I don't know how it started but Duc's been on a slow cooker kick lately in terms of egging me on to use it more and more. We were in possession of several pounds of ground beef one week and much too many boxes of mushrooms. What to do? Well, let's combine the situations and make a meatloaf! I have never made a meatloaf before but it didn't seem too difficult. It's also a bit comforting to have, right? After looking around a few places for their recipes and suggestions, I realized that we should start with simple. The basic composition of a meatloaf is easy enough so we packed them together, topped it all of with a slightly spicy sauce of Kickin' Ketchup (mixed with other things), and had a good ol' few meals. I love how you can just set it and forget it when using a slow cooker; maybe this can be your next weeknight meal after a long day at work?

[This is a recipe modified from a previous post from 2010] It's iconic really, this Beef & Broccoli dish that people see in multiple Chinese to-go places. The dish is usually coated in a sweet brown sauce as well, giving flavor to the steamed rice beneath it. You can have this dish, however, without all of the grease that seems to accompany it. In fact, you can make it pretty quickly if I do say so myself! This is a great way to make a quick weeknight dinner that will satisfy the two camps of getting vegetables in for the day and getting some protein too! It just takes a few ingredients but turns out a lovely, soon-to-be staple.

The best dishes are the simplest dishes to me. When we decided to make some dry roasted edamame our Test Kitchen ingredient, I kept trying to think up obscure ways to use the snack. However, in the end, the simplest way was the route to take. I was inspired by the many pistachio-crusted items I've enjoyed in the past and decided to coat some beautiful ahi tuna steaks with edamame. It turned out to be an excellent idea and one that won't take you very long at all to do as well! The edamame gives a salty nuttiness to the ahi with the additional, occasional zing from peppercorn. It's delightful.

A friend of ours recently held a potluck dinner get-together, and the theme requested was for all the dishes to be vegetarian. Considering how we have somehow recently found ourselves cooking less and less meat (not sure how this is happening...), the request was not too far-fetched and I decided I should also try to make it vegan. Since I'm still new to it all, I looked up ideas that would be hearty and easy to make since I wouldn't have much time to prep. Luckily for me, Duc was home to prep the ingredients so all I had to do was dump things together! The recipe itself was tweaked from the one here, and everyone seemed to enjoy how it resemble traditional chili quite well without being so. However, if you really are hankering for a meaty chili, try checking out this one here: Pink Bean Chili. Oh and bear in mind that this vegetarian one still has a spicy kick to it!

Over the years as we have explored and gone on fooding adventures to check out different cultures and cuisines, we have fallen in love with more and more varieties of dishes. Even with all of that exposure, I still have a special place in my heart for my original love and favorite growing up - Italian food. Now, armed with more knowledge of the cuisine and having been exposed to the thrills and communities of Italy itself, I find that the dishes I had known in the past to be Italian have usually been modified for the American palate and people.

For example, the commonly seen dish called "shrimp scampi" is actually a tad redundant as scampi in Italian means "prawns." Shrimp...prawns? This dish of "shrimp scampi" is a combination of delicious shrimp, butter, and white wine - sometimes over pasta. Despite the slight inaccuracy, it has become a staple in Italian-American cuisine, and honestly, there is nothing wrong with preparing this; cultures evolve and change over time as does the food associated. Making this dish is an easy way to satisfy many and turn a regular weeknight into a delight. My recipe below omits the white wine for convenience's sake so my apologies ahead of time if you were looking for one with it!

Sunchokes! They're so crunchy even after being steamed - it's amazing. This tuber is not all too common known as it has a reputation for causing a bit of...flatulence, to put it lightly. However, it doesn't affect everyone! If you want to experiment first, try eating it at home to save yourself any unexpected embarrassment. Aside from its funny little side effect, the sunchoke (also known as Jerusalem artichoke) is chock-full of vitamins and minerals that are good additions to your diet. Because of their crisp nature, they are fun to add for texture to dishes and the flavor is a mix between artichoke and perhaps a bit of jicama. I tossed it gently with some lemon parsley pasta purchased from Seattle but you can use it with other pastas as well. It just won't be as sour!

