Pear and Plum Cobbler

Sometimes the fruit that you carefully select from the supermarket as the prettiest specimin with the least bruises turn out to be kind of blah tasting. That’s what happened to the last batch of plums and pears I bought. I haven’t quite figured out when things are in season, so sometime the fruit that strikes my fancy isn’t quite the best choice.

So what’s a girl to do? Bake cobbler!

I’m not sure if the texture of this turned out like a traditional cobbler is supposed to be, but it sure was tasty. Especially with a big scoop of creamy, rich, vanilla ice cream.

A big thank you to the boyfriend for google-ing this recipe for me. I adjusted it to the amount of fruit I had available.

Pear and Plum Cobbler

1 plum (thinly sliced)

2 pears (thinly sliced)

3/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1. Combine sliced fruit, 3/4 cup sugar, and cornstarch in a 9×9″ square pan until fruit is well coated. Let rest for ~30 minutes.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and brown sugar.

3. Cut in butter until mixture resembles a coarse sand.

4. Mix in flour and egg until well combined.

5. Spread batter over fruit.

6. Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 45 minutes.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin!

My last few photographed endeavors have all involved….guess what….pumpkin!

1. Pumpkin Curry

“It tastes like Japanese curry!” my roommate exclaimed upon tasting a spoonful of leftovers I’d heated up for dinner. “Can I have another bite? Can you make it again???”

I used Japanese pumpkin, but the curry paste was a “Golden Curry” from a Chinese supermarket.

This lovely seasonal curry recpie that I got from my mother goes great over rice. Leftovers make for an easy and delicious, but slightly ugly meal.

When I made it fresh a few days ago my boyfriend scarfed down half a pot of rice with the tasty sauce. Afterwards, he wandered aimlessly around the apartment, mumbling about food coma…

Pumpkin Curry

4 cups Japanese Pumpkin, cubed

3 Tbsp vegetable oil, divided

1/4 lb.  pork loin, sliced

1 tsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp soysauce

1/2 a medium onion, diced

1/4 packet of Golden Curry paste

2 oz. coconut milk

Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add pumpkin, allow 1 side to brown. Turn pumpkin pieces, add 1/4 cup water, cover to steam.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine sliced pork with cornstarch, soysauce, and 1 Tbsp oil.

Once water has evaporated, turn pumpkin and steam again with another 1/4 cup water.

Push pumpkin to the sides of the pan. Add onions and pork to the center. Stir until just cooked through.

Add enough water to cover the pumpkin. Adjust the amout of water depending on how strong/thick you want the sauce. Boil for 10 minutes. (Take a shower and make your boyfriend watch the pot.)

Add the curry paste and coconut milk. Stir to combine. Turn off heat.

Serve over rice. Yummy!

Makes enough to feed 3-4 people depending on hunger and glutton levels

2. Failed Pumpkin Soup

Take home lesson: Halloween carving pumpkins are not meant to be eaten.

This dish looked stunning, but the taste was b-i-t-t-e-r!

Simply not a success

3. Carved Pumpkin!!!

This baby was huge! The image template was printed on an 8 1/2×11 paper and it took up the whole page. Roomie project yay!

And our awesome balcony lights:

Rosemary and Smoked Gruyere Cheese Puffs

My boyfriend claims that every time we eat at my place he never gets full

So after a simple dinner of Miso Egg Sauce Noodles (post to come when I remember to take photos…and figure out ingredient proportions), I made a late night snack. The recipe I used comes from Food Wishes’ gougères recipe. I have rosemary, but not thyme, and I happened to have a nice hunk of gruyere, so that’s what I used. The light, airy, herby, cheesy result was surprisingly easy to accomplish.

These puffs are explosions of flavor! The smoky flavor of the cheese barely sneaks out from beneath the strong, piney rosemary flavor. The 14 puffs that I made were demolished by five of us in a matter of minutes.

Is rosemary related to pine trees?

Cheese Puffs

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs

2 tsp rosemary

1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add water and stir to combine. Turn off heat. Stir in flour. Stir vigorously.

Spread batter into bottom and sides of medium mixing bowl. Allow to cool slightly. (Meanwhile shred cheese.)

Stir one egg and the rosemary into the dough. Mix until homogenous dough forms again.

Add second egg. Stir until smooth.

Stir in cheese.

Drop dough by spoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425F.

Makes ~14 puffs.

