Baking

Cheese Crackers (top left); Coffee Cake (top right); Rugalach Bars (bottom left); Helping Beth making a Apple and Pear Crumbles (her husband's favorite). Click the names for recipes.











Wondering what I do when I am not sleeping, watching TV, working on the blog, cooking, or traveling? Baking. Baking. Baking. I probably bake once or twice a week. Above are just some pictures I took. There were more like various kinds of chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, raspberry oatmeal bars, scones, and chocolate cake that I didn't remember to take pictures. You know most people grow wisdom tooth, we grow sweet tooth and it doesn't seem like we can remove them at all.

I sometimes share fresh baked goodies to my upstairs neighbor (a family of 3). The husband works from home and has been telling me how good my cooking smells. So...I feel bad if I don't share some or invite them over for dinner sometime. Once, ALL of them said that they wouldn't let me leave unless I surrendered the chocolate chip cookies recipe. The wife even made an appointment with me to show her how to make it. Although we could barely communicate with each other (she doesn't speak English), it was fun. It was a good opportunity for me to practice my broken German.

Cream Puff

I love cream puff and never thought that I could make it myself. It all started when I was watching a Japanese TV show series called Absolute Boyfriend which got me to search the recipe. I found this recipe from one of the regular website (Eupho Cafe... it doesn't have this recipe in English...only in Chinese.)I go to. They were easy to make and delicious in the mouth. It only took us two minutes to finish my one hour work. Here is another one I made with black berry.

Creme Brulee

My newest kitchen gadgets - tools you must have for making creme brulee - a fire torch and dishes. I have been wanting a set like this for a long time since Creme Brulee is one of my favorite desserts. Finally I saw this on sale for half price. Jackpot!


So... I got home and wasted no time looking up creme Brulee recipes from foodnetwork.com. I even asked my five star restaurant chef friend Marco what heavy cream is in German. The milk product section in the supermarket is kind of confusing. It turns out they don't have heavy cream just regular cream (sahne in German). I bought one and doubted if it would work. From all the recipes, I picked a simple one from Alton Brown. It was easier than I thought and it turned out beautifully. Most importantly, it tasted really good. We loved it and gave a five star rating to the recipe.

Dinner on the Table

Here is our new dinner table. I got some table linings to give the room some color. It has being great to entertain friends at the table. We no long stand in the kitchen eating food anymore. I have been making Josh sit at the table every night- (he prefers eating on the couch.) It is wonderful that we can finally sit and eat in a relaxing and proper manner.

Today we had Bruschetta with Sauteed Sweet Peppers and Creamy Gorgonzola, green salad, grill salmon, and german sausage and a glass of white wine. It's my first time making Bruschetta with sauteed peppers. It was yummy... I'll make it again when friends are over.

Baking

My cooking skills are finally progressing to "baking"! Baking is hard...a lot of mixing, rolling, and fillings. Great accomplishment thought. Here I was...in my BSU sweatshirt and apron. I spent a whole day making pizza and cookies. Josh could not wait to put them into his stomach...he was really funny. Here is a picture of the finished product! No picture for the pizza...it was in his stomach already...

Kitchen/Hometown Flavor

As some of you may wonder where and what I go/do during the day or when Josh is at work or laying on the ONLY couch working and watching CNN. Well.... here it is -- Kitchen.

I often spend more than 5 hours for preparing, cooking, and cleaning.) Our menu is interesting and has lots of varieties. Since I have tons of time, I often look up recipes online and experiment with some Taiwanese dishes I miss. Like this dish 蘿蔔絲餅 "Tunip Slice Cake"(I am not sure if the English translation is correct but that's how Google translated it.) It was a big success. We ate them all! My cooking has been adding a lot of difficulty to our plan of losing weight. Both of us can not resist the food and cooking is what I do and love these days. If you had asked me two years ago -- what do I see myself doing in two years.... I did not see cooking to be one of them.

Chef Ally

We want to go home (Taiwan) *drooling*

Beef Noodle Soup was all I could think about after Celia and I saw it on the TV while we were in Lisbon. (We were like *drooling* so bad and wished to be home [Taiwan] while Josh was laughing at our expression.) Here is a picture of Ally version of beef noodle soup. Later I heard Josh's coworker told me that he was talking about how good the soup was and he couldn't wait to get home and have some more!

Lucky Dinner!!

Here is the "Lucky Dinner" recipe from Ally:
1. A fresh steam fish with ginger, green onion, and olive oil.
2. Organic cheese.
3. White asparagus salad.
4. A baguette.
5. Baked garlic with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
6. Chianti.

Dessert... you will see.... hehehe....