Every time I visit California, I cook for my family, and I bring something to the holiday potluck that invariably happens. This year was no different.
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party Three
Saturday, June 11, 2016 – Of all the Ingredient Challenges, there was still one I hadn’t made: salmon with kimchi. It was suggested to me by my coworker Eric S. So I had to do one last dinner party to finish up the series.
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party Two
Saturday, May 7, 2016 – I’ve already told you the story of the ingredient challenges, so I won’t go into that again. Today, I had my second dinner party with the dishes from the ingredient challenges.
Today’s menu was
And for dessert, blood orange sorbet. (This wasn’t an ingredient challenge, but it was thematic with the rest of the dinner.)
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party!
Saturday, February 27, 2016 – So when I first started doing ingredient challenges, the rule was that the people who issued the challenges had to eat whatever I cooked for them. (This was to prevent people from choosing the most ridiculous ingredients and make sure they picked things that people would actually eat.) That and, whatever I came up with, I wanted to share with my friends. So naturally, it’s dinner party time!
Today’s menu was
- bacon cheddar garlic mashed potatoes (by request)
- roasted butternut squash and green beans wrapped in chard
- sausage wrapped in bacon wrapped in steak
- chocolate nut rosewater honey cinnamon pastries
December 2015: Cooking In California
It might be more accurate to call this Cooking For California, since the story starts in Seattle, as I try out a few new recipes and practice a few old ones.
Specifically, one of my friends specifically requested deep-fried stuffed jalapeno for our traditional New Years Eve party. (Which she calls “jalapeno poppers”, and I lovingly misinterpreted as “jalapeno popplers“.
Not only that, but it’s tradition for my to cook dinner for my family every time I visit, a tradition that was broken once only because… well, you know… And between my Chef Watson stuff and my Ingredient Challenges, I had a lot of new material I wanted to try on real people. (I ended up going with some Chef Watson winners for my family dinner.)
Taiwanese-Style Beef Noodle Soup
or
Mid-Autumn Festival 2015
The Mid-Autumn Festival happened again, as it does every year. And every year, it’s an excuse for me to cook dinner for my friends. This year, I decided to tackle Beef Noodle Soup. It’s my mom’s quintessential dish, and even my brother has learned how to make it. So of course I too have to learn how to make it.
Not only that, but I decided to combine French cooking techniques to it. Taiwanese flavors, Taiwanese ingredients, made in the style of beef bourguignon (namely simmering on low heat for a few hours).
Cinco de Mayo 2015
Pi Day 2015
(Photo courtesy of Joy)
For those of you who don’t know about Pi Day, March 14 can be written as 3.14, which is pi. Therefore, March 14 is Pi Day. Also, pi sounds like pie, so we celebrate Pi Day by eating pie. But wait, there’s more. This year, Pi Day falls on a Saturday. So I figured, all the stars are aligned, and this year, I’m going to bake a pie and have a pie eating party at my place. Fruit pie or savory pie? Why not both? It’ll be a Double Pie Pi Day, a Pi Day Pie-thon, if you will.
For the apple pie, I started with the crust and filling recipe from Sizzleworks, and eventually, I made enough tweaks to the apple pie filling that I’m willing to call it my own. The chicken pot pie recipe, though, I was inspired by an Emeril recipe from a long time ago, but I re-wrote the recipe from first principles and my own preferences. The only thing it has in common with Emeril’s recipe is they both have shiitake mushrooms.
In the traditional manner, I’ll show you the recipe(s) first, after the cut, then jump into the write-up.
Holiday Family Dinner 2014 (And More!)
Monday, December 29, 2014 – It’s a tradition now. Twice a year, every year, when I visit my family in California, I cook them dinner.
Mid-Autumn Festival Dinner Party 2014
Saturday, September 6, 2014 – So the Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Mooncake Festival, is actually on Monday. But Monday is, for some reason, a terrible day for dinner parties. So I through a dinner party on Saturday instead.