Cook, Eat, Repeat.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Holidays Are Here!


The holidays are here, and we've all decorated our stockings above the fake fireplace. But alas, no one is here, they've all gone away to their selective regions. Which means, I must go back to Oakland! But before I do that let me tell you about the fantastic caramels I made. Now I've been trying to find enough time to make these, but my time has been limited to say the least, so finally when finals were done I went to the store and bought the items I needed to complete my task. I even bought a cooking thermometer so I could make these right. It was all fairly simple, mixed all of the ingredients and let it boil, then simmered it on a med-high heat and had my friend time it for 10 mins. Now I had a mishap where the thermometer fell into the caramel and I almost lost it forever! But I fished it out just in time. Then I poured the caramel into a pan with wax paper and let it cool.

The Cooling process...


As it was cooling I decided what I wanted to put on top of them, now See's candy has these delicious caramels with marshmallow on them, so I tried to find their secret recipe, but I couldn't find it. So... I winged it, I melted the marshmallows with some butter and added some honey, then i layered it on a third of the caramels. Then I bought some raw walnuts, toasted them and added them on top of the caramels. And finally I was ready to dip them in chocolate. I did a large batch in bittersweet Godiva chocolate, but then I ran out of chocolate! So.. I had to wait till the next day and I had to get semi-sweet for the rest. Both turned out delicious.

Covered in Chocolate...


Thats all that was left...
But It made about, 60 or so? And I am gifting them for Christmas, easy way to make gifts from the heart, that taste delicious. And if you got some wax paper and ribbon, your set.

Wrapped and ready to go...



And we had some left over that were not covered in chocolate so we just cut em' up, and wrapped them in some wax paper and gave those to people as well. Delicious.

Tomorrow is going to be full of homemade candy and delicious foods. Cant wait.

Happy Holidays!


Friday, December 18, 2009

Gourmet pancakes, Thai Curry and Catfish.

It's sure been a couple weeks, I know, and Im sorry! The end of the semester occurred and finally I had no time to cook, and no time to blog. I did get some cooking in though, before the finals hurricane hit me.

I've been looking at some delicious pancake recipes involving Ricotta cheese and blueberries. Mmmm just what I wanted for breakfast. So i prepared the night before for some tasty day starters. I started making the pancakes and the heat was on a little too high, they were delicate to say the least. So I changed to a lower burner and they came out a lot better! The batter made was really thick and strange, but i had faith it would turn out well. And boy was I right. If your looking for a great way to start the morning, eat these.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry's


This Recipe takes a bit more time then normal pancakes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon

Later on I was cooking some chicken and rice, a typical meal here in the house and I wanted to spice it up a bit. I looked through our stuffed spice cabinet and found some Thai curry powder I bought awhile back and never did anything with. Now was my chance! I sprinkled some on my chicken along with some garlic powder and started cooking away. Now I have been looking at how to make flavored rice recently, and I figured it was the right time with this Thai curry. I throw some chicken brother, garlic powder, water and thai curry powder and let it cook. It turned out really delicious. Both the chicken and the rice had different flavors but they were great together.

Thai Curry Powder Chicken and Rice



So I bought some catfish the other day because I had this fleeting childhood memory of eating catfish and enjoying a lot. So I pan friend some catfish with a flour and corn meal breading, and paired it with some pan seared spinach with some garlic. It looked great, I plated it nicely and finally I bit into it. The first bite.... It didnt really tasted like the kind of fish I would like, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and took a couple more bites. Nope. No way. It tasted like it sad on the bottom of the sea floor, oh... well Maybe thats because catfish live on the bottom of the ocean?
Anyways. It was gross for me. I opted to just eat the Spinach instead.

Pan Friend Catfish with Garlic Spinach


Last time i'll make Catfish for myself.

My girlfriend needed something for a potluck she was going to and wanted me to help her make something delicious for her. So we decided to make Cheesecake in cup cake form. Thank you grandma for showing me how to make this before! We made an oreo cookie crust and they came out great!

Little Cheese Cakes


They were delicious!

I'll post more when I'm less burnt out!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving Drank

I did not cook for Thanksgiving because I was terribly sick, and my family pretty much has the routine down. Now I'm not complaining, because the food is delicious. I had sent a recipe to my Aunt a month before and it was a spiced rum pumpkin drink, that was fairly complicated but looked worth the effort. But in my Robitussin induced state I did not get the ingredients and it did not happen. While I was at my grandmothers though I wanted to bring something to the mix, so I went online and looked up some recipes and found one that seemed like it would work. It contained a lot of schnapps and I was ready. Well we got to the store, which is smaller and way less stocked then the one I go to and was disappointed to find that one of the main ingredients was missing. So.. I had to wing it. I replaced my ingredient with a can of purred pumpkin and left, understanding that my creation was either going to be really gross, or really delicious. When I got back to my grandmas I started my concoction. I poured some apple juice into a pot and started heating it, added some pumpkin puree, and some Hot Damn Cinnamon Schnapps, I decided that it would be really good with some brandy as well so I rummaged through my grandmas liquor cabinet and found some good old E&J.

Spiced Pumpkin Apple Cider

some delicious ingredients

(Photo's by Maia Olmstead)
Recipe

4 Cups Apple Juice or Cider
1/2 Cup Purred Pumpkin
1 or 2 oz Of Hot Damn Burst (Cinnamon Schnapps)
3 or 4 oz Brandy