Get ready for diabetes!

I feel like.... I haven't been true to myself lately. I am, at the very core, a baker. I love to bake. The most unfortunate thing about baking is having it sit around for days and days. If no one eats what I bake within the first couple of days, it calls my name from the kitchen and slowly but surely it gets piled onto my .... well you get the picture.

I'm in Houston for a few weeks, and I thought I needed to take advantage of a spacious, fully stocked kitchen, equipped with an amazing sink that makes dirty dishes disappear as I work. (Ok ok the magical sink has my daddio behind it, cleaning as I make every dish in their kitchen dirty.... I think it's an even trade)

So I thought: I'd tackle the bane of my existence, the cobbler. It's rather simplistic. Just berries, or peaches, or whatever kind of fruit filling. And..... crust. Oh that buttery flaky crust that I can't seem to get just right. And my number one critic? One Matthew Taliaferro. He doesn't ask for much, ever, so when he asked for cobbler many years ago, I knew I HAD to make it. First try was an epic fail and I've been scared to try it since. I'm just so much better at brownies.....

So here it is.

Let me share a little background about crusts, if you've never made it before. The key is that you want the butter to be super cold, and you cut it into tiny pieces, about the size of peas, into the flour. This can be done with knives (fail) your hands (even more fail) or a food processor, which is what I did this time around. I think my butter chunks were still too big. You want there to be chunks in your dough when you put it in the oven so that it will hit the heat and melt, giving your crust that flakiness that everyone loves. Mine wasn't quite flaky, but you sure could taste the buttery goodness, so I guess I can't complain. And the blackberries this summer are amazing!!!!


Next. In honor of the World Cup and my intense sweet tooth, I thought I needed some brownies. I ended up with a slightly different recipe that is nothing short of wonderfully rich. It's Chocolate Gingerbread, if you can imagine such a thing. It's made with molasses and the typical spices of gingerbread, with plenty of cocoa and chocolate chips. Oh it's good.

Want some?

I must add a sidenote on this Bundt cake. I had a My Big Fat Greek Wedding moment asking for the Bundt pan......

L: Mummy where's the Bundt pan?
Mom: Huh? Butt?
L: Haha, funny. No really, your Bundt pan.
M: Chee chee? ((the equivalent to what in Farsi)) Bund? A pan?
L: Ohhhh, eetsaCAKE!
M: Ohhh, Bundt cake! The one with the hole. ((in Farsi))


Finally.... I made banana bread. Now I'm sure you're asking, why on earth would you attempt three desserts in one evening (starting at 9 pm no less) when you have no party to take these to and you'll end up eating them yourself? Well, I made banana bread a few weeks ago, and before I even got to have a second taste my mom had them wrapped up and frozen. You know, for later. WHAT ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

Next thing I know, there's a bowl of 6 rotting bananas in the refrigerator.

So I made banana bread again, and I will likely make MORE before I leave for Dallas in two weeks. Just because that's how we roll here. But I can make it with my eyes closed, so here you go:

Notice my attempt at food artistry with the bananas next to the banana bread. I'm so clever.



On a final note. Ruby likes ChickFilA.

Scotland: The Food Edition

For Spring Break, I had the amazing opportunity to visit my sister while she was working in Edinburgh, Scotland. My family and I went for two weeks. And of course, one of my MAIN focuses was the food. I think it's the best way to experience anywhere.

Our very first dinner after we had just arrived - gotta be fish 'n' chips. There was a little place right across the street from Afsan's (my sister's) flat (aka apartment). Also - they call takeout "takeaway" there. We got some with the mysterious brown sauce - that is so heavenly. It wasn't super greasy and the batter on the fish was just crispy enough. Their chips... (what we call fries they call chips, what we call chips they call crisps - it's all English but feels like a foreign language!) are thicker cut, which I actually really liked. I fooled myself into thinking they were "healthier" - you know, less surface area to soak up grease. Right??

Dear Costa, Please come to America? Love, Ladan.

