And then I met a boy who liked pasta so much that his mother used to tell him that he would end up marrying an old Italian woman one day.

I am not Italian. And I don’t believe I am old. But I like to make the boy smile.

So I’ll make pasta from time to time now. This sauce is his favorite. The flavors are playful on your tongue as the smokiness of the cayenne pepper and cumin plays tug of war with the sweetness of the creamy onions. The tartness of the artichoke hearts lends a spunk to the dish. And it keeps you coming back for more.

It is in-your-face flirtation on a plate. And it’s proven (n=1) to win boys’ hearts over. So what are you waiting for?

Grab these simple pantry items and a pot and go get your flirt on.

Smoky cajun pasta
Serves 3-5
Prep time: 5 minutes
Active cook time: 15 minutes
Inactive cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
Olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 lb cajun chicken sausage, cut into bite-size pieces
14 oz can of artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and squeezed so that no water remains between the leaves
3 oz tomato paste
28 oz whole peeled tomatoes, canned
2 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp cayenne
1 tbsp cumin
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Optional: Parmigiano reggiano

Directions
1) Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. When hot, add the minced garlic and diced onions and saute until the onions are creamy (~5 min)
2) Add the chicken sausage and let brown on one side (~2 minutes) until giving a stir and letting brown on the other side. Cook until the sausages are cooked throughout (~3-5 min total)
3) Add the artichoke hearts and the tomato paste to the pan and saute (~2 min)
4) Add the can of whole peeled tomatoes and the seasoning (basil, cayenne, cumin) and let cook over medium-high until the sauce has come together (~10 minutes). Stir occasionally.
5) Salt and pepper to taste

Serve warm over pasta with a sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano (optional)

Perhaps it is reasonable to say that brown butter is the elixir of life for your tastebuds.

Yes, I do believe that’s reasonable; the rich nuttiness that brown butter imparts surely can rejuvenate any tired tastebud.

This simple dish combines the nuttiness of brown butter with the refreshing tartness of greek yogurt, a surprising spice from chives, and the umami savoriness of a runny egg yolk. It is surprising. It is a little weird. It is rather delicious.

Brown butter greek yogurt
Serves 2

White vinegar
14 oz greek yogurt
2 eggs
2 tbsp unsalted butter, sliced
4 sprigs of chive
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Optional:White truffle oil

Prepare the brown butter
1. Heat a small pot over medium heat
2. Melt the butter in the pot and whisk. The butter will foam and bits within the butter will begin to brown (~3-4 minutes)
3. Remove the pot from the heat and place on a cool surface to stop the butter from cooking further

Poach the eggs
1. Fill a small pot about 2/3 of the way with water and bring to a boil
2. When the water has come to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low and add a dash of white vinegar
3. Crack 1 egg into a ladle or a ramekin and slide the egg into the water and let poach for 3-5 minutes
4. Gently remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate lined with paper towels

Assemble
1. Chop the chives into thin slices
2. Spoon half of the greek yogurt into each bowl and create a well in the center of the yogurt using the back of your spoon
3. Spoon half of the brown butter into each well in the yogurt
4. Gently place the poached egg on top of the brown butter
5. Finish with your chives, a touch of salt and pepper, and a dash of truffle oil (optional)

Given my huge crush with this time of day, I have a high bar for deeming a breakfast item to be perfect.

This frittata is perfect. It has just enough flavor to awaken your tastebuds without shocking them awake from the gentle slumber of the night before. The savory wafts emanating from the oven will stir even the deepest sleeper of your family awake. And it is simple enough to whip up in about 5 minutes before you slip it into the oven and yourself back upstairs to waken the rest of your family.

Jot this recipe down. Better yet, just memorize it … it’s that easy. You’ll love yourself for it.

Perfect frittata
Serves 2-3
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 11 minutes

3 whole eggs
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
pinch of ground chipotle pepper
2 stalks of scallion, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
1 small vidalia onion, thinly sliced
1 link of cajun chicken sausage, cooked and thinly sliced
shaved parmigiano reggiano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Lightly spray a 9″ pie pan with cooking spray

1. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, egg whites, salt, pepper, chipotle pepper, and scallions until light and fluffy and no streaks of yellow or white remain (~2 minutes)
2. Pour your egg mixture into your prepared pan
3. Layer the onion slices atop the egg mixture, then layer on the tomato slices and chicken sausage
4. Cook in the oven for 8 minutes
5. Remove the frittata from the oven, sprinkle on the parmigiano reggiano, turn the oven up to broil and return the frittata to the oven to cook for 3 more minutes
Let cool, slice and serve warm

Some were jests, like the joke that if you laughed while you cried, you’d grow a furry arse.

