Glowing Green Smoothie

This is another Kimberly Snyder's healthy smoothie recipe and I highly recommend it!!

I sometimes just drink them in the morning as breakfast and they made me feel great!

The recipe below is the proportion that I used for my BlendTech blender.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup filtered water
• 1 bunch of baby spinach
• 1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped
• 3-4 stalks of organic celery
• 1 organic apple, cored and chopped
• 1 organic pear, cored and chopped
• 1 organic banana
• 1/2 of organic lemon freshly squeezed

Steps:  Blend everything together!!

Beef Noodle Soup (II) 牛肉麵(二)

牛肉麵實在是太經典,所以每一次做都會尋找一些新的"撇步"然後進行改良.
以前煮牛肉之前都會＂川燙＂, 這次發現一招教人不要川燙～結果牛肉真的好嫩呀！
還有因為美國超市不容易買到所謂的牛腱或半筋半肉, 所以如果家裡附近有有機超市比如說 WholdFoods, 我試過各種牛肉,我認為Beef Chuck最好吃.

最後附帶一提, 食譜中最後墩煮的一小時我是用壓力鍋煮, 所以牛肉又更嫩囉！參考一下吧！

以下是原始食譜做法：

1. 將買來的整塊牛肋條或是牛腱(約兩斤)入鍋，加水，加蔥兩支，薑六片，米酒一湯匙，煮20分鐘。（牛肉不能先過水，而且要從冷水慢慢加熱至沸騰後轉小火，中間也不能加冷水，一鍋到底血水是美味的來源，只要去掉表面的雜質即可牛肉撈起後）

2. 將肉撈出，切自己喜歡的大小塊或是片狀。

*做法2之前千別切肉，因為肉尚未成型，切成小塊再煮再燉，肉會變得歪七扭八的不美觀。

3. 在炒鍋中放四匙油，炒香20粒大蒜、一個洋蔥切片、2湯匙花椒，待洋蔥軟香，加入三湯匙辣豆辦醬、醬油一杯、糖一湯匙、酒三湯匙，用中小火拌炒一分鐘 (可以加番茄一個，也可以不加)。

4. 將牛肉及原來煮牛肉的湯一起入鍋，並加入六粒八角、兩片月桂葉及少許胡椒粉，煮滾後用文火續煮一小時，關火蓋上鍋蓋，不要動鍋中物，一直等到鍋冷就成了。再加熱時，再試味道加鹽調味，即成牛肉湯底了！

上述的(泡)是牛肉好吃的秘訣

食譜來源：http://meishi.5i2.net/Article/16288.htm

I yet again made another version of beef noodle soup and it was REALLY good. 

Now I've read so many ways to make the beef tender, here's another new method that I found and it turned out really well!! The key is not to blanch the beef first like most of the recipe says.  And I used the beef chuck from New Seasons or WholeFoods instead of using "beef stew".

Ingredients:

2 lb Beef Chuck

2 stems of green onions

6 slices of ginger root

1 Tablespoon of rice wine

20 cloves of garlic

1 onion

2 Tablespoon of Sichuan pepper.

3 Tablespoon of spicy bean paste

1 Cup of soy sauce

1 Tablespoon of sugar

3 Tablespoon of rice wine

6 Star anise

2 Bay leaves

Some ground white pepper

Steps:

1. Put the entire beef chuck (uncut) in the pot, add water, green onion, ginger, rice wine and cook for 20 mins. Skim constantly.
2. Remove the beef and cut in cubes with preferred size.
3. At another wok, heat up 4 tablespoon of oil, add garlic and satay till the flavor is developed. Add onion, Sichuan pepper and stir fry till onion is soft.  Add spicy bean paste, soy sauce, sugar, and rice wine, stir fry them with medium heat for about a minute. 
4. In a bigger pot, put in all the beef, original beef broth cooked with the beef, add star anise, bay leaves and pepper. Cook them to simmer. Turn to small heat and continue to cook for another hour.  Turn off the heat and let it sit till the entire pot is cooled. Don't touch or stir anything in the pot. 
5. Reheat the entire pot before serving. (The noodle and vegetable part is the same as step 6-8 in  紅燒牛肉麵 Beef Noodle Soup in Braised Soy Sauce)

Tawanese Tea Egg 茶葉蛋

Ingredients:

10 Eggs

1 Tea bag

1000 c.c. Water

1 cup Soy sauce

1 Chinese Braising Package (similar size to tea bag)

Steps:

1. Wash eggs, put them in the pot, pour in water till covering the eggs.
2. Add a teaspoon of salt in the water. Use high heat to bring water to boil.  Rotate the eggs several times while cooking so the egg yolk could be centered. After the water start boiling, turn to low heat and continue to cook for 10 mins.   Turn off the heat and let it sit for 5 mins and remove the eggs from water and set them cool.
3. At another pot, put water, soy sauce, tea bag and braising package together and bring them to boil. Lightly cracked the eggs and put them into the pot.  Braised for 2 hours with low heat. Turn off the heat and soak them for another 2 hours.

材料:

雞蛋  10個、茶葉包  1包、水  1000c c、醬油  1杯、鹽  2小匙、、萬用滷包  1包


做法:

1.將雞蛋外殼仔細洗淨，放入鍋中，倒入清水，直到蓋過雞蛋上方。

2.在水中加入1小匙鹽，先用大火將水煮開，煮的時候將雞蛋翻動數次，可讓煮出來的蛋黃集中在雞蛋中間。水開後轉小火，煮10分鐘後熄火，再燜5分鐘，即可取出待涼備用。

3.將萬用滷包及其他所有材料一起放入鍋中煮開，把雞蛋鈍端輕輕敲出裂痕，放入鍋中，用小火慢慢煮約1小時，熄火後再浸泡2小時即可

Cheesecake [from ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller]

I'm not a hardcore baker and I normally don't like to tempt myself with sugar, butter, cream and such. But with my recent obsession of Thomas Keller's work and the holiday craving, This is the first dessert that I tried from his recipes. It was a big success and super easy to make. One great quote from him that made me laugh and shared with everyone was "Please don't substitute low-fat anything here... If you want to reduce fat, cut a smaller piece!" What a great advice! The one thing that I adjusted a bit was the oven time. I think due to the nature of my oven, I had to bake it for 1.5 hours.

Ingredients:

Crust
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons (2.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted

Filling1 lb. cream cheese(not reduced-fat), room temperature
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large egges
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 325F
2. Combine the graham crackers and sugar, stir in the melted butter to moisten the crumbs evenly. Press the crumbs over the bottom and about 1/2 inch up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 mins. Remove from the oven and set on the cooling rack.
4. Bring a large pot of water to simmer for the water bath.
5. Combine the cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar and beat at low speed to mix, then raise the speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes until the mixture is lightened and smooth.
6. Lightly beat the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla together in a small bowl. Add lemon juice. Slowly add the mixture to the cream cheese mixture, beat till well combined. Slowly pour in the cream.
7. Stir in the lemon zest.
8. Put the springform pan on a double layer of aluminum foil that is large enough to come up to the rim of the pan. Put the pan in a deep larger pan. Pour the cheesecake batter into the springform pan. Pour simmered water into the larger pan to come halfway up the sides of the cheese cake.
9. Place everything in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until the cheesecake is set and a light golden brown. (Wiggle the cheesecake, the filling should be set.)