Ripe tomatoes are so easy to be made into simple yet delicious soup. I followed the recipe in my cookbook of Party Food and Appertizers. In fact the recipe calls for sun-dried tomato paste so that the soup has intense flavor. However, I didn’t have that kind of tomato paste so I went ahead using normal tomato paste. The soup was still tasty though I wondered how the authentic taste would be like.

We can choose to cook with either chicken stock or vegetable stock, and I picked vegetable stock to get a real fresh and vegetarian soup. I made the toasted cheese croûte with baguette slices and grated Parmesan cheese.

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I felt in love with red velvet cake the first time I made it, which was more than a year ago. So far I’ve re-made it several times, following the recipe on Joy of Baking website, for my home parties. Most my friends loved it as I did.

This time, I used the same recipe for making red velvet cake, but I made them into cake balls dipped into melted chocolate, and I seemed to get double joyfulness from eating these cake balls. They are delicious as the same red velvet cake plus the bitter-sweetness of chocolate. The chocolate coating, after being chilled in the fridge, became hard and they made cracking sound in the mouth. I love that experience when eating these cute cake balls. I just thought they were now more perfect to invite friends who visit our home, offering some interesting surprise with these cake balls.

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It’s been very cold in Hanoi these days, and I felt like having something hot and crispy, not minding if it is greasy as any dish of this kind is so suitable for these days’ weather. And it is greater to enjoy a bowl of this sweetcorn fritters with my hubby while watching our favorite movies.

It only needs a little preparation in advance for the fritter batter should stand in the fridge for several hours before you can combine it with sweetcorn kernels, then your fritters will taste so good. I followed the recipe from the book "Professional Cooking" by Wayne Gisslen. However, as it is high in calories and fat, I do not suggest to have these fritters often, especially when we just sit and relax as couch-potatoes.

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My first time making savory tart – however, i wished I had baked them a bit longer so that they got more brown, which would have offered better flavor. Anyway, I could say it was a success for the first time as these tartlets not only looked cute but also tasted flavorful.

I got the recipe in the cookbook of party food collection, one of my reliable cookbooks from which I’ve followed many good recipes.

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A new birthday cake I made for my mother’s friend’s daughter – which was on November 9th.

I made a Japanese cotton cheesecake the day before that special day, and I intended to decorate the cake on that day. Unfortunately, I was not feeling so well, but I had promised to make her a birthday cake and bring over to her home, I thought maybe I had better use fresh flowers to decorate the cake, which meant less decorating work I need to do and the cake might still look lovely.

Just as I thought, these white and red roses made my cake look so lively. This time I was quite pleased with the combination of colors I’d chosen. All the other works I did were to whip the cream, cover the cake with whipped cream as frosting, pipe cake borders, write some words and lastly, insert the roses onto the cake. It was simple and I could finish the cake on time, still spared few minutes to take pictures of this cake before I brought it to her house.

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I’ve never used bottled manufactured bbq sauce. The reason is that the first time I read the recipe in the book Joy of Cooking, I realized that I had all the ingredients in my pantry, then I went ahead making the sauce. I firstly used the sauce for my first hamburger, and the result did surprise me a lot. The 2nd time, I used the sauce to marinate the chicken wings for our bbq gathering with friends. My friends were so excited about this time’s chicken wings as they had never tasted such a wonderful flavor at the other bbq gatherings before. This persuaded me that the recipe for this basic bbq sauce was perfect. Therefore, I never mind the bottled bbq sauce on supermarket shelves. Making homemade bbq sauce is very simple once you have all ingredients ready.

This time I marinated the whole duck legs in homemade bbq sauce for 1 day, then I baked them in the oven. I took them out of the oven occasionally to brush bbq sauce over the legs. Baking temperature was about 350F to 375F until the meat attained a perfect color. After beming marinated for such a long time, the meat was very tasty, flavorful and tender. Even when I was writing this post, I wished I could have another barbecued duck leg to please my stomach

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Long gourd is a kind of cheap vegetables that most common families can afford for daily meals in Vietnam. It’s mostly used in cooking soups. There are various soups using long gourd that base on meat stock of some kinds. Pork ribs make good stock too and many Vietnamese housewives like using pork ribs in soups.

What make this soup even more flavorful and tastier are the presence of fresh ginger and mui tau, a kind of veggie-herb well-known to Vietnamese cooking.

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This dessert is rather easy to make. It is the first time I’ve ever made this kind of dessert called panna cotta – a kind of Italian cold dessert. I just happened to have some blueberries left and I guessed it wouldn’t trouble me much to make this dessert.

Thanks for the recipe I found from this site, I did make a dessert which is quite interesting to enjoy.

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