M.I.A. Alright, this is the last post of my “China Adventures” series and I’ve been meaning to draft this post for over a month, but I honestly haven’t had the time or the motivation to sit down and write.  It was perhaps two weekends ago when I had brunch with a few of my best girlfriends and one of them told me that she wasn’t receiving my posts via email anymore. Uh… I told her that was because I...

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  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...

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  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...

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Strawberry season at Tanaka Farms, our local organic farm, opened in mid-March. Each year, we anticipate the season’s approach as we plan our strawberry-picking outing(s). Bebe E’s favorite wagon display in front of the produce stand. (April 2011) This season, Bebe E and I were fortunate to go strawberry-picking twice already. Once with “my girls” (best friends) and their families, and a second time with family (for Big...

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Does anyone know how long the terrible-two’s last? Is it one year? Is it two years? Two and a half years? Over the weekend, Bebe E found a black ballpoint pen and drew a nice long dark squiggly line down the entire length of one cushion of our sofa. Nice, huh? And technically, she’s not even two yet. Scary. Of course, we have “coloring time” where Bebe E opens her little box filled with washable crayons and magical...

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  This week is turning out to be a very mellow week, and it’s a nice change of pace from the past month. I just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and I was quite proud of myself as this was the second book that I’ve read in about a year and a half. (The other book I read, I am embarrassed to admit is Bree Tanner, yes, of the horrid Twilight Series – don’t ask.) Elephants was an easy read and quite...

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  In a previous life, I used to bake five to eight different types of cookies before Christmas so that I could share these with friends and loved ones during the holidays. I remember working all day, then stopping at the supermarket to buy ingredients (and more ingredients), and then baking until midnight or 1 AM for at least two to three nights straight. The entire dinning table would be covered with cookies cooling on racks or cookies in...

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    I’m always willing to try shortcuts once. My Mom makes shiratama zenzai from scratch (see Homemade Zenzai recipe here) and will use store-bought fresh made mochi as a short-cut, but she’ll never use canned ogura-an and Mochiko (for instant mochi, although I believe there is also shiratamako which I have not yet come across) to make shiratama zenzai. Although Mom always knows best, I had to see for myself whether I could get...

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