Takeout With the Tos #3

It's another week of food here on the blog! This week's food was a little different because we had leftovers shared with us so we didn't really need to cook a lot. However, I like to maximize my time so I ended up making two main dishes where I freeze extras for quick meals later. The costs are going to include the entire batch of food I made including what goes into the freezer. So although all of it is not being consumed this week, it's as if I ordered extra food from a restaurant to freeze and save for later.

- Snow pea leaves: $15.99

- Chinese broccoli: $12.99

- Chinese spaghetti: 12 servings @ $8.99/serving: $107.88

- Shao Mai: 55 pcs @ $1/pc: $55

- Homemade chips: on the house

Take Out Total: $191.86

Tax: $15.83

Grand Total: $207.69

Shao Mai

There's 55 total but this picture was taken before they were all made. I'm a really bad shao mai wrapper...so they're not aesthetically pleasing.

These are made from the recipe found in the Woks of Life cookbook. I've made this recipe 2-3x total and my kids absolutely love it. It's definitely a labor of love and I double the recipe to make enough to save a freezer batch or two. They're almost as good as the ones at the restaurant. This time when I made them, I subbed chicken bouillon for the salt. Although they tasted fine, it didn't add the "oomph" I had hoped for. Next time, I may try half salt half chicken bouillon because it was still missing some umami this time. 

I use both my food processor and my stand mixer for this recipe. If I had to chop and mix by hand, I wouldn't make it...ever. The right tools for the job make a HUGE difference. Just be extra kind to the person who washes the dishes. 😁

I don't use yellow wrappers so they're not pretty like the ones
at the restaurant, but they sure are delicious. 

Chinese Spaghetti 

My friend shared this recipe with me a while back and it's definitely a hit at our house. I just call it Chinese spaghetti because that's basically what it is. This sauce recipe is completely made in the Instant Pot and I double it to save batches in the freezer for later. There's quite a bit of prep work for cutting the vegetables, but the actual cooking is all done in the Instant Pot. You can definitely use frozen vegetables for this if you'd like to make it even easier. That's not something I stock so I do cut my carrots, onions, and celery by hand. Be warned if you're going to double the recipe you need at least the 8 qt IP. I maxed mine out the last time I made it because I beefed up the vegetable portions and added mushrooms. The sauce is what goes into the freezer and I just cook pasta to complete the meal for next time. 

Chinese Broccoli (Top right)

This is the first repeat dish I've done in four weeks. I'd say that's not bad! We used the steaming method this week since we already pulled out our steamer for the shao mai. Personally, I actually prefer the boiling method because I can boil in salt water and it flavors the vegetables nicely. Steaming isn't bad but I would definitely choose to eat it with some dipping sauce.

Snow Pea Leaves (Bottom right)

We love snow pea leaves. It's the special vegetable treat during the winter months when it goes on sale. Picking away the thicker stems is key to a pleasant mouth-feel when eating this vegetable. It elevates the dish significantly when it's all tender leaves and thin stems. One of my children was willing to try it! Stir fry in garlic with salt and sugar seasoning. Absolutely perfect. 

Homemade Chips (Bottom left)

These were a last minute decision to make. After wrapping the shao mai, I had two leftover wrappers. What was I going to do with two wrappers? I thought about just trashing them, but then I decided to cut it into strips, spray with oil, and stick them in my pan for a light fry. I seasoned them with Trader Joe's mushroom umami seasoning and they were a hit. I think I actually ate the least only having had one chip...

Food is always good when I look forward to it. It makes meals more exciting and honestly increases my overall appetite. There have been weeks before where I haven't been excited about anything in my refrigerator. This can be due to illness and mood as well so it's not always contingent on the food. I have to say this week's food is pretty enticing. 

Total time elapsed: 3.5-4 hours. 

The Blue Paste

I wanted to take a break from posting food this week to talk about something else just as important: cleaning! With the amount of cooking that happens, even if just 1-2 days a week, the kitchen sure gets pretty grimy. 

This is probably worse than normal from a batch cooking last December, but on any given week, our stove resembles this grease-splattered mess at least once. Stove messes are a catalyst for other messes because anything left on the stove will transfer to the bottom of my pans the next time I cook without wiping it down. 

