Spice Chocolate Cake

I love to bake but admit that I am not a baker. I think baking is another way to relax, and the kitchen will smell so warm and wonderful.  I am constantly looking for an easy cake recipe. I found this one, It a spice chocolate cake using self-rising flour. This cake turns out beautiful and delicious. A simple store-bought frosting will work or just top with some powdered sugar.

Ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup strong coffee
1/4 cup molasses
Spice ingredients:
1 tsp each: cinnamon and cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup powdered sugar for decorating

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease and flour a cake pan and set aside.

Mix cocoa powder with coffee and set aside
Use a KitchenAid stand mixer with a beater. In the mixer bowl, add sugar, oil, and butter. Beat for 3 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time and continue beating eggs with sugar and butter for another 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Add molasses and spice ingredients. Beat well.

Do not forget to stop the machine to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl
Starting with flour and ending with flour, alternating add the coffee mixture and flour into the egg mixture

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar

Easy Homemade Curry Sauce

Indian curry is quite famous with its unique favor from all kinds of spices. It is hard to make exactly Indian curry at home without all those spices. The Vietnamese and Thai cultures also have their own curry recipe, and they are very good. In this recipe, I am introducing the simplest curry sauce that we can make at home. This curry sauce has a lighter taste than the Indian curry sauce, and this sauce also freezes well until needed. Sometimes, over the weekend, I do not feel like cooking so much. Just heat this sauce and add roasted chicken or fish fillet, and a delicious meal is ready!!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 knob of fresh ginger, minced
2 large fresh tomatoes, chopped or 1 can of tomatoes
Spice ingredients:
1/4 tsp of each of the following: paprika, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, turmeric, coriander powder
2 tsp Thai curry powder

Directions:
In a medium pot, heat oil and add onions.

 Cook over medium heat until onions become deep brown (about 20 minutes).

 Add ginger and garlic and stirfry for 1 minute.

Add the spice ingredients and cook further for another minute or until fragrant.

Add tomatoes and about 1 cups of water. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Now the curry sauce is ready, although my preference is to purée it first. For future use, pour sauce into a clean glass container with lid and freeze.

Making quick chicken curry:
Using 1 cup of curry sauce, add 1 cup of chicken broth. Bring to boil. Add 3 cups of cut-up roasted chicken.  Simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onions. Serve with rice. For a creamier taste, add coconut cream instead of chicken broth.

Easy Apple Coffee Cake with Crumble Topping

Delight family and guests with this easy recipe that can be served as a dessert or breakfast!!

Ingredients:
Crumble topping ingredients:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup cake mix
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup butter or margarine
Cake ingredients:
2 cups cake mix or rising flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted coconut oil or vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups peeled and chopped apples (about 2 apples)

Directions:
Grease a 9” x 13” cake pan with coconut oil.

Combine all the crumble topping ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Place cake mix in a mixing bowl. Make a well in a center. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla, and oil.

 Using a handheld electric mixer; mix the batter together. Add apples and nuts.

 Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.

Top with crumb topping.

Bake in a preheated oven set to 350° for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

Being Love

Quotes excerpted from Osho books.
  Being love. Bit of a tall order when you think of the trouble love causes. And loving with awareness and relating without fear sounds great, but where to start with it?

"Love should be a reality in your life, not just a poem, not just a dream. It has to be actualized. It is never too late to experience love for the first time.

“Learn to love. Very few people know how to love. They all know that love is needed, they all know that without love life is meaningless, but they don't know how to love."

Well yes, that’s what I want, but I’m scared of getting hurt again.

“Love is risky. To love is to move into danger – because you cannot control it, it is not safe. It is not within your hands. It is unpredictable: where it will lead nobody knows. Whether it will lead anywhere, that too nobody knows.”

And why is it so hard to find “the one”?

"First you have to understand the love that is a natural phenomenon. Even that has not happened. First you have to understand the natural, and then the transcendental. So the second thing to remember is, never be in search for a perfect man or a perfect woman. That idea too has been put into your mind – that unless you find a perfect man or a perfect woman you will not be happy. So you go on looking for the perfect, and you don’t find it, so you are unhappy.

"To flow and grow in love needs no perfection."

"Love makes no conditions, no ifs, no buts. Love never says, ‘Fulfill these requirements, then I will love you.’ Love is like breathing: when it happens you are simply love. It does not matter who comes close to you, the sinner or the saint. Whosoever comes close to you starts feeling the vibe of love, is rejoiced. Love is unconditional giving – but only those are capable of giving who have."

Maybe so, but when yet another relationship ends in disaster I just shut down.

"Relationship is a structure, and love is unstructured. So love relates, certainly, but never becomes a relationship. Love is a moment-to-moment process. Remember it. Love is a state of your being, not a relationship. There are loving people and there are unloving people. Unloving people pretend to be loving through the relationship.

Loving people need not have any relationship – love is enough.

"Be a loving person rather than in a love relationship – because relationships happen one day and disappear another day. They are flowers; in the morning they bloom, by the evening they are gone.”

OK but if love is enough why do I sometimes feel lonely even when I’m with someone?

“It is something very deep to be understood, something of great significance. Love always brings aloneness. Aloneness always brings love. They are never separate.

“People think just the opposite. People think, ‘When you are in love, how can you be alone?’ They don’t make any distinction between two words: loneliness and aloneness. Hence the confusion.

“When you are in love, you cannot be lonely; that is true. But when you are in love, you are bound to be alone – that is even far truer. Loneliness is a negative state. Loneliness means you are hankering for the other. Loneliness means you are dark, dismal, in despair. Loneliness means you are frightened. Loneliness means you are feeling left behind. Loneliness means nobody needs you. It hurts. Loneliness is like a wound.

