Appetizer

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May 22, 2012 by sweetly spoken

Twin Sisters

My sister Jori and I co-hosted a baby shower for our childhood friend Alison a couple weeks ago (Alison is having twins!). Jori came up with the color scheme and the theme: a green and pink and hot air balloons baby shower. I came up with the desserts and the food ideas. A perfect team!

Jori and I didn’t always get along. It was the classic case of the younger sister wanting to do just about everything the older sister did, but better. If she played the flute, I had to play the piccolo. If she ran a mile, I had to run two. We fought over clothes, bathroom time, and space in our shared bedroom. At one time, we even had masking tape down the center of the bedroom!

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February 12, 2012 by sweetly spoken

With this ring…

Engraved on the inside of Michael’s ring is the phrase, “Put it back on!” My thinking was that the phrase would remind him to quickly place the ring back on his finger anytime he removed it so it would never be lost or forgotten. It has worked, most of the time, over the past five years. The exception? When Michael plays basketball.

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October 15, 2011 by sweetly spoken

And Baby Makes Three

In mid-August, we committed to move from Chicago to Northern Michigan so that Michael could start a new job on October 1. During the month of September, we told our employers in Chicago of our upcoming move, re-arranged our health insurance, rented out our Chicago condo, found an apartment rental in Michigan, hired a moving company, packed up our things, visited our favorite Chicago restaurants, said goodbye to friends….all while preparing for our upcoming due date for our baby….October 22.

Cornbread Crab Cakes with White Cheddar Grits and Cilantro Sour Cream
We thought we were giving ourselves enough time (we were banking on at least two weeks) to get settled in Michigan prior to the arrival of our baby. We were wrong! Read More »

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September 15, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Cuisines of Beijing

One of the regions we learned about in Regional Cuisines of China was Beijing, the capital of China. Beijing’s cuisine is a combination of all the other regions of China. Popular dishes are Peking duck, hot and sour soup, and Fried Rice. See below for two of the recipes we made in class!

Hot and Sour Soup
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June 4, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Stockpiling Food

Michael has been busy studying. And I’ve been busy traveling. Which means that while I’m off eating like a queen, Michael’s stuck at home….eating take-out. Poor Michael. After a long Memorial Day weekend with CFA books up to his ears and without a home-cooked meal, I decided to put together some grub for him for the upcoming weekend since I’ll be gone again (girl’s trip!!!).

The kitchen is stocked with the following:

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June 14, 2009 by sweetly spoken

Chinese Potstickers

This month’s Daring Cooks Challenge was hosted by Jen from use real butter and she chose a great challenge and something I have never made – Chinese Potstickers! My favorite part of this was pleating the dough and making the dumplings look pretty. The main thing I changed was that I used ground turkey instead of ground pork (in order to pretend that these are somewhat healthy!). I made the fillings slightly more spicy by adding some hot sesame chili oil and some red pepper flakes. I also added minced garlic to the shrimp filling. Michael made the dipping sauce, which was excellent. He added some toasted sesame seeds and also doctored it up with some spicy items to give it some kick (we like it hot!).
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