7th Kitchen ~Everyday Food Blog~

Empanadas cooking play date

2012-02-09T17:13:00.000-05:00

The other day, I had a play date with some other moms. We decided to have a play date and also cook something together. I always wanted to try making Empanadas so we decided to make empanadas on this play date.

Empanada is a very popular dish in Latin America and Spain. You make a dough and wrap meat and some vegetables with the dough and bake or fry them.

This time, we decided to try baked Empanada. One of my mom friend got a recipe from her friend in Chile. This particular Emapandas have ground beef, onions, boiled egg and olives. Also, it supposed to have raisins in it but I forgot to have the raisin ready so we totally forgot about the raisin.

First, we knelt the dough.

At the same time, make the filling. Saute the onions.

Add meat and spices.

Divide the dough into small balls and roll it out. ( For me, this was the most difficult part. So my friend rolled most of them out!)

My friend brought Empanada molding so we used them to shape empanadas. With this tool, it is easy to make a perfect empanadas. I love it!

Add the fillings. Ground beef with onion, boiled egg and olive.

Then, close it to make the empanada shape! Oh we brushed the edge with egg wash to make it stick better.

Brush the empanadas with egg wash and bake in the oven. Here is the end result! Looking great.

I think it came out really good! This was my first time making Empanada and it took us a while to get it done but we had lots of fun and it was great! I definitely try making this again!

This was the Chilean version of Empanadas but one of the mom said that she knows Venezuelan version of Empanadas so we will try that sometime.

One of the great thing about living in the U.S. (Especially in California and NY) is that you meet people from all over the world. You get to learn different cultures and you get to learn some special dishes like this.

It is sometimes quite a challenge to cook and watch your kid but since we were four of us today, one of us were able to watch the kids all the time so others can concentrate on cooking.

It was a great idea to do cooking and have a play date. We made lots of Empanadas so everybody brought some home for dinner. So, we have play date and when you get home, the dinner is ready!

Before I have a baby, I was not sure if I will be able to have mom friends around here since I didn't know many people but I found wonderful mom friends. And our kids are about same age so we can always talk about their growth and help each other with what we know. I am so thankful that I met these ladies. I hope we can keep our friendship and watch our kids grow together!

Back to Empanadas, we had a little bit of dough left over so after dinner, I made some dessert Empanadas with chopped apple and chocolate. It tasted good but since I am not good with rolling the dough out, the dough part was too thick. I think it was great if the dough was thinner. I need to practice rolling our the dough.

Anyhow, great turn out! I loved cooking play date. I am sure there are more to come!

Sauteed Pork with Apple Sauce

2012-01-26T13:07:00.000-05:00

When I go to Manhattan, I sometimes stop by this Japanese used book store called "Book Off". This is a popular used book store in Japan and they have branch here in NY! This is great for someone like me since I love reading books especially in Japanese but those Japanese books are quite expensive when you buy them from a regular book store.

Ever time I go there, I buy a few books. One of them is normally a novel from my favorite author named "Kotaro Isaka" then I also buy a few cooking magazines. They sell old cooking magazine very cheap. It might be a magazine from 2002, but I don't really care much since I can always find something interesting to cook in any magazines. Maybe it doesn't work for fashion magazine but it totally work for cooking magazine.

So the other day, I was looking through one of those magazines which I purchased for $1.00 each. The magazine was from 2002 March. In there, I found this fabulous looking pork with apple. Ingredients were easy to get from regular supermarket so I decided to make this dish.

It came out really good. Pork and Apple goes very well together.

And it was quite easy to make. You just have to cook apple in separate pan with sugar and butter. Then, cook pork in a different pan with oil, sage, apple juice, brandy and soy sauce.

My husband loved it also! I am very happy that I found this recipe.

It is in Japanese but if you are interested in, here is the link for the recipe.

I recommend looking through your old cooking magazine or books sometimes. You might find something which you didn't notice before!

Lazy Chicken Curry using Patak's Hot Curry Paste

2012-01-23T10:12:00.002-05:00

When I feel lazy about cooking something, I get some help from some products such as these Patack's jarred paste. I had curry paste from them and all I had to do was add meat, onion and diced tomatoes.

This is the paste which I used for this dish.

I used "Hot" but it was not very hot for my taste but it tasted pretty good. This is a great product to use when I am feeling lazy.

My husband loves curry and he also liked this curry. I didn't tell him how easy it was to make it. I think that he believe I spent lots of time making this dish. Well, nothing wrong for him to think that way to maybe I just let him believe that.

Well, I recommend using these curry paste when you don't have time to make indian curry from scratch. I also think that there are some other creative ways to use this paste for some other dishes. I will think about it and post it when I come up with some ideas and trial dish!

