Cookbooks I Love- Part 2

I don't own any of these but I would like to someday. For now, I can always check them out at my local library.

1. How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition) by Mark Bittman. I seriously believe that everyone should have this book. It has 2,000 recipes ranging from basics (e.g. Cinnamon Toast, Grilled Cheese) to the complex (e.g. pie crusts from scratch,  preparing lobster, etc.). The recipes tell you how many servings, how long to take, and an easy-to-follow step-by-step approach. Illustrations are few but very helpful. He also includes variations on basic recipes, like sandwiches, fried chicken.

2. Emeril 20-40-60: Fresh Food Fast by Emeril Lagasse. I think this book is one of his best. There are numerous dishes divided up to how long it will take to prepare, start to finish. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many dishes were in the 20 minute section. I had posted a 20 minute recipe in my last blog, the PB and Chocolate Chip cookies. Here are some sample dishes: Fish En Papillote, Bruschetta, Pasta Primavera, Steak Au Poivre, Orange, Walnut, and Goat Cheese Salad, Shrimp Etouffe, and Trout a La Meuniere.
I think this book would resonate well with home cooks.

3. Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum. If you ever wanted to learn how to make beautiful and delicious cakes from scratch, take a look at this book. There are some tempting cakes: Heavenly Coconut Seduction Cake, Golden Lemon Almond Cake, and Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache to Orange-Glow Chiffon Layer Cake, Mud Turtle Cupcakes, and Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake. I consider this book great for intermediate to advanced bakers. I consider myself a novice cake baker so it'll be a little while before I feel like I can tackle on one of these recipes.

4. Martha Stewart's Cupcakes by Martha Stewart. The domestic diva has done it again. Who knew that there could be 175 ideas and recipes on cupcakes? These recipes are all from scratch (it is Martha, after all). But not terribly intimidating for home cooks. I plan on making several of these recipe later in the year. Her book is divided into 4 sections. Her book has more traditional cupcakes, such as Chocolate Chip, Carrot Cake, and Red Velvet to lesser-known cupcakes, Stout Cupcakes (Guinness in cupcakes? Can't wait!) and Snickerdoodle Cupcakes.

5. Cake Mix Cookies by Camilla V. Saulsbury. I adore Ms. Saulsbury's recipes. Each one of her books has a lot of helpful tips and information about baking/cooking. Each one of the recipes requires a standard 18.25-ounce box of cake mix with some embellishments (e.g. chocolate chips, nuts, etc.). There are more than 175 recipes in this book. She has her book divided into several sections: drop cookies, bar cookies, shaped and filled cookies. The recipes are straightforward and easy-to-follow. A must for novice bakers or anyone who wants great cookies fast.

6. The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. My mom has this book and she's a pro at making cakes from scratch. But every now and then, you want to make a great cake without all the fuss. I have made several cakes from this book and no one would even guess that the cakes were not made from scratch! My hubby's personal favorite from this book is the Boston Cream Pie Cake. Here are some other cakes: Deeply Chocolate Almond Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, Banana Cake with Quick Caramel Frosting, and Lemon Buttermilk Poppy Seed Cake.

7. Brownie Mix Bliss by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Similar to the cake mix cookie book, you just need a regular box of brownie mix. The book ranges from sophisticated biscotti, soufflé cakes, madeleines, and cheesecakes to nostalgic drop cookies ice cream novelties, gooey layered bar cookies, etc.

8. America's Most Wanted Recipes by Ron Douglas. If you ever wanted to have some restaurant meals for a fraction of the cost at home, try this book out. There are over 200 recipes from 57 of popular American restaurants: Benihana, The Cheesecake Factory, KFC, Olive Garden, P.F. Chang, Red Lobster, and Outback Steakhouse. The recipes are easy-to-follow, many are on one page. Personally, I can't wait to make Benihana's fried rice.

I may never buy cookies again

I am working on a couple food blog projects. One book that I picked up from the library and will be discussing in a future blog is Emeril's 20-40-60 Fresh Food Fast book.

I noticed in the 20 minutes or less section there was a recipe for peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies. Cookies from scratch in 20 minutes?! I was skeptical but decided to give it a try today.

