Chinese Pineapple Bun or “Bo Lo Bao” (a.k.a. Japanese Melon Pan)

Chinese Pineapple Buns (a.k.a. Japanese Melon Pan)

What do “Melon Pan” (from Japan) and “Pineapple Bun” 菠蘿包 (from China) have in common?  Well, for starters, neither contain any fruit – there is traditionally no melon in Melon Pan, and no pineapple in Pineapple Bun.  Rather, each bun is named for the fruit based on appearance alone – the final baked bun is said [...]

Sweet Taro and Tapioca Dessert Soup

DSC_0710fix

It’s been cold and rainy the past couple of days.  :(  This is the kind of weather where you want to relax on the couch with some hot tea and watch movies all day (Alien vs. Predator anyone?).  I felt like making a warm and comforting dessert… and since I just bought some taro at [...]

Lavender Flower Shortbread Cookies

Lavender Flower Shortbread Cookies

Last week, I made many half-pints of Lavender Flower Jelly… so delicious on hot cream scones or spread over toast!  After making all that jelly, I still have a lot of dried lavender flowers sitting around.  Most of it will get used in the winter months as hot lavender tea… but with so much of [...]

Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut Cream Pie

This is one of my favorite “Cream Pie” recipes – it’s so versatile and adaptable.  Substitute regular milk for the coconut milk, and vary the flavor of the pudding to make some it totally different.  Banana Cream Pie?  Add banana slices, and use either vanilla or banana flavored pudding.  Lemon Cream Pie?  Use lemon pudding, [...]

Lavender Flower Jelly

Lavender Nectar Jelly

Last week, I noticed a strange low buzzing sound in our yard coming from my lavender bushes.  I walked a little bit closer to figure out where the noise was coming from… and realized, each lavender flower had it’s own individual bee!  So many bees… so many flowers!  When I planted these bushes last year, [...]

Kumquat Jam Preserves

Kumquat Jam Preserves

My dad has a kumquat tree in the backyard… this thing has been producing more kumquats than we know what to do with, since I was a kid.  Kumquats have a really unique flavor – the fruit itself is tart and sour like a lemon, but the peel (instead of being bitter like most citrus [...]

Apple Pie Mochi and Pumpkin Pie Mochi

Apple Pie Mochi and Pumpkin Pie Mochi

After figuring out how to make Daifuku Mochi (Sweet Red Bean Mochi) a few weeks ago, I’ve been thinking about all the other types of Mochi that I could now make.  I have some Yomogi (Japanese Mugwort) growing in the garden… and eventually those leaves will end up as Kusa Mochi (one of my most favorite [...]

Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁) (宮保雞丁)

Kung Pao Chicken

Apparently, there are two styles of “Kung Pao Chicken“!  The original Szechuan version was created during the Chinese Qing Dynasty, and normally contains Szechuan Peppercorns.  These “peppercorns” do not come from the Piperaceae family (Pepper)  - they are actually from the Rutaceae plant family (Citrus).  This unique spice gives a tingling/numbing flavor which is typical [...]