Here is a great, easy, fast appetizer that you can whip up and serve your dinner guests while they’re waiting on the main course, or even as just a afternoon snack.

Ingredients:
- Loaf of French bread
- Goat Cheese (approx. 5-6 oz)
- Salt (to taste)
- Small tomato (optional)
- Balsamic vinaigrette (optional)

Let’s cook!
1. Preheat the oven to broil
2. Slice the loaf of bread into 1 to 3/4 inch thick slices and place onto a cookie sheet
3. Spread the goat cheese onto the slices of bread.  You can spread as much as you like onto the bread, I tend to like a lot of goat cheese – yum!  Then sprinkle a bit of salt on each piece of bread to taste.

4. Put the bread in the oven and let bake for 3-4 minutes, or until the sides of the bread starts to turn more golden brown.

5. (Optional) While the bread is in the oven, dice up the small tomato.
6. (Optional) To serve, add a small bit of the tomato on top of the crouton and a little sprinkle of balsamic vinaigrette.  While this is optional, I like to at least add some juicy tomatoes to compliment the dryness of the crouton.

Ah, sangria. It’s my can’t-live-without-it summer cocktail.

There are tons and tons of variations on sangria recipes. I think I might test out a white sangria recipe later on this summer, but today (since we are having our dear friends, Esther and Jacob, from Esther JuLee Photography over for dinner), I decided to make a red sangria since I wanted to make use of the great POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, that I received as a gift from POM!

Ingredients
- 1 bottle red wine
- 2 cups POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
- 3/4 cup brandy
- 1/4 cup simple syrup (equal amounts sugar and water)
- 1 small orange, halved and thinly sliced
- 1 green apple, cored, halved and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup red grapes, sliced in half
- 2 cups ginger ale

Tasty sangria ingredients!  If you notice, the bottle of brandy is more than half used.. I love using brandy when making chocolate fondue, mmm… delish!

Midway through making the sangria, I realized that I forgot to include the POM Wonderful pomegranate juice in the group photo… silly me!… this was after I had already prepped the fruits. So, take two:

Let’s Mix!
1. Heat up 1/4 cup water and when it comes close to a boil, add 1/4 cup sugar. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then turn heat off and set the mixture aside.
2. Add the fruit to an empty pitcher, then combine all of the rest of the ingredients, except for the ginger ale.
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
4. Just before serving, add the ginger ale and serve the sangria over ice!
5. Enjoy!

A recipe inspired by a current addiction:  Coconut M&Ms!  A good friend introduced me to these delectable little candies and now I can’t stop craving them (thanks Brian!).  They also made me miss Hawai’i like crazy.  Coconut M&Ms are a limited edition flavor, so go out and get some while you can!  I think I may go stock up on a few bags.

These cookies are a perfect little treat to welcome in the warm weather and make you crave the beach, the ocean and all things tropical.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (soft, not melted)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups coconut flakes
3 oz Coconut M&Ms

Let’s Bake!
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix well, then set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Note: I used an electric mixer, which did a wonderful job – and less work for me – ha!
4. Slowly mix in the flour mixture, then the coconut flakes and the M&Ms.
5. Place the dough in 1 inch diameter balls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Dough should be about 2-3 inches apart.
6. Bake for about 8 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are lightly golden.
7. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool.
8. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk, or piña colada!

A recipe inspired by a current addiction:  Coconut M&Ms!  A good friend introduced me to these delectable little candies and now I can’t stop craving them (thanks Brian!).  They also made me miss Hawai’i like crazy.  Coconut M&Ms are a limited edition flavor, so go out and get some while you can!  I think I may go stock up on a few bags.

These cookies are a perfect little treat to welcome in the warm weather and make you crave the beach, the ocean and all things tropical.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (soft, not melted)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups coconut flakes
3 oz Coconut M&Ms

Let’s Bake!
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix well, then set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Note: I used an electric mixer, which did a wonderful job – and less work for me – ha!
4. Slowly mix in the flour mixture, then the coconut flakes and the M&Ms.
5. Place the dough in 1 inch diameter balls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Dough should be about 2-3 inches apart.
6. Bake for about 8 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cookies are lightly golden.
7. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool.
8. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk, or piña colada!

Sticky rice with mango (Khao Niaow Ma Muang) is a traditional Thai summer dessert. This is a very simple, and very delicious dish that reminds me of summer vacation and trips to the beach. I can’t wait for the day I get to finally visit Thailand and have real Thai food!

