My Love of Baking

Hawaiian bread.

I have always loved to cook and feed people.  I believe it's one of the gift God has given me.  Food brings people together and I love the opportunities to chat and talk about God.  I don't mind cooking and cleaning up after large crowd.   That's why I always wanted a house with small bedrooms, but large living room, dining room, and kitchen so I can open up my house for God's purpose.  Although our house is not super huge, but large enough for all our needs so far.  No matter how big or small the house, I believe that if a person is willing to offer her resources to God, He will make good use of it.  I have hosted a 25+ people party in our first house, which is only 1100 square feet and the living room is smaller than my current bedroom.

I believe my love for cooking started in college.  When I was living at home, I didn't have any desire to cook and didn't have to cook.  My parents are great cooks, so I never had to make anything.  Not even rice.  In my second year in college, I moved out of the dorm and shared an apartment with some roommates.  I started to have to cook for myself.  And I was also active in the fellowship group.  I noticed that college students can't cook, but love to eat.  And every time my fellowship had an outreach, there are bigger turn out if there is food.  There are a few older college guys who can cook for the masses when I was a freshman.  I loved going to their places to eat.   When those guys graduated, I took it upon myself to cook for the masses.  So in my third year, I didn't have Friday classes, I spent the day prepping and cooking Friday dinner for the entire fellowship group (about 30 people).  I still have people telling me that they remember my dinners.  Back then, I didn't have recipes or cookbooks.  My cooking are mostly Chinese and done by trial by error.  But people loved it and that gave me major confidence to try cooking different ethnic food and also baking. 

Baking is so wonderful and yet different than cooking.  I don't use recipe when I cook because I use a little of this and a little of that and it some how works.  But baking is more of a science.  Certain things react together and if not enough yeast or baking powder things may not rise.  Making things like french bread, croissant, souffles, and Japanese cheesecake are hard to do.  I love the challenge though.  I love baking because I feel like a magician when I bake.  Taking tasteless simple things like flour, sugar, butter, and eggs and turn them into bread or sweet decadent desserts gives me great pride and joy.  Perhaps baking runs in my genes.  My parents used to own a donut shop so my dad is a baker.  My mom and my sister also love to bake.  So it's both a nature and nurture thing that I love to bake.  Although, I didn't learn to bake from my dad because I don't like donuts.

I have been making this sweet swirl bread that H and the kids love.  It started out to be the Cinnamon Swirl bread recipe using cinnamon, sugar, and raisins to make the swirl in the middle of the bread.  I have made it so many times that I have since modified the recipe.  So now I make custard, dried pork (yok shung), and Vietnamese kaya swirl bread.  The bread is super soft (even stays soft for a few days) with some sweetness.  My favorite is the Kaya filing.  I think it's better than the famous Chinese Sheng Kee bakery's custard bread.  Let me know if you would like to try my bread, I would love to make you some.  Or give it a try and make it yourself, I know you will love it.  I think warm, homemade bread is one of life's finest enjoyment.

Recently, I also want to learn to make more traditional Chinese things like bao, cheung fun, dim sum, daikon cake, and Chinese tamales (糭子 chongzi).  My parents can make both Chinese and Vietnamese food and I don't want my family's tradition in food to end with them.  So now I am determined to learn to make food that my parents and Chinese and Vietnamese people can make.

Spring Break 2013

It's great to have a break from school and homework.  We all slept in everyday.  Yes, slept all the way to 8 am, it's not really "sleeping in" like college student sleeping in, but it was a treat, at least for me.  We didn't go out of town, but we managed to have lots of fun visiting museums for FREE without having to pay for admission.  H took two days off work to do family things.

