Saturday, April 30, 2011

My Experiences so far...

just to play catch-up on what i've made so far, here are pictures of most of the good stuff! i've also made other yumminess, but I think, at the time, i was too lazy to pull out my camera and take pictures..


fried zucchini and they were scrumptious..i actually fed this to my english professor in case he'd gotten frustrated over me not thinking about what to write for my essay assignment. i got this recipe from life's ambrosia! she has such pretty pictures (if there's no pictures, i don't think i can read)

my mac and cheese! the picture makes it not look too good..but my big bro and my friend thought it was really delicious! and it was :] but anyway i think i derived this recipe from a foodwishes video as well (i really love his videos.)

my souffles! i made this with my big bro and my friend...but they were too thick..because apparently, masa corn flour is not the same as regular cornflour or cornstarch (i don't know...when i first got into the whole baking/cooking thing, i just made the weirdest judgment calls...i think i was in safeway just staring at the flour aisle, not knowing what to do, so i asked the manager, who didn't know the difference either hah.) i got the recipe for this from a gordon ramsay video called sexy souffle...because it's the ultimate hot chocolate souffle!

my homemade ladyfingers (i piped them too large, but they still worked fine in my tiramisu and they were super yum!!) i got this recipe from chefeddy, who really knew what he was talking about, so i didn't do any further research on them.

mi tiramisu! yes yes yes...i looked for several recipes for this, and it was long and arduous, but i ended up just using the exact recipe shown in a youtube video of a nice authentic italian woman by the youtube name of yellowsaffron!

this was my breakfast one day. i had a bunch of random stuff in my fridge, so i just added them all together and baked it for probably...15 minutes at 350 degrees. but anyway, there's an egg at the bottom, some grape tomatoes, spinach, onions, red bell peppers, lots of mozarella, and topped with lots of panko bread crumbs.

now, this was a fail. i tried making millionaire shortbread, but the caramel sauce i used just wasn't thick enough and melted right away...and the chocolate was too thick, because i thought "too much chocolate is never enough" -.- but it was still good nonetheless...waaay chocolatey..bitter too, since i thought 80% cocoa content wouldn't be bitter enough. I'm tellin' you...bad judgment calls.

YES. corn tortilla chips made from scratch (from that huge thing of masa cornflour i bought from Safeway) and guacamole. And the recipe for the tortillas that i used was from some random website...and i checked other sites to make sure the recipes were consistent, watched a couple of videos on how to make them, ( i didn't have a tortilla press, which would have made things easier and my tortillas consistent in size and thickness) and it was pretty straightforward. then i found out that there's also a recipe for it on the masa bag itself.

potato soup with my chopped up tortilla chips, a dab of mascarpone cheese (leftover from my tiramisu) and a dash of cayenne pepper. i love potatoes and it was the perfect cool weather for soup, so i had to make some. the consistency was really thick though, but it was really good!

i went home on a random weekend and decided to treat my family with some homemade crepes! they were wrapped ugly so i'll probably make these again someday, but they were very delicious with nutella, bananas, strawberries, and drizzled with chocolate syrup.

mmm irish soda bread. now i got this recipe from cooklikeyourgrandmother, a site that keeps me distracted for hours, because there's a million pictures for each step of the cooking/baking process (and i love pictures). i made this irish soda bread because the site also made french toast with this bread, and he swore it was the best ever...so i had to try it. and yes, it was pretty good...except i think i kind of overcooked the bread haha.

shrimp creole! which i also took from cooklikeyourgrandmother! i love that website. i added a bunch of cayenne pepper and i thought it got too spicy...but my dad extremely loved it! he wanted me to make another batch before i went back to school, but i didn't have time =/ but someday i will, father!

ladyfinger cookies! because i heard it was the same or similra to madeleines, and my dad loves madeleine cookies...they were kind of too soft to be madeleines though...so i don't know lol. i'll probably research on a legitimate recipe for madeleines and how to bake them properly...because these looked weird.

my first time making bread!....not so good. the taste was amazing though. my friend asked if i added any sugar because it had sweet taste to it...but nope! it was probably because i left it to rise for 18 hours so the yeast can develop the taste...or however it works...but for some reason it didn't want to rise a second time and it was just flat inside -.- i used the no-knead ciabatta recipe from foodwishes. i'm so sad it didn't work out for me :[

kung pao chicken from life's ambrosia! i love her site. it's so pretty..

