Pinch me to remind me that this weekend has finally arrived. Summer is officially ending on the calender, but by looking at all the wonderful produce around me, Summer still wants to hang around for a few more weeks. I’m still loving the tomatoes that keep ripening on the vines and oh our watermelons are just starting to peak and plump out!
I was organizing all the images we captured during our Summer travels and re-lived some incredibly meaningful moments of food, discoveries and new friendships. I stumbled on this particular photo from one of our portrait photography workshops in San Antonio, Texas and it just makes my heart melt.
Meet Alexis, the adorable baby of Katie from Texas Tigers. When I look at adorable Alexis, I just want to eat her cheeks. How can you not want to kiss the heck out of this child?!
For the whole workshop, Alexis was such a good baby, didn’t fuss and was watching everything happening around her with curiosity and wonderment. She absorbed everything happening around her with big blue eyes.
This was the first time Todd and I taught a workshop with so many families in attendance. I absolutely loved seeing these Moms spending the day with their kids and doing what they love together. Watching these multitasking women fulfill their roles as bloggers, photographers, entrepreneurs and Moms inspired me beyond words.
iphone workshop photo assignment: Stacey capturing a moment with her son
Being in a room with humble and hardworking Moms reminds me that it is very possible to do what you love with those you love. Do what you love, work hard at it and great things can happen.
I’m making every effort to continue doing what I love with those I care about. And being surrounded by all these amazing women make me want to do more of it every minute of the day! Though Todd and I feel very fortunate to be doing work that we love, it’s still so refreshing and inspiring to be immersed in a community that has the same commitment and encouragement.
sharing iphone photos
Back when I was in college, I struggled with choosing a career path that was safe vs emotionally gratifying. As an 18 year old, I didn’t have the understanding yet of how I could pursue a career that made me emotionally happy. But I suppose we all, at some point in our lives, experience this.
It took me a few years of struggling both financially and professionally to finally figure out that letting go of fear and believing in myself would be the starting point to finding success in doing what I truly loved.
” oh is that me?! I can’t look”
Labor doesn’t have to be laborious. I found this out soon after college and chose a career of labor that brought me love. And joy.
So as I enter this weekend of Labor Day, I can’t help but to think of a time of rest with those I love. And if there’s any labor involved, it’s always labor of things that I love with all my heart: like cooking, gardening, Todd and puppies!
Is it just me, or has August been a little hectic for you too? Sure, this is supposed to be the month when most of Western civilization takes long vacations and work a little bit less, if they work at all. But I’ve found myself thrown into weeks of teaching classes, more recipe testing, dealing with website issues, and working on potential business partnerships. All of this is very exciting (well, except for the web issues, which are a pain in the ___), but frankly, I’m exhausted!
Which is why cold summery noodles have been a life saver this month. I make a big batch just before the days I know I’ll be swamped with work, store it in the fridge, and for the next 2 to 3 days just eat it cold come meal time. My standbys lately have been cold sesame noodles, kale and sesame soba, and zucchini noodles, but this week I made a big batch of peanut and lime soba noodles.
For the sauce, I used creamy peanut butter and tamari, which is a bit richer but less salty than regular soy sauce, as a base. Then I just whisked in a bit of water to thin out the thick peanut butter, then mixed a bit of mirin, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, and ginger. The lime juice goes in right at the end, and makes the sauce go from good to “wow!”
