cold sesame noodles

Oh my! It's been so busy now that school has started, I barely have time to make anything. Ha! I've reverted back to my college days of throwing random things I like together and making a meal out of it. Here is an overdue post of the sesame noodles I made for the potluck dinner hosted by one of the Chinese students. I wanted to make something "familiar" for my new foreign friends.

pinup board

 

This pin board project has been on my mind for a long, long time. 

I've always loved having pin boards around my workspace, I guess that's what 5 years of architecture school does to you. My professors have ingrained in me to pin up my ideas, works and inspirations to continuously feed our creavity.  But there are some not-too-attractive pin boards out there and the closest one that I would want in my home is a bit out of my price range. I blogged about it here. So finally, one weekend, with little to do, my husband and I wandered into Hobby Lobby and got everything I need: 1) 2 pieces of 24" x 36" x 3/16" thick foam board 2) canvas - enough to cover the 48" x 60" 3) 24" x 36" open back wooden frame. And here is the final product: wooden framed canvas pin board.

All in all, we spent about $35 for the project, which I am very happy with.

bitter double chocolate chip cookies

After a friend posted a craving on fb about these babycakes cookies, I soon had one too. It's like a contagious yawn. I used bitter chocolate chips rather than semisweet, so I would classify these as adult cookies. They are nothing like the old fashioned kinds kids would fight over. But personally, I love the bitter-goodness of these gluten-free lovelies.

cowboy rib-eye sliders

After making vegetarian curries all week, I wanted to treat my hubby with some manly food. With the heat of the summer, all I can think about are burgers. With some awesome hormone-free, antibiotic-free rib-eye steaks I had on hand, I whipped up some yummy sliders for dinner last night. For someone who rarely eats beef, I wouldn't mind having these again soon. 

Most people will be surprised by the fact that I have a meat grinder. Yes! I have one! I am an appliance whore, it's pretty bad. Juicer, panini press, slower cooker are just a few. Since the meat cranker was taking up some valuable real estate in my kitchen cabinets, I wanted to use it more than just once. The first and only time I've ever used it was for lasagna verdi al forno, where I had to grind my own combination of meats for the ragu.

I served the sliders onto some toasted dinner rolls with tomatoes, smoked gouda, and caramelized onions. Drool...

bacon pecan chocolate chip cookie

Bacon is NOT just for breakfast anymore!

This post was inspired by my dear friend, Christina. I recently took a mini vacation with my old college roomie to Tampa and she was telling me about her latest sweet-tooth discovery. Her co-worker's wife bakes these amazing savory sweet snacks for the office. Anyways, that got me intrigued and wanted to try them out myself. Although I rarely eat bacon, I mean once in a blue moon rare, I had to try these. Sweet, savory, nutty, chocolatey, crunchy, chewy. Gosh! It's like any pregnant woman's dream come true.

banana coffee cake

If you haven't noticed I have a ton of banana recipes on my blog. That's because I buy a lot of bananas but I don't eat them fast enough. So here's something I haven't made with bananas before... coffee cake!