Lately with COVID, UN’s job has gotten much busier. He leaves for work early and comes back later than usual, sometimes answering work-related phone calls and text before bed. With him working on the weekends, I have nowhere to go, so I started baking cakes at home.

最近UN因疫情關係忙到不行，早出晚歸就算了，睡覺前一秒還在工作。週末也需要上班，我無處可去只好開始在家烤蛋糕。還我自由啊！

Basque Burnt Cheesecake

This was very popular on social media. My first attempt almost burned the whole kitchen down. I forgot to trim the baking paper and it caught on fire as soon as it entered the 400F oven. Thank God UN was home to put out the fire. Created a huge mess, especially on the floor that UN just mopped less than 10 minutes ago. After that disastrous episode, I’m very determined not to burn another cake. I videotaped my baking (evidence in case of another fire), and it turned out very well this time!

前陣子似乎大家都在做這款蛋糕，我當然也很跟風做了一次，但完全大失敗。原因在於我沒把烘培紙修剪，碰到400多度的烤箱上層而起火。把我和UN嚇到快點救火，UN剛清完的地板不到10分鐘被我搞砸。繼那次後陰影極重，怕蛋糕再次著火。這次做蛋糕時還拍了影片，怕起火沒證據，非常成功（沒發爐！）

San Se Dan 三色蛋

It’s incredulous that in this Taiwanese food dessert, Okinawa, I was able to find salted eggs and thousand year eggs! To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of these types of eggs, but I bought them because I found the recipe for San Se Dan (three-colored eggs.) I don’t think I’ve tried San Se Dan before. Much can be improved from this first trial. Next time I will cook the salted eggs and thousand year eggs first to harden the egg yolk. Easier to cut and won’t look messy that way. I would steam the egg whites for more than 15 minutes to make sure they are fully cooked. UN loved the San Se Dan, but I’m still not a fan of the taste of thousand year egg.

天啊，在沖繩這台灣料理沙漠裡，我竟然在業務超市找到鹹鴨蛋和皮蛋！即使我不愛吃這兩色蛋，我也買了！上網查一下能做三色蛋，我其實沒吃過三色蛋，做的極度失敗。下次我會先把鴨蛋和皮蛋用水煮燙，讓蛋心煮熟（變硬），切起來會比較好看也比較不凌亂。第一次蒸蛋白時，應該要蒸至少15分鐘，確定蛋白完全熟。UN非常喜歡這次做的三色蛋，但我還是不太習慣皮蛋的味道。

Creme Brulee

The theme for this weekend is eggs! In college I met a chef who was an expert at making cream brûlée. He told me that if I knew what goes into making cream brûlée I wouldn’t want to eat it. He’s exactly right! I keep double checking to make sure I wasn’t reading the recipe wrong, and it feels like I used a whole bag of sugar. This level of sweetness is even scary for someone with a sweet tooth like yours truly. Does anyone know why there are small scratches marks on the cream brûlée after they come out of the oven?

這週末都是和蛋有關的料理！在大學時有位廚師很會做Creme Brulee，那時他說如果我們知道裡面有多少糖就不會想吃了。完全沒錯！看著食譜一直反覆檢查我是否看錯單位，一直猛倒糖，雖然天天必吃甜食，但這糖量我感到害怕。最後想請問為什麼布丁烤出來的會有一痕一痕像是被叉子搓過？