The Budding Cook

Recipe: Peanut Butter Sesame Noodles

2009-06-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Recipe: Peanut Butter Sesame Noodles

Adapted from (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Peanut-Sesame-Noodles-106572)

Ingredients:

1 package of wheat spaghetti pasta
1 cucumber

Dressing:
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of warm water
2 tbsp of rice vinegar
2 teaspoons of honey
1 tbsp of red hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup of chunky peanut butter
1 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil

Directions:
Place all dressing ingredients into a food processor and pulse until it's smooth. Cook spaghetti according to directions. Rinse under cold water. Cut up cucumber into thin slices.

Place peanut butter sesame dressing on the noodles and add cucumbers. According to Epicurious don't let the noodles sit in the sauce for long. Just toss it together before serving.

I've been meaning to make this dish forever. Yums. It usually cost about 5-6 dollars at the noodle house I've been too.

Too bad my husband doesn't like cold noodles or cucumbers. But I made it for me and the little baby in my tummy! ;) I'm currently on maternity leave. :D 9 days till her due date.

Fish sauce salted eggs over rice

2009-02-11T22:39:00.000-08:00

Boil the eggs, add a little salt, and a little fish sauce. Eat on top of white rice. Yummy. It reminds me of home. It's very similar to the fancy braised pork dish (thit kho) dish. However, it's quite simple. I remember my mom sometimes making it for my dad's lunch.

Did I say we liked hot pepper paste?

2008-10-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

We just went to the new H-Mart at the Diamond Jamboree Plaza in Irvine . We got this tub of hot pepper paste for only 5.99! It's huge! It's 6.6 pounds! It makes me laugh.

Broccoli + Chicken Curry

2008-09-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

I bought a kitchen aid knife set and a new bamboo cutting board. I have a glass cutting board but had seen on Good Eats that glass dulls your knife! No wonder. So to test out my new knives I bought a whole chicken and chopped it up for dinner. It was my first experience in chopping up a full chicken. ;) Pretty tough. I should of read some instructions. I mixed the chicken w/ curry from trader joes. And cooked up some broccoli. Yummy! My hubbie ate two servings. You know you've done good when that happens. :D (clap clap clap)

Japanese Ground Chicken Soboro

2008-06-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Recipe: Ground Chicken Soboro

1 pound of ground chicken
6 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp mirin

Place all ingredients in pan saute until the moisture has evaporated. Serve over white rice. I served this w/ broccoli.

I basically followed this recipe.

I only used half the amount of sugar the recipe called for though. I've cooked this recipe a couple of times once with ground Turkey. I'm quite fond of ground meat and trader joes (that's where I got the meat). :D If you have watched Sweeney Todd you might not be. ;)

Recipe: Japanese Miso Chicken MeatBalls

2008-06-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Recipe: Japanese Miso Chicken MeatBalls

Ingredients:
Meatballs :
1 Cup Miso
1/4 milk
2 Cups of Ground Chicken
1 Large Onion, Chopped
1 1/2 Cups Corn Starch
Chinese 5 spice powder
oil for pan fry

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in large bowl. Mix about 100 times with hands. Add some oil to a pan and pan fry until brown on both sides. (10 minutes or so) Smash it down a bit. Preheat oven for 350 degrees. Place meat balls into oven for 10-15 minutes until cooked. Flip over about half way through. I adapted the recipe from Bright cove. Pat 5 spice powder on them. These little guys are strong in taste so we ate them over rice. Enjoy!

Dinner Mash

2008-05-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

Recipe: Dinner Mash
1 can of salmon
1 can of black beans
handful of sweet corn
5 red potatoes
2 carrots
2 eggs
garlic
red pepper paste
-------

I wanted to try to make a patty of some sorts but I didn't have bread crumbs. So I baked some potatoes and carrots in my little red pot in the oven for 450 degrees for 40 minutes. I mashed all the ingredients. Then mixed in some eggs as a glue. I tried to pan fry them. I probably didn't add enough oil. It didn't seem to come together. So I just threw it onto some rice and wah lah dinner. I thought it tasted like food. :d

Asked Mr. Budding cook: "How do you like it?"
His reply: "It's ok."
Me: "It's ok that means you don't like it! Wah."
Mr. Budding cook: "I don't like the consistency. It's too dry on rice."
Me: "Wah that means you don't like it."
Mr. Budding cook: "You could add that red sauce."
Me: "Red pepper paste? If I add it you'll have to eat it."
Mr. Budding cook: "Ok."
Me: "I was thinking maybe a tomato paste of some sorts?"
Mr. Budding cook: "The red pepper paste makes everything taste good. And it could be like spicy tuna."

