Sweet and Sour Sticky Wings

My mom and I teamed up on this recipe. She came up with the recipe but I helped her tweak it since I am her official taste tester!!! We made this dish for a party this past weekend and everyone loved it!

Liza's Pineapple Pie

This may have to be my favorite pie now besides a warm apple pie with tillamook old-fashioned vanilla ice cream on the side. The first time I encountered this sweet pineapple pie was when my family and friends went to a beach house for the weekend in Belfair in May 2011. My boyfriend's mom made two pineapple pies for us and I ended up loving it!

Liza's Pineapple Pie

                                         
I went over to my boyfriend's house today and I made hot fudge pudding cake and she made her famous pineapple pies!!! I helped her make the pies!!! It's soo easy to make! She also ended up sharing her recipe with me and I wanted to share it with you guys!

Today is her birthday! Happy birthday, Liza!

Chocolate Almond Walnut Baklava

BAKLAVA!!!! 

Bite size piece!

Last week, I went to a Greek restaurant around town called Gyros House with Stacey and MoLo. There were lots to choose from, gyros, pita and hummus, baklava, combination plates like Souvlaki, Kafta, fish and chips, and lots more!!!    MoLo and I ordered the Lamb gyro which was amazingly delicious. A gyro usually consists of meat of your choice (chicken, lamb, etc) or you can have it vegetarian, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, tzitziki sauce on pita bread. The price was average about $6.99 with a side dish of french fries or rice. I recommend the rice because the taste is so flavorful. T

The atmosphere at the restaurant was very welcoming. I assume the guy who took our order was the owner because he was friendly and very enthusiastic! At first, we decided to have our food to-go because we were initially in the area for a Meet & Greet sponsored by Verizon to see WongFu Productions, Cathy Nguyen, KevJumba, Ryan Higa, and Far East Movement. Then, we realized that we had enough time to actually dine in and relax before going back to get autographs! LOL. Anyways, we decided to dine-in and the restaurant owner served us our food. I forgot to mention that Stacey didn't order anything because she wasn't hungry. The owner asked if Stacey ordered anything when he delivered our food and she said, "No, I'm not hungry". The owner turned around and brought her a free dessert called baklava. It was soooooo sweet, nutty, and cinnamony (if that's a word). The baklava melted our hearts. 

The other thing about me is that I am very finicky with nuts. I'm not allergic to them, but I absolutely don't like them unless they are already in my cereal like Almond Bunches of Oats. I think that they give me headaches and acne so I limit myself to them. Nuts are not my favorite but I can say that they are delicious in baklava. 

This trip to Gyros House made me want to make my very own baklava. The only baklava I've had was my boyfriend's mom's baklava which was also delicious!!!! There are a variety of ways to make baklava. I've seen it made in rectangles and rolls. The place where we got baklava for free was rolled and I thought it was soooo cute!! So I rolled this version. So here is the recipe for my version of Greek baklava. I pulled the recipe from a variety of websites so it is a combination of everything.

**If you want to make Baklava... you should purchase the phyllo pastry sheets a day in advance to thaw it out!!! I failed on this part. I bought it 3-4 hours before I wanted to make it........ And phyllo pastry sheets are very tricky. It dries really quick. There are some tips on how to work with phyllo pastry sheets in the package that I did not see until after I made them!! HAHA

**I rolled the first one.. and it was a majorly epic fail on my part........ hahaha!! The rest were rolled by Stacey!! She is really good at it!!! She's my little helper!!! 

Vietnamese Fresh Spring/Summer Rolls

My friends and I planned a baby shower together for a really great friend of ours. She is also an ex-co-worker of ours when we use to work for WaMu! So we had a WaMu reunion/ baby shower. The shower was hosted at Natalie's house and she requested my mom's Vietnamese spring rolls for the party. This is really easy to make once you have a set-up.