On Tuesday, we went to Lindsay Wildlife museum in the morning and Oakland Zoo in the afternoon. Lindsay Wildlife museum is actually a hospital for wild animals.  We saw owls, hawks, bald eagles, snakes,  foxes, ravens, and badgers that the hospital saved.  We even got to see behind the scene of how vets take care and feed the wild animals.  It was fascinating.  I am glad that the boys aren't too old for it.  They still loved it.  I know pretty soon C will not be interested.  Mui, of course, loved every bit of it.  Especially when she was allowed to touch the snake.  Then, we drove past Chick-fil-a, what?  I did a double take and said that we HAVE to go.  We must support this Christian business that honors Sunday as the Lord's day and actually closed from operation.  Chick-fil-A has a special place in my heart not only because the owner is a believer, but it was my very first place of employment, aside from the family business.  In college, I needed to earn extra money, so I got a job at Chick-fil-a.  I only did one thing there and that's to bread the chicken breast and fry it to make the delicious chicken sandwich.  Although I loved the food and liked the people, I quit after one quarter.  Back then, I didn't know how to cook and I was really really fearful of the fryer.  It was a huge and HOT pressure fryer.  I was suppose to put the chicken into the basket, lower it into the oil and disconnect the removable handle to close the lid to start the pressure frying.  I was suppose to insert the handle after the chicken is done and while it's still in the oil.  I had to act quick because otherwise it will be burnt.  I was never sure whether I put the handle on right and I was afraid that the basket will drop down cause a huge splash and burn me.  But I toughed it out for a quarter because I wanted to keep trying and they usually do more hiring at the beginning of the quarter.

After lunch we headed out to the Oakland Zoo. We are no longer have membership, but when we were members, it came with a free family pass. We went without a stroller for the first time.  Mui ran around and rushing to everything, keeping her by our side was a difficult task.  She especially loved to pet the goats and sheep.  The boys really wanted to ride the train, but we didn't know that the park closes at 4pm.  We told the boys that we were sorry that they can't ride the train.  They were disappointed, but J kept saying that we should to find the train to see if they are really closed.  We said that it is so we might as well stay in the park a little longer.  At 4pm no one asked us to leave, so we walked around some more.  We made our way to the giraffes and and heard that the train was still running.  So we rushed out of the park to try to catch the train.  When we got there, the train conductor said that this is the last ride.  By this time it was 5 pm. We praise God that He granted the desire of our kids. 

On Wednesday, we took the kids to Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  This place is a popular place for family with small children, I would say 1st grade and under.  So at the first exhibit hall, both boys felt weird that they are so much bigger than everybody else.  I can see that as C grows older, pretty soon he will not enjoy these kinds of museum and family function.  I pray that that day won't be anytime soon.  They still had a good time because there are lots of things to experiment with, touch, and lots of outdoor areas to explore. The boys really like to be outdoors, they like to explore nature, find bugs, climb trees, and touch dirt and rocks.  There is an outdoor part to this museum that's just perfect.  Mui liked to play with the water wave exhibit.  She liked putting fake crabs and star fish on the rock in anticipation for the unpredictable wave to come.  And when it did come, she got hysterical. 

Today, we stayed home to relax.  I did something crazy with the kids.  Since I thought it was going to rain, I told them that we are going to have an indoor picnic.  They weren't so excited since we had a picnic yesterday.  I said, "But did you ever went on a picnic to eat without using any utensil?  Not ever your hands?"  So we had an indoor picnic in our family room and ate without using our hands.  Mui didn't know what we were doing and she looked confused.  She kept asking me if she can eat.  After taking a bite by licking her plate, she smiled and found it fun.  I just hope that she doesn't think it's the norm now.  The boys of course liked it and had fun but still preferred to be civilized and use utensils.  We also were busy in the kitchen.  Inspired by a friend's middle school daughters who cooked dinner, I thought that I should teach C how to cook.  So today I taught him how to make jello.  He was proud that he can do it, but find it hard to remove the jello from the mold.  I told him cooking is experimenting.  Next time, we'll have to experiment a different way.  Even jello making can be an art.

How did we visit the museums for FREE?  Alameda county libraries give free museum passes to Alameda County residents over 18 with a library card.  Not all the museums are free, but I think the list of free museums can be different from month to month.  Here is the link to the site.  And most museums have a free day from time to time.  So it's good to check their website.  Bay Area Discovery Museum is free every first Wednesday of the month.  We saved about $160 of admission this week.