my new obsession

Smoothies. They're great. Especially when you have a problem saying "No!" and a dad that always buys you way too much yogurt and fruit. He says that I can just eat more fruit during the day, but sometimes I don't feel like being that girl in the office that's toting around 5 containers of papaya a day, you know?

One day, while facing no less than 24 containers of yogurt and buckets of honeydew, papayas, grapes, and strawberries, I decided to start making breakfast smoothies.. and haven't stopped since.

Pictured above: 1 chinese soup container of papayas, 1 6oz can of blueberry yogurt, half a container of strawberries - makes approximately 2 glasses

Lessons I've learned:

• Honeydew is a GREAT smoothie ingredient. Let's be honest, honeydew is a meh kind of fruit. It's the fruit that you stick in a fruit salad or edible arrangement to take up space. The great thing about it though, is that it's really sweet and the flavor isn't terribly strong, so it's a great natural sweetener and smoothie-bulker-upper.
• Overripe honeydew and not ripe (i.e. sour as hell.) strawberries - delicious together.
• Papaya is a really strong flavor. Use sparingly if you're not a fan
• Leftover cherry tomatoes and random salad greens do not affect the taste of one's smoothies
• Be careful when washing a blender, especially if you're too lazy to remove the blade at the bottom. It hurts to be stabbed.

The CDC says I should eat about 2 cups of fruit a day. Does this still apply if it's not in its original form? I'd like to think so, especially since it's a lot easier to drink two cups than eat two cups. Regardless, I know it can't be bad for you to consume food in liquidy form. 

So the next time you find yourself with 3 cherry tomatoes and containers of aging yogurt, fruit and salad greens, remember that you can blend all that ish together, put it in a nice cup, and feel all fancy about it. 

walnut honey shrimp

Aaaahhhh I made this and it was delicious and I'm so excited!!!! Recipe here. For the future, I think I'll skip the marinating in salt part, as the shrimp was a bit too salty for my tastes.

shrimp

 

I peeled and deveined shrimp for the first time in my life as I helped the bf prepare fried rice ingredients. It was a disgusting yet strangely satisfying experience.

why i love potlucks

they're inexpensive

you're guaranteed to be stuffed in the end because everyone always brings too much

you get to test your cooking skills and marvel at those of others

they bring together friends in a home and that automatically makes everything warm and fuzzy

this was by far the fanciest potluck i've had with the regular girlfriend crew of d&d (and now l). l cooked her DELICIOUS chicken in a real grown-up pot, and it got us all really excited. she also added rutabaga, which we were all pretty excited about even though no one really knew what it was and we couldn't really identify it in the mix of vegetables (hey guys, apparently it's like a turnip). but seriously, that roasted chicken was divine. i suspect the recipe is very similar to this one but she said that basically the seasoning involved salt, pepper, garlic powder and then a ton of thyme on the chicken. i'm trying this soon. like maybe tomorrow.

also i have a new best friend. please meet toro. he sheds a lot and can be a bit of a brat, but he's also a great snuggler and makes the cutest face when you scratch his head.

pasta bake

i haven't forgotten about this blog.

yesterday my friend/sista P and i made a pasta bake for a potluck that i hosted with sorority sisters. i specifically took pictures with the intention of posting them immediately here. remind me to do this later..

nothing to brag about...

...but it's tomato season, and just wanted to remind ya'll that if you find yourself with an overabundance of them and eggs, you can always mix the two for a light but filling soup.

Beat the eggs, chop the tomatoes, and throw in some sesame oil and salt. Dinner!

bok choy roses

HOLY CRAP GUYS. DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS HAPPENS WHEN YOU  CHOP OFF THE BOTTOMS OF BOK CHOY?

I usually peel off each leaf individually in order to keep the little nub inside intact. Randomly felt compelled last night to just chop off the ends and consequently had my mind blown.

This shall be my new dinner party trick. Yay for garnishing!

a little rusty

I apologize for the lack of posts - I swear I haven't forgotten about this blog! I just haven't had much to write about as I haven't been doing much decorating or cooking lately.

Yesterday I tried to get back into the cooking mode by making some roasted cauliflower at my boyfriend's place. Lesson of the day - when using someone else's kitchen, check to make sure he/she doesn't use the oven as storage.

