While at first we might think of spaghetti as uniquely Italian, my instant go-to-kid-friendly spaghetti with meat sauce is, by my standards, American-faire, not Italian. Then there is pasta as it relates to Japanese cuisine. There are Japanese pasta dishes that are definitely not what I consider Italian cuisine, but it is uniquely Japanese and… I absolutely love it! As a child and throughout my teens, my Mom often took me to visit our...

  A long time ago, I went to our friend’s holiday potluck and someone brought this great, kid-friendly dessert of fresh apple slices with a creamy, crunchy, sweet caramel dip. It’s been over two years since that potluck but I never forgot this dessert. I’ve made this dessert twice in the past year and it’s a great dish for when you don’t have a lot of time. It’s very simple and very quick to prepare. Perhaps...

  Great news! Bebe E graduated from “Tadpole” to “Guppy” at her swim school! (In other words, from beginner to intermediate.) Hurray for Bebe E! OK… I admit that I am an overly proud parent who is using this blog to boast about her child’s accomplishment, but seriously, can you blame this first-time parent?!? Rather than continue to gloat about Bebe E’s achievement, I will share with you the school...

  One of the easiest appetizers I enjoy serving (and eating) is bruschetta. And let’s be clear that the Italian pronunciation for bruschetta is: brus’ket.ta. Note, the “ch” is pronounced with a HARD “k”, not a “sh”. It drives me up the wall when I ask for brus’ket.ta at a restaurant, only to be incorrectly corrected by a server with a response that goes something like, “you mean, you...

  Mmmmm. I love cheesecake. Cheesecake loves me. I love ANYTHING cheesecake, let me count the ways… There is my favorite childhood blueberry cheesecake cups, Cheesecake Factory’s pumpkin cheesecake and vanilla bean cheesecake, Japanese rare cheesecake from any type of Asian bakery, anything cheesecake (including cream cheese filled pastries) from Amandine Patisserie in Santa Monica, 85 Degree Bakery’s mango cheesecake, Marie...

As a kid, I never used to like pork much. Especially pork chops. These days, I seem to like pork more, not just because lean pork is lower in calories and fat than beef, but because I like it’s versatility. However, I still don’t make pork chops very often, in fact, I rarely make pork chops although Bebe Dada would enjoy it if I did. Instead, I’ve been using thinner bite-sized cuts of lean pork typically found at Japanese...

  Sumashijiru is a clear Japanese soup and can be made with a number of different ingredients, limited only by the creativity of the chef. Growing up, my Mom often made sumashijiru to accompany our dinners. One of my childhood favorites is a minimalist soup my mom often prepares with nori (seaweed) and tamago (egg) or nori tamago sumashijiru.  She often serves this with her homemade gyoza.  My mom’s gyoza and nori tamago sumashijiru...

I decided to neglect the MOUNTAIN of laundry that needs to be folded and quickly draft a post. Do I dare publish this on my blog within *GASP* a week of my last post?!? However, if you don’t want anything to do with our laundry, I recommend you stop reading and quickly jump ahead to the stir-fry recipe below. :) Yes, this post is about boring laundry because I write about whatever is on my mind, and unfortunately THAT is what’s on...