, a combination of it all…

First up is the gravy. Sure, you can buy a jar of pre-made gravy….but, come on. You know me. I found a beef gravy recipe of Emeril’s that I adapted for my poutine. I first made a roux out of bacon fat, butter, and flour. You heat up the fats on medium heat, then add the flour and keep stirring. Cook and stir for a few minutes until it turns into a nice golden brown/dark brown color.

Once the roux was ready, I added some shallots, garlic, dried parsley and dried thyme. I stirred that for a minute or so until it became really fragrant. Then I added a little Worchestershire sauce and cooked for another minute or so.

I added store bought beef stock, let it boil, then lowered the heat. I let it simmer for about 20 minutes until it reduced and thickened. I gave it a stir every now and then. Give it a taste to see if you want any additional salt and pepper. I thought it was fine without, but up to you.

My rich and savory gravy is ready for dousing!

Here is my cute little green pumpkin looking kabocha squash. I gave it a good scrub because the skin is edible, and a pain in the ass to peel off, so obviously, just leave it on.

I sliced the squash into 1/4 inch pieces. Be careful, for the squash is a bit hard to cut. With my crappy knife skills, I am amazed I did not slice a finger up.

I dusted the squash pieces with a light coating of corn starch. Just a very light dusting.

I wanted a squash fry that is crispy outside and fluffy inside. I’ve double fried chicken before, so I wanted to try double frying my squash. I didn’t find too much on deep frying kabocha squash, other than as tempura, which would have been awesome too, but…low carb and tempura batter… I looked up double fried french fries, and there were many tutorials.

I poured enough corn oil to fill the bottom inch or so of my French oven. It was a little less than a quart of oil. I don’t have a candy thermometer to read the temperature of the oil, but I do have meat thermometers. It probably wasn’t very accurate, but it was better than nothing. So I heated the oil to about 300°F and put a layer of squash in. Don’t overcrowd the pot, or your squash will not fry properly. I let the squash cook for about 4-5 minutes, and flipped the squash halfway. Then I fished them out and let them drain on a wire cooling rack. Notice how the squash are not really golden brown and crisp looking yet. The first fry is just to cook and soften them up.

After I finished giving all my squash the first fry treatment. I cranked the heat up so the oil was between 350°F and 400°F. Then all the squash got their second fry on for that golden brown and delicious crunchy coat. Once you fish the pieces out, hit them with a liberal sprinkling of salt while the oil is still glistening and hot. I used sea salt.

You should have seen the damage done to this plate of poutine the second I finished plating it and taking pictures. This is kabocha poutine. Crispy and fluffy kabocha fries, coated with a rich beef gravy, with a generous sprinkling of thick cut bacon, cheese curds, and green onion.

Kabocha Poutine
Ingredients
– kabocha fries
– beef gravy
– cheese curds
– thick cut bacon pieces
– green onion

Beef Gravy
Ingredients
– 2 tbs butter
– 2 tbs bacon fat
– 4 tbs flour
– 1-2 tbs finely minced shallot
– 1-1.5 tbs finely minced garlic
– 1 tsp dried parsley
– 1/2 tsp dried thyme
– 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
– 3 cups beef stock
– salt and pepper to taste

Directions
– Melt the bacon fat and butter on medium heat. Add the flour and stir continuously for a few minutes until the roux turns into a golden dark brown.
– Add the shallots, garlic, dried parsley, and dried thyme. Cook for a minute until fragrant. Add the Worcestershire sauce and cook for another minute.
– Add the beef stock and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the gravy reduces and thickens. Add salt and pepper if you want.

Kabocha Fries
Ingredients
– 1 kabocha squash
– 3 tbs corn starch
– 1 quart of corn oil or other oil suitable for deep frying
– salt

Directions
– Scrub and de-seed the kabocha. Slice the squash into 1/4 inch slices.
– Lightly coat the squash with corn starch and brush off the excess.
– Heat the oil in a heavy pot to 300°F. Fry the squash for 4-5 minutes and flip them half way. Fry in batches if necessary. Let the squash drain on a wire rack.
– Once the first fry is done, turn the heat up so the oil is between 350°F-400°F. Fry the squash for 2-3 minutes and flip them half way. Let the squash drain on a wire rack.

