Squash stir fry?

I'm not sure what to call this. I literally just threw this together from what my mom had in the fridge.

She had originally made the chicken and squash. I'm not sure how she marinated either.

She baked the squash, which I would next time keep it plain since I really like the natural sweetness and flavor of it as it is. I don't know what to say about the chicken... Lol :S. I'd probably have cooked it a bit saltier than normal to counter balance the sweet of the squash.

For the noodles, I cooked vermicelli flat rice noodles and threw it in the pan. I seasoned it with some mushroom seasoning, salt and pepper. I wanted this to be a little bit salty as well.

Dough failure turns into dough-licious!!!

Was the title of this kind of lame?? :X At this time I was already home for the summer. It was a clear day and night so I wanted to have a little bbq in my backyard. The guest list was full. Though a couple more staggered in from word of mouth.

So this assortment of deliciousness spouted from a failing pastry moment. Unlike regular cooking, baking is extremely precise in recipe and direction! I probably failed at both when attempting to make this recipe for burger buns. I was planning to have a bbq with homemade buns for a mushroom burger stuffed with cheddar cheese inside the patty. Everything came out well except the one component that makes it a burger: The bun. Instead of baking into a risen fluffy roll, it resembled something like a spherical rock. You could probably skip it in a river. So yeah- that was a fail. To keep it short, my bun failed to rise. I was upset. I wanted to cry. I wanted to tell my little sister and ex boyfriend that the event was canceled! But we just settled for store bought bread that night. I'll try to be a bit more patient next time.

A couple days after that devastating moment, I regained my composure and accepted the defeat to come up with something to make out of this left over dough. I had no choice but to face it. Plus my mom would have smacked me if I wasted it. 

My little sister and I managed to come up with quite a few treats. We had a ham and cheese pizza, pretzels, stuffed hotpockets, and cinnamon twisties. Not bad, not bad.

There is no real recipe here. Just the one I linked above. Note: That following the above recipe will NOT get you to this assortment.

This can only be achieved if you:

1) Have never made dough before

2) Ran out of flour

3) Had to substitute a bit of dumpling flour for all purpose flour

4) Did not follow directions well

Classic strawberry french toast

This isn't anything too special. I just really liked the plating and took a picture that came out nice :).

Recipe for french toast:

thick bread

~ 1/4 c. milk for every 2 eggs

cinnamon

Strawberry Syrup:

strawberries

sugar

water

corn starch to thicken

lemon zest & juice

For the syrup, I found that adding the lemon was crutial that it elevated the taste to a whole nother level!!! :) Otherwise, it would have just been disgustingly sweet. The lemon gives it a bit more balance.

When adding the corn starch, first dissolve the powder into a bit of water instead of just putting it in the liquid. By just adding the power in, the hot liquid would cook the corn starch and cause gelatinous clumping.

I also have seen french toast made using heavy cream instead of milk. I think I'm going to try that another time and see how it turns out. Sounds good, that's why!

Heart attack in a basket but a great housewarming gift

This was a funny housewarming gift to my ex boyfriend who just moved into a house with his friend. I decided to make this basket of death

 

What you see in there are given with the recipes I used:

brownies (box)

snickers (store)

Graham cracker toffee : 

super easy to make and a hit! But as you can tell, a stick and a half of butter AND sugar OMG clogged arteries!!!!

Lavender truffles : 

Out of all these things, the truffles were definitely the most sophisticated. I think lots of people would enjoy this. Honestly, it was a b*$%@ to make since the lavender cream mix really melts fast in your palm even after chilling so I wore gloves while rolling it into balls

Peanut Butter cups :

this was good and wasn't TOO difficult to make. The tedious part is painting the inside of the cups with chocolate

As you can imagine, these combined are fatal to anyone with cholesterol, diabetes, blood sugar, or any such health problems. But they're soooo good!

Wonton Soup Time! -and some tips on seasoning

Here's another one of my college recipes. That is my broken printer in the background, lolz.

Inspiration comes from Madre!

The way my mom taught me to cook was never by cups or teaspoons. Just by eye. Because of this, I never cook with anything but my eye and chopsticks; and don't really know how to describe the recipe quantitatively. Just a lil' bit o' this and a lil' bit o' that!

