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My dad's favorite food is probably jian bing, a Chinese street food that usually consists of a crispy whole-wheat crepe filled with egg, black bean sauce, scallions, sometimes lettuce, and a crispy cracker or fried dough piece. As a little bit of fun, this Father's Day I made a version using French crepe batter, which produces a smoother and softer crepe than the traditional Chinese Version. I don't have the plate that vendors typically use to make jian bing, but I made do with what I had. This dish is essentially my recreation of a jian bing, just a little bit simpler and quicker to make!

Gua bao is a dish I grew up with! Basically, it's often eaten as a split bun stuffed with pork belly and cucumber and sometimes other toppings like cilantro. Although as a child, my strongest memory is taking those split buns and making them into odd fusion PB&J sandwiches! After I went pescetarian, I missed having gua bao, so I came up with a vegetarian substitute that swaps mushrooms for pork belly. It tastes just as good!

I'm back with the rice paper, because I've still got some left! Rice paper is also really good for crisping up, and it makes a really cool substitute for a tortilla in a breakfast egg wrap. This recipe is somewhat inspired by the Chinese dish jian bing, which has eggs and scallions on top of a crepe with black bean sauce. I tried out swapping the tortilla with rice paper, and it turned out great!

My family likes to make sushi at home. Granted, it's probably not very authentic, but it still tastes great! We usually make it with surimi, cucumber, and avocado, sometimes we swap surimi for smoked salmon. So, how did this recipe come about? Well, a few weeks ago I was grocery shopping and bought some rice paper, mostly because I've seen it being used a ton of ways on Instagram and wanted to give it a try. When my family was making sushi together later that weekend, I looked at the rice paper and came up with a neat idea -- why not wrap sushi in it?

Happy Valentines Day! In honor of the holiday, I figured I should take advantage of that bottle of pink food coloring in my baking cabinet (fun fact, it’s the only color I have!) This is inspired by hanami dango, which is one of the cutest desserts I’ve ever had. I love dango because they are so simple, not to sweet, and so chewy. Traditionally hanami dango are pink, white, and green, but I made it with just pink and white for Valentines Day!

I had wayyy too many apples in the fridge. Like, maybe 15? Some of them were getting far too old, and it was time to use them up. Usually with apples, I would make apple crisp or apple pie, but with robotics season starting I didn't have time. So my solution? Slow cooker applesauce! It's great because you can set it and forget it until it's ready, it tastes great, and it makes the house smell so cozy, which is just what you need in these winter months. (Now the only question is squeezing 10 apples into my slow cooker...)

This winter, I got introduced to Korean egg toast, and I'm pretty sure I've had it like every day this week. It's so good -- the softest, fluffiest egg ever, folded into sweet brioche bread and topped with the perfect sweet-and-savory sauce. My favorite toast also has cheese and avocado! Of course I had to try to figure out how to make it at home, so here is what I came up with!

Butter mochi is becoming popular these days. It originates from Hawaii, and fuses traditional Japanese mochi with Western ingredients. Unlike Japanese mochi, it's baked, and can be cut into bars. This gives it a different texture -- a little bit crispy, and more fluffy.

This is a pretty awesome mac and cheese recipe. It's got tons of flavor, and it uses shell pasta instead of elbow macaroni because shells are the superior shape (I will die on this hill). It's extra saucy, because the saucier the better. It's salty, cheesy, and has a bit of a kick (adjustable levels!) Peak comfort food right here.

While round cheesecakes are impressive when you do get them right, I prefer to hedge my bets by making cheesecake bars. I prefer their taste over regular cheesecake because they have a higher crust to filling ratio, so they're more balanced. And they are much easier to make!

I conquered my fear of salads with this peach and burrata caprese. I made it for my parents’ anniversary dinner, and they loved it. Since it’s peach season, I threw in peaches with the classic tomato and basil caprese salad. I also replaced the traditional mozzarella with burrata, because I think it makes the salad more cohesive. It’s a super simple salad, dressed with just a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.

Roasted broccoli is simple, healthy, and versatile. It’s a quick recipe, easy to customize, and surprisingly addictive. I made a batch of roasted broccoli a few days ago, and my family snacked on it before dinner until half of it was gone!