Forget The Ramen

Turkey Burgers, A Bowl o' Pasta, and a Meringue Experiment

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:20:00 -0400

Howdy all!

I can’t believe it’s already May… this year has flown by. As I always say, I wish I could update more often, but something always distracts me from doing so, whether it’s schoolwork or just wasting time with other things on the internet (pretty sure everyone is guilty of that).

As promised, here’s a dish from my second Blue Apron shipment:

Please ignore the background of nail polish and batteries :) That should not be included in your meal.

As a novice food photographer, I’m still working out the best settings for my dishes. As a college student, I’m always struggling to find a place that is… appropriate… to take a picture. We don’t have a kitchen table in my apartment, so usually, I’m pushing books and bottles and whatever other junk that’s lying around off of a surface that has adequate lighting.

Anyway, I absolutely loved this recipe. The rolls were brioche rolls from a bakery in Brooklyn. The turkey burgers were flavorful, unlike many turkey patties, so I’ll definitely be using that recipe again.

The salad was wonderful too. I’m a huge fan of arugula, and I love how so many of Blue Apron’s salad recipes rely on the lemon-olive oil combination. I make arugula salads with lemon and olive oil often, but the addition of the feta cheese and roasted hazelnuts made this salad standout. It added more components of flavor… the nutty, the salty, and the citrusy.

Now to switch gears to a different food project, my homemade pasta:

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I received a pasta maker from my friend Ilsa (quite generous of her, I might add!) for my 21st birthday, which was a few weeks ago. Like every other sane human being on earth, I loooove pasta (so does she). For any serious pasta/food aficionados, I really do suggest getting a pasta maker. It was a lot of fun and was definitely more delicious than regular ol’ pasta.

In addition to fresh pasta, I also made fresh pesto from my pet basil plant, Basil (pronounced baz-el). Meet Basil:

That’s Basil right after his first haircut!

If you are making your own pasta, I do have a suggestion: Using a pasta drying rack is definitely helpful. It will help keep your pasta from lumping together (but some lumps make for some delicious pasta-ball-dumpling type things). Williams Sonoma has one for $14 (trust me, I was there today), so that means that you can probably find one for fairly cheap anywhere else.

Then, I made these:

For about an hour, I used a hand mixer to make the meringue but with no success. Then, I decided to use the standing mixer, and the egg whites stiffened up in about five minutes (with the help of a little bit of tartar powder). The magic of the standing mixer…

I made another mistake with the curd. So… curd has egg in it. It’s made in a double boiler so you don’t cook the egg. I supposed the double boiler was pretty hot when I put the egg in… so… it sort of… fried? yeah. I ended up straining out the egg and adding a couple of more eggs. I dunno, after seeing the cooked egg in the curd, I just felt weird about the curd. It ultimately turned out fine, I guess. Next time, I’ll just have to be more careful about how warm the pan on top of the double boiler is.

Also, lavender and lemon is an interesting combination but a little strange in a dessert. I wanted to make something like this because several weeks ago, I had a dessert at The Optimist that was a lemon tart with lavender meringue and honey. The lavender in the meringue was really subtle, so maybe they used some sort of flavoring than actual lavender buds. Either way, it was a good experiment.

Blue Apron Adventures

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:44:44 -0400

So sorry for not posting sooner. This month has been crazy, really. Between a multiple research projects and everything else, I’ve had such little time to blog. Although I haven’t been posting, I have been cooking! I mentioned in my last post that this one would be about Blue Apron, so here we go!

Blue Apron is a service that sends you a box once a week with three recipes and ingredients to make those recipes. One recipe is for fish, one for poultry, and one for beef. I loved each of the recipes, my favorite being the salmon.

The salmon was baked with slices of orange on top and beneath it, a little olive oil, a few springs of thyme, and some sea salt and crack pepper. Then, I sprinkled a bit fresh chopped dill on top. The orange was supposed to be a blood orange, but I think it hadn’t darken yet. There were some hues of red, but that was a little disappointing. It still tasted really good though! The cucumber chickpea salad has some red onion, goat cheese, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. I got an English cucumber in the box, spilt it in half lengthwise, scooped out the middle and chopped the cucumbers up. Overall, this meal tasted really fresh, and there was virtually no clean up because I made the salad in some tupperware that I stored it in later. I’ll definitely make this recipe again.

I don’t usually love chicken thighs because it’s darker meat of the chicken and a little bit fattier. However, I did like the fresh oregano on the outsides of the chicken. It was really juicy and the skin was a little crispy, which I liked. What surprised me most was the Quinoa and Squash ribbons. I sliced the raw squash thinly and put drizzled it with some olive oil and lemon juice. I was pretty uncertain about how it would turn out since it was raw, but the taste was great! Usually I feel like raw squash just tastes weird and the only time people eat it is when they can smother it in ranch dressing when it’s on a veggie plate. There’s also feta cheese and pine nuts and parsley. This was my least favorite of the recipes, but I did have fun making it. Tasty, but a little too fatty with the chicken thighs (so no fault to the recipe).

I loved this recipe nearly as much as the salmon recipe. Definitely a close tie. The recipe actually made four fajitas which was supposed to be enough for two people. Try more like four! I shared this recipe with my boyfriend and we could only finish one each because it was so filling. I really enjoyed making my own guacamole and will probably continue doing that in the future. I’ve decided that lime and cilantro (both used in this recipe) were just made to be together, kind of like tomato and basil.

Speaking of basil, I now have a basil plant! It’s name is Basil (pronounced Baz-el). Also, thanks to my friend Ilsa, I got a pasta maker as an early birthday present. Next week, I’ll make one more Blue Apron post, since I order it for two weeks in a row, but after that, be prepared for some fresh pasta and basil! YEAH!

