#45: Rudolph and Frosty on a Stick!

and here they are...this year's christmas gifts for the family. unfortunately i deleted the higher quality photos from my camera without uploading them onto my computer...so my iphone 3g photos will have to do (this is a disclaimer for the poor quality of photos). sarah and i made a rudolph, frosty the snowman, and assorted green and red ornaments. although i've made cake pops before, these ones were much easier to make for a few reasons. 1. we used candy melts i purchased from michaels 2. used a thicker frosting for the cake and 3. dipped the lollipop stick in the candy melts before attaching the cake to the top. for rudolph, we used pretzels for the antlers, cinnamon candies for the nose, white sprinkles and a black edible ink for the eyes. for frosty, we used regular size and mini oreos for the hat, black sprinkle eyes, orange tic tac noses, and black edible ink for the mouth.

after we let the cake pops set we wrapped them in lollipop bags, tied a ribbon around the pops and gave them away as bouquets. i look forward to my next batch of cake pops!

#44: Mini Holiday Cupcake Treats!

For our annual Christmas cookie exchange I decided to make some mini iced cupcakes. My inspiration was some lemon blossom cupcakes I made a week ago. I decided to go with some seasonal flavors. I decided on egg nog, vanilla bean, and peppermint chocolate. The spiked egg nog cupcake has some rum flavoring. I really like the small cakes with the icing - it is reminiscent of donut holes. the pan i used had designs of stars, hearts, flowers, bundt shapes, and more. the designs added a nice touch, but the pan was a nightmare to clean! all in all i did enjoy these tasty little treats and was excited to give them away as gifts this year. Merry Christmas Eve!




Below is a nice picture that my co-worker bryan took of my little package.

#43: Mini Buche de Noels

you might recall last christmas i made a full size buche de noel. i planned a cookie exchange at work this year and started brainstorming ideas of what kind of baked goods i could make. i decided to make mini yule logs - though i'll admit i was a little nervous they would end up looking like ho ho's. i made the meringue mushrooms on the first night and let them dry out. i then made the cake and chocolate cream the next night. i hadn't realized the first time around, but my buche de noel is gluten free! it's kind of bewildering how the cake has no flour in it - but it's true! it's mostly just eggs and sugar. after i rolled up the log, i added a little stump and then frosted the outside of the log. i then took a fork and made some grains along the log. with more time, i would have loved to add some more color (like red and green holly). maybe next time.

#42: Happy Thanksgiving Pumpkin Tartlets

At work we celebrate Thanksgiving with a big potluck filled with turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, and of course dessert! One of my favorite savory dishes this year was a crispy bacon wrapped water chestnut...very unique and tasty. But I must say...anything covered with bacon is generally pretty good. Anyways, last Thanksgiving I made sweet potato cupcakes. Here's a picture as a reminder:


This year, I decided to use the frozen pie dough I had left over from summer's strawberry pie. Of course, for Thanksgiving it seemed most appropriate to make pumpkin pie. I prefer small desserts, so I decided to make pumpkin pie tartlets. I had never made a pumpkin pie before...but it is seriously the easiest pie to make (that is, if you already have pie crust dough prepared). I used canned pumpkin because I've heard making pumpkin puree from scratch is definitely not worth it. I used this recipe here for the pie filling. As for the cook time for the tartlets, I decided to just watch them through the oven window and estimate cook time. I also added a leaf garnish to the top (just leaf-shaped pie dough). I let the tartlets cook for about 10 minutes until the filling was stable enough for me to place the leaf on top. I then let the tartlets finish cooking for about 15 more minutes.

Lastly, I made a batch of vanilla bean whipped cream to serve with the tartlets. It was basically just whipped cream infused with vanilla beans and sugar. I think this was a perfect creamy supplement to the tartlets.

