Cutting Costs [Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee]

When I first started this blog, I was carefree and I wasn't very money conscious. Since I started working full-time and building my savings and retirement accounts, I feel very uncomfortable now being unemployed. I don't like seeing the numbers decrease in my bank account. In order to make money last, I have been tracking my expenses and finding ways to cut down cost.

My latest discovery is brewing my own coffee. I know. The majority of the world brews their own in the morning already. Back when I used to work, I wasn't a daily coffee drinker so I didn't see the purpose in brewing my own. It was more economical for me to buy that one cup of coffee that I needed once a month. Now that I'm returning to school, I need coffee to wake up and absorb information in class. I have been spending $1.75 two times a week, which totals to $3.50, which isn't much when you're working. However, when you're living off savings that is money that can be saved. I didn't want to waste money purchasing a coffee machine so I decided to cold-brew. For $1.30, I bought enough fresh coffee beans that made 6 servings. That's approximately 20 cents a cup! Now, that is the price that I can afford.

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee
from New York Times

Servings 2

Ingredients
1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best)
1 1/2 cups water
ice cubes
milk (optional)

1. In a jar, mix coffee and water. Cover and let it sit overnight or 12 hours.
2. Strain twice through a coffee filter.
3. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If desired, add milk.

Personal Preference: I don't add extra water, I add ice cubes and let it dilute the coffee. I also add plenty of milk. No sugar. 

Unemployed Blues [Ginger Drank]

Before I left my last job, my clients were extremely generous and thoughtful. One of them gifted me a bottle of Domaine de Canton, because she knew I loved ginger. She mentioned the best way to consume it is to make a simple cocktail by mixing Domaine De Canton with ginger beer. She was absolutely right. The flavor of the ginger comes through and it's spicy.

Ginger Drank

1 oz Domaine De Canton
1 can Q Ginger Beer (or any high quality ginger beer will do)
Half a lime
Ice cubes

Take a high ball glass and squeeze juice from half a lime. Fill entire glass with ice cubes. Pour 1 oz of Domaine De Canton. Top off with ginger beer. Give the cocktail a quick stir and garnish with a slice of lime.

What? Parents know what they're talking about? [Aloe Vera Blueberry Green Tea]

Eggettes Fail.

During my teenage years, I reached a point where I stopped talking to my parents about problems and difficulties I had in my life. Of course, there was small talk and jokes, but nothing personal in nature. I think it's because I felt that they weren't on my side and were only telling me what to do instead of listening and offering guidance.

Now eight years later, I asked my parents for advice about a difficult choice that I have to make in a few days. To my shock, they provided valuable insight and never once pressured me to pick one choice over the other. Hrm, since when did my parents become so wise? (Yes yes...I know...they have always been wise, but the teenage me was stubborn and had false impressions.) It's a strange moment to realize that I always had two valuable resources around me, but I refused to see it. Thank goodness I discovered it before it was too late. It's time to celebrate with a light refreshing drink.

Swirling Colors

Aloe Vera Blueberry Green Tea

Refreshing Aloe Vera Blueberry Green Tea

Note: Lately I've been on a aloe vera craze. It's much more refreshing and light compared to boba.

Servings: 1 Drink

Instructions
1 cup water
1 blueberry green tea bag
1 tsp honey
3 standard sized ice cubes
1/4 cup of aloe, chopped into quarter inched sized pieces
small handful of frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Pour water in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let it cool down for 5 minutes with the lid on.
2. Place tea bag in a cup and pour cooled water over it. Let it sit for 2 minutes. Remove tea bag and stir in honey. Then add ice cubes. Allow ice cubes to dissolve. At this point, you can either prepare the drink or store tea in the refrigerator for later.
3. In a large glass, add aloe, pour in tea, and garnish with blueberries. Use a large boba straw to drink.

NYC recap [Hawthorn Tea Recipe]

Warning: This is a photo intense post. If you just want the recipe, scroll all the way to the end.

When I visited New York last month, I was on a foodie adventure. Forget about the sights, it was all about the food. Why visit landmarks when there is a chance that a food establishment might close before you're able to visit again? I did visit a couple of landmarks... Rockefeller Center, High line, Charging Bull...that's about it...However, my friends and I did enjoy second and third lunches and dinners. Oh, shopping was a part of our day as well.

