No-Bake Mini Quark Cheesecakes with Crystallized Flowers

Clearing and rearranging storage cabinets produce yummy stuff. My mini cheesecake pan hasn't been used for ages so I made no-bake cheesecake with the freshly made quark cheese I had in the refrigerator. These cakes have the consistency of a mousse but without gelatin. I added just a little mascarpone and also whipped heavy cream and for flavor I used rosewater for half of the mixture and lavender water for the other half. You are free to use your favorite flavoring such as lemon, orange, or almond. The cheesecakes are very light and creamy with very subtle floral flavors.

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Mizu Yokan

I came across the Japanese sweets called mizuyokan while reading a Japanese novel REAL WORLD written by Natsuo Kirino. The sweets I found out are made with a mixture of kanten (agar or gelatin), water, and azuki (red bean paste). One of the websites I visited has a recipe for matcha and white bean paste. The white bean paste may be dried navy or lima beans. I used a pound of dried lima beans to make the white paste. The flavor is very mild on its own which is great when used for the matcha (green tea powder) bean cakes. I also made with sweet azuki paste I already had in the freezer and adjusted the sugar to my taste. I love the smoky flavor of azuki beans; still my favorite.

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Croissant Donuts

Ah, it's the latest New York craze, the deep-fried love child of croissant and donut, cronut! Since I was not willing to drive for more than 5 hours to New York and was desperate to try its crunchy crust and multi-layered crumb, I just had to make some.

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Pasta and Grilled Asparagus

Three days ago I downloaded for free from Amazon an Italian cookbook, a gardening book, and 2 novels. Well, the cookbook is now $1.99 but it's still a good buy though. I visit the store regularly to check for freebies and so far I like most of the books I got.

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