Those who know me most know that I love to pretend like I'm doing a cooking show while I'm cooking -- even when there's no real audience there.  A few weeks ago, my dear friend allclear forwarded me an email that Kraft was doing a cooking show contest, encouraging me enthusiastically to do it.  I had to put it off for a few weeks, as my finals were looming ahead; but last night, I took my last final, and today was the day!  When Sam came home from work, he helped me set the camera up.  But when everything was finally set up and the camera was pointed at me, I got really nervous and felt really silly, so I did the natural thing:  I laughed and laughed.  I thought maybe I shouldn't do this.  This is silly.  But Sam kept encouraging me to do it.  We even prayed.  And then finally, I was ready. 

Here's the clip that I entered into the contest.  It's under 3 minutes.  Please visit Youtube and leave a friendly comment.

And...just for fun, here are some outtakes:

Tonight we made turkey burgers for dinner.  It's one of my favorite meals to make and eat because it's so fast, so inexpensive, so good and so healthy.

Burger buns - $1
Ground turkey - $1.97 (on sale at Ralphs)
Cheese - $1.99
Tomato - $2.20
Lettuce - $1.25

I used McCormick's Montreal Steak spice and some fresh minced garlic for the ground turkey.  Sam put them on the pan with some olive oil... and within minutes we had 4 really thick and juicy turkey burgers for only $8.41.  It took us half an hour total... and now we're off to seminary class.

I've always wanted to do a cooking show.  It's the 'teacher' in me that wants to instruct.  You can ask Sam (both Sams).  Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen, I'll start verbalizing step-by-step instructions to an imaginary audience.  Here's what it sort of sounds like...

Part 1

Note that I boiled one pot of water, added the bones after the water boiled for about 2 minutes, then dumped the water and washed the bones in the colander, and then I filled the pot with a fresh pot of water.

Part 2

Don't forget (like I forgot in this clip!) to add 1/2 cup of salt.
Side comments:  I had a brain fart -- forgot the word for 'tongs'.    Must've been from sniffing the pho spice (which smells soo good)!

Part 3

Did I call the bean sprouts onions?  Oops. 

Part 4

Part 5

The cilantro and green onions should be chopped up like this (green onions not pictured here). 
The yellow onion should be thinly sliced - as you see in this picture.

Part 6

Sam's reaction to the pho - all in itself - made it all worth it!
(Don't miss his foggy glasses in this clip.) 

Part 7

Part 8

Actually, I had the noodles in the boiling water for a few seconds too long in this clip.  It's really tricky to get it just right -- so don't worry if you don't get it right the first time.  Even I am still learning!

Part 9

Actually, having the butcher slice it up turned out to be not very optimal (an Asian butcher might've done it better).  There were some slices of beef that were definitely too thick and hard to chew.  Also, if you can afford it, definitely go with the beef eye of round.

Part 10

Part 10b

The very last step is to turn your pot of broth (which has been simmering for 5+ hours) back to high heat until it reaches a rapid boil. At this point, you can spoon the broth into the bowl(s) -- and you are ready to eat!

Part 11

In conclusion, it's not so much that Pho is hard to make as it is time-consuming.  It basically took the whole day, so it was fortunate that classes are over for the year, but I probably won't be making home-made pho again for a long while.  Hope you enjoyed the video though!

Special Mentions ~ "Making Pho" is dedicated to:
My sister -- thanks for writing down the family recipe or else there'd be no pho -- and Happy Birthday!!
My sister-in-law -- here's the play-by-play, sis!  Hope you can re-create it.
My husband -- who loves pho to no end -- Happy Monthiversary!!
My friends (C&D, S&T) -- the meal was created with love - hope you enjoyed it!

Since getting my wisdom teeth out last week, I have been eating a lot of mushy foods.  Sam has been so wonderful and amazing about serving me, especially in those first few days when I couldn't do much for myself (props to my hubby).  He even learned how to make some rice porridge for me!  The porridge was great for the days of my worse pain and lasted for quite a few days. The taste felt overdone after about Day 3 or 4, however, and so I decided to throw together a few things to make some kind of soup that I was able to eat.  I looked up some key words on google of some of the ingredients I had at home and got a general idea about how others made soup with those ingredients, and then I got to work on my own recipe.  Sam knew we were making something new, so while we were preparing the food together, he asked me where I learned this recipe from and I said, "Um...I'm making it up as I go along."  --which, of course, is not new around here at all. 

Using recipes is just not my style.  I like to get creative in the kitchen, and using recipes to a tee often feels like I'm cheating myself of the fun of cooking.  I use a recipe as a "possibility", as an example of one way of making something, and then I make my own way.   This is pretty much why all the cookbooks we own are collecting dust on our bookshelves.  I never touch them.  "Google" actually serves as the best recipe book -- since you get many different possibilities for making such and such dish...   Anybody else cook this way? 

Here's one way of making the soup I made the other day:

Ingredients
Pasta elbows (also known as macaroni)
Italian sausage
Potatoes
Carrots
Celery
Peas
Chicken broth

Suggested Directions
Cook Italian sausage (follow package directions).  Boil some water in a separate pot and put the pasta elbows in.  Meanwhile, dice up all the veggies.   (I really should've added onions but didn't think of it at the time!)  When the pasta elbows are almost cooked, take them out.  Add chicken broth to the pot (sometimes the broth is too concentrated, so add some water to it).  Put the pasta elbows and all the diced up veggies into the broth.  Bring to a boil and then leave at low-to-medium heat.  When sausage is cooked, dice up the sausage as well and add to the broth.  Simmer on low until all veggies are soft.