I recently saw a cleaning paste made with three ingredients which I already had at home: hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and baking soda. The recipe is written in a 2:1:1 ratio so I used:

1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide

1/4 cup dish soap

1/4 cup baking soda

Our dish soap is the blue Dawn dish soap, but if you wanted an all-natural alternative, I'm sure it could work just as well. 

This paste is my go-to for everything non-porous now. I use it on our stove top. I use it to clean our kitchen sink. I've even cleaned bathroom sinks with it. I should try cleaning the shower with it, too, but I haven't gotten that far. I love baking soda as a natural no-scratch abrasive. Our stove looks brand new after I use this cleaner on it.

There was a house for sale on our street a few years ago, and we went to the open house. Her stove was pristine. I want our stove to look like that whenever the time comes for us to move (or die). 

Our kitchen sink is another super gross spot which needs a deep clean about once every 1-2 months. I try my best to always rinse the food into the strainer so it doesn't sit in parts of the sink, but alas, the sink always manages to get dirty. This cleaning solution has made it much faster and easier than ever to clean my sink and the wire grate.

Would you believe me if I said it took less than 10 minutes to clean my sink?

Do you know what tool I like best to clean the sink with? A bottle brush! It's the only tool that's both flexible and strong enough to clean between all those little grates in my wire stand. I love having one of these so my dishes don't have to sit on the bottom of the sink with all the food gunk, but cleaning it sure can be a hassle. You'll still find me in the baby aisle at Walmart to buy the occasional bottle brush replacement....to clean my kitchen sink! 

If you're ever at our house and you see a jar of blue stuff sitting on the ledge above our sink with a pair of disposable chopsticks lying across the lid, that's the magical jar of paste that cleans all my non-porous surfaces and restores them to like-new. 😄

Takeout with the Tos #2

Half of us got sick this week so the cooking was not as elaborate as it can be. But we have some food to get us through this week as well as some leftovers from last week. I know for sure I'll need to cook more vegetables this week to supplement. I also cook filler foods throughout the week. Sometime in the future I will make a post just on filler foods. For now, here's our food haul this week.

- Bok Choy: $15.99

- Pork Ribs: $25.99

- Seafood Pancake (Fritters): $24.99

- Tempura Shrimp: $13.99

Take out total: $80.96

Tax: $6.68

Grand Total:  $87.64

Pork Ribs

I discovered this pork rib recipe a few years ago. My husband really likes it and it's very easy to make. It uses country style ribs but you can probably use spareribs if you wanted to. It's a great bulk portion of protein to eat with some rice and vegetables. 

Shrimp Tempura (Top left)

These are definitely freezer tempura I bought and fried. Now, let's be real, even some restaurants buy premade items and heat/serve at their restaurant. So I don't think this is cheating by any means. I still had to fry them up myself from raw. So it's food I cooked. Costco sells a giant pack, but I prefer the ones from the Asian grocery store. The crust on the Costco tempura shrimp is just too thick for my liking. 

Bok Choy (Top Middle)

We did a simple stir fry vegetable with garlic. I discovered the use of both salt and sugar in the seasoning to bring out the flavor of the vegetable even more. This goes for any stir fry leafy vegetable. I actually have a shaker with 50% salt and 50% sugar premixed just to cook my vegetables with. 

Seafood Pancake *Fritters* (Top Right)

I call these seafood pancakes at my house, but really they're fritters. Once upon a time I actually made seafood pancakes kind of like the Korean style pancakes. These were delicious and I got some to actually look really nice.

This was circa May 2021

Since then, I've gotten more efficient in my cooking. As a result, these pancakes now resemble fritters. Maangchi actually also has a recipe which resembles fritters. I find these so much faster and easier to make. These have a wonderful seafood flavor. My favorite add-ins are clams, mussels, and shrimp. Sometimes I'll add in crab, octopus, or squid depending what is in my freezer. I've made this dish so many times now I don't actually follow her recipe anymore. But it's a great start if you're making it for the first time! 

