Mr. Prof designer home

I've attempted homemade Chinese food many times and while the dishes are generally pretty tasty they always seem to be lacking something. The photo that accompanied Sally's Beef and Broccoli post had me hooked. Beef and Broccoli was my go-to dish at Chinese restaurants when I was a kid. I would go to a local spot with my grandmother once a week and I always ordered it, usually with extra sauce. It was thick and rich and so, so good I can almost taste it as I'm typing this post.

My sauce wasn't as thick and richly dark as the dish from my childhood, but this was spot-on in terms of flavor. I doubled the sauce recipe below since I love extra sauce and I wish I'd done it when I made the dish - the sauce really made it perfect. I also needed more sauce for the marinade - the original recipe didn't coat all the beef. This is a real winner.

Beef and Broccoli
As seen on Bewitching Kitchen, adapted from Simply Recipes

1 pound flank steak or sirloin, sliced thinly across the grain
1 pound broccoli florets
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, cut in slices
1 clove garlic, very finely minced
1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

For the beef marinade
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce
4 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth (or water)

Start by marinating the beef: mix all ingredients in a bowl, add the pieces of beef and stir to coat the slices. Let it stand for 10 minutes, while you prepare the sauce and blanch the broccoli.

Make the sauce by mixing the oyster sauce, rice wine (or sherry), soy sauce, and chicken stock (or water) in a small bowl. Reserve. Place the broccoli in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain very well and reserve.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and instantly evaporates upon contact. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the yellow bell pepper and cook it for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, until it begins to soften. Remove and reserve. Make sure the pan is again very hot, and add the slices of beef, spreading them out all over the surface of the wok or pan in a single layer (preferably not touching). Let the beef fry undisturbed for 1 minute. Flip the beef slices over, add the garlic and reserved bell pepper to the pan and fry for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute until the beef is cooked through.

Pour in the sauce, add the blanched broccoli and bring to a boil. Pour in the dissolved cornstarch and cook, stirring, until the sauce boils and thickens, 30 seconds. Serve over rice.

Two nights ago, my husband was sick with food poisoning or some vile intestinal virus.  Though our medicine cabinet is chock-full of bottles and boxes, we had no digestive meds.  So, around midnight, eyes heavy and ready for sleep hours earlier (don't judge! remember, I'm 26 weeks pregnant!), off to CVS I went.  We were up until 1 or 2...

Then last night, while hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law and their family (who we rarely get to see), Moses spewed all over my lap, then all over himself.  Two baths and two new outfits later, we headed home in the car and about 3 minutes into our 14 minute drive, he spewed again, all over his new outfit and carseat, and not into the bag we gave him to throw up in (of course).  No, that bag was smooshed down in his anguished projectile-vomit-style hurls.

And you know what horrific thing I saw each night?  No, I don't mean the physical sights... YUCK.

I saw my own ugliness of heart.  I saw my own selfishness, desire for sleep despite the needs of people I love.  I saw my own impatience as I grumped at Doug last night.  I saw a demanding of my own rights, even if internally, though Jesus "was in the form of God and did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant."

Discipline.  God is disciplining me.  Showing me my weak spots and training me.  Giving me opportunities to do right or do poorly, and then shining light into ugly corners of my heart.

This passage in Hebrews is among my favorites.  Don't glaze over it because it's long, or because it's familiar... really read each word.  Take them in:

"6  My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him.  For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.  7  It is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  8  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  9  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.  Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?   10  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness.  11  For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."  ~Hebrews 12: 6-11


In that passage, I bolded the parts that particularly encourage me as a believer, and I underlined the parts that encourage me as a parent.  Here's a quick bulleted list of what some take aways are from this wonderful passage about discipline:

GOD'S FATHERLY DISCIPLINE:

• We may be likely to minimize, and/or grow weary of the discipline of the Lord... but we should not do this. (v. 6)
• God's motive for discipline is His love for us. (v. 6)
• If we do not receive the Father's discipline, we are not truly his children. (vv. 6-8)
• We should do more than just respect it as a human respects his father for having disciplined/trained him rightly... we should willingly subject ourselves to His discipline so that we will truly live.  (v. 9)
• God disciplines us for our good. (v. 10)
• God's discipline has the purpose/end of us sharing in His holiness (His purity & set-apartness). (v. 10)
• His discipline will seem painful rather than pleasant. (v. 11)
• His discipline will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives, if we submit to His training. (v. 11)

