Easy Crispy Pork Wontons

August 28, 2014 by Christine Skari

I think I’ve made it pretty obvious by now that I love food (big surprise there, me having a food blog and whatnot). All the flavors, textures, seasonings- GAH. I’m drooling just thinking about it and attribute my love of food completely from growing up in a family that also just happens to be food-obsessed.

In fact, we plan family get-togethers based on the food we’ll be eating that day and holidays are just one big excuse to stuff ourselves silly. Christmas means big meat roasts, homemade bread, and my Auntie Stephanie’s delicious and fluffy mashed potatoes. The 4th of July means asian-style BBQ ribs, sashimi, and octopus salad (I know, eclectic). Growing up, Friday nights were always reserved for dinner at my Obachan’s house, and dooooonn’t even get me started on Thanksgiving. In fact, our biggest nightmare is not having enough food at one of our parties. Terrifying 😯 .

These pork wontons are a family-favorite that never fail to disappear by the time everyone packs up to leave to head back home. They’re the kind of appetizer that gets people gathering around the table, munching away, as soon as they’re brought out. They have the potential to ruin a party since everybody is to busy eating to talk and socialize. And I mean, who could blame us?! They deliver maximum golden-brown crispness with a delicious pork and garlic filling and ooooohhhh my gosh you guys! The sweet and salty explosion in your mouth when you dip them in sweet chili sauce is unreal. It’s fried deliciousness at it’s best!

I got this recipe from my mom, who is by no means a stranger to wontons. She’s a 2nd grade teacher and likes to go above-and-beyond for her students and always makes a huge 200+ batch with them for Chinese New Year. She prepares the meat filling at home, then brings in the prepared wonton dough and has them fill and crimp them, then sends them with some of the teaching assistants over to the kitchen to fry them up for everyone to enjoy. Since she’s done it for the last 10 years, that calculates out to be… at least 2000 wontons for her students alone!? I guess you could call her a wonton expert and this recipe tried and true!

If you’ve never worked with wontons before, you can usually find pre-made dough in your local grocery store in the refrigerated section by the tofu under packages titled “wonton/gyoza skins or wrappers”. They make your job much easier and help these wontons come together in a flash!

Hawaii Recap #3

August 25, 2014 by Christine Skari

So this third and final Hawaii vacation is coming at ya a week late, but I figure that it’s better late than never! It’s been a hectic last few days for me, hence the post tardiness. Let’s pick up where we left off: swimming with manta rays!

After coming back to the condo from the Farmer’s Market, we all relaxed a bit before heading out to our nighttime swim. We signed a little paperwork and were given wetsuits to squeeze into and learned a bit more about manta rays, including that the species we were going to swim with can reach 15 feet wide (!!). We learned a million more interesting facts, but my brain is dead from the ochem final I just took a few hours ago and I waited too long to type this post up so I forgot most of them 😯 . Whoops.

A typical picture. Me and Amanda unabashedly rocking out, Kyle amused, and Adam having none of it.

We ended up only being able to see one manta (they are HUGE) because of the fire worms present in the water. First off, you should know that they’re disgusting. They’re twisty little squiggly thing that move in an unnatural motion and are attracted to the lights we use to bring plankton for the mantas to eat. They get allll up in your face and it gets hard to concentrate on the massive rays with all the worminess in front of you. They only come out a few times a year to breed on a full moon, but their mating time was all mixed up from the hurricane that hit Hawaii, so the tour guides weren’t expecting them. Apparently their stings are pretty unpleasant, so I didn’t mind too much getting out of the water and cutting our excursion short. I spent a good amount of time trying to wave them away from me towards Adam. Survival of the fittest 😯 .

After getting back, we all slept in a bit before heading off to the beach. It was Amanda’s last day, so we went back to Lava Lava to eat dinner and watch the sunset. You guys… ALL THE FOOD.

The next day I left for the airport to get to my flight at noon and was back en route to my home in California. I spent the night at my parent’s house before driving up the next morning to get to my lab. Womp womp womp.

And there ya have it! My short Hawaii vacation in a nutshell. If you want, you can catch up with my other recaps here:

Take. Me. Back.

