Foodie Obsession

{The Adventures of Suet Pudding}

2010-04-27T00:28:00.002-05:00

After taking off time from my blog, I had decided not only was it time to post recipes again, but to also start participating in Daring Bakers again. The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet. Now for me this was a bit difficult due to dietary restraints. It's not that I was 'disgusted' by the idea of using fat off an animal, it is that slowly I'm making my way to an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet.

The most difficult process was attempting to find the suet. I tried Sprouts Farmer's Market, Whole Foods, World Market and Central Market. Only Central Market had an idea of what I was talking about and tried to defer me to the meat counter, but I was making every effort possible to find the vegetable suet. Luckily there was a couple shopping at Central Market and they informed me about the British Emporium. I made my way over to the Emporium, asked if they had any vegetable suet and son of a gun they were out! I snickered in my head a bit because I thought maybe there were other Daring Bakers in my area that probably snatched it up :) They told me it would be a while before they get their next batch so I had to give up the adventure.

So as of Sunday I made the steamed sponge version of the puddings and both turned out lovely, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the mango version the most :)

Recipes come from the following sources: Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course, The pudding club (www.puddingclub.com), Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and the Dairy Book of Home Cooking and my family’s recipe notes!

Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type:
makes approximately 4 self-serve/ramekins

100 grams/4 ounces All-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons Baking powder
100 grams/4 ounces breadcrumbs
75 grams/3 ounces Caster sugar
75 grams/ 3 ounces Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard) [I used Crisco]
1 large egg
6 to 8 tablespoons Cold milk

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.
2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet.
3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk
4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.
5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours
6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

Caramelized Onion & Rosemary Topping:

1 medium white onion, sliced thinly and cut into moons
1 long stem (sprig) of rosemary, discard the stem
1/2 tablespoon butter
3-5 tablespoon milk
4-5 tablespoon sugar

1. Using a medium saute pan on low-medium heat, melt the butter, then add the onions. Stir frequently until softened, add rosemary.
2. Gradually add milk and sugar, cook until onions are completely soft, use less or more sugar as desired.
3. Place evenly to the bottom of the ramekins being used for the sponge pudding.

Mango & Agave Topping:

1 ripe mango (cut into slivers)
2-3 tablespoons agave nectar

1. Either toss the mango in the agave nectar before placing into ramekins, or you can line up the mango at the bottom of the ramekins, and then spoon 1 tablespoon for each ramekin.

{Wild Rice Muffins}

2010-03-22T11:49:00.005-05:00

Hello there sunshine! Or should I say stud muffin :) This little muffin is great for on the go, or even with your morning breakfast and would not be complete without a good cup of coffee. If you don't care for prunes or apricots, feel free to change the mixture around! You can not really go wrong in doing so, as long as in the end you are pleasing your taste buds.

Wild Rice Muffins:
makes approximately a dozen

1/3 c. wild rice, soaked in cold water for approx. 2 hours
4 cardamom pods
2 eggs
1 1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. (1 stick) salted butter, soft
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. oat bran (or wheat)
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. allspice
5 Tbsp. chopped dried prunes
5 Tbsp. chopped dried apricots

1. Drain the wild rice. Place the rice in a medium saucepan with 2 cups water and 4 cardamom pods. Bring rice to a boil for about 2-3 minutes. Turn down to a simmer for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally and until rice is tender. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. Make sure to also remove the cardamom pods.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or use a non-stick muffin pan.
3. In a medium bowl, beat the rice, eggs, milk and butter with an electric mixer until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bran, sugar, baking powder and allspice. Add the cool rice mixture and stir until combined. Once combined, fold in dry ingredients to wet mixture. Additionally fold in the prunes and apricots to the mixture.
5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, filling about two-thirds way. Sprinkle additional sugar on top before putting in oven if you wish. Bake for 15-20 minutes, remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

{Grapefruit, Blood Orange & Wine Sorbet}

2010-03-15T01:22:00.003-05:00

Shockingly in Texas, our weather is starting to pick up. Most of our cold weather has gone away and it is finally time to start busting out the bermuda shorts and tank tops. In celebration of Spring approaching, I felt it was necessary to make a Spring dessert after having some friends over for dinner one evening. Tilapia with sage butter, cous cous, steamed vegetables and making sorbet with friends - dinner could not have been better.

Since grapefruits are in their prime right now in Texas, they make for perfect sorbet.

Grapefruit, Blood Orange & Wine Sorbet (alcoholic):

3/4 c. simple syrup (can be made in advance - one part water, 3/4 part sugar)
1 1/4 c. grapefruit juice
1 1/4 c. blood orange juice
1/2 c. wine

It would be best if all the ingredients are cold prior to adding to an ice cream machine. You can either make the grapefruit juice and blood orange juice yourself or you can buy the juice. If you prefer for the sorbet to be non-alcoholic, simply cook the wine with the simple sugar mixture.

1. If you have an ice cream/sorbet machine, follow the instructions per your manufacturer's manual.
2. If you do not happen to have an ice cream/sorbet machine, mix all ingredients via a blender, or a large mixing bowl. Once combined, transfer all ingredients to a large bowl and place in freezer. Process should take about two hours and you will be good to go.

The syrup you see in the image was simply made by boiling pomegranate balsamic vinegar produced by Texas Olive Ranch (1 1/2 c. balsamic) and sugar (3 Tbsp) until dissolved. Once sugar is dissolved, reduce heat to medium low and simmer until reduced to almost three quarters in volume, and thickened into a syrup. Remove from heat and cool completely.

2010-02-23T22:47:00.000-06:00

Hello lovelies!

Just right around the corner and I will be launching the blog in full throttle again. Feel free to salivate over photos and read food review articles in the mean time if you wish :)

Happy Holidays

2009-11-29T16:02:00.002-06:00

Hello!

It's been quite some time since I published last but with finals getting closer and closer each day and with me being the Fort Worth Restaurant Examiner plus my regular job, things have gotten a little busier. For the time being I probably will not be posting any recipes for a while, but starting sometime in Feb-Mar, I fully intend to start up again and go back to participating in Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks.

I hope you all stay safe for the holiday season and take care!

~Kendra

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake with Vanilla Glaze

2009-10-04T19:20:00.010-05:00

I've been on a diet for quite some time, 10 weeks and I've lost about 20 lbs. It's a bit exciting but I still have much to lose. Things have changed drastically since I've posted last and unfortunately right now I do not have the time to bake as often as I would like but I'm hoping to at least start doing this monthly or bi-monthly. I was at the store with Ethan and decided "ooo, it's pumpkin season!" So of course I'm guilty, I used my Epicurious iPhone App to look up some pumpkin recipes and the bundt cake sounded the best since I did not want to try tackle down making flan. I made very few modifications to this recipe, but for the original, click here for Epicurious' Porterfield Pumpkin Bundt with Snow White Glaz e.

Pumpkin bundt

3 1/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or mace
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
1 light olive oil
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin
2/3 cup milk
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Snow White glaze

1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons honey
Scant pinch of salt
2 to 3 drops fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoons milk or cream, or as needed

Make pumpkin bundt:
1. Position rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.

3. Add the granulated sugar to the large bowl of an electric mixer and crumble in the dark brown sugar, breaking up any clumps with your fingers. Add the oil and 2 eggs and beat until blended, then beat in the remaining eggs and the pumpkin. Scrape down the bowl and beater.

4. With the mixer on the lowest speed, alternately add the milk and the dry ingredients. When everything is blended, scrape down the bowl, then beat a few seconds longer until the batter is smooth and creamy. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the cake has risen, is springy to the touch and is cracked on top, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool the cake in its pan on a rack for 20 to 25 minutes.

6. Slide a knife around the pan sides and the top of the tube to release the cake. Top the cake with a foil-covered cardboard cake disk or a flat plate, invert, and lift off the pan. Peel off the paper, if you used it. Cool the cake completely.

Make glaze:
1. Whisk together all the ingredients until smooth and creamy. Add a drop more of milk if necessary. The glaze should have a soft, just slightly runny (but not liquefied) consistency. Use the glaze as soon as it is prepared.

2. Spread the glaze on the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides.

Daring Bakers: Strawberry Rhubarb Cream Cheese Strudel

2009-05-27T00:00:00.001-05:00

I was really concerned that I wasn't going to complete the Daring Cooks or Daring Baker's Challenge for this month due to lack of money. Luckily I was able to pull off both and I'm very happy that I was able to do so, it was really a close call on both.

I have never had rhubarb before in my life but it's always intrigued me when I saw strawberry and rhubarb pies! I have so many saved blog links from great looking pies but it's so rare to find fresh rhubarb in Texas. Luckily when I stopped by the market on the way home the other day to get a few things they had some rhubarb. I already had fresh strawberries at home, so I figured why not make a strawberry rhubarb strudel? I added the cream cheese because outside of apfelstrudel, all other German strudels I have actually contain cream cheese. Most places I go to are Bavarian bakeries, so I'm not sure if it's a regional thing or just something that was incorporated into American x German culture.

I probably should have used a different pan to bake the strudel - so I DO NOT suggest using a large cookie sheet like I did, because the juices leaked out to the bottom of the stove. So try to use a pan that has sides of some sort to bake your strudel if you can.

Other than that, this strudel didn't last for more than 5 hours, Ethan and I gobbled it all up because it was so delicious!!

Strudel Dough

1 1/3 cups unbleached flour
1/8 tsp salt
7 tablespoons water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 tsp cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, vegetable oil and cider in a separate bowl and add to flour mix on low speed. You will get a soft dough and if too dry, add a little more water. Take the dough out of the mixer, switch attachment for the dough hook. Put the ball back into the mixer and knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading on an unfloured surface by hand. This will take about 2-5 minutes. Pick up and throw the dough down hard onto the surface a few times while kneading. Shape the dough into a ball and let rest on a plate. Lightly brush with vegetable oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest for 30-90 minutes (I was told the longer the better so I let mine rest for about 10 hours).
3. It was instructed to have a table that you can walk around such as a 36" round table or a 23" x 28" table. You want to cover this work area with a table cloth and sprinkle flour over the cloth and then rub it in. Put your ball of dough in the middle of your work area and roll it out as much as you can. Pick the dough up by an edge so the weight of the dough and gravity can help it stretch. Using the back of your hands, gently stretch and pull the dough.
4. Stretch the dough until it's about 2' x 3', making sure it's tissue thin. Cut away the thick edges of the dough with scissors.

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling
adapted from Epicurious

3 cups strawberries, hulled and quartered
3 cups rhubarb, leaves discarded, cut into 1/4-1/2 inch rounds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
5 Tbsp cornstarch

1. In bowl toss together strawberries, rhubarb, sugars and cornstarch

***Note: For the cream cheese, I chose NOT to sweeten it. I thought about doing so, however, with as much sugar as the strawberry rhubarb mix uses, I advised myself against it. I let the cream cheese reach room temperature and using my hands I created large regtangular sheets of cream cheese to put on top of the mix. I made these about 1/4" thick.

Assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Your dough should still be on the table, using one end of the dough, line your filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Tuck the ends underneath the strudel. Transfer to a baking sheet or baking dish, creating a horseshoe curve if necessary to fit.
3. Bake strudel for about 20-30 minutes until it is a golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serve either warm or at room temperature. Best eaten on same day as baked.

The May Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

1st Daring Cooks Challenge - Ricotta Gnocchi

2009-05-14T00:33:00.007-05:00

I'm glad I got this accomplished! I was a little concerned since I was short on money for the month but I was able to pull through last minute :)

I have always wanted to make gnocchi, but I have never heard of ricotta gnocchi! All the gnocchi I wanted to make was using potatoes, so this was different. Somewhat like my friend over at spicy ice cream, I'm not a huge fan of ricotta. I will use it for some things, but on a very very very rare occasion. It's just not one of my favorite cheeses :/

Shockingly this turned out amazing. Ethan liked it and just asked me "so what's the good stuff?" :) I told him he can thank the Daring Cooks for this challenge :P

I also tried leeks for the first time, just because I felt like it. No real reason, other than leeks and gnocchi sounded good together? I like the taste of leeks and I'm sure I'll find ways to cook it again in the future.

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

2 cups fresh ricotta
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2-3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (these are all optional)
1/4 cup lightly packed Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 tsp salt
AP flour for forming gnocchi

1. The day before you make the gnocchi you want to prepare your ricotta. If the ricotta is too wet, the gnocchi will not form properly. To remove some of the moisture, line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels and place the ricotta in the sieve. Wrap the ricotta carefully in cheesecloth (you’ll want to use 2-3 layers) and suspend it in the refrigerator for 8-24 hrs with a bowl underneath to catch any released water.