Nutella Crepe Cake

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 17:35:00 -0400

Behold! One of my most delicious creations… the Nutella Crepe Cake! Mind you, I said “most delicious” not most healthy, so keep that in mind before you devour the whole cake.

Here’s what the inside looks like:

I love all of the layers.

And it was deceptively simple once you’ve got the technique of crepe making down. For the crepes, I used Julia Child’s recipe for light crepes (but I used the one from the book, this is just the same recipe that I saw online), at the suggestion of one of my roommates, although I’ve seen several Nutella crepe cakes online lately at Taste Spotting. For some reason, I thought it would be too hard to make, so I just kind of salivated over it for a while and then moved on. As it turns out, crepes really aren’t that difficult to make, and it definitely helped that Julia Child explains exactly what you should do when you’re making them. It helped immensely.

I’ll give you the break down:

Once you’ve blended all the ingredients together (I used my Ninja - similar to the Magic Bullet), refrigerate the batter for about two hours.
After it’s been chilled, pour a couple of tablespoons of canola oil into a small bowl or cup and use a pastry brush to coat the pan in oil. Let the pan heat up over medium high heat.
Meanwhile, scoop out about 1/4 cup of batter (depending on the size of your pan… I’d say mine had a diameter of about 8 inches).
Once the oil just starts to smoke a little bit, pick up the pan with your right hand off the heating element and pour the batter into the middle of the pan. Quickly turn the pan in all directions to coat the pan with batter.
Let the crepe cook for about 60 seconds. To turn it, try to loosen the sides with a spatula and then slip the spatula underneath the crepe. If it’s done enough, it should be a little stiff when you try to lift it up. I used my fingers to help flip them since they were fairly large.
Let it cook for 60 or so more second on the other side and then remove to a plate.
Continue the process over again, starting with coating the pan with oil.

And voila! You’ve got yourself a crepe. The cake part is pretty obvious… you just spread Nutella in between each layer.

I know it’s been a while since I updated. Like I mentioned in my previous post, my camera was out of commission. As it turns out, it really was dead for good, sadly. Although, I have a new camera that I really like a lot! I got a great deal on it, since Best Buy had a refurbished one of it.

And, here’s a hamster:

In the coming weeks, I’ll post part two of MAKE YO LUNCH ELEGANT and also, get ready for the epic post documenting my Blue Apron Meals experiment (I get my first shipment March 30th).

Chocolate Soil Pie

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:19:00 -0500

Hope everyone has recovered from their sugar coma that was Valentine’s Day! Now that you’ve eaten approximately 50 Reese’s cup minis in the past 24 hours (oh, what? That’s just me? Ugh, fine), your taste buds are probably craving for more sugar, but your arteries are begging for mercy. Well, I’ve got the perfect fix for you! A delicious chocolate pie… that’s good for you? Oh my!

I’ve got to be honest with you, though. You’re probably not going to be happy about the ingredients in the pie. Remember my chocolate mousse cakes with the soft tofu that were sooo delicious? Well, this is the same sort of idea. Since everyone seemed so accepting of the tofu chocolate mousse (only after tasting, of course), I decide to combine the tofu mousse with an extra healthy pie crust as well. I realize the crust in the picture somewhat resembles soil (and by somewhat, I mean it could probably be mistaken for soil in person as well), but it tastes like like a mixture of german chocolate, oreos and almonds (because those white specs are almonds). Essentially, it’s a combination of dates, cocoa powder, coconut, almonds, and vanilla.

If you’re still reading, thanks. If not, you’re bein’ a pansy. Eat some tofu, eat some dates, and do yo body a favor! Also, it’s vegan and gluten free…

Pie recipe

Crust recipe

In other news, I kind of have some lame news concerning my food blogging: my camera is dying. A few weeks ago, we had a torrential downpour, which just so happened to start as I was waiting for the bus. I got soaked and so did everything in my backpack (aside for my laptop, by some mysterious miracle). I salvaged my (new) iPod by burying it in rice for a couple of days, but I thought my camera was actually okay. It kind of did some spazzy things but ultimately functioned for a couple of weeks after that. That picture of the pie was the last it would take before it pooped out completely. I’m trying one more thing before I declare it dead for good. The light still flashes on, but the lens doesn’t move and the screen won’t light up. We’ll see.

Despite my camera difficulty, I did manage to capture the delicious Valentine’s Day dinner my boyfriend and I made last night on my iPod. Roasted salmon in a white wine lemon butter sauce, green beans, roasted potatoes, couscous and garlic bread. It was a feast!

Man, look at that beautiful picture quality! Who needs a good camera when you have… well… ugh. On the positive side, this might be a chance to upgrade from the old camera (which was actually a freebie my brother got when he bought his TV, so…)

Anyway, here, have some freshly baked bread in the meantime:

Enjoy!

Soon to come… Post two of MAKE YO LUNCH ELEGANT, featuring homemade roasted red peppers. Stay tuned!

Make Yo Lunch Elegant: Grilled Cheese and Chips

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:48:00 -0500

This post is the first in a series of posts that I’d like to call “Make Yo Lunch Elegant.” I’m starting by transforming your regular, ol’ grilled cheese and chips into a Havarti & Green Apple Grilled Cheese with Kale Chips.

The grilled cheese was no more difficult to make than making a regular grilled cheese with Wonderbread and American cheese, aside from the fact that Havarti cheese isn’t pre-sliced, and of course, you have to slice some apple as well. For the bread, I used the sliced honey whole wheat from the bakery section of the grocery store. Unfortunately, bakery bread tends to be around twice the price as the regular slice bread. If it’s worth it to you, I’d suggest it. Another suggestion is to slice the apple fairly thinly but not paper thin. Maybe the width of 10 pieces of paper? You still want the crunchy of the apple in there! I feel like the assembly of the sandwich is pretty obvious, so I won’t go on to explain it. You make it just as you make a regular grilled cheese in a skillet. Don’t forget to butter the outer sides of the bread!