View from On Top of the Rock

Rockefeller Center

Shaved Iced Shop: So light and fluffy with awesome toppings. Perfect on a  hot day at Hester Street Fair.

This is indeed crack. I ate it for breakfast and  I was in heaven. (Yes, it is super sweet, but the crust, filling, and texture went so well together that the sugar rush wasn't even an issue)

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. 

il laboratorio del gelato: mango

This was my 2nd dinner. I tried the wasabi tonkotsu ramen and the broth had a hint of wasabi...oooh sent me over the edge. The ramen could use some work...it wasn't that chewy and the order wasn't piping hot.

Over-rated. Expensive and the pizza lacked the "wow" factor.

Nuts @ Times Square (get the pun?). Those nuts4nuts carts are crazy addictive. I LOVED the cashews. I bought some to nom at the airport.

Onya: I know you can't see the udon, but the fresh udon was chewy and full of flavor. SOOOOO goood. You see all the tempera crisps? yah, self-serve so I piled it on. 

Prosperity Dumplings: it doesn't look like much, but 5 potstickers for $1 tastes amazing. You can't complain about them when it's that cheap, yo. 

Mmmm....fresh takoyaki balls

High Line was gorgeous, but People's Pop made the visit even better.  I had the golden plum pop and it was full of plum-y goodness with hints of ginger and plum flesh. I NEED to go back to NY for some more of this!!

My friend ordered the grape shaved ice. (that's his hand over there). It was pretty interesting watching the guy scrape the ice from that ice block. 

One of the most memorable moments was eating at Xi'an noodles...the noodles were wonderful and everything the reviews says it is...but what stood out for me was their hawthorn tea. It tasted like hawflakes in liquid form. WTF. Mind blowing. (It's the equivelent of Startucks's apple cider...apple pie in liquid form. Say what?) I fell in love. I had NO idea that hawthorn came dried and one could make a tea out of it, it became my mission to brew tea when I returned home.

HELLO noodles.

Typical asian plating, but the chewy noodles with the spicy cumin lamb sauce was a great combo. My tea on the upper left helped kill the tingling sensation from the spicy sauce. 

When I arrived back home, the first thing I did was drop by Chinatown to purchase dried hawthorn to brew tea.

The brand I use.

Dried Hawthorn for Tea.

Dried Longan

The Tea. P.S. Please excuse my dirty window in the back ground

Hawthorn Tea (sweetened with longan)

Note: This version is much tarter and less sweet than the store version, but I prefer it that way. If you prefer it sweeter, add some rock sugar. The great thing about making Chinese teas is that you can eyeball everything, but I did weigh out ingredients for those that work better with exact numbers (and I just wanted an excuse to use my scale).

Serves 1

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups water
25g or 1/2 cup or 2 small handfuls of dried hawthorn
30g or 1/4 cup or 1 handful of dried longan

Directions

1. Boil water in a pot.
2. While water is boiling, rinse  hawthorn and longan a few times and let it soak in water for 10 minutes. Rinse again.
3. When the water is boiling, add the drained ingredients into the pot. Turn down the heat and allow it simmer for 30 minutes.
4. When finished, it should be lightly sweetened by the longan. If you prefer it sweeter, add rock sugar. You can drink the beverage hot or cold.

Magic Coffee

When you work with children, you're bound to get sick every couple of months. I thought I had a strong immune system, but man, the germs that kids carry are devastating. I either feel off for a couple of weeks or I get hit hard suddenly...and sometimes both. To ease my suffering, I've been making ginger milk pudding, because the warm dessert and ginger soothes my throat and kills my craving for sweets in a fairly healthy way.

On days where I'm not sick, I enjoy a cold-brewed cup of magical coffee. I'm so glad I stumbled onto this recipe, because the cinnamon surprisingly compliments coffee quite well. For me, that's the "magic" aspect of it.

Non-fat milk sinks to the bottom of the glass. Not photogenic at all.