2. To make gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or large spoon. As you mash the ricotta if you still notice curds, press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.

3. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta and mix well. Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts if you are using sage, add it now. If not, just melt the butter and add to ricotta mixture making sure to mix quickly. If you are using a flavoring such as numeg or lemon zest, add now. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt, again mix well. You want to end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks.

4. Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. This waster will be used to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your batter isn’t too wet.

5. In a large, shallow baking dish or a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep. With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the center of your bowl. Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2-3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to push the ball of dough into the bed of flour. You can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure the flour covers the gnocchi or gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval shape as best as you can. Do not squeeze it. You want an oval lump that’s dusted in flour and plump.

6. Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink then bob to the top. From the time it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm, which could vary from 3-5 minutes. If gnocchi falls apart, beat a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If your gnocchi batter was fluffy but sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter. Test a second time to ensure there are no issues.

7. Form the rest of your gnocchi by putting 4-6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time but do not overcrowd as you may damage your gnocchi. Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the shet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour. You can cook the gnocchi right away if you wish, but preferrably store in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking.

8. In the largest pan or pot that you have, bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, salt it generously. Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one, once they float to the top, cook them for 3-5 minutes. Remove and serve with sauce.

Fontina Sauce
Recipe modified from here

6 tbsp butter
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
6 oz fontina cheese
1 tbsp aged gruyère
1 tbsp parmigiano-reggiano

1. In a medium sized saucepan, melt butter. (I personally was going to add garlic but forgot)
2. Add heavy whipping cream and only add cheese a small handful at a time
3. Stir well
4. Serve

I did steam up some spinach and add it to the gnocchi, feel free to add whatever you like though! I'm sure it'd be great with artichokes, roasted or sundried tomatoes, or caramelized onions!

Leeks were nothing special. They were just brushed with olive oil and served with cooked bacon. Idea came from here, however, did not use the bacon fat nor balsamic, but I regret not using the balsamic, I think it would've tasted nicely with the leeks :)

Hope you enjoy! Thanks Daring Cooks for this challenge!

April Daring Baker's Challenge: Cheesecake

2009-04-27T00:00:00.003-05:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

**I also added a blood orange glaze to mine, and the recipe can be found here.**

This was an easy-ish challenge. I've never made cheesecake before, but I did feel confident in making it. I'm not too estatic about how the crust is made, but oh well. I think I will be making cheesecake in the future...very soon! :)

Pad Woon Sen

2009-04-21T23:01:00.005-05:00

So I wanted to try to recreate what I've had at LEX, a Thai restaurant nearby, but I didn't quite get it down. This is my first attempt at making pad woon sen and I'm sure I will attempt again in the future. I forgot to add the ginger - lol.

Thai Pad Woon Sen (serves 3-4)
*Recipe inspired from 2 sources: Pad Woon sen on Thai Food Tonight and Pad Woonsen on Recipezaar*

6-8 bundles bean thread, soaked in cold water for 10-2o minutes, drained and dried off with towel
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic (about 2-3 garlic cloves depending on size)
4 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 a white or yellow onion, sliced thinly into moons
3 Chicken breasts (sliced)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups bean sprouts
Chicken stock (just in case noodles dry out)

1. Heat wok on high and add vegetable oil
2. In a bowl combine chicken, fish sauce, sugar and sesame oil, set aside
3. Once oil is hot saute garlic and onion (cook for about 3 minutes or so), add chicken mixture and cook until tender.
4. Add noodles and toss with chicken - if they start to dry out - add a little chicken stock.
5. Once noodles begin to turn clear add eggs one at a time, mixing well in between. Add bean sprouts, toss until bean sprouts are slightly warm. Serve with cilantro if you wish

Semi-Homemade Cooking with Kendra? (Spaghetti Squash and Sundae)

2009-04-19T22:03:00.005-05:00

So I feel as if I just created my own episode of "Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee". Ethan and I bought spaghetti squash the other day, so I decided to put it to good use.

Squash Spaghetti (serves 2-4)

1 spaghetti squash
1 squash (cut into 1/4" dials)
1 zucchini (cut into 1/4" dials)
Prepared diced tomatoes (I just used the basil and garlic one I found at the store)
1/2 small can of tomato paste
1 Tbsp minced garlic (we really love garlic...so this is optional)
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Cut spaghetti squash in half from stem to stern, rind up and cook for 30-45 minutes
3. In a bowl, generously coat the squash and zucchini with the olive oil, move to roasting pan and roast for 20-25 minutes.
4. While the the veggies are cooking, in a small to medium pot on medium heat, cook tomatoes, tomato paste and garlic together. Stir occasionally and use salt and pepper to desired taste.
5. When spaghetti squash is done, using a fork, scrape from stem to stern. Serve with squash, zucchini and tomatoes. Top off with a little parmesean if you wish.

Cookie Sundae (serves 2) -- recipe from Our Best Bites: Pizzookie

Homemade or premade cookie dough
Ice cream for serving
Toppings if you wish (chocolate crackle, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, nuts, etc.)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Using an ice cream scoop, use two scoops cookie dough and place in ramekin. Pressure down using either fingers or the scoop.
3. Place in oven and bake for 12-18 minutes. The dough should be golden brown on top but still gooey inside. Serve with ice cream and toppings of your choice!

Moro Blood Oranges

2009-04-16T23:44:00.003-05:00

Never in my life have I got to eat a blood orange. I will say, I want to know why the hell not! These are a wonderful fruit! I love oranges, but this fruit in particular is a little more sweet and a little less acidic. I used one half for drinking the juice, and the other half I ate the flesh. I most definitely will be going back to the little Farmer's Market down the road to get more of these and to also try out spaghetti squash!

I think I will be trying this blood orange yogurt cake from Honey & Jam

As for spaghetti squash - I'm sure I'll come up with something! At least I read how to cook it! :D

French Dip

2009-04-02T11:52:00.006-05:00

So, I may try this 365 thing again and we'll see how it goes. This time I am not doing self portraiture.

So here's the tequila sunrise Ethan made for me the other night :)

And here's my french dip :D Yum.

French Dip (serves about 6-8)

2.3+ lb beef roast
4 tablespoons garlic powder
2 cans beef broth
Hoagie rolls
Provolone Cheese
Mayonnaise
Horseradish (you can use pure or the spread)

1. In a crockpot, pour the 2 cans of beef broth and 4 Tbsp of garlic powder and place on high or low (If you are going to cook on high - the roast will need to cook for 3-4 hrs and on low for 7-8 hrs).
2. In a large skillet pan sear the roast until light brown. Do not leave any red. Once seared, place in crockpot and let cook.
3. Once your meat is near done, place oven on broil setting. When the meat is done, slice thinly.
4. Prepare the hoagies by adding desired amount of provolone cheese, let broil in oven for 3-5 minutes or until desired crispiness is reached.
5. If you wish to use mayo, for each 1 Tbsp mayo, I use 1 tsp horseradish. Spread on rolls. Add meat.
6. Reserve the juices from the crockpot to be used as au jus.

A relatively nice day...

2009-03-28T22:53:00.008-05:00

So today I had to meet up with some friends that are going to be helping out at the AnimeFest table at Anime Matsuri. I'm psyched because Miyavi will be there and I have wanted to meet that man since I was...14? 15? I don't remember. I'm just fascinated by his music and I have so many questions for him, but I'm not sure that I'd be able to talk with him. I think I'll have to ask around some of the staff there to see what they can do for me. I'm sure there will be meet and greet time with photo opportunities which I will DEFINITELY take advantage of. The concert I hope will be fantastic. I would hope he would sing Onpu no Tegami, but if not, I would take any song by him.

Anyways, we'll be selling registration and dealer's room booths for our convention on Easter weekend and I needed helpers so we had to meet with my Director. Afterward we went to go get lunch at a Korean place near a Ramen house we used to go to. They were SO nice there and better than the typical Korean restaurant we go to. I think the prices were a bit cheaper but it is a further drive than the other place we go to. However I think I would almost drive the distance for the service!

Once we were done getting lunch, I was determined that since I was already far out in Richardson, might as well drive out further to get Japanese Crepes at Crepes for U. As usual I get the same thing, but I can't wait to eventually try the place up in Washington state! I still need to work out my vacation to see when I can travel up there :/

Other than that, all in all, it was an okay day. Came home, napped a little, and now that I'm up, I've been working on hw, uploading pics and also going broke by renewing my flickr acct plus other things ><;; Only thing about Korean food sometimes is it can drive you broke. Yep.

Shortbread Cookie Bar

2009-03-27T21:00:00.005-05:00

I was throwing together a potluck for work today and it proved to be failure. Everyone took vto (voluntary time off), which kinda saddened me but oh well, there was nothing I could do about it. I also hate the moochers, who never bring anything and eat everyone else's stuff, but beggars can't be choosers. Maybe they're lazy, maybe they don't want to spend the money - I have no idea. At least one of the managers was nice enough to buy pizza. However I had leftovers of these bad boys so I brought them home. I don't think my team at work likes shortbread type cookies - haha. Too bad for them! More for me and Ethan :)

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookie Bar

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. white sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla.
3. Beat in half of flour, then add an egg. Once well incorporated, add remaining flour, then add the last egg.
4. Once mixed well, stir in chips
5. Lightly grease a 9"x13" pan. Scrape out dough onto pan and using a spatula, try to spread the dough evenly across the pan.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, turning halfway through. Cool completely

Leftovers

2009-03-27T00:10:00.001-05:00

Used some penne I had in my pantry, then whatever ragu I had leftover, piled some on top, plus some ricotta and parmigiano-reggiano

Link to lasagne for ragu and ricotta recipe

Crostini & Panna Cotta

2009-03-27T00:09:00.002-05:00

This went with the lasagne dinner. However, I didn't want to try to shove all the recipes in one post since obviously the lasagne one was rather long.

Goat Cheese & Balsamic Onion Crostini

French baguette, brioche or ciabatta, cut about 1/4"-1/3" thick
2 Tbsp olive oil (for brushing bread)
2-3 garlic heads, cut in half
4 oz goat cheese?
1 Tbsp butter
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp honey
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread slices of bread on baking sheet and using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the bread with olive oil.
2. Place in oven and bake until bread has started to brown and become crispy (about 5-7 mins). Remove from oven and set aside.
3. In a large skillet, melt the butter.
4. Add onion to skillet and cook over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes more.
5. Stir in vinegar and honey, then season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.
6. On each slice of bread, generously rub the flat side of the garlic head onto the bread. Add a light amount of goat cheese, then top with onion mixture.

Blackberry Panna Cotta

1/3 cup milk
1 envelope gelatin
2 1/2 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. white sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 c. fresh blackberries
1 c. water
1/4 c. sugar

1. Pour milk into small bowl, stir in gelatin powder and set aside.
2. In saucepan, stir heavy cream and sugar on medium heat. Bring to a full boil. Pour gelatin mix stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for 1 minute, constantly stirring.
3. Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice.
4. Pour evenly into cups or ramekins that are lightly oiled. Let sit at room temperature until cooled down, then cover and place in fridge for at least 4 hrs. Can also sit overnight.
5. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, combine blackberries, water and sugar. Cook for at least 10-15 minutes. Chill in a bowl or in the saucepan for 3 hrs or more - until cold.
6. **Note: I will say I was unsuccessful in trying to unmold the panna cotta but you can try if you wish!** Unmold the panna cotta by taking a knife around the edges of the ramekin and flip upside down onto a plate. If panna cotta does not slip out, place glass in warm water for a few seconds to loosen the panna cotta. Serve with blackberry sauce on top.

Daring Bakers: Spinach Lasagne

2009-03-27T00:08:00.001-05:00

Daring Bakers Challenge: Lasagne

The March 2009 Challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

I'll have to admit, this DB challenge reminds me of Food Network's: Chopped. I really have not had ANY experience making pasta. So this really was a challenge for me. Not only that, but made me nervous as hell since I was cooking for two friends - one of which is Italian and criticizes me for mispronouncing things :P Which at least my Italian friend said it was good for being a vegetarian dish :) I do always receive at least ONE complaint about salt though. People have learned with me - I dislike salt. You have to add it yourself - lol.

