FINALLY RESOLVED! Having Problem with AT&T Uverse Connection to Internet

 4-21-2012   Finally received a new modem from U-Verse.     I am glad to have insisted on getting a new replacement shipped.      I know I did not have any problem before this new service and with other modem and that it is this defective modem that is causing online connection outages for the last two months.       So far, the connection is steady and continuous.    So don't get talked into a inside home tech support if the previous box before installing the new service worked.   They may have shipped you a defective box.      I know this has nothing to do with the food, but because of this I have not been able to get online, etc.

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I want to apologize for not responding to some of you via e-mail or through this food blog site's reply.     Ever since I changed to AT&T Uverse Internet Service back in early March.  I have had bad luck of being cut off or have connection for only 10 min in a day or way past midnight or when no-one in the neighbors are using their internet.   I am pretty upset about their service.     It's a some kind of joke that I am finally able to log on today at home because I am on vacation with my grand children.     But I am already seeing the degradation on the connection just because I am online. 
I will try to resolve this issue and post back on response as soon as I can consistently.
Thank you all for the kind notes and dropping by.
Polly

One Pan Banana and Zucchini Bread

When I am energetic in the morning, I love to wake up and head right down to my kitchen and start making my lunch or breakfast.   This morning, I decided to make banana bread.     Start right at 5:15 am and finished at 6:30 am.     Here is a regular quick bread recipe that usually yield one loaf, but I made it into a banana bread and a zucchini bread.      Just when you are ready to pan the mixture in.     Separate half of the batter into a separate bowl and mix each bowl with shredded zucchini and the other with finger mushed banana (chunky)     Zucchini is peeled, but leave some green peel here and there and be sure to squeeze the liquid out (to remove bitterness and too much moisture).       Bake them in a square pan lined with parchment paper.    I sliced them up and took some to work to share with the co-workers.     But, soooorry.    They tasted so good, I almost ate them all by myself at my desk.    

 

Ingredients:

1-3/4 C AP Flour

1-1/2 heaping tsp  Baking Powder

1 Stick Butter, Soft - room temp

2/3 C Sugar

3/4 tsp salt

2  Eggs

1/2 C Sugar

1 C Zucchini - shredded & liquid squeezed out

1-1/2 Banana - in good shape - no over riped - separated into chunks with fingers

1 tsp Ceylon grounded Cinnamon

1/8 tsp grounded cloves

1 tsp Orange zest

Procedures:         Preheat oven to 375'F

Shift flour, salt, Ceylon cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder together.     Set aside.

Beat 1 stick soft butter till fluffy and pale with 2/3 C sugar.     Set aside.

Beat 2 eggs till pale with 1/2 C sugar.

Add egg mixture into butter and add orange zest.   Mix.

Add flour mixture and mix gently and thoroughly.    Separate into equal 2 portions.

Mix one portion  with banana.    Mix the other portion with squeezed zucchini.

Line 8x8 brownie pan with parchment paper.      Option:  Muffin cups or 2 loaf pans

Add both mixture side-by-side into the pan and bake till tester come out clean.

Tip:  Control one bowl mixing technique, my method of beating butter and eggs, separately, till fluffy and pale, then, mixing them together always result in a fine crumb cake for any of my basic cake baking.

Enjoy!     

Hello! Mom

Here is my mom with her spring garden.

 

Rustic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have my own special cake recipe that yields 'fine crumbs', but I thought I will give a try with this recipe from one of my favorite Alton Brown's cooking books.     The crumb turned out coarser than mine; it is moist and the taste of carrots and spices were appreciated joyfully. 
I used several different size spring form cake pan with parchment paper, so I can share some with my families.

 Cream cheese frosting.

 I had to put raisins in my carrot cake.     It goes so well with carrots.

