Stir Fried Home Grown Celery

This is a simple dish made from my home grown free volunteer celery bunch in my garden.  I planted a bottom part of the store bought celery many years ago.  I never cropped it because it always grow this skinny sticks with flowers. It keeps on growing flowers and I let it die and so forth.  This year's weather seems to please every plants and there they are - celery.  Skinny as they are, there are many.  I scissor some off and stir fried its stalks.   Tasted not bad.  Rough leafy parts went back to the yard as a compost.  I actually don't have a compost, but I just toss them into the garden.  It seems to work out like that in my yard.  My compost bin in the past is a horrifying rat trap, so I don't do that any more.

I removed most of the top most leaves as they felt pretty tough.  Wash thoroughly and soak them in water for about half an hour in salt water.  Because I do not use any chemical spray in my garden, to make sure any micro critters are popped and gone I soak and wash all vegetables in salt water.  

Stir fry with small cloves of garlic in 2 TBsp of organic avocado oil.

Add 1/4 Cup of water, pinch of salt.  Cover and cook for 2 min or so.  Done.

Stir Fried Scallops and Shrimps with Carrots and Peas

Devein shrimps and wash in salted water.  Wash thoroughly and remove tails.  Slice two large scallops in to desired sizes.  Maybe into 8 pieces each.

Have a bottom of organic Ketchup, Tonkatsu Sauce (Japanese thick vege worchestershire sauce) and Chili pepper flakes or Cayenne pepper ready.

2 cloves of garlic crushed with knife's surface, peeled and slightly chopped.

1/2 TBsp of sliced or chopped peeled ginger - your preferences for sliced - you don't eat, just for flavoring or chopped in to eat with shrimps.

Medium High Heat.  Heat Stainless Steel saute pan well.  Hold your palm above the surface and feel the heat.  Then, add 2 Tablespoons of organic avocado oil.  Spread the oil all around the pan.  Wait till the oil shimmers.

Add Garlic and Gingers.  Stir about 4 times.

Add Shrimps and Scallop pieces.

Swirl in Tonkatsu sauce - a circle and a half.

Squeeze in Ketchup 3 circles from outer to inner.

Stir.  Add chili pepper flakes or a shake of cayenne pepper.

Stir.  Add a cup of peas with carrots (frozen package, defrosted)

Stir fry till all cooked.  Shrimps are white and orangish and Scallops are all white.  Serve.

Polly's CASTELLA Cake - Finally

This was baked back in January 31.  It was the fourth recipe I tried and turned out pretty good. 

It's always fun to beat up a great meringue.

Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well into meringue.

Sprinkle flour in  a small portion at a time and mix well.

Repeat.

Pour into greased parchment paper.  Pour it in slowly to release large air pockets.

Tap the mold a couple of times to release trapped air bubbles on countertop lined with towel.  The desired result is a cake with fine crumb resembling pound cake.   Notice the ingredients (at the bottom) that there is no addition of "fat" in preparation.

Bake in two cake pans.  Outer cake pan is slightly bigger than the inner and holds the Aluminum walls.

Revert the slightly cooled cake onto a reversed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Slice the sides off to expose the tender crumbs.  The cut offs are your reward before the crowd.

Slice and serve.  Looks like there were still some more trapped air bubbles.  Better job the next time.

Ingredients in my recipe are as follows:

85 g egg whites

60 g sugar

60 g egg yolks

Add 20 g honey

Then,

60 g Flour - I use Natural White Premium AP Flour, Unbleached, Unbromated by WheatMontana

                    Can be purchased at Walmart.

20 g Milk - Add milk last - perhaps better to use Whole Milk, slowly add milk by drizzling it in at the top and whisk the milk at the top layer of the batter.

Using spatula, scrape sides and fold gently. Tap the mixing bowl a few times on the countertop to release more air.  Allow to rest for few seconds and tap the bowl on the countertop again.

Panning Brownie Pan

Form walls with Aluminum foil around the cake mold.

    Aluminum cardboard cake mold - I never quite understood the function of the cardboard, other than that back in the old days when the Portuguese arrived in Japan, there are no baking molds and oven and that the solution was to improvise the cake mold out of cardboard? or it creates gentler heat to bake against the batter and creates tender crumbs?  If you want to make the aluminum wrapped cardboard walls, create 4 sides with cardboard measuring 23 x 15 cm and about 5 mm thick.

