Malinda Lo

When I was a kid, I always wanted to bake cookies at Christmas. I wanted to make gingerbread men. I wanted to make sugar cookies in the shapes of angels. I wanted to make Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to make peanut butter cookies and press the tines of a fork down against ... More→

We recently had a dinner party at our house, and because it’s the height of the summer, I wanted to take advantage of all the great produce at our local farmer’s market. (Warning: Blatant locavore/foodie talk to come!) For the main course, we made the Barefoot Contessa’s Tuscan lemon chicken: We bought a Mary’s free-range ... More→

This year’s pie was made with organic fuji and gala apples, and mixed with Penzeys Chinese cassia cinnamon, a bit of lemon juice, and half a cup of sugar (most recipes call for more). The crust is the crust out of Joy of Cooking, using half butter and half shortening. Enjoy! Happy day-after-Thanksgiving pie eating! More→

Last week I decided to try, again, to recreate my mom’s hongshao rou, or red-cooked pork. (I’ve written about previous attempts here.) To do so, I googled “hongshao rou” and “red-cooked pork” (the literal translation of the Chinese phrase) to see what other people had done. Most of the recipes did not resemble the one ... More→

Earlier this month, to celebrate finishing the first draft of my next novel (woohoo!) — as well as the fact that the strawberries this summer are fantastic — I made a strawberry pie. The most important part of this pie is the strawberries, because except for a small amount of puree, they remain uncooked. That ... More→

Into the Wardrobe, a blog about children’s and YA books, has a monthlong series of posts about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which takes place every May in the U.S. Many APA authors are interviewed, including Cindy Pon and Justina Chen Headley, whose books I have both recently read and highly recommend! Headley’s latest, North ... More→