“Aloneness is like a flower. I know your dictionaries will say that loneliness and aloneness are synonyms – they are not. They are totally different phenomena.”

"The greatest poverty of all is the absence of love. The man who has not developed the capacity to love lives in a private hell of his own. A man who is filled with love is in heaven. You can look at man as a wonderful and unique plant, a plant that is capable of producing both nectar and poison. If a man lives by hate he reaps a harvest of poison; if he lives by love he gathers blossoms laden with nectar."

Oriental Marinade/Dressing

For a quick dinner, I always make a jar of this marinade/dressing. Keeping this marinade in the refrigerator will save time when it is time to make dinner.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil or grape seed oil
2 tbs sesame oil
1/4 cup Japanese seasoning
1/4 soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tbs honey
Zest of one lemon
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, finely chopped

Directions:

In a large cup, combine all the ingredients and whisk well. Pour the marinade in a glass jar with lid. Refrigerate. It will last for months.

For every 6 oz. of any kind of fish fillet, use 3 tbs of this marinade. Top fish fillet with scallions or white onions. Bake in a preheated oven set to 375° for 15 to 20 minutes. Serving with black rice and steamed vegetables will complete a healthy meal.

 

Chicken Stew (Thịt Hon)

In Vietnam, with every spring comes the Vietnamese New Year. One of the many traditional dishes of Vietnam is the meat stew, thịt heo hon, and this dish is an indispensable, entertaining meal for New Year’s guests and family. My family was originally from the North, and my mother always prepared the dish, "giả cầy". I cannot translate the name of this dish into English because I do not want the foreign friends to roll their eyes or grimace. The central region has a similar dish,  thịt heo hon, or pork stew . So what traditional dish is this? The main ingredient for the preparation of this dish is pig leg and served with sticky rice. My mother’s dish is not very different from the dish of the central part of Vietnam because the seasoning ingredients and even the processing are similar . Personally, I'm a favorite of the culinary arts, and the  nutrients in food are very important to my family as well. For that, I will substitute chicken legs for pork legs to reduce the fat content of pork skin. I think changing the taste a little will bring a healthier life, which everyone should practice. As living in a modern world  becomes more polluted, then each small change in nutrition will surely bring us a healthier lifestyle. I hope this recipe will become a very simple recipe that still achieve the quality and taste of pork stew. This spring, my mother turns 87 years of age. She no longer remembers her family’s favorite dish that she often made for us to enjoy in the New Year. Therefore, when the Vietnamese New Year comes, I like to prepare this dish. I am releasing my soul to reminisce the old days when my family lived in Vietnam for the Tet (New Year’s) festivals and meals, which were prepared by my mom's love and her artistic hands.


Ingredients:
3 lbs chicken legs and thighs, cut into big chunks
Marinade:
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp chili flakes
3 shallots, minced
2 tbs lemongrass
3 garlic cloves, minced
5 dried wood ear or dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water
1 cup skinless peanuts, cooked
1/4 cup roasted sesame white seeds
2 cups chicken broth
1 onion, quartered
A few slices of fresh ginger
1 stalks lemongrass. bruised
2 tsp liquid smoke
Small piece of rock sugar

Directions:

Place chicken legs and thighs into a mixing bowl. Add fish sauce, soy sauce, salt, black pepper, curry powder, turmeric, 1/2 of (minced garlic, minced shallots, lemongrass), and chili flakes. Mix well. Cover and marinate overnight.

Heat 2 tbs coconut oil in a heavy pot. Add the (remaining minced garlic, minced shallots, lemongrass) turmeric, chili flakes, and curry. Stir until fragrant.

Add marinated chicken and brown chicken all over.

Add 2 cups chicken broth and rock sugar. Place on top white onion, lemongrass, and a few slices of ginger.

 Bring to boil and turn the heat to simmer. Skim off the residue that floats to the top. About 10 minutes before the cooking is done, remove and discard onions, ginger, and lemongrass. Add mushrooms, cooked peanuts and liquid smoke.

Re-season again with fish sauce, if needed.  

White Beans & Chicken Tomato Soup

I am so proud of this recipe using the Costco roasted chicken. It is the shortest way to prepare this excellent soup. The white beans soaked overnight and simmered in chicken broth is much better tasting than using canned beans. Any kind of white beans will work for this recipe. This soup can be made without chicken for vegans. Also, this recipe can be made in a crockpot for  busy moms. I experimented with many recipes for making bean soup, and this is totally a comfort food in a winter day.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried white beans, soaked overnight and drained

3 cups cut up roasted chicken
5 cups chicken broth
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 carrot, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 sprig fresh rosemary
A few sprigs fresh thyme 
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 white onion, chopped
1 fresh  bay leaf
Salt and black pepper to taste
Coconut oil or olive oil for sautéing

Garnish: chopped basil or parsley; freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a heavy pot, heat oil and add chopped onion, garlic, carrot, and celery. Sauté over medium heat until the onion, carrot, and celery are translucent.

 Add fresh rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, soaked beans, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Raise heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover.

Stirring frequently, season with salt and pepper. Cook until the beans are tender (about 2 hour).Discard the bay leaf, rosemary stems. Remove half of the soup and place in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour back into the pot.

 Add chicken and heat thoroughly. Remove the bay leaf and discard. Ladle the soup into a serving bowl. Sprinkle with chopped basil or parsley. Place freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top, if desired.