Crocpot Curry soup

 What if you only have so much time in the day to impress your guests but you want something unique,  tasty, and memorable?  WELL, it's no longer what if around here to me but it's almost a daily occurrence.  I teach mornings and late afternoons so I'm only free from 1-3 which I like to dedicate that time to taking care of my health and pickleball always win so I usually whip something quick together in the insta pot.  But I've been looking a lot more at my 20 year old wedding gift pot...the crocpot.  So it's time I share this Indian recipe from a friend who taught me it when she showed up at my house with a bowl of this scrumptious soup for me.  I LOVE it so much I asked her to teach me how to make it.  These are the ingredients:

1 butternut squash cubed

1 onion

1 small ginger (2-3 inches) diced

2 cups of chick pea

2 cups of black eyed beans

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp tumeric

 Add mushroom seasoning, salt and pepper for taste and add water to cover the ingredients. 

Add Rotisserie chicken pieces to flavor the soup.  For added flavor boil the rotisserie chicken bones for broth to add to crocpot. 

Bubble Waffle

 We had these in Hong Kong and we're hooked and we found a similar bubble waffle at Happy Lemon!  After trying a few recipes and taking what we liked from each, I was able to compost this recipe and perfected it!  Enjoy!!!

- 1.5 cup all purpose flour, plus 2 tbsp
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup of vanilla cook and serve pudding mix
- 1/2 cup of tapioca starch
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- oil, for greasing waffle machine

 

 

Creamiest Chocolate Frosting

 My daughter Debrie found this on the internet.  This is the closest to the frosting we had in Vietnam.  I couldn't stand coming back to America and eat thick and sugary frosting but when she found this I believe in frosting again.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 3 and 1/2 cups (420g) confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup (41g) unsweetened natural or dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream or milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
•  
•  
• Beat the butter on medium speed until creamy – about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, heavy cream, salt, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for 1 full minute. Add 1/4 cup more confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick. Taste. Beat in another pinch of salt if desired.

Lemon yogurt cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or wheat flower for a more muffins texture)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 1/3 cups sugar, divided

3 extra-large eggs

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

French Bread -Banh Mi

 This year my dad has been trying new banh mi recipes and he came upon this one and tweaked it a bit and now it's perfection.  I didn't want to share it until I've perfected it as well so I'm posting on here so friends and families can enjoy it as well as my children when they're older.  This recipe is a keeper!  It's so crunchy on the outside..moist and soft on the inside.  It's wonderful!

1 1/2 tbsp yeast

2 1/2 cups water

1 tbsp sugar

Let rise for 10-15 minutes until yeast fully dissolves

1/2 tbsp salt

6 cups flour

2 tbsp Olive oil

Cook at 470. For roughly 19 minutes from start.

Recipe in Vietnamese

Bánh mì VN,công thức làm bánh mì rất dễ,6cup bột mì,2.1/2 cúp nước,1.1/2 tbsp bột men ,1 tbsp đường,1/2 tbsp muối,2 tbsp dầu iLive .

Cook at 470.  For roughly 19 minutes from start.

 

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

 Two weeks ago my daughter Reena got this recipe from her friend and made these cookies for us to enjoy and to share with neighbors and I have to say I was in Heaven!  These were so moist so pepperminty that sent the whole house smelling like Christmas the instant it came out.  So naturally these are adopted into the Stevens Christmas traditional cookies right away!  And Debrie added an extra teaspoon of peppermint to make it even more amazing!

1 stick of butter softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tsp peppermint extract (add 1 more for that strong flavor:)

           Cream together all the above ingredients until fluffy and lighter color.  

Next add,

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

Then add,

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 powdered sugar, for rolling

24 Hershey Kisses Candy Cane variety to insert in the middle of the cookies after they're baked for a more decorative look

Scoop and roll the dough into a ball and roll in the powdered sugar and bake for 9 minutes @350 degrees F.  

Chicken and fluffy Dumplings

 Cook chicken soup the way you want it.  (Chicken, onions, celery, carrots, chicken bouillon)

Make this dumpling and add it to your chicken soup by spoonful...viola!

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup of milk

1-1/3 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder 

 

Cinnamon Apple Bread

 Normally I tweak some ingredients and changed some things out until it's perfect the way I want it but this recipe is pretty perfect the way that it is so no tweaking.  I got this recipe from my friend Sedi one day.  I visited her to give her some gifts and she gifted me probably my favorite bread in the world!  Enjoy making it!

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ⅔ cup white sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup milk
• 1 large apple, peeled and finely chopped

---

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. 1. Mix apples, brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside.
3. 2. Combine white sugar and butter until smooth.
4. 3.Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat on medium speed until combined.
5. 4. Add flour and baking powder, then milk.
6. 5. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. 
7. 6.Pour apples with sugar and cinnamon mixture.
8. 7.Pour the remaining batter over apple layer; top with remaining apples and add more brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.
9. 8.Pat topping into the batter
10. 9.Bake for 20 + minutes depending on the loaf pan size.  Use the toothpick trick
11. 10. Cool in pan 10 minutes before eating if you could wait that long :)

Crab noodle soup (AKA bún riêu)

 

•     4   tomatoes, diced
• 
  2   garlic cloves, diced
• 1/2 lb minced pork
• 
  minced crab meat or prawns if you don't have crabs
• 1 package of firm tofu, thickly sliced
• 3 eggs
• Mushroom (optional)
• 1 onion or shallots
• 2 tbsp of oil
• 1 to 2 tbsp of crab paste (depending on how strong you want the crab paste to taste)
  

 Sauté tomato with 1 tbsp of oil. Heat a separate large skillet with oil, scramble together eggs and tofu.  Add oil, onions and shallot. Sauté for 1 minute then add garlic, tomatoes, salt, sugar and black pepper. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add all above ingredients with 6 cups of water in a pot.  Add crab paste and bring to boil.  Viola, it's that easy!  Enjoy with vermicelli or round rice noodles.

• 1lime, cut into wedges
• 1 cupbean sprouts

Mi La - Mi Quang Noodles

 One of our favorite dishes while living in Vietnam was Mi Quang.  This is an authentic dish from my hometown of Quang Nam.  This province has THE best Mi Quang and you cannot leave this area without trying some fresh Mi Quang noodles.  We even learned how to make this noodle in Tien Phuoc.  Our friends were so impressed with the delicacy of this noodles and the way that it uses fresh ingredients.  You soak the rice overnight, grind it and add water as well as tapioca starch.  Here we have rice flour so this is a good ratio of the mix I found:

1 and 1/2 cups of rice flour

1/2 cup of tapioca starch

2 1/2 cups of water

1 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of salt