Birthday Ice Cake

We love to make every special occasion more special with delicious ice cream cake. Two layers of our favorite flavor of ice cream combine with Fudge in between layers, making the special occasion more festive.

Kathleen is turning 8 and I am going to make 2 layers of ice cream cake for the party. The first layer would be vanilla ice cream with chocolate chuck and the second layer is chocolate ice cream. We are going to drizzle fudge in between 2 layers of ice cream.

The theme for the party will be figure skating. Thanks to Jenny Gregor, Karen Lagergren, and Mary Hokansen who gave her ice skating boot ornament that we can use for decoration on the cake. For frosting, I am going to use butter cream with purple color (Kathleen’s favorite color).

It is easy to make, but you need to have a springform cake pan and Saran wrap.

Ingredients
• 1.5-1.75 Quarts of vanilla and chocolate chuck ice cream, soften in room temperature
• 1.5-1.75 Quarts of chocolate ice cream, soften to room temperature
• Chocolate Fudge “Smucker’s”
• Butter icing or melt chocolate for frosting, see Birthday cupcake recipe for butter icing in my blog
• Your favorite topping or decorations

How to make
• Layer the entire springform pan with saran wrap
• Add first layer of cream, smooth it with spatula
• Layer chocolate fudge on top of first layer, and refrigerate until it settles
• Add second layer of ice cream, refrigerated at least 4-6 hours
• Loosen springform pan, remove plastic wrap, place the ice cream cake in a serving plate
• Layer frosting on the cake and decorate it as you desire

Fried Birthday Noodle

Noodle symbolizes long live in Chinese and we always have fried birthday noodle in every birthday celebration. You can also have this friend noodle for any occasion. I still like to make this fried noodle for brunch in the weekend.

Ingredients
• Egg noodle
• Raw shrimps, peeled
• Chicken, sliced thinly
• Shredded cabbage
• Shredded carrots
• Onion and garlic
• Eggs
• Oil
• Oyster sauce
• Sweet soy sauce
• Salt and chicken bouillon

How to make
• Step 1, boil water, add noodle, cook until aldente
• Drain well and place in a bowl
• Immediately add a little bit of oil, sweet soy sauce, salt and chicken bouillon to your taste, mix well, set it aside
• Step 2, turn on your stove with high heat, add oil in your wok
• Add garlic and onion
• Add chicken and shrimp, cook until the color change
• Add oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, salt and chicken bouillon to your taste, remove from the wok and set aside
• Step 3, add oil in a wok and crack eggs to make scrambled egg, remove from wok and set aside
• Step 4, add oil in a wok, add cabbage and carrot, stirred-fry for 1-2 minutes
• Add noodle, scrambled egg, and stirred-fry shrimp and chicken to a wok
• Stir and mix well
• Garnish with green onion and fried shallots if desire

Birthday Cupcakes with Butter Icing

Kathleen is turning 8 today, and every year Kathleen always brings cupcakes to celebrate her birthday with her friends in class. This year Kathleen comes up an idea to have a Pirate theme for her cupcakes with purple frosting on top. Kathleen loves pirate theme, she even have a character program in her figure skating. What a cool idea I thought!

I chatted to my friends at work about Kathleen’s birthday that is coming up soon. Surprisingly, one day I got a phone call at work from one of my friend Jolene Herlitzke-Foss who went shopping at Sonoma, and she found the coolest pirate toppers for the cupcakes. I was so excited and thrilled and decided to buy it for Kathleen. Thank you Jolene for your kindness.

The cupcakes is super easy to make, practically I used the stored bought cake mix. I like to make my own butter frosting and top it with any topping you want to make it prettier.

Ingredients
• 3 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 Lbs of confection sugar
• 9 Tbsp of milk or water
• 3 tsp of vanilla extract
• Food coloring to your favorite color

How to make
• Mix butter with a mixer
• Slowly add confection sugar, milk, vanilla, and food coloring
• Continue to mix in low speed for 1-2 minutes until it blends

Vinegar Rujak

Rujak is a fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Indonesia. There many different types of rujak in Indonesia. This type of rujak typically served after it chilled and has combination taste of sweet, sour and spicy. It is very refreshing in hot summer day. The dressing itself is not dense and thick, but is more liquidy.

Ingredients
• 1 Fresh pineapple or 1 canned pineapple “Dole”, cubed
• 2 Fresh apples “Red Delicious”, cubed
• Bean Sprout, washed and drained
• 2 Cucumber, peeled off the skin, removed the seeds, cubed
• 1 Cup of Gula Jawa (Palm sugar)
• Red chili flakes if desire
• 1 Cup of roasted peanuts, crushed
• 2 Tbsp of vinegar
• 1 tsp of salt and sugar to taste

How to make
• Boil water and adds palm sugar, chili flakes, vinegar, salt and sugar
• Removes from heat and cool it down
• In a glass bowl, add all of vegetables, fruits, and roasted peanuts
• Pours the dressing into the bowl
• Blend well with wooden spatula
• Keeps it in refrigerator overnight before enjoying it.

