Mika’s Cooked Egg Yolk Butter Cookie Recipe

Egg Yolk Butter Cookies

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with baking.  Even in elementary school, if I saw a recipe that looked interesting, I would copy it down (with pen and paper – no iPhone to snap pictures back then!) and save it to try later.  I remember one of those moments, when I was in [...]

Mika’s Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

It was my brother’s birthday last week and instead of a birthday cake, he requested “Brownie Sundaes with Hot Fudge Sauce”.  I decided to use my favorite brownie recipe as the base for these sundaes and thought that this would be a good time to post an easy-to make hot fudge sauce recipe – one [...]

Homemade Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff

The other day, Sprout’s Market had a special on mushrooms – a giant bag of baby bella mushrooms for less than $4.  I had a craving for Beef Stroganoff, and decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make it for dinner. When I was a kid, my mom used to make Beef Stroganoff with [...]

Fresh Tomato and Roasted Garlic Salsa

Fresh Tomato and Roasted Garlic Salsa

I have a potted jalapeno plant out on the patio – despite my neglect, this plant has produced so many jalapenos that I don’t know what to do with them.  So this week, I decided to try to make recipes to use them up – and I was craving chips and salsa.  I had plenty [...]

Homemade Fresh Croissants from Scratch

Homemade croissants from scratch!

For my latest project, I decided to tackle homemade croissants.  I thought I would try using a really easy dough, like the Master Bread dough recipe that I posted not too long ago… because when you are making something complex like croissants… the easier you can make all the steps the better.  But I don’t [...]

Mika’s Sesame Teriyaki Chicken

Mika's Japanese Sesame Teriyaki Chicken

This is a quick and easy way to make Teriyaki Chicken – all in one pot, no marinade step required!  In the time it takes you to steam some rice, your chicken will be done (from start to finish) – which makes it an easy weeknight meal. I like to add a little bit of [...]

Fresh Lemon Drop Martini & Limoncello Martini

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This winter, the dwarf lemon tree that I planted in our backyard back in 2009 finally produced lemons!  I had 6 awesome and beautiful lemons… so to celebrate, I decided to turn these into Lemon Drop Martinis.  :)  I’m not so sure why it took so long to fruit… but it finally did.  Funny how [...]

Bolognese Meat Sauce (Ragu alla Bolognese)

Ragu alla Bolognese (Bolognese Sauce)

Bolognese is a meat based pasta sauce that originates from Bologna, Italy.  In Italy, this sauce is often served with large flat noodles like tagliatelle, pappardelle, or fettuccine… or with tube shapes like rigatoni or penne.  Here in the U.S., “Bolognese” brings to mind a tomato sauce with crumbled ground beef, sometimes with mushrooms, served [...]

Easy Fettuccine Alfredo from scratch (One Pot 15 Minute Recipe)

Easy Homemade Fettuccine Alfredo

I love Fettuccine Alfredo – I almost always order this when at an Italian restaurant… it’s my favorite pasta dish!  Once, I tried to make it at home with Alfredo sauce from a jar… I even bought a good brand… and it was…. really really horrible.  You just can’t get “real” Alfredo sauce from a [...]

Pear Martini (How to infuse Vodka with fruit)

Infused Vodka Pear Martini

Lately, I’ve been trying my hand at making different cocktails and types of martinis.  While I was browsing the Grey Goose website for recipes, I saw an intriguing recipe for making peartinis.  It called for the addition of pear-flavored vodka, which I didn’t have… but I did have pears, and also plenty of plain vodka! [...]