Japanese Donuts for a bedtime snack? YES!

Big thanks to sister for getting me a digital kitchen scale for Christmas. I made some Japanese donuts at 9PM... to celebrate the Olympics. OK, not really but I guess I had to make some kind of justification for making donuts right before bedtime! The recipe measured everything in grams and mL and aside from using the digital scale to weight out the marijuana I have growing in the office, I mainly use it when "jam"-ing. Since I'm killing myself slowly with sugar and fat, might as well top it off with some quick and easy chocolate ganache! I also brought out the mini fryer. If I'm going to make donuts at 9PM, I'm rolling out the red carpet for this. Oh boy was it worth it. Alan had the expression of the kid who's mom packed a hostess cupcake along with his chow fun for lunch. Kids are jealous.
Crusty, crunchy, fluffy, chewy goodness rolled up in a golf sized ball that were popped into a paper sack to merry with some cinnamon-sugar goodness and then dunked in a warm, rich, dark, chocolaty sauce that ended up in a couple of happy mouths that led to happy bellies. And I'm wondering why my winter coat seems a little more padded this year.

p.s. I was joking about the marijuana, I don't grow any. Wouldn't that be something? I could make magic brownies and cookies that can 'cure all ailments.' I'm kidding!

Chocolate on Pasta & a Rustic Pear Tart

Adapted from Giada's Short Ribs recipe, I made a beef stew that sort of resembled a beef bourguignon. Think of it as a really good recipe for fancy beef stew. My sister made this a couple of years ago and after looking through my recipe collection, I decided to make this for Alan. It was amazingly good! I followed Giada's recipe, but instead of short ribs, I used chuck roast, added some bell peppers in the mix, and used fresh fettuccine instead of tagliatelle. Towards the end, I added thinly sliced baby portabellos. I used whatever red wine I had in the pantry which happen to be Two Buck Chuck's Merlot. I topped the pasta with some finely shaved dark chocolate and it was AMAZING! Savory, meaty, umami goodness. I think next time, I will try to make this in the crock pot. If it's not a baking recipe, I never measure when it comes to cooking. I merely use recipes as 'guidelines.' This recipe is really forgiving. I probably can add a lot more stuff to the stew if I wanted and it will still turn out fantastic. Side note: I did have to skim a lot of fat from the stew.

For dessert, I made a rustic cranberry-pear tart that was featured in February's 2010 Bon Appetit issue. It's a really easy and fast dessert to make! It was a huge hit with Alan's belly.

What a great Saturday dinner.

Pumpkin Pie, Oh My!

Been craving for pumpkin pie since Thanksgiving. Had a can of pumpkin sitting in the pantry for quite some time so I made pumpkin pie on Tuesday. Extremely easy to make! Alan and I finished it off last night...I don't want to know how many calories we consumed between the two of us. Most time consuming part is making the crust. I've tried several recipes but the one I always go back to is the Eagle Brand recipe. Try it. You'll love it, too!

Dusting off the writing skills. Keeping my old profile.

Happy New Year! Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Sunday!

It's been ~1.5 years since I've last posted a blog!

I'm not quite sure what sequence of actions or thoughts led to blogging today. I probably should give credit to my damn work laptop. It kept freezing up and I had to reboot it five times before I finally gave up.

I've been wanting to blog (many months ago) as I've notice my creative writing skills have been on the decline (a hockey stick diagram comes to mind) since I graduated. I know this is really stretching it, but one of my aspirations is to write a book one day based off of my family. Yea, my family is really that interesting. Possibly one day when I'm old and gray.

I'm definitely keeping my profile as is, even though it is outdated. Although I'm not a graduate student anymore, I did find "..a career as a research and development food scientist in the food industry" and I'm love loving it. I get to eat cereal, cookies, and bars all day long.

The profile reminds me of my college career and the love/hate relationship associated with college life. In reflection, I loved every moment of college life. The good and the bad. You know what they say, "hindsight is 20/20." It also reminds me that I am the same person I was when I left Oregon. Hopeful, optimistic, cheery, and a little bit of crazy.

I will try my hardest to keep up with blogging because its a lot of fun to read past entries.

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I've been engrossed with the cookbook "Baking" by James Peterson, Thuy gifted me for Christmas last year. It's an amazing baking book with tons of pictures (I'm one of those people who only buys cookbooks that have lots of pics). Hopefully I'll be able to blog a little bit more on the trials and errors of a home cook. The one thing I wish I did have was a fancy SLR camera that Chummy has to snapshot some of the food I cook/bake. Those cameras captures beautiful, crystal clear pictures. On the flip side, Chummy did inspire me to take more pics in general. Go Nikon!

Food update: I did make beef pho on Saturday for the first time ever. It was delicious!! I've made chicken pho plenty of times (very good I must say) but never really wanted to make beef pho because it takes forever and finding beef bones in Kalamazoo, MI wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

Master of Science.

Congratulations to....myself. For the past three weeks, I have been under stressed as if my educational career depended on it....oh wait, it does!

