Dianomite Cake

Every so often I am hit with a stroke of genius.  I would never classify myself as someone artistic; the way that I think is too bound to order.  Even when I try to make something random, it so often defaults to something following an orderly pattern.

Anyway, my friend Diana's birthday was coming up soon.  We had previously collaborated together on creating these culinary masterpieces of birthday cakes.  And so, I wanted to make one for her and her twenty-fifth birthday.  In college, she was often called Diano-mite and it was only fitting that she had a dynamite cake.  Even though I made it back in November, it remains one of my greatest accomplishments of the recent past.

The sticks of dynamite are red velvet Swiss rolls filled with almond cream cheese icing.  The red covering over each stick of dynamite is fruit roll up.  The timer is a zebra cake and the fuses are Twizzlers.  And the tie that is holding all of it together is a fruit by the foot.

I must admit that it was not the best thing I've ever tasted.  But it might be the best thing I've ever created.

I cook to relieve stress.

Somewhere amidst grading papers, planning lessons, emailing parents, and creating activities, I have to make time to cook, in order to maintain my sanity.  Perhaps it is because I am such an escapist that I love to cook.  When you're cooking, unless of course you're waiting for water boil, you have no time to think of anything else, you are completely engrossed in the task at hand.  It's then that I can stop thinking about the nicer way I could have disciplined a student or how I still can't seem to get my students' test scores up, or how the education system is such an unsolvable problem; I can solely focus on making food taste good.

Here it is, some of my endeavors over the past few months:

Spicy Hunan Beef with Cumin

I absolutely love the taste of cumin.  I also absolutely love Hunan and Szechuan food (maybe because they use cumin).  And I love beef.  All of my favorite things in one dish :)  I was pleased with how it turned out.  It definitely was nothing earth shattering, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Recipe:  http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/spicy-hunan-beef-with-cumin/

Vinegar-Glazed Chicken

This one turned out just okay.  My picture looks nothing like the picture on the blog.  I suppose that's okay.  And I suppose that it may be because I don't especially like to measure things when I cook.

Recipe:  http://appetiteforchina.com/vinegar-glazed-chicken/

 Mapo Tofu Ramen (Mabo Ramen)

I just made this on Wednesday.  It was an interesting dinner to make.  Even though it tasted just like what I thought it would taste like:  ramen and mapo tofu, I was still pleasantly surprised.  Although, I think I need a break from hot bean sauce.  I think I've had too much in my life and need to wait a few months before cooking with it again.

Recipe:  http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/mapo-tofu-ramen/