I buy Patak's product from my local supermarket. They have many different kinds of paste and sauces. I like most of their products, if you have a chance, please try them :-)

Tyler Florence's Pasta Carbonara

2012-01-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite past is pasta carbonara. I think this dish is very difficult to master and even at restaurant, it is difficult to find one which is completely satisfactory.

I might mentioned this before but my favorite carbonara is from this restaurant in Palo Alto CA called "Osteria". The carbonara I had from this restaurant is by far the best carbonara I had in my life.

Palo Alto is famous for Stanford University and it is very expensive but nice area. I used to live in a surrounding city so I used to go out to downtown Palo Alto all the time.

This restaurant "Osteria" was introduced to my by an Indian lady whom I used to live with. She is a great cook and she has very good taste.

Every time I go back to Bay Area, I visit this restaurant and have Carbonara. I don't know what about this carbonara but I love it and I don't think I can ever make this on my own. So I have to go to California to eat this dish.

Anyway, even though I can not make "Osteria"'s carbonara, I wanted to make Carbonara at home. This time, I used Tyler Florence's recipe. I like many of his recipes.

If you are intersted in making Tyler Florence's Pasta Carbonara, click here for his recipe.

This time, it came out pretty good. Sometimes, I mess up when I add eggs and it becomes scramble eggs but it worked this time and it was very creamy carbonara as it should be.

It is very creamy but there is no cream in it. It has some Panchetta pieces. I love it!!!

This is a pasta dish which I will keep making and someday would like to perfect it!

Daikon Miso Soup

2012-01-16T18:16:00.000-05:00

I hadn't made miso soup quite a long time and I had daikon in my fridge which needed to be used urgently so I decided to make daikon miso soup.

In Japan, it is quite popular to have miso soup in the morning for breakfast with some rice, fish, egg, etc.
Normally, here in the U.S., I make my miso soup for lunch or for dinner since I am too lazy to make miso soup in the morning but this one morning, I was so determined to have a miso soup breakfast so I made this in the morning. And it was quite quick!

This time, I made it the way I learned from my mom and it came out delicious!

The secret for my mom's miso soup is that she uses half red miso paste and half white miso paste. This does the trick for me. I guess since I grow up with my mom's miso soup, this combination of miso paste is perfect for my taste.

I add some daikon radish, fried bean curd and at the end, I added some chopped scallion. Right after you add scallion into the miso soup, the familiar smell hit my nose and it took me right back to my home in Japan. It is amazing how sense of smell bring you back to places :-)

Easy and Delicious! Japanese Chicken and Egg Bowl (Oyakodon)

2012-01-15T08:08:00.003-05:00

This is very typical Japanese dish called "Oyakodon" It means parent and child bowl since ingredients are chicken and egg (parent and child :-)

This is very easy dish to make and I like it but for some reason I forget to make this. So overall, I would say I make this dish 2~3 times a year. I think I should make this more often.

My husband also likes this dish and similar dish called "Katsudon". "Katsudon" is pork cutlet bowl. Instead of chicken, you add pork cutlet. I don't make this at home because if I make pork cutlet, I will just eat it as is. I don't want to add egg and sauce and stuff. So my husband sometime eat this dish in a food court of Japanese supermarket.

Here is how you make "Oyakodon"

Oyakodon

Chicken Breast 1/2lb
Onion 2 small
Egg 3
Scallion 3
Sake 3 tablespoons
Tempura dipping sauce 3 tablespoons
Sugar 1 tablespoons
Water 2 tablespoons

1. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sake. Marinade for 1 hour or so in the fridge.

2. Slice onions and add in a frying pan with rest of sake, tempura dipping sauce, sugar and water and cook until soft.

3. When onion is soft, add chicken pieces into the pan and cook.

4. Meanwhile, mix eggs in a small bowl.

5. When chicken is cooked, add eggs into the pan, bring to boil and add chopped scallions.

6. Serve it over hot rice and enjoy!

This is very easy Japanese dish which you can try with simple ingredients. Enjoy!

Lamb and Pistachio Kofte with Tahini and Pistachio Sauce

2012-01-09T09:56:00.000-05:00

I made something new from a book I borrowed from the library. This is the book I borrowed.

From this book, I made "Lamb and Pistachio Kofte with Tahini sand Pistachio Sauce".

It is something like lamb meatballs but it has dried red currants and pistachio and different kinds of spices in it. The sauce is Tahini sauce with some crushed pistachios.