Moorish Chicken and Pine Nuts Pie

This is my first Moorish Chicken and Pine Nuts Pie.     I am quite pleased with the tasty results of mixing raisins, spices, and pine nuts with shredded roasted chicken breasts enveloped in home made puff pastry.     The recipe calls for raw chicken pieces.     I roasted the organic whole chicken with whole Dijon mustard stuffed between the breast and skin + salt & pepper.    Then finger shredded chicken breast.    I vacuum packaged the rest and freeze them for other use.

Home made Pizza dough with Ground Turkey Pizza Sauce

Once you learned a good pizza dough recipe, it's almost unthinkable to eat the pizza out.... but naaa...  sometimes, it is just so enjoyable to have them made by someone...
This pizza crust recipe here is from the Mozza book.    I just love it.     Just like Jamie Oliver's Hamburger and Hot Dog buns recipe, you come to trust it and do it over and over with confidence.     The sauce is half scratch half ready made jar of Ragu's Mushroom Spaghetti sauce.      One night my sister decided to treat me to spaghetti.     She made so much that I was able to add other ingredients - fresh romano tomatoes, more spices, Parmesan cheese, etc, and made into pizza sauce / topping and sloppy Joe with it.

Japanese HOKKAIDO Loaf Bread with Raisins

I tried to make the same soft bread, but I am afraid I have let it proof 30 minutes too much.    So, it is non-conclusive that if the Gold Medal's unbleached flour produces the bread texture of fine crumb with long strands like the breads sold at most of the Asian grocery stores.

 One dough made into three different breads - Bread with Raisins, White Bread, and Hamburger buns.

 Ground Turkey Sloppy Joe.      Actually, it was a ground turkey spaghetti sauce that my sister made.      We had so much of it, that I made it into Sloppy Joe and pizza sauce.

Stir Fried Spicy Bell Pepper with Beef and Candied Orange & Beef with Broccoli

I love it!   I found a few good use of candied orange peels I made a few months ago while making my "Calisson de Polly".    I love the food adventure and learn about the spices the different cultures use.   They really bring out the interesting dimensions to the flavor and make the ordinary dish 'new', I think.    Of course, I wanted to make the dish that my mother makes, but I don't have her 50 years old wok (an excuse.)     Flank steaks were cut into strips and marinated in 'potato starch' (not corn starch)  with less sodium soy sauce, pinch of sugar, and a bit of water.
Stir fry the beef first in oil.  Set aside.   In the same wok or saute pan, stir fry bell peppers.  Add Oyster sauce and candied orange peel.   Return beef.   Add chili peppers and Salt and Pepper to taste.  

 Broccoli is blanched first, then stir fried.  Return beef back and stir fried.  

Crispy Sockeye Salmon over Jasmine Rice and Baby Japanese Potatoes

This is a dish that I concocted from all the ingredients I find in my refrigerator.   
Jasmine rice is cooked in a saute pan with finely chopped onions, chopped red bell peppers, pilaf style.  Japanese baby sweet potato fingerling about 3 inches were washed and microwaved at "potato" setting.   Peeled chopped and added to the rice to be stir fried.    At the end, add a few fresh crushed basil leaves from your kitchen's fresh herb garden (if you have some).  Cover and set aside.   Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon fillet is covered with Japanese bread crumbs - Panko mixed with some spices - Hungarian paprika, salt and pepper, chili flakes and placed breaded side down in a saute pan with olive oil - cook for approx 2 min or until the crumbs show sign of browning/crispness.    Then, turn the fillet over to finish cooking until done.
 

Chinese Peach Blossoms

The peach tree blossomed right on time with Chinese Lunar New Year to welcome the spring.    "TSWEN DAO  LE"   - spring is here.    They are so accurate.    But really.... February was freezing cold.     Maybe it was just me because of the terrible 'cold' I had.

By the end of March, after the heavy rain, all the beautiful petals covered the ground and now it has clothed itself with green leaves.

