Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup)

Since it seemed like I had most of the ingredients to make this soup, I attempted it for the very first time for dinner tonight.  I've had it at Thai restaurants before, and it seemed easy enough to make.  Well, I thought my first attempt was successful.

most of the ingredients

palm sugar

What I used:

• 2-3 cups baby bella mushroom (cut into sixths since they were good size mushrooms)
• 1 cup sliced pork loin (I would have preferred chicken breast but pork was thawed & ready to use.)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 can chicken broth (2 cans would have worked.  I had to add 2 cups of water to thin out the broth to my liking.)
• 2 limes (I used the zest from the two limes since I didn't have kaffir lime leaves.  The juice from both limes were used also.)
• 1 lemongrass (sliced)
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1 chunk of palm sugar (which is about 1 tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 4-5 pieces of dried galanga (Fresh galanga could be used also but I didn't have any.)
• cilantro
• salt & pepper to taste

tea ball with ingredients

tea ball strainer in pot of coconut milk, water and chicken broth

I put the lemongrass, lime zest, garlic and galanga in a tea strainer ball and added it to the pot with water, chicken broth and coconut milk.  The soup was brought to a boil, and I let it go for about 5-10 minutes.  (It can boil longer to get the fragrant from ingredients in the tea strainer.)  At this point, I added palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.  You can add more or less of those three ingredients according to your taste preference.  Then I added the pork to the pot.  Once the pork was cooked, I added the mushroom and let the mushroom cook before turning off the heat.  I added salt and pepper and enjoyed the soup with cilantro.  

Heart-Shaped Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

For Christmas, my girl friends and I exchanged favorite things.  One of the favorite things Jamie shared with us was a "Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies" recipe along with a box of red velvet cake mix and a tub of cream cheese frosting.  I have been avoiding baking for a while now (for a few reasons) but decided to try this since I had the ingredients on hand.  (I listed the ingredients below and what I substituted.  However, the original recipe & directions are here.)

For the cookie:

• 1 box of red velvet cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature (I substituted 2 tbs of Chobani greek yogurt & 4 tbs of butter instead of using 1/2 cup of butter.)
• 2 eggs 

For the cream cheese filling:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature (Again, I used 2tbs of Chobani greek yogurt & 4 tbs of butter instead.)
• one 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature (I used the one with 1/3 less fat.)
• 1 lb box of confectioner's sugar (I used only a cup, and it was sweet enough.)
• 1 tsp vanilla

The mixture for the cookie will be very thick.

Since Valentine's day is just around the corner, I decided to go with heart shaped cookies.  I filled the cookie batter into a piping bag and piped the batter in the hearts drawn on parchment paper using a heart cookie cutter.  Not only did tracing the hearts help with shape, but it also helped with size consistency.

As you can see, they weren't perfectly piped at all.

On the cooling rack after baking in pre-heated 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Not bad for a first try.

Made the cream cheese filling while the first batch cooled and the 2nd batch was baking.

Filled & ready to be enjoyed.

Made about 14-15 cookies.  Luckily, my family came over so I sent the rest home with them.

Welcome!

Hi!  Welcome to my first entry.  I've always wanted to created a blog dedicated to my love for food and here I am finally.  Obviously, I love to eat.  I love to try new recipes, new food and new restaurants.  I also enjoy old time favorites.  I'm not an expert but I do know what I like.

Here's a salad I put together for dinner earlier.  I used what I had on hand, and it turned out good.  My favorite part was the avocado!

• mixed greens
• mushroom
• grilled chicken breast
• avocado
• blueberries
• pistachio
• light Laughing Cow cheese
• grape tomato
• 2 parts balsamic vinaigrette whisked with 1 part honey

Hopefully, you try out some of the food and/or recipes shared here and come back to visit again.