Everything breakfast scramble

Hello there, long time no see.

I know it looked like I have abandoned this blog, but I haven't. The truth is, I was traveling for a while and became lazy when I got back. Ok... maybe I also messed up a few recipes and couldn't produce anything that looked remotely decent. But that's not the point. I'm back and am ready to share a new recipe with you :)

This breakfast dish is inspired by a restaurant called Eats in San Francisco, my best friend's favorite. She loved the caramelized garlic and fragrant sausage tossed with fresh eggs, and when she introduced me to it, I was hooked right away. So here's my version of it.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can use whatever you have on hand. I usually like to use some sort of meat + onion/ veggie + cheese with toast on the side. Everything is made in one pan and takes about 10-15 minutes  max.

Everything Breakfast Scramble

1-2 sausages, sliced or broken into small chunks
1/4 red onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 green onion, finely chopped
Handful of grated cheese
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

1. Heat non-stick skillet to medium. Add sausages and fry until golden on both sides, about 5 minutes. This will allow the sausage to release some oil needed for caramelizing the onions. You only need about 1/2 teaspoon of oil for the onions, so discard any extra.
2. Add onions and garlic to the skillet. Season with a dash of salt. Stir frequently until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
3. Add red peppers and cook until soft, about 2 mins.
4. Add egg to the mixture. Toss to allow the egg to break apart and cook evenly. Add green onion and cheese, toss until egg is cooked through and cheese is melted, about 1 min.
5. Serve immediately.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

Sooooo, it has been a while hasn't it? Happy new year everyone :)

November and December turned out to be crazy, and I had lots of fun seeing friends and families, travelling, eating lots of good food, receiving Xmas gifts, and drinking way too much. Seriously, FourSquare congratulated me for hitting up bars 10 weeks in a row. And that's not counting the times when I was drinking at home or at someone else's house.

But yeah, I don't have any New Year Resolutions at this time. I had a blast last year and nothing needs to change. Maybe you can check back later?

Anyway, I managed to bake a few things when I was sober. First up- peanut butter cookies with raspberry jam.

I made them fat and rugged because that's how I like them. They were supposed to look like this in Martha Stewart's perfect little world:

But my world is obviously not as perfect as Martha's, and hence the look of my cookies. If you want yours to look perfect, remember that after scooping the dough, use your palm to roll it until it look like a smooth discolored play-doh ball. After that, you can put it onto the baking sheet.

On a more positive note, I loved that the cookies were super flaky and messy to eat. When you take a bite, crumbs will fall off and the cookie kind of slowly melts away in your mouth. It's amazing.


Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

2. In a separate bowl, beat peanut butter and butter with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add sugars, and beat until pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until incorporated. Reduce speed to low. 3. Add dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture, and mix until combined.
4. Scoop level tablespoons of dough, and form into balls and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake until cookies are puffy, about 10 minutes. 

6. Remove from oven, and make indentations in centers by pressing with the handle end of a wooden spoon. 

7. Heat jam in a small saucepan, stirring, until loosened, about 30 seconds. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon into each indentation. 

8. Return to oven, and bake until edges are golden, 6 to 7 minutes more. Transfer sheets to wire racks, and let cool completely.

Bittersweet Brownies with Vanilla Ice Cream and Raspberry Sauce

[update: a reader noted that the sauce is more of a coulis than a compote. That probed me to look into the definitions and s/he is probably right. But to avoid confusion, I am just going to say it's a sauce. Thank you for calling it out!]

I meant to post this recipe for you last week just in time for Halloween, but I am a pathological procrastinator.

Well, chocolate and raspberry is good for anytime of the year anyway.

I just thought that the dripping red sauce would look kinda Halloween appropriate.

But better late than never, right?

In all seriousness, this is a relatively low fat brownie recipe. I baked it for 25 minutes and it came out just a little dry, so next time I would take it out of the oven at 22-23 minutes.  I also used Hershey's Extra Dark chocolate instead of baking chocolate, so I cut out 1 cup of sugar the original recipe had called for.

Happy belated Halloween!

ps- workout of the day is called "Sexy Supremacy", I didn't have a sandbag or a dip station so I used free weights and did push-ups instead of pull-ups. I finished the entire workout in 25 minutes... so intense!!

Bittersweet Brownies with Vanilla Ice Cream and Raspberry Sauce
Brownies recipe adapted from Fitness Magazine

Brownies
1 large egg
1 egg white
3 tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 ounces high-quality unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped (I used Hershey's extra dark semi-sweet chocolate, and I didn't have a weigh so I used about 11 squares within the chocolate bar. If using unsweetened chocolate, you might want to add a little more sugar)
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup buckwheat or presifted whole wheat flour

1. Preheat oven to 375F. 

2. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, egg white, yogurt, and vanilla extract; set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, oil, salt, and 3 tablespoons water, stirring constantly for 3 minutes on medium-high heat. 

4. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa and chocolate until chocolate melts, then add egg mixture. Add all flour, stirring until batter is smooth.
5. Pour batter into 8x8 baking pan. Bake 22-23 minutes, or until top is firm. Cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into squares.

Raspberry sauce

1/2 box of raspberry, washed and dried

1/2 tsp white sugar (add more if looking for a sweeter sauce)

Juice of 1/2 lime

Add all ingredients into small saucepan and let simmer for 5 mins. Cool, strain all the seeds, and serve. 

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

My friend and I met during the winter. On the many many dark, freezing cold, snow-filled evenings, we would run through puddles of slush into her car, blast the heat, and count down until the day when we would see the sun again. We fantasized sitting on a patio, sipping martinis and people watching all night.

