Sunday, March 28, 2010

Palm Leaves Weaving

Spring is finally here! Today is just a beautiful sunny day with breeze and the temperature is around 60 degrees (15'C). Lots of flowers such as Crocus have started to bloom and the Daffodil and the Tulips have started to grow leaves and flower buds too. Today is also Palm Sunday and my best friend's mom got palm leaves from her church and asked me to help weave them based on an old instruction she got from a book. It took me about 40 minutes to learn and get it done! They turned out great and almost look like wheat! Hope that the nice weather stays since you never know in Wisconsin this time of the year.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Spiced Apple Cake

It was St Patrick's Day here in US yesterday and it was green dress everywhere (including me!). The weather is incredibly nice, sunny and around 60'F (15'C). It is usually still around 32'F (0'C) this time of the year so we are lucky this year. So I made a gluten free version of spiced apple cake. It is more like a coffee cake. The cake base contains cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and chopped apple. The cake is topped with very thin sliced apple and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Once it is fully baked, it has a layer of nice cinnamon caramel with apple on the top. Yummy!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Lemon Maple Rice Pudding

The weather finally starts to get warmer and maybe spring will be earlier this year. Of course, there is still ice and snow everywhere. I made the lemon maple rice pudding for Oscar watching last night again. This yummy rice pudding made of maple syrup, lemon zest, eggs, rice, raisins, and nutmeg. The custard like of topping and texture makes this the best for spring dessert or side dish. The maple syrup provides the rich sweet taste instead of plain sugar. And I am happy that Sandra Bullock won best leading actress. Her performance in "The Blind Side" was just great! A great movie worth watching!