I like the Havarti with the green apple because the cheese is very creamy and smooth, while the apple adds some bite as well as texture. If you haven’t had cheese and fruit together before, believe the foodies when they tell you it’s a lovely combination. It is.

Moving on the kale chips…

These take a bit more time, but if you were making you’re own potato chips, I feel fairly certain you could make kale chips faster, minus the drying time.

Before you say “Bleh,” “Ew,” “Gross,” etc, let me tell you that everyone I’ve fed these to, both male and female, have loved them. There’s a lot to love about them, too. Kale has over 200% Vitamin A, over 100% Vitamin C, and over 600% Vitamin K. AND you can eat them in chip form. I see nothing wrong here.

The essential things to do here are wash the kale, tear it up into bite size pieces (get rid of any hard stems), and dry the kale well. If you don’t let the kale dry completely, it will come out soggy and potentially kind of gross. I placed my kale on layers of paper towels and let them dry overnight. If you have a salad spinner (I don’t), this could work well too and reduce the amount of drying time. Once you have the leaves dry, spread them out on a baking sheet (give them some room, no need to cram them all on one sheet), drizzle some olive oil on top, and season with sea salt (and pepper, if you’d like). Don’t skimp on the oil and salt. These are chips, after all. Also, obviously, if you use better olive oil, they’ll probably taste better, but if you have basic olive oil, it should still be fine. I wouldn’t recommend using plain ol’ vegetable oil, but you could give it a try if that’s all you have.

Pop those in the oven at 350 for up to 15 minutes, and you’ll be good to go. Just keep an eye on them. You don’t want them to be brown; they should look kind of flat and crispy.

I assure you that you’ll be able to eat an entire cookie sheet worth yourself.

New Years Cakeballz

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:21:00 -0500

Happy almost-New Years! Here’s a gift from me to you, delicious, delicious cakeballs. I haven’t made cakeballs in ages, mostly because I haven’t had the time to devote to them until now. I’m on winter break, so making these at home rather than in our teeny-tiny kitchen worked out much better. I didn’t originally intend for these to be New Years themed, but I had a lot of silver and pearl sprinkles lying around in the pantry, so it seemed to be a good idea!

I used Wilton sprinkles as well as Wilton melting chocolates, although any other brand should work just as well. If you’re adding sprinkles to your cakeballs, make sure that your melting chocolate is relatively hot when you’re coating them (or just work quickly) because the chocolate will harden quickly! You might see that lone looking rainbow sprinkle cakeball in the back left- I got tired of just one style of cakeball and wanted to switch it up. :D

Here he is close up:

(Check out my mini money cupcake liners. They make good truffle and cakeball holders!)

Now, I have a bone to pick with some of the self-proclaimed Cakeball Queens of the world. I will fight for that title, except against Bakerella. I know that one of these here new-fangled cakeball machines produce something that may seem like a cakeball to the uneducated cakballing eye. Technically, yes, you make a ball of cake using one of those. But, my friends, do not be fooled. That is no cakeball. That is just a miniature spherical baked cake. That, my friends, is an impostor cakeball.

The true beauty of a cakeball isn’t based on the superficial things- neither on the fanciness of the sprinkles nor the roundness of the ball. Like most good things, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And the inside has got to be moist. The only way to do that is to bake a full cake, crumble it into a bowl, and then mix in 3/4ths of a container of frosting (I used the cream cheese flavor in my case). If you’re making your own frosting, just add frosting to the cake a couple of tablespoons at a time until you’ve got a good consistency that holds together well when rolled into a ball.

In my first post, I explain all about the basics of cakeball making if you want to make them on your own. I won’t go into the details here!

Although I could have probably eaten all the cakeballs on my own, I decided to package some of them up to give away to friends. They make lovely gifts… and a few cakeballs go a long way, so you’ll have plenty to hand out to others (that is, if you’re willing to share them…). Also, it’s one of those gifts that you can give to anyone (except for vegans and those with gluten allergies- see an alternative here!) because everyone likes cakeballs!

A Quinoa Meal

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:56:00 -0500

So yes, okay, I went a little over board with the quinoa this time. I was in the grocery store in the grains, rice, and beans aisle, and what do you know? This one bag of quinoa was just calling my name. It was buy one, get on free, and at the local grocer here, that means also half-off when you just buy one, which was awesome because I got a $6.50 dollar bag of quinoa for $3.25. So I had this pretty big bag of organic quinoa and just didn’t know what to do it. The deal was too good to pass up, yet I really had no plans for what to do with it. I don’t think I’ve even ever had quinoa (at this point, I was still calling it quin-no-a. It’s actually keen-wah).

In my first quinoa experiment, I decided to cook it over the stove and ended up burning it. Then, I realized I could just cook it in a microwavable rice cooker (which I’ve been holding hostage from my boyfriend for a few months now), and that worked out pretty well. Perfectly actually. Except for the fact that I forgot how much grains expand, so I had about three times the amount of quinoa than I actually needed. That’s how this all quinoa meal came about, and I’d say it was a pretty delicious mistake!

The quinoa black bean burgers were definitely much better than the other veggie burger recipe I tried. Bleh. Ugh! I’m not even gong to post the link to those other veggie burgers… they were really just terrible. I had such high hopes for them; they were a copycat version of the veggie burger at Houston’s, which is all anyone could ever want in a veggie burger. The copycat version? No. Not even close. But! The quinoa black bean burger was quite satisfactory. As you can see, I sliced a juicy tomato and a bit of avocado on top with some cracked pepper. These ingredientss really made the burger. As you can’t see (:P), I also squeezed a bit of lime juice on top and added a dash of salt. My boyfriend, on the other hand, just dipped it some ketchup and seemed happy, so there’s that.

