Food Archives – Page 2 of 2

Recipe | Teriyaki & Seaweed Hot Dogs with Japanese Mayo

March 4, 2017

Hi Everyone!

I recently found out about Japadog which is a small chain of street food stands in Vancouver. Now, since Vancouver is a long way to go to try a hot dog, I thought I would make hot dogs inspired by Japadog. I know what you’re thinking, Japanese + Hot Dogs sounds gross. But it is so good! I wish I tried it sooner.

I decided to try to duplicate their signature hot dog: the Terimayo – Teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo and seaweed. I got some seaweed sheets (like the ones you get for sushi) and I just cut them up into long slivers. I tried this with regular mayo because it’s what I had at the time, but Japanese Mayo is so much better. The dab of mayo added a bit of creaminess to the sweet teriyaki sauce (you can use bought teriyaki sauce or find a recipe online). I have to say that the crunchiness of the seaweed made it even more delicious. You have to make sure that you put the seaweed on right before you eat it or the heat from the hot dog or teriyaki sauce can melt the seaweed and you don’t want soggy seaweed.

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Recipe | Classic Almond Biscotti

December 28, 2016
Hello Everyone!

I can’t believe it, but this is my 100th post! I know it’s been over 100 days since I first started my blog, and I said I would do my best to write a post each day, but with the wedding preparations and prepping for our trip to Mauritius, I haven’t been posting as much as I would like. I will definitely try to write at least 3-5 posts each week (it seems that my readers like my food posts, so I will try to do more of those…Here’s one for you now!)

A few years back, I wanted to try making my own almond biscotti and I found a recipe on Pinterest. It was really good, even C asked for the recipe so she could make it herself. I just made the biscotti for Christmas eve dessert with the family. It’s already delicious, but you could add some chocolate or dip it in your tea (or rum like my uncle, HW, did). It definitely tastes better than the store-bought kind and it’s the perfect snack to enjoy with a hot cup of tea. Below is the recipe, courtesy of Julia from Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body. I’ve copied the recipe directly from the website:

Classic Almond Biscotti

Yield: makes about 48 biscotti (depending on the size)

Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp almond extract
- 1 cup almond slices, toasted
Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl.

In a large bowl mix the sugar, melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it’s well combined. Mix in almonds.

Divide the dough in half. Get some flour on your hands and shape each dough portion into a 13 inch-long x 3 inch-wide, x 1 1/2 inch thick log. Transfer both logs to the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. *They don’t expand much, so it’s ok if the logs are very close to the edge of the baking sheet.

Bake the logs until they’re golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool the logs completely on the sheet on a wire rack, about 30 minutes. Keep your oven on.

Transfer the cooled logs to a cutting board. Use a serrated knife and cut logs into 1/2-inch-wide slices. Arrange the slices cut side down on the same baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn the biscotti over and continue baking about 10-12 more minutes, just until they’re starting to get some color. Transfer the biscotti to a wire rack and cool. They’ll harden even more as they cool.

Store on the counter for up to 1 week. Or store them in the freezer in a plastic baggy for months.

Enjoy!

Love,
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Recipe | Mars Bar Rice Krispie Treats

October 29, 2016
Hi Everyone!

For my sister’s wedding shower, I made rice krispie treats with mars bars melted on top and they were to die for. I cut them into small bites and they were the perfect mix of marshmallow, caramel and chocolate-y goodness. If you are a child, please make sure you are supervised by an adult while making these, you need to use the stove and sharp knives.

What you’ll need:
- rice krispie cereal
- marshmallows
- butter
- vanilla extract
- mars bars
- milk (optional)
- parchment paper
I didn’t use a recipe to make the rice krispie squares…you can use your own recipe or find one online. Here’s the recipe from the rice krispies website. I like my rice krispie squares on the marshmallow-y /softer side and this recipe probably tastes better when the squares are softer because then it melts in your mouth. I put parchment paper into a 9×9 square cake pan to line the bottom and sides of the pan- like this. If you don’t want to waste too much paper, just use the one long sheet of parchment paper which will allow you to pull the rice krispie treats from two sides. I spooned out the rice krispies and marshmallow mixture into the pan and pressed the rice krispies down with my spoon. Then I covered the rice krispies with another piece of parchment paper and used another 9×9 cake pan to press down the rice krispies (not too hard because you don’t want to flatten your treats too much or they will be too crunchy). Make sure that the top of your rice krispie surface is even (you don’t want uneven chocolate) and make sure there are no spots between the rice krispies and the cake pan or else the chocolate will seep through the gaps.

As that cooled down, I started to make the mars bar topping. I used about 35 mini mars bars for my topping. You can use more or less depending on how thick you want your chocolate/caramel. With 35 mars bars and a 9×9 cake pan, the chocolate/caramel part was about 1/4″ thick. I cut the mars bars into pieces so it would melt faster. In a pot on medium heat, pour your mars bars in and make sure you are constantly stirring so the bars don’t burn. You could also do a double boiler method (where you put a bowl on top of boiled water if you don’t want to risk burning the mars bars). The chocolate and caramel will melt fairly quickly, but the nougat takes a while to melt down. Make sure to use your spoon to get rid of the bumps of nougat. The mixture was fairly thick so I added a splash or two of milk to thin it out. Once everything has melted and you have no more lumps, pour your mars bars over your rice krispie treats and let it cool down. Once the chocolate has hardened, use a knife to go around the edges of your caramel/chocolate topping to unstick it from the pan/paper. Pull the parchment paper out and now you can cut your rice krispie treats however you want them. I used a large kitchen knife to cut the treats into strips and then switched to a serrrated knife to cut them into bite size pieces. To help you cut, you can run the knife under hot water to warm it up (and wipe off the water), the heat will help slice through the caramel/chocolate and prevent the marshmallow from sticking too. Make sure your knife is clean, if chocolate, caramel, marshmallow and/or rice krispies start to stick to your knife, wipe it off or clean your knife. Or else you start to get rice krispies on the chocolate part (as you can see above, my knife wasn’t completely clean and some of the rice krispies got onto the chocolate). Small bite size pieces are the perfect size because you don’t have to bite into the caramel which might stick to your teeth. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Enjoy!

