Finding Something To Do - Then DOING It.

"Crazy people who are productive are geniuses. Crazy people who are rich are eccentric. But crazy people who are neither productive nor rich are just crazy." -anonymous

My days of youtube, dramas, and sitcom watching are about to meet their near-end. Or as the mathematicians may say: approaching zero with the implication that it will never meet zero. Of course, I can't just throw all those habits away. They're addicting for a reason! -But in moderation, Kim! Moderation!- Work, School, home, naps, and staring into my laptop have been my daily activities. What kind of life is this? No more, I say!

Do some of you suffer from the same thing? For those who feel my pain, maybe we can embark on this journey of productivity together :)

About Me

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Born in the year of the goat; I am like a goat, and I travel through life towards a journey that'll one day bring me home. Towards an unknown place of innate comfortability and peace.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wonton Soup Time! -and some tips on seasoning

Here's another one of my college recipes. That is my broken printer in the background, lolz.
Inspiration comes from Madre!
The way my mom taught me to cook was never by cups or teaspoons. Just by eye. Because of this, I never cook with anything but my eye and chopsticks; and don't really know how to describe the recipe quantitatively. Just a lil' bit o' this and a lil' bit o' that!
The Recipe:
2 cans Chicken Broth
1 can water
some ground beef 
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves garlic
some vegetables you want to eat in soup
(lettuce, cilantro, mushrooms, etc)
wonton wrap
Salt, sugar, pepper, msg, soy sauce

Direction:
1) Sauteed the onions until soft in some light oil
2) throw in as much ground beef as you desire to eat
3) throw in some seasoning and mix the meat/onion/garlic mix liberally
4) I like to add the broth/water when the meat is about half way cooked or else the beef might get a little tough and overcooked
5) Add the veges
6) There are different ways you can add the wonton wraps. For either way, separate the stack into individual wraps. 

If you're feeding multiple people, it's better to boil the wonton noodle wrap separately so each can have any portion they want. If eating for yourself or another, for convenience I would just throw it in there!

Since I made this awhile ago, I really don't remember how much of what I used. I apologize!! Haha... I just realized this right now. I think there are four spices I use in every dish. Can you guess? Salt, pepper, sugar, msg. 
Yes I know you may think "Oh my goodness, MSG is so bad for you!!" Idk... I'm fine with it. If you don't like it you can omit it. That goes along with any recipe, though. Since who is eating it?-probably you. Regardless, I guess the rule is just to keep in mind your audience or consumers.

Also note: I should have said this earlier but I'm not sure if what I call MSG is even that. Okay, I just looked it up. What I use in Vietnamese is called "Bot Nem" which is mushroom seasoning-which contains msg according to my sister. My mom has always told me that adding it enhances the natural vege flavor so I use it lol...
I think the best way to describe when to use this seasoning is when you want to mellow out a flavor. Instead of having a sharp salty or sweet taste, you can mellow it out by adding some "Bot Nem."

Also note on the seasoning process: I think this is generally a trial and error method of cooking until you can almost guess-timate. But if you add two things that are salty, you generally want to add a little less in that amount of sugar to balance the flavor. Something like that helps to think of how much to put. More times than not, a dish can in some way be 'fixed'. And if not, you just have to suck it up and eat it with a lot of rice :P