Got bored of baking standard cookies, so let’s make something different — a knockoff Choco-chip batch.

Easiest cookie I’ve ever made, and it tastes the best too.

This time I roasted chicken thighs. The method is pretty much the same as last time.

Last time I made cranberry cookies. This time I wanted to add some flavor. My two favorites are black pepper and matcha, and black pepper is obviously out of the question, so matcha it is.

The bake-it-yourself bread series. A bloomer. The European kind. Probably the most classic, most beginner-friendly one out there — Paul teaches you to bake bread, from the BBC Recipe channel. Paul Hollywood’s bloomer http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_bloomer_84636

Sort of a copycat of Zhongwang’s little cookies? Making them is actually really simple.

Still the oven. This time it’s small drumsticks, not the big thigh kind. And the flavor is my favorite again — black pepper!

Another day, another excuse to fire up the oven. I can’t get through a day without black pepper, and this time it’s shrimp. The usual version of baked shrimp is garlic shrimp, where you stuff the garlic into the meat. First, wash the shrimp, snip open the back of the tail and pull out the black intestine, then score it with a knife so it opens into two halves. Add Shaoxing wine, a little oil, and a tiny bit of salt to marinate. No need to marinate long — about an hour is plenty.

I bought an oven recently, so cooking has a whole new frontier to expand into.