New West KnifeWorks Recipes

I have always heard people and famous chefs said that having a good knife in the kitchen is important. I have always drooled over those expensive knives but I just can’t bring myself to pay so much for it. A good knife can cost well over $300.00 each. Now I can understand why people pay so much for a knife as I finally owe one. New West KnifeWorks , a company from Wyoming recently sent me Fusionwood Knife Chopper for review. The knife has a 5’5” blade with an overall 10” length.

There is a lot of hard work that goes into making each and every piece of their knife. Highly skilled artisans and modern precision tools work together to create these pieces. The finest materials are sculpted, assembled and hand-finished to ensure every piece is perfect. You can read all about the premium high carbon stainless STEEL {which btw boast a high carbon content - 70% higher than Wusthof }, BLADES that are cut, precision ground hand finished, and the amazing gorgeous colorful HANDLES that are created from select hardwood veneers that are vacuum impregnated with penetrating dies and resins.

From the second I opened the packaging I was smitten by it. The blade was safely covered in a leather sheath. I was totally drawn to the stunning handle. I don’t think I even see a knife with that kind of colorful handle.

This knife felt solid and heavy in my hand. The blade is sharp and strong. The knife might look small but it is just perfect for slicing, mincing, and julienned, peeling and even cutting big chunks of meat. I have been using it to cut up pretty much everything for the past one week.

This company and their products have been written about in numerous magazines - Cooking Light, Bon Apettit, Wine Spectator, Sunset, Gourmet and many more, all with good reason. New West has a Non-Commercial Lifetime Guarantee on their knives - if you are not happy with your purchase they will replace it free. If you are looking to invest in good quality knife, head over to their website and check out their awesome selection.

Real party: a sweet baby shower - Dairy Foods

This sweet baby shower was sent to me by Jen Snow of Snow Loves blog. This shower is filled with DIY touches including that amazing fabric bunting. 

From Jen, the hostess:

"This weekend I hosted my first baby shower for a dear friend of mine...it also featured another first- my first sewing project- a flag bunting decoration that mom-to-be could use in the nursery afterwards. It was a time consuming project, but I am really happy how it turned out! I also made an easy paper garland (punched circles fed through the sewing machine- so simple!) that I hung from my dining room light fixture, and a diaper cake gift.

Guests could serve themselves bellinis, mimosas, raspberry lemonade, or quench their thirst with water bottles wrapped in custom labels, and munched on brunch food and yummy cupcakes from Susie's". 












Thanks so much to Jen for sending this lovely shower my way.  Beautiful work!

I am heading to NYC this weekend for my friend Amy's bachelorette party.  I'll be back with regular posts (and hopefully some fun stories!) on Monday. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Chinese Crullers/Yau Char Kwai Recipes

Our group of Malaysian ladies attempted making Yau Char Kwai this month. We tried out two recipes and one turn out really well and one failed miserably. Not sure what went wrong with the failed recipe as we follow the ingredients and instructions to the T. Anyhow, we were glad Agnes Chang recipe turns out so well with less work and proofing time compare to the other one. The YCK were light with hollow texture on the inside. So the next time if we are going to make this again we will just stick to this recipe.

For more information about the Chinese Crullers/Yau Char Kwai please read here. As for more information on Ammonia Powder please refer to here. For me information for Alum please refer here .

Ingredients A
(Adapted from Agnes Chang’s Hawker’s Delights with minor changes)

1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp lukewarm water

Ingredients B

250 ml water
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp Ammonia powder (chow fun)
½ tsp of Alum (pak fun)

Ingredient C

300 grm bread flour (we used 320 grm)
1 tsp salt

(I put both successful and failed YCK together for comparison. Just look at the difference in size)

1. Mix all the ingredients A and set it aside for 10 – 15 minutes until it get foamy.
2. Mix ingredients B. Sift ingredient C into a mixing bowl. Add in mixture of A and B into the flour. Used a wooden spoon, mix the dough until well combined. Knead it for 5 minutes and if the dough is too sticky to work with add a little bit more flour.
3. Cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 2 hours.

4. Turn the dough out to the well floured work surface. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and roll the dough out into a long rectangle. Cut into 1” strips. Place two strips, one on top of each. Let it rest for another 5 minutes.
5. In the meantime, prepare oil for deep frying.

6. Press lightly on the two strips of dough with a chopstick. Holds both ends of the dough and stretch the strips a little and lower into hot oil. Deep fry, turning constantly until each cruller turns puffy and golden brown.

Note: The dough is pretty sticky to work with so make sure your work surface, hands and utensils are well coated with flour.

Giveaway from Fun Favors! - Dairy Foods

I am excited for today's giveaway as it is perfect for all you party planners, hosts/hostesses and anyone who loves to entertain.

A party decor set will be given away courtesy of Fun Favors, a great Etsy shop that specializes in cookie favors and party decor. The giveaway includes all the following from the Retro Chic collection (a $55 value):

• 1 banner
• 2 sets of cupcake toppers
• 2 sets matching tags
• 1 set of drink flags

Fun Favors will personalize the decor for the winner!

How to enter:

• Head over Fun Favors' Etsy page and check out the party decor products and cookie favors
• Leave a comment on this post with your favorite item 
• Eligiible to US residents only

A couple of my faves are the Sweet Cupcake invites and the wedding dress cookie favors.  So cute!

The giveaway will end on Sunday, August 1st at 11:59pm CT.  A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Monday, August 2nd.  Good luck and I look forward to your comments!!

Real party: a vintage/garden bridal shower, part 2 - Dairy Foods

I am so excited to share part 2 of the vintage/garden bridal shower I co-hosted because today is all about the delicious brunch menu, yummy cupcakes and more fun details!

Be sure to check out part 1!
We had a brunch cocktail table set up with build-your-own mimosas, bellinis and bloody mary's.  If you haven't noticed already, I am a huge fan of alcoholic beverages at showers. 
I used a free download for the drink tags via Eat Drink Chic.  I absolutely love finding free downloads for party stationery.  I am beginning to think I should create a section on this blog that has a list with links to all the great free downloads out there.  Would that be something you (dear readers) would use?
We used clear wine bottles for the peach juice and orange juice. 


A pretty drink dispenser filled with refreshing lemon water.


Kristin chose her favorite cupcakes from Cafe Latte in St. Paul for dessert, chocolate with vanilla buttercream.  I embellished them with an edible pansy from one of my favorite Mpls Farmers' Market vendors, Dehn's Garden.

A side view of the dessert table

I purchased mini chalkboards from JoAnn Fabrics, stained the wood frame and used them to label the dessert.  I was running out of time at this point and some of the details toward the end received less attention, like my ugly handwriting, for example. 

I also used a (larger) chalkboard to display the menu. 

We had an awesome cheese platter as well as four different types of quiche and egg bake.  The quiche pictured above was a tomato, basil, mozzarella quiche and was delicious. 

Tomato, basil, mozzarella quiche (recipe adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh basil
4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
1/2 fresh mozzarella ball (you can use more but I only used half)
1/4 cup shredded parmesan

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake pie shell in preheated oven for 8 minutes.  Remove and lower heat to 350 degrees. 

2.Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until soft; remove from skillet. Sprinkle tomato slices with flourl, then saute 1 minute on each side. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, dijon, sour cream and milk. Season with salt and pepper.

3.Place the tomatoes in the bottom of pie crust. Layer onions, basil and cheese. Cover with egg mixture.

4. Bake for 20 minutes and then sprinkle with the parmesan.  Bake for another 20-25 minutes until filling is puffed and golden brown. Serve warm.

We also served a potato, artichoke, onion and goat cheese quiche that was bursting with flavor.  Click here for the recipe but please note these modifications I made; used sliced red potatoes that had been cooked in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes instead of canned potatoes and substituted red onion for green onion and used goat cheese instead of swiss. 

Delicious cinnamon-rhubarb muffins. 
Kristin (the bride-to-be) and one of her bridesmaids, Molly.

The shower was a huge success and I am thrilled with how everything turned out.  A lot of the elements incorporated into the shower were re-used from another occasion or DIY.  It was a very budget-friendly shower and all the details were fairly easy and approachable. 