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 5 minutes, Cook time: 10 minutes, Total: 15 minutes

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Position two oven racks in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Divide the dough into 24 portions, about 1 heaping tablespoon each. Roll each portion between your hands to form a smooth bowl. Place the balls of dough on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. You should get about 12 cookies per sheet. Using a fork, press on the dough in two directions to form a crosshatch pattern.
4. Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets between oven racks and turning them back to front midway, until the cookies are puffed and lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies cool on the sheets. Then remove them with a metal spatula.

About 24 cookies


I actually didn't have light brown sugar so I looked up what substitutes. Apparently, you can use dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. I realize now that I also forgot to beat the egg separately before incorporating it into the mix.

Maybe this is why I ended up with 18 cookies rather than 24. Oh well. I had a few and they were so good!

I wonder if Emeril has other easy cookie recipes. If I can find more easy peasy cookie recipes, I may never buy cookies again.

Upcoming projects

Hi readers,
     I have a few blog projects that I'm currently working on. I went to the library today and got lots of great cookbooks for research.

New blog layout

Hope you like the new layout. I felt it was time for a little change.

Prepping for a Potluck

My personal life has been chaos so I apologize for the lack of recent updates this year. Can I just say that, so far, 2010, has NOT been my year?

My temp job ended recently so I find myself with the challenges of A) finding a new job, and B) what to do with my ample free time.

As I continue to work on the job, I decided to start cooking again. It has been months since I have really cooked or baked except for my cheesecake debacle. My last job was over 20 miles away from home and I would spend 2 hours a day driving to and from work. This, as you can imagine, leaves little energy and time for home-cooked meals.

Enter Trader Joe's. What did I do before I rediscovered them?

Last week, I paid a visit to a friend and former co-worker, Iris. Iris is also a fellow foodie and baker. We bonded quickly over lunches out of the office together. She's still looking for work as well.

Tulip's potluck had me in a dilemma. What on earth was I going to bring to the potluck? Even though Tulip is one of my biggest culinary fans, it's different cooking something for complete strangers. Potlucks are a special challenge: food needs to be in larger quantities and portable.

I narrowed down my choices to either an appetizer or a dessert. I figured, why not a cake?
Iris gave me a chocolate cake recipe to try.

I had fun making the cake although I need to learn how to frost a cake properly. You can tell it was homemade, huh?

I also need to learn how to take good food pics. Any food stylists and food photographers out there- please feel free to share some tips with me!



My hubby came for a visit from a job in Fresno. I gave him about half of the cake to take with him. He really enjoyed it and said that it was the best thing he's eaten in months. (Of course, since he's been on the road, he's been eating fast food. So I have to take that comment with a little grain of salt.)

I am looking forward to making this cake again Friday night and frost it on Saturday before the potluck.

Cooking with a friend

Happy 2010! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Can't believe it's February already.
My friend, Begonia, had purchased a new house a few months ago. She admitted she's not much of a baker (*gasp!*) and found a recipe for a dessert that she wanted help in making. I think what she meant was I'll help by providing the use of my kitchen. I went over there on Saturday.

The recipe sounded unusual but in a good way,
Coconut-sweet potato cheesecake. It sounded fairly ambitious with a comment from a newspaper reporter who attempted this recipe. I found the suggestion of doubling the crust to be very helpful.


Prep time: 1 hour, 10 minutes; cook time: 2 hours. Not in our experience! Cooking in someone else's kitchen is always a challenge. I love her kitchen but I would have to bring over a lot more things.


The recipe has 28 ingredients, a few were repeated: butter, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice. The only ingredient I wasn't familiar with is the Coco Lopez, which is sweetened cream of coconut. I am sure they keep in the liquor section of grocery stores but Begonia had to go to BevMo for a can.


It would have been nice if I had a food processor for the sweet potatoes. We used yams instead. The recipe didn't make any distinction and I wish the recipe author had. I learned last year that there is definitely a difference between a sweet potato and a yam.... but I digress.
I had the idea of using a blender to puree the yams. However, several of her kitchen outlets weren't working. Begonia said her blender was old. She went to her neighbor's house and borrowed one. This blender didn't work either.


