Everyone loves tentacles! …well…probably not. But I certainly enjoy octopus. Recently on a trip to one of the local Asian grocers I picked up a bag of frozen little octopus legs. (it’s way more fun to say frozen tentacles) So I was looking for an excuse to use them and udon seemed the perfect testing ground since I make it often. (or at least I used to before I started the project) Anyway, the results was surprisingly tasty. The tentacles were every bit as chewy and flavorful as fresh ones. Photo and recipe below… (more…)

This recipe is two days in the making. I saw it a while back on The Fresh Loaf and I’ve been itching to make it ever since. I absolutely love sweetened cream cheese. A good cream cheese danish is my weakness and can be used to subvert my will. I’m also a fan of blueberries, so I figured this would be a wonderful recipe to try as I’ve yet to break into the world of pastries. This turned out very well, but it was two days in the making. Photo and recipe (sort of) below… (more…)

Another Japanese dish! I wanted to make a Chinese dish in order to celebrate Chinese New Year but I couldn’t find a dinner guest so I had to go smaller scale. Tonight’s recipe is another one from the highly recommended book 100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking. As many of you already know, Japan has several types of noodles. The biggest and chewiest one they have is the udon noodle, which is my favorite. I took some liberties with the recipe in this one, but I’ll post the original recipe instead of mine because I honestly did way too much “adding this and that to taste” to remember. Photo and recipe below… (more…)

Recently my mother gave me a batch of house warming gifts ranging from tasty sauces and cooking ingredients to table wear. One of the gifts that she included was a bottle of sake. The sake came from Aldi, so my expectations weren’t very high. Ultimately, the sake met my expectations but had an unexpected surprise. Photo and details below… (more…)

Everyone loves egg drop soup! Here’s the Japanese version, called kakitama jiru. This recipe calls for some interesting things that you may not have heard of. Fear not! I’ll help you. I have a few tips and tricks to offer with this one. This recipe came from an excellent bi-lingual book of Japanese recipes called 100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking. Photo and recipe below… (more…)

I love mashing potatoes and I love playing with various things in them. Today’s recipe combines mashed potatoes with the spiciness of green chilies, the slightly tart bite of parmesan, and the smoothness of cream cheese. This is a little spicy, but it’s quite tasty and stands alone without gravy very well. Photo and recipe below… (more…)

Today’s recipe is inspired from a recipe from southernfood.about.com. The original title is Tex-Mex Mac, but I’ve never really liked the term “tex-mex.” Call it a personal prejudice similar to my distaste of the word “chowder” but I just don’t like it. I harbor no distaste for Texas or Mexico, just the mash up of “Tex-Mex.” I also severely dislike the word “blog” but this really isn’t the point of this site now is it? Anyway, I made several substitutions to the recipe which you can see below, as well as a photo… (more…)

Moving on from Bread Lesson One, today’s bread adds ingredients to the simplest recipe to change the texture and flavor of the bread dramatically. This bread adds milk, butter, and sugar to create a very sweet and very soft bread with a nice crispy crust. I can’t wait until it cools off all the way so I can toast it and put some black currant preserves on it. Photo and recipe below… (more…)

Two things I’ve been wanting to make for a while now, bread bowls and clam chowder. I figured this weekend was a good time to do so. I’ve had the recipe for the bread bowls for quite a while, but I just looked up the clam chowder today. I remember the thought of clam chowder always kind of scared me as I’d never had clams before and I have a strange distaste for the word “chowder.” However, once I tasted it in a restaurant in Indianapolis near the airport, I changed my mind about clam chowder. (though I still hate the word) Both the bowls and the soup turned out wonderfully, photo and recipes below… (more…)

Today’s appetizer is my first foray into Korean food. It’s a very simple (but tasty) appetizer as Korean food is known for it’s vast array of little dishes of appetizers complimenting the main dish. This one is very fast and easy and can be used to impress people if they’ve ever accused you of being unadventurous. Compliments of my friend FK. Photo and recipe below… (more…)