Asparagus Goat Cheese Tart

Hello friends! It's been a whole year since I've shared a recipe on the blog. A lot has happened since last March to say the least. In a nutshell, the boy and I finished chief year, passed boards, got new jobs, and moved to an incredible new city: San Diego -- a glorious representation of our dear old Golden State. 

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? 

In the lane, snow is glistening. 

A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, 

Walking in a winter wonderland."

Just kidding, I'm not still singing Christmas songs. I promise. October through January was full of enough Christmas music to last the year, even more me. For the past 3 years, Nhan and I have hosted our residency program's annual Unofficial Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Cramming 30-40 residents into our house for a potluck, fun holiday drinks, white elephant, christmas karaoke and the whole shebang leaves us swearing off hosting ever again, yet somehow when Christmas rolls around the following year, we never learn our lesson. And what is a party at the Vuongs' without a dessert spread? Last year, we did a Smore's Bar, but this year we decided to do a little less fire, a little more snow--Winter Wonderland to be more specific. 

It's That Pumpkin Season Again

Oh how I have looked forward to Fall. It was barely the end of September and I had already pulled out all my Fall decor in efforts to convince myself that it was truly the beginnings of Autumn despite the sweltering weather. 

In addition to boots and jackets, Fall is the season for pumpkin spice everything. Last year I shared a recipe for pumpkin spice bundt cake, but this year I wanted to try something a little less traditional, a little more fun. And what could be more fun than pumpkin spice donuts? Recipe adapted from Baker by Nature. 

The wonderful thing about these donuts is their light cakey texture, the best kind in my opinion. Not to mention that cinnamon sugar coating just brings out the pumpkin flavor in every bite!

Lemon Lavender Tea Cake

It's been over two months since my last post! Boy does time fly. I honestly cannot believe that I am already a third of the way through my chief year. This year has had its challenges for sure, but has been incredibly rewarding in so many other ways. Aside from working along side some of my best friends and colleagues and having the opportunity to both teach and learn from my residents, I get the wonderful opportunity of trying out new recipes! 

Earlier this summer, the Boy and I had a weekend off together (I know, weird, right?) and spent it at a lavender festival in Highland Springs. I had been DYING to go to a lavender festival ever since this tiny little lavender obsession of mine started and was thrilled that this was only 30 minutes from home. 

A Black and White Affair: Cookies and Cream Blondies

What do you do when you have 10 packs of left-over Oreos? Make blondies of course! Combined with Hershey's cookies and cream chocolate chunks, these blondies are rich, decadent, and truly a guilty pleasure. 

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Blueberry season is coming to an end, but not before I get one more recipe out of them! This recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen is simple to follow, uses basic ingredients and will stay good for a couple days in the fridge. 

Let's Talk Peaches and Poultry

Amazon prime day rolled around the corner a couple weeks ago and I was able to get my hands on a much awaited Instant Pot. I've had my eye on this thing since my friends Marilyn and Wesley got one a few months back. They are some of the biggest foodies and best cooking couples I know and so if they have one, you know it's gotta be good. And as expected, this new gadget was magical--it can do 7 different things but is the size of a simple rice cooker!

The first recipe I wanted to try out was peach balsamic chicken. With fresh peaches from Jen's garden and fresh basil from my own kitchen bay window, this recipe came out wonderfully, thanks to my trusty instant pot of course. While I made this recipe in the instant pot it can easily be made in a skillet on the stove as well. 

Nectarine and Peach Pizza

Summer is here and nectarines and peaches are dropping faster than we can pick! My friend Jen's house had literally HUNDREDS of delicious nectarines and sweet as can be peaches. After a couple hours of picking we ended up with boxes overflowing with beautiful stone fruit. Now what to do with them. We were making nectarine and peach everything for days. From pies, to jam, to cobbler and ice cream we tried it all! I even tried making nectarine ravioli but the flavor was overpowered by the goat cheese :D. 

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a Lemon Tart

Hooray! It's our last month of residency! While we are overjoyed to be done with training, it also means that some of the wonderful friends we have made over the past three years will be moving away. It made me think of the saying "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Although being sad your friends are moving is hardly a lemon compared to the horrific recent events, I'll consider it a relative lemon. But why stop at lemonade? Our friends Jen and Curtis were celebrating their housewarming this weekend so we went ahead and turned our lemons into a lemon tart  to share. 

Hello Summer, Watermelon Here

Although Summer isn't quite here just yet, she sure sends her greetings with scorching hot temperatures. The last two weeks have been horrendously hot with temps as high as 107F last weekend. With heat like this it's hard to get myself to cook or bake anything. Turning on the oven is taboo around this time of year. So instead, we've been living off of salads and paninis pretty much daily. To change it up a little I decided to try making a Mediterranean style watermelon salad. Cold, crisp, juicy-sweet watermelon tossed with feta cheese, sweet onions, heirloom tomatoes and mint, and topped with a balsamic glaze is the perfect salad to cool off with. Not to mention I love the colors!

Mini Fruit Tarts for the Summer

This recipe deserves a shout out to my friend Andrea Nguyen for teaching me how to make these delicious fruit tarts 10 years ago. And every since then, they have been one of my go to dessert staples. Cute and tasty, these bite-sized tarts are absolutely perfect for any party. With summer rapidly approaching, this is an easy recipe to whip up for your next BBQ, pool party, picnic etc. 

