Jalapeño Nacho Cheese Sauce Dip

Jalapeno Nacho Cheese Sauce

Here’s my quick and easy Nacho Cheese Sauce dip recipe.  It’s made with simple ingredients that you probably already have at home… butter, flour, milk, and cheese… spiced up with a  jalapeño pepper.  (If you prefer less spicy, you can omit the jalapeño or substitute the  jalapeño with 2 T. diced mild green chiles or your favorite salsa.) [...]

Kalimotxo (Spanish red wine and coke cocktail) a.k.a. “Calimocho”

Kalimotxo (aka "Calimocho")

I don’t often drink regular Coke (Diet Coke is my soda of choice)… but when we do end up with a leftover bottle of regular Coca Cola in the refrigerator… KALIMOTXO time!!!!  What is Kalimotxo (sometimes spelled “Calimocho”)???? Well, it’s a very simple Spanish cocktail made with half Coke and half cheap red wine, served [...]

Taiwanese Watermelon Toast (Asian Watermelon Inspired Bread)

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Earlier this week, I read some articles on the “Watermelon Toast” craze that has hit Taiwan.  Lee Wen-fa (a head baker at Jimmy’s Bakery in Yilan County, Taiwan) created a fantastic watermelon shaped and colored loaf of fluffy Asian style milk bread (shokupan) in order to “encourage young children to eat more during the hot summer [...]

Cold Brewed Iced Coffee

Cold Brewed Iced Coffee

Happy 4th of July!  Now that it’s summer and HOT… I’ve been making a lot of iced coffee.  My favorite way to make iced coffee is using a cold brew method – it’s a bit slower – but flavor-wise, the resulting coffee is rich and sweet.  Part of the reason for the enhanced flavor using [...]

Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Bundt Cakes

Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Bundt Cake

A few years ago, I got a Wilton Mini Bundt Pan.  I really like the size of this pan because you can make smaller mini bundt cakes that can be given away to friends and family (or as gifts)… while still keeping some cake for yourself!  For portion control, these smaller cakes are also great [...]

White Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

White Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This is one of my favorite cupcake recipes… white cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting!  One of the reason that I like this recipe so much, is that it is very customizable.  The white cake is a good base for pretty much any flavor you want to add (vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon extract, pandan [...]

Balsamic Roasted Carrots

Balsamic Roasted Carrots

When I was a kid, there was one way that we were served carrots at home… boiled, with a dollop of margarine.  Soft and mushy, with all the flavor dumped out with the water… these were not the best tasting carrots that I’ve ever had.  At a restaurant several years ago, I had Balsamic Roasted [...]

Coca Cola Chicken

Coca Cola Chicken

Here’s an easy weeknight dinner idea – a one pot recipe for chicken drumsticks or thighs.  For appetizers, this recipe also works well with chicken wings or drumettes.  You could substitute with chicken breast for a leaner meal – but I like using dark meat for the best flavor (and because dark meat doesn’t dry [...]

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia Seed Pudding

Years ago, we had a bunch of native sages growing in our front yard.  Among them, was Salvia columbariae, a.k.a. “Chia Sage”.  Many people don’t realize that the “chia seeds” that have become so popular in health food stores and farmer’s markets (also as Chia pets!)… are actually seeds from a sage plant native to [...]

Slow cooker Kalua Pork (crock pot Kalua Pig)

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If you have ever been to a Hawaiian luau, one of the main attractions is the preparation/serving of “Kālua pig” – a whole pig that is roasted using the “Kālua” method.  Kālua is a traditional cooking method in Hawaiian cuisine that uses a specially prepared underground oven, called an “imu“.  To make an “imu“, a large [...]