It took quite some time to make this dish but it came out pretty good and I was pleased. I also added some Sumac on top of it. I love this spice sumac but I don't get to use it too often and I thought this will be a perfect occasion to use. And I was right. This was perfect combination!

Normally, I don't like lamb meat too much but for some reason, I like it when it is ground lamb.

It is fun to cook something I had never made before!! 2012 will be cooking more of the things I had never made before!!

Ina Garten's Chicken with Shallot sauce

2012-01-05T11:35:00.001-05:00

I made this a while ago but I didn't post this so now I am posting this. This is a recipe from Ina Garten from Food Network. I like her recipes. It is clean and fresh and tasty. This is chicken breast with lemony cream sauce with shallots. If you like lemon, I think you will like this recipe.

If you click here, it will jump to the recipe of this dish.

For side dish, I sauteed some mushroom. I love mushrooms. I can eat bowl full of mushroom like this. My husband is not a big fan of mushroom but since I love it and I use it all the time, now he eats them without saying anything :-)

This chicken looks really good and taste very fresh and sophisticated. I think many people would like this dish. In recipe, it called for skin on boneless chicken breast. Since I couldn't find such a thing at a supermarket, I just used skinless boneless chicken breast but it came out good.

I hope you will try this recipe since it is so easy and simple!

Homemade Christmas Stollen

2012-01-04T10:16:00.000-05:00

In Germany, People eat Stollen for Christmas. It has some dried fruits and nuts in it. Some of them even have marzipan in it. It is more like a sweet bread.

I normally don't like fruit cake too much but I love Stollen. When I eat this, I start feel like it is Christmas. You can buy some stollen at regular supermarket here but once you eat the real stollen from Germany, it is difficult to beat the original.

Well, this year, I decided to bake one on my own!

My mother-in-law gave me a recipe and sent me some candied orange and lemon.

So, my husband and I were excited to bake this for the first time.

However, we kind of stuck from the very beginning. The recipe calls for fresh yeast but I can not get any fresh yeast around my house so we decided to use dry yeast instead. We searched the conversion rate for fresh yeast and dry yeast but there were just so many versions and we got so confused.

Finally, we trusted one of them and decided to go with it. Even though it seemed like way too much yeast.

Anyhow, this was the dough we managed to make.

It was very sticky dough and we weren't sure if the dough is supposed to be this sticky.

Well, we managed to make a stollen shape out of it. This is how it looked before we put it in the oven. We were kind of surprised how big this stollen was. Maybe we should had made two stollen out of this.

This is how it came out of oven. It got even bigger! Maybe because we had lots of yeast. Well, it was kind of scary big.

We brushed lots of melted butter and sprinkle with lots of powder sugar. Doesn't it look pretty?

It came out pretty good.

The taste was pretty good but the texture was kind of rough. I would like Stollen which is more smooth in texture. Oh well, it is our first try and we think it came out pretty good for our first try.

This Stollen, you can keep it for a while if you leave it in a cold place.

Well, the first time Stollen baking was an adventure. It was fun but quite a lot of work. I am not sure if we will make it again next year. Maybe I will ask my parents-in-laws to send a Stollen from Germany next year :-)

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-02T17:15:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone! I really hope that 2012 will be a great year for me and my family and for everybody who is reading my blog!

In Japan, tradition is to eat soba noodle on New Year's Eve. Even though I am in the U.S., I feel like I have to eat soba noodle on New Year's Eve in order to have a good ending of the year and good beginning of the new year.

Here is the soba noodle I made. The shrimp tempura is from Trader Joe's frozen shrimp tempura. I tried this item for the first time but it was actually pretty good! I think I will buy this again since I prefer not to deep fry things at home. (It is a lot of work and lots of cleaning after :-))

My husband's house tradition is having a broth fondu on New Year's Eve. So we invited a few friends over and had broth fondu. The recipe for the fondu broth and the sauces were all from my mother-in-law. She taught me how to make all the sauces and the broth!

Broth Fondu is a lot healthier than cheese fondu and you can enjoy it with different kinds of sauces. We had some vegetables, chicken, shrimp and salmon. The sauces were banana curry sauce, onion ketchup sauce, garlic sour cream sauce, egg pickle sauce and also cilantro mint sauce which my friend brought.

Everything was really good and we enjoyed nice fondu and good conversation.

There were lots of things happened in 2011. I hope we will have a great 2012. I know we will!

Also, I didn't update my blog too often in 2011 but I would like to try updating my blog more often in 2012! Hope you guys will come visit my blog :-)

Have a happy and healthy 2012 :-)

Pakistani cooking lesson

2011-12-30T22:51:00.002-05:00

In November, we had a friend over at our place and I learned how to cook some Pakistani dishes from her. She is a wonderful cook and I always love her food. I have learned from her how to make Shrimp Briyani and Chicken curry before.

