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cheesecake-stuffed peaches

This is not my recipe-- I found it in the August 2011 issue of Better Homes and Gardens and knew I had to try it out. I made it once last year and couldn't wait for peach season this year to make it again. It's not only as delicious as it looks, it's also super easy. So here's the recipe-- all credit goes to Dee Guelcher who submitted this recipe to BHG so that you and I can make it ourselves...

ingredients

6 peaches

1/4 cup butter, melted

3 Tbsp cinnamon sugar

1/2 of an 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 15x10x1-inch baking pan with parchment paper (or silicone mat); set aside. Trim a very thin slice from the round side of each peach half so the halves will stand flat on the baking pan. Dip peach halves, cut sides up, in prepared pan. Sprinkle cut sides of peaches with cinnamon-sugar; set aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. Beat until combined. Spoon cream cheese mixture into peach centers.

3. Bake, uncovered, about 30 minutes or until lightly browned and softened. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 6 servings.

[note] If you don't have cinnamon sugar, mix 3 tablespoons granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. To add crunch to this dessert, sprinkle with granola or candied almonds. 

Enjoy!

white chocolate-gingerbread trifle

Found this recipe in the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I usually stick to peppermint-themed Christmas desserts, but this one was so beautiful, I decided to give it a try-- that and the fact that I stocked up on strawberries over the summer and wanted to use them. Luke-- the picky texture diner-- was happy to report that the cream soaked into the cake, making it nice and moist. I was really pleased with this blend of sweet, spicy, and tangy. Yes, I think I will definitely make this again.

PREP: 50 min

BAKE: 25 min

CHILL: 2 hours

Homemade Gingerbread

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1 cup molasses

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x9x2-inch square pan, then line bottom of pan with parchment paper. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

2. In a small saucepan heat the molasses, water, butter, and brown sugar until hot, stirring until butter and brown sugar are melted. In a large bowl whisk the 2 eggs until blended. Slowly whisk in the molasses mixture. Stir in flour mixture. Pour batter in prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer inserted near center comes out clean. Cool gingerbread in pan. Remove from pan. Tear two-thirds of the cake into pieces (about 7 cups). Set aside until ready to assemble trifle. [For a cakier, denser trifle, you can use the whole cake.]

Lemon-White Chocolate Cream

4 egg yolks

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 ounces white chocolate, chopped

1 cup whipping cream

3. In a bowl whisk together egg yolks, whole eggs, sugar, and lemon juice. Transfer to a heavy medium-size saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened. If mixture becomes lumpy, whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in white chocolate until smooth. Strain into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly on surface. Refrigerate until cold.

4. In a large mixing bowl beat whipping cream until soft peaks form. Remove, cover, and chill 1/2 cup of the whipped cream to use as topping. Fold remaining whipped cream into cold Lemon-White Chocolate Cream; refrigerated until ready to assemble trifle.

Cranberry Compote

1 12 ounce bag cranberries

1/2 cup water

1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

2 tablespoons silvered candied ginger

5. In a medium saucepan combine cranberries, water, and sugar. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cranberries are soft. Cool completely. Stir in strawberries

Trifle Assembly

LAYER 1 In a 7- to 9-inch trifle bowl or other container, spoon in half the Lemon-White Chocolate Cream.

LAYER 2 Evenly top with pieces of Homemade Gingerbread.

LAYER 3 Spoon remaining Lemon-White Chocolate Cream on gingerbread layer.

LAYER 4 Top with Cranberry Compote.

LAYER 5 Top with the 1/2 cup reserved whipped cream and slivered candied ginger. [I used white chocolate shavings.]

[happy thanksgiving!] pumpkin chocolate cheesecake pie

Well, yesterday was dessert day, which was why I never got around to posting a recipe. By the end of the day, our total dessert tally included Grandma Ople's Apple Pie, Maple-Pumpkin Cheesecake, Triple Berry Pie, Luke's Garbage Lid Pumpkin Pie, and new this year: Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Pie. Since Luke's recipe is still a family secret, I'll share the cheesecake pie recipe with you instead...

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Pie [bhg.com]

I made this pie earlier this fall to test it out. I have to admit that I was really pleased with how it looked, but not as thrilled with how it tasted. It tastes fine, of course, but just not WOW. I tried some modifications for tonight's dinner, so the modified recipe is still in the works. I can tell you that the first time I made it, however, the crust was kind of tough, so I tried my go-to pie crust recipe instead this time, and it was way too soft to bake on its own, so I until I figure out something different, this recipe is stuck with a pretty tough crust. Here's what our Thanksgiving guests tried tonight...