Others were rules that were to be observed fastidiously (see fan death)

Others were simply traditions.

One of those traditions was when our family would gather on the hottest day of the summer over steaming hot bowls of stewed cornish hen stuffed with sweet rice, dates, and pine nuts, because the logical thing to do is to fight heat with heat … obviously.

Those were happy summer days. Hot. But happy.

Contrary to tradition, during the recent heat wave, all I’ve been craving are chilled, light dishes … like this chilled cauliflower soup. It is refreshing, rich, aromatic, and light. And in the absence of the Korean fortitude to slurp down a steaming hot bowl of soup on a steaming hot day, it will still do the trick and keep you cool.

Chilled cauliflower soup
Serves 4-6
Cooking time: 45 min
Chilling time: 60 min

This soup makes a great light summer meal by itself or with a salad or some crostini on the side. The addition of toasted pine nuts make the soup surprisingly aromatic and rich, and the coconut milk makes the soup interesting. If you don’t like coconut milk, feel free to substitute with cream.

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
4 shallots, peeled and roughly diced
1/2 c pine nuts
1 head of cauliflower, cleaned, cored, and segmented
16 oz chicken stock
1 bay leaf
8 oz coconut milk
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Flavored oil to finish (truffle oil, hazelnut oil, or olive oil work well here)
Optional: creme fraiche

Special equipment
Immersion blender or blender

1. In a large pot, melt the butter and the olive oil over medium-high heat (~1 min)
2. Lower the heat to medium and saute the garlic until golden brown (~2-3 min). Add the shallots and cook until creamy (~3-4 min)
3. Add the pine nuts and toast until they are golden brown (~3-5 min)
4. Add the cauliflower and stir to cover in the butter/ olive oil and let the cauliflower cook in the pan for about 10 min, giving an occasional stir
5. Add the chicken stock and the bay leaf and let simmer over medium/ medium-low heat for about 20 min
6. Remove the pot from the heat and remove the bay leaf
7. Puree the soup in the pot using an immersion blender, adding coconut milk until the soup reaches the desired consistency. If you’re using a blender, pour the soup into a blender and use a towel to cover the top of the blender while you puree to let the steam escape. Puree until smooth.
8. Pass the soup through a fine sieve into a chilled bowl or an ice bath and season to taste. Refrigerate for 60 minutes.

Serve chilled, with a drop of flavored oil or a dollop of creme fraiche

Bewildered?

Don’t be. Everything was all very innocent. I promise.

She was an adorable little old lady with salt and pepper hair standing about 4′ high, selling fresh organic french melons at the farmers market. I caught one whiff of those beauties about 5 feet ahead of her stall, and call me crazy, but …

… I think it was love at first waft.

I followed my nose to her small stall, and within moments had exchanged some crisp dollar bills for a melon, resisting all the while the urge to give her a big hug. I don’t know if it was because I was so thankful for the melon or because she reminded me of my grandmother.

The moment I smelled that melon, I knew it would be on the menu that night along with some chilled cauliflower soup and wild mushroom crostini.

And dinner ended up being just that. And I believe my father’s eyes grew ~3x their normal size when he saw the pretty little spread on the table. And I believe the dinner impressed the most skilled cook I know … my mother. And I believe I managed to make them both very happy. And I believe I did give a content sigh as I took in the scene. Maybe even two. Because I’d made two of the most important people in my life happy.

Happy.

Prosciutto melon
Serves 4-6
Cooking time: 5 min
Resting time: 30 min

This is incredibly easy to prepare and is perfect for guests. Serve alongside a mild, semi-firm cheese (a light sheeps milk cheese like p’tit basque pairs beautifully with it or if you want something more more pungent, pair with some ossau iraty) and some walnuts to create a well-balanced appetizer. French melons are ideal here, given their natural sweetness, but you can also use cantaloupe. Make sure the cantaloupe is on the smaller side, as it will be more flavorful.

Ingredients
1 small melon
1/4 lb prosciutto
A couple drizzles of olive oil
A dash of sea salt or fleur de sel

1. Cut the small melon in half and remove the seeds
2. Cut the melon into wedges, cutting about 6 pieces from each half
3. Loosely wrap the prosciutto around the wedge of melon
4. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle some fleur de sel over it all
5. Lightly cover the plate with some plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes prior to serving

Call me crazy, but believe me, you would have, too if you had seen how vibrant the leaves were. And don’t get me started on the sweet sweet smell of fresh soil that met my nose.

