Ethan’s family gave us a bag of their harvested almonds from their orchard. Ethan used half of the almonds for roasting with honey. The second half, I decided to give it a try for some almond milk. The result was quite satisfying as shown on Eiya’s face.

First, we soaked the almonds over night. Then, we boiled in boiling water for several minutes to blanch them and remove the skins.

After that, we used the blender to blend the almonds into a smooth liquid. My mom made us some muslin bags for making soy milk when she stayed with us. I used that to strain the almonds milk. We are saving the almond pulps to make some cookies later this month.

Summer is just around the corner…

Spring has brought life into the garden…it makes gathering bundles of flowers a joyous thing to do… watching the life forms in the backyard…cutting and picking the perfect blossoms…making bouquet of colors that enliven the home…

In our dining room, sit the two Mexican carved animals (got them from a local Mercado for our baby) and beautiful cookbook of Mexico…next to my collection of drift woods, seed pods and dried leaves…

Savoring these quiet moments of life…is truly precious.

Happy Spring!

For our sixth wedding anniversary, Ethan got me this very cool vintage doctor’s travel case from etsy for my seed collection. It  is so neat! The leather case opens up into two sides with 20 slots for glass vials. Three original vials are missing and hopefully, I will come across them in my future thrifting ventures.

Earlier on, I photographed my seed collection this year and have been keeping them in tiny glass bottles. This case comes in so handy. It transforms my seed collection into a beautiful mini portable seed library. Today, I finally have some time to type out little title strips and inserted them in each vial as label to identify the seeds.

Thank you mimo! This is so lovely.

For the past few weeks, we have been going to the Sunnyvale Farmers’ Market. We are drawn there for the varieties of apples from Prevedelli Farms. This week, we bought Mutsu, Fuji, Bellflower and My Jewel. There was also a vendor there from Orange County that carries fresh Gold Fingers bananas.  Yes! bananas from California…a pleasant surprise. I love the satin looks of the skin. It’s so precious to be able to access locally grown fruits.

Fall is just around the corner. It’s soup season!

Today, I stopped by Ranch 99 and bought a black chicken (silkie) to make this herbal soup. My mom often made herbal soups as we were growing up. She has a recipe of herbs that she uses on a regular basis.

The herbs she uses are:
Dang Shen
Yu Zu
Huai Shan
Huang Qi
Guo Qi Zi (Chinese Wolfberries)

I added red dates, dried scallops and sea cucumber for this soup.

This page has good information about each herb.

My mom told me that these herbs are mild and suitable for more frequent consumption. These herbs are supposed to strengthen your body. I remember she made them at least once/twice a month.

To make the soup, you actually put the chicken along with herbs and all the ingredients plus water in a ceramic pot that has a lid. Then, you put the ceramic pot in a bigger pot and steam for about 2 hours.