Growing up in Vietnam, we don't have the yellow lemon like here in the west.  Our lemon is the green lime and we got plenty of them.  There's at least one house on every street that has a lime tree.  When summer comes knocking, limeade is our drink of choice.  Cheap and easy to make.  There's also no packaged juice avail. then !!!  You either make your own drink or you have to go to a restaurant or food stall for them.

I love limeade !  the smell of cut limes brings back so many memories for me.  Our 264 Le Loi house, my grandma waiting for me coming home from school, and my mom with a pitcher of limeade.  My grandma would hug me and I can feel her cool soft skin on my cheeks when her face touches mine.  I miss her so much.  I know she's up there in heaven with the Lord and one day we will get to see each other again.  It's comforting knowing our relationship doesn't end with her passing, we're just apart from each other for a while !

Anyways, this drink is very easy to make.  You'll need lime or lemon, or a mix of both, cane sugar or honey (or white sugar) and water.  I used a mix of both lime and lemon because the lime we get here doesn't yield too much juice :-(  3 limes and I barely get half of a cup.

INGREDIENTS
Serving size:  8 cups

4 medium size limes (if using key lime, you'll need about 6-8 of them)
2 lemons
(all should yield about 1 to a cup of juice)
1 cup of cane sugar (more or less according to your taste, you can use white sugar if you like)
2 table spoon of honey (can be omitted, just add more sugar)
1 cup of boiling water
7 cups of cold water

Juice the limes and lemons into a bowl.  Strain out seeds and pulps and put juice into a pitcher.  Boil water then pour 1 cup of the boiling water into a bowl.  Add the sugar and honey to the boiled water and stir until completely dissolved.  Add the sugar water into the pitcher and mix.  Add the 7 cups of water, stir around then taste.  Add more sugar if you want it sweeter.  Chill in the fridge.

If you don't have time to chill the drink in the fridge, make the drink a bit more sweet then add 2 or 3 cups of ice.

Garnish with thinly sliced up left over rinds or slices of lime and lemon.

To make the limeade lemonade pink, I add 2 table spoons of crushed frozen raspberries !

I added the juice of 1 orange to make the drink orange in color (kid requested)

We drink our limeade in tea cup !  this is how we roll :-)

BANANA BREAD RECIPE

Prep time: 10 minutes  :  Cook time: 55 minutes  :  Yield: Makes one loaf or 12 muffins

Super easy to mix and clean up !  The best bananas to use for banana bread are those that are over-ripe.  The yellow peels should be all dotted with brown spots ! and the bananas inside soft and squishy.

INGREDIENTS

2-3 ripe bananas, peeled (depending on the size, if around 6-7" long then use 2 bananas, use 3 bananas if smaller size)
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar (use 1/2 cup if you would like it less sweet, use up to 1 cup if want more sweet, I used organic cane sugar)
1 egg, beaten (I like to add one additional egg or 1 egg white for more moist bread)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (substitution:  I used 1/2 cup of oatmeal (blended in blender to almost powder) and 1 cup of whole wheat flour.  This is the more healthy route :-)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and butter or oil a 4x8-inch loaf pan or muffin pan. (I have a convection toaster oven so I used it instead of oven, 325 high for 1 hour)
• In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork or potato masher until completely smooth. Stir the melted butter (OR vegetable oil) into the mashed bananas.
• Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. 
• Add in the mix baking soda and salt and flour.
• Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 350°F (175°C), or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  ***If making muffin, baking time is a lot less, about 20 min.
• Remove from oven and cool completely on a rack. Remove the banana bread from the pan. Slice and serve. (A bread knife helps to make slices that aren't crumbly.)

Day off from work and I'm craving some sweets but there's no chocolate around.  I decided to make some cookies to satisfy this growing tummy !  I typed into google "easy chocolate chips cookies" and this one caught my eyes !  Over 7000 ratings can't be wrong right ?  I love ratings !  so I decided to try it out !

Here's the recipe and my remarks, as I didn't have all the ingredients on hand but it still turned out amazingly good !

