Egg Drop Soup

It pays off to have your dad work at his brother's restaurant for years before he got married. That way he make awesome dishes like this: EGG DROP SOUP

Who doesn't like egg drop soup? And you can have it as plain and simple with nothing but the eggs or extravagant as you want. We like to have other stuff in our soup and last night we had shrimp and tofu in ours. You can always put other things, like corn or cubed ham.

Shrimp and Tofu Egg Drop Soup


prep time: 10 min
cook time: 20 min
servings: 3 meals or 7-8 appetizers

2 cans chicken broth, low sodium

5 eggs

raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into bite size, depending the size of the shrimp

1 pkg tofu

soy sauce

2 generous tbsp cornstarch

water

Start by heating the 2 cans of chicken broth in a large pot over medium heat. Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch cubes and add it to the pot. Turn the heat up to medium-high. One tbsp at a time, add about 3-4 of soy sauce to the pot, stirring and tasting in between. Dad told me it was to give the soup its color, but might as well take advantage of the flavor it gives as well. In a bowl, combine the cornstarch with about 1/3 cup of water and stir it to it's all dissolved. While stirring, slowly pour the mixture in. Beat all the eggs as well as possible. Slowly pour the eggs in while stirring to get that light, flowing look in the eggs. Stir for another minute to make sure the eggs have all solidified. Add the shrimp. Don't overcook the shrimp or they'll get all tough. And there you are! I love it anytime my dad makes this :)

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! I made this wonderful cheesecake once again for a gift for a friend. This is another recipe that a friend gave me, the same one who gave me the Zuchinni Spaghetti recipe. One day last spring, we had a free afternoon, so we ran to the store to gather everything and went back to his apartment and made it. It was good back then, but today, WOW, it was amazing. I wish I could have taken a picture of the process, but I was making it late at night and I kept forgetting to take a picture of the finished product. Sadly (or maybe not), it was mostly devoured at a Mother's Day family party, so no pictures to share :(

It's a rather creamy cheesecake, so if you have a preference for a firm cheesecake, you might want to try and fiddle around with the recipe. I wish I could give some suggestions to making a firm cheesecake, but I'm not very experienced with cheesecake making to know.

Again, this isn't my recipe, but a friend's and I don't know where he or his mom got it from, so I'll just credit them.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

prep time: Took me about 45 min

Crust:
1/4 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 12 cookies)
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
1 packet (1/4 oz) powered unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup milk
2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups slightly crushed Oreos (about 16)
1 cup whipping cream (35%), whipped

Crust: In a bowl, mix cookie crumbs and butter. Press into the bottom of an non-greased, 9 in springform pan and refrigerate.

Filling: Beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high until very smooth. In a separate saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over milk and stir over low heat until completely dissolved. Let it cook slightly, but don't let the gelatin harden any. Pour it over the cream cheese mix and continue beating. Add vanilla while still beating. Fold in whipped cream and cookies with a spatula. Don't beat it or it won't be quite as light and airy. Fold it gently and pour over crust. Smooth it out, cover, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.

Some decorating options is to top it with whipped cream and sprinkle more crumbled Oreos on top before serving.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. :)

Clam Chowder Pasta

I can't believe I forgot about this! This is another favorite that my brothers and I love and it's so quick to make too! I don't know when my mom came up with this idea, but for as long as I can remember, she would serve us basically Campbell's clam chowder soup with spaghetti. My assumption is that as an immigrant in the states, she didn't know what was Alfredo sauce and came up with her own substitute for the creamy sauce. I don't really know if that's true; maybe it was simply a stroke of genius to come up with this idea.

Anyways, I make this a lot at school and you can add a lot of other ingredients to make it more interesting and to suite your preference. And you don't even have to use clam chowder. We just use it time and time again because we love clam chowder and always order it at any seafood restaurant we go to.

Clam Chowder Pasta
There are a lot of variations what we've taken on to this, but I'll give you the recipe for how I did today for dinner.

prep time: 10 min
cook time: 10 min
servings: 3-4

1/2 pkg linguine pasta

2 cans Campbell's Chunky Clam Chowder

1/2 lb raw shrimp, thawed

1 can mushrooms

1/2 lb cooked ham, sliced or chopped

Start by boiling the water for pasta as the package instructs. If you need to, have the shrimps peeled and divined. Rinse them and set them on the side. Start preparing the soup by bringing the two cans to a boil. If you need to, you might need to add a little water, but remember that when you add the other ingredients and pasta, some water might get in and will thin the soup out enough to be a sauce. When the soup is to a boil, add the shrimp till they are pink and cooked all the way through. Then add the mushrooms and ham. Add the pasta and stir it all together.

Char Siu

In Chinese culture, we have a dish that we make called char siu, which is basically barbecued pork. It's a traditional and family favorite that I finally learned how to make these past few days!

Char Siu


prep time: 1 day
cook time: 45 min

1 pkg, about 2 lbs cut pork shoulder butt pieces

1 jar Lee Kum Kee char siu marinade

1 tbsp chopped green onions

Start by cutting off as much of the fat from the pork as you can. It's okay to leave a little bit here and there since it holds in flavors, but let's face it, the fat isn't very healthy. Just try to cut the large chunks off. Once that's done, put the pork and green onions in a bowl. Add about half of the jar of marinade and about a half cup to a cup of water. Mix everything together either with a spoon, a pair of chopsticks, or your hands. Cover it at let it sit overnight.

When ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a baking sheet, place all the pork and pour any leftover marinade all over the meat. Bake for about 30 minutes before flipping the pieces over and adding a little bit of water so the meat doesn't dry out in the oven, then bake for another 15-20 minutes.

This tastes great with rice, which is what we normally do. After a few days, when there are still leftovers, my mom likes to either chop them into bite sizes and throw with other leftovers to make fried rice or she puts some of the slices of char siu into our bowl of noodles. However, my favorite food with this barbecued pork is char siu bao which is basically chunks of the pork in the middle of Chinese steamed buns. If you ever get the chance to go to dim sum, order this because it will be worth it. Trust me.