And now I present Tupperware Meltdown 2012:

Because we got to work removing the plastic fairly quickly, it was just hard enough to maintain its shape but weak enough to be broken. I was lucky in that the plastic kind of draped itself over the bars of the cooking racks so that there was open space underneath, allowing us to just snap everything up. There is still plastic stuck to the edges of the glass lids..not sure how I'm going to fix that...

Some plastic had formed a thin sheet at the bottom, so we warmed the oven for about 5 min at a time, and then went in with a damp cloth and tried to wipe everything out. After a while I couldn't tell if I actually still smelled plastic or if I was imagining things, so we stopped after 4 rounds.

Needless to say, I did not continue cooking for that night. The boyfriend made ramen and I ate steamed broccoli. Le sigh.

quinoa bibimbap

Inspired by this recipe from Closet Cooking. I think quinoa might be my new favorite ingredient. I also think everything automatically tastes better when you add a fried egg.

thai chicken pizza

With lots of help from my friend FC, I spent most of my Saturday afternoon making this Thai chicken pizza with peanut sauce. Twas delish! At first I was afraid that my chicken was too dry (I had covered it in olive oil, salt and pepper and baked it at 350 degrees for 30 min) but once coated with the sauce and baked for about 10 minutes, everything was juicy and delicious.

If I was to do this again, I would recommend using only 1-2 tbs of fish sauce in the peanut sauce, as we found it to be a little too overwhelming (although a little extra coconut milk was enough to take it down).

spicy bean sprout soup

Apparently this is an excellent remedy for hangovers. I found out it's also great when it feels like 4 degrees outside.

In addition to the basic ingredients, a lot of recipes out there include dried anchovies and/or kelp for a more flavorful broth. I'm not a fan of anchovies and I didn't have any kelp on hand, so I can tell you that it also tastes pretty good without either. You just need something in addition to the bean sprouts and you'll be set.

taiwanese cooking jackpot

I've been complaining a lot about the lack of websites dedicated to Chinese and Taiwanese recipes, especially when compared to the vast number of sites dedicated to Japanese and Korean cooking. No more excuses are allowed however, as I've recently stumbled upon the Taiwanese version of Maangchi, Taiwan Duck. The site is relatively new and only has about 40 recipes, but there are videos for each and nice pictures of the end product. The first thing I'm going to try is the hot and sour soup... except I might be allergic to white pepper - still trying to figure that out.

image via Taiwan Duck

There's also the site Taiwanese Cooking which I'm a little less impressed with (I mean, really... Cranberry Chicken Salad Delight?)

KYAHHHH let's go :D

brunch & friends

I think brunch is one of the greatest things ever. It's a delicious opportunity to simultaneously eat sweet and savory, it occurs on the weekend, and it's cost-efficient because you save yourself a meal.. or two.. depending how late (and how much) you eat.

I also thing potlucks are great. Any social event involving food already ranks high in my book, but an event where you can just make one dish but eat several is perfection.

And so I decided to host a brunch potluck. Partly because one of my New Year's resolutions to be more social and partly because I wanted to make sweet potato and sausage hash. I ended up not having enough time to get the sausage (decided cleaning the bathroom was more important), so I suppose I'll save that for another day.

We went all out with our parfait station, breakfast burritos, roasted potatoes, pumpkin bread and mimosas! I still don't have wine glasses, so we drank them out of mugs. It was still really great. Also fun fact, my couch is the perfect height for my dining table, thus giving me SO. MUCH. SEATING!

Thanks friends :)

Pumpkin Spice Loaf Bread (courtesy of DC)

3 cups flour 2 cups raw sugar 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted ¼ cup vegetable oil 1 egg 1 ½ cups canned pumpkin (puree not pie filling) ½ cup water 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon nutmeg ½ teaspoon cloves 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 ½ cups dried cranberries ¼ cup unsalted walnuts 12 muffin cups

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine raw sugar, melted butter, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water. Beat for 90 seconds, or until well mixed. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, stirring until no streaks remain. Combine flour mixture and pumpkin mixture. Stir in nuts and cranberries; stirring only until all ingredients are mixed. Cover batter and allow to set at room temperature for 60 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched. If to be frozen, allow to cool for 1 hour, then tightly wrap in plastic wrap; store in freezer zipper bags. To reheat, wrap loosely in foil and bake for 5-10 minutes at 350°F. Or they may be reheated in the microwave wrapped loosely in a damp paper towel.

chipotle and rosemary roasted nuts + awesome music

Made a batch of these (+ my own wax paper baggies) as office holiday presents. 