A simple steamed broccoli was supposed to make it into the rotation, but I didn't get it made in the same batch as everything else so it is not reflected in this take-out order. 

Total time elapsed: About 2 hours. There were two of us working in the kitchen so some parts went faster than when I do it alone. 

Takeout with the Tos #1

It's officially the first full week of the new year, and as is true of every other first week of a year, we need food! 

Please note for all these posts:

- I don't glamorize my food. Most of our serving dishes are the same containers I save leftovers in. I'm not trying to make things pretty. We also don't have space to store beautiful serving dishes or platters. I keep it real. 

- I batch cook one day a week. This doesn't mean I only cook one day a week, but it does mean 80% of my cooking happens on one day. I will supplement throughout the week as needed if there's not enough food, but those items will not be included in these posts for simplicity. 

- The prices you'll see are meant to jokingly reflect a restaurant-selling price. It might be much higher than you expect. No, I'm not actually selling my food. Please don't ask to order as flattered as I might be. 

- This blog series is not meant to share recipes. If I followed a recipe or used one as inspiration, I will link it. If there's no link, that means I made it up in my head or was inspired by a dish I'd eaten but never received instructions to explicitly make. You're always welcome to connect with me personally if you'd like more information on anything you see here which I've made!

This week's menu:

- Teriyaki Tofu: $11.99

- Beef and Turkey Pockets (并): 2 for $5. I made 18 so that's $45

- Scallop Mushroom: $9.99

- Chinese Broccoli Dim Sum Style: $12.99

- Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry: $13.99

- Vegetarian Soup: $5/qt. I made 8 qts total so that's $40

Take out total: $133.96

Tax: $11.05

Grand total: $145.01

Teriyaki Tofu (Above left)

I made up this dish a while back. Tofu is a healthy and affordable vegetarian option for protein. I now purchase firm tofu in bulk from Costco. I came up with this recipe after buying a giant bottle of teriyaki sauce from their business warehouse a few years ago. I would pan fry the tofu and then pour the sauce in at the end to coat each piece. It has become a staple in our house. I've also made my own teriyaki sauce before for this recipe. As delicious as it was, I haven't made it from scratch in a long time. So usually some sugar and soy sauce get tossed in at the end and that is what becomes my "teriyaki" sauce.

Scallop Mushroom (Above right)

This is a relatively new dish I started making in the last few years. It doesn't end up on our rotation as often, but it's another easy vegetarian option for protein. I remember watching an episode of a cooking show when they were talking about mushrooms. They likened king oyster mushrooms to that of a scallop texture. That's where I created this recipe. I cut them in rounds to mimic a scallop and cook them in the pan. For today's dish, I added a combination of oyster sauce and Asian barbecue sauce. 

Chinese Broccoli Dim Sum Style (Above Left)

I've always loved the Chinese broccoli at dim sum. It's simple. Usually just boiled, seasoned, and maybe with some sauce on the side. For home cooking, I just boil in salt water. Quick, easy vegetable. 

Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry (Above Right)

I started making this recipe because it was one of those easy-to-stock ones. I almost always have frozen ground pork in my freezer because I buy in bulk and freeze. Some stores also sell frozen vacuum sealed packs of ground pork. Wild Fork is a great store for this. I am considering getting all my ground pork from them in the future. The green beans I used for today's recipe were Costco frozen skinny green beans. I didn't know they would be so skinny when I bought them, but they're nice. Supposedly, Costco is discontinuing the item. I am never too sure. You can definitely try it with frozen green beans if not fresh. I'd probably stay away from canned as they are too mushy of a texture usually. I season them with sugar, salt, cooking wine, and oyster sauce. This is another dish I've been making for years at our house.

I gave roughly 3 QTs to my dad so the rest of the pot was left for us. 

Vegetarian Soup

I love making soup with Asian ingredients. I liken it to the equivalent of a "stone soup." You can essentially add whatever you want, some seasoning, and it's good to go. This particular soup has the following: carrots, shiitake mushroom, oyster mushroom, sweet potato, Napa cabbage, and fried tofu puffs. I've definitely added meat or seafood balls into a rendition of this soup. I just didn't this week. The base is beef stock as well as some soy sauce. 

