Mika’s Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Niu Rou Mian)

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

(Original Post Date:  October 2, 2010) According to my Taiwanese/Chinese husband, there are two versions of this famous beef soup in Taiwan: a slightly sweet mild version, and a really spicy/more savory version.  After trying out a bunch of different recipes for a “David approved” beef noodle soup, I finally perfected the recipe into this [...]

KOwgirl Cookie Mix (Cowgirl Cookie Mix)

cowgirl cookies

(Original Post Date:  September 26, 2010) Today was my good friend’s baby shower.  She’s having a girl, and I thought these cookie mixes for “Cowgirl Cookies” would make a really cute party favors.  Since the mom and dad-to-be have the last name “Ko”, we thought it would be even cuter to re-name them “KOwgirl Cookies.” [...]

Jam Tart Bars

jam tart bars

(Original Post Date:  September 21, 2010) Lately I’ve noticed the supermarket produce section bursting with juicy plums… giving me the sudden desire to make Spiced Black Plum Jam.  After making up a batch of jam with roughly 4 pounds of Black Plums, I realized that I didn’t have enough jars for all the extra jam.  [...]

Austrian Sweet Poppy Seed Rolls: Mohnkranzerl aus Hefeteig

Austrian poppy seed rolls

(Original Post Date:  September 12, 2010) This afternoon, I felt like baking something… something new and interesting.  So I google searched for Austrian recipes, as I had Mohnkuchen (Austrian Poppy Seed Cake) in mind.  Instead, I stumbled across this recipe for Poppy Seed Bread, erroneously under the heading of “German food”.  Although there are similarities, German food [...]

F- Clam Chowder and Lazy Biscuits

clam chowder

(Original Post Date:  September 10, 2010) Just last week I posted about how it seemed that summer was finally here… but it looks like I spoke too soon, because our 1 week of hot summer weather rolled right over into a crisp fall cold spell.  It’s been so cold lately that it makes me want [...]

Fresh Fettuccine with Garden Tomato Vodka Sauce

fresh fettuccine with garden tomato vodka sauce

(Original Post Date:  September 3, 2010) This has probably been the coldest summer I can remember in Southern California.  It looks like summer is finally here though… (now that fall is right around the corner). The weather has been nice and warm for about a week straight, and it looks like most of my tomato [...]

Easy Pina Colada Cake

pina colada cake

(Original Post Date: August 27, 2010) Do you ever feel like being lazy?  Sometimes I feel like eating cake… but I’m just not motivated enough to pull out my super secret cookbook and bake a whole cake from scratch.  During those times, I cheat. Who says you can’t get a good cake out of a [...]

Italian Beef Roulade Steak: Braciole

Braciole

(Original Post Date:  August 24, 2010) Does anyone know what Braciole is?  I’ve never heard of it, nor have I had it before… until I saw it on TV and was curious enough to look it up.  It’s one of those dishes that looks really impressive and complicated, but is actually really easy to make. [...]

Apple Pocket Pies

apple pocket pies

(Original Post Date:  August 17, 2010) I love McDonald’s Apple Pies.  Does anyone remember back in the ’80s when they used to be fried?  I don’t remember exactly when they made the switch from “fried” to “baked”… but I think it was an effort to appear “healthy”, although there is nothing healthy about a McDonald’s [...]

Italian Rainbow Cupcakes

Italian Rainbow Cupcakes

(Original Post Date:  August 13, 2010) Have you ever had an Italian Rainbow Cookie?  I had them for the first time last year… and they are so good!  Three layers of spongy-almond dough (in colors to mimic the Italian flag) with chocolate surrounding all sides… yum! I’ve been on a cupcake kick lately… so I thought, [...]