Food in College

Thanksgiving Dinner

2009-11-29T10:12:00.000-08:00

What an unproductive weekend.
Dinner was nice this year, though; a small family gathering.

Pickled Vegetables. A bit non-traditional, but still very delicious, courtesy of my Aunt.
Super delicious salad starter was created my older cousin. Actually, I think most everything was prepared by the two.

Poor turkey didn't stand a chance.

An Attempt @ Puff Pastry

2009-07-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Summer...is hot. With summer, however, comes a lot of recipes that have berries featured as the star of a dish. As I was browsing the internet, I happened to stumble across one such recipe on the Baker's Banter, by King Arthur Flour.

Now, what did I find? A recipe for Raspberry Turnovers! They looked so good I just had to try making some. First hurdle? Make some puff pastry; I didn't want to go and buy any and I had all the ingredients to make it (Wtf? The heat! Why do that to yourself?). So after a few days of researching around online for recipes and instructions regarding this intimidating foe, I rolled up my sleeves and set out to make it! Didn't take any pictures of the ordeal though because I was a bit preoccupied with it and forgot~ Yeah, sadness.

I guess it was super humid 'cause I had a lot of trouble with the dough sticking when I was trying to roll it out and it ate the flour on the rolling surface like a demon. In the end, I finally made it, wrapped it up, and left it to chill in the fridge for 1.5 days ('cause I didn't really want to think about it or do anything with it after the experience of making it). I can confess that I was super worried about how it would turn out. I thought it was gonna just be one flat piece of dough when I finally baked it off.

Anyway, I didn't really have any frozen berries in the fridge 'cause I neglected to buy any...but I did have 2 medium/small sweet onions that I needed to use up. SO, "if like gives you lemons, make lemonade" right? I sauteed the onions til they were soft and caramelized, seasoned with oregano, smoked paprika, salt, coarse black pepper, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. Finished that and stuck it in the fridge too.

Ugh. Okay, in the end, I did manage to make it! Talk about scary experience. Rolling the dough out at the end to prep for the stuffing and baking was a nightmare. Was getting soft fast, and sticking to boot. I ended up just getting it rolled out, not trimmed it, cut to enough divisions, stuffed, not sealed properly, egg washed, and into the oven. I watched as the butter in the dough started to melt, transforming it into a soft, melted looking pile of stuff. Checked back later after much brooding and I saw it had some layers! Hurray! Some kind of success!!!

Results!:

Moral of this scary story? That there is hope and you too can make your own puff pastry! I mean, did you read what I went through to make this? I even cut out some more drama to make this entry pithy. I would say try it, just because experiences always add to our understanding of things.
Look at those beautiful buttery flakes!

For Mother's Day: Blueberry Cream Cake

2009-05-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

So~ my mom loves blueberries, which is interesting because she wasn't always a fan of fruits (didn't know this until I was older; her reasoning was that if she showed that she didn't like most fruits or veggies we would grow up like her too, lol). Anyway, so I was supposed to make this the day before Mother's Day but I didn't have the ingredients to do it and in the morning I didn't have enough time to bake before she came to my appartment.

This was an experimental cake too. Aren't experiments just the greatest? Yes, back on track. It's experimental because I used heavy cream for fat instead of butter. I did some googling to figure out if such a substitute was reasonable, but didn't come up with too much except one recipe for a "Sweet Cream Cake." So I took that one, wrote a few
tagline notes and went at making my Mother's Day cake, hoping for the best results of course.

Lucky me, it turned out great!

Blueberry Cream Cake

-1 2/3 Cup All Purpose Flour

-2 1/2 Tsp. Baking Poweder

-2/3 Tsp. Salt

-Zest from 1 Med. Lemon

-2 Eggs

-1 Cup Sugar

-1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

-Just a bit over 3/4 Cup Heavy Cream + 2% Greek Yoghurt (or more cream or another sour cream, etc.) = Total 1 Cup

-2 Cups Frozen Wild Blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line, spray, and flour a 9x12 baking pan.
Beat eggs until well broken up, then add sugar gradually and beat until light in color and well incorporated. Add lemon zest and beat until incorporated.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt together into a separate bowl. Combine vanilla extract, heavy cream/yoghurt mixture together in a measuing cup (for ease of pouring).
Alternately add dry and cream mixture to the egg mixture (about 3 sets) and, using a paddle, mix after each set of additions until nicely incorporated. Pour and spread in an even layer onto the baking pan. Distribute the blueberries over the cake batter, leaving some on top and pushing some into the batter itself so there is a nice distribution throughout. (I guess the alternative would be to coat half of the frozen blueberries with flour and mixing them carefully into the batter to avoid major color bleeding, then sprinkle the rest on the top after spreading it out).
Bake on middle shelf for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Rotate once during baking. (If necessary, turn the oven to 325F 10 minutes before time is up if you feel your oven is browning/burning it faster that it is cooking and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.)
Remove and let cool for 30 minutes in pan before cutting. Serves ~12-18 depending on how you slice it.

