What Iām CookingFood cooked with and for family and friends. A few favorites near the top, but mostly in chronological order. View fullsize How we learn to cook in our family. Three generations of Pai women (pre-Covid). View fullsize A wonderful catch of 23 crabs (dungeness and red rock)--post-steaming. View fullsize The zakuski course of an incredibly varied and delicious Russian dinner party (complete with multiple infused vodkas). View fullsize Russian dinner party: absolutely mind blowing gluten free lamb pelmeni: post-wrapping, pre-boiling. View fullsize Russian dinner party: unbelievably delicious homemade gluten free lamb pelmeni in adjika butter sauce. View fullsize Russian dinner party: delicious gluten free pirog. View fullsize Made jok in preparation for being knocked out by the 2nd Covid vaccine. View fullsize An incredible vegan (a first for us) Indian dinner party made with my coworker Hiten for our team. View fullsize My young cousin prepping short ribs to make "Jorge pork"--our uncle's absolutely incredible 30+ ingredient sauce. View fullsize My young cousins making spring rolls. View fullsize What was, no doubt, the best gluten free philly cheese steak in Colorado (not a high bar, but still). View fullsize Bua Loy Nam King: a life changing dessert soup. Extremely intense sweet ginger broth with black sesame balls (toasted black sesame seed paste inside a thin layer of rice flour). View fullsize Bao burger--copied from Toki in Portland. View fullsize Mandu making for (a belated) new years celebration! Ended up making/freezing enough to fill 4 gallon-size bags. I think we've mastered gluten free wrappers! View fullsize Our gluten free artisanal bread loaves. To buy some life-changing gluten free bread, visit us at cpbakery.com View fullsize Our first steak from the quarter beef we ordered from Willow Creek Meats. The most incredibly flavorful beef we've had, regeneratively grazed in partnership with The Land Trust for habitat restoration, and net carbon negative...meaning the cows' lifecycle actively sequesters carbon, making it more environmentally responsible than conventional forms of *both* meat and veggie/grain production. View fullsize Ridiculously delicious gluten free focaccia. To buy some life-changing gluten free bread, visit us at cpbakery.com View fullsize Foccaccia goes extremely well with a quick tomato/herb reduction and super high quality olive oil. View fullsize An absurdly delicious chicken pot pie on the weekend of the 2021 blizzard when we got 2 feet of snow in Denver! Game-changing tips for incredible pot pie: (1) reduce twice as much stock as you need to concentrate the chicken flavor, (2) infuse this stock with dried morels and chanterelles to dramatically bump up the umami before adding them back to the filling, (3) bake/toast chicken skin until it's super crispy, chop it up into a dust, and add it to the filling for a ton more concentrated chicken flavor/umami, and (4) use parsnips or turnips in the filling to add to the butteriness and depth. View fullsize Daily green smooth: 64 ounces, minimal carbs. Generally: 3/4ths of a bunch of kale (including spines), a couple huge handfuls of spinach, cucumber or celery, carrots, chia seeds, half an apple/pear, frozen wild blueberries, an avocado, collagen powder, MCT oil, water. View fullsize Not a great photo, but incredible: sitka blacktail deer that sister harvested on Kodiak Island in Alaska and gluten free fried oysters. View fullsize Sundubu jjigae: Korean stew with soft tofu, pork belly, kimchi, and egg. View fullsize Mix of Indian and Afghan for weeknight dinners: kadoo boranee, saag, chhonk, and Afghan style beef. View fullsize I helped very minimally on this: Tricia's first cake with her new kitchen gear. Espresso chocolate cake with maple buttercream. View fullsize Traditional Christmas tamale making with the family in 2018. View fullsize Tricia making kimchi. View fullsize Making some seriously delicious kimchi. View fullsize Asiago bagel (gluten free). View fullsize Asiago and everything bagel dogs. Anyone who grew up in Portland (or California) knows Noah's Bagels. These taste like childhood. View fullsize Decorating Christmas sugar cookies! View fullsize Mussel chowder bread bowls for Christmas dinner (clams were hard to come by)! In our gluten free Catalla Pai sourdough boule. View fullsize Mussels in a butter/wine/garlic sauce. View fullsize Around Christmas time, my grandparents used to host all the Korean students studying at UMKC on Christmas Eve since they didn't have family in the US over the holidays. They made pizzas to feed everyone and this is now a family tradition. We usually make pizza Neapolitan style and this time we did New York style...nailed it. View fullsize Another Christmas Eve pizza: copying Pizza Schmizza's Genoa pizza. View fullsize Thanks to family roots in New Mexico, tamale making on Christmas Eve is also a long-time tradition. This year we used beef cheeks and the usual dixon chili powder from The Chili Shop near Santa Fe. View fullsize First attempt at gluten free cannoli, the ricotta in the filling was also home