Velvety Macaroni and Cheese

Soon, Kathleen is turning 8. This year we are going to have Hullabaloo Party at Children Museum where 20 girls are going to enjoy the entire museum for themselves. How fun!

Anyway, we are planning to have a buffet dinner for the girls this year. Kathleen requested to have one of her favorite side dishes, the Velvety Macaroni and Cheese. It tastes yummy, so rich, creamy, elegant, and crunchy on top.

In the original recipe, combination of Gruyere and Sharp Cheddar Cheese are used. However, I could not find Gruyere cheese in my area, so I used Sharp Cheddar Cheese only. You can also add about ½ tea spoon of ground black pepper and nutmeg if desire. I use bread crump on top and bake it in the oven to make it more elegant. Thanks Ina for sharing this wonderful recipe.


Ingredients
• Oil
• 1 Lb elbow macaroni
• 1 quart (32 Oz = 4 Cups = 1000 ml) of milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 4 Cups (16 Oz) of grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese “Sargento”
• 1 Tbsp of salt
• 1 ½ Cups of bread crumb

How to make
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
• Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling water
• Add macaroni and cook 6 to 8 minutes, drain well
• Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it
• Melt butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour
• Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk
• While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth
• Off the heat, add cheese and salt
• Add the cooked macaroni and stir well
• Pour into a baking dish (pyrex)
• Sprinkle bread crumb on the top
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned at bottom
• Broil in high until macaroni is browned on top
• Let it cool and cheese is set before serving
• Serve when it is warm

Zuppa Toscana Soup

This is our favorite soup every time we went to Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. It is a popular soup from Tuscany, Italy. It is very easy to make and hits the spots on cold winter days. Special thanks to Shari Graham Curry who shared this wonderful recipe.

In this recipe, I used regular ground pork since Italian sausage is too spicy for Kathleen. The bacon, I used for garnish, but you can cook the uncooked bacon with the sausage if you like to get the smoky flavor. I like to use yellow Yukon or red potatoes because it cooks quickly. I like to use the combination of water and chicken broth which added more flavor to the soup. For thickness of the soup, you can add heavy cream. If you try to avoid cream, you can use mixture of corn starch with water, or simple roux (all purpose flour).

Ingredients
• 1 lb ground Italian sausage or ground pork
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers if desire
• 1 large diced white onion
• 4 cooked bacon “Oscar Meyer”, sliced for garnish
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 5 Cups of water and 5 cups of chicken broth
• Chicken bouillon and salt to your taste
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 large yellow or red potatoes, peeled, quartered, sliced thinnly
• 2 bunch of kale, shredded the leaves, sliced thinly

How to make
• Sauté pork and crushed red pepper in a large pot until the meat changes color. Drain excess fat with a coriander, and place the meat in a pot
• In the same pot, sauté pork with onions and garlic over low-medium heat until the onions are soft
• Add water, salt and chicken bouillon
• Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft and fork tender, about half an hour
• Add kale until the leaves are soft
• Add heavy cream

Samosa

Chicken Tikka Masala

Spanish Paella

I found that there are many varieties of paella: seafood, vegetables, and mixed paella which is a combination of seafood and vegetables. However, the most globally popular recipe is seafood paella because fish always predominated with rice along Spain's eastern coast.

You can always use lobster, littleneck clams, and mussels in paella. When cooking paella, we need a specialized shallow pan (paellera) used for cooking paellas. Paelleras are traditionally round and shallow, made of polished steel with two handles. I don’t have a paellera, but I found that cast iron works well too.

Paella usually has a layer of toasted rice at the bottom of the pan. This is considered a delicacy in Spain and is essential to a good paella. The toasted rice develops on its own if the paella is cooked over a high heat burner or open fire.

Ingredients
• 2 cup long grain rice “Jasmine”, rinsed, set it in cool water for 15 min
• 2 skinless breast chicken
• 7 Oz of raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 2 fillets of tilapia or cod fish
• 3 links of smoked turkey sausage “Johnsonville” or chorizo Spanish sausage, sliced an angle
• 500 ml of chicken stock
• 1/2 cup of peas
• Chicken bouillon and salt to taste
• Oil
• ½ onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 tsp of Saffron threads
• Squeezed lime if desire
• 2 Bay leaf
• Chopped parsley for garnish

How to make
• Sautee onion with chicken until change color
• Add shrimps
• Add boiling chicken stock
• Add fish and rice, cooked with medium heat, stir occationally
• Add saffron, chicken bouillon and salt to taste
• Cook in medium heat until all of water has been absorbed
• Add peas at the end
• Cook in high heat while listening to the rice toast at the bottom of the pan.
• Remove it from the heat once the aroma of toasted rice wafts upwards
• The paella must then sit for about five minutes to absorb the remaining broth