Easy Chinese Almond Cookies

Chinese Almond cookies are types of cookies made with lard or vegetable shortening. They contain almond and flour. They are round shaped as is typical with other cookies. These cookies use powdered sugar and are very crumbly and melt in your mouth. This traditional cookie is very popular in Hong Kong or in big cities in China, but now it is popular around the world. These cookies are very easy to make. Today, I will share here an easy recipe that I cut into smaller portions, so you can make these cookies anytime.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sliced Almond

12 whole almonds

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp water

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 egg

1 tsp almond extract or vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white. 

Soak the whole almonds in hot water and remove skin.

In a mixing bowl, beat vegetable shortening, egg white, and powdered sugar with a handheld beater for 1 minute (you can beat them by hand with a whisk).

In a small bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda, and water and add into the sugar and vegetable shortening. Beat for a few seconds.

Add sliced almonds, almond extract, and flour to mixture to form a dough.

Roll the dough into a long baton-like roll; then divide into 12 balls. Flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand.

Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease the baking sheet with a little oil. Place each flattened dough 2 inches apart. Place a whole almond in the center of each piece of dough and press lightly on the almond in the center of the dough. Beat the yolk and brush over the dough to cover the almond.

Bake for 15 minutes. When the cookies are golden; remove and let cool before serving.

Small Cornmeal Pound Cake

Pound cake is soft and sweet. It always makes a sensational dessert with fruit coulis. Pound cake also can be garnished with some powdered sugar on top, and it also looks attractive. I would like to share this easy small pound cake recipe to serve for 2 or maybe 4 people. Serve this little pound cake for dessert when you want just a little sweetness after dinner.

 Ingredients:

2/3 cup self-rising flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup cranberries or raisins

1/3 cup butter at room temperature

1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Equipment:

1 small loaf pan (4x4 inches)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Use a small amount of butter to grease the loaf pan with flour. Shake the pan well and set aside.

Combine the milk, egg, and vanilla. Whisk to combine.

Place flour, cornmeal, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk to blend well.

Add the butter and milk mixture to the flour, and use a hand-held mixer to beat the ingredients on a low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Continue beating the mixture until the batter has lightened and increased in volume.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. 

Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (about 25 minutes).

Serve warm. 

Small Cookies Recipes

In this current age of technology, everyone has to save time. Therefore, cooking should also follow the times, especially when young people are studying at a university, or perhaps people who are living alone or with one partner. I think that all dishes even sweets should be made simple and in small portions. Then everyone would practice making them at home. This is also very good to be able to eat less according to the amount you should eat. I often say that cooking is also a way to calm your mind and also a way to psychologically help you feel excited about making a small cake.  I try these methods with a small recipe to be made for two people can be very effective. When you can look into your kitchen cabinets for simple ingredients like sugar, butter, milk, and eggs, you can make yourself a nice little loaf of bread, so you can enjoy it. I hope that when you come to my blog, you will find recipes that I have simplified and practiced to inspire people who have a sweet tooth.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbs white sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 small egg 

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Equipment:

1 baking pan 10 inches in diameter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a small bowl, place flour, baking soda, and salt. Then whisk to blend.

Use a handheld electric mixer to beat the butter and both types of sugar until blended (about 15 seconds). Add the egg and continue to beat until well combined (another 10 seconds).

Stir in flour with beaten egg and butter; then stir in chocolate chips. Mix well.

Use a soup spoon or small ice cream scoop to measure the batter (about a 2 tablespoon quantity of the batter).

Place each of the cookie dough scoops on a baking sheet, spacing each 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 14 to 15 minutes.

Let cookies cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!!

Variations:

Add chunks of peanut butter.

Add Butterfinger candy pieces.

Add things like raisins, pecans, walnuts, cranberries, etc.

 

10 things people cannot buy!!

 Jordi Al Emany is the founder of a private company. Recently, he posted an article on social networks, saying that money is not universal. There are 10 things that even people who have a lot of money cannot buy. The article quickly received acclaim on the online community. Everyone agreed. Let's see what are the things that even the world's billionaires can't buy?

1. Health  

Dalai Lama: People in the world, for the sake of making money, sacrifice health. For the sake of healing, sacrifice money. Then, because of worries about the future, there is no way to enjoy the present. Just like that, there is no way to live at the present. While they are alive, they forget that life is short. When they died, they discovered that they had never lived a good life.

 2. Love 

Tagore, a poet: When we get out of poverty, we will have our money, but to get this money, we have lost much kindness, beauty and much of strength. Yes!

