2 make-it-up-as-I-go mustard green recipes

I'm a mustard green virgin. Never eaten it. Never cooked it. I've been desperately trying to save money on food by using only the ingredients I already have in my kitchen.  I had 2 big bunches of mustard greens from the Farm-to-Work program that I needed to use, plenty of spices and a bunch of random canned food items. 

I refuse to cook mustard greens with just bacon fat, so I made up 2 dishes that turned out to be quite tasty. 

Spicy curried chickpeas with mustard greens

1 bunch mustard greens, chopped about 1-2 inches
1 can chickpeas, strained
3 tblspn. tomato sauce (or 1-2 tblspn tomato paste)
1 small onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1 tblspn. olive oil
1-2 fresh Thai chili peppers (or substitute chili powder/flakes)
1 tblspn. Sambar curry powder (the Indian girl left this package so I decided to use it!)
1 tblspn. yellow curry powder (basically, use whatever yummy spices you have)
1 tblspn. cumin powder
1 tspn. coriandor powder
salt and pepper to taste

Dice the onion and garlic and sautee in the olive oil.  Then add in your chickpeas, tomato sauce, and spices. Add a little bit of water if needed (about 1/3 cup), especially if you're using the tomato paste.  Then add in your mustard greens and let all this simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Season to taste and you're done.

I always like to have a soup whenever possible.  So what better than to make a soup out of my second batch of mustard greens? 

Mustard green and tofu soup

1 bunch mustard greens

About 2 qts. vegetable/chicken stock or 1 bouillon cube with 2 quarts water (about a medium size pot)

1 small onion

2-3 cloves garlic

Tofu (or your choice of protein)

1 tblspn. olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste.

Dice your onion and garlic and sautee in olive oil.  Add your vegetable/chicken stock or water with a vegetable/chicken bouillon cube.  Bring to a boil and then add your chopped mustard greens and tofu.  Let simmer for about 5 minutes and that's it. Enjoy with a steaming bowl of Jasmine rice. The bitterness of the mustard greens makes a great soup!!

iphone photo courtesy of Christopher Sharpe. He can tell you how yummy it was too!

My First Paintings

All I have to say is that it's been a very interesting journey painting. Although I sometimes get frustrated with it and can't do some of the detailed work I'm used to doing with henna and pen, I certainly enjoy the  mental/spiritual health benefits it offers. It's when I focus and meditate on just painting that I find much peace and relaxation.  I enjoy my teas or wines or the company of my girlfriends painting with me. I don't care if I never sell a painting. That's not the mission. The mission is to try something I've never done before and have fun doing it. Whether it's good or not, is irrelevant. In any case, art is in the eye of the beholder.  I've heard the answer to the question, "what is art?" and it's "if it moves you, it's art." The simplicity of the lines, shapes, and colors of my style may appeal to some and not to others.  That's cool. But I'm sure my style will evolve and change as I keep painting, learning and experimenting. At the moment, I like simplicity and always have. It's easy on the eyes, mind, and heart.

These are posted in the order that I painted them, from my first painting to the last.  I am painting these for the Reggae Festival, April 16-18, 2010, but if you'd like to make an offer on one, please be my guest and make me a happy gal!  I've coordinated these in sets of 2, so I prefer that they go together. If you don't see one you like yet, I've got 3 more just about done and working on a few more in the next couple weeks.

A special tribute to Bob Ross, the best PBS painting guy and show I've ever seen and loved watching when I was growing up as a kid.

To Happy Clouds and Happy Painting! :)

Love, Peace, and Namaste,

LPN

Portrait of me in the black Ao Dai.  Acrylic on canvas and ribbon. 16"x20". Not for sale.

Vietnamese school girl in white Ao Dai. Acrylic on canvas and ribbon. 16"x20".

Vietnamese school girl with bicycle. Acrylic on canvas and ribbon. 16"x20"

Vietnamese girl in bamboo trees. Acrylic on canvas and ribbon. 11"x14" (her sister is born and will be posted soon.)

Vietnamese girl in rice field. Acrylic on canvas and ribbon. 11"x14" 

Portrait of Greta and Grayton @ 4 mos. Acrylic on canvas. 11" x 14". Not for sale.