The quinoa mac and cheese reminded me a lot of cheese grits. The recipe that I used was pretty good, but I’d be open to trying other versions. This version was pretty darn healthy, but it was tasty, so I’d encourage you to try this recipe if you’re trying to be healthy but really want some mac and cheese. The tomatoes and leeks in it added some dimension to the dish, so definitely don’t omit those. It made it feel more like a main dish rather than just a side. This too got the stamp of approval from my mac and cheese loving boyfriend and also from my friend Tom, who I don’t think is all of picky of an eater, but it was pretty healthy, and usually dudes aren’t down for that. But they were.

In other news, I’m winding down the end of the school year, which is part of the reason why I haven’t posted. It’s been a busy few weeks with nearly totaling my car (I’m fine), having several huge research papers due, and trying to, you know, maintain my personhood and all by staying alive.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, my apartment threw a lovely potluck Thanksgiving, which was actually really successful.

I’m not going to say that I was surprised my friends ended up bringing food to fill our living room coffee table (which is actually our everything table. dinner table, mail table, place-to-put-stuff table, etc). But yeah, I was happily surprised! I made pineapple bread casserole, which was SO GOOD. Not at all good for you, but it is delicious. It’s basically a dessert. I used a bit more bread than the recipe called for. It’s kind of like french toast with pineapple. Absolutely amazing. Also, we had some beautifully piped deviled eggs, two green bean casseroles, creamy and a lil spicy macaroni and cheese, couscous (one vegetarian and one with shrimp), garlic bread, and a tofurky (because two of my roommates are vegetarians)! Also, for dessert (not pictured), a friend brought over some monkey bread. I think we were all pretty full after that meal…

Anyway, time to get back to work!

Lamb and truffle brie mashed potatoes!

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 10:42:06 -0500

This post is an ode to how wonderful Trader Joe’s is. For a special occasion, I bought the frozen frenched rack of lamb and the double creme truffle brie, both of which were fabulous. For the rack of lamb, preparation was really minimal… as in, defrost the lamb and preheat the oven. It was really beautifully seasoned- salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary- although, I saw some people on the internet arguing that it was too much for them. In that case, you can easily wipe a bit of it off with a wet paper towel, but I didn’t think it was necessary.

The true beauty of this dish was its value. Honestly, I have no clue what it would have costed to get something like this from a restaurant. I’d say that you’d probably get a portion depicted in the picture for about $30. Maybe. Although the internet reviews of the lamb had me convinced that it’d be under $15 and it was actually around $22, it was still an excellent deal for what you got: about 7 ribs of lamb.

The cheese was the real deal, though. For $7.50, you got an 8 oz wheel of brie with reasonably sized pieces of truffle throughout, which was wonderful. I hate when you buy something that claims to be “truffle” something… and then you can’t see the truffle! Usually if you can smell it but you can’t see it, it’s likely that you can’t taste it, and you’ve been completely ripped off. This wasn’t the case at all!

Raspberry and Chocolate Souffle

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:08:04 -0500

I’m not sure who started the rumor that souffles are difficult to make, but for some reason, Americans seem to have this idea that they are the epitome of French cuisine. Or at least I thought so. My understanding of souffles has always been a French chef trying to transform some mush into a beautiful creation by oh-so-carefully and oh-so-quietly placing it in the oven and baking it for just the right amount of time. Honestly, I didn’t really even know what was in a souffle, and once I realized that it basically consisted of egg whites, I definitely didn’t know how that mush magically became a fluffed up pillow in the oven.

From here, I blindly gave my roommate the quest of making a souffle a few weeks ago. In approximate 25 minutes or less, she popped out of the oven a puffy concoction of egg whites, (very ripe) bananas, and sugar. Also, she found this awesome clip from NPR about the science behind souffles. Essentially, when you beat the egg whites, you’re adding bubbles of air into the souffle, which helps it rise. If you get egg yolk into your whites when separating, you’ll ruin your souffle because it makes the air bubbles leak.

After my roommate’s success in baking a souffle, I thought I’d give it a try after running across this recipe on Pinterest, but I changed it a bit. The original recipe calls for a sugar substitute, which I usually find fairly odd tasting in baked goods, so I just used regular granulated sugar. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure how long I needed to beat the egg whites for, but I basically continued until the whites made moderately stiff peaks, about 10 minutes (with an electric mixer with a whisk adapter), maybe.

I loved this souffle. Although raspberries are now out of season, my grocery store had really sweet ones. Also, I decided to get the best chocolate available to me (Ghiradelli), which was a good decision. Although slightly more expensive, it was certainly worth it.

Baked Eggplant Fries

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:06:23 -0500

If you don’t know by now, the truth is… I like eggplants. A lot. I’m not going to deny it. Sure, I won’t pick a fresh eggplant off of the vine(???) and take a bite out of it, but I will dip it in egg, coat it in a mixture of italian herbs, parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs, bake it at 425 for 10 minutes, dip them in some arrabiata sauce and eat it. Or something like that.

I don’t really understand why eggplants get such a bad wrap. First of all, they look nice. The nicest looking of all vegetables, maybe. And I mean that in the fact that they look pretty but they also look kinda friendly. I think you could easily draw some eyes on one and a mouth and have a very entertaining little dude.

(Bonappetit)

Look at that lovely deep purple. I, myself, have never actually seen a graffiti eggplant or a white eggplant, but I’m sure they’re just as nice. I think the eggplant I used was an Indian eggplant. I got it at the Farm Fresh Market that my school has during the fall semester, every other Wednesday. Basically local growers come to campus and sell their produce, honey, salsas, and pickled veggies.