I'll also have to say - I did have to make adjustments when making this and I did add ingredients. Hopefully I won't be slaughtered though for adding ricotta :/

#1 Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)

2 jumbo eggs (I had to use 3)
10 oz fresh spinach, rinsed dry and finely chopped or 6 oz frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry.
3 1/2 cup all purpose unbleached flour

1. In a stand mixer, add flour. Make a well in the center, then add spinach and eggs.
2. Using a dough hook, mix well, making sure to scrape down sides of bowl if necessary. Mix until dough becomes thick and an elastic substance (may be a tad sticky).
3. On a roomy surface, knead the dough for 3-5 minutes, the wrap in seran wrap and rest for 30 minutes - 3 hrs.
4. Quarter the dough and working with your first quarter, roll into a ball. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, turning each time you roll. Keep doing this until there is an even thickness. Dough sheet should be very thin so that you can see your fingers. Cut into rectangles, about 4 by 8 inches.
5. If you are to use the pasta fresh, cook for about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook for about 4. Pasta will continue to cook during baking process so do not cook until al dente. Lift lasagne sheet out of water with skimmer, drain, then place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Once the lasagne sheet has completely cooled, lift out and dry on paper towels. Repeat until all your pasta is cooked.

#2 Béchamel

4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tbsp all purpose unbleached flour
2 2/3 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt & pepper.

#3 Country Style Ragù (Ragù

alla Contadina) adopted from Epicurious (made modifications)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 cups finely chopped canned whole Italian-style plum tomatoes
1 cup (or more) low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup Chianti or other dry red wine
6 Tbsp dried basil

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and crushed red pepper; sauté until brown, about 6 minutes. Add carrots, onion, and celery; sauté until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Mix in tomatoes. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 cup broth and wine; simmer uncovered until liquid is slightly reduced, about 15 minutes. Add basil; cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, adding more broth by 1/4 cupfuls if liquid evaporates too quickly and stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes. Simmer uncovered until ragù thickens to desired consistency, stirring often, about 10 minutes longer. Season lightly with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm over medium heat before using.)

#4 Ricotta

1/2 gallon whole milk
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste

1. In a large saucepan, combine both milks over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally, scraping the bottom o the pan so that the milk does not scorch. Once the milk is hot, stop stirring. The curds will rise to the surace. Run a spatula along the bottom of the pan occasionally just in case any curds became stuck.
2. While the milk is heating, line a colander or sieve with several layers of chessecloth and place over a large bowl or sink.
3. When you see your curds and whey seperate in the milk mixture, remove the pan from heat. Gently ladle the curds onto the cheesecloth. Pull on the sides of cheesecloth if necessary to drain any excess liquid. Do not press on curds. Gather all the edges and tie. Allow your ricotta to drain for another 15 minutes - 3 hrs. Move to an airtight container and refrigerate. (This is only good for about 2-3 days)

#5 Grilled Vegetables

1 yellow squash, sliced longways
1 zucchini, sliced longways
Olive oil to brush veggies

1. Place your grill on medium-high heat.
2. Lightly brush the squash and zucchini with olive oil.
3. Cook on grill until light burn marks are made on both sides.

Assembly

Take your cooked pasta and apply a light layer of béchamel.
Apply thin layer of ragù.
Apply thin layer of ricotta.
Lay vegetables side-by-side. Alternate between squash and zucchini.
Carefully roll up lasagne.
Fasten with toothpick if necessary
Apply another layer of béchamel on top.
Apply another layer of ragù on top.
Add any leftover vegetables on top of the lasagne
Add grated parmigiano-reggiano.
Cover with foil and bake (350 degrees Farenheit) for 40 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Banoffee/Banoffy Pie

2009-03-25T13:48:00.000-05:00

So I'm a cheater. I used pre-made graham cracker crust. And lesson learned: next time I'm using regular pie dough for this recipe. I think it will hold up better. We'll see. I did caramelize the bananas on top of the pie. One wound up a little burnt more than the others as you can see. Also, whip was applied afterward if needed/wanted.

Banoffee/Banoffy Pie
(as much as I dislike Paula Deen, recipe was slightly adapted through her and inspired from Spicy Icecream's post)

1 graham cracker pie crust (use recipe of choice or storebought - or attempt the pie dough if you wish)
2-14oz cans sweentened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
3-4 bananas
Sugar
Favorite whipped cream for topping if you wish

1. In a large saucepan, place your two cans of sweetened condensed milk (wrappers off though) into the pot. Add water until you see only about 1/2" of the top of the can. Place on stove on medium-high heat. Cook for about 4 hours, adding water as needed, so the pan doesn't dry out (I've heard about can explosions) and turn the cans every 30 minutes or so.
2. Once done cooking, remove from water and open the cans. Empty the cans into a large bowl, add 1 tablespoon of vanilla and stir well.
3. Once done stirring, cut a banana (or 2 if you wish) into 1/4"-1/2" disks. Line the bottom of your graham cracker crust with the banana disks. Add the dulce de leche. Cover and refrigerate for about 3-4 hours - or overnight.
4. Once pie is cooled, cut more banana disks and apply to the top of the pie (I only used one layer since I was caramelizing but stack them on high if you wish!). For each banana disk, cover in about 1/2 tsp of sugar, with your finger, try to spread evenly.
5. Using a cooking torch, caramelize bananas (make sure to use a rotating motion so that all the sugar dissolves)
6. Serve with a dollop of cream if you would like!

Butterfinger Cake

2009-03-05T15:23:00.001-06:00

So there is a bakery I used to frequent that always had a spectacular Butterfinger Cake. I will say this one did not turn out as well as theirs but I have a feeling I know exactly why. Flour. I was on a hunt for cake flour yesterday but never found any and I was running short on time, so I gave up, then headed home to start cooking the cake as well as dinner.

I did not get pictures of dinner last night because I was multitasking. As it is, the cake shots were not taken until today. So if you're interested in an easy dinner, I basically steamed some spinach, used about 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup feta and 1 Tbsp oregano - mixed all this up. I used a mallet to flatten out the chicken a bit, placed a good chunk of the mix to the middle of the chicken, then wrapped the chicken in prosciutto to keep it rounded. Baked at 375 for one hour and served with roasted veggies. Ethan and I both liked it :) It was missing onions and garlic though :/ I could only use what I had on hand since we forgot to go to the store the other day.

Now for the cake. Which makes me think of Portal. Lol. You may have no idea what I'm talking about.

Butterfinger Cake: (serves about 12)

Suggestion: Use cake flour v. AP flour if you can. Also, you may consider adding about a 1/2 c - 1 c crushed butterfinger to the batter

3 c. cake flour (or AP flour if that's all you have)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp vanilla (I used butterscotch schnopps)
1 c. milk

3/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
4 1/2 c. powdered sugar
4 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
6 Tbsp heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 packages "fun size" Butterfingers, crushed

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (9") round baking pans and set aside.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl, set aside.
3. Beat sugar and butter together on medium speed until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla (or whatever you are using in it's place) and reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well. Finish beating with the remainder milk.
4. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and loosen the edges of the cake by running a knife or spatula around the edges. Remove cake from pan, cool completely.

For frosting:

Cream the butter. Sift the sugar and cocoa powder together and gradually add to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Add the cream and vanilla and beat until well blended and fluffy.

Assembly:

1. Level off the top of the cakes by taking a serrated knife and cutting off the tops. Take some of the frosting and apply to first cake layer's top, once spread, add Butterfinger pieces if you wish.
2. Add the second layer of the cake on top of the frosting, and take the frosting, apply to top and edges. Sprinkle the cake generously with Butterfinger pieces

Pizza and Peaches

2009-02-21T00:31:00.000-06:00

The pizza didn't turn out as great as I would have wished. Guess I need to find Alton Brown's pizza episode and learn a few things :P Plus I realized after I put on all the toppings that I put them on in the incorrect order. I liked the taste of the toppings (minus I hate sauce and Ethan loves sauce), but pizzas are going to take some time for me to perfect. As for the peaches - bliss. That's all I can say about them. I loved them.

I will not be posting a recipe for the pizza since it needs to be worked on, but it did have the following toppings: sauce, spinach, potato, red onion, garlic, sundried tomato, prosciutto, cheese and egg.

Grilled Peaches with Blueberries and Mascarpone: (serves about 2-4)

1/4 cup honey
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 peaches
1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Also prepare your grill on a medium-high heat.
2. Whisk honey, balsamic and vanilla together. This may sit overnight and I guarantee you will probably have leftovers if you only use 2 peaches, so you may cook 4 or more if you wish.
3. With aluminum foil create a "bag" and put in blueberries, sugar, butter and lemon juice. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.
4. Generously coat peaches in honey mixture, place on grill for about 4 minutes on each side of the peach, return to the flesh side and cook until there are slight burn marks on the peach. You may also want to add more of the honey mixture while the peaches are cooking as well.
5. Once peaches and blueberries are done, top the peaches with the blueberries and serve with mascarpone.

Tortilla Soup

2009-02-18T22:01:00.001-06:00

Tortilla Soup: (serves about 6+)

1 tbs olive oil
4 garlic cloves minced
3 tsp chili powder
2 cans diced tomato in juice
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 package frozen corn
2 cans reduced sodium broth (vegetable, chicken, beef, whatever you have on hand)
1 tbs lime juice
Assorted toppings (I made my own little tortilla chips, cut up some avacado and added sour cream - I forgot to put the extra lime on the side)

1. Using a large pot or saucepan, heat on medium and add oil. Once the oil has heated, add the chili powder and the garlic, cook for one minute.
2. Add the tomatoes, black beans, corn, broth and lime to the pot. Cook until boiling, then turn down to a simmer.
3. Serve with whatever condiments you wish :)

Note: If you probably pick up rotisserie chicken at a store, you can pull it apart and turn this into a chicken tortilla soup, or I would imagine if you slow cook chicken in broth for several hours, you can pull it apart and add the broth as your stock.

Alfajores

2009-01-30T01:35:00.001-06:00

I really need to save some money up so I can get strobes one of these days. Anyways, I was too lazy to try and go buy hazelnuts to make my own take on macaroons, so I made these babies for a potluck at work tomorrow. I started to make pretzels but holy crap they took way too long so those are being kept hostage at home :)

Alfajores (makes about 26-30):

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons fresh orange juice (either squeeze your own juice or "Simply Orange" does the trick)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until the mixture is well combined. Then add your milk, orange juice and vanilla until well incorporated, about 2 minutes or so.
4. Using a tablespoon or a cookie scoop, drop dough out onto your prepared baking sheets leaving about 2 inches space.
5. Bake for about 10-12 minutes while rotating halfway through until golden. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool.
6. Once the cookies have cooled completely, spread the bottom half of the cookie with dulce de leche or a jam. Store the cookies in an airtight container and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar if you wish.

**Note: For the dulce de leche I would highly encourage if you have the time, to use Alton Brown's method. If not, then you can always use this method:

14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

1. Immerse closed can on its side in a pot of boiling water.
2. Leave on a simmer or light boil for 3 hours topping off with water as needed. Be careful and don’t let the water dry out.
2. Remove from heat and let cool thoroughly before opening can. Condensed milk should be thick and a nice caramel color.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (that will wind up lasting me for a week)

2009-01-26T00:02:00.000-06:00

So today after an epic fail of trying to make gelée, I needed something else to keep me busy. Cookies! Now I intend later this week to make alfajores for a potluck at work, but I needed chocolate chip cookies to keep me going at home. I've been giving into those darn girl scouts and their thin mints, peanut butter patties, and peanut butter sandwiches. Now they're making me go broke, so this is the next best thing.

So I pulled this recipe from AllRecipes and it turned out fairly well. Ethan loves them, as do I. Soft cookies are the best :) I would suggest that if you're not making these for a party not to make a whole batch. I wasn't paying attention to how many dozen it made...so now these will go to work as well, maybe.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies: (makes about 72)

4 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4-oz) packages vanilla pudding
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift the flour and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in instant pudding until well incorporated.
4. Add the eggs and the vanilla to the creamed mixture until fully incorporated, then add flour gradually. Once fully mixed, stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Spoon the dough onto a lined baking sheet and cook for about 10-12 minutes.

