Restaurant-Style Chinese Hot and Sour Soup (+ GIVEAWAY!)

Authentic Restaurant Style Chinese Hot Sour Soup

Good restaurant Chinese hot and sour soup has a very distinct flavor that can be challenging to replicate.  And not all restaurant hot and sour soups are created equal.  Not by a long shot.  Though you may not be able to pinpoint the difference, you can tell when shortcuts have been taken.  And have you noticed that you can generally predict the quality of the entree based on the quality of the hot and sour soup?  A really good hot and sour soup is a good omen for the food to follow.

Here is an authentic Chinese Hot and Sour Soup recipe that I carefully crafted, paying very close attention to detail.  This is the real deal.  It is as good as the best hot and sour soup you have enjoyed at your favorite Chinese restaurant.  I’m confident you’ll agree.  I’ve included detailed step-by-step pictures to familiarize you with some of the lesser known ingredients and to ensure your success in making it.  This is an easy soup to make, it just involves some prep work.  Get the prep work out of the way – much of which can be done well in advance – and then all you have to do is combine the ingredients.  Once you’ve made it and are familiar with the ingredients and the steps involved, making it the next time will be a breeze and you’ll become famous among your friends and family for the best Chinese Hot and Sour Soup in town!

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Bacon and Leek Quiche

Bacon Leek Quiche

Almost everything tastes better with bacon, don’t you think?

And to be fair, bacon really gets a bad rap – as do a lot of things that the food industry decides to target for a time, and so we avoid them for a decade or two resorting to “safer” alternatives just to find out that the safer alternatives are in fact more dangerous than the things we were advised to avoid in the first place!  Great.  We need look no further than butter and the huge push towards “healthy” hydrogenated margarine for so many years – the increase in cancer rates finally raised the red flag on that one.  (And while we’re on the subject of butter – yes, everything tastes better with butter, too.)  So, the moral of the story is, don’t obsess, just be sensible.  Use good judgment and enjoy things in moderation.  Like bacon. Continue reading

Sweet Potato Corn Chowder

Sweet Potato Corn Chowder 1 sm

I had a huge organic sweet potato left over from making baby food for my daughter.  I also had some sweet onions and an opened package of bacon that needed to be used.  I’m not sure what the mental process was that ultimately led me to the idea of incorporating these items into a chowder, but chowder was the end result.  And what a nice result it was!

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Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie 1 final sm

Mmmmmm, wouldn’t you love a slice of this right now?  I would!  I Love key lime pie.  That’s right, “Love” with a capital “L”.  I have to tell you, I’ve tried several recipes, including more complicated and time-consuming ones, but not one has been better than this one.  Call me shallow, but that’s my verdict and I’m sticking to it.

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Porcini Mushroom Linguine with Chicken, Shiitakes and Gorgonzola (+ GIVEAWAY!)

Porcini Mushroom Pasta pappardelle's shiitake gorgonzola chicken

In general, I’ve become pretty tired of store-bought pasta.  Do you feel the same?  Just a little bit jaded?  Even the “flavored” ones lack flavor.  Either they don’t add enough of the flavoring to begin with – be it tomato, roasted red pepper, spinach, or whatever – and simply doctor it up with some natural coloring (red, green, etc) to make you think it’s full of some yummy flavor, or the pasta just sat around too long in the manufacturer’s warehouse before being shipped off to the stores and so much of the flavor dissipated.  Sure, it’s still nice to have “colored” pasta just for visual variety sake, but I would really love to bite into some roasted red bell pepper pasta that actually tastes like roasted red bell pepper.  Just for example.

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