Let's Give This A Try

I'm going to give this food blogging a try by sharing my adventures this weekend. Get ready for some pictures and explaining!

Saturday 08.09.2008

I started today with a fulfilling bowl of Cold Noodles (Lian Mien) that my mom is exellent at making. I followed her around as she was preparing the meal and jotted everything down. Next time when I try making it myself, I will post up the recipe and share it with you all. It's her own version of it, so it may be different than the average restaurant ones. This lian mien is delicious, I swear by it!



In the afternoon, I prepared a bruschetta dish for a dinner party that night. I've never made this, so I researched for a simple recipe from Food Network. That's usually my primary source for recipes, unless they have nothing I like and then I just use the handy dandy Google.

This one's from Mario Batali, although I did not follow the recipe exactly and added whatever I felt like the bruschetta needed.

I cut up a few tomatoes and diced it with all the patience in the world... when the tomatoes have too much juice, I just got rid of it because you don't want your bruschetta to be too juicy and wet. I added about 3-4 (average size) cloves of garlic. Diced that with hecka patience also! I initially took off 10 basil leaves from my tiny basil plant in the backyard but it wasn't enough, so I put in 4 more basil leaves. A generous spread of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil (OO), and tadaaa, you get the topping. The other important part of this Italian appetizer is the bread. I gave this job to my husband, who cut up a loaf of Italian baguette, broiled it in the oven for less than 2 minutes (you have to watch those, they toast fast!!), rubbed it with fresh garlic clove, and then spread some OO on it. It smelled so good!!


Luckily, I didn't see anyone eat the bruschetta and then spit it out, so I think I did an OK job. Phew! I will definitely make this again.

Sunday 08.10.2008

Lunch today was another noodle-fest (as you will see, I LOVE NOODLES!). We went to a San Jose Vietnamese food court and had (one of) my fave Duck Noodles. Unfortunately, I did not jot down what it was called in Vietnamese... I just call it duck noodles. It contains duck (duh), bamboo shoots, vermicelli, special broth, and you can add in cabbage and sprouts. It also came with a side of ginger-like sauce for you to dip your duck in. At the food court is another fave of mine - sugarcane juice! Unfortunately I drank it too fast and didn't get a picture of it...

One of the things I wanted to do this weekend was to make this Peaches and Cream Cake recipe I found online. As much as I want to finish my first entry on a good note, my attempt at this cake failed. The cake did not come out all fluffy and great. It was dense and wet, so I think I either put too much flour, or I used the wrong type of flour. Well, at least the taste itself was good... my husband, being the good husband, really liked it and it didn't seem like he was trying to swallow it down. The cream cheese topping with the peaches was really good. That's all I can say about that.

Mixing the butter, egg, milk, flour, and vanilla pudding mix.

Putting canned peaches over the cake batter.

Cream cheese spread over the peaches and batter, and then sprinkling of cinnamin and sugar on top. In the oven it goes!


The final (unsuccessful) product. I cut a fresh peach, spread some lemon juice on it so it doesn't go brown, and "decorated" the cake. At least I tried, right? But the cake sucked. :(

I will attempt to make this cake again. And I think I better get this cake thing down because I had opened my big mouth and promised to bake a cake for my sister's birthday, which is coming up in two weeks. Maybe I'll just buy a cake and pass it off as mine...?? :P