Spicy Saté Squid

I had this spicy sate dish in Singapore. Impressed with how tasty it was, I set out (with the help of my sister) to duplicate it. Beware that this is very spicy, so I suggest eating it with rice.



Here is what I came up with.



Recipe under the cut.

Russian Tea Cookies

Okay, so this is not a particularly exciting post. I made these Russian Tea Cookies from Smitten Kitchen precisely as she stated. So no real posting required... except I took some photos for you!

My mom wanted to bake with me, and I guess so did Gandalf!



It's been so long, do you guys remember Gandalf?


The hardest part was powdering them with sugar. Serious. Lots of hard work in that.

Chicken & Shrimp Lo Mein

When my friend, Iva's, mom came to visit her, I was invited back for dinner! Yay! So her mom made a seafood lo-mein, and she got all her ingredients from Whole Foods, so there's no need for an exotic trip to the asian grocery store. Her mom's was way better than mine, but I've only attempted this dish a couple of times. Her dish was a little saucy, and she used corn starch (a staple in a Chinese kitchen), which I don't have with me in Pittsburgh and I was too lazy (and cheap) to buy some.

Eggs, Bacon & Cheese Toast

Sorry for the lack of updates, peeps! Both The Chopping Block and I had finals (and she had work too)! We've been cooking, I swear!

So the Chopping Block had sent me a recipe via instant messenger a long time ago, and I don't think I saved it anywhere, so I can't send you to a reference link! Epps! Well, anyways, the recipe sounded interesting. Eggs. Bacon. Cheese. Dijon Mustard. Worcheshire sauce. How can I resist? Well, it's a misadventure people! Perhaps it's me and not the recipe, but the flavors just didn't mesh well, and I had integrated the cheese into the egg mixture, and so it took forever for the cheese to melt, thus overcooking the eggs to a dry mess and the toast to... a very hard cracker. :(

Smitten Kitchen Monkey Cake

This is not exactly a food post, but I have pictures of a cake, so it sorta count.

My friend's, Michael, little nephew is recently diagnosed with leukemia. I met the little guy 2 years ago and he was the coolest kid. He plays the violin and sings and generally is a very happy little guy. I was so sad when I hear the news and didn't really know what to do for him. So I baked him this cake.

Homefries

This morning I made myself a delicious omelette with a side of home fries and three strips of extra thick bacon. I always need a side of homefries with my Sunday morning brunch, but lots of brunch places have bland and boring homefries, and then I'm left disappointed. One of the very few good things about moving to Pittsburgh is Pamela's. Besides having good (and very different) hotcakes, they also have tasty potatoes (menu item lyonnaise potatoes). Definitely a must-try if you are in the area. So my creation this morning was a mix between Pamela's lyonnaise potatoes and a bacon baked potato. Nothing can go wrong with such a beautiful combination!

Ricotta with Spinach and Sausage Stuffed Pasta Shells

Another recipe taken from Simply Recipes. I might was well make a rule that I would only make food from Simply Recipes.

I first know of this dish from eating in the UCSF Mt. Zion hospital cafeteria. It was actually pretty good because they make a new entree dish every day so I get to try new things everyday. Their ricotta stuffed pasta shell dish used really really large pasta shells. The shells were the size of my palm!

Fish Taco With Mango Salsa

Whenever the weather gets cold, I make Mexican food. What? Oh well, fish tacos it is! Recipe was taken from SimplyRecipes

I always feel like tacos are such a rip off when you buy it. Two or three small tacos for $5 or $6? No, thank you! Even I, a 105 lbs female, feel like two tacos aren't much of a snack. Let me tell you that when I made these tacos to feed three people, it only cost me less than $10 and there wasn't much "cooking" to do, just a lot of chopping.

Tofu, Mushrooms, and Bamboo

I went over to Iva's while her mom was visiting, and her mom made a similar dish for us (among other tasty dishes). So this is my take on her tofu dish. I was snoopy enough to ask her what she put in it.

Pumpkin Scone with Ginger Honey Glaze

We were having a pumpkin streak where we made pumpkin everything. Watch out for another pumpkin post in a little bit. So since I am poor, I subscribe to Poor Girl Gourmet and found this pumpkin scone recipe that sounded delicious! But let me tell you, it's not cheap.... unless you have everything. But who keeps candied ginger in their cupboard? Anyways, these were really good, especially the ginger honey glaze. It seriously taste like sweeten condensed milk. So awesome!