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Ten in 10: Healthy Panda!!

A week ago I heard about the Ten in 10 Challenge, then read the details in Lori's blog and decided to join, I can't think of a better way of starting this new year: eating healthier, working out and trying my best to improve my life along with people from all over the world. In Lori's website you can find the list of people who are participating, please take some time to visit their blogs where most of them have posted their goals, motivation and lots of yummy and healthy recipes.

Even though I was born and raised in this Caribbean island my parents ate a lot of Japanese food and I grew up loving healthy dishes and veggies like eggplant and broccoli. I am also a water freak (I drink way more than 8 glasses a day). You could say I have good habits but I have this love affair with fast food... which I hope to end or to be more realistic, limit to once [or twice?] a month. I have this great book called The abs diet for women which I bought over a year ago and had it in my bookshelf covered in dust. I started reading it again last week and finished it in 4 days. I am going to try their diet regimen and in another post I will share with you the things I love about this book and explain what they call "power foods".

So basically what I want to accomplish in these 10 weeks is to limit my consumption of fast food, keep exercising and being able to wear my pink bikini without worries :)

I am very proud to say that I quit smoking in 2007 [even though I wasn't a hardcore smoker I used to smoke on weekends or whenever I had alcoholic drinks] thank God I don't miss it at all, in fact I think it stinks and its bad and wrong in so many ways... My best friend aka Princess Annush came to the Island on Christmas and went home very sick to the point where she couldn't smoke her Marlboro Lights and had to quit for a week. She got better and decided to quit smoking :) [YAY!] lets hope she stays like this not for just 10 months but for the rest of her life!

If you want to join the Ten in 10 challenge please click here or email the following information to therecipegirl {at} gmail {dot} com w/ the subject heading "Ten in 10": geographic location, name, blog url, twitter ID or whatever applies & if you have a general idea of what your goal will be w/ this challenge that would be good too.

Your body is your temple. Treat it that way!

Goodbye 2009...

Happy New Year to you all.

In Pandaland, 2009 didn't suck but it wasn't great either... last month I *finally finished Culinary School, I got straight A's :) and even though I wasn't too happy there I was really excited to complete the culinary program. God knows I have ADD and I am bored easily, but it seems I've found my true passion in cooking and baking. I got the chance to work at a restaurant, which I won't go back to ever again unless I decide to open  my own business... for now I have a bakery-cafe on mind but that project will have to wait.

Right now I am really sad and I think I'm writing this post because I need to unwind and share with the world what I have lost today: my precious daughter Pucca. She was with me since 2007, no other doggie was as beautiful, as spoiled as her and it has been really hard to start this year waking up to the vet's call saying she couldn't make it. Three weeks ago she ate some metal piece, her stomach just shut down and they had to do surgery to get it out because it was making her sick due to lead poisoning. I've been blaming myself because when these things happen you just start thinking what you could have done to prevent it, but the truth is there are 3 doggies here and she was the only one who had this unusual habit of eating inedible stuff like paper and wood. Pucca stayed at the vet for 3 days after the surgery and then came home. She seemed to be OK and was eating 3 small meals a day, she had a full time panda-nurse who was with the clock giving her medication and curing her stitched belly. Until 4 days ago she just stopped eating, I tried cooking rice and chicken for her like my sister (who is a vet) recommended, I even tried giving her a piece of bacon to see if she was just being picky but she wouldn't eat that either. That's when I took her to the vet and they said she was dehydrated, and it wasn't good the fact that she had lost her appetite, and told me I would have to leave her for treatment and they would run tests to see what was wrong. Turns out her liver and kidneys were not working and they said they would treat her, my sister was aware of everything they were doing with Pucca and then this morning I wake up to this call of the doctor telling me her little body couldn't take it and that she passed away. I hanged up the phone and went blank for about a minute then cried like crazy for the next hours. I cried the way I'm crying right now. Like a friend told me today: "a pet can give you more love than even some family members". and she is right. She was not a pet. She was my daughter. I am trying to be happy because she is not suffering anymore and I know she is in doggie heaven, but I just miss her so much...

Rest in Peace my beloved Pucca

05/2007~01/2010

I'm Back!

Its been almost 4 months since my last post. With school and work I had no time to blog, I've been uploading  pics of my culinary creations on Facebook (its easier since I take and upload pics from my Blackberry, I think I can upload pics real time to my blog too but I'll have to check on that later).

