I made my first loaf of bread the other day without the breadmaker! And it was a success! Thanks to America’s Test Kitchen. My dad records their show (of course I was already a fan, but haven’t had the chance to set my recorder as well) and showed me the episode they made ciabatta bread. It looked so easy, and it turns out it really was. I already had all the ingredients and equipment (pizza stone and stand mixer). So I went to their site to view the episode clip to make sure my dough was looking like hers. My dough wasn’t looking at wet as hers, most likely.. || Continue Reading →

I recently bought a glass cookie jar from The Container Store (Anchor Hocking 1.5-gallon Montana Glass Jar – $17.99 retail). It’s the only one that I found online to be “airtight” (so they claim), plus it has rave reviews from multiple owners across the web. Those classic glass cookie jars was my second choice, but read that they aren’t airtight. If I’m using these for cookies and other sweets, they’ll most definitely need to be airtight. So I finally bought it with a pretty good discount (20% off online coupon) and picked it up from.. || Continue Reading →

Going through my favorite food blog sites, I stopped at Bakerella’s blog about blondies. Her photos are mouth-watering and my craving for blondies began. I have never had a blondie before and if I had I don’t remember it or knew what it was. I read up and found that they’re basically a non-chocolate brownie. By adding extra ingredients like chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, M&M’s, nuts, peanut butter chips, etc… it’s basically just a cookie with a brownie texture and shape. But by no means is it a cookie. I fell in love with this.. || Continue Reading →

Tonight I made Caramel Popcorn and it is amazingly good! A common misconception is that popcorn is bad for you. It’s actually packed with fiber and is a pretty healthy snack by itself. Of course, adding salt, butter, etc… can make it unhealthy (especially the butter used in movie theaters making it over 1000 calories), but popcorn itself is a healthy snack. I tried this recipe I found online and it is the perfect amount of sweetness. I added enough salt after it was popped to my liking, but other than that the recipe is great! It made enough for both me and jeh.. || Continue Reading →

Before I met Jeh, I don’t think I ever had this type of Chinese dumplings before. If I had, I don’t remember it and probably only ate it once. When we went to Taiwan with his family in 2005, we stopped by the amazing night markets and I had the most delicious Taiwanese food. One of the most memorable things I ate was Jeh’s dad’s favorite spot for dumplings. It was just a few boiled dumplings in a bowl. That was it. It was unusual for me to eat what looked like a few lonely wontons — wontons which I normally ate with noodle soup. After the first.. || Continue Reading →

I ran into a Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen recipe for a Pasta with Olive Oil & Garlic last month and have been wanting to try it out. I’ve been putting it off because I was afraid the dish would turn out bland. Cori tested the recipe out and with a few minor changes, she said it tasted pretty good. But I still wasn’t motivated to test it out myself. Last night, we went to BJ’s Restaurant for Adam’s birthday dinner and I ordered their “Angel Hair Toscana”. It was the healthiest pasta on the menu (I also ordered.. || Continue Reading →

I receive America’s Test Kitchen e-newsletters and sometimes they link you to a video recipe from their show. I saw the recipe for Boston Baked Beans and I couldn’t get my mind off of it. I bought my first enameled cast-iron pot last week and broke it in by making braised short ribs. I LOVE this pot! It’s not the luxury brand that’s over $200, Le Creuset (although, it would have been nice to get one). I got the budget, but VERY highly rated, Lodge brand. Everyone says that Lodge is just as good as Le Creuset, with a small chance of it chipping but its.. || Continue Reading →

I’ve been on a search for a Chocolate Mousse recipe that didn’t use raw eggs or gelatin. Almost every recipe I found had one or the other. Cooking the eggs would be just as fine. Similar to creating a custard, where you would whisk the whipped eggs into a heated mixture in a sauce pan and continuously stirring it until the mixture can coat a metal spoon. At that point, the mixture will be above 160°F (eggs are cooked at 140°F and held for 4 mins, or if it hits 160°F). One recipe I found that used that method of cooking the eggs seemed to have too many steps... || Continue Reading →

I made another batch and finally took pictures of them now that I bought an external flash (the lighting in my house really sucks)…again, still working on making my photos look just right. Not quite there yet. See my “Christmas Baking!” post for links to the recipes I used. FANTASTIC combination of recipes.

I love Japanese curry — whether it’s chicken, beef, or pork. Jeh usually is the one that makes it at home. It’s really easy (using S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix) and tastes REALLY good. We add baby carrots, onion, and red bell peppers along with the meat. Thanks, Jeh, for the wonderful dinner tonight!