Crispy Pork Belly

Hi All,

It has been months since I've blog, but I'm back. I'm not a chef or even close to it, my food postings are just recipes I make when I want. I like try new dishes even if I fail at my first attempt. Today, I decided to make crispy pork belly! It was perfect and delicious. I can still taste the crispy skin, lol. I didn't think about blogging this, but I had a few request and I did take a few pictures so here is a choppy recipe of my crispy pork belly. *Warning* It does take 4-5 hours. Don't worry, keep a timer close and yourself busy with chores or work while waiting. Happy eating if you decide to make this. It's worth every minute! Sorry, in advance if it's hard to follow. This is my first cooking blog.

Ingredients:
- 1 sheet of pork belly
- Salt
- oil and oil brush
- sharp knife or pick
- 1" or deeper pan for water
- grilling rack

1) Rinse. Clean skin with knife by scrapping it.
2) Boil pork belly for 20 mins. Make sure it's submerged in water.

3) Drain, rinse with cold water, and then dry it with a paper towel by patting.
4) Have the skin side facing up and poke holes all over the skin with the knife or pick.

5) Dry the skin with paper towel.
6) Rub a generous amount of salt on the pork belly.
7) Let it air dry for 1 hr. (skin side facing up)
8) Dry the Skin with paper towel.

9) Pre-heat oven on bake for 10 mins at 170'C
10) Coat the pork belly with a thin layer of oil (any oil) with your oil brush.
11) Bake for 1 hr. (skin side facing up and meat on the grill)
**As you can see in my picture below. Under the grill I have my pan of water. It'll help keep your pork belly moist while cooking and your pan a lot easier to clean because the fat will drip into the oil. Fill up your pan with 1/4 of water. Constantly check to see if you need to refill your water.



12) Turn off heat, take out pork belly and let it chill for 15 mins.
13) Dry the Skin with paper towel.
14) Poke holes with knife/pick.
15) Rub a generous about of salt on the skin.
16) Let it cool for 1 hr (skin side facing up)

17) Dry the skin with paper towel.
18) Pre-heat oven on broil for 15 mins at 250'C
19) Poke holes all over skin with knife/pick

20) Broil for 15 mins and poke holes.
21) Change heat to 350'C. Broil (one side at a time) sides, and front for 3 mins each.
22) Face the skin side up again and broil till crispy all over. (Ok to have burn spots, removable with knife)
23) FINISHED Crispy pork belly. Let it rest for 15 mins before cutting. I placed it on top of my cutting board with a paper towel.

24) Cut and serve with whatever you like :)

ENJOY!

I had my crispy pork belly with rice, beans, baby bok choy, pepper and watermelon juice. 

Birthday Twins

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Amy and I. We both have the same birth dates! For my bday I stayed home and studied for my exam because I needed all the study time I can get. Amy and my brother went out to dinner and my highlight was glamming her up. She usually does neutral or natural looking make-up and red lips, but for her date she asked me to do something outside of her comfort zone. And what did I do? Of course I went for COLOR :). Make-up is universal and it fits every shape and size, that's why so many women feel good about make-up and appreciate it's art. I also did her hair! I'm not good at hair, but I can do it. Since her colors were loud I wanted her hair in a bun. A bun is very classy and goes with every look. To add a little twist and hi-fashion I braided her hair before the bun. This is my first time ever doing a french/fish braid and it was a success! Next time it'll have a cleaner finish. I absolutely love the braid and I want my hair to be braided, but I can't braid my own hair well at all. I'm waiting on my Make-up Artist Paginia Lo to do my hair :) Hope you guys enjoy her little makeover.

Amy's before 

Amy's After

- Eyeshadow: green, brown, black, and gold glitter

- This look has color, but I wouldn't consider it dramatic. 

It has colors, yet still soft. It's a nice look for those

who wear light makeup and want to step outside of the box. 

