little feet, big sky

17
Jan 2010
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finger-licking chinese-style bourbon crab

I whipped up this dish based on this recipe, substituting the sherry-I-did-not-have for bourbon and adding some peas to make it a bit more of a one-pot dish. We served it over calrose rice cooked with soy sauce, sesame oil and lemongrass. Something about the bourbon in the sauce was absolutely delish and being stir-fry, it was super-fast to make. ;-)

  • 1 large live crab (Dungeness is good)
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onions
  • 3/4 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 shot of bourbon
  • 1 cup frozen peas, rinsed and drained
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 tsp cornstarch blended with 3 tbsp water
  1. Clean the crab thoroughly, discarding the top shell. Separate the legs from the body and cut the body in half. In a bowl, mix broth, soy sauce, bourbon, sugar and sesame oil and set aside. In another bowl, mix cornstarch and water and set aside.
  2. Heat oil in a  large wok. Add the garlic, ginger and green onions, and then add the crab and stir-fry to coat with oil.  Pour in broth mixture, add peas and bring to a boil.
  3. Cook covered until crab shells turn pink. Stir the blended cornstarch if it's settled and then stir it into the dish, bring to a boil again and serve.

Filed under  //   asian   bourbon   chinese   cooking   crabs   food   seafood   simple  
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20
Jul 2009
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travel dining for toddlers

Kaboost_kids_s

Next week, Spice and I are off to Malaysia! It's very exciting on the heels of our Montreal trip; empty suitcases, wash everything and repack again. :-)

One thing I've been juggling around is the efficient feeding of a toddler on vacation. Spice loves to sit at the table and eat with us, but I don't want to rely on restaurants there having high chairs, and we tend to eat at local hawkers (vendors) anyway. The seating arrangements are usually plastic patio chairs, or something similar. I don't really want to lug a laptop-sized booster seat around with me, so I've been looking for slimmer solutions that travel well. 

What I've settled on is the nifty Kaboost + a chair sling. I'll let you know how it works out, but in the meantime, here's the 411. 

The Kaboost is a cute, portable, folding chair lift. It unfolds and locks on to any four-legged chair to raise it up for toddlers to table-height. The cross section is offset from each of the four ends, so that the height is adjustable depending on which side is up. It's meant to be an easy fast way to raise a chair, typically for toddlers that don't want to sit in a high chair or booster seat, but could use the extra height. 

A travel chair sling is a bit of fabric or such that attaches to the back of a regular chair and provides a sling-like pouch to keep your older baby or young toddler from sliding out or falling off of the chair. Some have harnesses, others fit a variety of chairs, but all are meant to be slim, portable and easy to use. There's a bunch of different kinds on the market, but the ones I liked were the Snazzy Baby and the My Little Seat, and some I found on Etsy. 

The one downside I'm concerned with is that if the chair doesn't pull up all the way to the table, Spice might end up using the chair seat as a impromptu surface to mash her food on. Hmm. Maybe I could just stick an old receiving blanket under her first in that case. 

Filed under  //   eating   food   high chairs   parenting   tips   toddlers  
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