The recipe can be found here - I followed it pretty closely, except I cut the amount of rosemary by half as some of the commenters said the flavor was too strong. Now I'm in love with chipotle and shall put it on everything.

And although the holidays are officially over, I still have a little Christmas spirit in me, so I just wanted to share some songs that have been on repeat for the month of December as a musical gift.

makin' some kimchi

The Korean culinary adventures continue with my first attempts at making kimchi.

Radish Kimchi via Maangchi

Too bad it was hella salty. And the longer I let it sit in the fridge, the saltier it became! I kept trying to mix it with my dinners for the following week, hoping the other food would neutralize some of the sodium, but no success. I was just about ready to give into my frustration and toss it out, but in my last ditch effort to find a solution, I stumbled upon this list of 1001 ways to use vinegar. Apparently one remedy for over-salted dishes is a mixture of white distilled vinegar and sugar; given the fact that I really couldn't make this dish any worse, I decided to give it a try.

And it worked!! Sort of. It's still saltier than I would like it to be, but it's now edible. Another huge dollop of honey probably would make it perfect. I'm kind of unreasonably excited about this mainly because this is my first time just jumping in and actually trying to troubleshoot a culinary failure. When it comes to cooking, I prefer to strictly follow recipes (and always get very anxious when they would end with "season to taste"). I know I don't have a very refined palate and am never really sure that what tastes good to me tastes good to someone else, so I find the guidance a recipe provides very reassuring.

Although I still wouldn't feed this kimchi to someone, it makes me happy to know that I made something that tasted bad (to me) taste ok (to me) without relying on some recipe to give me exact proportions of vinegar to sugar. 

kimchi chigae

Foods that I love in this world: string beans, tofu and pickled things. Of pickled things, kimchi is probably my favorite. It's simultaneously spicy, sweet, and sour and I could totally eat it on it's own for a snack. (Ok I admit, I actually have. I know that's gross, don't judge me too much.)

Tonight I was actually feeling quite lazy and was going to just cook ramen for dinner, but as I was rummaging for a bowl, I spotted the clay pot I bought several months ago and suddenly felt inspired to use it for kimchi chigae. I had the kimchi, the silken tofu, and some scallions to get rid of (seriously, those things wilt so freakin' fast), so why not. It's got 2 of my 3 favorite things!

Recipe via No Recipes

I used pork loin instead of pork belly because I read somewhere before that although pork loin doesn't have as much fat, it's just as tasty.

before and after

This is actually how I eat dinner every night. My mom would be so mad to know that I eat in front of my computer, but to be fair, it serves as my TV. Yes, I'm drinking orange juice. And yes, I do, in fact, have a fobby little bowl that I sometimes use for my rice.

My clay pot is kind of fun too, no? It almost made me feel like I was eating at a legitimate restaurant. All I need is a little metal rice bowl with a lid.

On a complete side note, if you ever wonder why I tend to take my food shots from the same angles and locations, it's not because I think it looks particularly artsy that way but rather it's because my kitchen lights are more like spotlights and those are the only angles and locations where I do not cast a shadow in front of me. I guess I also think those angles are a little artsy.

beef stew

One of the random things a friend passed down to me as he moved cross-country was a giant slow-cooker. I was reluctant to take it at first because it was heavy and had to be carried on a bus, but it seemed like such a shame to throw it out otherwise. Now I can say that it was totally worth the sore arms and bruises on my thighs, because this thing is freakin' awesome.

Beef stew is strangely one of my dad's favorite things to make. I say it's strange because he doesn't actually really like to eat it (he's not a fan of red meat). However I always enjoy it, and since I had been wanting to redeem myself from my last beef failure and had a lot of deteriorating veggies in my fridge, I decided that it was time to bust out the slow-cooker and take my own stab at this dish.