To Assemble
Sprinkle bacon pieces and cheese curds on top of a pile of kabocha fries. Pour gravy over everything. Top with green onion, and more cheese curds and bacon.

Number Won!

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These are the two kinds of wontons I made for my mom’s birthday wonton soup that went so well with my tonkotsu style broth.

I promise these wontons are way better than the ones you find in the freezer section. Unless your taste buds are just screwed up, and you’re the kind of person who prefers Cup O Noodles over real ramen, or Pop Tarts over fresh pie. I can’t promise that these will taste as good as your grandma’s wontons, but they are pretty damn tasty.

As I mentioned already, I went a little overboard with the amount of food I made. If you use my measurements, then I hope you are having a wonton making party, or you’ll be folding wontons by yourself for half the day. Wontons are really easy to freeze, I’ll get to that later.

First up are my vegetable and shrimp wontons. I’m not much of a vegetarian, but I must say, I did a great job with this vegetable filling. I liked this filling as much as the pork and shrimp filling.

I have here a small head of Taiwanese cabbage. I forgot to take a picture, but they are NOT Napas. They look a little like the green cabbages found at regular grocery stores, but they are flatter. I like these better because they are more tender and sweeter than the green cabbage. Anways, I also have rainbow carrots, green onion, garlic, ginger, and the mushroom from the broth.

I first stir fried the garlic and ginger in oil for a couple of minutes until I could smell them. Then I added the mushroom and green onion. I poured in the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and a little sugar. Gave that a stir and let it cook for a minute, Then I added the cabbage and carrots, and let it cook until the cabbage and carrots softened. Taste the vegetables to make sure they are seasoned to your liking. Note that the brined shrimp are also salty, so take that into consideration.

Since I was using shrimp for both kinds of wontons, I got a 2 lb bag of frozen shrimp. When I was doing wonton research, I read about a good shrimp tip from Serious Eats. So, you know how shrimp can become mushy and mealy textured when cooked? J. Kenji López-Alt recommended soaking the raw shrimp in a baking soda brine. The baking soda and salt keeps the shrimp plump, juicy, and crisp. I let my shrimp sit overnight in the mixture, and I was amazed at how good the shrimp tasted. Apparently just 15 minutes will work, but he said you can let it sit overnight, which is what I did. My shrimp did turn out pretty salty even after getting rinsed off. It may be because I added too much salt to the brine, and or it could have been from the longer brine time. I’ll have to experiment more. So after rinsing the shrimp off, I cut them into thirds.

Update: I just looked up other pages about using an alkaline brine for shrimp. Looks like a lot of people recommend using 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp baking soda per pound of shrimp. Let the shrimp sit in the mixture for 15 minutes to 1 hour. So basically I screwed up the mixture and amount of brine time. I mean, even though the shrimp was salty, it worked out since I made the meat less salty. BUT, now I know. I’ll edit the brine recipe below.

For the pork filling, I got 5 lbs of ground pork, green onion, garlic, ginger, and mixed it with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and a little sugar. I put on a glove and mashed it all together with my hand. You can do a taste test by microwaving a little blob for 10 seconds or until cooked. Since my shrimp were pretty salty, I made my pork mixture less salty. The meat mixture by itself was a little bland, however, once a piece of brined shrimp was included, that bite of meat was transformed. If you are omitting my salty shrimp, then be sure to do taste tests to make sure the meat is seasoned well.

Assembly time! I had help from my sister, cousin, and two friends to wrap these little packets of juicy joy. I’m very grateful for their help because we ended up going through 5 packs of wonton wrappers, and made 380 wontons. It took a long time, especially since we were all newbs at wrapping (except for my sister, who taught us how to wrap). She took care of making 3 trays of wontons by herself.

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to make wontons. There are different ways to fold them, but this is what my aunt taught my sister, who in turn passed it on to us yesterday. Start with a wrapper. By the way, the thinner the wrapper, the better.

Put about a teaspoon or so of filling and a piece of shrimp in the middle. More meat sounds great, but in this case, moderation is key in preventing the over-stuffed exploding Chipotle burrito syndrome.

Dip your finger in water and wet the top and bottom of the wrapper. The water acts as a glue for the wrapper. Be sure to “glue” any openings on the wonton, because if you leave holes, then there will be little meat explosions when you boil them.

Fold one third of the wrapper over the pile of filling.

