(Original Post Date:  November 13, 2010) Sometimes I just can’t make up my mind.  Did I feel like making Quiche Lorraine? or Quiche Florentine?  Quiche Lorraine commonly calls for bacon, cheese, and onions.  Quiche Florentine on the other hand, usually calls for spinach and cheese.  Hmmm.  Why not combine them and use all those ingredients [...]

(Original Post Date:  November 08, 2010) The real story behind this recipe was a pumpkin fudge disaster.  With all the extra pumpkin puree leftover from Halloween, I decided to try some new recipes… and a “pumpkin fudge” recipe from the internet looked promising.  The only thing, is that fudge is on the more difficult side [...]

(Original Post Date:  November 02, 2010) Last year, our neighborhood didn’t do much for Halloween – with the exception of this one house down the street that went nuts with the lights and spooky decor.  This year, (not to be outdone by that one house again) every house in the neighborhood stepped it up, and [...]

(Original Post Date:  October 31, 2010) Halloween has always been my favorite holiday of the year…  free candy, spooky decor, horror movies – what’s not to love?  This year I decided to carve a trio of Jack-O’-Lantern’s from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.  From left to right, we have:  1. The Pumpkin King,  2. Oogie [...]

(Original Post Date:  October 24, 2010) Zongzi (Chimaki in Japanese) are steamed bamboo leaf packets filled with glutinous rice and various flavorings.  They can be sweet or savory – and the leaves used can also vary.  If you cannot find bamboo leaves, you can use dried banana leaves from the Asian Market instead. So far, [...]

(Original Post Date:  October 17, 2010) My favorite kind of mochi is plain, unsweetened, and fried with just a little bit of soy sauce.  But I’m a big fan of sweet dessert mochi too… which I also enjoy plain, without any extra fillings. This sweet mochi recipe (with a subtle coconut flavor) is one of [...]

(Original Post Date:  October 12, 2010) I’m still trying to use up all of the cherry tomatoes I harvested (green) a week ago, as I mentioned in my last post: Green Nightshade Berry Cake.  Those green tomatoes have now counter-ripened into a nice red color.  I came home from work and wondered, “What am I going [...]

(Original Post Date:  October 10, 2010) Last week was very cold and gloomy – the perfect time to pull up all the summer tomato plants.  Of the six $0.99 tomato plants I bought on sale at Home Depot, one of them ended up being a cherry tomato plant.  That single cherry tomato plant ended up [...]

(Original Post Date:  October 2, 2010) According to my Taiwanese/Chinese husband, there are two versions of this famous beef soup in Taiwan: a slightly sweet mild version, and a really spicy/more savory version.  After trying out a bunch of different recipes for a “David approved” beef noodle soup, I finally perfected the recipe into this [...]

(Original Post Date:  September 26, 2010) Today was my good friend’s baby shower.  She’s having a girl, and I thought these cookie mixes for “Cowgirl Cookies” would make a really cute party favors.  Since the mom and dad-to-be have the last name “Ko”, we thought it would be even cuter to re-name them “KOwgirl Cookies.” [...]