Happy Thanksgiving! Eat up :)

#41: Chewy Chocolate Toffee Cookies

i was looking around for a tasty sweet dessert to gift for my friend's birthday. after browsing around smitten kitchen's website, i stumbled upon this recipe: Chocolate Toffee Cookies. I love the combination of toffee and chocolate. It's actually reminiscent of those See's candy milk chocolate toffee bars that people used to sell for fundraisers in school. Anyways, I decided to try this recipe out. I was pretty amazed with how much chocolate the recipe calls for (1 lb). I realized quickly it's mostly chocolate with a bit of flour to keep the cookie intact. The recipe yielded a pretty large batch of cookies so I was able to share with many people. Lots of people said it was like a brownie cookies, which I would agree with. The cookie also has toffee bits and walnuts which add a nice bite. So for all you chocaholics out there...this one's for you.

#40: An Excuse to Eat Cupcakes for Breakfast

As I was brainstorming ideas of a sweet treat to make for my friend's birthday, I remembered that she loves bacon. I know it's trendy these days to use bacon in desserts so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to try something out. I decided to make Maple French Toast & Bacon cupcakes. I used the cupcake recipe from here and the frosting recipe from here. The french toast flavors really come through from the nutmeg and cinnamon paired alongside a sweet maple buttercream frosting. I used bacon as a garnish on top of the cupcake. The bacon added a nice smoky, savory contrast to the sweet cupcake. The beauty is that you can eat these cupcakes for dessert OR breakfast...and not even feel guilty about it! ;)

#39: Snow Cones for Adults

After a hot weather week, I was trying to choose a dessert to make for a dinner party. I've seen tv chefs make granitas on food network and I've always been curious about them. i found this recipe online from smitten kitchen and it looked easy enough to replicate. i bought some organic lemons and mint leaves from the grocery store and gathered some sugar from home. i juiced the lemons and scraped out the insides to make a little lemon cup to be frozen later. i then used our super high tech JJ blenders to blend the lemon juice and mint leaves. after letting the lemon mixture set and infuse with the mint, i added some sugar and water and poured everything into a glass pan. i put the pan into the freezer and after an hour, i used a fork and scraped the mixture across the pan to form little ice crystals. i then repeated the process 2 more times until the ice crystals were snow cone-like. to make the presentation a little more fun, i scooped the granita into the frozen lemon cups to serve. this is a great dessert for a nice hot day...though as luck would have it, the night was cold. if i were to revisit this recipe, i would probably cut down on the mint so the flavor is more subtle on the mint, and stronger on the lemon. perhaps raspberry lemon granitas next time?

#38: Would you like a biscotti with that?

i decided to make biscottis for a colleagues birthday to go along with a coffee plant i bought from trader joe's. after browsing through allrecipes.com, i landed on a this recipe. the photo looked tasty and the idea of a brownie biscotti sounded delicious. i'm not a huge biscotti fan but i was hoping for a sweet, chocolately biscuit cookie to pair along with the "coffee". for my first time making biscotti, i was pleasantly surprised at the simpleness of the recipe. combine all dough ingredients and then form 2 rectangular loaves on a baking sheet and throw into the oven. after the loaves bake, let them cool and then slice into small biscottis. place the sliced biscottis onto the baking sheet again flat side down, and cook in the oven until they harden. i decided to garnish with semi-sweet and white chocolate drizzling. the extra chocolate drizzle made this a more indulgent treat. surprisingly, it was firm but not teeth-breaking hard like most biscottis. i don't drink coffee so i can't say if this biscotti goes well with coffee...but it's good enough on its own so that's good enough for me.