This time, I wanted to learn some new dishes so I asked her to teach me how to make Bhindi Masala (Okura dish), Palak Paneer (Spinach Curry) and fish curry.

I prepared Fish and Spinach then our friend brought all the other ingredients including Paneer.

Paneer is cheese which is in Spinach curry. I only saw this cheese in Indian grocery store so when I talked to her before hand, I told her that I don't know where I can get Paneer so we can either not use it or use tofu instead. But my friend told me that it is super easy to make it at home and she will make it at home and bring it with her

I was so surprised I had no idea that you can make your own paneer at home with just whole milk and lemon!!! This is a great information. This is great to know.

Anyway, the dish I love and always wanted to learn was this Bhindi Masala. It is now easy to find good looking fresh okura in regular supermarket around here but if I find some, this is the dish I want to make. I love this dish. I order this at restaurants all the time but never really know how to make it at home.

This one came out really good. I think the point is to cook the onion really well until its kind of crispy and sweet. I love this dish.

Then, Palak Paneer was easier than I thought. Well, my friend already made paneer and we used frozen spinach. We boiled spinach and sauted them with some spices and pureed. Then added some heavy cream. That's basically it.

Then, fish curry. I used to eat fish curry when I was living with an indian lady in California. She makes a killer fish curry. She always used salmon and we used salmon this time also. The result was wonderful. It really reminded me of her fish curry. I hadn't had fish curry for so long. It brought back all the memory and it kind of made me nostalgic. This is something I would love to cook again and again. The julienned ginger made it taste even better!

For dessert, I made banana cream pie but it didn't looks so great so I didn't take any photos.

Anyway, it was so much fun and educational to learn some Pakistani dishes from her. I love learning how to cook new dishes especially when they are my favorite food! I always think that Indian and Pakistani food are too complicated to make but once you have all the spices and how it works, it is not too difficult. I am so fortunate to be able to learn those dishes from some one who is originally from there. She is such a wonderful person and she always give a lot to others. I wish I could do something for her. I think she should be spoiled once in a while. I think I should invite her again and I should cook for her!

Two days trip to Upstate NY (Hudson Valley Area)

2011-12-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

In mid November, we went for one night trip to Hudson Valley area. We went to Hudson Valley last year also. (Click here for the post of last year Hudson Valley visit. Hudson Valley 1. Hudson Valley 2)

We ate lots of great food and enjoyed out trip last year and we also had a great trip this year. I planned this trip and decide where to stay, where to eat and stuff. My husband loved everything I planned so I was very happy :-)

First of all, before we go to the hotel, we stopped at a town called New Paltz and had lunch at this restaurant called "The Village Tearoom".

I ordered smoked salmon salad which was really good.

My husband ordered "Mushroom bread pudding". Ever since he had mushroom bread pudding at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan last year (Click here for that post) he order this dish every chance he gets.

I forgot to take some pictures but they also have many different kind of baked goods and I ordered scone. They also had clotted cream which I have been looking around for a long time. Since I can not find them anywhere, I asked them if they can sell clotted cream. They told me that they can sell it for $8.00 per jar. It is quite expensive but I know I can not find it anywhere so I bought it! Now, I can make scone at home and eat it with clotted cream and have a proper afternoon tea! I am so happy :-)

After the lunch we ordered tea and chocolate cake.

By the way, there was a nice park close to this restaurant. Everything was made of woods and lots of kids and parents were playing. We played there also with our son and had a great time. I wish we had something like this close to our place.

Then, we head to the hotel. The hotel we stayed was a lodge and it had two stories. The bed was in upstairs and there was fireplace downstair. Also there was a river running right in front of our room and it was really nice and relaxing though it was right by a main street. It was quiet and nice.

Next day, we stopped by Culinary Institute of America for lunch. We came here last year also. This is a school where people learn how to cook and be trained. They have many restaurants inside of this school. Since we have a small child, we went to the casual restaurant called "Apple Bakery Cafe".

I ordered hanger stake with leek and potato. It was great. The plate was beautiful.

My husband ordered truffle grilled cheese and kale chips.

I never had kale chips before but this kale chips were super good. We couldn't stop eating this chips.

And, this is our main reason we came here. The truffle french fries.

We had this last time we were here and loved it so we ordered again. Well, it was good but I guess we were more impressed first time around.

I wanted to have dessert here but I was full so I bought a cake to take out.

When we got home at night, I had this cake which I bought. This was HudsonValley Apple Butter Cake. Isn't it pretty?

