Cold Food recap

…and now since my husband is home from training today on Tuesday, August 2nd, I feel like I have breathing room again. I felt like it all month was a cycle was a triathlon of dealing with my physical health, mental health, and caring for my young child and two dogs all month. Plus I’m still on a probation period at my job so I am determined to perform well.

Dishes served cold (Eat Around the World)

I think I am caught up on posts for the most part. Summertime in my section in LA gets unbearably hot. I try to limit my stove and oven use in the summer when it get really hot. I crave for cold dishes and the leftovers from the fridge and *shocker* not reheat them.

Cheese recap

I usually have a goal in mind of what I would like to make each month. This month I wanted to try to make ricotta cheese, but it’s been so hot this month. I was already looking forward to experimenting with cold dishes which is July’s food theme.

Strawberries around the World (recap)

I decided not to do a deadline. At some point I’d like to do a standing page on previous food themes so I can continue to update and share some recipes around that theme. After my Eggs post recap, I thought to myself, “I don’t want to stop sharing recipes about eggs.” A few days later, I made shakshuka. I have to admit, it was not the best shakshuka recipe but I will continue to find a good shakshuka recipe even if April is long over.

So rather than being bound by deadlines, I’ll continue to share some egg dishes just as I want to share some recipe wins around ice cream and festive dishes. But also I do enjoy recap posts because I get to reflect on the past month through food. Plus I think it is fun to focus and explore on a certain food or theme for a month.

Eat around the World: Eggs (recap)

Now back to the fun foodie post. Did you hear? I experienced a racist incident. I was so steamed I had to write about it.

I have to say, keeping a blog has saved me many, many times. It has helped me deal with difficult and dark moments. Rather than being drowned out by what everybody else thinks, I get write my own narrative and I find that empowering. In blog world, I kick ass.

Anyways, here egg dishes I got to try this month. Most of the egg dishes were chicken eggs. I was hoping to find some eggs bonda or maybe make some this month. I did not even get to make eggs bonda during my week off. I think I may have under estimated the free time I actually had during my week off.

Salads recap

I thought doing a post on salad should be a fun twist on a common New Year’s Resolution, losing weight. Instead of the focus being “to lose weight,” it could be to eat more salad or more vegetables. The challenge was looking for salads that use cold-weather vegetables or grains.

Salads around the world

January’s theme will be Salads. This will be a real challenge for me because when I make salads, I think of fresh vegetables at peak seasons — usually during warmer months. Like these…

Psst…Don’t tell them there are vegetables in this dish!

Happy Weekend Coffee Share! I made some nachos, but here’s the twist: the cheese is plant-based. Breaking down the cheese sauce ingredients it’s potatoes, butternut squash, onions, garlic, nutritional yeast, and other spices.

Apple cake with honey frosting and an oat walnut crumble

Happy Autumn! For the Apple theme for “Eat Around the World“, I made a cake! The occasion was me and my sister’s birthday. Of course it is very like me to make my own cake even if my friends and family have insisted they’ll get me a cake for my birthday.

I got this recipe from Fearless Fresh. My first thought was there’s fruit and oats — is it breakfast? I made a few modifications to this recipe:

Apples around the World

Oh dear…this theme might be a little challenging for this *points to self* home cook. The ingredient for September is apples!

There are so many kinds of apples. In fact 7,500 cultivars of apples. I recalled in my last job, I was naming these types of apples to a coworker (jazz, mountain rose, opal, macoun, winesap, jonathan, jonagold, etc.), he thought it was making it up. When it’s apple season, I try to buy and try as many cultivars as I can (as my grocery budget allows). Apples come in all types of colors (inside and outside), tastes, and texture.

Cold dishes for a hot August (Eat around the World)

As I write this post on the last day of August, the weather finally cooled down. In the beginning of the month, I thought about all the thing I would make with tomatoes like a savory tart, curry, and pasta sauce. But it was way, way, way too hot to make any of those all month long. But it gave me a chance to play with cold dishes. I’ve noticed I’ve been eating less ice cream too. For years every time the weather was so hot, I would end my day with ice cream. I love ice cream, but with a job where I spend most of my day in a desk, I would enjoy this indulgence once in a while. With all these cold dishes I’ve been making, I can reach for something much healthier.

Matcha cake with white chocolate cream (Eat around the World challenge)

I think I wanted to do an Eat Around the World blog challenge because I wanted an excuse to make foods I normally do not make. Take this matcha cake for example — or any cake in general. So far a lot of the foods I shared around the theme of celebration have been foods made by others like this wedding cake or this croissant. As someone who calls herself a home cook, I wanted to show something I made.

This past Sunday was Father’s Day and I wanted to take the opportunity to make a cake to celebrate my husband’s first Father’s Day. I normally don’t bake cake because it looks intimidating, it looks like it is a lot of work in terms of time or resources. But also I feel like if I have to make cake, it needs to be for a lot of people. I don’t think I would make a cake for just me and my husband.

This matcha cake is coated in what was suppose to be white chocolate whipped cream that turned into white chocolate buttercream. I whipped the heavy cream mixture for too long. I should have caught it when it started looking like stiff peaks. Anyways it’s all good. Maybe my mistake is an excuse to try again :-).

The recipe for the matcha sponge is from Delish.com. The whipped cream frosting is from Carve Your Cravings. It’s not as intimidating as I thought. The ingredients for the matcha sponge are ingredients I already had at home — yup, including the matcha powder. Instead of using a round tin, I used a bread loaf tin to bake the sponge. I made the sponge on Saturday night to let it cool into the following day. From there, I sliced the sponge in half and made the frosting. I chose white chocolate whipped cream because I did not have any cream cheese on hand.

Here is the final product:

I saved the cake scraps because I did not want to waste food. Plus I learned there are recipes that use cake scraps; you can make cake pops, cake truffles, mix it into ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, cake in a jar, and a milkshake.

Things I would do differently the next time I make this cake:

• put fresh strawberries or pistachios in the filling or on top
• make them into cupcakes or donuts!
• stopped whipping the cream when it gets to stiff peaks
• cover the cake with whipped cream frosting with touch of maple syrup

“Eat around the World“ is a monthly writing/photography challenge where I invite people to share a dish around a theme, ingredient, or technique. June’s theme is “Wedding Cake…and other Celebratory Treats.” All themes are open to interpretation. Cooking skills are not required to participate.