Fridgg: What's For Dinner?

Weekly Wanderings {week 2}

What’s been up in the world of Allison since my last Weekly Wanderings post?

I got a haircut!

Normally I don’t get particularly excited about haircuts, but this time…

Son cut my hair.

Which just goes to show you I probably belong in the looney bin, because Son had never cut anyone’s hair before. Ever.

This happened totally on a whim – I was going to cut his hair, and spontaneously blurted out, “hey, you want to cut my hair too?” (In my defense, I *really* needed a haircut, and haven’t had the time or gumption to bother with making an appointment to have someone cut my hair.)

And heck, he actually did a pretty darn good job of it! I was worried I might have to wear my hair in a ponytail for a couple of months until it grew out again, but I’m actually really happy with how it turned out.

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You know how yogurt companies like to advertise that their yogurt tastes just like dessert, but they never really do and it’s just disappointment all around? Well, a week ago, my foodie aunt (who is waaay more of a foodie than I am – this lady knows what she’s talking about) introduced me to Noosa yogurt. “It tastes just like panna cotta – you have to try it!”

Now, I’m normally not a huge yogurt fan (see: disappointment, above), but when Auntie Lydia tells me I have to try something delicious, she’s never wrong. On our way home, we stopped by Whole Foods and picked up a raspberry Noosa. … and then went back to Whole Foods a few days later, to try out every other flavor they have.

Their lemon flavor tastes like lemon meringue pie. I didn’t think I’d love their coconut flavor, but Son took one bite and told me, “you’ll love this – it tastes just like those Girl Scout Cookies…” He wasn’t kidding, it tastes just like Samoas and is now my favorite flavor that I’ve tried so far.

If you feel like signing up for their newsletter, they’ll give you a coupon right now. Or, if you’re buying it at Whole Foods (I don’t know where else Noosa is sold), ask about the Noosa coupon in the Whole Foods coupon book when you’re checking out. 😀

(P.S. Noosa doesn’t know who I am, and I have not in any way been compensated for writing about them, I just really really love this yogurt!)

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By the way, store-bought tortillas are buttheads. They fool you by looking all nice and delicious, and then three bites into your taco they fall apart in your hands. Is it just me?

(On that note, I found this recipe for homemade flour tortillas this week, and really want to try it.)

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We visited Son’s family last weekend, and got to go to our favorite tofu soup place.

One of the reasons we love it is because in addition to the normal banchan, they also give you a bowl of edamame, and each person gets a yummy little fried fish to start off with.

I always have to get the bulgogi soon tofu, no spice thankyouverymuch. (I know I’m totally playing into the stereotype of the white girl who can’t handle spicy foods, but I can’t help it – without the spicy sauce they mix in, it tastes very much like miso soup! I can’t resist the comfort food.)

Son loves their octopus bibimbap, which he hasn’t been able to find anywhere else. It’s suuuuper spicy, so I generally don’t partake, but he adores it.

It was crazy windy that day. We came across two different fallen trees, and I had to go running across a parking lot to catch a random runaway shopping cart before it got blown into any cars. (Feel free to laugh at the mental image of me scampering across the Target parking lot, yelling, “come baaack!!!!” at the red plastic shopping cart. 😀 )

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The next day, the storm came to our part of LA.

(Heh. I say “storm”, but it was really just a blustery day with a bit of rain in the afternoon.)

Before it started raining, Son and I headed out to get a quick run in.

I found a hopscotch. Yes, I immediately set aside any semblance of dignity I have, and hopped the hopscotch.

He found a leaf.

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By the next morning, the storm had passed.

It left a pretty sunrise, which almost made up for having to attend a 7am meeting.

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We both had to go to the dentist this week, so we took it as an excellent excuse to head to our favorite Thai restaurant.

Tom yum noodle soup, pumpkin eggplant stir fry, and pad Thai.

And Son being a goofball.

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The best thing about having a good toaster oven? Cookies anytime! No waiting for the oven to preheat – twenty minutes, and I have warm, fresh, gooey chocolate chip cookies.

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It was my dad’s birthday this week! We picked up El Pollo Loco, which he loves, and spent the evening with him and my siblings.

Every year, for his birthday, I make my grandma’s hot milk cake. It’s his favorite.

However, I haven’t ever been able to complete the last step of broiling the top of the cake – the broiler in my apartment right now is missing parts so I can’t use it (plus broilers scare me. Am I the only one?)

