Like my fellow gardeners, I’ve been studying numerous seed catalogs lately. I made my first order yesterday and am now looking forward to starting some seeds in the garage. There is still work to be done in order to set up my indoor seed-starting setup. I have a flourescent lamp that I will hang up over the seed starting trays. I am also thinking about how to keep them warm.

In previous years, I did not invest as much time into starting seeds but I think that having starts to set out in the garden helps to improve the yield. With the cooler springs that we’ve been having, the seedlings do need some help.

Here are some of what I’m planting this year:

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato

Momotaro Tomato

Jimmy Nardello Peppers

Millionaire Eggplant

I am trying my hand at growing some sun-loving crops. I hope that the south-facing troughs that we put in last August will be a happy spot for them. I ordered the seeds from Territorial Seed Company who are the experts on what grows well in the PNW.

I go back and forth with eating yogurt in the morning. Actually, it’s not about the yogurt, it’s more about variety. I will have cereal and soy milk for 2 weeks, then drop that whole idea until months later.

When we were at the store late last week, Mike picked up some yogurt for himself. He had asked if I wanted to select some flavors that I would like. I was just not interested. I guess that was last week because today, I pulled out one of the yogurts he had bought.

In the dim refrigerator light, I saw ‘strawberry’, ‘cow’ and ‘cream top’. That sounded rich, inviting and fitting for the 3rd day of Chinese New Year.

I must now say that this is the best yogurt I have ever tasted. The layer of cream on the top is brilliant. You have the option to eat the cream separately or blend it all in for a good rich mix but I stirred it in ever so slightly. The result is strawberry yogurt with chunks of cream. Heaven.

Try it if you haven’t.

Lately, I’ve been making soup in the dutch oven that I got for Christmas. Last week, there was Italian sausage and black bean soup. Today, I made Potato, Kale and Kielbasa (Polish sausage) soup. It was a simple recipe that I put together based on a traditional Portuguese Potato and Kale soup. I’ve decided to make soup one day per week for the rest of this season to try out new recipes and soup makes good leftovers.

Ingredients
1 kielbasa (Polish sausage), cut into rounds
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
3 cups water, hot
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 bunch kale (I used dinosaur kale), sliced thinly
sprinkle or 2 smoked paprika

Brown sausage in hot pan with some olive oil until it gets brown. The brown bits on the bottom of the pan makes this soup tasty. Once browned, add onion and carrot. Saute till soften and caramel-y. Add garlic, brown a little then add stock and hot water. Add potato slices and kale, bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until kale and potato soften. Season with salt and pepper according to taste.

Serve with crusty bread.

This goes out to my family and friends in Singapore and all parts of Asia who welcomed the new year tonight with a reunion dinner. This evening, we are going to my brother’s for a lovely reunion dinner – I’m looking forward to a fun spread.

For my part, I’m bringing pineapple tarts, love letters and kueh lapis (without the layers!). More pictures of my dessert/sweet platter later.

Gong Xi Fa Cai
Wan Shi Ru Yi
Shen Ti Jian Kang
Bu Bu Gao Sheng!

We were in Vancouver last weekend and bought a bag of these Canadian Fair Trade coffee beans from Kicking Horse Coffee.

I have to admit that I wanted to try the coffee partially because of its name – Kick Ass but it is a really good dark roast.

It was a great way to start my Friday. I’m glad it’s going to be the weekend but am a little stressed that I have not bought any oranges for Chinese New Year. That will change tonight!

My folks have returned to SG but I want to wish them a very happy and healthy anniversary! They’ve been together for a good long time and are a constant inspiration to any couple. Here they are in my mum’s favorite part of the trip we took last year – in a small town along the Portugal coast.

Happy Anniversary, ma & da!

A lunch time walk took me to Whole Foods. I can never resist wandering through the aisles. My intention was to get away from the awful spreadsheet I’d been staring at all morning. Get away, I did.

Toting some curry chicken and rice in a box, I looked through the chilled beverage section for an interesting new libation. When my eyes found the words “Chrysanthemum” and “Lightly Sweetened” on one of the bottles, I did not hesitate to pick it up.

I haven’t heard about Cha Dao until today. I am a little embarassed because there was a time when I would have been one of the first to try a new tea product.

After the curry rice lunch, I opened the bottle and took a taste. It was perfect and refreshing, just like home-brewed chrysanthemum tea that mum always made for us. I read more on the label and the word “Singapore” caught my eye. It turns out that the founder hails from Singapore and has a tea-brewing company right here in Seattle.

I thought, what serendipity!

Thank you, Ghim, for creating a line of teas that remind me of flavors so familiar to me! The next on my list is the Yin Yang (a unique blend of coffee and tea) and the Jasmine Green Tea with Lemon.

He also writes that the chrysanthemum is a perfect summer drink – I think it was perfect with my curry lunch and my tropical soul.

I learned to make potato latkes when I first came to the States. It’s true that I’ve had some version of a potato pancake before that but they were not the same.