Original link:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/10813/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup white sugar (I used only 1/2 as I didn't want it to be too sweet and plus I added Skor bits which will make the cookies sweeter, hence I thought to cut back on the sugar)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I didn't have any)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 2 teaspoons hot water 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I only have 1 and 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't have any so I added 1/4 cup of Skor bits)

INSTRUCTIONS

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

- Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts.  Mix batter together by hand.  Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

- Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.  

The cookies hold their shapes well, so if you drop it in a big round blob it will look 90% like that when baked !  I flattened my cookies out with a spatula (you can see the marks in the picture) !  

No-fill, plain pandan glutinous rice balls in ginger sauce
(sprinkled with toasted shredded coconut and sesame seeds)

At home sick (congested) and feeling really sick of getting sick so often !  My daughter Bee asked me to make her "white balls that drop in the water".  I knew right away what she meant and welcomed the request.  I forgot about this sweet treat !  What a great way to take in more gingers :)  Why more ginger ?  I don't know when it started, but as I get older I become more nammer than I desired to be :)  When sick with a cold, my mom's nagging voice would play in my brain ! when down with a cold, we should eat only "warm" ingredients, like ginger, sesame leaves (Tia to), onion, scallion, garlic, etc.  It makes a lot of sense to me now.  It seems a lot of what my mom said make a lot of sense nowadays :)

I propped Bee up next to the stove and let her roll the balls while I prepped the ginger sauce.  She only wanted plain ones so it'll be super quick to make. 15 min. later we were both rewarded with chewy glutinous rice balls in honeylicious ginger sauce.

Here's the original recipe.  If you want plain, omit the mung beans, and just mix the flour, rolled into what ever size rice balls you want and drop it in the ginger sauce.  I also tried something new, pandan flavoured rice balls filled with red beans in coconut milk.  In order to taste the food, I steamed my face in hot water for a few second and gained a few seconds of utter bliss !  I can breathe and taste my food.  It was the highlight of today.  I've appreciate this little nose so much !!!

INGREDIENTS

Yield 10 large glutinous rice balls or 18-20 small ones

- 1 bag of bot nep glutinous rice flour (400g)

- 2/3 bag of yellow mung beans (use about 250g of the 400g bag)

- 1/4 teaspoon of salt

- one inch of ginger, minced or thinly julienne (use more or less to your liking)
- 1 chunk of rock sugar (2-3 inch)

- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of sugar (for mung beans)
- extra rock sugar or cane sugar for taste

INSTRUCTIOINS

Mung beans filling: 

- Wash the mung beans and put into a pot, cover with 1 1/2 times of water
- Add the 1 tablespoon of cane sugar

- Add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and bring to boil, cover and turn heat down to medium.  Simmer for 15 min. and turn off the heat.  Leave on stove with pot covered for another 15-20 min.  

- Mung beans are done when they are easily squished

- Remove from pot, let cool and chill in the fridge

*Taste the mung beans paste and see if it's sweet enough.  Adjust to your preferred level of sweetness.  Keep in mind the ginger sauce serve over this is sweet also.

Prep. for the ginger sauce

- Boil about 6 cups of water

- Add the rock sugar and brown sugar.  Simmer until dissolved.  Adjust sweetness with more rock sugar or cane sugar.
- Add in the minced or sliced gingers
- Bring to boil and remove from stove

Making glutinous rice balls:

- Mix flour with 1 2/3 cup of lukewarm water

- Knead the mixture well and leave a side

- Remove the mung beans from the fridge, with a fork or potato masher, crush the beans into powdery mixture

- Divide the mixture into 10, take each portion and formed into a ball, put aside

- Lightly greased hands, take an egg size of the mixed flour, roll into a ball then flatten it big enough to cover the mung bean ball 

- Place a mung bean ball in the middle of flattened flour, fold in from four sides, then rolled in between hands to form into a ball
- Place finished balls on a plate lined with saran wrap (to prevent balls from sticking to plate)

Cooking the rice balls:

- Boil a pot of water, about 8 cups of water
- When it's rolling boil, drop in slowly each of the rice ball, don't crowd the pot
- When rice ball is done it will float to top
- Scoop out the cooked rice balls and put into a plate, space out the balls so it doesn't stick to each other

Serve:
- Place 2 or 3 rice balls into a bowl (if balls are cold, warm up for a few seconds in microwave)
- Pour hot ginger sauce over the rice balls

*** You can also cook the rice balls directly in the ginger sauce pot and avoid boiling another pot of water altogether.  The different between the two ?  If you cook directly in the ginger sauce, the sauce will get a little thick due to the flour from rice balls.  It's personal preference so you decide :)

If you want to make pandan rice balls covered red bean, add the pandan flavoring to the lukewarm water before mixing it with the flour.  Substitute mung beans with red beans (soak red beans over night then cook it or use unsalted canned beans).  And substitute ginger sauce with coconut milk (bring coconut milk to boil and add sugar to your desired sweetness). 

Now that you know how easy this is, try out other fillings, like ground black sesame, or crushed peanuts with coconut and sugar !  Enjoy ! 

REPOST from ourbestbites.com

 

 

Easy Cupcake Frosting and Filling

 

3 tablespoon Flour

1/2 cup whole milk (I use half whole milk & half coconut milk)

1/2 cup real butter (I use unsalted, but salted was recommended for better taste)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I use organic cane sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or other flavor if you wish.

 

Instructions:

 

Whisk together the flour and the milk. Heat in a small sauce pan on medium heat.Whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. Let it cook, while stirring, until you can start to see the bottom of the pan. Smash any flour lumps with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth.

Keep cooking mixture until it resembles thick pudding, almost a paste-like consistency.

Put this mixture in the fridge and let it cool completely, it’s fine if it stays in there long enough to get chilly, you just don’t want it warm at all. As it’s cooling, feel free to stir it occasionally to speed up the process and keep it from forming a crust on top.  When it is chilled, you can move on to the following step.

 

NOTE:  I don't have a stand mixer so I used the hand held one !  it's a bit tiring and time consuming but the result is excellent !  sooooo fluffy, light and amazingly good !!!

 

 

It an electric stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar for a minute or two until well combined and fluffy. You’ll want to use the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, not the flat paddle. Then while beating, add in the thickened milk mixture and the vanilla. Beat to combine and then scrape down the sides. Don’t be scared. It’s going to look like a goopy mess and kind of lumpy and separated like this:

 

But you just wait. It’s gonna blow your mind in a few minutes. Beat on med-high until it comes together and becomes light and fluffy.  It can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.

 

It will transform from that sloppy mess into something gorgeous, fluffy, and incredibly light and silky.  If the time has passed and it still looks like a hot mess, just keep on beating and it should eventually come together.  Feel the mixture between two fingers to see if the sugar granules have dissolved; if not, just beat a little longer.

 

Use it to fill or frost cupcakes, cakes or other pastries. You can’t go wrong putting this on just about anything :)

 

Frosts 12 cupcakes, lightly.  I almost always double it.

BASIC VEGAN CHOCOLATE RECIPE

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz 

 

 

 

These cupcakes were so moist and tasty !  It was good enough to eat without the added frosting !

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup soy milk (I use coconut milk)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup granulated sugar (I use organic cane sugar)

1/3 cup canola oil (I use half canola and coconut oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

 

Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).

 

Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely 1 teaspoon

For frosting, I use this recipe Easy Cupcake Frosting

The title of this recipe is pretty much self described !  Put a bit of coconut oil in a non stick pan, sliced up banana diagonally (for longer/bigger piece) about 1/4 of an inch thick.  Fried each side til golden.  Remove from pan and serve up with vanilla bean ice cream !  Yumo !!!!

I craved warm pie with ice cream but we got no pie !  Saw some bananas and thought of those deep fried bananas they always served up in Malaysian restaurant.  I don't want to deep fried so thought why not pan fried it for a healthier option.  Glad I tried it as it was nice with ice cream.  Banana burns easy due to sugar content in it so don't cook too long.  Enjoy.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,

for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

 

I made some homemade almond milk today.  Super easy and tasty !  If you know me, you know how much I like easy recipe ! 