Costa = Starbucks in Scotland, except sooo much better. There was one Costa that sat on top of a bunch of stores on Princes Street, the main busy street where it's always hoppin. It also overlooks a bunch of hills, parks, and castles.. I sat there and had a tea and sketched for a little while. SO peaceful!!! Here we have a hazelnut latte and a rocky road cupcake. My sister knows me so well.....

Another food perk about Afsan's flat: there was a "Cheesemonger" shop literally... 100 years away. Oh man, I was in heaven. They had some of the most delicious cheeses I have ever tasted (and I've tasted alot). Since we had been eating out alot, we decided one night to have a light dinner... so healthy! We had brie, two other different kinds of cheeses (I forgot), fruits.... and well you can see. Those round cracker looking things are called Oatcakes. Not sure how it's made, but it's an ESSENTIAL with their delicious cheeses. I could eat this for lunch every day.

TEACAKES! The very first night we were there, Afsan said she had some teacakes for us. If you know me I have a crazy intense sweet tooth, but for some reason a "teacake" didn't seem like it would hit the spot, so I ate Girl Scout cookies instead. Little did I know......

It's like a S'more inside!! It's covered with chocolate, and at the bottom is a graham cracker with a marshmallow on top! SO delicious, and they sell them everywhere.... a box of 6 is about 1.20 (pounds). Mmmm.

We got this crepe from a street cart vendor. The way he made it kinda reminded me of something similar that I had in China. This had spinach, mushrooms, one egg, and CHEESE on the inside. My goodness it was delicious. I took my parents back to get some, too :)

What a fatty. Right after we ate crepes, Afsan wanted to go out of our way (we were on our way to the Pound Stretcher) to get french fries. I was thinking, ok, she's going to get a small fries, or even a medium. No. She went for the Super Jumbo. I think it was 2 pounds. And then she got persnickety when I went in for a taste or two. She's lookin all stylish ...... with her bag of Burger King. 2x4!!

Frommer's had suggested Clarinda's Tea Room, so we decided to check it out. It was the most adorable little place! All the tables had fancy table cloths and the decorations were so quaint. We, of course, had tea for three (Afsan was at work) and a few sweets. The sweet in bottom right hand corner is called Caramel Shortbread (I think). It's basically a hard sugar cookie on the bottom, then a layer of caramel, then chocolate on top. Even for my sweet tooth it was a little intense. But lovely.

My dad loved the scones. And who wouldn't? They truly knew how to put in those butter pieces to make it oh-so-flaky. And look how fancy the whipped cream (?) and jam is. They take their tea time very seriously in Scotland.

Another dinner night in... this is me trying to make an appetizer of bread (fresh baguette from the Cheesemonger!) with fresh melted cheese... Miss 2x4 couldn't wait for them to be melted in the oven so she was trying to grab them from me.

Salad, ravioli with rocket (some greens that looked like arugula), and salmon. I'm not sure how I made the salmon.... olive oil, soy sauce, honey, and mustard on top then baked in the oven. It ended up working out!

Afsan found nachos at a pizza place right down the street from her flat. Looks pretty generic but the chips and the cheese were way different. And by different I mean amazing. It tasted healthier. Or maybe once again I was fooling myself....

Mama A. loves her tea. She believed it tasted so much better when it was served in your own personal tea pot.

I was obsessed with the "pies" that they had in Scotland. This one was a Beef and Ale pie. Savory, not sweet. There was a really rich brown gravy inside that had flavors I had never tasted before. Perfect crust. I might attempt a pie of my own..... details to come.

This was some fancy broccoli & cheese soup.

Oh Costa, how I miss you so.... I would love to spend my Sunday afternoons with a tea service like this. No wonder European life is so much more relaxing.

So, Afsan doesn't work in Edinburgh.. she works in Livingston, about 30 minutes away. One of her co-workers suggested she get the Chicken Curry and Chips. You take chips and pour this delicious chicken curry over it. Even though it was slightly soggy by the time she got home, it was so delicious. We had this right before getting on the train to go to London. Talk about food coma.

