Chicken & Waffles Recipe

I recently learned that my roommate has a waffle maker - my mind went straight to Chicken and Waffles! My friend M got a deep fryer for K and me during Christmas last year, so it was perfect. However, he forgot to bring it, so alas, I resorted to the good ol' stove top.

Ingredients
For Chicken:

• 2 lbs chicken (I used drumsticks, but thighs work too)
• 3 cups water 
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp chicken bouillon 
• 2 tsp seasoned salt 
• 1 tsp herbs (I used oregano, thyme, basil)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup flour 
• Crisco/Vegetable Oil 

For Waffles:

• 1 lb bacon (optional) 
• 1 3/4 cups flour 
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups milk 
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• Syrup

Instructions
For Fried Chicken:

1. Combine water and salt. Cover chicken with mixture for 1 hour. 
2. Combine herbs, garlic powder, seasoned salt, chicken bouillon, and pepper. Mix in flour. 
3. Remove chicken from water. Dip chicken into flour mixture and coat well. Let chicken sit for 5 minutes. 
4. Melt Crisco until 1 inch keep in skillet or pan. Heat to 375 degrees. 
5. Fry chicken, turning once every 5 minutes - be sure to cook chicken until done. 
• Alternatively, preheat oven to 375. Fry chicken for 5 minutes on each side. Let rest on paper towel to allow excess oil to drip off. Place chicken into oven to finish cooking. 
• Or you can take the easy route out like we did - after frying, microwave to ensure center is fully cooked. 
6. Rest chicken on paper towel until ready to eat. 

For Waffles:

1. Cook bacon until crisp. Drain. Crumble, and set aside. 
2. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking power, and salt. 
3. In a larger bowl, beat egg yolks, milk, and butter. 
4. Stir dry ingredients into large bowl until smooth. 
5. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter. 
6. Add bacon (optional). 
7. Before making each waffle, stir batter. 
8. Follow instructions for waffle maker. 
9. Enjoy! 

Source: CopyKat | Taste of Home

Dan Dan Mien

My friend K told me about this recipe, A and I went right to it for our weekly Wednesday dinner. The recipe was surprisingly easy to follow despite having so many ingredients. A ended buying more meat than suggested in the original recipe, so we basically 1.5-ed the ingredients - portions may be a little off, but it worked. I was hesitant of this meal at first since I can't handle spice that well; fortunately, it wasn't bad at all. If anything, maybe next time, we should add more chili oil.

Note to Future Self: more chili oil, season meat longer, boiled egg

Ingredients

• Sichuan chili oil 
• Dan Dan Sauce
• 0.5 lb ground pork 
• 1.5 tsp soy sauce
• 1.5 tsp sesame oil 
• 6 cloves of garlic 
• 1 tbsp ginger (~1 piece) 
• 4 tbsp douban chili bean paste
• 3 tbsp rice wine 
• 4 cups chicken stock 
• 1.5 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• Asian white noodles (ex. flat udon noodles) 
• sprig of cilantro 

Instructions

1. Bring pot of water to boil to cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain and separate into two bowls. 
2. Meanwhile, mix ground pork with soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside. 
3. Mince garlic and ginger. Combine with douban paste and peanut butter. 
4. In a medium pot, brown the pork in 1 tbsp oil. 
5. Add douban mixture and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. 
6. Add rice wine. 
7. Add chicken stock. 
8. Bring to simmer. Then add 1.5 tsp sugar to balance out saltiness. 
9. Add white ground pepper and simmer for another 5 minutes. 
10. Serve into bowls. Add sauce.  
11. Add chili on top to taste
12. Add cilantro. Enjoy! 

Source: Lady and Pups 

App-o-Rama: Chase Sapphire & AmEx Blue Cash

My First App-o-Rama! I've been waiting the last 1.5 months to finally do this. My brother-in-law - my personal mile-traveler expert - has been prepping for his exam so we've agreed to pushed this off until now. Although the sweet American Express Business Gold offer of 75K for $5K spend was enticing, I decided to stick to the original plan - there's only so much I can spend in four months!

