Another first – Ellie trying Thanksgiving turkey.  Look how excited she looks.

giving it a sniff

gently trying it

a few more bites, and an hour later…Turkey coma.

Good night.

My absolute favourite restaurant Chinese dish is definitely the Peking Duck.  The flour pancake wrap with crispy duck skin and a bit of meat. YUM.  Since I have some time on my hands this summer, I thought I would give it a try and make it at home.  Read some recipes and videos online and as per my cooking style, I started eyeballing and making it my own.  (Baking however is completely different where I would follow a recipe religiously!)

Didn’t care to roast a whole duck as I’m only making dinner for two.  And I coincidentally have 2 frozen duck breast in the freezer.  Didn’t take a lot of pictures throughout, but was pretty happy with how it turned out.  Nick was happy as well when he came home from volleyball to Peking Duck dinner.  Didn’t actually take too long to make.  Approx 40 minutes to make the wrap and roll it out.  And approx 30-45 mintues of cooking time of the duck breast.  I was overly generous with the cooking time to ensure it is thoroughly cooked as I don’t even like to see pink on duck meat.  Sauce and cucumber side dish took all of 5 minutes to prepare.  Onto the making of my homemade Peking Duck!

yes, joining the rest of the world in Pi Day celebration with Pies.  though it really was unintentional.  A month ago, friends were planning a gathering and 2 separate friends made dessert requests: Joyce with her Banana Cream Pie, and Mei with her Coconut Cream Pie.  How do I say no?  incidentally we were gathering on March 14th, 2015, so lo and behold, i’m making pies for Pi Day.

Derrick, a friend who we call our 30-something teenage son, made a request just for his birthday.  Complete with a story of his childhood birthdays, his wish was to have a homemade black forest cake for his birthday.  Haven’t made one in a long while, but was up for the challenge.  That week, met up with a work friend, and happen to mention that I was preparing to bake this said cake, and “coincidentally”, his son was having a birthday party, and he also loves Black Forest Cake.  hint hint hint.  damn it.  ok.  fine.  i’ll just double up on everything.  Never made identical desserts on the same go before, had quite a line assembly going in the kitchen.

Happy with the result, did my own cherry filling though may make it more tart next time.  Result of my work in the fridge:

It’s been quite a hiatus away from our blog – thanks to the hectic work travel schedules aaaannnnndddd…our Italy honeymoon!

19 days of roaming the Italy country side: Milan, Florence, Tuscany, Amalfi Coast, Rome…now need time to sort out the 5000″ish” pictures and get it up on our travel blog.

here’s a few things that I have concluded that I need to do/make/learn/appreciate:

• need to find a Toronto store that will sell good prosciutto ham, Italian cheeses
• need to make more lemony desserts (other than lemon meringue pie)
• need to learn and make home made fresh pasta
• need to eat more ice cream to keep up with the twice a day gelato routine during honeymoon
• await for my lemon tree (which Nick will be getting me for xmas)
• continue our travel adventures