And it tasted wonderful! I loved it. I wished I bought more than one. I can easily eat 5 of them at once. Well, I guess it was good that I bought only one ;-)

Well, this trip was great. It was just a few hours away from home but we got to experience different things and eat lots of different stuff. My son loved playing in the fallen leaves. We all had a great time. Especially my husband and I was very happy that I was able to make him happy :-) We will definitely do this again!

Paprika Cauliflower Soup

2011-11-29T18:19:00.000-05:00

I saw this soup in some magazine and wanted to try it out. It looks kind of spicy but I used sweet paprika so it is not spicy at all.

This soup also have some dumpling in it. Since it looks quite similar to cauliflower, it is difficult to differentiate between cauliflower and dumplings.

Personally, I was not too keen on the dumplings. Maybe it was the way I made it but I wasn't really sure how it supposed to taste and also how it supposed to be on texture. I think mine was somehow little bit off.

Anyway, the soup tasted really good and my husband loved it also. So everything is good!

It is already end of November and the weather is getting colder (well, today was kind of nice and warm though) so I will be making more soups in the winter! It is a great way to use leftover vegetables and keep your body warm. Actually, this cauliflower was also leftover from the baby food I made for my son. I didn't know what to do with it so I just made this soup.

Leek and Blue Cheese Tart (Quiche)

2011-11-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

In the book I used, this was called Tart but it is basically Quiche. This was my first time making quiche but I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was and how tasty it was. Well, thanks to the pre-made frozen pie crust!

Well, in the book, they tell you to make your own pie crust but I know that I am not very good at making crust and also I am not good at rolling out the crust. I saw this frozen pie crust the other day and I wanted to give it a try. Result? I don't think I will be making pie crust ever again! It is super easy and tasted really good!

The book I used was this book I borrowed from the library.

Inside this quiche is leek, blue cheese, eggs and lots of heavy cream. It is very rich and taste wonderful and looked beautiful. I am really surprised how well it turned out and how easy it was.

My husband loved it also. This is rich quiche so you can not eat a lot at once but it is great meal with some green salad.

I love blue cheese so I loved this combination but if you don't like blue cheese, I am sure you can substitute blue cheese with some other mild cheese.

This was absolutely great. It taste great hot and cold and in between. I am 100% sure that I will be making this again. Maybe when I have some friends over, I will make this again.

Shrimp Risotto

2011-11-10T09:40:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite dish is Risotto. It is not difficult to make and love the richness and creaminess. Plus, I love rice so I like any dish with rice in it.

Anyway, I made this shrimp risotto using ingredients I have at home. Well, I ended up asking my husband to get more Arborio rice since I realized that I didn't have enough after I start making the risotto. I had some cooked shrimp in my freezer so this is shrimp risotto.

It is super simple and easy but was very tasty.

First, I chopped onion and sautéed in a pot with olive oil, then I added rice and sautéed also. Then I add some white wine. Then I start adding warmed chicken stock one ladle at a time and keep stirring. I keep doing this for about 20mins or so until rice is tender but a bit hard in the middle. Then, add parmesan cheese and butter!

I recommend adding lots of cheese!

I heard in the restaurant, they make risotto half way through and leave it. Then when they get order, they finish cooking them so it doesn't take so long to serve it. It is interesting to know all these restaurant tricks. I would love to experience restaurant kitchen sometime. I wish I know someone who own a restaurant so I can ask them to have me experience it for one day in their kitchen. I am just curious how it works :-)

Sushi Rolls

2011-11-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

This year, Avocado price was quite expensive up till now and I didn't want to spend $3.00 for an avocado but now it is getting cheaper so I am enjoying avocado a lot lately. By the way, did you know that if you want your avocado ripen fast, you can put them in a brown paper bags and it will make it ripe faster? I learned this from a stranger at supermarket and I tried it. It really works! Ever since then, I always keep at least one brown paper bag at home.

Anyway,one of the way for me to enjoy avocado is California roll. I hadn't made sushi rolls for a while so I decided make sushi rolls and enjoy avocado. I also made tuna salad roll, smoked salmon and cream cheese roll and spicy shrimp salad roll.

All of them tasted good but my favorite is California roll. To my surprise, my husband liked Smoked salmon cream cheese roll the most.

Making sushi roll is very tiring. Maybe because I am not used to it. I always get exhausted and also I make way too much of them.

Well, I love eating sushi. I wish I could get really fresh fish around here so I can make some fresh fish sushi at home. Well, the good thing is that we have really good sushi restaurant in where I live so I can always eat fresh sushi whenever I want. I love these American creative sushi rolls.

