Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

First endeavor this summer:  Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I made it using a bread maker that I recently acquired from my mom's friend.  So easy!  Toss everything besides the raisins in, start it, 20 minutes later, add the raisins, and let it go.  I think it took 3 hours and 40 minutes total.

It tasted okay.  I might add some extra cinnamon sugar next time.  (Now that I think of it, I might not have added all the sugar I was supposed to.  Whoops.  Can't remember.)  And I'm definitely going to add extra raisins.  I might mix whole wheat flour with white flour next time.  I'm not sure.  Who knows when I'll feel like making this again. (Although I did just buy that whole jar of yeast...)

Week Six (Part Two) - Green Tea Ice Cream

So, here are the pictures from the green tea ice cream that I made two months ago.  I have been slacking.

I didn't stir it as much as I was supposed to.  But it tasted good.  I think next time I will add less sugar and more green tea powder.

Week Six - Last-Week-Was-A-Long-Week Treat

I am currently making one of my favorite things in the whole world:  GREEN TEA ICE CREAM.  BE EXCITED.  (I suppose you don't have to be so excited because I'll be the one consuming it, but you can be excited for me, if you would like.)

Needless to say, I am very  excited.  This process started at 3:30pm and I probably won't be able to enjoy it until tomorrow.  I am learning the essential skill of delaying gratification.  But I am so excited.

In other news, I wish I had an ice cream maker.

This is the recipe I used:  http://aeriskitchen.com/2010/09/green-tea-ice-cream/

Week Five - New Vegetable

I've run out of vegetable options at the grocery store in the winter.  I was kind of tired of cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, and others.  So I decided to give spaghetti squash a try.  It was pretty great to find out that how people described the inside of a spaghetti squash to me was exactly how it really was on the inside.

Take a look-it really kind of looks like spaghetti!

I kind of experimented and didn't really go off a recipe.  (I didn't go off a recipe because so many of the recipes called for butter and I'm not a fan of cooking with butter.  I'd rather not clog my arteries if possible.)  And that's kind of why it ended up being just mediocre.  I added olive oil, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, soy sauce.  All sorts or random things. Ha.  So, it was just okay, maybe even bad. Ha.

And then I pan-fried salmon with garlic black bean sauce, paprika, cumin, scallions, and ginger.  It also just tasted okay.  And I burned the scallions and gingers a bit too.

I tried again a few days later and I spread the black bean sauce on the salmon and put the ginger, scallions on top with the paprika and cumin, and baked it for about 10 minutes.  It tasted so so much better.  I might even say it was great :)  No pictures though. :(

Week Four - Remembering Taiwan

This week, I decided to have a Taiwan throwback--Taiwanese Meat Sauce Over Rice.  Though I'm pretty sure I've never had this in Taiwan, but my mom used to cook it at home all the time growing up.  It evokes a nice feeling of nostalgia.  And it's pretty easy to make.

Here's the recipe that I used:  http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/2009/06/taiwanese-meat-sauce-over-rice-lo-bah.html

It was my first time cooking with 5-spice powder and shallots.  Kind of exciting.

It turned out well.  Maybe I would use a little less soy sauce because it ended up being a little salty for me.  For me, it's one of those once-in-a-while foods, but I don't think I could eat it super often.

Week 3.5- Treat for My Life Group

Since Chinese New Year celebrations in NYC and in China last for two weeks, I decided to continue my celebration by making Prosperity Cakes or 發糕.

I found this great recipe that is much easier than the real way you're supposedly supposed to make it.  But this recipe tasted good to me.  And it's great if you have pancake mix but don't feel like eating pancakes.  And get this, you steam them!  I suppose it makes sense now that I think of all the other times I've eaten them, I just never knew they were steamed.  But I think when I packed them into the steamer, I packed them in too much and so they didn't rip open like they were supposed to.  So, I guess this means I won't be very prosperous.  And I'm okay with that. Ha.  And they ended up being funny shapes too.

Here's the recipe I used:  http://newasiancuisine.com/5372-prosperity-cakes-fatt-gou.html

Week Three - Stuff for a Bento Box

For the next week, I used a recipe found on the blog of my language partner from freshman year-Aeri.

It's the potato side dish that you get at Korean restaurants--Potato JoRim

The recipe is found here:  http://aeriskitchen.com/2009/12/potato-side-dish-%EA%B0%90%EC%9E%90-%EC%A1%B0%EB%A6%BCgamja-jorim/

It tastes pretty good, but it's one of those things you have to eat the day you make it, otherwise it's not the same. :(

I enjoyed it, even though I don't super like potatoes.  But it was worth a try.  And I did like it. :)

Week One - My Own Chinese New Year Celebration

Last week was a busy week for me.  Chinese New Year came and went.  The most exciting and celebratory thing I did was call my parents to wish them a Chinese New Year, during which they incited my envy by mentioning the Chinese New Year bash they would be attending on the upcoming Saturday.  Yes, it would have been nice to be at home to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family.  Yes, it would have been nice to get red envelopes.  Yes, it would have been nice to have gone home for a break.  Yes, I was sad to be missing all those things.  But to be honest, what I was most sad about was missing all the wonderful food.

So on Saturday, I decided to have my own celebration for Chinese New Year, including and consisting only of two traditional Chinese New Year foods:  dumplings and 年糕.

Dumplings was kind of a cop out for a new dish of the week (since I had made it freshman year of college), so I added in年糕 (also because I wanted to eat 年糕).

The dumplings turned out okay and kind of bland.  I kind of winged it from memory from when I asked my mom during freshman year.  In them, I put ground pork, shredded cabbage, scallions, some Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil.  I think next time I will add tiny, tiny pieces of ginger in it for some more flavor.  I pan fried these and ate them in my usual Kong Yen brand black vinegar.

And then I made red bean 年糕 (New Year's Cake).  I had never made it in my life before, so I opted for the cheaper complete paste red bean paste instead of the more expensive one with bits of beans still in it.  Maybe next time I'll make my own red bean paste...maybe.  年糕 is actually surprisingly easy to make. :)  I was thinking that I would steam it, but the recipe I found from a new blog that I started following - Tiny Urban Kitchen http://www.tinyurbankitchen.com/2010/02/red-bean-mochi-loaf.html - has directions to bake it.  So I did.  It ends up with a nice crusty layer.  Since I opted for the cheaper bean paste and I think I stirred it in too much, the 年糕 didn't turn out very good looking.  But I don't really care because it tasted good. :)  Maybe I'll try the brown 年糕 next.  Or the prosperity cupcakes, or whatever there called.  I'm in no rush, Chinese New Year's usually celebrated for two weeks right?  I've got over a week left.

So woohoo!  Consider Chinese New Year celebrated. :)

First One!

Here it is.  This is the blog where I'll document my culinary experiments. Each week, I'll endeavor to cook or bake one new dish.  It most likely won't be something I've created, but from a recipe posted on one of the food blogs I follow or something found randomly on the internet.  I actually started doing this a few weeks ago, but I couldn't think of anything spectacular to name this blog, so I simply settled for mediocre (and for using one of my favorite words in the English language).

I'm planning on heading to Wegman's in a half hour (hopefully), so I can try to beat the crazy weather that's supposedly headed this way today (or has it started already)?  I must say, though, as much as I like shopping for food, grocery stores on Saturdays are not my favorite places to be (apart from the free samples, of course).

[Oh, and a disclaimer.  The pictures I'll upload are going to not look very nice (not purposely of course), but I don't really have aspirations to be a great photographer.  I'm just going to take pictures and post them. Ha.]