Neat Packaging

Check out this package for takuan (Japanese pickled daiko radish). There's a picture of the farmers who grew the daikon used in this pickle on the front. There's several of these, each with different growers on it. Pretty neat, isn't it?

Homemade Drumstick Ice Cream

Made some homemade drumsticks. Just put some ice cream in a sugar cone (plugged with a chocolate chip ^_^), drizzled some magic shell on it, and sprinkled nuts. Three of them have vanilla, the other two, Cherry Garcia.

Kim Chi & Cucumber Kim Chi

Sometimes there's a recipe sitting in the back of my mind and one day I'll see the main ingredient on sale or at a farmer's market and I'll get around to making it. Such was the case when I found a bag of pickling cucumbers for only two bucks. This recipe is by Ben Kim. It was a little on the salty side, but the addition of honey I think toned down the heat, perfect for Abby and I. We've been munching away at it. ^_^

While I was at it, I tried Ben Kim's napa cabbage recipe. The kim chi's I've made in the past was from a Japanese recipe, which was good but I was excited to try a recipe from a Korean guy. A little more authentic, I think. This kim chi turned out real spicy, too spicy for Abby and I, but just fine for David and Sage. I think I'll take my mom half cuz she into that spicy stuff.

Caramel Corn

My Jazzercise instructor is quite famous in our little town for her Caramel Corn. She has a secret ingredient which isn't in the usual caramel corn recipe, which makes it really good. I have yet to figure out what it is, but in the meantime I thought I'd make a batch of my own. I recently got a airpop popcorn maker, popping them this way rather than the microwave kind give better results, first because they pop perfect each time instead of burning and you can use better quality corn for bigger popcorn. Found a simple and good recipe at allrecipes.com. These were pretty good, 1 cup of dried corn made 8 quarts of caramel corn. It's so hard to stop eating these!

Ginger Tofu

A spin off Ginger Pork, veggie-version for my girls. Sliced firm tofu thinly and pan-fried it so it'll hold it shape. Then marinated it in a grated ginger/soy sauce mixture and cooked it in my frying pan. Reminds me of tofu jerky.

Edamame Hummus & Pita Chips

Tried making some edamame hummus to go along with my pita chips. Technically, I can't call this a "hummus" for that means "chickpeas" but nowadays if it resembles hummus in texture and is a dip, I think we get away with it. ^_^

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This was real easy to make, just throw in your food processor or blender:

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- 1.5 cups cooked, shelled edamame

-3T lemon juice

-1 garlic clove, minced

-1/4-1/2 c water

-1t salt

-2T olive oil

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You can add in parsley, cumin, ground coriander, sesame oil, or tahini to your liking but I left mine plain.

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Made two kinds of pita chips, one with garlic salt and italian seasoning and the other one with pizza seasoning. Brush both sides with olive or vegetable oil, sprinkle on seasonings, and bake 10-12 minutes in a 350*F over, turning them over halfway. A simple, tasty, and healthy snack!

Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting

Frosting from a tub is way too sweet so sometimes I make this Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting. Mmmm, it is real good. Took this as an aftergame snack for Sage's basketball team and one girl say it tastes like yogurt! I guess I can see that. ^_^ Recipe from Allrecipes.com.

DB Feb 2010 Challenge - Tiramisu

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

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Tiramisu has been one of those things I've always wanted to trying making but never got around to. So I was pretty excited about this one, and the kids were too since they love coffee. (What's with kids and coffee, anyway?)

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I wasn't quite sure what goes into tiramisu for I've never actually eaten one before. It just sounded good, being coffee flavor and all. So for this challenge there were quite a few little steps, all pretty easy, just overwhelming when you see pages and pages in the recipe! First off, it was homemade mascarpone cheese. Not quite sure what this is supposed to be like, but kinda turned out like butter in texture. I had to put it in sunlight a little to soften it before proceeding with the mixing of the other fillings. And then there was the zabaglione (another, "what is that?") flavored with marsala wine. Didn't have any so subbed port wine. This turned out to be very strong in flavor and crossed my fingers that it'll mellow out. Part three was the pastry cream. Oh, this was sooo good I think I'll use this as a cream puff filling. And last, but not least, but the whipped cream. So... the mascarpone cheese, zabaglione, pastry cream, and whipped cream were all folded together and layered in between espresso dipped ladyfingers, which of course, we had to make from scratch. The lady fingers by themselves kinda tasted eggy, this was something else I've never had before so I wasn't sure if this was how it was supposed to be, but proceeded with the recipe nonetheless.

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I decided to assemble these in cups, having read that they don't hold their own unless supported by more ladyfingers or something. This gave us nice individual portions. I was pleasantly surprised that the strong port wine flavor toned down when eated together with the espresso flavored ladyfingers. Just a little too much cream for me to finish it all in one sitting. Which is just fine because that means I can have some tomorrow as well. ^_^

Tomato Cream Sauce Pasta & Foccacia

Pasta's so good we could eat it every week. Even if it's the same ol' tomato spaghetti sauce. But I'm always looking for other recipes, found this one for Tomato Cream Sauce at Allrecipes.com. It was like a cross between the usual tomato marinara sauce and alfredo sauce. I added some mushrooms in there as well. It was a little rich but not too rich like alfredo sauce. I've never had vodka sauce before but I'm guessing it's close to this. Very tasty. This one's a keeper.

Made some foccacia to go with it, this recipe is from Allrecipes.com as well. I have never had much luck with foccacia, they always come out too dry, flat, or hard, but this one was soft and yummy. Mixed some italian seasoning mix to the dough, topped with pizza seasoning and parmesan cheese. There were no leftovers. ^_^

Sweet Potato Fries

I don't know why I've never made sweet potato fries till now. They are sooooo good! Last year, I had sweet potato fries in Colorado for the first time in my life. This was something that never occured to me to make, as much as it seems like a very common and simple food item. I've never been a fan of yams so when it came to buying sweet potatoes, I've stuck with Japanese sweet potatoes (satsuma-imo) which must rank as one of the BEST sweet potatoes, they are that good! So I looked around the store and saw this sweet potato that looked like the inside wouldn't be orange. And it actually tasted pretty close to the Japanese kind. I think I'll be making these again soon. ^_^