Agave blended Homemade Yogurt with Kumquat Preserves (without Using a Yogurt Maker)

I've made a French version of a homemade yogurt recipe. In French I would call it yaourt brassé à la conserve de kumquat au sirop et au nectar d'agave. I got the recipe from a close family friend named Jeannie. She was born and raised in Vietnam and moved to America a decade ago. She always tells me how her family struggled during the Vietnam war, and how she had to learn how to preserve food and make a lot of stuff herself. I love her homemade yogurt and the recipe is quite easy. No need to spend big bucks on a yogurt machine. All you need is a few yogurt jars (or use baby food jars), a big cooler and a warm day.

The result is creamy and sweet. I added some agave syrup that I got from my last trip to Florida and some kumquat preserves from our orchard. I still have probably 2 batches of kumquats that need to be picked. I've made some kumquat marmalade already, some caramelized kumquats for a green salad and some baby zucchini-kumquat relish that I served with some fish. If you guys have any suggestions on recipes that use kumquats, I'm all ears. Do not hesitate to leave me a message.

I miss French yogurt. I remember in the supermarkets in France, there were probably 2 or 3 long aisles of dairy products like mousses, yogurts, crème caramels, flans, etc.I tell Lulu all the time that when I'm pregnant I want to go back to Paris and gorge myself on delicious French food to make sure our baby is a chubby wubby.

Attention: The measuring tool in this recipe here is the can of the condensed milk.

Mocha Milk Chocolate Pot de Creme

A pot de crème is an egg custard that is very often flavored with chocolate. It's sort of a French version of chocolate pudding.

Preparing it is very easy. You basically follow the recipe for crème brûlée, but you bake the custard a little longer to get a thicker result.

Cassava Coconut Vietnamese Cake (Banh Khoai Mi)

Bánh khoai mì nướng, literally baked cassava (or manioc) cake in Vietnamese, is a sticky, sweet cake. The cassava provides the starch, the coconut milk provides the fat, and condensed milk is used as a sweetener.  It's unlike any Western dessert you've ever tried.

Cassava is a starchy tuberous root that is widely used in South America, Africa and Asia.  The flour made from the roots is called tapioca.

Banana Cream Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

I was in the baking mood today and we had some ripe bananas so I decided to make a banana cream cake.  The little one was gnoshing on a bowl of marshmallows and that got me thinking that a marshmallow cream laced with banana jam that I got from Williams-Sonoma would be a nice accent to the moist yellow cake and fresh bananas.

Egg-free Banana Mousse

Most mousse recipes call for eggs, but my poor little 9-year-old sister-in-law is deathly allergic to them. I've come up with an egg-free mousse that has a slightly denser texture, but otherwise will satisfy your cravings. 

Bananas are in season so I decided to make an eggless banana mousse. I love bananas because they have no fat, cholesterol or sodium. Fruits, however, add more water content to a mousse than chocolate does, so you need to counteract that with another ingredient.  I used a sweet mascarpone base with the pureed bananas. If you are making an eggless chocolate mousse, there is no need to add the mascarpone cheese.