Sick Day

Hit with a virus that knocked me out. Plain Cantonese-style rice congee, served with a preserved duck egg.

Leeks & Papardelle

From Jamie Oliver At Home, braised leeks and pappardelle.

Small Bird

Roast quail with orange shallot sauce. Arugula salad tossed with a light orange vinaigrette.

Drunken Spaghetti

Spaghetti all'ubriaco. I bookmarked this recipe when I first saw it and finally had the occasion (of too much leftover wine) to use it.

September

Sablefish (Black Cod)

The silkiest sablefish, with roasted veggies and pea puree. Drool.

Broccoli Slaw

My version of broccoli slaw with shredded chicken makes an easy lunch to munch on at work.

One Claw Crab

With ginger & Chinese black vinegar dipping sauce.

Making Lemonade

Macarons that cracked during baking.

Papardelle With Peas

Papardelle with English peas, radicchio and some lemon.

Sweet Cinnamon Morning

How awesome is this to have for breakfast? Soft and fluffy cinnamon buns made by my sister with vanilla cream cheese frosting. mmmmMMMM.

First Burger

The first burger of the summer! Summer arrived very late this year. These juicy patties were sandwiched inside mini brioche buns with morbier cheese and red onion jam.

Dumplings

Potstickers, gyozas, whathaveyou. A while ago some friends and I had spent the afternoon making batches of Chinese dumplings and frying them up for dinner. We each went home with freezer bagfuls for a rainy day. This rainy day I pan fried some of the pork and yellow chive dumplings, making sure to get nicely browned, crispy bottoms. For the dipping sauce I like to mix equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar, grated garlic and a dash each of sesame oil and Tabasco sauce.

Sprung!

Although I despise beets in my borscht, I quite enjoy them in a salad. Beets, toasted pecans, mild chevre, radicchio, baby arugula.

Sprang!

Time for some of my favorites to return. Warm mushroom salad and asparagus soup. I added peas to the soup to preserve the color. You can get the recipes here and here.

Hello, Spring!

Finding time to cook or even eat at home has been tough lately. What's great about this one bowl meal is that I can make a big batch for an easy take-to-work lunch the next day. This atypical pasta salad is just tossed together orzo, radicchio, parmesan, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Can't Stop Won't Stop

How can I resist a great eggs & tomato recipe? I can't. Especially when they're as easy and simple as this. You must also know that this is delicious when eaten with a giant piece of sangak bread.

Goodbye, March

Hello, spring.

Poached Salmon

I adapted this recipe for a main course last night. I subbed in morels for truffles and unfortunately skipped out the shrimp and shrimp butter. I used truffle salt and brown butter whenever I could, didn't bother with the cognac, and added a side of linguine liberally tossed in the very delectable sauce. Next time though, I'm definitely going for the shrimp.

Chicken & Purple Potato Salad

Last night I made a big salad with chicken, purple potato and dill. To this I added some gobs of good mayo, extra strong dijon mustard, pepper and a generous dash of cumin. At 12:30 am this morning, I realized I couldn't fall asleep unless I polished off the rest of the bowl. So I did. In bed! And on the seventh day, I rested.

Feelin' Like...

...a juicy sandwich with lightly spiced pork loin, havarti and red onion jam dripping out of a georgian baguette.

Odds and Ends

The last eggs in the carton, the ends of the loaf of rye, and lox trimmings = eggs en cocotte.

Crab Cakes

I love crab cakes and I've made them several times before using various recipes, but none to my satisfaction. Recently I was craving them and used some canned crab meat I picked up at Costco. I improvised adding leeks, mustard, mayo, garlic and worchestershire sauce. Baked, then fried. Liberal drizzle of lemon-paprika aioli with some more on the side. I must admit they're still not the perfect crab cakes of my dreams but they're the closest yet.

Two for Tea

A couple of these bad boys with some milky Assam tea. These crispy-yet-chewy, light-yet-rich, chocolatey cookies were made by my sis from this recipe.

Frenched, Toasted

This is the kind of French toast I grew up with. Quartered slices dipped in a mix of beaten eggs and sugar. No syrup. I love how vividly yellow these are from the orange yolks of free range eggs.

Breakfast of Champions

Awwwwwwww yeaaaah. Two perfectly soft-boiled eggs. Toasted multigrain bread slices rubbed with raw garlic and spread with anchovy butter. Baby, let's round this off with some fruit and a big cup of tea, shall we? And of course there's cream.

January Study

Veggie Pizza

Shiitake mushroom and asparagus pizza on whole wheat dough, with a sprinkling of truffle salt.

Snack Attack

A couple of friends returned from a trip to Tokyo with treasures! Edamame crackers, wasabi biscuits, strawberry milk-chocolate cornflake balls, "tree ring" swiss roll-like cookies, yuzu prawn crackers, tiramisu cookies shaped like mushrooms....and the most bizarre item? Ramune flavored Kit Kat. The chocolate coating is light blue and it smells really strongly of bubble gum. It tastes mildly like 7-up. Not unpleasant, just odd.

Quick Pasta

Prawn linguine with a rose sauce.