Birthday Party

Well, It has been already three months since my son's birthday but I wanted to share what I made for his birthday. He turned 4 this year. I can not believe how time flies. He is such a wonderful boy and I am looking forward seeing him grow up.

Anyways, we invited many of his friends to out place to celebrate his birthday. It was nothing fancy but we had a wonderful time with our friends.

I made bunch of snacks and also lasagna. I forgot to take picture of lasagna but here are the other things I made for the party.

Corn and Bean dip

Buffalo Chicken Dip (This is before baking)

Caesar Salad

Veggie Sticks

Fruit and Cookies

Caprese Salad

For a cake, I decided to make banana pudding this year instead of Strawberry Cake. This Past three years, I made strawberry short cake for his birthday but I know I am not a great baker and it is quite difficult to make a big square cake which is moist and taste good. I remember it was quite hard and dry last year and I didn't want to take a risk this year so I decided to make something which I know it always come out great and always a great hit with everyone.

Banana Pudding (Magnolia Bakery Recipe)

This banana pudding never fails me and everybody loves it!

The birthday party was a success and I am very thankful that my son is a healthy 4 years old. I started this blog more than 4 years ago before I get pregnant with my son. Even though the update of this blog slowed down significantly, this blog helped me a lot and I would love to continue posting whenever I can.

Thank you for your support and I really appreciate my life every single day.

Ellie Krieger's Broiled Buffalo Wings & Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I borrowed another cookbook from the library and made these two dishes from the book I borrowed.

The book is called "Comfort Food Fix" by Ellie Krieger

She used to have a show on Food Network. She always cook something healthy and good for you. I think she is a nutritionist and have a few cook book published. 

I normally don't look at cook books which are focused on healthy food but this one is called Comfort Food Fix and she tried to recreate all the comfort food in a healthier way. I was interested so I borrowed it and I found quite a few things which I wanted to try out. 

One of them was Broiled Buffalo Wings. I love Buffalo chicken flavor but I don't normally make Buffalo wings at home since I don't want to fry them. But this is broiled and you don't have to fry them. I was a bit skeptical but wanted to give it a try. 

First, she ask you to boil the chicken. I liked this idea. Actually, one of my friend did this for BBQ and I really liked the idea of boiling chicken (especially skin on and bone in ) before broiling them. It will take some of the excess fat and also you don't have to worry about the chicken being undercooked inside. 

Anyway, then broil the chicken in broiler until crisp and brown. 

I liked this and my husband also liked this. It is not greasy since it is just broiled and still very tasty. I also made Blue Cheese Dip from the book. I need Blue Cheese Dip when I eat Buffalo Chicken! 

Since I wanted to eat some vegetables also. I made Broccoli Cheddar Soup from the book. 

This was also great. In the recipe, it asked to use low-fat milk but I didn't have low-fat milk at home so I just used regular milk. Also I didn't have enough Cheddar Cheese so I used a lot less Cheddar Cheese than the recipe required but it came out great! 

I pour this Broccoli Cheddar Soup over rice and gave it to my son and he loved it also. I think he eats a lot more Broccoli this way. 

If you are interested in cooking healthier but still want to eat those comfort foods, this is a book to go. I was quite impressed how she made them very tasty yet more healthy. I am planning to try her Sesame Chicken recipe tonight. I will let you guys know how it turned out! 

Cheese Roll & Banana Pudding

For the BBQ on the weekend, I made cheese roll for appetizer and banana pudding for dessert. I believe this cheese rolls are Turkish dish. I used frozen phyllo sheet. I never used phyllo sheet before but it is so thin!

The filling is Feta cheese with some herbs with egg.

Just mix them together.

Roll the filling with phyllo sheet.

I had to be very careful to handle phyllo sheet so I won't break it.

Then, bake in the oven for about 30mins.

I forgot to take picture of baked ones but since it was gone right away, I think it was pretty good! I was very happy that everyone liked it. This is a great appetizer for a party.

For the dessert, I made banana pudding. My husband and I love this banana pudding. This was my second time making this banana pudding. When our friends from South Africa came to visit us, I made this and they loved it. My husband brought some leftover to his office and shared it with his co-workers and they loved it also so I decided to make this for the party.

Layer nilla wafers, banana and special cream and repeat.

This cream has Jell-O vanilla flavor, condensed milk and whipped cream so it is very rich and super tasty!

Everybody loved this one also. I love making this banana pudding because I always get lots of compliments.

This is the recipe I used. Click here for the recipe.

It is easy to make (no baking) and I am sure that everybody will love it! In my opinion, banana pudding taste better on next day. Enjoy!

Asparagus & Mushroom Pasta plus garlic bread recipe

I had some asparagus in the fridge so I decided to use all of these asparagus and made pasta with it. In addition to asparagus, I also added mushrooms, arugula and grape tomatoes. You can eat lots of vegetable with this pasta.

I just sauteed vegetables and combined with cooked spaghetti but here is the recipe.