Lessons learned:

• You cannot prep/cut potatoes and leave them in the fridge for more than 2 days. Mold will grow and you'll be very sad as you throw out 2 whole potatoes and all the carrots that you happened to put in the same container.
• 4.5 hours on high heat is not enough to cook 2 lbs of beef. The meat was still pink when the timer went off, but as it was 12:30am at this point, I just took it out and cooked it on the stove-top the following day.
• In case you didn't know, you can slow cook radishes.

Gah I'm so in love. I'm not very good at cooking meat and the slow-cooker just makes it all so easy. I can now totally see why some people live off of slow-cooked dinners.

rice cake soup

Despite it being unseasonably warm for November, I'm in the mood for soups and stews. In an effort to get Operation Cook for SY back on track, I figured I would give this dish a try. 

I wish I could say that I made this fairly simple soup with a lot of finesse and grace, but since we're all friends here, I'll admit that this took me about half an hour longer than it should've, mainly because I kept going back to my laptop to watch the instructional video from my favorite Korean cook, Maangchi.

She's so freakin' cute! I hope she picks the music for all her videos herself, because sometimes the song choices are hilarious.

tada

Originally I was going to forgo the garnish because it looked too fancy for me, but since the beef had to boil for half an hour,  I figured I would be ambitious and go for it.

At first everything started out okay - this was my first time separating the yolk from the whites and so I was super proud of myself for pulling it off. Thank goodness one full egg was to go in to the "whites" bowl because that meant there was room for 1 mistake. Which I made.

But then I had to fry it, which made me nervous because I have acknowledged the fact that I'm just not very good at flipping over any half-cooked liquid-y mass in one piece.

Yup. So that happened. 

But then as I watched Maangchi's video for the 6th time, I realized something looked a little off on my end. That's when I realized that rather than using the yolk bowl, I accidentally fried the whites+1 yolk mix. Womp womp. 

My second attempt with the correct mixture turned out much better:

As for the seaweed, I realized that she crushed it in a bag because if you try to do it with your bare hands, about 75% of it will be wasted because it'll be stuck to your hand and impossible to take off.

Also I forgot that my bottle of sesame oil doesn't have a mechanism to allow the oil to slowly drip out, so I accidentally poured in probably about 2 tbs too much. It still tasted ok though...

Don't worry S, by the time you come out here, I'll have this one figured out!

little victories

I did it! I cooked a bonafide meal for 4 people and as long as they weren't lying to me, I would say it was a success.

No attempts to take artistic photos for this, as I didn't want to keep my guests waiting while I snapped away.

Tonight's menu consisted of

1. Fried dumplings (My first attempt! Usually I just boil them.)
2. Soba noodles with onions and carrots. I also made a peanut sauce, which I wasn't personally a fan of but my friends ate it anyways. <3 them.
3. Slow cooked chicken. It was good! The chicken was not quite as juicy as I had hoped, but it was still pretty good for not having been marinated beforehand.
4. Roasted asparagus. Ok I didn't actually make this. Thanks DC and DS!

To top off the meal, we made mimosas with the champagne my friends brought over. We had to have them in mugs because I don't own any other type of drinkware. Always classy, that I am.

In true Asian style, the night ended with fruit. Mmm red grapes.

Yay this was fun. I hope no one feels ill tomorrow.

can you stay for dinner?

On my To Do list: Slow-Cooked Korean Chicken

photo via can you stay for dinner

One Friday afternoon, I came across this blog during my lunch hour...and did not stop reading until well into the evening. I felt like I stumbled upon the diary of my long-lost best friend and needed to catch up on her life. Her entries are hilarious yet thoughtful, and her recipes look DELICIOUS. Also she is ridiculously pretty.

Having lost 165 lbs (starting at almost 300 lbs) through moderate exercise and mindful eating, the author, Andie, often talks about how important food is to her and her love for cooking. Not wanting to restrict herself to a less-than-satisfying diet, she's been working over the years on recipes that work for her and because of this, I feel like you can palpably sense the enthusiasm oozing out of each entry as she details the cooking process and the end product. I wish I came across her blog before I went to that mindful eating course with CL, because I really would've been much less judgmental about the whole thing. I'll take this as a lesson to be more open-minded in the future.

If you have the time, you seriously should visit can you stay for dinner? and just peruse for a while. Also I just realized that she is the editor of Foodista, which produced a cookbook that I randomly bought at a Borders closeout sale. Clearly Andie and I were meant to be.