Let’s just call this week, “Kale Week” at our home. Did you catch Monday’s soup post with ground chicken, kale and brown rice? Kale’s been a regular in our fridge, along with spinach, romaine lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, but I’ve been using it more in what I will call, “noticeable dishes”, such as the soup. In the past, I’ve always chopped up kale finely and added it to traditional...

Never mind that we just experienced one of the hottest weekends in Southern California and it was 93º today and currently 80º at 9:30 PM. My sore throat from last week disappeared mid-week, only to return on Friday and nag me throughout the weekend. I’m not exactly feeling sick, but I just can’t get rid of this sore throat and this morning I woke up with just a slight scratchiness in my throat, which is a significant improvement,...

One of the benefits of visiting my parents on a weekly basis is that my Mom is sure to feed us something new and interesting. My Mom’s latest side dish, and a new favorite of mine is myoga no misozuke. Myoga, also known as myoga ginger, is native to Japan and Southern parts of Korea and is an edible flower bulb which grows similar to a root beneath the dirt. When I was younger I always wondered what this strange...

Over the weekend we celebrated my very dear friend’s wedding and she did such a fabulous job planning all of the beautiful details. It was a gorgeous celebration and it was truly such an honor to be included in their special day. In lieu of my usual Monday recipe, I am sharing just a few photos from the weekend. I will confess that this bridesmaid is a bit tired from our late evening of dancing and celebrating. Honestly, I can’t...

This week is proving to be quite a busy week as we settle into a new routine and I get ready for a big celebration this weekend. Bebe E started nursery school last Thursday, but it was a day for her to acclimate to her new surroundings with the comfort of my presence in her classroom. However, the other day Bebe E went to school all by herself, and she didn’t shed a tear when we said our goodbyes. As a matter of fact, she was so eager to...

In the past when referring to international cookbooks, I found it helpful to have a handy metrics to units conversion chart, as well as a Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion table. This is a tool that I used to offer on my old blog, but due to limited menu space I opted to remove this page, but now I share this with you in a post! For me, it has always come in handy so I thought it might be helpful to others as well. Just bookmark this post! Metric...

As the summer winds down and before the weather turns cooler, I’d like to share a super simple salmon recipe just in case you have one last BBQ planned. However, don’t fret if you don’t have any plans to grill, as this salmon is also amazing when baked in the oven or cooked stovetop in a pan. (Photo Credit: Hideki Ueha) Many times before I’ve mentioned my childhood West L.A. besties, so it shouldn’t be a surprise...

I’m not the baker that I once was, at least in the sense that I don’t bake as often as I did in my 20’s. Yet, when I come across a mouth-watering photo on Facebook or Instagram of a melting piece of Hershey’s chocolate bar sitting atop a mound of chocolate chip cookie dough resting on top of a piece of graham cracker… I quickly decide that I AM indeed a baker. Fortunately, the timing for which I came across a...