Ingredients

1 recipe Deep Dish Pie Pastry, below

12 ounces cream cheese, softened (1-1/2 8-oz. pkgs.)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 cup finely chopped semisweet chocolate or miniature chocolate pieces

1 15 ounce can pumpkin

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

4 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup half-and-half or light cream

Chopped chocolate (optional)

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Prepare and roll out Deep Dish Pie Pastry. Transfer pastry to a 9-1/2- to 10-inch deep-dish pie plate. Trim crust edge 1/2-inch beyond pie plate. Flute edge high. Line pastry with double thickness of foil. Bake 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 6 minutes more or until golden. Cool on wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F.
2. In medium mixing bowl combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 egg; beat on low speed until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture in cooled pastry shell. Sprinkle with chopped chocolate.
3. In bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar, and spice. Stir in 4 eggs. Gradually stir in half-and-half. Slowly pour pumpkin mixture on chocolate layer. To prevent overbrowning, cover pie edge with foil.
4. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Remove foil. Cool on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hour. Top with chopped chocolate.

Pastry for Deep-Dish Pie

In a medium bowl stir together 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/2 cup of butter until pieces are pea-size. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon cold water over part of the flour mixture; toss gently with a fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl. Repeat with additional cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until all of the flour mixture is moistened (about 4-5 tablespoons). Shape into a ball.

And today, I am thankful for the community we have in God's family-- that even though we couldn't be with our own families this year, we still had brothers and sisters join us for our Thanksgiving feast.

2 days till Thanksgiving! [pumpkin bread]

Moran's Famous Pumpkin Bread [Rachel Moran]

Well, I discovered that getting sick and having a daughter who's teething will pretty much wipe me out now, hence the absence of 2 pumpkin recipes. Oh well. Rebekah Martin posted this recipe earlier this fall, and since it uses applesauce instead of oil, I decided to give it a shot. The result? I probably shouldn't divulge how many loaves we've already consumed this year... :-P

Ingredients (my modifications in italics...)

3 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar (original recipe calls for 3 cups)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup applesauce
4 eggs
20 oz pumpkin puree (about 2 1/2 cups)

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, chocolate chips). Make a well.
2. Add wet ingredients (applesauce, eggs, pumpkin). Mix and divide batter into 3 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Today I'm thankful for sleep and Zicam! Getting more sleep has definitely helped me the last couple days. I need to get better before we host our first big Thanksgiving dinner...

5 days till Thanksgiving! [pumpkin cornbread]

Pumpkin Cornbread [allrecipes.com]

If you're making chili, you need cornbread! This picture is actually of "Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread." I experimented with that recipe to get this recipe, but I wasn't sure if it would work, so I never took a picture. This recipe is awesomely easy and adaptable-- the only thing I wouldn't compromise is the buttermilk: it is the secret to all things moist and fluffy.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup honey

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in large skillet. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan. Mix in pumpkin. Stir in cornmeal, flour, salt, and pumpkin spice until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I'm thankful that Luke didn't have to work today-- it means we get a little more sleep and can enjoy a Saturday morning brunch. Today we're having waffles!

6 days till Thanksgiving! [pumpkin chili]

Pumpkin Chili [allrecipes.com]

I like recipes with surprise ingredients. I have two go-to chili recipes: one has chocolate and this one has pumpkin. When I first made this recipe, it was a bit too watery for me so the recipe below reflects a few modifications to make it more chunky and spicy...

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 cups dry kidney beans, cooked and drained (about 5-6 cups cooked) or 2-3 15-oz cans

1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice

1 (28 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice

1 cup canned pumpkin puree (or 1 15-oz can)

2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1/4 cup chili powder

1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium heat, cook beef until brown; drain. Stir in onion and bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. Put in 6-quart crockpot. 
2. Stir in beans, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and pumpkin puree. Season with pumpkin pie spice, ground cumin, chili powder and sugar. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hours.

And something else I'm thankful for-- that Luke is loving-- thriving on-- his philosophy studies at OU. Even though getting laid off was tough, I know God used it to direct us to where we are today. 

7 days till Thanksgiving! [pumpkin brownies]

Luke loves pumpkin pie-- so much so that he figured out a way to bake a huge pumpkin pie... in a garbage lid. He claims that he sterilized it and everything, but thankfully, he now uses an 18" pizza pan. I thought that his love for pumpkin pie meant that he loves all things pumpkin. I discovered this year that this wasn't really the case. Oh well... In my quest to please Luke by testing out various pumpkin recipes, I discovered a number of recipes that we both enjoy and a few that we love. So in celebration of Thanksgiving, I'd like to countdown by sharing some of those recipes with you...

