Monday, May 21, 2012

Victoria Sponge Cake

For my one month anniversary, I decided to make a British cake since I married a British bloke, . What is more British than a Victoria sponge cake named after Queen Victoria. She enjoyed a slice of sponge cake with her afternoon tea (stated by wikipedia).  Victoria sponge cake is made of two vanilla cakes with cream and strawberry jam in the center.

I followed a recipe from BBC good food website. (This recipe is all in metric units.)  Sadly I haven't figured out my oven so the top layer did not bake entirely so the middle sunk.  However, I think it turned out nicely for my first Victoria sponge cake.

We enjoyed it for dessert, and I've brought most of rest into my office to enjoy.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Kung Pao and Hot and Sour soup


Because my friend, Jen was going to have surgery, a friend organized meals for her family so she wouldn't have to worry.  I signed up for last night.  I decided to make a Chinese meal, but it had to be gluten-free.  So the menu was shrimp fried rice, kung pao chicken and hot and sour soup.  I've made shrimp fried rice before, but I had to search for the recipes for kung pao chicken and the hot and sour soup. Hopefully Jen's family didn't mind being guinea pigs for me. I don't have a recipe for the fried rice. That will have to come at a later time.

Overall, it turned out really well! Next time I want to make both of them spicier. They both could use more of a kick. Instead of changing the servings on the recipe for the kung pao, I just doubled it and followed the recipe as is.  It makes it easier to follow it. I did receive a wonderful message from Jen's family telling me how much they loved the meal. So these two recipes are definitely keepers!

Now, I just need to find a good Chinese take-out place in my town.  Yes, I can cook it, but sometimes you just want to call for Chinese take-out. There's something about eating out of those Chinese take-out boxes.


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Apologies

Apologies to any readers following this blog.  I've been a bit busy getting engaged, planning a wedding, and getting married.  Now that I'm settling back into married life, I plan to post regularly to this blog.  So readers, don't lose hope!