Fooding Through Life

3 desserts and 2 hotpots

2010-12-22T20:28:00.003-05:00

My friends and I gathered for a holiday hot pot last night and it was quite the event. 2 hours of eating a seemingly endless amount of beef, pork, lamb, mushrooms, noodles, vegetables, tofu, etc etc all around one extended table! Winter is definitely the best season for hotpot :) Of course, I made desserts to go with the hotpot. Sticking with the Asian theme of the evening, I made almond jelly and a jasmine panna cotta. I also brought chocolate souffle cupcakes from a recipe I got from smitten kitchen I fell in love with the panna cotta and most loved the cupcakes as well so all was good :) Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos once again but I'm sure I will make these desserts again in the future!

It's been a long time...

2010-11-27T14:55:00.002-05:00

Finishing school, moving home, and starting work completely took over my life and before I knew it, I've ignored this blog for over a year! ...which also means I've ignored the kitchen and my bountiful baking supplies for quite some time as well. Work has definitely taken over my life and it's definitely been difficult for me to work out a good work-life balance, but I am slowly trying to change my habits. Sadly, that old saying is pretty true. "Old habits die hard." (=_=) However, when the holidays roll around, there's always a little time to enjoy some quality time with the oven :) This year I made a pumpkin pie with Splenda since my dad is diabetic and I also made the super delicious Bolzano Apple Cake! Sadly, no really good photos this time, since I took them to my Aunt's for Thanksgiving, but please visit the sites for recipes and photos! I highly recommend the Bolzano Apple Cake!

Caramelized Bananas

2009-08-23T23:11:00.004-04:00

There were 4 very overripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter when I finally had time to take a breath and spend some time at home this weekend. At first, I was going to make banana bread out of them, but having just made zucchini bread, I kind of wanted something different. H suggested caramelized bananas, so I thought, why not? It's easy to make, delicious, and I had vanilla ice cream in the freezer. Perfect! Of course, being the only one home at the moment, meant I couldn't make all 4 of the bananas into caramelized bananas...just half of one :( The rest got chopped into large bite-sized pieces to be made into chocolate covered banana discs later :D

Caramelized Bananas

Bananas
Sugar
Butter
Cinnamon

1. Cut bananas into 1/4 inch discs

2. Coat bananas in sugar

3. Melt a pat of butter in a pan, enough to cover the bottom

4. Place bananas in pan with one side down, in one layer. Fry for 3-5 minutes over medium heat, until the bottoms are golden brown.

5. Flip bananas over and let the other side brown for about one minute.

6. Turn heat off and sprinkle cinnamon over bananas and mix slightly to distribute the cinnamon.

7. Serve over ice cream and enjoy!

Bacon and Chocolate Cookies

2009-08-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

That's right. Bacon. F found the recipe and we were feeling daring, so on one of her trips back up to the Bay F, H, and I proceeded to test out the assertion "bacon makes everything better" by making these cookies lol. The cookies came out pretty good, just don't let them sit around too long. Then they're....not so good. I believe, however, the consensus was we would have liked the cookie without bacon even better :X So there you have it. At least for the 3 of us, bacon, sadly, does not make everything better lol.

Bacon and Chocolate Cookies
adapted from recipezaar

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 lbs bacon, cooked and crumbled (about 2 cups)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugars, extracts and eggs until creamy. In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir together.

2. Dough will be slightly soft. If you want a more cakelike cookie, add another 1/2 cup of flour. Mix in chocolate chips and crumbled bacon. Stir until well integrated.

3. Place dough on a sheet of wax paper and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F.

5. Remove dough from fridge. Pinch off 1 ½ -inch pieces and roll into balls. Set dough balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten dough balls in the center slightly with your fingers. Bake about 10 minutes, or until the dough starts to turn golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

2009-08-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

I came across this recipe, and had to try them. I never saw, heard, or even knew black bottom cupcakes existed before this! I was definitely missing out :( The combination of the chocolate cupcake and the cream cheese filling is amazing. Amazing. I love the mini chocolate chips in the filling too! I think the only thing I need to be careful of in the future is not over filling the cupcakes..some of mine turned out with a very tiny "black bottom" when cut open. Oops. (^^;)

Black Bottom Cupcakes
from Baking Bites

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese Filling
16-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tbsp sour cream, room temperature
1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips (not full size*)

Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, make filling. Beat together cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth.

3. Beat in egg whites and sour cream. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, salt, flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.

5. Make a well in the center and add in sour cream, water, butter and vanilla. Stir together until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.

6. Divide cake batter evenly among 24 cupcake liners. Top each portion of batter with 1 rounded tablespoon cream cheese mixture (It is ok to have a little left over).

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the side (cake only part) should come out with a few moist crumbs on it. Rotate pans halfway through baking if you are using two racks.

8. Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Cream cheese filling should sink slightly in this time. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

*Full-sized chocolate chips will sink to the bottom of the cupcakes, while miniature chips will remain suspended in the cream cheese center.

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2009-07-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

These...are...delicious! I made these at least 3 times last year and I always found it incredibly hard to stop eating. There are just enough oats to give the cookies texture, and the amount of white chocolate and pecans are just right to make these cookies a sweet treat that you can't stop eating...well me anyway. lol. I am looking forward to making these again someday soon :)

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
from allrecipes

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the rolled oats, white chocolate chips and pecans. Drop by tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Fudgy Brownies

2009-07-24T10:00:00.001-04:00

This recipe turned out quite well for me. I think I made these twice last year! The only caveat for me was that they were just right bite sized otherwise I found the sweetness too much to handle..of course in general I'm finding I can't handle sweet in large doses anymore (darned aging!). So far, I don't think I've found a brownie recipe that tops these (yet!). Although I'm still looking to try out more. I think what I'm missing now is the right time/temp to make a chewy brownie. Mmm..so much to experiment with when I finish institute in August!

Fudgy Brownies
from Baking Bites

Ingredients

8 tbsp unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 400F and line and 8-inch square metal baking pan with foil.
Melt the butter and the chocolate together, on top of a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring often until smooth.

2. Stir in sugar, vanilla and salt. Add eggs one at a time, followed by flour. Stir until very smooth, about 1 minute. Add nuts, if using.

3. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake at 400F for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, prepare a water bath. Fill a large roasting pan with water and ice about 1 inch deep.

5. When the brownies are done - and they will look a bit dry on top - take them immediately from the oven and place in the water bath. Add more ice to the water if necessary. Allow to cool completely in the bath before removing the pan and cutting the brownies. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Gougeres

2009-07-19T16:30:00.003-04:00

This was my first attempt at making these tasty cheese puffs! I found the recipe on David Lebovitz's blog and it looked so simple and he included lots of tips for troubleshooting so I couldn't wait to try :) I used a combination of gruyere and parmesan as my cheeses and seasoned the puffs with some black pepper and lemon thyme. mmmm. Sadly, I soon realized I need a lot more experience working with choux pastry... My puffs deflated pretty quickly after they came out of the oven. They were tasty, but not "puffs" which might have been due to underbaking :( Sigh. I think I also had issues with how much batter to put out for one puff. These turned out about half the size of what they were supposed to, judging from the original recipe.. I'm definitely going to give these another shot and conquer choux pastry! These and also cream puffs...mmm cream puffs... but those'll have to wait another few weeks until I have an oven to work with!

Gougeres
adapted from David Lebovitz definitely hop over and visit his site for tips and more :)

1/2 cup (125ml) water
3 tablespoons (40g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
a few turns of freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 cup (70g) flour
2 large eggs
1 to 2 teaspoons minced fresh lemon thyme
1/2 cup grated gruyere
1/4 cup grated parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 425F (220C.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

2. Heat the water, butter, salt, and pepper in a saucepan until the butter is melted.

3. Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and let rest two minutes.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don't 'cook.' The batter will first appear lumpy, but after a minute or so, it will smooth out. (You can transfer the mixture to a bowl before adding to eggs to cool the dough, or do this step in a food processor or electric mixer, if you wish.)

5. Add about 3/4s of the grated cheese and the thyme, and stir until well-mixed.

6. Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough into mounds, evenly-spaced apart, making each about the size of a small cherry tomato.

7. Top each puff with a bit of the remaining cheese, the pop the baking sheet in the oven.

8. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375F (190C) and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, until they're completely golden brown.

Eats around A2, part 3

2009-07-19T15:49:00.005-04:00

And the final installment of my eating adventures in Ann Arbor!

R, C, and I had a farewell brunch at Cafe Zola which was amazingly delicious. I believe R said she liked both Cafe Zola as well as Angelo's and C and I hadn't tried Cafe Zola before we marked that as our destination for the day :) R and C both had the strawberry and banana crepe and I had the Istanbul omelette. The crepes sounded so tempting but savory wins over sweet for me when it comes down to brunch. The omelette was delicious, there was eggplant and other vegetables inside the fluffy egg, topped with a chunk of feta cheese. mmm...so good! Needless to say, if I were still in A2, I'd be going back there :)

Istanbul Omelette

Inside the omelette!

Strawberry and Banana Crepe

The RF research team and I had a farewell lunch at Sadako during my last week in A2. It was somewhat fitting since I think the first time I visited A2, my cousin and her family took me out there for dinner! I had the U of M lunch set which was 3 pieces of salmon nigiri and 6 pieces of California rolls topped with salmon. Mm I love salmon.. it was decent and pretty good for the price, also much more filling than it looks, as sushi always is. Sadako is definitely a decent alternative from Za's, Jimmy John's, and other places around S. University, and E. University.

