Note to Self

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Ginger

It has been raining a lot these few days and on rainy days, I love having everyone sitting together to eat a nice meal. We bought a few packs of cage free, antibiotics free chickens and I've been thinking of different recipes for them. It seems like a great night for baked/ roasted chicken. They turned out really good; very juicy and tender.

I'm going to do my best to write the recipe, to be as detailed as possible .. because I enjoy cooking by "agak-agak". The best way to explain agak-agak is estimation/ intuition. In my mom's days, cooking traditions were handed down from one generation to another without a formal recipe. Everything is agak-agak :)

INGREDIENTS

A

5 Chicken Drumsticks/ Wings

B

Garlic (1 clove)

Ginger (3 inches) 

Soy sauce (1.5 tablespoons)

Pinch of Salt

Pinch of Sugar

Mirin (Japanese cooking wine) (1.5 tablespoons)

Sesame Oil (1 tablespoon)

C

Honey

METHOD:

1. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Blend all the ingredients B
3. Rub the blended ingredients on the chicken (gently! like you're massaging someone)
4. Set aside for at least an hour. (best if overnight) 
5. Pre-heat over to 400F and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and glaze with honey. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the surface turn golden brown. Mr Chan likes it slightly charred so I baked it for another 5 minutes. 

Serve warm with baked cauliflowers and peppers. 

My Second Sewing Project - Lunch Bag #2

Growing up, I've seen my mom sew countless times. She sewed our school uniforms, she sewed our Pajamas and made quilts and blankets for us. My mom was a self taught "sewist" and sewed during the school holidays and weekends (she's a teacher so she gets a lot of holidays!). While, shamefully unfortunately, I did not pick up the skills from her nor did I even get close to her machine. Somehow the sound of her vintage sewing machine scared me!

Being so far away from home.. I'm always subconsciously looking for little things that would bring me back to the memories of home.. of my childhood, anything that gives me a taste of home. Maybe that is why I would like to sew (ahem - learn to sew)

So we got a new sewing machine and it was set aside for at least 3 months. I was too intimidated to even go near it! Finally, I found some courage and sewed a few straight lines! with the help of Mr Chan. He grew up in a sewing family as well, his mom is a tailor by profession! and he was a professional seam remover ;) I have to give the credit to him for setting up the machine with the help of youtube videos.

This is my first project! here (I will create another posting for this)

Here is my second project! and I still can't believe I made this! For me, it is such a miracle to see how each seemingly simple stitch can create and turn into something useful (I'm not confident to say beautiful yet). I used drapery cotton canvas for this one - it was on clearance sale we found at the Fabric Row, Philadelphia for $2 a yard. Mr Chan is very 'concern' about the fabric pattern that I use and would not want anything with flowers or colors. But I managed to hide some colors inside for the lining :) I think it is just boring without some colorful fabrics. The inside i used cotton fabric for the lining and insul-bright for insulation.

You can see I'm still learning - I know the lines are not straight and they look awful if you look closely.

Roll top style without the buckles

The inside with cotton lining. Love the hidden colors ;)

Trying to see what it looks like with a parachute buckle

Added the buckles!

Its done!