So I added the red pepper paste. It made the dish taste like.... red pepper paste. You could no longer taste the potatoes, corn or anything. :( I packed some up for lunch. I'll see how it will taste tomorrow w/ a reheat. Budding cook mishap #85.

My food addiction

2008-05-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

What's your food addition? The food that once you start eating you just can't stop. My food addition is cheez its!!! White cheddar, hot tabasco, regular, parmesan. Ahhhhh....There was a sale where if you buy 25 bucks worth a specific brand you get two movie tickets and guess what we bought? And guess what I've been eating for the past couple of weeks? I think I will try to go cold turkey and ween myself off this bad habit. :D

But if I were lost on a desserted island ....

Bunny Creates

2008-05-21T12:17:00.001-07:00

Introducing:

Bunny Creates

I created a new blog for my little creations. :)

I still will be cooking of course...

-the little budding cook

Recipe: Oyakodon

2008-04-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Recipe: Oyakodon

3/4 lb chicken thighs
1 onion
1 2/3 cups soup stock (dashi) - used Gen En Dashi no moto 1 tbsp mixed w/ 1 2/3 cups of water
7 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp sugar
4 eggs

I made oyakodon!
I made oyakodon!
I made oyakodon!

Oyakodon is a Japanese chicken and egg bowl. I've been wanting to try out this recipe forever and I finally did!

I got the recipe from About - Oyakodon. I pretty much followed this recipe using the powder form of dashi to make the soup stock. I sliced the onions into thin slices, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Then I mixed 1 tbsp of dashi mix w/ 1 2/3 cups of water in a pan. I mixed the soy sauce mirin and sugar then I poured into the soup base. The oven was on low heat. I placed the chicken pieces in the mix and covered the pan. After about 15 minutes I added the onions and covered the pan. I also snuck in some broccoli florets. When everything was cooked I cracked the eggs and mixed them in a bowl. (in a video I watched it said not to mix them to well). Then you are supposed to turn up the heat boil the soup and pour the eggs over the mixture. I messed on this part and didn't boil first. But I allowed it boil after the egg mixture was placed in the pan. I prepared two bowls of rice and poured the mixture on top. It was soupy and quite delicious. It smelled so familar to me. It tasted like Japan. I ate two bowls of it! I was pretty happy with the recipe and very amazed I could make it. :)

I also watched this video Oyakodon video - Cooking with Dog (:D well he's not cooking the dog just with him :) haha ) .

Recipe: Red Hot Pepper Turkey

2008-04-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

Recipe: Red Hot Pepper Turkey

Ingredients:

1 package of ground turkey

1 onion
2 tablespoons Hot Pepper Paste (Gochujang)

1 tablespoon of oil

Directions:
Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil. Saute the onions. Add the package of ground turkey. Brown it then pour out the excess liquid. Add two heaping tablespoons of hot pepper paste and mix it. Serve over white rice.

This is one of Mr. Budding cook's favorite dishes. He loves it. He is in love w/ hot pepper paste. It taste hot and sweet. It's a budding cook original. ;) So this is one more dish you can use your tub of Gochujang for.

Related Recipes:
Korean spicy hot tofu stew pot

Shrimp pork paste bread

2008-04-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Grandma's Birthday

My grandma's birthday was this past Tuesday. My mom told me to arrive at my grandma's at 2-3 on Sat. I rushed of the Trader Joe's and bought avocados and mochi ice cream (two of her favorite treats) and arrived at 4. I wanted to show up fashionable late (everyone is always late). When I arrived though there was nobody in sight. My grandma was shocked as much as I was. After much confusion calling my mom, who called my aunt, my grandma called my aunt, who then talked to me - we all figured it out and it was supposed to be a suprise at 5! Oops! Everyone started arriving at 5:30. We ate Costco pizza, KFC chicken, strawberries and ice cream, vietnamese pork and bread and pound cake. Everyone brought a dish. My grandma was slightly upset that she couldn't cook but she always takes too much effort in cooking and it was her birthday party. :D Above is a dish we get usually on special occassions like Thanksgiving. It's soooo dreamy. It's a shrimp and pork paste spreaded on sliced pieces of french bread and fried in oil. The pictures were from this past Thanksgiving...

