中秋节

中秋节快乐!!! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone. I can't believe it. Today is mooncake day. I love mooncakes. My favorite are the lotus seed ones without the yolk and the red bean ones, without the yolk. I just don't like the yolk, as you guys can tell. 

Anyway, the Chinese moon festival is a really old tradition. Here is the link   to the history of the moon festival, or the Mid-Autumn Festival, depending on how you want to call it. 

As for my family,  we usually celebrate it by incense and all that traditional stuff. We also eat mooncake, which we buy from the store. We sometimes make it to. Hopefully, there will be sales on the mooncakes tomorrow, since the festival will be over by then. I love mooncakes, so it's the best time to stock up, right after the end of the festival. I just can't get enough of mooncakes, even though they are really high in calories and sugar. But, hey, it's delicious. 

We went to one of my aunt's place to celebrate. My cousins, aunts and uncles all came over to celebrate. We ate dinner, had an incense table and ate mooncake and other delicious treats. It was great. However, I somehow got a small burn on my hand. It didn't hurt at first, but then, after  while, it started hurting. My mom and aunt knew that there's this one plant that helps with burns, and my aunt happened to have one in her garden. They rubbed it on my burn, and it actually started feeling better. Anyway, it was a fun and interesting night tonight. 

So, yesterday, I watched a movie with some friends. We watched Looper. It was such an amazing movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is awesome. He's an amazing actor and he isn't that bad looking after. Things really do go in a circle. I wonder if time traveling will ever be invented. The story line was good, but I didn't like watching all the blood and the shootings and killings that happened. 

 Anyway, before watching the movie, we went shopping for a bit at a nearby mall and I bought a cardigan for sale for only 4 dollars! It's pink and it's so cute. Then, we had to walk for 15 minutes to the movie theater and then walk back again after to go back to the mall. It was quite an adventure. We ate at Johnny Rockets and the food was delicious. I split the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich with sweet potato fries because I didn't want to consume so many calories. The Philly Cheese Steak was amazing, especially with Swiss cheese. It still tasted good with the onions. The only reason why I got it was that it was sirloin steak, so, it's a leaner cut. It's been such a long time since I consumed red meat. It was my first time eating it in such a long time. Also, I love sweet potato fries. 

I also finally found some clip on earrings. I don't have pierced ears and I don't plan on getting the pierced. I was so happy to find some, so I bought a few. Here's a picture of one of them.Sorry, but I had to blur out some parts of my room.

 

Anyway, that was my day yesterday, basically. We stayed at the mall for most of the day. 

Today, my family also went to Costco. We bought Fiber One bars, which are delicious. I've already reviewed them on my blog, so I won't review them again. I do have to say though, the chocolate Fiber One bars are one of my favorites, besides the Clif Company bars (Clif, Mojo, Luna). I won't post a picture of the Fiber One Bars. 

We also bought the Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese. I can't wait to try these. I might try eating it with my Boca burgers with the Costco Multigrain Rounds, which are really healthy. I was also thinking about eating this with crackers. I was thinking of eating these with the original Mary's Gone Crackers, but I'll see what I can eat this with. We also bought the nonfat frozen yogurt from the food court 

 I wanted to talk about nutrition. Last week, our class learned about Fats. However I'm still writing about that post. We're going to be learning about Protein tomorrow. It's going to be fun.

Do you like cheese?

Do you like mooncake?

                                                                                                           

Mooncake 月饼

Hello Everyone! 中秋快乐! Today is the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival, or the Mooncake Festival, 中秋节. I've decided to post today, because of the special holiday. Every year for the Mid Autumn Festival, we all eat mooncake. It's a tradition. Mooncakes are delicious, but are a rare treat unless you make them yourselves. Chinese stores usually only sell them during the Mid Autumn Festival season, making them a rare treat. However, there are bakeries that probably sell them year round. There are so many different types of mooncakes, with different fillings, and different types of crust, including the regular baked crust or the snow skin mooncake. I personally like the regular baked crust better. I really like the lotus seed filling and red bean filling, without the yolk. Others like the yolk, but I don't. There are also other fillings like green tea, winter melon, and nuts, but I don't care for those. My favorites are lotus seed  (or white lotus seed) and red bean. So, here's a recipe for mooncakes. Enjoy. :) 


Ingredients: 

Dough: 

A

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2    cup powdered milk
• 1/2    tablespoon baking powder   

B

• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3/4  cup melted butter 

Filling

• 4 cups Lotus Seed Paste or Red Bean Paste 
• 20 salted egg yolks (optional, if you like egg yolks in mooncakes. I don't). 

Directions: 

1. If you are using egg yolks, preheat the oven to 350 F and bake them for 10 minutes. Divide the red bean into 20 portions, and add 1 yolk to 1 portion of red bean. Roll it into a ball until the red bean covers the yolk. 
2. In a bowl, sift together A. 
3. In another bowl, mix together the B. Slowly add the A to the B and lightly mix. Divide the dough into 20 pieces. 
4. Preheat the oven to 400 F. 
5. Roll a piece of dough into a ball and flatten it to form a 4 in circle. Put one piece of the filling in the center and wrap the dough to enclose the filling. Pinch the edges to seal them and roll it into a ball. If you have a mooncake mold, place it in and then gently tap it out. If not, then, you can use a cookie cutter to make the mooncake into a circle or any shape. 
6. Do this with the rest of the dough and filling, Then, if you want to, brush the top of the mooncakes with egg yolk. 
7. Bake them for 30 minutes. 
8. Take them out and enjoy.