#37: Bread for Monkeys (Monkey Bread)

my dad sent me a link to a monkey bread recipe on a blog and it looked absolutely scrumptious. i decided that if i woke up early enough in the morning, then i would try to take the 4 required hours to make this monkey bread. low and behold i woke up at 7:30...perfect timing for making monkey bread (before I had to be somewhere by 11). i didn't have yeast at home so i decided to run over to safeway (yes, literally run) to buy some - this delayed my start time a bit. i assembled the dough and let it rest so the yeast could do its work. after 1 hour of wait time, i cut the dough into 64 pieces and rolled them into balls. i then dipped each ball into melted butter and rolled in a cinnamon/brown sugar mixture. i layered the balls into a bundt pan and then let the 'cake' rest for another hour to rise. after the balls expanded, i put the pan into the oven for about 30 minutes. after cooling for about 5 minutes, i used a whisk to dress the cake with icing.

you might be thinking, what the heck does monkey bread mean anyways?? well, according to wikipedia, the origin of 'monkey bread' is uncertain. the name could be from 1. resembling a monkey puzzle tree (? not sure what this is) or 2. people picking from it is reminiscent of monkey behavior.

after bringing some monkey bread to my friends this morning - i'd say the latter might be the more appropriate reason behind the name. i was very happy with how the bread turned out. it reminded me of little donut holes (but baked, not fried). some people thought it was similar to cinnabons. whatever it's like...it's absolutely delicious and i will definitely keep this recipe in my collection.

#36: Fresh From the Vine Strawberry Pie

now that berry season is upon us, i decided to plan a berry picking trip with fchang. with 'berries' and 'organic' being the two main criteria for the location, there were only so many places to choose from that were in a 1-2 hour radius. after finding out that the palo alto farm that i was planning to go to had closed early due to a july 4th weekend rush, i chose Swanton Berry Farm, an organic strawberry farm in Davenport (near Santa Cruz). this was my first time picking fruit at a farm, so i was quite excited. strawberries were everywhere! i considered everything i could do with my fresh picked strawberries as i walked up and down the rows, tasting the juicy, plump, red berries. (yes, of course i had to taste them!).

after picking about 4-5 lbs worth of strawberries for myself (@ $2.50/lb), i loaded them up in a cooler to transport home. i snacked on the strawberries when i got home, but ultimately decided that the fate of the majority of the berries would be to be baked in my first attempt ever at a homemade pie. we made the crust (with shortening and butter) and then popped the dough balls in the fridge. 3 days later i took the dough out and rolled out the bottom crust. I then took about 3 cups of strawberries and tossed them in a sugar, cinnamon, flour mixture and poured it into the bottom crust. i then rolled out the top crust and cut strips to create the lattice top. i baked the pie for about 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven. i was very happy with this pie and i look forward to making another fruit pie some time soon with leftover dough i have in the freezer (or perhaps a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving). there's almost nothing better than a fresh fruit pie, warm from the oven...made from seasonal hand picked organic strawberries.

#35: Navy Blue and Yellow

i was asked to make cupcakes for a bridal shower last weekend and i wanted to use the wedding theme colors: navy blue and yellow. after brainstorming, i considered both lemon and banana as my 'yellow', but ultimately decided on lemon. i tested out the cupcakes the weekend before to decide on the final concept. i chose a lemon mini cupcake (from Martha Stewart cupcake book) and vanilla buttercream frosting. i decided to make some candied lemon slices as garnish, and then added on some fresh blueberries. figured lemon and blueberry would be a nice combination of flavors while simultaneously fulfilling the navy/yellow theme. funny thing...my test batch was much more dense...and i realized when i made the final cupcakes that my test batch lacked baking powder! i did enjoy the denser version, but i think people also appreciated the lighter, fluffier version. now i know the effect of adding or removing baking powder!