EZ Chi-Neez Noodles

Personally, I never eat Chinese food unless it's Dim Sum, roast pork/duck, or cai lan (aka Chinese broccoli). Vietnamese food is so much better and healthier. So, next time you're craving Asian food, don't even dare to order nasty Chinese take-out ever again because here's a real simple dish anyone can do in less than 20 minutes. It's Chinese-style egg noodles with tofu and Chinese broccoli (or
your choice of noodles with your choice of protein and your choice of veggies). it'll be so impressive, yummy, and cheap, you'll want to make it every week!!

12 oz package of tasty fried tofu (or your choice of protein: chicken, beef, shrimp, etc.)

15 oz. package of chinese style egg noodles (thin kind or any noodles you like: rice, buckwheat, etc.)
1 bunch of chinese broccoli (or other green veggies you like: bok choy, bamboo, mushrooms, bean sprouts, etc.)
1 medium onion
3-5 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp oyster sauce
3-4 tbsp soy sauce (I use the low sodium kind but any will do.  You will just have to adjust the saltiness to your taste)
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
1-2 tbsp sesame oil (I use the spicy sesame oil bc I like it spicy but you can add fresh chili peppers or even Sriracha instead too.)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
total sauce is about 1 cup
4-6 servings

The noodles:
Boil a pot of water and follow the instructions on the noodle package to cook your noodles el dente.  The fresh Chinese-style egg noodles only need 3 min. to cook so don't over cook them.  Strain and rinse.


The sauce:
While you're waiting for the water to boil, make your sauce- combine the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, water, and sesame oil.  This is a real rough estimate since I don't measure when I cook.  So just make a small bowl of sauce and add water to dilute the sauce if it's too salty.  Adjust until it tastes good to you. If you want lots of sauce, make more. If you want to make it thicker, add a little cornstarch.  If you want to make it spicy, add chili. If you want it sweeter, add more sugar.

The fun:
Cut your onion in rainbows, dice your garlic, cut your Chinese broccoli to be bite-size (roughly 2-3 inches depending on the size of your mouth and I also cut them diagonally cause it looks prettier).  Using a wok or your largest pan (this makes a lot so sometimes you can't fit it all in your wok/pan so you have to do two batches), stir-fry the onions with a little olive oil and then add the garlic on medium high heat. Garlic burns faster so you don't want to cook the garlic and onions at the same time. Dump in your veggies and tofu and let that cook a few minutes. (If you're cooking with raw meat, cook that first then the veggies.) Then throw in your noodles and toss and turn like a professional Chinese chef.  Again, do this quickly kung-fu style, so you don't over cook your veggies unless you like them mushy.  Remember, the noodles are already cooked, so once the noodles are mixed in with the sauce, you're done and ready to chow down baby!

So EZ Chi-Neez Noodles... it's making me hungry just looking at the picture!

Too Good to Be True Turnip Green Soup

I'm a Vietnamese girl from Michigan.  I have never heard of turnip greens or turnip green soup!  If it weren't for me being in Texas and for the awesome Farm-to-Work program, my palate would never have been so enlightened!  Every week, I can order $25 worth of seasonal organic veggies from local farmers.  I don't do it often because it's usually too much for 1 person but it's the season of the greens and I love me some greens!

This is how it works and what I got for 25 bucks*:

turnip greens
2 bunches of mustard greens
collard greens
kale
spinach
bok choy
romaine lettuce
2 heads broccoli
green onions
a bunch of sweet potatoes
an onion
a clove of garlic

*If you don't like something, you can trade whatever you don't want for something you do want. That's cool.  So, I traded in a bunch of green onions for the mustard greens.  Not bad, eh?  Usually, I trade in the okra too because I haven't figured out yet how to cook them right.

So, it was really cold on Saturday and of course, I felt like soup.  FYI, I love soup!  I started a big pot of chicken stock.  I love making stock because it's so easy and yummy!  Here's how you do it.

A couple pounds chicken bones (2 carcasses) or 1 whole chicken
A couple carrots
A few stalks of celery
10-15 whole peppercorns
I recommend roasting these cause it's so much better and just use what you have or be creative:
1 whole onion
1/2 clove of garlic
1 thingy of ginger
Other misc things you can add if you want to experiment:
bay leaves
coriander seeds
lemon grass
whole all-spice
other veggies you have in the fridge that needs to be used
chicken neck

Throw it all in a big pot (about 6 qts.) and fill the pot with cold water, covering the whole chicken.  Then just let it boil and simmer for at least 2-3 hours.  The longer, the better for sure.  Skim off the foamy chicken goo and fat that collects.  Strain off all that goodness and compost or give to your kitty and then make whatever soup floats your boat!  Or freeze a portion of the stock for next time.  You can also turn this stock vegetarian by just omitting the chicken, of course.  I've done it before for my veggie friends and they loved it!

