For all of middle school, I lived next door to my French teacher–we’ll call her Mrs. R. This was, as you can imagine, rife with awkwardness–some imagined, and some actually manifested. One morning, like many mornings, I found myself late for school. I went through the standard rush job of brushing my teeth, washing my […]
Holiday Season Recipes
Welcome to The Woks of Life Holiday Season Recipes collection, a list of favorite family recipes including the perfect Thanksgiving turkey and other holiday main courses, starters, sides, and desserts.
We’ll continue to add new recipes to the collection, so send us your requests and keep checking back for more!
New Year’s Eve Appetizers for Your Cocktail Hour or Party!
New Year’s Eve is a holiday fraught with indecision. Where do you go? What do you do? Who do you spend it with? How do you manage to squeeze out the last drops of happy times from the old year in preparation for the new year? Well just like the rest of you, we don’t have […]
Chocolate Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies (Brussels Cookies Recipe)
This cookie recipe comes to you a little bit late, but juuuuuust in time for Christmas. Better late than never I always say! Every year, our neighborhood hosts a holiday cookie exchange, and I’m constantly on the hunt for new cookie recipes to try. Luckily, this year, I happened upon this Brussels cookies recipe on Food52. I made […]
Feast of the Seven Fishes Holiday Recipe Roundup
So last year for Christmas, for the first time ever, we decided to swap our traditional prime rib roast for the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. Our cousins are half Italian and were spending the holiday with us for the first time in a while, so instead of having another year of endlessly […]
Plum Sauce Glazed Ham with Soy & Scallion Butter Roasted Potatoes
I’ve never been much of a glazed ham person, but THIS ham? This ham is special. A couple weeks ago, my dad was experimenting with a sour plum duck recipe (which you should look out for in the next couple weeks, because it’s awesome), and we had a jar of plum sauce left over. This of […]
A Basic Stir-Fried Bok Choy Recipe
We all need a good go-to green vegetable side dish to go with any main course, and this stir-fried bok choy recipe is a great candidate. It’s one of the easiest recipes we have on the blog, once you learn a few basics that make your stir-fried veggies stand out from all the others. For this bok choy […]
Next-Day Thanksgiving Pastries (A Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipe)
On the day before the BIG day, i.e. Thanksgiving, the most gluttonous holiday of the year, we’re sliding in at the last minute with another Thanksgiving leftovers recipe! While our other Thanksgiving leftover recipes (i.e. this Turkey Congee and this Turkey Ramen) focused on ways to make the most of a good turkey carcass, this […]
Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Ramen
The day after Thanksgiving is a wonderful day. Not because of Black Friday sales, but because the day after Thanksgiving is the day to make something new and exciting with all the leftovers in the fridge, like a good Turkey Ramen! I’m kind of ridiculously militant about preparing enough food on Thursday, just so we’ll have […]
Story Time: Thanksgiving Memories (& a recipe roundup!)
With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, we thought we’d round up a few past Thanksgiving recipes to help inspire your holiday menus. But just giving you a few photos and recipe descriptions would be boring, so we’re each going to tell you a story ––stories about memorable Thanksgivings from days past. In between these delightful Thanksgiving memories, […]
Our Favorite Chocolate Cake Recipe (a PSA)
Okay guys, I have a special announcement. The very first Woks of Life Public Service Announcement, that is. But first, let me begin with a story. When Sarah and I were growing up, we were big fans of the movie Matilda. For all you 90s babies out there, you probably remember the (in)famous scene wherein […]
Glazed Pumpkin Scones
When it comes to pumpkin scones, this isn’t our first rodeo (as evidenced by this recipe we posted way back in 2013). So…why are we coming back to you two years later with yet another pumpkin scone recipe? One word: glaze. There happens to be a large chain of coffee shops (rhymes with “tar ducks”) that […]
Pumpkin English Muffins
I’ve officially switched gears from summer to fall––my favorite season. We’ve transitioned from flip flops to close-toed shoes and cozy socks, and my vast collection of plaid button-downs is back on duty (yay!). Today, I was driving through the Hudson Valley grinning like an idiot (I only say this because I was alone in my car, […]
Edamame Beans: How to Cook Them the Chinese Way
Boiled or steamed edamame beans are one of our favorite healthy snacks (mindless munching has never been so healthy). Just in case you didn’t know, edamame is actually just a green soy bean in its fresh state in the pod. In China, fresh edamame is harvested during the summer months. By now, they are all […]
Fried Wontons – A Favorite Chinese Appetizer
Fried wontons are a crispy, crunchy, and delicious appetizer that will have your guests talking about them at the office on Monday morning. We make these for dinner parties and sporting events, and they always disappear. When you hear the word wonton, you usually think of soups. But as taboo as fried food may be, […]
Chinese Walnut Cookies
When you’re young, it can sometimes seem like the world revolves around those sweet treats that are just beyond your reach. Well when my mother was young, these Chinese walnut cookies were one of those sweet treats. She would walk back and forth…back and forth…eyeing those cookies behind the glass case like they were a […]
