One day into summer weather, and I'm over it already.  This warm, tepid, tiresome day, and my perpetual indecisiveness over which temperature to set the AC.  Tomorrow baby natalie is coming to visit me with her mom, can't wait!  I'm craving some girl time.  Last weekend of Dallas wedding and mini-reunion just left me wanting more.  Marriage is good, marriage is wonderful, but nothing replaces my girlfriends.

My Berlin Kitchen, finished in three days.  Is it strange that I can drawl so many parallels between her life and mine?  Even her blog The Wednesday Chef I can't enough of, reading some old posts from years ago way past my bedtime last night.  Surprisingly, to myself most of all, I'm not all that into food blogs.  They leave me feeling a bit on the jealousy side, with all those lustrous photos of food and throngs of devout followers.  But this one I feel a personal connection to, her words and style of writing really resonate with me.  Why do I see so many similarities between our experiences?  An Italian-Berliner who lived decades in the US and then finds her soul (and soulmate) in Berlin, and me a Chinese-American who finds herself now with more Vietnamese relatives than both Chinese and American combined.  I suppose that's the common human experience, the craving for roots and traditions and (what else) love.  Capital L.

Things I love April 2013

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the second and third books are so much better than the first.  Don't believe those who say the books have no closure, I know all about closures and the trilogy did well.  It is sad of course that the writer passed away.  One can only imagine how fast I would have downloaded and read the rest of the books if they were available.

On to The Berlin Kitchen per recommendation by Linda Lee.

2. My new slow cooker and the chicken soup that it churns out after 10 hours.  It was worth getting the slow cooker for that recipe alone!  It brings back memories of my first few weeks in the US, jet lag, and how it was the only thing that tasted good.

3. Can't wait to use the red spinner courtesy of my husband.

4.

My ao dai and everything about 3/2/2013.  

5.

This sweater is so soft and makes me infinitely happy.

6. 

So cute.

7.  Drinking coffee at 2pm.

Slow Cooker Chicken Soup

Don't let the title fool you, this soup is not boring at all, it is DELICIOUS!!!  My parents used to make this when I was growing up, so often that it broke our slow cooker.  I haven't had in 10+ years but think about it ALL the time!  Especially now, when I really need simple/low maintenance recipes to cook.  

My slow cooker is 6.5 quart so I put two cornish hens in there.  If yours is smaller then just get one.

2-3 green onion chopped small

small piece of whole ginger

2 -3 stalks of celery (very important, don't skip.  I just buy a container of the pre-chopped ones from publix)

1-2 cans of WHOLE potato (depending on the size of the can)

1-2 cans of WHOLE tomato

1-2 cornish hens, thawed

dried parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Chop off only the fatty part of the hen near the butt.  No need to skin the chicken.  Put everything into the slow cooker and fill it with water, enough to cover everythings.  I keep mine on low for 10-12 hours.  Adjust for salt before time is up.  When it's time to serve just break up the chicken in the slow cooker with two forks, everything falls apart!