HUMAN PARENTAL DISCIPLINE:

• Human fathers disciplining their children is assumed to be a universal truth for all parents/children. (v. 7)
• Those children who are not disciplined are being treated like illegitimate children, not sons and daughters. (v. 8)
• When earthly fathers discipline, earthly children respect them. (v. 9)
• Discipline in the life of a child happens in a "short" window of time. (v. 10)
• Human discipline differs according to "what seems best" to the parent. (v. 10)
• All true discipline will seem painful rather than pleasant. (v. 11)
• True discipline will yield a peaceful fruit of righteousness in the lives of those who have been trained by it. (v. 11)

All pictures: My Scandinavian Home

What do you think? (best just to say you like them...hahaha). When the lamps are on they let of a beautiful warm glow like in the picture of me blogging in the early hours here:





Oh and in case you're about to do the same here is my two pence worth:

3 tips on hanging pendant lamps over a dining table:

How high should pendant lights hang over a dining table?
If there's more than one and they're relatively small you can hang them quite low. They should be low enough to avoid glare from the bulbs yet high enough to be able to see the other people around the table. Ours are 57cm above the table.

How far apart should the pendant lights hang?
If you have three pendant lights, divide the table into four equal parts and hang the lamps at equal intervals along this line.

How do I get power to all the lights?
We used CableCup ceiling roses for suspension lamps with a splitter so that we could feed the cable in from one end and then through the next two lamps. They seem to work so far...:)


Hope you all had a great weekend and happy Pappa's day to all your wonderful daddys out there! x

Since it's Friday, and I have some things to say, I'll participate this week in "7 Quick Takes Friday" hosted by Jen over at Conversion Diary.  (By the way, if you missed it, be sure to read her recent article: WHY I LOST FAITH IN THE PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT.  It is truly excellent, among the best articles I've read about the abortion issue.)

Milk Magazine via SF Girl by Bay

Do you have any bold bright notes in your home?

PS I'm very excited as our new Erik Magnussen Porcelight pendant lights have just arrived from Malmö Modern. I've just been to the electrical shop to buy all the extras, not always easy - my understanding of all things electrical is limited enough in English let alone Swedish! If I bought the right stuff (errr) we'll hang them this weekend. Yay! Promise to share pics soon!

Have a great weekend all! (see you on pinterest?!)

Line Klein and Yvonne Kone via Emmas Designblogg

What items do you love to display around your home?

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately. We were very fortunate that Hurricane Sandy only caused us to lose power for a few days. As I'm sure you know, many people are still without power, lost their homes or businesses. It was a catastrophic storm for this area, especially my beloved Jersey Shore, a place we've taken Baby Girl many times in her short life.

I've still been cooking, but I've mostly been making meals I've already blogged about. And now there's a new wrinkle in my blogging - the end of daylight savings time. It gets dark around 5pm now and at that point I haven't even started dinner. I'll likely be photographing leftovers the next day until spring returns.

This Italian Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup is from my dear friend Melissa. As I've mentioned before, she only blogs about truly fantastic meals so I knew this soup would be a hit. This was actually my first time buying or cooking kale and I was surprised that we liked it. Kale is incredibly good for you, so that's an added bonus.

My sausage didn't have fennel but Melissa told me to just add dried oregano, which brightened up the flavor immensely. I also added some salt, which she left out of the original ingredient list but which I found necessary to bring out the fullness of the soup.

Italian Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup
As seen on Alosha's Kitchen

4 thick slices applewood smoked bacon, chopped
1 pound bulk Italian sausage (with fennel)
1 teaspoon dried oregano (if sausage doesn't have fennel)
1 large sweet onion, diced
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup half and half
1 cup water
1 bunch lacinato kale, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper
Kosher salt
Crushed red pepper flakes

Heat large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon and fry until most of the fat is rendered and the pork is somewhat crisp. Drain the bacon on paper towels and pour off most of the fat from the pot, leaving the bottom just coated. Add the bacon back to the pot along with the Italian sausage. Cook the sausage for 4 or 5 minutes, breaking it into chunks with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink.

Add the onions and garlic and continue to cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and stir to combine. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are soft, about 10 minutes (test one with a fork). Pour in half and half and water and stir to heat through. Toss in the kale and stir until slightly wilted.

Season with fresh ground black pepper and salt, adding crushed red pepper flakes, as desired.