Apple Clafoutis 2

My son loves Apple Clafoutis. I made a new version yesterday. It came out really well. If you do not know what to make for dessert this holidays. Try this recipe: Apple Clafoutis #2. Enjoy!

More Blogs

Recently, I have not been cooking much. I have found more blogs and added them on my directory site.

Here are the recent blogs that I have added:

Holybasil - You will find many Vietnamese and French recipes.

My Cooking Hut - You will find many Japanese, Chinese, French and many more recipes.

I also added two more recipes. Please check them out. They are really good.

How to Make Bugs on a Log

Bugs on a Log Recipe

Here's my son's video on how to make Bugs on a Log.

Sweet and Sour Fish Recipe

Sweet and Sour Fish

Here's my video about how to cook sweet and sour fish!

Lemon Meringue Pie

I have been busy with my son school Auction and did not have much time to cook lately. Today, I was craving for something sweet and sour and remembering that I have this recipe that my host mum from Australia sent it to me. I made Lemon Meringue Pie tonight. It came out really well. My son and my husband enjoyed it too. It is really easy to make and tast sooooo good. Love it!

Here is the recipe http://www.gretchenspantry.com/recipe/lemon-meringue-pie.aspx

Butternut Squash and Granny Apple Soup

I love soup especially this time of the year. Seattle is so gray, cloudy and cold. I have soup almost all day long. It keeps me warm. I have never thought that butternut squash and apple would go together but they do. I have adapted this recipe from Eden Organics who I order their organic fruits and vegetables from. My family loves this soup, so am I. I hope you enjoy it too. I just posted the recipe to my community website. Please take a look at it.

Here is the website: http://www.gretchenspantry.com/recipe/butternut-squash-and-apple-soup.aspx.

Added New Blogs on Gretchenspantry

Recently, I added two great recipe blogs in our community at directory. You can search all the best recipe sites at GretchensPantry.com

Here is the great blog that have recently added:

Baking and Book

Modern Beet

Pad Prik Pla Dug (Stir-fry Catfish with Curry Paste)

Incredibly, Hot, Hot, Hot! My sister in law, who loves to cook very spicy food, made this dish. It called Pad Prik Pla Dug or Stir-fry Catfish with Curry Paste. I don’t know whether I have mentioned it or not from the past. I was from south of Thailand. The food from the south part of Thailand seems to be very hot, salty, and sour. We eat more seafood than other part of Thailand. We also use a lot of herb especially turmeric.

Here is the recipe for Pad Prik Pla Dug: http://www.gretchenspantry.com/recipe/pad-prik-pla-dug-catfish-with-curry.aspx.

Thai Fish Cakes "Tod Mun Plaa"

Blasting hot oil in a big wok, a man was performing his art of cooking at the Thai farmer market in an open air. The smell of fish, curry and oil was in the air. I walked pass this deep fried fish cakes, or we called it “tod mun plaa.” Tod mun plaa, or fish cakes had been one of my favorite in my school years in Thailand for my afternoon snack. The simply ingredients include: minced fish (mackerel or other fish), egg, red Thai curry paste, finely sliced Thai or French long bean, finely sliced kaffir leaves and salt and sugar. After its cooked you eat it with cucumber dip sauce.

Here is the recipe for fish cake or Tod mun plaa: http://www.gretchenspantry.com/recipe/thai-fish-cakes-tod-mun-plaa.aspx.

Banana BBQ

There are so many kinds of banana in Thailand. At the farmer market in Thailand, you can see them all. Thai people use raw or young banana in Thai curries, and they also use the banana that almost ripe for BBQ or fried for snack and also use ripe banana for desert in many form. Banana is not one of my favorite fruit but when it comes to BBQ banana then I just cannot resist. I love BBQ banana. As you know banana has lots of vitamin C, B6 and potassium. Eat your banana!

Here is the recipe for BBQ banana: http://www.gretchenspantry.com/recipe/bbq-banana.aspx.

More information regarding banana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana.

Guava Fruit

This is Guava Fruit. At the farmer market that I went every morning, there is a family who always sell this fruit. I bought Guava fruit every morning. I figured I don’t get to eat much in the US then I better eat it as much as I can while I was in Thailand.

I sometime made Guava juice too. I have a recipe. You can check it out at http://www.gretchenspantry.com/recipe/guava-juice.aspx.

Here the website if you want to learn more about Guava http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guava.

Back from Thailand

We are back from our vacation now. We were in Australia for 3 weeks and in Thailand for almost 3 months. I had not been cooking at all. I did eat many good foods in both places. My Australian’s host mom was a really good cook, and my grandma and sitter in law who I stayed with in Thailand was the best cook ever. I will post more pictures and recipes from my note in the near future.

You know what; I could not believe I will say this. I really missed the outdoor market in Thailand more than I missed my families in Thailand. My routine in the morning after I got up from my comfortable bed was that I would hop on my brother motorcycle and rode to this farmer market where I got all fresh vegetables, fruits and fresh seafood. I also got my Thai ice coffee there every morning. It was so nice and so beautiful. Nothing taste like Thai ice coffee in Thailand; I would not trade my Thai ice coffee with anything even Starbuck coffee.

Veg Head Carnival

Chef Erik published my spinach and sundried tomato quiche recipe at his Veg Head Carnival.

There are a lot of great looking vegetarian recipes at Veg Head Carnival! I'd like to try the avocado and tomato salad.

Be sure to check it out.

