Food at the Pinette Sandor House

I have decided to start a series of posts revolving around the food we eat here at the Pinette Sandor house. Why? Well, I don't know what to post most of the time (I can't show your the Christmas presents that I am making), and that way all my recipes will be in one location in case I get lost and Adam has to fend for himself. Hopefully it will not be too boring for any of you. Just some info before we begin: I do not take good food photos, there is not natural light after 3 p.m. here and I have never been good at food photography so the pictures will not be representative of the yummyness of the food, also I have almost no original ideas, I find most of my recipes on line via food blog or through tastespotting. and then either leave it alone if it is good are more often tweak it a bit to my liking. After all I am was taught to cook by my father, a man who could not leave a recipe alone if he had to.
You will find that a large amount of the food we eat is of a foreign nature. This is because my silly white Canadian husband does not actually believe that he is from Canada but from every country that he believes has better food than what he refers to as "white people food". While in the UK, where food sucks and take out is too expensive and here in Canada when we have no money for going out I have been forced to figure out how to make our favorite food from various countries.
So, I bring you Mapu Tofu
This recipe is from my friend Heather. She is half Chinese and after seeing me order this at every Chinese restaurant we have gone to together she finally gave me the recipe. It is soooo easy and soooo tasty. Anya loves it, and will usually eat tons and tons of the tofu. I generally make it with Honey Ginger Carrots from Steamy Kitchen

Mapu Tofu
Mix together for sauce:
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs white vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp sesame oil

Mix together:
6 oz ground pork
1 Tbs oyster sauce

In large pot heat 2 Tbs oil, then add 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 tsp minced ginger. Stir until fragrant then add ground pork mixture and cook until pork is done. Add sauce and 16 oz medium tofu, cut up into cubes. Cook until bubbly. Thicken sauce with 1/2 tsp cornstarch mixed in a little water. Serve over rice. Yummy!

By the way, I used firm tofu today, and it looks funny to me, and is not quite as good.

Big Smiles

I just wanted to clarify- my bad picture taking must not be because Anya does not smile for the camera- so the other explanation is that it gets dark at 4 pm, it is snowing so there is no natural light during the day, and the light in our apartment sucks.

An Explanation

Some of yous peoples may have notices an addition of 'want lists' to the side of this blog. I believe this requires an explanation. We have had a couple of you loved one's ask us for ideas of Christmas presents this year. Since we live so far from most of you, I felt that it would be OK to post such info on two conditions.
1- in no way does this list mean that we want or expect gifts from anyone, as always we would much rather have a nice Christmasy note of love than a gift so please do not feel the need to give anything.
2- This list is not a hard and fast list of requests, we would love any thoughtful gift, but if you feel the need to buy one of us anything you will notice themes in the individual lists- Adam loves TV and books- but we currently don't get any TV stations, so seasons of his favorites are great for him as are gift cards for book stores. Chrys loves kitchen stuff so anything in that department is appreciated (you may even get a return on you investment in the form of cooked items :). And Anya loves good quality learning toys- we hate having a house full of toys so the smaller is better.

Once again I would like to emphasize the fact that we do not expect any gifts from anyone- a nice email or phone call would be loved just as much- and as you all know I never buy Christmas gifts- handmade is much nicer to me so don't feel like you have to buy anything.

Halloween and my fantastic child!

So I just remembered that I did not actually post photos from trick or treating. We went we some friends who have 3 little girls (and one baby boy, but he did not go out). Anya loves these girls so we knew that she would follow them and do what ever they were doing. It worked well, she had a good time if only I was able to get a good photo of her. She does not want to look at the camera lately so It is hard to get good shots- sorry. In other news I just wanted to tell you what a great little girl she is. I am trying to finish up two university courses by the end on November and I still have a ton of work to do- so Anya had been babysat a lot these days- and most of the time by people that she has never met before. Thankfully she is such a happy, friendly little girl that she really does not care who is watching her. I drop her off at various peoples homes, she plays and plays and then cries when I try to take her away- young women come to our home to watch her and she wonders why they have to leave at the end of the night. I am so glad that she is so easy going- it makes trying to do homework a lot easier.