My only regret was that I didn’t make two batches the first time around…
________________________________
Peanut and Lime Soba Noodles
Serves 4
1/2 cup frozen edamame, shelled, or substitute frozen peas2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter1 tablespoon tamari, or substitute soy sauce3 tablespoons water2 medium carrots, julienned1 scallion, thinly sliced1 tablespoon sesame oil1 tablespoon mirin1 teaspoon white rice vinegar1 clove garlic, minced1 teaspoon grated ginger8 ounces dried soba noodles1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice1 scallion, thinly sliced2 tablespoons roasted unsalted peanuts, choppedLime wedges for servingBring a small pot of water to boil. Cook the shelled edamame for 3 to 4 minutes, then drain and set aside.In a small bowl, whisk the peanut butter with the tamari and water until smooth. Add the sesame oil, mirin, rice vinegar, garlic, and ginger and whisk until well-blended.Bring a medium pot of water to boil and cook the soba until al dente, or the minimum amount of time according to the package instructions. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again. Toss the cooled noodles with the peanut butter sauce. Add the julienned carrots and edamame, drizzle over with the lime juice, and toss again.Transfer to serving dishes and sprinkle the chopped peanuts and scallions on top. Serve the noodles with lime wedges for extra lime flavor.
Since turning in my cookbook manuscript to my editor a few months back, things, for the most part, have been relatively quiet. As a first-time author, I'm learning that there's a lot of waiting involved in the publishing process.
But just last week, during a most furious stretch of thumb-twiddling, my editor sent me a first draft layout of my book! A first draft layout is pretty much what it sounds like: a draft version of my entire cookbook that shows how my text and photos will be arranged (i.e. the overall design and aesthetic of what the completed book will look like once it's finished).
I must say, after spending the better part of a year writing and photographing in a vacuum, it felt so good to finally see how my words and pictures are being put together by the great design team at Tuttle. I can't even express how cool everything looks and how excited I am to be working on this project. It's really starting to look like my book is coming to life. Huzzah!
But before I share a very quick peek at the shape my book is taking, I also want to mention that there's been a change of title for my cookbook as well. Wha?!!
If anyone remembers as far back as last year, I tentatively titled my book "The New Filipino American Cookbook". Admittedly, I never was too keen on this very generic title (even though I'm the one who came up with it).
So, a few weeks back, the publishing team at Tuttle and I decided to change the title of my cookbook to, drumroll please...
"The Adobo Road Cookbook: A Filipino Food Journey".
Much more snazzy, no?
Yes. Yes it is.
And if that title sounds a bit familiar to some of you, that may be because it was borrowed from this article (about me) that was written by Amy Scattergood of LA Weekly sometime last year. The fine folks at Tuttle liked the article title so much, that we decided that it was a very appropriate title for my cookbook. Not only are the recipes in the book taken from my own personal journey in Filipino food, but they will also provide another sort of journey for readers and home cooks alike. And luckily for me, Amy gave her blessing to use the title (thanks again, Amy!).
Now that you've seen the new title for my upcoming cookbook, how's about a quick peek at the layout?
The Title Page Me and some Mystery Ladies in the Intro A Sample Chapter About Something Called "Adobo"
Ok, that's all you get for now. Just a whiff. I don't want to spoil anything too soon, but trust me, there's a lot more from where all that came from. And I do want to mention that there is a completed draft for the book cover as well, but I didn't want to share that just yet either. Another thing I'm learning is that everything is always in flux, and there are always changes.
And there will be changes. After receiving the draft, I sent back a long list of suggestions to my editor about the layout. After the layout has been decided and set, then we can get down to editing the text. That's right, the text hasn't even been edited yet!
So even though there's been lots of progress made since my last update, there are still miles and miles to go before the book is actually finished and released in Spring 2013. But don't worry, I'll keep you posted...
I love the title. Very eye catching and makes you want to look at it. I was hoping to have adobo pix w/ the title. The pix you have looks like somekind of shrimp/soup dish? Anyway, sooo very proud of my nephew. Can't wait to buy the book-with autograph of course! From your loving, favorite aunt in Sacramento.
Congrats, Marvin! I can't wait to see this hit the shelves and follow you down the 'adobo road.' Good luck with the rest of the book publishing process!
I for one can attest, having realeased a Filipino cookbook this year, that it’s seriously hardwork but of course, all very worthwhile. So happy to see a fellow Pinoy also spreading the word about our cusine that ROCKS. I love love love the layout. Can’t wait to grab a copy!
