Kat's Notebook

When I first came to the US, I stayed with my grandmother for a while because work was nearer at her house. My grandmother that time was still spry and very energetic and independent. She always loved to cook and care for her family and friends. Of course being a beloved granddaughter, she fawned over [...]

In this article I will write about another technique of making macarons. The Italian/Hot Meringue technique is not a popular method of baking macarons. The extra step of boiling the syrup to a certain temperature and mixing the egg whites with it…it seemed daunting. So why did I look for this alternative method of making [...]

I’ve trouble writing this article. This project has been going on for six months now starting at the time when I attended the class, Mastering the Macaron, at Sur La Table, Palo Alto on May of this year. I was excited back then learning how to bake this but I have postponed trying it out [...]

Every time we ran out of cooked rice at home, I would decide to make a pasta dish instead of cooking rice. I would end up doing a spaghetti because it was the easiest and basically almost the only pasta that I know to cook from memory. Anyway I deviated from this tradition when I [...]

For some reason I have been craving for desserts. The past few weeks we deprived ourselves of something sweet after a meal. We didn’t have fruits or ice cream or anything that will wash away the fullness of the main course. And I hadn’t had time to bake anything yet. Among my cravings were banana [...]

We seemed to eat healthy when we felt like we’re getting sick. So when my mom got sick, we restructured our eating habits and basically pushed ourselves to eat more vegetables. As we know Bok Choy was a good source of nutrients and I didn’t waste time to buy it from the grocery. Unfortunately a [...]

Yesterday, I went to a baking class at my favorite cookware store, Sur La Table to learn the secrets of mastering the French macaron. This piece of French delicacy is getting popular nowadays, competing against the omnipresent cupcakes. And it’s not hard for me to get inspired to bake. If I see a good-looking mouthwatering [...]

In my previous food blog post, I have mentioned that I wouldn’t bake cupcake ever again. My cupcakes tend to be dense and dry and well…it didn’t really wow me much. So…why did I embark on another cupcake project? Well I have discovered that I like red velvet cupcake! And instead of shelling out 2.50USD [...]

Panna Cotta is something that I didn’t think I would do. I’ve tasted this dessert twice in my life and it didn’t wow me that much. So why in the world will I make this? It’s all because of Martha Stewart. I have borrowed some cookbooks and dessert books from the library wanting to get [...]