YUM: Shrimp Balls

What is this you might ask... If you like shrimp and Chinese sauces you will like this!

Back in 2002 and 2003 I went to Hong Kong. I had a blast and I can actually say it will forever be one of the most memorable times of my life. If I would move there I would.

They have an abundance of food everywhere. You go shopping and there is food, you wake there is food. It is VERY cheap as well. You would never think that you could live in a city eating what you need for about $10USD a day! Seriously! Maybe less than that!

Think of New York City with street vendors everywhere. I love it!

Here are some pictures that I have found on the web.


In this picture what you see on the bottom in the middle next to the greens are fish and shrimp balls.



I am not sure what all is in this picture but there is fish and shrimp balls at the top, squid and octopus below it, over to the left there is bean curd or tofu.



this one has the shrimp balls to the left, something like pork rinds and to the far right is more octopus.


This food is really good. The sauce that you can get for them seems like a mix of hoisin sauce with hot sauce if you like it. I have read other wise but that is the closest to explain to you.

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Since SD and I both like them I have made something that is pretty close at home.

What you will need:
Shrimp Balls (I use 2 packages)
Oil (TSP)
Green onion (2 stalks)
Garlic (teaspoon)
Hoisin sauce (TSP)


We shop at an Asian markets so shrimp balls themselves are not hard to find. If you live in a city with one they could be in the freezer section or in a deli section. Usually they are frozen.

I boil them first. While they are boiling I cut up 2 stalks of green onion.

In a skillet I put olive oil (you can use whatever), the green onion and about a teaspoon of garlic.

Toss that around and then add in the shrimp balls



Let them fry around in there. Do not burn them.

Add a tablespoon of Hoisin sauce and let fry a bit more.




If you would like you could mix hoisin sauce and Sriracha sauce to your liking.

These are super easy to make and REALLY makes me want to book a flight to Hong Kong!

Did you ever think....

You would see someone you know from high school on X17 or Perez Hilton?

Well about 4 weeks from the finish of American Idol I realized I went to high school with Adam Lambert. I do not watch the show but did recognize the name. The reason I did not know who I was looking for was because he looks completely different.

How different you might ask? See for yourself....



I do not know much about him other than he was in choir and he had a GREAT voice. I remember him singing a lot and according to some things he sang at graduation. I wouldn't know. I didn't go!!! HA!

I guess you can say that it is a shock to see someone you had class with and passed in the hallway on TV getting railed by what the tabloids (yes, yes, I LOVE them) and blogs have to say.

Never the less I am proud of him. He has reached his dream I am sure....

Lexmark, Oh how you suck

Since I have a laptop and SD has a desktop I wanted the new printer that Lexmark came out with. I have the WIFI printer that Lexmark makes. Sometimes it wants to act as if you NEVER, ever installed the software on either computer. We have had to uninstall and reinstall several times. Now the ink needed to be replaced and guess what?! The printer tells me that it does not recognize the cartridge! You have to be kidding me. I just got it at WalMart. I think I paid $20 for it. I am getting upset because I need to print out some stuff for Princess to hopefully start school in the fall.

Oh how this printer sucks

Quotable Thursday #8

This week I decided to do quotes that are humorous.

Hope you enjoy!!

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The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. - Robert Bloch


Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry. -- Bill Cosby


Everyone should have kids. They are the greatest joy in the world. But they are also terrorists. You'll realize this as soon as they are born, and they start using sleep deprivation to break you. -- Ray Romano

Experts say you should never hit your children in anger. When is a good time? When you're feeling festive? -- Roseanne Barr

Kids. They're not easy. But there has to be some penalty for sex. -- Bill Maher

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief. -- Henry Fielding (Tom Jones, 1749)

There are only two things a child will share willingly -- communicable diseases and his mother's age. -- Benjamin Spock

A man explained inflation to his wife thus:'When we married, you measured 36-24-36. Now you're 42-42-42. There's more of you, but you are not worth as much.' -- Lord Barnett

It never gets easier

Living in San Diego this sight or sound of news stories never gets old. Perhaps it is because I am pregnant and my husband is actually going to be here if Munchkin arrives when she is supposed to.

A strike group is leaving today. That is about 7,000 people leaving this beautiful city to go support the war on terror, guard the waters off Korea or fight the pirates that are in the ocean waters that way.

This picture was taken shortly after my husband returned from deployment in 2007. Our strike group and this one passed each other. Basically this one made it so my husband could come home and not stay longer as others had to during this deployment.

As you sit and remember your thoughts of Memorial Day this year please think of those who are going to have to deal with graduation, summer vacations, 4th of July, school starting, and the up coming holidays without their mother or father. Many of us to not agree with what is going on. This does not mean we can not support our troops in whatever mission they are faced with.