these buttermilk cranberry scones are my mom's favorite. she was raving about them and ate alot of them. i think i overcooked these too...i think i'm a little better about that now. i got this recipe from cooklikeyourgrandmother.

these yummy wraps are derived from a honey mustard turkey veggie wrap from multiplydelicious. i started adding mozarella and sauteed onions and mushrooms. i think the mushrooms really give it such a GREAT taste...i don't know..something about the combination of all of that and mushrooms was just an amazing tasteful explosion in my mouth.

i'm a cheesemaker!...well not a really successful one...i think i left it on the stove for too long and then drained it for too long...it wasn't that great tasting...i had to drown it in pepper and salt and some olive oil to make it at least decent. but i'm definitely going to try again! probably make some ricotta and mascarpone so i can make pistachio cannolis :]] the recipe for this was from martha stewart i think...never trusting her again.

yes i made another souffle because this time, i used real cornstarch!! it was great, it rose quite high, and i was satisfied.

my banana bread from cooklikeyourgrandmother without the walnuts, because nuts in general are just so damn expensive. this was really good though. i took a slice with me to class every morning until i ate the whole loaf.

garlic and rosemary focaccia! didn't rise as high as i wanted it to, i'll try again because i think the water that i added to the yeast was too hot and i probably murdered some of those lovely bacteria.. but nonetheless it had an interesting texture. i wish i kept it in the oven for a little longer, since the top wasn't too golden brown. i took this recipe from a couple of videos on youtube and cooklikeyourgrandmother.

my baked focaccia breakfast sandwich. so good!! sauteed mushrooms and onions, grape tomatoes, an egg, spinach, and mozarella.

battered shrimp ready to be made into kung pao shrimp! because my boyfriend loves shrimp and kung pao anything.

i was so hungry for lunch and needed something quick. gotta say, i think i put sambal chili paste in everything i cook. i put a dash (ok, well a little more than a dash) of cumin and it made this dish incredible. i can't even explain it.

my mini banana cream pies with a meringue top...because i wanted to try out my mini muffin pan and i had super ripe bananas and chocolate chips :] for the custard, i used a recipe from roadfood and for the pie crust, i used bakingbysue!

successful bread!! i did so much research so for the next time i make bread, it would be super awesome. i watched plenty of bread videos, got into artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, and other places online i don't even remember. i even rose it in the fridge overnight so the taste will be more developed and flavorful. the dough was super super sticky so i didn't even think it would work when i hesitantly preheated my oven to 425. but it worked! i did it! and my boyfriend and friends loved it!

my favorite breakfast food in the world. i literally eat one every morning. not as intense as these though. steak omolettes, slices of french bread, baked red potatoes, and sliced kiwi!

my nutella cupcakes that inspired me to bake more. after i found out my big bro's birthday was coming up and how she really loves nutella, i had to try to make nutella flavored cupcakes with nutella buttercream frosting. i had tried making cream cheese frosting before for my chai cupcakes...but after that utter failure, i looked for a very good buttercream frosting, and everyone went WILD for it. i forgot which buttercream frosting recipe i followed; i should've written it down...psst! secret! - i filled these cupcakes with caramel!
 my chai cupcakes....i bought this chai powder thing from world market and added some to the cupcake batter. i should've put more in because i could barely taste it. and the cream cheese frosting was just an utter fail. i ran out of powdered sugar and resorted to....regular sugar! horrible. i think this was my first time making frosting... so that...will be my excuse.
eggy in a basket inspired by the movie V for Vendetta, except i cut it into a heart-shape instead of a circle, because hearts are way cuter!

 So now that we're all caught up, I'm going to start posting new things very soon, hopefully with full step-by-step pictures! 99% of the foods i make are from google! i google what i desperately want to bake/cook, and i scour through all the recipes, learning from other people's mistakes, as well as taking all their good advice on how to go about baking or cooking the food. some people are so amazed with what i make but the truth is, anyone can make great food; it's just a matter of light reading on google and figuring out what to do and not to do. so hopefully after reading this, you'll google your favorite food and try cooking it from scratch :]