My strawberry cupcakes are the most requested celebration dessert from friends and family. These cupcakes were also one of the first desserts I ever made when I first started baking as a teen. Back in my childhood home in Brooklyn, we had a fairly small kitchen. Although our kitchen wasn’t big, it had all the appliances I needed to test out my baking creations. It was a very old oven, but it was functional and worked well for baking cupcakes.
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Classic Ice Cream Float
I was a huge fan of ice cream floats as a kid. My brothers and I would scoop large rounds of ice cream into a glass and top the rest of the glass with soda. We even experimented with different flavors of soda such as vanilla coke and cherry coke. As an adult, I started drinking floats less because of how much sugar is packed in the ice cream and soda. Occasionally though, I still treat myself to a real float made with full fat ice cream and full sugar soda.
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Chicken Cutlet Sandwich
My introduction to the chicken cutlet sandwich was thanks to my younger brother. Out of my entire family, my younger brother is the most adventurous when it comes to trying new foods at as many restaurants/delis/specialty stores/markets as he can. Several years ago, my younger brother came home with a sandwich he had purchased at a local butcher/meat shop in Brooklyn. I’ve passed by the local butcher shop many times, but never thought about buying a sandwich from the shop.
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Pear and Apple Galette
It’s officially the start of fall. Just last week, the temperature was as high as mid-eighties. This week, the temperature has dropped to the fifties. I had purchased some fresh apples and pears to snack on throughout the week, but this morning, I thought about baking the fruit. I wanted to make a dish that looked impressive but didn’t require too much effort. I decided to use one Fuji apple and one Bartlett pear to make a galette.
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Watermelon Slush
Watermelon slush is my favorite childhood drink. Every time I drink watermelon slush, I am reminded of all the Chinese bakeries I would frequent as a child on weekends. I didn’t have the luxury of ordering this drink a lot throughout the week when I was a child. On weekends though, I would request this drink after attending parent mandated Sunday school.
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Maple Cinnamon Oatmeal
I make oatmeal a lot during the weekdays for breakfast. During workdays, I like to make oatmeal the night before and let the oatmeal sit in the refrigerator overnight. While overnight oats are delicious and very easy to make, I prefer oatmeal cooked over a stovetop when I have more time to spare in the morning.
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Pan Con Tomate
A couple months ago, I went to a Spanish restaurant in New York with my family. We had some of the most amazing tapas including patatas bravas, paella, and a charcuterie board. Of all the items we ordered, the simplest dish was the pan con tomate, or bread with tomato. There were only a couple of ingredients in the dish, but it was still very delicious. I guess sometimes the simplest ingredients can still yield some amazing flavors.
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Mint Coffee
I don’t drink a lot of coffee, but some mornings, when I am extremely tired and need a dose of energy, I like to make a cup of coffee. The only time you’ll catch me at a coffee shop is during the holiday season when coffee shops get creative with holiday inspired coffee drinks. One of my absolute favorite holiday drinks is the peppermint mocha latte. I love the freshness of the peppermint blended with the richness of the chocolate and finished with the creaminess of the milk.
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Crispy Pork Chops
Of all the dishes I cook, crispy fried pork chops are Kevin’s absolute favorite. Whenever I mention cooking crispy pork chops for lunch or dinner, I can see Kevin’s face light up with the widest grin. Growing up, my mom made pork chops all the time as a quick dinner. Her version of pork chops is made with a combination of a few simple Asian sauces. The entire dish is cooked and served in under 30 minutes with a side of jasmine rice.
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Spaghetti Carbonara
I make spaghetti almost as much as I make rice. I grew up eating rice almost every day. My family always cooked a pot of rice in a rice cooker to serve with poultry, seafood, and/or vegetables every night. Occasionally, my family would buy or make a noodle dish to serve for dinner in place of rice. I didn’t eat a lot of spaghetti growing up, but after moving away from home, I started making pasta and spaghetti all the time. The main reason was because I was a college student at the time and pasta was cheaper than rice.
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