It’s not quite summer yet.
But I know once winter is over, summer comes quickly here in Minnesota.
The soup is cold.
Spicy.
Sweet.
And a bit sour.
It’s also got texture, from onions, ginger, and sesame seeds, which cling to the noodles so well.
In addition to a lot of veggies, I added vegan omelet (homemade) and vegan mini egg rolls (from Costco).
I have a feeling that I will be eating this a lot for the next several months.
I like Natto, and I like curry.
But I’ve never thought about putting the two together.
I saw someone doing it on Instagram, and she said it was her favorite way to eat curry.
So I had to try it.
When I was little, my parents would eat their curry with a raw egg.
I did eat my curry that way for a while because I thought that was how you were supposed to eat curry, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t really like that.
Since I turned a teenager, I’ve only eaten my curry as is (just over rice).
So this was kind of a big deal, and I was so excited to try it.
A verdict?
Well, I liked it.
But it was rather 2 + 2 = 4.
So it tasted what I had expected.
It’s not a bad thing, but it was not what I wanted.
I wanted it to be 2 + 2 = 10.
This time I also added a few other things.
These were actually fun to add to my curry plate.
I don’t think I will do Natto Curry again, but I’m open to other topping suggestions.
If you have any favorite curry topping, let me know!
Today we had my mother-in-law over for brunch to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Since I really liked Whole Orange Cake (you can search in my blog), I decided to make the lemon version for dessert because my mother-in-law loves lemon flavored sweets.
First you wash an organic lemon, and then cook it in water.
Once it becomes soft, you cut it up.
Then puree it in a food processor.
One great thing about this recipe is that it’s so easy to make.
Once the lemon is pureed, you add the rest of the ingredients and mix them in the food processor.
The batter is ready!
It took me a while to decide which pan to use.
But I decided to go with this.
One thing about this pan is that I have this fear that cake may not come out or crumble.
So, I was relieved when all the four cakes came out intact.
They are so pretty!
The cake is so lemony and so moist.
It actually is better a few hours later.
Perfect with coffee or black tea.
I served them with a drop of coconut cream.
This is the brunch we had.
The main was the gluten-free cinnamon banana pancakes.
I kept the menu simple, and everything went so smoothly, with help from my husband, who cooked all the pancakes.
I love that my mother-in-law tries every vegan dish I make.
Happy Mother’s Day!
This was the reason why I’ve been absent from this blog for a while.
I’ve been busy with a vegan macaron making project.
It was supposed to be a quick one-day activity, but unfortunately, I ran into countless unexpected obstacles.
I’ve made vegan macarons on occasion in the past.
Not all of them turned out great, but they usually turned okay for the most part.
Well, this time I really struggled.
It was like I lost my mojo!
I’ve never encountered this many baking failures in the past.
And this time I was making shells for someone else!
Pressure possibly???
Usually I don’t do this, but this time I wanted my shells to look uniformed.
I started out using a new recipe this time.
And it was a major failure!
So, I went back to the recipe I had always used. ↓
https://www.supergoldenbakes.com/vegan-aquafaba-macarons/
For some reason, that didn’t turn out well either.
So I tried a new recipe. ↓
https://okonomikitchen.com/vegan-macarons/
I had some success with it, but it was not consistent.
I was able to make enough good-enough ones, but it was so frustrating because I did not know what resulted in the good batch or the bad batch.
I read so many guides and forums online for macaron troubleshooting.
But often times, they say something like… the reason this happened is because either the batter was overmixed or undermixed, or the oven temperature was too high or too low…
Can you see why it’s frustrating?
So basically, every process of macaron-making has to be PERFECT, which is, as you know, hard to do (sigh)…
Anyway, these are some of the shells that turned out better than others.
Blueberry buttercream.
Chocolate ganache.
Lemon buttercream.
I love this color combination.
Muted and elegant.
(Actually I wanted one of the colors to be “gray”, and I bought and used “super black” coloring gel. And this is what I got (the blue looking one). It’s still pretty, but it’s definitely not black or gray. I was completely perplexed. )
I put some blueberry syrup to the buttercream, but I thought it would be fun to place syrup and syruped blueberries on top for extra blueberry flavor.
It’s pretty this way, too!
I probably won’t make macarons for a while after this experience.
I need a little break.
But next time I do, I will either go back to the old recipe or try something different, maybe this one ↓.
https://projectveganbaking.com/vegan-macarons/
I haven’t made egg rolls for a long time.
One of the reasons for that is that I typically avoid frying.
I’ve been posting some dishes using this leafy veggie, Shungiku, and an Instagram friend, Ms. rose, told me that it’s good when made into egg rolls with avocado and grated garlic.
It sounded so interesting that I decided to try.
I wasn’t sure if I could find vegan egg roll wrappers, but I did!
I’m not the best roller, but I think I did okay.
They looked so good!
I actually made two kinds.
One: Shugiku, Avocado, Garlic
The other: Shungiku, Avocado, Garlic, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Homemade Vegan Cheese
They both turned out great!
They were tasty with just a sprinkle of salt or with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar as a dipping sauce.
I bought some Granny Smith apples to make smoothies.
Well, my green smoothie failed unfortunately, but I didn’t use up all the apples for the smoothie, so I decided to make good use out of them.
These muffins were filled with lots of apples and sunflower seeds.
I wanted to eat these muffins for breakfast, and I decided to use whole wheat flour 100% for the flour.
The basic Apple Muffin recipe is here ↓.
I like my apples peeled, but that’s a personal preference.
I was in a mood for ramen noodles with rich soup.
I happened to have cooked ground “meat”, and I thought dandan noodles would be perfect.
The vegan “meat” is made of tempeh and super firm tofu.
I like the combination of these two, as they create interesting texture.
I also added something unusual for dandan noodles, sunddried tomatoes!
I roughly chopped the tomatoes into small pieces and added them along with extra oil.
The combination seems a bit strange, as the noodle dish is Asian, and the sundried tomatoes are considered Italian.
But hey, if they taste good together, it doesn’t matter where they originated.
I like nut butter a lot.
Peanut, almond, cashew…
I like them all.
But I also love this seed spread.
It’s creamy and delicious.
It makes beautiful swirl designs.
Ta da!
These are so pretty!
These were delicious muffins.
I’ve been obsessed with her blog.
The recipe is here ↓ .
https://www.rainbownourishments.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-muffins/
Breakfast is probably one of my favorite meals.
I usually don’t have time to make breakfast during the week, but I do enjoy preparing something substantial for weekends.
The main was these spiced orange sourdough pancakes.
I had extra orange from the Whole Orange Cakes I made the other day (a few posts back).
So I just added it to the pancake batter.
It worked great!
I also prepared a few other things.
I love a full plate like this.
It makes me smile.
As you can see, I like to eat veggies for breakfast too.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
This is a delicious but light pasta dish perfect for lunch.
I have talked about this leaf vegetables many times in this blog, but really if you’ve never tried it, you should.
It has a wonderful fresh bitterness that can be used for so many dishes like salad, soup, and pasta.
They sell it as “Tongo” here, but we call it “Shungiku” in Japan.
My pasta dish usually has other things, like veggies, more than pasta.
My homemade vegan cheese added nice creaminess and richness.
Bon Appetit!
I recently found this apron.
I bought it a long time ago thinking it would make a great gift for a dog lover.
