Chocolate... not chip cookies

It would seem that there are people who are somehow offended by some of the things my friends and I make. Yes, part of it is because we're curious as to how it'll turn out, if it's even edible, or if one of us is stupid enough to eat it as a challenge, but part of it is simply that we actually enjoy eating this stuff. Listen, I realize that the internet is a precious commodity (not to mention very serious business), and I'm sorry if you believe I'm wasting your bandwidth, but until my inevitable heart problems catch up to me, my posting will continue. Or until I'm broke. That might come sooner. Without further adieu, I present something that we made looooong ago... assorted candy cookies. Hmm, maybe I need a better name for that. I don't actually recall the specifics of us deciding to make a batch of these, it might've been fueled by a candy surplus. Anyway, onto the specifics.



First you start with a giant batch of candy. I um... somehow fall into mass quantities of candy bars and M&M's. It's just one of those things that's always in our suite, guaranteed. In fact, there's a bag of probably 20 or 25 bags/bars of candy in one of our closets right now. Between Twix, Butterfingers, M&M's (peanut, dark chocolate, and regular), Snickers, and all the usual suspects, we have a fairly diverse selection to choose from, but let's be honest, eating chocolate by itself gets boring at some point, and I do use food as a means to relieve stress from school.



With a dough recipe lifted from 'The Girl Who Ate Everything,' a bit of everything went in to replace the chocolate chips. Broken Twix bars, some remnants of Butterfinger filling, Snickers, M&M's, Almond Joy and Mounds both, and I think some Milky Way, all of them found their way into our batter. There was a concern that the chocolate and caramel bits would burn well before the dough counterpart baked to completion, so we scaled back the temperature to 275 and let it sit in the oven to cook on latent heat. For some reason, the picture above makes them look really flat (and yes I fail at portioning/spacing), but the end result was a fairly moist, almost cake like cookie. The candy bits more or less all melted into the dough, so there wasn't any hard shell like remnants from the Butterfingers or the M&M's. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant experiment, that I would most likely repeat. Nothing overly heavy, but definitely not something I'd want to have on a nightly basis.
Read more...

Bacon pizza (not what you'd think)

So now that I've finished my backlog of posts on Taiwan, I can finally get around to posting about the stuff that I actually ate during the year (not overly exciting for the most part). My suitemate and I got into a lot of baking at the beginning of the year, so I'm probably going to knock out those things first. This list... starts with a bacon pizza. What you see above is the final product. Although I must warn you that when I say bacon pizza, it's not as simple as it seems. Since we made this from scratch, we were able to take some, let's call them liberties.



We first started by making dough from scratch. With a recipe borrowed from somewhere on the Slice website. Really simple, basically the standard mix of flour (although we had to use a lot of whole wheat when we ran low on white), sugar, salt, yeast. Mix it all together, beat the crap out of it and let it rise. Since this was in the dead of winter (yes, a long time ago), and Columbia doesn't know how to regulate heating/cooling relative to the seasons, we borrowed the heat lamp from our turtles to make our dough rise. SORRY GUYS!



While we were waiting for our dough rise, and oh did we wait, we prepped a full package of thick cut bacon. By our estimation, the baking time in the oven wouldn't suffice to cook through the bacon, and we wanted a crispy topping, not a soggy strip of bacon that wouldn't break. Let's be honest, the thought of gnawing on semi-cooked strips of pork fat isn't very appetizing.



We also took some sweet Italian sausage and separated it from the casings, crumbled it, and pan fried it until it was just browned. It was a group consensus that a single type of meat on pizza was somewhat weak. I think this was actually cooked in the bacon fat, so that it would infuse the flavor. To be completely honest, I don't think it made a difference, but it sounded good in theory.



What post of pizza baking would be complete without a picture of Chris shredding cheese (obviously taken without him knowing). I will probably be murdered in a few hours for posting this. Worth it.



