Panini

Last Christmas, my mother in-law bought us a panini maker. I love panini and often I make this.
And this panini maker has insert for the griddle, so we make pancakes in the same machine in the morning.

Sanowman Cake

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The season has come again!!! This 3d snowman cake is a catch! It would be a perfect centerpiece for the dinner table. I have frosted with butter cream and coconut, but you can simply dust with powder sugar if you like.

Available at Williams Sonoma

Train Cake

close up In snow land

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Another display I made was the train cake!! This train pan comes wtih 9 different shapes of the car. Very fun to decorate with candies.

Available at Williams Sonoma

Christmas Cookies

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Those 3D cookies are very cute. Cookie cutter comes with reindeer, snowman, sleigh and tree. Fun to decorate and great for Christmas table presentation! I think It would be fun to add a ginger bread house.

Available at Williams Sonoma

Bamboo shoot rice

Early spring is bamboo shoot season in Japan. I used to go to bamboo forest with my parents and dig them out. The step of cooking bamboo shoot is a little difficult. But since I found already prepared bamboo shoot in a Japanese grocery store, I made this traditional Japanese bamboo shoot rice. Served with miso soup and green beans dressed with black sesame seed paste.

My Birthday Dinner

On my birthday, I decided to invite my friends and have a dinner party at home.
Since my friend was going to bring some red wine, I decided to cook a meat dish.
The menu was…
Antipasto
Braising beef
Flourless chocolate cake (from whole food)

Pumpkin Salad

When I see Japanese pumpkin (called Kabocha Pumpkin) at grocery store, I make this Pumpkin Salad.
It’s sounds a little funny but since Kabocha has a lot of starch, after cooking and mashing, it becomes like mash potato texture. Add raisin or even thinly sliced onion and cucumber is very good.

Sea Cookie

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Window Display


Those are the cookies I made for my work (Williams Sonoma) display.
Very pop American color was used.

Chocolate Tart

This Chocolate Tart is so rich and so easy to make. I used to make for a restaurant too. Served with berries is the best way to go.
Recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s book.

Lentil Soup

Lentil soup is one of my favorite soups. You can cook lentils down until very very soft and creamy, or add them at the last 20 min. of cooking makes for more texture.
This time I did both ways with bacon onion base soup.

Apple pie 2

This is another apple pie. Same pie dough, same filling, different design.