1-Minute Homemade Cheater Cappuccino in a Mason Jar

My relationship with coffee is a complicated one. I LOVE it and resent it at the same time.

Heart Warming Chicken "Noodle" Soup with Spaghetti Squash -- for ONE, on a rainy day

As if things can't get worse, I got a cold, with a bloody nose. The rain outside did not help lightening my mood, either. Sigh. I had to do something to cheer myself up. My lunch did the trick -- it was so comforting that it may have cured my cold!

Roast Chicken for ONE -- after a hard breakup

I cried. Hard. For a while. After a 4.5-year-relationship has finally come to an end.

It felt like a whirlwind of emotions, intense and overwhelming. And my nose started bleeding, even more violently than my heart.

Consolation from friends and family has helped me to stand on my feet again. It is becoming clear that taking care of myself is the first priority right now, starting with -- nourishment.

Greek Yogurt Blueberry Muffins -- maximizing goodies from the farmer's market

If you are like me, you will find it hard to resist getting that fresh pint of blueberries from the farmer's market, together with the peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, and strawberries. It is just impossible to go through those fast enough as a two-people household! Still, come the following week, despite the fact you've checked your fridge and warned yourself not to go crazy, you'll grab another pint...This happens every single time. After blueberry pancakes, berry-banana smoothies, berry-topped yogurt, here comes the final bomb: blueberry muffins.

No-Bake Dried Fruit Coffee Bar -- a perfect post-workout snack

D has started working out again: bought a new bike, and has been going on 25-mile rides on weekdays and 50-mile ride on weekends for the past couple month. Believe it or not, one can easily burn over 1500 calories per ride!

To help with a speedy recovery, I made this yummy treat after reading this article about caffeine and cycling.

Open Face Chicken Naanwich -- leftovers are wonderful for lunch

I love dining out in summer time -- sitting out on a patio with a glass of white sangria or margarita. I also love the numerous barbecue parties -- blue cheese burgers, grilled steaks, corn on the cob, and of course, lots of beer. My point is, with the increasing dining options, I tend to cook formal meals less frequently in summer. Heating up the stove twice a day is just not that appealing somehow.

So when I do cook, I make more than enough for a meal, and rely on the leftovers for a while. Trust me, leftovers can be very tasty! Here is a lunch we have been having for lunch ever since I discovered the fun of making naan at home.

Herb Roasted Split Chicken Breast -- end-of-the-week dinner hack

It's that time of the week again -- we departed from the excitement from the last weekend; lunch rotation has made a full round from sandwich to wraps to salad to leftover casseroles, and dinner had gone through beef/pork/salmon/tofu, yet the next grocery trip is not quite here yet. You wanted to make something delicious but am already somewhat worn-out. It's high time, to pull out some chicken breast from the freezer, again.

A life-changing trick I learned recently was to defrost meat in the fridge with added spice and herbs, which forms a pseudo-marinade -- The flavors sink in while defrosting, and no additional time is needed at all. 

Healthy Crispy Beef Sliders with Homemade Buns -- perfect for a summer picnic

I love everything that summer brings us -- the sun, the beach, music festivals, county fairs, vineyard trips, fruit picking, and picnics! The ladies from D's family is going to have a girls' night out tomorrow with some great poetry and delicious food. I have been so excited that I started the food preparation way far in advance.

In my opinion, no social gathering shall be complete without some good bread and cheese, and of course we need to make our own bread. 3 days before the event, I had to drag D for some groceries, most importantly -- flour. Between the D&D sessions and Game of Thrones parties, we ran through a whole 5 pound of flour within a week. Record usage within one day: three loaves of crusty bread + home-made pasta + Arya's lemon cake = 12 cups of flour/day! We also hulled home six packs of cheese, some greek yogurt, crab sticks, ground beef, and the regular salad stuff. I became immediately happy 5 hours after the grocery trip, because of these cute slider buns came out lovely.

