I’m still here! Just have been so consumed with work. Ahhhhhh. Plus I’m getting married soon, yay!!
I have tons of leftover Easter candy.
Easter Kitty…Coraline Kitty.
Enjoy.
I hope that I’m not the only one that finds this picture to be very amusing.
IF YOU ARE ON INSTAGRAM, I’M AT @JOYCEHUANG1126 AND @THEALCHEMYSHOP.
Much Love,
Joyce Huang
Hi all!
Sorry for the MIA, but I have some really exciting news to share. I just launched The Alchemy Shop!!!! It’s an online woman’s clothing and accessory store that has new clothing, new jewelry, vintage finds and second-hand designer labels are really great prices.
In case you didn’t know, I have been in fashion for years. I worked as a fashion editor, stylist and fashion writer for companies such as People, InStyle, People StyleWatch, The Today Show, Access Hollywood, E! News and more. My latest step in the industry has led me to opening my own company and I couldn’t be more excited.
In the meantime, I just really want to thank my grandmother, mother, fiancé and friends for their unwavering support in this endeavor. It makes feel so touched how wonderful, loving and just plain awesome all the people in my life are.
XOXO,
Joyce Huang
(Fab.com)
I get a lot of spam. A loooot of spam. And I had to turn off my spam filters because a ton of important emails have been going into my spam and trash folders. So now I see tons of emails in my inbox that I had no clue I was a target market for.
There’s, Join J-Date! Nah. I’m O.K., thanks though.
Cam Cuties? No, please stay away from my computer.
Express Pharmacy? This doesn’t sound legal at all.
Unicorn Poop Cookies? YES, PLEASE!!
I got an email from Fab.com with the words Unicorn Poop Cookies in the subject heading and had to click over. What I found were the most magical cookies I had ever seen before. They were colorful, glittery and shaped like poop. These great cookies are made by Sweet Insanity. Owner Kristy Lynn said that this is her most famous baked good and the name came from her mother, who would call it unicorn sh*t. Oh the things moms say. I am definitely going to give these a whirl at sometime.
Not only do I love cookies, but the visual draw of these is just way too good to pass up.
-Joyce Huang
I got some Crio Bru brewed cocoa beans/cacao beans to try out from the company directly and I have to say that I’m really loving it. Made from 100% cacao beans, they look like they have been roasted and crushed. I can easily see this becoming a normal household drink just like coffee and tea it. If you brew it lightly, it tastes like a chocolate tea. Stronger, it’s more like a coffee. It smells and tastes just like a high quality hot chocolate made with water and minus the sugar (until you add it).
When you open up the bag you are immediately hit with an intense whiff of fragrant chocolate. It’s quite wonderful.
All I do to make it is use a French press. For each 8 oz. cup of brewed cacao I use 3 TBS of Crio Bru when I want it very strong. Their directions suggest using 2 TBS per 6 oz. cup of water.
You can drink it plain or add whatever you normally add to your teas and coffees. I prefer mine either plain, light with cream, or with tasty condensed milk. For the last two options it starts bordering on tasting like a light hot cocoa drink.
On their website they mention that cacao beans have more antioxidants than acai, pomegranates and blueberries combined. Sounds pretty healthy to me. And apparently cacao helps you burn fat faster and is a natural stimulant. The only con about this drink is its long brewing time. I let it seep for about 12 minutes before pressing the top of my French press down.
Visit their website directly for my health benefits and info on cacao beans. They source their beans from so many different countries, which affects the taste of each brew. Sample a few until you find your favorite.
-Joyce Huang
Mmmmm, I wanted something to snack on with my tea and condensed milk so that’s when I broke out the cran-apple streusel loaf that I froze before I left for the holidays. It’s lightly sweet, filling, full of great textures and I’m going to count it as my serving of fruit since I used fresh cranberries and apples in it.
And you’re in luck. I found half of what I did written on a pink post-it on my desk and the other half on P’s phone. And when I pieced them together, it looks like a whole recipe. Woot!
Ingredients for streusel topping
½ stick of butter
½ cup of flour
¼ brown sugar
Handful of crush pecans (I just chopped mine up with a knife.)
Now What for streusel topping?
Pulse the butter, flour and brown sugar till nice and crumbly. Keep separate from the pecans.
Ingredients for loaf
Butter to butter a bread loaf pan
2 cups of flour
1 cup of brown sugar
½ cup of granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
Big pinch of baking soda
Really big pinch of cinnamon
Small pinch of nutmeg
1 scrambled egg, raw
½ cup of oil (I had canola, so used that)
8 oz sour cream
1 medium tart apple peels and cut into medium chunks (I used a Mountain Rose apple, but you could use a Granny Smith.)
