baby rambutan

==or one fine lucky riot of a dish!

my kids look forward to this now, our New Year’s dinner of jai. this year, as husband noticed, i “pulled out all the stops!” each ingredient has a special meaning to usher in a lucky welcome for the New Year. i was aiming for 18–
and i did it!…not counting the shredded ginger, or the mashed fermented bean curd cubes in Szechuan oil, and how about the hoisin sauce and the soy sauce for the stir fry.
the vegetables and rehydrated dried ingredients are added in the order of how quickly they soften.

dried oysters
dried shiitake mushrooms
dried bean curd skin
dried bamboo pith
straw mushrooms
water chestnuts
carrots
pea pods
baby corn
dried tree ears
dried lily buds
dried mung bean sticks (sotanghon)
sea moss
boiled peanuts
fried firm tofu cubes
tofu puffs
fresh bamboo shoots
napa cabbage

previous recipe here.
bamboo pith, FINALLY located these tucked away high up in the grocery shelves, wonder why?
my MIL used to serve us these with black mushrooms and dried scallops and sometimes chicken gizzards…yummy

something chocolate, i thought, to soothe my 6th grader’s ambivalent feelings about the first day of school. he’s been requesting these, for the longest time, and it was really weighing on my mind.


i never want to recycle old posts! i swear.
my baby rambutan has been on this blogworld for 7 years now, and i am really quite determined to keep her going for as long as i’m able. i am also keen on keeping things fresh and new for myself, and for all of my readers, loyal and faithful, and largely silent, but i do know you’re out there, i love you!
so i meant to just put up a link to this really delicious marshmallow clouds when, to my absolute surprise (horror! disdain! shame!) i discovered i had not even put up a title, way back when? February 14, 2005. it is a great disservice to this recipe–just you remember, my kids always request for me to make this, and if you make them, you will know why. scroll way, way down there, i don’t know how to fix it but it’s down there ↓ from babyrambutan.blogspot.com (more…)

so, who would eat healthy cookies?
i mean, it’s a contradiction in terms isn’t it–a healthy cookie? when someone says that, a cookie that’s good for you, i automatically turn on my skeptic button that goes, beep beep beep, system failure! system failure!
but when i got these cookies in the mail (my kids were thrilled no end), i immediately tore them open, sniffed them, cut them into portions for me and my kids to try…


…and we all passed judgment, and poured out the milk:
our favorites were the tropical and the original recipes. the alpine? i think it would be best to stick to dark chocolate instead of carob, but that’s just me.
who’d have thought! a delicious healthy cookie? yes! yes! yes!
with only a few ingredients and not a drop of butter or a dusting of flour, these incredibly moist and chewy and most importantly tasty cookies will impress your tastebuds.
ingredients from the website:
“Original Caveman Cookies are made with honey, almond meal, walnuts, raisins, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Tropical Caveman Cookies are made with almond meal, honey, unsulfured coconut, macadamia nuts, and ginger.
Alpine Caveman Cookies are made with honey, hazelnut meal, almond meal, and toasted ground carob.”
click here to learn more about caveman cookies and their provenance, and for more info on where to buy….

*i received a free sample of caveman cookies.*

this is New England, the husband always reminds me. no matter what the calendar says, nor how the crocuses are forcing their way out of the frozen soil, it hasn’t felt very much like springtime yet.
so instead of munching on crispy greens and light meals, we’re still chowing down on hot hearty stews and saucy entrees.

this wonderful large coffee table size cookbook by Jacques Pepin is my current food bible–and no i am not being compensated, haha, i am doing this out of pure admiration and of my own “free” will. in “Chez Jacques” he has simplified some classic recipes for us amateurs so that the once-intimidating boeuf Bourguignon which i’ve been longing to make all winter, is now accessible and easy to put together on a cold dreary Sunday for supper.

and in keeping with the theme of seeking cozy comfort in rich dark food…a new Classic dark chocolate layer cake recipe from “a Passion for baking”, by Marcy Goldman:
…iced with mocha whipped cream.

recipe for cake follows——> (more…)

we had an “appetizer and bubbly party”…

followed by a Belgian milk chocolate fondue, with fresh fruits and cookies and pound cake for dipping.
2010, i cannot remember you without crying.
2011, i welcome you, then.

it’s all about this…

not so much this,

nor this (homey eve’s dinner: beef rib roast, Yorkshire puddings, scalloped potatoes, green salad),

nor these:

almond cookie “logs”

crema de fruta

very nutty fruit cake. but they do make it all that much sweeter.

recipes willingly shared, in exchange for a sweet hello .

wishing everyone the best of the season…surrounded by loved ones and looking forward to the New Year.
my “Christmas card” for all:

*sniff sniff*

cooks, eats, plays with eggs. yup, that’s me.
quick quick you only got a half hour to do this! mine are still stoically standing.
hello autumn, the equinox is upon us.

my blog is about to turn 6 years old!
i can’t really fathom how time just zoomed by…i only know that i’m keen on trying to slow everything down. (my kids for sure are on the opposite track, wanting to speed it up and grow up and have their own adventures.)
i don’t do it often but sometimes when searching for old recipes here at home at baby rambutan, i catch a glimpse of my old blog posts and cringe at my writing. i’m even tempted to edit or altogether replace most of them! but of course that would be cheating, even though the primary reason i started writing was to just explore and ponder my own life, for myself alone. but i guess putting it out there, out where?–in public, in the virtual world, exposed my writing to the public eye….
it’s been a roller-coaster journey. i think that’s the best way to describe it, and i would not turn back anymore. i started out with a free service provider but it sure felt cramped in there; with the help of a good friend i transferred to a server with unlimited web hosting and that was the ticket to freedom. room to ponder, room to roam. no regrets! advanced happy blog anniversary, baby rambutan.

it’s not too late, there’s one more day to enjoy this truly amazing entertaining event….

music all around you…(this is a wonderful reggae band)

“voice singing”

belly dancing…

free stuff (iced DD dark roast coffee), among others

and food everywhere!