Enjoy~

Lemon Cranberry Pecan Biscotti

2009-02-24T22:00:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I had a major biscotti phase...and I still do!

Well, I did a lot of searching around in cookbooks and online for a recipe that I liked. Took a while and I looked for similarities in the recipes. I learned a few things though, which is always really good. So there are three kinds of biscotti base dough substance recipes: whole eggs only, egg and butter, or egg white only.

I happened to have my American's Test Kitchen book on hand and one major difference would be texture and the other is taste. Hard, light, with a pleasant snap and crunch (but not hard enough to break a tooth...unless you're careless) and has a flavor that improves with time after baking; lasts longer than the ones made with butter. Softer and more fragrant aroma with a nice cruch not as prominent as the whole egg one though; loses flavor over time. Break a tooth hard...forgot what it said about flavor though, but I imagine that it wouldn't be as strong as the other two.

In the end, I opted to make the ones that called for whole eggs. Reasons? I'm a busy college student that doesn't want anything to go rancid over time, hehe. I'm not a major fan of butter either and I don't like the residue it leaves on the fingers and lips.

I actually made two by the book recipe biscottis to test out how to make biscottis, and it took a while but I think I got the hang of it by the 3rd or 4th time I tried it. I made an orange honey, a chocolate pistachio, and pecan cranberry; I know, thats three. What did I learn? 1. Ones without any filling are harder to handle and shape and probably cook faster, 2. chocolate pieces don't improve the texture of a whole egg biscotti because it interferes with the crunch factor, 3. pecans, cranberries, and lemon are the best combo of ingredients I have ever tasted. Note: anytime I mention a citrus fruit, I'm refering to the zest of it. Most recipes called for some kind of zest, either lemon or orange.

Result of all this experimentation? Developing a really great Lemon Pecan Cranberry biscotti with a nice bite and flavor that grows over the couple days after you make them. They are great with a beverage because the hardness stands up to soaking, and may be better for those who don't like such hard cookies.

Lemon Scented Cranberry Pecan Biscotti

2 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup dried cranberries (Craisens are good)
1 cup of chopped and toasted pecans
3 large eggs
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 medium lemon (or large if you really want)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and set aside (second one is for later).

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Beat eggs with whisk in a mixter, or by hand, until relatively broken down. Add granulated sugar and beat until combined and just dissolved. Add zest and vanilla extract and mix again until everything is well combined.

4. Remove bowl from mixer. Add flour mixture in third portions. Mix each third portion into wet mixture until semi-combined and then add the next. When last third of dry mixture in almost combined add cranberries and pecans. Stir until just well combined.

5. Devide the batter in two and shape each portion into 12"x2" logs. Wetting your hands slightly makes this easier because the batter is a little sticky.

6. Place in oven on middle rack and bake for 20~25 minutes, or until pale golden and cracked on top. Rotate baking sheet halfway through baking time for even browning.

7. Turn oven down to 275 F. Remove and cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then remove and cool for another 10 or 15 minutes. The longer it is cooled the easier it will be to slice without messing up the center too much. Use a serrated knife or bread knife and cut at an angle 1/4" slices. Lay the slices flat on parchmented baking sheets and return to oven on upper 1/3rd and lower 1/3rd of oven to bake for 15 minutes. After this, remove and turn the slices over to toast the other side. Return to oven for 15 more minutes or until biscotti is dry. The color should still be pale or the color they looked when they were first sliced. The idea is to dry them out, not brown.

8. Cool on cooling rack and make sure it is completely cooled before putting them into a container or packaging of any kind. From what I understand, they last a few weeks in an airtight container, if they last that long.

White Mushroom Spaghetti

2008-11-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

This was my first attempt at making a pasta dish that didn't have any tomato related ingredient in the sauce. It sauce pretty much consisted of white mushrooms, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper, oil, and butter. It's a shame I'm not old enough to get some white wine, it would have been perfect.

The mushrooms looked amazing so I decided it would be a good idea to get some. Sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of them before I sliced, diced, and cooked them.

White Mushroom Pasta:

12 oz. of White Mushrooms, about (or more if you like)

5 cloves of garlic, minced

Quarter of a small-medium onion, diced

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp of Olive Oil (or any other kind you have)

4 tbsp of butter

1 tsp, or more, of salt (to taste)

1/2 pack of regular length spaghetti, roughly

Black pepper (optional/to taste)

Basil, roughly chopped (optional)

Rinse and wash the mushrooms under cold running water. And set aside to dry, or you can pat dry. Then slice them into thin, approx. 2-3mm, even slices. Set aside. (The slicing can all be done while you wait for the water to boil)

Bring a large, covered, pot of water to boil. Once boiling, uncover and throw in the dried spaghetti. Stir in and let cook as package directs. Stir occasionally.
While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large, raised sides, pan. When heated, cook garlic for about 30 secs or until fragrant on medium-high heat, then throw in the onions and oregano and cook until browned and softened slightly, maybe about 3 minutes on medium-high heat.
Once onions are browned and softened, throw in the sliced mushrooms. Saute for a a minute or two and then cover, turn heat to medium, and let the mushrooms release their moisture. After about 5-7 minutes, check and stir. They should have lost a lot of their opaqueness. Now uncover, turn heat back to medium-high, add salt, and saute untill some moisture has evaporated, but not completely. Add the butter and stir in until all melted. Lower heat to medium-low.
At this point the pasta should be done. Drain and add pasta to the sauce. Mix well until the pasta is well coated. Add basil, and pepper (if using). Serve immediately.
Serves ~4
Enjoy!