Making Chinese or Vietnamese food always has me a little nervous. I tend to veer towards more European dishes when I put something together because the standards are high for Asian cuisine. My mother cooked every single day when I was growing up and still does. As most people would say, no one can beat mom's cooking so when I decide to attempt anything Chinese or Vietnamese, I don't believe it can be anywhere near as good as mom's. Therefore, I opt for dishes that she has made before or just doesn't make often. I had a whole duck to play with one evening and decided to make something Teochew (my particular Chinese heritage). I saw a recipe for braised duck ("lo ack"/滷鸭) so wanted to work with that. My mom knew what it was but hasn't really made it before...and she approved! Huzzah! So below is the tweaked recipe that is Teochew mother-approved.

The latest Test Kitchen ingredient to grace the pages of the blog was a package of steamed black-eyed peas by Melissa's, and the suggestions that came through when we posed it centered on an upcoming Southern tradition. You see, there is a dish celebrated during the new year as an indicator of good luck and fortune upon the eater if enjoyed on January 1st. That would be hoppin' john and it is primarily a black-eyed pea and rice dish. How appropriate! So I got to reading about it and though the basic makeup requires just some onion, black-eyed peas, bacon, and rice, there is definitely more that can be added to make a superb one-pot dish for a whole lot to share. Check out the recipe and make some to bring prosperity to your friends and family!

I have always loved grits in just about any way that I've had them. They usually cannot be messed up other than being blander than preferred. When it became a Test Kitchen ingredient for us to experiment with, I thought of the different applications I have seen it in. Shrimp and grits is a very popular dish but felt overdone...however, what if you combined them into a snackable piece? Chopped up finely, the shrimp would be able to mix in with the grits well enough to make a shrimp and grits cake. What a thought! To prevent it from being too bland, I seasoned both the grits and the shrimp pieces too. The recipe requires several ingredients because everything is made from scratch but this savory, Southern treat is well worth the effort. Give it a try yourself. I got the thumbs up from even my parents who rarely eat non-Asian food!

Our latest Test Kitchen ingredient was the wonderfully non-photogenic salted radish which is primarily used in Asian cooking. It is a radish or turnip that has been preserved in a mixture of sugar and salt and usually comes sold by the half pound in bags. I recall how often my mom would use it in just a handful of simple go-to dishes when I was growing up. I was unable to shake that from my mind though as I tried to figure out how to use the ingredient. Therefore, I resulted to some comfort food.

I tell people that I am Chinese but there are so many variations of it that if I had to be more specific, I'd tell you I was Teochew. As I get older, I am beginning to distinguish more and more what was Teochew in my childhood and what was a mash of cultures - one of those things was the porridge we'd eat. Teochew porridge is basically watery rice that is so bland (and made from only those two ingredients) that having something quite salty as the side dish was necessary. I would usually double or triple up the amount of porridge I'd have to the accompanying dish so each bite was balanced. Salted radish (aka chai poh) in an omelet was a solid regular in our meals so I decided it was time to recreate the dish. Luckily, it was easy!

There were several go-to dishes that I could count on eating every week or every other week when I was growing up. Though my ethnic background is Chinese, my cultural background is an odd mesh of Vietnamese, Chinese, and American. That really showed itself through in its food which I thought my whole childhood was Chinese food. Turns out, my mom cooked quite a lot of Vietnamese food! This dish of stuffed tomatoes, or cà chua nhồi thịt, seemed to be on the weekly rotation but I never minded. I had always had an affinity for tomatoes but when you mix it with something savory and baste it in itself, you have yourself a winner. It is most definitely comfort food and not something you'll likely be able to order off a restaurant menu even if you wish it were available. Because of its sauciness, I really recommend rice become a part of the meal with these red baskets of joy.

The last Test Kitchen ingredient we had was a jar of champagne mustard that one of Duc's friends had brought back to us from France. Naturally, we had to explore what it meant to be champagne mustard and upon that learning, we thought it appropriate to use it in a slightly different but still mustard-y way. One traditional way to incorporate mustard into savory dishes is via mustard cream sauce but to change it up a bit, I added some sake for an extra oomph to the scent. The mustard really highlights the chicken I paired this with, and the creamy factor makes it more acceptable to get some tang onto your plate!

I didn't know what pâté chaud (bánh patê sô) was called when I was growing up; I always just called it the "hat pie" because the ones my mom purchased looked like little hats. There was the mound which is where the fatty meatball resided and then the flared outer crust. I liked the taste of it but never ate too many because they were unwavering in their greasiness. These Vietnamese snacks can be found in plenty of the bakeries and banh mi shops as flaky pastries full of savory meat. Once I finally learned the real name for them, I decided that I'd have to make some one day. It appeared difficult until I learned what working with puff pastry was like - easy! Bánh patê sô just so happens to also be one of Duc's favorite things to eat growing up (and even now!) so he was very much encouraging me to venture in this direction. From memory of what the filling was like, I put together my own interpretation of the snack and though they don't look like hats, they sure are tasty!

