Thai Larb

The key to Thai Larb is the ground toasted rice, providing the flavor and texture that makes this refreshing and fulfilling ground meat salad. I used to order Larb when I went out for Thai food, until I learned that it’s so easy to make at home. It’s great for a main dish served as…

Crispy Yangnyeom Chickpeas with Caramelized Honey

Cookbook Club – Holiday Year in Review 2023 For our last Cookbook Club of 2023, we did a Holiday Year in Review event where you could choose a recipe from any of the cookbooks we used in the past year. For the full 2023 retrospective, check out my Cookbook Club site. For now – my…

Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash

Acorn squash is one of my favorite kinds of squash because it looks and tastes great and is pretty easy to prepare – you don’t even have to peel the skin. Already delicious when simply roasted, it’s even better when stuffed with yummy goodies. This Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash presents so beautifully it gets wows when…

Kids Menu Katsudon

Katsudon is one of my favorite Japanese dishes – rice topped with deep-fried pork cutlet, egg, and onion simmered in a savory sweet sauce. It’s super simple to make, except for the deep-fried pork cutlet. One weeknight I was super craving katsudon, but had neither the ingredients nor the energy to deep-fry a pork cutlet….

Spicy Spanish-Style Rice

Cookbook Club – Cinco de Mayo In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we did a Mexican themed Cookbook Club in May. We sourced recipes from three places – Joy of Cooking (2019 Edition), America’s Test Kitchen, and Chef John’s Food Wishes. Feast your eyes on the whole fiesta on my Cookbook Club site. For now…

Warm Cabbage Salad

We tried a new restaurant for my birthday, and the best thing we had was a Warm Cabbage Salad which consisted of a roasted napa cabbage steak topped with green goddess dressing, parmesan, and crispy anchovies. I have been thinking about that salad ever since, so finally decided to try re-creating it at home. My…

Fish in Black Bean Sauce

Fish in Black Bean Sauce is a common dish in Chinese restaurants, but it’s actually pretty easy to make at home! The black bean and garlic sauce is what makes this dish, and it works with a variety of different kinds of fish. Guessipe Toss the fish in 1 TBSP corn starch and set aside….

Mushroom-Scallion Soup

Cookbook Club – Joy of Cooking (2019 Edition) We have used Joy of Cooking for a Cookbook Club event before, but this time we focused specifically on the 2019 edition, which has hundreds of new recipes and modifications to some of the old ones. To get our tiny taste of what this extensive cookbook has…

Banchan – Tteokbokki

Another of my successful new banchan was this Tteokbokki (stir-fried Korean rice cakes). I’ve made Tteokbokki several times before, but never been really satisfied with the Guessipe until I hit on this one. Typically Tteokbokki is made with the cylindrical rice cakes, but I prefer the way the sliced ones get crispy edges. Guessipe 1/4…

Banchan – Danmuji Muchim

I made Korean food for a dinner party, and tried a couple new banchan which were really successful. Danmuji is yellow pickled radish – I buy it at the Asian market and usually just slice it up and serve it as-is. But this time I decided to season it, making Danmuji Muchim. Turns out I…

Peach Basil Meatballs

I had some leftover meatballs from when I made Meatball Cheese Crisps, and I had some end-of-season peaches that were ok but not the peak of sweetness we experienced a few weeks ago. Plus my basil plant has been doing really well lately. So I decided a savory dish might be a good use for…

Build Your Own Bowl

These “Build Your Own Bowl” restaurants have been popping up all over the place. We have an Asian-themed one near our local movie theater which we would occasionally patronize after seeing a movie… that is, until I decided it would be easy enough to re-create my favorite sauce flavors and build my own bowl at…