Love,
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Recipe | Cauliflower Pizza Bites

September 26, 2016

Hi Everyone!

When I was on Facebook a few weeks ago, a recipe video popped up for Cauliflower pizza bites that looked pretty good so I thought I would give it a try. I have to say that it was one of the few recipes I’ve tried that actually looked the same as the picture on the recipe page. Instead of adding more basil on top, I added some dried chives, of course you can add any other toppings, I’m sure bacon will make them even yummier.

They were actually pretty good. I was expecting them to taste a lot like cauliflower, but to my surprise, it tasted like pizza. Of course, you could still taste the cauliflower, but as long as you get a good mouthful of cheese, sauce and pepperoni, it’s a great little appetizer or snack. I would suggest to make them on the thinner side because my second batch tasted a bit mushier. Also make sure to squeeze out the water from the cauliflower.

I would definitely make them again, it’s especially good for those who don’t want to eat too much bread and pizza dough. Obviously nothing can compare to a real pizza, but these are pretty good.

Here’s a link to the recipe for Cauliflower Pizza Bites.

Love,

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Recipe | Pesto Chicken Focaccia

May 13, 2016
Hi Everyone!

If you want an easy dinner that you can just throw in the oven, this is a great recipe. It’s simple, you only need five ingredients:
- store-bought chicken
- focaccia bread or any bread that’s crusty (we use ACE focaccia, and we’ve tried ciabatta, but focaccia is the best)
- mozzarella cheese
- parmesan cheese
- Classico basil pesto
Cut the focaccia into pieces, our focaccia is fairly thick so we cut it horizontally like a sandwich into three pieces (depending on how crusty or soft you like it, you can cut it thick or thin). Shred the chicken and mix with the pesto and parmesan cheese. Spread the chicken and pesto mixture evenly onto the bread and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 350ºF for about 7-10 minutes until the cheese is melted (if you like the bread soft, take it out earlier- as soon as the cheese melts).

Love,
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Two Weeks in Paris & London

April 24, 2016

Hi Everyone!

About this time last year, my parents, sister and I were planning for our two week trip to Paris and London. It was mine and my parents’ first trip outside of North America, and our first family trip since 2000. I loved Paris and London and would definitely go back to both cities. The food was yummy and the sights were beautiful.

We visited the usual sights in Paris and London- Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Sacré-Coeur, Champs-Élysées, multiple bridges in Paris and London, Big Ben, London Eye, and Stonehenge.

I wanted to get macarons while we were in Paris. Before the trip I looked up the best places and we decided to go to Pierre Hermé. I guess when it comes to certain things, I’m a simple girl. I prefer simpler flavours like raspberry, matcha and hazelnut. We got an assortment, but some of them included rose, lemon and salted caramel. Since there’s four of us, we each had 3 (so none of us tried all of them), and if there was a good one or one we didn’t like, we split it in half to share.

In London, we visited Madame Tussauds Wax Museum where we rubbed elbows with the celebs: I sat with George Clooney and stood beside Tom Cruise, photobombed Benedict Cumberbatch and posed with the other Sherlock…Robert Downey Jr. My sis and I got a little creeped out during the Spirit of London ride, but we powered through. We went on a GoldenTours bus tour to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and the Roman Baths (where we actually tasted the water from the fountain…it was lukewarm and tasted like metal). By far, my favourite excursion was to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour for Harry Potter. If you love Harry Potter, I would highly suggest visiting the studio. My sister, dad and I geeked out (My mom wasn’t as excited, but still impressed). We mostly went sightseeing on the trip, but we did manage to visit Oxford Street in London.

My family indulged me in visiting multiple filming locations from TV shows and movies. In Paris, we saw the bridge from Inception (Pont de Bir-Hakeim). In London, we went to Baker Street, and multiple Harry Potter locations: the building used for the exterior for Gringott’s Bank, and the location for the muggles’ entrance to the Ministry of Magic. We planned to visit the location where they film BBC’s Sherlock, but didn’t have enough time and also thought it was a bit too far away from tourist areas and didn’t want to get lost.

For the trip, we bought two of these Universal Travel Adapters on Amazon. They were cheap, and to our surprise, they lasted the whole trip.

Check out my post on Carry-On Travel Essentials!

My Faves from our trip:

Shopping- Primark (Oxford Street, London)

Sightseeing- Warner Brothers Studio Tour London (Leavesden)

Drink- Butterbeer from Warner Brothers Studio Tour (Leavesden)

Lunch in London- Roast Hog Roll from Roast Hog (Borough Market, London)- pic above

Lunch- crepes from Crêpe Brocéliande which are made with Buckwheat and they don’t look like the thick ones we have in North America, but they are just as filling- don’t let it fool you (Montmartre, Paris)

Dinner in Paris- Magret de canard rôti (duck)- the potatoes that came with the duck were to die for (Café du Trocadéro)

Dinner in London- Fish from Poppies Fish and Chips– we didn’t have the chips, but they are probably delicious as well (Spitalfields, London)**

**Warning, they use groundnut oil (peanut oil), but can use vegetable oil if you tell them you’re allergic (we didn’t know this, and my sister is allergic to peanuts, luckily she didn’t have a reaction)

Love,

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