Anyway, I invited some mommy friends today to my place and had play dates. I invited three mommys with their girls so we had 4 babies at our place today including my son. It was so much fun! So there are 7 ladies and 1 boy (my son). My son was happy with all these ladies around him.

I am very happy that I found some friends with babies. It is nice to talk to them and ask somethings when I am not sure about things. We can help each other! This is great.

Greek Salad

2011-11-07T17:18:00.001-05:00

Today, I would like to share Greek Salad I made. This is also something my mother-in-law made for me.
It is called Greek Salad because it has dolma, Olives and Feta Cheese.

I love Dolma and now I can get already made dolma from Trader Joe's. This is great! because I think it is quite a hassle to make dolma on your own.

Anyway, this is salad so it is quite easy. You just have to cut the ingredients and mix them. So for this salad, I added butter lettuce, orange pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper, tomato, kalamata olive, feta cheese and dolma. I used simple dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

This is great salad! This is yet another great dish from my mother-in-law. Dolma has rice in it so this is very satisfying salad. You can have this salad as a main course.

Oven Baked Salmon with Fennel and Capers

2011-11-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

This is a dish I learned from my mother-in-law. This is so simple and healthy but very tasty dish and also healthy.

It is super easy to make. First, you cut fennel and add them into a casserole with lemon and olive oil then bake in the oven until they are tender. (This time, I already had steamed fennel which I made for my baby for I used half of that so I skipped this step)

Then, you add salmon filet and capers and chopped parsley and more lemon juice and olive oil then bake more until salmon is cooked. Here, I also added chopped tomato since I had one tomato which I needed to use. This was great idea!! I set the oven about 400 degree and baked it for about 15mins.

This was super good and my husband loved it also. We had mushed potato for the side dish. Actually, this mushed potato was initially made for my baby but I took some out for us and added heavy cream, butter and salt, pepper for ours. I used Yukon Gold Potatoes. I love this potato. It is more yellow than other potatoes and it reminds me of the potatoes which I had in Germany.

Anyway, this is a great dish for busy night. I would definitely repeat this dish again. Also, I loved adding tomato so it is more colorful!

Pumpkin Mousse Tart

2011-11-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

When the temperature goes down and started to feel a bit chilly, it is time to bake something. Fall is a great time to bake with lots of great apples and roots vegetable and so on.

This fall, I decided to try something new. I made Pumpkin Tart for the first time. I was never interested in Pumpkin Pie or Tart but I was looking at this book which I borrowed from the library and I just had to try this Pumpkin Mousse Tart.

This is the book I used.

This book had so many great pies and tart recipes and the best part is that each recipe has a picture of the finished products and the picture is great looking.

Anyway, this Pumpkin Mousse Tart looked amazing in this book. Especially the whipped cream decoration on top. (I love whipped cream)

I think I was supposed to use smaller tip for whipped cream but I didn't have anything bigger than this so I just used the biggest one I had.

Well, it looks good, isn't it? Well, it tasted good also. BUT I made a mistake when I made crust so the crust was too hard. First of all, for some reason, I used half of graham cracker instead of required amount so it was very liquidly with butter and it wasn't setting when I baked. Then, I realized that the amount of graham cracker is wrong so I added more graham cracker and baked again. When I cooled in the fridge, it came out like a stone. It was so difficult to cut and eat this crust... Well, it is my fault.

Next day, it was little bit easier to cut and this was how it looked.

Well, it was good. But I am not sure if I want to make this again. Maybe I am not a pumpkin pie/tart kind of person after all...

If you like pumpkin pie or tart, this is a great recipe and it tasted good and looks good. Great for Thanksgiving dessert!

Roasted Lemon Chicken

2011-11-01T10:18:00.000-04:00

So, I wrote about Chicken Tortilla Soup the other day. I also told you that one of the reason I made that chicken tortilla soup was because I made roasted lemon chicken the night before and it came out pretty tough and was trying find a way to reuse this tough chicken.

Well, even though it was a failure, I wanted to upload and show it to you guys.

I made this following recipe in a book which I borrowed from a library but I think I might left the chicken in the oven too long.

I bought a whole chicken which was already cut up and made this.

This is before roasting. Got lemon, butter and thyme.

This is how it came out.

It looks pretty good but it was actually pretty tough and blunt. Even my husband said that he doesn't like this at all :-) (Normally, he is very good at complimenting my dish so this one must had been quite bad)

I also made roasted potatoes. This was really good. I added lots of herbs and spices which I have at home.

This is the breast part of the chicken. It is humongous so the plate looks small and the balance is kind of off.

