It with a heavy heart that I give you this really tasty recipe. Because the key to making it so tasty? Shortening. The bain of my existence. It actually makes me gag. It’s so overly processed and so not good for you. The only time I ever break down and use it is for pie crusts. You gotta give it to the white vomit paste, it gives you one goddam flaky crust, no doubt.

Sure you can leave out the shortening, but it WILL make a difference. I am weeping now.

ingredients:
1 Cup butter, softened
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 TB shortening (*ugh*)
1 can azuki – sweetened red bean
1 egg beaten (for egg wash)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add the flour slowly, and mix. Add in the egg, and the vanilla. Then add the shortening. Mix well.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Flatten them out, and add a dollop of azuki bean in the middle.

Pinch to close up, and place the nice little balls on a cookie sheet. Add a little bit of water to the beaten egg, and brush onto the tops of the cookies.

Bake for 30 minutes until a lovely toasty brown. Now if you don’t like sweet red bean – you can substitute strawberry jam as well. But I will not guarantee taste. No, I will not.

O.G. love ribs. Chicken? No way in hell. This is an adjusted recipe that was originally from Nigella Express, for Nigella’s Maple chicken and ribs. Since O.G. hates poultry I nixed the chicken and also adjusted the flavors, just a touch. Secret ingredients? Apple juice for tenderness and maple syrup for a crispy sweet outside. Very quick and easy and oh so good.

ingredients:
1 rack baby back ribs
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tableespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
6 garlic cloves, crushed.
1 teaspoon black pepper

Cut the rack of ribs into individual pieces. Set aside.

In a bowl combine all of the ingredients. Carefully pour into a freezer bags. Add the ribs and marinate overnight. I suggest flipping it around and making sure everything is covered, every few hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil. Take the ribs out of the bag and place on the foil. Cook for 1 hour or so.

Make sure you check on them near around the 45 min mark. That maple syrup will burn up like a motherf*er. Too long and you’ll have char on your hands. See how dark these are – sooo close.

These ribs are simple and sweet. Perfect for a Sunday dinner.

I LOVE mochi. And now you can make it yourself at home!

However…I advise you to just go to the mochi store and pay 80 cents, cause this recipe is a pain in the azz, seriously. But here it is if you want to try it. It’s absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:
3-1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp food coloring (I prefer pink)
1 box mochiko
1 can/bag an (prepared sweet red beans)
potato starch

To start – prep a cutting board by sprinkling liberally with potato starch. Set aside.

Boil the water and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the food coloring and stir. I prefer to always make my mochi PINK, but my MIL prefers green, and since she is demo’ing this recipe, well…

Now the fun. Add the box of mochiko and stir like crazy!! I’m dead serious – if you don’t work fast you are so screwed. It gets really really hard to stir.

Once combined, dump onto your prepped cutting board.

Pull off a round piece. Flatten out, and add a dollop of an beans to the center. (You can also use peanut butter if you like). Pull up the corners around the an, closing up the pouch. Pinch closed.

Warning: This makes a TON of mochi. You better be going to a party or something, cause it’s plenty. Also, because there are so many, (just look at the picture) you will be filling these things for hours. You know what I mean? TIME CONSUMING. Just saying. But they are so soft and delicious, there is nothing better than freshly homemade mochi. MMMM…

I like muffins/cupcakes purely because they are little individual servings. One little cup, just for me? Aw, you shouldn’t have. I went through my baking supplies and found these little scalloped yellow paper cups that I had bought at a candy supply store a while ago. I bought them just because they were so pretty. The yellow made me think of lemon, which I just happened to have, so instantly the thought of yummy lemon cakes filled my mind.

Usually when I cook or bake, I have a recipe, that I loosely follow, depending on my mood. Today I didn’t have any recipe, I just kind of made it work. Still I wrote it down along the way, so I could make it again.

ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk
juice of ½ lemon approx 1Tb and a half
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a bowl, mix together the flour and the baking powder, set aside. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Alternate mixing in the flour mixture and the milk. Finally stir in the lemon juice and the zest.

Spoon into prepped cupcake liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool on a rack, dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve.

This recipe I was going for a fruity taste. You don’t have to make the sorbet from scratch, buying some works just as well. But I had a pineapple lying around and wanted to put it to good use. I like to layer the two different sorbets because it gives good flavor and color.

Pineapple sorbet + store bought lime sherbet

Pineapple Sorbet ingredients:
3 cups fresh pineapple, finely chopped
1/4 cup water + 1 Tablespoon lime juice
1-1/4 cup simple syrup

Chop the pineapple into small pieces, add to food processor, along with water mixture. Puree until smooth.Put mixture through a fine sieve, extracting most of the juice. Add the remaining pulp to get 2 cups of pineapple base. Add simple syrup and chill until cold. Put in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Fill small dixie cups halfway with pineapple sorbet. Freeze for 30 minutes. Then add a layer of lime sherbet, or any other complimentary flavor. Put in popsicle sticks for handles, or, if you don’t have any, use plastic spoons.

