Dining Out - Crab cakes and Greek Salad

I have not had crab cakes for ages......They were so meaty and tasty. Seasoned french fries were pretty yummy, too.
My father-in-law had this gigantic Greek salad with generous spread of anchovy fillets.

Cotes de Porc Charcutiere

The key to this French comfort food is caramelizing onion slices and adding pickles to the sauce. Caramelizing onion slices takes awhile but a very much rewarding process.

Mochi Cake

Instead of using flour, used "Mochiko" (sweet rice powder). This recipe has been around for awhile and very popular among Japanese expatriates' wives. It has sweetened red beans in it. Most of Japanese people who tried this sweet really like the mochi-like texture.

Green salad with Poached Salmon

Simmerd Atsuage and Vegetables

Atsuage is fried firm tofu and is great for simmering with vegetables. We had grilled salmon, Japanese omlette, rice and miso soup with this dish for dinner.

Crocus

In the small flower bed in front of the house we have planted crocuses and daffodils several years ago. They come up every year to let us know the spring is around the corner.

Left-over....again

We still had some left-overs from the clambake.....Red bliss potatoes and linguica sausage. Made soup with those left-overs and we had it for dinner with simple green salad.

Steak Salad and Clam Chowder

We had left-over steak from two days ago and clam chowder from the clambake. Used slices of the steak for salad.

Clambake!

Redeemed a gift certificate for a clambake for two! The package was delivered overnight with everything in a big pot and all you had to do was to take out some of items such as bibs, claw crackers, clam chowder, oyster crackers.....out of the pot and steam clams, live lobsters and corn with wine. Then voila! Everything tasted very good.

Banana Prune Pound Cake

I had some very ripe bananas and prunes I had to use up very soon. I decided to bake a loaf of banana pound cake and to add some of the purnes in it as experiment. The result was quite a moist pound cake and had it for my teatime this afternoon.

Rib Eye Steak with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Had a craving for nice jucey beef steak.

Omlette with chives

Lunch for one.

Yellow Tulips

Chocolate Caramel Tart

I hosted a baby shower for my friend. One of sweets I baked for the day is this decadent chocolate caramel tart. It is easy to make but it looks kind of nice. Although it was a tea party, this tart would be definitely great with a cup of espresso as well.

Ham steak and scalloped potatoes with Buttermilk scone

Honoring St. Patrick's Day....

I tried this recipe for the buttermilk scone for the first time but I think this one will be my favorite. It has shortening as well as butter and I guess it makes very nice texture.

Smoked Salmon and Dill Sandwich

Every now and then, we have very light suppers and sandwiches are our favorite menu.

Japanese comfort food - Nikujaga

Nikujaga is a typical Japanese comfort food. Basic ingredients are potatoes, meat, and onions with other vegetables and sometimes yam noodles. It is very yummy.

Scone with Clotted cream and Jam

Baked very simple plain scones just for myself for a tea time.

Yofu Kanitama (Crab meat Omlette with sauce)

It is originally Chinese recipe but I used a soup cube for the sauce instead of Chinese soup. The sauce is thicken with corn starch.

Prosciutto over Beans and Vegetable Soup

I used broccoflower, onions, carrots and navy beans in the soup. Adding prosciutto makes the soup a little bit more exciting (?).

Flower Arrangement - Peach tree and French Tulips

Peach tree
French Tulip

What a hue!

Fried Salmon with Ponzu sauce

Ponzu sauce (Vinegar, soy sauce, lemon, Mirin and Sake) is great for fried seafood and also for chicken.

Colors of Spring

It is still cold out there but the colors of Spring have started to show on various sweets.

Oh! Toro

Got lucky to find a "Saku" (block of sashimi) of bluefin tuna's Ohtoro (Most fatty part of tuna) at a Japanese supermarket.

Victorian Cake

Queen Victoria's favorite cake for tea time. I love baking this cake since I don't have to go out of my way to get its ingredients. They are almost the default setting in your kitchen ....eggs, butter, flour, milk, sugar, baking powder and of course, your favorite jam.

Fettuccine with Vodka sauce

Love pasta! Never mind the starch intake......

Gomoku-soba

Green tea flavored buckwheat noodle with shredded pork and Japanese vegetables

Breakfast from nearby Boulangerie

My husband got us croissants and a muffin from a local French pastry shop this morning. They have the best croissants we have ever had so far except for ones in Paris....

Ham and Chees

Buttery and Crusty


Sour Cream and Walnut muffin

Pot-au-feu

Pot-au-feu with Chicken leg. This is a slow cooking food and meat just falls off from bones after several hours of cooking. I use something called "shuttle chef" which is a thermal cooker and saves me time and cost of heating. Pretty good thing.

Valentine's Day Flowers

This year's Valentine's day flowers from my husband

First arrangement

Second arrangement

Lastly roses.....they nearly lasted for two weeks!

Fridays are "let's clean out the Fridge day" in our household. This soup has lots of good things in it!

Fricassee de volille grand-mere

Sounds and looks fancy but easy to make..... Chicken with Grandmother's cream sauce.