Fold the other third of the wrapper over the first fold to make a roll. Smear more water to seal the ends of the wrapper.

Fold one end of the roll down.

Fold the other end of the roll down and pinch the two ends together with some water so they are stuck together. See those openings at the ends? Those need to be sealed with water. Now you have a cute little triangular hat looking shape. For the vegetable filling, you do the same thing except use a spoonful of vegetables with a piece of shrimp.

This here is our first completed tray. It helps to sprinkle some flour or spray the baking sheet with cooking spray so the wontons don’t stick and tear. You can see some stylistic differences in the way these wontons were folded.

If you want to freeze them, just stick the whole tray into the freezer. Once the wontons are frozen, put them into a freezer safe bag or container. When you want to cook them, DO NOT thaw them out. Just cook them directly from their frozen state. If you thaw them out first, they will become a gooey, gummy, mess.

We had a handful of leftover wrappers, so that called for Nutella. Put a blob of Nutella in the middle, fold the wrapper into a triangle, and spray a little cooking spray on the triangles. Bake at 350ºF for a few minutes until the wrappers crisp and puff up.

When it was time to cook the wontons, I had to cook them in several batches, since we had so much. I put the wontons into boiling water, covered the pot for a few minutes until the water boiled again. Then I used a strainer to fish them out.

Homemade wonton soup

Brined Shrimp
Ingredients
– 2 lbs of shrimp
– 2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions
– Mix everything together and let it sit in the refrigerator for 15-60 minutes. Rinse the shrimp off. Cut the shrimp into smaller pieces if they are too big to fit into a wonton wrapper whole.

Vegetable and Shrimp Wontons
Ingredients
– 9 cups of Taiwanese cabbage (1 small head)
– 2 cups of carrots (about 4 carrots)
– 1 cup green onion
– 1/2 cup mushroom (4 large dried mushrooms)
– 1 tbs ginger
– 1 tbs garlic
– 2-3 tbs soy sauce
– 2 tbs sesame oil
– 2 tbs rice wine
– 1 tbs sugar
– Approximately 1/3 lb of brined shrimp
– 2-3 packs of wonton wrappers, will vary depending on how much you stuff your wrappers

Directions
– Shred and dice the cabbage, dice the carrots, green onions, and mushrooms. FInely mince the garlic and ginger.
– Cook the ginger and garlic in oil until fragrant. Add the mushroom and green onion. Cook for a couple of minutes. Stir in the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and sugar. Add the carrots and cabbage and cook until they soften.
– Let the mixture cool before wrapping the wontons. When you make the wontons, put a teaspoon of the vegetables along with a piece of shrimp on the wonton wrapper. Follow the illustrated instructions above to fold the wontons.

Pork and Shrimp Wontons
Ingredients
– 5 lbs of ground pork
– 2 cups green onion
– 3-4 tbs ginger
– 2-3 tbs garlic
– 4-6 tbs soy sauce
– 4-6 tbs sesame oil
– 2-4 tbs rice wine
– 1-2 tbs sugar
– Approximately 2/3 lb of brined shrimp
– 2-3 packs of wonton wrappers, will vary depending on how much you stuff your wrappers

Please adjust the seasoning to suit your taste buds and also depending on how salty your shrimp turned out. Taste test your filling by microwaving a small blob for about 10 seconds or until cooked. Don’t blame me if your filling tastes too bland or too salty.

Directions
– Slice up the green onion, and finely mince the garlic and ginger. Mix them with the meat and seasonings. Hands are the easiest tool for mixing the meat. Use gloves if you want.
– When you make the wontons, place a teaspoon of meat and a piece of shrimp on the wrapper. Follow the illustrated instructions above to fold the wontons.

Souped Up Wontons, Tonkotsu Style

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This is the tonkotsu style broth that went with the wontons I made for my mom’s birthday wonton soup.

Disclaimer: I am not much of a delicate and subtle flavors kind of cook. I like bold flavors that pop. Salt is a good friend of mine. This is my tonkotsu style broth. It is thick, creamy, and coats your mouth with its umami richness. If you are looking for a light and clear broth for your wonton soup…this is not it. Go elsewhere.