Vegetarian Soup

2009-01-17T00:19:00.000-06:00

So Ethan claims that this recipe is more like a vegetable chili. I guess he doesn't like beans in his chili? I have no idea. To me it was still vegetarian/vegetable soup but whatever. So I will warn that you probably need to add salt to your liking. I got two complaints about there not being enough salt, but I really don't prefer using a lot of salt unless absolutely necessary. Minus the salt factor, I had no complaints. I almost threw my tofu in there but I think that will wait for a sandwich :)

This recipe is supposed to be flexible. If you have leftovers from previous dinners that pertain vegetables, use them in this mix! You can probably add any leftover ground beef you might have, pasta, etc. For the oregano, you can really substitute any sort of Italian spice, and as for the vegetable juice, if you have any V8 on hand, use that in place, or if you have a beef/chicken broth.

Vegetarian/Vegetable Soup, crock-pot styleeee!: (serves about 6-8)

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
8 oz. frozen peppers and onions (I just got an 8 oz. of frozen onions)
3 tablespoons oregano
32 oz. frozen mixed vegetables, or if you have any leftover vegetables, chop them for this recipe
46 oz. can of vegetable juice
Add salt and pepper to your taste (if you wish)

1. Place chopped garlic cloves at bottom of slow cooker, add peppers and onions on top, then sprinkle seasonings.
2. Add the vegetables, then pour the juice all over the ingredients.
3. For short time cooking, place on high for 3-4 hours, or for prolonged, low for 8-10 hours.

Again, feel free to serve on a pasta, whatever you wish! I just personally had this as a soup. Again, might need to add salt according to taste, I didn't add any at all because I felt it already had enough sodium -shrug-, personal opinion.

Oh, might I say I love making nutella s'mores :) Enjoy!

Who needs some Vitamin C?

2009-01-14T23:30:00.000-06:00

YAY! My blog has finally been revamped :)

Recently Ethan had me join something called Chore Wars, it's a little sad that this is the only way he is actually motivated to do chores now, purely because he feels it's a competition. I wish he would've been this way before, but what can I do. If you sign up, feel free to join our party :)

So, on another note, I have an issue of not consuming all the vitamins I should. In fact, when I used to be vegan many moons ago, that's how I actually determined I have vitamin deficiencies (I believe it was just C, D, plus I used to not get enough omega-3, but I love fish, so I've solved that issue). I do sometimes miss being vegan, but it would be a hard lifestyle for me to go back to. Anyways, tonight I used the wonderful naval oranges I got from the market the other day for dinner :D

Chicken with Basil and Thyme: (serves 2)

4 small chicken breasts
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
juice of one naval orange
salt and pepper to taste (if you wish)

1. Preheat a grill (I use my handy dandy Cuisinart Grill/Griddler) on high heat.
2. Evenly shake onto the chicken breasts the garlic powder, thyme and basil. Then squeeze the juice of one naval orange.
3. Place chicken breasts on grill and cook until white inside (if you have a grill that cooks on both sides, this takes probably about 5-8 minutes)
4. Season with salt and pepper if you wish

This is just a very light salad, I didn't use a whole lot to season it because I love cabbage by itself, idea is somewhat incorporated from Elana's Pantry, just not as fanciful as hers ;)

Cabbage Orange Salad: (serves about 4)

1/2 head of red cabbage
1 naval orange
lemon juice (to taste if you wish)

1. Slice the cabbage thinly into a large bowl.
2. Cut 1/2 inch segments of the oranges, add to bowl, toss.
3. Add lemon juice or anything else if you wish (I didn't add lemon, I liked it the way it was)

Chocolate Espresso Granita

2009-01-12T22:14:00.001-06:00

My friends had come over for Christmas and Rodney had gotten me a really nice gift. He knows how much I like to cook so he got me a chocolate cook book. Chocolate isn't really my favorite, but it was very sweet of him and I think he partially got it just so I will use him as my pet - since I know he's a chocolate lover. So one night when I was already making my chocolate hazelnut gelato, I decided to go through this book and see what I could find. I found many things I would love to try but I couldn't pass up the granita. I think Ethan would've preferred if I didn't make it as strong but I made it uber strong since I'm a coffee addict. Either way, I'm pleased with the outcome.

Coffee Granita with Cream + Chocolate
from The Golden Book of Chocolate (link)

2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup caster sugar
4 tablespoons instant coffee granules (I substituted instant espresso and used all 4 tablespoons :D so much caffeine!)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
cream and chocolate to garnish if you wish

1. Place 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and the sugar into a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and water is boiling. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Boil the remaining 1/2 cup of water and pour into a medium bowl. Mix the coffee and cocoa to make a smooth paste.
3. Stir in the sugar syrup into the coffee and cocoa mix, whisk together and strain into a medium sized metal bowl or tray. Place in the freezer and freeze until solid (about 3 hours).
4. Use a fork to break the ice up into large crystals. Return to the freezer; keep frozen until ready to serve. Garnish with cream and chocolate if desired.

Anniversary Dinner

2008-08-22T21:51:00.001-05:00

I wanted to cook something Ethan would thoroughly enjoy for our 1 year Anniversary. He says he likes it, but I wonder sometimes if I'm too hard on myself.

New York Strip Steaks with bacon, sautéed mushrooms, shallots and garlic: (serves 2)

2 New York Strips
4 strips Applewood Smoked Bacon
1-2 cups mushrooms (sliced)
2 shallots (sliced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 tbs olive oil or butter
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, seasonings for steak

1. Heat your grill to a medium-high setting.
2. Season the NY Strips. I have never done this before so I made a phone call to my Dad for help and my Aunt. I used salt, pepper, Lowry's seasoning, and a scant of garlic powder.
3. Cook steaks on pre-heated grill until the meat is cooked to your preference.
4. While the meat is cooking, in a large skillet or sauté pan, cook the bacon on a medium heat setting. Once finished cooking, remove bacon from heat onto paper towel and pat dry.
5. Reserve the fats and oils from the bacon if you wish (I hate to do this, but Ethan is all about the taste -shudders-)
4. While the pan is on a medium heat add the mushrooms, shallots and garlic. Sauté for 5-7 minutes or until throughly cooked. Add the bacon in pieces or crumbled for a few minutes.
5. Remove from heat, serve on top of NY Steaks

I served our steaks with a wedge salad, bleu cheese twice baked potato and a macaroni dish.

Dark Chocolate Soufflé: (makes 4 - 6)

1/3 c. sugar
5 oz. dark chocolate
3 egg yolks
6 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees F.
2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. In another bowl add the melted chocolate and stir in yolks slowly.
3. In yet another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until the whites form soft peaks. Once soft peaks are formed, add the sugar a little at a time, beating in between on high until stiff peaks form.
4. Once you have the stiff peaks for your egg white mixture, take about 1 cup of the egg white mixture and slowly stir into the chocolate mixture. Once chocolate mixture has become a little more pliable, incorporate into the egg white mixture folding very gently but thoroughly.
5. In a ramekin, take a little melted butter if available and coat the ramekin, then add some sugar and coat the ramekin. Add the soufflé mixture to the ramekin until it meets about 1/4" away from the top.
6. If you would like, add a small sliver of chocolate (sliced longways) in the center, this helps for the topping as well.
7. Bake soufflé for 10-15 minutes. The tops should look similar to a cupcake, but should still be jiggly when removing from the oven.
8. You can either serve as is, or if you would like something similar to Louisiana style, read the following.

4 tbs heavy whipping cream
1 oz. white chocolate and 1 oz. milk chocolate

1. In a double boiler, melt white chocolate with 2 tbs whipping cream, when ready, drizzle on top of soufflé.
2. Follow the same steps for the milk chocolate, then serve.

Deluxe Burgers

2008-07-24T01:10:00.000-05:00

Ethan loves egg on his burgers and somehow he has manged to get me to eat this as well. In fact, I think we were at IHOP when I first tested to see if I would even like the meal. Luckily I did. So I thought a few nights ago that I'd like to create something similar in which they offer but to Ethan's and my personal taste buds. I thought it turned out good, he stated he liked it. When I asked him for areas of improvement, he said there weren't any, granted I felt that the burgers had a little too much parsley, but I guess again, it goes down to personal tastes.

Garlic & Onion Burgers: (makes 4 burgers)

1 lb ground beef of choice
4 tbs finely chopped onion
1/4 c. parsley
2 cloves finely minced garlic
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

*Tip: Depending what onion you are using, I cut about 3 thin slices to start off with, minced and then measured in the measuring spoon. You can use a guesstimate if you wish. I also used dried parsley, but I'm sure fresh parsley works well too :)

1. In a large bowl, hand mix all the ingredients until fully distributed throughout the beef. If you wish, you do not have to hand chop the onion and garlic, but you can put in a food processor. Once all ingredients have been incorporated, try to create a "log" of the meat and cut into 4 even pieces.
2. After cutting the meat, shape into burger patties (about 1" thick), let rest for one hour in the fridge.
3. Once burgers have rested for an hour, grill to your liking.
4. Toast the buns while the burgers are cooking, and apply condiment of choice (we used mayo).
5. Place burger on bottom bun, add cheddar cheese, top with grilled onions/sautéed onions and a fried egg.

Fried Egg

1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil/cooking spray

1. To avoid butter burning, it's best to use olive oil or cooking spray. You may use a larger skillet or a smaller one, whichever you feel more comfortable with, but apply the heat setting for a low to medium heat.
2. Make sure the pan is coated completely with the olive oil/cooking spray, including the sides of the skillet. You can add the egg directly to the pan or if needed, place in a ramekin until you're ready to put the egg on the pan.
3. Put egg in pan and cover immediately.
4. Fry for about 1-2 minutes, to avoid crispy edges, use a few teaspoons of water opposite of the egg to help retain moisture, or if you would like crispy edges, do not use water to moisturize.
5. Check the whites to the way in which you would like them cooked (We prefer the whites cooked, but a runny yolk, you can check the status of the whites just by slightly poking with a knife)
6. Slide egg straight onto burger.

TA-DA!

Dinner is done ^__~

Honey Baked Chicken

2008-07-16T22:14:00.001-05:00

Honey Baked Chicken: (makes 4 servings)

4 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder

*Notes: I have a few things I would like to say before going on to the procedure of how to prepare this recipe. 1: You do not have to use full chicken breasts, you can actually either cut these up in pieces if you would prefer that the juices soak completely into the chicken or you could even use drumsticks and create wings from this recipe. 2: I made this in co ordinance for my boyfriend's taste (he likes sweeter meat) so if you're wanting a mild flavor to where this is not as sweet I would highly suggest cutting the honey to 1/3 cup or 1/4 cup, as well as adding more mustard and curry powder at that point. 3: If you do not prefer your food being buttery (which I personally do not like the amount in butter in which I used, but I was trying to appease the "man") I would really cut this down to either 1/3 cup or 1/4 cup. Lastly, 4: You can use whichever type of mustard you please. I used regular mustard because I was afraid adding either spicy mustard or honey mustard might make it even more sweet. In the end I think I wished I would've used spicy mustard, however, I wasn't displeased with my choices, I just wish I would've added more curry, granted the boyfriend might have not been happy about that one. Ha.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. While your oven is preheating in medium sized bowl, combine melted butter (you can always place in the microwave for a few seconds), honey, mustard, salt and curry powder. Mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated and you only see a few very fine grains possibly from the salt.
3. Prepare a shallow baking pan that is big enough to allow spacing between the chicken or to move freely. Pour a small layer of the mixture on the bottom of the pan, lay down chicken, then pour the remaining mixture over all of the chicken.
4. Place baking pan in oven, try to baste roughly every 30 minutes for roughly 1 hour.
5. Serve with your own selection of sides.

