I just crunched the numbers (although it feels like the numbers are crunching me) and we've got everything we need for the wedding and it's under budget! Hooray! Well, everything except our wedding bands which we aren't including in the budget because our rings are a gift to one another. But all the vendors and rentals all that are taken care of. Just a few more deposits to come up with, and all that's left to do is mail the invitations and wait to get married!

I made caramel apples today and they were amazing and I ate 2 and now I feel positively ill. Blergh.

I have a big, fat quiz on Monday. It would behoove me to study.

niftybitch, the health/fiber bars you had at your house last weekend were really tasty! We both liked them. I couldn't find a recipe that sounded at all similar...so I invented my own.

The results were quite satisfactory!

Dry ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup oatmeal
3 TB ground flax seed
2 TB hemp seed
1 ts cinnamon
1/2 ts nutmeg
1/2 baking soda

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 TB peanut butter
2 TB molasses
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 TB olive oil
6-7 pitted prunes, chopped

Other:

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat to 350

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside

In another bowl, whisk together wet ingredients until fully combined

Add half of the dry ingredients, mix to combine, then add the other half. When it's completely mixed together, fold in the chocolate chips.

Place batter in the greased baking dish of your choice. I highly recommend a nonstick brownie pan.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until toothpick/knife/whatever comes out clean

I made a really good toffee ice cream last night.


1 half-pint of heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 8-oz package of Heath toffee baking bits
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Step 1: Combine the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat to a near-boil, stirring to make sure sugar is completely melted. Transfer syrup to a bowl and let cool in the fridge.

Step 2: When the syrup is cooled, combine the cream, milk, vanilla, almond extract, and syrup pour in your ice cream maker. Use according to manufacturer's instructions (mine runs for 30 minutes).

Step 3: Add the package of heath bits when the mixture begins to thicken. For mine, this is about half way through the cycle.


So um, nothing noteworthy going on around here. I take my certification exam on August 8th, and will hopefully pass and get my CNA certificate and can be eligible to apply for jobs. I also either need to get Red Cross CPR certified or American Heart Association BLS certified, since either of those is usually required to work in a hospital. All of the Red Cross's CPR for the Professional Rescuer were filled for July though.
Ho hum. I now have a stomachache from that toffee ice cream I was raving about earlier.

In the past, I've always hated carrot cake. And then for some strange reason this afternoon I got this craving for carrot cake (??).

So, I made one!

This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Cake:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 teasp. baking soda
2 teasp. baking powder
2 teasp. cinnamon
2 teasp. nutmeg
1/2 teasp. cloves
1/2 teasp. salt
1 teasp. vanilla
1 cup vanilla soymilk
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups grated carrots

Bake 350 for 30-35 minutes depending on how your oven bakes. It's really important this not over-bake and dry out. If anything, it would be better to slightly underbake.

Frosting:
1 8-ounce package of fat free cream cheese
3 tablesp. honey
2 tablesp. butter or margarine (I use Earth Balance non-hydrogenated margarine)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Blend till blended then frost that beast!

In the hot hot summer I especially enjoy these "cold dinners" of fresh seasonal vegetables. Tomatoes, corn, butter beans, and asparagus with yogurt-mustard-garlic sauce.

Today Neko and I had lunch with a good friend we haven't seen since last year, since she's at grad school at Columbia in NYC. Since she's in San Jose, we agreed to meet half way in Dublin. While the Dublin/Pleasanton area seems to be home to every. single. chain restaurant in existence, I did manage to scope out a promising sounding Afghani restaurant I found on yelp. It got good reviews, and we'd never had Afghani food before, so Royal Afghan it was. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. It was a bit like Indian food but the flavors are milder and "cleaner", if that makes any sense. I had cauliflower in tomato broth and sauteed pumpkin slices in olive oil and yogurt. The restaurant was very pretty and the service was impeccable. So if you ever happen to find yourself in the area, I'd recommend this place.

I have two more finals to go. For my chem final, the professor has a tradition of having a pot-luck lunch while he grades your final exam so you'll know what grade you got for the semester (or at least a very good idea). I'm bringing some vegetarian lumpia from Best Lumpia. (and they do make the best!)

I'm looking forward to this month wrapping up and the new things in my life happening. My stepmom is coming to town at the end of May and we're going to do a tasting with the caterer for the wedding. And on June 2nd I start my CNA training! Eee! I hope I look good in scrubs and a stethoscope :)

I've settled on a recipe called ketchup soup. It's a lot better than it sounds.
It's based on Mark Bittman's recipe for soy broth noodle soup, found here.