This is more or less how I make my broth when I want homemade tonkotsu ramen. When I make broth for ramen, I use my 12 qt stock pot, and let it simmer for at least 6-8 hours so that it becomes even creamier and thicker. This time, for my wonton broth, I used a smaller 8 qt pot and simmered for only 4 hours.

I started with 2 lbs of pigs feet and 2 lbs of smoked turkey wings. Don’t look down on the humble foot, for it serves as the foundation for this rich soup.

This step is optional, but I first blanched the turkey and pork. I covered the bones with cold water and let it come to a boil Once the water boiled, I dumped the water into the sink, and washed the bones. This gets rid of a lot of coagulated blood, bits of bone, and other impurities from the broth. This is done to make a visually appealing clear soup without bits floating around. I always skip this step and just skim off impurities, but for my momma’s birthday, I will blanch the damn bones.

That bubbly film is the scummy stuff that came out of the bones

If you are using the same pot to make the broth, you should wash it out first. There’s a lot of scum stuck to the bottom.

Here are my quickly boiled meaty bones. You can see a lot of dark bits stuck on them.

This is like a toothbrush commercial. Look at my tooth-looking pig’s foot all grimy and gross.

Bling! Look how shiny and white my tooth-looking pig’s foot is after a good brushing! I used my finger to scrub the bits off under a little water.

After I cleaned off the bones, I patted them dry. I wanted my broth to have as much flavor as possible, so I got my good ol’ French oven out, heated up some bacon fat on high heat, and browned the pigs feet and turkey wings.

While the bones were browning, I got my aromatics ready. I first soaked 4 large dried mushrooms in a bowl of hot water to soften them. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are. Asian food packaging can be quite mysterious. After about 15-20 minutes, I squeezed the mushrooms dry. Keep that mushroom water! That will go into the broth later. Just discard the very bottom where bits of dirt and whatnot has sunk.

I have a bunch of green onions, a shallot, a head of garlic, 4 mushrooms, 2 bay leaves, and about 4 inches of ginger.

With the help of more bacon fat, I browned the aromatics too. Just let it keep browning until everything has a nice char. Sure, you can skip browning the bones and veggies, and the broth will still taste good. But the browning will help it taste GREAT.

After everything got warm and toasty, they are now ready for the long soak. Dump the bones back into the pot and fill it up with water. Sometimes I also add in a carton or a few cans of chicken stock, but I only had water this time. Do pour in the bowl of mushroom water, sans the bits of dirt. Leave the pot uncovered, and once it boils, turn the heat to low. Leave it alone for about 3-4 hours. Well, don’t ignore it. Check on it every now and then to make sure everyone is doing alright. Also, taste it. If it tastes too watery and bland, let it simmer some more. Add some salt and pepper if you so desire.

Here is the broth after everyone left the pool party. By the way, don’t toss the turkey and pigs feet into the trash. Strip the meat off and save it. You can add the meat into the soup, eat it as is, whatever you do, don’t waste it. Save the mushroom too, they will go into the wonton filling. The garlic and most of the green onion and shallots melted into the soup. I tossed the ginger into the compost. I suppose I could have used the ginger in the filling, but at that point, I had already minced up another ginger root. After the broth cooled down, I put it in the fridge.

Here is my bowl of meat jello. You can keep that layer of fat if you want an extra rich and fatty broth, or you can scrape it off. When you are ready to assemble your bowl of wonton soup, just heat this big lump of jello until it turns into liquid again. Add some sesame oil, chili oil, garlic chili paste, XO sauce, etc, to give your broth an even bigger extra flavor boost.

Tonkotsu Style Broth
Ingredients
– 2 lbs pigs feet, cut up
– 2 lbs smoked turkey wing
– bacon fat
– 4 dried mushrooms
– 1 bunch of green onions
– 1 shallot
– 1 head of garlic
– 4 inch knob of ginger
– 2 bay leaves

Directions
– Cover the pigs feet and turkey wing in cold water and bring to a boil. Once the water boils, pour the water out. Rinse and scrub off the impurities on the bones. Pat dry, then brown the meaty bones with bacon fat on high heat.
– Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for 15-20 minutes, until they are soft. Save the water, but squeeze the mushrooms dry.
– Chop the green onion into large chunks. Slice the ginger root (no need to peel) into thin slices. Peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole. Peel and cut the shallot in half. Leave the mushroom whole.
– Brown the aromatics in bacon fat until they get a nice char.
– Add the meat bones, mushroom water, and water to the pot. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat low. Let it simmer uncovered for 3-4 hours or until very flavorful. Season the broth to your taste.

