teacups and cinnamon

family favorites: easy stuffed eggs

10:03 PM

Because I grew up in a Ukrainian/Russian family, I ate a lot of foods that other kids didn't eat. Borscht, shuba, plov, kotleti.... You get the point. Lots and lots of weird sounding foods! As a kid, I hated it. I wanted to eat what other kids were eating. Pizza, hamburgers, tacos, etc. Pretty much like every other kid on the planet. But Eastern European food was all my parents knew and loved. They grew up with it after all. I guess that was a good thing though, since Ukrainian/Russian foods are pretty healthy.

I didn't really start eating ethnic foods until late into high school. Now that I'm older and have been trying foods from many different cultures, I'm loving it! Eating foods from around the world really opens your eyes to different cultures and people. It also introduces you to lots of new and interesting foods and flavors. However, ever since I got married and moved out, I've been missing Ukrainian/Russian cuisine. Yep, I miss my mama's cooking. Every time I go over to my family's or my in-law's house for dinner, I get so happy and excited to eat all the food! I don't really make it at home, so it really is a treat.

One of my favorite things to eat as a kid was stuffed eggs. Now, I don't know exactly if this is an authentic Ukrainian/Russian food. I've never actually met anyone who would make these. But it was something my family made every once in a while and they were one of my favorite foods. One of the first things I ever cooked were these eggs. I actually remember mashing egg yolks and then stuffing the egg whites. Even now, I love love love these. They are kind of different. Not exactly deviled eggs, though they do have mayonnaise. These simple stuffed eggs only have 5 ingredients. And they only take about 15 minutes to make! Don't these sound awesome?! I mean if a kid can do it, you can do it too ;)

One of my goals for the rest of the year is to collect all of my favorite family recipes. This isn't as easy as it seems because my mom doesn't really use recipes. She just cooks by memory and by the eye. I'm not like that. I like things to be precise and proper. So I need to have exact measurements to make something taste good. So as I collect the recipes and practice them, I'll post them to the blog. Everyone always asks me what Ukrainian/Russian people eat, and it's easier to show them rather than to explain. I'll name these posts "family favorites", because that's what they are. They're my family's favorites. But most importantly, they're my favorites.

I hope you guys give these strange eggs a try! Just kidding, they're not that strange. They're just a little different than your typical deviled egg. In my opinion, they're much better than deviled eggs. And i'm always right. Right? Kidding, kidding. Click "read more" for the recipe. Enjoy!

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el yunque national rainforest (puerto rico)

10:51 PM

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garden fresh tomato soup

9:17 PM

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creme brûlée

12:29 PM

Hi everyone! Today I have an amazing recipe to share with you all! My all-time favorite dessert, creme brûlée! I would always buy this delicate dessert at restaurants, and it would still be a hit and miss. Sometimes too runny, sometimes too thick. Always expensive. You can make a whole batch of creme brûlée for the price of one at a restaurant! So I decided to give it a try at home. I thought it would be difficult, but surprisingly, it wasn't. At all. There are only a few steps involved and it is much easier than baking a cake! And it turns out aaaaaamazing every time! The cream has a perfect, smooth texture and an awesome vanilla flavor. The top is crunchy and hard and so caramely. It's delicious! This is why I love creme brûlée.

I made creme brûlée, using this (adapted) recipe, three times this summer. Once for a surprise for my husband and two times for family dinners. Everyone really enjoyed it! Most of the people I made it for had never had it before, so it was pretty special :)

I had somewhat of a difficult time finding ramekins, so I ended up with 3 different sizes. I found really big ones (pictured) at Macys. It is a perfect serving for two people. The other ones I found at Daiso, the Japanese dollar store. I would say the perfect, single serving size ramekin is 7.5cm in diameter. I'm sure it will be easier to find ramekins as soon as the holidays start coming around. Because it literally took me half a day to find some! I even tried the thrift store and had no luck, lol. I also had a hard time finding a torch, but my husband finally found one at a hardware store. It was a little pricy for a dessert, but SO WORTH IT. I tried the broiler and it just didn't give you the correct texture. Plus, torching the top is so fun :)

This recipe is very straightforward and easy. However, I'll give you guys a few tips. As soon as the whipping cream comes to a boil, take it off the heat, add the vanilla extract and cover. Speaking of vanilla extract, if you want to be ultra fancy, you can use a vanilla bean, just add it (the scraped out seeds and pod) right in the beginning and allow it to come to a boil along with the cream. Vanilla extract is just much more affordable and it gives you a wonderful flavor. (DO NOT USE THAT IMITATION STUFF THOUGH, PLEASE). Next, after the cream has cooled, pour a tiny bit of cream at a time into the egg mixture and whisk very quickly. You don't want to scramble the egg. If you think you may have scrambled it, don't worry. Just use a fine mesh strainer. The three times I made it, I never scrambled the egg. I did strain it just to be sure though. The recipe is a good one, as long as you're careful. The third tip is to put the ramekins into the roasting pan and into the oven and then add the hot water. I have been guilty (stupid?) of adding the water first and then trying to carefully put it into the oven. That's much more difficult. So do it the easy way.