Just my two cents...The photo looks too generic (mind you I don't know much about the book other that what you share here...), was thinking of something more "Filipino". and just as an opinion, the title makes me think of "the Adobo book" which I know has no relation to your book.
But I am still excited for you and for the book to come out. :)
I wish you all the best on this "journey", Marvin! Congratulations and I can't wait to get my hands on your cookbook and start cooking from it! Mabuhay !
Ahhh so cool to finally see it (even in draft form)! Can't wait to get my pinay paws on a copy :D Congrats, Marv! And best of luck in the coming months as you prepare to publish!
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It all began with the easiest cookie recipe that I’ve ever seen. 3 ingredients. Mix. Bake. Done. Talk about your minimalistic cookie recipes.
No creaming the butter. No folding or gently mixing. No gradually incorporating the flour. No flour at all actually. Just a “Wham – Bam – Thank you, Mam!” I just had to make these cookies to find out if they were any good or not.
Twenty minutes after pulling out the mixing bowl we were already sampling the first batch. Simply delicious.
My first thought after making the cookies, is that they would be perfect as a deep dish cookie with chocolate ice cream, “a la pizookie” for all those BJ’s Pizza patrons. Bake the dough in a ramekin then while it is still warm, add a scoop or two of chocolate ice cream.
Usually we’ll try to avoid using the oven in the heat of summer, but these cookies only take about 9 minutes to bake. Slightly Warm Kitchen vs Ice Cream on a Warm Cookie. Cookie wins all day, everyday. You can always do like we do and grab a blackberry mojito pop from the freezer while making the cookies to compensate for the heat.
Several notes about the recipe:
It is Gluten-Free. Personally, no offense intended towards our near and dear gluten-free friends, that doesn’t matter much to us. We eat almost everything. However, it is great to have GF recipes in the repertoire for those social occasions when you need it and is great news to those who do have GF needs in consumption.The peanut butter you use matters. Since there are only a few ingredients, minor variances in each have a bigger impact on the outcome. Different peanut butters will be more dry or moist. They all taste good, just the texture is a little different and you might need to adjust the peanut butter amount for your favorite peanut butter.Shirley calls for extra-chunky peanut butter. We don’t have extra crunchy peanut butter. Since it is nice to have the textures of the peanut pieces, we rough chop unsalted roasted peanuts and add them to our recipe, but you can make the recipe with the extra-chunky and leave out the chopped peanuts. Just up the amount you use a little vs the creamy peanut butter amount.Salt. Your peanut butter may be saltier than ours, but we like a little pinch in the dough. Take it or leave it, your choice.Damn. With the chopped peanuts and salt, we are up to 5 ingredients for the recipe. Oh well.
-Todd
And last, but not least… here are a few other deep dish cookie delights ’cause pizookies rule!
Yield: 8-10 ServingsTotal Time: 20 min
Adapted from Shirley Corriher's BakeWise. You can use chunky peanut butter instead of the creamy combined with the chopped peanuts, but we like to have slightly bigger chunks of peanuts. If using salted, roasted peanuts, leave out the 1/2 teaspoon of salt in recipe. Usually we halve the recipe if it is for just a few people.
2 c (520g) Creamy Peanut Butter1 c (150g) unsalted Roasted Peanuts, rough chopped1 c (220g) packed Brown Sugar2 lrg Eggs1/2 t coarse Kosher Salt or Sea Salt
Preheat oven to 350°F
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients until well mixed.Spoon and spread dough into ramekins or tartlet pans until dough is about 1/2" thick. (can be more or less to preference, just adjust baking times as needed). Dough will not spread as it bakes, so make sure to spread the dough in evenly before baking.Put ramekins or pans on a sheet pan and place in oven. Bake for about 9 minutes, or until edges are just starting to turn light golden (barely darker than dough's original color).Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then add ice cream and serve immediately.
We’ve said this many times in the past and we’ll say it again… because of your friendship and support, our lives are richer in ways that we never, ever imaged. Your messages, comments and encouragement helped us define our voice. You helped us see, feel, understand and do more of what it is that we love so much.