My next event is a Mexican fiesta bachelorette party for my sister coming up in a couple weeks...and I am traveling to NYC with a bunch of girlfriends for my friend Amy's bachelorette party.  Have I mentioned that my two besties and my sister are all getting married within the next 12 weeks???  It is complete insanity but has also been very fun!!! 

Tempeh in Honey Lime Sauce Recipes

I found tempeh at one of our supermarket here a few years ago and I’ve been cooking with it ever since. Beside the regular organic soy bean tempeh, I am able to get the 3 grains, wild rice, flax seeds and garden veggie tempeh. I tried all of it but I still prefer the good old soy bean kind. Tempeh is basically fermented soy bean cake. You can cook sambal shrimp, or vegetable curry with it. They are a great source of protein especially for those who are on Vegetarian diet. This recipe is from HomeKreation-Kitchen Corner and she used Anchovies for this dish but I replaced it with Tempeh.

Ingredients:

1 pieces of Tempeh – cut into medium size cubes
3 bird eyes chilies – cut small
2 shallots – sliced
3 cloves of garlic – chopped
5 pieces curry leaves
Juice of a lime
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp honey

1. Cut tempeh and pan fried it in a non stick pan with a bit of oil until golden brown.
2. In the same frying pan, heat up a bit of oil, stir fry shallots, garlic, chilies and curry leaves until lightly brown and fragrant.
3. Add in the honey, salt, pepper and lime juice. Stir for a few seconds and toss in the fried tempeh. Toss until well combined. Dish out and serve with rice.

Note: If you can't find tempeh you can use tofu as it will taste just as good.

Real party: a vintage/garden bridal shower, part 1 - Dairy Foods

I co-hosted a shower for my best friend Kristin yesterday with a vintage/garden theme. It was a fun theme to execute on a hot, sunny, summer day. Check out the inspiration board I created for this shower.  Gorgeous flowers, lots of lace, a perfect backyard venue, good food and drinks and a lot of fun guests and hosts brought this shower to life. Kristin has 9 bridesmaids and we all teamed up as co-hosts. A huge thanks to the bridesmaids plus my friend Libby for all help!

I am a huge fan of hanging decor.  It's so simple yet creates major impact.  Using different color ribbon, I hung bud vases from the side of the tent.

The bridal shower sign was a last minute project.  Using scrap wood, my husband's friend cut down the wood and sanded it.  We then stained it and I painted the letters.  I wanted the sign to look rustic and simple. I then suspended it with ribbon and tied some floral fabric to it. 
I found cute yellow floral fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and created bunting.  I took many shortcuts making this bunting.  There was no sewing involved (I don't own a sewing machine and though I may seem somewhat crafty, I have no idea how to sew).  Instead, I cut penants and then used fabric glue to adhere them to a pretty lace ribbon.  It was so simple and I loved the results. 

Materials needed: fabric, scissors, ribbon and fabric glue.
The fabric was just perfect and only about $15 for 2.5 yards.  I also used it as table runners on the drink and dessert tables.
The flowers were beyond gorgeous.  They were from one of the bridesmaids mom's house.  They really helped bring the "garden" vibe to the shower given the flowers were truly from a garden and we had tons and tons of them.  The flowers were placed in mason jars and then some were tied with lace ribbon.

About a week ago, I took some fun photos of Kristin (the bride-to-be) on her 30th birthday.  I used some vintage-looking frames and hung them from ribbon with the photos of Kristin.
A photo of the shower before everything was set up.  This 10x20 foot tent is quite possibly one of the best things I've ever purchased.  It cost $70 from Menards and I have used it over and over again.  It has come in handy to shade from sun on a hot day as well as provide shelter during rain. 
Another great purchase was this gorgous chandelier that has made an appearance a few times now (at my sister's Breakfast at Tiffany's shower and my blogoversary dessert table). It cost $99 from Home Depot.
We covered all the tables with lace tablecloth for a vintage feel.
We used a tea pot and some dainty tea cups/saucers as decor.  Delicate, simple and lovely.

The gorgeous bride-to-be.  She rocked a strapless floral dress and looked stunning.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the shower tomorrow for lots more photos and  details on the brunch cocktail table, the delicious menu and the cutest cupcakes with edible flowers.