Fluffy Chunky Monkey Pancakes

August 21, 2014 by Christine Skari

I’ve had the idea to make these pancakes forever. And by forever I mean 2 months, because they’re basically the same to a young adult like me. What is patience anyways?! I keep a list on the Notes app of my iPhone for when inspiration strikes, and I remember jotting down the idea for this recipe after trying my friend’s Ben & Jerry’s ice cream with the same flavor.

I go to bed every night with food on my mind and always seem to draw my best ideas while trying to get to sleep, hence the needing a handy iPhone app to help me organize my thoughts. My mind doesn’t care that it’s 1 in the morning and I’m exhausted. All it can think about is how I can incorporate chocolate into everything I eat and maybe I should make blueberry biscuits and smother them with a vanilla glaze or make mini chicken teriyaki bites because everything is cuter in mini form and the crunch would be great and, did I mention people love mini things? Also, CHEESE. What was I saying again? My mind = a disaster.

OH RIGHT. Fluffy Chunky Monkey Pancakes.

I mean, can you go wrong with putting bananas, chocolate, and walnuts into a perfectly puffed and super fluffy pancake and smothering it with maple syrup and extra chocolate sauce? I think I’ve discovered the meaning of love. Let me give you a hint. It has the words pan and cake in it. Cake pan? No. Try again.

Good. Very good.

Like these. These are just plain good. The kind of good that gets all of your housemates ooing (autocorrect just changed that to oozing, I hope that’s not the case or else they should see a doctor) and ahhhhh-ing after every bite. These pancakes were especially stubborn to shoot and I spent a good 30 minutes with my camera furiously adjusting things and being unsatisfied with every photo before they got to dig in. And once I was finished with their photo shoot and they were fair game? Think annihilation. It was a pancake massacre.

I decided to add in a portion of whole wheat flour because… HEALTH… and it blends in really well! If you’re feeling especially in-tune with yo’ body and arteries and insides and whatnot, feel free to try going all-in with the whole wheat, but be warned, that wild idea hasn’t been tested in my kitchen. I’ve found in the past that a mixture of whole wheat + white flour gives a bit more nutrition to a dish without compromising taste or texture. What’s the point of healthifying something if it makes it taste like cat food? Not that I would know, of course. You should ask my sister. She tried a bit of kibble when we were 10.

The moral of this story is don’t eat cat food. Eat a plate of these instead.

Just yum, my friends. YUM.

Tangy Vanilla Mango Protein Smoothie

August 19, 2014 by Christine Skari

The mango obsession is unreal right now, you guys. It’s gotten to the point where I’m eating at least 1-2 huge ones everyday and unripe mangoes have become the bane of my existence. This might seem a little drastic, but I think I like them more than Kyle.

I kid, I kid.

Speaking of Kyle, get this. He’s been having these weird allergic reactions to something that cause him to puff up like a chipmunk (don’t worry, he’s a cute chipmunk). We’re not sure what is it, but they sometimes spring up the day after he eats, you guessed it, mangoes. GASP. I think he’s doing it to spite me…

But you know what? This mango-obsessed girl will not be stopped. Scratch that, she CAN’T be stopped. My mindset is eat aaaallll the mangoes and in any way, shape, or form possible. Today’s daily dose of the good stuff? This Tangy Vanilla Mango Protein Smoothie!

I actually did this recipe up before I left for Hawaii since I had this adorbs little vision in my head of posting Hawaiian-themed recipes a few days when I was gone. I did pretty well with my Best-Ever White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies, but after that, my enthusiasm tinkered off as I came back exhausted from the chores of swimming on the beach and going zodiac riding with dolphins and pilot whales all day. Did I mention all the delicious food I ate? My jaw got a serious workout and hardly had any time to rest. I think I pulled a jaw-muscle and I had to ice it with ice cream most nights. It’s a hard life 😉 .

My point is I got lazy. So this tangy smoothie is coming at ya’ll a little late and doesn’t have that OMGZ posted-in-hawaii charm to it, but better late than never, no? It’s packed with a base of vanilla greek yogurt that contributes the protein punch and creamy texture, along with mangoes which add all that is good in the world. Not to mention it only has 4 ingredients that you simply throw into a blender and BOOM. Instant yumminess.

Quick note, I’ve tried this with plain greek yogurt before and it was a bit too tangy for my taste. The vanilla adds a perfect sweetness!

