Taiwanese Fruits In Season

One of the things I missed when I left Taiwan was their wonderful fruits! In season right now are these "Ai Wen" mangoes ....

... and lychees ...

Chocolate Bundt Cake!

Lately, I've been thinking about the Motherlode Chocolate Cake at Claim Jumper (posted here), but I didn't have a very good chocolate cake recipe ... that is, till I stumbled upon this one which I found on joythebaker.

Here's my chocolate bundt cake fresh from the oven ...

Freshly turned out fm the bundt pan ...

(p'haps I shouldn't have been too impatient for a slice of the cake and left it in the pan to cool longer before I turned it over ... maybe that'd have prevented any bits of cake fm sticking to the pan) ...

There were little bits of white amidst the deep dark luscious chocolate cake as I just simply couldn't get all the lumps of flour to blend into the mix. Fortunately, that didn't detract fm the delicious texture of the cake ... it was perfectly moist, tender and chocolatey!

I smothered the cake with a chocolate glaze, and boy did that hit the spot! It was really like the motherlode chocolate cake fm Claim Jumper I was craving! DELICIOUS! No wonder the recipe is called "The Best Chocolate Bundt Cake"! :)

Lemon Meringue Tartlets ... Again!

Yellow lemons are pretty hard to find in Taipei, and when you do find them, they are usually quite pricey, so I couldn't resist when I saw a bag of yellow lemons on offer. I was intending to bake a lemon loaf cake, but one of the eggs I bought cracked when I came home, so I needed a fast recipe using lemons and eggs, and the one thing that came to mind was ... lemon curd!

And since I had some tart shell pastry in my fridge just waiting to be rolled out, I whipped up some lemon meringue tarts. And I just have to say, I really really really love my new eggbeater cos I managed to whip the whites into meringues in no time at all (unlike during my other attempt here where my arms were positively aching fm whisking)!

Meals for One ... Part 2

The other day, I saw some lovely bunches of young asparagus in the market, and decided to try out this dish which I'd always wanted to attempt: prosciutto wrapped asparagus ...

I cooked up a little aglio olio spaghetti and had the asparagus with it. Delish!

And below is my yummy lasagna! I had tried cooking this before, but the sauce was never enough to get everything nice and moist. This time, I used 2 tins of canned whole tomatoes, and finally got the lasagna I wanted. It was a tad too wet, but I intended to reheat it over a couple of days for my lunch, so it was pretty perfect :)

Plant Revival Part 2

I had posted about my water hyacinths here when I first got them. Shortly after I took those pics, the leaves started to turn brown (yes, again!), and one by one, they all started to die. Everyone who came over to my apt commented on their sad state. Finally, I moved them closer to the window ... more to remove the eyesore than for their good, and surprise surprise! They started to thrive! And today, I'm left with only 2 clusters (I started with 5) but they are both doing so well. Just look at their pretty purple flowers with a yellow accent!

Plant Revival Part 1

I've never been much of a gardener ... practically every plant I touch turns brown within weeks. Sometimes I wonder if the new plants I bring home whisper to each other "oh no!" when they see my older plants.

However, somehow or other, this begonia - the pink one in the centre, which my mom actually bought fm Yilan a couple of years back for about USD$0.35 - managed to survive and even thrive! It used to be in a little pot, then I had to repot it into a larger pot, and I even managed to grow 3 more little pots from it! Amazing!

And the purple flowers together with the same specie in red were on the brink of death, when I finally decided to repot them, and suddenly, they decided they liked their new home, and started sprouting healthy leaves and flowering! Oh such joy!

Even the ones my friend D gave started growing back their lush foliage and one even started to give little white flowers! I never even knew it was a flowering plant :)

Now, when I look at my little balcony, I feel so happy seeing all the pretty flowers and plants that I managed to revive over several months. Never really understood the joy of gardening till now :)

Meals for One ...

Sometimes when I'm home alone, it gets pretty tedious trying to figure out what to cook for oneself ... apart fm instant noodles (best best best invention ever, btw!). So, I tried to cook up something simple yet tasty and nutritious, and came up with ...

Fish fillets with cajun blackened seasoning and spaghetti in that garlic-chili-anchovy sauce which I'd mentioned here ...

Minced pork in tom yum sauce and pasta ...

Chicken curry using my new favorite curry paste: