Happy New Year!!! I hope 2019 has started off in a good way for you, my friends! K and a friend baked these lovely macarons a few days ago, and they're so delicious -- a perfect way to begin the year. She tells me that they used this video and it must be a darn excellent tutorial because the macarons came out very profesh. So I've been mulling over how to make this announcement. Typically, my first post of the year is all about the Secret Valentine Exchange and I was keeping my fingers ... Read more
Health Food Experiments: Kombucha and Spiralizer
Yesterday, K and I had an epic playdate with some friends (gotta keep the kiddos entertained), and I was introduced to homemade kombucha. Have you ever had kombucha? The fermented tea can be easily made at home if you have a starter SCOBY, which is an acronym for "symbiotic 'colony' of bacteria and yeast". My friend has been brewing up a batch regularly and kindly sent me home with my own jug to ferment. I had a sampling to taste, and it has the tang of apple cider vinegar with more sweetness. I ... Read more
Mini Onigiri
The last time I posted anything food-related that didn't feature cookbooks was October of 2014 (this delicious cashew milk that promptly made me break out in hives after overdosing on it for two days -- I can eat the nuts by the bucketful without any issues, so that incident was a mystery). I give you mini onigiri -- which translates to rice ball, though the literal meaning is more along the lines of "squeezed" or "clasped". They are also known as omusubi. I felt that my diminutive ... Read more
Cookbooks
These Japanese candies are called kompeito, little constellations of pure sugar. They taste like rock candy with perhaps a slight flowery undertone. I have quite a lot left over from the Little K launch party (they didn't fit in the piñata), and I'm not sure what to do with them, but they take me back to my childhood. My mom didn't buy very many sweet treats when I was a kid. She made almost everything from scratch, and the ones I requested over and over were sliced, candied sweet potatoes fried ... Read more
Cashew Milk
As I grow older, I've noticed that I have a harder time digesting cow's milk and end up with a bunch of weird reactions. In particular, my monthly PMS breakouts are worse and painfully cystic when I've consumed too many dairy products, so I've been trying to find tasty alternatives. I love soy and almond milk, but I've been reading about some scary additives (like carrageenan) and though I usually pshaw those types of hyped up warnings, I figure I should stay on the safe side. A few weeks ... Read more