Holy Goat Cheese!

Recently one of my best friends returned from North Carolina where she lives and we spent a lot of time together, we both enjoy cooking and she had been talking to me about making cheese. All the talk about curds and whey threw me off, I didnt know half of how to make any of that stuff and it sounded more complicated then I was ready to embark on. But the other day I was browsing the internet, as I do frequently, and I came across a step by step blog on how to make goat cheese. We LOVE goat cheese at the house so I figured it seemed simple enough and began my journey towards making cheese. Now, I went to a health food store to find goats milk, but I couldnt find any, so I reached out to my friends and was informed I could purchase some at Trader Joes (TJ's for short), so I had to wait another couple days to go get my milk! Finally I bought some and came home to begin my adventure. The first thing I had to do was heat the milk to 180 degrees so that it would be hot enough to curdle once I added in a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Well... I added that in and it didnt seem to do much, so I added some more and it began to curdle a bit. I then strained it with cheese cloth and caught all of my curds!

I had to strain it a couple times to really get all of the curds.

Once all the curds were collected I had to tie up the cheese cloth and hang it so it would drain properly.

After I let it drain for an hour I mixed in some spices and put it on a cracker!

Hot damn that cheese was good.

Ingredients:
1 Quart goats milk
1/4 cup lemon juice (add more if curdle doesnt happen)

Instant Vanillia Pudding ChocolateChip Cookies & Greek Pasta

I feel like chocolate chip cookies are a staple in most peoples lives, whether your mom made them for you as a kid, or if you grew up and realized that making these babies was an easy out in a potluck. Anyways, I've put myself into a rut, in which the only way my chocolate chip cookies turn out fantastic is if I make them in bar form. I want to break out, I want to break freeeee from these god damn cookie bars that seem to be haunting me. So... I found a recipe, strange but reassuringly good that I was ready and destined to try. Now, I understand why my cookies suck unless in bar form, I'm impatient. Its because I dont soften the butter, I melt it. Sigh. I know, but we didnt have a microwave and it was me versus the stove. This time I bought the butter and never put it in the fridge so I wouldnt have to face this issue. If you cant solve it, work around it. So this recipe had one quirk which made it pop, instead of added in hella granulated sugar, you add in a packet of vanilla instant pudding (I was tempted to do chocolate but I stuck to the recipe, next time ladies and gents). I made the batter and instantly couldn't stop myself from eating it. It was so much better then any i'd tried before. So I started making the cookies, some small, some big, some firm some chewy. This recipe is fool proof to get you some of the best damn cookies you can make.

Vanilla Instant Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe:
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 box (3.4 ounces) vanilla pudding
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Makes up to 44 cookies.

I recently got some pasta from Greece that my neighbor brought back with her and I couldnt wait to eat it! But alas, the woman who usually makes this for me is a skilled cook and I had large shoes to fill. So... I tried to make it my own. Didnt work. I put a lot of garlic and olive oil on it and... well it tasted terrible. So... I put the rest in my fridge to wait until I found the correct opportunity to eat it with. PESTO! Yesss, I went into this health food market looking for Goats milk and found some tasty other things, and one of them was pesto. So I made a cold pasta salad with it and then utilized the other things I bought, some Sicilian Hot sausage and my classic side dish of spinach and onions.

Greek Pasta with Spinach and Sausage

Carrots, Strawberry-Meyer Lemon Ice Cream and Green Beans

The holidays! Ooooh the Holidays, they were great, I got to spend time with my family, I drank copious amounts of wine and got so many good things to cook with. I know. Im excited too. I have not taken as much time to cook as I probably should have but I did create some strange things.

So I got home very late at night after being out with my friends and it was maybe 2 or 3 in the morning and I really wanted something to eat, but not because I was hungry, but just to eat. I scrounged around the fridge and discovered that there was barely any food for me to make. I found some random juices and baby carrot. So I got the idea to julian some carrots and just stir fry them around a little bit and maybe give them an Asian flare. So I threw them in a pan, added some minced garlic, garlic chilis, sriracha and some soy sauce. Im sure there were some other random things added in throughout the process but I cooked them carrots until they were a little tender and then started to munch! I had created a masterpiece! A fantastic little dish that had enough spice and the salty flare I was looking for. It will be a fantastic side dish to something I make!

Carrot Creation

Looks a bit strange but I promise it was delicious.

One of my gifts for Christmas was an ice cream maker! So I really wanted to make some ice cream, and at first I really wanted to make green tea ice cream. Then I decided I would make some strawberry ice cream! Part of the process of extracting the juices from the strawberries it that you have to put it in lemon juice and and it softened the strawberries and creates a syrup of sorts. But I really liked how it tasted with the lemon juice so I decided to make strawberry Meyer lemon ice cream instead! Promising I know. Now the recipe I was following didnt have any eggs in it, but a lot of the recipes for ice cream I've read about include some part of the eggs. So I researched what they did in the ice cream... and decided to throw one in. Why not?