Key Lime Tart
A Key West icon and delicious dessert, Key Lime Pie was the ONE thing we sought out when we were driving through Key West on our recent road trip, and we sampled multiple versions, a couple of which were standouts (more on this later). First, let me get to the all-important question of which team you root […]
Butternut Squash Lasagna
This butternut squash lasagna is the perfect winter food. It’s warm, cheesy, and comforting…awesome for curling up on the couch in front of the TV with your dinner. The way I look at it, most of your run-of-the-mill lasagna is pretty summery–tomatoes, basil…maybe some eggplant or zucchini. THIS butternut squash lasagna recipe features ingredients that […]
Milk Bread – An Easy Chinese Bakery Classic
This Asian milk bread recipe is a triumph. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that for months, we’ve searched, tested, and failed time and time again to nail down a perfect recipe for soft, buttery Asian bakery milk bread. Until this past weekend, that is, when we finally did it. There are many milk […]
Fried Calamari – Best Homemade Recipe
This fried calamari recipe is the best we’ve ever had. It satisfies that restaurant-appetizer itch gloriously. (Y’all know what I’m talking about–when the only thing you want in life is to devour a platter of calamari and a TGI Friday’s appetizer sampler: buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, potato skins–the works. Is it just me?) We use […]
Olive Oil Pecan Rum Cake
A few years ago, I found myself at a family friend’s holiday party with my parents. Teens know the drill—there’s not much to look forward to beyond some heavy conversation with older adults and a doozy of a cheese and pâté platter. You amble back and forth between each of your parents, indulge too much […]
Orange Five-Spice Roast Goose and Potatoes
Orange Five-Spice Roast Goose and Potatoes. Have more glorious words ever been spoken in the English language? We realize we’re a little bit down to the wire here…4 days before Christmas and all, but I actually just made this recipe in our kitchen approximately 3 hours ago (we had this baby for a pre-Christmas test lunch, […]
Sausage Balls 2 Ways
Disclaimer: This recipe is not healthy. It’s basically fat city. #whocares #itsChristmas Yes, sausage balls aren’t exactly the healthiest of holiday appetizers. But what better time to indulge in a few of these awkwardly named treats than this time of year, when waistbands are loose and thoughts of dieting are quietly suppressed? I guess that […]
Matcha Bacon Sugar Cookies (and a Giveaway!)
It’s Christmas cookie season again everyone! We have a really crazy cookie recipe for you today, as well as an awesome giveaway, in which there will be 2 (count ’em, 2!)…winners. So Matcha Bacon Sugar Cookies. Is that a good combination, you ask? Why yes. Yes it is. The combination of tea and savory flavors […]
Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Congee
Ok, people! I am pretty certain that you’ve never seen this take on Thanksgiving leftovers before, and I am super excited to let you in on our family tradition. For as long as I’ve known Bill and his family, which is almost 30 years now, this has been and will always be our breakfast on […]
Cinnamon Sugar Apple Fritters
Every year, our NJ town turns into somewhat of a hub for everyone in the tristate area to pick apples and frolic in pumpkin patches. Barring the mildly irritating amounts of traffic, it’s actually a pretty delightful place to be–one chief reason being the abundance of locally-made apple cider donuts. I’ve always been more of an […]
Cheesy Kale Sweet Potato Tart
Remember when kale was an under-the-radar vegetable–the woody stemmed leaves making an appearance only as decoration for the honey hams and turkey breasts in your supermarket’s deli case? Kale has experienced an extreme resurgence in the last couple years…coming out of the shadows and exhibited in everything from soups, salads, and stuffings to pastas, smoothies, and […]
Savory Maple Corn Muffins w/ Sage, Butternut Squash, Bacon, and Cheese
Sometimes you’re going about life, minding your own business and following your daily routine…when you have a thought. A thought that’s so utterly beyond the standard procedure that it demands attention be paid. Before you know it, your ho-hum corn muffin recipe is transformed into something nonsensically delectable. Today was that day. I was standing in the supermarket, pacing around the produce […]
Grandpa’s Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe
Thanksgiving is one of my absolute favorite holidays, for three big reasons: 1. It involves my favorite meal of the year (…Top 5 at least). 2. It heralds the start of nonstop Christmas music on the radio. Because I’m a weirdo who never gets tired of Perry Como and Nat King Cole singing about chestnuts on open […]
Tostones with Tomato Salsa
Tostones is a classic across Latin America and definitely a favorite of ours at The Woks of Life. These days, some takeout Chinese restaurants are actually serving up fried plantains on their menus. They’ll slice the plantains, freeze them in single portions, and quickly drop them into a fryer when ordered. That’s a method you could potentially use […]
Lemon Manchego Toasts with Green Olive Tapenade
Here’s an easy vegetarian party appetizer idea for ya’ll. Lemon Manchego Toasts with Green Olive Tapenade. Deceptively easy, and really tasty. I opened the fridge last week and took a real good look at the condiments and other sundries on the door. Among the jars and bottles of mustard, mayonnaise, and Sriracha, I immediately pinpointed a sad […]