Here's the short version:

1. soak raw almonds overnight
2. blend 1 cup of soaked almond with 3 cups of water
3. strain the blended liquid in a strainer lined with 5-6 layers of cheese cloth
4. gather and squeeze the cheese cloth to get all the milk out of the mixture
5. discard the almond meal
6. refrigerate the almond milk in fridge for up to 2 days

Enjoy your freshly squeezed almond milk !!!


Here's the detailed version:

1. Soak the RAW almonds (make sure it's raw) in filtered water overnight or up to 2 days. The longer the almonds soak in the water, the creamier the milk will be.

2. Drain the almonds and rinse them thoroughly under cool running water. You should be able to scrape the outer brown shell off with your nail that this point.  If it's still hard, soak them a little longer.

3.  In a Bullet blender or the standard blender, put 1 cup of soaked almond and 3 cups of filtered water.  If you like the milk creamy, then decrease to 2 cups of filtered water. 

4.  Blend the almonds and water at high speed for 3 minutes. Pulse the blender once or twice to break up the almonds, then let it blend continuously for two minutes.

5.  Put a strainer over a measuring cup and then line the strainer with 5-6 layers of cheese cloth*.  Pour the blended almond mixture into the strainer.  (*I boiled the cheese cloths for a couple of minute in boiling water to sanitize it before use)

6.  When the almond mixture stop dripping into the bowl, gather the cheese cloth together at the center and squeeze it with clean hands.

7.  Discard the almond meal (don't pour down the drain, it can clog it) then shake the cheese cloth over the kitchen sink to rid any left over.  Depending on how well you clean it after use, you can reuse the cheese cloth.  I reused my cheese cloth up to 4 times. 

8.  Repeat step 3-7 with the rest of the soaked almonds.

9.  Sweeten with organic sugar if you like it sweet.

10.  Pour the almond milk from the cup into a sealed container.  Refrigerate up to 2 days.

If the milk fat and water separated IT'S OK !  still good to drink.  Just stir it up before pouring out into a glass.

We went and picked some 20 pounds of blueberries at GS farm out in Richmond.  Within days, between my mom, hubby, Bee and I, we consumed over 15 lbs of them.  Realizing that I will be out of them soon, I scheduled another u-pick date.   But before I can grab my bucket, my brother showed up on my porch and gave me 18 pounds of huge blueberries.  Then my sister in law came over and gave me about 7 pounds !!!  I was in blueberry heaven !!!  With so much of these precious rubies on hand, I wanted to do something else with them other than just inhaling them fresh :-)

I messaged up the one person I know who's crazy about food and loves to bake !  Jimmy Ho !!!  He sent me on my way to:  Betty's Morning Coffee Blueberry Muffins Recipe !  The recipe asks for simple ingredients and very easy to follow.  If you got some blueberries to spare you must try this !

 ................................................................................... 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8OoD11F_6o

In this video, Betty demonstrates how to make her sweetly divine Morning Coffee Blueberry Muffins. They are just the right texture and flavor--not too sweet, because the fresh blueberries take care of that!

Ingredients:

1 egg, well beaten  < I substitute with 1/2 mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup sugar  < I use about 1/3 of a cup of organic sugar since my blueberries are really sweet
1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola)  < I use coconut oil
3/4 cup milk (2/3 cup in the video, but 3/4 cup will be better.)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups self-rising flour  < I use 1 & 2/3 flour and 1/2 cup of quick oats
1 cup fresh blueberries, washed and dried with paper towels
cooking oil spray  < I use paper muffin liner

** To make self-rising flour:  For 1 cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients, except blueberries. Gently fold in 1 cup fresh blueberries. Spoon into muffin tins that have been sprayed with cooking oil, until 3/4-full. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. When done, a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean. Note: If you prefer not to spray the muffin tins, place a paper baking cup liner for each muffin. These are really great muffins--enjoyable for everyday, but elegant enough for company!

