Leftover Steak Sandwich

For Independence Day dinner yesterday, I charcoal grilled a moderately sized tri-tip steak. We seem to eat like birds because there's still a big chunk of leftover. Today, I diced a few slices and added to sauteed mushrooms and filled whole wheat folded flat bread. Delicious and satisfying sandwich/es!

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Tort Wafer

I saw on Amazon.com large wafer sheets from Croatia called tort wafers for making a layer cake called oblatne or oblaten. I'm always game to try new recipes specially sweet ones so I got 2 packages of 5 sheets each.

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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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