Homemad Fettucini Two Ways

I have been addicted to making pasta these days. The color of adding vegetable into the pasta makes it look so pretty. I love the orange-yellow by adding butternut squash into the dough, now I tried beets and collard green, they are great natural coloring! The other night I made two batches of fettuccine and cooked them differently. The collard fettuccine was used in mushroom carbonara, and the beet fettuccine was cooked to make shrimp scampi. The vibrant color makes the dish tasted even better!

8/25/2011

In the bento: quinoa, shirmp, cucumber, stir-fried cabbage, kelp with enoki mushroom, braised pork.

8/30/2011

In the bento: homemade beet fettuccine, kelp with enoki mushroom, stir-fried cabbage, pork liver with carrots, braised pork. 

Homemade Butternut Squash Fettuccine

I love homemade pasta. And I like to make my own pasta. My nice neighbor lent me a pasta machine that I have always been eyeing for in the store. So it's pasta time! This time I add butternut squash into the pasta dough. I like the yellow/orange color when the noodle is cooked. It's so pretty with tomato sauce or just simply with green onion oil. Yum!!!

Homemade Tomato Sauce

I had some really good organic tomatoes. And it is the perfect season to make tomato sauce. This was my first try and actually it turned out beautifully. It packed fully with tomato, garlic and basil, just as what I want.
There is no recipe. I just made a basic tomato sauce and add garlic and basil. Man, it is delicious! 

8/17/2011

In the bentoa: pan-fried salmon, fried gyoza, brown rice with cabbage.

8/16/2011

In the bento: mayonnaise baked Chilean sea bass  cabbage, broccoli, brown rice.  

Cornmeal Cranberry Cookies

The pictures caught my eyes first when I saw these cookies. What makes me like them more than the pretty presentation is the fact that they can be made ahead of time and be stored in the fridge waiting to be baked. This is great for portion control. So I don't have to bake a big batch of cookies and eat a lot. This is a simple recipe while has great flavor. The recipe is here and the website is cool!

8/16/2011

In the bento: elbow pasta with baba ganoush, pan-fried duck, cabbage, broccoli, salt marinaded duck egg.

8/12/2011

In this bento: fresh corn with basil, stirfried cabbage, pan fried butternut dumpling, summer squash with mushroom.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

 After a dinner at an Italian restaurant serving the baked gnocchi, I decided to make my own. To make it more special, I decided to use the butternut squash instead of potato. Thanks for the help, though I completely ran out of patience when forming the gnocchi, they finally made their way. I especially like the orange color of the gnocchi, topped with my basil béchamel sauce, it's beautiful. My friend claimed not hungry but can't stop eating after the first bite. Seems it's obvious enough to say the gnocchi is good :) The recipe I referenced is here.

Apple Pound Cake

I baked this cake for a dumpling party. When the cake came out from the oven, I was asked how come the apple slices on the top were dried out. I didn't know but this is what the recipe asked for. But actually, the top slices were not dry, after being glazed with maple syrup and sitting overnight in the fridge. The cake tasted very good though I don't like the presentation. The caramelized apple mixed in to the batter complied well with the buttery taste of the cake. The recipe is here.

Lime Cheesecake with Lime Curd Topping and Oreo Crust

The lemon cheesecake I made the other day was very good, and that inspired me to use lime make another cake. This time I used the Oreo cookie for the crust and a lot lime juice in both the filling and curd topping. It came out very tangy, like a key lime pie. However, I prefer the tart crust in the last cake, oreo doesn't go well with the lime taste though.

2011/8/2

In the bento: miso glazed salmon, shrimps, stir-fried green pepper, stir-fried eggplant with tomato, brown rice.