Legend of Fall Series II (Squash)-- Green day meets Special K

Super Super Super Happy, eventually finished the whole project , and I am so surprised that 'green day' pumpkin can stay longer than I thought to meet Special K . Congratualtion ,  You made it!

Inspiration:

I think when green day meets Special K,  somehting magical must happen. So some imags came to my mind: red grenade jumps out the guitar and the guitar is about to fly!

------Under constructon ------

  

------Finish it up------

------The guard of my house------

------"Hello ,World !" ------

  

------When Green Day meets Special K...

Legend of Fall(Squash)--My ahamoments

Buttercup Squash, bacon Spinach Kizza with sage garlic cream (uncharacteristic)

"What is an aha moment? It's a moment of clarity, a defining moment where you gain real wisdom - wisdom you can use to change your life. Whether big or small, funny or sad, they can be surprising and inspiring."

----www.ahamoment.com

--Just give it a kickoff, you would find out how much you love it

I have so many things going one, I cook, I draw, I carve, I run.. I never expected my life is so colorful and enjoyfully busy. Actually they all started from some momentary ideas, it was just I didn't let them go but gave them a try. A little try is much easier than you thought, it doesn't need your a lot of time and work for the commitment. It is just a try. You never know how much you would  enjoy it , how much surprise you would give to yourself.

--The  magic of encouragement

I get to used to hear completments from my friends, and I even started to assume it as gratuitous, didn't feel too much special about that. But one thing that happened recently changed my thought. It was about my 'Green day' pumpkin carving. My friend( the Supporter) appeared avery amazed and kept saying it was so impressive after seeing my first draft, I was super  happy with the endorsement. And then I showed them to some other friends, very unexpectedly, they said it was an ugly and scary pumpkin. I was almost crushed at that moment, felt like losing all the energy keep working on it , then I turned to my supporter, and got some amusing words that suddenly lift up my head( 'it is a halloween pumpkin, it is supposed to be ugly and scary') so that I was able to finish it and make my idea come true.

Now I almost finished the second carved pumpkin, and I realized how important those encouraging words are, which made me be able to work confidently so that I could get my inspiration flowing. This is the magic of encouragement, some simple little words( like 'good job', 'impressive'...) could bring others so much pleasure as well as helped them make their dream come true.

I should do that... and you , keep doing that , please :)

This is a very uncharacteristic kizza, using pita instead of nannbread, with squash, and spinach no mozzarella.
But I just like buttercup squash, especially the green skin round one. People that love squash all have a kind of concern that would we turn orange??

Cream sauce:
minced fresh sage, cream, sugar or maple syrup( if the cream is unsweetened), garlice(minced), chicken broth.
Saute garlic with butter --> add chicken broth and cream--> add sage,sugar-->let it boil-->add starch to make it thick
Topping:
Roasted buttercup squash, bacon, spinach
Kizza:
it's better to be direcly on the rack, 400F 5min .( I used toaster oven)
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and sping onion

Legend of Fall(Squash)-- Hey, we miss your smile

Spaghetti Squash+ Shredded Chicken with Korean Spicy/Sweet Sauce

The motivation to smile:

It was actually a while ago, one day, a friend at work gtalked to me, said I was one of few people that smiled at work and they missed that. Beside flattered, I felt guilty at that moment, because I hadn't smiled for long. I think my friend must be very disappointed if he got to know I didn't smile too much during that time. So I just turned around and smiled at myself in the mirror. And from then on, when I am rushing around, I will remember to stop for a second and make a smile, because I know there might be some people somewhere talking about gaogao, the girl who likes smile'. It is such a pleasant fact that can make me smile itself and as well as it turns out to be a motivation for me to smile at the life...

Theorem about happiness:

Lemma: Doing exercises is a treatment for weeping , because tears will be transferred to sweater and be taken out from your body. Based on the lamma, it can be inferred that people that do exercises regularly tend not to to cry very much, therefore: people that do exercises are happier!

(I like this deduction!)

Does that also mean people are more tough in the summer than in the winter?

Recommended medication:

Deep breath + ice cream, and ...............................cook

Then magically, you will find you can smile again.

This is a spaghetti squash topped with Korean chili sauce chicken.

After I made hot chili chicken, I looked up many Chinese website and tried to find out the best way to stir –fried meat, so this dish is for experimenting.

Actually the way I did it last time is not very correct, but it still turned out good.

The correct way is :

1. Rinse the meat in the starch water+wine, but NOT dry flour. It will help to keept the juice in the meat, while dry flour/ starch will absorb more water from meat.