What you'll need: 
1 bag of vermicelli noodles
1 lb cup small shrimp, peeled, de-veined, and cooked. After shrimp is done, sliced lengthwise.

Bean Sprouts

1 bag of rice wrappers (banh trang)
1 bundle of romaine lettuce
1 cucumber sliced lengthwise (optional)
2 cups bean sprouts
fresh mint
fresh cilantro
fresh Thai basil

Peanut Sauce:
1/2 cup Hoisin
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup hot water (estimating, could add more).

Peanut Butter and Hoisin

Peanut Sauce

Fish Sauce:
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 cup water
2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic chili sauce

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Directions:
Step 1: Bring medium saucepan to boil and add vermicelli for 5-8 minutes and drain.

Boil 5-8 minutes and then drain!

Mom likes to soak the vermicelli first and let it loosen up.

Step 2: Heat a medium pan to medium heat and cook shrimp until pink. Peel, de-vein, and slice lengthwise and set aside.

Cooking shrimp.

Going to peel and de-vein and be sliced lengthwise.

Step 3: Fill a large bowl of hot water. Dip 1 rice wrapper for a second and lay wrapper on spring roll mat. In a row across the rice wrapper, place 2-3 half shrimps, a small handful of vermicelli noodles, some bean sprouts, 1 cucumber, cilantro, mint, and thai basil and lastly, add lettuce, leave about 2 inches on each side. Fold in left side and then right. Then roll from the bottom towards the top tightly, but not too tight or the rice wrapper will break. Repeat!

Here is our set up! My mom placed a soaked rice wrapper on a spring roll mat.

Method of eating: 
Dip spring roll in peanut sauce or fish sauce.

The spring rolls were a hit at the baby shower!

Yields about 40 spring rolls.

Michelle ăn Bánh Xèo!

Bánh Xèo (pronounced like bun seo)= A Traditional Vietnamese filled Crepe!

Graduating from college this past May has been really nice because now I can bake and cook more things that I love and will get to post more recipes on my blog more often! When I first started school in 2007, I didn't have to worry about cooking for myself because I lived in the dorms and the kitchen was conveniently downstairs. I would grab a tray, plate my food, get in line, pay for it, and then eat. After my freshmen year was done, I moved into an apartment with my friends and that is when I started to ask my mom how to cook my favorite dishes. The weird thing about asking my mom about the dishes is that she never tells me the exact measurements because she keeps her recipes in her head and cooking comes so naturally to her....so I always end up having to guess the measurements so this is also one of the reasons why I started blogging my recipes for the benefit of myself and when I share mine and my mom's recipes with friends. LOL. She now laughs at me when I take pictures of the food we make!

I don't know if this is just how my family says my name or if it is a Vietnamese thing to pronounce my name but they elongate the -chelle at the end in a way that rhymes with xeo or seo instead of the American way of shell. So it is more like Mi-Seo. Usually when my mom makes this Vietnamese filled crepe, my dad likes to sing this phrase aloud,  "Mi-Seo ăn Bánh Xèo" throughout the whole house! And that means, Michelle eats banh xeo! HAHA

There are different ways to make Bánh Xèo such as adding coconut cream. My family personally does not like the taste of the added coconut cream to the dish so we have always opted out on it. 

The majority of our ingredients come from a local Vietnamese grocery store named Viet-Wah. I guess I should do a blog about a local Asian grocery store sometime in the future. Their vegetables are usually way cheaper than your local American store. 

Ingredients

romaine lettuce

cilantro

green mint

1 English Cucumber sliced

Crepe Mix

 1 bag of Saigon Pan Cake Flour Mix by Trong Food International 

3 cups of water

olive oil

4 chopped green onions

Filling: 

1/4 lb small shrimp, peeled and de-veined, sliced in halves lengthwise

1/4 lb pork loin cut into thin slices

3/4 lb bean sprouts (trimmed)

1/2 cup sweet onion sliced about 1/8 inch thick

1 medium size jicama  

2 cups bean sprouts

optional:  Add 6 oz of Heineken beer. Mom has always done this since I could remember. LOL. 

