French Toast - - Chinese Style

New Yorkers were able to enjoy a snow day due to the blizzard that hit our area. I celebrated with a leisure breakfast: French Toast, Chinese style. The main difference between Chinese and American style French toast is the topping. Chinese-style use condensed milk and American-style use maple or pancake syrup.

Chinese Almond Cookies

The Chinese Almond Cookies recipe is from Pichet Ong's cookbook "The Sweet Spot: Asian-Inspired Desserts."  Almond cookies to Chinese people is similar to how chocolate chip cookies are to Americans; it's one of our notorious dessert items. People can find them in Chinese bakeries and supermarkets.

Not My Grandma's Homemade Banana Pudding

Through some random internet searches, I came across My Wooden Spoon and her Grandma's Homemade Banana Pudding recipe. The 'Grandma' in the title reeled me in. A grandma's recipe is practically no-fail and everyone knows that grandmothers are the best cooks so this was a must-try.

Raspberry and Almond Shortbread Thumbprints

The Raspberry and Almond Shortbread Thumbprints from Allrecipes are my favorite kind of cookies. It's a simple kind of recipe that doesn't use many ingredients but does require a bit more work than the average cookie since one would have to make the thumbprint to fill it with jam. However, these are worth it.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam

 
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are one of my favorite foods but how will it taste in the form of a cupcake?

Chirp Chirp

Whoever came up with this window display deserves a serious pat on their back. This belongs to Cursive New York, located in Grand Central Terminal. Not only did it catch my attention but it slowed many people zipping pass. Good job!

Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

Long, long ago, before there was something called Google and even the internet, I would usually find my recipes on the back of boxes. I baked my first oatmeal raisin cookie from Quaker Oats  and am still using the recipe, albeit with a bit of modification:

Pichet Ong's Spot - Revisited

Tiffany, from FineChinaGirl, and I headed over to Spot Dessert Bar on 13 St. Marks Place in East Village. This is the first time she has been here and wanted to go due to yours truly. The sign has changed since I've been there but regardless of the color, I still love you Spot.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Today is Valentine's Day and oddly enough it is also the Chinese New Year. The Lunar New Year usually falls within the last two weeks of January or the first two weeks of February. This year, the year of the Tiger, it happened to fall on February 14th!

During the Lunar New Year, people celebrate with food, festive music, red envelopes and lion dances. The lions dancing symbolize fortune and luck for the new year as they dance to the beat of the drum and cymbals. Be warned though because the streets are jam packed as people are trying to catch glimpses of the lions.

 The pair of lions that are dancing amongst the crowd.

A lucky closeup of one of the lions.

The drum and cymbals that control the lion's movement.

Happy New Year! May the Year of the Tiger ferociously roar for your fortune and health.

S'mores Crumb Bar

My home had some marshmallows leftover so before it went to waste, a recipe was found to finish the bag: S'mores Crumb Bar. The recipe was found on Allrecipes by its nifty search feature that allowed finding recipes according to the ingredient wanted. There were quite a few dishes that are made with marshmallows but this one caught my attention.

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

Condensed milk is an extremely sticky and sweet item that it is one of my favorite accompaniment with certain foods. Usually, a little bit of the stuff with toast or even replacing sugar with it in tea or coffee will hit the spot.

Butterscotch Brownie with Walnuts

 
The flavor of butterscotch is created by combining butter and brown sugar. It's delicious with ice cream so it must be even better if it's fused together with brownies.

Semolina and Coconut Cookies

The choice of this recipe was encouraged by a friend from Morocco. He wanted semolina cookies, one of his favorite treats while growing up. However, he doesn't have the recipe so we searched high and low for it. We finally settled on one that we found on youtube and subsequently the blog posted up by SouSouKitchen.

Toffee Bars

 
I wanted toffee candy but didn't want to make it because the last time I tried to, the results were not good. However a toffee bar recipe from Betty Crocker caught my attention and it looked like something that might satisfy my craving.