Strawberry Ice Cream

There's nothing like strawberry and cream.  It's truly a combination made in heaven.   Nowadays we get luscious ripe strawberries in the middle of the summer thanks to modern farming technology so what the heck, gotta take advantage! We chanced upon a bonanza of sun ripened long stemmed strawberries and swopped them all up.  Whoopee!  What a grab!  

Just the thing to make one of our favorite homemade fruit ice creams, the absolutely delectable classic known as Strawberry Ice Cream 士多啤梨雪糕.  I know, I know, everyone's had strawberry ice cream a million times already.  But trust me, you haven't had strawberry ice cream until you've made some fresh for yourself at home!

Rainbow Finger Jello

Lazy, slow and hot summer days...looking for ways to fill the endless time, desperate for ways to cool yourself down.  Jumping into a blue, blue square of pool, water splashes high into the hot, hot air.  Tearing greedily into an ice cold slice of the reddest, sweetest watermelon you ever had.  Running squealing with happiness through the sprinklers on a green patch of lawn.  Catching the rainbow in the air as you jump high through the cool water.  

And best of all, having some of the most yummilicious summer treats of all, those cool, wobbly, translucent blobs of pure glowing color that you can hold in your fingers and bite right through and let slide down, cool and sweet, right into your tummy.  Rainbow Finger Jello is summer in a bite...the magic of rainbows cast into jingly, wobbily delicious life as a cool, fun to play with and super easy to make jello-y summer treat. 

Stir Fried Ketchup Shrimp 茄汁蝦碌

We love shrimp!  It's got to be one of our favorite seafood items of all times.  What's there not to like, fresh shrimp is the most amazingly, succulently sweet meat that has an amazing crunchy yet tender bite to it.  

We have to careful when eating shrimp, however, as my little girl and I both struggle with eczema and shrimp unfortunately is one of those things that can cause the skin itchies.  But boy, oh, boy do I enjoy it the every once in a while we allow ourselves to indulge.  

This time around we made one of my childhood favorite stir fried shrimp dishes, the delectable Stir Fried Ketchup Shrimp, or 茄汁蝦碌.  This shrimp dish is sooo good that you'll find yourself licking the plate clean (like I do every time!)

Lychee Time of the Year! 荔枝 - 糯米糍

Hey everyone,  the Queen is back, it's lychee time of the year!  Those gorgeous, sexy, succulent, rose tinged fruits of the the Chinese summer.  Lychee is one of our favorite summer fruits, so juicy, so luscious, so distinctive in taste that 'lychee' has become a flavor in its own right.  

We have noticed the lychee's appearance for a couple of weeks, a bit small and green tinged at first, and we've been waiting for them to get bigger and rosier.  Well, we finally went for a batch yesterday and boy, oh boy, they were perfect!  It's Lychee Time of the Year!

Chinese Almond Cookies 杏仁餅乾

I remember one of our family's special treats growing up was when 媽媽 and 爸爸 would come back from a long freeway drive to Phoenix Bakery in Chinatown with a pink box packed to the brim with deliciously fragrant crumbly yet crunchy Chinese almond cookies, each with a toasty almond in the middle.  

These golden delights were eagerly snatched up by us three girls, each having our own style of devouring these almond scented treats.  My special method was to nibble away all around until only the almond was left on its own island of cookie.  Yummilicious!  

Sweet and Sour Pork Chop Onion 糖醋豬排洋蔥

This easy to make Sweet and Sour Pork Chop Onion, or 糖醋豬排洋蔥 is a great all in one dinner type of dish where you've got your delicious meat, a heap o' tasty vegetables, tangy sauce and rice all in one!  

This was something my 老公 whipped up the other day in the kitchen after we discovered some really nice pork chops.  It's an easy all in one dish.  Nothing like saving some time in the kitchen, especially during this heat wave we've been having in Hong Kong.  (Meltingly hot...uck!)  We've almost lost our appetites from the unrelenting heat and, well, there's nothing like a tangy sauced dish to perk up your tastebuds and get you hungry again!

Chinese Ma Lai Gao Steamed Sponge Cake 馬拉糕

I like to be able to have a bit of homemade cake or bread ready to feed my little girl before she goes to school everyday.  She is a very reluctant waker-upper in the morning and time somehow always ends up being squeezed tight in the rush to get her to school on time.  So it is very convenient to have a homemade goodie that we can grab and go, then eating leisurely on the walk to school.  

Sometimes we have my Best Banana Bread, sometimes Steamed Sugar Sponge Cake, sometimes homemade bread spread with Chinese Style Liver Pate.  But you know how kids are, they get bored really easily and say to you, with a grumpy face: 'Mom, this again?!'  Ouch, the hurt!  

But it's okay, this sort of rebellion inspires me to try new things!  So this is my latest for breakfast cake, the Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake Ma Lai Gao, or 馬拉糕.  A light, airy, sweet and buttery tasting cake that goes down real easy and  is a cinch to make!

Green Mung Bean Popsicle 綠豆雪條

It's been so hot these few days.  Soooo hot!!  I'm melting!!  What to do?  Well, since we've got an excess of lovely green beans from making our Green Bean Licorice Prickly Heat Herbal Tea  生地綠豆甘草茶, I decided to make a batch of healthy yet still truly delicious popsicles to cool our feathers in the midst of this heat.  

These super easy to make Green Mung Bean Popsicles, or 綠豆雪條, are a classic ice lolly that is the favorite of every chinese kid.  No better way to cool off from the Chinese summer heat!

Green Bean Licorice Prickly Heat Herbal Tea 生地綠豆甘草茶

Do you ever think about how much beverage we buy and lug home to drink?  Water, juices, sodas, etc.  Heavy to lug home, liquid in bottles is heavy, amiright?  We buy beverages too, but it's been humming in the back of my mind for a while that there must be a better option.  

What, for example, did people used do for everyday for cool and refreshing drinks in the days before the invention of modern packaging?  They made their own drinks, of course!  

So recently when my little girl's eczema flared up again due to the already humid weather descending over Hong Kong, I decided to cook up a big ol' pot of Green Bean Licorice Prickly Heat Herbal Tea, or 生地綠豆甘草茶.  A cool, inexpensive, refreshing sweet Chinese beverage that makes a great everyday drink and soothes itchy skin and prickly heat.

Chinese Steamed Sugar Sponge Cake 白糖糕

Eating the deliciously bouncy Chinese Steamed Sugar Cake 白糖糕 always reminds me of being a kid.  Holding a squishy wobbly piece of cake in one hand whilst lazing on the sofa watching endless Road Runner cartoons.  Fighting over the last bits with my sisters.  Wondering why my cake had so many holes.  Thinking it was pretty cool that it had so many holes.  Trying to see through those many holes all the way to the other side.  And then eating some more.  

Remembering all these things that made me happy when I was a kid, I decided to make some wonderfully wobbly Steamed Sugar Sponge Cake 白糖糕 for my little girl today and, no surprise, she loved it!