Summer. Is. Here.

And it is wonderful.

It’s so wonderful, in fact, that it gives me the urge to call bunches of greens bouquets. And it gives me the urge to make light, crisp salads and lightly seasoned dishes using the bounty of fresh produce spilling out of vendors’ stalls in the open air farmers markets.

Take this classic caprese salad.

It is simple: quartered tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, a touch of sea salt, and a couple dashes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. But when it is just about 15 degrees too hot outside, it is a cool, refreshing reprieve easily accessible by fork and knife.

And what happened to that broccoli raab? Well, I kept things simple by mixing it with some orechiette and spicy turkey sausage.

I served the two dishes up with a chilled bottle of wine. And I opened up the windows to let the cool breeze of a summer night spill in. And we sat and chatted and basked in it all.

And it was a perfect Sunday night ending to a perfect weekend.

Perfect.

Now think about all those flavors and textures … slammed together into one pastry. It is unexpected. It is surprising. It is so right.

And it needs to be in your mouth right now.

The individual components of this sweet potato mochi croissant are basic. It uses a classic croissant and frangipane as its base and is filled with caramelized sweet potato and rice cake.

Then all you do is assemble and bake. But first things first: preheat your oven to 390 degrees F.

Then …

Then …

Brush the croissant with an egg wash, lower the oven temp to 345 degrees F, and bake for ~10 min while you try to contain yourself as the wafts of butter and caramelized sweet potato emanating from the oven tempt you to consider diving headfirst into the hot oven just so you can be that much closer to the goodness baking inside of it.

Yes. It is that good.

I’m not going to lie. It takes awhile to make, though. And by awhile, I mean 3/4 of a day of chilling, rolling, and filling. But that shouldn’t deter you. In fact, that just means you have to get started on it as soon as possible.

So go ahead and chill … roll … fill …

… indulge.

It was their first date.

My father had a full head of hair at the time and had spent the past 4 years forging a life for himself in America. I like to think he had that same twinkle in his eyes and hearty, throaty laughter that he has now even back then.

My mother was just blushing into her late twenties at the time. I wonder if my father knew at the time that the demure woman sitting across from him was the secretary to the most prominent pastor in Korea on weekdays. On weekends, she was the leader in a troupe of 12 ladies who ventured on excursions across the entire peninsula (much to the chagrin of their conservative parents). She was a lady ready for adventure; Korea was too small for her.

Two weeks before the date, he phoned to ask if they could meet at Namsan Tower, a rather romantic date spot in Seoul. She was impressed.

They met at Namsan Tower at 6pm. I’m certain my mother was wearing an adorable outfit with matching shoes and purse with her hair curled to perfection, her porcelain skin glowing. I hope my father was not wearing his bell bottoms and sporting pink shades, though I’m sorry to admit he probably was.

After exchanging greetings, she waited to see what he would suggest: perhaps some coffee or tea on the terrace, or maybe a trip up to the observation deck.

He suggested they go to the local beef stew restaurant by the park. She was less than impressed.

And so there they were, sitting over steaming bowls of beef stew in a crowded restaurant. My father noticed my mother barely picking at her soup. Maybe he was genuinely concerned or maybe he was just making small talk, but he asked 1 fateful question that night: I noticed you aren’t enjoying your soup. Would you like to go somewhere else?

My mother replied that no, the soup was delicious. Her stomach was just a little unsettled, because she had been fasting all week in preparation for the meeting with my father.

And that was the moment my 30 year old father knew he needed to marry this woman, lest she starve to death.

——

Being the strong woman of faith that she is, my mother has quietly, but firmly, led this family from behind my father through the power of prayer. Until the day I left for college, I left the house or my mother’s car each and every morning with her hot handprints still pressed into my hands that she had held as she prayed for me that morning.

Unlike many Asian parents, she did not pray that I ace the test that day, nor that I graduate at the top of my class, nor that I get into Harvard. God gave us those out of His graciousness.

She prayed, instead, that His will be done in me and that He use the day to make me into a better person.

For better or worse, God took that quite literally and gave me and my family a ton of struggles along the way to shape us into the people we are today. And for that, I am thankful.

When she could see that something was in need of extra prayer, my mother would fast for a day, 3 days, or sometimes a week in a physical demonstration of the dependence she always had on God; for those days, she would rely on Him not just for her daily emotional sustenance, but for her physical sustenance as well.

