New Year's Eve dinner + a new dessert, Raspberry Pecan Blondies

This was another Christmas gift that I was happy to receive...

(Thank you D!)

The design is pure genious...every piece has at least two  edges!

Last day of 2014 - breakfast plus dinner and a new dessert

Earlier this morning....

like waaaaay fkg earlier (5:30 am)....I had the kitchen set up for today's breakfast with some very good friends. Yeah, I'm pretty anal and set things out with labels a night or two ahead of time. Actual breakfast wouldn't be until a few hours later but I had to time things right with time to spare because that's how I roll...

Birthday food recipes recap

Here's another look at my super cute birthday cake...

Thanks again to JennyWenny Cakes for another crowdpleaser!

I thought I'd better post the following recipes before it slips my mind...

Chicken patties with rice vermicelli and herbs

Last weekend, Bert and I killed time at Vinh-Hung Supermarket before picking up TC from her volunteer orientation.

Seeing some of these prepackaged food items with fresh herbs and noodles inspired me to make something different for lunch that day.

Merry New Year!

As the cheerfully painted window says:

(as seen on the front window of the Peking Cafe Chop Suey restaurant in North Park, late December 2013)

Happy New Year - Welcome 2014!

I actually woke up early to watch the Rose Parade (I slept through it last year) and also to prep some dinner items for later today...

A compilation of various photos (some Christmas related) and recipes...

Have any of you heard about this?

The Sriracha shortage? Better start buying them up...

We're good with our one bottle since Bert is the only one who really uses it...

December is more than halfway done and I'd been meaning to put up these pics earlier but now here they are, a hodge podge of stuff to unload...

A twist on two adobo recipes

A few weeks ago, we tried a couple of adobo recipes from Marvin's new cookbook...

Here they are paired up with some salad and a baked fish fillet.

The recipe were so easy that TC and Bert were the ones who executed the dishes...

Sage Turkey Patties

This was my flavor booster for this new recipe...

I thought I'd use about 4 or 5 cloves of the garlic TC roasted yesterday...

Today was Sunday which meant it was a cooking day which was a good time to  do a twist on a new recipe...

Turkey day prequel - desserts and one side

Yesterday TC and I made a few things ahead of time for Thanksgiving lunch.

This was originally going to be pecan pie in an actual pie pan but the dough wasn't fully thawed out.

It cracked as I unwrapped the plastic. It was my fault for not reading the thaw time correctly. I was a bit disappointed in myself, but thought I could still salvage the recipe...

Two more Filipino dishes...

Another dish I made for the potluck was Ulang sa Gata (prawns in coconut milk)

This is one of my favorite "go-to" recipes. The recipe specifically calls for HEAD ON Shrimp. None of that wimpy headless shrimp here! Don't you just love their beady little eyes looking at you?

Past dinners...

Fresh from Canada...

After hiding in our pantry this past summer, we finally got around to opening this can of wanna-be Spam...complete with an old fashioned "key" at the bottom to open the can!

Veg-o-rama!

So with all those vegetables we bought at the SD Public Market...

including this tiny and cute Mexican cucumber that somehow got mixed into the pint of okra...it was time to make these bad boys (or girls, let's be equal opportunity here) into dinner sides...

Thanksgiving sides...

The other night I made the sides for Thanksgiving ahead of time...

So that was three last night and one this morning...let's take a look, shall we?

Messin' around in the kitchen...

I felt like being Ms. Suzie Homemaker last week since I was on vacation. What better time to try a new recipe on my family...Or is it? Dun dun dun!

Believe it or not, I haven't roasted a chicken before.  Cornish game hen, yes, but not chicken...

 

 Was it worthy to be eaten or trashed?

Using Child Labor...

A few days ago we had TC's friends, the Neighbor Girls over. The goal? To try a few recipes from Kirbie's blog. This was the salad their mom brought over (lettuce, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms and garbanzos with a no-salt seasoning and maple syrup/lemon/balsamic dressing)...

The girls were excited because TC asked them specifically to bring over two empty mugs...

Baking marathon...

MARATHON POST ALERT - 6 new ones!

I've baked so many batches of lemon bars it's not even funny. I didn't even take any photos of it. If you want to see my original post with photos, here it is. Looks the same. People really like these so that's what I mostly make.

Here are the other stuff I made for my friends and co-workers and one lucky neighbor.

Blueberry turnovers...if you want to make these bite sized, cut them in half, then cut those halves in half. Otherwise, one big ass piece is good enough for one person for breakfast. It's super sweet though, but a lot of people also like this. I like doing the turnovers more than the long strudel...

Mini Nutella Cakes (thanks to Kirbie's recipe)...

Here are the recipes from a previous post on these first two desserts mentioned...

These Russian Tea Cakes are almost like Mexican Wedding Cookies but without cinammon. In fact, I like these cookies better because I am not a cinammon fan. These are so easy to make and they are so buttery!

Recipe for Russian Tea Cakes:
(allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup powdered sugar for rolling

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2.In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons powdered sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Mix in the chopped walnuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

3.Bake for 12 minutes. When cool, roll in remaining powdered sugar.

These will go fast, trust me....

And because I'm a sucker for punishment, I also made these (not that they're hard to do becuase they're not, but because I end up doing too much to try to make others happy):

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe link here to Kirbie's post (she has prettier pictures) and also from JustJenn (the original recipe).

And lastly, I made these after being inspired by Darlene's post on this Ohio dessert, Buckeyes.

Now, look at Darlene's version.

And look at mine.

Can you say FUGLY? (mine, not hers)

As you can see above, my BALLZ are not very nice looking. But that is because I didn't really follow directions. I didn't chill the dough long enough or didn't put enough sugar in it or something. The dough was hard to work with. Instead of being nice and smooth, the balls had little "peaks" on them from when I rolled them between my palms, which I didn't dust with powdered sugar which  was another fkup I did.

Now here are my Frankenballs dipped in chocolate:

I also didn't have a double boiler or a small metal bowl in which to put the chocolate chips. Instead, I just melted the chips on low heat in a regular pan. The chocolate melted all right, but not nice and smooth. It was difficult to work with and I wasn't able to dip the deformed balls (heh heh) into the chocolate evenly. The chocolate is supposed to cover almost all of the balls except the top. It is supposed to resemble the buckeye nut.

The buckeye tree is the state tree of Ohio and the nut is the mascot of Ohio State. Haha, that has got to be one of the funniest costumes I've ever seen!!! Not that a spear chucking half naked man in a loin cloth is much better (Go AZTECS!!! ha ha)

By the way, this recipe involves no baking at all. But it's still kind of time consuming.

Buckeyes
(adapted from the recipe I got from allrecipes.com and from Darlene's recipe)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I hate creamy so I used crunchy and it tastes so much better)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (I used 2 1/2 thinking 4 cups would be too sweet. I should have followed directions)
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (another recipe I saw called for the whole 12 oz bag of chocolate chips so that's what I used. So much for following directions, eh)

(Note: another recipe I saw called for melting the chips with 2 tbs of shortening but I didn't use it)

Directions
1.Line a baking sheet with waxed paper; set aside.

2.In a medium bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar with hands to form a smooth stiff dough. Shape into balls using 2 teaspoons of dough for each ball. Place on prepared pan, and refrigerate.

3.Melt chocolate  in a metal bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water. Stir occasionally until smooth, and remove from heat.

4.Remove balls from refrigerator. Insert a wooden toothpick into a ball, and dip into melted chocolate. Return to wax paper, chocolate side down, and remove toothpick. Repeat with remaining balls. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.

Christmas is in a few more days. I just want to relax and eat my mom's food!!!