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Showing posts from October, 2016

Red Bean Paste ~ 红豆沙

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Buns with red bean paste filling are so common in Chinese pastry. They can be streamed, baked, or fried, all turn out to be so tasty. One can found the red bean paste in any Asian grocery store. I like sweat stuff, but I found the store bought is usually too sweat for me. Here I tried to make my own and it turned out great! The process is pretty simple and one can easily adjust it to his/her own taste. Ingredients: 455g raw red beans (half bag) 1/4 cup cooking oil 1/2 cup brown sugar Directions: Wash red beans clean, add to Instant Pot (pressure cooker), add water to cover and about 1/2 inch more (it is fine to add more water, but not less, or your beans will be too hard);  Start the Instant Pot with Bean/Chili setting, about 45 minutes; Let the beans cool down, add to a blender, blend until smooth, add more water if it is too thick; Set a non-stick pan on low heat, with a spatula, cook the blended red bean paste, let water evaporate; about 3 - 5 minutes; Add c

How to add a horizontal menu bar to your blogger

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One way to organize your blog posts is to tag each post with a label, as described here , and use the Label gadget in your layout, so the posts are categorized in a list in the side bar. That is not bad, but the side bar is only visible when you have the space, usually it shows up in the desktop version, but not on the mobile/phone version. A better way is to add a horizontal menu bar, using the Page gadget in the layout. All my posts are still labeled as before. 1. Go to Layout, in Cross-Column secion, click "+ Add a Gadget"; 2. Select the Pages gadget; 3. Be default, you get the Home menu item, which shows all your post in the order as they are posted. Click "+ Add external link" to add more menu items; 4. Add the text for the menu item, and the link to the category of post grouped by a label; 5. I have just created a new menu item called "Food". Repeat step 4 to create all the menu items you need. Don't create too many,

How to transfer your WeChat chat history to a new phone

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The most popular messaging app in Chinese is WeChat. You most likely have several groups, parents group, high school class group, university class group, dance group, etc. you name it. When you are upgrading to a new smart phone, you will probably want to keep some of these group chat history with you. Here is how to do it. This process also applies to personal chat history. Start with your old phone: Settings --> Chat --> Chat Log Migration  Here, you can migrate all by check the "Select All" in the lower left corner, or select only the chat groups you want to migrate. Now login into WeChat on the new phone, and scan the QR code. Chat logs will start migrating.  On your new phone: Hats off to the WeChat team for streamlining this process. 

Dr. Gardiner

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据说糖尿病一旦得上,就是跟随终身的病。连带着跟随终身的是糖尿病专家医生。 爷爷的糖尿病和高血压有快20年的病史了。常规体检时发现的,然后就被转去看专家。 Dr. Gardiner是位白人医生,身材魁梧、仪表堂堂,娃娃脸白里透红,总是带着微笑,头发整齐服帖的边分着。因为语言不通,爷爷每次看医生都要人陪同。爸爸当然是不二人选,实在工作走不开,妈妈就去替班。走过几次后,就被专家记住了,搞得很清楚这是儿子和媳妇,不是女儿和女婿,偶尔还会拉拉家常。他说话轻声细语,目光中传递着温暖。说几句就停下来,等着我们翻译给爷爷听,然后又接着说下去。每次说完都问爷爷还有没有问题,还询问他什么时候要回国探亲,药够不够。真是难得的好态度的医生,我们在家都亲切地称他“胖爷爷医生”。在他的严格监控下,我家爷爷的糖尿病快20年了没有恶化,用药剂量还有所减少。“胖爷爷”说,我家爷爷是他从医以来见过最优秀的病人,坚持锻炼、控制饮食、瘦瘦的,饿晕了糖尿病。 突然接到诊所电话,说“胖爷爷”生病了,还很严重,短期内都不能工作,跟爷爷的预约要换人了。医生怎么也会生病,还很严重?!不知道怎么好,只能写张问候的卡片带去诊所转交,祝愿胖爷爷早日康复!祈祷老天保佑这样的好医生,度过这个难关。 那些带着微笑、带着温暖走进我们生命里,陪伴了20年的人们,值得好生珍惜。

Matcha(Green Tea) Cake

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A simple and light matcha cake goes with every cup of coffee/tea! Prepare the cake exactly the same way as the  10-inch-sponge-cake , plus 2 tsp matcha sifted in, using a 9x13 pan, reduce time to 40 minutes; Reduce the filling to 1 cup of 35% cream and 1/8 cup of sugar, add 1 tsp matcha.

麻辣牛肉干

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让人吃了又吃、欲罢不能的麻辣牛肉干! 原料: 2.5 kg 牛肉 调料1 1tsp 花椒 2 八角 1 草果 1 Tbsp 料酒 1 Tbsp 盐 1/2 cup 菜油 调料2 1/4 cup 熟芝麻 1/3 cup 辣椒碎 1/4 cup 花椒粉 1/2 cup 白糖 1 Tbsp 胡椒粉 2 tsp 盐 调料3 2 Tbsp 醋 2 Tbsp 生抽 做法: 牛肉切成指头粗细的条, 锅里加凉水盖过,煮开焯水,洗净; 牛肉放回锅里加开水盖过,加入 调料1 ,小火煮30分钟,捞出沥干; 大炒锅倒入菜油中火烧热,加入 调料2 拌匀,加入牛肉条,小火翻炒拌匀; 加入调料3,中火拌匀; 烤箱预热300华氏,把牛肉干倒入烤盘铺平,烘干30分钟; 放凉后密封冷藏。