We were able to get the blender going although I decided not to use it but use a potato masher instead. I knew that it would not be the beautifully smooth puree as described in the recipe. My yams were going to be "rustic". I forgot to bring my hand mixer. Begonia didn't own one. We went to Target in hopes of finding a decent one that was cheap which we did.


About twenty minutes later, I am ready to move on to the filling. We had fun crushing (cinnamon) graham cracker crumbs in Ziploc bags. The crust was the only part of the recipe that I didn't struggle with. This was not my first cheesecake but I had to re-read the recipe at least 3 times. The crust had to be chilled for exactly 30 minutes.

Now, here comes the fun part. "

For filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, ricotta cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add cream of coconut, lemon juice, lemon peel and vanilla; beat until smooth. Fold in 1 cup flaked coconut and sweet potato mixture. Pour filling into prepared pan."

Now, Begonia didn't have a mixing bowl or anything close. So channeling my inner Iron Chef, I improved with the bowls that she had. I could not use the proper speed (4 was recommended on the blender). I had to use the lowest setting and immediately the batter started splattering. I had to use the blender in quick spurts and mix the batter with a wooden spoon.

I had started this project around 4:10 or so. I believe it was around 6 when the cheesecake was put in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes. We were starving by the time the cheesecake was done and went to get food and come back. The cheesecake still looked a little raw in the center but I know cheesecakes tend to do that. It was actually 'set' in the center when we returned.

I didn't get to eat the cheesecake Saturday night. The recipe stated that the cheesecake needed to chill overnight. So I went back yesterday afternoon. I had to top off the cheesecake with toasted coconut. (You can use a toaster oven or oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes or so, frequently stirring. When it's golden brown and fragrant, it's done.)

As you can see from the first picture, my cheesecake was not flawless. I had a crack in there and I will have to ask my mom to figure out what happened. (Then again, with as many mishaps as we experienced, I am thankful that it turned out well at all.)

The second picture has the toasted coconut topping. Begonia promised the neighbor who lent us the blender a piece. He came over with his 4 year old son and they both had slices. I hope he wasn't just being polite because he ate the whole slice and said how much he liked it.

A Hawaiian Thanksgiving

Aloha! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day!

I spent the last month or so preparing for my Thanksgiving trip to Maui. My hubby has been out there for about two months on business. I was very excited about seeing him and of course, going to Maui for the first time. Previously, it had been about 10 or more years since I've been to Hawaii, specifically Honolulu, Oahu.


I apologize for the lack of photos. I don't have a digital camera. It's at the top of my Christmas list for sure! I found these photos online that pretty much capture what I saw during my time there.

I arrived the day before Thanksgiving around dinner time, PST. We decided to go to the nearby village of Lahaina for dinner. Seems like a great place for shopping, eating, and people watching. We went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner. It reminds me of when I was little, my parents and I would eat at Denny's when we were on a road trip. As an adult, I now think of Bubba Gump as my Denny's. I had Lt. Dan's Pomegranate Punch and a Shrimp Po'Boy. Po'Boys take me back to my (only) trip to New Orleans pre-Katrina. They're cheap, delicious, and messy.

Thanksgiving day we flew out to Honolulu to meet up with Lauderdale's uncle and his family. They kindly invited us to stay at their place for Thanksgiving. Lauderdale's uncle "Jefferson" and his daughter "Lotus" picked us up at the airport. Jefferson's wife, "Hibiscus", was at home finishing the turkey. Hibiscus is originally from the Philippines. Having several Filipino and half-Filipino relatives, I already knew to expect a lot of Filipino/Chinese food alongside the turkey.

Also in typical Asian (not just Pacific Islanders) fashion, there tends to be several relatives who show up with more food. Unfortunately for me, my favorite Asian party food, Lumpia Shanghai was absent. I suppose it was just as well as I'm prejudiced and think my mom's lumpia is the best.

Lauderdale and I were still full from lunch which consisted of Kahlua pork and cabbage (OMG, that is good!), black bean and corn salsa, white rice (the Asian equivalent of potatoes), and tortilla chips. So after the turkey, stuffing, salads, rolls, pork adobo, ahi poke-reminds me of a Hawaiian ceviche, corn on the cob, and cake, I was falling into a food coma.