Last Friday was my thesis defense and it was nerve racking, tiring, and stressful. The purpose of a defense is that you present your thesis via power point to a roomful of colleagues which consists of professors and fellow graduate students. After about an hour, everyone leaves and I am left with my thesis committee, which consists of four professors, grills me for an hour with questions in regards to my work and then decide whether or not you will receive your Master's. In the end, I passed with flying colors.


I now have a Master of Science in Food Science & Technology. Yay.

Mini-cake rampage.

I can be such a moody person. I often go on these baking rampages where I'll only make one thing for days or weeks in a row, and get really into it. Some moods, I would bake nothing but cookies. Another time, all sorts of filled cupcakes. And this time....mini cakes. I bought several mini cake pans when I was in SoCal, which, I might say, could possibly be the best thing 99 cents can buy. I found these cake pans at target recently for $4.99!! These pans were actually tucked away in my cabinet for almost two years before I decided to dust off the new, and break in the old.

I came up with all sorts of cake variations, but the two most popular ones are what I decided to post.

Once upon a Tuesday, I had a bunch of banana's leftover and was tired of making banana bread from a few days prior. Instead, I was planning on making banana cream pie, but I really wanted to make some sort of cake. So I came up with my version of a banana-coconut cream cake. It's a vanilla cake soaked with a coconut flavored sugar water, and filled with bananas, banana custard, and a thin layer of dark chocolate. The frosting was made with fresh whipped cream covered in toasted coconut.

I promised my aunt that I would make Michael (her Cuban bf) a surprise birthday cake. And this was the first time ever that I had made a cake of such large proportions. It was a half sheet. It pretty much took all morning and afternoon, along with the help of my sister. Speeding up to the 'surprise, happy birthday ending,' Michael loved the cake, along with all of his Cubano friends. They love bananas and coconut. They really raved about the cake, and I saw one of his friends horde almost a quarter of a cake to herself... maybe she was saving it for later.

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I had four lemons and instead of making lemon meringue pie, I decided to make a cake instead. I was brainstorming on the couch one day what kind of cake I should make... and I came up with a great combination! I had several key ingredients that I really wanted to use, which was lemons and frozen raspberries...ta-da!

Anyway, this cake is a lemon-raspberry cake...but I like to call it a 'pink betty.' I don't know how I came up with that name, but whatever. It's a vanilla cake soaked with a light lemon sugar glaze with lemon curd filling, topped with a raspberry whip cream frosting. I just used my lemon meringue pie recipe for the filling. As for the frosting, I used frozen raspberries, pureed them, and folded it into fresh whipped cream. The cake doesn't sit well for more then two days...it gets bitter :( I was trying to save a slice for a rainy day, but obviously that backfired on me.

I am horrible at photography. Most of the time, I usually forget about taking food pictures till the last minute, and when I do, I could care less of how it looks. But it sure is tasty.

Madeleines.

After a day at the beach, the kiddies were pretty much exhausted from all the play they had. The weather has been extremely nice, and they both love to sunbathe. Although, it has been extremely hot over the past few days and they would retreat to the nearest shade they can find. Anyway, they ended up swimming in the bathtub back at my apartment later that evening (there was sand up Trooper's nose).

When they were done bathing, I decided to have another attempt at making madeleines. I recently found out that these are, perhaps, Alan's favorite cookie, ever. I never really knew what madeleines were, since I cannot recall if I have ever seen these scalloped shaped cookies in a bakery. I did a little research on these mysterious cookies and found that madeleines originated in France and dates way back when Louis XV was still breathing. Go figure. I was not surprise to hear that this is a French cookie, since the French has all sorts of fancy shmancy goodies. I like it.

The scalloped goodies even was mention in the novel by Marcel Proust in Remembrance of Things Past. "...She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called 'petites madeleines', which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell....... An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses....".

Wow. That is really intense for a cookie! So after thorough research, I scoured all over the internet, read a bagillion reviews to find the perfect pan to make Alan's favorite cookie. Alan then promptly ordered them online and selected 2-day shipping, so I won't bug him when will the pans get here. I was a woman on a mission to make the perfect madeleines since Alan has never had fresh baked ones before. He's one of my favorite people to feed.

Anyway, I found several recipes for madeleines and it is actually a really simple and easy recipe! I decided to give it a go and they turned out gorgeous! I've posted a picture and turned the cookie around so you can see their beautiful scalloped bellies. You can dust these with powdered sugar, but unless you're serving them immediately, I would suggest not to, since the sugar will just sink into the cookies over time. They don't really remind me of a cookie, it reminds me more of a cake, pretty spongelike, but still cakey. These cookies are a huge hit with the guys, but I still couldn't grasp the concept of why these were so "amazing" to Alan. Well I made them again, and this time, they turned out close to perfect. The whole entire batch. I ate 4 in a matter of 4 minutes!

Madeleines go great with coffee or tea (I actually am eating some along with a cup of chamomile tea while I'm writing this post) and their dense, buttery richness with strong hints of lemon intertwined with vanilla , is truly a luxury without overloading your taste buds. They're simple, yet elegant at the same time. Alan's right when he said "I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't like a madeleine." I'm going to make 2 dozen specifically for him when he visits. After all, he did buy me the pans.