On my very last night in A2, E was kind enough to respond to my distress call and come over after lab to help me clean my apt. We were at it for a good 2-3 hours! Thank goodness for friends is all I have to say :) To close out the night, at 11pm we ordered a bacon, chicken, and pineapple Sicilian deep dish pizza with a cajun butter crust from Cottage Inn. I couldn't leave A2 without trying pizza from the chain that first opened there! Pizza after working hard at scrubbing the bathroom, kitchen, floors, etc tastes divine... We had great fun sitting on the floor of my kitchen/dining room, using the pizza box and paper towels as plates, huddled around my comp listening to music and looking at my old photos. I like that when I have pizza, it usually comes with that laid back and relaxing atmosphere :)

I must say, looking back on it, I had a pretty good time in Ann Arbor, despite many stressed-filled nights and the incredibly long winter. I only wish I got to explore more of the eats while I was there!

Chocolate Chocolate Mint Cookies

2009-07-17T10:00:00.002-04:00

I made these last year in an attempt to make delicious chocolate chocolate cookies since I have yet to find a go to recipe for these. I also wanted to use my homemade mint chocolate chips that I made from a Ghirardelli Mint Bliss chocolate bar I got from work. I made the mint chips by simply melting the chocolate bar and then dropping drops using a spoon onto my silpat. So simple! The cookies turned out ok, I don't remember them being mind-blowingly spectacular, but they were decent and had a strong mint flavor due to the chips. I'll definitely be trying out other chocolate chocolate cookie recipes but I think I'll give this one another shot as well, without the mint lol. They did turn out quite soft and yummy.

Chocolate Chocolate Mint Cookies
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups mint chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Eats around A2, part 2

2009-07-12T13:32:00.004-04:00

During my last few weeks in A2, E and I started having pretty regular walks 2-3 times a week. We'd either cook something at my place and then walk a few miles or go out to central campus to get dinner and then walk back to north campus. The last few times we met up, we made dumplings and we also went to TK WU for dinner! Ok so we went twice but I found it pretty good and satisfying for Chinese food in A2 :) The service was also not bad and we even got free dessert once :D

The first time we went, E had Rice and Roast Duck and I got the Rice with Chinese Beef Stew. I didn't try any of E's but mine was quite good..of course it helps that I <3 beef tendon lol.

Rice and Roast Duck

Rice and Chinese Beef Stew

The second time we went, we shared two dishes: Hunan Chicken and Kung Pao Tofu. Both were spicy, especially to me who is sadly very weak when it comes to spicy food. But nevertheless I thought they were good, but I preferred the tofu to the chicken though. There's just something about tofu that's crispy on the outside and yet still soft on the inside. Oh the wonders of frying lol. We were also pleasantly surprised when they gave out bowls of mango ice to everyone that night for dessert :)

Hunan Chicken

Kung Pao Tofu

Free mango ice!

Ok, well that's it for now. I think I have one more update and then I'll be done with A2 food...sadly. I wish I had gone out to eat more often :(

Rustic Spinach Feta Bread

2009-07-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

This was my first attempt at baking bread, and I think it turned out quite well! I came across it on Baking and Books It was nice an chewy and I think the cheese added a good flavor to the bread as well. Slices slathered with butter is also recommended lol. Too bad my subsequent tries at baking bread hasn't been as successful..I guess it's that "first time's the charm" jinx hitting me ::sobs:: But I digress. This is an easy bread to make and the results are absolutely worth it!

Rustic Spinach Feta Bread recipe here: Baking and Books

Red Velvet Cake in a Cone!

2009-07-03T10:00:00.001-04:00

I don't remember where I first saw this but I remember thinking cakes in cones was a brilliant idea :D That and having never made red velvet cake before, I had a project on my hands XD They were so easy to make and unlike many ice cream cones where you're left with cone and..air towards the bottom, there was cake allll the way down! The only thing I regret was not having sprinkles to top off the little cones :)

Sadly, I don't remember what adjustments I made for time and/or temperature (it was over a year ago >_<) so definitely check your cake if you're using this recipe...or refer to the original recipe linked below and adjust from there, sorry!

Red Velvet Cake Cone
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients

Ice cream cones (sorry I don't remember how many!)
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa
4 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

Directions

1. Stand ice cream cones in a regular muffin pan, using aluminum foil to support the cones and prevent them from falling. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Cream shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar WELL. Add eggs and beat well.

3. Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add to creamed mixture. Mix salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla and buttermilk together. Add alternately the flour with the milk mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix soda and vinegar and FOLD INTO CAKE BATTER. DON'T BEAT OR STIR NOW.

4. Pour batter into cones,leaving about a centimeter between the batter and the brim of the cone. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

5. While cones cool, prepare dipping chocolate or candy to decorate cones. Once cones are cooled, dip the top of the cake into the melted chocolate or candy and decorate as you like :)

Eats around A2, part 1

2009-06-29T01:38:00.004-04:00

During my last couple of weeks in Ann Arbor, my brother came and I had a few farewell meals here and there. After nearly 10 months in A2, I had hardly went out to eat so I got my fill during those last couple of weeks! I'm splitting this up into multiple posts, simply because I want to schedule more posts, and also because I don't want the post to drag out too long either :)

When my brother came, I took him out to the two places that I knew of that were must-go places in Ann Arbor for food. The first was Angelo's for brunch.

I had the eggs florentine. What can I say? I'm a sucker for hollandaise..and poached eggs... these did not disappoint! I thought they were quite delicious :) My brother had an omlette that came with a side of buttered toast, but I don't remember what he put in there. He rather enjoyed it and I think we had a pretty satisfying brunch :D

eggs florentine

toast not pictured lol

The second place we went to was Blimpy Burger. I really liked their patty. It was really thin, but made from freshly ground beef so it was really full of flavor and delicious. We also had the fried onion rings, which were ok, not spectacular. We would have been better off getting the mixed vegetables instead, in my opinion anyway. Since you can pretty much create your own burger and see it made for you right before your eyes, it is a good place to go for a good customized burger! My brother notes though that he thought it was a little pricey for its product but then you're paying for the 50's burger joint-esque experience maybe? Needless to say, it should be a definite stop for people going to A2.

my brother's burger, sadly the photos i took of mine were all blurry..

onion rings

And that's it for this post, stay tuned for more!

Simple Chocolate Truffles

2009-06-26T10:00:00.002-04:00

And we've finally arrived at the last of the installments about Valentine's Day 2008! These are incredibly simple and versatile chocolate truffles that I discovered my first year teaching in Japan..waay back in the winter of 05-06. During the two V-Day's that I was in Japan, I ended up making one truffle for every student in my junior high, roughly 140 students, and also one for every staff member of each of the three schools I worked at as well as my Board of Education (I also made even more for my junior high school staff :X). Yes, I was crazy and sleep deprived when I was making them back then, but on the bright side I got tons of chocolate and cookies back for White Day ^^;; But I digress...I like to use different flavorings with these and in the past I used raspberry, orange, vanilla, and coffee. I think I liked the raspberry and coffee flavors best, but orange and plain old vanilla weren't too bad either! It's also fun to use a variety of toppings to roll them in. I have yet to perfect dipping things in chocolate so I stuck to powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and chopped nuts. The only word of caution I would give is to make sure to refrigerate these since they contain cream cheese.

Chocolate Truffles
from allrecipes

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.

2. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until well blended.

3. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla until no streaks remain.

5. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. Shape into 1 inch balls.

6. Roll truffles in ground walnuts (or any ground nuts), cocoa, coconut, confectioners' sugar, candy sprinkles, etc.

Note: To flavor truffles with liqueurs or other flavorings, omit vanilla. Divide truffle mixture into thirds. Add 1 tablespoon liqueur (almond, coffee, orange) to each mixture; mix well.

Cream Wafer Sandwich Cookies

2009-06-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

Continuing with the Valentine's menu from 2008, I made these cute little heart-shaped cream wafer sandwich cookies :) These are so easy to make and I find them quite delicious :9 I like making them small and bite-sized, but that might just be my affinity towards small and cute desserts. The only drawback of making them tiny is the sheer amount of time it'll take to get them all in and out of the oven, cooled, and ready to put together. Other than that, I have no issues at all with this recipe!

Cream Wafers
from allrecipes

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix flour and 1 cup of butter or margarine thoroughly. Stir in whipping cream and mix well. Chill 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

3. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut into 1 1/2 inch rounds. Transfer to waxed paper heavily sprinkled with sugar, turning to coat both sides. Place on un- greased baking sheet. Prick in 4 places with fork. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until slightly puffed. Put two cooled cookies together with filling.

4. To Make Filling: Blend 1/4 cup soft butter, 3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar, 1 egg yolk, and 1 tsp. vanilla. If desired, tint with food coloring.

Note: I tinted my filling pink and also used a little raspberry jam in each of my cookies to get the two-colored filling.

Chinese dumplings, from my home to yours!

2009-06-13T13:20:00.007-04:00

E and I have been meeting up for dinner and a walk a couple times a week lately, so for last night, we decided to make dumplings and green onion pancakes :) It was a first for her and definitely good and nostalgic for me! Homemade dumplings was one of the meals I looked forward to most (and still do!) when I lived at home with my parents. This is also something we make together with family friends on weekends. Wrapping dumplings is something everyone can do and it's a nice way to bring everyone together for good conversation. These also freeze well so everyone can take some home afterward as well!

