Pork Meatball Ramen

Fresh ramen, topped with ginger and green onion pork meatballs served in miso soup, then garnished with roasted winter squash for one scrumptious pork meatball ramen.

Tom Yum

Tom Yum Noodle Soup - a Thai style hot and sour soup with shrimp, tomatoes, and shiitake mushrooms.

Spinach and Tuna Fettuccine Alfredo

A quick and easy (skinnier) Fettuccine Alfredo with Italian seasoned tuna and spinach.

Ginger Lime Shrimp

A quick and easy shrimp pasta seasoned with lime, ginger, and sesame.

August's Top 5

Well, it’s September already! Can you believe August is already over? It just seems like the months go by faster and faster. Luckily we had Labor Day here to help get me a bit more caught up on things. Did you do anything for Labor Day?

On another note, I’m looking for some guest posters! Leave a comment or contact me if you’re interested. I’d need your posts by late November/early December, and the posts would go up mid/late December. :)

Without further ado, here's the Top 5 most visited recipes last month!

	5. Chicken Yakisoba Pin It Stir fry chicken and any vegetables you have around with some noodles for a quick, easy, and tasty yakisoba. This yakisoba is especially good when you’ve got lots of odds and ends you need to use up since it’s so flexible.
	4. Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing/Marinade Pin It A zesty Asian-inspired sesame dressing or marinade with fragrant sesame, garlic, ginger, and onion in a rice vinegar and soy sauce base. This dressing is easily one of my favorites!
	3. Instant Flour Mix (DIY Bisquick) Pin It Make this instant flour mix (aka DIY Bisquick) and you’ll always be ready for some quick flatbreads, breadsticks, pancakes or biscuits! I always try to keep some around for quick baking or pancakes. :)
	2. English Toffee Cookies Pin It Soft cookies with buttery, nutty, English toffee chips. These cookies frequently appear on the monthly top 5 list, so you know they gotta be good!
And last month's most visited recipe:
	1. Sesame Chicken Sauce Pin It A sweetly savory and slightly tangy sauce perfect for Sesame Chicken. Another frequent visitor on the monthly top 5 list, Sesame Chicken is also one of my favorites.

Leave a comment telling us your favorite recipe of the month!

Chicken Yakisoba

Stir fry chicken and any vegetables you have around with some noodles for a quick, easy, and tasty yakisoba.

Korean Cold Noodles

With the temperatures being as high as they are, why not eat some cold
noodles? Not only are these noodles quick, easy, and tasty, they're
(as the name would imply) cold! The materials and methods reflect what
I made, but you could certainly modify the recipe to suit your palate
and desires. I'm told by James that these noodles and sauce aren't authentic,
but my thinking is "if it tastes good, that's close enough!"


Traditional Korean cold noodles, or naengmyeon, are made from
long, thin noodles, usually buckwheat, but potentially potatoes, sweet
potatoes, arrowroot, or kudzu. Sometimes they even add things like
green tea or seaweed! Korean cold noodles originated from
North Korea, especially around Pyongyang and Hamhung, but it became
popular throughout Korea after the Korean War.


Naengmyeon can be divided into two categories - mul
naengmyeon and bibim naengmyeon. Mul naengmyeon is
served in a cold soup, and bibim naengmyeon (the kind I made)
is mixed with a sauce and then eaten (like spaghetti). Traditionally,
it's made with a very spicy sauce using gochujang. I was originally going
to add it at the end so each person could use only as much as they
wanted, but then James said Korean cold noodles aren't spicy, so I
didn't end up using any - or maybe I'm just a pansy. . . who knows?







Korean Cold Noodles by

Morsels of Life



(printable version)



A new, light, and refreshing take on Korean cold noodles flavored with
a sweet sesame sauce.




Prep time:


7 minutes






Cook time:


8 minutes



Total time:

15 minutes + cooling time





Yield:

4
servings

Materials:

• 
  
  8 ounces
  
  
  noodles (Buckwheat is traditional.)
  


• 
  
  2 tablespoons
  
  
  gochujang (optional)
  


• 
  
  2 tablespoons
  
  
  vinegar (Rice vinegar is traditional.)
  


• 
  
  1 tablespoon
  
  
  soy sauce
  


• 
  
  1 tablespoon
  
  
  honey
  


• 
  
  1 tablespoon
  
  
  brown sugar
  


• 
  
  1 tablespoon
  
  
  sesame oil
  


• 
  
  1 tablespoon
  
  
  sesame seeds, toasted
  

Optional Toppings:

• 
  
  
  Asian pear, thick julienne
  


• 
  
  cucumbers, thick julienne
  


• 
  
  carrots, thick julienne
  


• 
  
  green onions, sliced
  


• 
  
  hard boiled eggs, sliced
  


• 
  
  perilla (sesame) leaves, thinly sliced
  


• 
  
  kim chi
  

Methods:

1. 
   Cook noodles following package directions.
   


2. 
   Meanwhile, mix gochujang, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, brown
   sugar, and sesame oil together, and set aside.
   


3. 
   Once noodles are finished cooking, drain and rinse with cold water.
   


4. 
   
