Homemade Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Homemade Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Have you noticed a lot of ice cream labels these days?  Many of them no longer say ‘Ice Cream’… they actually say ‘Frozen Dairy Dessert’!!!  What happened to ‘Ice Cream’ and why are we all eating ‘Frozen Dairy Dessert’ instead?  I suspect it has something to do with the “healthy eating” movement.  People have become [...]

Asian Style Steamed Fish with Ginger and Scallions

Asian Style Steamed Fish

On our recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, we had dinner at the Kamuela Provision Company at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort.  We tried the Ginger Steamed Monchong… OMG it was to die for!  So soft and tender… flavored with a tasty ginger-soy-hot peanut oil sauce.  I vowed that when I got home, [...]

How to make homemade Cannoli shells and filling

Make your own Cannoli at home!

Fresh cannolis are one of my favorite Italian (Sicilian) pastries… crisp flaky pastry on the outside, sweet creamy filling on the inside… yum!  Good cannoli are hard to find, though… not very many places around here sell them fresh, and nothing is worse than taking home a soggy cannoli!  My solution, of course, was to [...]

Japanese Azuki Bean Bread (Sweet Red Bean Milk Bread)

Sweet Red Bean Milk Bread

Last week, I made a huge batch of dough, and with it… I made Cream Pan (custard filled buns) and An Pan (Red Bean buns).  I ended up with about 1/2 can of sweetened red bean paste (a.k.a. “anko“) leftover… and planned to use it to make a sweet bread that was subtly flavored with red bean.  (I’m [...]

Steak au Poivre (How to cook filet mignon steak in a pan)

Filet Mignon au Poivre

A couple days ago, I posted a tutorial on how to butcher a whole beef tenderloin (PiSMO) into filet mignon steaks.  I usually do this about 3 times a year… mainly when we have company over for dinner, and typically for Christmas Eve dinner.  My most favorite method for preparing filet mignon is based on [...]

How to butcher (trim and cut) a whole beef tenderloin (a.k.a. “PiSMO”) into filet mignon steaks

How to butcher a whole beef tenderloin (PSMO) into filet mignon steaks

Several years ago, I learned how to butcher a whole beef tenderloin (a.k.a. “pismo”) from watching my favorite Food Network star, Alton Brown.  His show “Good Eats” was my FAVORITE!  (I recorded so many episodes that I ran out of space on the DVR).   Anyway, one night, I watched the episode of Good Eats [...]

Xigua Niu Nai (Taiwanese Watermelon Milk Juice) and Xigua Zhi (Watermelon Juice)

Watermelon Milk Juice (Xigua Niu Nai)

My favorite summer beverages are fresh Watermelon Milk (Xigua Niu Nai) and fresh Watermelon Juice (Xigua Zhi).  We don’t really live near any Boba tea shops… otherwise I could get Watermelon drink fix pretty easily… so I usually have to make my own during the summer when watermelon is in season. Last year when we [...]

Taiyaki (Japanese fish-shaped pancake with sweet red bean or custard filling)

Taiyaki:  Japanese Fish-Shaped Pancakes with Custard or Sweetened Red Bean Filling

When I was 16 years old, my family took a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.  This was a first for us… most of our family vacations revolved around Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains (about a 2 hour drive from our house in L.A.) – pretty much the farthest we had ever [...]

Homemade Pineapple Jam (and how to water bath can your jam for longer-term storage)

Pineapple Jam made with fresh whole pineapples!

Summertime is when I tend to make a bunch of jam… fruit is fresh, in season, and typically on sale!  A few days ago, my friend brought me 4 pineapples from her grocery run up to the Asian market in Orange County… she had a craving for pineapple jam and was hoping I would be [...]

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodle Cookies

I recently attended a conference at the Hilton Hotel at the convention center in Anaheim.  During one of the breaks, they put out these awesome fresh-baked cookies: chocolate chip, some kind of caramel toffee chip, oatmeal raisin, and the most awesome cookie ever – a giant snickerdoodle!  The snickerdoodle was soft and fluffy, buttery and [...]