Try these crispy cookies full of coconut fragrance. These cookies can be stored for a long time. They are perfect with green tea. 

Ingredients (makes about 15-20 cookies)

- 150g plain flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/8 tsp salt

- 125g unsalted butter, softened

- 70g white sugar

- 1 large egg

- 125g dessicated coconut

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 200C. Line the baking tray (cookie sheets ) with parchment paper. 

- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

- With an electric mixer at high speed, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and beat until just combined.

- Add the flour mixture and dessicated coconut and mix until blended. 

- Drop tablespoons of the batter onto the baking tray, leaving about 2cm apart between the cookies. 

- Bake 10-15 minutes until the cookies are golden. If you prefer the cookies to be more crispy, you can bake for 2-3 minutes longer. 

- Remove from the oven and let cool on wire rack. Store in air-tight container for up to two weeks. 

I love pineapple and I really like this upside-down pineapple cake. The name with "upside-down" sounds interesting and not familiar to me, so I was wonderring how it would be like. The cake with bright yellow color really excited me and pleased my eyes. 

The cake is very moist, soft and full of pineapple flavor. Pineapple slices are caramelized into a marvelous color. And I have nothing to complain about the taste. Just great. 

Ingredients: (one square pan 20cm or one 8” round pan)

- 1 medium pineapple, cut into round slices of 0.5-1cm thick, core removed

- 120g unsalted butter, softened

- 100g white sugar plus 70g sugar for making caramel 

- 2 eggs, separated 

- 200g plain flour

- 20g corn starch

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- 125ml milk

- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Methods:

- Preheat the oven to 165C.

- Place 70g sugar in a small saucepan, add just enough water to cover the sugar, simmer over low heat, stir lightly until the mixture start to caramelize, then quickly pour the caramelized sugar into the baking pan. 

- With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the yolks and beat until just combined.  

- Mix together the flour, baking powder and corn starch. Add to the yolk mixture, pour in the milk and beat until smooth. 

- In another bowl, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks formed. Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture. 

- Arrange the pineapple slices into the pan, pour the batter over, smooth the top. 

- Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and invert the cake.

Cheesecake is always my favorite. I will make cheesecake whenever I buy a new 2kg package of creamcheese. Since buying a large package like this, it it cheaper. However, I will always have to figure out how to use up the cream cheese shortly after opening so that the cream cheese is still in good condition and retains good quality. It is always a good idea to make a cheesecake that uses a large quantity of cream cheese. 

I wish I could afford buying separate packages of creamcheese which are higher in quality and more flexible in usage. However, I realize that, baking or cooking with limited budget doesn’t mean we cannot make a delicious dish. Only  if we have enough passion for cooking and put our heart into cooking, we always can make good food for our loved ones.

I made the pumpkin puree myself by steaming the pumpkin. Then I had to let the water evaporate, otherwise the puree would be very moist. It is better to bake the pumpkin until soft with the oven, however, it takes longer time and consumes more energy, meaning more money. So I chose steaming the pumpkin instead. The final cheesecake is still very tasty.

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This is one of my favorite dishes with the combination of vegetables and tofu. Bell peppers are rich in vitamins and very juicy, while tofu provides protein. There is a saying in Vietnamese which means that tofu is the meat in the garden. Therefore, tofu to vegetarians is as important as meat to non-vegetarians.

I am not a vegetarian, but I like eating veggie. I don’t like the type of vegetarian dishes that use tofu or veggie to do some ‘mock’ meat dishes. I just like having the veggie and tofu as they way they are physically, not something like ‘mock’ chicken thighs made with tofu, etc. 

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