Hello everyone. I know, I know. I haven't updated this blog for over a week again! There are quite a few photos I want to share with you, so will try to keep it simple, and just mainly upload the photos.
One of my recent baking was vegan muffin filled with sweet golden raisin. It turned out well, and my friends and their kids liked it :D
Wrapped them with pretty color clips. This is a very simple yet still cute way to wrap a muffin, so give it a try!
Hello everyone :D It was another pretty day with sunny light and cool breeze.
Today, I would like to introduce you a tasty Italian restaurant in Malibu area, "Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi".
My girlfriends and I went there to celebrate one of the girls' birthday.
This was our first time at the restaurant, and the atmosphere was cozy and nice.
Everything we ordered tasted good, but my favorite was the beef carpaccio. It was the most tender and tasty carpaccio I ever had. So tender that it almost melts in your mouth!
We shared the plate, but I will order and eat it all by myself when I visit there next time.
Here are the some photos of the dishes we ordered. Sauces were flavored well, not too salty (very important factor for me), and the Sole was firm and fresh.
Happy happy tasty dinner went through the night.
Happy Birthday Girlfriend! It was really nice to celebrate your birthday together :D
Hello everyone, the beginning of a new week. How was your weekend? I celebrated a couple of friends' birthday, and both of them were fun. Always happy to spend nice time with friends :D
The other day, I cooked some Azuki beans with Agave. After cooking it for a while, the Azuki turns into a paste, and this is called "Anko" in Japanese. To be honest with you, I was never a big fan of this Azuki paste since I was a child, but after tasting a very mildly sweetened one a few years ago, I started to enjoy its flavor more.
First, I made some steamed bun with the "Anko" I made. It tuned out very moist and tasty, and my friend who tasted it really liked it.
Inside the bun looks like this.
Then I still had some "Anko" left, so decided to bake a roll filled with it. Here it is.
It turned out really well, even though this was my first time baking it. Inside of this one looks like below.
My husband liked it, and took it for his snack to work for a few days :)
In the past, I've only been baking non-Japanese style sweets and breads, but I think I will start experimenting some Japanese ones once in a while to broaden my recipes.
I will update them if I do.
Time to check my oven. See you soon everyone, and have a nice week!
Hello hello!
It's a sunny beautiful morning here in Southern California. A day like this makes me happy :D
After preparing for the BBQ, our guests arrived with beautiful dishes besides the veggies and the hod dogs I asked them to bring over.
Aren't they beautiful? Seared Tuna salad, Shrimp ball, etc.
The dishes brightened the color on the patio table. Thank you!!!
Veggies were cut beautifully, even the corns arrived already wrapped in foil. This saves so much time when entertaining. I was very grateful:)
Since I was too busy hosting, couldn't take many photos of the dishes or the grilling, but let me at least explain what we had. Grilled beef, Chicken legs, Salmon, different veggies, artichoke, etc.
Our cute little guest with her favorite hat seemed to enjoy herself, too, so I was very happy. Holding here in my arms made me so happy! Little ones always make people happy happy.
As we were eating and drinking, it became dark and a little chilly outside, so we decided to have the dessert inside the house. Everyone was very full, but enjoyed my strawberry mousse tart and finished it.
Our first BBQ of the year ended very yummy and happy, thanks to our friends. Thank you!!!
However, late at night, my husband started feeling sick with bad headache and dullness, and it was probably from inhaling the charcoal grilling smoke and not drinking enough water while drinking alcohol. It is always important to not forget taking water during summer. After sleeping for the night, my husband recovered and happily went to play golf the next day, so I was relieved. Please don't forget to drink water or sports drink everyone, and let's enjoy the summer season!!!
Have a nice day :D
Hello everyone. It's a nice Saturday afternoon. I just took care of our roses in our front yard. Now they look prettier and clean, and making me happy looking at them :D Good way to spend a weekend, right?
Last Memorial weekend, we ended up not going for a trip, but got to invite a couple of friend families and had our first back yard BBQ of the year. Our guests asked me what we wanted them to bring over, so I asked one of them to bring some veggies, and the other some hotdog buns and hotdogs. When I first started entertaining people at home, I felt like I should be doing everything as a host, but now asking people to bring something easy so they will feel comfortable, and all of us can have more fun together.
For this BBQ, my husband and I got some meat, Salmon, made corn soup, and a dessert.
An hour before the BBQ started, pulled out the meat from the refrigerator so they will come to a room temperature. Meat tastes better that way.
Salmon preparation is very easy, too. Julienne some onions (cut in thin strips), and slice brown mushrooms, place them on the bottom of the square pan, then lay the salted and peppered salmon over them. Put some fresh herbs on top of the salmon, cover with some foil, and after the guests arrive, start grilling them. Simple, but a very tasty dish. This time I used Sage, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, and Parsley picked from our garden.
For the dessert, made a strawberry mousse tart with fresh strawberries from the weekend farmer's market. Before the guests arrived, finished decorating the tart with Chantilly cream and placed it in the fridge, covered. Added some fresh color with putting a sprig of mint on the side of the strawberries.
The corn soup was already made the day before, so we were ready to welcome our guests with smile. No stress :) Well, this became long enough for today, so will write about the time with our guests in my next post.
Have a great weekend, and thank you for visiting this blog everyone :D
Hello everyone! I'm keeping my words, updating more quickly :D
These cookie cutters are my favorites. Spoon and folk, cutlery shaped cutters. They are miniature size, too, so very cute when they finish baking.
It is easier to cut out cookies if you dip them in flour before cutting them out. Don't forget to do so every time you cut a shape!
I baked well over fifty of them, and people who received them as mini gifts really liked them :)
This cookies are gingerbread flavor, and even though it's not Christmas, I still love munching them. Yummmmm.
I got these cutters in Japan a few years ago, and maybe will bring back some more when I visit there next time. I'm not sure when, but I am starting to miss seeing my friends and family, so hope it will happen soon.
Have a good evening everyone!
Good afternoon everyone. It's the last day of the Memorial weekend. Have you been having fun?
My husband and I have been enjoying our long weekend. As we planned sharing good food with good friends, we are doing so, and being very happy :D
Today, my husband and his buddy have gone to play golf, so I am taking it easy, updating my blog and working on some desk work I need to get done with.
A little while ago, I received a couple of sweet packages from Japan. One of them was from my high school teacher, Ms. Hibino. I sent her my hand made orange marmalade when I made some, and Ms. Hibino was nice enough to write me a thank you note with these tasty Japanese preserved seaweed cooked in soy and spicy young sardine. Both of them are very tasty when sprinkled over freshly cooked rice.
It is nice to have something like these during busy time when I only want to finish my lunch simple and easy. Today is not a very busy day, but after the rich BBQ we had last night, this would be a perfect lunch for me.
Ms. Hibino, thank you very much for the delicious gifts and your thoughtful kindness! Both my husband and I are enjoying them :)
The second package was from one of my best friends, Kiyo. The main gift was packages of Dashi. Dashi is very important when you cook Japanese cuisine, and even though the best way is to make it from scratch, it is difficult and a little expensive doing so living in abroad. This one contains no MSG, and it does taste very good! Two thumbs up.
Several fun snacks were in this package, too. Some of them had seasonal special flavor, and was really fun to taste them.
Kiyo, thanks so much for your tasty and fun package, too. Hope you get to visit us one day soon :D
I am grateful to have special people in my life who care about us. Friends know what I like, too. Tasty food. Happy happy!
I have to go now, and will try to update the next one sooner than this time. (Do I say that every time? I mean it this time :D) Take care everyone.
