chef julie yoon - life is delicious

Very rarely do I post a recipe here that isn’t original, or slightly tweaked with a little spunky spin. But in this case, these jam bars were so easy to make that I wanted to post the original recipe as is. I was thumbing through my Food Network Magazine (my favorite magazine besides Us Weekly), and was immediately drawn to a recipe for jam shortbread bars. Why you ask?

A while ago, my friends and I had a cookie making party at my place and I had a big jar of raspberry jam in my fridge leftover from making linzer cookies. I love those cookies, because of the simple jam and short bread combo, but they kinda take a lot of time to make… with the rolling out of the dough, and using cookie cutters. The good news is that these jam bars taste just like linzer cookies, but don’t take long to make, and require no special equipment. Sold yet? [...]

keep reading »

The hubster and I drove up to the wine country to meet up with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew over Memorial Day weekend. Then we all took a mini trip to Lake Tahoe together. Lake Tahoe is where California and Nevada meet, and most people go there during the Wintertime to go skiing. We opted to visit it in the Spring to hang out in the hot tub, drink pina colatas, and chillax. It was a great decision. [...]

keep reading »

On our facebook fan page, I mentioned (with some frustration) that I have been diligently working on re-branding ideas for this website for the last couple weeks. I know our site is called chefjulieyoon.com so if you’re a first-time reader, you probably expect to see nothing but recipes on here, but in actuality, cooking is only one part of me. I mean it’s a huge, passionate, border-line obsessive part of me… like it’s the reason I paid a butt-load of money (which I’m STILL paying off) to go to culinary school, but…wait there’s more!

What you may not know is that I’m really into DIY, drawing, and decorating. But that shouldn’t shock you too much. I mean, before I went down the cooking path, I was a fashion designer. And we currently have a baby/kid’s line that’s based around illustrated food. So I guess the artistic side and the need to create stuff all stems from the same brain.

It started with some inexpensive generic wooden stools I purchased at Target. [...]

keep reading »

This post is all about helping you save some time. Don’t you just love cooking something once and using it in twice? Like making a roast chicken for dinner and then using the leftover meat to make chicken quesadillas the next day. If you can, why not? Spending a little less time worrying about meal-planning is always a good thing, and it’s kind of like eating leftovers without feeling like you are.

Well today is all about sausage and kale two ways:

on a pizza…

and in a pasta [...]

keep reading »

Bleh. This week, I was testing a couple recipes and they turned into flops. Whenever this happens, I can literally hear a sad Charlie Brown trumpet in my head playing, “wah~wah…” You just feel discouraged, like you wasted your time, ingredients, and energy. It leaves me feeling so unaccomplished. It totally affects my mood. I was for reals Debbie Downer and Negative Nancy.

The only thing that got me through my bad week was avocado toast in the morning.

If you’re not already eating avocados for breakfast, you’re missing out sista. Avocados are buttery, so eating them this way makes you feel like you’re biting into buttered toast, or a bagel with cream cheese, except a more heart-healthy and pretty version. Here’s my non-recipe. [...]

keep reading »

I’ve never harvested my own seafood and eaten it right on the beach before… well, until we went away on a short trip with our friends, Jane and Sam. They got married, and moved to Seattle. But ever since they got there, they became really out doors-y and “granola.” Oh… you know…the type that shops at REI, hikes on vacations, and goes camping on the weekends… aka healthy and active.

So thanks to them, we ate organic yogurts, walked on trails, hung out in a cabin, ran around on a farm, and gathered our lunch straight from the ocean… all in one weekend. After Joe and I returned to California, we wanted to sleep for days. And of course, I had to capture our shenanigans in a video. [...]

keep reading »