But… with my awesome new toaster oven, I can now broil things! And it’s big enough to fit an 8×8 baking dish easily! And it has a glass window, so I can see if it’s about to burn, instead of having to open the broiler drawer every five seconds! This is all very exciting.

So what this means is this year, I made the best hot milk cake I’ve ever made. 😀

And then we played Cards Against Humanity (dad won), snacked on senbei, and stuck mochi ice cream on chopsticks to eat. (This is, obviously, the only right way to eat mochi ice cream. 😉 )

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Links I’ve loved lately:

I recently signed up for the Now I Know newsletter, and I’m loving it! Every day it’s something new, and it has always been interesting so far. A little something I look forward to every morning.

Hello, Matcha Cinnamon Rolls with Black Sesame Cinnamon Filling. If any of you ever decide to randomly show up at my place for breakfast, bring these, please and thank you. 😉

This Chocolate Tart with Blood Oranges makes me swoon.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Pancakes. WHAT.

These Baby Bloomin’ Onions are super cute, and remind me of the time a waiter at Outback Steakhouse sat down in my lap. In front of my grandparents. I didn’t even know him. I was SO EMBARRASSED. They all thought it was hilarious.

I want this no-knead cinnamon raisin english muffin bread for breakfast.

A little disappointed I didn’t know about these homemade cough drops before I got sick a few weeks ago. They sound amazing.

Son loves shumai, so I’m definitely going to have to make this shumai recipe sometime soon.

We don’t have Vietnamese food as much as we’d like, now that Son’s dad has stopped cooking. I didn’t realize how much I missed it, until I saw this Bo Kho (Vietnamese beef stew) recipe. Going to have to fix that soon!

You all can keep your deep dish. This is my kind of pizza.

I really want to try these pandan cupcakes with lychee buttercream. I’m pretty sure Son would love them.

Everyone and their mother has linked to this recipe for peach splits this week. But can we talk about that goma praline? I’ll happily skip everything else and just steal the praline out of all your bowls. 😀

I really want a slice of this pretty brown butter apple tart. The glossiness of the apricot jam! So good.

This Vietnamese caramelized pork belly pasta is SO happening in my kitchen soon. We’re normally not pasta people (I’m convinced Son can’t survive a day without a bowl of rice) but we would be all over this pasta.

I love black sesame pudding, and this version looks like a piece of art!

These Thai peanut sweet potato skins sound SO GOOD! I love sweet potatoes, but never know how to eat them, so this is perfect.

This fried cauliflower with dill yogurt sauce sounds like a super tasty way to get your veggies.

I just discovered the CommitStrip webcomic. This is my life in so many ways. (Heh.)

This chestnut montblanc tart is SO FREAKING PRETTY.

I really want these fried pork dumpling kimchi nachos to magically appear at my Super Bowl party.

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Weekly Wanderings posts may include affiliate links. All opinions are my own. Seriously, I am not kidding how excited I am about that toaster oven. 😀

Friday Fridgg Favorites

{photo credit: The Devil Wears Parsley}

a few of my favorite things on Fridgg this week:

grown-up mac n’ cheese {Dish Diaries}

i’ve always wanted to learn how to make kinako powder {Otaku Food}

sounds like comfort food {Comfy Cuisine}

like a bowl full of jewels {Homemade Hooplah}

who wants to do brunch? {Sweet 2 Eat Baking}

beautiful bread {pochove}

such pretty styling {Selma’s Table}

citrus in the middle of winter is pretty much the best idea ever {Cooking and Beer}

i want this for dinner {Girl Gone Gourmet}

i’ve recently fallen in love with eggplants, so this sounds amazing {Blossom to Stem}

like a cheese plate in a cracker {Calizona}

wraps make dinner fun {Cooking Onions}

on those days when you need a big bowl of comfort food… {Cooking on a Budget}

deep down, i’m always a meat and potatoes kind of girl {Kitchen Sanctuary}

do want {MM’s Kitchen Bites}

yes please {Cooking and Beer}

it’s like the lovechild of omurice and pad thai {adventurefood}

i’ve been in a coconut mood lately {Cooking with Vinyl}

so worth the messy fingers {Jane’s Adventures in Dinner}

if you bring these, you’re totally invited to my Super Bowl party {The Endless Meal}

or these {The Devil Wears Parsley}

since trying it in London, i’ve wanted to make this {Halal Home Cooking}

a good reason to have leftover chicken {Kitchen Sanctuary}

classic meatballs {Mommyhood’s Diary}

i {heart} yuzu kosho {Blossom to Stem}

the prettiest valentine cookies {SugarHero!}

the perfect fried egg photo {My Recipe Book}

will you be my valentine? {Tikkido}

i’m tots intrigued (heh) {Runway Chef}

my Friday Fridgg Favorites are a very small selection of the photos and recipes on Fridgg that I’ve loved in the past week. this is by no means an all-encompassing list of what’s awesome on Fridgg this week. take a look, and find your favorites!

do you have a favorite that I didn’t mention? let me know in the comments!