Magical Coffee
adapted from Food52 by ErinH

Servings: 1 Glass

Ingredients
2 1/2 TBSP of coarsely ground coffee
3/4 cup of water
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
3/4 TBSP of sugar

Directions

1. Add all ingredients in a container. Stir until sugar has dissolved.
2. Let it sit in fridge over night and filter/strain the next morning.
3. Add ice (if desired) and milk.

DIY coffee strainer.

Making Soy Milk is as Easy as Reciting your A, B, Cs

EDIT!!!
I have a confession. I'm a horrible food blogger. I was so excited about devouring the food we had that I didn't take any pictures!!! ahhhhh!! /tucks tail between legs

Last year, I wanted to go to Alice's summerthing too, because Lifehouse was playing for free!. Sadly, I had work. This year...I am unemployed with plenty of free time. I told JSB about it and we decided to do a picnic. As we were putting our picnic together, we thought we made too much food. Turns out we didn't make enough!

We made:

Pasta salad with salami, onions, and celery.
-delicious!

The Salad. I realize it seems "plain," but that's the way I like mine. Not overly saucy.

Sandwich: sourdough slices with spinach and melted mozzarella cheese.
-also yums! Simple, and easy enough for JSB to make! <3 style="font-weight: bold;">Fruits in separate containers: lychee, apricots, mangos, white nectarines.
-sweet and juicy, but the nectarines turned into a nice shade of brown. =( At least it still tasted delicious.

Lychees and Apricots.

Ginseng with honey jello.
-great idea, poor execution. What went wrong? Needed more knox! It tasted fine, but it was practically melting before our eyes.

It was an awesome day. The sun was out with a minimal amount of breeze, which is super rare in SF. I loved it. I was lounging around on the grass reading a book and listening to the awesome free music. For those that are curious, the bands that played were Parachute, Sugar Ray, Matt Nathanson, and Gavin Rossdale.

The only negative aspect of my day was my sunburned face (forehead, nose, and cheeks). Dammit, time to break out the sunblock like sunblock obsessed JSB! She is practically a vampire when it comes to the sun. She refuses to stand in it. If she has to be in it, she puts on sunblock right away, covers her face with her hands too, and wears a cap.

Oh oh, I was also productive in the morning before I left. I had soaked some soybeans the night before to make soy milk. I recently discovered how to make it a few days ago. The process is extremely simple and cheap to make.

Soy Beans.

Soy Milk
Adapted from Just Hungry and Beauty and the Biscuit

Serving size: Unlimited

Ingredients:

• cheesecloth (or any other type of material that will strain tiny granules)
• dried soybean
• water
• blender
• a big pot

Directions:

Important key point: 2.5:1 ratio of (water: soybean). That's it! You can make an endless supply of soymilk now.

1. Soak dried soybeans overnight in a bowl of water that covers the soybeans by at least 2 inches.
2. The next day, pour out the water. Put 1 cup of soybean and 2 1/2 cups of water in the blender. Blend until all the big chunks are ground up. Pour into the pot. Repeat until all the soybeans are used up. Remember: 2.5 to 1 ratio (water to soybean).
3. When all the soybeans are ground up, make sure the soy mixture in the pot is not past the halfway point.
4. Time to boil. As the soy mixture is heating up, skim off all the foam from the blending process. You have to be observant at this point. Watch closely, because as soon as the soy mixture hits its boiling point, it will foam quickly. The moment you see it happening, turn the heat to the lowest setting or if you're scared, just turn the heat off. Add 1 1/2 cups of water.
5. When the foam subsides, turn the heat to medium/low so that the soy mixture is at a gentle boil, but not at the point where it will start foaming.
6. Boil for 20 minutes. Stir often to prevent the bottom of the pot from burning, which will give the soy milk a burnt taste. When the heat is turned on high and the soy milk does not foam when it boils, allow it to continue to boil for 10 more minutes. 
7. When time is up, take another container, place a strainer on top of it, and the cheesecloth on top. Ladle soy milk on top of cheesecloth. When the cheesecloth is filled with soybean fiber (called okara), pick it up and squeeze to take out the remaining soy milk. Repeat until all the soy milk is filtered!

Yums!! Fresh and delicious soy milk for consumption! You can drink soy milk unsweetened, but I prefer my soy milk sweet so I add sugar.