2. Heat the wok until very hot

3. Pour into enough oil, so that meat can swim in it( it sounds greasy but you don’t have to eat all the oil)

4. Heat the oil to medium temperature but NOT very hot. Then add the meat, and let the meat and the oil heated together. Other wise, under a high temperature the outside of the meat is cooked right away but inside still takes some time , and then the outside will be dried out.

5. Take meat out and sit aside.

Korean Chili Sauce:

Korean sauce can be identified solely by the color of the box, no language required 

Red: Spicy, used for bibimbap

Green : Not spicy, used as BBQ dip sauce( not marinade)

Yellow: Soybean paste

This sauce has: red/green/yellpw box sauce, sugar, a little bit wine, ginger, scallion, garlic, oyster sauce(I don't have it on hand)
Cooking :

When everything is ready.
1. Cook chicken->, take them out, put it on the side
2. Cook garlic/ginger/some red color vegetable(red pepper, carrot)(I didn't have it on hand) , add sauce
3. Put chicken back
4. Quick stir, done

Spaghetti squash: Put garlic in the squash, spread with olive oil, then bake them together,(Garlic lover, you know what happened in the kitchen, right?)  about 30-40min

After it’s done, cool aside, mix with sesame oil and scallion before serving.

Legend of Fall(Squash)--Green day will meets...

I think it is also about winter squash, and the giant one: pumpkin, although I didn't work in the kitchen, no doubt it is part of the kitchen. But I swear I didn't eat the discarded part. 
It is the pumpkin that colores fall orange, isn't it?

Inspiration....

It is actually my second pumpkin after I came to the States, and I did want to so something different.

The original idea is about ?? ( it will be revealed later) but it is not cool to carve ?? on the pumpkin. Then something heavy metal came to my mind, but it looks difficult, so at the end, I thought of 'Green Day'...

It is the cover of green day's album(21 center breakdown), the background is the flame and it is orange, the other parts are black. This is coincidently  how a carved pumpkin works after lighted up in the dark. Wonderful!

Supporter...

It is still a challenging project, so I think I need someone to support me. So  when I feel weak or unconfident,  I will have someone to make a complain to. It is such a best choice, because my frinend gave me so much encouragement, and really can understand what I am going to do. (ps: it is one that's carved an orange pepper)

Thank you, my friend

Tool and Design:

I wish I could have some proffessionl ones  to make me work easier. And if I have the right tool, I can do the inner surface to make it as the brick wall.

Finished under the light:

It is ugly.. But ..

Light it up :

Well, it starts to get dried out and collapse,  so sad. But we will see:

Green Day will eventually meet whom??

Legend of Fall Series II(squash) -- Let me cook for you [Assignment]

Hot Chilli Chicken in Squash Bowl

I read something about ' if the food is prepared for you, it will be extremely delicious ', and it just reminded me Mommy's food, those kizzas, chicken and super handmade dumplings... yes they were, not only I could taste it but also I could feel the attention and affection in it , and the good taste as well as the feeling of being loved both will be lasting. And that is also the reason that I don't quite like buying food from stores, especially after I saw them preparing the food in a very casual way, ( I guess they are complaining the time passes so slowly) so the taste in my imaginations was already degraded. Well, I understand them, they are serving hundreds of people everyday and to some point, it was just a job. But without any reason, I just believe the happy single Executive Chef in the Friendly was full of passion , making sandwich, quesadilla, sundae and all kinds of friendly food, I feel happy for those customers that could enjoy his work.

So, every time, when I cook, I will imagine cooking for you, you , and you, and let my food achieve the most top level of gourmet:

every bite has the taste of Love

This is an assignment based on JoJo Taibei's Hot chilli chiken. I was amazed when I had the first bite, it is such a hit to add (A LOT) cilantro to balance the spicy, no wonder it is the start food in that restaurant, (of course, thanks to the genius foodie that ordered this for us). I had wanted to make it for long, but not sure if I was really busy or just a slacker, I never go to Chinatown to get Chinese hot chilli sauce(剁椒).

Until recently, I accidently found this guy, very similar to Chinese hot sauce, so I gave it a try. But in fact, they are not the same, to make Chinese hot chilli sauce, it also uses some alcohol for fermentation , so it comes with more flavor, and it is sweeter.

It is actually  very simple to make your own and it is fresher and much much more healthy than the one from stores, which could be in my age.

Scientific Fact:

When vegetable are brined (like pickle~~), and the process is actually to produce nitrate, and the longer it is brined, the higher the nitrates contains. So, eat fresh and drink green tea.