"Rustic" Pumpkin Pie: Avoiding Textbooks

2008-10-26T21:13:00.001-07:00

So~ I didn't want to study today, and now I'm behind again...but it was worth it! I decided to bake Pumpkin Pie! I experimented with the recipe I looked up too...very little variation, I just used 2 cans of Carnation's 5 oz. evaporated milk instead of a 12oz. can because last time I did that I had extra filling...I don't like to have extra filling...yes. It would have been such a waste, right?

I also only used 1 tsp. of Pumpkin Pie Spice, and added 1 tsp of fresh grated ginger. Yummy! It turned out nice! I also added only 2 large eggs instead of 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg. All good.

For some reason though, the pie surface cracked, a lot. Therefore! I call it "rustic". Isn't it great how one word fixes everything?

3/4 cup of Brown Sugar

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 tsp. Freshly Grated Ginger

2 Large Eggs

2 (5 oz.) cans of Evaporated Milk

1 (15 oz.) can of Usweetened Pumpkin

1 Pre-made Deep Dish Pie Crust, like Pillsbury

Preheat oven to 450F degrees

Prepare a rack on the lower shelf of the oven and put a baking sheet on this lower level.

Mix/Whisk/Blend Brown Sugar through Evaporated Milk together in a bowl. Add Pumpkin and mix till well combined.

Pour into Pie Crust, place in oven on top of a baking sheet (for cleanliness and in case of spills. I would put the crust on the baking sheet in the oven BEFORE pouring the mixture in, makes it easier since you don't have to pick it up and balance the liquid inside on the way to the oven).

Bake at 450F for about 10 minutes. Rotate. Turn temperature to 350F degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

I have a feeling that if I baked it at 325 instead of 350 the pie would'nt have cracked so much...but oh well, it tasted good to me so I don't really care, haha.

Finally, Something New: Chili

2008-10-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

Man, it has definitely been a while since I last posted.

So~ I managed to drag my butt out of bed a few saturdays ago to go to the farmers market near my apartment complex and I bought an interesting new chili. BUT, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product...so I need to do that at some point later on. Wait for it!~

Well, I guess it isn't that new or interesting for someone thats eaten a sweet white pepper before, but it was interesting to me! I forgot the exact name of this particular chili pepper, but it was really sweet! I mean, I just licked a piece of the pepper just to taste it and I could taste the full impact of sweetness! But I forgot about how sweet the peppers were and I added just a little too much honey, hehe. Go figure.

Tomatoes were getting a bit irritating to buy because I thought a lot of the prices were a bit expensive, but I guess it's worth it for fresh tomatoes. I saw a stand selling heirlooms for about $3.50 lb but I didn't have enough time or money get it that weekend. Next weekend for sure! The tomatoes I finally settled on were really sweet too. A shame that most all of them went into making the chili. I would have eaten them all raw, haha.

So, I used a combination of: sweet white peppers, orange bell peppers, a jalapeno (my sister can't really handle too much heat) and some Anaheim peppers. I was going to add Pasilla but the ones I had in the fridge kinda went south and I didn't see it until I got back from the market. Poo~

Spices: Chili powder, Smoked paprika, Cumin

Canned: White and Dark Kidney Beans, Tomato Paste

Actually Cooked Something

2008-05-22T21:19:00.001-07:00

These last few weeks...well, this entire month really has been hell. I don't think I have actually cooked anything from scratch in the last 2 weeks! I either went out to eat something with my sister or just ate some kind of instant/simple thing, like cereal. From what I can remember during this time I think the only color I saw on my plate, when I ate at home, was beige or white: cereal, grain foods, milk/dairy products, instant noodles (yep, the college student's staple food), an egg here and there.

However, I did finally manage to scrape some time out of life to cook something today! Sauteed Napa with Dried Shrimp and Garlic.

Mother's Day: Hunting Down a Cake

2008-05-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well, this is a bit late, but who cares ^^~

So for mother's day my sister and I decided to buy a cake for our mom. Problem was that my sister went out to buy the cake about an hour before our mom was arriving at our place. What made it a worse was that she had to go to a few places before she found a Taro cake, which my mom had said she liked...I don't remember when she said it but it resonates with me so...yes. The awkward part of this whole thing was that my mom got to our place before my sister got back, so it was difficult to dodge the question, "Where is your sister?". Esp. difficult to explain when my mom knows that she usually wakes up at 1pm on a weekend and hardly leaves the apartment and at that time it was about 10am.

