Ambitious Delicious(ness)

I’m really excited to say that as of Sunday, August 30, 2009, Ambitious Delicious(ness) will have been up and running for an entire year!!!
 
And to celebrate, I baked double vanilla bean cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (recipe to come):

Banner and tagline credit: Sara Chai 

A few reflective thoughts:

This blog began as a way to channel my food obsessive energy into something more tangible and creative . My goal was and still is to inspire others!

I remember when it would take me hours to write one post! And when I did something n00bular and uploaded the wrong file to wordpress, breaking the website, I almost had a panic attack. It’s a good thing it was fixable (thanks A)!

I’m still amazed at how versatile and vast the food world really is. There still are so many textures, flavors, and combinations to explore!

Blogging has also given me an opportunity to connect with others who share the same passion for all things food related! =)

 
Just some stats – in the past 365 days, there have been 120 posts and 596 comments. 23 of my posts have been featured on Photograzing, and only one photo has actually been accepted on Tastespotting.
 

Good news: the recipe index is finally up and running again! Feel free to click through and let me know if anything is not linked properly.
 
Many many thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, and supporting this blog. It has been a tremendous encouragement!

Please be on the lookout for many more ambitously delicious recipes to come!

Three cup chicken is one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes to eat! It’s a savory soy sauce based dish with basil. Some say that the dish got the name because the recipe calls for equal parts of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine.

I thought I would try to prepare all the ingredients into separate bowls prior to cooking. It was a drastic change from my usual routine of throwing seasonings into the pot as I go. It took a while to do! Do you like it? Enjoy it then… I may not do it again for a long, long time.

Note that this dish requires Taiwanese basil, which looks like this:

Basil adds such an interesting flavor to this dish. Whoever created this recipe deserves a medal! I was able to use the sauces I bought earlier to make Pad See Ew, which is an added bonus.

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This classic Italian dish made of bacon, cheese and parsley was so scrumptious that I was really, genuinely sad when I was done and even wanted to eat it again the day after. I paired this pasta dish with arugula from my CSA share this week with some sweet, crunchy, seedless watermelon.

One thing to note – it’s important to time everything so that the sauce and the pasta are ready around the same time, as the heat from the pasta will help to cook the eggs. The water boiled too quickly for me, so I am suggesting that you start the sauce first, then make the pasta second.

A special shoutout to my cousins, who visited all the way from VA  One of them did a great job helping me wash the arugula and dice the parsley, while the other did an even better job of helping by eating!

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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Interested consumers then purchase a share to receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. The produce is fairly priced, local grown, and in my case, organic.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I love the color of these potatoes! The outside looks like it’s covered in cocoa. It’s just dirt. Thought I’d show you what it looks like, straight from the farm, with dirt and all!

Seems that I’ve taken the long route with this recipe. I boiled the potatoes whole, about 2/3rd of the way, then sliced them in half after fishing them out of the water. I didn’t cut them before to avoid the potatoes from overcooking in the boiling water.

I like my potatoes with skin on, but feel free to remove before boiling.

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I’d like to open this post with a little story.

During my two year stint as a vegetarian (yes I was, and no I’m not anymore), I was happily chomping away on a eggplant parmesan sandwich when my friend asked me for a bite. Since I’m so kind hearted, I obliged – only to be accused of eating chicken! My friend was so convinced that it was chicken. It took me a good 5 minutes to convince him otherwise. The moral of the story – don’t share food.

Moving on.

There are so many delicious ways to prepare eggplant. This is another improvised dish that I ate with a side of rice. Makes for a good weeknight dinner, especially when you’re avoiding the oven like the plague during the summer months (like me!).

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This is my first attempt at making meatballs. Since I didn’t use a recipe, I can’t vouch for the “authenticity” of this dish. I even used salsa instead of tomato sauce to give it some color and pizazz. Sometimes, you have to improvise!

I was trying to think of a way to use up the ground beef I had in my fridge. I would recommend letting the meat sit in its spices for a couple of hours before cooking. But all in all, I was happy with the results! I think it could also work as an appetizer if you add some toothpicks.

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I ended up at the Farmers Market in Rockefeller Plaza the other day. It was after lunch, so I wasn’t looking for anything in particular (ok ok, I was looking for a brownie!). They had a ton of gorgeous fruits and vegetables, along with delicious looking cookies and cakes.

Fortunately, I came across some sweet corn and bought 3, but only because I had $2 in cash. I should have bought more though, because once I was done removing the kernels, I didn’t have a lot to cook with. But it was better than eating a brownie- that’s for sure! I added a few pieces of summer squash and it was perfect!

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