It's summer!

...and that means fresh, light and refreshing food for the hot sticky days to come. Here some easy summer dishes that I've made over the past few weeks. I just wanted to share with you all. Let me know if you're interested in any recipes!

Freshly Baked Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Oxtail Stew

One of my most popular deserts: Tiramisu (and it was super easy to make, but a little on the pricey side!)

More food to come! 

lemon yogurt finally back home cake

after 9 months, I'm finally back in the US of A! Haven't been too good with posting, but I've picked up a fair amount of German recipes, so I will share them with you guys eventually...

anyways, Priscilla and I decided to go with this Lemon Yogurt anything cake because we had so many fresh lemons from our backyard. and we had all the ingredients on hand. ha. The yogurt really made the cake moist and it had a perfect balance between sweet and sour. You can always adjust the lemon glaze to be sweeter as well. This was the perfect cake to have along side tea with my girl friends while updating them with my European adventures and catching up on the local gossip :)

 Already sliced into it, couldn't resist!

Shout out to Care!

Greetings from London!

I had to fly out to London for a week long excursion for my program so I was trying to clean out my fridge. Sometimes it’s rather nice to just have a simple meal. I whipped up roasted potatoes, carrots and white wine braised onion strings from what was left in my pantry. 

The roasted veggies were just coated with olive oil then tossed with salt & peppers and your run-of-the-mill Italian herb seasoning. I wanted to add flavor to the onions so I softened them down with a bit of butter then braised them with about a cup and a half of Reisling. Really, wine makes everything better ;) A sprinkle of parsley finished off the dish. Lately, I've been really into this herb. It’s just so fresh and clean tasting.  

Can't wait to try some legit fish & chips, meat pies and pudding!

<3 jo

Zucchini Lasagna

I always thought that making Lasagna was a long, tedious process, but I made this Zucchini Lasagna last week and it was quite easy. I've been trying to eat more whole wheat products and I went to the Bio store to pick up some pasta and when I saw the Lasagna sheets, I just knew I had to get them!

Ingredients: Whole wheat (ready to bake) Lasagna sheets, Gouda Cheese (100 g), Mozzarella (100 g), one medium Zucchini, and  Bolognese sauce.  I put salt and pepper in the photo because 99% of  recipes calls for it but I actually didn't end up using it.

Prepare your ingredients for assembly. Wash and slice the Zucchini into 1/4 inch slices. Slice the Mozzarella as thinly as you can. Shred the Gouda (Freshly grated cheese please!) Now all you have to do is layer. simple stuff here.

 Spread a thin layer of the meat sauce on the bottom of a 11 x 7 in oven proof casserole dish

. I used the pionner woman's recipe, the homemade sauce really makes a difference and if you have time, definitly try to make a batch. I made a huge pot, it freezes great too, so I did this ahead of time and just pulled a container out of the fridge when I was ready to assemble. 

Second layer: Zucchini! just line them up, if some of them over lap a little, don't worry, they are so thinly sliced. I added Zucchini to the recipe to try to add more veggies to the dish and make it healthier. 

Third layer: Cheese! I put on the Mozzarella first, then sprinkled on the Gouda onto the spaces in between.

Fourth layer: Pastas! If the sheets don't fit properly, just break the into the appropriate size. That's what I did with the sheet on the right.

Repeat until you reach the top. Stopping at the Cheese layer. I managed to get in 3 layers. Don't worry about filling it all the way to the brim, the casserole will shrink down during the cooking process.

Bake at 200°c (400°f)  for 35 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly! 

Slice into squares and enjoy! It held together very well, I didn't even need a spatula.

All in all, I was really happy with how this recipe turned out, especially since it was my first time making Lasagna. I really like the Zucchini in the recipe, it went very well with the meat sauce. If you don't like it, of course you can leave it out or substitute with something else. I think eggplant slices would be delicious as well, sort of like a version of eggplant Parmesan. 

I have to say, however, this Lasagna was on the cheesy side. I used Gouda because that's what I had in the fridge. I love Gouda but it made the dish heavier than I would have like so next time I will probably use a mixture of ricotta and mozzarella, which is more traditional, and Parmesan on the top layer.

- jo

Who Doesn't Love Strawberry Napoleon's?

