Tormented Kitchen

Pancakes are a breakfast staple at our house. If we don't have pancakes, then we eat their cousin the waffle at least once a week. Sometimes, we even make breakfast for dinner. The kids love it when I do that. I toss some bacon in the oven (yes, I cook bacon in the oven), then whip up some pancakes. Yumm-o! Pancakes are easy. If you're used to pancake mix in a box, you really have to try these.  They are not any more difficult to make from scratch, but the flavor is so much better. You can control the quality of your ingredients and use all organic (or not). Justin remembers eating pancakes at Grandpa Tony's house as a little kid. Tony would start putting things in a bowl and they would just turn out, without measuring. Sometimes you can do that, You just know since you've made them so many times. Just so you know, we always, always call these pancakes. They are also known as hotcakes or flapjacks, but I just don't like saying "flapjacks" or ...

Not too long ago, I had a hankering for baked goods that tasted like green tea. I tossed some matcha powder in my pancake mix. It was tasty! (I even had ideas for matcha crepes and matcha souffles but have not found the time to try them out.)  I then branched out and made a whole cake with matcha. I've had people ask me what matcha tastes like. Well. It tastes like green tea, because it's pulverized green tea leaves. If you don't know what to expect, go to a Chinese, Japanese, or Thai restaurant and get a scoop of green tea ice cream. It's sort of, well for lack of a better word, green . In ice cream, it's sweet, and creamy, not too different from pistachio ice cream, save the nuttiness. You know that "green" is a slightly generic term for something vegetal and fresh. It's refreshing and interesting. I tell people they just have to try it to know what I mean. A while back, I bought a few different matcha blends from Teanobi. I've been ...

My first experience with bubble tea was a few years ago in San Francisco. I was curious about it.  Gummy balls mixed with tea? It is not for everyone.  My first taste was loaded with anticipation. The tea was good and then I'd slurp up a ball. The balls in bubble tea are tapioca, so it's nothing truly exotic or gross. The balls are basically flavorless, so sipping the tea and chewing was novel.  Justin and his brother had fun shooting them at each other and nearby things. Bubble tea sometimes goes by other names like tapioca pearl tea or boba tea. I found some tiny tapioca pearls at the market on Oddie when I last went to buy glutinous rice.  They were so cute! You can also make juice drinks or plain teas with these tapioca balls.  Eric loved them, so I may end up sneaking them into soup just to get him interested in soup (I'm kidding. Sort of. He really doesn't like soup. Weird kid? Probably.) There happens to be a pho noodle restaurant close to...

Lately I have been completely in love with the matcha powder I bought. I have heard of matcha cakes and matcha frosting before and was compelled to try something. I figured buttercream icing is one of the easiest things to customize, so I decided to toss some matcha in and give it a try. WOW! It was so good! Not too sweet and the hint of tea made it kind of refreshing compared to typical vanilla frosting. I tweaked the cake recipe too. I wanted to use melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder to be different. I've made lots of cakes with cocoa powder and this one was just tasty, I think texture was better, more moist and smooth. The color wasn't as deep, the flavor a tad lighter, but it was it was still unmistakably chocoate. Together, the cake and frosting were quite tasty, plenty rich and decadent without really looking that indulgent. I think people are used to seeing something nearly black and equating the color with chocolate richness. That is something I wanted to di...

I frequently go to Starbucks, not for coffee, but for their tea lattes. After much searching and testing, I have found an excellent clone that is super easy to make at home. First, you need Matcha. This is green tea powder that looks a lot like vibrant green cocoa powder. I have trouble finding this at local stores, so I ordered some off the internet. Second, you need milk or a milk-substitute. Third, and this is the trick to duplicate a Starbucks latte, is vanilla syrup. It's pretty easy to find this nowadays on the coffee aisle. I like Da Vinci syrups. Easy, huh? I like to add a little extra sugar to mine, usually a teaspoon of turbinado sugar is enough. Try it! Ingredients 2 teaspoons Matcha powder (you can halve this if you like it milder) 4 cups milk or milk-substitute 4 Tablespoons Vanilla Syrup sugar, to taste Method 1. I have a very interesting machine called a Cocoa-Latte Hot-Drink Maker. I put everything in it and turn it on. When it turns o...

As many of my close friends and family members know, I don't drink coffee. Ever. At all. I tried it, and after a long while, I decided it sucked. Now, on the other hand, I LOVE tea. Hot tea. Cold tea. Tea latte. Chai tea. Tea in food. Green tea ice cream. Tea, tea, tea! One of my favorites is Thai iced tea. It seems like a very complicated concoction, but it really isn't that difficult to make. The key is finding good loose Thai tea leaves. I have a hard time finding loose Thai tea locally, so you can either buy it online at Adagio's Gourmet Teas or go to San Francisco's Chinatown. I personally buy Thai tea whenever we go to the bay area at Red Blossom Tea Co. in San Francisco. It's part of our after-Thanksgiving tradition. Ingredients 8 cups water (2 quarts) 3/4 to 1 cup loose Thai tea leaves 1 cup sugar (or more or less to taste) cream, whole milk, half and half, evaporated milk, or other milk-like substitute (some people like coconut milk or soy milk...