Yummy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love homemade chocolate chip cookies. I'm always ready to try a new recipe too. Recently, I came across a gluten free recipe from Land-0-Lakes that uses many different types of non gluten flours in the recipe. So, I gave it a try.

I'm glad I did because these chewy chocolate chip cookies are the best! I added walnuts in my second batch and substituted a 1/4 cup of the flour blend with sorghum flour. I purchased the rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour at the local Asia market since those items are cheaper at the Asian market than anywhere else. I recommend these yummy cookies to all, just google for the recipe. Enjoy!

O-Zoni

My New Year started with a traditional Japanese dish served on New Year's Day.
 

The mochi, rice cakes, were made two days ago. Rice that had been soaked for 12 hours and then cooked in mochi maker was poured out onto sheet pan to cool slightly before forming into small cakes.

The cakes were left to cool and then stored in tins.

Today some of the mochi cakes were toasted while the soup was cooking. My husband meticulously chopped ingredients and prepared the soup. Daikon, carrots, taro, tofu, chicken, shitaki mushrooms, lotus root, and spinach went into the lightly favored miso soup.







The soup was then served over top of the toasted mochi. Brunch!!

O-Zoni, A healthy start of the New Year.

Doggie Biscuits

I made doggie biscuits for the first time today for my picky eater dog. The recipe passed the test- she ate one!

Doggie Biscuit Recipe
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tbps. dry milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1 tsp dried parsley

Preheat oven 350

Mix eggs and pumpkin until smooth, then add all other ingredients.
Briefly kneed and then roll dough to 1/4-1/2". Use whatever shape cutter to form biscuits.  Bake on ungreaded pan for 20 minutes. Remove to turn biscuits over and then bake for another additional 20 minutes. Cool before feeding to dog.

Natto

One of my favorite foods is natto. It's stringy. It's fermented.
They say it's an acquired taste, but in my opinion you either like it or you don't. Natto is made from soybeans fermented with bacillus subtilis. The Japanese like to eat natto for breakfast on top of rice. No Special K or Cheerios for them; their mornings start with a rich diet of healthy protein. I like to eat my natto with a fried egg, soy sauce, and grits. An East meets West recipe. This is what I had for breakfast today...yummy!

Natto can be purchased in an Asian grocery store here in the States. It comes in a cute packaging that has soy sauce and mustard that is stirred into the natto before eating.

Egg Noodles

It was a cloudy day with occasional light rain.  I made my yummy chicken noodle soup and homemade egg noodles to warm me up.

How Do You Do...

My name is Sue. I can still hear Sue introduce herself to someone new with these words. As a kid, I thought it was funny, yet clever and cool. And only Sue could get away with such an introduction. Sue recently passed away. In her honor, I made the recipe of Lithuanian Bacon Buns that she had given to my mother decades ago. In my home, these buns are now called "Sue's Buns". She would get a kick out that!

Sue's Bacon Buns
 
 Mix
 2 cups of warm milk (110-115F)
 1/2 cup sugar
 2 tsp salt
 2 envelopes of yeast
 Let foam up for about 10-15 minutes.

 Stir in
 2 eggs 2Tbps and 1/2 cup of melted butter
 Add 7 cups of flour slowly and knead. Let rise until doubled in size.

 While dough is rising make filling.
 Filling
 2 finely chopped onions
 5 chopped cooked eggs
 1 large packaged of finely chopped sliced ham
 1 packaged of fried finely chopped bacon.

Roll out dough into thin 3" diameter circles and fill buns. Wrap dough around filling and pinch together. Set bun pinch side down on baking sheet. Let rise a bit. Glaze with milk. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a  415F degree oven. Makes about 4-5 dozen buns.

My husband and kids love these buns so much that they will help me make the buns. Nothing like biting into a warm bacon bun- so yummy!

Sue...How do you do...I thank you Sue for sharing your tradition with my mother, who passed it on to me. From one hand to another...and so it goes. May you rest in peace with your "Honey Bun".