Chili-Lime Peanuts

Put a spicy, salty snack in front of me, and a pint of cold beer in my hand and I’m pretty much a happy camper. Unfortunately, I won’t stop eating the snack and might spoil my dinner. Despite my own personal weakness, my intention for making these zesty peanuts was to have something to offer [...]

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Asparagus Pesto Pasta

My cousin Nikita emailed me this recipe a few weeks ago and said that we had to make it together. Embedded in the email was a mouth-watering picture that drew me in: two asparagus tips neatly garnished a tangle of green pasta, dotted with pine nuts and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. How could I say [...]

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Farfalle with Golden Beets, Beet Greens, and Pine Nuts

Reasons to love this dish: 1) It’s Green! Using both the beets and their greens means less waste (and less money at the store). 2) If you used red beets in this recipe, you would have pink pasta! Valentine’s Day idea, anyone? Ok, that’s a silly reason to love this dish. 3) The earthiness [...]

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Chocolate Chunk – Hazelnut Blondies

I was in search of a dessert that Dustin could take in his lunches all week when I came across this recipe. These blondies were simple to make and are very adaptable. You can top them with any combination of nuts and/or chocolate that you like. You’ll find that the bitterness of the dark chocolate [...]

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Fresh Fig Walnut Cake

My parents have a fig tree in front of their house. This is the time of year when the branches start to get heavy with figs, and we pull out the fig recipes or try to give them away to people who love them. This cake was a great way to use some of them [...]

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Birds, stay away from my Honey-Nut Granola Bars!

Since granola bars are difficult to find here, I decided to make them! I was really happy with how these turned out. I used the recipe on the Quaker Oatmeal website, but I added salted almonds because who doesn’t love sweet & salty together. You could also add chocolate chips or any chopped [...]

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Penne with Spinach, Feta, & Toasty Pine Nuts

In American supermarkets, it’s the packaging that persuades us to buy things; catchy slogans, bright colors, and promises of nutritional value catch our eye and convince us to make (sometimes) unnecessary purchases. In Japan they set up little stereos around the store that blast catchy tunes about vegetables, fish, fried foods, or the monotone [...]

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Almond White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

In search of something different from the usual chocolate chip, I saw this recipe on the nest and was immediately drawn to it. I have to bring something to a potluck tomorrow and the old Japanese ladies are always clamoring for “American style” cookies, so I thought I’d give these a try. As [...]

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Cardamom Spiced Cashews – New Year Nuts!

Cashews are transformed when they’re sautéed in a skillet with yummy spices. These were a part of our New Years Eve spread, along with cheese fondue with bread, veggies, and apples (a Genco-family tradition), and spinach-artichoke dip (my contribution this year).

Thanks to my Mom for passing on this simple recipe:

Sauté the cashews in [...]

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Full of Thanks

Things I’m thankful for (in no particular order):
1. My kitten
2. German Shepherds
3. My family
4. My husband
5. Forgiveness
6. Good wine
The hardest time to live abroad is over the holidays, especially a year when your birthday and Thanksgiving finally fall on the same day. This was our second Thanksgiving without family or turkeys (the latter are [...]

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Asian Chicken Salad with Crunchy Ramen Noodles and Honey-Sesame Cashews

Today was one of the first hot days of summer in Osaka. We rushed home from our evening kids’ classes and felt like something that was fast and refreshing. After looking over a few recipes for Chinese Chicken Salad on allrecipes.com this is what we came up with. The addition of the [...]

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