A few months ago, I finally got a hand-hammered carbon steel wok to replace my old nonstick wok!!!  (The problem with a teflon coated (nonstick) wok is that it cannot be heated to high temperatures… and you end up sauteeing your food in the wok, rather than the quick high heat cooking that is required [...]

Tomorrow (Tuesday 9/23) is the fall equinox… which means that today is officially the LAST day of summer.  :(  Before we say goodbye to all the things that mean “summer” to us – I wanted to post one more ice cream recipe before we segue into all my upcoming autumn recipes.  Green tea ice cream [...]

Several years ago, I posted a recipe for my favorite Carrot Cake.  This is a wonderful “special occasion cake” – but I don’t make it very often because it’s a lot of work to bake layers, fill, frost, and decorate.  Every now and then, I feel like eating carrot cake – but I just don’t [...]

Last week, I posted a recipe for how to make basic crepes at home using a simple batter of flour, eggs, butter, and milk.  One of my favorite dishes to make with a batch of crepes is homemade Manicotti.  Manicotti is an Italian dish, made by stuffing a savory ricotta cheese filling into either a [...]

Crepes are the foundation of so many wonderful dishes and desserts!  Sweet crepes can be filled with jam, nutella, chocolate, fruit, whipped cream, custard… there are so many variations.  Just roll up or fold the crepe over whatever filling you like, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and top with whipped cream or ice cream.  Voila, dessert! [...]

Last  year, I visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Plantation in Hilo, Hawaii.  We got there about 1 hour before closing – just enough time to wander outside and check out some of the Macadamia Nut trees, buy some vacuum-sealed packs of Macadamia nuts to bring home, and sample some of their awesome Macadamia Nut [...]

Every now and then, I liked to make a double batch of Lasagna from scratch – one pan to bake for dinner, and one pan to freeze for a busy time in the month ahead.  I buy ground beef at the market when it goes on sale, then freeze the packages and defrost when needed. [...]

There’s something about cherry pie made with fresh cherries… sweet and slightly tart, juicy and bright!  Cherries are in season right now… the perfect time for fresh Cherry Pie!!!  My only problem with making cherry pie at home from scratch – is the time it takes to pit the cherries.  What a chore (and a [...]

Summer weather is perfect for grilling – in the early evening, there’s a nice warm breeze outside – with still plenty of sunlight.  Now that we have a Big Green Egg (Kamado style grill), it’s easy to light up the grill after work and make dinner without too much hassle! I bought a ton of [...]

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk online (mainly on pinterest) about “2 ingredient nutella brownies“.  In theory, it seems seem easy and great… but in reality… they were just ok (to me).  I made them in the hopes that they were as good as they hype… but I was disappointed in the end [...]