Sunday, October 25, 2009

Those Cakes Are Poppin'

Red Velvet cake pops! Ever since Alison showed me Bakerella I haven't been able to get my eyes off those sexy looking cake pops. Bakerella makes it look at lot easier than it really is. She does. I had no idea dipping cake balls was so messy. The crumbs turned the melted candy pink =\ Maybe I am just noob at it. But it was fun and definitely cool! I used red velvet cake mix this time. Hooray for mixes! I like red velvet because it's not overly sweet like other mixes. Used white almond bark to dip. Basically just melted the candy and rolled the balls around. I tried taking pictures of every step this time! (No studio lighting but who cares :\) So here's sort of how I made the pops:

1. Made cake according to box instructions. Let it cool and then crumbled the cake into a bowl. Threw in some whipped cream cheese frosting.
2. Mix, mix, mix well until its mold-able!
3. Dip in melted almond bark
4. Stick in the pop sticks and let em cool!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Quesadillas

Heat skillet or non-stick pan to med heat. Spray one side of flour tortilla with PAM cooking spray and lay down on skillet. Sprinkle cheese evenly on half of the tortilla and layer your desired ingredients. After the last ingredient, sprinkle cheese on top, fold, and flip over. Grill until golden brown and crunchy.

Quesadillas
  • Medium flour tortillas
  • Mexican-blend cheese
  • Pinto beans
  • Salsa
  • Lettuce
  • Grilled chicken, sliced
  • Sour cream to dip
I'll do a little re-post of the do-it-yourself salsa recipe. After you've tried this, you will never look at store-bought brands the same again, I guarantee it. Try not to substitute other types of tomatoes for Romas. Roma tomatoes have less water content and are redder-- which will make your salsa so much better.



Salsa
  • 3 Roma tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 small red onion, diced
  • 2 tbsp Cilantro, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tsp lime juice
  • optional: jalapenos, hot sauce

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Lattice Apple Pie

I set my alarm clock to 9:30 am, thinking that it would be enough sleep, but when I heard Schubert's Rosamunde, I just turned it off and went back to sleep. :( When I woke up again at 11:30, I leapt off my bed and made pie. I didn't have a rolling pin, so I kept pounding my dough to flatten it. It worked-- to some extent, but it still wasn't flat enough. I ended up with a very thick pie crust. The filling was alright. The crust was good too-- at the parts where it was not too thick. :{

MY ROOM MATE IS EATING CELERY STICKS WITH PEPSI!
And she just called me a jerk. HAHAHAHA

Okay back to blogging. So Chef Jacky Chan and Jonathan came over and made fried rice. Then I tried making fan shu tong sui but stupid me left the bag out on the counter to defrost when the bag clearly said Warning: Do not defrost. I'm such an idiot. So the rice balls all cracked and it became ji ma wu. (Sesame soup?) It's so funny. Everything is funny right now. My whole suite was at the common area a while ago, watching chemistry educational videos. Those were hilarious. Hilarious. I think I'm going to microwave myself some leftovers right now. Let me just post this recipe up for the pie crust.

Grandma's Pie Crust
Yields: 1 full crust, and one bottom crust.
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 3/4 cups shortening
  • 3 tbsp white sugar
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup water
  1. Dry ingredients in a bowl, and cut in the shortening with two knives or a pastry cutter. Use your fingers to crumble until it resembles cornmeal.
  2. Beat egg with water and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
  3. Form into a ball of dough that can be rolled out. If it is too dry, add a bit of water at a time.
To make a lattice top, visit this website: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/005134how_to_make_a_lattice_top_for_a_pie_crust.php


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Chocolate Mousse Float



Adapted from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Mousse Au Chocolat. Modified the recipe a bit. Second time trying this recipe, and I think it turned out far better than last time. Chocolate was rich, and the mousse was light and airy. I did have some trouble combining the ganache with the whipped egg whites. I folded the chocolate into the whites, instead of the whites into chocolate, which may have been the main error with my mousse. I have corrected myself in the instructions, so yours may well be better than mine.
I was at the Triton Bookstore and I felt compelled to buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Hundreds of recipes in there-- I don't know where to start. I'm very excited, and I can't wait to start making more delicious desserts and dishes! I will repeat the recipe here, while eating a red velvet cupcake from the OVT.