Wonton Souperstar

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Yesterday, I had my family over to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Normally when they come over, I cook western food, because that is what I normally cook. My mom was totally expecting to eat steak or some other grilled meat. I wanted to surprise her with Chinese food because one, I very rarely cook Chinese food, and two, she loves Chinese food over all other foods.

When I was little, wontons and dumplings played a huge role in my food memories. My mom would make pot stickers, and shove all sorts of vegetables in them, and in turn, shove all sorts of vegetables into my sister and I. We often visited my aunt, who liked to make us pork and shrimp wontons. (I liked my aunt’s wontons a lot better, shhh). I decided as an ode to my aunt and mom, I would make pork and shrimp wontons, and vegetable and shrimp wontons in a homemade broth.

There are numerous types of dumplings. But my simple breakdown is that dumplings are made out of thicker skin, and they can be boiled, steamed, and when pan fried, they become guo tie, or pot stickers. Wontons are made out of thinner skins, and generally served in a soup or deep fried.

I first made a much anticipated trip to the Asian grocery store. I normally go to a Korean store, but this time, I decided to go to a Chinese store. I now know not to go there on Friday mornings. It usually gets pretty crowded in that area, so I went in the morning to avoid the crowds and traffic. When I arrived, I was surprised to see a long line of huge vans in front of the shopping center. Apparently, the Chinese senior centers in the area take their participants to that store for grocery shopping. Don’t get me wrong, I was actually very pleased to see that. I used to work at an adult day center, and for many of the folks, the few hours they spend at their day centers are the only times they get to socialize and get out of their homes. But my dreams of leisurely spending my morning browsing and discovering were pretty much destroyed the moment I saw those vans.

Man, those old folks were rough! Mind you, this is a large grocery store, and it was just packed with old folks. Just getting a shopping cart and entering the store was an obstacle. Once I managed to get into the store, it was this ridiculously funny yet frustrating scene of bumper carts. Those folks were causing serious traffic jams by driving too slow, driving on both sides of the aisles, parking in the middle of aisles to chat, cutting each other off, and crashing into things. I got my shit as fast as I could, and got the hell out of there.

Back to the subject, the dinner was on Sunday. I made my broth on Friday, wonton fillings on Saturday, and made the wontons on Sunday.

Important note. I sort of forgot that dinner was only for 6 people. I prepared enough food for…maybe 16 people. What I am about to share with you is perfect for a wonton making party. Or if you are going into hibernation mode, you can stock up on frozen wontons for the cold hard days when all you need is a bowl of steaming wonton soup.

I will break this down into 2 parts. First, I will show you how I make my tonkotsu style broth. Then, I will show you how to make the two kinds of wontons.

I Choose…ALL Of Yoummnomnom

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I wanted to venture into making something Pokémon related that did not involve felt. And I wanted to be able to eat it. I’ve seen many photos and videos of edible poké balls, so I decided to try my hand at making Oreo poké balls.

I figured that it would be an easy project. Just dip the cookies in candy melts, put some edible decorations on them. Voilà!

However, things are not always as easy as they seem. I looked up how to use candy melts, just in case. Turns out, it is a little more complicated then just melting them down into colorful goo. From the many forums and FAQs and how to’s, it looks like a huge problem is just getting those blasted little discs to melt properly. Which seems rather odd since the whole point of them is that they are easy to melt, and easy to use. But, those little unhealthy circles were indeed finicky little POS’s. Thanks to the many sites I read, I think I did ok for my first time.

I wanted to make regular poké balls and great balls. I got a pack of Oreos, a bag of white, red, and blue candy melts, Crisco, red fruit roll ups, and white candy pearls.

Note: Roughly half a bag of white candy was enough for the entire packet of Oreos. A little more than 1/3 of the bag of red candy was enough for 2 rows of cookies. Roughly 1/4 of the bag of blue candy was enough for 1 row of cookies.

I could have melted the candy using a double boiler, but I didn’t feel like messing with hot steam, and potentially seizing the candy. Warning: If any water or any water based liquid touches the melted candy, it will seize, aka, turn into a lumpy mess.