Chinese Herb Medicine

January and February haunted me with a terrible cold.    My body got so weak that the normal over the counter medicines only lasted two weeks to resolve the first attack.    It returned with revenge after the 3rd day.   This went on and on and on for two months.     I would not have made it through my classes.     I finally resorted to the ancient Chinese Herb Medicine.    My family knows about me and the herb medicine.    Just a whif of it before the bowl of medicine hits my lips, my stomach would turn upside down.    I think the last time I had taken the herb medicine was when I was in South Viet-Nam forty years ago.    But I know my body is just totally out of wack from all the antibiotics and what not I took over the last few years, and now I am allergic to almost all the antibiotics.    So, just for the record, here is how my herb medicine looks like.     They were slowly simmered in 4 cups of water in this special electric automatic clay pot for about 2 to 3 hours until it is reduced to one cup.    Effectiveness?  On the first day, I coughed for 3 hours.... it seems to be detoxicating me inside out.   Then, the second day, I was calm.  On the third day, my temple warmed up -- ahhh! finally, I don't have that cold spot on top of my head.    On the 4th day, I was getting a bit energetic.  On the fifth day, feeling better.     Then, .... I am much much better.    These herbs are specifically prescribed for my symptoms by the doctor.

I am not trying to sell you the medicine.   I just want to share the reason why I could not post the blogs as often.   Sitting and typing is my weakness after 8 hours of work with mainframe computing.

April Weather

Whew!  Lovely April weather.    March ended with high notes of spring rain falls.   My vege garden seedlings have sprouted with beautiful YOGA palms stretching out of their brown bed coverings.   They welcomed the warm sun today, and they looked very happy.   Of course, there are cold weather loving plants that sprouted a week ago that greeted the down pouring rain - KABOCHA and Kuri squash.  Then followed by some GMO free Tomato seeds sprouting their tiny leaflets in the egg shell planter bed that I made for them.  They are all enclosed in the recycled plastic Strawberry cartons, just perfect to keep them sheltered.    There are couple of  other veges in my garden that have been just enjoying the spring rain - rhubarbs and leeks.   I think I will harvest ... and make Rhubarb .... hmmm... something...  It's kind of natural to say "Pie", but can it be something else?   Actually I did come across Rhubarb something when I was visiting some other foodies' blogs.    My replanted red Beet stem tops are doing well.    They look like they will be growing / rebirthing beets again by summer.    The "rebirthed" Leeks did a great job from growing Leek from its own roots that I cut off and replanted in my garden.  

 I cut the leek right above the root to let it grow again.    I think it will grow again(?)
So, what happened in March as far as cooking?  Quite a few tasty adventure.    So, let me post a few Photo journals of my food adventure.   If you would like to have the recipes, please let me know.   Sometimes, while I am editing my photos, I have typed the information on the photos, so if you click on the images to enlarge it, you should see some notations.     I know most of you have different experiences with cooking, and I hope you can tell what ingredients are needed and prepared from the photos.   If not, please drop me a note.    I am more than happy to send you the recipe or direct you to the foodies who posted them.  

Liebster Blog Award

Hey! I am so happy that I got awarded with the Liebster Blog.  Thank you, Resh!

In the process, I came to know few other foodies with great blog sites with great recipe ideas.  I think this will be another "eating for health" year for me.

Now, I would like to nominate the following admirable foodie bloggers.    I hope you will visit them.     I must say this first that I am not familiar with this 'award' spreading activity.  I think this is a great idea to know other foodies, and learn about each culture's way of food preparation and life at the same time.  And I hope I have typed this information correctly here.     The following bloggers have wonderful recipes, photos, and if you enjoy International cooking like I do, you will appreciate these bloggers' efforts.
They are :
1. Nobleva from http://nobleva.blogspot.com/
2. Becca from http://colehillkitchen.blogspot.com/
3. Miss C (April) from http://tete-a-tete4food.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html
4. Quizzine from http://bakingoncloud9.blogspot.com/2012/03/macaron-ing.html
5. Binitha from http://yourstastefully.blogspot.com/

If you accept the award:

• Copy and paste the award on your blog. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
• Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
• Hope that the five bloggers chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more bloggers.