Lemon bars

Believe it or not this was my first time making lemon bars! I made these for my friend Michelle's birthday since it is one of her favorite desserts.

First you make a shortbread crust.

Melt one stick of butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and mix in 1 tsp vanilla, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/4 c. Sugar and then last mix in 1 c. Flour until just combined

Mixture looked pretty moist to me so I added a bit more flour.  Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper. Then using your fingers press dough into the bottom if the pan. 

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

While crust bakes prepare lemon filling

Whisk together 1 c. And 2 Tbsp. Sugar and 3 Tbps flour. Add in 3 eggs one at a time. Lastly add in 1/2 c. Lemon juice and 2 tsp. lemon zest.

Once crust is done pour lemon mixture on top right away. Lower heat to 300 and bake 25 minutes.  Once cooled sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Cauliflower Rice

I have been having a bit of a cauliflower obsession lately.  I kept seeing recipes for cauliflower rice so I decided to try it out.  I don't have a large food processor so I used a cheese grater to shred the cauliflower.  Then I made fried rice as normal just replacing the rice with cauliflower!  It was delicious and even Steve liked it!  I have made this twice now, the second time I added spam.  Glad to add this dish to my recipe rotation!

Rose Flavored Panna Cotta

This was a dessert that I created for Mother's Day.  I followed the basic panna cotta recipe I have used before:

One packet of gelatin

1/3 cup sugar 

3 cups milk/cream etc.

Instead of milk I used 1 1/2 c. buttermilk and 1 1/2 c. Heavy cream. I added one drop of red food coloring to add a light pink color, and about 3 tsp. rose water for the flavoring. In the recipes I looked at the amount of rose water varied from teaspoons to tablespoons. I didn't want the rose flavor to be overpowering so I went with less and I think it came out good- the rose essence was there but subtle. I topped the panna cotta with plain raspberries.  The panna cotta separated and I'm not sure why?, but it tasted fine.  Next I want to try to make an elderflower flavored panna cotta.

Dumplings 101

I was gifted a bamboo steamer as a house warming gift and it's about time I put it to good use!

It was a customize your own dumpling party. We had chopped beef, shrimp, green onions, minced white onion, bell pepper and pineapple as filling choices.

We used round dumpling wrappers. You put a small amount of filling in the center, wet the edge of the dumpling wrapper, fold over and seal along the edge.

Here's our prepared dumplings ready to be steamed. We lined the steamer with cabbage leaves so the dumplings wouldn't stick to the steamer.

 

The steamer was placed over a wok with some water in it. We steamed the dumplings for about 20 minutes. 

Behold the finished product!

They turned out pretty good. We did find out the hard way that any of the dumplings that were touching got stuck together and were hard to seperste without riping open the dumpling.

Oh and did I mention Steve made delicious yakitori meats?

Beef...

And chicken!

Interesting beverages

The asian market near my house has an variety of strange and exotic beverages that I have never tried before. Mangosteen, soursop, penny wort... Eventually want to try them all!

1.basil seed drink

Similar to chia seeds. Full of nutrition by with lots of sugar and a cream soda flavor! Lol 

I couldn't help but stop to chew on some of the seeds as I drank this. They have a gelatinous texture surrounding the seed. A bit sweet for my taste-it might have been better over ice so I could water down a little.

Supposedly you could use basil seeds as a diet aide if you drink a basil seed drink before eating- probably a less sugary version. I will admit I did feel full for a while after drinking this.

2. Chrysanthemum tea

This one tasted floral and earthy with a hint of sweetness. 

Supposed to help with circulation,  alertness, reduce fever, prevent sore throat and a variety of other ailments.

3. Soursop

I neglected to take a photo of this one. It was good! Tasted very light-kind of reminded me of pear. Not sour at all really...

4. Mangosteen 

I love the name of this one! It was sweet and delicious like lychee

5. White Gourd 

This one I didn't care for too much.  It had a flavor reminiscent of burnt caramel. Couldn't finish it!

6. Grass jelly

Lychee flavored beverage with small cubes of grass jelly. Was not too sweet with a taste I can only describe as earthy. I had to swirl the can to shake it up and get any chunks of jelly. The chunks tasted mild and earthy. When a chunk of grass jelly got left on the lip of the can I was suprised to see that it was more brown than green. It made me feel that the flavor was more like mud or dirt. Not bad, but also not my favorite. 

7. Bird's Nest White Fungus Drink

I have been too scared to try this one after reading reviews that other people have posted online. I will update this post if I ever summon the courage to drink this!