Pound cake with almond powder

I like making pound cake because it is easy and it reminds of my mom. I use the recipe which my mom gave me. Click here for my mom's pound cake recipe. 

This time, I made a little change though. Instead of 200g of flour, I used 100g of flour and 100g of almond powder. I was not sure how it will come out but I have seen people using almond powder for baking cakes so I gave it a try.

The result was pretty good. I think it is little bit more moist than just flour. I think I should have added little bit of lemon juice. Maybe next time. This pound cake is perfect with some tea or coffee. Having this pound cake and some hot drinks brings me right back to my childhood. I appreciate my mom making homemade snack instead of store bought chips or cookies.

Three kind of mushroom risotto recipe

I love mushrooms and ever time when I go to a Japanese grocery store, I purchase different kinds of mushroom.

This time I bought Maitake,

shimeji,

and Shiitake mushrooms.

I would like to enjoy the mushroom flavor so I thought about what will be the best dish to have intense mushroom flavor. My favorite mushroom dishes are pasta & risotto. Last time when I bought different kinds of mushrooms, I made pasta so this time I decided to make risotto.

Three Kinds of Mushroom Risotto (2~3 serving)
Ingredients
Shiitake mushroom  4~5
Maitake Mushroom  1 pack
Shimeji Mushroom   1 pack
Garlic   3 cloves
Onion   1
Arborio rice    1 cup
Homemade Chicken stock  4~5 cups
Parmesan Cheese     3/4 cup
Soy Sauce   1 table spoon
Butter        3 table spoon
Olive Oil    3 table spoon
Red Chili flakes   1 tea spoon
White wine    1/2 cup + 2 table spoons
Salt & Peppers  for taste
Chives       2 table spoons
Truffle oil   (optional)

1. Cut mushrooms in to bite sizes. Chop onion and garlic.

2. Heat up  Chicken stock on stove and keep it warm .

3. In a frying pan, heat 2 table spoon of butter and 1 table spoon of olive oil. Add garlic and saute little bit, add mushroom and saute until soft. Then add salt, pepper, soy sauce, red chili flakes. When it is cooked, add 2 table spoons of white wine and let it evaporate. Turn the heat off.

4. In a pot, add 2 table spoon of olive oil. Add onion and saute till soft.

5. When the onion is soft, add rice and coat them with oil until the rice looks transparent. Then, add 1/2 cup of white wine and let it evaporate.

6. Add 1 ladleful of chicken stock and mix well until rice absorb the liquid. When rice absorb the liquid, add more chicken stock. One ladle at a time. repeat the process until rice is soft.

7. Add half of the sautéed mushroom, Parmesan cheese and 1 table spoon of butter and mix.

8. Serve on a plate. Sprinkle with chopped chives. If you would like you can also sprinkle Truffle oil.

This risotto is like a mushroom lover's dream. I like my risotto on a liquidly side but you can make it thicker if you would like. Once you learn how to make risotto, it is quite easy to make and you can make it with different kinds of ingredients if you like but for me, mushroom risotto is the best risotto.

Dried Cranberry & Walnut Chicken Salad Sandwich recipe

Using the roasted chicken from Costco, I made yet another dish! The roasted chicken is pretty big for two people, I have to make something else using this chicken so we don't get tired of eating roasted chicken everyday.

Since I had homemade bread on hand, I made this chicken salad with dried cranberry and walnuts.

A few years ago, My husband, I and one of our good friend have visited a small town in up north where Norman Rockwell has lived. I don't remember the name of the town but it was very small and cute town.

I am sure that you have heard of Norman Rockwell. He is a famous artist who drew good old America such as these. I love his pieces. It always makes me smile.












Anyway, in this small town we had lunch in a small cute restaurant. One of the dish we ordered was Turkey Sandwich and it came with some cranberry sauce in it. It was so good!

When I think about Chicken Sandwich, I think about that particular turkey sandwich and I wanted to try to recreate this with my chicken salad sandwich.

The town was very cute but most of the things I remember is food, of course. I can not forget the Turkey sandwich and flourless chocolate cake I had at this restaurant. (Too bad I don't remember the name of the restaurant) Everything we ate there were really good! As always, my memory is surrounded by food I ate.

I just remembered that I had nose bleeding after I had lunch here. I almost never have nose bleeding. Maybe the food was so good that I got too excited and had nose bleeding. I don't know. It is funny that I forgot about this :-)

Anyway, back to chicken salad sandwich. I add some stuff to make it little bit different from the chicken salad I normally see. Here is the recipe.

Dried Cranberry & Walnut Chicken Salad Sandwich

Ingredients
Cooked Chicken  300g (shredded)
Celery           3 ribs (chopped)
Scallion        2   (Chopped)
Dried Cranberry    a Handful
Walnuts                 a Handful
Mayonnaise           2 table spoon
Honey mustard     1 table spoon
Salt & Pepper       for taste
Paprika                 1 tea spoon

1. Add all the ingredients above in the bowl.

2. Mix it well.

3. Sandwich with your favorite kind of bread and serve.

Sweet cranberry and crunchy walnuts with crispy celery makes this chicken sandwich extraordinary. You can bring this for lunch also. Put the chicken salad in a container and bring the bread separately. This way the bread won't be soggy when you eat. This is another easy recipe but it is great when you have extra roasted chicken left over.

After I moved to the U.S., I encountered lots of new dishes. I love living here because there are people from different country and I can appreciate different culture and food. I was not used to eating something savory with sweet but now I love the combination such as Turkey with cranberry sauce or Swedish meatball with lingonberry sauce. (Though, I still don't like pineapple pizza....)

Anyway, if you are tired of same chicken salad sandwich, try this one. It is something sweet and savory at the same time and it create a great harmony in your mouth!