Canary Island Cilantro Soup
Recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/32441

I grilled some salmon to put in there, topped it off with feta cheese because the flavors are perfect for it. And instead of beef broth, I used the vietnamese pho base.

Pan seared catfish with parsley cheddar mashed potatoes and sour cream

No recipe really for this one, threw a bunch of things together because I wanted to finish off the catfish before it got freezer burned

Vanilla cupcake with blackberry filling and cream cheese icing

1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups of sugar
Beat well, then add:
Add 2 large eggs
2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla
½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 ½ cups of flour
1 ¼ cups of milk

Beat well, fill cupcake liners halfway and use piping bag to add a generous mound of blackperry pie filling, then continue filling liners with cupcake batter, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. For icing, recipe is here.

Coconut-Lime cupcakes with lime sugar glaze
From: Martha Stewart

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 T unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 c + 1 Tb sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup lite coconut milk
2 large egg whites
5 Tb shredded sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 6 muffin tins. Beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low, add flour, baking soda, salt & milk in three parts, alternating dry & wet, starting & ending with the flour. Beat until just combined. Set aside.
In a clean bowl beat the egg whites on high until stiff glossy peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter until combined. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites & coconut.
Fill muffin tins half full. Bake for 20 -25 minutes until golden or a tester comes clean. Allow to cool completely. Makes 6 cupcakes

Lime Glaze
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 t lime (about 1/2 of a lime)
zest from 1/2 lime
milk
shredded coconut (optional)

Mix sugar, lime juice & zest together. Add milk 1 t at a time until desired consistency, usually between 1 & 2. Glaze cupcakes & sprinkle with shredded coconut if you wish. Let sit until glaze has set. Makes enough glaze for 6 cupcakes

I can’t think of good dish titles.  Anyways, Sunday night, came home after 8 hour shift at work.  Was interesting.  One particular boy had to get some blood drawn.  And this boy had to have been at least twelve years old, so he wasn’t some screaming toddler.

So we’re in the lab draw room, he’s sitting down in the examination chair with the standard rubber band on arm, antiseptic wipe, etc.  Needle goes in, then the mother and I’m assuming aunt whip out a BIBLE and start quoting a passage that said “May he not feel pain” or something along the lines.

Really now.  They’re allowed to subscribe to whatever belief they choose, but get the kid some water or hug him.  Not stand outside the doorway reading from a book because when a hard metal object goes through your skin, it’s going to hurt no matter what god(s) you follow.

Dinner…I thought I had nothing in the fridge since I haven’t gone shopping in awhile and when you cook nearly every night of the week, food goes out fast.  Dug through the freezer and fridge, found some frozen catfish, spinach, then had a tomato and half an onion, lots of random scraps of food items I never finished.  Whipped em all together on a whim and made the best dish I’ve ever invented  so far.

Raw catfish nuggets drenched in italian dressing, dash of cumin, black pepper, salt, sauteed until fish is browned

Tomato, onion, spinach, and a clove of garlic all diced up

Dump fish out on a plate, because italian dressing is olive oil based typically, just saute onions and garlic until caramelized

Add tomato, spinach, etc. No pictures, but add in cooked rice, a handful of colby jack cheese, and 1/4 cup of milk. Stir fry it until cooked through, add salt to taste

Sprig of parsley, voila.  Toast some french bread, grab a glass of iced tea…yumminess

I made these the night before my ecology exam.  Procrastination owns.

Mocha Cupcakes
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (or 3 shots of espresso), room temp
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg

Beat butter and sugar together until flufffy, beat in egg, mix in dry ingredients. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

Ginger cream cheese frosting
4oz cream cheese, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick of butter, room temp
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Whip butter and cream cheese together, add in everything else, spread or pipe to cupcakes.  Add more powdered sugar depending on how thick you want the frosting.  Grate some chocolate on top for extra prettiness.

Yes, I made more cupcakes.  Am I going to eat them all? Heck ya.  And yes, the chocolate is droopy in the pictures.  Everything melts in the Texas summer, even with the A/C dying just to keep the temperature under 85 in the apartment.

Recipe:

Vanilla Cupcake (makes 12) I only ended up with enough batter to fill 10, and my measurements are strange because I didn’t want to make 30+

3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup + 2tbsp sugar
1 egg
1stp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder No baking powder, so I substituted 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp lime juice.  FYI, baking soda is 4x as strong as baking powder and needs something acidic to react with to make the cake rise.  Baking powder is just baking soda mixed with cream of tartar.  I didn’t have any tartar, so used lime juice instead.
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix all the ingredients together and do not overbeat or you’re going to have very dense cupcake, scoop into cupcake papers, and bake for 16-20 minutes.  Pull them out and let them cool before frosting

Cream cheese frosting

I sort of eyeballed and mixed random things together because I didn’t want an entire batch and had an “ohhhhh I should add some of this” moment, hence the almond and the cinnamon.  I was so close to grabbing the nutmeg, mint, and sprinkles, then reminded myself it would be overload and probably taste nasty.