And there is our crust, post rising, and post beating. It was recommended that the dough be separated into 3 smaller pizzas, but when we were rolling it out, it seemed to tear way too easily. In retrospect, post baking, it rose quite a bit, and even though our pan was way larger in area than a traditional circular pan, it would've been smart to split it into 2 batches. Whatever, it ended up being a super thick pizza, although it wasn't overly doughy. We would've eaten it one way or another, so it's really a moot point, but note to self... scale back dough for singular pizza. Oh, and if you have a really sharp eye, I'm sure you can notice that our crust is actually lined with bacon. That wasn't on purpose, I just did a craptacular job of tucking it in.



What post about baking pizza would be complete without a picture of Daven being 100% useless and continuously throwing up peace signs. If there were an award for the most Asian white person, he would win it. For real, his Chinese is probably as good as mine, and he's even better at Japanese.



And... the pizza ready to bake. We should've used green peppers. There's all too much red on this pizza between the sauce, sausage, and peppers. Did I mention that we used an entire pack of cheese on this beauty? I think the final thing probably weighed close to 5+ pounds between the dough, cheese, sauce, and other crap that we added. Easily finished between 3 (yes it was just the 3 of us... shut up). It was delicious and I kind of want to do this again before the end of the year. I'm also tagging this as a recipe (questionably haha).
Read more...

Asian bakeries ftw

This isn't so much a post as it is a thought that I had, which happened to coincide with a picture that I happened to take. American bakeries do their cupcakes and cookies, and variations upon them. Hungarian bakeries (as far as I know) make really overpriced danishes and apple strudels (I'm looking at you Hungarian Pastry shop... grr... $4.50 for 3 bites of an apple strudel). Maybe it's a matter of taste, but for some reason Asian bakeries do the weirdest combination of toppings available, baked into the strangest forms possible, and people still go to buy them. The picture is actually of pineapple buns baked directly into chocolate filled ice cream cones (which were delicious btw). These aren't even that adventurous compared to the dizzying array of hotdogs, Kewpie mayo, egg, scallion, tuna, pork floss etc. buns that you'll find at every bakery. Looking back, I'm not sure why I chose that to take a picture of, but meh... I felt obligated to post it, since at one time I felt it was worth snapping a photo of. Anyhoo, tl;dr... Asian bakers do weird stuff, I still love it.

Posting update... almost done with the Taiwan posts (aren't you sad?), and will make a few posts about NYC before I return to food heaven the motherland.

Additional rant... apparently I'm not allowed to do 'less than 3' for a heart symbol because of 'broken tags.' Wow blogger, fail.
Read more...

I like pie... I also like cookies

Inspired by this sweet ass idea... my suitemate and I wanted something super fat for superbowl Sunday. To be fair, we had ordered roughly $50 dollars worth of KFC and Chris was planning on making chicken skewers (which were incredible), so it's not like we weren't already acting like pigs... but we felt compelled to make this to push us over the edge. I had actually invited other people to come help make it, but me being an idiot... failed to take into account the preparation time for the dough. I refused to give up the idea of having a chocolate cookie pie though, so I did the most bootleg thing possible, and bought premade pie crust, and cookie dough in a tube. I know, I know... for shame. Some might even call me a 'loaf' haha (seriously though, that's the greatest insult I've ever come across... wtf do you even say as a response?). I didn't care. I just wanted chocolate chips, and cookie, in pie form.


There it is in its unbaked configuration. Seriously, we just took the pie crust, baked it for 3 or so minutes, and then put a layer of cookie dough in. We might've layered a thick layer of chocolate chips in between more dough. Just to make sure that we were extra heavy the next day. In an unrelated note, is there a reason Pillsbury calls their dough 'chocolate chip flavored cookies' instead of just 'chocolate chip cookies?' Is it because Nestle Tollhouse owns copyright or something? I'm genuinely curious.