Mousse Au Chocolat
level: medium
  • 2 oz rich, bittersweet chocolate (use quality chocolate, because you will definitely be able to taste the difference)
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 4 tbsp sugar, confectioner's
  • 1 tsp strong coffee
  • 1 tsp white rum
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
How
  1. Melt chocolate and butter over simmering water with coffee and rum. After melted, let cool completely.
  2. Beat yolks and 2 tbsp of sugar until double in size and pale in color. Then add extract and whisk over simmering water, until mixture becomes thicker. Then transfer to to ice and whisk until mixture cools and becomes like runny mayonnaise. Fold with cooled chocolate.
  3. Making sure that whisk attachment is clean, whisk the whites until frothy, then add the remaining sugar and salt, whisking until stiff peaks form.
  4. Mix 1/3 of egg whites into chocolate-yolk mixture. Combine thoroughly. Then fold the remaining mixture in. Scoop mousse into serving cups and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Eggplant Parmigiana



Finally! I'm finally posting up my eggplant Parmesan recipe. Ate this with some leftover veggies. I have already done my ranting for today so I have nothing more to say. Gotta do homework. Way behind. Enjoy the Recipe :)

Eggplant Parmigiana
  • 1/2 of an American eggplant or a Chinese eggplant (smaller = cuter)
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Parmesan cheese
  • All-purpose flour
  • Italian seasoning
  • 1 egg
  • Bread crumbs (Panko recommended)
  • 8 oz can of tomato sauce (Italian or regular)
How:
  1. Cut eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds and salt for 10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, set up your breading station: flour with Italian seasoning, beaten egg with some water, and bread crumbs. Bread eggplants.
  3. Preheat oven to 350. Heat pan to medium heat and fry breaded eggplant rounds. Should be a golden brown color.
  4. Then in a oven-safe pan layer your ingredients in this order (from the bottom):
    - tomato sauce
    - eggplant rounds
    - tomato sauce
    - mozzarella
    - eggplant rounds
    - tomato sauce
    - mozzarella
    - Parmesan
  5. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

Balsamic Chicken with Mushroom



Tender chicken grilled to perfection, drizzled with sweet, reduced balsamic, and served on a layer of sauteed baby bella mushrooms and onions.

^ is probably what it would look like on a menu. lawl

Now from here on, let me digress onto my college life. I spent about 5 hours at the computer lab last night working on my programming assignment, only to have the TA tell me that I should probably change my program because I had used arrays and constructors, topics not yet discussed in the lectures. Now I don't know what has or has not been covered in Ord's lectures, as I have been decorating my notes the whole time, but I do remember this: programming is used to make repetitive tasks easy. Plus, efficiency is always the best policy. So why give up elegance for inefficiency, just because the professor has not covered those topics? But anyways, I was in the lab for so long because I was stubborn and wouldn't budge from my seat until I had fixed all my glitches. (failed. and i went home)

I woke up this morning just to go to Ralph's and Trader Joe's to get some groceries. Now I can spend another paragraph talking about my market adventure this morning, or I can just not, and talk about what I made with my food. I made balsamic chicken with boneless chicken thighs (brought it from home and my mom didn't have chicken breasts)

Food is cheaper at home. :X

And I actually didn't look at a recipe for this one! Hooray!

Balsamic Chicken
  • Halved chicken (breasts)
  • 1 cup baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 onion, sliced
  • Green onion, for garnish
  • Salt and pepper
  • (Crushed bay leaves & thyme) or Italian seasoning
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp white wine (Chardonnay)
  • 1 clove of garlic, halved
  • A few *asparagus spears
  • A tiny bit of tapioca starch
How:
  1. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and herbs. You can also pre-season it and stick it in the freezer/fridge until you need it.
  2. Heat pan to med-high and add a few drops of oil. When hot, chicken in pan and sizzle it for 3 minutes on each side.
  3. After that, you'd want to turn down the heat to med-low and add the onion and mushroom. Deglaze with wine and a few drops of balsamic vinegar, then put the lid on to cook until done.
  4. Mushrooms and onion at the bottom and place the chicken on top. Garnish with green onion (tossed around in the pan some time between steps 3 and 4) and a few artichoke spears.
  5. Time to make the balsamic drizzzle. Mix a little bit of tapioca starch with water until it has dissolved and combine with balsamic vinegar. Pour that into the pan and it should sizzle and bubble. Reduce it until it's half of it's original amount. (Should only take a few seconds) Drizzle on the chicken. Yum :)