**Note: We chose green beans and corn for our sides. However, the picture up top is leftovers from when I originally this recipe and I just ate the chicken with the green beans. Also, I just used a good yellow curry in which my Mom had basically left in her pantry, but you could probably use any curry (red or yellow) and it would suffice.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce + Rice Krispie Treats

2008-07-08T23:22:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to lie, I didn't make my own meatballs for the spaghetti. I really didn't feel like taking the time for one, and for two, I'm usually very satisfied with the meatballs that you get from the store. There is a recipe in which I'm interested in using for making meatballs, however, at this time, you might want to try to find a recipe in which you'd like to use or you can use the same method I did :P

As for this recipe, I can say you might want to make the ingredients to your taste. I think I might have made the sauce with far too much tomato, because for me, it was very rich. Ethan enjoyed it though -shrugs-

Spaghetti Sauce w/ store bought meat balls: (makes about 6 servings)

1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. olive oil
1 (28 oz can) crushed tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz can) diced tomatoes
2 tsp. salt
1 (6 oz. can) tomato paste
1/2 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (this is just to add a little more spice, not necessary really)

1. Heat a skillet or sauté pan until it reaches medium or a medium high heat. Pour olive oil into pan and sauté diced onion and minced garlic until the onion reaches a translucent color.
2. In a dutch oven or a very large pan, combine the sautéed onion, garlic, as well as the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and salt. Heat on a medium setting.
3. Mix the ingredients thoroughly and once the mixture becomes warm, add the seasonings (parsley, basil, crushed red pepper) as well as the tomato paste. You may notice that the tomato paste stays clumped, that is fine for the moment.
4. Add the frozen meatballs in which you bought from the store or a recipe in which you would like to use.
5. Simmer on a low-medium heat setting for 30 minutes so that the meatballs (if frozen, can defrost) may cook with the tomato mixture.
6. Serve over cooked spaghetti and enjoy :)

*Note: Cook however much spaghetti you think you might need or want. I made a rather large portion of the tomato sauce so that I can take some to work or make leftovers.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats: (makes a full 9x13 pan)

1/4 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
1 bag mini-marshmallows
6 c. rice krispies (does not have to be kellogg's brand)

1. Pre-grease a 9x13 pan
2. In a large saucepan, place butter in pan and keep pan on a medium-low heat until the butter had completely melted.
3. Once the butter has melted, add the peanut butter. Stir until smooth and melted.
4. Add the package of mini-marshmallows to the mixture and stir continuously until all the mini-marshmallows are melted.
5. Once marshmallows are melted, add in the rice krispie cereal and fold well. Once everything is incorporated, place in the greased 9x13 pan. Cool for 10-15 minutes.

*Note: I added a chocolate topping to the treats. You do not have to do so, but my boyfriend and I recently got an assortment of dark chocolates so I melted several of the tiny packages of dark chocolates with just a little butter then smoothed over the surface of the treats.

Apricot Onion Toast

2008-07-02T20:55:00.000-05:00

Being sick makes you a little slow, so I tried to work with everything rather quickly. So far for being sick, food is staying down now, which is good. This is a quick recipe that can require you to move a little quickly when assembling. If you can avoid it, don't keep the plate hot, I learned my lesson with that today ><;; I also tried to make lemonade/limeade this afternoon since I've been sticking with the clear liquids, but I'll have to get back to you once I find something I'm content with. I wasn't too pleased with my outcome :( But it looked nice! :D

Apricot Onion Toast: (makes 1 but can easily be doubled!)

Baguette (for however many slices of toast you would like)
1 egg + saran wrap + chip clip
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1/4 onion (you can use whatever onion you prefer for your taste, I used yellow)
1 tbs apricot preserves/jam
Salt & Pepper (I use Jane's Krazy Salt)

For the Onions:
1. Prepare you onion by cutting it in the form you desire. I kept the onion in full moons and cut one single opening. Some prefer half moons, the decision is left up to you.
2. Heat 1/2 tsp olive oil to a small sauté pan over low to medium heat. Add the shallots and season just a bit with salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes or until your preferred onion texture is reached.
3. Add the balsamic vinegar and apricot preserves to the pan.
4. Cook for about 5 minutes or until mixture has begun to thicken a little. It should be capable of being stirred.

Note: You can shorten down on the apricot preserves and balsamic vinegar. Mine turned out very sweet but that was partially because I was using raspberry balsamic vinegar and a heaping tablespoon of apricot preserves. If I were to make this again, I think I would only use 2/3 tsp.

For the Toast:
1. Start heating up a pan to medium heat.
2. Slice the baguette at roughly a 45 degree angle or 60 degree. This is just so that the pieces can be a bit longer. Slice the amount in which you prefer.
3. Now place the slices on the pan and move around lightly over the pan on both sides of the bread until you get a slight toasting.
4. Set aside.

For the Egg:
I actually used this blog I came across to poach the egg. It was very handy! I can say though I used olive oil v. sunflower oil and it still worked out great. Also, since I have moved I was incapable of finding a chip clip so I used a twist tie that often comes on bread bags, that worked just as well. Just seal tight :)

Assembly:
Place your toast onto your plate, your onion mixture on top, and your egg on the side or on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper if you wish!

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

2008-04-30T14:53:00.000-05:00

I was impressed with the flavor of these little guys but I think there might be some changes I make in the future if I ever were to make it again and that would be to the cake batter. We will see if I try this again when it gets closer to summer, sometimes it makes it hard figuring out percentages -nods- Oh, and I love the liners I got :D

Lemon Cupcake Batter: (makes about 24)

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp lemon extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until it is fluffy and pale. Add eggs one at a time incorporating them in before adding the next.
3. In a seperate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add a little of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Add the lemon juice. Mix.
5. Add remaining flour mixture into butter mixture.
6. Fill liners 2/3 full (or I used an ice cream scoop to make the cupcakes a tad bit smaller)
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Tops should not be too golden but be a pale color. Cool completely

Tart Raspberry Filling:

1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
3/4 cup water
3 tbs cornstarch
2 tbs granulated sugar

1. Either in a blender or processor, purée the frozen raspberries. Once puréed, combine raspberries with the water in a saucepan.
2. Put the saucepan on a low heat setting and consistently stir. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
3. In a seperate bowl stir together sugar and cornstarch then gradually add the mixture to the saucepan, keeping a steady stirring motion.
4. Cook until thick (can vary depending on heat, but hopefully no more than 15 minutes). Remove from heat and pour into sieve to remove some of the excess seeds.
5. Let the mixture cool or rest while running through the sieve.

Lemon Buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter
2 tbs milk
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream the butter.
2. Sift the powdered sugar.
3. Add lemon juice, milk, lemon extract and a little powdered sugar to the butter, cream together.
4. Gradually add powdered sugar until you have reached desired consistency and sweetness.

*I will note that the buttercream is VERY rich and that it's possible you might have to add 1/4 more of the recipe to frost around 24 cupcakes - depends on how you frost them. When I used the star tip for a rosette, I eventually ran out of frosting on about my 20th cupcake*

Cupcake Assembly:

I use the cone method, however, depending how big or small you made the cupcakes depends on how the cone method can be done. I cut off the tops of the cupcakes using the cone method however, I did not reserve the tops to put them back on. I discarded the tops and left something similar to a "pot hole" and then decorated as desired. Assembly is a personal choice though.

Hope you enjoy!

Homemade Fettuccine Alfredo

2008-04-18T14:12:00.001-05:00

Been a while since I put a recipe up. Last night I felt like making fettuccine alfredo - didn't take me very long and was fairly cheap since I had some of the stuff already. It is very rich, you have been warned. I might also suggest that if you LIKE pepper, to add some pepper to the sauce. Me personally, I don't like it in my pasta.

Fettuccine Alfredo: (makes about 2 1/2 -3 servings)

1 package fettuccine
1/2 cup butter
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 to 2 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese (depends how rich you want it, I used 2 1/2)
3 garlic cloves minced
2 oz. prosciutto

1. Cook your pasta until al dente (I typically add a little olive oil while cooking my pasta)
2. While your pasta is cooking, tear the prosciutto into small pieces however you prefer (strips or bite size pieces) Once you have done so, place the torn prosciutto back into the fridge.
3. Get a medium sized saucepan and melt the butter. Slowly add in the heavy whipping cream and stir.
4. Once stirred well, add parmesan cheese in gradually, stirring so that it may melt into the mixture. Add garlic and pepper if desired.
5. Check the pasta and drain while letting the sauce stay on a low heat, once pasta is drained, return back to the stove and pour alfredo sauce over the pasta. Toss well. Add prosciutto and toss well again.

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies

2007-12-31T22:39:00.001-06:00

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies: (makes about 36)

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 chocolate mint wafer candies (I actually found a bag on the baking aisle that had small chips of Andes Mints which is what I used)

1. In a large pan on low heat, cook butter, sugar, and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove the mixture from the heat and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and let stand for 10 minutes to cool.
2. Beat in eggs, one at a time into the chocolate mixture. Add dry ingredients slowly beating until well blended. Chill dough for about 1 hr.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Roll dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. While cookies are baking, prepare the Andes Mints. If you are using a whole mint, split in half and when the cookies are brought out of the oven, place a half over each cookie. If you are using the baking chips, I just carefully put a generous amount on top of the cookies. Let the mint set for about 5 minutes until melted then spread the melted chocolate across the top of the cookie.

Molasses Spice Cookies

2007-12-31T20:33:00.001-06:00

Molasses Spice Cookies: (makes near 40)

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses
3-5 tbs. granulated sugar

1. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and molasses. Afterwards, add the flour mixture mixing until well blended. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour. The dough can be kept refrigerated for up to 8 hours.
3. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Make sure you have a baking sheet prepared
4. Set aside a plate or a piece of large waxing paper on a work surface and sprinkle it with the granulated sugar. Using your palms, shape the dough into balls roughly 1" to 1 1/4" in diameter. Roll the balls around in the granulated sugar until completely covered.
5. Arrange the dough onto the baking sheets. Using a fork, press it into each cookie, pushing down to make a decorative top (just like you would with peanut butter cookies).
6. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Thumprint Kisses

2007-12-31T20:18:00.000-06:00

Peanut Butter Thumbprint Kisses
*I'm not going to give you an exact amount of how many cookies this made because everyone sometimes has their own method of how to make things. I made roughly 35 of these though*

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. smooth peanut butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbs. milk
2 c. flour
Package of Hershey's Kisses

1. Beat together butter and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy. Once completed, beat in sugar, then egg and milk until well combined.
2. Gradually stir in the flour to the mixture.
3. Gather all the dough and form into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm and chilled.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Scoop tablespoons (teaspoons if you prefer, I just happened to choose tablespoons) of dough and form them into balls. Place them onto a greased cookie sheet (to make things a bit more tidy, I use wax paper on top of my cookie sheet). Make sure the Hershey's Kisses have been frozen before hand so they are easier to push into the center of the peanut butter ball.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes and let cool on wire rack.

Tiresome Days

2007-12-31T13:28:00.000-06:00

It feels that my days have gotten shorter even though they haven't. Taking a mini semester (minimester) really is brutal. I wake up at 6:30a, leave by 7:00a, make sure I find a place to park, work early on my assignments, start class lecture at 8:00a, usually wind up falling asleep during lecture, take a quiz daily, help the woman next to me, etc. Class is technically from 8:00a-3:15p, but I have been leaving early due to I have all the programs I need on my laptop. My midterm exam is on Wed (January 2nd) and hopefully I'll do okay. I have just been running myself more than I should. Been sick, been working in the evenings so I don't get to bed until 2:00a usually, running around getting Christmas presents, now preparing for New Year's. Man. I just wish I had a break but I won't have one for quite some time. Now I'm baking all day - my stomach is rumbling because I haven't had anything to eat in a while and I'm pooped from work right now.

On another note, when I was heading out to work 2 nights ago, at first I had gone outside and noticed only a few Robins. Then my Dad and I started to notice there was a whole flock of them which is slightly unusual so we figured they are here for the winter season. There is usually a Cardinal that comes down every year but I'm afraid he might have passed :( I haven't seen him yet this year which does sadden me a bit.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's! I'm sure I'll have another post up by the end of the day or by tomorrow with recipes :)

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

2007-11-24T22:52:00.000-06:00

They were absolutely wonderful! I'm glad my idea worked out :3 I made them all for Thanksgiving and I took some to work to hand out to people as well as some of my friends and they were well liked.

Apple Spice Cupcakes: (makes about 16)

1/3 cup butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup applesauce

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
3. Combine dry ingredients into the mixture, be sure to mix alternately with the applesauce.
4. Fill liners 2/3 full, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Caramel Frosting: (makes enough for about 14-ish)

*Note: I didn't heavily frost my cupcakes (I really don't like to), therefore one batch of frosting really could frost more like 20-24 cupcakes. I however have friends and family members that don't like a whole lot of frosting therefore I didn't apply a lot. If you're wanting the frosting to have a little more stiffness, I would suggest letting the frosting either cool for a while or adding meringue powder.

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup half and half cream
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1. In a large saucepan, combine brown sugar, cream, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat; cook and stir until smooth. Stir in butter and vanilla.
2. Remove pan from the heat and let cool slightly (personally I'd transfer it to another bowl).
3. Stir in the confectioners' sugar until smooth and/or until you reach desired consistency or sweetness.

Hope someone tries this recipe and enjoys it :) I know I did!