Post baking. Fully risen. It was a gorgeous thing that... didn't taste all that great once it cooled. I mean, when it was warm, it was soft and gooey, everything you expect from a good chocolate chip cookie. The only drawback was the fact that the crust was kind of salty. Once it cooled, it got too crisp, and the crust would just break off when cutting. Know the reason why there's no picture of single slices? Because it's impossible to cut perfectly. Whatever, it tasted like it was supposed to, and that's all I care about. I might have to do a take 2 the proper way though... this failed experiment was enough to make me believe the real thing is 10x better.
Read more...

The cake is a lie (totally not mine)

Is it cheating if I post something that I didn't make? Well honestly I don't really care. My buddy Chris baked this for Christmas eve last night and when he sent me pics of it, I felt like it had to be made public for everyone to see. Why? Well, when I bake stuff, 9 times out of 10 it comes out looking like crap. Don't get me wrong, it usually tastes okay (and even if it doesn't, it still gets eaten), but it was as if all the holiday gods were smiling and this was the result. No I didn't get to taste it, but I'm sure it tasted as gorgeous as it looks. It's so hypnotic, perfect concentric circles of freshly cut fruit sitting in caramelized pools of fructose syrup. It just looks so fluffy and light, and so inviting with rings of whipped cream. Sigh... it almost makes me wish that my family celebrated Christmas/Winter Solstice.
Read more...

Pizza... take 2

So on another day of boredom, Chris and I decided to make another pizza. Partially because our first one was pretty damn awesome, but also partially because our crust was overly... pillowy the first time. Anyway, experimentation is always good. This time we found another pizza crust recipe, of which I'm not sure of the details (this was all Chris), which called for us to make our dough, let it rise, beat it down... basically the same routine as any other dough. This one differed from our last mainly because it asked us to bake for 15 minutes prior to adding sauce and cheese. So we went about our business, made our dough, heated it beneath the heat lamp (borrowed from the turtles), and baked it. Oh yeah, this time we had a pizza stone. Maybe that helped a little. Maybe.


See our dough... laid out freehand on the pizza stone, dusted lightly with basil and coated with olive oil (I think there's something I'm forgetting since I distinctly remember seeing Chris crumbling something). It looks so... naked. I failed to snap a picture of the baked crust, but there was a moment of worry when we saw a giant bubble in the oven. I proceeded to pop and flatten that, and also burn myself. My hand hates me btw. There's also probably the element of my impatience to add to that equation. I was in a real hurry to pile on sauce and toppings, so I completely forgot about pictures.


Look at Chris go. I don't think he ever realizes I'm taking pictures until they show up on my blog. For the record, if he looks dazed, it's because I had just woken him up 5 minutes before that so we could continue our pizza making.


Pizza is no longer naked. We liberally spread sauce, 1/2 a pound of mozzarella cheese (shredded by Chris), sausage, green peppers, and chunks of chicken breast. I know what you're thinking... this is stupid not too exciting, those are boring/traditional toppings. Well you know what? This is my blog, and I'll post stupid stuff as much as I want.


Into the oven that went, and 10 minutes later, we were greeted by this gorgeous, non-symmetrical pie. You know, I think I liked how this one looked better than the perfectly rectangular pie we were planning on making. It has character.

Also, btw... to the person who made me listen to Miley Cyrus/Taylor Swift... if you're reading this, I absolutely hate you. It's really embarrassing when someone walks in when I'm listening to 'Party in the USA.'
Read more...