#34: The Magic Factor

i made these cupcakes for k.lu's birthday. i caught an episode of barefoot contessa and watched her make these chocolate ganache cupcakes. the episode title was "the magic factor", in which she tested a single recipe out, one with the magic ingredient and one without. she had a few people taste test and choose which one they preferred...and in each case the group chose the item that included the magic ingredient. the cupcake recipe had great reviews so i was eager to try out the recipe. the cake is very easy to make...just throw the ingredients into a mixer and then pop into the oven. the topping was a chocolate ganache - not quite a frosting, not quite icing. it was ooey and gooey on top of the cupcake. now, what was the magic ingredient you might ask? coffee. apparently the coffee brings out the chocolate flavor so it is richer and stronger to the taste buds. i managed to find a small sample packet of starbucks via - the perfect amount i needed for the cupcakes. not much coffee, only about 1.5 teaspoons for the cake/ganache. when i tasted the cupcakes i was surprised because i was a little distracted by the coffee flavor. perhaps it's because i don't drink coffee so i am more sensitive to the flavor. after the taste test, i decided to refer to the cupcakes as more of a mocha flavor rather than purely chocolate. good recipe, but i think the coffee was a bit overpowering...but maybe that's just me.

#33: Cupcake on a Stick

another birthday (for c. wong this time), so alas another baked good. i started looking through my cupcake book and web sources and nothing was inspiring me. somehow i thought of the cupcake lollipop idea and decided to search for a recipe in how to construct it. after seeing this helpful blog i started right away. the blog post made it seem fairly straight forward, but as it turns out it's quite tricky to make cupcake lollipops. i started with making a Magnolia Bakery vanilla cake in a square pan. after the cake cooled, i chopped it up and ground the pieces in a food processor. meanwhile, i made a Magnolia Bakery vanilla buttercream frosting. i then mixed the frosting into the crumbled cake and then formed into cake balls. after freezing the balls, i melted some semi sweet chocolate in a double boiler and then coated the balls in the chocolate and stuck a lollipop stick on the bottom (from Richards in Alamo) and then chilled in the refrigerator. after the lollipops were completely cooled and the chocolate was solid i packaged them in small cellophane treat bags and tied a yellow ribbon on them (both also from Richards).

i was happy with how the lollipops turned out (tasty and rich), but they look nothing like the blog post i was using. i think i'll definitely keep these in mind for the future and hopefully next time i can decorate them with more color and sprinkles.

#32: Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes

i made some peppermint chocolate cupcakes for m.lyons birthday yesterday, adopted from my Martha Stewart cupcake book. first step: i started making the mint chocolate leaf (the garnish on top). the leaves were surprisingly very easy to make and almost fail proof! i bought some organic mint leaves from Trader Joe's and then washed and dried some of the smaller leaves. i then melted some semi sweet chocolate and then "painted" one side of the leaf with chocolate using a spoon. i then rested the leaves on a wooden skewer on top of parchment paper, and then let them chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. after the leaves were cool, i peeled the mint leaf off and then the leaf imprint was leftover on the chocolate. kind of like fossils! i then placed the chocolate back into the fridge to prevent them from softening. second step: i then made the cake with cocoa powder and some of the extra melted semi sweet chocolate. i also added peppermint extract into the batter. third step: lastly, i made the buttercream frosting and used peppermint extract as a substitute for the vanilla. to decorate, i piped the peppermint frosting onto the cupcakes, drizzled some melted some more semi sweet chocolate, and then placed a chocolate mint leaf on top. ta da! here is the finished product.

#31: A Springy Dinner

a couple weeks ago i planned to make dinner for my parents and decided to opt for making a light spring dinner. i had some leftover carnitas in the freezer that i slow cooked a couple weeks before, so i tried to think about what i could do with the meat. i decided to make paninis (with our very cool panini press). I spread a cranberry chutney (wich craft jar - tom collichio) on the bread and added carnitas, caramelized onions, and pepper jack cheese to get the melted ooey gooeyness. For the bread, I bought a multigrain bread from Trader Joe's. I also bought some small red/golden/purple potatoes and roasted them in the oven with salt, pepper, and dried rosemary (not as good as fresh rosemary but still tasty). The potatoes took about an hour total to cut, boil, dress, and roast. Then to finish off the plate I tossed some salad greens with a housemade balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing (with salt/pepper). The meal took me about an hour to prepare and serve...better multi-tasking and timing than i expected. I'll definitely try this out in different variations again for a nice spring/summery meal.

