I admit, I’m a lazy foodie. When it comes to things like shellfish, I want my food to taste just as amazing and the level of effort it takes to get it (once it gets to my plate). For this reason, while I love crab, I’m always dismayed by the idea of having to crush …
My Sicilian vacation can be summed up in three words: Food, Wine, Beach. From my experience, that’s all that matters there. Because when you’re not stuffing your face with food and wine, you’re swimming it off in the Mediterranean Sea. I was especially excited to dine in Sicily because it is where I have always …
I’ve never really celebrated Easter aside from Easter egg hunting as a kid. My parents are buddhist so it wasn’t really a thing for us. Easter is however a big deal in Italy (big surprise). I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than lots of food (GIovanni tells me it’s the time of year when …
First off – you won’t really learn how to make Tibetan Momos from this blog. This is just about my experience TRYING to learn. With that said, enjoy the story telling, photo story, and yummy looking goodness. As some of you know, I’ve been teaching English with a program called Lha, and one of my …
You know that scene in Cinderella when goes to wake her stepsisters and they have the vaulted ceiling rooms and she has to go clear across to room to draw open the ginormous drapes covering the windows? Ok, the guys have no clue what I’m talking about but I know at Leslie knows what I’m talking about. Well …
Waiting around all week to help Mink at the local farmers market wasn’t so terrible considering how much I loved Pai. I was so excited I even got up before the sun came up. It was the first morning I wasn’t woken up by the quacking ducks underneath my bungalow. I later found out it …
I’ve had my fair share of full day feasts. I started practicing how to survive these events while growing up at any kind of Chinese family gathering. Copious amounts of food was required just as much as your presence. I thought I had perfected this skill while I was in Italy during the many – …
If you don’t like cauliflower, I strongly suggest you give this dish a chance. Personally, I’m not a big cauliflower fan. To me it’s a crunchy, tough, flavorless vegetable. I’m much happier with it’s sister: broccoli. But this pasta dish gave the vegetable a second chance for me. The key is slow cooking the cauliflower to …
Before Italy, Mozzarella was my favorite cheese. Silly American, I just didn’t know any better. What I discovered during my time in Italy is a delightful cheese called “burrata”. To put it simple: Imagine a mozzarella ball stuffed with cottage cheese. Burrata means “buttered” in Italian, so how could I not love this cheese? It starts …
For lack of a better description, we’ve dubbed Valeria’s recent breads as “Wine Bread”. We call it wine bread because it’s made with yeast collected from wine. I know you’re probably confused, so read this short previous entry about the process. Now that you have your mother yeast, when you are ready to bake all …
Did you know you can bake bread without commercial yeasts? You can cultivate your very own yeast at home, and it’s easier than you think! They call it Pasta Madre, which at first translated sounds like Mother Pasta. But Valeria calls it a Mother Yeast, a natural yeast base created by combining collecting the must …
Next to lasagna, one of the many Italian dishes I came to discover in my teenage years was Carbonara. However, since I’ve been living in Italy, it occurs to me that the Carbonara that is served all over the US that we’re used to picturing is not truly the way Carbonara has been traditionally made. …
I have never cooked with a stone oven although I constantly dream about having one in my backyard. Once a year, Gulcan roasts a leg of lamb, usually in a oven, but the stone oven here at FCI is a new addition, so this was a first for her as well. Unfortunately I was not …
What a treat it has been to dine with such a grand cook. Gulcan’s home cooking is fantastic. The kitchen is a crazy place to be right before dinner, but in the end, the final product is totally worth it. I wish I had more, because there has been some other dishes that I LOVE, …
So far Cappadochia has been quite swell to me. I’ve been a bit lazy the past week, basically spending any solo free time out on the patio at FCI or skyping with some loved ones. Unal has been kind enough to take me out on a few excursions, which have been delightful. I hope to …
Back during the good old culinary art classes in highschool, I learned how to make ravioli. All I could remember was how tedious it was…but somehow I forgot just how tedius it was exactly. Plus I wanted to try a new technique I had learned from the pasta making class I stumbled upon. But fair …
Happy Birthday to Nonna Daniela! She was going to make her own cake and I thought that was just plain silly. Daniela is not big on cakes and described a cookie crust pudding like pie that she had that she really liked, so I decided to create the only cheesecake I’m willing to eat, thinking …
BBQ and bonfires should always be together. They are one of my favorite entertaining activities because it involves, good people, good food, music and the outdoors. With enough luck in the Pacific Northwest your event can stretch from the afternoon until late at night. before I left for Italy I decided to cook up a …
Valeria’s friend Sandra came to visit for a couple days…she’s from Argentina so lucky for us she taught us how to make empanadas one afternoon. This is a rough recipe, as I was just observing and she was speaking Italian, so give or take some of this. It could probably be cut in half because …
Luisa, one of Valeria’s friends invited us to her home for brunch today. Luisa has a BEAUTIFUL Italian home. It seems I feel this way about all Italian homes, but hers really is gorgeous and something I can imagine living in. She is a retired artist and every square inch of her home is painted …
This actually occurred last month, but because eat faster than I can write, I’m telling you about it now. Plus it fits with Thanksgiving just around the corner. My beautiful friend Lisa is vegan, and invited me to her lovely home for a vegan thanksgiving potluck! Now if you know me at all…I’ve always been …
So the entry a lot of you have been waiting for…Jack Daniel’s Bread Pudding. Everyone knows how much I love bread pudding. This first appeared during my birthday week….amazing. We’ve obtained the secret recipe, and I added some of my own secrets. Personally I really liked my version because the sauce was not as liquid-y …
What an incredible night. There was about 20 people in attendance. Laying in the sun, eating, talking, and playing music with my friends was more than amazing. I even went swimming in the Puget Sound. The only food related item I have to share is the legendary Jack Daniel’s Bread Pudding you see above. My …
Things that are not worth writing an entire entry solely dedicated to one item. First off: What do you do when you go to a ballgame? Remember the 90’s? Ahh..those were the days when I actually paid attention to the game. I love my Mariner’s but lately ball games have been reduced to talking and …
So I celebrate my birthday for a week. Why? Because I have such a diverse group of friends, it’s hard to get everybody out on one particular day of the year. That way people can just show up to whatever itinerary I set up. This year’s agenda includes, BBQ, bonfire jam session, sailing, The Noble …
