curried chicken salad

It's been getting difficult to have lunch dates with Austin without my husband. Like any typical toddler, one his tummy is full and happy, all he wants to do is run around or climb on anything in sight. So for my latest playdate with another mommy, Jody, we met for a nice picnic in the park. I whipped up some curried chicken salad and Jody brought some fresh berries and challah bread from the South Pasadena farmer's market. This chicken salad has everything I crave at a picnic on a sunny day: spice, salt, sweetness, crunch, and juicy meat.

There's a few key elements to my chicken salads. First is the sweetness from fruit. I've never thought of putting fruit in any type of salad until my friend, Thu, made her version of curried chicken salad for me years ago. If I remember correctly, she used fresh grapes in her recipe. It was amazing and I was immediately hooked. With this recipe, I used raisins and apples. Since then I've thrown all sorts of dried and fresh fruits into my pasta salads, chicken salads, tuna salads, etc. Another key component is the juicy meat, I always use rotisserie chicken. It just adds another layer of flavor and saves you a step in the kitchen. And last key ingredient are the crunchy seeds and nuts. Not being able to decide what to use from my pantry, I threw in everything I had: almonds, flaxseeds, and sunflower seeds. Best. Decision. Ever.

s'mores

With a little toddler, I am almost forced to be outside all day long since our little guy won’t sit still indoors for even a minute. I'm constantly planning out our days (a week in advance) so we have different things to do. My job title should be: executive assistant... to our little Austin. Luckily for me another mommy had set up a playdate at one of our favorite parks, Garfield Park, this past weekend.

Sunday, check.

I wanted to make a treat to share with everyone and immediate thought of s’mores. I don’t know what it is with the combination of marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers but it is so comforting. And the fact that you eat with your hands, like a sandwich or burger, makes it so simple. Simple and comforting, what more can you ask for?

With this recipe, I used peanuts to add a little saltiness to compliment the sweetness. When you put it all together, it really is amazing. But if you don’t want to use nuts or have a food allergy, you can easily substitute it with toasted coconut or sprinkles.

no-bake pb & chocolate bars

I’m one of those people who eats something delicious and immediately wants to go home and learn how to recreate it. And so I did but not quite immediately. A couple of years ago, while traveling through HKG, I picked up a chocolate/fruit/nut bar from a Starbucks there. It was delicious and hearty. After studying the list of ingredients, I realized it was grain/wheat free and rather healthy. Save. It was mentally stored in my back of brain to make later. 

Now fast-forward two year later, one random morning, I have a craving for something comforting and ideally healthy. Most of the time, these two things don’t come hand in hand. I raided my pantry and gathered a bunch of ingredients on the counter. Oh! There is nothing more comforting than the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Spotting the dates and almonds, it brought me back to that yummy breakfast bar I had at the Hong Kong Starbucks. The best part of this recipe is that it is no-bake. 

teacher appreciation week

To kick off teacher appreciation week, I brought in some homemade granola for the teachers at Austin's daycare. I'm so glad I did because I saw that other parents had brought doughnuts and other sugary sweets. I'm sure the teachers were happy to see something healthier on the table. To add a special note, I printed a short message on some cardstock and tied it on with some ribbons. Voila!

apple pies

For one of Gary's new year's resolutions, he is to make dinner at least once a week. Ever since we met, he's cooked for me maybe handful of times, so this is a big deal. Three weeks into the year and so far we've had three excellent meals. For one of the dinners, we invited some good friends of ours, Jennie and Thomas, to join us. Since Gary was just starting out, I decided to help make the dessert. I've been obsessing over making apple pie; there's just something about apple pie that is so comforting and enjoyable.  I've made my fair share of apples pies in the past and wanted to do something new, so I decided to make individual pies in gratin dishes.

crunchy toffee

Why did it take me 32 years to finally make toffee for the first time? Beats me. But I'm for sure going to make it every Christmas at the very least. It is one of the easier things I've made lately, even easier than making baby food. In the past, I've made breads and cookies that take hours and hours of labor in the kitchen. Toffee doesn't even require to be turned on. I had so much free time that i even designed some custom labels for these Christmas goodies.

