Colorful Baby Carrots

They are cute and grows well in a small garden.     Good for salad,... cook it whole with stew, or saute them, or use them as garnish.

Fresh Beets Salad with Egg, Dried Cherries, Asian Pears, and Cherry Tomatoes

How fresh can a salad be?  Made with a fresh beet right out of the garden and prepared right in your own kitchen.    Imagine this beet is regenerated from the beet's own 'head / crown'.     I purchased a beet from the market, and cut the crown off with leaves still in its place.     I planted it into the ground the next day.      After a month, I notice the new leaves started to grow.     After another month  and half, voila, a new beet growing a top the head/crown that I chopped off originally.     It tasted wonderful.     It has so much less 'earthy' taste than the store bought ones.    

Chinese Fried Sesame Balls

There are so many different types of Chinese snacks and desserts that I don't think I can finish  trying all of it.    My mother's list of her favorites are just mind boggling - some I have never seen or heard of her regional specialty snacks.    For fun we wanted to try making the Chinese fried sesame balls at home.     We figured that we know how to make the YAKI DANGO and DAIFUKU MOCHI, we certainly could handle this one.      The ones that we really enjoy is the one sold at the SF China Town.      Sold at the third restaurant up the hill from the main parking lot after the bakery.    Sorry, I don't even know the name of the restaurant.    The sesame balls sold there is about the baseball size, $1 for one.    The dough is made of sweet rice.    It has the consistency of the OMOCHI - guewey and yummy, filled with red bean paste, etc.    Not knowing which recipe to use, my son found a recipe from the internet.    This recipe required baking soda and powder. . . hmmm, very interesting.     The dough's texture turned out 'cake' like.     Not OMOCHI consistency - guewey that we are looking for.    Nevertheless, we enjoyed every bite of it.