Lemon, Honey and Mint Tea 檸檬蜂蜜薄荷茶

As we all know, lemon and honey are both very good for sore throats. I used to make this tea without mint, but we happened to have a bunch of leftover mint in the fridge, so I decided to try it with mint this time. Not only does it have a soothing effect for the throat, but it also adds a nice flavour to the tea! Besides the mint, I used a little bit of ginger as well because it's warming, This is the perfect tea if you have a sore throat or cough with fever. Drink it throughout the day while it's hot. I hope it helps you as it did for me.

Cabbage, Tomato And Shiitake Congee 高麗菜蕃茄香菇粥

If you don't have a rice cooker at home, I urge you to invest in one. My Japanese rice cooker practically saved my life while we had our terrible flu! I'm sure you all know how difficult it is to get up when you're sick, not to mention having to cook! But because of my rice cooker, I didn't have to spend much time or energy. All I had to do was to throw all the ingredients in the rice cooker, and let it do its job. How easy is that! This recipe is the perfect dish for emergency situations or when you just don't have tim to prepare a meal. It's light, delicious, and warming, plus it offers you plenty of vitamins A, C, K, minerals and antioxidants! Next time you're feeling under the weather, make this congee and it'll make you feel better!

Dark Velvet Hot Chocolate Overnight Oatmeal with Toasted Pecans 濃純黑巧克力熱可可燕麥粥

For all you chocolate lovers, this is the "it" recipe for your morning! I originally started out making this breakfast for my hubby (a hopeless chocoholic), but I confess, I even ended up loving this myself. I know you might be thinking that this looks like a dessert, and how can it be healthy?! Well, that's exactly what I wanted it to look like, but did you know that cocoa powder is one of those super foods? It's packed with fiber, iron, magnesium, and antioxidants. It can be beneficial for high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and also acts as an anti-depressant. If you're able to find raw cocoa powder, it would be even more nutritious.

Cranberry-Orange Tequila Cocktail With Cinnamon 蔓越莓柳橙龍舌蘭雞尾酒

I'm not big on drinks and don't normally order drinks when I go out, but occasionally, when we have friends over for dinner, I like to make some light cocktails to go with the hors d'oeuvres and to whet our appetites before the meal. This time of year is cranberry time. Their ruby red colour always fits the holiday season so well, and their tartness is just tart enough to remind us to feed our souls a little extra sweetness over the coming year. For this drink, I used fresh cranberries with orange juice and maple syrup (no sugar!) as a base, infused with the comforting aroma of cinnamon. I hope their tastes and smells will help you make a good impression for your guests before your holiday meal! Merry Christmas!

Cheese Fried Egg, Mushroom, and Avocado Sandwich 起司煎蛋、酪梨與蘑菇三明治

 

Even though I've been on Instagram for about a year, I hadn't been very active until recently. I must say that it wasn't the easiest thing for me in the beginning. Normally when I finish cooking,   taking photos of my daily meals is the last thing on my mind. Instead, I would rather rush to the table and eat.（≧▼≦；) Seriously, I love my food fresh and hot. Having to take those few extra minutes for the photo, and watching my hot plate get cold in my 10C kitchen in the winter is not my thing.

Overnight Quinoa and Oat Porridge with Apple Pecan Pie Topping - hot method 蘋果派免煮燕麥粥

I love cold cereals, but on freezing cold days like we have in Quebec (when it starts to go below -5C), it's no fun to wake up shivering and then have to swallow a big bowl of cold cereal first thing in the morning! I'd say it's time to make some adjustments in our habits to fit the winter. What do you say? As we all know, a good breakfast is an important start to the day. Especially when the weather is cold, my body often screams for hot food in the morning. Growing up in Taiwan, I was always given warm or hot food by my mom in the winter. There's something comforting about that, and further, I was told that eating cold food would only make your body work harder to stay warm.