Over the past several years, we’ve been photographing and producing video for other cookbooks, but never really considered writing our own. Perhaps it was because we really didn’t know what it was that we wanted to write about and to trust that our ideas would work in a book. We wanted to find something we believed in 1,000% percent before we poured our heart and soul into printed pages.
Every time you visit our blog and each of your comments re-enforces this belief to be real and honest. Because of your encouragement in us, we’ve found the confidence to finally write our very own cookbook full of garden inspired recipes, cooking stories and puppy pictures!
This whole process is a little scary. Many authors have said it’s like giving birth. It’s a labor of love and one of the hardest, scariest, most gratifying experiences we’ll go through.
We keep asking ourselves, are we ready for this?! Is it really like giving birth but without the Demerol? What will it be like to cradle our very own book in our arms? So many more questions come to mind.
Our stories and unconditional love will be poured over the printed pages through intimate lifestyle photography and brand new vegetable/ fruit driven recipes. Your readership here let us know that you appreciated our fresh, garden inspired recipes. So, we’ll do much more of it and this whole storybook will be laced with plenty of our personal style photos, most of which will be new and original.
Our hearts are racing. We’re anxious, excited, nervous and elated all at the same time. It’s been our little secret for some time now and if you’ve been following our instagram, we’ve been giving sneak peaks behind our #TDCookbook photographs and recipes.
Now, we have the guts to share it with you all.
We’re in the best hands with an fantastic team. Huge thank you goes to our wonderful literary agent Alison Fargis of Stonesong Press for helping make all this happen. Our amazing editor Dervla Kelly and supportive publisher Abrams Books have been incredible in making our dream come to life. Have you seen the gorgeous cookbooks they publish? The Baked cookbooks and Sugar Baby are examples of beautiful cookbooks, gardening books and other works of art published by Abrams Books.
Finally, the fun and crazy journey in all this is that the book is slated for release in Fall of 2013. So much work is ahead of this, but we’re finally ready for this process.
THANK YOU to you all for helping us make this happen. This journey would never be the same without you amazing people.
For the longest time, I have wanted to try out the tangzhong (???) or water roux method of baking, which is a baking technique made popular by the Japanese and then widely adopted by Taiwanese and other bakers in Asia.
The tangzhong method of preparing the dough delivers soft and fluffy bread that stays fresh without the use of any preservatives. Many Asian food bloggers swear by the method; I have been fascinated by the technique but only have a chance to try it out recently.
The tangzhong method lies in the creation of a “bread starter” by cooking the bread flour and water mixture until it reaches the temperature of 65° C. This 65° C bread starter increases the moisture absorption of the typical dough and hences produces soft, light, and pillowy bread. There are many recipes online using the tangzhong method and I decided to try cheese breadsticks because both little G and I love it. It’s one of those things that he would always asks for whenever we are at an Asian bakery store.
As you all know, I’m an inexperience baker so the method took me the whole afternoon. The end result of the cheese breadstick was satisfactory and we all enjoyed the warm and soft breadsticks that were fresh off the oven. I left some of them at room temperature for a few days but I personally find that there is no difference compared with the breads I got from the bakery. The cheese breadsticks didn’t stay soft and fresh after the first day.