For the side dish, I also made fennel. This is something I learned from my mother-in-law. It is super simple, easy but yummy! I just need to cut some fennel and add lemon and olive oil, salt pepper and microwave it for a few minutets and have a wonderful side dish in a minutes! Before I try this side dish, I didn't like fennel too much and also didn't know how to use it. But now, I love it in this way and I make this all the time. Also, Fennel is suppose to help your digestion! It is a win win dish!

Well, so this was the roasted lemon chicken which was not great but because of this dish, we were able to enjoy wonderful Chicken Tortilla Soup!

Eva Longoria's Chicken Tortilla Soup

2011-10-26T09:35:00.000-04:00

I made something new from Eva Longoria's cookbook which I borrowed from library.
This is the book.

There are many Mexican dishes which I would love to try in this cookbook and Chicken Tortilla Soup was one of them. I still had some of the Tortilla chip topping which I found at the local supermarket the other day so I wanted to use this also.

I had Chicken Tortilla Soup a few times before but I had never made it myself. It has avocado and crunchy Tortilla in it. It is all the things which I love in it.

This is the Chicken Tortilla Soup which I made from Eva Longoria's recipe.

Does't it look great? It tasted great also. Well, after I followed her recipe, I arranged little bit by adding some cumin powder, garlic powder, chili powder, corn and sour cream.

By the way, the chicken I used for this soup was the leftover chicken from the night before. I made roasted lemon chicken which was too hard to eat so I thought about remaking this chicken into something else. This chicken soup was the perfect solution for my chewy chicken.

I will post about that roasted lemon chicken some other time.....

Jamie Oliver's Fruit Scone and my Fiesta Salad and about E-books

2011-10-18T11:30:00.001-04:00

I take my son to a class called Mother Goose once a week at the local library. This is a great program for little kids where they can sing, dance, play with some toys and read books.

I made some friends from this class and the other day, I made scone with one of the friend whom I made there. I love cooking or baking with my friends so it was really nice to do this. I definitely would love to do this again.

Anyway, we made scones from Jamie Oliver's book. This is the book I used.

This is what came out.

It tasted good but I think I mixed them too much. It got hard and was not soft scone which I expected. This is totally my fault because in the book, it specifically said not to mix it too much. The photo in the book looked a lot higher and better. I guess I need more practice on this one.

Maybe I mentioned this before but I heard that people in England use clotted cream when they eat scones. I had this cream at the Plaza hotel when we had afternoon tea and loved it. I have been trying to find one here in NY but no luck. So we had this scone with some jam and whipped cream.

Now, I would like to show you a salad I made.

First of all, I found this strip of tortilla chips at a supermarket.

Ever since I got this, I wanted to make this Mexican inspired salad.

This is what I call "Fiesta Salad"

This has salad leaves, avocado, corn, boiled egg and tortilla toppings. This will be great with cilantro dressing from Trader Joe's but unfortunately, I didn't have it so I just made up some dressing with Dijon mustard. It was really good! I mixed Dijon Mustard, white vinegar, water, Olive oil, salt, pepper, grated garlic and lemon. My husband loved this salad also. If you want to make it heavier dish, you can add some grilled chicken.

I love this tortilla topping! It is colorful and crunchy and taste great!

By the way, do you read books in paper or digital? I read them in paper since I like the feel of paper book. But I was thinking the other day about how easy will it be to get Japanese book for me if I have device such as kindle or ipad.

Since I love reading Japanese books, sometimes I ask my family to send some to me but the shipping is pretty expensive so if I can but digital book from here, it will be much much cheaper.

So I researched some to see if such a thing is possible. To my disappointment, it seems like digital books are not popular at all in Japan. I was so surprised but it is true. Here it is so popular that now even libraries lend out e-books.

I really really hope that it will catch up in Japan also so I can buy some Japanese books from here.

Then, I have to buy Kindle or ipad or some sort. ipad is kind of expensive but it sure looks cool but if Kindle fire is same as ipad technically, I think I would go with Kindle fire. Well, I need to do more research since I am not sure if Kindle Fire can do same things which ipad can.

Well, anyway, I have to wait till Japanese people start reading more e-books. I guess it will take a while. Maybe a few years? Who knows. I hope the day will come very soon :-)

A Birthday Cake for my sister

2011-10-14T16:39:00.000-04:00

When my sister came to visit us from Japan. I asked her to bring a few books for me. Most of them were cooking book and one of them was a book about my favorite writer "Kotaro Isaka".

Anyway, since my sister's birthday was close when she was here, we decided to bake a birthday cake using one of the cookbook which she brought from Japan.