Beef and Turkey Pockets (并)

These are definitely the star of the meal this week. Ever since I found out about Costco's uncooked flour tortillas, these are a part of our rotation at least every 2-3 weeks. They're definitely on the time-consuming side to make as I can only pan fry 4 at a time, and I made 18. Each batch takes about 8-10 minutes to cook including flipping. So that was nearly an hour just to make all of these 并. I actually portioned out my meat this time because I dislike having extra filling or extra tortillas leftover. So today's batch turned out perfectly. I used 2 pounds of meat, some cabbage, and seasoning. I don't follow a recipe for this either (sorry guys, I cook pretty spontaneously), but you can definitely look up a dumpling filling recipe to start with and then improvise from there as you're comfortable! This recipe is a good one to start with! I do add an egg and corn starch into my filling mixture to keep the liquids from getting too watery, especially with the addition of vegetables. 

Not pictured: rice

And there you have it. Our grand spread which will last our family of four roughly...8-10 meals. 

Total time elapsed: 5.5 hours. I made the soup on a separate day and that took about 1.5-2 hours by itself. Please note this is not non-stop cooking. Some of the time was spent waiting. I also normally only cook one dish at a time, hence using one burner on the stove at a time. It's not the most efficient when it comes to time but it definitely saves on the dishes. 

Introduction: Takeout With the Tos

I never thought I would be someone who loved cooking. As a child, I loved watching cooking shows. America's Text Kitchen, Julia Child, Yan Can Cook, Ming Tsai, and of course my all-time favorite, Jacques Pepin. I loved watching them put together both simple and extravagant dishes. 

In college, I cooked out of necessity as a third-year senior. I don't remember exactly what I cooked because it wasn't extremely delicious, but I kept myself alive and fed for the year. This was a chicken pot pie dish I made for myself as a 21-year-old.

I'm not sure how I would feel today if I served myself (or anyone!) this.

When I went to China, I didn't think I would be cooking a lot at all. After all, delicious food was just downstairs a short walk away. It was the cheapest food I would ever pay for made by someone else in my entire life. Why would I cook, right? 

Well, sometimes, or more than sometimes, the thought of bundling up to go downstairs and walk through brutal (-30F) cold to get something to eat was too much to bear. So I did actually cook a decent amount. To this day, I think the most delicious ribs I've ever made were in China. 

The first time I attempted this recipe was really successful.

When I got married, I thought I was a decent cook. It was mostly tasty, cost-efficient, and I could get by with a variety of cuisine and dishes. However, it wasn't until Covid when I realized the food I missed the most was Chinese food. We stopped going to restaurants completely so we were eating only whatever I could cook. This left much to be desired in the Asian department. My Asian/Chinese cooking skills before Covid were limited to American Chinese flavors. Although it can be enjoyed sparingly, it wasn't the food I desired after being at home with a newborn for so long. 

So I learned. I watched videos online. I looked up recipes. And I even have a few cookbooks now in my collection. Because of my work schedule, I do all my cooking on Sunday afternoon. We do still rotate different cuisines, but Chinese food is probably what I cook the most. It's rare (but has happened!) when my husband tells me he's craving something American. 😂

When I cooked Lion's Head Meatballs （狮子头）for the first time, it was a huge accomplishment. This dish is very involved and time consuming.

In 2025, I want to bring a fun blog series to you and share what we eat on a weekly basis. I've turned in into a joke that we are buying our own "take-out" food. I'll be assigning my own prices to my dishes as if we were purchasing them from a restaurant. And along the way, I'll share stories about what inspired me to cook them and flavors or ingredients I enjoy. I hope this blog series can inspire you to cook something fun and delicious. I hope cooking can be seen less as a chore and more as a delicious, creative outlet.

Join me in 2025!

Books 2024: Part 4

This is the last group of books I read this year. I made it to 40! It's been a long time since I've read this many books in a year. Overall, I enjoyed it. I think that's one of my main "reactions" to the books I read - enjoyment. In school and even college, it was hard to find joy. We were reading books, cranking out essays, and poring over the smallest of details. Under that much work, I think anything enjoyable would lose its joy. Not being forced to read has made reading fun, and thus in turn, has made me read more. 

