This week I was literally cutting and gluing handmade cards for my mom and mother-in-law, like a little kid. This year, we didn’t have much of a budget to spend on them, so instead of buying them generic cards and picking out another kitchen tool to send them for Mother’s Day, I decided to bust out my inner child and go nuts with the arts and crafts instead. We ended up sending them each one of our kitchen art prints along with my handmade card. It’s a shame they don’t live close by, because if they did, I would’ve made them pancakes.

Pancakes actually remind me of my mom. On certain mornings when she had more time before work, she would wake up early and make us pancakes…the Bisquick kind, but that was fine by me. I still felt the love.

When you want to make pancakes for your loved ones (or yourself), but there’s no Bisquick in sight, you can easily whip up the batter from scratch, as long as your pantry is supplied with a few basic baking ingredients. The key to making pancakes is that you have to not overcook them. It’s just like baking a cake. If a cake is baked right, it’s moist and tender. If it’s baked for too long, it’s dry.

Now eating pancakes with just maple syrup is great. But if you want to make things a little more special, try topping them with maple syrup AND balsamic strawberries! [...]

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I don’t have much of a sweet tooth because even in the mornings, rather than cereal, pancakes, or a muffin, I’d rather eat something savory, like eggs, a breakfast sandwich, or toast with butter. At a party, instead of grabbing a cookie, I’d probably go for the vegetables or a bowl of chips. You get the idea. Maybe that’s why I’m such a fan of desserts that are both sweet and salty.

Lucky for me, this is quite the trend lately. I see things on menus like “sea salt caramel latte,” or “maple bacon cupcakes” everywhere. So maybe eating pretzels on brownies isn’t something new, but I find this recipe worthy of posting because it’s just good old fashioned scratch-baking at it’s simplest form. You just dump everything into one pot, stir it up, and pour it in the pan. This means, no fussing with room temperature butter, checking to see if you have baking powder in the pantry, or dealing with sifting your flour and cocoa powder. So let’s get baking. [...]

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When I was a newly graduated young adult, and my friend Yong Mi was still in college, she made me a delicious and memorable meal from her dorm apartment. The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that she didn’t have a real kitchen. But that didn’t stop her from making me a complete dinner with one little rice cooker! Did you know that you could saute things inside your rice cooker? I never knew that until she did it in front of me. But I guess it makes sense. It’s kind of like a small electric griddle. To this day, I still remember exactly what she made me: buttered rice with sauteed chicken breasts and tomato salad.

Years and years later, we are now both married, Yong Mi has two kids, and we live across the country from one another. During my recent trip to Philly, I had to make time to see her and guess what she decided to make me…rice and tomato salad, but this time we had it with steak. Hey, we’re not in college anymore. We gotta get fancy now!

The meal brought be back to her dorm room days and when I got home, I had to make a twist on that recipe. I could’ve made buttered rice, but I find that there’s enough flavor in the tomato salad to complement plain rice. So if you want to eat it over rice, just cook up a batch like I did. Otherwise, this meal would be tasty with some crusty garlic bread or roasted potatoes. It’s really up to you. [...]

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I’ve been a bit MIA because of our new business. I’m still trying to work out the balance of running a business and being a blogger at the same time. I’m not gonna lie, some days I just can’t motivate myself to be creative, entertaining, or charming. And not to get all depressing on you or anything, but I’ve been having a few health issues too. But everything is on its way to getting resolved now, so it’s time to saddle up the horse again.

This recipe was invented after I felt like eating a California Roll, you know the Japanese maki or rice rolls that are filled with crab, avocado, and cucumber. But the problem was, I didn’t have crab or cucumber. However, I did have turkey bacon, perilla (sesame) leaves, and alfalfa sprouts! By the way, if you put turkey bacon, avocado and sprouts together in a sandwich, it’s the bomb diggity- which is probably why I had those ingredients in the first place.

In an earlier entry, I gave you the recipe for traditional beef kimbap, or Korean rice rolls, where the flavor comes mostly from sesame oil and individually seasoned ingredients. At the end of the entry, I promised to one day post a “Julie version” of kimbap, which requires simpler ingredients and less prep time. So today is the day I deliver. [...]

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Do you like comfort foods as much as you enjoy light, fresh, and healthy dishes? If so, I’ll be nice and tell you one of my secrets on how you can enjoy both at the same time. Anytime you have a craving for a nice creamy or cheesy pasta dish, cut the cream way down by adding in chicken stock! Who knew, huh? Since I graduated from a French culinary school, I’m a big believer in using real butter, cream, and wine. But it doesn’t mean that you should use an excessive amount, especially if you’re trying to watch your girlish figure! Sometimes all you need is just a touch.

So this delicious mushroom pasta is the perfect recipe for you to try to test my theory. I adore orecchiette pasta, because the little cute “ear-shaped” pieces are like little cups that hold all your glorious sauce. If you don’t like the taste of mushrooms, you can skip this recipe, because the flavor base comes mostly from cooking mushrooms and cooking them right. Intrigued? [...]

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It’s after the holidays and you’re probably craving something light and healthy right about now. We’ve been trying to be more conscious about what we consume as well. That means we’ve been eating lots of fresh veggies and less carbs. But just in case you need a break from all that healthy eating and crave an easy and satisfying recipe to comfort your soul, here’s my almost non-recipe for tortellini and meatballs.

Eating this reminds me of my childhood, when my sister and I ate Chef Boyardee after school. And although it’s not a meal from a can, it’s almost just as easy to prepare because, oh yes my friend, this recipe uses refrigerated pre-made tortellini and frozen meatballs! I figured I gave you a more complex recipe last time, so why not ease it up a bit today? [...]

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