—
After a long, grueling project, I took a reprieve this week to get my life back into sorts. And I came home to the family to be the good daughter and sister that I had failed to be during the project.

Being the intuitive person that my mother is, she was able to see this past weekend that under the smiles, romps under the cherry blossoms with the family, and gleeful laughs that something was troubling me. Being the wise person she is, she didn’t have to ask to know it was my job.

And so she took it upon herself this past Sunday to fast as she asked God to let His will be done in my career; that He take care of me in the American work field that she understood so little of but knew God had complete control over. And she placed my career into His hands with her entire being. And she prayed.

For this woman who has quietly upheld this family through her wisdom and prayer, sacrificing and humbling herself daily, I wanted to do something special for her when she broke her fast at midnight.

Steamed mussels in wine, recipe forthcoming

So I made her 2 of her favorite dishes: steamed mussels in wine and mexican chili corn. And when the familiar tunes of our family’s grandfather clock struck midnight, she and I sat around the coffee table, giggling over steaming ears of corn … but only after she’d said a prayer for us, of course.

Mexican corn, recipe forthcoming

I started the stack because I wanted to make him smile. So I made pancakes and pretended like the flurry of work emails that had woken me up that morning hadn’t flustered me. James finished the stack because my charade broke down halfway through.

He made the pancakes big and small. He made them all light and fluffy. And he brought the jaunty stack of pancakes over to the corner of his couch where I was huddled under his blanket with my work laptop. And he dug his spoon into the poached eggs I had made him with the biggest smile on his face. And he took ridiculous photos and made me say pancakes over and over again. And he reminded me that moments like these make life worth living.

They say that God gives you trials in order to strengthen you. And He never gives you a trial He knows you can’t overcome. I like to think that God gave me the past 8 weeks to teach me how to manage the inevitable stress that will always be part of my life as I try to do His will through work.

A part of me also likes to think that He gave me the past 8 weeks so I could learn that, while independence is great, I cannot live life alone, and I am so fortunate to have so many loving, caring, and supportive people in my life.

A small part of me also likes to think that He gave me the past 8 weeks to break me down enough to open myself to the possibility of letting James into my life.

It’s been almost 1 month with this boy. To be honest, I don’t know where we will be 1 month from now. All I know is that when I am with him, I feel safe, secure, and happy. And that’s good enough for now.

Brown butter pancakes
Makes 2 very generous servings
3 tbsp butter
1 1/4 c skim milk
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1 egg

1. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter and continue to cook while stirring until the butter solids are browned. There will be a nutty aroma. (~4-5 min)
2. Whisk the milk into the browned butter until incorporated. Set the mixture aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and white sugar
4. Create a well in the middle of your flour and crack in the egg. Add the milk and butter mixture and stir with a fork just until combined.
5. Set the batter aside in the refrigerator to chill (~10-15 min)
6. Warm a large skillet over medium-low heat with a small pat of butter to grease it
7. Drop 1/4 c of batter onto the pan and cook until bubbles start to rise to the top and it is golden brown on one side (~2 min) flip and cook the other side.
8. Continue until you’ve cooked all the pancakes.
Serve warm

Brown butter poached eggs over greek yogurt
Makes 2 servings
2 tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 tbsp white vinegar
~ 10 oz greek yogurt (I prefer 0%, but go full fat if you want an even more luxurious texture and flavor)
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a small saucepan, melt the two tbsp of butter and cook over medium-high heat until the butter solids are browned. Set aside.
2. Crack 1 egg into a small, clean cup or bowl
3. Fill a small saucepan about halfway with water and set the water to boil. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the tbsp of white vinegar and reduce the heat to medium or until the water is gently simmering. Swirl a clean spoon in the middle of the hot water until it creates a little “tornado” in the water. Gently drop the egg into the middle of that “tornado.” Don’t agitate the egg and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the egg whites are set. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked egg onto a plate lined with a paper towel.
4. Repeat with the other egg
5. Spoon the greek yogurt into two bowls. Create wells in the each of the centers and pour half of the brown butter into each of the wells. Top with your poached egg and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

It’s sorta like the smile on this boy’s face whenever he tries something nommers.

It makes me want to make him smile again and again.

And the oozing dish above? That’s a super simple preparation. In fact, you can barely call it cooking: thinly slice half a fresh, very ripe avocado, fan it over a toasted slice of good country bread, and top with a lightly poached egg. Sprinkle some coarse sea salt and some good old Sriracha over everything, break into the yolk, and try not to choke over your own saliva as the look on the face of your salivating dining companion makes you laugh out loud.