What exactly are Strawberry Napoleon's? Well they're actually quite simple. Just yummy custard and strawberries sandwiched between flaky delicious puff pastry. Check out the the picture and i'll explain the rest.

So basically, the croissant type looking pastry is simply frozen puff pastry that I bought from the supermarket. I found the recipe on the box and it sounded really easy to make so I decided why not? 

To make the puff pastry:

You start out be preheating your oven to 400 degrees and greasing a baking sheet. Oh, and if your puff pastry is frozen then you have to wait about 30-40 minutes for it to defrost so its easier to unfold and work with. After unfrozen, the pastry is already divided in the three and you unfold and cut along the lines and lay them out on the baking sheet. After preheating the oven, lay the pastry sheets out and just leave them to bake in the oven for around 15 minutes till golden brown. Meanwhile lets get started on our custard filling. 

To make the custard: 

You can make your own vanilla pudding, but I decided to be lazy and just buy the instant vanilla pudding packs that take 5 minutes to make from the market. Just pour the powder from the pudding into a mixing bowl and whisk in 1 cup of milk. Its going to get really thick so just be aware. Then in a separate bowl whip a   cup of heavy whipping cream until it is whipped cream. After making the whipped cream, fold it in with the pudding mixture and make sure its well incorporated.  Refrigerate until needed. 

To bring it all together: 

After baking the puff pastry take it out and leave it to cool. You may use frozen or fresh strawberries to cut up into small slices. I used almost a whole bag of frozen strawberries so you'll need a couple handfuls of strawberries. You also need to create the glaze for the top of the puff pastry. That is simply half a cup of powdered sugar and 1-2 tbsp of milk and just mix them together. Once the puff pastry has cooled, I cut mine in half hamburger style then cut again through the puff pastry like you're cutting a hot dog bun in half...i'm not really sure if thats clear or not,  but it should make sense once  you do it. You should have 4 pieces total from 1 of the 3 original straight out of the oven pieces. Then you want to paint the top of the cut pastries with the powdered sugar mixture. 

To stack:

Start with the bottom piece and spread some of the custard until it coats the pastry evenly. Then go ahead and place sliced strawberries on the custard in an even layer. Top with the top of the pastry. Repeat this process with the other pieces. Drizzle with melted chocolate. :) I...kind of failed with the melting process of my chocolate so I just ended up using chocolate syrup and drizzling that, and it worked fine. 

Enjoy! it is soo yummy! oh and keep refrigerated!

Korean Mochi Bread with Black Seasame

So today I decided to make these delicious little Korean Mochi buns. They have a beautiful crust on the outside and they're soft and chewy on the inside. Mmmm so good!  Last time I made these buns with my mom, we burned them unfortunately and they didn't turn out as well as I thought they would. But I made them today and they turned out beautifully, so I'm glad. They only thing I would change is probably seperating some egg yolk and basting them on top of the buns before baking so they have a nice brown crust on top, but they tasted good either way!





The turnout! You can really see the doughy crevices in the little balls of delciousness! I actually just used a mix bought from  a Korean super market but I would like to learn how to make them from scratch. They were easy to make dough wise. Just add an egg and a small amount of water or milk. My mom usually adds water. I was thinking of just using water because I don't have milk. I did, however have a carton of plain soymilk and decided to try it out, and it turned out fine!

Here you can really see the mochi-like consistency of the bun. It really is a good snack to munch on or good to put out when you have company over!





Chili Lasagna

A simple meal to combine two delicious foods: lasagna and chili. To the joy of my boyfriend who declares that this claims a spot on one of his favorite dishes cooked by me. :)

This picture shows the amazing cheesy layer on top. It is a combination of Monterey Jack and Cheddar, I believe and some sprinkled Feta cheese as well. Oh and I used slices of Mozarella Cheese for the base of the cheese layer.

This is the inside of the lasagna. You can see the chili layers. I simply replaced the tomato sauce with chili sauce. I put corn and olives in the lasagna as well. It turned out better than I expected and it fed a good amount of boys, so I was more than pleased!

A simple salad that I paired with the lasagna. It is a lettuce and spinach mix with sliced carrots, corn, olives, fresh avocado (recently bought from the local farmer market) and some feta cheese. The salad is adorned with a basic olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing with some fresh cracked black pepper on top.