made. Incredibly delicious. View fullsize Baked brie in our gluten free puff pastry with my dad's (and great grandma's) tomato/hatch chili preserves. View fullsize Christmas cookies, gluten free. Chocolate crinkles, shortbread cookies, Russian tea cakes that spread due to a bit too much butter, and pinon brittle. View fullsize Tricia's birthday dinner and her first time having fondue. Massive steak and chocolate fondue waiting in the wings. View fullsize Covid Thanksgiving dinner: we made enough for 8 or 10 people so we could freeze it and have leftovers. View fullsize Thanksgiving turkey: 2 day salt/sugar/pepper/allspice brine, oak smoked with butter-wine cheese cloth, uncover for the last 30 minutes to brown and crisp the skin. View fullsize Thanksgiving: delicious sweet potato pie. Ingredients for thanksgiving stuffing using a couple loaves of Catalla Pai bread. Tip for next level stuffing: rehydrate chanterelle and black trumpet mushrooms in the chicken stock prior to adding to stuffing. Also, oven dried bread is different and better than stale bread for stuffing--it holds it's starch structure better. View fullsize Filipino feast: lechon kawali and lumpia. Crazy delicious. View fullsize Filipino feast: pancit and 3 sauces (garlic vinegar, calamansi, and sweet chili). View fullsize Filipino Halo Halo: ube ice cream, pandan jelly, red beans, macapuno, sweetened condensed coconut milk. Ridiculously delicious gluten free buttermilk biscuits. Sold at Catalla Pai. View fullsize Samgyetang: Korean ginseng soup with a cornish hen. View fullsize Every variety of chili pepper we grew in 2020. From left to right: Aji Santa Cruz, Anaheim, Belize Sweet Habanero, jalapeƱos (green and red), Brazilian Starfish Yellow, Bhut x Neyde hybrid, Guarumal, Thai birds eye (green and red), Pequin, Carolina Reaper. View fullsize Huge harvest of herbs and chilis at the end of the Summer 2020 season. View fullsize Delicious bruschetta made with garden tomatoes and basil. View fullsize Catalla Pai artisanal boules. View fullsize Handmade gluten free gnocchi. Extremely light and delicious. View fullsize Homemade gnocchi with garden pesto and tomatoes. View fullsize Our Catalla Pai gluten free bagels. You won't find a better gluten free bagel anywhere...just look at that crumb! View fullsize Ensaymada: Filipino sweet bread with cheese. View fullsize Garden squash blossom pizza on our insanely delicious gluten free crust. View fullsize The pizza oven was the most popular appliance of the summer. View fullsize Brook and rainbow trout caught in Boulder Creek, Colorado. Smoking and making trout dip. View fullsize Beat and garden arugula blossom salad. View fullsize Non-alcoholic rum recipe from Grant Achatz's Zero cookbook (3 Michelin star and #1 restaurant in the world, Alinea). View fullsize Outrageously delicious gluten free focaccia. View fullsize Our first batch of gluten free everything bagels. View fullsize Soft shell crab. View fullsize Inspired by our time in Portugal, gluten free pasteis de nata. We were a bit lazy with the pastry dough, so it came out a little thin...but still delicious. View fullsize An early gluten free loaf. Our gluten free artisanal bread. Life changing if you've had to be gluten free for over a dozen years and love bread. Get some from Catalla Pai. View fullsize Buttery, flakey gluten free empanadas. View fullsize Gluten free ramyun. View fullsize Delicious paella with a perfect socarrat. View fullsize Five cheese gluten free mac and cheese with panko, chives, and parsley. View fullsize Japchae: a korean mung bean noodle dish. View fullsize Champorado and spam: Filipino chocolate rice porridge. View fullsize Sigumchi Namul: korean spinach. View fullsize New years tradition: homemade mandu. These are with home made gluten free wrappers. View fullsize Our biggest catch of crab ever, crabbing in Nehalem Bay, Oregon. Caught 29 crabs: dungeness and red rock crabs. View fullsize Dolsot bibimbap. The dolsot (soapstone bowl) is super heated and oiled, then the rice is added making it super crispy and keeping the food warm. View fullsize Gluten free baklava. View fullsize Gluten free ravioli from the day we got engaged on a farm in Tuscany, Italy. View fullsize Fire for brisket (oak). View fullsize Early morning, putting the brisket on. Salt and pepper rub. View fullsize Finished brisket. View fullsize Roast duck spring roles. View fullsize Super intense ginger broth with rice and black sesame balls. View fullsize Tricia talking to my grandma as she folds pistachio pie filling. View fullsize View fullsize Gluten free udon noodles from scratch. View fullsize Gluten free udon. View fullsize Insanely delicious and flakey gluten free croissants. Thought this was impossible gluten free. View fullsize Crostini with homemade bread, mozz, prosciutto, olive oil, basil. View fullsize Gyros inspired by our trip to Greece! View fullsize Kkakdugi with Korean radishes from the garden. View fullsize Mid-summer garden harvest. View fullsize Canning tomatoes! View fullsize Halibut fish and chips with the halibut we caught in Alaska! View fullsize Sundubu Jjigae