31. The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood - I put this book on my to-read list just randomly after browsing a list of popular books to see what new reading I could find. Then, I was talking to one of my friends and she was telling me how she really likes this author's books because of her strong female characters in STEM. Her books are fun. I enjoy how she can write arguably cliché predictable novels with added twists of excitement woven throughout. If it makes me want to keep reading, I'd say she's done a great job from an entertainment perspective. I pulled a quote out of this book which stood out to me. In reference to grief: "You don't ever lose the sadness, but you learn to be a part of it." 

32. Love Theoretically - Ali Hazelwood - Another one of those fun reads. I like when she has surprise cameos from her other books and everyone's worlds kind of collide just a little bit. 

33. A Novel Love Story - Ashley Poston - My thoughts after reading the entire book: It has a good idea behind it, but the execution fell very short in my opinion. The beginning of the book was all over the place. I didn't really get into the story/start enjoying it until the last 30% of the book. I normally don't read book synopses if I'm reading multiple books by the same author, so that may have added to some of my overall disjointed feeling. I don't think reading a synopsis needs to be a requirement before starting a book to understand what's going on. Sadly, this isn't a book I would recommend and although I remember parts of the book, it wasn't memorable.

34. Love on the Brain - Ali Hazelwood - This was fun. After reading a book which didn't captivate me, it was nice to have that again with another Hazelwood book. I like that her books are cliche and predictable with little tidbits of surprise thrown in. This one had a lot of random facts on the life of Marie Curie. I'd like to think the random bits of knowledge in my head can one day help me with my own slum dog millionaire story.

35. Georgie All Along - Kate Clayborn - This was fun, too. A random find while scrolling book lists of similar authors. Not sure I'll remember anything from this book a year from now, but sometimes reading is just a fun way to immerse your brain in a story just for a little while. 

36. The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah - I found this book on a random book-search scroll through the library catalog. I've read one her novels before. I don't feel any special affinity to her as an author, but I decided to give this book a read. It's another historical fiction book. As I was reading it, I kept thinking the story line was going to go one way, and it never did. Not giving any spoilers, and not saying I actually wanted it to go that way. Some deep themes to grapple with in this book. 

**

There were two books I tried reading in between. One was too medically accurate for my liking and I just didn't want to continue after reading about amputations and sutures in detail. The Winter Soldier - Daniel Mason.  The other is a good book which I hope to pick up again at a later time. But the chapters were just too long for me to be motivated to continue. The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. 

**

37. The Wishing Game - Meg Shaffer - This was a fun, lighter read compared to the books I attempted in between. I wish the setting of this book actually existed. We had taken a vacation to the area so I was able to better understand some of the regional specifics of this book. Overall, this was a fast read with a well-executed story line. Enough thinking to feel engaged, but simple enough to be enjoyed for fun.

38. The Bodyguard - Katherine Center - Another fun, light read. This book gave me a different perspective on people who are bodyguards. I guess you really don't have to be a big, tall, macho-looking guy. 

39. Felix Powell, Dog Boy - Erin Estrada Kelly - I found this book as an audiobook while browsing the library catalog in the car on a road trip. I was hoping to find something the kids could listen to (like a short 5-10 minute book) but those don't exist as audiobooks...probably because kids want to look at the pictures. So I came across this book. We ended up not listening to it until after we returned. I started it while waiting in the car with my son and then both kids finished listening to it in the car on the way back across a few school days. It was fun and cute. I liked the book and went on a rabbit hole to find other audiobooks by her.

40. You Go First  - Erin Estrada Kelly - This was another audiobook I found originally for my kids to listen to. I listened to it first myself to see what the reading level/content was like. It turns out this book was written for a few levels higher than Felix Powell was. I finished the book myself and enjoyed it. It's a great book that delves into the lives of what it's like to be a teenager in middle school. As an adult, these same themes still apply, just in a more mature sense. You still navigate friendships, life changes, and dealing with your emotions. I can't let my kids listen to this book yet, but it may get shelved for later as they grow older. 