When solid, tear off dixie cup and enjoy! These pops would taste good with strawberry or honeydew sorbet as well.

Since the kids love mochi, I thought that mochi (not the sweet kind) in soup, would be perfect. Think of it as an asian cross between Albondigas, and Matzo Ball Soup. It has pork meatballs and little mochi balls with ham inside. I make the BALLZ tiny and bite size. The kids like it.

ingredients (meatballs):
1 lb ground pork
1/2 can water chestnuts, chopped fine
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oil
salt and pepper to taste

ingredients (mochi balls):
1-1/2 cup mochiko
1/2 cup cooked ham, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup chicken broth

ingredients (soup):
70 ounces of chicken broth (or 5 cans)
sliced kamaboko
julienned carrots
green onions

I usually make the meatballs first, earlier in the day, and keep them in the fridge. It’s just one less thing to think about once you get going on the soup. Combine the meatball ingredients together. Mix well and shape into small balls approx 1/2 inch. Set aside in the fridge.

Put the chicken broth in a stockpot on high while you make the mochi balls. Combine the mochiko, ham, salt and pepper. Gradually add the broth to form a dough. It will be crumbly, don’t worry. Pinch the dough into small 1/2 balls. Set aside.

Once the broth starts boiling, add the meatballs and cook for approx. 8 minutes. Then add the mochi balls and cook for another 4 minutes. Now you can add the kamaboko, carrots and green onions to the boiling pot of soup.

This recipe is a lot easier than it sounds. Don’t let the amount of ingredients fool you, or all that ball making. It’s really fast and well worth it.

I have been wanting to make a filled cupcake for sometime, but usually put off by the idea of goop. I don’t like the goop. However this one works. I filled the centers with a cream cheese, sugar and chocolate mixture, and they came out moist and perfect.

ingredients:
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 package box cake mix (DISGUSTING) or 1 recipe of cupcake batter from scratch
buttercream frosting

Here’s the thing. I hate box cake mix with the passion of 1000 suns. I am not opposed to eating box mix cakes, no – I’ll eat it, but I just don’t see the point, if you’re in the aisle, and you already have eggs and butter, just buy some goddam flour and sugar while you are at it, instead of a box of preservatives. Point is. You can make this with box mix if your lazy heart desires, it’ll be good no matter what.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla and the egg until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl make you horrible cake mix or wonderful batter from scratch. Up to you. I’ll wait while you decide.

…

Now that you have your batter, fill the liners about 1/2 full. Then add a heaping teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle.Top it off with more batter. Even if you don’t cover it completely, don’t despair, it’ll fix itself in the oven.

Bake for 20-22 minutes. Let cool, frost as you like. I prefer buttercream. Don’t get me started on canned frosting. UGH.

When I brought these to work someone said this was the best cupcake they have ever eaten. I laughed hard at that because what if they’ve only eaten two cupcakes in their whole life? Who knows if they’ve eaten 50? Who can gauge??

I love rolling out dough and cutting out cookies. It’s theraputic. I also like to make them ‘pop’ instead of just being flat, I like to add a little dimension.

Take a basic sugar cookie recipe. Roll out your dough and cut shapes. I happen to love this heart within a heart I found years ago. I get two cookies out of it! I have hearts of all different shapes, which makes it easy for layering.

The Kid specifically said, “Don’t take my picture.” Ok, fine.

Once baked and cooled, make a royal icing recipe. I like to tint mine two different colors, in this case, pink and I left the white as is. I have a bowl of red sugar and a bowl of pink sugar. You get variation of color with the sugar+frosting combo.

I assemble each cookie individually rather than in an assembly line. I do the big one first, then the small in a contrasting color, that way I can press the smaller cookie right in immediately, before the icing sets. Then it’s ‘glued’ in place.

I happened to see these cute boxes at Target, with a little ‘window’ in the top. Perfect to peek in on the cookies. I hope my Valentine’s recipients like them!

I make this soup a lot cause it’s easy, but especially when there is sickness in the house (read: ALWAYS). It’s quick and I don’t even consider it a recipe, more like a throw together. When the kids are well, I serve it up with some yummy Croque Monsieur and they are happy little boys.

3 (14 oz) cans chicken broth
1/2 cup dry pasta
1/2 cup cooked chicken, chopped up
1/4 cup frozen corn
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Before we start, let me just say that you can add anything to this. Carrots, celery, ham, but my kids won’t touch the stuff. As far as pasta, small is better and I found these cute Alphabet pastas my local Trader Joe’s.

Pour the cans of broth into a big saucepan and set to high. When it starts boiling, add the pasta, and cook for 10 minutes. See, that’s the easy part, there is no cooking the pasta beforehand or draining or what have you. Don’t sweat it.

Then add the chicken. Add the corn. Add the pepper. THE END. Told you it was easy. I’m slightly embarrassed. The taste is phenomenal, considering.