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Thursday, February 3, 2011

"Joong" Hay Fat Choy!


Today is the first day of the year of the Rabbit and I proudly made an authentic Chinese delicacy. It’s called Joong, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves.

Richard was raised on this and his earliest recognition is eating it at Chinese New Year. With the popularity of Dim Sum, it can be enjoyed everyday. I love it and it’s a specialty and quite unique. Not one is exactly alike. It has all the elements of a comfort food that I find pleasing.

Because of Richard, my Chinese cooking is pretty good and I found it both fun and challenging. It’s not your regular grocery item. And, not every Asian store carries the ingredient. I’m a Quebecer and growing up I never knew of any restaurant to carry this dish. It’s quite the joy to discover it through Richard and rewarding to actually make it. It’s easy.

This is like Tourtier, a Quebec family delicacy of meat pie. Every Quebec family has their own recipe.
Heres my interpretation of the old Chinese dish called, Joong...

First you have to gather all the ingredients. I admit, I wanted to include preserved duck eggs. But, I bought the wrong type and it was stinky and I had to toss it out. Every ingredient has it’s own in this, mainly flavoring. Richard tells me he grew up seeing it incased in dirt and found in an obscure Chinese grocery store in Edmonton.



The main ingredients (found in Chinese stores).
This makes 14 Joong…
1.              (2 ½ lbs.)     Glutinous Rice
2.              (42)             Banana Leaves dry
3.              (1 C)            Raw Peanuts
4.              (1/2 C)         Dry Shrimp
5.              (10)             Dry Chinese mushrooms
6.              (4 )              Chinese Sausage
7.              Preserved Chestnut (optional)
8.              Preserved Duck Eggs (optional)
9.              Roll of White String (no dye it’s toxic)
10.          Soya Sauce
11.          Cooking Oil



The night before; soak your banana leaves in warm water and soak your rice in separate bowl. Best to use the bowl of soaked rice to add weight so the leaves don't float to the surface. Next day sterilize by immersing your leaves in a pot of hot water. Then separately soak your shrimp and mushrooms in hot water until soft. Best to buy the mushrooms sliced, they soak faster. And precook your peanuts by boiling in a pot for about 15 minutes.



Rinse your mushrooms & shrimp and saute them in cooking oil add a dash of soya sauce and set aside. Rinse the rice place in a bowl and mix in ¼ C of soya sauce and set aside. Slice your Chinese sausages and your ready to wrap.





Here’s the fun part. Start with two leaves that you roll the end to form a cone. Hold with your left hand and put in 3 T of rice. Then add the rest: a few sausages, peanuts, shrimp/mushroom mix. Place a third leaf to add height to your cone. Having fun yet?

If you really need to see it go online there’s plenty of video’s on how to roll your Joong.
Layer again with more rice and fold neatly into a compact shape. Don’t be scare it doesn’t have to be beautiful but importantly hold the rice. Tie it securely with the string.

Gather all the Joong’s together in a large pot of boiling water for 2 hours to finish the cooking. When ready, piping hot, unwrap and discard the leaves (or compost them) and enjoy your homemade Joong! Oh yeah, add a splash of soya sauce to taste.

They will keep in the fridge in an uncovered container up to seven days… if they last that long. However, if you have too many just freeze them. Make sure you re-boil them for 15 minutes before eating. Enjoy!


Monday, January 31, 2011

Red Fabric Love!


Galstudio's Spanish Lover Cycling Cap.


It all started a few months before Christmas. Galstudio sold out on the Vuelta cycling cap and sadly we found out the fabric was no longer available. It had to be retired. We had requests for a red cycling cap so we set out in search of red fabric.

The perfect red fabric was a challenge to find. In fact, we discovered fabric that was too thick, too thin or not the right shade of red... until now. About three weeks ago, there it was, a beautiful cotton twill in the perfect shade of red. I love working with cotton twill and it's a fabric that is so suited for my cycling caps.

Richard suggested the name for our newest cap, The Spanish Lover Cycling Cap. It's a wonderful name, and so much easier, than Vuelta, to pronounce!






Sunday, January 30, 2011

Artist's In The Window




After the fun Richard and I had on Saturday, as Artist's In The Window, I enjoyed creating the video on iMovie. The program is wonderful, since working with Bikes, Books & Beers Podcast on it. Playing with the hands on template was easy and proves again that Mac is very user friendly. Adding music completes the video. It's the first time I played with audio in the program. It's fun.

We were there from 11 to 4 PM, and it passed quickly. Likely due to the rain, we didn't see any cyclists. You can't blame them for not going out in the torrential rainfall. It was a fun experience and productive. We finished our newest cycling cap, due out in a few days. This will be the first of many new caps following in the next few weeks.

We're grateful to Karen of Bird On The Wire, for the opportunity. In fact, she has already spoken to us about appearing in another Artist In The Window, sometime this early Summer. We're so excited!

Monday, January 24, 2011

" I never thought I would do it... in the window!"

Our nice polka dot window display!



As you have read, from this previous post, Galstudio is available since December at Bird On A Wire.

Karen has this wonderful opportunity for artists that sell in her store to showcase how they do what they do. I was so excited when she asked me to be the artist in the window. A fun idea. Without asking Richard I booked ourselves for this Saturday January, 29th from 11-4 PM. He's as excited as I am.

We will be there with my lovely Singer Fashion mate 257 showing how we make our fine cycling caps. As far as I know, we'll be the first ones to make a cycling cap live to the public. How exciting is that? And, we will take this opportunity to launch our first new cycling cap for 2011. I 'll give you all a teaser, it's all about... LOVE!

So, I invite you to meet us and see how we make our cycling caps and to check out the wonderful, diverse, handmade products at Karen's store!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Big Chief Heating Pad

Hot nite with the Big Chief!

Once in awhile, all you need is to cuddle with your heating pad. I had a week from hell but to be able to go to bed with my heating pad is wonderful.

I discovered my heating pad years ago but I hardly use it. I don't know if it's due to the weather getting colder here in Vancouver, but I now use it every night. Now, I've ad-Dressed' it. Richard had an old shirt that was too large for him. I always love this shirt and I wasn't ready to let it go. 

So, I decided to recycle this wonderful design to wrap my naked heating pad!



Notice I kept the 'Indian' label!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Getting Cozy!





In my previous post, it took Galstudio by surprise how the Inner Tube Cafe Racer Cozy are selling. I have been using the Cozy everyday since last Spring. Part of the morning routine. Now, I'm putting more on to the Etsy site and the rest will be on sale at the Bird On A Wire store.

Using a felt liner in between inner tubes proven to work really well as an insulator. I practice so much with the overstitching that I'm getting better at it. I'm having fun creating simple, geometric lines.

The winter here is all damp & grey. So the solution, get COZY & sit down with nice hot cups of coffee!



Introducing Galstudio's new generation of
 Inner Tube Cafe Racer Cozys!

Friday, December 31, 2010

Yes, another wonderful year!



Thanks to everyone for following my blog throughout the past year. And, to all my friends and family for the constant support that I cherish. 2010 was wonderful and I'm excited and looking forward to all the new projects that I have brewing for the new year. I discovered this wonderful signage that inspires me for this new year. 

Happy New Year!