The following morning, we had plenty of time to kill before our late-afternoon flight back to Maui. Jefferson and family treated us to The Original Pancake House. Being the ever-ready traveler, I had done research on local Hawaiian "must-eats". Macadamia nut pancakes was one of them as was Eggs Benedict. (Apparently, there are several variations of the retro egg dish.)
I was so happy to see macadamia nut pancakes on the menu. Wow, those were so good! My honey had the coconut pancakes which were also delightful.

We went to a swap meet afterward which helped burn off the breakfast. Then we headed off to a macadamia nut plantation. They had samples of freshly brewed coffee (macadamia nut flavored, of course) as well as samples of flavored (and plain) macadamia nuts as well.

After shopping elsewhere, we had time for a quick, late lunch at their home before we had to go to the airport. Our flight was short and my honey decided to take me to Lulu's for dinner. It's a fun casual place with lots of flat-screen TVs, oak (?) tables, and friendly service. I had to try the Maui onion rings. Maui onions are famous for being sweeter and milder than 'regular' onions.
I had mahi-mahi, a firm white fish which is sweet and doesn't taste "fishy".

On Saturday morning, I wanted to try another local favorite I found during my pre-trip food research, CJ's Deli & Diner. CJ's Deli is known for large portions and budget-friendly prices. I finally had the Eggs Benedict. The sauce wasn't the straightforward typical hollandaise sauce but it had a unique "island" twist to it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to discern what the twist was but I cleaned my plate, including the potatoes. Part of me wonders whether or not I should have gone with the white rice instead. It was very enjoyable.

We went sight-seeing most of the day. Maui nightlife is very different than what I am typically used to. Turns out Lulu's seems to be a popular local hangout. So we went back there for dinner, drinks, and dancing. I had a coconut curry chicken sandwich which was very light and flavorful. The curry was used like a glaze rather than the curry soup I had envisioned. I chose to get garlic fries asking my hubby if it was ok. He ordered Death Valley hot wings so I supposed we were evenly matched. Those garlic fries were amazing! Sadly, I never seemed to have room for dessert!

Sunday was my last day in paradise. We decided to have brunch at Aloha Mixed Plate, another local favorite which is mentioned on Fodor's. Not only was the food wonderful, you get a beautiful ocean view while you eat. The plate lunch is a beautiful culinary concept and is very satisfying. You can choose 2 or more entrees. All plate lunches come with macaroni salad and a scoop or two of white rice. Mini plates have a half portion and one scoop of rice where as you get the macaroni and two scoops of rice with the regular.

Check out this blog for a review and pictures of Aloha Mixed Plate: http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/maui/.

I wanted to try as much as I could so I got their Hawaiian plate: Kahlua pig and cabbage, Lomi Lomi Salmon, poi, macaroni salad, rice, and a coconut dessert called haupia.

The lomi lomi salmon is a refreshing and colorful dish. At first glance, it reminded me of salsa. I really enjoyed it. It would be great to have in summer.

Now for the poi, I have heard not so great things about it. I found the poi to be a bit bland with a slight bitter or sour taste to it. There is also no 'body' to it-it's like liquid or pureed taro.
The haupia was light and refreshing. It reminded me of a similar dessert that I might have tried at a couple of dim sum restaurants in California.

We also tried their coconut prawns which had fried noodles in the coconut batter. I thought it added a visual appeal but sadly didn't add to the texture. I think panko would have been a better choice but maybe they wanted to be different?

We had missed the Saturday morning swap meet by an hour. So we spent a few hours at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center, a local mall.

It was back to the airport to pick up Lauderdale's co-workers. The guys were starving and wanted sushi. My hubby had taken me to Genki Sushi previously.


It's a chain of conveyor belt sushi places. Most of the menu items ride on a conveyor belt. You just grab whatever looks good. Of course, you can order special items not seen as well. It was pretty good but I was hoping to try a different sushi place instead. Perhaps another time.






A few hours later, it was my final airport trip and time for me to go home.

I had a wonderful time and am hoping to return to Hawaii again in the near future.