   Toss noodles with sauce, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
   


5. 
   Serve, and then top with toppings.

This post is linked to: Recipe Sharing Monday

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

One thing I really like about pasta is the simplicity and speed with which these dishes can be created. In addition, pasta recipes are usually very flexible, allowing for endless combinations and customizations. Although I only made the super simple spaghetti with meat sauce, you could easily add clams, mussels, and/or shrimp for a seafood pasta. Another fun option might be making spaghetti with meatballs, a meal that reminds me of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the story of Chewandswallow, a land where food falls from the sky three times a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But don't get too jealous - the residents are forced to leave when the giant food storms and floods arrive and adapt to a new life where food doesn't fall from the sky!

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

by CJ Huang

Materials:

Mass	Weight	Volume	Number	Material	Notes
	1 pound			ground meat	I used beef.
	28 ounces			tomato puree
				onions, diced
				spaghetti noodles, cooked following package directions
				seasonings	basil, oregano, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic, etc.

Methods:

1. Cook and drain meat.
2. Add all remaining ingredients and cook until flavors are well infused.
3. Toss with pasta.

Asian Mushroom Noodle Soup

With all this cold weather, I thought, "what's better than a bowl of warm soup?" I knew I wanted to use the cellophane noodles since they seem to add a special touch. Fortunately, I had some around. I also looked forward to using the shiitake mushrooms I recently got. And then, I thought some baby bok choy might go well, but I didn't quite make it to the Asian grocery, and I wasn't about to pay double or triple for the small, yellowed ones I saw at the regular grocery store. Luckily, I got a good deal on some spinach, so I used that instead. If you do use the bok choy, you would want to put that in with the soup to cook it a bit as opposed to just pouring the soup over the spinach like I did. Although this soup tasted quite delicious, next time, I would use fewer mushrooms (having forgotten about them expanding as they rehydrated) and maybe add in some miso to give it some additional flavor.

What's your favorite soup?

Asian Mushroom Noodle Soup

by CJ Huang

Materials:

Mass	Weight	Volume	Number	Material	Notes
			1-2 portions	cellophane noodles, soaked
		2 teaspoons		garlic, minced
			5-10	mushrooms, sliced	I used dried shiitake mushrooms.
			2 handfuls	spinach
			2	carrots, julienned
		2 teaspoons		ginger, minced
		1/2 teaspoon		pepper, ground
				stock or water
				green onions, sliced

Methods:

1. Add all ingredients except noodles, spinach, and green onions to a pot and bring to a boil. If you're using bok choy, you'd probably want to add it in at this point.
2. Stir in noodles and simmer for a few more minutes.
3. Place a handful of spinach in each bowl, and pour the soup on top. The heat from the soup will cook the spinach. I know a handful sounds like a lot, but the spinach will cook down quite a bit.
4. Sprinkle green onions on top, if desired.

Teriyaki Salmon Miso Noodle Soup

After making the quick and easy teriyaki salmon, I was thinking about how to make it into a better, more well rounded meal. I thought about maybe doing something similar to the duck noodle soup I had made a while back, but with the teriyaki salmon. I have also been trying various miso soups, including pond scum soup v 2.0. I incorporated various aspects of each of those, and the result was something better than each of the parts! And so, without further ado...

What's your favorite noodle soup?

Teriyaki Salmon Miso Noodle Soup

by CJ Huang

Flavorful teriyaki salmon in a noodle soup with miso, shiitake mushrooms and spinach, garnished with seaweed.

Materials:

Mass	Weight	Volume	Number	Material	Notes
				teriyaki salmon
				shiitake mushrooms, sliced
				green onions, sliced
				noodles
				kim
				water or stock
				miso
				spinach	optional

Methods:

1. Boil the shiitake mushrooms in stock or water.
2. Cook the noodles.
3. Mix the miso into some of the slightly cooled stock or water.
4. Divide the noodles into bowls, and pour the broth over them. If using spinach, add it to the stock or water just before pouring over the noodles or to the noodles just before pouring the water or stock over them.
5. Pour the miso into each bowl.
6. Garnish with kim and green onions.

Duck Noodle Soup

A meal borne out of necessity. Due to some miscommunications, I didn’t realize we were out of meal foods until it was pretty much time for dinner. Looking in the refrigerator, I saw some bok choy and duck, so I decided to make a quick and easy noodle soup.

What's a quick and easy meal you like?

Duck Noodle Soup

by CJ Huang

A quick and easy noodle soup with roasted duck, bok choy, corn, and shiitake mushrooms.

Materials:

Mass	Weight	Volume	Number	Material	Notes
				roast duck, cut
				bok choy, cut in 2-3 inch segments
				noodles
				corn
				shiitake mushrooms
				water or stock

Methods:

1. Heat the stock or water while slicing the mushrooms.
2. Add corn, sliced mushrooms, and any other seasonings, and continue heating stock until it boils.
3. Add in noodles and cook until they are done. Add in bok choy stems just before noodles are finished.
4. Turn off heat and add in boy choy leaves, and let sit for a few minutes with lid on.
5. Stir and serve. Top with roast duck.