Butternut Squash with Gochujang and Sesame

The word “resolution” seems so big and intimidating, and I feel like most people who made New Year’s Resolutions have probably already fallen off the boat by now, three weeks into the year.

Personally, I find things stick much better when I make a list of smaller, way more attainable goals. (Am I gonna lose twenty pounds this year? HAH! Not likely. But can I run a 10k? Okay, that’s totally doable.)

(Of course, I’m the kind of dork who puts together a spreadsheet of my goals, and checks them off daily. It works for me, but I understand if most of you aren’t nearly so nerdy.)

This year, I’ve decided I want to become a better cook. As glamorously delicious as my life may seem from my food blogs and Instagram (*snort*), most meals around here consist of roasted veggies, rice, and whatever meat we happen to have on hand. Or cereal. I eat an embarrassing amount of cereal for dinner.

So I made a list of goals for 2015:

1. improve knife skills
2. learn how to use pressure cooker
3. cook something new every week
4. cook a larger variety of flavors and techniques
5. find a go-to chili recipe
6. make proper bolognese lasagna
7. use waffle maker
8. make gumbo
9. learn to cook more spontaneously, whatever’s good
10. make more dumplings
11. make it a habit to clean as I go
12. learn how to brown butter
13. clean out freezer and pantry
14. make ramen from scratch
15. cook soft shell crabs when they’re in season
16. cook a larger variety of seafood
17. cook more limited-availability ingredients when they’re in season (like meyer lemons)

I don’t expect to complete them all (I’ve already failed on #3), but when I’m trying to plan out my week, or at a loss as to what to make for dinner, the list has definitely helped nudge me in one way or another.

This butternut squash recipe, from the January 2015 issue of Bon Appetit, was my first attempt at satisfying goal #4 – make more exotic foods. And a very delicious attempt it was! I’ve already made it three or four times, and I have more butternut squash cut up in the fridge, waiting for the gochujang treatment.

If you’re sensitive to spice, you may want to halve the sauce recipe, as it can be quite spicy. That’s also why I prefer to cube my butternut squash, rather than slicing it as directed by the original recipe – more squash per bite results in a slightly less spicy dish. Regardless, it’s delicious, and I highly recommend it! Would go great with any sort of grilled meats, especially galbi or steak.

Gochujang is a spicy Korean fermented soy bean paste, and can be found at many Asian supermarkets. If you can’t find it near you, this is the Gochujang that I use. (Affiliate link)

By the way… anyone have a good chili recipe? 😀

Butternut Squash with Gochujang and Sesame, from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
• 2 tsp shoyu (soy sauce)
• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
• green onions, thinly sliced
• flaky sea salt

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat to 425°F.
2. Whisk sesame seeds, oil, gochujang, and shoyu in a large bowl until combined. Add butternut squash and toss to coat.
3. Transfer the butternut squash to a rimmed baking sheet, and arrange it in a single layer.
4. Roast for about 25–30 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until tender and browned on some edges.
5. Serve topped with green onions and salt.
6. Enjoy!

Weekly Wanderings {week 1}

{I love reading the weekly roundups of other food bloggers – what they’re doing, reading, eating, etc. – so I decided to start one of my own. Welcome to the first installment of my Weekly Wanderings – let me know what you think!}

Son was feeling a little bit under the weather at the beginning of the year, and as is usual for us, if he’s got a cold then I’m guaranteed to get it a few days later, and about ten times worse. So I started the week off sneezing, sniffling, and sleeping as much as I possibly could. Not exactly the way I wanted to start off the year, but hey, sleep is always a good thing.

Luckily for me, I’ve got an amazing man in my life (I may have mentioned him here a few times before 😉 ) who drove all the way out to our favorite Thai restaurant to get me their Ba Mee Nam with Wonton (aka wonton soup). So perfect for when you’re feeling under the weather.

Pretty much the first half of the week was fueled by Thai food, menthol cough drops (which really do help with bad sinus pressure!), and those wonderful Puffs Plus Lotion tissues (a total nose-saver). And naps. Lots of naps.