More crap I eat at school (baking surprise)

More of a teaser post than anything, I'll update later on... if you can guess what it is (and you aren't already aware), then I'll give you a prize. Serious. In another installment of 'Crap I eat at school...,' Chris and I decide to make another dinner that I'm pretty sure almost every person we know would call disgusting. Our glorious concoction was one in which there was an overabundance of bacon, hot sausage, way too much bell pepper, and really a bit too much of everything. It was a starchy mess that, strangely enough, included graham cracker crust (meant for pie baking). Are you confused yet? Yeah so am I. In any case, we set out for Appletree Deli, our new go to supermarket (screw you Morton Williams and your outrageous price gouging! I'm well aware you get all your crap from Shoprite), and collected our ingredients and began to go to work. For the record, this wasn't some sort of intimate experience Chris and I shared alone, but rather... a gathering of 'has been' rowers, as we were joined by Davenport (who I should mention has the coolest name I've ever heard), and Dominic. Really it was a sausagefest brofest more than anything else.


I'm also including another photo of Chris', so whoever keeps clicking on his picture can continue clicking *wink. So I'm finally getting around to finishing this post. Have you figured out what we made yet? Yeah, homemade pizza. I actually have no clue what went into the crust, Chris handled that part, the toppings though... all me baby.


So yeah... we made a lot of dough, I think we actually doubled the recipe given on some random site. When it came time to roll it out into our baking pan, it felt really thin and weak. It was really a struggle to get it to stretch to the edges, but after baking, we realized we basically made a pan pizza. The dough was not as we expected at all... that is to say, thin, slightly charred, and kind of crunchy.


Um... this is my friend Daven. He is hands down the most Asian white person I know. He speaks Japanese and Chinese that could probably rival my own. How did I come across such a character? Former rower. In addition to being one of my favorite people to talk to about Japanese or Chinese culture, or random stuff in general, he's also one of the few people who will openly try virtually any Asian food I find. Oh, and he's also the jerk who started me on my killer 20k erg a day program last year. I really should thank him and Chris for helping me shed myoutterfatty. Look at the picture, did I mention he's really Asian?


Right before we shoved her in the oven. Just a final rundown on our awesome ass pizza. Start with enough dough for 3 pizzas and stretch them over a baking pan dusted with graham cracker crumbs (no flour, that can be construed as healthy). The dough should seem like it's not enough, but trust me, it's plenty. Top this with a full jar of pizza sauce... which I think was supposed to be enough for, you guessed it, 3 pizzas. Spread on half a pound of mozzarella... a.k.a. the entire package. This only happened because our 'back of the envelope calculations' suck ass (not mine, I never took Frontiers of Science). Throw on 3 strips of bacon, browned enough to crumble, stuff 4 more strips of bacon into the crust :D... secret twist there. Then brown an entire red pepper and 2 hot sausages in said bacon's fat, and throw all that on too. Bake for... I actually forget how long, until it looks right, and voila. You're well on your way to becoming obese.


There's the final product on the left, and the up close shot of the crust, so there's proof I actually stuffed bacon in there. How was it? Excellent. The crunchy bacon provided a nice contextual contrast to the soft pillowy crust we had made. The sausage and peppers gave just enough heat to offer a variation on plain bacon pizza, and the bacon in the crust... ugh, just a nice way to finish off a slice. Come to think of it, I wish every one of my meals ended with bacon. Oh wait...
Read more...

Day off! (for real this time)

What did I do this morning? I slept until 6:30 haha. That might sound early to you... and I guess for anyone who's on any remotely normal sleep schedule, but for me... that's an extra 2 hours of sleep. Anyway, I took a real day off today. No running (well I might later tonight, but only because it's so nice out today), and all eating. I polished off a box of Raisin Bran first thing in the morning, followed by a nice huge bowl of oatmeal, followed by a couple slices of cake, followed by remnants of my pork floss pancake (see bottom), and finished up with 4 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. No I haven't gotten morbidly obese if that's what you're thinking... although thoughts of doing biggest loser (getting paid to workout) seems awesome to me. In any case, so far, so good on the relaxation part.

So yesterday, I got bored and started eating plain congee with pork floss when I had the greatest idea. Okay, it wasn't so great, my mom yelled at me to finish the pork floss and the pancake mix I had opened earlier in the week, so naturally I figured I'd bake it. They have pork floss buns at Fay Da, so why not a pancake version? How did it turn out? It looks kind of gross, and the description is kind of gross, but really, I swear to you, it tastes amazing.


