Gumbo

One of Brett's favorite foods is gumbo or jambalaya. This is sort of his favorite Cajun meal. I never had this before I met him although I have lived in the South for some time. The first time I had gumbo was at Cheesecake factory. It was very good, but a little pricey, I thought. It is quite easy to make once I consulted with my Rachel Ray cook book :) I made it for the first time a year ago. The second time it tasted much better. [Brett's note:  Chummy thought the first one was too spicy but I freakin' loved it.  Besides, the first one turned out more like jambalaya and the second one a bit more like gumbo.  Both excellent; both would be welcomed again.]  I didn't follow the cook book line by line. I add and omit some stuff according to my preference. I love it much better this time :) It cost the same or less what we paid to eat a Cheesecake factory and still had a lot of leftovers.

I think the most important thing about this was the use of spices. It needs to be spicy and flavorful. I used onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, parsleys, cumin, red chili sauce, and of course lots of Creole seasoning :) I found that adding a half cup of milk really made the juice taste a little bit creamier and rich since I didn't use chicken broth earlier.

Also, we must have lots of shrimps and spicy sausage to make gumbo taste the way gumbo taste like in the South :) Maybe one day Brett and I get to go visit friends there and will eat the real stuff.

Labor day weekend update

Another lazy week for me; I really need to catch up with my blogging business. How was your Labor Day weekend? We had a great time. Brett and I bought a new couch for a great deal from the Overstock.com (OSTK) warehouse on employee night. Now, we have some seating in the family room. I also bought a bar table that matches my 2 bar stools I got a while ago, also from OSTK warehouse. They will be set in my basement. I'm so excited to completely furnish the house. I will definitely share some pictures of my hard work :)

On Saturday, Brett went to the BYU vs. UW football game while I went to Swiss Days in Midway with my mother- and sisters-in-law. It was a fun experience since I've never heard of Swiss Days before. I brought my camera and took some pictures of the event.

It was such a lovely day in Midway. There was so many people there, it was so crazy.

A shop that was selling pets' stuff and baby's clothes. It's funny how they have to specify that this shirt is for humans.

We saw so many jewelry shops.

Silk dress shop

I thought these Christmas ornaments were so darling. Too bad, I forgot to get some. Well, we will have to go back soon :)

On Sunday, we went to Matt's baby's blessing. It was in a Japanese ward in Sugarhouse. This is his second baby. He's really cute waring a little white tuxedo. Matt works in the same team with Brett. They seem to get along well, haha :) I'm jealous because they get to see each other 10 hours a day and 5 days a week on average. I don't even get to see Brett that much. Yeah, they keep joking about it as they're introducing how we know each other. Matt has the coolest wife and coolest extended family that is like a small version of the United Nations.

On Monday, I woke up early for a day off and spent my day working on the yard. I did some weeding and planting new shrubs and flowers. Hopefully, it will be looking good next spring. I've been reading on how fall gardening could help prepare for a beautiful spring blossom. I'm so excited for that. I hope our garden will survive the excessive weed & feed I spread to prevent them from growing back. Before we had people come and mow our lawn, the weeds in our yard (both front & back) went up to my knees. They were wild. Yeah, I also spent lot of my time spraying them with weed killer. Now, my whole body is sorer than ever, I've been walking a little funny. Way to celebrate Labor Day doing some really hard labor, haha.

Rice noodles stir fry

One day I was craving for some Thai pad see ew so I decided to experiment with it. I didn't have a lot of ingredients and was not really sure how to make it. Without consulting too much from the internet, I just threw something together really quick. It turned out ok, but not quite the same taste I expected; however it tasted more like pad thai :) Next time, I will try it with other spices and sauces to make it more like Pad see ew.

Veggies: carrots, bean sprouts, frozen green peas. As you see I made a lot and actually only used half of this for the noodles.

Noodle: I didn't bother with fresh noodles, it's hard to get here so I used the dried noodles from a bag I bought from Hong Phat Market.

Chicken: 3 - 4 chicken breasts cut into thin slices

I also cooked the chicken separately in olive oil, 1 tsp of soy sauce, and 1 tsp of brown sugar.

Mix 3/4 of the chicken with cooked veggies first, then I added the noodles, cilantro, green onion, and scramble eggs. I also added 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of hoisin sauce, 1/2 tbs of brown sugar, and 1 tsp of sweet chili sauce for more taste :)

I prefer to have some extra chicken on the side to eat with sweet chili sauce.

Bacon wrap zucchini

Really, not much effort is needed to put in making this but it was definitely tasty. I love bacon and so does Brett. This way I can make Brett eat more veggies. YumYum

First I cooked zucchini in some olive oil until it is tender. As I wrapped bacon around I recommend to use a toothpick to secure them together, otherwise they will fall a part. The last step is to cook them either on the stove top or broil them in the oven for about 7 mins or until the bacon turns brown.

On the same day, I made some yummy cinamon apples like the one from Famous Dave's. It was pretty simple, you just need some butter, honey, maple syrup, pomegranate redwine vinegar, brown sugar, a little bit of salt, and of course cinamon sugar :) All that creates a sweet tasty treat for any day.