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 tbsp vegetable shortening ie. Crisco; Butter works fine as well, but I was out
1 cup powdered sugar I think I ended up adding about 2 cups
Dash of however much cinnamon you like, around 1 tsp

Cream the butter/shortening and cream cheese together.  Add in everything else, and keep dumping powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want.  I accidentally made it too thick and added a bit of milk to smooth it out.

Chocolate filigree

Melt about 1/4 cup of Nestle chocolate morsel things in the microwave.  Lay out wax paper on a cutting board.  Spoon the chocolate into a parchment bag, snip off the very tip, and pipe whatever decorations you want.  Let it sit in the freezer for about 15 min and they should peel right off the wax paper.

All nighter almost accomplished.  I figure once every few weeks to hardcore cram for 2+ tests won’t kill me that much.  Since caffeine quit working on me ages ago, my new staple is

http://www.pixiemate.com/

It’s so amazingly delicious (mate chai is my fav because it’s all spicey with cinnamon, cardamom, etc.) and chock full of antioxidants.  Not one of those energy drinks filled with a ton of chemicals.  Just a spin off of green tea for lack of a better comparison.  You basically mix half tea half milk over ice.  The tea is organic and follows sustainable agriculture guidelines.

You can find it in the tea section of whole foods or central market for around $5 a box.  Pricey, but it’s concentrate and mixes over a gallon-ish of yumminess.  I think they sell it in tea bags as well, but I haven’t tried (too lazy to actually brew and I like drinking the stuff cold).

Off to my Ecology exam now…

Want some “CREAMY AUSTRALIAN STYLE” yogurt?

Thought this was worthy of an “LOL” moment. Even my kangaroo clock in the background approves. Didn’t intentionally get it in the shot, but it’s a nice coincidence I think. As far as yogurt goes, it’s pretty damn good, which it should be for the price. Organic yogurt is pricey regardless if it’s Australian, British, Mexican, Greek, etc. And the wallaby brand was actually created by two Californians who went down under a grand total of once and decided that constituted a full on aussie yogurt experience. I’m so bored of studying anatomy that I actually googled that. Yeah…

Only a few days left until school starts again for the summer session so squeezing in as much time wasting activities as possible. Made these cupcakes from scratch, which meant a few things had to be fiddled with. Very yummy, except the butter had a funny taste from absorbing all the refrigerator smells and sort of showed through in the frosting. Recipe is below, as requested from someone who drools over all the pictures of baked goods on my Flickr and wants to copy.

For apple cupcake
Adapted from I<3cuppycakes

1 cup applesauce
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix, pour in cupcake sleeves, bake for 16 minutes at 350 F

Cinnamon Frosting
1 stick butter, room temp and beaten
3 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3-4 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

Mix, add food coloring, and spread/pipe

Caramel Drizzle
1/2 cup heavy cream
4oz caramel candies

Mix in saucepan and heat until melted, cool in refrigerator. Pour in plastic bag, snip off the tip of a corner and drizzle over frosting

Amy and I were bored, seems like a perpetual thing. Anyways, we had the crazy idea to go make sushi. Spent a good afternoon chasing down ingredients, finding sushi grade raw fish which apparently Texas has interesting laws for, and finally making the stuff. Was amazing, $25 got us a LOT of sushi, with plenty of extra ingredients we can use next time. Much better than the overpriced stuff at the student union that’s been sitting out for several days.

Some chardonnay to go with it, and wasabi and soy sauce

Massive block of chocolate Matt bought when he was here, but ended up getting shoved in the back of the fridge. No worries, we found it, waited half an hour for it to melt, then dipped a whole carton of strawberries.

All while watching P.S. I Love You. Very sweet movie, probably in my top list of sappy emotional flicks. Lots of moments to relate to personally. Falling in love with a foreign guy (with a sexy accent) at a young age, which is a cause for bitterness with family, the emotional rollercoaster that goes with being apart (although my situation is nowhere near as devastating/definitive).

Smashed my final this morning, felt pretty damn good about it. Came home, studied for another five hours straight for the one tomorrow. Decided to do a little procrastinating and bake some cupcakes, because if I’m going to be up until the crack of dawn, I need my sugar fix.

Jess + Amy + Boredom =

Amy attempted to write our names. “Amy” worked fine, until I warned her squeezing in seven letters for “Jessica” wouldn’t work too well.

I’ve uploaded pictures, written this thing, I suppose I should go back to reading about Listeria monocytogenes.

16. Finally get my epic flying mount on World of Warcraft (yes, I know, you’re shaking your heads)

Done, thanks to Mr. Thornmisfor sending me ridiculous amounts of gold even though he doesn’t play anymore.

Also ordered my nifty Moo cards, which shipped all the way from the UK, and apparently went through the Deutsche Post. International mail is always awesome. On the back it’s got my name, phone number, email, and other contact information. Not bad for free

Very belated post, but we went to the Melting Pot for Xuan’s birthday last week. Very yummy, although those girls are crazy. Cheese dipped in batter then fried…that’s a heart attack waiting to happen. Very yummy chocolate fondue, very yummy cake. Our waiter was a foreign guy who had a french accent, which was highly entertaining.

Now for final exams….