Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake

Lemon cake filled with fresh blueberries and homemade lemon curd. Frosted with a lemon curd whipped cream frosting. Adapted from this recipe in Gourmet.

Vietnamese Meatball Rice Bowl

Vietnamese rice bowl adapted from this recipe.

Jap Chae

Jon’s spin on the classic Korean glass noodle dish. Bok choy, cabbage, bell pepper, green onion, carrot, cilantro, glass noodles, and shabu shabu meat (beef). Served with potstickers.

Shrimp Taco and Chilled Avocado Soup

Shrimp taco on a green chili corn tortilla and filled with shrimp, zucchini, red bell pepper, corn, onion, jalapeno, green olives, cilantro and cotija cheese. Paired with a chilled avocado and cucumber soup inspired by this recipe but altered by adding cilantro, chipotle hot sauce, a little sour cream, and cumin.

Kale Caesar Salad with Prawns

Caesar salad made with kale and topped with prawns, homemade croutons, and parmesan cheese. I used this recipe for the dressing and it was perfect!

Chocolate, Guinness and Espresso Cupcakes

Guinness chocolate cupcake filled with espresso ganache and topped with a vanilla cream cheese frosting. Cupcake and frosting recipe adapted from this recipe and ganache adapted from this basic ganache recipe.

Corned Beef Hash

Here’s one way to use your leftover St. Patrick’s Day corned beef – corned beef hash for breakfast. Cube potatoes and fry in a small amount of oil. When almost cooked through and starting to brown add cubed red bell pepper, onion, corned beef and cook together with garlic, salt, and pepper until peppers and onions are soft. Garnish with parsley and top with an egg. Enjoy.

Black and White Chicken Chili

Chicken chili with white and black beans, corn, and chipotle peppers – topped with cotija cheese, green onions, toasted pumpkin seeds, tomato, sour cream and served with a wedge of cornbread.

Chocolate Banana Cupcake

Chocolate cupcake filled with banana cream pie filling, frosted with banana cream cheese frosting and dusted with dark chocolate.

Creamy Polenta

One of our favorite local restaurants serves the best polenta I have ever tasted – creamy, rich, and pretty much just amazing. And while I’m sure that copious amounts of cream and butter have something to do with this, I think we finally discovered the secret to cooking really decadent polenta. A fellow blogger mentioned to me once that if you cook it twice to three times as long as the directions call for you get a much creamier consistency. In following this advice and reading up more online we came up with this really simple recipe for delicious polenta that almost rivals our favorite restaurant.

To try this method for yourself follow these three steps:

1. Add 1 cup polenta to 4 cups cold water and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Cover, turn heat down to a very low simmer and cook for 45 minutes to an hour – do not stir.
3. Add any fats you wish to use at the end (butter, milk, cheese) and season (salt, pepper, herbs) to taste.