Spicy, sour, nutty, and savory - how could these not sound good? How about together? We had picked up a bag of chili lemon almonds from a farmers' market to snack on but they got me thinking about what we could incorporate them into. You're likely to see these tasty nuts sold in several places - they are the tangy, chili-coated ones that make your mouth water when you think about them (my mouth is going right now!). With a little bit of crushing, they became perfect to cook with and paired off with shrimp, they shone. To complement the spiciness that was added to the shrimp, I put together a lime-cilantro rice. Try out this recipe!

Your dinner does not need to be "gourmet" to be good. It just need to have elements you enjoy and give you pleasure while preparing it! This potato and sausage rigatoni takes a step a little out of some people's comfort zone by adding potato to pasta. I, however, made sure that these were small dices and crisped on every side, giving an interesting texture to the whole dish. Of course, the sausage was the star of the pasta because it was a basil pepper type but you can choose your hero yourself. This recipe is an easy way to find a balance with different food groups and make something delicious in practically no time at all!

[Original recipe post in December 2010] I'm working on revamping old recipes from when the blog first started. This pasta bake was a staple of my college days because I could work on it in one night's time and manage to eat it throughout the week. It's baked in a 9x13 dish, stacked quite high so that there is plenty to go around. I have my own version below but you can adjust with some ingredients here and there as you please. I have loved teaching this recipe to other people as well because you end up with something wonderful without need of much culinary expertise. If you are a fan of Italian ingredients and flavors, you'll love this hefty meal.

I don't like making anything complicated because I want to be able to replicate it later. One late night, I decided I ought to work on our Test Kitchen ingredient of Israeli couscous. The typical routes of making a salad or throwing together a childish dish were not appealing. What about putting some basil pesto vinaigrette on it though? We had a bottle of it in the refrigerator. What to pair it with though? It seemed like a Mediterranean flavor, the pesto in couscous, so I came up with this Mediterranean chicken. It's a dry rub that infuses its flavors into the thin chicken breast to keep it moist and still flavorful. Check out the easy recipe below!

What to do when you end up having a refrigerator overstocked with Guinness stouts? We had already made miniature Guinness cupcakes but a whole four dozen of them barely used up a single bottle. Darn. How else to use them? What about something savory? I somehow landed on the idea of using it in a cottage pie which is practically identical to a shepherd's pie except it uses ground beef while the latter, more commonly known one is supposed to use ground lamb. Now when you cook down the beer to the degree that I did for this pie, you don't get the alcoholic taste but rather the subtle sweetness that comes with tasty stouts. Go ahead and try this recipe out; I even invite you to experiment with other stouts of your choice to see what other flavor profiles you can bring out!

There's a bit of pride when you watch a seed you had planted grow up to be a bountiful, delicious vegetable or fruit plant. What had started as the bare whisper of health to come was cultivated into a full-fledged kale plant, producing beautifully perfect leaves. Duc had started the kale seed long ago and then transplanted it in my parents' side garden where it flourished under the shaded sun. We had a large harvest recently so I had to think of a way to use it. I sketched out a potato kale gratin whilst thinking one day and decided we'd make it! This dish is like a big bowl of comfort food, wholesome and healthful. I noted that it is breadless because a lot of gratins have added breadcrumbs and cheese on top but this one doesn't (though you can add if you'd like!).

The Polish sandwich struck my interest when it first showed itself on the menu of a nearby Weinerschnitzel when I was young. Soon after, I saw a Polish hot dog at Costco and I wondered what gave these dishes their denominations. Lo and behold, the kielbasa! What a lovely sausage it is. We got our hands on some of these Polish sausages from Zeigler's Sausages (a local sausage-maker) and the ideas came slowly on what to do with them. Inspiration struck one morning as I thought about what it was that I loved kielbasa with and sauerkraut came to mind. The idea turned into a rudimentary sketch on a nearby Post-It note which became a reality once I grabbed my other ingredients which included marble rye bread from Blackmarket Bakery (local bakery) and hot and sour pickles from Pernicious Pickles (local pickling company). I also contributed my own mustard seeds, sauerkraut, and even wasabi mayo. Yum!