I Am... Blueberry, Coconut, Dark Chocolate Cookie Recipe
The first time I made cookies by myself was a disaster. They came out like oddly fluffy, yet dense, hockey pucks. I was 12 and it was for a school bake sale. I didn't even want to bring them to school – they were that bad. Of course my mom made me, but I was too embarrassed to put them on the table with all the other perfect looking baked goods. I didn't want to waste the cookies, but I didn't want to eat them either. So I came up with – to my 12 year old mind – a brilliant idea; I left them on a bench beside the playground right outside the front of my school.
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I Am... Spicy Savory French Toast Recipe
This is part 2 of Tabasco's 10 ingredient challenge – 5 different recipes made from any of these 10 ingredients: Tabasco, tuna, brioche, eggs, mint/basil/cilantro, dark chocolate, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, cider vinegar and maple syrup. Ever since I made crispy salt and pepper french toast I've been on a savory French toast kick. There's just something that makes so much sense about bread and eggs being savory. I always have a hard time deciding between sweet and savory breakfasts, but these days I'm definitely leaning towards savory.
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I Am... Raspberry Strawberry Watermelon Popsicle Recipe
It's Popsicle Week! Billy, over at Wit & Vinegar, came up with Popsicle week as an ingenious way to celebrate summer. When it's hot outside I don't think there's any better way to beat the heat. There are a bunch of bloggers coming up with their takes on frozen treats all this week. I came up with a raspberry strawberry watermelon pop – it almost didn't happen, but I'm sure glad it did.
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I Am... Spicy Tuna Deviled Eggs Recipe
This week I'm partnering up with Tabasco for a 10 ingredient challenge! Essentially, it's 10 ingredients, 5 recipes. I absolutely love creating dishes when I have a limited number of ingredients. It's one of my favourite games: what deliciousness can I make out of what's in the pantry/fridge!? As much as I love grocery shopping, I loathe going out for specific ingredients, so I always pretend I'm in the Iron Chef Kitchen Stadium. Some of my best dishes have been created from using limited ingredients, so I was especially excited when I found out what the ingredient list was.
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I Am... Vietnamese Steak and Vermicelli Bowl Recipe
In the summertime (okay, actually, really, all the time) I am all about the steaks. I think my steak-deprived childhood has turned me into a steak fiend. But really, it's hard not to love steak, especially when there are so many delicious ways to eat it. One particularly delicious way is in bún, a Vietnamese bowl of grilled meat, vermicelli and dipping sauce.
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I Am... Easy Bánh Mì Sandwich Recipe
I think bánh mì, or Vietnamese sandwiches might be my favourite sandwich. Typically, they're made on light, crackly baguettes with fluffy, cloud-like insides – the perfect canvas for rich, savoury meats, sweet and sour pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cilantro and spicy jalapeños. The combination of flavours and textures is something that most people fall in love with, once they're tried them.
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I Am... Lemon Raspberry Cream Scones
I have a thing for scones. I'm not sure if it's because I've always had a thing for British things (as a child, Harry Potter, more recently, Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock) or if it's because they're legitimately delicious. These cream scones, at least, have a definitive answer: they're delicious! Two impartial judges proclaimed their worthiness. It could have been because they were hungry, but they aren't really the scone liking type. Too poncy, they claim.
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I Am... Pea and Avocado Pizza Recipe
Have you ever set off your fire alarm while cooking? More often than not, when I'm making pizza, I'll be rewarded with the high pitched beep of the fire alarm. It's not that the pizza burns or anything is actually smoking, but for some reason, every. single. time. I make pizza, I know I'm going to get a one minute workout while I hop up and down underneath the smoke alarm, waving a kitchen towel like a madwoman.
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I Am... Grilled Corn Recipe
When my mother-in-law was a young girl growing up in Vietnam, she would sell corn from a corn stand much like a hot dog stand. Instead of hot dogs, she’d grill up corn-on-the-cob and instead of ketchup and mustard, folks would slather on as much green onion oil as they wanted. She was well known as the cute girl with the corn stand.
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I Am... Waffled Donut Recipe
Friday is National Donut Day! I am a huge fan of donuts. So much so that the other day, while at the supermarket, I was overcome by a donut craving. I could have gone to a bakery or a donut shop, but it was late and at the time a 12-pack of bad supermarket donuts seemed like a quick fix. Sadly, it wasn't just the thing. I'm sad to say that the donuts were (unsurprisingly) bad. The next day, when I woke up, I saw the offenders on my counter top – 12 glistening donuts, one with a bite taken out of it. It was so bad that after the first bite I put the donut back in the package. Mike saw the damage and asked me just what the heck I was doing. Long story short, he suggested the waffle maker.
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I Am... Lemongrass Mint Lime Spritzer Recipe
I love fizzy drinks, even if it's just sparkling water. I think it's so nice, how when you order a coffee in Europe, they'll always (okay, not always, but usually) serve it alongside some sparkling water. Sparkling water has the added punch of fizzy little bubbles and bubbles are just so cheerful. Even better than sparkling water though, is sparkling water with flavoured homemade syrup. One of my favourites is a super herbal and refreshing mint-lemongrass simple syrup.
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I Am... Grilled Romaine Salad Recipe
I am a huge fan of cooked lettuce. It sounds a little funny, but hear me out. I grew up eating Chinese food and salad just does not exist in traditional Chinese cuisine – lettuce is always cooked. There are no raw vegetable dishes. I'm not sure if this is because most vegetable dishes have a little bit of meat in them or if it's a remnant of the fact that there weren't reliable sources of running water for vegetable washing. Regardless, raw wasn't very common. Now of course, salads are super common place everywhere, but my favourite way of eating lettuce is still when it's slightly cooked.
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