Loquat cobbler-cake
A fruit not often found in the supermarket, loquats can be a tasty dried or baked fruit.
Baked Goods
Blueberry Muffins
The best blueberry muffin recipe – reduced sugar slightly, increased blueberry quantity.
Main Course
Butterflied Lemon or Lime Chicken – Grilled or Roasted
I’ve discovered a wonderful Butterflied Lemon Chicken recipe at Cooks Country. I’ve made it a number of times and have gotten raves every time. The only modifications I made are that I mostly cook only one chicken and most of the time I don’t have fresh parsley leaves in my pantry. I also start grilling [...]
Chicken with Asparagus and Carrots en Papillote – Low Calorie
A great low calorie dinner which is easy and fast to make. I’ve made this frequently throughout the years when I want a nice light chicken dinner. Sorry about the pictures – we keep taking them under dinner lights. I’ll eventually invest in photography lights. En Papilotte literally means “in paper” referring to the parchment [...]
Momofuku Pork Belly Ssam
Recipe: Pork Belly Ssam Ingredients One 3-pound slab skinless pork belly 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/2 cup sugar Accompaniments Mustard Seed Sauce 2 cups Short Grain Rice 2 to 3 heads Bibb lettuce, leaves separated, well washed, spun dry Instructions Nestle the belly into a roasting pan or other oven-safe vessel that holds it [...]
Momofuku Bo Ssam Perfected
My brother made this once for one of his parties and I couldn’t stop eating it! It was an amazing combination of spicy, sour, salty, cool, ginger-scallion, porky goodness. I made it for our family’s Christmas gathering and made a number of modifications after reading some online feedback. Not sure of the oysters since I’m [...]
Cakes, Cupcakes, and Decorating
Strawberry Cream Cake with Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting
It is almost strawberry season. We luckily live in California where strawberries are available in abundance. It also happened to be my brother’s birthday and I wanted to bake him a simple cake. My family is Chinese which means we do not like sweet desserts. The typical buttercream frosting would be way too sweet for [...]
Celebrate It Baking Cups Review
I bought these baking cups from Michaels because I was looking for some green baking cups for some cupcakes I was making. Little did I know that they would be as horrible as they are. After I opened the package, I could not bring myself to use them because of the horrid smell they gave [...]
Real Strawberry Cake – no Jello Allowed
I’ve been on the hunt for a strawberry cake that uses real strawberries and not artificial flavored Jello. I previously used a recipe that is based on the Cooks Illustrated white cake with the substitution of strawberry puree for some of the liquid. I used that recipe once for someone’s birthday and it wasn’t pink, [...]
Vegan Strawberry Cake with Vanilla Bean Vegan Buttercream Frosting
We recently volunteered to make a vegan cake for a friend’s birthday. I decided to try a strawberry cake since my friend’s wife already ordered a non-vegan chocolate cake from Whole Foods. I always thought there were two categories of strawberry cakes: a white cake based recipe with the addition of strawberry puree or a [...]
Ethnic Recipes
Tzatziki – Cucumber Yogurt Dip/Sauce
I love gyros. Love gyros, love gyros, love them. Did I mention I loved them? Since moving from the East coast to the West coast, I haven’t had a truly great gyro. My favorite ones used to be at the Farragut West station in Washington DC, some 20 years ago. And then when I went [...]
Momofuku Bo Ssam Perfected
My brother made this once for one of his parties and I couldn’t stop eating it! It was an amazing combination of spicy, sour, salty, cool, ginger-scallion, porky goodness. I made it for our family’s Christmas gathering and made a number of modifications after reading some online feedback. Not sure of the oysters since I’m [...]
Shredded Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorn Sauce on Cold Noodles
A spicy, tangy cold noodle dish. Let the flavors meld overnight.
Canning and Food Preservation
Low Sugar Strawberry Vanilla Jam Using Pomona’s Universal Pectin
Out here in California we get great organic strawberries. Watsonville is the capital of strawberry growing and our farmer’s market sells really ripe strawberries in flats. You can’t get really ripe strawberries at the supermarket because they would go bad too quickly. We bought a flat of organic strawberries(12 pints) for $20.00 today because I [...]
My New Way of Sterilizing Canning Jars
I have a new baby in the house and we have an Avent Steam Sterilizer IQ 24 that I used with my first. I looked it up and that model is unfortunately no longer made). I’ve been doing a lot of canning and wanted to find a way to sterilize my jars without using [...]
Canning: Refrigerator Dill Pickles – Take One
Our cucumbers did great this year, and I canned lots of pickles and relishes!
Battle!
Review: Talenti Gelato Sea Salt Caramel
I don’t buy ice cream very often, but when I do I usually buy a pint and make it last a few weeks (if I can hide it from the husband). This week I had a craving for ice cream and decided to splurge on trying a new flavor. I’ve seen the attractive packaged Talenti [...]
Celebrate It Baking Cups Review
I bought these baking cups from Michaels because I was looking for some green baking cups for some cupcakes I was making. Little did I know that they would be as horrible as they are. After I opened the package, I could not bring myself to use them because of the horrid smell they gave [...]
Battle: Banana Flavored Milk! (Korean)
A battle of a few of the Korean banana milk flavors available.
Other Recent Posts
Butterflied Lemon or Lime Chicken – Grilled or Roasted
I’ve discovered a wonderful Butterflied Lemon Chicken recipe at Cooks Country. I’ve made it a number of times and have gotten raves every time. The only modifications I made are that I mostly cook only one chicken and most of the time I don’t have fresh parsley leaves in my pantry. I also start grilling [...]
Strawberry Cream Cake with Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting
It is almost strawberry season. We luckily live in California where strawberries are available in abundance. It also happened to be my brother’s birthday and I wanted to bake him a simple cake. My family is Chinese which means we do not like sweet desserts. The typical buttercream frosting would be way too sweet for [...]
Chicken with Asparagus and Carrots en Papillote – Low Calorie
A great low calorie dinner which is easy and fast to make. I’ve made this frequently throughout the years when I want a nice light chicken dinner. Sorry about the pictures – we keep taking them under dinner lights. I’ll eventually invest in photography lights. En Papilotte literally means “in paper” referring to the parchment [...]