Cookies for AnimeFEST

2007-09-04T18:04:00.000-05:00

Well, AnimeFEST was over Labor Day weekend and I decided to make some cookies before I left for the con - so here's the recipe + a few extras :)

What you need for the cookies :)

Scooped out cookie dough

Brown Sugar Oatmeal M&M Cookies Recipe: (makes about 20)

1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 c. uncooked of quick oats or old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup M&Ms

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the butter, brown sugar and egg. Mix thoroughly until creamy.
3. Add the oats, flour, baking powder and salt, mix well.
4. Hand stir in the M&Ms.
5. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes.

The day I had made these I needed some solid food to eat, so I used what spinach I had and feta cheese in order to make a salad. I love the balsamic vinegar that I got a while back from Whole Foods. I had made a watermelon feta cheese salad a few days before but I forgot to take pictures of that since I was so hungry :D

So AnimeFEST was a blast as usual even though it was a bit stressful and I'm glad that we were actually able to form a Suikoden V group as well :) So here are the pictures that I have borrowed from Danzikumaru

I think though after having a small but big dilemma with my cosplay that I will only wear Lun one more time, then retire her -nods-

Home-made Katsudon/カツ丼

2007-07-30T17:45:00.000-05:00

Last night I had my Dad set out the pork chops so my meal for today...KATSUDON! I love donburi dishes and I made mine a little more like what I had been previously having compared to the other ways it's cooked.

Itadakimas~ I had to move my Totoro in order to make room for my Katsudon :3 He almost seems happy to have food - haha.

Frying the katsudon is what took the longest but that's okay :) It was well worth it.

Fried Pork/Tonkatsu Recipe: (makes 4)

4 pork chops (lightly frozen or thawed)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup panko
Vegetable oil for frying

1. If you have a deep fryer, put it on 350 degrees. Add a generous amount of vegetable oil
2. Cut the edges of your pork chops, then sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the pork.
3. Lightly apply flour on the the pork carefully shaking off any excess flour, then dip the pork into beaten egg.
4. It's best to have the panko on a plate then transfer the pork chop to the plate with panko and cover the pork chop with panko.
5. Fry the pork in the oil for about 5-6 minutes on one side, then on the other. Remove the pork from the fryer and put on a paper towel to drain the oil.
6. When the pork isn't as hot and can be touched, cut the pork cutlet into small strips.

*NOTE: If you don't feel like having katsudon, you can also just make the tonkatsu and serve it with finely cut cabbage and a small bowl of rice ^^;; Regardless if you make katsudon you will have leftover tonkatsu unless you need to serve more people. Tonkatsu can easily be stored in the fridge and served as part of a bento the next day.

Katsudon Recipe: (makes about 2)

2 cups steamed rice
2 pieces tonkatsu
1 onion
1/2-3/4 cup dashi soup stock (if you are unable to get dashi soup stock - usually american vegetable soup stock will work just as well)
2 1/2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs mirin
1/2 tbs sugar
2-3 eggs

1. Prepare 2 bowls (if you have donburi bowls these work best). Fill half of each bowl with steamed rice, be sure to lightly pack it down. Place the tonkatsu on the bed of rice. Set aside.
2. Slice onion thinly, then slice in half again creating half moons. Set aside but to where it's accessible.
3. For the first egg mixture take all the ingredients in half, so add 1/4 cup dashi soup stock to a pan and let it sit on medium heat on the stove.
4. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sugar to the soup. Stir lightly until sugar dissolves.
**NOTE: I actually mixed the soy sauce, mirin and sugar before hand so that way I would only put in half the mixture when it came to cooking it**
5. Add half of the onion halves into the pan and simmer on low heat for a few minutes. While this is simmering, beat eggs in a bowl, but do not completely beat to where the eggs blend together.
6. Add 1/2 of the egg mixture to the pan, pouring it over the onion.
7. Before eggs begin to set, mix a little in the pan. Turn the heat on low and let the egg mixture sit until the eggs have set (yes, it's supposed to be a little "gooey" on the top - that's the way Katsudon is made).
8. Carefully transfer the egg mixture to the bed of rice and tonkatsu.
9. Repeat this process again for the 2nd donburi bowl.

Washington D.C. - Day 5 (07/12/07) last picture day

2007-07-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

So I decided on my last day that there was no way I would make it up to the National Cathedral again so I decided to go back out to the National Zoo. So the following pictures were all from the zoo but I ended up with a really funny sunburn since I put my purse on my shoulder to where it crossed over my chest XD Oh, PS - I apologize for all the bird pictures looking a little off because I wasn't used to working my Mom's camera and it wanted to auto-focus on the cages/enclosed areas the birds were in.

The red panda was hiding in the tree

Pretty Tucans! :)

I shouldn't laugh but when I saw this little guy I couldn't help it because of his mohawk hair going on.

Beavers!

Cute lil' guy ^^;;

It was so hot so he was sunbathing :3

Afterwards I went back to the hotel after walking all day long which it was nice to rest for a bit. I also ended up trying a sushi place inside the Ronald Regan building that was actually very good. For dinner though, my aunt had picked the best place yet and again I apologize because I was so hungry I was forgetting to even take pictures and put on the macro setting - lol. Only in my pasta picture did I remember to put on the macro :D I would suggest if you ever go to DC, to give this place a try: Luigi's

The REAL caprese that I couldn't help but to go ahead and dig in to ;)

Tasty fried eggplant

My tasty pasta that Alan actually helped me pick out. It was so delicious.

All in all I had a wonderful trip besides the having to wake up at 2am to check-in sort of thing, but it wasn't all so bad. The plane trip gave me time to watch anime so I enjoyed it :)

Washington D.C. - Day 4 (07/11/07)

2007-07-17T15:50:00.000-05:00

So I thought at first I'd do the bike tour on this day other than the sprinkles of rain were still lingering. It cleared up for a long time while I was on my trolly tour which is where the following pictures come from.

The Capitol

Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument from a different view

Oh wouldn't this be a fun school to go to? (sense the sarcasm)

Not too long after I had tried to get off to go to the National Zoo but it ended up pouring rain on me, so I waited for the next trolly and left. Sadly it was still raining pretty hard when we got to the National Cathedral as well, which is where I had been really dying to go. At least I got to see the beautiful Romanesque exterior :)

After all that rain and making it back to the Georgetown Shops I did some shopping :D I'm so so about Dean and Deluca but it was the closest thing to an Eatzi's that they had in DC/Georgetown.

This was my lunch - inari-zushi, california roll, and caprese

Oh doesn't the caprese look so tasty!? It was delish...

Inari-zushi

California roll

Before I went to Dean and Deluca's I had also run across a cute little shop inside the Georgetown Shopping Mall area :) So I picked me up a MashiMaro cellphone charm (since it's hard to find a lot of MashiMaro stuff here) as well as some origami papers. Granted I have no way to put a cellphone charm on my cellphone - I found a use for it - my key chain ^^;; I was going to get the lucky star papers since I love making the origami stars but the strawberries were too cute to pass up so I think I can nail 'em down then display them in a cute little jar :)

Mashi Maro ^^;;

A little out of focus but here's my strawberry origami folding papers :)

I had also bought several cheese samples too since that concierge lounge was always demolished so my Aunt and I snacked on the cheeses then got dinner at a place called Grillfish. They have a handful of locations across the US but it was very tasty and I believe when I go to Miami next I will take Joshua there :) We walked 1.59 miles back to our hotel (which my Aunt was not happy about) but we got there right in the nick of time, hahaha, it started POURING right as we got underneath the little canopy by the front doors and that was my adventure for that day. Kudos to my Aunt though for walking such a long distance ^_~

Washington D.C. - Day 3 (07/10/07)

2007-07-16T16:16:00.000-05:00

So I slept for quite some time in the morning again and plus it was raining most of the morning so I waited until the rain subsided before I went anywhere. I decided to go for a long walk again and walked 2 miles to the Washington Monument/Lincoln Memorial area. I love walking so much.

The Washington Monument

On my walk to the Lincoln Memorial there were so many geese! I never actually get to see geese often so I figured I better make most of it :) They were funny and amusing to watch but so pretty as well.

The WWII Memorial

Hehe, the posterior of a duck. Regardless I will never eat duck and this is exactly why. I think I need to go back to being a fulltime vegan again...

Part of the WWII Memorial - thousands of stars to honor those that served and lost their lives as well as their families

The distant view of the Lincoln Memorial - rather nice walk though :)

So too funny, this woman started feeding the ducks but the squirrel kept coming over to steal some of the bread for itself XD

Can YOU see him?

He was rather hidden but he knew I caught him in action ^_~

The pathway to the Lincoln Memorial

A view of the Washington Monument in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Does this remind anyone else of Forest Gump? Lol. Oh well, it was pretty and again, you can see all the geese :)

I didn't walk all the way to the top of the Lincoln Memorial because I knew I'd have to walk back to the hotel. Actually, I ended up meeting with my aunt outside the Ronald Regan building and we once again that evening debated dinner. I wanted to try the Malaysian Place I had found (Malaysia Kopitiam), so we caught a cab over there. I must say, I thought I'd be more impressed but I really wasn't. My aunt wasn't very satisfied with her food either. Actually, the appetizers I ordered was the only thing I truly liked. The tofu was amazing, had a wonderful texture and the curry puffs reminded me of Trini aloo pies :D I should have gotten one of the rice dishes but the noodles sounded too good, but they could've been much better.

The tofu and curry puffs

I actually set aside the tofu and ate it with my steamed rice after finding out I didn't like the noodle dish too terribly much.

This was my noodle dish and I wasn't too fond of it. I usually like fish cakes and I like shrimp, but something about this dish just didn't make it very good, maybe it's only that one dish but my Aunt did not care too much for her cutlet either. I believe I will give this place one more try if I ever go back, try to order something different. However, if they disappoint me, I will try the other Malaysian restaurant we happened to spot.

Washington D.C. - Day 2 (07/09/07)

2007-07-16T12:47:00.000-05:00

Ah, how nice it was to sleep on a bed a lot larger than mine so you can guess which one of these beds is mine and which one is my Aunt's :D

Once I woke up a bit more I took a picture of the view from my room :)

I know I slept in pretty late so I didn't really start my "touring" until the afternoon. I did quite a bit of walking that day. I had walked well over 2 miles until I started to realize that the Smithsonian Museums were further than I thought so I caught the subway just one stop down from where I was. The museum I wanted to see the most was closed, but that's okay.

The African American History & Art Museum (part of the Smithsonian Museums)

This was the building I really wanted to check out, but it was
closed for renovations. It's one of the many art museums

I took a break outside of the Native American Museum but I have never
seen bees so big!

Look at that sucker! He's huge!

My biggest mission with the Smithsonian Museums was to make it to the National Botanical gardens which despite the heat, was worth it. It was a rather long walk, and it did affect my plans of trying to make it up to the Capitol, but that's fine with me. I have never seen so many beautiful flowers in my life nor have I ever seen a botanical garden museum as interesting as what they had! Our botanical gardens, we grow the flowers according to what our weather can grow, this place actually had a building with automatic doors and different climates in each room in order to acquire the proper moisture, heat or otherwise needed for the plants to survive.

This was on the pathway up to the building. Hand blown glass.
Beautiful isn't it?

I don't remember what these are called but we often grow them here in Texas
as well and they had these growing outside in large quantities :)

This was inside the building (as well as the rest of the flower photographs that are posted)

These were actually called lollipops but I thought they were cute :)

I have NO idea what these are but I absolutely love them!
I looked everywhere for a name on these plants but I would
love to start growing them at home if I could ever find out what exactly
they are

After all that walking at the botanical gardens I was going to try to make it up to the Capitol but it seems there was no way that was going to happen. I had a lot of walking to do on the way back in order to get to the nearest Subway/Metro station as it was. Once I got back to the hotel room I was exhausted. I waited for my Aunt and after that we had gone to the Georgetown Shops. What an interesting place I might say. I stopped by the Dean and Deluca for a minute before they closed to browse, but it reminded me of Eatzi's at home :) I did get lemon tea bread before I left which so far has not let me down :D (my Dad and I finally tried it last night and luckily it was wrapped tight enough to stay moist)

Once we left Dean and Deluca we went on the hunt for dinner and eventually ended up at a place called Manhattan's Seafood Grill. The food was delicious but I think for a more upscale Italian restaurant, they should really be careful about fish bones in their food because some people (such as my Aunt), literally can choke on bones. The pasta was good, but the cream sauce could've been a little less rich.