Second of all, they don’t really taste like anything until you season them and incorporate them into a dish. Then, you can make them taste however you like! What’s wrong with that? Nothin’. Absolutely nothin’.

Last year, I got my roommate to try out some of my Eggplant Meat(less)balls, and I think I converted her from an eggplant disliker to a sometimes eggplant eater. She tried the eggplant fries, and commented, “Better than expected, but not the same as being fried.” I agreed whole-heartedly. But what’s that? She didn’t say “Eww tastes like gooey eggplant”? No, she did not.

But yeah, they might be delicious fried too…

Andes Mint Scones

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:04:57 -0500

Happy Halloween! Hope you’re enjoying a bowl full of mini Reese’s, Twix, and Crunch bars… be sure to leave the flavored Tootsie Rolls and candy corn to the trick-or-treaters.

Or you could be munching on some…

I dunno…

Andes Mint Scones?

I made these for one of my roommate’s 21st birthday last week. Just like my pumpkin scones, these are mini as well. When you’re talking about butter + heavy whipping cream, you’re really only going to need a mini scone (actually, that probably isn’t true, but health-consciously speaking, that’s all you need. Then again, who am I to say that after eating half of the dough? (Just kidding.) (sort of.)).

Before I decided on what to make my roommate, I cruised the aisles of the grocery, hoping for some inspiration. Then, I saw them. Andes Mint baking bits. I remember as a little kid loving Andes’ mints. My childhood best friend’s mom always put them in her lunch (which I eyed admittedly enviously… as I ate my grapes). Andes Mints always meant something happy to me, a treat!

So, of course I bought the baking bits. At first, I intended on making mint chocolate chip cookies because adding mint is the only thing that makes a chocolate chip cookie more delicious. And the only thing more delicious than a chocolate chip cookie is… a scone! Also, the scones required some whipping cream, as I said, and we just happened to have some on hand, so I said why the heck not.

In my opinion, the dough tasted even better than the cooked scones. While it doesn’t appear on the outside that I cooked them too long, they turned out a tad bit dry. I may have skimped a little bit on the butter… still, it’s hard to go wrong with flour, butter, sugar, cream, and chocolate mint chips, so they were still good.

Something I would change in the recipe was the ratio of chips in the scones to chips in the drizzle. The original recipe calls for half of the chips to go into the scones batter and for the other have to be melted and drizzled on top of the scone. I was left with wayyy too much chocolate drizzle, and I think the scones could have benefitted from more chips actually in the scones. Instead, I would change it to 3/4 bag of chips in scones and 1/4 bag of chips for the drizzle.

On my roommate’s birthday, we all dressed up and went out to dinner with her at a local fave, fresh Mexican restaurant. By “we all,” I really don’t mean “we all.” What I really mean is somewhat other people and mostly me. I was definitely only one in the restaurant with full Halloween makeup on (mind you, this was a couple of weeks before Halloween), while my roommates were semi-dressed up along with a few others. Whateva! I don’t care!

That afternoon before my roommate’s dinner, I hit up Goodwill for some costume ideas. Originally, I wanted to be a hot air balloon… but that didn’t end up happening, so Goodwill was my next best option. It turned out that they had a plethora of 1950’s housewife dresses, so I just jumped on that bandwagon and bought some halloween face makeup at CVS. Overall, it was a pretty cheap costume for some legit 1950’s clothes… compare to Target costumes, where it costs almost $40 just to be a slice of pizza.

Enjoy your Halloweeny day.

Peach and Goat Cheese Galette

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:03:33 -0500

Goat cheese. Arugula. Peaches. Balsamic vinegar. Say no more, I’m all over that. This creation was another finding from FoodGawker via SpicieFoodie. Something else that was really appealing to me was the fact that the crust used olive oil rather than butter, like most other pies and galettes.

When people asked me what a galette was, I kind of wavered between calling it a pizza and a pie. Aside from the health aspect of using olive oil over butter, the oil added a more savory taste to the galette, distinguishing it from a pie. I liked to think of my version as a sub-category of gourmet pizza, but I saw another galette with a buttery crust and an apple, honey, brie, and pomegranate filling, which sounded more like a pie.

Speaking of olive oil versus butter, I did some research on the difference between the two because, to be honest, I really didn’t know. Sure, I knew that olive oil was “better”… but why? So, just FYI…

Butter:

Oil:

Calorie Count

Clearly, you should use both sparingly (and it can sometimes be replaced with greek yogurt or applesauce in baked goods), but both do provide their own distinct flavor in certain dishes. (Do not, I repeat, do not substitute olive oil for butter in sugar cookies. Bleh.)

Since it’s fall, the peaches definitely weren’t the best I’ve ever eaten, but I just figured that I would make the recipe while peaches were still available. I tried to make the balsamic vinegar into a syrup, but it didn’t get much thicker, probably because I didn’t add any more sugar to it while it was on the stove. Eventually, I would like to invest in some better quality balsamic. I drizzled a little bit of truffle oil on top as well. I think few cracks of pepper from the grinder would have been a nice addition.

Something else that I would have improved upon would be the thickness of the dough. I didn’t have a rolling pin, so I used a bottle instead. The dough really ought to have been a bit thinner.

I think this dish had a pretty good reception. My boyfriend refused to except it as a dinner dish, and I think I agreed with that. Maybe lunch, but definitely not dinner. I served it to some friends as a snack, which went over much better.

Check back in a few days for Andes Mint Scones and some Halloween-y cheer!

Spicy Tomato Fried Rice

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:01:59 -0500

Can I just say that I’m obsessed with this amazing concoction right now?