My mom was never a spectacular cook, but she really knows how to make dumplings :) It must be the years of experience and advice from everyone else that helped lol. For me it's the combination of the chewy skin and the combined flavor of Chinese leek (aka Chinese chive), garlic, and ginger in the filling that makes it probably my number one comfort food, well at least one of my number ones! Of course you can vary the filling to whatever you'd like as well. I know some people like adding shrimp (my grandmother on my mom's side did this all the time) and you can also dice up dried shrimp (post soaking) and add it to the filling as well. Pork is also not the only option for meat..but I think you get the point lol. I give you my preferred filling in this post, but don't feel limited to only this :) Sadly, again I have no accurate measurements for this. I think when it comes down to cooking, especially cooking that I learned from my parents, I do it all by eye. The good news is it usually turns out well for me ^_^ In any case, for the dumplings, I present to you all my dad's directions (typo's unfixed! lol) that he emailed me years ago (my dad is awesome btw), with some comments and adaptations of my own :)

wrapped and ready to go :)

all done!

the insides

Dumplings (Jiao Zhi)
courtesy of Becca's Daddy

Ingredients

Flour
Cold Water
Ground Pork
Chinese leek (jiou cai)
Salt (I opt out of using salt since soy sauce is pretty salty..)
Soy Sauce
Pepper
Minced Garlic
Minced Ginger
Sesame Oil
1 egg

How to make jiao zi:

A. Dough
1. Mix 3 parts of flour with one part of cold water. (Put flour in a
bowl then pour water into the bowl slowly. Stir the flour at same time as water is added.).

Becca's Note: I always need slightly more than the one part of cold water to make it a nice and smooth dough so when I do add water I simply wet one hand and continue kneading until I get my desired consistency. Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer or a food processor (my mother's weapon of choice) to make the dough.

B. Filling
1. Wash and clean jiou cai (i.e. remove unwanted leave and root).
2. Dice jiou cai into small pieces about 1/4 inch long.
3. Put ground pork and diced jiou cai into a bowl. (ratio 1:1 by volume)
4. Add salt, soy sauce, pepper, minced ginger/garlic, sesame oil and one egg (if preferred).
5. Stir the ingredients to mix them well. Add water as required to make a smooth mix.

Becca's Note: Again, I don't have exact measurements for the seasonings, and I tend to just use soy, ginger/garlic, an egg, and sesame oil for mine. I usually use my nose to tell me when I think the filling is good :X

C. Making
1. Roll and push the dough like you make dough for bread until no isolated big chunk in it.
2. Cover the dough with a moist towel or napkin for a while, say 30 minutes, until the outside surface of dough is smooth.
3. Cut a chunk of dough and make a donut.
4. Spinning the donut until it become a ring.
5. Cut the ring and lay it like a straight snake.
6. Roll the snake to stretch it longer until its diameter becomes about 3/4 inch.
7. Cut the snake into one inch long pieces.
8. Press each piece into a little pancake with your palm.
9. Use a round wood stick to spread the little pancake into a large one, about 3 inches diameter (note: center is thicker than edge).
10. Put filling on top of large pancake and fold pancake into jiao zi.
11. Dash flour on top of a tray to store finished jiao zi so it will not stick to the tray.

Becca's Note: I fold dumplings by first folding the dough in half and pinching shut the center, then folding one side at a time by pinching the corner shut and then up the sides. You can probably find a video on youtube or google it for better directions..

D. Cooking Fresh Made Jiao Zi
1. Fill the cooking pot with water to half full.
2. Heat the pot until water boils.
3. Put in jiao zi one by one into the boiling water. Stir the water frequently sot that no jiao is stick to the bottom of the pot (note: stir in one direction only). Do not put too much jiao zi in the pot. Make sure all jiao zi in the pot can float.
4. Let the water boil again then add one to two cup of cold water in the top.
5. Repeat step 4 until water boiled three time.
6. Turn down the heat and taste one jiao to check is filling well cooked or not.
7. If it is not cooked, repeat steps 4 & 6 one more time.
8. If it is cooked, remove all jiao zi into a serving dish.

E. Serving
1. Pour soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and chilly sauce (if preferred) into small bowls for dipping purpose.
2. Enjoy your meal.
3. Drink jiao zi soup to help digest after meal.

F. Storage
1. Put finished jiao zi (uncooked) on top of saucers. (Make sure you sprinkler saucer with flour first.)
2. Put the saucers into freezer until jiao zi hardened like rock.
3. Put hardened jiao zi in the storage bags and keep bags in the freezer.

Orange Madeleines

2009-06-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

When I was in Japan I always made a TON of truffles, cakes, and cookies for Valentine's Day and as much trouble as it was, I really missed doing that when I came back to the States. I guess I lucked out in that I was working for Valentine's Day 2008 and so I prepared a bunch of little things to take to the office to pass around :) This week is the first of the three items that I made..madeleines! I absolutely love madeleines! I don't think I eat them often enough T_T This was the first (and only) time I made them. I found this recipe on allrecipes and just substituted in orange zest for lemon zest in the recipe and used my cute heart shaped madeleine pan that I got in Japan for these :) I tried two versions, one dusted with powdered sugar and the other half dipped in bittersweet chocolate.

Oh and also a completely unrelated note, *Happy Birthday F! Welcome to the quarter century club XD XD*

Orange Madeleines
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour twenty-four 3-inch Madeleine molds.

2. In a medium bowl beat eggs, vanilla and lemon zest with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar. Beat for 5 to 7 minutes or until thick and satiny.

3. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Sift one-fourth of the flour mixture over the egg mixture, gently fold in. Fold in the remaining flour by fourths. Then fold in the melted and cooled butter. Spoon batter into the prepared molds, filling 3/4 full.

4. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are golden and the top s spring back. Cool in molds on a rack for 1 minute. Loosen cookies with a knife. Invert cookies onto a rack and cool. Sift confectioners' sugar over the tops or melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and dip the tips in the chocolate. Store in an airtight container.

Green Onion Pancakes

2009-06-08T12:29:00.003-04:00

Mmm, I can't even count how many times my mom made these when I was growing up. These are one of my ultimate comfort foods! I even called my mom from Japan to get the recipe so I could make it overseas..and I was so happy I did lol. The big plus to green onion pancakes is that they're super simple to make! Most people will have all the necessary ingredients in the house pretty much at all times. A great variation is to fry the pancake with a beaten egg..also quite delicious..and reminiscent of stall food in Taiwan ::sigh:: These also store well in the freezer and don't require defrosting when you go to fry them :) In any case, I never measure exactly how much of each ingredient I use, except for flour and water, so I won't put down measurements for the ones I didn't measure. Eyeballing is always great and also experimenting on your own ^^;

Green Onion Pancakes

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cold water
1 cup hot water
shortening
salt
chopped green onions

Directions

1. Mix the flour and the hot water until combined.

2. Add in the cold water and work dough until smooth and the sides don't stick to the bowl. Add additional flour or water to achieve this consistency.

3. Cut dough into 4 pieces and shape into balls. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for one hour.

4. Flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll dough into appx 10-12 inch circle, the dough should be fairly thin. Spread the shortening on the dough to cover, followed by salt, and green onions.

5. Starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough up into a tube. Pinch both ends closed and then roll them towards the center, making an "S" shape. Fold the top of the "S" onto the bottom and flatten slightly. Cover the dough with a damp cloth until ready to use.

6. Flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll out the finished dough into a circle, about a 1/4 inch thick. Heat enough oil in the pan to cover the bottom and fry the pancake on both sides until golden and crispy. Be careful not to use too little oil, the resulting pancake won't be as soft inside as it should be.

Very, very fudgy brownies

2009-06-07T10:09:00.005-04:00

I wanted to make brownies for the high school boys who donated their time to help me make a video for my interview, so I decided to turn to the Field Guide to Cookies. The prep was simple and the whole process incredibly easy but the result...I baked them for 25 minutes and the center was pretty much not set and still quite jiggly while the edges were browned and pretty done. Since fudgy brownies usually aren't all completely set when their done baking, I thought I'd let them cool and see. But even after they cooled, the center pretty much looks like...half baked brownies...which I guess can be good? I..think I'm definitely a fan of...brownies that are done though. I had to leave after baking these, so I ended up putting them back into the oven after I came back so my time is only an approximate, and they're still quite fudgy. I might try fiddling with the temp and bake time next time, or keep trying other recipes.

edge piece- these were more done than the middle, but still quite fudgy

middle- much too underdone for me =/

Brownies
adapted from Field Guide to Cookies

3 oz unsweetened chocolate
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 room temperature eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 9-in square pan.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in a microwave.

3. Mix sugar into chocolate mixture and let it cool.

4. Whisk eggs and vanilla extract into mixture until smooth.

5. Add flour and salt and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

6. Pour mixture into pan and level off with a spatula or a knife.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway. Bake until the top is brown and flaky. You will also want to check for your desired consistency with a toothpick test.

8. Cool on a wire rack completely before cutting into squares.

Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-06-05T10:00:00.001-04:00

Mmm and here's another Friday update with an old recipe :) This was from February of 2008. I think I had tons of leftover buttermilk from making scones so I looked for other recipes that called for buttermilk. I remember these being tasty, but I guess they didn't really have a lasting impression if I don't recall them being spectacular now... but you can never go wrong with chocolate cake :D I wasn't too careful with the icing so it's .. um.. bumpy..but still ok! lol. I also made these into cupcakes but I don't remember what adjustments I made for time and temp, so I've reproduced the recipe as is from the allrecipes site ^_^;;

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake
from allrecipes

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
2 cups all-purpose flour

Icing:

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a medium bowl, combine the buttermilk and baking soda. Set aside in a warm place.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 2 cups sugar, eggs, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, oil and 2 teaspoons vanilla until blended. Stir in the boiling water, then gradually beat in the flour. Stir in the buttermilk mixture.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

4. To make the Fudge Icing: In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, milk, butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Using an electric mixer, beat icing for 3 minutes, or until it thickens to spreading consistency. Pour over completely cooled cake.