Lemonade Chia Seed Muffins -- we all have lazy days

It's time for breakfast again, and I had NOTHING prepared. Digging through the fridge, I found nothing but eggs and milk, along with some cabbage and dried shrimp & squid (!) What can I do?!

Luckily, D has got some lemonade in stock, way way in the back. How lucky! With a pantry stocked with flour, baking powder and vanilla, I could totally pull it off -- or could I?

Gluten-Free Corn Muffins with Chia Seeds -- start your day with a smiley face

It's 2 o'clock in the morning. I'm not sure how many of us would stay up to write or read about food. But if there's a group of such, then I'm one of them.

As you may have already guessed: breakfast is the most challenging meals to make for me. D doesn't really like the eggy flavor at all, and I can never get up early enough for a gourmet morning deal. So I made more muffins. Day after day until we ran out of flour! The horror! Out of desperation, I whipped up some corn muffins with fresh blueberries, and oh my, they were good.

Farm Fresh Hangover Detox Smoothie -- for someone you love

One perk of being a graduate student here is the numerous social hours -- monthly happy hour and First Friday at Five, biweekly TGIF, spontaneous outings, etc. It also helps to have brilliant and generous friend who offers to pay for beer as his new Science article is getting super hot. It's no surprise then we got to kick start our weekend with some free pizza and beer, from where D and others moved on to a restaurant downtown for dinner, and continued with flowing delicious beverage, until...until it's time to crash. (I got home early, not 100% by choice -- I was still recovering from the night before, from pitchers of Negra Modelo at the allegedly best Mexican restaurant in CT.)  D's hangover today was only natural -- I just need to find a CURE to it.

This brings me to another perk of living here -- an awesome food co-op and a great farmer's market a few blocks away. Fresh from the market today -- garlic greens, rapini, and a cherry tomato plant.

Fresh Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs with Asparagus and Cauliflower -- quick (and balanced) weeknight dinner

I was going to write the past weekend, including the last show of the season at the Yale Rep, hanging out with friends at our place catching up till 3 a.m., a tasty Mother's Day brunch with D's family, a great run of Dungeons and Dragon's, and a Game of Thrones viewing party...Then I quickly realized that we were so busy DOING things, that we only took ONE photo, for all that have happened!

Though this photo is of my favorite people -- J&C enjoying their fluffy chocolate pancakes at the Mother's day brunch. The pancakes were bigger than their faces! J kept saying that his hands got dark (because of the melted dark chocolate chips), yet both seemed to have enjoyed lunch very much. They finished the pancakes without a single drop of maple syrup. I love how they stuck to the true taste of a plain old chocolate chip pancake! The brunch for adult included bacon & salmon eggs Benedict (with homemade hollandaise sauce), hash browns, more bacon, and mimosa (of course)! We were too busy eating and chatting for pictures. So...I won't be writing about that.

Instead, I will be writing about random dinner, that I happened to snap a couple shots before it was gone.

One-step Cocoa Frosting for a Chocolate Birthday Cake -- birthday recommended but not mandatory

We've been having too much fun since last Friday -- so much that I have not yet got a chance to update about our beer hopping and a joint birthday party.

I arrived at the beer hopping late, thanks to a hectic clean room schedule. Nonetheless, I had LOTS of fun, discovery local businesses and such. The most impressive pit stop would have to be our local brew shop luck &levity without a doubt. The six home brewers there brought over a dozen tasty beer, from bitter stout to sweet rhubarb to Belgian wheat. What a great treat!

(I found this picture of us chilling from the brew shop website.)

Ladies Love Meatballs -- one-step recipe

It's been almost two months since I last got together w/ S. Man, how I miss it. We click so well when it comes to movies, dramas, wine, food and our boyfriends -- did I mention our boyfriends are actually best friends? Let alone the fact that we live less than 2 blocks away from each other!

I am so happy that we got to have our ladies night last Thursday. S must be the best guest ever -- not only does she always show up with a bottle or two of delicious wine, but she was also a great and talented help in the kitchen.