I would have made one myself if I had the resources and, most importantly, the experience for it...but this is good to！~

Anyway~ Pictures of cake!

Cake tasted good. Very rich in Taro flavor ^_^~ And, my mom liked it! Yey~

No Frosting Necessary

2008-04-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

I don't understand why people would want to frost the hell out of a perfectly good cake. I mean, if the cake itself is good, they why do it? And if you do, why make it so thick? I had a cake once that had saccharine frosting that was layered on so thick that my head felt like it was going to implode from all my blood vessels constricting.

That's my rant for the day I guess. Anyway, on to the main point. I finally bought a cake pan; a 9" Wilton round cake pan. It took me forever to decide to actually buy one and then after that it took another eon for me to select a particular brand. Therefore, I decided to buy the Wilton nonstick 9" round, since they come with lovely handles for easy manipulation. I only bought 1 though since at that point I still wasn't sure if it would be a good choice or not, and about $5-$6, it was worth a risk. When I finally used it to bake a cake, it worked perfectly. It browns the bottom and edges a dark brown, which has great flavor and a firmer, almost crisp, crust. The handles made turning during baking and handling overall a lot easier too. Good surface. With a light run around the sides with a spreader, the cake almost seemed to fall out of the pan.

On to the recipe itself. I used and adjusted a basic One-Bowl Chocolate Cake from Better Homes and Garden's New Cook Book; however, I didn't do it all in one bowl. I just kinda did mine in steps since I don't have an electric mixer. If I did I might have done it all in one bowl...but ya~

For this recipe I had to buy some cocoa powder, so I settled for Dutch processed. The original recipe I followed only called for milk, so I used 2% milk and I added some sour cream, which is supposed to add tenderness (that line sounds kinda weird, doesn't it?). Another thing was that the cake came with a Rocky Road Frosting, which I decided not to try since I don't really like frosting on my cake. Turned out I was right in doing this because it needed no frosting what so ever. It was moist, just sweet enough, and perfect just by itself.

I believe a good cake can hold it's own~ Though it is true frosting makes it more presentation quality. In those cases, I would make a special, mildly sweet, and frost on only a thin layer.

Makes one 9" round layer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch processed makes for a darker, less red, cake)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 baking soda (originally: 1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 + 1/8 cup of (2%) milk, room temp
Enough (light) sour cream to make milk total: 3/4 cup (a little over 1 tbsp)
1/4 cup butter, room temp, and cut into 8 cubes/pieces (originally: margarine)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, room temp
Preheat oven to 350F
Spray a 9" round cake pan with cooking spray, line the bottom with parchment, spray bottom again, and lightly flour pan. Set aside. (I just spray it all once, put the parchment on the bottom, touch it till it gets oil all over the one side, and then flip it around and press in against the pan).
Use scoop and level method (scoop out an overfilled amount of flour and level) and to measure out one cup of flour. Mix by first stirring flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together in a bowl, then sift 1-2x, using another bowl between transfers. Set aside
In another bowl (if you used another bowl when you were sifting the dry ingredients back and forth, use the empty one you have after step 3) mix the eggs, vanilla, milk, and sour cream together until well blended/mixed. Set aside
Using a whisk, add 2 cubes of butter into the dry ingredients at a time and mix by pressing the butter into the dry ingredients until all the butter is distributed in the dry ingredients and are about the size of small rocks. Add half of the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, whisk rather vigorously until the dry ingredients are all incorporated (~20-30 seconds). Then, mix in the rest of the wet mixture until a smooth batter forms. Scrap the bowl down and mix w/ just a few more turns.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Even out the batter and put bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. (Remember to turn the cake around 1/2 way through baking, so as to ensure even cooking).

In the end, I think you can use any method you want to mix this cake up, providing you are using some type of cake making method. I hope this works out well for everyone who decides to try it. if you really wanted to, you could even frost it...if you want to. I personally feel its perfect the way it is ^_^. Time to study for my Calc and Chem midterm!...crap~

Blueberries Galor!~

2008-04-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

*Whoot* another blueberry muffin, except this time I actually followed a recipe, lol. I recently bought the America's Test Kitchen Best A merican Classics recipe book, and am still feeling ecstatic about it. And I wouldn't really call this a Blueberry muffin...more like a Blueberry Sour Cream Muffin, since the recipe only used sour cream as the milk/liquid. So~ It was Monday night and I had an 8am class the next morning and I still decided to bake these muffins at 10 or 11 pm at night, how fun! Though not very conducive to sleep and rest...>.>;

The interesting this was that when they were baking, and fresh from the oven, their aroma smelled kind of like mild cheese, which I like cheese so it wasn't that bothersome to me ^_^. And they tasted so delicious~ I love them~

So the following pictures are from the night I actually made them. You can also tell this because the lighting is crap, lol.