Ingredients (2 servings)
1 cup glutinous rice
1 tbsp white sesame seeds (optional)
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1 mango
fresh mint sprigs, to garnish (optional)

Let’s Cook!
1. The night before you want to make this dessert, rinse the rice in a sieve and under running water until the water runs clear.
2. Place the rice in a glass (or ceramic) bowl, cover it with water and leave it to soak overnight. Note: if you want to speed up this process, soak the rice in hot water for 3 hours. Or just soak the rice for one hour and then cook in a rice cooker, using less water than you would with regular rice.
3. When you are ready to make the dessert, drain the rice and place it in a bowl inside the steamer and cover with the lid.
4. Steam the rice over moderately low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked.
5. Remove the bowl with the rice from the steamer and set aside.
6. Optional: toast sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat for about 3 minutes, continuously shaking the pan gently until the seeds are golden brown. Then remove immediately from the heat to prevent the sesame seeds from burning.
7. Pour the coconut milk into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and salt to the saucepan and mix well.
8. Heat the coconut milk mixture over medium heat, stirring the mixture continuously until the sugar dissolves. Be careful not to overheat the mixture, because coconut milk will curdle if boiled.
9. Lower the heat to a medium low and simmer for 5 minutes, until the mixture has thickened slightly. Make sure to keep stirring the mixture so that it does not burn on the bottom.
10. Remove the coconut mixture from the heat and slowly pour 3/4 of the coconut milk mixture over the top of the rice.
12. Use a fork to lift and fluff the rice. However, do not stir the mixture through.
13. Let the rice mixture rest for about 5 minutes before carefully spooning it into the center of 2 serving plates. The rice will absorb all of the coconut milk mixture.
14. Arrange the mango slices around the rice mounds, then spoon the rest of the coconut milk mixture over the rice, sprinkle sesame seeds on top of the rice, and garnish with mint leaves.
15. Serve and enjoy!

Here’s a recipe from SELF Magazine that I found via Kristen Leigh of Sweet Escape Yoga!  I made a few alterations to the recipe – I’m using free-range chicken, jasmine rice instead of brown and not garnishing with peanuts.

Ingredients (1 serving)
Olive oil
1 boneless, skinless free-range chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup uncooked jasmine rice
1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 Teaspoons chili paste with garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/3 cup matchstick cut carrots
1/4 cup thinly sliced red bell peppers
1/2 cups snow peas, trimmed
one pinch salt

Let’s Cook!
1. Start cooking rice in rice cooker.
2. Place 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil in a wok and heat over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, add chicken cubes and cook until all sides have turned white and the center is no longer pink, about 7-10 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
3. While the chicken is cooking, combine sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili paste and minced ginger in a small bowl.
4. Return the wok to the stove over medium-high heat.  Add the carrots, bell peppers, snow peas and sesame oil, saute for 2 minutes.
5. Add the cubed chicken to the wok and saute for an additional 1 minute.
6. Add the soy sauce mixture to the wok and saute mixture for 2 minutes.
7. Dish the rice out onto a plate or bowl and spoon the chicken & snow pea dish over the rice.
8. Enjoy!

Note: If you would like the dish to be spicier, feel free to add more chili sauce to the soy sauce mixture.

(Update: I re-cooked, photographed and posted about the Cavatappi Amatriciana here in this post)

On occasion we post some non-Asian recipes.  It’s always nice to have a good blend of different types of food in our house.  These two recipes are for two of my favorite dishes from the Italian restaurant, Carrabba’s.  We happen to live somewhat far away from a Carrabba’s so when we get a craving for their food, we just whip these two dishes up: Chicken Bryan and Cavatappi Amatriciana.

The recipes can be found here: Chicken Bryan & Cavatappi Amatriciana.

Tip: If you don’t have a grill for the Chicken Bryan, or it’s too cold to go outside and grill (in our case), you can also bake the chicken in the oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

Setting a nice (yet simple) table setting makes the entire dinner experience complete!

(Update: I re-cooked, photographed and posted about the Cavatappi Amatriciana here in this post)

On occasion we post some non-Asian recipes.  It’s always nice to have a good blend of different types of food in our house.  These two recipes are for two of my favorite dishes from the Italian restaurant, Carrabba’s.  We happen to live somewhat far away from a Carrabba’s so when we get a craving for their food, we just whip these two dishes up: Chicken Bryan and Cavatappi Amatriciana.

The recipes can be found here: Chicken Bryan & Cavatappi Amatriciana.

Tip: If you don’t have a grill for the Chicken Bryan, or it’s too cold to go outside and grill (in our case), you can also bake the chicken in the oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

Setting a nice (yet simple) table setting makes the entire dinner experience complete!