Le Lootage

Just Another Chapter

in the continuing adventures of the usage of the lootage from the Dallas Trip, in our meals.. Hurrah!

Lotus Root





I grew up with this made into Lotus Root Soup, but this time I thought I'd use it in a "dry" form with some stir fried chicken to give it some yummy crunch.




KangKong aka. Water Spinach





Stir Fried Noodles





Sour Mustard soup with Tofu aka. Kiam Chai Tng/Ham Choy Tong






Sliced Thai Chili/Chili Padi





Some of the other loot(age) which had also been gotten to are the Salted Eggs









And a Bak Chang/Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Pork and Mung Bean Paste

So What's for Dinner?

I had bought a couple of different types of Won Ton noodles at the Asian Market the other day, and I thought we'd better have some before they start to go....

So we whipped up some blanched/stirfried asparagus,




5 spice powder chicken with "tofu pok" ( fried tofu )




The aforementioned "wide" wonton noodles.




and Won Ton soup.

West Texas Traffic

It's harvest time..

The wheat had turned the fields into seas of gold a week or so back, and the combines were out there in force, even getting onto the highway!

In spots, even in the far-off horizon, there would be the telltale plume of brown wheat dust as the combines worked and worked to harvest the wheat.

A Trip and some Loot

Last Tuesday, we made a trip to Dallas

for David's annual checkup. The doctor's visit itself was rather uneventful other than the fact that his former doctor had ?retired and so David was now under the care of someone new, and whose office is in a different building.

Seeing how it was a 3+ hour trip one way, I tried to make sure we had whatever we needed on hand in case of a toddler meltdown situation. One of the things that we try never to go anywhere without these days, is our little ASUS Eee computer that has all the little boy's favorite shows.

We got there a little early, so daddy helped the little boy stretch his legs out a little bit before he had to be confined in a stroller again when it was time for the appointment.

Then it was off to the Garland area to pick up some stuff, and hey presto, we stumble upon a sort of ChinaTown.

We had some yummy noodles for a quick lunch before heading over to Hong Kong Market Place for some long pent up shopping. Turns out we had chanced upon one of the bigger Asian markets around.

It didn't exactly smell like a bed of roses in there, but I was too excited to find all kinds of things there to be too bothered by it. Yes, I know it sounds like I've been quite deprived. Oh well.

Our next stop after that was Costco, on the way home, where we had a "Dinner" of Pizza, Salad and Very Berry Sundae.

This is the little boy asking "More Mama, PLEASE!" with regards to the Very Berry Sundae. :)

The little boy was such a trooper during the whole trip. Considering that he was strapped into his car seat for that many hours to and fro, he was very good about it. Sure, there was the occasional flare up and the pleading of "up, mama, up" ( asking to be picked up, out of the seat ), but he was soon distracted by the different things we brought for that purpose, and of course, his videos. :)

I've put away the things we got at the Asian grocer, and have cooked some of them, and hopefully will have some documented on the blog soon :).

A Mother's Day Miracle :)

Judith had the whole family over at her home for Mother's Day,

and usually, all the little boys are running around in all directions playing and running and generally being little boys...

making it super difficult to get them all in the same frame at the same time.

So when we managed to get all of them AND some other cousins in a photograph where they are ALL LOOKING the SAME DIRECTION and no one was screaming their head off, it qualified as a small miracle :)

Now that's a good looking bunch of kids :)

Letti Thursday x2

Do the Mashed Potato

Here's what we had this week and last.


Part One

BBQ Ribs

Squash

4 Cheeses Mashed Potatoes

Blueberry Pie

Part 2

Chicken Fried Chicken





Mashed Potatoes with Cheese, Chives and Sour Cream





Italian Flat Beans

Saturday Excursion with Grandad

Our first stop a couple of weeks ago, was Cindy's office at Cisco College, where she had been teaching for close to 20 years, I believe. Since the new Abilene campus opened in 2004, Grandad had not been to see where Cindy works.

As it was a Saturday, the campus was closed, but Cindy usually goes to her office to get some work done, papers graded, etc. Because of that, she had to wait by the side door to open it for us. Of course, when the little boy saw Cindy, he just exploded with joy :) Especially when he knew that there were TOYS in her office :)

Grandad had been looking forward to this visit and we were glad that we were able to plan it for him.

Of course, the little boy took it upon himself to explore the empty hallways, and momma ( and later joined by Cindy ) had to "explore" along with him.

After a really fun visit with Cindy, we drove off to nearby Merkel, to the Texas Forest Services command center for all the recent fires in the region.

We were quite amazed with the huge fleet of different types of vehicles that had been assembled there to fight the fires that had been ravaging over a million and a half acres of West Texas land.