What the pho?

The October Daring Cooks' challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the Steamy Kitchen. The challenge was Vietnamese pho and fried dessert wantons. All these recipes you can find in her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

This was a perfect challenge as the last few weeks the weather is Northern California has been cold.If you live in Berekely, CA you can understand what I mean. Hot soup on a cold night. Perfection!

The husband was surprised when he got home to see a nice hot bowl of beef pho waiting for him. He claims that he can eat pho 365 days a year and still not be sick of it. Wow!

I heart any kind of noodle soups. I love adding slices of fish cakes or thinly sliced beef.

The second part of this challenge was to make dessert wantons. I love to eat fried foods, but I don't like cooking them at home. I get paranoid about all the leftover cooking oil and seeing the food cooked in the oil turns me off to actually eating the completed product.

I decided to bake my dessert wantons instead of frying them. I was on a apple/pear phase when I made these. I sauteed chopped apples/pears with a little butter and cinnamon. Filled them up in the wantons and baked them 10 mins on each side at 350 degrees.

These came out sooo yummy. Add some ice cream and it makes a great dessert. Hot soup for dinner and a cool dessert to cool you down.