Wordless Wednesday: Reef Worm

****I found this hanging out in our Reef tank... The hubby says that it is good to have it in there****

Computer update

Its 1am and my computer is back online. We started with a clean slate. I took off all my pictures and documents that I needed and started over.
I have installed Norton and now I'm doing Windows updates.

I hope to be back in business tomorrow morning.

Yay! For a loving husband and patience!

Wordless Wednesday

My babies with their sunglasses....

See my Prince's missing tooth... He is so conscious of it and has not thrown a fit since!!!

Firefox update

So Firefox does not hate me!!!

I guess I have a virus. I let my neighbor borrow my laptop because her mouse was not working and she had school work to do. Fine, school is important!

I am not sure who did it, me or her how long I even had it but I have a virus!!!


Scream with me!!!

I have 3 1/2 years of pictures on there. I am terrified that I will lose. SD is going to come home and deal with it I hope that we are able to save everything.
Norton wanted to charge me $100 to get in there and fix it. I am going to have the hubby try first and see if he can get it fixed. I would rather keep the $$$$ and buy some other stuff than shell it out to Norton!
That is my story with my "big" laptop as I call it. This one is a tad bit easier but I have so many pictures on there that I like to use and have at my finger tips.

Thought I would share my update!!!

Kids say the darndest things- Yellow

This was a conversation between the Princess and I on the way to get the Prince from speech.

Princess: "Hey mom, that bus is yellow just like me"

Me: "you are yellow and white"

Princess: "You sure about that?"

Me: "Yep!"

Princess: "Does dad know about that?"

Me: "Yes Princess he does"



She is well aware that her father and I are not from the same place. Her dad is Vietnamese and I am Caucasian, Cherokee Indian and some things from northern Europe. We have neighbors who are black and she notices that she is not the same as them. She asked what color she was so we told her yellow and white.... That works. Now she has to go and make comments like this!!!

She likes the answer that god created a nice assortment of people. I guess she will understand when she goes to school!!!

What a diverse world we live in!!!

San Diego to Iraq

Living in San Diego we have the best of all worlds. We have the beach to the desert to the mountains and grassy greens within an hour of us. Also, living in San Diego we have Navy and Marines that deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan life there is rough to say the least.

Every summer we have something called Over The Line. It is a mix of soft ball type sports. Often made of teams about raunchy names, beer, drunkness and lots of fun!

A Navy doctor has taken OTL to Iraq!!!

I think this is amazing and great that people are here to help. The people at OMBAC as well as those that play every summer have shipped off things to the sailors and soldiers for them to enjoy in the little downtime that they have.

They are able to have their own tournament in Iraq!!!

Here is the link to the website. I am not sure how to place the video on here since I am not able to find it on Youtube.

http://www.kusi.com/home/44992617.html

Firefox, oh why to you loathe me

So today I decided to join BlogHer and I was unable to do anything on BlogHer. Then I was unable to login.

I tried everything that people told me to do. Turn off Norton, clear cookies, clear temp files everything.

I cleared cookies then I was not able to log onto any of my sites that had a log in.

I got furious and downloaded Opera it still did not work.

At this point I thought they all had it out for me.

Did I mention nothing worked in IE either!!!!

Well I remembered that trusty Google had Chrome.

I downloaded it and right away everything worked. I am able to get into all my sites and do everything as I was able to do before. I have done some research and it seems that this has happened from other people. I would like my Firefox back but at this point this seems to be doing just as well.

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If you have ANY idea on how to get Firefox to work or what to do can you please contact me?!?!?!

What a week

Well my baby boy is minus one tooth as of yesterday.

He tripped and fell and ate the tile in the doorway. The dentist said that he probably fell with his mouth open. Which does not surprise me because he was crying.

This started because I told him he had to share his drink with his sister.... He threw the cup then threw his head back!!! AWESOME tantrum!!!

Then he gets up and walks over to the timeout corner. Corner said is one that he is not able to see the TV or his fish tank. He is right by the front door and there is tile there. In the process of putting himself in timeout he tripped over his feet. (I knew something like this was going to happen, Tibial Torsin)He was upset so he was crying.

I thought he just had a busted lip. NO!! He had that to but his tooth was cracked vertical on the right side and shattered on the left!!!

I clean up the blood and try to get it together.

I Google 24 hour dentist and find one an hour away. I called at about 610pm and got a call back at about 730 the next morning!!! WTH!!

Wednesday, I go on with my day and take Prince to his OT appointment and asked them to please not do oral things with him. As I was waiting I called the dentist at the corner that is just for kids. I got him in at 11.

Well, mom was right. I called it. The tooth had to be pulled.

They were GREAT!! Prince did great and I was very impressed with the way they treated us and calmed us. Okay, mainly me. Prince was a trooper.

So for the last 2 days we have had to watch what he eats and he is not able to have his sensory stuff. That is the hardest part for him. He has done really well though. His lip is bruised, looks like the teeth and hip combined for a bruise. He will go back in 4 weeks and we will discuss if he will have a bridge type of thing with a replacement tooth on it.