I decided to go the microwave route. This is a rather tedious process because you can’t just use brute force and use your microwave’s full power to blast the candy into submission.

I poured red melts into a bowl. I microwaved it in 30 second intervals. I started at power level 5. After each 30 second session, I would stir the candy. I lost count of how long it took, but the red candy took maybe 4-5 minutes. As the candy melted more, I turned the power level down to 4, and then down to 3. Apparently the melting time and process can vary depending on the brand of candy melts, the color of candy melts, the microwave, the temperature of the candy, etc.

After the candy melted, I added a spoonful of Crisco. This is supposed to thin out the candy and make it easier to use. So between microwaving, stirring, and mixing in Crisco, I finally got it to a good consistency. Here’s a tip I read: use a long and narrow receptacle for the melted candy for easier dipping. I only had regular bowls, so as I neared the end of the candy, it became more difficult for the cookies to get enough coverage from the remaining shallow puddle of red.

I dipped almost half of the cookie into the red candy. I shook off the excess, then set it on wax paper on a baking sheet.

I was impatient, so I stuck the tray in the fridge for a few minutes, so they would dry even faster. They dried pretty quickly, I left the tray in for 20-30 minutes, and they were good.

I melted the white candy melts, and dipped the other side of the cookie. I had a latex glove on so the heat from my fingers would not melt the red part. Plus, it’s a good thing because that red color stained. Then I used a chopstick to dab a bit of candy in the middle. That worked as glue for my pearls.

For my great balls, I got red fruit roll up for the red stripes on the ball. However, I was all health conscious (I don’t know why, since I was pouring Crisco, sugar, and artificial colors all over cookies with unknown creamy filling). I picked up a box of organic fruit strips, and they looked bright red on the box. BUT…they were more old bloody scab colored… Next time, I will stick with the old fashioned, artificially colored Fruit by the Foot. So anyways, I cut the fruit strips into tiny silo shapes.

I melted down the blue candy, but I was not happy with the color. I’ll have to look around for a more suitable shade of blue candy. Even after adding white candy to lighten the color, they were still a much darker blue than I wanted. If I was making Cookie Monster, this would be a great blue to use. Oooh, idea for next time! I stuck the fruit strip pieces on the blue while they were still wet.

My not so great, great balls. They do taste great though.

Poké balls

To store, I layered them in a container. I separated the layers with the wax paper I used for drying.

I Feel Pretty and Witty and Bright!

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A few weeks ago, I made Halloween flower hair clips for my daughter. They are very cute, but this barrette is for you ladies who prefer something more elegant for that Halloween (or any) party.

Elsa’s braid needed some extra sparkle that her snow flakes just could not provide. Now she is ready to shine at the party. The barrette looks a bit big on her, but she is only 3 feet tall, so her head is on the smaller side. Yes, there is a 3 foot tall Elsa living in my home.

I have here a 2.25″ barrette, black satin ribbon, a gemstone ribbon that looks a little like a chain, beading string, beads, glue gun, and scissors.

I don’t know why barrettes have those 2 holes on the ends, but they were perfect for a couple of strands of beads. First I looped a beading string through one of the holes, and used pliers to attach a crimp bead. Oops, I forgot pliers and crimp beads in my supplies photo. Well, a crimp bead isn’t really necessary, but I have a bunch, so I used it.

I picked my bling for my double stranded…I guess you can call it a hair chain. I secured the end of the chain with another crimp bead. Then I tied the string to the other hole on the barrette.

I glued a strip of black satin ribbon to the barrette.

I glued a strip of the gemstone ribbon to the black ribbon.

I cut eight 1″ pieces of black ribbon, eight 1.5″ pieces of black ribbon, and eight 2″ pieces of black ribbon. I dabbed a tiny bit of Fray Check on the ends of the ribbon.

I sewed the ribbons into a loopy flower. Oops, I forgot the needle, thread, and Fray Check in my supplies photo too. I need to stop slacking. Anyways, unlike the flower I made for my daughter, this flower has 3 layers, and it is a single color.

I finished the flower and glued a gem to the center. Then I glued the flower to the barrette.

A beautiful accessory to add a touch of sparkle to your braid, bun, chignon, ok I suck at hair, those are the only hairstyle names I can think of right now. Basically, YOUR HAIR WILL LOOK PRETTY.