I feel kind of bad tagging this post as running, since I didn't... yet.

distance for the day: 0.00 miles
distance biked for the day: 0.00 miles

distance on the year: 227.14 miles
distance biked on the year: 142.68 miles
Read more...

Distracted

I've been extremely busy lately, which would explain why I never finished the post on Friday, or why I haven't been keeping track of my running counter (ha, that and I haven't been running lately).

Just thought I'd make a placeholder post to explain that... mention that I made a cake out of pudding mix (recipe to come), and that I'll be adding to my running counter a biking counter... mostly because my body isn't used to running at 150, so it actually does hurt when I run for too long now. So for the time being, I'll be biking off the weight. It'll still be tagged as running, but whatever, as long as I'm doing something right?

If you're so curious as to how far I would have run, a useful conversion between biking distance and running is about 3:1. On my to do list this afternoon... 50k on the bike, I am going to sign up for a solid 2 hour block, and I will NOT get off for anyone lol. As for right now... I'm going to grab my cake from the oven and go apeshit before I have to lose the weight.

distance for the day: 1.19 miles (from Saturday)
distance biked for the day: 31.2 (for you metric people... that's 50k)

distance on the year: 31.26 miles
distance biked on the year: 31.2 miles (not from January 1st, from today haha)

edit: Nevermind on the recipe, my cake was a disaster... did you know if you don't mix your baking powder evenly, the cake looks retarded? True story.
Read more...

Chronicles of ridic(ulous)

Now, as promised, I've returned to finish this post! First up is a partial review of Cafe Zaiya, which has been previously mentioned) this time for their curry pan and their an bread (a.k.a. red bean bun). The red bean bun called to me when I walked up to the case of pastries. Well, actually the An donut called to me, but the red bean bun was cheaper and I didn't want to spend too much money... more on that at the end of the post. I actually forget how much it cost, but it wasn't too bad, probably around $1.25 (I'm not senile or plain forgetful, but when I bought the two breads together and I don't know how the price split). It was satisfying, 'nuff said. The outside was soft and resilient, as expected of any Asian bakery, be it from Chinatown or the Yamazaki's in Taiwan. The surprise came when I got to the middle, unlike some places in Chinatown who try to nickel and dime you by skimping on the filling, I was met with a solid chunk of red bean filling. Not cloyingly sweet and just right in thickness, it definitely hit the spot. I would most certainly buy this again, not just because I sometimes crave Asian breads, but because it was sickeningly good.


Up next was the curry pan, a fried concoction covered in panko bread crumbs, and filled with pungent pungent beef curry! See? the description itself is undeniably delicious. The combination of savory and sweet was to counter to, what I expected to be overwhelmingly sweet, the red bean bun. The outside bread is kind of chewy (yet again), I suspect they include mochi in the batter, but I can't say that with any sort of certainty lol. Again, biting in, I was pleasantly surprised to find filling from tip to tip. There was a plentiful amount of curried beef strips cut up real thin, spiced moderately so as to complement the bread, and not to overshadow sweetness. Honestly, if you look at the picture, it doesn't do the amount of filling justice, it's kind of squeezed down by where I bit in. I bet I sound like a broken record, but at around $1.50 (again, not sure of the price) I would buy this again too. Both of these would fail to satisfy me for a meal, but they make for a nice afternoon/breakfast snack.