Salmon and Shrimp Linguine

Washington D.C. - Day 1 (07/08/07)

2007-07-16T11:44:00.000-05:00

Preparing for the trip was rather tedious but I'm glad I was able to get on a flight. I tried my best to sleep most of the way to DC, but I didn't really feel that I accomplished so. When my aunt and I arrive, we get our baggage and then head on to our hotel to lock up our items since we were there so early. We grabbed brunch, which it was a shame I didn't have the camera with me since it was so incredible. I have never had a brunch that good nor that innovative. After eating brunch, she showed me around a bit so that I would be able to get around for the rest of the week. She showed me the White House but the sad thing is, all I can think of is movies (ex: Dick, Mars Attacks, Independence Day). Then I saw the Washington Monument and I had to laugh because I imagined a scene from the movie Forest Gump. Ahahahaha. After we visited the White House, I told her about a vegan bakery I had heard about called Sticky Fingers and we went there and got some goods :) Too bad I never got a picture of the S'mores Cake, because it was delicious! Anyways, we get back to our hotel room eventually and get slightly settled in until there then becomes a leak in the bathroom and so we had to switch rooms, and supposedly, things like this are rather typical when my Aunt is around - lol. Once we got settled though in our new room I couldn't help but to take pictures of the goods I got :D

Peanut Butter Fudge Cupcake
(which sadly I never did get to enjoy this...)

Non-Oreo-Oreo?
I only had a bite, but it was tasty :)

Part of my aunt's cookie is obviously still there ^_~
I ate the cupcake and there's a hidden oatmeal bar under
the cookie - that was eventually demolished.

I tried not to eat too much of the sweets since I knew my aunt wanted to go to dinner. We tried to go to the Concierge Lounge where she gets complimentary snacks, but it seems every time we attempted to go...nothing was ever really left. Once we had the issue of not getting much food out of the snack lounge, we went to Capital City, which besides all the chaos that occurred (my aunt's food coming out cold, then they throw it in the microwave and send it back, then we send it back again), it was pretty good. Our poor waiter though was not having a good day, but the manager working there wasn't very smart.

This was the beer sampler we got.
Everything was pretty good except for the chocolate beer ><;;

I had ordered the special that night which was
lemon tilapia. Oh it was so incredibly good.
The fish was so moist and the lemon sauce was to die for.
The only thing I didn't like so much was the pilaf.
The pilaf was very spicy and I didn't feel like it complimented
the meal like it should have.

This was a view of where we ate. I took this the day after when I woke up :)

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES!

2007-07-02T19:38:00.000-05:00

So for my "summer food" I felt like making Strawberry Shortcakes. Granted it's been raining almost non-stop in TX for about 2 weeks or so now...strawberry shortcakes to me are anytime as long as the strawberries are fresh! The last image is actually just me playing with the bento vegetable cutters - seems that jello doesn't have enough form really for the cutters :( Anyways! Onto the Strawberry Shortcake recipe!

Strawberry Shortcake Recipe (makes 6):

1 1/2 pints strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
3 tbs powdered sugar
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups flour (sifted)
6 tbs granulated sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whipping cream

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. For the biscuits, sift 2 cups flour into the mixing bowl. Add 4 tbs granulated sugar, the baking powder, and the salt. Stir well.
3. Gradually add the cream to the dry mixture with a for until the mixture forms clumps
4. Gather the clumps together, but do not knead the dough. Shape the dough into a 6 inch log. Cut 6 slices and place them onto baking sheet
5. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbs of sugar onto the dough. Bake until light golden brown, 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

**I also added a small amount of cinnamon sugar to my "sugar" topped mixture - I thought it would help add some flavor**

6. Meanwhile, combine 1 cup of strawberries with the confectioners' sugar. Mash with fork. Stir in remaining strawberries and let stand at room temperature for one hour.
7. In a bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form
8. Serve how you wish.

**I cut my biscuits horizontally with a serrated knife and filled it how I pleased...then ate it after picture time - lol**

Crunchy Jumbles Cookies!

2007-06-29T16:16:00.000-05:00

So these cookies turned out purdy darn good! I made one softer batch and one "crunchier" batch ^^;; Hopefully they will be liked. My Dad liked them - lol.

Crunchy Jumbles Recipe:

1 stick butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups crisped rice cereal
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two cookie sheets or place down parchment paper or wax paper.
2. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift over the flour, baking soda, and salt and fold in.
3. Add the cereal and the chocolate chips. Stir throughly.
4. Drop dough by spoonfuls 1-2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake until golden, 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

I have goodies!

2007-06-25T17:03:00.000-05:00

And no I don't mean the goodies I've developed throughout the years - I mean the Japanese goodies I bought! :)

The bento box I had gotten quite some time back, and it was a birthday present. I love this bento box and I hope it lasts me quite some time. As for the inari, I made inari-zushi today and uhh, yummmmm...it's gone XD Yes, already, it's gone. I tried the roe and kombu mix for onigiri but I'm not sure I like it so much. I would've much rather had a shiso mix.

So I'm totally set for my long days for Fall classes! Now to finish collecting...

Wraps and Cupcakes (of course!)

2007-06-15T14:51:00.001-05:00

So let's start out with the wrap shall we? I guess you could say I was inspired by this user on flickr.com and then decided I would try something almost exactly the same, just my own kick.

Tofu Avacado Feta Wrap
(ps, not sure about the EXACT oz. amount for the tofu)

1/2 block of tofu
1 avacado
1/2 lime
1 tablespoon mayo
1/2 to 1 tsp horseradish
Crumbled feta cheese (as much as you want to your liking)
Tortillas
Add ins for the wrap (I used alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, cucumber...and I forgot my lettuce...

1. In a small bowl mash up the drained tofu into crumbles. Peel the avacado, discard the seed and cut up the avacado into small cubes. Put the avacado in the tofu bowl, mix well with a fork or spoon. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 of a lime and mix well. If you would like to add feta to this mixture you can (I know I did!).
2. Prepare your tortilla (I forgot my croissants but it'd work on croissants as well) and take your mayo and horseradish and apply it to the tortilla. If you would like more horseradish, feel free (I can only stand so much).
3. Apply the avacado/tofu/feta mixture to the tortilla.
4. If you did not put feta into your avacado mixture, now would be the time to use it to crumble across :)
5. Put all the add-ins you would like and wrap it up!
6. Store any excess mixture in a tight food storage container and place in the fridge.

I made a larger amount because I know it will be my lunch for a while, plus, I didn't want to use up all the tofu since I'll be making tofu patty sandwiches later. I couldn't believe I forgot my croissants though ><;; I do know with modifications this wrap can also be made vegan. Unfortunately, I have no way of getting vegan mayo (unless Sprial Diner carries it) so it makes it a bit tedious for me. You could probably add a bit of tahini to the avacado mix too -nods- If I had any tahini left, I would've...but I'm out :( Onto the cupcakes! I really didn't take pretty pictures because yesterday I was feeling weird and was kinda in a rush to get them done. I made them with the same cake base but I made 2 different fillings and 2 different "frostings" So the recipes on this blog might be a bit long.

Since I couldn't get by World Market to get some really nice chocolate, I thought Ghiradelli would do for the chocolate ganache :) Sorry the photo is off but uh, I was actually holding the wrapper since against my countertops it would look funny XP

This is my crappy little plate for my Dad's and my cupcakes. My Dad can't really eat much fruit so I just made him some of his own - then I taste tested the fruit ones to make sure they turned out alright XD

One set of cupcakes has strawberry filling with chocolate ganache icing and the other has a peach filling with a buttercream...that actually happens to have a HINT of lemon ^^;; I like them...my hookahs inspired me for it - lol. So lemon peach hookah tonight for me!

Vanilla Buttercake (makes 12 cupcakes -- I made one recipe and one half)

6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. self-rising flour
3 tbs milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat all ingredients into a small or medium bowl. Mix well and until pale.
2. Bake for 15-20 mins.

Fruit Filling (this usually serves 12 cupcakes, so cut in half if you are going to have 2 fillings)

2 cup fruit (frozen, thawed or fresh)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. sgar
2 tbs cornstarch

1. Add fruit, water and vanilla to a pot (I used lemon extract for the peaches). Cook for 10 mins over a medium-high heat.
2. Stir in cornstarch and sugar.
3. Cook until thick.

Chocolate Ganache (I would definitely cut this in half next time if I would've remembered that I was really only going to frost about 8 cupcakes)

1/4 c. cream
3 1/2 oz coarsely chopped cocoa

1. Bring cream to a boil in a small pot. Pour over chocolate in a small bowl, stir until smooth. Let stand at room temperature until ganache is spreadable.

Buttercream (with a hint of lemon)(I cut this in 1/2)

6 tbs butter
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1 c.-4 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbs milk

1. Beat butter and extract. Add 1 cup sugar and the milk. Mix well. Add sugar until you reach desired consistency.

2 cookings in one day: Peanut Butter Love

2007-05-17T20:25:00.001-05:00

So usually everytime I make cupcakes my Dad will never really eat them because he hates almost all fruits and well...I guess I'm a fruity person? I was going to make these with a banana creme filling but it seems I was the only person interested in doing so...therefore, these do not have a creme filling u.u;; I wish they did though - lol. So, peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate peanut butter frosting for my Dad ^^;;

Man these are scrumdiddleyumptious too! I love peanut butter myself and I was a little afraid to see how they came out but man...I feel like a dog indulging in peanut butter...except...don't really have the roof of the mouth problem too much. Anyways, here's the recipe!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes (makes 18):

1/3 cup butter, softened @ room temp
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with baking cups.
2. Beat together butter and peanut butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in sugars until well mixed. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture alternating with milk, but beginning and ending with flour mixture.
5. Spoon batter 2/3 full into baking cups and bake for 20-25 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting:
**note: I would highly suggest cutting this frosting recipe in 1/2 if you don't intend to frost something else with this...because uhh...I had a bunch of leftover frosting. Made about 3 cups.

4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 tbs milk
3 tbs peanut butter

1. In a large bowl beat all ingredients until smooth.
2. Beat in 1 tbs milk until you reach desired consistency.

*PS - I actually added more peanut butter to the frosting because it was tasting too much like powdered sugar but this option is completely up to you

2 cookings in one day: Strawberry & Banana Bread

2007-05-17T20:14:00.000-05:00

So I had made the Strawberry Bread years and years ago and I found the recipe and figure I'd incorporate bananas to see how it turned out. Well, I LOVE it, not sure if everyone else with but it's nice because you've got tang sweetness - the strawberries, then a subtle flavor to calm the taste buds - the banana. I think if I were to make it again though I would really change up the recipe...the bread does stay very moist because of the oil content but I think I would use a little less oil next time and turn the batter more into a dough...because it really does turn out more like a chunky batter than actually forming a dough. Here's the recipe:

Strawberry & Banana Bread (makes 2 loafs):
**note: to make just the Strawberry Bread, leave out the bananas.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups strawberries, rinsed, hulled, quartered
1 banana, cut into small discs

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x5x3" loaf pans
2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Add eggs and oil and mix well. Fold in strawberries and bananas.
3. Divide the batter between the pans and bake for 50mins-60mins until top is golden.
4. Cool in pan. Once cooled may be turned out and cut into slices.

This time...muffins...

2007-05-11T14:58:00.000-05:00

So I was in the mood for making muffins...actually, just cooking in general. I made Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins for my Madre as well as my loverly boyfriend. So hopefully they're well liked? The only thing that was a bit unexpected is they're not as sweet as most muffins but I really prefer them this way - I always find store bought muffins to be too sweet. Anyways, here's the pics and the recipe!

Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins Recipe (makes 8):

1 cup flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
3 tbs corn oil
2 tsps ground cinnamon
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a muffin pan
2. With an electric mixer, beat together all ingredients EXCEPT for the blueberries. Beat well until smooth.
3. Fold in the blueberries
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan filling them 1/2 or 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.
5. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold the muffins onto the wire rack and allow to cool completely.

*Tip: I put a little bit of brown sugar on top to get a slight crisp on the domes but a struesal topping would be GREAT on these!

Vanilla w/ Caramel, Chocolate w/ Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream

2007-04-19T18:25:00.000-05:00

So my Mom asked if I would make something for Stuart's Birthday and I thought: heck, why not? Great chance to use some of the English chocolate that my Dad brought back :)

Anyways, I did all the preparation of the cupcakes yesterday and just made the frosting today since I will be leaving later on this evening. I didn't think I could get it done all in one day even if I tried.