Ooh Aah, Squash It To Me

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I was again suckered by the pretty display of squash at Wegmans. Here is my delicata squash and acorn squash. These little guys are about 1 lb each, and of course baby vegetables are so much cuter than adult vegetables. I’m going to take such good care of you cutie pies!!

I am still in my squash stuffing craze, and I wanted to make a lighter filling this time. I first gave the squash a good scrub because their skins are thin and edible. I cut them in half, scooped out the seeds, and seasoned them with an onion and garlic spice mix. Put them flesh side down on a pan into the 400ºF oven. These two squash are small, so it only took about 30 minutes to roast. The smell of the pungent, savory spices and the sweet, nutty squash was really good.

While the squash roasted, I got the filling ready. Here are a little over 2 dozen medium shrimp. I happened to have frozen raw shrimp, but obviously precooked shrimp will cut down on prep and cooking time. I dropped the shrimp into boiling water for a little over a minute, and pulled them out once they turned pink.

I put them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Tough and rubbery shrimp are no good.

Here are the chopped up shrimp, 8 oz of lump crab meat, and about 8 oz of diced up ham. I wanted to use bacon, but I already had ham that needed to be eaten. If you want only seafood, try cooked scallops and fish with the crab and shrimp.

I mixed the seafood and ham with mayo and a blend of 4 cheeses. I seasoned with more of the onion garlic spice mix, and added salt, pepper, dried onion, garlic powder, dried dill, dried parsley. I didn’t measure the amount of spices and herbs, but start with a little, and add more if needed.

Here are the squash ready for stuffing.

I filled the squash up with a nice big heaping pile of the filling, and then topped them with more cheese. Put it back into the 400°F oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese melted.

I had some extra filling left, so I put it in a little ramekin, topped with cheese, and put it in the oven with the squash.

Ready for my mouth!

Seafood Stuffed Squash
Ingredients
– 1 small acorn squash (around 1 lb)
– 1 small delicata squash (around 1 lb)
– 8 oz ham
– 8 oz lump crab meat
– around 2 dozen medium shrimp (raw or cooked)
– 1/2 cup mayo
– 1 cup shredded cheese
– more cheese for topping
– seasoning (I used an onion garlic spice mix, along with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried onion, dried dill, and dried parsley)

Directions
– Scrub, halve, and deseed the squash. Drizzle with oil, season and put flesh side down on a pan. Roast at 400°F for about 30 minutes or until the flesh is easily pierced by a fork.
– If the shrimp is raw, cook it in boiling water for about a minute until it turns pink. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking process. Chop the shrimp up.
– Chop up the ham.
– Mix the shrimp, crab meat, ham, mayo, cheese, and seasoning.
– When the squash is done roasting, fill them up with the mixture and top with more cheese. Put them back into the oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese melts.

I Am A Meat Popsicle

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I’ve been experimenting more with pork belly ever since Costco started carrying it. It’s not a cut you normally find at groceries, and I’m too lazy to drive to the Asian stores. I was quite giddy with excitement when I found large packs of the belly o’ the pig at Costco. My husband was giddy too since he gets to eat the results of the experiments, and usually they turn out good.

I wanted to make kabobs, so I got a pack a few weeks ago, but I didn’t have time to cook it. So, I decided to test how well pork belly freezes after marinating. They freeze well by the way.

I got a gallon sized freezer bag and put it in a bowl. I made the marinade directly in the bag. I dumped in finely minced garlic, ginger, gochujang, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and honey. I squished the bag to mix the sauce up. Gochujang is a recent addition to my pantry, and I have been trying it out in my meat dishes. Gochujang is a Korean red chili pepper paste. I got the medium heat paste, since we can’t handle anything too spicy.

Here is my 4 lb tray of sliced pork belly. I used my kitchen shears to cut the pork into 1.5″ chunks.

I dropped the meat nuggets into the bag and squished everything together. I let the bag sit in the fridge overnight, so the flavors can penetrate the meat. Then I stuck the bag in the freezer for a few weeks. When I was ready to cook them, I defrosted the bag in the fridge.

Before I started threading the skewers, I soaked the sticks in water. I’ve always read to soak the sticks for at least 20 minutes to prevent catching on fire. I don’t know how likely dry sticks catch on fire. I only soaked these for about 10 minutes, and they were fine. Shrug.