The dentist we went to was Dr. Jean Chan in the El Cajon area. I am VERY impressed and would recommend her to anyone!!!

Quotable Thursday #7

Just some random quotes this week. It has been busy and hectic!! Have to love the Navy wife life!!!

Enjoy!!!!

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War is not an adventure. It is a disease. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. - Mother Teresa

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. - Eric Hoffer

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. - Kahlil Gibran

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances. - Aristotle

I don't sing a song unless I feel it...I have to believe in what I'm doing. - Ray Charles

Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. - T. S. Eliot

Admitting error clears the score, and proves you wiser than before. - Arthur Guiterman

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank. - Woody Allen

You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing. - Dale Carnegie

Sewing: Felt Crown, Alexis

This is the second felt crown that I have made. I did a bit of this one by hand. I do not have a very steady hand yet to go around the corners of the letters or to get in the tight spots. The only thing is this one is for a newborn and the 5" of elastic would have been way to big so I used grosgrain ribbon.
I hope to find a better option for an infants head then ribbon though!!!

Tutorial can be found here: Juicy Bits

Sewing: Pacifier clip/holder

I made an actual Pacifier Clip. I put a couple ideas together that I have seen on sites and made my own. These sell from $3-$12. I made this one for about $1! Labor a bit more! It is super cute!!

When I get better at them I might sell them... I am not sure. I just might give them for shower gifts.

This was made for a little girl who is due any day now!!!

Ginger dressing

I have tried to make Benihana's Ginger Salad dressing, while it was good it did not taste like the real thing. I have a craving and a taste in my mouth for their dressing. I have seen this in the market a couple times but I never thought to give it a try. Well today I said 'screw it'!




I went a head and got it, tried it tonight and it was wonderful!!! It was VERY close to perfect! I am rather impressed.

When I went to the company's website (Makoto Dressing) they are basically a restaurant like Benihana in Melbourne, Florida. They also have some other sauces but I did not find them at the store. I was just looking for ginger dressing.

This dressing is NOT cheap. It really hit the spot though!!! YUM!!!

Phone Book, Are you kidding me

So sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning at about 8am a phone book was placed on my door step. The book is just for the part of the county I live in. Not that big but dang.

It is 2009 the age of the internet. Who in the word needs a phone book? I have Google at my finger tips on either my phone or the 3 computers that are in my house.

I DO NOT want to throw this away because it is a huge waste of paper and space in our landfill. I am so afraid that others will do this though.

I wrote to them in their 'Contact Us' section. We will see what they suggest that I do with this book. I am assuming that it is paid for by advertisements and they really do not care since they have already been paid....

So frustrating

The mission of the lost "P"

I am sure I have mentioned it before but Prince has a bit of an oral sensory issue. He likes deep pressure to the back of his jaw in his molar area. At first he bit anyone and anything. Then we took him to OT and learned some stuff now we know how to work with him. One of the things used to work with him is a Ark's Grabber in the shape of a P. He shoves the long in back there and goes to town. He doesn't ALWAYS use it but he does use it about an hour a day and when he gets up.

Well he lost it last Friday. We were not able to get one until Wednesday! It was not a good week or weekend. He also chews on it when he goes to sleep sometimes!!!

When we bought one I was determined to make or buy something that would prevent him from losing it. I went on eBay and thing were priced pretty high. I went to Wal-Mart and got a pacifier holder but that was to short and did not have enough grip for his clothes. So I had to make one!!!

I went to Jo-Ann's for clips and found suspender clips. I had ribbon and material at home. I looked up ideas and went for the ribbon.


At first I used satin ribbon and that did not turn out so well. It was a huge mess. I thought something was wrong with the machine took it apart and all this MESS.

When I went to Wal-Mart earlier I got some cute ribbons out of the 'by the yard' section and decided to use the black and white one. I stitched up the sides where I wanted it closed. It took about 5 minutes and there you have it!!! I was done!!!



The clip is a bit big but it was my first one!! I have more clips coming and I am going to work on one for the munchkin and I will have that up in another post!!! I am hoping to get the hang of it so I can make them for all the new babies that are being born!!!!

Banana Nut Cheerios

YUM!

I saw the commercial and went to look for them at my last shopping trip. They were not in my local Von's yet.

I finally found them yesterday. We had them for breakfast and they are yummy! So yummy! They do not taste like my moms banana nut bread but they are yummy!

I would say if you can get a coupon or they are on a good sale its worth it. I'm not to happy about the price I paid, SD wanted to try them.

They are actually low in calories if you don't use whole milk and they are very satisfying!

Banana Nut Cheerios actually has a .55 coupon on their website.

I was not aware until after I ate them that they are low in calories!!! That is a plus!!!

They are great I think you should go and try them!!!