Pizza!

2009-05-31T13:49:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to make my own pizza at home and kept putting it off because I didn't have a pizza stone...and...I couldn't take it anymore so I went ahead and decided to just go for it ^^;

I don't have a stand mixer...or any mixer at all at the moment, so I mixed it all by hand...in a bowl that was probably 5x too small. All I can say is that my shoulder was sore for a bit after I made the dough, and there was flour all over my kitchen. I really can't wait till I move home and have all my baking equipment, not to mention a regular kitchen, at my disposal :)

I topped my pizza with a tomato sauce which was just tomato paste seasoned with salt, pepper, and whatever seasonings I had and then topped it with chicken and bell peppers. mmmmm...but I think I could use more work withe making the crust and get a pizza stone! lol. You can find the pizza dough recipe at 101 Cookbooks!

Ice Cream Sandwiches!

2009-05-29T17:11:00.005-04:00

Mmm Nothing like ice cream (and ice cream on sale!) to kick off the summer! And yes, because the local grocery store was having an awesome sale on Dryer's (aka Edy's out here in the midwest O_O) I bought myself two tubs! And of course, what better way to eat ice cream than in an ice cream sandwich :) I had half a batch of the oatmeal cookie batter left over from when I made oatmeal raisin cookies last week sans raisins, so I baked those up and squished a blob of mint chocolate chip in the middle of two cookies, and voila! ice cream sandwiches! If you want to mimic the It's-It style sandwiches, dip them in chocolate and they should be good to go :) Also, of course, the ice cream flavor is completely up to you :) If you're freezer is strong, unlike mine, you might want to set the ice cream out for a few minutes to let it soften to a workable consistency before squishing it between cookies, or alternatively, let the ice cream soften in the refrigerator. Remember to stick them back in the freezer to let them firm up before sinking your teeth into them! lol.

Oatmeal Cookies
from allrecipes

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into 1-1.5 inch balls, and place 1 inches apart on cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 50-60 2 inch cookies.

Raisin Scones

2009-05-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

This is a recipe I stumbled upon last winter at Baking Bites, and it is absolutely wonderful! The recipe originally comes from the Cheeseboard in Berkeley which made me even more eager to test it out. These photos are from the first time I baked these (2/11/08 according to the date of the photo). And I just have to repeat..these scones are delicious, divine, heavenly...I could go on and on about these. But it's definitely not just me who loves these. Just about everyone who has tried these loved them! So far I've tried making raisin scones, cranberry orange scones, strawberry jam and walnut scones, raspberry scones, and mini chocolate chip scones. One of these days, I'll dedicate a post to the different variations of scones I've made...once I've tried out a few more flavor combinations! I digress. What I meant to say is you can test out any combination you want as it's pretty easy to adapt the basic recipe :) I also like to make miniature versions of these scones. It just makes me feel like I have more to eat from every batch ^_^;

Raisin Scones
adapted from Baking Bites

Ingredients

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
sugar, for topping

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl.

3. Add in butter, toss to coat, and rub in with your fingers (or a pastry cutter, if you prefer) until only pea-sized chunks remain.

4. Stir in currants, then add the cream and buttermilk, mixing only until the ingredients just come together into a ball. It is ok if there is a little flour left at the bottom of the bowl.

5. Divide dough into 12 balls (about 2-in in diameter, although the cheeseboard’s seem to be larger in the shop) and dip the top of each in sugar sugar before placing on the prepared baking sheet.

6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.

7. Cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

2009-05-22T16:08:00.003-04:00

Oh Memorial Day weekend. This is the one long weekend I used to look forward to every year when I was a student. There's always such a long break between spring break and the Memorial Day with no days off in between and that long stretch was just hard to get through sometimes. This year, luckily I only have classes Mondays and Wednesdays, so I'm having a nice and long 5-day weekend XD Of course, I have to bake something to celebrate and raspberries were on sale so the obvious choice was this cake I saw on smitten kitchen. I had all the ingredients and it is simple to make, plus there's nothing like berries to ring in the summer season!

I ended up pressing the raspberries too far into the batter so they all ended up on the bottom of my cake. But delicious nevertheless :)

right out of the oven- you can see how many times i tested it for doneness lol

yummy sugary top

raspberries on the bottom

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
adapted from smitten kitchen

1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (56 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup (146 grams) plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large (57 grams) egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9x9 square cake pan.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.

3. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar. Be careful to not press raspberries too far into the batter otherwise they'll end up on the bottom.

4. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

2009-05-22T10:00:00.003-04:00

I love oatmeal raisin cookies! They're one of my comfort foods :) Interestingly enough, I never really had any until I started baking them on my own in college, and yet, I can manage to feel happy and nostalgic while I consume these.. It must be the combination of the chewy oatmeal cookie and the raisins. Oh. And the cinnamon. Let's not forget the cinnamon! Anyhow, I've made these from a couple of different recipes, and it looks like this was my recipe of choice, back on..2/11/08!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking oats
1/3 cup raisins

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats and then mix in raisins. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Candied Orange Peels

2009-05-15T10:00:00.001-04:00

Mmmm I love candied orange peels! They're chewy and sweet with a slight tart note to them. These are so easy to make and so easy to distribute and share too! I've made these a couple of times, and in this instance, I covered them before they dried, so the sugar dissolved quite a bit..so please don't do imitate that ^_^;; I also made some and dipped them in melted mint chocolate, which I wasn't too fond of..the mint flavor was overpowering and the lovely orange flavor was lost -__-; Perhaps a regular dark chocolate would have been better! All in all, I love these as they are, and I can assure you most of my friends who've tried these enjoy them as well :)

Candied Orange Peel
from Baking Bites

Ingredients

6 medium oranges
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups sugar
a lot of water

Directions

1. Cut peel of each orange in sixths; loosen from pulp with spoon and remove most pith (white membrane) from peel. Add salt and peel to 4 cups of water and let stand overnight.

2. Drain and rinse thoroughly.

3. In a pot, cover peels with cold water. Heat to boiling and then drain. Repeat 3 times (this is to remove any bitter taste).

4. Cut peel into strips. In sauce pan, combine peel, sugar and 1/2 cup water. Heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Continue to cook until peel is translucent. Drain any liquid and roll peel in granulated sugar. Allow to dry.

5. If desired (and we did), melt dark or bittersweet chocolate over double boiler and dip each dried strip in. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm.

I fail at reading

2009-05-09T13:00:00.000-04:00

I saw this recipe and thought it'd be the perfect one to do. I have tons of dark brown sugar that's been waiting to be used (and getting clumpier by the day..I'll have to remember to store dk brown sugar better from now on o_o) and lots of butter of course! This looked quite simple and easy to throw together so I thought it'd be no biggie to do this on a laid back Friday.

Of course things don't always turn out as planned...The dough was incredibly sticky, as warned in the recipe, but probably due to my incredibly lame log-making skills, I couldn't get the dough to form a nice log. I ended up chilling the dough in the fridge for half an hour before turning it out onto parchment paper to shape, but that half hour didn't really help with making the dough more workable. I wound up first chilling one large log in the freezer for a couple of hours and then cut that log in half and made two smaller logs and chilled those overnight. I can tell you this dough does not get hard. Even after an overnight rest in the freezer, it was still rather soft to the touch and warmed up really quickly once taken out. I also found that 10 minutes at 350 was much to long for my poor cookies...and then subsequent testings at different temps and times somehow did not produce the pretty golden cookies that were pictured on the baking bites site ;__; So then, I finally went back to check the recipe, and lo and behold I mixed up baking powder with baking soda -_-;; One thing to say though is that even though they all turned out really brown and did not look too appetizing...they were still delicious. That's a testament to the flavor of these cookies!

Look out for a subsequent test with baking powder rather than baking soda...it'll be coming in a couple of weeks!

and here's the recipe if anyone wants to um..replicate my failure..

Butterscotch Thins
adapted from Baking Bites

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt*
1/2 cup salted butter
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until mixture resembles wet sand. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, or working by hand, blend in flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain.

3. Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

4. Transfer dough, which will be very sticky, to a large piece of wax paper and roll it up into a log.

5. Freeze for at least 1-2 hours.

6. Cut log in half to form two smaller logs. Freeze logs for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.

7. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

8. Cut dough into slices no more than 1/4-inch thick and place on prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of room for the cookies to spread. These cookies spread to about 2x their original size.

9. Bake for about 7 minutes, until cookies are a nice dark caramel color. For crispy cookies, increase the baking time by a minute or two.

10. Cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

11. Cookies should be cooled completely before eating (otherwise they might stick to your teeth) and can be stored in an airtight container.

*use less if you prefer weaker salty taste or go with the original recipe's 1/2 C unsalted butter and 1tsp salt. I had lots of salted butter I needed to use so I chose to use salted butter instead

Carrot Cupcakes!

