birthing knowledge

Who taught you everything you know? I admit that I don't know much. If the universe was a box then I know the amount of a dot within that box..if at all. However I do know that almost everything I know is from my mom and my grandmothers. On Sunday we got together to celebrate my mom and the other mothers in our lives by showing love the best way that we know: cooking for them.

A meal for the sweltering heat based on the fresh produce of the season and trying to keep it light. Oh and our insatiable love for cheese. yes we are mildly lactose intolerant.

fresh strawberries and cherries

spinach and strawberry salad with candied walnuts

our favorite brie with crackers appetizer

potato, spinach, and mushroom fritatta

homemade sangria

ratattouille tart

Recipes will come later because these dishes are too simple and delicious not to share! But back to the main event: family

Thanks mommydearest for teaching me about everything from the science of cooking and baking to the reason why we worship such an amazing God. In the midst of our food coma after lunch we talked about what it was like to birth 4 children, and if I didn't appreciate her enough before I most definitely love her now. Happy Mother's Day to the greatest woman in my life.

lots of lovee

cinnamon dreams

I love cinnamon. I love cinnamon sugar. I really love the smell of yeast and fresh baking bread. I really love late night baking. .....I digress.

If you follow me on Instagram then you might have seen that I made breakfast for my Sunday School class this past sunday. This is always a daunting task for two reasons: 1. everyone brings bagels & cream cheese or char siu bao's (chinese pork buns) 2. I like trying new recipes at times like these but I hardly ever get a chance to taste it before serving...scary. Recently I have been seeing a lot of recipes for pull apart and monkey breads, and one of my favorite bloggers, Joy the Baker, inspired me with her Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread. Tell me if you don't drool.

After studying for midterms on Saturday night I stayed up a little longer to make the dough to give it time to rise before baking it the next morning...not the best idea. When I started rolling it out the next morning it didn't seem to yield as much as I would have liked, so what was a girl to do? I was desperate to have enough breakfast for all those hungry collegians! At that moment I looked at my cinnamon sugar mix & lightening struck: cinnamon raisin pancakes!

Genius. I whipped up a batch while the bread finished baking and they were a hit! Consider it a pre-celebration for yesterday's National Pancake Day.

I adjusted the recipe just a little bit to what I had at the time..

Ingredients
{dough}
- 3 c. all purpose flour
- 1/4 c. granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp. (1 envelope) active yeast
- pinch salt
- 3 ounces butter *added extra ounce to make up for lack of buttermilk*
- 1/3 c. milk *used non-fat*
- 1/4 c. water
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla

{filling}
- 1/4 c. sugar *reduced*
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 2 ounces browned butter

Directions
I followed Joy's directions including mixing the yeast with warm water and sugar before adding it in with the dry ingredients. The only difference was the cut in sugar content in the filling, and I also drizzled honey over the top of the bread right before serving to adding a slight "glazing" to moisten the dry crust.

Let me know if you try this recipe and link a picture of your bread so that we can all drool with you :) Midterms are over for me so time to celebrate! Have a blessed rest of the week!

lots of lovee

pear mascarpone muffin talk

Let's talk about muffins. If you follow me on Instagram you previewed my obsession one early morning. I love them. I honestly am not sure how anyone can not love muffins because essentially they are heartier healthier cupcakes, and if you can't appreciate and fall in complete love with the subtle art of baking bread in cup shapes then perhaps you are missing out. i digress. My point is that muffins have the potential to take such a variety of flavors, components, and sizes that my adoration has been solidified. Needless to say, when I came into mascarpone and beautiful pears my heart knew the direction that this combination would take: MUFFINS.

After much scouring I found a recipe for ricotta and pear muffins which sounded amazing, but ricotta is no mascarpone. For those who aren't aware mascarpone is like Italian style cream cheese with a slight sweetness and saltiness flavor. Whereas ricotta is a different variant of cheese that also has a slight sweetness but is used more for lasagna or mixed with other creamier cheeses like mozzarella. After slight tweaking of the recipe, I present :

Pear and Mascarpone Muffins
Ingredients
- 3/4 c. Mascarpone
- 2 large pears
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 c. butter (melted)
- 2/3 c. sugar
- 2 c. all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- brown sugar for sprinkling atop

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Cream together mascarpone and eggs.
3. Peel and cut pears into small cubes. Then add to mascarpone-egg mixture.
4. Add melted butter to pears-mascarpone and combine well. Then add white sugar and mix well.
5. In a separate bowl sift together dry ingredients (flour+baking powder+baking soda+salt)
6. Combine dry ingredients and pear-mascarpone until all dry pockets are gone
 **be sure not to over mix or muffins will turn out hard and not as fluffy**
7. Dole out batter into muffin pan & sprinkle brown sugar atop to create crust.
8. Bake for 15-20 min. or until toothpick comes out clean.
9. Then take out of oven and rest for a few minutes before devouring them with jam :) enjoy!