If you like them, you can print off your own here (I changed the last line to read "made with love"). You can use 3M 4200-M or Avery 8293.

homemade nutter butter

Who ever invented peanut butter is my hero. It must be one of my favorite snacks of all time. I love eating it on toast, on bananas, or just simply off a plain old spoon. And I don't discriminate, I love them all: crunchy, creamy, honey roasted, fresh grounded. I especially love it in a cookie and nutter butters capture all essences of peanut butter. These babies are so good, they brought home a nice white ribbon at the Alabama National Fair's baking competition.

almond butter cookies

At first glance of the recipe, I thought there was a misprint because I didn't see flour on the ingredients list nor the directions. Realizing that it was part of NPR's Baking Without Flour Brings Sweet Results story, I was reassured there was no mistake. I was really surprised by the flavor and texture of the cookies, who would have guessed there was neither butter nor flour in these! Delicious!

baklava

I had planned on attending a Greek food festival last weekend but I totally forgot about it until Sunday night. I guess its the baby brain since I'm 38 weeks preggos now. Oh well. This mishap now has started a little craving in me for baklava. Unfortunately, I don't know of any places in Montgomery where I can get some. My solution is to make a homemade batch.

almond cake

I've had this recipe bookmarked forever.  There is just something about almonds that I just can't resist, now put it in a cake, now I'm in heaven. And a slice of this is pure heaven! It's everything you expect from a recipe from Chez Panisse. It's moist and dense yet fragrant and delicious.

cold sesame noodles

Oh my! It's been so busy now that school has started, I barely have time to make anything. Ha! I've reverted back to my college days of throwing random things I like together and making a meal out of it. Here is an overdue post of the sesame noodles I made for the potluck dinner hosted by one of the Chinese students. I wanted to make something "familiar" for my new foreign friends.

bacon pecan chocolate chip cookie

Bacon is NOT just for breakfast anymore!

This post was inspired by my dear friend, Christina. I recently took a mini vacation with my old college roomie to Tampa and she was telling me about her latest sweet-tooth discovery. Her co-worker's wife bakes these amazing savory sweet snacks for the office. Anyways, that got me intrigued and wanted to try them out myself. Although I rarely eat bacon, I mean once in a blue moon rare, I had to try these. Sweet, savory, nutty, chocolatey, crunchy, chewy. Gosh! It's like any pregnant woman's dream come true.

banana coffee cake

If you haven't noticed I have a ton of banana recipes on my blog. That's because I buy a lot of bananas but I don't eat them fast enough. So here's something I haven't made with bananas before... coffee cake!

oatmeal banana pecan cookies

Happy Friday! Today, I am mentally preparing myself to participate in the Atlanta Metro Dash. That is the least I can do since I haven't physically preparing myself. Nope, 4 weeks of traveling and eating yummy food in Asia and New York does not count as training for a 30 element obstacle course.

Anyways, like many athletes in training, I was a bit concerned about nutrition, as if I haven't been nourishing myself enough with Peking Duck and lobster rolls. What I needed was a yummy, energy-packed cookie! So I started to gather ingredients.... bananas for potassium {check}, oatmeal for fiber {check}, whole wheat for more fiber {check}, pecans for protein {check}. After eating a few of these, I feel more confident about tomorrow.  Mind over matter.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

maple pecan banana muffins

So sorry I've been m.i.a. lately. It's been busy getting ready for my month-long trip to Asia, wrapping up work, and preparing for grad school. There's a lot on my plate but regardless, I've still cooking and baking in the kitchen.  I actually made these muffins a couple of weeks ago and just getting around to posting this now.

I've actually never baked with maple syrup before. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever bought maple syrup. I may have received it as a gift and probably ate it with pancakes. There are a few reasons why I never buy maple syrup, one, it's expensive and two, I didn't know what else to do with it than eat pancakes with.So it's been years since I've had maple syrup. So what made me go to the grocery store and get some now? I recently went to McDonald's and had their fruit & maple oatmeal, which re-introduced me to deep, woodsy flavor of maple syrup. And I loved it!

classic brownie

classic brownies
adapted from the complete America's test kitchen cookbook

pecan sour cream biscuits

Lately, I've been obsessed with making biscuits. I guess I'm inspired by my surroundings, and down here in the South, there is an abundance of biscuits. Here's a recipe for a sweet biscuit, its more like a scone to me. I'm for sure going to make this again. Well done Dorie!

it's a cookie swap

I've actually never heard of a cookie swap until this past holiday season. And all of a sudden, it seems like everyone I know is partaking in one. I made two cookies from Magnolia's Bakery's Cookbook. Both were super easy and absolutely delicious.

mini banana pecan loaves

Upon my husband's request, I had to make some banana bread amongst my holiday-baking. I love to use disposable baking molds for this. For one, they come in all sorts of sizes. And secondly, you don't have to worry about preparing your pans correctly to have them un-mold perfectly. I order them online from Bake Deco). So here we are, yet another banana bread recipe!

banana blondies

For some reason I always have some ripe bananas on hand. With that little fact, I must have gone through two dozen or so banana bread recipes. This time I decided to do something different and make some blondies. These are made with wheat flour, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Serve warm!

banana blondies

ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup banana puree
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup walnuts 

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a nine-inch-square baking pan.
2. Cream butter, add sugar and beat in egg. Stir in banana puree. Stir in whole wheat and white flour and baking soda. Add vanilla.
3. Add chocolate chips and walnuts and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting into squares.