Last week, I found some parsnips in my CSA box and was determined to find a recipe for it, other than just roasting them in maple. I wanted them to be more than just a sweet and stronger flavored carrot (since they are cousins). I wanted them to take on a savory role. This recipe that I found in Epicurious was the perfect use of these parsnips.

Yield: Makes about 12 latkes
Active Time: 20 min
Total Time: 35 min

Ingredients
1 large russet (baking) potato (8 to 10 oz)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 medium parsnips (1 lb total), peeled and coarsely grated
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Accompaniment: applesauce and/or sour cream
Special equipment: a thin (fine-weave) kitchen towel

Method
Preheat oven to 250°F.

Peel potato and coarsely grate into a bowl. Add lemon juice and toss to combine. Place potato on towel, then gather up corners to form a sack and twist tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible (Important step if not your latkes will be soggy). Stir potato together with parsnips, flour, eggs, chives, salt, and pepper until combined well. (I added lots of white and black pepper because I like it that way!)

Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Fill a 1/4-cup measure three-fourths full with latke mixture and carefully spoon it into skillet, then flatten to 3 inches in diameter with a slotted spatula. Form 3 more latkes in skillet, then cook until golden, about 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Transfer latkes with spatula to paper towels to drain. Keep warm on a rack set in a shallow baking pan in oven. Make more latkes in same manner, in batches of 4, with remaining mixture. (Try to make smaller latkes so that they crisp up better. Also because they stay warm in the oven, they also crisp up even more.)

I’m very much looking forward to my pre-dinner snack tonight when these go into the toaster oven to crisp up.

Christmas brought some additions to the kitchen and now I am looking for a good kitchen side cart so that I can keep my counters as clear as possible. It is a constant battle to keep it clutter free. I want something that has some drawers for linen and maybe a closed section for hiding some of the appliances but I can’t seem to find one with those features and of the right style and size. The search continues.

Here are the additions: We received a new convection toaster oven from my folks – great for heating up pastries and made Welsh Rarebit.

My very first enameled dutch oven in my favorite color from ML. We already made split pea and ham soup with leftover ham bones from the holiday supper.

Another useful addition was from A & F, they got me one of these turbo convection cookers. They have been using it for a long time and I’ve always been meaning to get one. I guess they got tired of me just meaning to get one and never really getting one. *grin* I lined the glass bowl with foil so that cleanup is easy. I’ve already used it 3 times since I got it.

I roasted a 5.5 lb chicken at 400 deg F for 50 mins and it was perfectly succulent. I also broiled the sticky sweet spareribs and those turned out great. Last night, I reheated some lemongrass meatballs (M*Stewart & Costco) and served them up for dinner.

One final change I made to the kitchen was this cool vintage ‘Eat’ sign in my favorite color, of course.

Happy New Year everyone! Things are getting back to normal here at Scarlett – Christmas decorations are getting ready to be switched out (I usually leave them up for 12 days of Christmas) with the Chinese New Year decorations. Sploshes of red will fill my already red-centered decorations and this year, the Chinese New Year begins on Jan 26. I hope to do more this year, maybe bake traditional goodies and cook lucky-named dishes. But more on that later!

For now, I am re-reading Nigella’s books and last night, I made these Sweet Sticky Spare Ribs. The marinade made the ribs delicious but I think it is a little lacking in salt. The next time I make this, I will probably sprinkle some kosher salt and a splash (1 tbsp) of soy sauce. This is reminiscent of the deliciously sweet ribs you find at Asian BBQ places but this one was less sweet and had good flavor. I will definitely make this again.

Sticky Sweet Spareribs by Nigella Lawson 

Ingredients

• 4 fluid ounces (125 ml) Thai or Chinese sweet chili sauce
• 2 fluid ounces (60 ml) cranberry sauce (from a jar)
• 2 fluid ounces (60 ml) dark sweet soy sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 clementine, juice and sliced rind
• 1 lime, juice and sliced rind
• 15 to 20 pork spare ribs

Directions
Place all the ingredients into a large freezer bag and mix well. Seal the bag and place it on a dish so that it can lie flat. Transfer the bag to the fridge and leave overnight to marinate.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Remove the ribs from the fridge and transfer them from the freezer bag to a roasting tin and cover loosely with aluminum foil. (I don’t add all the marinade to the roasting tin because I want the ribs to get caramelized and sticky). Transfer the roasting tin to the oven. Cook the ribs in the oven for 1 hour, turning them over after 30 minutes.

Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and remove the foil from the roasting tin. (If at this point your ribs are still sitting in a lot of liquid, drain some of the liquid into a bowl and continue cooking.) Cook for a further 15 to 30 minutes, or until the ribs are sticky and cooked through. (The liquid can be reduced on the stove to make a nice sauce.)

To serve, place the ribs onto a large serving plate. (I served them with rice, the gravy and marinated tomato wedges.)

Marinated Tomato Wedges

I sliced up some tomatoes into wedges, drizzled some olive oil and some Adobo seasoning with cumin. If you don’t have Adobo seasoning, you should think about getting some but as a substitute, some ground cumin, dried oregno and garlic/onion powder will do. Adobo seasoning has salt so if you are not using it, add a little salt as well.