Teriyaki Chicken

Everybody seems to like teriyaki sauce, be it with chicken, beef, fish or other ingredients.  The most popular one is probably teriyaki chicken, my family is no exception.  We make it once in a while when we crave for it.  Although it is healthier to make the sauce from scratch and it is not very difficult to do so, most of the time we opt to use store bought sauce for convenient sake.  We have tried a few different brands but we prefer "Mr. Yoshida's marinade & cooking sauce - original gourmet, sweet & savory".  We get it at Costco.  The one thing I don't like in the ingredients is the high fructose corn syrup, which is probably why the sauce is really good.  As long as we don't eat it too often, I would say it's not a big deal.  I do try to avoid high fructose corn syrup whenever I could in foods or drinks.  I have tried to make teriyaki sauce from scratch a long time ago but I recall it didn't turn out very good and have never tried it again since then, which I should.  When I do, I will post the result and update this recipe.  In the meantime, here's teriyaki chicken recipe using ready made sauce.

Thai Ground Beef Stir Fry

This is a very simple and easy recipe for a quick dish.  A friend of mine, Anita, was gracious enough to share this recipe with me.  This recipe came from a Thai cooking class that she took years ago.  She told me the ingredients and I adjusted the amount according to my taste as well as adding onion and sweet soy sauce into the ingredients.  This dish tastes better the next day after the ingredients got absorbed into the meat, in my opinion.  If so, you may want to add the green bell pepper and Thai chili when you are ready to eat so they don't get soggy.  You can serve this dish with steamed rice or dry cooked noodle seasoned with some oil so the noodle does not get sticky and the oil gives some fragrant to the noodle.  I usually use fried shallot oil.

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

Baby Back Ribs are the rib meat from pork.  They are a bit more tender and meaty than beef ribs.  Tony Roma restaurant is famous for this type of ribs.  My husband & I used to go to Tony Roma once in a while to enjoy those delicious ribs along with their famous onion rings.

We got this simple recipe that tries to emulate Tony Roma's rib from one of my husband's friends.  We make it occasionally when having dinner guests or family gatherings.  Everyone seem to love it, especially kids. This is a totally wonderful dish, it tastes great and simple to make. The meats are so soft and tender that it easily falls off  the bones while you eat them.  The quality of the ribs seems to matter.  It happened to us a few times when the meat weren't as tender and juicy and I was pretty sure my husband didn't alter the recipe instructions in any way shape or form.  Anyway, here's the not-so-secret "secret" recipe for baby back rib ...

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

My son decided one day that he wanted to make blueberry muffins.  He browsed online and found this recipe from allrecipes.com.  It's so simple to make and yet it's the best muffin we have ever eaten so far - it's moist & not too sweet inside and crunchy on the outside.  So, if my 11 years old son can make it, I am sure you can too, try it.  In case you want it quick, here it is.

Kato's Japanese Cabbage Salad

This is a simple salad that is delicious and great for summer BBQ or potluck.  I made this salad frequently for potlucks due to popular demands from friends who had tried it.  Interestingly kids love this salad and they often requested their moms to ask me bring this salad to potluck parties.