Greek lasagna?

Sort of. Without the pasta and much, much tastier. I’m talking about moussaka.

Party/potluck food.

Bringing food to parties or potlucks can be a daunting task. But it just takes a little planning, scrounging around in the cupboard and stepping outside to your garden for fresh herbs. Atleast in my world it is. But seriously. It should be a simple task, no?

I had a family dinner recently and not only was I tasked to bring dessert, I was also asked to bring an appetizer as well! 7 good eaters…what was I to bring? I looked around my house and it came to me: brown rice and chick pea salad.

The whitest sushi ever.

I’m talking about the infamous California roll.

Preparing for my Korea trip.

It’s weird. Whenever I have an upcoming trip planned and the days draw nearer to my departure, the more food I will eat from that culture. For example? Last year I had Japanese food almost everyday until my departure to Japan and Taipei. When I arrived back home in Vancouver, I made oyakodon right away and had Taiwanese beef noodle every week for a month.

So, I’m set to leave for Korea in just under three week’s time. How am I preparing for my trip? By watching an unhealthy amount of Eat Your Kimchi videos and consuming an unhealthy amount of Korean food. Kimchi jjigae has been on my regular rotation for the past two weeks but since the weather has finally started to warm up here, I opted for something spicy yet cool — bibimguksu.

Turning sushi into a salad.

So it’s no secret that I love sushi and I remember seeing a recipe ages ago when I first started cooking for a California roll salad. How freakin’ genius is that? Time for that idea to come into fruition.

Sushi.

Sushi. I love me some sushi. Little morsels of perfectly seasoned short-grain rice wrapped in a seaweed wrapper encasing an endless combination of fillings. Yum. Definitely one of my favourite go-to’s when I’m on the go.

Today I’ll be teaching you how to make a basic maki sushi roll.

Cookies fit for a king (or queen).

Imperial cookies or the empire biscuit. Yep. I made that.

Cold ramen?

So…I just realized that I leave for Korea in a mere 3 weeks time! Holy crap. No wonder shit’s been hitting the fan lately. I’ve been experiencing an influx of cupcake orders, sponsorship requests, working 6-day work weeks for the past three weeks — all while to try and maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle in preparation for the Vancouver Sun Run. Which was today. Again, no training — just winged it. Now my muscles are all achy and sore, yay. BUT atleast I managed to beat my 2011 time and finished the race at 56:27! Hurrah!

Now, time for noodles, more specifically, hiyashi chuka.

Let’s make a cake.

Baking a cake can be super simple. It may seem intimidating at first but really, it’s just like a giant cupcake…with a layer of frosting in the middle and on the sides. It’s also one of those dishes that when you have the final product just standing in front of you, it is soooo rewarding.

I recently ran a contest last month for Dolce Delights in which participants create a flavour that they’d like to see on the new seasonal menu and in return, I would be bake them a 6″ layer cake…for free! This contest was aimed to create interaction on the DD social media platforms and also a chance for my employee to play around with cakes. Unfortunately (but fortunately), I had to make the cake as it was the contest winner’s wedding anniversary and I wanted to make it extra special. And also an extra 2″ larger. What was the end product? A banana nutella layer cake that I not-so-secretly wished were mine.

Lazy cooking.

I have been so energy-less in the past week and I really think it is due to my meat consumption. Seriously. I had a HUGE meat feast at the Fairmont Pacific Rim’s Oru when I had their chef’s tasting menu last week PLUS I made ramen from scratch and had leftover cha shu for almost a whole week. Meat overload.

Ever since I’ve been tracking my diet, I’ve noticed that in weeks where I consume more meat products, the more tired I am, the more lazy I am, and fatter I feel. Don’t get me wrong — I LOVE meat. In fact, I can’t live without it. But I don’t know what it is… It’s a mystery to me.

After I finished all those wonderful leftovers, I was able to cook something meat-free again. And since my kitchen is full of random leftover produce and ingredients, I wanted something quick, Asian, and filling. My favourite go to? Yakiudon. I was out of out of my usual ingredients so…a kimchi tuna yakiudon was born.