Anyway, I’m still glad that I tried out the cheese breadstick recipe and the tangzhong method. As to whether or not I will continue to use this method to bake, I probably won’t. Living in Irvine, we are spoiled with the many varieties and very good baked goods sold by Asian bakery stores. To me, it’s just so much easier to buy from the store. ;)
Contributor: Ho Siew Loon I have always loved baking. One of my friends has asked me to bake something savoury for a change and Bee gave me an idea of coming out with buns wrapped in different types of filling and toppings. I decided to combine two sinfully good ingredients—ham and cheese. It was quite challenging to bake these ham and…
When I was working in LA, every week my colleagues and I would go to The Farmers Market at the Grove for the Brazilian BBQ. Pampas Grill—the stall selling the BBQ—is probably one of the most popular eateries at the Farmers Market. There is always a long line of patrons lining up for the hot-off-the-grill, juicy, and scrumptious Brazilian BBQ,…
One of my favorite root vegetables is carrot. I love carrot in my soups, drinks (carrot juice), so it’s no surprise that I love carrot cake, even though the idea of adding carrots to a cake is somewhat bizarre, but carrot cake is a good cake. My contributor Pick Yin at Life is Great is here to share her carrot…
If you love Rasa Malaysia, it’s very likely that you love Asian food, and probably love Asian-style pastry. Call me bias but I personally think that Asian-style bread and pastry are better and have a lot more varieties than those you get from regular stores. I am a huge fan of Japanese and Taiwanese bakery shops, they are just great….
Whirlwind Tofu Monday: Seattle TV, Radio and Class - Viet World Kitchenwindow.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init( { apiKey: 'a279adbe87e2b3c505e777af99a5260d', xfbml: true } );};( function() { var e = document.createElement( 'script' ); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; document.getElementById( 'fb-root' ).appendChild( e );} )();Viet World KitchenHomeAsian DumplingsRecipe IndexClasses+EventsFav SitesAbout MePermission+Credit Welcome! Join me to explore, create, and contribute to the culinary traditions of Asia.
September 18, 2012Whirlwind Tofu Monday: Seattle TV, Radio and Class
I’ve been in Seattle since last Friday afternoonand had an Asian Tofu event everyday. On Monday, however, I had three thingsscheduled: a morning TV show on King 5 (NBC affiliate) in front of a live audience, a noontime radio interview at KPLU (NPR), and anevening class at Book Larder. Lucky for me, I didn’thave to be at the station until 9am (yay!) and it was located about 10 minutesfrom where I was staying. Even downtown Seattle road construction (full ofdetours) couldn’t make me late.
With a rental car, I figure that I didn’t need anassistant like I did in Vancouver. That said, I had to scramble fordishes, prep bowls and cooking equipment. Here’sa tip: Make sure you have some food friends or make some quickly when youare doing out-of-town gigs. I used VRBO to get a studio rental apartment, whichwas well equipped for basic cooking. I was supposed to demo a dish and thenshow two extra finished dishes. I’d pick straightforward recipes but still hadlots of prep to do and props to gather on Saturday and Sunday.
I needed a food processorto grind up the cashew and cardamom fudge and asked fellow cookbook author PatTanumihardja, who asked her mother. Her mom’s was old and not pretty, she said.So I borrowed one from Lara Hamilton at Book Larder bookstore, promising toreturn it when I taught the class. For prep bowls other small wares, I raidedthe VRBO rental and Eric Banh’s restaurants, Monsoon and Ba Bar. Eric and I arefriends so he happily obliged.
On Monday morning, I luggedmy gear to the New Day Northwest studioat the King 5 building. Producer Heidi Eng and I reviewed the minutesegment and then the director told me when I’d be on. They did a teaser at thebeginning and then I waitted quietly in the back. Finally, Heidi said, “You’reup next!”
I walked out to the setand saw the studio audience, which was prepped and perky. Show host Margaret Larson and I quickly ran through what we’d be doing. Then we wereon. Here’s the segment:
It was nice that some audience member laughed atmy jokes. Afterwards, I fielded questions off camera and then we portioned outthe food for everyone to taste. They liked it all! Jump to this page for the pressed tofu recipe.
Then it was just a few minutes of driving to KPLU near Seattle’s Space Needlestation. I’d written down the wrong address and paced up and down the sameblock four (4!) times before show host and Seattle Times columnist Nancy Lesoncame running out and screamed at me to come in. Someone had spotted an Asianwoman looking lost outside the building and asked Nancy if she was waiting forme.