3. Joy

American politician, physicist, electromagnetic scientist, inventor Franklin: Money cannot make people happy forever. There is no such thing called fun. The more money people have, the more they want.

4. Integrity 

British Novelist - Douglas Adams: When truly serving others, the essential thing that money cannot buy or measure is sincerity and integrity.

5. Respect 

American Philosopher - Ayn Rand: Money is a tool to survive, your attitude towards work is also your attitude towards your own life. If work for a living is corrupt, you have destroyed your own meaning of existence. Have you ever held a meaningless coin? Have you ever ridiculed others for a little extra profit? Or lower your moral standards? Because to be able to live through the day you have to do things that should not be done? If that's the case, money won't bring even the slightest bit of joy. What you buy becomes a kind of insult but not respect and is a kind of hatred that is not an achievement. As such, you would think that money is a kind of crime because you can't get any self-respect from it.

6. Inner Peace

Famous American businessman - Richard M. DeVos: Money can't buy inner peace. It can't heal broken relationships, or make life better or meaningless becomes meaningful.

7. Ethics 

American journalist and author - George Lorimer: What can be bought with money is of course good, but it should not be forgotten that what cannot be bought with money is even better.

8. Education 

American reporter and author - Neil de Grasse Tyson: Humans do not use sympathy and sharing to feel the feelings and thoughts of others or other creatures on earth. Perhaps our formal education should add to the education of empathy and sharing. Imagine, if education consisted of reading, writing, math, empathy, and sharing, the world would not be the same.

9. Intelligence

Steve Jobs, Apple founder: I did not return to Apple for the sake of making money. The god of luck is always interested in me. By the age of 25, I had made a fortune of $100 million. It was clear then that I would not be enslaved by money. Because I definitely can't spend all that money, moreover, I don't use money to test my intelligence.

10. Spiritual Enlightenment 

Anonymous: Money can buy a house to live in but can't buy a peaceful roof; it can buy a bed but not a comfortable and pleasant sleep; it can buy a watch but not time; it can buy books but not knowledge; it can buy blood but not health.

So money is not universal.

FORGIVING

 

Please take a moment to take in the following message:

What forgiveness is

"Forgiveness is a form of realism. It doesn't deny, minimize, or justify what others have done to us or the pain that we have suffered. It encourages us to look squarely at those old wounds and see them for what they are. And it allows us to see how much energy we have wasted and how much we have damaged ourselves by not forgiving.

 

Forgiveness is an internal process. It can't be forced, and it doesn't come easy. It brings with it great feelings of wellness and freedom. But we experience this only when we want to heal and when we are willing to work for it.

Forgiveness is a sign of positive self-esteem. We no longer identify ourselves by our past injuries and injustices. We are no longer victims. We claim the right to stop hurting when we say, "I'm tired of the pain, and I want to be healed." At that moment, forgiveness becomes a possibility-although it may take time and much hard work before we finally achieve it.

 

Forgiveness is letting go of the past. It doesn't erase what happened, but it does allow us to lessen and perhaps even eliminate the pain of the past. The pain from our past no longer dictates how we live in the present, and it no longer determines our future.

 

It also means that we no longer need resentment and anger as an excuse for our shortcomings. We don't need them as a weapon to punish others nor as a shield to protect ourselves by keeping others away. And most importantly, we don't need these feelings to identify who we are. We become more than merely victims of our past.

 

Forgiveness is no longer wanting to punish those who hurt us. It is understanding that the anger and hatred that we feel toward them hurts us far more than it hurts them. It is seeing how we hide ourselves in our anger and how those feelings prevent us from healing. It is discovering the inner peace that becomes ours when we let go of the past and forget vengeance.

 

Forgiveness is moving on. It is recognizing all that we have lost because of our refusal to forgive. It is realizing that the energy that we spend hanging on to the past is better spent on improving our present and our future. It is letting go of the past so that we can move on.

Mistake of trying to run away from the past. The problem is that no matter how fast or how far we run, the past always catches up to us-and usually at the most inopportune time. When we forgive, we are dealing with the past in such a way that we no We all have been hurt. And at one time or another most of us have made the longer have to run.

 

For me, learning how to forgive wasn't easy. But I did learn, and my life is better for it - even here on death row."

Michael B. Ross
Death Row
Somers, Connecticut

"To be angry is to let others' mistakes punish yourself.
To forgive others  is to be good to yourself.