Happy Easter

2008-03-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter... Well it's tomorrow but I had some time to post this up. Guess what the above picture is depiction of. :D Hint: He is the reason for this season too. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

I drew this w/ my waccom tablet. Not. :D

-budding cook

Hot Tofu soup w/ broccoli

2008-03-19T21:43:00.001-07:00

With some leftover veggies from the steam, I made my hubbie some *hot* tofu soup. :) He ate this w/ rice. When I told him I what I would make him, he exclaimed "I could eat that everyday!". I think he likes it. Hope he feels better.

Here is the recipe, the diary of a novice cook also made it from a recipe from none other than me! I got so very excited to see this post.

Veggie Alert!

2008-03-17T20:36:00.001-07:00

What can you do w/ all of this?

This is what I did: I steamed the broccoli and squash. Chopped up tomatoes and sauteed them w/ soy sauce and onions. Then after the steaming was done, I mixed the two. It tasted pretty good to me. The broccoli wasn't overcooked or undercooked. Mr. hubby thought it tasted too healthy maybe because it was!

feeling a wee bit content

2008-03-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

i'm feeling a wee bit content. it's been a little stressful of late and finally i feel like i have a handle on things.. so this is how i'm feeling right now. wish i could feel like this always.. but with no lows there can't be highs. :D

weekend bliss

2008-02-25T22:08:00.000-08:00

I made stamps this weekend on Sat. It was so peaceful and calming. I really enjoyed it a lot..Guess which one is my favorite? I drew the stems, and bodies.. :)

Another year

2008-02-23T01:25:00.000-08:00

My birthday was not too long ago. Mr. Budding cooked me a wonderful breakfast an omelette, turkey sausages and buttered muffins. We went to the a museum, frequented a mall in search for boots (no boots were found), drank boba tea, ate sushi and ended the night w/ a concert. :)

A another year, another year older... the nice thing though at the museum the guy asked if we had student cards and we didn't but he said you guys look like you are students and he gave us the discount anyways. Cha ching.. :) It made me feel better for turning a wee bit older.

Happy Belated Valentines!

2008-02-16T20:54:00.000-08:00

And what did a budding little cook get for Valentines?

Something that is good to eat?!?

These scrumptious little creations did eventually die but in my tummy. :) They were so thick, moist, and absolutely delicious. Thank-you Mr. Budding Cook. It was very SWEET! :D

Hope everyone had a very happy valentines!

Side Note - As I was walking back to my desk holding these, I ran into a wall because I was admiring the cookies. :D

The Budding Bunny...

2008-01-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Update: I told Mr. Budding cook about my blog posting and he told me that he wants me to cook again.. :) So I will soon enough. I'll start next week. :D

Can you tell that I haven't cooked in a very long time? I haven't. Mr. Budding Bunny got a new job and he doesn't bring food anymore. I attempted to cook a few weeks ago but the bok choy rotted and the cabbage went to waste. So I haven't been cooking. Not sure where life will take me but I didn't want to give up on my blog and I hope you don't give up on me. :) I'll still post up my adventures travelling, food when I can, craft making and maybe .... a poem. Inspired by the movie Once, I picked up my guitar again and started writing poetry. It's a past time of mine that I sort of got too busy for...

Older

the lines around your eyes.
don't make you any wiser.
you are the same person
as you were before...

disorganized
impulsive
full of whys
and sad

you say that you are different
that you have changed
but your actions show
a whole lot more...

the lines around your eyes.
don't make you any wiser.
you are the same person
as you were before...

Stamp Making: Bunnies

2008-01-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

I caught the stamp making bug from my little sister shrooms

Trip Report: Tokyo

2008-01-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

Trip Report: Tokyo

Some more details for a tigerfish and everyone... :) Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions.