- Soft pink lips are neutral and pretty aside from bold red lips

lol, excuse the lashed..had to re-glue them. 

Braiding her hair, I love it! 

Front of the hair

The rest of her braided bun

So beautiful! She just needs her accessories and they're ready to go. 

Pisces- Scanned Art

For the past few weeks I have been collecting and scanning items for my scanner art project. This is my first time doing electronic art stuff. After scanning all my items I realize most pieces were metal. Then I thought of building something that represents who I am, a pisces. The first fish I composite was the one made out of chains and I felt that it was too masculine. So I made a female out of eyelashes. It was a fun, but very time consuming assignment. Hope you all love it as much as I do. :)

fishes: Chains, safety pins, eyelash curler, beads, and eyelashes.
water: foil (colored to look like water)
seaweed: forks
bubbles: quarters

These are my scanned items.

My Master piece ;p

A close up of my fishes

Plumage Day

A little over a year ago I received this lovely quad palette as a gift from my Artist Paginia Lo.  I wore the other greens, but hardly used the lime green-Plumage color.  Today, I decided to put it to use and I LOVE PLUMAGE.  The color pops, yet it's not extremely loud. It's a great color to have!! 

1. Top left is Plumage & bottom left is Swimming by MAC 

2. The look I created:  used Plumage (navy blue) instead of black to intensify it without being super dramatic.  If you like dramatic I suggest using a black eyeshadow.

 3. Using tape help's keep it clean while creating the look. Start with Swimming over the lid.

4. The add Plumage to the outer corner and under eye. To make the eyes pop more I used a white liner for my waterline. Don't forget your black eye liner and false lashes. 

5. Next, I went with a retro Rihanna-ish hair style. Pulled back with my bangs curled to one side. 

6. It was such a sunny day I couldn't end my love for bright colors.  Colored pants are IN and if you haven't gotten pair go get one that best suits you.  If you're not to sure about the colored pants then try a bright top! 

Floral Vest

Hi, everyone!  I am a huge floral lover and any flower will catch my eyes!  With all my fabric laying around and little storage space I wanted to make a piece that will stand out, but be very sassy and trendy.  Floral is beautiful and it works all year long.  It's a print that comes every season in different colors.  Now, what's fast, easy, and universal? A vest! They are easy to cut and sew, plus you can layer it on top of anything!  I LOVE my new flowery vest & I hope you all love it as well.  Waiting for the perfect day to wear it out & I will share outfit pictures soon.  Enjoy :)

Love,
Nkaujer Thor

** For those who want to create this at home,  I suggest sewing flowers onto an old vest or buy a cheap vest and decorate it.  :)

1) The fabric: I have 2 yards and I believe it was $12/yd

2) Cut out each flower.

3) Lay out the flowers on front panel to see what it will look like & then hand sew each flower on. 

* the hand sewing is very time consuming

3) The finished vest! LOVE IT! 

4) Front view 

5) Back view

Floral Jacket

This beautiful floral fabric has been laying in my stash for a good year now.  After re-watching Sex & the City part 1 I was inspired by Carrie Bradshaw's floral jacket.  At that very moment I knew exactly what I wanted to make.  Thinking of something quick and simple I ended up with this buttonless jacket with asymmetrical cuts on the bottom.  Totally in LOVE <3!!  I wore it out to the Fresno Hmong New Year '11-'12.  The garment took me a good three days to complete.  It turned out amazing and I'm itching to make one in black, but that's only if I can find the same fabric again.  I hope you guys love this jacket as much as I do.  Thanks for stopping by!

-Nkaujer Jules Thor

*excuse my bad blurring skills :)

1. The beautiful flower fabric

2. The cut out pieces of the jacket

3. The basic silhouette 

4. The back 

5. The lining 

6. Completed jacket before pressing seams

7. The jacket! <3 (I made the hot pink pencil skirt too)

The outfit-- Happy Hmong New Year everyone!! 

We are ready for 2012!