When I read the recipe that called not much other than soy sauce and ketchup, I was really dubious, but the ingredients were so cheap and accesible I had to at least try it. And I'm really glad I did because it's awesome. Bittman says once you get the hang of it you'll probably want to make your own variation of it, and here's mine:

1 pound of whatever noodles you like: egg, soba, udon, bean threads, rice sticks
Broth:
6 cups of water
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 cloves minced garlic
4 or 5 thin slices of shallot
5 or 6 drops of "hot chili sesame oil" -this is just what this particular brand called it, but anything like it should be good
A few shakes of dried chili flakes
1 ts ground ginger
Half a boullion cube

Add ins:
Whatever veggies you want--I did a mix of frozen peas, green beans, corn, and carrots. I'm sure cabbage would be good.
Whatever precooked protein you want: tofu, fish, chicken, egg. I used baked tofu, cubed.
Fresh chopped cilantro and more slices of shallot, to top off your bowl

1. Combine all the "broth ingredients" together and bring to a simmer
2. Cook noodles seperately, according to package instructions
3. Add veggies and protein to broth, cook till heated through
4. Add cooked noodles to a bowl, ladle on broth, top with cilantro and shallot, another teaspoon of rice wine vinegar, and a couple squirts of that asian rooster ketchup (this is NOT the ketchup used in the broth. That's regular old ketchup. I have no idea what that Asian rooster ketchup is actually called, but most people seem to understand the term) , if you've got it handy.

It's brothy, savory, flavorful, makes-your-nose-run goodness.

I've been working on this recipe for a few weeks and I have something I feel has been consistently good enough to make it official.

Ingredients:

1/2 white onion, chopped
4 carrots, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup dry red lentils
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can diced tomatoes with liquid
2 qt stock (vegetable, chicken, whatever) [edited: originally put 1 qt, it's supposed to be 2)

Spices-
1 ts hot paprika
1 ts ground ginger
1/2 ts curry powder
1/4 ts dry ground mustard
1/2 ts ground coriander
1/2 ts ground marjoram
1/8 ts ground cloves
1/4 ts ground nutmeg
1 ts chili powder or cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in soup pot
2. Add onions, cook until translucent
3. Add carrots, cover, cook for 3 minutes or so
4. Add garlic, cook until garlic is fragrant, stirring frequently
5. Add stock, then lentils, and bring to a boil
6. Boil for 5-7 minutes or until lentils become soft and start to fall apart
Stir and scrape bottom of pot often, the lentils stick very quickly
7. Reduce to simmer, add spices, stir to incorporate
8. Add tomatoes and garbanzos
9. Simmer on low heat, partially covered, for about 45 minutes or until beans and vegetables are soft

Good with buttered toast

Cooking/baking accomplishments today:

-Made the tart shells from the pie crust I made last night
-Made the filling for the sweet potato tarts, filled said tarts, and baked said tarts
-Ended up with a surplus of sweet potato filling, so I added flour and baking powder to it and made sweet potato muffins with them. I think the baking powder has expired because I've noticed lately that my baked goods aren't rising very well. So they were sunken in, but pretty tasty
-Made the sugar cookie dough, that's resting in the fridge now
-Tofurky is roasting and the potatoes are stuffed and ready to be twicebaked

Just made chocolate chip cookies with pancake mix via the recipe provided on the side of the box. We're not too impressed. They're not bad, but not good either. They're too puffy and fluffy. Like pancakes. Gee, I wonder why.

EDIT: Neko discovers they're palatable with maple syrup. I should have just made blueberry pancakes.

I'm attempting to make a roux for my gumbo. I've never been very successful at making rouxs before because I'm not patient enough for it, but this time I'm gonna do it. I just wanted to know the butter to flour ratio and knew I could handle it from there, so I looked up a recipe on the food network, and most of them are from Emeril (that fake cajun!) and all his recipes called for vegetable oil for the fat. That guy really IS from Boston. For shame.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Strike out any items that you would never consider eating.




1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak Tartare
5. Crocodile (AND alligator) (Well, alligator. Not crocodile)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue (But I really want to!)
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich

14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns (Well, vegan ones...)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I've had mango lassi)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (sounds good though, I love clotted cream!)
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (just dirty vodka)
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (CLAY?? No thanks, I don't have pica)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I just made my first batch of chocolate chip cookies using this recipe from the New York Times. Patience is not really one of my virtues when it comes to baking (I'm always the one that frosts the cake too soon), but I made the dough Friday night and let it "rest" in the fridge for 36 hours just the recipe said to. The only changes I made to the recipe were that I did not use the cake and bread flours (I just used the unbleached flour I already had on hand), but I did go out and buy 12 ounces of 60% cacao chocolate instead of regular chocolate chips. They were in bar form, so I just chopped it up myself. I also didn't sprinkle them with sea salt before baking because the dough (I'm a notorious raw dough eater) seemed salty enough.

The results: Flippin' amazing. I'm in love. I've always used the recipe on the back of toll house chocolate chip bags, and those always came out airy and tasteless. I'd often wondered if it was something I'd done wrong, but apparently their recipe just sucks. I read that originally, the toll house recipe included the 24+ hour resting period, but was eventually scrapped, probably they figured the recipe would be less popular requiring that delay. According to all the cookie experts, the resting period really makes the huge difference, because it gives the dough time to absorb all the ingredients thoroughly.

Now I have three dozen cookies to go straight to my ass! Woot!

I wanted soooo bad to stay for karaoke at Beka's party last night but damn that antihistamine! I could barely keep my eyes open to eat the birthday cake! Neko and Eden escorted me home last night where I promptly fell onto my bed and slept for 10 hours.