#30: For All You Mothers Out There

for mother's day breakfast this year i made beignets dusted with powdered sugar, with a strawberry compote. in case you don't know what beignets are, they are fried donuts. cafe du monde is probably the most famous place to get fresh beignets - in new orleans. i should also admit that i made the beignets from a boxed mix. i made the strawberry compote from fresh strawberries with sugar and some water. the beignets were a nice little sweet breakfast treat for mommy.

#29: Not Just For the Gluten Free

for f.chang's birthday this year, i decided to bake a cake. since he's opting for the gluten-free diet, i searched for some potential gluten-free cake recipes. i've been checking out a lot of recipes on allrecipes.com, and landed on this one, a Flourless Chocolate Cake - highly rated and a good number of reviews with modification suggestions. i preferred baking a cake that lacked flour completely, rather than substituting with brown rice flour or something like that.

The cake called for chocolate, sugar, water, pinch of salt, butter and eggs - pretty simple. i bought an 18oz bar of dark chocolate from Trader Joe's for the occasion. The cake was dense, rich, and delicious! it was reminiscent of fudge. for garnish i added some powdered sugar and sectioned an orange to make a flower for the top. the cake was enough to share with at least 15 people. great recipe and a big hit!

#28: Churritos!

my friends and i planned for a taco party today and this morning i spontaneously decided that i wanted to make some churros. i tried a food network recipe in the magazine about a year ago - but did not have much luck with it. the churros were more like old fashioned doughnuts thick and doughy - not crispy and light. i browsed around allrecipes.com and found a highly rated recipe. i read through the reviews and decided to modify the recipe a bit based on people's feedback. the recipe itself is quite easy, but you have to be good at multi-tasking. after making the dough (sugar, water, salt, oil, and flour), i put the dough into a piping bag with a wide flower tip. i heated up the pan of oil and then started piping the dough into the hot oil. after waiting for the churros to turn golden brown, i set them on a paper towel and then later coated with cinnamon sugar mixture by shaking them in a paper lunch bag. i'm calling them churritos because they were much smaller than the average churro (or at least the ones i've had from disneyland or costco). i made mine about 4 inches long.

overall i thought this recipe was great. you just have to be prepared to work quickly. i doubled the recipe because the reviews said one recipe would only be enough for 2-3 people. 1 recipe probably makes 20 churros...so if that's only enough for 2-3 people, they must be eating quite a few. however, the deep fried goodness is so delicious, that it might actually be believable. great recipe, and i have officially bookmarked it for future use!

oh, and for your viewing pleasure, here is a peek at our taco party spread (including korean bbq tacos, carne asada tacos, ground turkey tacos, homemade guac, mexican rice, dulce de leche cookies, and all the fixings!) thanks k.lu for hosting us!

#27: Lemon Curd on Cupcakes

i was asked to make some cupcakes for a brunch last weekend so i flipped through my Martha Stewart cupcake book to see what caught my eye. Lemon always seems like a good choice, especially in the spring (even though supposedly they are a winter fruit - seems counter-intuitive, i know), and it's always nice to use some of the lemons from the tree in the backyard. I chose a lemon curd cupcake recipe. I made the lemon curd the night before to chill over night. Lemon curd seems intimidating to make, but it was actually pretty easy and turned out well. The next morning I made the cupcakes; they were more dense than your typical cupcake. I think this was due to adding cream cheese into the cupcake batter (which I have never done before). I topped the cupcakes with powdered sugar and then piped the lemon curd on top. The cupcake resembles an egg (with yolk and white), which seemed kind of fitting for a brunch. However, the decadent and rich cupcake was definitely a dessert.

#26: Croquemb-what?