In Japan, strawberry sponge cream cake is very popular and this is one of my favorite cake so we decided to make this. However, I didn't have any tool to decorate the cake, so we went shopping to get some decorating tool. My sister bought them for me. How nice of her!

And this is what we made.

I know. I know. Decoration is not perfect and we need more practice but I think it came out pretty cute. I like the pink cream which we decorate the cake with.

It was quite difficult to decorate cake. The cream would melt quickly so we had to hurry to decorate. We wanted to write something on the cake but by the time we were done with those decorations, we were so tired so we skipped the writing part.

The taste was really good. I think blushing the rum syrup on the sponge cake helped the cake to stay moist.

On this day, my husband's friend from Germany and his fiancee was visiting us so we ate this with everybody. They liked the cake so it was worth the effort :-)

This couple were traveling the world for one year and NY was the last stop of their one year world trip. They were going back to Germany the next day so we felt very honored that they spent their last night of their world tour with us.

They started their trip in September of last year and they have just finished their trip at the end of September this year. Isn't it crazy? I am so impressed how they did it. I don't think I can do it :-)

Also, they got engaged just a few weeks before the end of their trip. The guy planned it all along but the lady had no idea and it seemed like that it was a great surprise. I think they are great couple and if they can spent a year traveling together, they know each other very well by now and they will be able to handle anything to come.

This was a first time I really spent time with the lady but she is very friendly, energetic and very cute. I really liked her and hope to see them again.

Other than birthday cake, I have been cooking a lot for my baby. Here, I made green peas puree. This takes quite a lot of time and effort.

I used a whole bag of frozen organic green peas but this is all it came out at the end.

Oh well, as long as the baby enjoy it, it all worth it.

I am so excited about all the cookbooks which my sister brought for me. I love cook books. I just love reading them. The great thing about Japanese cook books are it always have photos of final product. I love cookbook with photos!

Peruvian Food with my sister

2011-10-13T11:33:00.000-04:00

While my sister was visiting us, we ate many things together but one of them was Peruvian food. I like Peruvian food so I took her to a Peruvian restaurant near by. She never had Peruvian food before but seems like she liked it also.

I think the most famous Peruvian food is roasted chicken. I like their roasted chicken but I also like what they call "Jalea" which is fried seafood with tangy salsa on top.

This is the roasted chicken we ordered.

And this is Jalea.

Shrimp, White fish, Calamari and mussels are fried and tangy onion and tomato salsa is on top. Normally, it is not easy to eat lots of fried food but with this tangy salsa, you can not stop eating it.
If you like fried seafood, I am sure you will like this.

Also, we went to have Buffalo wings on other day. We ordered mild but it was quite spicy. Blue cheese dressing is the best part of these wings! It also came with cornbread. I like cornbread!

We also made strawberry sponge cake since my sister's birthday was near. I will post is next time.

My Sister's Visit (The View Restaurant & Mexican Lasagna)

2011-10-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

In September, my sister came to visit us for a little bit. It was less than a week since she couldn't take longer vacation days but we had a great time and I am so thankful that she spend her time and money to come see us despite long flight from Japan (about 15hours!!! )

I wish she could stay longer but she is working in Japan and as you might heard it somewhere, Japanese people work too much without taking many vacations.

Anyway, it was nice to see her twice this year! She came to visit a few months after my son was born and this time. My son is growing up so fast so it was really really nice that she got to see him and experience his growth at third months and 7th months.

My sister like Ballet so we went to see NYC Ballet "Swan Lake" in Manhattan. It was great. We also had dinner at the View restaurant at Marriott Hotel in Times Square. This restaurant is on top of the hotel and has 360 degree view. The floor slowing rotate and you can enjoy the 360 view while you eat. The food was OK... but I guess you pay the price for the view. It is vert touristic place but it might be a good place if you have out of town visitors.

I also made something for her. I made "Mexican Lasagna" from Eva Longria's cookbook.
This tasted good but I used very watery salsa so it was too moist and bit watery. Next time, I should use thicker salsa but it was very easy and fun dish.

This is the book I used.

By the way, my husband and I start watching "Desparate Housewives" on NetFlix streaming. (I know you are thinking "Why now??" Well, I don't know why but one day we watched the first episode and we are kind of hooked now)

Anyway, it is quite funny show and I like all the different characters in the show. Eva Longoria's character is Gaby and I like this character. She is very funny. But my favorite character is Lynett. I am always amazed that people can come up with all these character and stories. Anyway, we are still at Season 3 and it seems like there are 8 seasons so we have a long way to go. Do you have any favorite character in this show?

Well, there are more stuff which I ate with my sister, I will update them next time! Hope you are having a great week :-)