I got a bag of mini bell peppers, also from Costco. I cut up 2 onions into large skewerable chunks. I didn’t season the vegetables because they were going to get saucy from my hands, and I like their natural sweetness when grilled.

Here are the babies ready for the grill.

Almost ready…

Nom nom nom, meeeeat. Compost the sticks after you finish eating!

Pork Belly Kabobs
Ingredients
– 4 lb tray of sliced pork belly
– 2 tbsp gochujang
– 2 tbsp honey
– 2 tbsp rice wine
– 2 tbsp soy sauce
– 2 tbsp sesame oil
– half head of garlic
– 1.5 inch knob of ginger
– 2 onions
– Costco sized bag of mini bell peppers
-skewers

Directions
– Finely mince the garlic and ginger. Mix it with the other condiments to make a marinade.
– Cut the pork belly into 1.5 inch pieces. Let the pork sit in the marinade overnight.
– Cut the onion into large pieces, leave the mini bell peppers whole.
– Soak the skewers if you don’t want to risk a flaming stick of meat. If you don’t soak them, let me know if they really catch on fire!
– Thread the meat and vegetables onto the skewers.
– Cook them on medium low heat on the grill for about 10 minutes, turning them once. Cook them until the pork fat gets crispy and charred.

Ah, Squash It, Squash It Real Good

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I’ve pretty much faceplanted onto the bandwagon full of fall squash. Get ready for squash experiments galore!

I was browsing at Wegmans, and saw a pretty assortment of fall squash. I impulsively plopped a kabocha squash in my cart. I’ve never tasted kabocha before, but it looked like a cute green pumpkin, and I just had to get it.

I was excited to try kabocha, so I started cutting it before I really thought things through. I had plans to stuff the squash, so in hind sight, I should have just cut the top off and hollowed out the middle, as if I were carving a jack-o-lantern. In my haste, I cut it into quarters. It still worked out, but leaving it whole would have allowed for more meaty filling, and a nicer presentation.

So anyways, I quartered the squash, scooped out the seeds, and hit it with some oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

I turned the squash flesh side down, and popped the tray in a 400°F oven for about 40 minutes until the flesh was easily pierced by a fork. By the way, that nice green skin is edible, and softens after cooking. Be sure to scrub it well so you can get that extra fiber in you.

While the squash roasted, I got the filling ready. I had a tray of Italian sausage, and I used kitchen shears to cut off the sausage casings.

I browned the sausage on medium heat.

I added a chopped up onion, several garlic cloves, about 4 oz of tomato basil feta crumbles, and chopped up the leftover roasted tomatoes I saved from my spaghetti squash dish from a few days ago. If you don’t have roast tomatoes, you can chop up some fresh tomato or use canned tomato. I did not add salt since the sausage, feta, and tomatoes were already seasoned.

I filled the squash quarters with the sausage mixture. Then I topped them with a slice of provolone cheese.

I popped it back into the 400°F oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese melted and browned. YEAH, easy to make, hearty fall meal. The kabocha reminded me of sweet potato. It had that same slightly sweet taste and starchy texture. Mmm, I bet it would taste really good roasted or deep fried into crispy golden wedges. Idea for next time!

Stuffed Kabocha Squash
Ingredients
– 1 kabocha squash
– 6 Italian sausages
– 1 onion
– 6 cloves of garlic
– leftover roasted tomato (or use 4-5 medium fresh tomatoes, or a can of tomatoes, drained)
– about 4 oz of tomato basil feta crumbles
– slices of provolone cheese
– salt
-pepper
– garlic powder

Directions
– Wash, cut, and de-seed the squash. Cut it in quarters, or leave it whole, up to you.
– Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Roast at 400°F for 30-40 minutes, or until the flesh is easily pierced by a fork.
– Chop the onion, garlic, and tomatoes.
– Cut the sausage casings off and brown the sausage meat.
– Add the onion and garlic to the sausage. After the onion becomes translucent, add the tomatoes. Note: the longer you cook the tomatoes, the more soupy the mixture will get. Mix the feta in after you take the mixture off the heat.
– Fill the squash with the meat mixture, top with the provolone cheese. Put the squash back into the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese melts and browns.

Sew Sweet and Salty

OooOoo! OoOoreOoo!

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