What initially sparked this new found passion I have for fried rice is a relatively new restaurant here in town called Thai Spice. Usually, I wouldn’t order fried rice at an Asian restaurant, but my boyfriend is a fried rice enthusiast, and since I tried the amazing fried rice at Thaicoon (lol puns) in Greenville, I’ve been curious about other Asian restaurants’ re-creation of the beloved Chinese-American dish. Since the summer, I’ve been splurging $10 every once and awhile (probably too often) for a to-go box worth of Thai Spice’s fried rice, just because it’s so good. Flavorful and unique.

There were three factors that played into the perfect bowl of fried rice for me:

Must include fresh vegetables
Must include basil*
Must be spicy

Inspired by Thai Spice, I kind of mashed together two recipes that I found, one for spicy fried rice and one for tomato rice. Basically, I sauteed a couple cloves of garlic along with 1/4 of an onion (more, if you really like onion) in 2 tbsp of vegetable oil for a couple minutes in a large skillet. Then, I added about 3 cups of uncooked rice (refrigerated for 4-24 hours), crack two eggs over the rice, then mix it all up. Next, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (or more, the recipe is very flexible), a dash of chili pepper (and salt if you’re using low sodium soy sauce). At the very end, I added a few chopped leaves of basil, mixed it in, and let it cook for a few minutes. It makes 2 servings for super hungry eaters, or 4 for moderately hungry eaters.

As I said, the recipe is very flexible. I think the basic fact that I used fresh ingredients made a world of difference compared to the cheaper Chinese take out around. I’m not certain if I think this was better than Thai Spice, but it was DEFINITELY cheaper.

*As you can see, my above picture doesn’t have basil in it. This was my first trial at fried rice with this particular recipe, but I’ve improved it to fit my standards. To be honest, even without the basil, it was still awesome, but the basil just added a second element to the flavor, definitely cooled off the spiciness from the chili and the red pepper.

Snickerdoodle Biscottis and a new bloggy feel!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 22:00:41 -0500

Being on Fall Break has given me ample time to try out so many new recipes. It’s definitely been relaxing and clearly food prolific- I’ll be posting more things soon! Today has been my most non-food-related day of productivity… I cleaned the kitchen, did my laundry, did some research for a couple of upcoming projects. I think Fall Break is a maneuver that colleges use to keep their students sane, right after midterms and right before the avalanche of work that is the rest of the semester.

I also have done a number of non-productive activities, such as watching the entire sixth season of 30 Rock on Netflix, and I’ll probably start watching season 7 on Hulu soon.

I was pretty happy the way this recipe turned out! It tasted like a store bought biscotti but a little less rock solid, which was a definite plus.

This was my first attempt at making biscottis. It never really occurred to me to make them, but I saw something on Foodgawker (an obsession), I got inspired. Essentially, it’s the same cinnamon sugar combination in the biscotti dough and the mixture on top of the cookie as a regular snickerdoodle cookie. Overall, I’d say it was a low input, high reward recipe. Super simple yet sophisticated. Just be sure to wait until the cookies cool before you slice them, otherwise they might crumble.

My next task might be to make a chai spice biscotti… yum. Speaking of which, I got some of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Chai Tea Latte mix on a few days ago, and it’s deliciousss. Not too sandy and not too watery like some mixes can be. By the way, the drink in the first picture is also from Trader Joe’s, apple cider. Yum.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve decided to change my blog a little bit. I’m no longer posting recipes unless it can’t otherwise be found on the internet, but I’ll still put a link up to the website that I got it from. If I make a change to the recipe, I’ll make a note of it in the post!

Unbeknownst to many, I’ve been blogging for ages (really since I knew how 2 internet. Oh yeah, hipster blogger. That’s right, I said it.), and I really wanted to start blogging more about my life, rather than just posting about a recipe and being done with it. Also, typing up recipes and ingredients can get really boring, and sometimes I’d put off posting because of that. I realized that I could just incorporate some public-friendly college life-y things into the posts, which in turn, will probably make it more interesting for other people, but most of all, be more enjoyable for me! I love to blog, and it’s one of the things that has inspired me to continue writing all of these years. I’d encourage anyone to do the same, especially if you’re passionate about something that you want to tell the world about. Or even if you aren’t, everyone has their own story, and you might be surprised how writing about it might help you find that super-awesome, untapped interest.

Fragrant Chicken Curry and Other Overly Healthy Mishaps

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:59:17 -0500

I had extremely high hopes for this dish. I got the recipe from one of the most holy of cookbooks, and it was made in the most sacred of all holy places, the crock pot. It smelled lovely for the 5 hours it was cooking. Heck, it even looked like the picture. Except I made

one.

crucial.

mistake.

… I tried way too hard to make it healthy. I should have known better; I won’t deny that. The recipe called for a mixture of cumin, coriander, and curry, some lentils, spinach, fresh cilantro (the dried version is actually coriander, who knew?!)… and chicken thighs. Instead I used a shameful substitution of Tyson chicken breast tenderloins.

I know, I know, but it was so convenient! An unnecessarily large bag of them was just gathering dust in the freezer (gross, but I’ve had them since the beginning of the school year), and they are so much healthier (…? I’m not sure if I can actually make that claim about a bag of meat that I bought from Walmart) than chicken thighs.If you take a look at the calorie count, chicken thighs have about 350 more calories than equal weight of meat in white meat.

Well, it turns out that any moisture and flavor was going to come from those 350 extra calories. It might have been okay to use chicken breasts if the recipe had called for cream or butter or any sort of ingredient that could soak up and enhance the flavors. Instead, I ended up with some very dry chicken. Plus lentils. Plus spinach.

It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t good. And it didn’t help that I didn’t salt or use olive oil to cook the rice in, nor did I brush the pappadam with oil before I cooked it. I was trying to be too good, and in return, I just got something that wasn’t good at all.