These are the morning after, when the sun is out and the light is beautiful~ ^_^. These also give you a better idea of what the actual color of the muffins were... They keep pretty well. I just put them in a air tight container (zip lock bag, lol) and threw them in the fridge. They taste good cold and when they come up to room temp, the only difference being that at room temp the crumb is softer.

So~ Just saying now that I don't plan to put the entire recipe up since that would probably infringe on some copyright issues or something...so...I'll just list the ingredients ^^; I did do something different when I made them though: I used light sour cream instead of regular. Still turned out great so I don't think it affected them in any major way.

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/4 cup (10 ounces) sour cream (light)
1 1/2 frozen wild blueberries
--The Best American Classics, 278

So I hope knowing the ingredient would give you some inspiration. As for me, I'm gonna keep skimming though cookbooks looking for something easy and simple to eat ^^.

Time Constraint

2008-04-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Crap, I have to finish my online chemistry homework by midnight tonight and I have a dance and music performance to go to at 8pm! Which I have to leave for now or else I'll never make it. I'll blog about how the show was tonight ^_^...after I finish my chem when I get back, lol.

Okay! I have finished my chem work (for tonight at least) and with a few minutes to spare ^_^. The show was wonderful! "Olympic Spectacular: One World, One Dream".
I know that there has been, and still is, a lot of political tension and rights issues going on in and around China, but this was just such a once in a life-time opportunity!

Three, I think, performing arts academies came over from China to do this show, and it was simply amazing. The performers, apparently, have been training in their field, and only their field, since the age of 6! (They decide their career path by age 12 and thats where the intense academy schooling starts).

I have a few of the dance costumes stuck in my head so I hope I can draw them close to correct. The entire show combined a recorded video background for most all of the scenes and numbers, so much so that it was difficult at times to figure out what to focus on: the dance, dancer's, or background video @_@. I'm pretty sure I missed a few dance parts here and there...but its all good ^_^. I'll try to get those costume pictures up ASAP~

Marbled Matcha Tea "Cup" Cake

2008-04-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't consider this a cupcake persay, because the final product doesn't really fit the criteria for a cupcake. It isn't sweet, and has a denser texture; however, I did baked them in a muffin tin with paper liners so they do kind of look like cupcakes...and kind of like muffins.

They turned out good: pleasantly mild bitter taste and sweetness. The difficult part about this recipe though was that the chocolate batter had a consistency similar to cookie dough, but still workable.

I was inspired to do something with chocolate and matcha a while back, but after watching the movie "Chocolat" this morning I just had to do something with chocolate ^^. Some unsweetened baking chocolate from Trader Joe's, a good amount of green tea powder, what could be better ^_^.

Generally, I just break the chocolate up with my hands into the pre-divided sections and don't bother to chop it with a knife, but made the exception today since I wanted to melt the chocolate faster. A serrated knife cuts through bar chocolate like nothing else! And your less likely to damage the knife's edge compared to using a chef's knife. Loved it @_@.

I think this cake concoction would go well with a sweet beverage of some sort. I just tasted them with milk though, but I think a hot chocolate would have been good too, since the cakes aren't very sweet. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the two different batters rose differently. Since the chocolate batter was more cookie dough-like, it didn't rise as well as the matcha batter. Also, while the matcha batter would fill out evenly into the paper liner when baked, the chocolate one didn't fill out as nicely (as you can see from the photo's). I don't mind though. It's all still good.

I'll put up the recipe I made up later on. For now, I really need to study ^^;

New Template, and Guacamole

2008-04-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

So I was browsing the template choices and decided that this particular style was easier on the eyes in style, color, and layout. Hopefully those of you who read my blog, thank you, find it better as well.

I actually made some guacamole tonight because I had way too many hass avocados that were already ripe (about 10-ish in all) and I needed to clear out my fridge before I ran out of space for leftovers, or something along those lines. Sorry I don't have any picture, but I do have enough to make it again so I can probably just put those up with this post ^^.

I made a mental note to myself to get a lemon while at the super market today, but, as my brain is always full of other useless information pushing the more important things out, I forgot. Solution? White vinegar! It actually added a nice pleasant zing to the guacamole without adding some kind of overbearing flavor or taste, since it was white vinegar, which has a cleaner taste than others, I feel. I could almost go as far as say that it tasted better than when I had made guacamole with lime or lemon juice as the acid. Other ingredients included some garlic, a little yellow onion, a pinch of salt, and a jalapeño pepper (since my sister can't take a lot of heat =_=, which is a complete opposite from my mom and me. Though I can't take a lot either, I still like the feeling and taste spice adds to foods ^_^). No cilantro this time either, since my sister is going to be eating this too >_<. I like my guacamole creamy with some chunks in it. I mean, how fun could it be to eat a completely smooth guacamole, right? But if you insist on smooth, just smash it into a pasty oblivion @_@! And, depending on how you look at it, you can either release stress, or you could end up getting really frustrated with trying to cream it.
Recipe: Chunky Guacamole

