These MERINGUE NEST COOKIES WITH MASCARPONE CREAM topped with mini chocolate eggs are absolutely necessary for Easter! These darling treats are definitely not just for the kids 😉

These SHANGHAI SPRING ROLLS are exactly the kind I grew up eating so they are, hands down, my favourite type of spring rolls! My paternal Shanghainese grandmother used to make it and my dad makes it. We usually make a big pot of simple meatless congee to go with it for a weekend lunch everybody looks forward to!

I love rice and I love kimchi. Like, looooooove. Today I’m sharing this EASY KIMCHI FRIED RICE recipe that’s become a weeknight staple ever since my two girls finally learned to enjoy kimchi! This is one of the quickest dinners you can pull together using fairly basic fridge and pantry staples. You can use homemade kimchi or store-bought kimchi. As easy as this recipe is, there is one thing I want you to pay attention to: perfect fried rice starts with perfectly prepared rice!

A Baked Alaska is one of the grandest desserts to exist. It is a show stopper for the holidays or special occasion. I fully support using store-bought ice creams to reduce the work and most of it can be done days in advance and kept in the freezer. The final torching of the meringue makes for a dramatic flourish before serving!

Delicious homemade Chinese Vegetable Dumplings filled with sautéed snow pea leaves, Chinese chives, shiitake mushrooms and tofu. Recipe includes homemade wrappers but you can also use store bought wrappers with this filling.

What happens when you cross-breed a Belgian waffle, with Japanese mochi, with a Canadian doughnut aka a ‘Beaver Tail’? The result is like culinary eugenic whereby the best qualities of each are leveraged to create a superior breakfast or anytime treat – these addictively delicious Mochi Waffles with Cinnamon Sugar and Lemon.

The universe has not given canned Mackerel the love it deserves!

Mackerel has long been one of my go-to sushi choices. But as far as shopping in the canned fish aisle of the grocery store, I’m guilty of reaching for tuna most of the time, with sockeye salmon and sardine being my second and third choices. Why? Habit. Little did I know until now, canned mackerel is equally if not even more habit-forming. Case in point: these super simple and suuuper tasty Tartines with Mackerel and Refried Butter Beans are loved by my family and my foodie adult friends. The refried beans are creamy and savoury, and the mackerel fillets flakey and umami-packed. The parsley salad’s acidic and herbaceous freshness perfectly balances the other rich and creamy elements for a seriously delightful bite!

A light and airy dessert featuring a spongy meringue rolled around whipped cream kissed with honey and orange blossom water, dribbles of luscious mandarin curd, and fresh juicy mandarin segments. The only word to describe it is sublime.

Shatteringly flaky puff pastry, rich decadent tahini frangipane, sweet apple slices and crunchy almonds. Altogether, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts! And one of the easiest bakes to have in your repertoire.

May I interest you in an epic recipe perfect for the holidays? Actually, it is ideal for any dinner party at any time of the year, for that matter. Yes? I’m so glad! Because today I’m sharing this recipe — the second of my six-recipe collaboration with All-Clad Canada — a succulent Whole Roasted Duck with Plum Butter Glaze + Slaw made with All-Clad Canada’s Large Roaster with Rack. This was such a fabulous meal that everyone loved. I highly recommend this recipe if you’re into impressive, delicious, and NOT the same-old-same-old!

Is it just me or are people pretty divisive when it comes to crab versus lobster? I feel like they’re usually in one camp or the other, with few who like them equally. It may be the more pedestrian choice but I’ve always been team lobster since I was a child. My husband, on the other hand, is all about the crab. My lobster bias is due in no small part to sheer laziness and my desire to get large juicy morsels of seafood into my mouth with a minimal amount of work. Large lobster tails = chunks of seafood in my mouth with minimal work. There is no equivalent body part on a crab! Eating crab requires patience and finesse to extract the meat from the claws, legs and body. But ahhhhh…enter: LUMP CRAP MEAT. Fresh picked and already cooked, juicy crab meat can be purchased from any seafood monger or the seafood counter of a well-stocked grocery store. This magical food item is ready to be tossed with a shortlist of simple ingredients to create this decadent yet totally approachable recipe, Crab Cakes with Peach Salsa and Tarragon Aioli. Imagine the warm and juicy crab cakes together with the cool creaminess of tarragon aioli and zippy freshness of the peach salsa! This meal will awaken your taste buds, guaranteed.

