feeding frenzy

London is cold and dreary so we do our part in giving back to the nature - old stale bread?
the swan like it, the duck like it and it certainly sent the seagull into frenzy!

Christmas in London

instead of turkey we have roast chicken, potatoes and brussels sprout!
Christmas Crackers added a lot more fun too.
Merry Christmas every one!

back to London

it was great to be back to London! My sister in-law is a good cook, and we certainly enjoyed the home cook meal after the long flight with only an hour of sleep.
Needless to say we were well fed and well care for, and it was one of the most relaxing holiday ever! Thank you Sal.

Christmas drop-in

The Lambs hosted the Christmas drop-in
last night. I boiled a pot of Senate bean soup, and made the cream puff - with the Italian cookies (Anginetti); not bad for the first attempt.
Beside foods there were fruit tarts and Christmas cookies, look so festive and yummy! As usual, we had a wonderful fellowship around the table...wish you were here.

confession

There were many lapses (of skipped breakfasts and hurried lunches) since December and there's no excuse at all...
Anyway, I have to mention that my oldest one grilled the salmon (with lemon pepper seasoning) for dinner last night. He also grilled the turkey patties for the burger too, I must say he is well trained by his Dad.
I roasted a big chicken for lunch and dinner, and probably enough for the next meal or two!
Breakfast was coffee w/rice puffs - you heard it right, that were the kind of breakfast I had when I was growing up; coffee with soda crackers or left over rice. There were no fresh milk in our diet as few of us were lactose intolerant back then, and my boys too. Thankfully they are okay with the 2% milk even though the little one and me still can not have more than half a cup!

The lolly song

If the earth was chocolate with strawberry sea
with gingerbread houses and lolly pop trees
I go for a ride in my bubble gum car, on the licorice road both near and far -
Oh wouldn't it be great I wouldn't have a care
If there was nothing but candy every where!
Oh wouldn't it be fun and wouldn't it be jolly if all the world was a big round lolly!
Oh wouldn't it be fun I wouldn't have a care if there was nothing but candy everywhere!

If ice cream cloud rain lemon drop shower on berry frost trees and peppermint flowers
I eat up my lawn and garden for tea
what a beautiful dinner that would be
Oh wouldn't it be fun I wouldn't have a care if all the world was a big round lolly!
Oh wouldn't it be fun and wouldn't it be jolly if there was nothing but candy everywhere!


The above children song came to mind when we were making the gingerbread houses this morning.
we had hours of fun and needless to say with tummies filled of candies and icing!
and this is my very first gingerbread house too!

homemade jams

I finished off the last two slices of waffles with homemade peach jam. Ever since we moved here my better half had learned to made jams/jellies and he is really good at it - blue berry (my favorite), plum(yummy), mint apple jelly, strawberry & pineapple (very good) and our boys' favorite peach jam! He also tried mulberry, persimmon and the latest, muscadine - growing abundantly right by the backyard.
Lunch was rice porridge topped with dried raddish omelet, and dinner was my boys' all time favorite - quiche.

what a day!

i already had three or four cups of coffee today - for i had a restless night, may be only sleep for 2-3 hours. my better half fixed the lunch before going to school...he's sweet that way.
i haven't had fried rice for a long time and it was very tasty. Peter dropped in to fixed the car and had dinner with us.
Mr B had dinner with us every Wednesday too.
we always have extra plates on the table for anyone who drop in last minute. they all enjoyed the Spaghetti dinner.
my dinner?
i open a can of chicken noodle soup to go with the leftover spaghetti and some "tau you bak" - pork braised w/dark soy sauce.

there you have it

I made a trip to the Asian grocery store and picked up the rice flour noodles, the Chinese mustard green and napa cabbage so to prepare my boys' favorite noodles dish: fried rice flour noodles in creamy egg sauce - "wah tan hor" in Cantonese.
I'm glad they like Asian food even though
we've been in the States for quite a while; in fact my little one spent almost two third of his life time here!
Their like pizza, burgers and fries along with chips and soda just like the average kids here.
But whenever I prepared the Chinese or Asian food, one or two of them will followed the smell to the kitchen and said: "Mom, that's my favorite food!"
And that just made my day.

oh dear, oh dear!

"Aww...Mom, you know i like this stuff!" My boys whined when they saw the pictures i took of what i had for lunch today.
It was Thai stir-fry rice noodles - Pad Thai. i did not sprinkled with ground peanuts as i had mild reaction to peanuts in the recent years. (which is sad because i love peanuts and all other sort of nuts and especially pistashio and cashew; worst still i had stronger reaction to these two!)

my better half cooked a big pot of spaghetti sauce with special ingredients - we came home from Ohio with a few packages of ground deer meat; Uncle Ricky hunted a few deer in October.
It's good, did not taste like deer meat at all.

(we miss you Stephen, get well soon)

Sunday Dinner

Last night was our once a month
sunday dinner with two other families.
We had Indonesian Salad (gado-gado)and Chicken Satay, and peanut sauce to go with it.
A little more work to grill the chicken on the stick (satay) but it was yummy, and a very healthy salad....maybe not the prawn crackers but that was the best part: crunch, crunch!


Mrs. Lamb brought the cake with blue berries topping and whipped cream.
So when the little ones running up and down the hall way after dinner I blamed it on the dessert. The little ones were having so much fun and the house was filled with their carefree giggles and tiny pattering steps, it was precious.

breakfast for dinner

i remember the first time we had breakfast for dinner, that was when we first arrived in the States and it was our second week. Our second grader needed to interview his grandparents for his school project. We had to look for "grandparents" as his grandparents were ten thousands miles away. Through a friend we contacted an elderly couple from church who happened to live just down the road.
To cut the long story short, after the interview we were invited for dinner - our first ever "Breakfast for Dinner". This loving couple eventually became our boys' American grandparents and we spent a lot of time together. They were gracious and loving toward us and made our first few years here in the States a wonderful experience. They are very precious to us. I was thinking about them while making the waffles, and i baked some more cookies today.

(lunch was Bojangles' $1.99 deal - 2 piece chicken and dirty rice, yum - but you can only find Bojangles' in the South.)