Squid-Hotaru Ika

From late March to early April, Brad and I went to Japan for 2 weeks. The main reason was to greet all my relatives to Brad since they had’t met him yet.
My dad is from Toyama which is a big seaport city in the northeastern part of Japan. They were so happy to see Brad and prepared a traditional meal for all of us. This is one of the dishes. They were mini squids grilling on dried kelp. It looks a bit grotesgue but it’s also a delicacy.
Other dishes were Sashimi (raw fish) which came straight from the market in the same day. It was so fresh you can almost see through it. Nothing of this quality will be found at the super market.

Apple Pie

This is an apple pie that I used to sell at Baby Blues BBQ restaurnant. A lot of people like to make apple pies starting with raw apples. I like mine cooked with cinnamon, nutmeg, powder ginger, orange & lemon zest and some sugar first, then bake with dough. I think this way, apple filling has better texture and the crust won’t be too soggy.
Japanese apple pie has puff pastry like crust. And I like them even better…

Easter Bunny Cake and Egg Cake

This is an Easter Bunny cake on display for work. Williams Sonoma sells this mold for this cake. It comes with 2 halves and bake them separately. After baked, put them together with icing and 3D bunny is born!
Pan also comes with 2 molds for the Eggs.
Very very cute cake for Easter.

Cupcake

Yesterday, I made a few dozon cupcakes for my work’s (Williams Sonoma) display
My husband Brad worked at *Magnolia Bakery in NYC, and became a master of icing cupcakes, so I asked him to ice them all. His skill wasn't rusty at all, everybody at work loved them.

*Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker St (Cross Street: 11th Street)
New York, NY 10014-2452
(888) 280-1910

Cuscus Salad

Lately I became more health conscious. Trying to eat more vegetables but I can only eat so many leaves of salad. Then I started to use Cuscus. They are a little pearl of pasta, often used for Moroccan cuisine. Chop up all the vegetables and just mix and season as you wish.
For example, use tomato, cucumber, onion, olive and feta cheese, it becomes a Greek salad. Tomato basil and mozzarella cheese for Italian salad etc.
You can season with curry powder or anything you desire.

So easy, so healthy, so versatile.

Balsamic Mustard Chicken

My friend Hiroko LOVEs this dish. Chicken is marinated in a mixture of balsamic vinegar and mustard (It's already great just those ingredients but I added rosemary, garlic and honey.. ) for a few hours then roasted in the oven.
For a side dish, roasted red-skin potato was added and some broccolies.
You can roast potatoes in the same temperature with chicken.

Salmon Canape Party food

I made this for a party. This canape starts with sesame cracker, piece of brie cheese, smoke salmon, then little bit of green onion (chive is better) for your taste, a little bit of black pepper.
Combination of creamy brie with salmon is the perfection!!
Easy and great one.

Asian salad for party

This is an Asian salad. Red cabbage is used as a serving bowl. In the bowl- carrots, nappa cabedge, zukini, beansprout and cucumber are julienned and tossed with ginger peanut dressing. (Thai flavor)
It was prepositioned and easy to eat (even a bowl). good hit.

Pumpkin Soup

It's been a little cold in LA lately, it's a good time to eat soup.
I found a Japanese pumpkin in the grocery store. I wasn't sure if it would be as good as the one in Japan, but I bought it and tried it. It was so sweet and had a lot of flaver like I used to eat in Japan.
I cooked it with carrot and celery and onion (seasoned with chicken cube, tyme, and bayleaf) , then pureed in a food processer.
It was a great soup especially like today... warmed my body up even my tip of my toe..

Valentine Table Feb 14 2006

Prosciuto rose




On Valentine's day, Brad and I stayed in and cooked dinner together.

menu

**antipasto**
tomato, basil and mozzarella
rose prosciuto
**entree**
new york steak
mash potato
string bean with garlic olive oil
**dessert**
ice cream

It was a relaxing night.

Checker board cookies

I tried to make checker board cookies.
It was surprisingly easy and tasty.
With 2 different flavors (coco, vanilla and lemon) layered and flip and layerd again, then make a log. Sliced 1/4" and bake for about 7min.
You can keep cookie log up to 3-4 months in the freezer.

Birthday Antipasto

Here's what I cooked for my birthday dinner. My friend told me she was going to bring a red wine, so I decided to make something to go with red.
On cristinis- goat cheese and onion, mushroom caramerized with balsamic vinegar and tyme. Some prosciutto and olives.
They all went very very well with Chile wine...