There were two books I didn't get a chance to finish yet before the end of this year so they won't be a part of this list. But chances are, they will be on next year's list.  😀

Books 2024: Part 3

I posted part two here. These are the next 10 books I read and the order I read them.  

21. The Seven Year Slip - Ashley Poston - I really enjoyed this book. It was another one of my fast reads - less than 36 hours from start to finish. Again, the beauty of listening to books on 2x. This book brought back The Time Traveler's Wife vibes. It was a little confusing in the beginning, but I liked it a lot. 

22. Sacred Rest - Saundra Dalton-Smith - This was a book recommended from a friend who read it. It took me a few weeks to finish because I wanted to actually read it for content. My favorite part of this book was the mosquito and bee comparison. I'll have to elaborate about this on a different post. (Not going to lie...I have forgotten what the comparison is. I should have been more specific when I wrote this synopsis after finishing the book).

23. Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame - Olivia Ford - A friend of mine read and loved this book. I got it and give it a read. I liked it. Maybe not as much as he did, but it was a fun book to read. I thought the ending was slightly anti-climactic. The book did such a wonderful job leading up to the ending that the resulting conclusion didn't feel like it matched up. I feel like many books I've read this year have this same problem.

24. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett - One of my friends from high school gave me this book when she was cleaning out her things. I kept it in my collection but never read it. I always felt obligated to read it because there was a music staff on the front cover. Because of the title, I always thought it had something to revolve around music. The book does in fact revolve around music but not at all in the way I thought it would. I was kind of disappointed when I finished the book. I didn't feel satisfied or "complete" after finishing the story. It was a very strange way to resolve what had so much potential. The way she built up the book, I felt like it deserved a different ending. Oh well.

25. Me Before You - Jojo Moyes - I found this book because I saw a clip of the movie from Facebook randomly. I looked it up and decided I'd read the book. It's a very sad book, but I actually didn't get weepy with it like I thought I would. I watched the movie a few weeks after I finished the book. It was a good movie. Hit all the right points. There was a lot of extra character building included in the book which they left out of the movie. I think it simplified things for the movie which made it more enjoyable to watch. But it left out a lot of the depth of character which the book was able to provide. This is pretty typical of what happens.

26. Habits of the Household - Justin Earley - This book was recommended to me by a friend and I enjoyed what he had to share. It's always refreshing to hear about other people's struggles and knowing my own flaws and weaknesses are not individual to me. I'd like to say this book is going to help me become a better parent, but we all know it's not an overnight transformation. Less than a week after I finished this book my 4 y.o and I had an intense moment at the dinner table regarding finishing his meal and dessert. But reading this book reminded me that our time together is short and we are both getting older by the day. 

27. Divine Rivals - Rebecca Ross - A friend recommended this duology to me, and the second book kept becoming available before the first. I had to keep postponing it, and finally, the first one became available. I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it because there's a fantasy aspect to it. It turned out very enjoyable. The ending leaves you hanging so don't start unless you plan on reading both books!

28.  Check & Mate - Ali Hazelwood - Quick read. I had placed a book by this author on hold completely by accident. While waiting for it, I had a conversation with a friend about the books we were reading and she came up as an author my friend enjoyed. So I put more of her books on hold. This was the first one available and I enjoyed it. And I came to the conclusion that professional chess players probably can and should overthink as much as possible in order to be successful, but they need to contain their thinking in other areas of life in order to stay sane. It's a life lesson I'm continually learning and growing through myself. 

29. Ruthless Vows - Rebecca Ross - This was the second book to Divine Rivals. I couldn't stop reading after I started. A lot of the reviews for this book came out negative because they were expecting more of a romance. That's not at all what the second book was. I felt like I was in the middle of an action film the entire time I was reading. And because of that, I enjoyed it.

30. The Dead Romantics - Ashley Poston - I enjoyed this book. I was getting vibes of other books I'd read before in the past, but the cliche moments were still enjoyable. I'm learning to appreciate the entertainment side of reading for fun and not necessarily every book needing to be unique, exquisite, and one-of-a-kind. Her story line was interesting enough despite including some over-used themes and predictable elements. 

 

I'll put the remaining books in one post after this.