3/4-1 cup of fresh cranberries
Now What?
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a bread loaf pan.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Work in the egg, oil and sour cream. Mix in the apple chunks and fresh cranberries.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
Top with streusel mixture and crushed pecans. Bake for 25 35 minutes depending on your oven. You can check with a toothpick or knife to see if it is done or not. Stick it in the loaf, if it comes out clean, then it’s done.
When it cools off, you can take it out of the pan. I wasn’t really sure how to go about it so that the streusel would all fall off, so what I did was put on a big oven mitt and cover the entire top of the loaf with my hand in that mitt. Then I turned it over into the mitt, pulled the pan off of it and quickly turned it right side up onto a flat surface. It freezes really well and was still really moist after I defrosted a section.
I’m always so happy when I’m experimenting and it turns out to be not just edible, but actually tastes good.
-Joyce Huang
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! EAT A LOT, LAUGH A LOT AND LOVE A LOT.
Vanilla/chocolate and eggnog cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake in Soho.
111 Mercer Street New York, NY 10012
It’s fried. It’s cheese. It’s easy to make. How the hell could you not want to try this?
Queso de freir is a white frying cheese you can find in Latin neighborhoods. It has a high frying temperature, so it doesn’t melt easily and holds its shape when you heat it up. It tastes great as is, but for dinner parties, so it looks like I made some effort, I cook them up as side dishes.
Ingredients
Flour on plate
Queso de freir sliced into 1 CM thick slices
Oil to go up to halfway up the cheese slices when frying
Now What?
Heat up the oil till you can see gentle ripples.
Dip a cheese slice on each side in the flour and shake off excess. Gently place in the frying oil. Repeat with each slice. When light, golden brown on bottom side, flip cheese over. When light, golden brown on flipped side, remove for oil and drain on paper towel.
Serve.
-Joyce Huang
Yep! Another soup recipe for you! I told you I have a lot of soup and stew in the winter. Now, this one is not made from scratch because I didn’t want to spend 4 hours making chicken broth. HOWEVER, the flavor is really great. It’s spicy, has different textures and has a broth that has a touch of creaminess. What’s weird is that it’s a broth, but the hint of cream gives you the full flavor of a creamy soup.
Ingredients
4 ears of fresh corn with the kernels cut off ( Don’t use canned. The fresh corn gives off a nice crunch.)
Enough chicken broth to cover the corn in a pot about ½ inch over.
¼ cup of heavy cream. You can use more, that’s just all I had.
10 oz can of Ro-tel
Salt to taste
Fresh cracked pepper to taste
Now What?
Put the corn and chicken broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Spoon half of this into a blender with the heavy cream. Take the plastic cap off the blender and cover with a thick towel and your hand over it. Blend until you get the consistency of creamed corn. Pour back into the pot and simmer.
At first I wanted to drain the Ro-tel and put half the mixture in. However my mom called and started talking a lot and I got distracted and ended up dumping the entire can with the liquids in. Shoot. All good though, the end result was delicious.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
And that’s it. I would definitely make this soup again.
-Joyce Huang
P surprised me with a malt ball cake when I walked through the door because he’s considerate like that. He knows I love malt. He knows I love cake. He knows I love chocolate. He remembered that I had said that I wanted the malt ball cake from Baked. So he made me one.
I have never had a malt cake before. P followed the Baked malt ball recipe, that can be found here on the foodandwine.com website, to a tee. It doesn’t taste full on like malt, but just slightly. And even though there was a ton of butter in the frosting, it was so nice and light, which was quite the surprise. The texture of this cake is amazing. Dense enough for you to sink your teeth into it, but in no way heavy.
P said he made me the cake so that I would get fat and couldn’t run away from him.
I’ve gained three pounds and still have more cake left.
That man knows how to get the job done.
-Joyce Huang
It’s the pie in the upper right corner.
Holy crap I’m in love. For a dinner I had at my apartment I made Jean Webster’s French Silk Pie that I got from MarthaStewart.com. It is sooooooo delicious. I made the crust the night before, the filling the day of and before I served it topped it with fresh whipped cream. Just beware though. When you make that filling you are going to want to eat all of it. P had to stop me so that I didn’t eat all of it before the guests got to our place.
Get the recipe here.
You are going to love it.
-Joyce Huang
