I made mooncakes for the first time yesterday, I wanted to be ready to make them for the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. I’ve been buying them for a long time and decided to finally make them myself.

They’re not as difficult as I expected, actually. Since the cakes are molded there’s some nuance to getting the dough the right thickness. Making them at home gives an incredible variety of options for fillings; I did purple sweet potato, cheesecake, and matcha.

I like to eat cucumber on spreads.

I’ve been making this cucumber salad a lot recently. It’s a good summer dish.

Ingredients: Cucumber Celery Pickled Red Onions (done with apple cider vinegar, garlic, cardamom pod, coriander seed, cumin seed, black peppercorn) Garlic/Rosemary infused Olive Oil Sunflower seeds Fresh cracked black pepper

I have a recipe for a chocolate orange chocolate chip cheesecake that I’ve been making for 20 years now.

I’m going to mix it up this week, swap out the orange for hazelnut. Wish me luck!

Grand Marnier -> Frangelico
Orange extract -> hazelnut extract

The plan is to donate one for a fundraising auction, but I need to do a test one first to see if it’s any good. :) Testing this weekend, auction is the next Thursday.

I just made a huge pot of chorizo cheese dip yesterday for our “dinner club” we host once a month. I also made tacos and guacamole but I only took a pic of the queso. It was very good and we sent home a bunch with everyone too. I made it with white American cheese.

I’m planning on smoking some ribs tomorrow for the 4th. Gonna be real good lol