homemade vanilla extract

I first came across this idea from a Florida lady's blog. Later I found out that this has surfed around bloggers for a while. I never bought a real vanilla extract in my life, even though I baked a lot sometimes. I just couldn't see myself spend $20 for a small bottle when I can pay $2 for an imitated one.

I happened to have some vanilla pods on hand, but not the alcohol. Fortunately, certain brand vodka was on sale in the supermarket and it was a small bottle. After I finished all the labor work I realized that the alcohol content is too high. It supposed to be in between 37.5 (??)-40%. Well, since I am such an adventurous person and I am not in the mood of digging out all the pods. Next day I got the 40% vodka and made a small bottle. Let's see how these come out. Mystery will be solved after 8 weeks. 

The easy way to freeze tomatoes

If you read my previous article, then you know I have a fetish of using freezer. Somehow I never did on tomatoes until one winter I just bought way too much. I just cann't resisit the price, particularly during winter. I know I can do the canning, but I don't have that many cans on hand.

Basically, I did the whole nine yard things. Cut the corss on the bottomw of the tomatoes, put in a pot with boiling water, remove the tomatoes from the pot and immerge them into ice cold water. Then peel the skin off.

One day, I was talking to one of my customers and he said his cousin does that all the time when she has too many tomatoes coming from her garden. These tomatoes seem to ripe in the same time. She washes these tomatoes clean and put them in the freezer for later use when the tomatoes are $5 per pound during winter. Whenever needed, she put these tomatoes in hot water and peel the skin off.

just took out from the freezer

I cut crosses on the bottom of the tomatoes before I put them in the freezer. I find the tomatoes with crosses are much easier to peel the skin off than these without marks. But some luncky ones will crack themselves in the freezer without cuts. On the safe side, I prefer to spend few seconds to do the labor work.

the left one cracked itself in the freezer

cut side down in the water for easy handling

Soak the tomatoes in hot water just for few seconds. IThe skin is so eary to peel off, but the flesh is still frozen. I made tomato slushy once from the frozen tomatoes. Cutting them has to be very careful because they are hard to handle while frozen. 

Voila, mission accomplished!! These are ready for cooking.

weekend donut making

Last week my cute niece asked me if she and I can make donuts together over the weekend. We used Alex's recipe from foodtv after searching the internet. Despite the wacky appearance, the flavor was there. So we decided to make it again this weekend.

Left one is the failed churro. I spooned the dough into the hot oil. It's tasted like puff. The donut came out still good this time. I realized why it didn't work out well last time because we forgot to let the dough rise after cutting. The texture is denser than store bought airy donut, but less chewy than polish donut.

We also tried the oven method which I read from about. The donut with the hole in the middle came out better than the one without hole. The outside won't brown like deep-fried. It tasted in between bread and donut. Last week we add the cocoa powder, cinnamon powder and icing sugar topping. This week we just don't have enough leftovers for variations.

Someone just couldn't get her hand off the donuts.

kimchi pizza

The first time I made this pizza, everyone went crazy for it. The other kind I prepared for that day was simple marinara sauce with mushroom and veggie. In the end, no one actually touched the veggie pizza.

I learned my lesson. This time I only made one kind, kimchi pizza. It was so easy to make. How I came up with this dish? I like kimchi a lot. It's such a versatile pickle, or not. It can be stir-fried with meat and veggie, cooked in soup or stew with tofu and bean sprout, made into Korean pancake or just eaten alone as side dish. 

1/4 lb pork, sliced
1 tablespoon soy sauce, depends on the saltiness of the sauce or personal taste
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 slice of pineapple, chopped (or use 1 -2 tablespoons crushed pineapple)
1 tablespoon cooking wine
a dash of sugar (optional)

Marinade pork with all the seasonings few hours in advance, best for overnight. The pineapple will tenderize the meat. The meat portion can be made for 2 8-inch pizzas, at least for me. It depends how meaty you want your pizza to be.

Now, let the fun begin!

Spread the pork (together with the pineapple and garlic) on top of the pizza dough. I also sprinkle extra 1/4 cup pineapple. Then about 1/4 cup kimchi. Drip off the excess kimchi juice, but no need to squeeze dry. The kimchi juice kind served like tomato sauce in this case. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of cheese on top. I use mozzarella and cheddar mix. Bake in 450F oven for 15 minutes. Voila. Very tasty and yummy.

There are people claiming that pizza is unhealthy food. In this case, I don't see the unhealthy part. I can see it's not Atkins approved.