 ...................................................................................

I went nuts over these muffins !!!  They're soooooooooo good !  I ate 8 of them in one seating :-D  I figure since I used all healthy ingredients in the making of them, it should be OK  ;-P  Bee doesn't like her muffin dripping in blueberry gooey goodness so I made her some plain ones.  They were just as good !!!  Thank you Betty !  whoever you are !

Bee and I make waffle or pancake every Saturday.  It's our mommy and daughter tradition.  However, with me staying at home now, we not only make it on Saturday, but we also make waffle every other day !  I love the smell of fresh baked flour in the morning.  It's comforting for some reason.  And the waffle, it's so yummy !  Crispy on the outside, airy, soft and a bit chewy on the inside.  Perfect.

Here's the recipe I got from a mommy friend Dee. (I tried many waffle recipes before and hers is the best, imo):

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder (this is different from baking soda :-)
2 tablespoon of sugar (less or more depending on your sweet tooth)

1 3/4 cup of milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup of cooking oil or butter (I use coconut oil)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

*If you like light and airy waffle, first separate the egg white from the yolk.  Blend the egg whites with a hand blender until stiff peaks formed (about 3-4 min).

Mix all dry ingredients together, then mix in the oil, eggs (egg yolks if separated), then the pour in the milk & vanilla extract.  (If you beat the egg whites separately, fold it in at the end and whisk until blended)

Heat your waffle maker as per instructions.  Pour in 2 spoons of batter and cook until golden.  Serve hot.

This recipe yields about 8 waffles for us.  You might get more or less depending on your waffle machine's depth and dimension.

**You can double the recipe and freeze the extras.

highlight of the day:  Bee and I went out to check on our little garden.  The peas spouted and they are growing !!!  We can't wait to eat them.  We also counted the figs on our fig tree :)



Planted the peas under our clematis plant > not a good idea because the clematis dropped so many petals down on them each day !  Our clematis produced over abundant of soft pink flowers this year.

 

Mister sun has been showing his face more often on this side of town lately.  I like I like !!  It's quite nice seeing him peaking up above the trees every morning.  We've been getting 20+ degree celcius this whole week so far.  For some, this may not be warm for you, but it's considered warm or even hot for us Vancouverites :-)  When the weather gets this hot, all I can think about is ice cold drinks and desserts !  As one who has a sweet tooth, Che Thai and Vietnamese Che Ba Mau (tri-color or three color) desserts always top my list of good summer treats !  The Vietnamese dessert requires more cooking time to make but the Che Thai one is super easy.  Whenever I make this for a party or gathering, within 15 min., the bowl went from full to empty.  It's always a hit. 

What it tastes like ?  tropical & fruity !  with lots of texture and flavors.  Crunchy, chewy, and soft. 

Wonder why it's called Che Thai ?  "Che" means sweet soup in Vietnamese and "Thai" means Thailand !  It's a Vietnamese altered version of the Thai's dessert called Tub Tim Grob (rubies in coconut milk).  I much preferred the Vietnamese version :-) because with each spoon, there's a mixture of different kind of fruits and chewy tidbits to feast upon !  OK, enough writing, here's the recipe !

Che Thai Dessert
 Very little or no cooking is required (it all depends on what you want to put in it)

Here are some of the brands I used to make Che Thai

NO COOK VERSION:

Ingredients:
- 1/4 jar of sport strings coconut meat
- 1 tub of nat de coco jelly in syrup (I don't usually keep the syrup)
- 1 can of jackfruit, drained, julienne (slice length wise)
- 1 can of longan, drained
- 1 can of toddy palm seed, drained, cut into small thin rings
- 1 can of lychee, drained
- 1 litre carton of half and half (half light cream and half milk) OR homo milk (I much prefer homo milk)
- Sugar for taste.  (I prefer organic cane sugar as the sweetness is mild and it blends in well with all flavours.)