Asparagus & Mushroom Pasta (for about 3 people)
Ingredients
Asparagus   about 10 (cut into smaller pieces)
Mushroom   1 pack  (sliced them)
Arugula       a handful
grape tomatoes     about 5 (cut into half)
Canadian bacon or ham or regular bacon  4 slices (cut into small pieces)
Garlic     2 clove
Spaghetti    300g
Olive Oil    2 table spoon
Butter        1 table spoon
Heavy Cream    3 table spoon
Parmesan Cheese   as much as you like
Salt & Pepper        as much as you like

1. heat up a pan with olive oil and sauté chopped garlic until fragrant

2. Add asparagus, mushroom and canadian bacon and saute.

3. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a pot until your desired firmness.

4. When asparagus and mushroom get soft, add tomatoes and saute more.

5. When tomatoes start to break down, add arugula and saute until they are soft.

6. Add cooked spaghetti and one ladle full of pasta water and mix well with the vegetables. When everything is mixed well, add heavy cream, butter and salt/pepper.

7. Serve them in a plate with sprinkled parmesan cheese on top.

I also made garlic bread with some baguette. This is easy and always come out great.
Here is the recipe.

Garlic bread
Ingredients
Baguette  (cut into slices)
Olive Oil
Garlic    (cut the tip of it)

1. Turn the broiler on high.

2. Slice baguette and place on the baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle olive oil on top of the sliced baguette.

4. Place the oven sheet under the broiler and broil until it is golden brown.

5. Take it out and rub garlic on the baguette while it is still hot.

And that's it. You have garlicky delicious garlic bread! This is quite garlicky so this recipe is for garlic lovers! Enjoy!

Blue Cheese with Truffle Honey Bruschetta

When I think of Bruschetta, I used to think only tomato and basil. I even thought that bruschetta has to be with tomato and basil. Well, one bruschetta in a Manhattan restaurant changed my concept for bruschetta. This bruschetta had some kind of cheese (sheep or goat or something like that) and truffle honey on top. First of all, I did not know the existence of truffle honey. Second of all, the combination of cheese and truffle honey was divine!

It seemed easy enough to make it at home so I decided to try.

Well, the most difficult part of this dish was trying to find truffle honey. I couldn't find them in any local super market. I see truffle oil everywhere but wasn't able to find truffle honey. By searching on-line, I found that most of the truffle honey come from Italy to the U.S. The first thing it came to my mind was the italian grocery store in Chelsea Market in Manhattan. So I went there the other day to check it out.

And, here it is. Truffle honey!

I was quite impressed with myself thinking about this grocery store. I gave myself a pad on the back :-) This item is not cheap but this is not something you eat everyday and it will last for a while so I think it is OK. (I am trying to convince myself that it is OK to buy this expensive honey :-)

Another problem is the cheese which I don't quite remember exactly what cheese it was. I believe it was something like sheep or goat cheese. However, I decided to try it with blue cheese since I love blue cheese.

It is super easy to make once you have all the ingredients. I just sliced baguette and broiled for a few minutes to toast it. And then added blue cheese and truffle honey on top.

This also reminds me some appetizer which I had at an art show somewhere. It was cream cheese with fig jam. I would like to make that one also. Anyway, I ate this wonderful bruschetta watching super bowl. Somehow, I managed to fall a sleep during the super bowl game but I ate all the bruschetta before I fall a sleep :-)

The best part of this bruschetta is the truffle honey. It might be a bit difficult to find but if you find it, try it! It is really good :-)

Simple Tomato Salsa for Tortilla Chips

Tomorrow is Independence day so many people have a day off today. It is a beginning of three days weekend! I think some people also took a day off yesterday to make it even longer. One of my neighbour also took a day off yesterday so they invited me over for a drink and snacks. 

I brought this simple tomato salsa and tortilla chips. I make this salsa all the time. This is great for a party also. My friend in California taught me this about 10 years ago and I have been making this ever since. It is so simple and so fresh. It is just tomato, cilantro and onion. Maybe some salt. That's it. I can eat a bowl full of this salsa! 

At my neighbor, we had mozzarella cheese and prosciutto which were really good. And also, I had two things I never had before. One was a drink called "Bloody Beer". You mix beer and tomato juice or bloody Mary mix and ice. 

When they told me about this drink, I was not sure about it but when I tried it, I really liked it. I was surprised. They told me that their friend from Texas told them about this drink. This might be my summer drink for this year:-)

Other thing I tried for the first time was what they called "Taralles". I did not take a picture so I don't know how to explain this but it is kind of like Italian pretzel. The one I had was a small bite size ring shaped snack which has consistency of cookie but not sweet. I had plain one and fennel one. They were so good! I could not stop eating this. 

I had a great time and was glad that they introduce me to those new drink and snack! 

So the dinner last night was something also easy to make. I used some leftover chi ken from yesterday and also leftover Ratatouille from the day before and added to some Rigatoni Pasta and sprinkle cheese over. It came out pretty good and I was able to use those leftovers. 

Anyhow, I wish everybody a happy Independence weekend!!!

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