Finally, London! Our first stop was Portobello Road/Notting Hill.... we walked through the marketplace that Hugh Grant walked through & it was changing seasons (amazing scene). And it was filled with delicious FOOD! We would barely swallow one dish & already be ordering another.

This was a hot dog place that we went to.. beef hot dogs, no less! It had some onions and crunchy stuff on top. Might give Chicago a run for its money.... luckily I will be able to judge that for myself come July!

Seafood PAELLA!!! Those are the largest pots/pans that I have ever seen! This vendor had a line waiting for 20 minutes for the paella to be ready.

We found a bookshop that catered to cooks. So naturally, I had to go in. And of course a shop that is filled with books about food absolutely has to have food outside. We got a lemon cupcake that apparently had just recently won an award in a baking competition. I was a believer. We also bought fresh raspberries (because my mom felt like we should at least eat something healthy, or pretend to).

Bruschetta! When Afsan first moved to Edinburgh, she asked me how to make bruschetta because she saw it on Julie/Julia. Or heard about it. This stuff was really great (I think the bread was what made it perfect). Added bonus: we saved one of the breads & ate it during the intermission of Wicked. Oh we went there.

Found our kindreds right as we were leaving London.. had to get some Zool-bee-ah - one of my favorite Iranian sweets, and a definite must around Noruz! (Persian New Year)

Ok so.. this might be cheating. I am very much the kind of person who really wants to experience culture through food, and I find myself very willing to try new, and perhaps unusual foods. After having donkey in China, I realized you really can't judge the food by the animal it comes from.

I had a true Scottish breakfast at a little cafe. Well ok, maybe not true: the sausage and haggis is vegetarian. But at least I tried.

Another big thing in Scottish/English breakfasts is mushrooms and tomatoes. I'm not complaining! The bread was sundried tomato bread. Slurp!

GREYFRIAR'S BOBBY! Our very last dinner in Edinburgh. We went to a very famous restaurant/pub. Like everything else, it was within 10 minutes walking distance of Afsan's flat.

Bangers & Mash aka Lamb Sausage & mashed potatoes. I think it had some sort of apricot sauce on it. The lamb sausage had some really intense flavoring/seasonings, but still overall quite good.

I could not resist one last pie. This one was Chicken and Leek pie, which was by far my favorite of the two. It had a lighter gravy/sauce on the inside. Give me this + fresh cheese every day for the rest of my life.. and I'm a happy camper.

The FINALE: Treacle Tart.

Yes, the very same treacle tart that you read about in Harry Potter and drooled over and thought, is that something real, or did JK Rowling make it up so that my stomach would growl unnecessarily at 2 am when I should be sleeping and not reading Harry Potter? Well, it is a real dessert, and it tastes just as good as it sounds! There were some berries underneath the ice cream and we couldn't quite figure out what they were but they went perfectly with the tart/pie. It was rather sweet but didn't taste like anything but... sugar. It was slightly warm and really put the perfect ending onto an amazing trip.

Thanks to Afsan for being an amazing host. And thanks to Edinburgh for being my favorite city in Europe!! (so far)

Asian Hummus!

Wow it's been a while since I've posted on here. Well anyway, I just wanted to share the fact that you can substitute edamame for chickpeas when you make hummus. Just buy the already shelled edamame from the frozen veggies section - you can even find them ready to put in the microwave. It's so good and I can't even tell the difference except it's green. Remember, edamame is a complete protein, while chickpeas are not!

Holiday cooking

I always think I'm going to cook/bake more over the holidays than I actually do. I think I cook out of necessity and I bake to procrastinate. Over the holidays, neither seems to apply - I'm busy being lazy/visiting friends and family that we mostly eat out or get home cooked meals, and there's nothing to procrastinate on (hooray!)