* feel free to omit or add more of the same fruit as you like
* add more or less milk as per your preference

In a large glass punch bowl, combine all the fruits together.  Refrigerate until cold.  When ready to serve, add the homo milk OR half and half to the mixture.  Stir and serve.

OPTIONAL:  You can also add in coconut milk if you want a more rich flavour.  For a low fat version, substitute the half & half /homo milk with 2% milk.

(see Cook Version below)

Quickly made this with what I have in my cupboard, no longan or lychee or toddy palm seed !  but still tasty good !

COOK VERSION:

Ingredients:

IN ADDITION to the ingredients listed under NO COOK VERSION, you will need:
- 1 can of whole chestnut, drained
- 1 package of Six Fortune dried agar agar strips (use only 1/3of the amount) IF use other brand or the powdered type, follow instructions on the package.
- Organic cane sugar
- Tapioca flour
- Edible food coloring (red or any color you like)
- Green Pandan leaves extract (you can buy it from most Vietnamese grocery, T&T doesn't have it)

*You can also use black grass jelly.  IF using that, you can cut into cubes or strings and put into a bowl as side topping, don't mix the bowl !  It will make everything go black if you stir it in with all the fixings :-)

Green Pandan Agar Agar Jellies: 

- Removes strips out of bag and divide into 3 parts
- Take 1 part of the strips and wash under water 
- In a pot, put in 2 cups of water, add the washed strips and bring to boil. 
- When the strips are all melted and water is clear, add 3 drops of green pandan leaves extract, 2 tablespoon of organic sugar.  Stir until sugar dissolved. 
- Pour mixture into a bowl and let it sit in room temperature for 15 min. to cool down.  Then put the bowl into refrigerator to chill and set (about 30 min.).
- When ready to serve, take agar out, dice or julienne the set agar jelly to your liking.

Red Chestnut Rubies: 

Before preparing the chestnuts
- Prepare a bowl with 4 cups of cold water and ice cubes, set aside
- Boil a pot of about 3 inches of water

- Dice whole chestnuts into small pieces, about half the size of a pomegranate seed. 
(I usually slice one chestnut into 5 slices, then slice the smallest 2 slices into 3 pieces, the next size up into 4 then the middle slice into 5 :-) a little more work but it satisfied the OCD in me !
- Put all the chestnut pieces into a bowl and add about 4 drops of red food coloring
- Stir around until all the pieces are red
- Transfer the chestnuts into a metal strainer
- Pour in 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour.  Shake the strainer around to ensure even coating (use your hand to break apart any pieces that stuck together).
- Pour in another 2 or 3 table spoons of tapioca flour.  Shake the strainer around for the flour to coat the chestnuts.  Each piece should be fully covered in tapioca.

In the pot of boiling water:

- Slowly SPRINKLE the coated chestnut pieces into the hot water.  Don't pour a bunch in at once as it will clump the chestnuts.
- When cooked, the each pieces of chestnuts will float up to the top
- Scoop the cooked chestnuts with a slotted spoon then put them immediately into the bowl of iced cold water
- Once all the chestnuts are in the ice cold water bowl, drain water out and leave just enough to cover the chestnuts.
- Put the bowl into the fridge until ready for serve

SERVING:

In a large glass punch bowl, combine all the fruits together with the diced/julienne green agar agar jellies and red chestnut rubies.  When ready to serve, add the homo milk OR half and half to the mixture.  Add organic cane sugar to desired sweetness.  Stir and serve.

OPTIONAL:  You can also add in coconut milk if you want a more rich flavour.  For a low fat version, substitute the half & half /homo milk with 1% or 2% milk.

Thought of the day:  Many many moons ago, back in Vietnam, one day our family found ourselves running out of food.  Anything that can be sold was sold already; sugar, fabric, clothes.  There was nothing left for us to sell.  All my mom can do was to pray for a miracle.  Outside that day the sky was pouring rain.  My mom put on her jacket to go out and when she put her hand in one of the pocket, she found there were money in there.  Money that would buy us a whole month of food.  Her and I remember that day very well.  The Lord provide and take care of those who put their trust in Him.