After I left Cafe Zaiya, I headed to work, along 5th avenue, when I realized... this wouldn't do. There wasn't enough calories between the two of these. So I hung a left at 42nd, walked straight into Crumbs, and gawked at the case of brownie varieties for a good minute. After awkwardly ignoring the cashier asking if she could help me for what seems like the longest time, I decided on the 'Baba Booey.' On one side was chocolate cream cheese, on the other, peanut butter cream, topped with peanut butter chips, they definitely deserved points for creativity and presentation. I took the time to cut it in half to get a pic of the innards before eating, which reveals a chocolate cake base and more peanut butter frosting inside. Did I mention peanut butter makes me happy? Anyway, the cupcake was ridiculously sweet (even by my standards, and I can handle sweets) and a bit overly moist... maybe too much butter or oil or something. In any case, the cake was a bit of a disappointment as a whole, but the idea was solid, and the frosting was top notch. Maybe I got a lemon, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I probably would go back, but at $3.75, it's not really worth it.


Final stop on the day (on the way back to school for class) was Fay Da bakery on 34th and 8th. Also the same location as Lunch Box Buffet, this day was reserved for bread. Anyway, I decided on the (from left in picture) pineapple bun (波羅麵包), taro bun (芋頭麵包), and the milk cream bun (奶蘇麵包). I did also buy a steamed char siu bun, but I was too hungry and I ate it on the way to the subway station haha. Total cost of the purchase was a sweet $3.95. That's right... in midtown... 4 breads for under $4. This place made Cafe Zaiya look expensive! The pineapple bun was what I have come to expect from a prepackaged Asian food store, not spectacular, but at something like 80 cents, it was okay. The sugary top was flaky, the bread was airy, light, and somewhat firm, in other words, it didn't tear apart in ribbons like really good bread. The taro bun was heavy from top to bottom, with the bread being thick and chewy (again, not a good thing, but not a bad thing). The innards were sparse, but certainly sweet and fragrant of taro... it was white and not purple like I expected though. The milk bun was like the pineapple bun... but with sweetened milk/butter inside, that should explain a lot. Finally, the char siu bun... uh, I don't remember much about it except the pork was plentiful and really thinly cut like pork floss. Anyway, it doesn't really matter that much when everything is so cheap! With that said, the breads were decently good, and definitely hit the spot for a nice afternoon snack. I think I'll return quite often, if not only because the food is decent, but because I'm a college student... and I'm poor.


To cap off the night, we hatched up a plan. In the morning I had bought a roll of cookie dough (because according to my sister, I am a girl who craves things). Anyway, I digress, so I made a couple inches of it for breakfast, prior to the breads and cupcake, and realized... this is such a waste of cookie dough, I could make this part of a giant ice cream sandwich. So I called up Chris at work, and asked if he had brownie, which he did, and we decided to make a supersized ice cream, brownie, chocolate chip cookie sandwich. So at night, we (Wayne, Chris, Rich, Han, and myself) convened with all the components and assembled this monstrosity. Yes those are 2 9" cookies... about half a tube on each side, a full box of brownies, and a pint of vanilla ice cream in the middle. Uh... calorie count on the 'chipwich? just shy of 7000, I ate a plurality (thank you Mr. Schmidt... of AP US History) of it. No recipes this time... this shouldn't be replicated.


Read more...

My only weakness

bullets... oh and chocolate cake too!

I know I say 'sexual chocolate' a lot, but seriously... sexual chocolate.

So as promised, I've come back to wrap up the last bit of break I had remaining. Again, when you live in the suburbs and it's freezing outside, there's not much for me to do aside from baking. First up was the chocolate cake. My family has a terrible habit of buying way more than we need whenever things are on sale, and this year's purchase consisted of oatmeal. Imagine a fully stocked shelf of oatmeal at your local supermarket... now that's what my pantry looks like (I think we actually purchased some 60 odd pounds of it). Seeing as I have, as my mom puts it, 'womanly cravings' for chocolate cake, I combined our surplus of oats with my love of cocoa and baked it into a layered cake. Despite the odd sounding combination of oats with chocolate cake, the outcome was a decadently moist cake that cut cleanly. In fact, there was no hint of oatmeal in the cake batter since it was soaked for 30 minutes and beat to oblivion in the batter. Once filled with cream and covered with icing, it was as the pictures show, a fairly successful bake job.



