Dried Strawberries

When I made candied citrus peels, I wondered if I could do the same for another type of fruit as well. I tried it with strawberries. I cooked the strawberries in a pot and dried them in the oven at 100℃ for one hour on each side. The strawberry became a dark colour and shrank to 1/5 of its original size. The strawberry has a sweet and rich flavor. It reminds me of raisins.

Morning View

It was misty on the lake this morning. I like it and decided to take a picture.

Teriyaki Chicken Burgers

This picture below is of the teriyaki chicken burger I made for lunch today. I baked and saved some buns from the weekend. The burger was very delicious with some honey mustard sauce.

Hamburgers

I made hamburgers for lunch today. My buns were a little more flat than usual but it made it easier to eat the hamburgers.

Pecan Pie

I made a pecan pie today. I needed to make the pie crust as quick as I could because the temperature was around 30 ℃ (which is bad for crusts).
I couldn't put the pecans on nicely because I was in a hurry.
The pecan pie was very sweet. I made whipping cream without sugar and put it on the pie.

Banana Bread

I tried a new banana bread recipe today. The difference from my usual banana bread recipe is using meringue and oats. The texture from the oats was interesting and filled me up.

Strawberry Ice Cream

I use cream, eggs and sugar for my ice cream. Today, I added strawberries since the season is finishing soon.
The ice cream is harder than usual because of the juice from the strawberries. It also gives the ice cream a lighter taste. I like the taste for summer.

Hot Dogs

I bought raw sausages at the store today. I like that the sausage's ingredients are only pork meat, salt and spices. I don't like regular sausages since they contain too many sadditives.
I baked some buns when I came back home.
The sausages were delicious. We enjoyed many hot dogs.

Cherry Pie

For the past few days, I've become excited about baking my first cherry pie. I had to make vanilla ice cream two days before I baked the pie because I love pie with ice cream. Also, I had to protect the ice cream in the freezer for a couple of days from my husband.
Look! This is my first cherry pie. The filling was still bubbling after I took it out from the oven! I wanted to eat the pie right away but the recipe said I needed to wait 2 hours at least.
After a long 2 hours, I could finally eat the cherry pie with ice cream...mmmmm cherry pie.

Salmon

I found a big slice of salmon at the store today. I decided to have it for lunch. I added mustard, white wine and rosemary and baked it at 230℃ in the oven.
After 30 minutes, the fish was cooked and the zucchini looked good too.
The salmon was delicious. It was interesting that it tasted much more delicious when I had some for leftovers that night.

Ginger on Toast

I have kept my home-made ginger preserve in the fridge. I can't stop myself from putting a lot of it on buttered toast every morning. I'm not sure if it's OK to eat two or three tablespoons of ginger everyday. Is it too much?

Sweet Dinner Rolls

I baked sweet dinner rolls again. I really like the rolls. The sweet bread has much less butter and sugar than regular cakes or muffins that I usually bake but I find it interesting that the rolls' sweetness is very close to them. I eat the rolls as a dessert.

Caramel Pudding

I made caramel pudding today. First, I made caramel and then I added milk,vanilla and corn starch. It was very simple and delicious. By the way, my idea of pudding is "soft but set" but the pudding were not completely set so I thought I should call the desert a cream or sauce. I asked Andrew what he would call it and he said "pudding".

Seminole Orange Syrup

I made syrup using seminole oranges today. The syrup has more of a reddish orange colour than usual. We often eat the syrup with yogurt.

Sour Strawberry Jam

I made strawberry vinegar syrup again last week. After I pick the strawberries out of the syrup, I used them to make jam. The jam has a bit of a sour taste, which makes the jam delicious.

Buns & Sausages

I baked sausages in buns today. These buns had a unique shape...they were good for snack.

Oyakodon

I cooked a bowl of rice topped with boiled chicken and eggs. It is called "oyakodon", which means family bowl.

Sweet Dinner Rolls

I baked sweet dinner rolls today. I mixed cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, raisins and candied lemon peels into them. These rolls taste like hot cross buns.

Raspberry Muffins

I baked raspberry muffins today. I added many raspberries, so some muffins exploded from the cups.

Rice Noodle Stir-fry

Today's lunch was rice noodles with pork, qing-geng-cai and some mushrooms. I like cooking the qing-geng-cai for as short a time as I can to help keep its fresh taste.

Banana Bread

I baked banana bread for a friend who I haven't seen for awhile. I forgot if she likes nuts or not, so I didn't add any. Luckily she liked the bread. I gave the rest of the bread to her.

Bonito Flakes

Every time I make noodles, I use many dried bonito flakes for making soup stock. I reused the used bonito flakes today. I roasted the bonito flakes with some sugar, soy sauce and sake in a sauce pan until they were dry. The flakes are good for sprinkling on rice.

Cupcakes

I baked cupcakes with cream cheese frosting today. I didn't decorate them with any sprinkles but I should do it next time for fun!

Candied Peels

I made candied citrus peels today. The bottle on the left is amanatsu, which is from the peel that I had left over when I baked a cake. The amanatsu has thick white pith that makes the candied peel bigger. The bottle on the right is lemon, which is from keeping lemon peels in the freezer each time I used a lemon for cooking or baking. I used 580g of granulated sugar, which is the same weight as the peel. It took a long time to make the candied peel but they are very useful for baking or in snacks.

Bran Muffins

I baked bran muffins today. I remembered my previous mistake when I used flour germ instead of bran. The flour germ muffins had a very strong taste and it was difficult to finish them. Today, I made sure the package was bran.

Kit Kat

I tried a new Kit Kat flavor recently. It was raspberry & passion fruit in dark chocolate. I think raspberry and chocolate are good together. It reminds me of my raspberry brownies.
This Kit Kat below is a new flavor too. I didn't try it but Andrew said it was delicious.

Library Books

I often go to the library and borrow books to take home. You can borrow 12 books for 2 weeks. I usually request some books online. My closest library emails me when the books have arrived there so I can pick them up. I appreciate that the libraries have many good books and keep buying new books for our city. I sometimes visit different locations just for fun. I hope more people would use the library.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel

After about a month since I stated baking bagels, I feel like my quest for finding the best bagel recipe is finally over. I searched and tried many different recipes from books and Internet sites and I think I finally found one recipe I like. My bagels are still not perfect and I will practice making them again and again. As a bonus, I finished 1 kg of cream cheese while I was trying many recipes.

Unatorodon

This picture below is "unatorodon". From the top, there is BBQ unagi(eel), nori(roasted laver), tororo(grated Japanese mountain yam), cucumber and rice. I guess it doesn't sounds that nice if you have never had unagi, nori or tororo but the dish is delicious. My husband and I enjoy it.

French Toast

I made french toast this morning. I usually like to add a little of cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter. I ate the french toast with powdered sugar and maple syrup.