Strawberries en Papillote with yogurt

We eat a lot of yogurt at home. I make my own yogurt. Store bought yogurt is way too sour for me. Making them on my own, I can control the sourness I want.  

I bought a lot of Korean strawberries today. This must be the Korean strawberry season. Fruits in season taste so wonderful. I decided to bake some of them, en Papillote, with vanilla bean, lemon thyme and muscovado sugar to have with my homemade yogurt. After baking, the smell is incredibly wonderful when you open the parchment bag. Such a refreshing and flora aroma. Try it if you want to know what it smells like. 

The combination of red from the strawberries against the cloudy white of the yogurt reminds me so much of the holiday season.  Here's wishing you all Merry X'mas and Happy New Year. Happy holidays!

Pumpkin soup

I shot these set of photos for Mother Digest Thailand magazine. The concept is about food for kids, fresh and simple. I roasted the pumpkin with skin on, no peeling needed. You can use any pumpkin you like. Lay a piece of parchment paper on a baking tray before you put the pumpkin on. It's very easy to clean up later.

Tomato Salsa

Great snack. So simple to make but so delicious. G and Z like all the fresh ingredients in this salsa. They ate it happily. I have shared the recipe with one of my friend. Her kids love it too.  I eat this salsa with baguette as suggested below.  Or I sometimes serve this with fajita.

Trip to Sydney

Just came back from Sydney. I was so glad to meet my old friend, P, in Sydney. We hadn't met since we graduated from university. Flash back memories of when we were young. We had long chats over dinners with lots of laughs together. She graciously took us to visit a lot of interesting places. My favorite place is Manly. Had to take the ferry from Sydney Harbor Quay.  Beautiful, laid-back beach and the best part was this absolutely wonderful restaurant (Hugo) that served the most delicious seafood by the sea.  We went there twice, believe it or not. Time flies when you're having fun. 

In the ferry on the way to Manly - lighthouse & sailboats

Manly beach

Seagulls all around us

At Hugo's overlooking the sea

Seen at Hugo's

Couldn't resist photographing this boy & the Schnauzer

Manly wharf

The famous Sydney Harbor Bridge - 80 years old but still carries traffic daily

Beautiful sillhouette against the blue sky

Sydney Harbor Bridge from the ferry

Victoria street in Sydney

Beautiful view from hotel room

The three sisters, Blue mountain 

Adam, the amazing barista in Gold Coast 

Corn chowder

I love eating corns. There are many ways to cook corns, either sweet or savory. I couldn't resist to buy bi-colored corns whenever I see them. They are so sweet. So I decided to make corn chowder for the kids. A friend of my mother owns a big corn field back in my home town. She used to tell me that the best time to harvest the corn is before sunrise. The corn will be incredibly sweet. Never ever harvest it in the day time. I don't know how true it is. Maybe it is just an old wife's tale.

Apple galette

Today I made apple galette with G. He seemed to enjoy himself being in the kitchen with me. He volunteered to help me peel the apples with the peeler. I was a bit worried but I let him do. Surprisingly, he managed to do it nicely. He asked me "What's next Mom?" So I told him to toss the apple into the sugar mixture. Yes he did well and he even helped to arrange the apple onto the pastry. It was fun for him and we finished eating the apple galette after the photo shoot.

Linguine with tomatoes, lemon, chile and crab

I went to the fresh market today and bought crabs from my regular fishmonger. His crabs are incredibly fresh and sweet. So I decided to steam them and cook pasta with crabmeat. It was so delicious. Please try this recipe if you can find good crabs from a trusted fishmonger.

Peach yogurt raspberry popsicles

G kept asking me to make popsicles frequently since last month. I've been busy lately. I finally got a chance to make it today. I have some homemade yogurt. My homemade yogurt is not very sour and firm as store bought yogurt. This is what I like about homemade yogurt. G and Z helped me to insert the wooden sticks into the popsicle molds happily. Now they are counting down when the popsicles are going to be ready to eat.

Pumpkin gnocchi

I love to eat pumpkin. Japanese pumpkin is my favorite because it's sweeter than other types of pumpkin and the texture when it's cooked is powdery. Plain steam japanese pumpkin is my all time favorite snack. Love it. Unfortunately, I'm the only one in the house who love to eat pumpkin. CP and the boys, they don't like to eat pumpkin. So I try to find ways to make them eat pumpkin. Making the gnocchi dough at home with the children and get them to help kneading and rolling is so fun! And such a great experience for them. G finished one bowl of pumpkin gnocchi by himself. G said "This piece of gnocchi was made by me, I remembered.", before he popped the gnocchi from the spoon to his mouth happily. 

Chocolate pot de crème with macarons à la vanille

Like crème brulee but no burnt sugar on top, like crème caramel but no burnt sugar on the bottom

Cream Puff

This is one of my favorite. So easy to make and so easy to eat. Delicious!

Fig galette

As I said before, I have a lot of figs in my fridge. Here is another way that I've transformed the figs into a dessert. And we finished it right away after the photo shoot. Yum!

White truffle buttercream macarons

This is my favorite macaron flavor. The white truffle oil goes so well with the buttercream, it enhances the buttercream flavor. After you have a bite, you'll definitely smell the truffle at the back of your tongue.  

How did I come up with this flavor? CR is a good friend and a foodie. She and her husband eat out a lot and told me that they went out for dinner at a restaurant and the dessert served was truffle macarons. I have no idea what it tasted like, but she gave me the idea to make it. Thanks CR for sharing the idea with me. You gave me a lot of ideas from your restaurant eats.