Food -
The food was so good. I could definitely eat it all day. We ate udon noodles, katsudon, soba, sushi, curry rice, sushi bowls w/ rice, miso soup, snacks, mochi balls, gyzoa buns and more. :) Everything we ate there was quite delicious. We only had one bad experience at a fast food curry place. Besides that we usually chose the traditional style looking food places near our hotel (Shiba Park Hotel). My favorite dish perhaps was a pork don. Pork, mayo and egg. Yumms...

Drink -
We were in awe of their vending machines. Everyday we were there we would run up to them and choose different types of drinks (Super H20, tea, yogurt drinks). They ranged from about from 80 cents and up. When my husband and brother stumbled on the 100 yen store and the drinks there we stocked up but we still couldn't resist the white little vending machines w/ their drink displays.

Subways-
I enjoyed walking up and down the streets, people watching, riding the subways. Just walking.. It feels nice to just walk and not have to worry about exercising every day in an ugly old stinky gym. Below is a picture of the subway at Disney. :D

We used this book to get around:

Tokyo City Atlas Mr. Budding cook loved it because it told you which subway exits to go to etc.

Money -
The best tip is to get travellers cheques they have a better exchange rate than cash. Also capital one doesn't charge! So we used our capital one credit card when we could. However as I have read and it is the case there - most places only accept cash (yen).

Hotel -
Shiba Park Hotel - We stayed here for 5 nights. It was a decent hotel w/ nicely sized rooms. The best part was it was near three subway stations and and we enjoyed the food near there.

People -
The people are all so neat and clean and repectful and helfpul. I only saw one person wear sweats the whole time. I loved looking at them especially at Tokyo Disney Sea where all the girls dressed up in little peacoats, tights and boots. So adorable w/ their cool styles. :D

Shopping -

I got a tip from Glida's guide to Tokyo to shop at Ueno for gifts.

So we found a grocery there with very cheap cheap food! We totally stocked up. We bought candy, treats and loads of rice crackers. The 100 yen stores also have cheap cheap food and treats but this place in Ueno was even cheaper! Here is a sampling of what I bought below. We stopped by harajuku to find a nodding doll for mushroom meadows . I thought most of the stuff there looked more upper scale so we didn't shop too long. We also went to Odabia and they have many malls. I bought two shirts from Honey in Decks for only 10 bucks a piece. :D I'm a bargain shopper. I wish I had more time to shop shop shop. But we did our fair share of shopping. I noticed toys (electronic ones) were cheapest in Akihabara. We bought four toys from SoftMap.

More Travel Guides and cool sites:
We bought the following travel guides.
Frommers: Tokyo

Lonely Planet - Tokyo/

I found these sites helpful:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2164.html

http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo

Tokyo: Summary

2007-12-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

I just came back from Tokyo a couple of weeks ago. I have to say it's one of my favorite trips next to my honeymoon so far. It was my first out of country experience. I thought that it would be more of a culture shock but it wasn't. The people were quite lovely and respectful. The subways were pristine. It felt safe. I'll post a more detailed trip report next. :D For now enjoy some pictures...

Merry Christmas ...

2007-12-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and guess where I just came back from?

Here is a hint:

Recipe: Cashew Kreme

2007-11-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

Late at night one night I was flipping channels and saw an episode of the Tyra Bank show. It was diet wars. Instead continuing the flip, I watched the entire episode. This was the first I heard of raw food! So I searched the web and found a cool little site called Ani's Raw Kitchen.

I was excited because:

I could assemble food without having to actually cook ?!! Yes!
I could make something for lunch the next day without having to radiate? Yeah!

Here's my first recipe using raw food concepts. I didn't have nama shoyu which is raw soy sauce.

Reference: Ani Phyo's Cashew Kreme, Carrot, Pepper and Nori

Recipe: Cashew Kreme

Cashew Kreme

1 cup cashews (soaked overnight and rinsed)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup water

Place all ingredients into a food processor and pulse. In her recipe she makes little nori rolls. For me I placed the kreme on top pieces of romaine lettuce and served it with grape tomatoes.

Conclusion:
My little bubbies liked it. But since I threw around the term raw so often in excitement by the end of the week he was craving a double cheese burger from McDonald's. :D Next time I'll call it salad dressing.