Sorry for the half-empty pot. I had already used half of the stock to make the turnip green soup but you can see I've got chicken neck and bones and carrots and all kinds of stuff in there!  That's what makes a good soup.

Then, I had to figure out what to do with all my Farm-to-Work veggies and my stock. So, while it was simmering, I googled "turnip greens" and came up with a few turnip green soup recipes.  Perfect!  I never heard of it before but I love soup.  The basic recipe calls for turnip greens in a stock with navy beans.  Well, I didn't have navy beans nor am I a huge fun of them so I just used what I had, lentils and a can of black beans.  The nice thing is you can use whatever kind of beans you like. I didn't follow any of the recipes and just made up my own awesome impromptu version of turnip green soup recipe:

1 1/2 - 2 qts of stock (medium pot)

1 bunch of fresh turnip greens, dice the turnips and cut the greens in 2 inches or so. (I suppose you can use the frozen ones too)

1 small onion, diced

1 can black beans, strained and rinsed

1/3-2/3 cup lentils

1 tbsp. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions in a little olive oil.  Then add your stock and bring to a boil.  Add the lentils first, since they take the longest to cook.  Simmer for 20 minutes or until cooked.  About 10 minutes after the lentils, add the turnips.  They're like potatoes, so they take a while but not as long as the lentils.  Then when your lentils and turnips are cooked, add the turnips and can of black beans and turn off the heat.  It'll be enough to cook. You don't want to overcook the greens and the black beans.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Then you got yourself some yummy and ultra healthy (high in Vitamins K, A, and C) turnip green soup!!!  

I don't know what turnip green soup is supposed to taste like, but I don't think it matters as long as it's got turnip greens in it and it's yummy!

A Woman's Guide to Picking Up Hitchhikers

Let me guess what you're thinking...."What?!?! You PICKED up a HITCHHIKER?!? That's crazy!  You could've been killed!"  Yes, I picked up a hitchhiker and I know I could've been killed. Call me crazy. I'm a girl. I was alone. I could've been hacked into pieces, blah blah blah.  BUT before you REALLY think I'm crazy and stupid, let me tell you my story and then you can judge for yourself if I really am crazy and stupid. So this is how my awesome Houston hitchhiker story goes...

It was 6 days before Christmas. I had been listening to Christmas songs and dreaming  of a white Christmas. [Perhaps being in the Christmas spirit might have played a part in my impulsiveness that day, but then again, I probably would have done it anyway because I'm not that religious.]  I was on my way to Houston for a photoshoot and to visit family. Shortly after I started heading East on Hwy 290, I saw a guy sitting on the side of the road at the gas station, holding a sign that said, "To Houston (Montrose)." I didn't get a real good look at the guy or anything since I was in a fast moving vehicle.  But instantly, my unfiltered thoughts were, "well, I'M going to Houston. If there's someone that needs a ride, why not give him a ride?" Seriously, that was all I thought before I took the next turn-around and headed back to the gas station.   

Here's my perspective behind this: What if we didn't live in a society where we were inundated with depressing news of random shootings, murders, rapes, kidnappings, burglaries, terrorism, etc? What if there was no crime, no evil? What if we lived as humans should live together...in love, peace, and respect for one another? Imagine that for just a moment. [Seriously, pause and give it some thought. Close your eyes if that helps.] Then imagine a situation where you are driving somewhere and you saw someone who needs a ride to the exact same place you are going.  Would you even hesitate to give that person a ride? Would you even question for just a second that that person could be some crazy pyscho that will chop you up in pieces? I don't think so. If you're an average sane human being, your good Samaritan human instincts would tell you to do the right thing and give that person a ride.  It should be that simple, right? 