I met up with a couple of my girlfriends, C.Lee and K.Wong, for a baking day. After brainstorming potential recipes, we decided to try out the Martha Stewart Croquembouche. I've seen croquembouches in pictures and on television - but i've never attempted one myself. If you've never seen one before, click on the link - it's basically a giant Christmas tree tower of cream puffs. We started off making the caramel cream (to be filled inside the puffs). After one failed attempt, the second time we managed to get a tasty caramel mixture. We then made the puffs and piped them onto a parchment-lined pan and popped them in the oven. After waiting 25 minutes, there was no "puff" to the puffs. We figured that maybe they would puff up after we filled with the cream. We took some whipping cream and whipped it until stiff peaks formed. We then took the caramel cream from earlier and folded it into the whipped cream. Unfortunately, the mixture kind of fell apart and became liquidy - not quite fluffy. After experimenting and trying to make the cream more stiff, we decided to try filling the puffs. This picture was the result. The puffs did not puff up enough so it was very difficult to fill. We even started making cream puff sandwiches (like oreos!). Needless to say, we didn't manage to assemble our tree. This recipe was quite hard, even though it felt like we followed the recipe.

Although the cream puffs didn't really work out, the puff and the cream both tasted good. If you ever try out this recipe, and it doesn't turn out...try freezing them...that's what we did!

#25: It Don't Matter if You're (Black & White)

i decided to make some black & white cupcakes in celebration of my manager's upcoming wedding. i've been wanting to make b&w cupcakes for awhile now (since being reminded of the creamy delectable treat from sprinkles). i figured this would be the right occasion to try it out. i photocopied some cupcake recipes from a Magnolia Bakery cookbook I borrowed from a colleague awhile back. i've tried the vanilla cupcake recipe from the book before, and i was quite pleased, so i decided to try out the chocolate cupcake recipe. i also used the vanilla buttercream frosting recipe from the same cookbook...amazingly delicious! to decorate the cupcake i melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips and scooped it into a home-made parchment paper cornet. i played around with a few designs, and decided on this one.

i overcooked the cupcake slightly because i neglected to reduce the time due to the smaller cupcake size. (these were mini cupcakes). the frosting definitely compensated for the dryness of the cake, so together, it was perfect.

#24: Daan Tat (Egg Tart)

it's been awhile since my last post, so i figured i better come up with something to make ASAP. i'm not sure how i came up with egg tart...but i researched some recipes and chose one from allrecipes.com. since i didn't have the traditional egg tart foil cups, i used a mini muffin tin. i started with the crust first. i used the 1 cup measuring cup to cut circles of dough to put in the muffin tin. after all the cups were filled, i made the custard - very easy - and then popped the tarts in the oven. luckily i read some of the comments to the recipe because i found out that the baking instructions on the recipe were no good. the recipe said to bake at 450 for 20 minutes (too hot for too long). instead, i baked the tarts at 425 for 10 minutes, then 295 for 7 minutes. a couple of the tarts browned a little too much, but the rest turned out golden brown.

i'm glad i decided to make mini tarts. they are nice and bite size, perfect to pop in your mouth.

#23: When given lemons, make...Lemon Cupcakes!

i was feeling inspired to bake some cupcakes before heading to a brunch to meet up with some college friends. this ambition actually caused me to be late to my brunch...but at least i had some yummy cupcakes in hand. these are lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used fresh lemons from the lemon tree in my backyard. the first batch of frosting was actually a swiss meringue strawberry frosting that went incredibly wrong (too chunky). i was pretty embarrassed of the frosting so i made another batch of vanilla buttercream (an easy, and reliable recipe to execute).

i tried out the kitchen aid mixer for the first time which was a lot of fun. also, i had better luck with the silicon cupcake molds after using some non-stick baking spray. i have been trying to push myself to try new frosting recipes - but i seem to always mess them up and waste a lot of butter/sugar. next time i'll need to pay closer attention to the recipes. at least i can always count on buttercream frosting...easy to make...and tasty to eat.