2009-05-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

I've always loved carrot cake..since when I was growing up, my mom only made carrot cake or cheesecake. That was the extent of my mom's baking repertoire lol. I don't make carrot cake often and I think I was really craving some when I baked these. They turned out quite well, the only fumble I had was with the white chocolate in the frosting..I didn't work fast enough and there were some tiny white chocolate bits in there..oops :X I also found the frosting rather sweet, but that might just be because my mom never frosted her cake, so I'm used to eating carrot cake unfrosted lol. Mmm but looking at these photos makes me want to make carrot cake all over again :)

before frosting

after frosting

...and inside!

Carrot Cupcakes
from allrecipes

Ingredients

Frosting

2 ounces white chocolate
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Cake

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/8 cups white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

2. In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature.

3. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream.

4. Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups.

5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts.

Cupcake pops!

2009-05-05T11:13:00.002-04:00

Inspired by Bakerella a couple of friends and I decided to try and make our own cupcake pops too! The process took longer than we expected and our end products don't quite look the same as Bakerella's but they're still quite cute :) It took us about 4 hours from crumbling the cake to individually wrapping them. I would say this would not be something I would do often unless I had premade cake and a lot of time on my hands.. or maybe work over the span of 2 days...or many helping hands! Nonetheless it was all good fun and there's nothing like ending the semester on a sweet note :)

for detailed directions check out Bakerella's tutorial!

crumbled cake! i used a box mix this time

crumbled cake + cream cheese frosting

dipped bottoms! i forgot to take photos of the rounded balls and of the shaped cake balls :X oh well..

finished pop!

our finished product :)

Za's

2009-05-05T00:00:00.005-04:00

Mia Za's Cafe seems to be one of those places you have to try on campus at the U of M. Of course it doesn't hurt that it's right across the street from the School of Education, so it's very convenient (for us anyway!) as well. Mia Za's provides what seems like a million options for dining, from their set menus to creating your own combinations. They have 4 different menus, salads, pastas, pizzas, and paninis, to choose and customize from. I've had their pastas, salads, and paninis and I have to say it's pretty good for campus food. I don't think I'd ever wake up in the middle of the night with sudden hunger pangs for Za's but it's definitely one of the better alternatives to bringing a packed lunch to campus.

Half salad, half panini, both customized to my liking :)

Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

2009-05-01T10:00:00.002-04:00

Another old recipe update! I'm always up for trying a new chocolate chip cookie recipe as I haven't really found me go to recipe yet. Although I do use one particular recipe from my college days quite often because it's tasty and nostalgic! That any my old housemates gobbled them up..just like cookie monster would (I'm looking at you S!)

Anyhow, this recipe comes from Baking Bites and the fresh baked cookies were the best. Crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside..mmm delicious!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
from Baking Bites

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (12 tbsp), melted and cooled until just warm
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, followed by chocolate chips.

4. Drop by (scant) 1/4 cups onto the baking sheet and pat lightly so the cookie is an even thickness, not a ball shape. Cookies will spread as they bake and this ensures a more even spread.

5. Bake at 325F for 15-17 minutes, until just turning light brown all over. The edges should only be very slightly more brown, if at all, from the rest of the cookie. Allow cookies to cool before removing them from the baking sheet.

Makes 18-24 large cookies

Homemade Samoas

2009-04-24T10:00:00.002-04:00

A from buttered blasphAmy and I made these last year and they turned out quite well! I think you really can't go wrong with the flavor combination of the Girl Scout samoa cookie anyway though lol. We decided to not punch the trademark holes in the cookie and we were a little short on the caramel, which might be why the coconut caramel topping was a tad difficult to spread. We also didn't bother with piping the chocolate and just went at it with forks lol. But the end result was quite delicious :D I would definitely make these again! I'm also looking forward to someday making the rest of the Girl Scout cookie recipes on Baking Bites as well :)

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies: Samoas
from Baking Bites

Cookies:
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
up to 2 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (it’s possible you might not need to add milk at all). The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.

3. Roll the dough (working in two or three batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds.

4. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat with remaining dough. Alternatively, use scant tablespoons of dough and press into an even layer in a mini donut pan to form the rounds.

5. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. If using a mini donut pan, bake for only about 10 minutes, until edges are light gold.

6. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
8 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

1. Preheat oven to 300.

2. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

3. Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt.

4. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.

5. Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 tsp per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it gets too firm to work with.

6. While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching.

7. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper.

8. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.

9. Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-04-18T15:08:00.002-04:00

Mmm more cookies! I had two very ripe bananas and it wasn't enough to make my go to banana bread and I was also looking to try out more recipes from the Field Guide to Cookies (I also did not want to do my final papers, but let's not go there), so this was an obvious choice! These turned out quite well. I'd say they taste like chocolate chip banana bread + oats. I like how the oats add to the texture of the cookie. Otherwise they'd be very light and airy. These are great with a glass of milk and fresh from the oven :D I think next time I'll add a little more banana to up the banana flavor, but that's my personal preference lol. I will definitely be making these again :)

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
from Field Guide to Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups rolled old fashioned oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 cup (6 oz) chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Mix the flour, oats, baking soda,cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

4. Mix in half the flour mixture until just combined. Then add the bananas and mix to combine. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

5. Drop tablespoon sized balls of dough on to cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.

6. Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool sheets on wire racks for a few minutes before transferring cookies directly to wire racks using a spatula.

Raspberry Crumb Cake

2009-04-17T10:00:00.001-04:00

I made this for H's birthday last year and I think it turned out quite well! I didn't have any mace so I just left that out. The only thing I need to work on is making the crumb topping but it's the taste that matters after all right? lol. H gave it her thumbs up as well ^_^

Raspberry Crumb Cake
from allrecipes

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup water
2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice

CRUST:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1 cup cold butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

TOPPING:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter or margarine
1/4 cup sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, water and raspberries. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; stir in lemon juice. Cool.

2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the first six crust ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat eggs, milk and vanilla; add to crumb mixture and mix well. Spread two-thirds of the mixture into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Spoon raspberry filling over crust to within 1 in of the edges. Top with remaining crust mixture. For topping, combine flour and sugar; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in almonds. Sprinkle over the top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until lightly browned.

Green Tea Cookies

2009-04-15T20:53:00.004-04:00

It's finally hitting me that I'm going to be leaving Michigan in slightly over 2 months and I have so many baking materials that I need to use up before I go O_O So, I decided to start making a dent into my supplies this week! I got the Field Guide to Cookies as a gift and I've been flipping through it quite often just to read about different cookies and look through all the recipes. The recipe for green tea cookies looked quite simple and I had all the ingredients on hand so I decided to give it a go! I am quite happy with the end result and I love any excuse to use my cute little Japanese cookie cutters :) The only issue I had with this was the dough was rather crumbly, making it a bit hard to roll out. Otherwise all went well. I think I'll definitely try them again, but use less matcha next time. I threw in 2.5 tbsp this time for an extra punch but I'm not always in the mood for a really strong matcha flavor ^_^;

Green Tea Cookies
adapted from Field Guide to Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp matcha powder
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
extra sugar for dusting
extra flour for rolling out dough

Directions

1. Mix the flour, rice flour, salt, and matcha powder together.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together.
3. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the butter and sugar by hand until combined.
4. Turn out the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape the dough into a rectangle of about 3/4" thickness.
5. Chill dough in refrigerator for 2 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 325F and grease cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.
7. Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and on the dough. Roll out the dough until about 1/4" thick. Cut with desired cookie cutters (approximately 1.5-2 inches in diameter).
8. Place cookies on cookie sheets and sprinkle sugar on each cookie.
9. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are slightly brown.

*if your cookie cutters are larger or smaller than 1.5-2 inches in diameter you will want to adjust the baking time

Blackberry Cream Cheese Buns

2009-04-11T22:30:00.005-04:00

I finally got around to trying a new recipe! In an effort to find anything and everything that I need or want to do in place of working on final papers and projects (which I should have been doing :X) I decided to use my block of cream cheese in the fridge as well as an open jar of blackberry jelly that I had barely touched. I saw this recipe on Bake or Break and was sold. The description made them sound divine and I can't say I wasn't mentally salivating at the idea of delicious cream cheese buns for breakfast! The original recipe called for raspberry preserves, but I went with what I had and they turned out nicely :) They're so light and addictive..I had to stop myself from eating too many (read: I ate 2.5 of them >_<). I did learn one thing though..I absolutely suck at swirling dough. I think next time I'll just stir the batter and the preserves together in the muffin pan lol. I think these would definitely do well with any other berry preserve or anything else that pairs well with cream cheese :) And be careful not to overbake these..I did with my first pan ::weeps:: and they're still tasty, but the edges are quite stiff >_<

Blackberry Cream Cheese Buns
adapted from Bake or Break

Ingredients

1 cup + 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1/4 to 1/3 cup blackberry jelly

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a large a regular muffin pan.

2. Combine 1 cup flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat cream cheese, butter, and sugar on low speed of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla. Add dry ingredients, alternating with milk. Add remaining 3/4 cup flour and mix until combined.

4. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Top with 2 small dollops of preserves and swirl into the batter using a small knife.

5. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Sugarless Lemon Yogurt Cake

2009-04-10T10:00:00.002-04:00

Since I have a whole bunch of recipes I've made last year, I thought I'd start posting them on a weekly basis. Especially since I don't have a lot of time to bake new things currently.. So hopefully I'll be able to keep this up and get all caught up on posting :D

My dad's diabetic so when I'm at home, I try to experiment with sugarless recipes. He's always jealous when I make regular baked goods so I have to put in some effort :X I'm not a fan of baking with splenda because I think it has an aftertaste that I just do not enjoy. This cake still had that aftertaste, but it was nice and moist from the yogurt and the applesauce. I made this cake a loong time ago, so I don't remember exactly how long I baked it for, since I baked it in a loaf pan and not as cupcakes, so I'll just post the original recipe here ^_^; I also replaced the cranberries with fresh blueberries when I made this.