Anywho, sorry for that essay! I wasn't planning to write a lot, I promise. And I also apologize for the horrific, single photo. I took it a few weeks ago and wasn't able to break it to show the inside (this one in particular was for my dad's birthday). I also had no garnishes and the lighting was terrible. (I'm still working on that). Next time I make this dessert (which probably won't be for a few months), I'll make sure to take more and better pictures! But in the meantime, you guys should just trust my word and make it anyway! Enjoy!

Crème Brulee

Ingredients:

1 quart heavy cream
1 ½ Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup sugar
6 large egg yolks
2 quarts hot water
Superfine sugar, for the top

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Place the cream into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, add vanilla, and cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar and the egg yolks until well blended and it just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually. Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8-ounce) ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
Remove the creme brulee from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top. Sprinkle sugar evenly on top of crème brulee. Using a torch, melt the sugar and form a crispy top. Allow the creme brulee to sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

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creamy carrot and coconut thai soup

7:49 PM

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beautiful old san juan, puerto rico pt.1

2:39 PM

Hello everyone :) Hope you are having a great day, I sure am, looking through honeymoon pictures and all. I miss it, but doesn't everyone? For our honeymoon, we went to Puerto Rico for a few days and then from there we got on a Carnival Cruise ship and sailed away to the Eastern Caribbean islands. We saw a lot of beautiful beaches, cities and places. My favorite, by far, was Old San Juan, in PR. It was such a fantastic place! The old city was full of narrow cobble stone streets and colorful buildings upon colorful buildings. It was incredible! Seeing grey building all day everyday in Seattle gets kind of depressing, especially with all the rain. But here, in Old San Juan, everything was so happy! It was fun, energetic and cozy. I really do wish we would start building colorful houses and buildings in the states. But for now, we can only dream, or just visit awesome colorful cities.

We walked around the city for hours and didn't get bored. There was so much to see and so much to do! We literally took hundreds of pictures, in front of every colorful house, by every single cat, all the cool old fort stuff and everywhere else photogenic. We loved the city so much, we came back a second time. I'll be posting those pictures shortly. Even though we spent two days here, we still weren't able to see everything. We didn't get to explore the fort as much as we would have liked (for we didn't know it closed so early). We didn't get to go into every shop or even try very much food. But from what I did see, I was pleased, immensely.

These pictures were taken on 4th of July. We heard rumors of fireworks, but either we missed them or we were lied to. But I didn't care. I had a blast exploring the city! I didn't need fireworks or barbecue. As you can see through the pictures, the city was very busy! Unlike the states, there were actually a lot of people out and about with their families and friends walking around the city, sitting on benches, flying kites, eating food. It was as if the whole city was on vacation. But from what we heard, Puerto Ricans like to have a good time. They like to have fun and relax. Which was comforting to see. At the end of the night, as we were walking through the streets, we came across a small block party. There were musicians and locals dancing. We joined the fun, of course. I thought it was so cool, definitely not something that happens in Seattle. As we were waiting for our taxi, we came across another show. There were a group of dancers and singers, performing traditional music and dance. There was an adorable little girl dancing away, stealing the show. It was wonderful!

Anywho, I think I'll stop describing all I saw because you can just look at the pictures. In all, I really enjoyed the city. I miss it so much! I wish we could have this culture here in Seattle. I want to see people enjoying their life. I want to see colorful houses and block parties. Hopefully one day I'll be able to go back to this magical city. But for now, I will just reminisce and look at old photos :)

Click "read more" to see the rest of the pictures and stay tuned for part 2 :)

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rhubarb crumble (and i'm back!)

10:59 PM

Hi guys! Wow it's been a while since i've last blogged! Like 5 months….. oops. Lots has changed in these last few months. First off, and most importantly, I'm no longer unmarried. Yes. It's true. I'm MARRIED!!!!!! That's the main reason I've been away from this blog. Lots and lots of things to do before the big day. No time for baking or cooking or blogging. Second, I've finished my 3rd year of school. Only 2 more quarters to go! That's really exciting! So I've been busy. But now it's august, i'm no longer in school (summer break) and i'm no longer planning a wedding. So i can resume blogging. Yay!

Since I've been married (a little over a month), I haven't done too much cooking. There are always parties to go to, family dinners to be part of. And everything I have been cooking has A) already been blogged about, or B) not blog-worthy. I have however made a few things in the last month that will definitely be going up on the blog! And the first is this delicious and simple 5-ingredient rhubarb crumble.

I found this recipe a few months ago when I was looking for recipes for my university's Community Kitchen (where I volunteered at for a year). Our kitchen's theme for that month was simplicity. And let me tell ya, this recipe is simple. I'm always a little wary about super simplistic recipes. I just feel like recipes with more steps and more ingredients will taste better. However, this simple, 5-ingredient dessert proved to be so incredibly delicious, that over 30 people thought it was fantastic.

Because my aunt's garden grew so much rhubarb this summer, I was able to make this crumble 3 times. Haha, yes 3 times, and we didn't get tired of it. I did also make a pie, but the crumble was much better ;) I love it because it's very easy to make and it's delicious. The rhubarb is tart and refreshing and the crumble is sweet and buttery. It is perfect together! I really really really really recommend making this. Especially when rhubarb is in season. Like right now.