Nonetheless, I did make two meals for my main squeeze, Mr Taliaferro, who visited over break. They are as follows:

These were both towards the end of break, and Matt and I could never decide on what we wanted to eat. So we just decided to hit the grocery store and see what inspired us. The salmon is cooked the same way that I did in my previous recipe, with the spices mixed directly in the oil at the bottom of the pan.

The tortellini was store bought - I wish I could make those! But we added some to them: mushrooms and zucchini, sauteed with onions and garlic and some dried mint added at the end. The salad was simple - baby spinach with avocados, green bell peppers, tomatoes, with olive oil and red wine vinegar on top. All of this, including prep, took less than an hour.

Inspired by this success, we cooked again the following night. Chicken with pasta. The pasta recipe was one of my daily recipes e-mailed to me by the Food Network, found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/eating-well/broccoli-rabe-white-bean-amp-fontina-pasta-recipe/index.html?nl=ROTD_010410_3

Instead of broccoli rabe, which I couldn't find in Kroger, I used baby spinach that we had leftover from our salads. For the chicken, I cut up two chicken breasts into tender sized pieces (make them thin so they cook quickly.. mine needed to be thinner). Then I used store-bought plain bread crumbs mixed with salt and pepper to make a batter. I dipped the chicken in one egg slightly whisked with some milk, then into the bread crumb mixture. I just pan fried it with a little oil. Again, less than an hour! Delicious dinner for two people.

My sister has pictures of what I baked for New Year's Eve: red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and s'more brownies. Pictures to come........


OMG IT IS SO COLD OUTSIDE!

Another way to cook salmon

So, I got home from volleyball today and I was exhausted. I wanted a quick dinner that was healthy but flavorful. I love taking a long time to cook (like I mentioned before, it's my favorite procrastination), but I also realized I should be taking this time to practice for real life (because let's be honest, med school is no where near reality) for when I come home and I'm exhausted but I still need to make dinner.

THUS; My salmon recipe.

I took this mix of spices that my mom gave me; it was an Indian spice mix - I think it was "Biryani" - but I think it's one of those things where who knows what's in it. But it was probably curry powder, cumin, turmeric - that kind of thing. I put some oil (half canola, half olive oil.. probably should use all canola since I pan fried my fish) and I put the spices into the oil and mixed it around. Usually I dip my fish in whatever spices/flour mixture I have. But this way, the fish picked up a very light layer of delicious spices, and the oil didn't really soak into the fish.

The salmon I used was frozen, but I had defrosted it from yesterday. I dried them off and gave them a light dusting of cornstarch (could use flour too) just so that it would get a nice crust. I put them into the pan, for about 5-6 minutes on each side. I tented them with foil when they came off as I finished my sides. It turned out, just beautifully. With the potatoes and broccoli, I was done in under 30 minutes.

I love cooking.

Btw, those are purple potatoes. They taste just like normal potatoes, but they were so little and cute (and on sale at Whole Foods) so I got them.

I also had a little avocado - but my veggies are dressed with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and some olive oil. I feel so healthy just thinking about it.

Oatmeal!

Wow. It's been a while since I've posted on here. Luckily Ladan is taking some initiative with the amazing post below....such good times.

I've been craving oatmeal for a while now. I will be trying to do oatmeal in my rice cooker. Apparently it's easy but it seems that everyone is talking about having a very large rice cooker so that the oatmeal can expand. We'll see if my little tugboat can handle the pressure soon.

Mission: steel cut oats, honey, dried cherries, and pumpkin spice.

The holidays: Eat, get fat, and be merry

I love food and I love the holidays. Luckily both go together, so it's like extra happiness. Jason and I have neglected our foodie duties, but my only excuse was we were too busy eating. You'll see what I mean....

The weekend after Cardio (my life is broken up into 3 week blocks that coincide with exams) four of us decided to hit up the Symphony to Rachmaninov it up. Me, JLiu, Joye, and Lee. We decided to eat dinner beforehand and quite spoiled ourselves at the Porch. (www.theporchrestaurant.com) I highly recommend it:

My meatloaf with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes. Like. Heaven.

