Posts tagged food

Boyfriend says you can’t make a gyro without the meat. Challenge accepted…

…and completed. With a bite in his mouth, he’s like “alright, maybe it’s good.”
That’s some high praise right there.

Made with seasoned and grilled shitake mushrooms and tempeh. MmmmMmmmm.

A billion egg whites later…

Horrible little deformed feet, but feet! I was kind of giving up hope that it was possible to make ugly macarons with stevia.

I’ve still got a long way to go, but at least I know I’m on the right track. Will post once I’ve got something that doesn’t require a bag over its head first.

On macaron batch 4. Still no feet, but the texture is getting there. Maybe I should have tried mastering a regular macaron before attempting sugar-free? Nah.

NEVER SURRENDER!!!!

you will not defeat me. Bring it on.

Just don’t lord it over me when you do win and I’m left crying in a corner over 17 failed batches, hysterically shoving cracked and ugly macaron shells into my face.

My next 3 classes need to recognize that Thanksgiving is too close to continue with lecture. Organic chemistry vs. kitchen chemistry? Yeah, that’s a tough one.

ALL THE FOODS!!!

Sorry for the hiatus, I’ve been lazy busy.

So, a couple times a year, we throw a big get-together (Halloween, someone’s birthday, end of summer, really any excuse to cook a ton and put up pretty lights). For drinks, I ditch the Solo cup and opt for its classy, eco-friendly, and pinterest-ey cousin, the Mason Jar.

Yeah, drinking out of jars is cool now, doesn’t that rock?

Before realizing what a total waste of time it was, I used to make new drink labels for each party:

Labeling drinks ensures that a) people don’t mix up their drinks and b) at the end of the night, you know that it was Matt who left his drink in your mailbox (wtf, Matt?)

To save on time and paper, I decided to make reusable chalkboard labels, using:

• Mini clothespins* — $1.99 for 25
• Chalkstock  — $1.99 for 10 sheets, which makes 20 labels
• Some twine (okay fine, it’s hemp leftover from my hippie stage, but it works the same!) cut into about 16” lengths. Measure around the rim and give a little extra.
• Scissors
• Mason Jars
• Chalk

1. Cut chalkstock in half. Snip corner into cute tag shape, or some other design if you’re more skilled than me (not a high bar).
2. Tie twine around lip of jar and using pin, attach label.
3. Have guests chalk their names/initials.

*Mini clothespins? How frackin’ cute are those?

And on to the other purpose of this post. Simone over at JungleFrog Cooking is running another photography challenge: drinks or food in a glass. This drink is just a bit of hibiscus tea, made primarily because of its gorgeous color.

I did exactly what Simone said not to do. She highly recommended shooting backlit to better illuminate the liquid. But when your only light source is a window and your “studio” is a table in a tiny, tiny kitchen, you kind of have to take whatever light you can get.

This contest runs through November if you’re thinking about entering. Plus, she’s always got something neat brewing over there.

Who’s HP, you ask? I think you know. He comes to all my parties. It’s ballin’

Wow, I’m sad…

“I want you smothered, want you covered, like my Waffle House hash browns.”

The Waffle House All-Star is a beautiful, 3-billion-calorie breakfast composed of the classic Waho waffle, hashbrowns or grits, buttered toast, eggs your way, and bacon or sausage (omitted here because…ew meat). I present my modified version:

Copy-Cat Waffles (served with real maple syrup and real butter)
Hashbrowns
Cheese Grits
Eggs, sunny-side up
Fresh-squeezed OJ
Coffee

Waffle House sets a pretty high waffle bar, and while these waffles don’t quite clear it, they’re the closest I’ve tasted.

Waffle House Waffle—adapted from food.com

• 1 1/2 cups flour (I use KA Gluten-Free)
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp stevia
• 2-3 tbs malt
• 4 tbs butter (try making your own)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup butter milk (try making your own)

1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Cream butter with stevia and malt powde. Add egg. Add rest of dairy. Combine with dry mix.
3. Waffle iron it up.
4. Serve with copious amount of butter and syrup*

Grits

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup grits
• Generous handful of cheese (cheddar works well, but almost any soft cheese you have on hand besides something funky like bleu, brie should be good), chopped/shredded
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil water with a pinch of salt. Stir in grits. Continue to simmer for about 15 minutes or until grits are desired texture. Add more water if need be.
2. Turn off heat and add in cheese, stirring to melt. Season to taste. Eat.

*and with Hash Browns, Eggs with TONS of pepper, Fresh OJ, Coffee and a Juke Box that is 30% waffle house original singles, 50% Rihanna, and 20% bad amazing 90s hits.

I swear I don’t consume as much sugar as this blog seems to indicate. It just happens to be that when I do, it turns into a post….or diabetes.

Salted caramel cheesecake with a chocolate praline crust and topped with MOAR CARAMEL!

Had to throw in my pretty, thrift-store silver spoons. 

MOAR SUGAR!!! Diet starts…tomorrow. Cheesecake today.

Mini Turtle Cheesecakes:
Makes roughly 1 dozen 

Caramel
(You’ll have some left over in case you want to pour on top of cheesecakes, or you know, eat from a spoon)