Naomi's birthday, a full on Japanese meal.

There is no doubt my mother-in-law is a great cook. She never fails to whip up anything less than amazing every time we have dinner at her place. If I can describe her style of cooking and her food, it will be fresh, clean and light. It is also visually appealing, with tons of colors and textures. You know how you get that feeling as though a truck has just ran you over after you over indulge? I don't feel that way with her food even though I consciously know I ate a lot. Hmm, I wonder if that is still a bad thing? :P 

She prepares her meal with tons of vegetables and they are always delicious. I have tried making the same dishes and they never quite tasted the same. Now that I'm married to a Japanese man, I feel that it is important to find a balance and continue the ways and tradition of two different cultures and hopefully pass them on to my kids (if I have them). As you continue reading and admiring the food, you will notice I have much to learn. 

We decided to have dinner at home with the family to celebrate Naomi's 2X birthday. It's been a while since we had dinner together at home. We usually celebrate birthdays at a restaurant, but wanted to do something more intimate this time.

A snapshot of our spread for the evening. 

A salad with shishito peppers and dried baby anchovies. This one packs quite a punch.

I love DIY sushi. My MIL will prepare sushi rice and we get to choose the types of fish we want to wrap with seaweed. It is not only tasty, but a lot of fun too.

Eggplant salad with picked vegetables.

 Spinach salad with sesame.

 Kinpira- made with carrots and burdock root.

 Salad with a mixture of celery, cucumber, red onion, red bell pepper and chicken.

 Since it also happened to be St. Patty's Day, she made a Japanese spinoff of corned beef and cabbage. Hers is minced pork wrapped in cabbage and stewed in sake, dashi and soy sauce. This is one of my favorites for the night.

Steamed dumplings.

My contribution for the evening is a chocolate cake with hazelnut swiss meringue buttercream per the birthday girl's request. Since I can't cook like my MIL, the least I can do is try to bake a cake. 

Happy birthday Naomi-chan and thanks mama, for cooking such a delicious meal!

Papa's 38th birthday!

I heart Valentine's Day! Please don't barf. Not only is this the most romantic day of the year (all right, I'm just kidding) but it is also strawberry season! I am more excited about the latter, obviously...no, seriously! Now, what has this gotta do with my father-in-law's birthday? Read on.

I made this cake for a dear friend's birthday a couple years ago and it was a big hit. So, I wanted to make this again for my father-in-law's 38th birthday (he always turns 38 on his birthday). I named this the J-Wang cake, after my good friend just because she was the first guinea pig in this recipe. So, I decided to name it in her honor. :)

This is a flourless chocolate cake with a strawberry mousse filling. Because the cake itself is so light, I didn't frost the cake with a heavy-type frosting. Instead, I opted for chantilly whipped cream. This cake calls for sugar, eggs, butter, chocolate (I used Valrhona chocolate), strawberries and whipping cream.

The whipped egg whites is what makes this cake super light and fluffy, almost soufflé-like. There is no flour in this recipe, so it's also gluten free.

I got these fresh and beautiful strawberries from an organic farm stand across the street. They are juicy and sweet, just perfect for this recipe. I love using in season ingredients because you are enjoying them at their very best.

I covered the filling of the cake generously with bite size pieces of strawberries and strawberry mousse (made from pureed strawberries and whipped cream). I personally like to cut and arrange the strawberries in a single layer because that way, you get a piece of strawberry with every single bite.

A simple piping around the cake. I hope to get better as I continue to practice piping.

Now, one with the birthday boy man. This is him with his 'Steve Jobs' impression. His name is really Sam (close) but if he can be 38 every year, he can be called Steve for one day out of the year. Happy birthday to the best FIL!