Squash bowl: brushed with bacon grease, sprinkle sweet paprika, bake until tender.

Hot chili chicken:

The secrete to stir-fried meat in Chinese cuisine is: Hot Wok, Quick Work,

1. Pat diced chicken with flour(or meat tenderizer) , mix in scallion or minced arlic or minced ginger, depends on what flavor you want to emphasis.

2. Heat enough oil in the wok, until it is hot enough, quickly stir fried chicken until 80-90% done.

3. Take them out of the wok, then you can cook other things, like vegetables and make sauce. For this hot chili chicken, I used medium heat to saute garlic , then adjust to high heat, add cilantro and hot chili pepper, the next step is season, adding soy sauce and sugar( important)

4. Put chicken back to the wok, stir a bit, and it is done

This is my submission, which I cooked specially for YOU ^_^

Legend of Fall Series II (Squash)-- it snows, (frustrated by unsatisfying pics)

Ravioli with Orange Scent Carnival Squash Sauce

It really surprised everyone, by the greeting from big pieces of snowflakes. I guess most people are cuddling at home watching this show offered by fall. When I caught the first sight of those big snowflakes, just rushed to facebook to broadcast this significant event. But after I published my excitement,  realized I was almost the last one to see it, > <
Well it starts snowing, which means it's time for gaogao to go out to start her snowbuddy projects, this winter, keep an eye on it, don't miss a signle one, I promise it will please you and help you to fight the winter despression, aza za fighting!

In my imagination, the winter squash should go perfectly with bacon, I was going to make bacon cup filled with squash hash, but I don't have two small muffin pans to make bacon cups, so I came up with some pasta dishes. I looked up online and found very interesting butternut squash filling ravioli with orange butter, I believe the winter squash sauce will amaze me by orange flavor. Since I am not ready to make my own pasta, so I used something from store, the filling was actually doesn;t go well with orange scent squash sauce, but the sauce itself is really wonderful, further, it can become a soup or a pasta filling.

And I also found sage loves bacon, so I pan fried the sage leaves in bacon grease, then sauté squash and onion, besides chicken broth, I added orange juice and orange scent oil( the one I got from Seattle) , then suddenly, the orange scent diffused around the house, felt like in the heaven with lovely oranges. After squash got cooked, I added a little bit cream and maple syrup, then used blender to make it into a sauce.

Without beans, it is hard to get that creamy texture. But maybe for the orange flavor, it is better to go light? Anyway the orange sent sweetness combine with bacon flakes and those barriers, it is a hit for sure !

<---Squash report--->

Canival squash

More creamy than butternut squash, after baked, the skin tastes good as well

Legend of Fall Series II -- Let us warm you up!

 Whit Bean  Butternut Squash Soup

It looks like this year, the winter can't wait until fall finishes its glory and just sneaks in, so when you are wandering along the Charles' River, enjoying the full color of mid-autumn, you can only obtain the warmth from the vision. Although I am amazed by the people that are still in shirts or shorts, I just put on my big coat and hide my face in the scarf. But when I see those little flowers are still blooming in the chilly wind, I can’t help questioning myself, “Should I be more tough?” I really don’t know…

It is often the appearance of squash, pumpkins that reminds me Halloween is coming! Actually in the early September, stores already put up boards with ‘Limited Time, Pumpkin….”, I like seeing those pumpkins flavor coffee, cake, pie…and they often come with cinnamon, nutmeg…it makes me feel like relaxing around the fireplace in the holiday, and they are orange, the color you like, spontaneously my heat will smile.

So let those lovely orange sweetie warm us up! It is a soup.
Ingredient: butternut squash(1), white bean(1 can), red onion(1 medium or smaller), butter
Maple syrup(1/8 cup), nugmet, sage(4-6 leaves), chicken broth (3cups or so)
After boil until butternut squash gets cooked, process in a blender.
I garnished it using fried sage leaves.

I guess I will be more savory if come with butter sage croutons, I might try it when I have guests.
But it is already ‘WOW’ed me, the subtle sweet brought by maple syrup, the creamy texture brought by the white beans, sage and nugmet are perfect machted her. It is really some kind of soup that can make you lip the plate.
I did some research about butternut squash soup, there are many versions, besides this subtle sweet version , there is also a curry flavor which often can be find in grocery, also something like squash+apple, squash+pear+, squarsh+apple+carrot , all sounds interesting.
Since it is going to be my regular soup for this fall , I think I can definitely try them all.
Also, I would like to try different kinds of squash in person, to see the differences of the flavors, textures, and make my own squash notes.