3 ripe medium hass avocados, cut in half and pitted

a little less than 1/2 tsp of salt (I don't feel it's necessary to put a lot of salt since whatever you eat this with would probably have more than enough sodium to compensate)
1 medium jalapeño, seeded and finely minced
3 medium cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
1/4 medium-large yellow onion (or any other kind of bulb onion you prefer), minced (makes it easier to mix and keeps people from suddenly stumbling upon a large cache of onion flavor x_X)
cilantro, roughly chopped/minced (optional)

Spoon flesh of 1 avocado into a bowl (or whatever your using to mix). Add the salt, 1 tbsp of vinegar, garlic, and jalapeño. Cream/smash into a smooth consistency with the spoon and a fork. Set aside.
With a knife, score the rest of the avocado halves into ~1/2" vertical and horizontal lines, making a grid pattern. Then, using your trusty spoon, scoop the scored avocados into the bowl with the creamed avocado "paste". Add the 1 tbsp of vinegar (if using), cilantro (if using), and the onion. With your fork, or spoon, mix until combined, being careful not to destroy the cubed avocado pieces; however, you can mix it until it reaches the chunkiness...or smoothness, you prefer). If the taste isn't "tangy" enough, add the rest of the vinegar (or more to taste).

Done! Simple, yes? At least I would hope it was relatively simple @_@;

This makes a good amount. Enjoy it with your favorite party chip, spread on toast, on your bagel, on your burger, in a sandwich, in your wrap, by itself ^_^, etc...

I Actually Used the Stove!

2008-04-02T22:22:00.001-07:00

Man, I actually had a "real" dinner today. Rice with side plates of stuff! Had a few problems with it though.

Spinach, according to my sister, had a slight dirt taste to it. I could have sworn I washed them thoroughly too! Well, I guess it can't be help sometimes. Maybe I'll go for baby spinach more. Personally though, I couldn't really taste anything seriously different about it. Is it because the last few times I sauteed spinach I used baby spinach instead of flat-leafed? or is it because I failed to add enough salt...which happens a lot to me too 'cause I still have problems figuring out the right amount of salt =_=, but I'm getting better about that!.
I took a while to finish everything though so things were a bit cold (understatement) when we ate. The only thing that was hot was the rice, lol.

All-in-all though, she liked everything but the spinach, and the temperature, of the food. Oh well, I guess I'll have to pick up the pace next time. Guess I should really consider cooking more again ^^;

Well, I wanted to have a few things with my rice; actually, my sister was the one who kept asking, "what else?" x_X.

A few days ago I went to the super market with my mom and they had these spicy tofu veggie thing ( I think it counts as 素雞/vegetarian "meat", but it still tasted like tofu with a texture of firm, chewy tofu) on sale so we decided to get some. I guess this counts as my experiment for the day. The tofu was pretty much ready to eat, but that would be so boring! I mean, cold vacuum packed tofu, how appealing is that, right? Therefore, I decided to saute it with some sliced green onions. I also cooked some shrimp and eggs (蝦仁炒蛋). The nice thing is I didn't have to add more oil since the thing was packed in chili oil and it was already marinated so I figured I didn't need to add more salt, which was true, I didn't! Yey!~ Couldn't have gone wrong with this one! ^_^v

This meal had a few short cuts, like frozen unshelled and de-veined (thank goodness) for the egg dish and my ready to eat tofu stuff, I admit, but its definitely easier and more time efficient than having to buy fresh stuff everyday. I mean, can you imagine how much time and money (both for food and gas)? Craziness~~~

Do keep in mind, however, what you should and shouldn't have as a freezer substitute. Make smart choices! Like a don't is having a million pre-made frozen foods in the freezer!

I don't even want to include picture of that spinach catastrophe. It's just too terrible to think about =_=.

Easy Dinner ('Cause I'm Lazy)

2008-03-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

XO Sauce Noodles （XO 拌麵）

Okay, so my sister, who is also my roommate, didn't do the dishes last night like she was supposed to so I had no space to really work on something for dinner. Such the case, I just decided to make an easy dry noodle thing for the two of us.

Nothing can be simpler than this (of course, exaggerating a little bit since cereal is way easier than this, lol). Fast, easy, and delicious.

So this XO Sauce is this really tasty Cantonese seafood sauce. I'm not talking about fish sauce! You might have seen this before at some dim sum restaurants (the ones that have it) when they have the small plates of soy, mustard, sauce condiments on the table. Its comprised of dried baby shrimp, scallops, and...peppers I'm sure marinated in an oil of some sort. I like Lee Kum Kee's brand of XO sauce (according to my mom, its also the #1 brand for XO sauce, though I'm not sure if thats really true or not ^^;).

The base sauce for the noodles is just a little light soy sauce, light black vinegar, how ever much chili oil you like, diced green onions, minced garlic (I add them when I really don't plan to go out for the rest of the day), a nice tsp or so of XO sauce, some cilantro, and anything else I feel like adding that would, I feel, taste pretty good in the mix (like julienned marinated tofu, you know those darker block type tofus).