This, along side some other “healthy” alternatives, has taught me a few cooking lessons about cutting calorie corners. Some places are acceptable to cut corners (like chocolate tofu pie!)… and some aren’t (like coconut pudding- keep reading).

Here’s another healthy mishap with frozen chicken tenderloins and spinach. The spinach was actually delicious, which is probably why I took this picture (several months ago?). Inspired by my brother’s spinach craze, I just sauteed it with a little bit of minced garlic and a dash of salt. However, that blob on the left side is some unappealing chicken curry salad (I hope curry isn’t part of my mishaps trend!), made with greek yogurt. I think some raisins and celery thrown in might have improved it; it was just entirely too bland.

This was also a bit of a crock pot fiasco. Ya see, this here was an attempt at coconut pudding. I can’t remember precisely what the recipe called for… maybe egg whites and coconut milk? It was fairly minimal. Well, if you’ve ever looked at the label for regular coconut milk, it has about half of your daily saturated fat intake. In moderation, that’s probably okay, but it just so happened that I saw a box of super low calorie (45 cal per cup) coconut milk at the grocery store. Um. I missed the small-ish print that said BEVERAGE.

Don’t try to use a coconut milk beverage as a substitute for regular coconut milk… ever.

Also, throwing all of that cinnamon on top didn’t help at all either. Not really sure what I was thinking there… oops!

Something I’ve learned from these healthy mishaps is this:

When you’re preparing fatty, high cholesterol, high calorie, and high sodium foods, you can be incredibly lazy in cooking. Let’s be honest, anything with a half a stick of butter is going to be delicious. When you’re cooking healthily, you can’t be lazy. You’ve got to craft a recipe that makes up for missing those things. While I didn’t necessarily have to use chicken thighs in my Fragrant Chicken Curry, I could have used other vegetables, like tomatoes, to give the dish a bolder flavor. I could have thrown in some greek yogurt to mix in during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Healthy, delicious cooking means cooking creatively!

Chicken Wontons with Chile-Soy Sauce

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:56:36 -0500

Toldja I made some wontons.

You how I know they were a success? The moment you bit into one… It tastes Asian… but no MSG!

I boiled mine, although I think you’re technically supposed to “steam” them. Last fall, I wonton’d myself out because I made SO. MANY. RAVIOLIS. from wonton wrappers. This recipe takes a little bit more time than the directions imply, just because you’ll be filling lots of wontons. These were probably two of the more beautiful wontons in the batch- I froze them in too large of batches within the bags, so they all stuck together. It wasn’t all bad, though… I mean, I just kind of threw a chunk of them in a pan and fried them. It wasn’t at all a problem, haha.

Another delicious (and decadent) idea is to fill wontons with cream cheese or goat cheese. I had a few wrappers left over and am thinking of filling it with some avocado and pan frying it.

Serves 6-8

Adapted from All Recipes

What you need:

(dumplings)

1 lb ground chicken, thawed

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp egg whites

2 tbsp chopped chives

2 tbsp soy sauce

1.5 tbsp seasame oil

1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

Couple of handfuls of shredded cabbage

50 dumpling wrappers

Bowl of water and brush

-Oil for frying, water for boiling, or a steamer

(sauce)

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp chopped chives

1 tsp Sriracha

What you need to do:

1. In a large bowl, combine chicken, garlic, egg whites, 2 tbsp chives, 2 tbsp soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and cabbage. Stir well.

2. Place a little less than a tbsp worth of filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper.

3. Dip the brush into the water and brush water around the sides of the wonton wrapper. Bring the sides of the wrapper together in whatever fashion you feel like. I couldn’t really decide on the best way to fold them, as you might be able to see from my picture. :)

4. Set wontons aside. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup soy sauce, rice vinegar, 1 tbsp chives, sesame seeds, and Sriracha. Blend well.

5. Boil the wontons for 5-7 minutes or pan fry them in a bit of vegetable oil.

6. Serve with Chile-Soy Sauce for dipping.

Enjoy!

Lunch Box!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:52:55 -0500

So.

I’m obsessed with my lunch box.

Yes, I mix my red seedless grapes and grape tomatoes.

See, it’s ka-yoot.

Got my peanut butter crackers, cheese stick and mini scone! So adorable!

I <3 my lunchbox.

Cinnamon-Glazed Mini Pumpkin Scones

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:51:46 -0500

Feast your eyes on those babies. Yes, it’s 12:02 AM on a Monday night, and I just finished making these. It’s my celebration of Fall and the beginning of my pumpkin binge (along with probably butternut squash and sage). I know I haven’t updated in a while— I’ve moved into a new apartment this school year with a smaller kitchen than I had before, so I’ve had to adjust slightly. Also, I feel like our oven is pretty dirty because every time we cook something in it on a remotely high temperature, it creates a lot of smoke, which sets off the fire alarm, so now I’ve got a bit of a phobia of the oven. Lately, I’ve just been cooking turkey burgers with spinach and feta and rice and bean quesadillas, so I haven’t had too much to post.

Today however, I kind of went on a cooking extravaganza with the scones, and I made about 50 chicken wontons before that as well. I’ll post a picture of those tomorrow after I fry some of them. It felt so good to be back in the kitchen, creating things! I’m very pleased with how the scones came out. The original recipe calls for a plain glaze and a cinnamon glaze, although I don’t think you need the cinnamon. Also, don’t douse the scone with glaze, even though the glaze is delicious, because you won’t get to taste the deliciousness of the pumpkin.