Decent Apple Cake

After gusting winds and torrential rain two days ago, today has been shorts and t-shirt weater. WHY??? Not good weather for baking, but…

…my apples were starting to look like this:

Thus, I reluctantly turned on my oven to make some Apple Cookies. Then I decided that I was too lazy to make them into cookies, so I ploped the whole thing into a square cake pan and made Apple Cake Bars. It was alright. I cut the sugar down from the original recipe, so it ended up being more like Apple Bread Bars. Not bad considering the fate of the apples would have been in the garbage can otherwise.

Apple Cake Bars

1 stick butter

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

2 tsp total of a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

4 wrinkly little apples (peeled, cored, and diced)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Combine apples and granulated sugar. Let sit while preparing the batter.

Cream butter and sugar. Add milk and egg, mix well.

Stir in flour, baking soda, and spices..

Fold in apples.

Bake in a greased 8″ square pan at 350F for 20 mins.

Father’s (Birth)Day

Happy Birthday Daddy!

When I asked my sister for suggestions for cake decorations she said that my dad is obsessed with trees. I laughed. Then I said, okay, I don’t have any better ideas. So I made trees. I think it looks like a Father’s Day cake.

I haven’t baked and decorated a cake for a looong time. Made some whipped chocolate ganache for this one. Filled with Chocolate Pastry Pride and crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (the generic kind because I’m cool like that ^-^.) The cake is just white cake mix… reduced oil, added non-fat plain yogurt, extra egg, milk instead of water. I didn’t really measure ingredients for anything in this cake. Seems to have worked out. Heh.

I couldn’t find my piping tips, so there is no border on the cake. They might be at my apartment. I don’t really know where anything is anymore. It’s so hard to live in two places at once. The trees are made of candy melts. Yellow and blue mixed together, piped into 1/2 tree shapes. Each tree has six “petals.”

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Melt the chocolate chips over a double boiled, stirring constantly.

2. Add 1 cup of cream at a time, whisking until smooth.

3. Cool in refrigerator. Best if overnight. Or if you’re super impatient like me, 20 minutes…

4. Whisk using an electric mixer until fluffy. Place a bag of frozen peas under the bowl if you didn’t let it cool enough.

Personal Cheesecake!

I’d like to share with you one of my favorite recipes ever. It’s super easy. Super fast. And really versatile. Meet the Personal Cheesecake:

The first time I made this recipe I made one batch (12 cheesecakes). My mother tasted one and immediately demanded that I make more so that she could take them to work. I’ve made these for countless potlucks, block parties, and birthdays. I even made them for a 50 person banquet once. Five batches were all gone by the end of the night, meaning many people ate more than one each.

The best thing about these delicious treats is the super simple recipe.

Personal Cheesecakes

6 sandwich cookies (like Oreos or vanilla versions if you want a graham cracker-ish crust, twisted open so there’s cream on both cookies)

1 lb (2 8oz. blocks) cream cheese (room temperature)

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Line muffin pan with paper liners and place half a cookie in the bottom of each cup, cream side up.

Beat together cream cheese and sugar.

Add eggs one at a time and mix until just incorporated.

Stir in vanilla.

Scoop 1/4 cup of cheesecake filling into each muffin liner.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 15-18 minutes.

Top with whatever you’d like. For example: chocolate frosting (melted chocolate chips + a little butter), strawberry jam, lemon curd, or fresh berries.

Chicken and Potatoes

After a relaxing weekend, it is really tough to get myself out of bed at 730 in the morning to go to a boring 8am class. Getting through the rest of the day isn’t much easier. All I want to do is snuggle in my covers and nap. But alas, I must fill my head with organic chemistry.

Then after a long day of leaning I must cook. Because eating is necessary.

Yesterday this proved to be a daunting task. Rummaging through the refrigerator, I found all kinds of food. An eggplant, some carrots, a little chunk of smoked salmon, tomatoes, bell peppers, leftover asparagus soup… but nothing really struck my fancy.

After grumbling for a bit, attempting to start on my homework, and generally not being productive, I called my mother. And then I was inspired. My mother returns home from 8+ hours of work every day to prepare dinner for the family. No matter what happened at work that day, no matter how tired she is, by the time we’re all hungry, dinner is ready. Yesterday she shared a smidgen of her magic with me. Over the phone, she explained this very simple, very tasty dish. There is no recipe, you just pour things in until it looks/smells right.

