Macarons Delicious Recipes

I never actually tasted a macaron before but heard so much about it. There were so many macarons popping out of blogs and also food forum and they were so beautiful. The goal to get a good macarons is with little "feet' around the edges of the cookies and also a smooth tops. Heard that macarons are difficult to make and they were right. Mine turn out really ugly but taste wise it was great except a little bit too sweet for my taste. I might reduce the sugar in my next attempt making it. Hopefully it will look better than these.

With the leftover almond meal I decided to make an almond cake with lemon curd filling.

Fruit Pastry Delicious Recipes

This is a really simply and delicious cake. Thanks to Vi at IK forum (a food forum I visited daily) for her recipe. Here is her recipe.

Ingredients :

113g/1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 cup castor sugar
50g sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon orange zest
3 large eggs, at room temperature
210g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
500g fresh fruits (I usestrawberries, handful of blueberries, mandarin orange and canned peach slices)

* Place cuts fruits in a strainer and sprinkle with 2 tbsp of sugar
* Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F. Butter a baking pan.
* Cream butter, sugar and sour cream together until creamy.
* Add eggs one at a time and beat well.
* Add vanilla, flour, baking powder and zest until everything combined
* Pour batter into a baking pan and smooth the top. Place fruits on top
* Bake for 50-60 minutes or until cake is done.
* Cool and serve

Sushi Delicious Recipes

I made another round of sushi last week. I am too lazy to cook in this hot weather. It look so much better this time, isn't it. I made some Tamago sushi too.

Sushi with smoke salmon, crab stick, tuna and tamago

Tamago sushi

Bread Pudding Delicious Recipes

In this kind of hot weather I hardly want to turn on my oven to bake anything. The hot oven will warm up the house as I tried so hard to keep it cool. Since the weather is much cooler today I thought I should bake something. I have some leftover cinnamon raisins bread in the fridge so I figured out making some bread pudding should be a good way to finish it up. I don't have any berries in my fridge so I add some bananas to it. Bread pudding can be whip up in a flash especially if you have surprise guests at your home. Bread pudding can be serve warm or cold by itself or with some cream and fresh fruits.

Some bananas at the bottom of ramekins

Soak bread in custard mixtures of half and hour

Ingredients :

4 slices of bread

1 banana

2 eggs

4 tbsp of sugar

3/4 cup of milk or half and half

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

zest of one orange

Cut bread into 1/2" cubes. Cut banana and arrange it on the bottom of ramekins. Put the cut bread in the ramekins. Mix eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and orange zest in a mixing bowl. Pour over bread and let it soak for half and hour. Bake in the pre-heated 325 degree F oven for approx. 35-40 min or until the custard is cooked.

Plants Delicious Recipes

I always like to see beautiful flowers, fruits and vegetables garden but I hardly plant anything because whatever I plant will probably die on me. The only plant I have is the money plant inside the house but that plant need very little care. All I have to do it just water it weekly. I tried planting some herbs last year but it end up eaten up by the insects. When my sister came she helped me plant some flowers in front of the house and also some herbs and tomatoes. She is known for her 'green thumb' so whatever she plant will grown very well.

Basil

Parsley and Lemongrass

Jalapeno peppers

Tomatoes

The flowers and plant in front of the house.

I already start cooking with my herbs and I can't wait to taste the tomatoes. Thanks Zue for all the gardening tips.

Seafood Pasta Delicious Recipes

I always like my pasta simple and not drowning in tomatoes sauce. I bought some organic wholewheat pasta a couple of months ago and with some leftover smoke salmon and shrimps from my sushi I decided to cooked it for dinner. Is simple, is easy and healthy

Ingredients :

300 grm of dried pasta
200 grm of fresh shrimp - peeled and deveined
100 grm of small fresh scallop (optional)
100 grm of smoke salmon (optional)
2 fresh tomatoes - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - minced
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste


Method :

1) Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water until al dente and drain
2) Meanwhile heat up olive oil and add in garlic. Cook until fragrant
3) Add scallop, shrimp and salmon. Cook for 3 min
4) Then add in fresh tomatoes and chopped parsley
5) Lastly toss in pasta and lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Serve

Longwood Garden Delicious Recipes

We took Angela to Longwood Garden when she was here. We moved here since August of 2005 but never been there so this will be our first time there. As usual Diana prefer to stay at home so is just the 3 of us. So off we went early in the morning with 2 cameras and took more than 4oo pictures. Here are some of the beautiful pictures of the flowers and plants.

Yong Tau Foo Delicious Recipes

It is difficult to find Yong Tau Foo here in the US. I have been craving for it for a while now. When we went for our groceries shopping at the Vietnamese Supermarket I got pretty excited when I found the fish paste at the frozen aisle.

Stuff vegetables ready to be pan fried

Stuff bean curd sheet

Yong Tau Foo basically means stuffed tofu. It's a dish most of the Chinese Malaysian grew up with. Is mainly bean curd or vegetables like okra, eggplant, chili, pepper, bitter gourd stuffed with fish paste. It's pan fried and normally served in clear broth or braised with fermented soy bean paste (tau cheong) or some like it with curry.

After pan fried
Cooked in fermented bean paste
Cooked in curry

I am really happy with how the dish turn out and will definitely make this dish again.