I like cilantro so I added some in mine, and since this is supposed to be easy I just ripped them up into the sauce instead of pulling out my cutting board and mincing them. My sister doesn't like the herb as much as me...if fact, I think she detests it, so hers is the white bowl with none in it. Seriously, she is so picky. Sometimes makes me wonder how she ever grew up.

The noodles are just your everyday, regular dried noodles you can get in any Oriental or Asian supermarket. I used oil noodles (油麺) this time, but ramen (拉麵) or any other dried noodle you like works just as well.

Yummy noodles!
Recipe:

This is mostly about ratios, so...the main thing here is
soy sauce : vinegar --> 1:2 (I sometimes prefer going a little under the 1:2 for the soy and make it 1:2 1/2 since the type of vinegar I use has a nice sweet and sour taste to it. Also, I think the noodles taste better when they have more tang to it)
Now, the amounts I usually use for 1 serving is more or less:
~2 cups of cooked noodle.
2 1/2 tsp of soy/vinegar mix (I usually just use the spoon I have on hand to measure it out into the bowl)
1/4~1/2 tsp or chili oil (I find it pleasantly mild which just enough of the chili oil flavor)
1 1/2 tbsp of diced green onion
1 1/2 tsp (or more) or so of XO sauce (I don't use a lot because this amount, to me, is just enough to flavor the noodles with all its wonderful seafood goodness ^^)
+ Anything else you want.
Anyway, these are really just guidelines. You can play around with all the ratios as much as you like.

I'll put the actual ratios of stuff I used later on. Now, it is time to do calculus!

Developing Blueberry Muffins

2008-03-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

My mom normally skips breakfast, which irritates me whenever she does this, but since she has been getting busier and busier at her work during lunch hours she felt that it would be best to eat breakfast since some days she misses lunch all together. Thus, I decided to start baking muffins for her to eat on her way to or at work (since she said that these days she just buys a cup of coffee and a donut =_=).

Because she usually eats out a lot during lunch, and I absolutely have no idea what she does for dinner...if she eats dinner...I decided to try and incorporate a few healthy additions to her muffins, like whole wheat flour, oats, a banana now and then, etc., to try and get some dietary fiber into her diet. After doing this for twice (I make a batch every weekend for her to eat during the week) I wanted to develop a muffin recipe that would have less oil in it (I use 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in my muffins) because, in the end even if it is a better type, oil is still oil and I feel it best not to have too much of it in a day. Therefore, I decided to work applesauce into the mix ^_^.

So, the goal was to make moist muffins that are mildly sweet (I don't have much of a sweet tooth these days and that goes for my mom too) with good blueberry flavor, which is one of her favorite fruits. I also know she likes almonds to I made sure to include those in there too. I also used some whole wheat flour and honey to sweeten, vs having sugar alone. No oats this time though, it would have been a little overwhelming, I feel. I also used low fat yogurt in the recipe too to take the place of some of the 2% milk to impart a different texture and flavor in the finished product...well, at least I felt it would ^_^.
TADA!~ Ready to bake! Don't ya just love the internet~

Out of the oven and almost completely cooled

In the end, the recipe turned out wonderfully moist and pleasantly dense chewy muffins with delicious blueberry aroma and flavor.
It was pretty successful, except for one exception. I did come across a problem which I didn't really think about prior to this. When I tried to take the paper liner off it stuck, a lot, to the muffin; I assume it was because there wasn't a lot of oil in them for release. My solution I guess would probably be to either bake them without paper liners or bake them with a increase from 1 tsp of oil to 1 tbsp. But with a little finesse and slow peeling, it came off without taking much of the muffin with it and leaving the muffin relatively unharmed (see pictures below).

I do love how the wild blueberries are speckled everywhere in the muffin. So tasty!~

Okay, so here is the recipe:

Blueberry and Almond Muffins

1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, divided
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of honey
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of low fat yogurt
1/4 cup of 2% milk (or enough so that, when added to the yogurt= 3/4 cup 0f yogurt/milk)
1 cup of fresh or frozen wild blueberries (they work better, I feel, because the smaller size makes them easier to distribute while not making it so you bite into a big berry pocket when you eat them)
1/2 cup of sliced toasted almonds, unsalted, + more for topping