Part two concludes with my zucchini bread! My lovely parents also bought a surplus of zucchini, of which they decided to only use one, so the task fell on me to dispose of the... er... extras. Now contrary to the idea of many, my kitchen pantry is not well stocked. Yes, we have tons of oats and zucchini, but I often find myself without simple things, for instance, cinnamon and eggs. I had already started to process the zucchinis when I realized that I only had two eggs remaining in the fridge, so I was a little bit worried that the loaves would come out not as bread, but as bricks. Furthermore, I opened the cupboard to see no cinnamon, no nutmeg, no all spice... what was a guy to do. Improvise! haha, I just continued mixing, going by ratios of the all too familiar banana breads that I've done in the past, and substituted a 'secret chinese ingredient' in place of what would normally be cinnamon... (五香粉) *wink* for those that understand Chinese. I popped the loaves in the oven, 50 minutes at 375, and after 50 minutes of anxiety, I was greeted with this...



A pair of beautiful golden brown breads that are curiously moist for lack of eggs. There is a touch of unexpected sweetness on the first bite (not me, I mean... I was the one who added the sugar) and a slight kick from the spice. For what it's worth, I've only gotten to eat two slices, one loaf disappeared before cooling, one loaf was eaten by the next day, and a few slices remained to bring to school... (so come knock if you would like zucchini bread).

I know I mentioned a peanut butter banana oat bar that I made with whey, but they're not very photogenic, which isn't to say they aren't delicious, but I'd rather not sully my blog with 'food un-porn.' I've pretty much summed up winter break, so with my last bit of posting, I'd like to wish my friend Chris a very happy 21st birthday. Yes, I know I'm a day late on this posting (or is it a week early based on the timestamp?). So I'm done until Friday, where we'll pick up with 'Restaurant Week,' at AJ Maxwell's Steakhouse.
Read more...

Baking fail...

People on the internet lie, donuts are something you shouldn't ever bake no matter how good the 'reviews' are. So I started out with the intention of making a baked donut, did one as a test, realized how stupid it looked and scrapped the dough to make apricot thumbprint cookies...

They came out nice and soft, with a texture in between that of a doughy bread and a traditional shortbread, kind of impossible for me to describe (seeing as I'm an engineer and fail at words most of the time). I guess I could say it was a semi-success in that my parents ate it without a peep or complaint. Anyway, just thought I'd make a quick update since I have nothing else to do at home... except body weight workouts of course, ha!
Read more...

I think I have an illness...

Judge for yourselves...

And that illness is a love for cooking. A lot of people might laugh at the notion of a guy who likes to be in the kitchen (ahem... my own mother) and write it off as feminine, I disagree. So what if I like to cook? It just makes me that much more useful... right?

Anyway, another day of break, and another day of boredom has led me to make oatmeal raisin cookie bars. I didn't feel like following a specific recipe, since I feel like that's sort of a cop out, so I just put ingredients in bowls and started mixing. To be honest, I wasn't sure what it would turn out like, but the end product was a pretty chewy and rich a.k.a. buttery bar. They look like granola bars, but don't suck as hard.

In other news, my parents gave me a rice cooker as a gift in addition to my camera. I know that probably sounds ridiculously lame to most/all of you, but hey, it's what I wanted and it's useful to me.
Read more...

Christmas musings...

So I chose a good day to start a blog, what with it being Christmas and all... (not that I celebrate Christmas, but that's besides the point). In any case, as an amateur cook and amateur food critic, consider this my "Hello World!" post.

Did I mention I'm also an amateur/professional nerd?

Anyway, I guess since this is a food blog of sorts, I should make some mention of something edible. As a time killer, I decided on baking an apple biscuit cake, with a recipe I found in one of my mom's Chinese magazines. All in all it turned out pretty well, with fairly positive reviews from the harshest critic I know (my sister... who ate a quarter of it before it cooled)
Read more...