*6/10/2020 - I am not sure how reliable the information is, but I found out that cardboard molds pass the heat slowly and helps retain moisture during baking - definitely a good reason to try the method rather than adding vege oil, etc.

I need to do some more research or actually test it out (again - I did it once and the cake did not turn out).

    I did not use lined cardboard for this baking.  I lined my brownie pan with buttered unbleached organic parchment paper.  Wrapped the brownie pan with aluminum wall.

    Noticed the ingredients that there is no "fat", except for the maybe using Whole Milk or milk with higher fat content.   The recipe resembles basic sponge cake.  I wonder Heavy Cream would work?  or Low Fat Milk and add 60 g vege oil

Preheat Oven to 160'C.

Pour batter into lined brownie pan very slowly to allow air bubble to release before hitting the cake mold.  It is supposed to prevent large air holes to form during the baking to give a finer look like a pound cake. 

Tap pan down on the countertop a couple of times to release trapped air.

Bake 35 min. - Bake in bottom of oven till beautifully browned and make light crepe paper sound when slightly pressed at the top.

Remove from the oven.

Remove cardboard and outer pan.

Holding the cake mold, drop it on a double towel covered counter top or if you have a foam pad, from 30 cm high a couple of times.  This will cause the cake to sunk down slightly at the same time forming wrinkle. 

Invert the pan onto a lined sheet pan.

This will cause the cake to smoothen the top - 30 sec. 

Re-invert the cake back onto another lined sheet pan.

Let it cool completely.

Serve.

Store any left over in an air tight container.

Polly's GE Refrigerator Repair Adventure - Picture Journal

Not sure if I fixed it, but it's been running smoothly and quietly ever since.

A Refrigerator is an essential.  Very difficult to do without in current life style.  It keeps us safe by keeping the food fresh untill we cook them  ... and keep germs and bacteria and fungus under control.

I have a side-by-side door GE refrigerator that is 19 years old!! I noticed a few years back, the refrigerator's ice water dispenser would freeze.  I had to leave the door open.  Cover the freezer side with double YOGA mats and aluminum foils to keep food frozen.  After a couple of hours, the ice water dispenses again.  To fix this problem, I cut a piece of YOGA mat off and taped it inside against the water reservoir on the door.  That worked for year, then, repeat. 

Then, I noticed the light bulb on the top has gone out.  I didn't think about it and took out the light bulb and left the socket open without replacing the light bulb.  A couple of years later, the refrigerator's motherboard died.  I did not even know there is a computer motherboard on this refrigerator.  So the Tech was called to replace it.  That was about $350 parts and labor.  This GE refrigerator designer placed the ice-maker's water line in the same line as the motherboard.  Eventually when the ice-maker's waterline's putty or whatever it is started to deteriorate, it was dripping water or the condensation was dripping down to the motherboard.   I replaced the motherboard so I can have a refrigerator to use. 

(This time, I duct taped right above the motherboard cover to prevent water from dripping in - I hope.)

Then a couple years passed.  This time, there is no cold air to the refrigerator.  I came home one late evening from the office, and found the cooler side was about 67 degree in a danger zone.  I was in full panic.  I close and open the door a few times, and noticed the sound of the motor kick in once or twice, then, stops.  Luckily I have a backup refrigerator in the garage.  I had some time to do the research.  I found out that there is an air exchange box located at the top end of this model.  It is controlled by the switch located at the door.  The switch also controls the light.  It switches the light on when you open the door and shutdown the air exchange fan.  When you close the door, it turns off the light and turns on the air exchange fan and blow the cold air to reset the refrigerator's temp.   

I read briefly something about light bulb and light switch are responsible in triggering this air flow.  I decided to tape up the the light switch to OFF position while I decide to buy a new refrigerator or not.   I managed to get the refrigerator going by putting in a new light bulb also, but only to meet its dying wish, every two weeks or so.  After some more research on the YouTube this time.  Thank goodness that I am a good digital student, I decided to buy some parts and try the fix myself, "again."  After all, it is less expensive than spending a few thousand dollar during this COVID-19 stay home.   I also found a YouTuber's solution to fixing the ice-maker's water dispenser tube dilemma.  I find many complaining about the new replacement part - OEM or not, manufactured with a shorter water tube than the ones the old GE model refrigerator came with.  This water Tube is critical in delivering the water into the ice tray. 