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line muffin pan with 12 paper cup liners (or spray muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray).
Spoon flour into measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine both kinds of flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl. Mix with a whisk or whatever you have on hand until combined.
Measure out a cup of fresh or frozen wild blueberries in a separate bowl and add enough of the 1/2 cup of flour until you can coat all of the blueberries. Pour the left over flour into the rest of the flour mixture.
Whisk egg in a large bowl. Add the honey into the egg and whisk until well combined. Then, add applesauce, milk/yogurt, extra virgin olive oil, and vanilla extract into the same bowl until everything is well combined.
Spoon half of the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Mix with a spatula until it starts to incorporate (it doesn't have to be well mixed). Add the rest of the flour mixture into the large, wet mixture, bowl and mix until it is just all well incorporated. Add the 1/2 cup of almonds and gently fold into the batter until almost combined. Add the 1 cup of flour coated blueberries into the batter and gently mix until just well combined. (It's okay if it the blueberries just start to bleed a little, it shouldn't affect the finished product's color all that much).
Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups and top each muffin with some of the extra almonds (you can be pretty liberal with how much you put on).
Place muffin pan into preheated 400F oven and bake for 5 minutes. Then, turn the heat down to 375F and bake for another 5 minutes. After this, rotate the muffin pan (consider checking how done they are by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean) and bake at 350F temp for another 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The muffins should also spring back when touched lightly.
Remove muffin pan and cool for 5 minutes in the pan (if you are doing it without paper liners, consider taking them out earlier since they might start getting a bit soggy on the bottom). Move the muffins to a wire rack and let cool for another 10 minutes (or until the cool completely if you don't care to eat them just yet).

I still don't feel that she gets enough nutrition in her diet, but I guess having her eat a better breakfast is better than nothing.

Enjoy!~

Note: The paper actually came off better after a day in the fridge! Thats good to know, hehe~

My Pizza Experiment

2008-03-29T00:52:00.000-07:00

I'm bored, so I might as well just blog about some random stuff that most people would find nonsensical. Oh well, bare with me here.

Let me first start off by saying that this long entry is a random story of how I made a pizza, and it is a review of how my newly purchased Calphalon Pizza Pan worked out.

Okay, so I had decided to make a pizza at home last week (also decided to do it because my mom and sister were asking when I would do it again. Yes, again. I had tried making one before, and I would rather not think about that first experience ever again...yes). Well, anyway, I was thinking that since I had some extra marinara sauce frozen in the freezer from my first attempt I should try using it up.

First step was to get the tools. My last fiasco relied on a few cookie sheets, and I didn't wanna do go through that ordeal again. I therefore did some research on what I should buy for the baking tool. I was considering getting a baking stone, but in the end thought it might be a little excessive and, subsequently, settled on getting a pizza pan/pizza crisper. I visited a lot of websites to read consumer review s and product descriptions and eventually decided to get the Kitchen Essentials Gold Touch 16" Pizza Pas by Calphalon. I bought mine at Target for a pretty good price.

Okay, at this point I have my pan and it just so happened that I had all the ingredients in my fridge already, all that was left was for me to make the pizza dough. For the dough I followed a 2006 Cooking Light pizza dough recipe I had looked up online. I used the recipe before and the finished product's texture was pretty decent, but it did kinda lack strong flavor on its own. So I added some dried oregano into the dough this time and next time I might add a little olive oil into the mix too because, in retrospect, it was a tad dry...ish... Oh, and another thing about the dough, it was kinda difficult to work with. It was very sticky and tacky and I had to use a lot of extra flour to dust my work surface and hand ever time I had to knead it. But it worked out in the end~

When everything was ready to be assembled, I looked at the Calphalon pan product instructions on the back and washed it in warm soapy water before use like it had instructed. For some reason though, the product didn't have a max heat described anywhere on it (I also looked at the website and couldn't find anything about it for the product). So, I just went with their provided pizza recipe that was stamped on the back of the product label cardboard and preheated my oven to 425F. I readied my pizza, assembled and all, on the pan and stuck it in my oven on the lowest rack.

To my surprise, when I checked up on it a few minutes later, I noticed that the pan had warped a little, the noticable kind of little, which made me a little irritated. The pan of course went back to normal when it cooled down a bit, but I did contact Calphalon about it.

Anyway, in the end, I must say that it turned out pretty good, considering I had to keep pulling at the edges and pinching in the thin parts in the center. The base was a good thickness and the crust was nice and crisp with a pleasant chewy texture on the inside. The pan's nonstick surface worked well too and the pizza slide right off. Cleaning the pan afterwards wasn't a bid problem either, since no dough got stuck in the holes (some people had complained about washing pizza pan's in general because of this). MY problem, however, was that after resting a while off the pizza pan, it started to get a bit soft on the bottom since I don't have an appropriate place to put the pizza on for cutting/resting.

All in all the pizza pan did it's job. I was quite happy with the result, minus the whole minor warping thing of course (which I had contacted Calphalon about and am in the middle of getting it resolved). I don't know it if was just a little defective, but Calphalon Consumer Relations had e-mailed me back saying that this is definitely not normal (obviously). I would probably say that this thing works pretty well in baking a pizza if you don't want to get a baking stone...and I would use it again; however, first things first, I'm going to see how this customer help is going to turn out.

New Blogger

2008-03-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I can say that I have never really had a blog before, and I think this will be interesting. My bet is that I will use it for a few weeks and then slowly forget about it...so, I wonder how long I can last ^^?

I guess I will end up making random comments and stuff~