Redsie's Lemon Yogurt Cupcakes (Light Version)
from recipezaar

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour, plus
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Splenda sugar substitute
1/4 cup butter (or 25% reduced-fat butter, melted and cooled)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup egg substitute (or 1 egg)
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt, plain
2 teaspoons lemon zest, grated
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 cup cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and use muffin pan, lined with paper liners.

2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, butter, applesauce and egg until smooth. Add yogurt, lemon zest and juice and lemon extract, beating until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating just until smooth. Fold in cranberries.

4. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 22 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

5. Top cooled cupcakes with your favorite icing.

Pastry House Hippo

2009-04-06T22:06:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I went here with a couple of friends to get our Japanese bakery fix :D
I bought a bunch and they were all quite good. But sadly, it just made me more nostalgic for the bakeries I frequented back in Japan..;_;

Yakisoba pan

Takoyaki pan

Takoyaki pan - inside

/>
Tsubuan pan

Melon Cream pan

Melon Cream pan - inside

Corn Mayo pan

Corn Mayo pan - inside

Curry pan

Rolled Cabbage

2009-04-05T15:12:00.006-04:00

I made this a couple of weeks back and never got around to posting it :X Anyway, I was feeling a little nostalgic for Japan (again) and busted out my DS Oryouri Navi and looked for something to make. Since I had both cabbage and ground pork in the fridge, I settled on rolled cabbage! I didn't have this too often in Japan, but it seemed popular and I'd had seen it on tv as well so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I rather enjoyed my rolls lol. I ended up freezing the extra ones and then cooked them without the addition of ketchup the second time and I think I prefer that version, but I'll have to give them both a second try.

Rolled Cabbage, Japanese style

Ingredients

For the filling:
120g ground beef and pork mix
1/4 onion
4g butter
1/2 egg
1/4c panko
1/4c milk
pinch nutmeg
pinch salt
pinch pepper

4 Cabbage leaves, boiled
1 strip bacon, sliced
2g bouillon
2c water
1/2tbsp flour
1tbsp oil
3tbsp ketchup
pinch salt
pinch pepper

1. Mix the panko and the milk together and let the panko soak up the liquid.
2. Dice the onion.
3. Fry the onion in the butter until lightly browned.
4. Beat the egg in a medium bowl and then add the panko and milk mixture as well as the rest of the filling ingredients. Mix well and then divide into 4 portions.
5. Sprinkle a little salt on the cabbage leaves and then wrap the filling in each leaf. Use a toothpick to keep the rolls closed.
6. Heat a frying pan on medium heat and add the oil. Fry the bacon until cooked.
7. Dissolve the bouillon in the 2 cups of water. Add the cabbage rolls into the pan and then the water and bouillon mix. Simmer the rolls on low for about 30 minutes, while removing any scum that forms.
8. Add a little salt, pepper, and the ketchup to the pan and mix well.

Ratatouille!

2009-04-05T15:06:00.006-04:00

My sociology class had a potluck at our professor's house to make up one of the missed classes we had this semester and I was assigned a vegetable dish to bring. I really couldn't think of what to bring and then I remembered this ratatouille recipe from Tartlette :D

I basically used what I had in my kitchen so I ended up not using a green bell pepper, using regular olive oil not extra virgin, and not having thyme or lavender but I think it still turned out passable ^_^;; Of course I haven't really had ratatouille before, so I don't really know how it's supposed to taste anyway lol. But my classmates and my professor gave me their thumbs up, so it's all good :D

A twist on PB Cookies

2009-03-15T13:57:00.003-04:00

This is a recipe I made over a year ago, but since I haven't been baking recently, I thought I'd start posting about past creations :)

This cookie turned out quite well and S gave it her seal of approval. She thought about them so much and actually got the recipe from me and attempted to make them on her own, which is saying a lot! Especially since she was always the big eater and not a cook, at least during our college days ^_^;;

Anyway, the only part I had a little trouble with was the peanut butter filling and that was just not realizing it takes a little time for the peanut butter and the powdered sugar to combine. They turned out great and when I took them into work, they disappeared in no time :)

Magic Peanut Butter Middles from Allrecipes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

1. In small bowl blend flour, cocoa and baking soda. Mix until well blended.

2. In large bowl beat sugar, butter or margarine and 1/4 cup peanut butter, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Set aside.

3. To make Filling: Combine confectioner's sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Blend well.

4. Roll filling into 30 - 1 inch balls. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tablespoon of dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with glass dipped in sugar.

5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7-9 minutes. When cookies are done, they should be set and slightly cracked.

Ajishin

2009-03-07T18:28:00.005-05:00

To commemorate the end of our spring break, I went out with some friends to Novi for dinner at what can probably be considered one of the best Japanese restaurants in the area. We went to Ajishin, which apparently serves very good udon and sushi. I ordered the ikura and sake chirashi and it was quite good. I haven't had Japanese in a while so it was a welcome change from my usual dinner fare and the ikura and sake were pretty fresh and tasty :D

Blast from the past

2009-03-07T18:22:00.004-05:00

I went shopping a while ago with my cousin at a local Chinese grocery and I found ma hwa cookies! I haven't had them since I was in elementary school! I used to absolutely love them and I remember I used to try to get to them before my dad lol. I guess he introduced his childhood snack to me and then we had to battle. Epic. ... well not really haha. Anyway, I was thrilled to see them again, and immediately threw them into my basket. Although I don't think I'm addicted to them like I was when I was little, I still think they were worth it for the sake of nostalgia. And they're still good :)

Chicago Eats

2009-03-07T14:34:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with some good friends in the Windy City for a quick weekend getaway that had lots of food, lots of fun, and went by all too quickly T_T I had never been to Chicago before that, so I was looking forward to trying the famous Chicago foods- pizza and hot dogs! We were also there during the Restaurant Week, so we couldn't pass up that opportunity and had lunch at one of the participating restaurants :) If it weren't for E proposing to go to the exercise room or walk up the stairs, I think we would have been even more round and bloated by the end of the weekend than we actually were ^__^;; Ok, now on to the photos! lol

Day One

E's coworker recommended Portillo's for Italian beef and hot dogs, so the first thing we did was bus over there and try out the Italian beef sandwich! I was too focused on eating and didn't remember to take a photo until I was nearly done eating (oops!) My sandwich was dipped, so it was slightly soggy and quite delicious. The three of us collectively gave the sandwich two thumbs up lol.

Italian Beef

Day Two

This was the first full day we had in Chicago, so we jam packed it with food, food, and lots of food. So much that we ended up retiring before dinner and bought snacks at a nearby grocery store and munched on them while watching movies on tv. Ahh good times..

Our first stop was lunch at Quartino. We went here after looking over the Restaurant Week options and I think it was overall pretty good. Family style Italian food with mismatched silverware and dishes and a friendly staff made it an enjoyable experience.

Baby Spinach Salad, ricotta on the side because E is not a fan of cheese. This was very nice and light and the cheese was delicious :D

Wild Arugula and Orange salad, dressing on the side by E's request. The orange was...spicy.. lol.

Napoli style, half sausage and half margherita pizza. Thin crust. So delicious. I repeat, so delicious.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Puttanesca sauce. Also quite delicious! The sauce was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so.

Mushroom Risotto. F hadn't tried risotto before, so she was curious to try one. I'm not a mushroom person, so I can't say I loved this, but I did like the consistency of it and ate more than I thought I would lol.

Coppa al Banana. OMG DELICIOUS. Banana, biscotti, ice cream, and chocolate? Can we say recipe for success? lol lol.

Zeppole with dark chocolate and honey. I believe zeppole is basically an Italian donut? They were freshly made and quite delicious in both the honey and dark chocolate, although I think E would disagree about that lol.

After lunch we headed to the Art Institute and wandered around for a good few hours before leaving to take a break...with more food!

Almond Croissant from Au Bon Pain. It was rather sweet, but I liked the filling :D

Pecan Caramel Crisp from Garrett Popcorn. Mm so sweet lol. This was E's bag, and unpictured is the bag of just caramel popcorn that F got. The popcorn here was pretty good, and they give samples! I think we were just a little disappointed that it wasn't warm and fresh.

CheeseCorn from Garrett Popcorn. This was my bag. I wanted to cut all the sweetness that we were eating with some salt.

Day Three

This was our last day here ::sniff:: so we made this day all about food :D

We started off with a breakfast at the 3rd Coast Cafe which was literally 3 blocks away from our hotel :D We were pretty satisfied with our selections and the portions were just a little too big, but we managed to finish everything :D

my eggs benedict

E's blueberry pancakes

F's eggs florentine

Then we headed back to Portillo's to try their hot dogs for lunch before F had to leave to catch her plane. I don't really eat hot dogs but F said they were pretty good and I had no complaints :) The chocolate cake, however, we felt wasn't alll that special.

Hot dog and fries!

E opted to get the Italian beef and sausage sandwich. You can't see the sausage but it's in there under the beef. I think E's conclusion was that the regular Italian beef sandwich was better, esp with the dip.

Chocolate Cake. Not the best, but still tasty.

After F left us for the airport, E and I wandered a bit around the area and had some froyo at Berry Chill. The froyo was ok, not the best but decent. I think we regretted not getting different toppings, like Girl Scout cookies, instead of our usual fare. Oh welll.. The coolest thing was the color changing spoons though lol. We took them home with us... :X Actually, I don't know what happened to mine..