Nancy and Dick Stein have cooked from my books foryears. Dick is super into Asian food. He is a curious aboutreplicating familiar and unfamiliar foods. We sat in the recording studio forabout 30 minutes chatting about Asian tofu, the cookbook and the subject. Therewas so much good content that Dick split it up into two segments. Here’s thefirst segment as a downloadable MP3 file
Dick is a sweetheart and gifted me these fruity hot chiles from his garden and a jar opener; Dick is really into jazz, can't you tell? I had to use his opener at my evening class to access a jar of chile bean sauce.
Later in the afternoon, I brought my soakedsoybeans and the food processor to BookLarder for the DIY tofu class. It was suppose to be a demo with medoing the work. But I decided that it would be more fun with some classparticipation.
I made soy milk from scratch and also had culinarycoordinator Rachael Coyle buy locally made soy milk. I wanted to do aside-by-side comparison. Also, I wanted to do a coagulant comparison betweengypsum and nigari crystals. The Book Larder classwas packed with 30 people and I set up ingredients and equipment for apre-class show and tell. There were various kinds of tofu that I had collected during the tour, as well as some stuff gifted to me.
After the soy milk was done, four volunteersstepped up to make the tofu. They were all careful and nervous but it workedout fine in the end. We made block tofu, some oboro tofu curds, and molded one ina colander too.
Photo by Lara Hamilton of Book Larder
What was the verdict? All of the tofu made with DIY soy milk got eaten up. The storebought milk was fine but people were intrigued by the tofu produced from milk that I had made. No one seemed toside with gypsum or nigari.
What was really satisfying was that there were anumber of people who’d been cooking from my work and a handful, including Asian Tofu too. “Your recipes work andthey taste good!” one woman said. Music to an author’s ears.
Comments Whirlwind Tofu Monday: Seattle TV, Radio and Class
I’ve been in Seattle since last Friday afternoonand had an Asian Tofu event everyday. On Monday, however, I had three thingsscheduled: a morning TV show on King 5 (NBC affiliate) in front of a live audience, a noontime radio interview at KPLU (NPR), and anevening class at Book Larder. Lucky for me, I didn’thave to be at the station until 9am (yay!) and it was located about 10 minutesfrom where I was staying. Even downtown Seattle road construction (full ofdetours) couldn’t make me late.
With a rental car, I figure that I didn’t need anassistant like I did in Vancouver. That said, I had to scramble fordishes, prep bowls and cooking equipment. Here’sa tip: Make sure you have some food friends or make some quickly when youare doing out-of-town gigs. I used VRBO to get a studio rental apartment, whichwas well equipped for basic cooking. I was supposed to demo a dish and thenshow two extra finished dishes. I’d pick straightforward recipes but still hadlots of prep to do and props to gather on Saturday and Sunday.
I needed a food processorto grind up the cashew and cardamom fudge and asked fellow cookbook author PatTanumihardja, who asked her mother. Her mom’s was old and not pretty, she said.So I borrowed one from Lara Hamilton at Book Larder bookstore, promising toreturn it when I taught the class. For prep bowls other small wares, I raidedthe VRBO rental and Eric Banh’s restaurants, Monsoon and Ba Bar. Eric and I arefriends so he happily obliged.
On Monday morning, I luggedmy gear to the New Day Northwest studioat the King 5 building. Producer Heidi Eng and I reviewed the minutesegment and then the director told me when I’d be on. They did a teaser at thebeginning and then I waitted quietly in the back. Finally, Heidi said, “You’reup next!”
Stay Connected Asian Tofu in the News"Cooking with Tofu (Are You Serious?!)" — Michael Rulhman on his tofu conversion
"This book should be a priority for anyone with the slightest interest in Asian cuisines." — Anne Mendelson, Taste & Travel
"The most gratifying part about cooking from Asian Tofu is that all the recipes work the way they’re written." — T. Susan Chang, Boston Globe
iphone workshop photo assignment: Stacey capturing a moment with her son
” oh is that me?! I can’t look”
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