Chicken and Potatoes

Dump chicken (I used drumsticks) and a couple slices of ginger in a nonstick pan over high heat. Make sure your pan is big enough to fit all your chicken in 1 layer. Cook about 3 minutes, then turn and cook other side for 3 minutes.

Add soy sauce, cooking wine, a little vinegar, to cover the chicken about halfway. Toss in a couple cloves of garlic (smashed with the side of a knife.)

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Cut a potato into chunks and add that to the pot. Cover and simmer for 8-10 more minutes or until potatoes are soft.

Salt to taste.

Best if served over rice, but also tastes good with bread (if that’s what you happen to have a lot of.)

Lemon Coconut Halva

When my roommate and I purchased 2 pounds of semolina from a small market in Old Oakland, the lady at the register was skeptical. She wanted to make sure we knew what we were getting. When we convinced her that  we knew how to use the stuff, she started telling us about the wonderful fresh pasta that her daughter makes. One thing led to another, and before we knew it we were in for a half-hour story about the photographs of her daughters, her son, and her grandbabies that decorated the register. She was a fascinating little lady with a rich history, a fiery personality, and bright purple eyeshadow. When we finally bid her farewell, she grabbed our elbows and proclaimed, “Don’t get into drugs or alcohol! Study hard and you will be successful in the future.” Ah the wonders of Oakland

Semolina is a yellowish flour made from durum wheat. It looks a lot like cornmeal and is often used to make pasta. (1 cup semolina + 1 egg = pasta dough). It is also used to make halva. Which is a super delicious Mediterranean dessert.

Lemon Coconut Halva

First, make a sugar syrup. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, 2/3 cups water, and the juice of half a lemon in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. It will thicken considerably .

In a slightly larger saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter.

Remove from heat and stir in:

1 cup sugar

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup semolina

1 cup shredded coconut

3/4 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

mmm…coconut!

Pour into an ungreased, foil lined pan (I used and 8″ round cake pan) and bake for 25-30 minutes in a preheated 350F oven.

Cut halva into 24 pieces and drizzle evenly with sugar syrup. (If the syrup got too thick, heat it until it becomes a pourable consistency.)

Eat!!! This was super tasty. The lemon flavor was a little overpowering at first, but maybe that’s because I didn’t let it cool. My second piece was a much better balance of coconut and lemon. And my third piece….and my fourth piece….heh.

Rice Pudding!

My roommate is a genius. (And also a bread winner hehe). What do you do with leftover rice when 10 loaves of bread show up in your kitchen? Ask your roommate what to do with it. Then, MAKE RICE PUDDING! Because obviously you will be eating bread with your meals, not rice, for the next week or so.

Apparently I am semi-perfectionistic. Before I make something, I have to find a recipe. So that’s what I did. I found a rice pudding recipe. And I went into the kitchen and started measuring out 3 cups of milk. My roommate found this extremely amusing. It’s rice pudding! You just dump milk in cooked rice, add sugar anddried fruits! And that put an end to my milk mesuring. Instead I snipped dried apricots into quarters.

Apparently I am also easily distracted. So we ended up with lots and lots of dried apricot quarters. That’s okay. We’ll just not use the dried cranberries…and it looked like this:

Oh the beige-ness!

So we added dried cranberries:

Much prettier! Yay.

And since we’re very impatient we ate the pudding while it was stil HOT. Mmmmm….

Try it, then I’ll tell you what’s in it.

I made these for the first time a week ago. When I told my roommate what I wanted to make she balked. She’s  an adventurous eater, but this was just TOO weird. The fact that I made them again today proves that they’re actually REALLY GOOD.

Mayonnaise Brownies. Yes, that’s right. Chocolate goodness made with mayo. After they come out of the oven you can’t even tell. No smell, to taste.

These are really simple and only take about 40 minutes from start to finish. I can see this as a staple for my potluck contributions. I just won’t tell people what’s in them until after they’ve tasted it.

Mayonnaise Brownies

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips (melted)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1. Stir together flour and baking soda in a medium bowl.

2. Microwave chocolate chips for 20 second intervals, stirring between each interval, until chocolate chips are melted.

3. Stir mayonnaise into melted chocolate.

4. Add eggs, sugar, chocolate, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.

5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 20 minutes.

Makes 12 cupcakes or an 8×8″ pan of brownies.