This one week between Christmas and New Year always feels so different.
It makes me want to be laid back and really relax in a good way.
And this drink definitely helped me do just that.
The refreshing flavor of Yuzu goes so well with green tea.
This Bûche De Noël (or Yule Log) is not made of cake but made of sandwich bread!
You need several (I used four) slices of white bread.
Take crust off.
Roll them flat with a rolling pin.
Spread your favorite jam (I used cherry jam) and roll them into a log.
Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest while you prepare Adzuki butter.
I just combined and mixed store-bought sweet Adzuki paste and vegan butter until it was creamy.
Spread it over the log.
Voila!
As you can imagine, it’s quite small.
It’s perfect for one or two (I ate the whole thing myself!).
It was absolutely delicious!
Since it’s so easy to make, it can be a make-your-own project for kids too.
If Adzuki is not your cup of tea, you can simply use chocolate whipped cream or any frosting.
Merry Christmas.
One of my favorite cakes is fruit cake!
I don’t understand why fruit cake is so unpopular.
I love its denseness packed with yummy fruits and nuts, and I would eat a slice with a cup of tea every day if I could.
But I don’t do that because that would make it difficult to stay at my ideal weight for sure.
Even having one fruit cake this time of the year is dangerous because my husband does not touch it (he is NOT a fan of fruit cake).
So, I decided to make the second best thing, fruit “bread”.
Well, it’s not “sweets” technically, and I can eat it as a “meal” instead of “dessert”, which makes me feel better (lol).
This turned out amazing!
I loved the light and soft crust, and all the fruits and nuts!
You toast it lightly and eat it with butter.
It’s heavenly!!
The second day I made French toast with it, and it was great too!
My husband even asked me to make some (he said he liked it, but quickly added “fruit bread is still not my favorite” ; ( ).
For the vegan French toast batter, I used her recipe -> https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-french-toast/ .
And for the fruit bread, I used her recipe -> https://merryboosters.com/easy-fruit-bread-recipe/ .
I just replaced butter with vegan butter.
This year I decided to have a low-key Christmas meal.
I just wanted to have a quiet relaxing day.
Initially the plan was not having a plan (lol), but at the last minute I wanted to have something still a bit special for lunch.
I saved this recipe for a while ago, but I didn’t have a chance to try it.
The recipe looked easy enough, so I thought it would be a good main dish.
It WAS easy to make, and it turned out great!
I happened to have leftover roasted cabbage from yesterday, so I made this roasted cabbage lentil sesame stew.
For the buns I made this microwave stuffed buns in the Christmas colors.
The red ones are stuffed with vegan meatballs, and the green ones are stuffed with sweet Adzuki bean paste.
The brown sugar mustard glaze was so tasty that I wanted to lick the plate!
The glazed tofu recipe – > https://www.instagram.com/fitgreenmind/
Stay warm and safe if you live in a cold climate like we do.
I’m always attracted to dishes that are both sweet and savory.
I still had some fresh Shiso left, so I thought it would be fun to use it for pancakes.
What goes well with Shiso?
Tomatoes!
I added chopped fresh Shiso and sun-dried tomatoes to my vegan pancake batter.
The pancakes were ready.
You can simply enjoy them with butter and maple syrup.
Or…
Add things.
This time I placed homemade vegan cheese and fresh Shiso.
Then…
Here is my not-so-secret sauce.
A mixture of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and maple syrup.
Trust me.
This is SO GOOD.
Ta da!
Scrumptious!
I would put this on the menu if I opened a restaurant (lol).
Yes, it would be served just like that, with salad and Tofu croutons.
It’s been really cold the past few days.
Yesterday it was only 5 F degrees and snowed all day.
So, I stayed home.
Luckily, I had enough food plus some fun ingredients to try.
A friend of mine was recently back in Japan, and she brought some fun gift for me.
I’ve never seen this mini bag of rice.
It’s so cute!
I wanted to try, and I decided to cook it for lunch.
The “Shiso” and Yuzu are from the Kaiseki chef.
He is always so generous and kindly shares Japanese foods that are hard to come by here with me.
The Yuzu zest was added to make pickled radish.
The Yuzu has such a refreshing flavor and takes the pickles to the next level.
It was a one-person lunch yesterday, so this is all I prepared for myself.
Well, that’s pretty much everything I happened to have at hand.
Inside the roll you’ll find Shiso, Yuzu radish pickles, air-fryer crispy tofu, and mashed avocado.
These were super tasty!
Since you don’t have to tightly roll or slice (if you make regular rolls), “temaki” is so easy.
This way you can enjoy the roasted seaweed still crispy this way too because you roll it when you’re ready to eat.
I had a dish of soy sauce ready for dipping, but I didn’t have to use it.
They were delicious without any extra sauce.
By the way, it’s cold again today.
It’s only -7 F degrees onw.
I’m staying at home.
By the way, this is what I’m reading right now.
I liked another book (The Pillars of the Earth) written by this author, so that’s why I decided to try this one.
So far so good.
I have a long way to go.
But time is what I have right now : ) .
I hope it’s not too shocking to you.
The idea came from last night…
I celebrated our anniversary month at Kaiseki Furukawa, a Kaiseki restaurant, in Minneapolis.
This was our second course, a part of the 10-course meal.
This course consisted of eight different things, and one of them was a Shiitake shortbread cookie.
When the chef told me what it was, I was initially skeptical.
But once I had my first bite, I loved it!
It definitely tasted like Shiitake.
It was unique and delicious.
Since I liked the cookie so much that I wanted to make Shiitake sweets myself.
Luckily, I had some dried local Shiitake.
I picked madeleine to be my first Shiitake sweets.
I added powdered dried Shiitake to the batter.
They turned out great!
They got the beautiful brown color.
And they were delicious!!
Who knew mushroom can taste so good in a cake?
I enjoy trying new food ideas.
Particularly for breakfast.
They make the routine a bit more exciting.
So, when I saw this idea, I had to try it!
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClMHYakp6DJ/
First, frozen store-bought hashbrowns.
You don’t have to thaw them.
They cook with the “eggs” just fine.
Some scallion and plant-based meat slices were added to the “egg”.
This was really good.
Field Roast is one of the vegan meat brands that we like.
Looks good, doesn’t it?
I used tofu and chickpea flour as the main ingredients for the egg.
It was delicious.
I will make it again for sure.
The last few years my husband has been ordering a custom vegan cake for me for my birthday from Betsy.
https://www.instagram.com/seymourmunchmore/
This year I requested a cake made of coffee/rum sponge cake, vanilla frosting, and chestnut cream.
She did an awesome job as usual.
It was not only pretty but also delicious.
My husband and I recently watched a Japanese show called “First Love” on Netflix.
Hubby actually found this show and wanted to see it because he thought it would help him learn some Japanese phrases.
I enjoyed it, but it was a bit confusing to him, because the actors who played the main characters at a younger age and the current time looked very different, and he would repeatedly ask me, “who is that again?”
It’s a cute story, but I’m not sure if it appeals to western audiences because of cultural differences.
In the show you’ll see “Napolitan” spaghetti several times.
Adding the omelet at the bottom is something I grew up with.
It’s a regional thing, popular in the Nagoya area.
My omelet was made of chickpea flour.