I went to see Julie & Julia last week and I absolutely LOVED it!! The movie has inspired me to do something similar to what Julie did... I'm SO excited because today I received a box of books I ordered from Amazon and can't wait to try new recipes and techniques. Also in the next days I shall have in my hands my very own Molecular Gastronomy Kit... I'm on my last semester at school and in Creative Cuisine Class we've been making foams, caviar and spheres... something very innovative and definitely NOT what our grandmas used to do in the kitchen back in the day.

I leave you with a pic of my Tropical Crème Brûlée, I made it last Wednesday at school and it was the first dish of this semester to get a perfect score :D

Coconut cream, Dominican Rum, Pineapple Caviar

>_<

Asia

A mi grupo le tocó el continente Asiático, fue pura casualidad ya que fueron asignados por rifa [gracias Rosio por tan buena elección]. Asia se caracteriza por el uso variado de especias y vegetales, a lo largo del continente son famosos los masalas de la India, los curries que tanto se usan en Vietnam, Japón e India, las innumerables hierbas aromáticas que conforman cada uno de los platos tipicos de este continente... otra cosa que tienen en común es el consumo de tés a toda hora, la verdad que todos aprendimos un poco y el ensayo previo nos dió una idea de como nos teníamos que organizar.

Muy importante es el aporte individual para el bien colectivo, gracias a Dios cada uno de nosotros aportó e hizo posible que este proyecto se llevara a cabo con éxito. A Rosio, gracias por ofrecer tu casa, por tu constante investigación sobre la gastronomía asiática y por ese spicy chai tea [riquisimo!]. A Calixto, muchas gracias por todos sus aportes y por los pequeños detalles que le dieron brillo a nuestro proyecto. A Nicolas, porque a pesar de los contratiempos y de tu apretada agenda, en esa cabecita hay un millon de ideas innovadoras que al final le salvan el dia a cualquiera :)

La verdad que estoy muy contenta ya que a pesar de que me toco con personas que no son de mi grupo original trabajamos muy bien y no podemos decir que nadie trabajó mas que nadie o que nadie estaba por encima de los demás. Creo que eso se notó al final, y honestamente con todo el trabajo previo sí sabíamos que nos iba a ir relativamente bien, pero creo que ninguno nos esperábamos tantos comentarios positivos de parte de la profesora y de nuestros compañeros. Este verano ha sido muy intenso y agotador, pero al tener resultados positivos todo se olvida y lo único que nos queda es una sonrisa y la satisfacción de haber hecho un buen trabajo.

Ahora si, los dejo con las fotitos tomadas por la profesora:

Ingredientes de la cocina asiática:

Area de fotografía y degustación:

Amuse bouche: INDIA

Camarones marinados en masala con chutney de mango fresco

Appetizer: VIETNAM

Spring rolls [dos versiones] con salsa vietnamita y salsa de maní

Main Course: JAPON

Kare Raisu

[curry rice, dos versiones: de res y de pollo]

Dessert: THAILAND

Pudín de Tapioca con leche de coco y mango a la cayena

Extras:

KOREA

Bulgogui

JAPON

Harusame Salad

JAPON

Sushi

Vista general:

Africa

Este es el proyecto de Cocina III presentado por Moises, Paola y Nelson. Fué una clase muy interesante, donde el protagonista fue una salsa picante la cual no recuerdo el nombre [tengo el folleto en casa], solo les digo que Moises llevó un bowl de esta salsa y al final de la clase no quedo absolutamente nada. En Africa usan elementos que consideramos tipicos aqui en nuestra isla, tales como el coco y las bananas. Las mollejas de vaca o sweetbreads, las cuales crudas no las quise ni tocar pero despues de cocidas tenian sabor a pollo... :)

Unas cuantas fotitos de lo que hicimos ese dia, comenzando por los ingredientes:

black eyed peas:

sweetbreads:

cous cous:

cardamomo:

peanut banana muffin:

koeksister:

Aqui una muestra de los platos terminados...

Amuse bouche: Akkra

Appetizer: Mollejas en salsa de coco

Otra presentacion de las mollejas:

Main Course: Cordero [will update this later]

Dessert: Koeksister

Peanut banana muffin