The Recipe:

2 cans Chicken Broth

1 can water

some ground beef 

1/2 onion diced

2 cloves garlic

some vegetables you want to eat in soup

(lettuce, cilantro, mushrooms, etc)

wonton wrap

Salt, sugar, pepper, msg, soy sauce

Direction:

1) Sauteed the onions until soft in some light oil

2) throw in as much ground beef as you desire to eat

3) throw in some seasoning and mix the meat/onion/garlic mix liberally

4) I like to add the broth/water when the meat is about half way cooked or else the beef might get a little tough and overcooked

5) Add the veges

6) There are different ways you can add the wonton wraps. For either way, separate the stack into individual wraps. 

If you're feeding multiple people, it's better to boil the wonton noodle wrap separately so each can have any portion they want. If eating for yourself or another, for convenience I would just throw it in there!

Since I made this awhile ago, I really don't remember how much of what I used. I apologize!! Haha... I just realized this right now. I think there are four spices I use in every dish. Can you guess? Salt, pepper, sugar, msg. 

Yes I know you may think "Oh my goodness, MSG is so bad for you!!" Idk... I'm fine with it. If you don't like it you can omit it. That goes along with any recipe, though. Since who is eating it?-probably you. Regardless, I guess the rule is just to keep in mind your audience or consumers.

Also note: I should have said this earlier but I'm not sure if what I call MSG is even that. Okay, I just looked it up. What I use in Vietnamese is called "Bot Nem" which is mushroom seasoning-which contains msg according to my sister. My mom has always told me that adding it enhances the natural vege flavor so I use it lol...

I think the best way to describe when to use this seasoning is when you want to mellow out a flavor. Instead of having a sharp salty or sweet taste, you can mellow it out by adding some "Bot Nem."

Also note on the seasoning process: I think this is generally a trial and error method of cooking until you can almost guess-timate. But if you add two things that are salty, you generally want to add a little less in that amount of sugar to balance the flavor. Something like that helps to think of how much to put. More times than not, a dish can in some way be 'fixed'. And if not, you just have to suck it up and eat it with a lot of rice :P

Simple water crescent and sausage stir fry

As a college student, I think I can speak for most when we think of convenience in food. One of the things on my shopping lists were Hillshire Sausage links. 

Since I thought these were pretty cheap considering I could get 2-3 servings from them. (That is because I am small though). This is why you might see a few dishes with sausage in them. It is this kind! 

Anyways, the sausage I bought often, and the vegetables I'd get whenever I went back home. This time, I snagged some water crescent.

Recipe:

water crescent

1/2 hillshire sausage

oyster sauce

salt, pepper, sugar, mushroom seasoning to taste

Direction:

throw everything in one pan and go!

eat with rice

:)

Renewing this blog!!

I've been really neglecting you, Blog... I'm dearly sorry. Since it's summer, I'm attempting to give you back some life. In return, I only ask that you give me back the appreciation of life I've shown you.

Let's start off with some food :). Looking back on this past academic year: Sure the stress nearly toppled me over and trampled me a bit. I've come back with a few scars, but I'll come back stronger next fall... Hopefully...
However, I do recall making some fantastic dishes in my room on a one portable electric stove. You gotta do whatcha gotta do as a college student, aye!

I'll try to recall the recipe... it won't be exact but I'm sure you can figure it out. That is the magic of cooking right? Now baking is a different story!

Recipe:

Cherry tomatoes

1/2 Medium Onion diced

1/2 Sausage link

1 c. Shell noodles

1/2 c. Water

1/2 tsp. MSG

sugar, salt & pepper to taste

This dish was actually super good! I had a canker sore at the time though so it hurt so bad to eat! (But so good)

So all you have to do is... 

Throw everything in the pan and wait for the noodles to cook. :)

Jk, there are a few intermediate steps:

Directions:

1) Fry the sausage up a bit to release the flavor

2) Throw in the cherry tomatoes, onions, and msg

3) Let simmer and reduce into a sauce for idk how long (sorry)

4) Add the water, sugar, salt and pepper to taste and then the uncooked shell noodles

5) put a lid over it and cook until the noodles are soft

woo I hope someone tries this :)