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/

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.