International Cuisine at the Cothran's

Last year Boyd's mom gave us a cookbook called "Asian Flavors." And while that might seems like a pretty nondescript title, the recipes themselves are great! The recipes hail from Japan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia - so it's quite a range. There are the familiar stir fry dishes and your no-so-standard Roasted Coconut and Chili Fish.

It's pretty much the best kind of cookbook for me because all the meals only take 10-30 minutes to make and yet I still get the comfort of following a recipe! Also, a lot of them are veggie-based, rather than meat-centered. I really like the new flavors - especially the peanut oil, oyster sauce, and rice wine.

So far I've made:

• Stir-fried Snow Peas with Shiitake Mushrooms Served with rice. Would have been better with tofu in it to add protein.
• Pork, Crab & Mushroom Lettuce Rolls So tasty! I love wrapping food in lettuce! We used canned crab but that flavor got lost. Next time I'd spring for the fresh crab.
• Cantonese Chicken with Sweet & Sour Sauce (pictured above) Sweet and sour sauce is one of my favorite asian flavors. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to make. This recipe called for ketchup to make part of the "sour" part!

On a completely different food note, Boyd got egg cups from our friends Beth and Tim for his birthday.

How civilized! Beth and Tim are from England, so they've been schooling us on how to be proper. Doesn't this look like a nice breakfast? (Psst: The chickens are upside down because they are two-sided egg cups! This is the soft boiled side, but you can also use them for poached eggs in the big side.)

Pictured right are our soft boiled eggs with the toast "soldiers." There is a very specific ritual of breaking the top of the egg shell, cutting into the yoke, and then dipping the toast (with Marmite - which Boyd actually likes!) into the yummy, runny egg yoke. At the end you can use a spoon to scoop out the rest of the egg white.

It's a very satisfying breakfast! Boyd's really gotten into it and we probably have egg breakfasts 3 times a week.

That's all for now! Have a fun, tasty week! What are y'all cooking for Valentine's Day?