Cinnamon Roll Waffles

Have you ever tried cinnamon roll waffles?... well you should!

I found the idea on Pinterest from this website. All you have to do is buy the Pillsbury Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls, place them in the waffle maker and cook them until golden, then top them with the cream cheese frosting, and BAM!... you have one quick, easy, and tasty breakfast. :)

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. This is just another reason I'm looking forward to moving back to the U.S. --- huge breakfast selections at home, in the grocery store, and at restaurants.

Doughnuts, Cookies & Love

When we moved to Nagoya, the only Western fast-food chains here were McDonalds, Subway, Dominos, and KFC. In the three years that we've been here, 3 Krispy Kreme Doughnut shops have opened, as well as a Burger King. I've always refused to go to Krispy Kreme in Nagoya, for 3 main reasons:

1. I don't really like Krispy Kreme - I can have real, homemade, fresh donuts anytime I'm home at Sweetwater's. I'm sure most cities have better local bakeries and doughnuts than Krispy Kreme.

2. The lines in Nagoya have been ridiculously long. I'm not waiting 2 hours for a doughnut, period.

3. How much are these doughnuts in the U.S.? Because here they are 180yen, or about $2 EACH.

Picture is from Krispy Kreme Nagoya.

But it's Valentine's Day, my hubby likes these doughnuts, and I decided to give in and go there. I went early in the morning to the underground shop in Sakae to avoid the crowds, and luckily there was no line! If there would have been, I would have likely turned around.

After a successful morning, I decided to bake my favorite chocolate chips cookies. Sorry in-laws, I know you swear by Grandma Tichota's recipe, but I just can't get into putting Crisco into my cookies. After testing a variety of different recipes over the years, I've discovered that the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is my favorite

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips (I use more)

- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.
- Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mix on low speed until incorporated.
- Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Drop tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown (I usually do 9 or slightly less, so they're nice and gooey).

While eating heaping spoonfuls of cookie dough, I started to think about the raw egg and how the U.S. tells me that I shouldn't eat it. It got me thinking - people in Japan eat raw egg every day. It's a common ingredient in many dishes here - they mix it with rice, include it with noodles, plop it on top of pasta dishes, etc. Even their scrambled eggs are super runny... and a hard-boiled egg is a joke. So why is it that Americans can't eat raw egg, but Japanese can? No one gets sick or dies here from eating raw egg. This thought eased my egg anxiety and justified my cookie-dough eating frenzy. But, do you want to know something interesting? The Japanese wouldn't eat raw cookie dough because of the egg - that's no problem - they wouldn't eat it because they believe eating raw flour will make you sick. hmmm it certainly makes me wonder why the differences...?

We had a nice Valentine's Day, filled with doughnuts, cookies, chocolate, and most importantly... love. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

As you already know, Joe and I have eaten pancakes together every single weekend since we've started dating. Mainly chocolate-chip, but occasionally we'll change it up and do blueberry or banana. Until now...

This recipe is just too fantastic not to share. Totally 100% unhealthy, but worth every single bite. I found the recipe on Pinterest, from: http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

Here's what you need:

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

CINNAMON FILLING:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, just melted (not boiling)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
***stir together, then place in a heavy zip lock baggie and set aside.

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2-ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I'm pretty sure they'd come out just fine with a boxed pancake mix, or your favorite homemade pancake mix as well. As for the frosting, I didn't use cream cheese - just made a simple buttercream frosting and it turned out fantastic.

So here's what you do (more detailed steps are on her website)...

Poor a scoop of the pancake mix onto your pan (we make whooper sized pancakes). Then snip the corner of your zip lock baggie of the cinnamon filling and add a swirl to your pancake (which needs to be at room temperature - otherwise it's too runny and the liquid goes everywhere - so it should be about the consistency of toothpaste). The first few pancakes we made were very runny!