Happy First Day of Spring! Lemon Macarons

Happy first day of spring! With flowers beginning to bloom, despite allergies popping in to say their first hello of the season, I can't help but be excited for the change in weather. Warmer temperatures mean putting away those winter jackets and boots and pulling out the spring dresses! 

It's funny how easily we can adapt and how perspective can change when you are put into different situations. 3 years ago, in the beautiful city of Philadelphia, "Spring" would mean 50 degree weather and no more snow, at which time we really did pull out the spring dresses. We would even see sunbathers out on the lawn on the warmer days at a nice and hot 60 degrees farenheit. But after moving back to good old SoCal, I've become quite accustomed to the dry California sunshine, where 50 degrees in the winter is chilly and if it ever drops down to the 40s or dare I say 30s, we are bundled in winter gear: layers, coats, boots, scarves...the whole shebang. The Philadelphia girl in me would be ashamed if she saw me now. "Spring" now means beautiful 70s-80s sunshine. Unfortunately it's usually short lived as Summer rounds the corner at breakneck speed with 100+ heat even before he's called for. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and just focus on the beauty of Spring.  

Spring makes me think of bright yellows and greens and now with Easter just around the corner, pastel pinks and purples. So as a tribute to spring, this post is going to be on something bright, something yellow, something spring: lemon macarons!

Chocolate Lavender Macarons

Since we're on the topic of lavender, I figured I might as well throw in another lavender inspired recipe. This one in particular was inspired by A La Minute's chocolate lavender ice cream. Now if it works as an ice cream, why not turn it into a macaron? With a chewy chocolate shell and a lavender infused chocolate ganache, this macaron is nothing short of decadent goodness. 

Strawberry-Rose Valentine's Macarons

Last month had been a little busy, hence this belated Valentine's day post. The hubby and I were both working on Valentine's day this year, but I was able to whip up a batch of strawberry macarons for the occasion, and of course they were heart shaped! Made with crushed freeze-dried strawberries and filled with rose buttercream, these macarons were a perfect little mini-celebration. We did eventually make it out to Pasadena the following weekend for a day-date and had delicious honey-lavender ice cream at Carmela. The ice cream was so scrumptious that it inspired me to make my own. Click here for my version!

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies

Although I have never been huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, I absolutely love cranberry oatmeal cookies. This recipe uses just a hint of orange along with white chocolate chips and pecans for some added depth and texture. Adapted from original recipe from Running with Spoons 

Bring out the beets

Inspired by the classic beet, goat cheese, and walnut salad, this recipe combines these same ingredients to make a savory tart. Much like a quiche, this tart has an egg based filling with a flaky pastry crust that really brings out the beets. What I loved most about this tart was its colors - a beautiful blend of purple from the beets, white from the cheese, and topped with chopped kale for an added touch of green. 

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

While I still have one blueberry recipe left up my sleeve, I figured it was time for a little change of pace, or change of ingredient in this case. As January draws to an end, we are once month closer to the end of winter and therefore the end of pumpkin spice everything, at least until next year. Trader Joe's is the absolute king of pumpkin spice. Starting in late September every year, they begin to stock their shelves with pumpkin spice flavored granola, pumpkin spice chai lattes, pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds, and honestly anything you can think of probably comes in pumpkin spice flavor around this season at TJ's. While we are already two months into winter, I realized I hadn't made anything in that category this year. So for my last and final call on MOD (inpatient ward month) I figured it was the perfect time to whip out the spice and make something nice. 

Blueberry Grilled Cheese

So I found some french loaf bread and remade the sandwiches (pictured above) - so much better with thick bread! 

I'm going to say, I'll probably be sick of blueberries soon,  as much as you will be sick of hearing about blueberries.... but not yet! Here's another blueberry inspired dish, in sandwich form. And once again, a guest appearance by Goat Cheese (one of my favorites :D). I saw a picture of a blueberry grilled cheese on Pinterest and was dying to make one. With that giant flat of blueberries I got from Trader Joe's, there was plenty of berries to go around. 

Blueberries and Cream Cookies

I've been on a bit of a blueberry craze recently if you couldn't tell already. And while the blueberry lemon muffins were quite delightful, I was looking for something more along the lines of a cookie -- a blueberries and cream cookie to be more exact. I fell in love with this cookie the first time I went to Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City. It easily became my favorite cookie of all time, to the point where my sister and my friends were bringing me dozens of frozen cookies all the way back from NY as bridal shower and christmas gifts. One of my friends had recently been making batches of these cookies so I figured I'd give it a go myself. I'd have to admit that these aren't exactly like the bakery's own cookies but they come pretty close and are pretty darn good regardless. Although they turned out a little flatter than I would have liked they are mighty chewy and delicious - a nice quick fix as opposed to spending $600 on a flight to NYC. Recipe adapted from Christina Tosi's Momofuku Milk Bar. Note I have tried this recipe using cups vs grams and using a kitchen scale definitely made better cookies so I have listed the recipe in grams below (with US measurements next to it). 

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

It's not exactly spring yet, but I couldn't resist picking up a beautiful box of blueberries at Trader Joe's last week. Outside of making a blueberry grilled cheese sandwich, what better use for them than for some call day blueberry lemon muffins. Moist yet crispy on top, these will melt in your mouth. I also had a few lemons left in the fridge that needed to be used up hence the blueberry lemon muffins. Not to mention it was the perfect excuse to use these absolutely adorable silicon baking cups by "Fred and Friends" that have been sitting in the cabinet for months now.