Now, imagine you're back in the real world. In two seconds, your mind would be flooded with paranoid thoughts of how you might be killed with an axe and buried in pieces, etc. If you grew up watching Freddy the 13th, Jason, Poltergeist, or Pet Cemetary, I'm sure you can conjure up all sorts of gory scenarios. [By the way, I don't like and refuse to watch horror movies because of this.] But, you won't immediately realize that those paranoid thoughts are precisely the result of our (crazy) society invading the purity and goodness of our human nature. Personally, I think that's sad and depressing to think that we live in a society that IS that scary -  that we are  afraid of helping a fellow human for the sake of protecting our lives. Honestly, I think THAT'S crazy. It just doesn't feel right to me. How would you feel if you were stranded one day and had to hitchhike for a ride?  Wouldn't you just want a kind person to give you a friendly ride and not think that you're an ex-convict axe-murderer going to kill them?


Ok, hopefully I made my point and convinced you that I'm not crazy.  But I haven't convinced you that I'm not stupid either.  You're probably thinking..."Get down from Cloud 9 you crazy girl because we DON'T live in your dream world and we DO live in a scary world. There ARE crazy people out there that will kill you." True. You're absolutely right. I'm not totally naive and stupid enough to think that I'm always safe from crime and evil and everyone out there is inherently good. So, I tried to be smart about it at least. 


This is my woman's guide to picking up a hitchhiker:

• He was young, under 30 years old. Plus, under all the facial hair, you could tell that he was good-looking but that doesn't matter. It was just a lucky bonus.
• He had dreadlocks. I know this is stereotyping but it's a good stereotype and I would bet my life (and I was right) that guys with dreads are hippie types that make peace, not war.
• He was dressed in pants held together by a whole bunch of patches, actually in several pants and in several layers of shirts. This means he was a serious hobo gypsy traveler type. I don't know about you, but they're my kind of people.
• He had a backpacker backpack. If they don't look like they're really traveling then you can assume they're in a different type of situation, though that doesn't eliminate the fact that they may still need help.
• He had a guitar. My theory is that musicians are creative, not cruel, nor criminals. Brilliant theory, isn't it?
• I also checked his I.D. He didn't have a license, but he had a passport. That says A LOT to me, personally.  He's smart enough to have a passport and even better that he's a worldly traveler. [The statistic varies, but according to an article in the New York Times, the State Dept. estimates that only around 27% of Americans own a passport.]
• He was just trying to see his good friend in Houston that he hadn't seen in a long time. I think that's simple and sweet.
• He was kinda stinky, but that was a good thing in this case. :)
• Given all that... I've backpacked and lived around the world by myself so trust me, I have enough experience (and never a bad one, thankfully). I can say with confidence that I trust my instincts. If you don't trust yourself, then who can you trust? [On a side note, I must say that of all the places I'ved lived and traveled in, the U.S. is the place that I feel the most unsafe. Just something to ponder.] 

So do you still think I'm stupid? Perhaps. But anyway, you know that the story doesn't end with me being chopped up and buried in the bushes somewhere in BFE, Texas. To continue with the story, I picked up the hitchhiker and we shared a deep conversation about life, art, music, kids, travel, etc... We listened to Pink Floyd and had an enjoyable ride to Houston. He kept me company, we had great conversation, I got him safely to his destination, and even met his friend. In fact, I am even Facebook friends with both of them! Needless to say that I didn't do it to get anything out of it, but I was rewarded for my good deed with a bowl, Jim Beam, and VIP seats to good live music.  However, I am absolutely positive that my real reward will come as good karma in disguise at some point, if not already. Besides that, it simply felt good to help someone out and make him happy...and not just one person, I made two people happy.  They literally jumped for joy and hugged and screamed like little girls when they saw each other.  And it really really touched me and made me so happy to see two grown boys hugging like that! So, as crazy and stupid as it may have been, I followed my heart and I know I did the right thing.  Love, Peace, and Happy Hitchhiking!       

Disclaimer: For your safety, La Pham Nikita does not encourage women (or men) to pick up hitchhikers and even if you do, I cannot guarantee an experience as pleasant as mine.  But if you choose to do so, please be safe and use good judgement.  I don't do it regularly or pretend to think it is a smart and safe thing to do for a single woman, but I just trust my instincts that much and consciously choose to live my life this way, as pure and good-hearted as possible, uncontaminated by society, seeking adventure at my own risk and hitchhiker-friendly. But, I will probably delete this post when my children are able to read.  This is just a post to stimulate your thoughts and provoke some conversation about the society we live in and how it affects our thinking and our human relationships.

Caption: This is the photo of the hitchhiker and his friend.  They were both extremely talented musicians and I was lucky they didn't chop me up, but instead sang and played beautiful music for me. How blessed am I?