I'm sorry I didn't get many pics but, what are they? Well, there's the vanilla cupcakes with caramel filling and vanilla buttercream frosting with a cherry on top and then there's old fashioned chocolate cupcakes with english chocolate filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.

*NOTE: I usually incorporate 1 tablespoon of honey into my cupcake batter to ensure that they don't dry out. When I do this, I usually just do it after the batter has been mixed thoroughly and I mix it one more time with the honey in it. However, this is completely optional.*

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe (makes 24):

*NOTE: I cut this recipe in 1/2*

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsps vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat butter on high until soft. Add sugar and mix thoroughly until fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mix 30 seconds between each egg.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix to combine.
5. Fill cupcake liners about half full, 2/3 full might cause the batter to overflow.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean
7. Let cool.

Caramel Filling:

14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

1. Immerse closed can on its side in a pot of boiling water.
2. Leave on a simmer or light boil for 2 hours topping off with water as needed. Be careful and don’t let the water dry out.
2. Remove from heat and let cool thoroughly before opening can. Condensed milk should be thick and a nice caramel color.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 24):

*NOTE: I cut this recipe in 1/2*

1 1/2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbs instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsps vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees.
2. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mix 30 seconds between each egg.
4. Measure out the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and espresso powder into a bowl. Whisk to combine.
5. Measure the milk into a glass measuring cup. Add the vanilla as well.
6. Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about 1/2 of the milk/vanilla mixture and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between the two and finish with the dry.
7. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean

I would give the recipe for the chocolate filling but honestly, I just took some of the chocolate my Dad brought back from England and used my glass measuring cup to almost use a double-boiler effect in order to melt the chocolate - since my caramel had just finished, it worked out nicely. P.S. - I use the cone method in order to add a filling to my cupcakes

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tsps vanilla
1/4 cup milk

1. Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment paper.
2. Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy.
3. Add 1/2 of the sugar, the vanilla and the milk. Beat until combined.
4. Gradually add remaining sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like

PS - You might want to cut the frosting in half because uhhh...I had a lot leftover and I even frosted 24 cupcakes ><;;

Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone enjoys them tonight ^^;;

Spring Cupcakes :)

2007-04-06T15:29:00.000-05:00

I felt like making cupcakes for the group that goes out to Richardson to go hookah and watch bellydancing. I think they know I'm bringing them but the flavor is what's going to be the surprise :)

Cupcakes after being baked ^^;;

So swirly!

Finished cupcakes without a backdrop

You're a star!

Wanna take any guesses on what it is yet?

Stars are made with white chocolate bark

Seagreen sugar :)

I know you wanna eat me ^__~

So what are they? Lavendar Cupcakes with Rosewater Frosting garnished with colored sugar and white chocolate squiggly stars!

Yesterday since I didn't have school it was my mission to find lavender. Whew, let's just say: what a tedious mission. I eventually found lavender and it was the 2nd place where I thought it would be and it was oh so cheap :-O I should've bought more but then I went to Central Market and ate lunch with whatever little money I had - lol. Anyways, now for the recipe.

Batter:

3/4 cup milk
1 Tbs. organic lavender
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 lavender sugar (if you can find any - if not, regular sugar works just as well
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 large egg whites
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350º F and line your muffin pan with cupcake liners or nut and party cups.
2. In a small saucepan bring milk and lavender to a boil. Remove from heat and cover. Let steep for 5 minutes. Strain the milk and discard the lavender
3. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 mins on medium speed, until fluffy. In another bowl, mix together frlour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Combine egg whites, lavender milk, and vanilla extract. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture gradually and mix well. Repeat until everything is combined. Scrape the bowl and beater often

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners about 1/2 way to 3/4 way full. Bake 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans on a rack for 5 minutes then pull cupcakes out and put them onto the rack to cool completely.

*NOTE: I used food coloring just to swirl the cupcakes with purple but this is just a personal option

Icing:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tsp rosewater
Juice of one lemon (or you can substitute RealLemon)
2 large whites

1. Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and stir together well.
2. Apply icing to half cooled cupcakes with a brush. Set in a cool place for 1 hr to dry the icing.

*NOTE: You may put a drop or two of red food coloring if you wish

The white chocolate stars were purely optional and I just had bought some white chocolate bark and thought I'd find a use for it. I also had the new sugars that I had not used yet so I used them as well. So all in all, I think this little project was fun. I had one of the cupcakes and I was shocked that it came out as good as it did because I was really questioning it at first -nods-

Have a good day! And make some cupcakes gosh darnit ^__~

Ooooohhh yeahhhhh...

2007-03-29T16:26:00.000-05:00

Ah, what a loverly cupcake day :) It was raining outside all day so I guess I picked a good day to do some baking. So continue reading my blog for more ^^;;

My papaya :)

Golden Cupcakes before being iced

MMM! Strawberry cream cheese icing with a puree drizzle

So for using whatever I could find in my kitchen, I can't say I did too bad :)

What are they exactly? Golden cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese icing and papaya/peach puree drizzled on top! Oh they're so good. Reminds me of the hookah I went and had last night -nods- Too bad my mango went bad :(

GOLDEN CUPCAKES:

1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (about 3-5 mins). Add the egg yolks. Beat well. Add the vanilla. Mix.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with the milk. Mix well.
5. With clean beaters, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
6. Fill the cupcake liners one-half to three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

STRAWBERRY FROSTING:

6 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
One 8 oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, sliced
Lemon juice, as needed

1. With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
2. Add the strawberries. mix well. If you are using fresh strawberries, you might need to add lemon juice to reach a spreadable consistency.

PAPAYA & PEACH PUREE:

1 small peach
1 papaya
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup-3/4 cup granulated sugar

1. Peel and pit the peach and the papaya.
2. In a food processor (OR if your hand mixer can puree items) combine the peach, papaya, and water. Blend well. Add sugar as needed or to the sweetness you prefer.

Cookie Day

2007-03-27T19:34:00.000-05:00

Yes, so today was cookie day! My Mom requested some batches of cookies for the Home Owner's Association Meeting so yep :3 I also got some more stuff so this will be a photo blog entry for sure. ^__~

(I actually hate oatmeal raisin cookies - lol)

Mmmmm...cookie dough. :D

Now for my other update, I fell in love with some sprinkles and sugars at Walmart - lol - and thought that they'd be great to add to my collection of "cupcake accessories".

Other than that, I have a Kiwano melon that I have no use for - lol. I have some loverly strawberries as well as a nice mango and papaya so there will be fruity cupcakes to come later this week :3

*drumroll* And now for the all-knowing book of baking!

I kid you not I feel like the baking book is a stinkin' encyclopedia...but hey - works nicely for me and was a very thoughtful Christmas present :D

Now to go do HW ^^;;

Cupcakes galore!

2007-03-22T00:07:00.000-05:00

So the good news is, so far everyone has liked my cupcakes besides one lady at work who ate one even though she was sick :( I felt bad, she wasn't obligated to eat one or anything but she was already in pain from drinking water and I guess the cupcake didn't help -sigh-

Anyways, I need to find a good use for my mango and strawberries in the fridge. I might have to see if I can make strawberry shortcakes or if I will have to make another batch of cupcakes :) Oh I'm so inspired right now. Lol.

Things I need to do tomorrow:
1. Get an oil change
2. Go to Mellow Mushroom or Sprial Diner (YUM!)
3. Figure out what to do with my strawberries and mango
4. Look for a tripod for my SLR
5. See about buying a new battery charger for my SLR
6. Work on essay for comp II
7. Math HW
8. Arts HW
9. SLEEP!

Sounds like a good plan ne?
Well, I've gotta do some things!
Bon nuit!

Vanilla coke cupcakes with cherry filling and cream cheese frosting

2007-03-19T18:26:00.000-05:00

Mmmmm...these cupcakes are actually pretty damn good. I made a batch of minis without the filling and just put a small bit of the cherry filling on top along with a little bit of icing - soooo good. The cherry filling is a little tangy which made it a bit suprising...but I ate one anyways! Hahaha! Now to the pics :)

Recipe

Vanilla Coke Cupcakes: (basic recipe taken from the link but added Coke from past experience in making Dr. Pepper cake)

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup Coke

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk, vanilla and Coke. Mix to combine.
5. Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
6. Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cherry Filling:

2 cups cherries
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbs cornstarch

1. Add cherries, water, and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat.
2. Stir together sugar and cornstarch then stir into the cherries.
3. Cook until thick, about 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
6 tbs (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powedered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
(If you want to add coke to this, you can, just add 6 tbs - I'm just not sure how cream cheese frosting and Coca Cola would taste...)

1. In a medium bowl cream together cream cheese and butter with mixer
2. Sift sugar and continue beating until lumps are gone.
3. Add vanilla (and coke if you wish)

Ta-da! Oh yes, I also used cupcakeblog's cone method for the cherry filling. You should come over now and eat one of my cupcakes :)

Roasted/Baked Eggplant, Squash and Tofu

2007-01-17T17:14:00.000-06:00

Well, it would seem that my eggplant turned out better than I expected it to :) It was tasty but I agree with my Dad, it probably needed a bit of salt...but my whole goal was to NOT use salt :/ I had ketchup this morning, so I figured that was all the salt I needed for the day. Anyways, I just improvised with what I found around the kitchen.

Roasted/Baked Eggplant, Squash and Tofu

1 large eggplant
1 medium sized yellow squash
1 clove garlic
1/2 of a lemon
2 tsp dill
1/2 block tofu of choice (I used leftover silken tofu from my breakfast scramble)
Bread crumbs (or italian bread crumbs)
Cilantro (optional)
Pilaf (optional as a side)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut the eggplant and squash in the method you prefer. Lightly oil a baking pan (I used a 9"x13") and place the eggplant onto the pan. Lightly tap the 2 tsps of dill across the eggplant and the clove of garlic (you can probably substitute minced garlic too). Then squeeze the 1/2 of the lemon across the eggplant. I used a little bit of bread crumbs when I was done. Place the squash on top of the eggplant or in any available spot.
2. Now for the tofu, I took a reusable container, cut my tofu into cubes and spread the breadcrumbs in the container and replaced the lid, the shook the container for even distribution amongst the tofu. You may use whatever method you prefer but I found this way to be the easiest.
3. When you are done lightly breading the tofu, place or shake out of container onto the pan. Scatter cilantro leaves if you prefer. Bake for 30 minutes.

It would seem that my squash also turned out a bit roasted which gave the whole ensemble a nice taste :) The pilaf came from a box, but man, it was like a cherry topper to the meal. So yum. Now I need to buy more eggplant. Too bad I didn't have any tomatoes...I only had salsa, which of course wouldn't of helped me at all. Lol.

So the other day at work I also went on a bit of a hunt. I really wanted some clearanced Kenzie shoes or Rocket Dogs and I fell in love with these Kenzie's :) There's another pair that I really want but they're still original price ($79.99) but I know I'd get a lot of wear and tear out of them.

I guess I also should've taken pictures of what it looked like outside today, but I was lazy. I figured this was my day to stay in and cook...oh yeah, and did I say play video games!? I'm excited. Hahaha. I don't have to go to work until 6p tomorrow so I have plenty of time to play some games tonight and in the morning :)

I really want to make some cupcakes ><;; but I'm about to be on a diet. Guess I better eat my daifuku/mochi while I can ><;;

About Me

2007-01-01T13:00:00.002-06:00

My name is Kendra, I attend college studying for my B.S. Information Systems degree and also work part time in a customer service role. I first became interested in cooking and baking while taking a blow-off culinary class in high school and little did I think it would become something that I sincerely love. Once I realized that I did enjoy it so much, I started to take a few baking and pâtisserie classes in college, and perhaps one day after I obtain my B.S. I will go back and take more baking and pâtisserie classes.

Another thing I loved to learn to love in high school was photography. At first, I preferred scenic and landscape photography, but after learning more about still life tabletop food photography, I was amazed! I am still no where near as wonderful as many of the other great food photographers such as Alexandra Grablewski or Matt Armendariz, but I do hope my lack of skills grow significantly so that I can take far more appealing pictures of food.

I hope you enjoy your stay and find things that appeal to you.

You can find me by the following:

Writing for Examiner.com as the Fort Worth Restaurant Examiner
Photo adventures on Flickr