Make. Sip. Carry on my mango legacy.

Hawaii Recap #2

August 18, 2014 by Christine Skari

Hello from the skies! I’m currently flying over the ocean and taking a small break from typing up my lab report, which I procrastinated doing my entire trip. I arrive at 9 tonight and am going to sleep at my parent’s house before driving up to Santa Barbara in the morning and heading straight to my lab. How’s that for a rude vacation awakening?

It’s been a great trip, though I must admit I’m not ready to go back yet. I mean, is anyone really ever ready to come back from vacation? Since I had to plan my stay in Hawaii with my labs, I only had four full days here. Cue sad violins. Oh well, I’m a lucky girl in that I got to go at all!

Enough of me acting like a spoiled baby at my own pity-party. Wah wah wah. Let’s get to the recap of my last few days! If you missed my first one, you can read it here.

On Friday we went on an excursion that’s probably my favorite thing to do when I visit the Big Island: zodiac riding!

We piled into the car at 9 in the morning and drove for about 25 minutes before arriving at the docks where are zodiac boat was waiting for us. We went slowly out of the dock area and right when we got out, we were greeted by a pod of sleepy dolphins and pilot whales.

After hanging around them and learning more about their habits/size/etc, we sped off until our guides excitingly found a large floating log in the middle of the ocean. Apparently it’s pretty rare to find one in Hawaii, but they’re a treasure trove for fisherman since after a few days, they become a floating ecosystem that smaller fish and wildlife use for shelter. This attracts bigger predator fish and the guides told us that you can usually bet on being able to spear dinner in no time if you fish around it.

Buddha (I have no idea if this is his real name, but we just went with it), the assistant, told us that he’s actually been able to jump out of the boat and stab fish with his bare hands 😯 . I asked him what his success rate was like and he said it’s around 1/3 since the first fish is like, “What the hell man, are you trying to stab me to death?” (a pretty called-for reaction if you ask me), the second fish is doubly sketched out by the little tan asian man jumping at it and trying to shank it with a knife, and the third one is used to him and the splash he causes when he tumbles into the water. Me? I’m just impressed he was actually able to catch one that way at all!

If you’ve ever been zodiac riding before, you know that it’s fast, bumpy, and exhilarating! You feel like you’re on an oceanic roller coaster and are holding onto the side ropes on the edges of the boat for dear life. It’s awesome. In no time we came to the place where we had a break to snorkel and eat a lunch of fresh fruit, sandwiches, chips, and cookies, The area has a monument to Captain Cook, a circumnavigator who discovered the Hawaiian islands while looking for a Northwest Passage. He ended up landing at a spot that is riiggghhtttt on the reefs where we snorkeled and was hailed as a god by the local Hawaiians. Apparently since the Hawaiians had never seen metal before, the crew members were able to trade three nails for a…. errr….. stay at the local harlot’s house and in no time, Captain Cook discovered that his ship was falling apart at the seams. Captain Cook eventually died in a skirmish with the locals when he tried to take the king of Hawaii hostage on his ship.

After snorkeling for an hour or so, we turned the zodiac around and headed to tour some of the lava tunnels. Some of them extend for miles, which I think is pretty crazy!

The rest of the day was spent with a nap, dinner, and relaxing. OH. And worrying about how freakishly tan my back had gotten from the day out on the ocean. I applied sunscreen religiously, but my skin tans ridiculously quickly and I felt like a crinkly brown paper bag even though I wasn’t burned at all. My back at the time was probably 6-7 shades darker than the rest of my body and, needless to say, Kyle has been helping load me up with layer after layer of aloe vera.

The next day we headed out around 9 to drive to a Farmer’s Market and explore. Kyle and I were starving by the time we got there and ended up eating a huge plate of pad thai, egg rolls, and a nutella and banana crepe- all before 10:30. Early lunches=food coma all day.

I think one of the main reasons Kyle and I get along so well is because we both like to eat so much. I swear, nothing makes us happier than good food and we always split dishes so we can taste twice as much food. It’s a goooooood system.

After walking around for a while and browsing the various stands, we picked up some fudge and got an iced coffee before heading back to the house to rest up before embarking on a new-to-me-experience, swimming at night with 15 foot wide manta rays!