And for dinner, we met with one of E's old coworkers at Gino's East for some Chicago style deep dish pizza :9 We got a medium supreme pizza that pretty much stuffed us to the brim. So much that it felt nice when E and I walked all the way back to the hotel (because we missed the bus :X)

And that ended my whirlwind eating tour of Chicago. There are definitely more places I want to go and I definitely want to go back before I move away from the midwest!

When you run out of eggs...

2009-03-07T14:30:00.006-05:00

...make eggless chocolate cupcakes!

Ok, so I'm just lazy :X I ran out of eggs and I've been meaning to go grocery shopping but I just haven't really had the drive to leave my apartment and now it's a foggy and slightly rainy day which just lends itself to be one of those stay inside days. All would be fine except the nagging chocolate craving I've been having and so when I stumbled upon an eggless chocolate cupcake recipe on Taste and Tell, I felt like I struck gold :D I guess as a bonus, this is also the first vegan recipe I've tried as well. Yay? lol.

I liked how they turned out, although this probably won't be my go to chocolate cake recipe. It has a very nice, tight crumb, but there feels like there's something missing when I eat it. I guess maybe a combination of moisture and lightness? But then again I accidentally overbaked them by a minute or two :X

frosted with a simple vanilla buttercream

Recipe here: Eggless Chocolate Cupcake

A Grad Student on Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T12:28:00.007-05:00

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone and this year, I didn't have any time or people to make and distribute Valentine's goodies to this year. Prior to moving to Japan, I never really cared about V-day but having been immersed in all the fanfare and chocolate madness that dominates the Japanese market the weeks before V-day for two years, I've grown somewhat fond of the holiday. There's just something great about making cute little chocolates and cakes for the people in your life, particularly the ones that you like haha. In any case, this year, I ended up having tons of stuff to do over the weekend and in an attempt to focus on my work, I decided that I wouldn't make anything. But towards the end of the day, I really did want something chocolate. The only thing that came to mind that would be quick and appease the craving was this one mug chocolate cake recipe that my friend's mother sent me in a recipe exchange. It is really easy to make, and even though it's made in the microwave, it's not too bad. I say it's rather perfect for the graduate student life lol. I cut the cake into pieces and drizzled a little chocolate icing on top for mine :)

fresh out of the microwave

Mug Cake

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired.

Too much butter is not always good...

2009-02-03T10:27:00.005-05:00

I bought a bag of blood oranges on sale at the supermarket and I discovered that I'm not particularly fond of their flavor as is. So of course I look for a simple recipe that I can use them in. I was thinking of juicing the oranges and making a cream or panna cotta with them but I had no heavy cream in the fridge and I didn't feel like leaving the comfort of my warm apartment to go to the store. So I kept looking and I stumbled upon a blood orange tart recipe from Smitten Kitchen that looked perfect for my purposes.

The rustic look of the tart and the simplicity of the recipe were the deciding factors in choosing this recipe...and I'm sure I would have had awesome results had my head been in the right place the day I made it. I read the recipe the night before and the next morning, instead of rereading the recipe, I went by memory..for the crust anyway. Of course, I screw up and put in 1.5 sticks of unsalted butter instead of 1 stick that was in the recipe. And of course I don't catch my error until after I finished chilling and rolling out the dough. >_< But since I was out of flour, I went with what I had, and oh boy...the dough spread quite a bit in the baking process. It tasted ok, the crust was pretty flaky, but I'm sure it would have been even better with the original recipe! Next time I think I'll try again, but with a different fruit...maybe pears or apples :)

Blood Orange Tart
taken from Smitten Kitchen
note: Smitten Kitchen also provides a recipe for a dark, salted butter caramel to serve with the tart that I didn't make (thank god, I'd probably have ruined it and my pot if I did that day) that sounds delectable :)

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, the stick cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
3 tablespoons ice water
8 to 10 blood oranges (about 5 ounces each) [I only needed 7]
1 large egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons of water
Deep, Dark Salted Butter Caramel Sauce, for serving (after using Zoe Nathans, decided that I definitely prefer my own, reprinted below)

1. In a food processor, pulse the 1 cup of flour with 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the baking powder and salt. Add the stick of cold butter and pulse several times, just until it is the size of peas. Sprinkle the dough with the ice water and pulse just until moistened crumbs form. Turn the crumbs out onto a work surface, knead once or twice and pat the pastry into a disk. Wrap the pastry in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

2. On a floured work surface, roll out the pastry to an 11-inch round, about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the pastry to a parchment paper–lined flat cookie sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes, or until chilled.

3. Meanwhile, peel the blood oranges, removing all of the bitter white pith. Thinly slice 2 of the oranges crosswise; remove the pits. Transfer the orange slices to a plate. Working over a sieve set over a bowl, cut in between the membranes of the remaining oranges, releasing the sections into the sieve. Remove the pits and gently shake out as much juice as possible without mashing the sections; you will need 1 cup of sections. Reserve the orange juice for another use.

4. Arrange the orange sections on the pastry, leaving a 2-inch border all around. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the sugar over the oranges. Using a paring knife, thinly slice the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter over the oranges. Fold up the pastry over the oranges, leaving most of the oranges uncovered. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Arrange the orange slices on top, leaving a 1-inch border of pastry all around. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar on top. Freeze the tart until solid, at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

5. Preheat the oven to 375° and position a rack in the center. Place a baking sheet on the rack below to catch any drips. Bake the tart directly from the freezer for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the pastry is deeply browned. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack and let the tart cool for 30 minutes. Carefully slide the parchment paper onto the rack and let the tart cool completely.

Lazy Friday

2009-01-23T19:36:00.004-05:00

I had planned to wake up early, get my paper done, and get cracking on readings for next week's classes. Of course, things never go as planned for me since my inherent laziness takes over and what ended up happening was I woke up around 8:30, browsed food blogs, watched some variety shows I downloaded, finished my paper 3 hours before it was due, browsed more food blogs, watched more variety shows on youtube, and then ate dinner. In that order. I had to do something that .. wasn't watching things on my computer, so of course I decided to bake! I had leftover cinnamon sugar from making the palmiers last week so I naturally decided to make snickerdoodles :) I love these cookies. They come out soft and so delicious!

I've used this recipe before so I know they turn out well. This time I tweaked the method just a little bit since the cinnamon sugar mix I had on hand was heavier on the sugar side than cinnamon. The cookies turned out with a light hint of cinnamon with a soft center and slightly crispy and chewy sides, mm delicious! On most days, I usually prefer the stronger cinnamon flavor in snickerdoodles, but today the light flavor really hit the spot :) I was probably just looking for a sweet end to the day lol! The only thing I'd try differently next time is to use all butter and no shortening.

Snickerdoodles
Adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla.
3. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt in a separate bowl and then mix into the wet ingredients. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 4 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture and then roll balls between your hands again. Roll balls one more time in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on parchment paper lined baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 minutes or until set but not too hard. Be careful to not underbake these cookies. Let cookies sit on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes before removing to a rack to cool.

Celery...cookies?

2009-01-17T23:08:00.007-05:00

So F suggested that I try making cookies with celery a while back and I've been stewing over ways to infuse celery into cookies. The first thought was to try making a sugar cookie with celery in it. My first thought was to use some sort of celery extract or juice in the dough itself and then roll balls of dough in a celery infused sugar before baking. It all sounded nice and pretty in my head, but upon trying to create this masterpiece, I discovered things don't go as well as planned all the time :X The celery sugar turned out very light in the celery flavor and I hadn't realized that I don't have a food processor, juicer, or blender to extract the liquid from the celery, so I ended up making a celery syrup by boiling celery in water and sugar. The result was a sweet syrup with a semi-strong celery flavor that came after the sweet, but that celery flavor wasn't strong enough to come out through the dough. I didn't anticipate that and even reduced the amount of sugar from the original sugar cookie recipe to accommodate for the syrup. Needless to say this was a complete failure. There was no celery flavor to the cookies, and they were not as sweet as regular sugar cookies. In fact, most of what I tasted was vegetable oil (bleh). Next time I'll stick to tampering with a recipe that I've tried before and stay away from oil :X Also, I'll wait till I have access to some sort of juice extracting contraption before thinking about making more celery cookies. Either that or I'll start experimenting with celery seeds...

Palmiers <3

2009-01-16T22:31:00.006-05:00

I love cinnamon in cookies, in buns, in desserts and sweets in general, so of course I had to make these cinnamon palmiers when I saw them on i shot the chef. I actually made these once before over winter break and found out how long they actually take to make with all the resting in between but they are definitely worth the effort.

I really enjoyed these cookies, as did my friends and my cousin! Thus, I had to make them again! Of course it helped that S wanted to try them and didn't get any since he ran off to HK so I had reason to make these again :) The first time, I didn't really know what I was doing when I was folding the dough and making the cookies, and this time..despite having one batch under my belt, they were just as hard to shape again. I'm guessing it's because I keep halving the batches. Next time I'll do a full batch :) I also need to work on rolling them out and stuffing lots of cinnamon sugar into them too. They seemed to be lacking in the cinnamon sugar flavor this time =/ But they flaky buttery cookie is good..because of the flaky buttery-ness...:X

Sigh..they were much too pale..

