House of Annie

Saute some sliced onion in a stock pot. Add minced pork and brown. Cover with water, add chopped tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add in sliced eggplant and stir. Season with a bit of fish sauce.


Chop up some shiso (perilla) leaves and add them to the soup. Serve hot. So good, one bowl is not enough.

Continue Reading: "Pork, Eggplant, and Shiso Soup"...

We had lunch at a restaurant one day and one of our friends ordered Chicken Piccata for his meal. He gave Annie a taste and Annie thought out loud, "I can make this!". So we assembled the ingredients: chicken breast, lemons, capers and made it.

She flattened chicken breast, seasoned it and dredged it in flour, then pan fried them until brown. Removed from the pan, then deglazed with lemon juice and white wine, and added the capers. Plated the chicken up alongside roasted veggies and potatoes, spooned on the sauce, and garnished with chopped parsley.

The chicken was tender and flavorful, and the sauce had a nice tangy bite!

Aloha.

Continue Reading: "Chicken Piccata"...

Tom Yam soup with prawns, shiitake mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and onions. This mouthwatering soup has it all - sour, spicy, salty, sweet...ummmmm! Of course you also have the soft mushrooms and carrots, plus the crunch of cauliflower and prawns. It is an all-around meal.

Aloha.

Continue Reading: "Tom Yam Soup"...

Annie made this racetrack cake for Daniel's birthday.

First, she baked 4, round 9-inch chocolate cakes. Then she used a cake leveler to make them flat, and cut a slice out of each piece so that they fit closer together.

She thinned out some raspberry jam with water and spread that on the bottom layers. She made a dark chocolate butter cream frosting and spread that on top of the raspberry jam before covering with the top cake layer.

Then she smoothed the remaining butter cream over the whole cake. She crushed some Oreo cookies in the food processor and spread that out in circles on the top of the cake.

Before she added the chocolate to the butter cream, she reserved some of it. This she put in a piping bag to line the edges and also lay down some stripes. The cake went into the fridge overnight to firm up. The next day, we put some toy cars on top of the racetrack.

This cake was very good. The dark chocolate butter cream frosting was not too sweet. Everyone at the party devoured their slices.

Aloha,

Nate

Continue Reading: "Racetrack Cake"...