Master ChengYen

Buddhism today

Kung Pao Tofu

Kung Pao Tofu is one of the versions of Chinese take-out Kung Pao Chicken. This recipe is a light and vegetarian dish that I have made a habit of eating. The recipe uses the same method to make Kung Pao Chicken, and the sauce consists of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, vinegar, dry sherry, and Thai dry red chili, depending on your tolerance of spiciness. Because this is a stir-fry dish, the firm tofu is best to use for stir-frying. The firm tofu will hold the shape, so it won’t fall apart over high heat. Let's get on making Kung Pao Tofu.

Ingredients:

One 14-ounce package firm tofu

Marinade ingredients:

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs cooking wine

1 tbs cornstarch

Kung Pao sauce ingredients:

1/3 cup vegetable broth

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1 tbs dark soy sauce

2 tbs black vinegar or regular vinegar

2 tbs cooking wine or dry sherry

1 tbs honey or brown sugar

1 tbs cornstarch

Vegetables:

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 cup white onions, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 scallions (separate the white and green parts)

Other ingredients:

One 2-inch piece of ginger, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium scallions (chopped, white and green parts separated)

2 medium zucchinis (quartered and cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch cubes.

2 medium red bell peppers, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 tbs lightly salted peanuts

2 tbs peanut oil

Directions:

Place tofu on a tea towel or paper towels. Cover with another towel and gently press tofu to get rid of excess water. Transfer to cutting board, flip on its side, and slice in half lengthwise. Flip it back over to lay flat on the cutting board and cut into bite size pieces.

Place cut tofu in a medium size shallow container so that the cubes can lay in even layers. Add the marinade ingredients over the tofu and gently mix well. Let sit for 1 hour.

In a medium bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients and mix well (add 1 tsp sesame oil if you would like at this point).

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large deep skillet or wok over medium heat. Carefully add the tofu.

Pan-Fry the tofu for 8-10 minutes, flipping every minute or so to brown all sides. Transfer to a plate.

Add remaining oil to the pan; then add the ginger, garlic, white onions, and white part of scallion. Sauté for 30 seconds.

Increase heat to high, and add the bell pepper. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring until slightly cooked; then add the tofu and sauce. Add roasted peanuts, and make a quick stir. 

Cook, stirring often, to combine for 2 to 4 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

To serve, sprinkle green parts of scallion greens on top, and serve immediately over cooked rice.

Easy No-knead Baguette

Vietnamese people love a baguette, which is a loaf of French bread. If you have eaten at a French restaurant, it’s likely you have tried this iconic bread. Simply put, a baguette is a long, thin loaf of French bread that is characterized by a crisp crust and chewy center. The ingredients are pure and simple, consisting of water, flour, salt, and yeast. A homemade baguette is special treat. However, making baguette at home is time consuming, and the method of baking requires a steam bath, which means a good oven and follow a good technique. I have tried many times to make baguette at home from the most complicated method to a mild one. Finally, I learned some no-knead bread recipes on YouTube and realized that making baguette using the no-knead method is an easy one. Better yet, this recipe requires only a few ingredients. The only hard part of this recipe is your patience, which I do not have, but with the results of this recipe, I think it is worth the time spent.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour

1 package active dry yeast 

3/4 cup to 1 cup water

1 tsp salt

2 tbs sugar 

1 tbs olive oil, coconut oil, or melted butter 

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. 

Make a well in a center of the flour and pour the water into the center of flour.

Use a wooden spoon to mix the flour until there is no trace of flour powder, and then add the oil.

The dough should be quite wet and sticky. Cover with a towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Every 15 minutes, dampen your hands with flour and fold the dough. The way to fold the dough is to pick up a piece of dough, lift it up, and fold it down to the other corner. 

After the folding method is done, cover the dough and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours or until double in size.

Punch down the dough, cover the dough, and let it rise a second time.

To prepare the baguette, do the following:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Remove dough from the mixing bowl, lightly dust the countertop with flour, and place the dough on the countertop.

Generously flour your hands and form dough into the baguette shape (about 12 inches long), or you can divide the dough into a smaller loaf. Cover the dough, and let it rise for the third time.

Before the rising time is done, preheat the oven to 450°. Place a large bowl of water at the bottom of the oven to create a steam bath. The steam bath is crucial to make a good baguette.

Fill a spray bottle with water to keep the baguette moist during the baking process.

Score the top of each baguette with a very sharp knife. Spray the baguette with water.

Place the baguette in the oven and spray the oven quickly with water and bake for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, quickly open the oven and spray the oven again with water. Bake for another 15 minutes.

If you do not want to eat all the baguette on the same day, then bake the baguette in a little less time.

The baguette can be frozen and pre-baked again each time you would like to enjoy it.