This will be my second try to replace the ice-maker's water dispensing line.   After getting all the parts - light switch, light socket, thermostat, ice-maker water dispenser line from https://www.partselect.com.  it time to get to work. 

My first 2 to 3 hours was just doing the cleaning of the coils and fan.  Extensive dust were collected behind and under the coil.  I cleaned it once back in December, and it was dusty again.  This time, I used the DustOff Spray to push out as much dust off at the same time have the vacuum hose right next to it.

I could remove the unit and clean it, but I was not hoping at all to do that to cause unintended damage.

Removing the light switch and light socket was very simple - and I even found a physical diagram of actual locations and parts of the refrigerator hiding inside the light switch box.

So, here is my picture journal.
Making extension to the water dispenser tube to the ice-maker tray with a cut off of a small size Turkey baste tube was a great idea.  The original aluminum tube was a gonner.  I cannot find the similar parts anywhere - unless you buy a whole new ice-maker, I suppose, but my ice-maker works fine.

Measure and cut the turkey baste tube length accurately.  The tech that repaired my motherboard, took the original out, and I did not know there were few other internal parts right in the interior plate covering the hole where the ice maker's water tube goes in.  The original tube when I first found it was already dropped off and just laying inside the ice tray.  I had no idea what part connected to what.  This time, I totally forgot about the parts in the interior and after cutting the turkey baste tube to approximate length, I tried to push it through from the backside.  Only to find that there are some kind of insulator, coil and plate inside.  They were just sitting inside the ice maker's water tray blocking the new tube to go through.

Check YouTube how to remove the old water tube (Shut the water valve first, of course). 

Remove the metal bracket.

Pull down gently on the navy blue couplet connected to the white water tube to release the water line.

My panic is that the water safe cover plate's hole is bit small to allow the turkey baste tube through.  So I had to make it larger to fit.  I checked every possible YouTube video on how to replace the water line, even under the subject of replacing an ice-maker unit, but this part of the replacement was never demonstrated.  So, I had no idea the sequence of the parts to place over the tube.

I tried to follow the YouTube demo on how to remove GE Ice-Maker, but the demo on how to replace the ice-maker's water line in the back was never found.  I found a coil of fiber wrapped wire in the back and a metal plate with green wire that is connected to it.  I am supposing at the time, it is the ground wire.  So, I placed the coil already in the shape of a loop that looked like it used to wrap around the water tube back around it, then I placed the metal plate over.  Finally I placed the white plastic face plate to keep the water from splashing to it - is my guess.  I also found a large washers with putty sandwiched in between, but I had no idea of its placement.  I supposed it went over the water tube and cover the hole on the wall to the exterior but the turkey baste tube is a bit too large for it, so I just skipped it.

See the coiled wire back there?  and plastic face plate to its right?  And this large washer

Putting everything back.

In the back, I stuffed some putty underneath metal cover to the ice maker water line.

Next, replacing the cooler's light switch that controls the activation of air exchange fan between the freezer and cooler.

Remove the temperature control handle by pulling them straight out.  But also helpful if you have it in 0 position, so you know where it was pointing to.  Unscrew the two screws using 1/4 inch socket extension attached to the socket ranch.

The casing comes off very easily. 

What is that?  a diagram?

It's a diagram of all the parts to this refrigerator model printed on a plastic sheet.  

Unplug everything after you take a picture or jotting down what goes where.

Push the light switch down to pop it out.  Do the same for the light socket.

Replace with the new and connect them back.

See the burnt marks on the light socket's contact?

It was not just the light bulb that gone bad.  The socket also had gone bad.

Finally, I tried to replace the thermostat that is in the top back end near the air exchange box.  But I was very tired.  After removing the guard, and looking at it.  I gave up for the time being.  I need to research which crimp socket - MLX HOUSING CAP NAT or Plug  or connector terminal I need.  The thermostat replacement didn't come with it attached.

So far without replacing the thermostat, the refrigerator has been maintaining 30-32 degrees, so that's a good sign.  With weather hitting 100'F the last couple of days, I really appreciate the cold water and ice from the refrigerator.

For repairing this old model refrigerator, I had to buy 1/4 in. socket extension kit.  (Some of the screws are recessed deep in the housing.)

Good Rockin' in the kitchen.  Be Safe and Have Fun with Your Family in Cooking and Sharing the  Family Favorites.