Crunch Crunch Salad

This is my go-to salad on a lazy day because it can be whipped up in minutes.  I love it when recipes contain only two steps!  I made this particular salad during a Mother's Day barbeque a few months ago.  It is a great way to add vegetables to the meal when you are busy preparing other items that need a bit more attention.  It is so easy, you can even let go a little and delegate it to someone else!

Cucumber, Radish, and Tomato Salad

Ingredients
- 6 Japanese cucumbers (I like to substitute with Persian cucumbers since it is cheaper, but has the same freshness and crunch!)
- 2 large tomatoes
- 4-6 red radishes
- 1 Tbsp Japanese sesame dressing (such as this), to taste
- 2 tsp Japanese mayo (such as this), to taste
- ground pepper (to taste)

Steps
1. Roughly cut cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes to your liking (cubed or thick slice, as long as it is bite-size)

2. Toss cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes in a bowl with Japanese sesame dressing, mayo, and ground pepper.  Serve cold.

Serves 6-8.

Chicken From A Crock Pot

Have you ever been intimidated with cooking a whole chicken?  Well, with a crock pot, you don't have to be.  The only messy part you have to deal with is cleaning out the chicken, because the pot will take care of it all and put your headache to rest!  The chicken comes out full of flavor and falls of the bone so quickly that you don't even have time to catch it.  Yes, let's all drool a little...

Slow-Cooked Whole Chicken

Ingredients
- 1 ~3 lbs whole chicken
- 1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 4 stalks of green onions, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper

Tools
- crock pot

Steps
1. Place chicken in a large contain and add chopped onions and green onions.  Combine liquid ingredients, salt, and pepper and rub all over chicken.  Marinate chicken for about 12 hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator.

2. Place chicken, vegetables, and liquid goods in the crock pot and turn on High.  Cook for about 3 hours.  Use thermometer to check if chicken is done. (Wow, two steps?  That's it??)

Serves 6-8.

Just one tip...
...because the chicken is slow-cooked, it is very tender and very delicate.  I had some issues taking the chicken out of the crock pot without breaking up the entire chicken.  In the end, I used a straight meat fork and the outside part of the tongs to carefully (and I mean really carefully) take it out.  Just use a little patience and steady hands.

Blanched green beans and chicken... a great combo.

Sweet Almond Cookies

I found another recipe from the archives.  These delicious and buttery cookies were made about 3 years ago for our housewarming party (wow, it will be 4 years this November since we've moved in to our house!).  I need some type of ocassion to make them again.

Almond Cookies
from Simply Recipes

I made a few changes to the recipe:
- used ground almonds (thanks to food processor)
- used 2 tsp of vanilla extract because didn't have any almond extract
- rolled into balls instead of molding into crescents. 

Mix mix mix...











All ingredients added and mixed, ready to be placed on baking sheet.










Hand-rolled cookie balls ready for the oven.













Serves many happy people! :)

Just Pictures: A little bit of Basil in my life

My husband randomly started singing "Mambo Number 5" by Lou Bega a few days ago and now it's stuck in my head...

Once upon a time, there were two pretty and fragrant basil plants... the end.

Happy Friday!!