That night, we had oven-baked cajun meatballs, quinoa loaf with green peas, stove-top popcorns, and home-made macaroons. Couldn't have made the dinner without her!

Thick Cut Bacon, Parsley Hash Brown, and a Sunny-Side Up Egg -- I earned my first tip!

Ah, Sunday is finally here, together with the nice spring weather! We woke up well rested, to a sunny and warm day.

D is hungry, as I am taking a break from making a batch of these muffins every other day, which is why I am making him a hearty breakfast while he is out getting us some coffee from the Starbucks around the corner.

Soy Ginger Marinated Salmon -- I want this every day

To put everything in context, I just got back from a fancy 3-course from the top French restaurant in town, that's been rated "excellent" by New York times, and I'm still salivating when writing this post.

As always, the main dish itself was easy enough to prepare. You need a piece of very fresh salmon. I was browsing in the Asian grocery and saw the WHOLE fish, and just simply could NOT resist purchasing 2 pounds, even though I had no idea whether it is wild-caught and that it is more expensive than the regular Stop & Shop.

It just looked too good to pass.

Skin on, bone in, as raw as it can be -- just how I like it!

Please forgive the picture quality, as it was quite late when we ate (and that I am still living with iphones instead of a fancy DSLR as a poor graduate student...)

Chicken & Wild Rice Skillet -- stretching the leftovers into a tasty one-pot meal

You may have already known how a great roast chicken is done, but do you know how to transform the leftovers into a magnificent dish? Guess what, we are going to show you a way!

There Is No Cure for Veggie Fries -- this is more than just St. Patrick's

We are in a veggie fries frenzy. It started as we were experimenting with a healthy version of 50/50 fries a while back. The dish itself was simple -- oven baked fries consisting of 50% of potato and 50% of sweet potato. We would eat a whole tray during dinner, and another tray afterwards while watching certain Netflix shows.

It took 5 minutes to prepare but the enjoyment lasted hours. Eventually we asked ourselves, is potato & sweet potato really the limit? Of course not! We have had great success with carrot sticks, kale chips, asparagus, and many many more.

 Here is a snap shot of a version for St Patrick's Day. Did you notice the color semblance between the dish and the Irish flag?

Braised Beef Shank in the Slow Cooker -- something good to have (especially when you are exhausted!)

D and I spent the past whole weekend moving and cleaning. Yes, we are officially out of our cute studio downtown! Both of us are thrilled about the upgrade to our downtown loft, though I wish the cleaning process was easier!

Smart of us to plan ahead! We ate out on Saturday, simply ran out of time to cook lunch. On Sunday, we had brunch from leftovers, and planned a hearty dinner worthy of the hard work, and this is what our typical second (or third or fourth) serving looked like:

Not too shabby, huh? Let me tell you, D had to fight for his share on this one. Beef shank is the most precious cut in a lot of Asian countries, and I was not being polite when it came to tasty dinner!

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins with Chia Seeds -- 5 muffins a day is not too crazy

I am convinced this is D's new favorite. Every now and then I would whip up a dozen of breakfast cookies or muffins, which usually last for a longggg time. Usually after day four they stop being attractive -- not as moist, soft or fragrant. Then I'd grind them in a food processor to make a pie crust or something, or they'd sit in a freezer forever, together with the failed bread attempt, because I hate wasting food.

Two days ago I made some muffins, and this time I learned from the past and became smarter: instead of fill an entire muffin pan, I halved everything and made six only, so that there would not be any waste. (Our freezer was getting pretty full!) To avoid muffin piling up in our apartment, I took one of those to work the next morning and gave it to a fellow grad student. Her reaction was -- " OMG this is so good! What did you put in this!?" I was happy -- these muffins would disappear within three days for sure!  Boy was I wrong. When D asked about breakfast the following morning, I reached out to the cookie  jar (yes, we store muffins in our cookie jar), only to find it empty!

-Where were all the muffins? (I was in disbelief)
-Well, those muffins are tiny and I had snacks! (D always has good reasons)

Five muffins in one day? That means SUPER good by D's standard.