Cinnamon-Glazed Mini Pumpkin Scones

Adapted from Fake Ginger

Serves 6-8

What you need (for pumpkin scone):

2 cups multi-grain flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

6 tbsp cold butter, diced

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

3 tbsp half-and-half

3 tbsp egg whites

(for cinnamon glaze)

1 cup powdered sugar

3 1/2 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

What you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. I’m not really sure why, but I just kind of threw all the ingredients for the pumpkin scones together in a large bowl. I combined it all with a metal spoon, and the just said whatever and used my hands to mush it all together. I know, very technical terms, but basically that’s what I did.

3. I split up the dough into two “wheels”, about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. You’re going to want the dough to be about 1 or 1.5 inches thick.

4. Cut up both wheels like you would a pizza, into 6 or 8 wedges and place on a baking sheet with about at least an inch in radius apart from each other.

5. Place sheet in over for about 15 minutes.

6. Combine powdered sugar, milk and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl with a whisk.

7. After baking, let scones cool for 10 minutes.

8. Drizzle cinnamon glaze on top of scones.

Enjoy!

Creamed Spinach Stuffed Chicken, Gruyere Asparagus Tart, and Balsamic Vinegar Strawberries

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:45:37 -0500

So, this past weekend, I made a delicious feast for my family! I started out with a couple of recipes and then somehow deviated a lot from them… I’m relieved that everything still turned out tasty, though. I supposed that is part of cooking; experimenting with other people’s recipes to add your own personal touch. Often, it seems like those “personal touches” are accidentally, but hey! If it turns out well, who cares if it was an accident or on purpose?

Creamed Spinach Stuffed Chicken

Serves 4

What you need:

1 package of Boursin Cheese (herb garlic)

1 package of frozen spinach (defrosted)

4 chicken breasts

Salt and pepper for seasoning

What you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a skillet over medium heat, melt the cheese. Once the cheese is about half way melted, fold in the defrosted spinach and combine well. Keep it on low heat until you’re ready stuff the chicken in step 4.

3. Slice a large pocket in the side of each chicken breast.

4. Place a couple of spoonfuls of the creamed spinach into each chicken pocket.

5. Season with salt and pepper, and place in the oven for about 45 mins - 1 hr.

Gruyere Asparagus Tart

Serves 4-8

What you need:

8 oz phyllo dough (half a package)

2 cups shredded gruyere cheese

12 oz of asparagus

~2.5 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar for seasoning

What you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the phyllo dough sheets (about 15 sheets) on a foiled baking tray. Place the tray in the oven for a few minutes until the sheets start to brown a bit.

3. Remove the tray from the oven. Evenly sprinkle the cheese in the center of the phyllo dough, leaving about a 1 inch border without cheese.

4. Place the asparagus on top of the cheese side by side, again leaving a boarder.

5. Drizzle the asparagus with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Put the tart back in the oven for about 45 minutes. Once the asparagus looks like its roasted, remove from oven.

8. Allow the tart to cool. Before serving drizzle balsamic vinegar on top.

I was a little considered about the phyllo sheets separating too much because typically, you need to have some sort of butter or egg to bind them together. What ended up happening was the oil from the cheese seeped through the dough, creating the perfect binding! It worked out really well, considering all the other vegetable tart recipes I saw called for puff pastry. I got phyllo dough on accident :)

The border was crunchy and flakey, which I also liked.

Balsamic Vinegar Strawberries

Adapted from All Recipes

Serves 4

What you need:

1 lb fresh strawberries

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

Pepper for seasoning (optional)

What you need to do:

1. Wash, halve, and hull the strawberries. Place them in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar. Mix gently.

3. Allow the mixture to sit out at room temperature for 2-4 hours.

4. Before serving, crack fresh pepper over the strawberries. Serve alone, or with cake, ice cream, or yogurt.

Garlic Bagels (and plain)

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:42:04 -0500

My roommate, Abbey, loves bagels. However as a student, she realized there was a more economical way to enjoy one of her favorite foods… by making them! My brother loves bagels too, so I decided after watching my roomie make dozens of bagels at school, I could make them at home!

I thought they turned out just a good as the store bought ones, if not better, although they were definitely a bit different. While the bagels you might buy at the grocery store are a little tougher, these are soft and fluffy on the inside. Kind of like a dinner roll

Adapted from All Recipes

Serves 12

What you need:

1 tsp fast rising yeast
1 1/4 cup warm milk (:30 in the microwave)
1/4 cup butter, softened + a pat for greasing
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cold water
5 tbsp minced garlic (optional)

What you need to do:

1. Warm the milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

2. Add the yeast into the milk. If you’re using fast-rising, you shouldn’t have to let the yeast dissolve. Add the butter, brown sugar, salt, and egg yolk of the egg. Save the egg white in a glass for later, you’ll use it to brush the bagels with. Stir well.

3. Add 3 cups of the flour, and stir until the mixture becomes a dough. Save the rest of the flour for the next step.

4. Place the dough onto a floured surface (3/4 cup) and knead for about 6 minutes.

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl and flip it once to grease the top of the dough. Cover the bowl and put it in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and start boiling a pot of water.

6. Divide the risen dough into 12 balls. Place the balls onto a tinfoiled baking sheet. Punch a one-inch whole in each of the balls, and let them rest, covered, for about 10 minutes.

7. One or two at a time, drop the bagels into a pot of boiling water. Let each bagel be in the water for about 1 minute, turning after 30 seconds. The bagels should float to the top of the water.

8. Place the bagels back on the foiled baking sheet. In the glass with the egg white from earlier, mix in the cold water, beating it lightly. Brush the mixture on top of each bagel (even if you aren’t putting garlic on top, it will brown up more nicely).

9. Sprinkle dried minced garlic on top of the bagels, if you wish. If not, keep them plain.

10. Place the bagels 2 inches apart on the sheet. I could only do 6 bagels per baking sheet, so I had to do two sets. Put the bagels in the oven for about 18 minutes.

Enjoy!