Directions

Step 1: In a large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, turmeric powder, and chopped green onions. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set batter to rest for 30 minutes. 

Step 2: Wash and cute all the vegetables and herbs and set aside. 

Step 3: Heat up a 10 inch non-stick saute pan or skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and stir-fry all the pork until half done. Remove from pan and set aside. 

Step 4: Next, heat the pan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add a portion of onions and shrimp and stir fry until done. Add cooked pork and pour 1/2 cup of batter into pan. Swirl pan to coat bottom evenly. Add bean sprouts and jicama over half the crepe. Drizzple another tablespoon of oil around outer edge of creme and lower heat to medium to get a crispy edge. Repeat about 8-10 times to get 8-10 crepes

Mom's set-up!

   

Step 5: Cover pan and cook for about 1 minute. Remove cover and continue to cook until ledges begin to brown. Loosen crepe from bottom of the pan and when the bottom turns light brown and crispy, fold crepe to encase filling. 

That's it!!!!! This recipe probably makes about 8-10 crepes. 

Method on how to eat banh xeo:

1. Place pieces of cooked banh xeo inside a lettuce leaf with herbs and cucumber, dip in nuoc cham aka fish sauce and eat immediately. It can be a bit messy with this traditional method, but it is delicious! 

2. Or sometimes if I am very lazy....... I will take one cooked banh xeo and rip the lettuce and herbs apart and place it in a bowl and add one ladle of nuoc cham (fish sauce) and eat it using chopsticks or fork. 

Recipe for Nuon Mam Cham aka fish sauce. (coming soon)

Easy Santa Fe Chicken Enchilada

This was an easy recipe to make. I would recommend it for people who do not like too much spice. I received a free Philadelphia Cooking Creme coupon and I was craving for some enchiladas. I went to the store and bought the Santa Fe cooking creme and began cooking. I didn't have any cooked chicken breasts or left over rotisserie chicken so I put some chicken breast in the crock pot with some chicken stock and seasoning for an hour and a half and shredded it. 
After cooking it and tasting it, I thought there wasn't too much spice or hotness to it. So I would recommend adding some cayenne powder or pepper flakes. I also added some Chochula hot sauce to my plate. 
If you buy the Philadelphia Cooking Creme, the directions are on the back. 

Ingredients: 

1 small onion, chopped

2 tsp.oil

3 cups shredded cookedchicken breasts

1 can( 14.5 oz.) no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained

1 tub (10 oz.)PHILADELPHIA Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme, divided

1/2 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese

8 flour tortillas (6 inch)

Directions: 

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Cook and stir onions in hot oil in large skillet on medium heat 4 to 5 min. or until crisp-tender. Stir in chicken, tomatoes, 3/4 cup cooking creme and shredded cheese.
3. Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining cooking creme. Cover.
4. Bake 15 to 20 min. or until heated through.
5. Sprinkle with cheese.

Chicken Teriyaki/ Bulgogi

This is a very quick and easy recipe for chicken teriyaki especially if you do not have a grill and if it's cold outside.
Serving size 1-2 .


Ingredients: 
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup teriyaki/ bulgogi sauce


pair up with rice and steamed vegetables.

Directions:
Slice breast horizontally in half and slice across the grain into 1/2 inch thick slices.
In large bowl combine chicken, garlic, and sauce. Add some seasoning like garlic powder or whatever you want.
Marinate for 30 minutes or up to an hour in the refrigerator.
Pre-heat oven and set to broil. 
Arrange on rimmed baking pan. I lined my baking pan with foil for easier clean up.
Set in oven to broil for about 10-15 minutes; stirring frequently, until glazed, dark brown and nearly all sauce is evaporated.
Serve with dipping sauce, rice and steamed veggies.