Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

In honor of Mother's Day last week, and because I don't want to lose the recipe again, I'm putting up the recipe for a family favorite, and my grandmother's all-time-favorite dessert--at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or in between. This cream cheese coffee cake really is amazing, if only you can get the layer of dough to spread out on top of the cream cheese. But don't take my word for it; try making it yourself. And after you've given up, then get someone close to you with more patience to pick up the baton, and stick around for the results... (any takers, Red Red Potato readers?) :)

First, the filling:

• 1 lb. cream cheese, softened (Yes, that's "lb." as in "pound". But you're gonna share, right?)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs

Mix these ingredients well & set aside. ("Aside" can be a refrigerator overnight, if you want to get ahead of the game)

Next, prepare the streusel topping ingredients: (Does anyone know where "streusel" comes from? I suppose I should google it, but I'm kind of glad to leave in the realm of the vague...)

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup flour (ooh, look, something healthy!)

Mix these well and set them aside (for novices like me: don't set them aside in the same bowl you're using to set aside the filling). Add a handful of oatmeal, and a little cinnamon, too, if you like. How much? "A little," says Gran. Just try it.

Next, prepare the cake ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs (Yes, that's two more eggs)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. baking powder (still can't keep straight in my head what the difference is between baking soda and baking powder, but apparently they're different ;)
• 1/2 cup butter (that's a full stick)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup sugar

Start preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a big mixing bowl (but notice that sugar is not considered a "dry ingredient" just yet). Cream the sugar, butter and eggs together separately ("cream" basically means "mix", as far as I can tell). Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Then add this concoction to the dry ingredients and mix (slowly at first or you're going to have a flourstorm on your hands).

Pour half of the cake batter into a greased and floured 9" X 13" baking pan. Pour in the filling, then the remainder of the cake batter (it will be very thick to spread). Then sprinkle with streusel topping.

Bake at 350 deg. for 45 min and...  voilà!! It's munching time. And don't wait...this one is good warm, while the inside is soft and warm and the topping crunchy...

Salmon steak with Sesame sauce

Servings: 2
Ingredients:
2 Salmon steaks
1/2 tsp salt
1/5 tsp pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 little pieces of lemon

Sesame sauce
2 tbsp plain yogurt
3 tbsp sesame
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp water

Directions:
1. Spread salt, pepper, and 1 tbsp olive oil on salmon steaks.
2. Place all the gradients of the souce in a blender and grind them.
3. Heat a pan on high, spray 1 tbsp olive oil, place salmon steaks.
4. Grill steaks turning once halfway through until browned about 30 seconds.
5. lower the heat medium and continue grilling 3-5 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat, season with lemon (juice).
7. Serve the steaks with the sesame sauce.

I love this sesame sauce. Try it! ^^

Tofu Salad

Ingredients:
1 box of soft (silken) tofu
3 strings of artificial crab (meat)
1 leaf of iceberg lettuce
1/8 piece of onion

Dressing
1 tbsp Korean Soybean Paste
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
3/4 tbsp honey

Directions:
1. Mix the ingredients of dressing in a bowl and put it in a refrigerator to make it cool.
2. Take apart the artificial crab (meat), cut the iceberg lettuce and onion as big as the artificial crab.
3. Place the tofu on a plate, put the artificial crab, the lettuce and onion on the tofu, and spread the dressing on it.

Sorry, I don't have a picture of this.
I love the taste of the dressing! It tastes very fresh! Try it!

Korean Spicy Seafood Soup (해물탕)

This kind of spicy seafood soup is very common in Korea. A variety of seafood can be used, but in this recipe I got from a website uses a squid, octopus, shrmips, and clams. Hope you enjoy this soup!

Ingredients:

1 squid, 1 octopus, 4 large shrimp, 8 clams,
150g radish, 100g bean sprout (in Korean, it is called 콩나물)
100g water dropwort, 2 hot green pepper, 2 hot red pepper, salt
1tbsp flour, 5-6 dried anchovies, 1tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp rice wine

Making sauce :
** sauce for seafood : 3tbsp hot chili pepper powder,
1tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp hot chili pepper paste,
1tbsp sesame oil, 2tsp chopped garlic, 1tsp ginger juice

Preparation :
1. squid – peel it and cut it.
2. octopus – mix with flour, press it, rinse with water, cut it.
3. shrimp – wash them with salty water.
4. clam – add them into salty water for 20 mins, rub the clams with a brush.
5. bean sprout – cut the end part of the sprout , wash them with water.
6. water dropwort – use stem only, cut them into 3-4cm long.
7. radish – peel it, slice it thick (1.5cm) and cut each slice into half or four.
8. hot red and green peppers – slice them.

Directions:
1. mix all the ingredients for the sauce for the seafood.
2. add anchovies into 4 cups of water, boil it.
add soy sauce and rice wine to the anchovy water.
3. in another pot, spread radish on the bottom of it, put down bean sprout

over the radish, then, put down squid, octopus, shrimp, clam over bean

sprout.
4. add the soup (from #2), and boil it.
5. when it’s boiled, add **sauce for seafood, boil it little more.
6. then, add water dropwort, hot green pepper, and hot red pepper.
7. if the soup is plain, add little bit of salt.

The picture and this recipe are from

http://board.miznet.daum.net/gaia/do/cook/recipe/mizr/read?articleId=722&&bbsId=MC001&pageIndex=1

Grilled red potatoes

Ingredients: 2-3 medium red potatoes
Dried or fresh rosemary 1tsp (cut them small)
Black pepper, salt, olive oil, 3-4 clove garlic (chop them)
Directions:
1. cut potatoes into 1.5cm cubes
2. add oil to skillet and heat to medium high
3. add potatoes, stir occasionally
4. when the potatoes are half cooked, add chopped garlic, rosemary, black pepper, and salt.
5. stir occasionally until the potatoes are little overcooked. (to have crispy potatoes, it’s better to cook them little longer till they are overcooked.)
6. serve them warm.

Seafood soup with tofu

Noriko,

Does the seafood soup with tofu look like this? Of course, the picture of the soup doesn't have tofu, but I want to have an idea of what it looks like. Let me know. I'll give you a recipe for this kind of soup. ^^

Guest post from Dave...Sunday's potatoes!

On Sunday in Livermore, Dave's family -- including Maya and Reggie of course -- was all there for an afternoon brunch. On the menu was Sandra's delicious coffee-cake-style rolls (what's the right name for these?), scrambled eggs, fruit, and of course, some redX2 potatoes cooked by Dave according to Jean's bilingual recipe. Here are a few pics. Enjoy!

 First, cooking on the grill, and then...ready to eat!