I am going to try to do a short DIY gift post for those of you that have not had time to go shopping..like myself. Have a beautiful Saturday!

lots of lovee

{recipe} butter me up. jam with me.

I know what I will do with my life notreally : if nursing fails for me I will go into canning & jamming. When did I become such a little house on the praire housewife? The moment when our loquat tree overflowed with ripe fruit and needed to be eaten or used. The moment when I came across this recipe for loquat jam.

In my opinion i think jam is smooth and jelly-like in consistency, whereas a fruit butter is a bit thicker. This is a butter. It is delicious. Strangely it tastes like pumpkin butter. whoknows.

Prep work: De-seed loquats and remove any of the tougher membrane in the center of the fruit. Skin should be left on, or at least some of it! The pectin in the skin will give the jam the buttery texture.

Recipe:
- 4 c. pureed loquats
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. water
*pinch of cinnamon optional*

1. puree the de-seeded loquats until almost smooth. Chunky loquats are fine as long as the majority is smooth in consistency
2. Combine puree and water in a heavy set pot and set on med heat
3. Once it comes to a bubble NOT BOIL, add the sugar.
**keep a close eye on the jam so it doesn't burn**
4. Turn the heat to low and let simmer/bubble until desired consistency.
5. If storing in a jar:
-- pour jam into the jar making sure to leave at least half an inch space at the top.
-- bring 2 c. of water to a boil in a wide pot
-- seal the jars and place them sitting in the boiling water for at least 10 min. This is to rid the chance of botulism and contamination
6. Keep refrigerated & enjoy atop toast :)

Happy jamming!

lot of lovee

{recipe attack} sweet potato cake

Say hello to my little DINO friend! He would like to share his enthusiasm about a recent cake recipe that came his way. While preparing to celebrate a birthday he decided to make a cake for that person. 

Knowing she loves sweet potatoes (고구마/ サツマイモ), he searched far and wide to find a recipe and finally came across this recipe! After converting the measurements from metric, a few adjustments, mashing, and 2 hours later...the birthday cake was finished!

adapted recipe from GreenCilantro:

ingredients...
-2 small sweet potatoes*
-2 eggs
-2 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar
-2/3 c. milk (I used 1/3 2%milk + 1/3 soymilk) 
-1/4 c. flour

directions..
1. Cook sweet potatoes to soften and remove skin while hot.
      -->2 options: steam/roast them & remove skin after perfectly soft OR peel & cube the potatoes then simmer in water until soft then drain
2. Preheat oven to 330 degrees F while sweet potatoes cook.

easiest way to roast/steam them: in foil sitting in your preheating oven. may take half an hour cut in half

3. Mash the hot sweet potatoes. When desired smooth/chunky consistency is reached, add milk and mix well.
4. Then add sugar and eggs to the mashed potatoes&milk. Once incorporated, sieve in flour to the batter.
5. Coat springform pan in butter and flour well.
6. Pour batter into pan and bake for 35-40 min. (depending on thickness of cake) ** Once done remove from oven and let chill in refrigerator or enjoy warm with fresh fruit or whipped cream on top!

 *not the orange type often confused with yams. Can be found at Japanese, Korean, or Chinese markets
** depending on intensity of your oven check on cake every 10 min. after 20 min. has passed with clean knife test.

Let me know if you try this out yourself and make any improvements to it :) Have an awesome Friday everyone!

lots of lovee

chemistry like apple and cinnamon

Honesty time: we all love Utada Hikaru's english album somewhere deep in our hearts. We also love to think that adding fruit to a dessert makes it breakfast worthy...I am one of those people.

This past weekend I had a staff meeting and a sunday school class to make light breakfast/brunch items for and recently I went back through my older recipes and bread pudding caught my heart eye again! Wanting to make it "healthier"/ influx of them in my house, I added apples and raisins to my original recipe and cut the chocolate chips & half the sugar.

Step 1: chop up 2-3 of your fave apples into wedges and again into thirds (*used red delicious but any will work)

Step 2: In a deep pan melt down 1 tbsp. butter & add apples to cook down. After 1-2 minutes sprinkle 2-3 tbsp. sugar (*depending on sweetness of your apples to begin with. red delicious=2 tbsp. granny smiths= 2-3 etc.) Let it cook down for another 5-7 minutes until soft & then let cool.

Step 3: Spray deep baking dish and line with 1 layer of bread on hand. **Using wheat or whole grain bread adds a nice crust and density to the pudding that helps hold it all together**

Step 4: Pour cooked down apples & sprinkle desired amount of raisins. Cover with a scattered layer of bread to create crust on top on bread pudding.