This recipe for CHILLED NOODLES WITH SPICY PEANUT SAUCE is a refreshing and delicious recipe featuring bouncy noodles loaded with a variety of crisp veggies and shredded chicken all tossed in a Chinese-style creamy, savoury, spicy and tangy peanut butter sauce. I think of this as the Chinese version of pasta salad! Perfect on warm days as a standalone meal or as a side dish for bbq parties. Great in a packed lunch or as a potluck offering since it keeps and transports so well.

To say the recent arrival of Teri Turner’s wonderful new cookbook No Crumbs Left, Recipes for Everyday Food Made Marvelous was highly anticipated by her legion of loyal fans (she calls her “crumbles”) would be a massive understatement. I have been following Teri’s instagram for years. She approaches cooking with the ease and confidence that inspires so many of us. “Don’t be afraid to fail; it’s just food” is what Teri frequently says. Don’t those words alone empower you to tackle almost anything in your kitchen?

Are you Team White Sauce or Team Red Sauce? Honestly, I have been Team Red all the way, all my life. BUT, this dreamy creamy Springtime White Lasagna almost made me second guess my lifelong allegiance. Plus, I tricked my whole family into eating THREE whole different kinds of green vegetables in ONE meal because of this luscious, roasted garlic cream sauce. I said roasted garlic cream sauce. I just wanted to make sure you read that. 😉 Can you even imagine??! It’s definitely kinda magical.

You may have noticed my love affair with cake. I’m not too selective when it comes to flavour. I have no prejudices and have enough love (and sweet tooth) in me to love them all! Unless they are excessively sweet. If you’ve baked any of my cake or loaf recipes, you may have noticed that my palate prefers just-sweet-enough desserts that don’t ache my teeth or leaves me feeling ill after eating it. Carrot cakes, in particular, seem to be guilty of being cloyingly sweet. Is it the sweetness of the carrots? The cream cheese frosting? Perhaps both. In any case, if you love carrot cakes, you will love this perfectly sweet, perfectly moist, slightly better-for-you Gluten Free Carrot Cake with an amazing tangy, “no-cream-cheese” frosting that might blow your mind like it did mine.

This amazing Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta with King Crab (or Shrimp) is a luxurious, creamy pasta dish fit for royalty but is also pretty perfect for a quick meal because it involves minimal cooking and is ready in less than 30 minutes. There is a reason why king crab meat is so beloved by seafood lovers all over the world. Nothing compares to their succulence and sweetness. If you haven’t yet tried, you should find a good excuse to splurge on it to taste for yourself. But for an everyday, less bougie yet still delicious version, shrimp is the way to go in this pasta. The recipe for either option is nearly identical (and I walk you through both in the recipe).

Here’s an easy, healthy, minimal-cook meal idea for weeknight dinner, not-a-sad-desk-lunch or kid school lunch. This recipe for TUNA AND KIMCHI ONIGIRAZU is a must try…they are simple to make and so, sooo delicious.

I’ve baked enough gluten-free cakes to confidently say that despite its bad rap, gluten-free cakes need not to be dry or dense or sandy in texture. They can be moist, light and often times in my opinion, more flavourful than wheat flour cakes depending on the ingredients used. In this case, I use a mix of almond flour (see - flavour boost right there) and gluten-free flour blend. Egg yolks provide richness and egg whites (whipped) provide airiness to lighten the denser nature of gluten-free flours.