I made the ice cream batch and then realized I needed to wait for the bowl in the ice cream maker to freeze. So... I hade to wait another 24 hours. But finally the next day I was able to make it! It kinda comes out like a thick soft serve and then you have to freeze it. It turned out SO GOOD. It was rich and creamy and the lemon gave it sort of a sorbet tang.

Strawberry-Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

I invited people over for a small ice cream party.

I've been cooking a lot with soy sauce because I really like how it sinks into whatever your cooking with it. I have some green beans and some shrimp and i decided to do sort of a stir fry with garlic and onions minced. I added in some soy sauce, sea salt, garlic powder, about half a cup of water and some brown sugar. It turned out really delicious, I couldnt stop eating it! I'm really starting to get this little flare down.

Stir Fried Green Beans and Shrimp


mmmmm

Overall some delicious treats.

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!

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!

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

It's been awhile, but I'm here and cookin'

Well it's sure been awhile since I posted anything, but I swear its not my fault! I've been really busy, first I went to vegas which was out of control. I stayed at Caesar's palace, where I found out that Bobby Flay has a restaurant there. For those of you who don't know who Bobby Flay is, he is an Iron Chef on the Food Network and has two other shows. He is a great chef and someone I watch a lot on television. I was very enthused, but I wasn't able to eat there. I showed up after a show had just let out at about 9 at night and we were too starving to wait an hour to eat dinner. So I had to leave. It was very disappointing... maybe some day, Bobby Flay. So after maybe 36 hours of not sleeping, I came back to San Francisco, exhausted and ready to sleep. Throughout the week I cooked the most I could, but towards the end got terribly sick, and I've been sick ever since! I almost didn't make it to Thanksgiving at my grandmothers. So I have not cooked for over a week now, which has been really depressing, been eating top Ramen and canned soup, gourmet indeed. I'm feeling a bit better, still have an intense cough, but have enough energy to blog again.

I finally found the right pasta to make worms with! As you can see above.

So I went to the store at the beginning of the month and bought all the things I thought I would need for a couple weeks to cook. I bought a lot of Talapia because its a light fish, that's cheap and easy to cook. Now the other day I had bought bread crumbs, instead of Panko, because the store was all out of Panko. I did not use them though, but they were just sitting in the cabinet so I decided to try out a healthier adventure for them. I thawed out some Talapia that I had in the freezer and when it was still wet, I patted some bread crumbs onto it. I chopped up some garlic and started to cook it in Olive oil, finally I put the fillet in and cooked it with the garlic and olive oil. The fish came out crunchy and flavorful and I placed it with some mixed greens. Then I had a thought! I let the olive oil left in the pan cool enough and I put it on my salad with some balsamic vinegar, so I had a delicious garlic salad and talapia lunch. Light and great to eat.

Bread Crumb Talapia with a Garlic Olive Oil Salad

A fast and easy lunch.

Finally I was feeling really adventurous, I wanted to try something I'd never done before so I decided to make tempura. So I found a simple tempura recipe and could not wait to try it out! It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it really didnt seem to be working out, I kept burning the green beans! Which is terrible, because I love green beans, I dont want to burn them. So I tried and tried and eventually this is what came out of it.

Vegetable and Shrimp Tempura

Oh how pretty it looks! Too bad it tasted terrible. It was really really soggy and just... kinda gross. So I failed that test, but I really tried. Do you like the plate? I found it on the street in a box... Its fairly awesome. I dont really know what it's for but I like it. Dont worry guys, I'll try again in the Tempura, once I get a deep fryer and a better recipe.

I bought a lot of tomatoes while I was at the store, some canned and some fresh. I wanted to make a quick dinner for my girlfriend and my friend but I didnt just want to eat chicken and rice. So I decided to make a sauce, that consisted of Olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and cream. In the end it was so delicious to eat with the rice and greatly successful. I really am happy that i can put together some sauces nowadays, it really helps.

Chicken and Tomato Cream Sauce

I had a lot of left over rice from the dish above. When I was growing up and would sleep over at my sisters house her mom used to make us something in the mornings we called Rice cereal. It was just left over rice with milk, sugar and raisins, and it was extremely delicious and a great way to use the left over rice. But the next morning I didn't have any raisins, so i replaced it with sliced almonds and ate it just the same. It was delicious and reminded me of childhood!

Rice Cereal

I really wanted some Floutas from Chevys, if you've ever had them, they are awesome! Especially at happy hour, because you have the giant margaritas and the chicken floutas and they are all half off. So good, way better then making margaritas at home with the overly sugary margarita mix. Anyways, I found the recipe for the Chevys floutas online and couldn't get all of the ingredients but I got as many as I could and added extra cheese. I mean... who doesn't like extra cheese? I also wanted to make some mexican rice, now my friend tried to explain to me it was not as easy as it sound, but i was more confident then that. But... a lot of my rice got burned around the sides, like... terribly burned but the rice in the middle turned out delicious!

Chicken and Cheese Floutas

I should make these more often!