Step 5-7: Follow the recipe with a few "breakfast" changes:
--> 1. Reduce sugar amount to 1/2 c. sugar added to milk &eggs
--> 2. Soy milk is a perfectly good substitute to milk
--> 3. Increased to 4 eggs and 3 c. milk
--> 4. Bake at 350 for at least 35 min. and let cool & set in fridge.

That's all for now :) Perfect for dessert or brunch! Have a fantabulous week!

lots of lovee

{homemade} cheese crackers

Let's be brief: I love cheese. Though not as snooty as that might sound, I love shredded mexican cheese blends as much as the creamiest mushroom brie or fresh parmesan. I just don't have the financial resources to afford nicer cheeses all the time.

Anyways, the point is when I saw smitten kitchen's recipe for essentially homemade cheezits I decided in my life it needed to be tried. The first time I used a regular block of american cheddar and they were okay, but this past attempt I used shredded mexican cheese and whole wheat flour and they were gooood!

ingredients: {yields around 40, depending on thickness)
-8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 16 pieces
-1/4 lb. (~1 c.) grated cheese
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1/8 tsp. white pepper
-pinch cayenne
-1 c. & 2 tbsp. flour*

1. butter+cheese+salt+pepperS go into a food processor. Pulse until small curds form.
2. Add increments of flour to the curds to form larger, moist curds (or until everything is moist).
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it comes together.
4. Form the dough into a disk & wrap it in plastic wrap to chill in the fridge. Chill for 1 hour or at most 3 days. If chilling for longer than 1 hour let it sit at room temp 15 minuted before working with it again.
5. After chill time, while the dough is resting at room temp., preheat the oven to 350 F
6. Roll out the dough disk between plastic wrap until the desired thickness is reached.
7. Use any cookie cutter to create the cracker shapes and place on parchment papered cookie sheet.
8. Bake 14-17 min. or until golden brown. Take out & cool & store in airtight container.
*All purpose flour works but I preferred whole wheat flour to give the cracker a better consistency.


Enjoy your snack! Have a good week!

lots of lovee

Ephesians 3:19

{sending} breakfast love

 clockwise: homemade lemon/lime curd; coconut almond chocolate chip scones;

 greek yogurt w. honey, fresh blueberries, &granola

Trader Joe's greek yogurt with honey, fresh blueberries, & granola

My breakfast for this week has been inspired by my sister in Japan, who would usually be eating these things but can't so I am doing it for her :)

 The greek yogurt and blueberries was completely intentional after making a trip to TJ's. The lime curd & scones on the other hand were spontaneous...stay tuned for a later post on that.

Happy hump day! Have a lovely rest of the week!

lots of lovee

p.s. do you know what this Saturday is?

"Give me all the bacon and eggs that you have" - Ron Swanson

I love Parks&Rec ("P&R...Tommy's Place"). I love Ron Swanson and his love for breakfast foods. Though I wish this was a post about bacon and eggs it is about one of my favorite breakfast foods: scones!

Perfect for tea time. Perfect for jams and jellies. Perfect for baking at 1 in the morning to unwind. Perfect for any time of the day. These particular coconut almond chocolate scones, compliments of one of my favorite baking blogger personalities, Joy the Baker, are absolutely aces.

**One tip that I will share that worked super well for me: buttermilk substitutions! It was always seems like bloggers just have buttermilk on hand at all times, but I don't so these methods are fantastic because I do usually have lemon juice or yogurt !

Have a lovely weekend friends!

lots of lovee

crunch time

I've been on a cooking kick for the past few days. Needless to say I have been so stressed and cooking/baking is my favorite way to unwind. After making a breakfast frittata with potatoes as the base, I was left with a whole lot of leftover taters and the last of my rosemary. Naturally I had to make my own baked chips...it just makes sense.

Don't these potatoes look dreamy

I would have gone heavier on the rosemary and lighter on the sea salt, but for a first attempt I quite liked them :) Just thick and crunchy enough without being super greasy because they were baked instead of fried. Absolutely brilliant.


lots of lovee

r i c e p u d d i n '

A few weeks ago my sister got her wisdom teeth taken out, which meant soft foods for easy chewing. How did this apply to me making rice pudding? Not much. It just sounded like a good excuse to make it, but really we had too much milk at home and I wanted to try making it. Excuse enough for me!

General ingredients included uncooked white rice, whole milk, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. I added a melted chocolate shell on the bottom (that can't be seen) before pouring down the hot rice mixture, but found later that the chocolate wasn't necessary at all.