Cook until the pancake begins to bubble and its golden brown on the bottom. The cinnamon mixture will expand quite a bit (so don't get it too close to the edges).

Flip! And cook the other side. The pic above is what the top looks like after both sides are cooked.

We had a little leftover cinnamon filling, so we drizzled the remaining mixture on top of our stack of pancakes. I know, very unhealthy, but it made them extra delicious!

The top with as much frosting as you want. YUMMMM!!!

You should probably only eat 1 of these. We, however, ate 3. What's life without splurging every once in a while? ;) Although I think this is going to be come a monthly weekend treat in our house.

Thank you Pinterest and Recipegirl.com for introducing me to this delicious pancake recipe.

Thai Tom Yum Soup

I'm on a recipe kick right now, so started this week off with a bang: Tom Yum Soup!

While in Thailand last spring, we took a Thai cooking class. Through the class, we received a collection of herbs and spices along with directions for how to make Tom Yum Soup. The box has been sitting in our pantry for 11 months now... so I decided it was time to dig it out and give it a try.

Surprisingly, it wasn't difficult to make (since I already had all of the ingredients needed). The basic broth is made out of stock and fresh ingredients. I'm actually quite impressed with how it turned out! It was lite and fresh, and I would definitely recommend it. I also read that the soup has many health benefits due to its combination of herbs & spices. So not only does it taste good, but it's healthy too. :) So here's the recipe...


Ingredients:
1,200 ml (2 Pt.) chicken stock, or vegetable stock
2 dried red chillies
2 tbsp. chopped lemongrass
4 slices galangal 2.5cm (1 in.) pieces
6 kaffir lime leaves
4 spring onions white and green parts, chopped (I used a yellow onion)
2 tbsp. chopped fresh coriander leaves (I didn't have this)
1 tbsp. fish sauce (nampla) or soy sauce
2.5 cm (1 in.) piece lime or lemon peel (I used both)
2 tbsp. lime or lemon juice (I used both)
500 g. (1 lb) frozen prawns or chicken pieces or mushrooms defrosted
chopped spring onion and coriander leaves for garnish (I didn't do this)

Directions:
In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients, except the prawn/chicken/mushroom and lime juice. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes to blend the flavors. Strain and discard the solids. Return the liquid to the sauce pan, add the prawns/chicken/mushrooms and cook until heated through, about 1-2 minutes. (I cut up raw chicken into tiny pieces, and then cooked the chicken in the soup - about 5 minutes). Add lemon/lime juice then pour into soup tureen; garnish with the chopped spring onions and coriander and serve.

Next time I want to try adding some veggies to it, and maybe use prawns instead of chicken. I also want to make sure that I have coriander leaves and green onion, which is what the recipe calls for and I didn't have. I also read that adding coconut milk will make it more rich and creamy and add to the flavor.

Chickpea Salad with Lemon & Parmesan

One of my New Year's resolutions is to try new recipes, and well... cook more in general. I find that we constantly make the same meals every week: tacos, fajitas, salmon, BBQ chicken... all accompanies by some easy veggie and rice. Occasionally I'll make a couple Japanese dishes, such as okonomiyaki and yakisoba. But variety seems to be rare these days.

Thanks to Pinterest, I have found quite a few new recipes that I want to try. Some of them will be challenging, as finding the right ingredients will be difficult. But the goal is to try. ;)

So I decided to start simple with an extremely easy side-dish recipe: Chickpea Salad with Lemon & Parmesan. It turned out pretty good and is so easy that I thought I would share. Here's the ingredient list:

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
a pinch of salt (more to taste)
1/4 cup loosely packed shredded parmigiano reggiano (unfortunately I couldn't find this in Japan, so just went with grated Parmesan cheese)

All you have to do is combine all ingredients in a bowl, and gently stir to mix. Serve immediately or chill until serving (I like it better cold).

It would probably be better with the correct cheese, but oh well. Was still good, and even got Joe's approval!