#22: Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is a great holiday excuse to bake! I looked for inspiration from my Martha Stewart cupcake book, and then blended a few recipes together to come up with these Valentine's Day cupcakes. Vanilla cupcake (Magnolia bakery recipe), with strawberry frosting (adaptation from Ms. Stewart), and a truffle brownie on top (from my own personal collection of recipes). I used frozen strawberries - pureed, and added to a buttercream frosting. The consistency of the frosting turned out kind of strange with the addition of the strawberries...I'll need to work on that. However, the cupcakes came out nice and moist, and the truffle brownies always seem to taste great. Overall, tasty cupcake.

I also tried out my new cupcake stand for display :)

#21: Chocolate Wrapped Bacon

bacon? chocolate? chocolate wrapped bacon...bacon wrapped chocolate.

i was chatting with a few co-workers during lunch and somehow bacon came up in conversation...which led to chocolate covered bacon. i had never actually tried it before, but i'd heard about it. apparently you can buy them in those chocolate novelty shops but i've never managed to track them down. i decided i would try making some chocolate covered bacon at home. i grabbed some microwavable bacon from the fridge (not ideal - but hey, it was convenient). after the bacon cooled, i melted some chocolate chips in the microwave and then dipped the bacon into the ooey gooey chocolate. after the chocolate cooled a bit, i managed to melt some white chocolate (with a bit of buttermilk to make it smoother) and attempted to drizzle it on top of the bacon. threw it in the refrigerator to cool overnight.

i tried the bacon the next day, and it wasn't quite what i expected. i think next time i'll try using a higher quality, thicker cut of bacon. but...definitely worth trying once in your life...and easy to make!

#20: Just Lunch

thought i'd share a little bit of my lunch with you. i bring my lunch to work the majority of the week, and usually manage to find extra leftovers in the fridge. on the off chance that there's nothing extra to bring with me, i'll sometimes bring the sandwich ingredients and then assemble during lunch (with the intent of the sandwich tasting as fresh as it can possibly taste). this open faced sandwich turned out quite tasty. 1/2 of a ciabatta roll, melted pepper jack cheese, grilled chicken breast strips (packaged from TJs), mixed greens, topped with a fried egg.

i do have to say...this particular sandwich was quite tricky to eat. Although the bread was heated and toasted, it was very hard to cut through. i guess that's what happens when you eat an open faced sandwich.

#19: Sunday Brunch

Sunday brunch with some of the girls. MChiu, KLu, and I met up for a sunday breakfast...which soon became a brunch (since we didn't really get around to eating until 10:30am probably). For the first time ever, I made Belgian waffle batter from scratch using an Allrecipes.com recipe. The recipe called for self rising flour (instead of yeast), so I let the batter rest for 40 minutes after making it. I also brought some chocolate chips to throw into the batter before starting up the waffle iron. KLu got the ingredients to make a delicious berry compote...basically add sugar and simmer to caramelize the sugars and bind with the fruit. We resorted to frozen berries since the fresh ones were on the more expensive side and not very seasonally relevant. MChiu did made-to-order egg scrambles with: egg, mushroom, pepper, onion, tomato, and cheese. the waffles and eggs made a sweet and savory combination. The meal was delicious! and hopefully the start of a new tradition.

#18: Two-Bite Potato Skins and Brussle Sprouts 'n Bacon on a Stick

While browsing the aisle of TJs with FChang, I picked up a bag of blue, gold, red potatoes, brussel sprouts, and bacon. The idea was to make mini bite-sized potato skins and brussel sprouts with bacon. Everything just seems to taste better with bacon, right? We carved out the inside of the potato (ended up making potato pancakes with the insides) and coated with an olive oil, cayenne mixture, and popped them in the oven to crisp up. Added cheese, bacon, and green onion and baked in the oven for a few more minutes. The potato skins turned out pretty much how i expected...but the brussel sprouts and bacon morphed conceptually. we cooked the bacon and saved the bacon fat to cook the brussel sprouts. after realizing it might be difficult to eat brussel sprouts off of a plate during a casual party - we decided to use toothpicks for ease of eating. bacon and brussel sprouts is a tasty combination and perfect party food on a toothpick!