Pumpkin Brownies [allrecipes.com]

This recipe is hands-down our favorite new pumpkin recipe this year. I made it for the couples retreat in October and fell in love. I omitted the nuts but left them in the recipe for those who love them. If you want moist brownies, I use freshly canned pumpkin that has a bit more water than store-canned pumpkin. You also want to be careful not to overbake them...

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan. Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, stir together the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla extract; beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoon. Gradually add the flour mixture, and stir the batter until it's evenly moistened. Divide the batter in half in two separate bowls.
3. Into one bowl of batter, blend the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. In the second bowl of batter, stir in the pumpkin puree, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
4. Spread 1/2 of the chocolate batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, and follow with 1/2 of the pumpkin batter. Repeat the layers, ending with a pumpkin layer, and drag a kitchen knife or small spatula gently through the layers in a swirling motion, to create a marbled appearance.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan, cut into squares, and serve.

And something I'm thankful for-- a baby who wakes up talking to herself, which is what she's doing now... time to start the day! Happy Thanksgiving Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve!

{snapshot} another goodbye

The other day, I took a picture in my mind.

I was in the garage holding Arianna. We were watching Luke back out on his way to class. He had only just gotten home from work an hour or so ago. I watched her take it all in, trying to process the information with her little brain. I half expected her to burst into tears, because that was how I felt.

That is a snapshot of our life right now. We spent our summer rushing from one event to the next. Amazingly, much of the wrap-up work that usually takes me months is already done. I've unpacked our suitcases from the camping trip and settled back into normal life.

Only-- this normal doesn't feel all that familiar. We were thrilled when OU accepted Luke into their graduate program for philosophy. But since then, the excitement has worn off. Now we are just counting the cost-- not just tuition, but time.

Luke ended up signing up for three evening classes this semester. We both agreed that while it would be tough, we would give it a shot. But then he found out that there are certain extracurricular activities that are somewhat required of students-- special lectures and guest speakers and receptions and discussions... Throw in the overtime that he's having to put in at work, and I hardly see my husband anymore.

Part of me wants to rewind our lives back to the time when he would come home from work and leave work at work, when he could help me clean up after dinner, and we had the luxury of reading together on the couch or watching a movie.

But I know that was a season that God gave to us. And this is the season He has for us now. He is teaching me to trust-- trust that He is still in control, that He has Luke where He wants him, and that He will take care of Arianna while her father is away.

And trusting is a very good place to be.

in case anyone missed the memo...

...our daughter Arianna was born on Friday, February 4, 2011. She's six weeks old today!

Yes, we are in love...

Christmas Meditations from a First-Time Mother...

"How can this be...?" (Luke 1:34)

Some things are hard to understand unless you experience it-- like the first time we heard our baby's heartbeat, the first time we felt the baby kick, and the first time we saw our baby's face via ultrasound. In each of those moments, the theoretical existence of our child became more of a reality.

How can it be that someone else's life is bound up in mine?
How can it be that this child is the very first representation of me and Luke?
How can it be that this child has both a sin nature but is also created in the image of God?

Now that we're about a month and a half away from the baby's arrival, I can only imagine what it will be like to find out if God has given us a boy or girl and hold that child in my arms for the very first time.

Reading the Christmas story from a mother's perspective makes me wonder what Mary felt those nine months when she carried the Son of God in her womb-- she didn't have the luxury of hearing His heartbeat or seeing Him via ultrasound. But she was one of the few mothers in history who not only found out the sex of her baby ahead of time, but also caught a glimpse of the destiny of her Child before He was born. I wonder what she thought when she felt the Baby kick for the first time and realized that the infinite Almighty God had not only chosen to limit Himself in the form of a Child, but to reside within the body of a sinner that He had come to save.

I don't have any conclusions, just more questions: "How can this be...?"

two years

Back when I was still coordinating Children's Institutes in Taiwan, I used to ask random people random questions, such as "If you could marry any movie character, who would it be and why?"

I asked Luke this question, completely oblivious to the fact that he was interested in me at the time. He responded, "Sally the Porsche from Cars."

That is one reason why, for our second anniversary, we stopped by The Rock Cafe on Route 66, the owner of which was the basis for the character "Sally." We didn't get to meet her, but we enjoyed a couple of cheap burgers at the modest diner to kick off our two-year anniversary celebration.

We like exploring bed and breakfasts, so we chose the Cedar Rock Inn in Tulsa for its beautiful lodge-like accomodations.

We went on a little hike with our buy one get one free holiday drinks (decaf, of course, for Baby Berg)...

...before settling down in their library to peruse their books and (limited) DVD selection.

In the morning, we feasted on a scrumptious breakfast...

...before meeting up with Damon and Christina for church and lunch...

So here we are... two years of marriage and a baby on the way. Year #2 held a number of challenges for us, but God has been good.

Year #3, here we come!

a year ago...

...these good people helped us move...

...into our new home...

...which needed a little work...

...some of which didn't feel as necessary when we began (thankfully, it didn't rain when we were working on the skylights, which I now adore)...

...and of course, when you do a lot of work, you also need to start showing it off...

...because a home isn't much fun without people in it...

...and now, a year later, we have finally finished unpacking and organizing, only to start preparing to do more work for a very important addition to our little family. :-)

We still have a lot to learn about being home owners and even more to learn about being parents, but we are grateful for this first year in our home.

why it was a happy father's day...

...because we wished our parents a happy grandfather's day!

No More Room for a Small God

Long ago, we knew little about the world. No one knew why the seasons changed. Pagans prayed to their gods at winter solstice to please bring the warmth back for one more year. Scientists thought that flies were spontaneously generated from rotting meat. Clouds floating in the sky were a proof of God's existence because it was "impossible." We found God in the "gaps" of our knowledge - proved His existence from the unexplainable all around us.

This never should have been possible. It was our arrogance that assumed there could be a reason for God within the world. Now we arrogantly feel justified in assuming that there is no reason for God anywhere. We think that this is a conclusion based on our increased knowledge. But really, the only conclusion that can be rightly drawn from our modern knowledge is that there are several more areas in which we can say, “It basically makes sense if we assume that we understand the underlying pattern of natural laws.” The God of the Gaps has been squeezed out. Yes, there are arguments about this and there are certainly observations that we don't have a good explanation for yet, but it can't be denied that we have been very clever at figuring out possible explanations for the world around us.

We can no longer take the easy route by finding “God” as the reason for the things we don’t know. We must take the bolder position of finding God as the reason for the things we do know.
The God-of-the-Gaps argument is an argument from ignorance of the natural world. More and more, ignorance of the natural world is not our problem. What was it that used to give that ignorance power and persuasiveness? It was that it caused us to doubt our knowledge of the natural world; to doubt any conclusions we would come to about its operation. With increased knowledge, we have moved from doubt to faith. We now have great faith in our knowledge of the natural world. Our misplaced faith is the problem. Our knowledge is not worthy of such faith. We should have known this from the withering attack of the Skeptics: Hume, Kant, Hegel and Kierkegaard showed us how we must always doubt our senses. We must always doubt conclusions that we arrive at from observation. Yet somehow we have arrived at this position of absolute confidence in our powers of observation and conclusion-drawing. How ironic that, because we know so much, we should lose sight of the very nature of knowledge.

And yet our vast knowledge forces us, if we are willing to stop this blind trust, to posit no transcendent cause for this and that scattered event: but a great unseen cause for everything. And not simply an initial cause to start everything, but a cause within and behind every piece of knowledge that we possess. There must be a sufficient reason for us to assume that any event has occurred in the natural world for us to observe and draw conclusions from. This reason must not itself be an observable event within the natural world, for then we must simply ask the same question about it. By tying ourselves into the ring of making observations within the natural world, we have purposefully excluded ourselves from ever explaining those events. We could of course propose a Cause within the natural world that has its reason for being within itself, but to propose this would invalidate every other conclusion we have drawn from our observations of the natural world.

Someday we may be stuck with having explained everything within the natural world…but having no reason to believe our explanation. We can come up with any number of alternate explanations that equally explain our observations, and are equally immune to proof. There is no longer room for God within the cracks of our knowledge, but we have revealed the anguished hunger we have for God within every belief we hold about the world, within every fact of science. The Christian can no longer reasonably relegate God to certain “spiritual” or "unexplainable" areas of his life. God is either the explanation of everything, or the explanation of nothing.

we're ok...

...but here's what happened in Oklahoma on Monday, May 10, 2010.

Philosopher here we come?

Those of you following Karen's post-employment blog know that I am now employed at Kimray, Inc., packing up oil field valves. Different from my previous (desk) job, it's very physically demanding, which I enjoy.

But as part of the whole discussion of what to do next, Karen and I decided that perhaps I should start pursuing my interest in philosophy and apologetics more purposefully. One possibility is trying to get into the graduate program at OU. But in the meantime, I've been allowing myself to get back into that world a little more. It was something that I haven't had time for very much since getting married...really since a couple of years before we got married. But it's always been an interest.