Sunset time was one of our favorite lunchtime discussions. 5:46, 5:49, 5:53, 5:57, 6:01!!!! Summer WILL arrive!

Unfortunately, time flies and it's the season of the squash and pumpkin... again. The only thing I enjoy about the winter time is soup, sports, and the couch. So here I am, sharing one of my best soups with you-

Basically, I just roast this beastly thing, add some carrots, celery and onions, puree everything and add chicken stock. No rocket science involved. 

It got a little messy because I only had a magic bullet to puree the ingredients. I finished in like, 10 batches? No biggies. It just looked like Hurricane Irene came back to my kitchen, that's all. 

So warm and comforting.

Oh, and did I tell you that above-mentioned friend and I are re-uniting in South Beach to enjoy some much needed sunshine, shopping, spa treatments, and martinis? Because that's how much we hate the winter, and it hasn't even started yet. Can't wait!!!!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Makes 3-4 servings

1 butternut squash, halved and core removed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup carrot, finely chopped

Pinch of cinnamon

4 cups chicken stock
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Drizzle squash with oil, salt and pepper. Roast for an hour, and scoop out the flesh when done.
3. Heat a large saucepan to medium-high, add olive oil and sautee chopped vegetables until slightly brown.
4. Add chicken stock, coriander, cinnamon, squash, salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to saucepan to keep warm until ready to serve. Add more stock if consistency is too thick.

Braised Short Ribs with Couscous

I kid you not, these short ribs were labelled as "chicken" in the Asian grocery store. I wish I took a picture of the packaging to show you! 

I know, they look funny and are not "short ribs" in the most American sense of the word, but hey, I figured if I braise them long enough, no one would care.

Plus, you really can't go wrong with the holy trio of veggies, half a bottle of wine and 2 cans of stewed tomatoes.

(note: the wine was opened for 5 days and I was not in the mood for sangria)

After 4 hours of braising, the meat was super tender and falling off the bones.

Of course, you are more than welcome to use normal looking ribs. I'm sure they will turn out just as flavorful and much more elegant than mine. 

ps- workout of the day included reptile burpees, side planks, jump lunges, knee ups, and a few sets at the thigh toning machine. I kind of just did whatever came to my mind.

Braised Short Ribs with Couscous 

Makes 3-4 servings

1 package of short ribs (about 8-9 pieces)

1/2 cup flour 

3 stalks celery, roughly chopped

2 big carrots, chopped into big chunks

1 large onion

1 cup Beef broth or water

1/2 bottle red wine

2 cans of stewed tomatoes 

4 cloves of garlic 

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 bay leaves 

1 cup couscous

1. Preheat oven to 300F.

2. Drench short ribs with flour. In a large skillet, brown all sides of the short ribs. Transfer to a dutch oven or oven safe pot.

3. In the same skillet, briefly brown vegetables. Add to the short ribs.

4. Deglaze the skillet with beef broth or water. Scrape all the bottom bits and pour all the liquid into the short ribs/ vegetables mixture. 

5. Add tomatoes, wine, paprika, cayenne and bay leaves to the pot. Make sure that all the ingredients are submerged in the tomatoes/ wine/ beef broth. 

6. Cover pot and transfer into the oven. Braise for 4 hours. Check occasionally to make sure that there is enough liquid to cover all the ingredients. Add more broth if necessary. 

7. Right before ready to serve the short ribs, prepare couscous according to packaging instructions. You will not need additional flavoring for the couscous as there will be plenty of braising liquid! 

Pugs love to eat too!

Pugs are so dumb and wrinkly, I love them to death. If I have a pug, I would seriously bake treats for him... and wave the treats around the air so he would intensely stare at them until he gets them!

SO adorable!!!

Baked Pork Chops with Carolina BBQ sauce

It's Sunday afternoon and I have been sitting on the couch all day watching back to back football games. I have a bottle of Sam Adams sitting on the coffee table and I'm all by myself.

I know, I have problems.

I might have been a dude in my last life.

That might explain my obsession with large portions of meat.

And large portions of carbs.

(I added some kale in there to make myself feel better about the large portions of meat and carbs.)

Hey, at least I have not resorted to pizza delivery while watching the games. That's something to be proud of, right? ;)

Baked Pork Chops with Carolina BBQ sauce


For the brine:
3 pieces of pork chops (with bones)
8 cups of water
3 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
A handful of black peppercorns (I used ground black pepper)
Optional: a few cloves of garlic, bay leaves

For BBQ sauce:
See Bobby Flay's BBQ sauce on Food Network 
Note: I made half of the recipe for two people and still had a lot of leftovers. It was very delicious and could be stored in a Tupperware for a few days in the fridge.

1. Mix all of the brine ingredients and leave pork chops in the brine in the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 385F.
3. Drain pork chops and pat dry. Heat a skillet on medium-high and sear both sides until light brown, about 3 minutes on each side.
4. Place pork chops onto a baking dish and cook for about 25 mins. In the meantime, prepare BBQ sauce.

Baked potatoes
Wash potatoes thoroughly. With a fork, poke holes around the potatoes. Lightly coat potatoes with olive oil and salt. Bake at 350F for 1 hour and 15 minutes. When they are done, use a knife to cut a slit and push on both ends of the potato to open.

Sauté Kale 
1 bunch of fresh kale, stems discarded and leaves roughly chopped
A few cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté garlic for a minute. Add all the kale and cook until all the leaves are wilted, about 5 minutes. Add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.