Have a blessed rest of the week! In a recent quiet time God spoke to me through Ephesians 2:8-10  :)

^"8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

lots of lovee

Rosemary Flatbread..& CheesePartySideDish

Lets pretend for a moment that I am high class & snooty... yeah, that moment couldn't last long with me either. I like to thrift through people's old clothes to create a new wardrobe for myself and I love freebies. The only snooty aspect that I allow myself is the indulgence in great food and even greater cheeses :)

Too bad you can't fully enjoy cheese without an exceptional vehicle...which leads me to 

fresh rosemary flatbread.

After buying fresh rosemary from the farmer's market on Sunday I knew that bread was in order, and what is a better way to hang out with a friend than making bread and eating copious amounts of cheese in her kitchen?

Adapted from smitten kitchen:

ingredients:
1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tbsp. chopped rosemary + 1 sprig for top
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt (*I prefer using flaky salt)
1/2 c. water
1/3 c. olive oil + 2 tbsp. for brushing
flaky sea salt for garnish

This went perfectly with some a nice piece of asiago&fig jam! Here's to the start of another long, cold week... 

lots of lovee

p.s. do i smell fresh baguettes on the horizon?

(creds: smittenkitchen)

apple pie within apple

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been having feelings of withdrawal from these quickly passing seasons which has manifested itself into baking and cooking things that remind me of those changes in weather.  Well I had abnormally large apples in my house + a friend's birthday to bake for + i woke up at 7:30 am for the first time in a month, so this seemed like the perfect time to bust out a taste of fall.

The thought of baking apple pie within the apple itself has intrigued me for months now, so when I found the easiest recipe! I had to try it. I did everything accordingly with the exception of baking time (since I only made 2) and the additional hint of cinnamon atop.

Filling Ingredients: *per apple*

1 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tbsp. all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Dough Crust Ingredients: *enough for 8 apples*

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1tbsp sugar

  ~5 tbsp. butter, cold

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Back to the books I go now...

lots of lovee

(creds: Testado, Provado e Aprovado!)

carrot miso soup with sesame ...holding onto winter

Have you ever felt like a season has come and gone too fast? For the past week California has had lovely spring weather of mid-70's to low 80's, truly excellent weather. However it's not even mid-January yet and I didn't feel very satisfied not having made a comforting soup, so when cold weather turned it's ugly head today and sent the lower 70's to LA (yes, that is cold for me) I took advantage of the time & decided to try out smitten kitchen's  recipe for carrot soup with miso and sesame.

I followed the recipe exactly with the exception that I didn't use the olive oil in the beginning to cook down the onions (onions give off enough liquid that there won't be any burning). I try to avoid using as much oil as possible in soups. *p.s. using chicken broth is an adequate equivalent to the veggie broth* The baby-food look is completely acceptable and once you put a spoon full in your mouth you won't even think about it :)

Enjoy the cold nights!

lots of lovee

look forward to remanents of fall feelings...

s n i c k e r d o o d l e s

Nothing says "celebrate the end of exams" like a fresh batch of cookies...particularly snickerdoodles.

I adapted my recipe from this recipe from Kevin of Closet Cooking:

ingredients:
-1/2 cup butter, softened
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1 1/4 cup flour
-1 tsp. baking powder
- pinch salt
(*outer coating*)
-2 tbsp sugar
-1 tbsp. cinnamon

I followed the directions as he did except for a few things. **Using softened butter was easier for creaming it with my sugar by hand. I also, personally, love cinnamon and that slightly spicy kick that it gives, so with the outer coating I added 1 tbsp instead of 2 tsp as he calls for, and then added a little bit of the mixture into the dough while mixing in the dry ingredients before rolling it in more cinnamon/sugar. Lastly if you are lazy like me or just dont have unsalted butter in the house, no worries! That just means that later in the recipe only add a pinch of salt instead of 1/4 tsp.

Well I am off to take my homemade cheezit-like crackers out of the oven :) coming soon...

lots of lovee

f o r g o t t e n. not

After days (& maybe weeks..) of un-posts, I am back! Midterms for uni are over and I am finally given a little breathing room before finals and applications are due! This excitement can only be described with the above^ picture of the most hilarious little tribal print collar that I saw at the LF warehouse sale a few weeks ago. Exciting purchase from that in a later post....

For now I thought I might share some food that has been rumbling in my tummy & making mess' in my kitchen :) *DISCLAIMER : the following pictures will be in bad quality and not of appealing looking food, but if you try them they are delish!*

It starts with a bowl. Shallow enough for non-soup items, yet deep enough to hold everything.

Next came the presence of salmon spinach pasta! Spaghetti noodles cooked to perfection and the salmon perfectly flaked. *did i not warn you about the picture quality? i did. trust.*

 The next day came the poached egg over thin toast with bacon and furikake! If you are like me and enjoy runny eggs over toast, then you would love this with the addition of a little bacon atop.

Well that is all for now I am off to San Diego today for some tassstty bbq and quality time with cousins. Have a lovely weekend!

lots of lovee