This week, we had an opportunity to go to OU and see Os Guinness speak on "Whence Evil and Suffering?" One interesting thing he talked about was the "Trilemma."
As Guinness said, a dilemma has two horns; the Trilemma, then, has three. It says:

1. God is all-good.
2. God is all-powerful
3. Evil is really evil.

The problem is, all three of these cannot logically be true. Any two of them exclude the third. Guinness claimed that this is solved by the Bible's putting a "twist" on each point:

1. Evil is really evil, but it wasn't supposed to be this way
2. God is all-good, but he has wounds
3. God is all-powerful, and even though we can't understand why he does what he does, we can understand why we can trust him

I've been thinking about whether materialism actually must deal with a similar trilemma. Materialism, as you might know, is essentially the worldview of an atheist: that the universe and life is best explained through it's "material" aspects alone, without a God-figure. This person most likely believes something like:

1. The laws of nature are all-powerful
   
2. Humans have the ability to decide what "good" is
3. Natural events happen that offend our decisions about what "good" is

We should be able to see how any two of these points disallows the third, but I have to admit that it feels a little weaker than the Christian version. Why is that? Is there a better way to express this, that puts the materialistic trilemma in stronger terms?

*deep breath*

When we were courting, Luke's family took me to the hot springs in Thermopolis, which had a ten-foot diving board. We watched a kid climb the steps up to the board, walk to the edge, and chicken out at least a dozen times, despite the fact that everyone in the pool was cheering him on.

Sometimes I feel like that kid. I walk to the edge, but before I leap, I think through all the reasons why I shouldn't. I wonder how it'll look to everyone else, what they might say.

On Tuesday, March 16, 2010, my husband came home without a job. Over the last couple days, God has pushed us over the edge-- and we don't know how far down we're going to fall.

Some people might think it's tacky to blog about something that's still so raw. But this is reality for millions of people-- and Luke encouraged me to blog about it, if only to help me process this new chapter in our family history.

So for the brave souls who want a glimpse into the gritty details of life after employment as it plays out in our household, you can read about it in my new blog here. We will definitely appreciate your prayers.

So ready or not... *deep breath*... it's time to take the plunge.

Green Onion Pancakes 蔥油餅

In celebration of Chinese New Year, here's a recipe for one of my favorite Chinese snacks of all time... green onion pancakes. When I was in junior high/high school, my mom taught me how to make the "Chexican" version (layers of tortillas spread with oil, sprinkled with chopped green onions and salt). It's good-- but after moving to Taiwan, it's not quite good enough. That is why-- when I wasn't able to get any on this last trip to Taipei-- I turned to the internet for a recipe that I could try in my own kitchen. The original recipe was all in Chinese (and metric units), so I'm still working out the kinks. But here it is for those of you who miss Taiwan like I do...

Green Onion Pancakes 蔥油餅

INGREDIENTS

(DOUGH)
3C all-purpose flour
1½t salt
1½C boiling water
¾C ice water

(FILLING)
6 stalks of green onions, chopped
1t salt
½C oil
2t sesame oil
½t pepper
sesame seeds (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. (DOUGH) In a large bowl, sift flour and salt. Add boiling water. Stir quickly until it forms clumps of dough. Add ice water. Stir until dough is ready to knead. Knead, adding additional flour as needed, until dough becomes soft and smooth. Cover with a wet towel and set aside for 20 minutes.
   
   
2. (FILLING) In a small bowl (do not use plastic), mix green onions and salt. In a small pot, heat the oil and sesame oil, then pour into green onions and salt mixture. Add pepper.
   
   
3. Divide dough into six equal parts. Roll on floured surface into a thin rectangle. Spread ~1/8 to 1/4C filling onto the dough with a pastry brush. Roll the dough into a long skinny roll and then wrap the roll into a tight circle (like a cinnamon roll). Cover with a wet towel for another 20 minutes. Repeat with each pancake.
   
   
4. Roll dough (with filling) into a round pancake and garnish with sesame seeds. Heat 2T of oil in a pan and fry both sides until it begins to show a little color. *Add 1T of water into the pan and cover with a lid until the sizzling dies down. Add 1T of oil and fry until both sides are golden brown.
   
   *Adding water will produce a pancake that is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

YIELD: 6 pancakes

Enjoy-- and make sure you tell me if you try it! Here's to the Year of the Tiger!

Christmas Greetings

still alive. still in oklahoma. still together. still happy. (in case you were wondering...)