Recipe Search Engine

Many great recipe blogs have recently joined the community at Gretchen's Pantry, and the Google Custom Search results are better than ever! You can search all the best recipe sites at GretchensPantry.com.

Here are some of the great blogs that have joined recently:

Aapplemint
Chef Erik
Dirty Kitchen Secrets
Spices Corner
Spice of Life
What's For Lunch, Honey

Recipe Search

Remember that your blog can join the community absolutely free and be included in these search results. We love to have great recipe blogs join.

Get a Widget and Collect Stars

You can get a widget like this for your recipe blog, which allows readers to vote for you on Gretchen's Pantry. Stars cause your blog to appear earlier in search results and in our directory lists.

To get this widget, first add your blog to our recipes directory. (Here are some instructions. Here's the direct link.) This step takes only a couple of minutes.

When you add your site, it will appear at the top of our recipe search directory. On the blog's details page, the star widget appears at the bottom with a link reading "Get this widget!"

This takes you to the html with the star widget customized for your blog.

Add Recipe Search to Google Toolbar

You can instantly add a button to Google Toolbar that lets you search the internet for recipes anytime, without even starting at Gretchen's Pantry. (Click here to get the button! It's free.)

Once you have the green recipe button, just enter keywords for any recipe in the Google Toolbar search box

and click on the green sun.

This will instantly show you the best recipes on the internet.

Does it sound great? Let's get the button!

Don't forget to add the best recipe blogs to the directory so that they can be included in the recipe search. You can vote for the blogs you prefer by awarding them stars and leaving comments. Thanks for stopping by!

Bookmark a Recipe at the Recipe Directory

A few days ago, I posted about adding your blog to Gretchen's Pantry recipe search directory.

You can also bookmark a recipe on your blog. This only takes a few seconds, and it allows readers to find you and vote for your recipe by giving it stars.

Just follow the link from any page that says Share a Recipe.

Then follow the link that says Link to Your Recipe Here.

This takes you to a page where you can link to your recipe.

Just enter the permanent link to your recipe. (You can get the permanent url by clicking on your recipe's title at your blog.) Then add a description of why this is a great recipe.

You can optionally sign your own name and url, which is useful if you are adding a link to a friend's recipe blog and not your own. After clicking "Add This Recipe!", you can choose a thumbnail to represent the recipe, add tags, and edit the recipe's title.

That's all there is to it! After these steps, the recipe with its thumbnail shows up in the recipe directory, where your readers can leave you comments or vote for your recipe by giving you stars.

If you try it, let me know how it goes!

Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes Quiche without Pie Shell

My husband enjoyed this dish a lot. He can eat this quiche for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I hope you will enjoy it too.

Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes Quiche without Pie Shell

6 eggs
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tbsp butter
1 pack (16oz) chopped spinach
1 cup sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup Mexican cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Put the butter and onion in a baking dish, bake for 2-3 min, and stir well. Put the eggs and heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl and mix. Pour the egg mixture into the baking dish on top of the onions. Stir in spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and cheese. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve with salad.

Community Website Directory

GretchensPantry.com provides a recipe search directory where you can add your favorite recipe sites to our Google Custom Search Engine.

Adding a website to our search engine takes less than 5 minutes, and no backlink is required. To add a site, follow this link:

Add Your Site to the Recipe Search

This navigates to a page where you can add a website.

• Website Url: The url of the home page for the site you want to add to the directory.


• Title: The title of the site, for example: "Gretchen's Pantry Blog".


• Your name (optional)


• Your own website's url (optional). This is in case you are adding a recipe site for a friend, but you want to link back to your own blog or website. If you add a name and a url for yourself, a link will show up beside the directory entry.
  

Once the form is complete, accept the terms of service and click "Save This Website" or "Done" at the bottom of the page.

"Save This Website" adds the website and lets you fill out some additional, optional information. "Done" adds the website and takes you back to the recipe site directory.

After these steps, the site you added will begin participating in recipe searches at GretchensPantry.com. (This can take an hour or so.)


Once the site is in the directory, you can add tags to it, refine your search results, award stars, and add widgets to your web page.

If you have a recipe blog, please try it out and let me know how it went. See you at the Pantry!

Buckwheat Noodle Miso Soup

What would you like for Lunch? Noodle Soup! What would you like for dinner? Noodle Soup! This is one of my son favorite soups. He loves this soup. I hope you try it and see it yourself how good it is. Enjoy!

Buckwheat Noodle Miso Soup

1 bundle of Zaru Soba or Japanese buckwheat noodle
1 tbsp soybean paste
1 tbsp soup filling (contain dry seaweed, wheat gluten, dry green onion)
1 cup of hot water

Put water in a large pot and let the water boil then put the noodle and cook for 6 min. Drain water and rinse the noodle with cold water. Put the paste, soup filling and hot water in a serving bowl. Mix well. Put the noodle in the soup base. Serve! Enjoy!

Chocolate Mousse

My son and I love chocolate. Once in a while, we would make this chocolate mousse together. It is quick and easy to make. It would satisfy your craving. I hope you will enjoy it too.

Chocolate Mousse

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk

Put chocolate chips in a bowl and put it in a microwave oven. Once the chocolate is melted, remove it from the microwave. Be careful! Don’t burn it! Put the heavy cream in a mixing bowl and whip it just until it holds. Put the milk in another bowl and heat it in a microwave until it warm then whisk it with chocolate and in the whipped cream. Transfer the mousse to small bowls or wineglasses. Keep in refrigerator. Enjoy it!