In the tupperware to be sent to S lol

Recipe can be found here: A Cheap Cookie

Pina Colada Cake

2009-01-16T15:25:00.004-05:00

Last weekend, I had a friend over and, being girls, of course we loaded up on the sweets at the grocery store before heading to my place. That meant cinnamon rolls, donuts, chocolate, juice, and a small bag of goldfish crackers to offset the sugar for lunch! We also got a couple cartons of juice. Needless to say we couldn't finish it all. Not even half. So last week I was eating donuts and cinnamon rolls instead of real food..but that's not the point here. What I'm trying to get at is that I was left with a carton of pina colada juice (new from Dole apparently!) unopened and sitting in my fridge. I'm not a huge juice drinker, so I've been drinking it (diluted with water) and kept thinking of how I could use the juice in my baking. I've had a hankering for pound cake, so I thought I'd flavor the cake with juice! Perfect!

The results? Well, I tinkered with a recipe I found on Baking Bites and then went and glazed one half of the cake while leaving the other half untouched. The verdict? I like the crunchy crust on the cake! The plain cake is quite tasty although the pina colada flavor doesn't really come out. I would recommend toying with reducing the amount of sugar and increasing the amount of juice to fix that. It is acutally sweeter than I thought it would be as well but it is a nice dense, yet pleasant pound cakey cake. Then I tried the glazed version. Glaze wins hands down. The pina colada flavor was there but not overpowering. The glaze does make the cake sweeter, but I have a sweet tooth and I'm ok with that! However, I do recommend small portions for this cake. I actually like them nice and bite-sized :) I imagine they'd go well with tea or coffee as well.

glazed half

unglazed half- see that crack in the back? I broke the cake when I inverted it ::tears::

oh so delicious! the glazed piece is the one that glistens! lol

Pina Colada Cake
adapted from Baking Bites

1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tbsp butter, soft
2 large eggs
1 tbsp Pina Colada juice
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

for glaze:
powdered sugar
Pina Colada juice

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease and flour a 9x9 pan.
In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter until light and crumbly, then beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the pina colada juice.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Stir only until just combined.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20-24 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake and the top is golden brown.
Invert cake out onto a rack to cool.

*If using glaze, mix powdered sugar and juice to make the glaze. The glaze should be a slightly thick but liquid consistency. I started with about 2-3 tbsp of juice and kept adding powdered sugar until I reached my desired consistency. Brush the glaze on to the cake while still warm or drizzle glaze on after the cake is completely cooled. Either way is delicious (and sweet!)

Home Cookin'

2009-01-16T12:19:00.005-05:00

No recipe for this post, but I thought I'd post about what I typically cook for myself. I tend to just stir fry whatever I have in the fridge since it's fast and easy and I really don't have a picky palate so if it's edible, I'll eat it :X

That said, this post is about a fried potato dish that my grandmother (best cook EVER) used to make when we were young. My brother and I used to fight over the last piece of potato and even now we're on an unending quest to figure out how my grandmother used to cook this. Sadly, she passed away 16 years ago, long before I became interested in cooking and baking, so the only clues we have to go on is what my dad remembers of how she used to cook and my brother's picky taste to try and figure out the proportions.

This dish is very, very simple, it's basically sliced strips of marinated pork that's fried with strips of potato and/or onion. Very simple, very quick, and I find it tasty. Of course I tend to find almost anything fried with soy sauce tasty...so it might just be me. Anyhow, there'll be no recipe since it's not quite how it should be yet and, well let's face it, it's so simple it really doesn't require a recipe to imitate anyway!

A Taste of the Caribbean

2009-01-15T21:13:00.005-05:00

Mmm..sometimes being a graduate student isn't so bad! Rackham had a Food for Thought event today with the aim of introducing students to Caribbean food. Of course graduate students love food- especially the free variety- so tons of us registered and showed up for this event that promised us dinner lol. I've never had Caribbean food before so I didn't know what to expect. I have to say I absolutely <3ed the jerk chicken...mmm....but let me first describe what we were offered.

The night was catered by Irie, a Caribbean restaurant in nearby Canton, MI. The owner is Jamaican so I imagine that the food might be more Jamaican than any other Caribbean cuisine, but I might be wrong :X Anyhow, we had rice and peas, curried goat, curried chicken, curried vegetables, jerk chicken, fried plantains, and cut pineapple. The jerk chicken was SO GOOOD. OMG DELICIOUS. The owner gave a short talk about the food before we all stampeded over to the tables and he said that they used 20+ spices in the marinade for the chicken and let it marinate overnight before sticking into the oven (I think he said you can also grill it). SO DELICIOUS. That and the fried plantains and I was set for the night. Someday I'll have to figure out a good jerk spice combination and make my own...and fry me some plantains. mmm plantains.

Izakaya Sanpei

2009-01-09T23:02:00.005-05:00

It was C's birthday today so 4 of us went all the way out to Canton for Japanese to celebrate her big 2-3 (so young!) Anyway, so this was the first time I've had Japanese out here in the midwest and I have to say it was better than I expected lol.

We started out with a chicken teriyaki + tempura combination dinner. This was pretty standard, not blow-me-away amazing but not bleck terrible. I liked how the teriyaki sauce they used on the chicken wasn't your standard sticky teriyaki. Tempura is always great...who can say no to deep fried shrimp and vegetables? :)

chicken teriyaki with potatoes and green beans on the side

tempura

We also ordered a red dragon roll (basically a dragon roll but with tuna instead of eel), a sumo roll (it had eel and other fish), and a 007 roll (it had shrimp tempura, eel, some other stuff...topped with unagi sauce it seemed like) as our rolls. They were..ok. I think the best of the three was probably the 007 roll.

red dragon roll

sumo roll + 007 roll

The highlight of the night though was the kamonabe (duck hot pot). Mmm the broth was delicious. C said they probably used duck broth and we all tasted some mushroom in it too but it was very flavorful and K wanted to drink all of it lol. I'm coming to love hot pot lol. There's no photo of it but we topped off the hotpot with 2 servings of udon, just like the Japanese do :) It was yummy!

For dessert, (of course we couldn't say no to dessert!) we got the 4 flavors of ice cream they had to offer. We also asked them to do a happy birthday thing for C, which they happily agreed to do :) So we had a plate of grapes and oranges, green tea, red bean, and vanilla ice cream, and a scoop of orange sherbet to bring us into food coma bliss.

I have to say it was an enjoyable night out with great company, good service, and decent food :)

Rocky Road Brownies & Candied Pecans

2009-01-07T22:18:00.014-05:00

I'd like to say that I'm commemorating the beginning of a new blog with a double post of recipes but really, I promised to (well sort of) send these two my two partners in crime (I'd call them my two better halves, but then that'd mean I'm just a squishy blob..wait..let's not go there) in SD and I wanted to make them before I started classes.

The rocky road brownies are delicious brownies that A of Buttered BlasphAmy made over the summer. H fell in love with them and prodded me into getting the recipe from A and I thought it was only appropriate that I make these and send them to H for her birthday next week!

before baking

all done :)

The candied pecans come from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com that I made over winter break. My brother couldn't stop eating them and neither could a good number of my friends who came over Thanksgivmas (yes, we combined Thanksgiving and Christmas into one random Friday night in December lol). I have to say I'm not a huge fan of pecans, but these I couldn't keep my hands off of these either. I only made the regular version here, but I also made a small batch with Splenda for my diabetic father and my mother actually enjoyed that version more than the original. I found the batch with Splenda had a more salty overtone than sweet and preferred the original, but nevertheless my father found it necessary to hide the small tupperware full of the Splenda coated pecans to keep my mother from devouring them all while he was out! But I digress..I intended on making these again while I was at home so my beloved F could try some since she couldn't come to Thanksgivmas and I raved about them to her, but I didn't have time to. Luckily, I found extra egg whites in my freezer when I got back to Michigan and now she's getting her own box full of them to munch on at her new job XD

mmm delicious

Rocky Road Brownie Bites

1/2 cup butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup blanched almonds, chopped or slivered almonds
24 mini-marshmallows

Equipment: Mini-muffin tin or regular
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Over hot water in a small bowl, melt the butter and chocolate together. Let cool to almost room temperature while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

In a mixer or with a whisk, whip the eggs with the sugar until fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and salt with a wooden spoon. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir. Add the flour and stir in only until incorporated. Add nuts and mix briefly.

Grease a non-stick mini muffin (or regular) tin and divide the batter evenly by spoonfuls filling each 3/4 full. Top each with a mini marshmallow, pressing it in slightly. Bake for 20 minutes for chewy brownies and 25 minutes for cake-ier brownie bites. Let cool then ease them out of the pan.

*I didn't have a mini muffin pan so I lined a 9x9 pan with foil and baked them for 25 minutes and the edges came out done and the middle quite fudgey- actually I tried these after they cooled and they're more underdone than I prefer, so for chewier brownies I'd recommend trying 30-35 minutes.

Candied Pecans
adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sugar-Coated-Pecans/Detail.aspx

2 egg whites
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound pecan halves
1 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Grease one baking sheet.

2. In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg white and water until frothy. In resealable gallon-sized bag, mix together sugar, salt, and cinnamon.

3. Add pecans to egg whites, stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts, and toss them in the sugar mixture until coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake at 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.

First Post!

2009-01-07T17:56:00.000-05:00

Yay! New blog!

I've been trying out different recipes here and there (mostly sweet and baked!) and I finally decided to start keeping a record of them :) I'm also hoping to try more savory recipes in an attempt to add more variety into my diet. Look forward to rants, raves, and all that good stuff that will come out of my experiments in the kitchen :)