Joye's salmon!

Lee's... ribs I think? Whatever it was, it smelled great. There was silence for about ten minutes while we stuffed our faces.. we resurfaced to have a conversation after those first ten minutes of silence.

Jason will have to post his plate later :) We also decided to go for pecan pie and s'mores for dessert. We did NOT regret that at all. The pecan pie was possible the best pecan pie I've ever had. Some people may not like pecan pie because it's too sweet, or for me, it's just way too thick AND too sweet. I usually have one bite and then I'm done with it. This pie was so light and so fluffy and just sweet enough - the pecans crumbled down once you put your fork to it. I can't wait to go back and see what else they have to offer.

Our only beef with the place - no bread! We wanted to be happily stuffed going into the Symphony... our plates were definitely big, and I was full, but I wanted to be painfully full. That's the best kind. It's like you really got your money's worth.

New opera house in Dallas!

Afterwards, we went and got chicken and waffles at Victor Tango's.. we'll go back another time and get pictures. But really, pictures don't even do this dish justice.. breaded chicken and maple syrup aren't exactly the picture perfect combination. Add in gravy and I'm thinkin this dish got assembled in my stomach instead of on the plate. But really, somehow, it WORKS! And it's wonderfully delicious. Especially after a classy dinner and classy symphony.....

Now, on to........ THANKSGIVING!

Last year we had a great gathering for Thanksgiving dinner before all of us scattered to spend the holidays with our families. Again this year, it was potluck style, and no one held anything back. Kudos to JLiu for the pristine and delicious turkey! Looks just like on the Food Network...

Annnnd the sides.. my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the sides. Better yet, my favorite part of any meal is the sides. Usually when we go out to eat, I don't have a particular craving for anything. So I look at the sides. No sides = deal breaker. (see above meat loaf.. I just wanted the mashed potatoes.. meat loaf was an added bonus)

Mashed sweet potatoes

Cranberries (I think JLiu/Queezy?)

Potatoes au gratin (JoJoyce)

Mashed potatoes

Cornbread

(me and Huay)

The cornbread was supposed to have jalapenos in it, but they were not put into my basket at Kroger :(

Sweet potato gnocchi with honey sage brown butter sauce

(me)

Onion pancakes - Jerry

(who kept complaining that they were getting soggy bc we waited too long - but they were still good!)

Mmmmmacaroni and cheese with hidden squash

-Emily!

Stuffing by me and Huay.

I took parsley, green onions, one yellow onion, and garlic, chopped it up (well Huay did that!) and sauteed it. I took a box of stuffing mix and combined it with the sauteed greens. I had some beef stock left over so I added that. I also got the turkey neck from Jason and browned it, adding water as needed (it sticks to the bottom, even with oil). Then, I.... well, Huay picked out the bits of meat from the neck and we discarded the bone. Mixed it up with one or two eggs, put it in a pan, and bake for 15-20 minutes until the top is dry. Bake around 375 degrees. Broil for a little bit if you need the top to brown.

 

Uhhh... my first plate. Which I inhaled. And went back for seconds.

A feast isn't a feast without desserts.. and desserts we had!

Pumpkin bread pudding with Cool Whip (me)

[Not gonna lie.. towards the end of the night I just took a spoon to the Cool Whip. Don't judge me.]

Kudos to Raj for the cherry pie! I don't really like pie but this was really great. Especially the shot of pure sugar right on top. No wonder I was able to stay up til 4 am...

And I don't have a picture of Joye's brownies, but I'm pretty sure those were snacked on all night.

All in all, a successful second annual Thanksgiving eat-a-thon. We had a great thanksgiving dinner at home, but definitely not as many side dishes/desserts anddd .. it was way healthier. Which is ok, I think my body needed a break.

Looking forward to the good eats for December. :) Happy Holidays!! Enjoy a holiday latte... I'm all over the pumpkin spice latte......