Warm Quinoa Turmeric Cauliflower Salad with Cranberries, Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese 藜麥薑黃花椰菜、蔓越莓與榛果沙拉

 

During the past few months in Taiwan, one of the grains I really missed having was quinoa. It's not something you can find easily there, since it's not what we cultivate, nor is it in our diet. I love quinoa for its rich nutrients and nutty taste. Since it's a superfood, I can simply pair it with other vegetables and enjoy it as a light healthy meal. How convenient!

In this recipe, I chose to pair the quinoa with cauliflower. I know what you're going to say - it's not most people's favourite vegetable, and guess what? Nor is it mine! A lot of the poplular Fall quinoa salads are often made with butternut squash or kale, so I really wanted to make the salad with a not-so-popular vegetable. It's always more challenging for me to use some ingredients that I don't necessarily like so much, and transform them into something I like. 

Simple Pickled Butternut Squash 涼拌冬南瓜絲

In Taiwan, I grew up eating a lot of pickles as condiments or as appetizers, especially in the summer, since most pickles are refreshing and cooling. Unlike the western style of pickle, they're not always pickled in vinegar, nor are they always made over a long period of time. In fact, most of my mom's pickles were made within just thirty minutes to an hour. The pickles that you see most often in Taiwan are cucumbers, cabbages and radishes. My mom loves making different types of pickled cucumbers; sometimes she makes them with sea salt, sometimes with salted plums, both of which I love!

Chicken Over Rice Taiwanese style 雞肉飯

So here I am, after three months in Taiwan, I'm finally back! I know it's been too long to be away from the blogging world. I tried here and there to post something in between, but alas, no recipes. I can't tell you how much I missed writing and taking photos for my recipes, but I had no choice; I had to return home for some important family matters. It was a difficult time for all of us, and while there, I went through many different emotions: there was sorrow, relief, joy, tension, grief. It's hard to describe, it changed everyday. Thankfully, those emotions are slowly diminishing… Having gone through it, it's now time to go forward.

From Fostering to Adopting, Part 1 – My Story 從代養到領養, 1: 我的親身體驗

 

After adopting Soji many years ago, who was a rescued cat, we decided that instead of buying an animal, we’d adopt. Almost 10 million pets are euthanized in shelters in the US alone every year, and among them, most are cats. Since a lot of animals enter the shelter everyday, space is very limited. Unfortunately the ones who don’t get adopted within a certain amount of time are often euthanized, unless it’s a no-kill shelter. Offering foster care or adoption to your local shelters can make a whole lot of difference to the shelters, to the animals, and even in your own life! This is one such story, my own.

Atayal Kitchen in Wulai 烏來泰雅廚房

 

 

  

Sometimes we can’t know that a certain place we visit may become one of the most meaningful memories later on in our lives. A few months ago, I wrote about the fish market town of Wanli, and just like Wanli, Wulai has a special place in my heart as well. It was one of those places that my father used to take us to visit a lot when we were growing up, and it was also one of the last places he took us to. When I went back to visit him last year because of his illness, despite his health condition, he was very eager to take us there to walk around Wulai Old Street and taste some native Taiwanese food.
 

Wulai Old Street 烏來老街

Entering the Wulai Old Street, we saw two choices for sausage vendors. One of them had an advertisement that said they were featured on TV, accompanied by a very long line of people. Since I tend to like rooting for the underdog, and as the weather was quite hot, we decided to go to the one across from the famous one to give their sausages a try. Though I can’t compare theirs with the other’s, it turned out to be quite good! It was nicely seasoned, juicy and not greasy, and was made with 100% wild mountain boar.


走進烏來老街口馬上就聞到香腸的香味，左手邊的雅各香腸，因為之前受電視採訪已被炒熱，所以大排長龍。然而在這樣炎熱的氣候下，已汗流夾背的我實在沒有什麼耐心去排隊 o(´^｀)o，況且對面的月球香腸其實看起來也很不錯，就決定嚐試較不起眼的這家。我們選擇的是蒜味，它外層烤的很香，肉餡扎實且不會太鹹或油膩，是100%山豬肉做的~