Green pepper with beef in black pepper sauce 黑胡椒青椒牛肉絲

I can't believe that there are still vegetables growing in my in-laws' garden. It's still pretty warm for December, we were in the 60s last week. The temperature just came down to 40s this week. Feels pretty cold with the wind, but it hasn't slow yet. I hope it comes as late as possible.

So my in-laws gave us some green bell peppers. They looked so yummy. I am going to make a very common Taiwanese dish -- green pepper with beef in black pepper sauce. Beef needs some strong taste to bring up the flavor. Black pepper makes my whole body warm, from my stomach to the sole of my feet. It tastes the best when covering over rice. It costs about $5 a plate!

Spicy meat sauce noodles 辣醬麵

We had some rain over the weekend, the weather suddenly cools down a lot. I love spicy food, even in the summer time. There is a small restaurant in the Chinatown here, and it is always so busy. You know they have good food there. One of my favorite is the spicy meat sauce with mixed vegetables over noodles. I try to reproduce it at home, so that I can also add some personal touch to it.

Sha cha calamari with snow peas 青豆炒沙茶花枝

There is a heat wave covering all US right now. The nres said it's not just heat waves, but a heat dome, which stays and takes longer time to pass. There have to be a few days in the year remind me that "Ah~ Summer!" Remember to keep your fluids up, keep well-hydrated! Sha cha sauce and seafood are good combinations. Calamari is one of my favorite seafood. I think Cheesecake Factory has the best fried calamari. To make the calamari curls during cooking, it has to be cut in a certain way and on the right side too. I once cut the pattern on the wrong side, and, of course, it didn't curl. I also add some vegetables for color and nutrients. This is a quick easy dish for lunch box.

Scrambled egg with leeks 韭菜炒蛋

Leek is a vegetable with great aroma. That's why it is used in many Chinese dishes or traditional snacks, like dumplings or dim sum. A quick and easy way to enjoy this delight is to cook it with eggs, both nutritious and delicious. This is also a very common home dish. The leeks are now available in our in-law's garden. Thanks to their labor in love, we get to have fresh and delicious vegetables everyday. Fresh is always the best!

Pad thai 泰式炒麵

I love Thai food. Every time I move to a new city, I must look for a good Thai restaurant for sure, and I will become a frequent guest there. My love to Thai food started in a little Thai takeout place on the side of a street. It was owned by three brothers and sisters. The big brother was around 17 or 18 years old, serving as the chef. And the two sisters were so young and so cute, serving as cashiers. I will never forget the naive smiles on their faces, so simple and so cute. Surprisingly, their food tasted much better than the food in some fancy restaurants. Now I always use "Pad Thai" as my test to a new Thai restaurant: if they can't even do Pad Thai right, they probably can't do anything right. After a while, I try to reproduce it at home so that I can be more generous with the ingredients.

Stir-fried beef with celery 西芹牛肉

It's late at night, and I still need to think about tomorrow's lunch. My husband, the President and Treasurer of the house, told me that we spent too much money on dining out, so me, the CEO of the house, is cooking, cooking and cooking away in the kitchen. On an attempt to use up some things in the refrigerator that are getting old, I came up with this idea. I added a few things, here and there, to the dish to make it more colorful. This is a great dish for lunch, given that it produces almost no juice and can sustain re-heating.

Szechuan style chicken with wood ear 麻辣雞片炒木耳

When I think about Szechuan (四川) cuisine, the first thing comes to my mind is the smoking hot flavor. The kind of spiciness is a little different from the one in Hunan (湖南) cuisine. Szechuan cuisine uses a lot of Chinese peppercorns (花椒) in addition to the hot chilli, which give you a numb sensation at the tip of your tongue. This is a great dish for the lunch box, very tasty even after re-heating. The spiciness surely boost one's appetite. Remember to grab one more piece of tissue!

Red pepper onion sha cha beef 紅椒洋蔥沙茶牛肉

Holidays are over and we are back to work today. We were so busy cleaning the house yesterday, so I made this quick stir-fry for lunch today. Also, I can use up some of the produce from my in-laws' garden. The weather has been very warm lately, and the vegetables grow at an incredibly fast speed. Good news for us -- we have fresh vegetables everyday! The weather has been very warm, and we don't have air conditioner. This colorful dish should boost our appetite.

Stir-fried rice noodles 炒米粉

Memorial Day weekend officially starts. It's a holiday to honor all the American soldiers died in wars AND a long weekend AND the official starts of summer activities. People start to take vacations, so the workload around this year is light. For some reason, I am terribly home sick, but the airline tickets are sky high now, due to the high gas price, the graduation season, and the coming summer. That's OK. I can cook something to make me close to home.

Sweet and sour short ribs 糖醋排骨

"Sweet and sour' dishes are my favorite. I guess probably no one wouldn't like the taste, sweet and sour. The origin of the "sweet and sour" style dishes is from Jiangsu (江蘇) region in China, but it has become so popular that it's the most well-accepted Chinese dish around the world. My husband loves short ribs. He always says the meat attached to bones tastes the best. So I combine the two today; this should please him (or his stomach). The ingredients are easy to find at the grocery stores, and the colorful dish really intrigues our appetite.

Double happiness 紅白報喜

This is a dish that I like very much since I was little. It's colorful and starchy. I guess little kids love soft and soupy food; it's easier for them to chew and swallow. Same idea; it is also good for elderly people. Starchy vegetables are like potatoes or yams (山藥). I like to add some carrots for more colors and nutrition.

Moo shu pork with moo shu pancakes 木須肉, 木須餅

"Moo shu" is a popular dish in Chinese take-out restaurants. There are many different spellings for "moo shu"; I use the one in Wikipedia. It is actually a very common home dish, and there is really no fixed recipe for cooking it. It goes well with rice or moo shu pancakes. If you don't have the moo shu pancakes, just use pita bread.

Eggplants with basil 塔香茄子

Today we are having eggplants for dinner. I've been thinking about this for a long time. This is the oriental eggplants, and they are thin and long compared to the western kinds. Chinese cooking is really into "color", "smell" and "taste" all in one dish. However, once the eggplants are heated, they are very easy to lose the purple color and become brown. Also, you can't cut them too early in advance, because they will get oxidized and turn brown, too. So to preserve the pretty color of the eggplants, Chinese have developed several ways to do it. (This is never a worry for eggplant parmesan.)