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This blueberry muffin recipe is my favorite, and even moreso when my mom sends a fresh batch over when I’m sick.

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For a while, we’ve had a cheap, crappy little toaster oven, that barely fit four slices of bread, burns anything you try to toast, and gets stuck every time you try to open or close it. I’ve been wanting to get rid of it for ages. So imagine how excited I was when Son surprised me with a new toaster oven on Christmas!

So of course, I’m taking as many opportunities to toast (and roast! and broil! and it even came with a pizza pan!) things as possible. Our daily sandwiches – honey wheat bread, garlic cashew spread, walnut pesto, ham, turkey, and bread and butter pickles – suddenly taste like they’re from a five-star restaurant. Good stuff.

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Currently reading: Mastering the Art of French Eating, by Ann Mah

I wish I had read this book before I went to Paris last year! We were so overwhelmed when we went there (plus we only had a couple of days in Paris, so we had barely enough time to catch our breath and eat a few amazing meals before we were off again).

Speaking of Paris, Son and I went to Europe last year! And yes, I’ve been totally remiss in my blogging duties and have hardly shared a single thing about it yet. (Though if you follow me on Instagram, I posted a ton of photos while we were there last year.) But don’t despair! That will definitely be changing soon. There’s so much I want to tell you.

And yes, those are penguins on my pajama pants. 😀

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It’s been a week of extremes – started off quiet and sleeping as much as possible, and ended with me being uncharacteristically social and pigging out for two days.

A colleague was in town on Friday, so we met up with him and his wife in the Sawtelle area of West LA.

When in Sawtelle… Tsujita LA is a must. They now serve their fantastic ramen and tsukemen all day (instead of just at lunch). Both are delicious – Son and I will often get one of each to share.

(This time Son wanted to try the salmon don with his ramen, which was also delicious.)

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The next morning, we found out some of my relatives were in town, so we stopped by my dad’s for a short visit… which turned into a much longer visit when we found out that my aunt, who is an amazing cook, was planning on making dinner. What kind of amazing woman drives all the way down to LA from the Bay Area, and then cooks an amazing dinner of pasta carbonara and crab cakes? My aunt, that’s who.

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We finished off the week with a little peace and quiet (and yelling at the Seahawks/Packers game – what a comeback!)

Have a wonderful week!

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, 2014

It’s that time of year again… time for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

Hosted by Julie from The Little Kitchen and Lindsay from Love & Olive Oil, the cookie swap benefits Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against pediatric cancer. Since 2008, Cookies for Kids’ Cancer has helped to fund four dozen childhood cancer research grants, leading to nine promising new treatments now in clinical trial that are available to children fighting cancer today.

This year is my third year participating in the cookie swap. After making a small donation to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, each participant is sent the names and addresses of three other food bloggers to send cookies to. In return, three other food bloggers send us cookies! Very awesome, all around.

In 2012, I sent out Lemon Crinkles.

In 2013, I sent out three types of cookies – Cookie Butter Cookies, Gooey Stuffed S’mores Cookies, and Sweetened Condensed Milk Cookies.

This year, I was matched with Brett from Green Thumb White Apron, Sara from Sara Ran Away With The Spoon, and Sarah from Sarah Cooks The Books.

Lately I’ve been busy enough that I rarely bake anything during the year – so I decided to go all out, and bake four different types of cookies to send to my matches, since this is my only excuse all year to bake!

The first cookies I knew I had to make were these Date Nut Bars, which my late maternal grandmother used to make when I was a kid. I LOVED these as a kid, and still do as an adult!

Secondly, I’ll take any excuse to make these Gooey Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies from SugarHero! I made them a year ago, but never got around to posting about them, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to make them again.

The third type of cookie I decided to make were these Vanilla Refrigerator Cookies topped with Chocolate Ganache – another family recipe from my grandmother. A family favorite.

And lastly, I wanted to make something that Son would enjoy, so I decided to try these Pistachio Cookies.

In return, I got these amazing Russian Tea Cakes from Julie of Sweet and Spicy Monkey…

… delicious Chocolate Coconut Icebox Cookies from Janelle of F-chem 101 (that Son has hogged all to himself!)…

… and Mexican Wedding Cookies from Kristi of Inspiration Kitchen.

In addition, since my friend Allison Boyer and I were both doing the cookie swap, we decided to send cookies to each other as well! She sent me these tasty Gingerbread Cookies that I have demolished. I love gingerbread!

If you missed this year’s Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, sign up to be notified about next year’s! It’s great fun, for a good cause… and who doesn’t like getting yummy cookies in the mail?