Refreshing Caprese Dinner

It is still quite hot in NY so I still feel like eating something refreshing and cold. I made caprese which is one my my husband's favorite dish.

This is so easy to make and always so tasty and satisfying.

I just cut grape tomatoes into two and also cut mini mozzarella balls as same size as the tomatoes. Then Julienne basil leaves and mix them together with some white balsamic vinegar, regular balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. That's it.

We like eating this with some kind of bread (preferably baguette) and soak the bread with the vinaigrette on the plate. My husband love bread so he was eating lots of bread with this dish.

He was so happy that I made this. I used to make this dish quite often when I was by myself but I kind of forgot about it recently, I will be making this more often from now on. Just to see my husband's happy face :-) This is a perfect dish for summer!

I like using white balsamic vinegar for this dish since it doesn't make the cheese dark. I think you can also mix this with cold pasta!

OK, this is something totally unrelated to cooking but lately in my household we are obsessed with "Prison Break". I am sure that many people know about this show since it had been showing on TV for a while now. I know about this show but I never get to watch it before and the other day I suggested to watch the first episode on DVD just to see how it is. (Well, the main reason I wanted to watch this show was the main actor in it. He is so good looking and I just wanted to watch him :-)

But my husband told me that he was also interested in this show so we decided to watch it. Then, we kind of got hooked.

Needless to say that the main actor (Wentworth Miller) was good looking but the story was pretty interesting and exciting!  And many of the actors in the show are really good. One of them is my husband's favorite Swedish actor (Peter Stormare)

In every episode, they are put in tough corners and I feel frustrated and excited at the same time. We haven't even fished watching season 1 but I am so excited to watch rest of the show.

I was checking the main actor's background on Wikipedia and found out that he graduated from Princeton University. He is good looking and seems like he is also smart. Well, I guess it doesn't matter which university he went in order to be a good actor but I think he is a good actor (at least perfect fit for this role). I am looking forward to seeing him in other roles in the future :-)

Juicy & Super Tender Baby Back Ribs

Lately, I am blaming the heat for not cooking hot food. On the weekend, we had Baby Back Ribs in order to enjoy summer with fresh corn. Normally, I can only find big size ribs so I don't cook ribs too often at home so I try to eat them when we eat out sometimes however like anything else, cooking ribs at home is much economical and it is fresh and taste good.

When I make ribs, I use this recipe which I found at All Recipes while back. I tried it once and fell in love with this method so I use this recipe every time I make ribs at home. Only thing I changed is that I grill the ribs for a few minuets each side at the end to make a nice crust.

Here is the recipe I used from All Recipes. Click here to go to the recipe.

It takes a long time to cook but you just put them in the oven and you don't really have to do anything. The result is tender and juicy meat which fall off the bones. It is well worth the time.

Also, we boiled some fresh corn. These corn was incredibly sweet. We were so suprised how sweet this corn was. And it was only 50 cents each! I have to get more of these corns since I use corn for my salad all the time. It is a huge different from the canned corn.

Since we had been eating cold food a lot lately, it was nice to eat some hot food. My husband loved it also. It is already August so we should enjoy BBQ as much as we can!

I hope you guys try this ribs. I used store bought BBQ sauce so it is super easy but super delicious. I am sure your family or friends would love it if they live ribs. Enjoy!

It is still quite hot and sticky here in NY. I have a feeling that we will be eating cold food again for a while :-)

Gomoku Chirashi Sushi (Yes, it is sushi again!)

I woke up from a dream about Harry Potter being my uncle. I wasn't even thinking about Harry Potter so I wonder why I dreamed about Harry Potter. Anyway, dreams are strange sometimes.

And for dinner, yes, it is sushi again! It is just too hot to cook and I used this gomoku chirashi sushi mix and topped with some stuff.

This sushi is called gomoku chirashi sushi and you just mix rice with sushi vinegar and some cooked vegetables such as routs roots and carrots and stuff. Then top with some fish, egg, vegetables and so on.

Since I had this prepared mix for sushi rice, I just made rice in my rice cooker and add this package. This is a very famous brand in Japan and if you go to a Japanese grocery store, I am pretty sure that you can find them.

Since I didn't have any fish for the topping, I just used avocado, imitation crab, pickled cucumber and dried seaweed (this dried seaweed came with the package)

One funny mistake I made about imitation crab the other day. I was asking my husband to get imitation crab at the supermarket and instead of imitation crab, I said "Will you get some intimidation crab?" My husband was laughing and saying "What kind of crab is that? I am not sure if I want to eat that." I realized my mistake and start laughing. It is great that we can laugh so much from these silly little things :-)

Anyway, for the pickled cucumber, I just sliced cucumber very thinly and add some salt and left it for a while. Then squeeze all the water out of cucumber, then add some rice vinegar and sugar. It is sweet and sour and taste so good!!

I was very pleased how pretty it came out. I think I should be more creative with the topping next time. How about some tomato or edamame? It was easy and very tasty cool dinner :-)