This is what I ended up with:

• American Express Blue Cash Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Preferred

American Express Blue Cash Preferred
Annual Fee: $75
Sign-Up Bonus: $250 Reward Dollars after spending $1,000 in first 3 months

I mainly got this for its amazing 6x rewards on grocery. Entering the reload arena, this will be my go-to card to purchase gift cards at my local Safeway. There is a $6,000 max to the bonus on an annual basis. Nonetheless, that's more than plenty rewards dollars I'll get from my purchases to cover the annual $75 fee.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Annual Fee: $95, waived first year

Sign-Up Bonus: 40,000 Ultimate Rewards Points 

As a newcomer, this is a great starter card to acquire points for travel. Paired with my Chase Freedom with rotating 5x bonus categories, I can combine the points and redeem them with the travel partners. Here, Nerdwallet talks about the perks of this card [LINK]

American Express Bluebird

My Bluebird Card from American Express has finally arrived today! I won't dive into the details since travel bloggers, like ThePointsGuy, have done a great job explaining its worth. I've been eyeing this card since January when I decided I will travel the world on points and miles.

Yes, since January - you read that part right. It took me a full five months to finally get this card for multiple reasons:

• Existing American Express Serve. If you have a Serve account, you have to cancel it before applying for the Bluebird. I signed up for the Serve account during a promotion, but never actually used it - I don't even know my account information. When I called their customer service line, I learned that there was a $25 balance sitting on my account. The representative made out a check for $25 to me to zero out the account. I called again a few days later to cancel the account - was done within five minutes. Later that night, I applied for the Bluebird, and for the first time, I got a message and email notifying me that my application was under review. It felt great!

• Vanilla Reload Unavailable in Bay Area. I tried to jump into the game the moment I learned about Bluebird, but these VR cards are like rare 1st Edition Pokemon Cards! I went to multiple Walgreens and CVS in my area, but no luck. I was fortunate enough to find them in stock at a local Luckys, but they didn't accept credit card as payment. After about 1.5 weeks, I knew VR was a no-go for me. And just like that, Bluebird lost its value to me.
• Gift Cards w. PIN Numbers [FlyerTalk] [MillionMileSecret] woke back up my desire to get a Bluebird. I had to go grocery shopping that night anyways, so I picked up a Visa Gift Card as well. The cashier checked my license against my credit card - rang up the transaction no problem. I went home and placed a PIN on the card. Now all that's missing is my Bluebird to finally load money onto it... 

Now, back to the present, I got home from work and saw the envelope from American Express. Opened it to find my new Bluebird in there, grabbed my gift cards, and headed straight to Walmart to load up. My kiosk was a little hidden - near the restroom instead of MoneyCenter where I remember it being the last time I was there. I emptied three different gift cards onto it. I look forward to making payments from my Bluebird - one step closer to my travels!

Now Empty Gift Cards

Transaction Description Online

Mung Bean Dessert Recipe

Mung Bean Dessert

Ingredients

• 1 cup green mung beans
• 1/3 cup small sago (tapioca pearls)
• 8 cups of water
• 1 cup lotus seeds
• rock sugar (to taste)
• 1 can coconut milk 

Instructions

1. Boil a pot of water. Add sago and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the fire, cover the pot with a lid, and let the sago sit for another 10 minutes, or until all the sago is translucent. Run the cooked sago through a fine sieve to move the excess starch. Set aside. 
2. In a large pot, add green beans and water. Bring to a boil. 
3. Add lotus seeds. Reduce heat to simmer, partially covered, for about 50 minutes. Stir the sides and bottoms occasionally. Top off with water if necessary. 
4. Stir in rock sugar until fully dissolved.
5. Add cooked sago to green bean soup. 
6. Stir in coconut milk. 
7. Serve warm or chill. Enjoy! 

Source: NoobCook | Le Petit Oven