Feta Green Onion Waffles

Well I was looking at this recipe for cheddar onion biscuits and they just looked so darn good. Scrambling around my kitchen I found myself some feta cheese and green onions and bisquick, perfect for a savory snack. These were so good, I made myself another batch this morning.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/4 c Feta Cheese
• 1 c Bisquick Mix
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 t vegetable oil
• 1 green onion chopped
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 t freshly ground pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg,and then add all other ingredients. Mix until well combined.
3. Place mix on waffle iron, should make about 2 waffles. Cook 1 minute longer than normal waffles on your iron.

Feel free to top with some more feta cheese crumbles.

Mini Strawberry Tarts

Peter came over and since he lacks any kitchen accoutrements at his dorm, we decided to satisfy his cravings for some home cooking. We had some fresh strawberries on hand, time, and a hankering for sugar. Since we were waiting for food to be delivered (from ATE Comfort, super yummy and cheap in the San Diego area) He called his mommy, and she gave us a pastry crust recipe. I googled and found a custard recipe. Good teamwork.

Tart Crust

• 1 cup flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 T Sugar
• 1/4 t orange peel (optional)
• 4 oz unsalted butter
• 1 T Water
• 1/2 t vanilla
• handful chocolate chips

1. Mix dry ingredients together
2. Cut butter into dry ingredients
3. Add water and vanilla
4. Mix until holds together
5. Refrigerate for ~20 minutes until cold
6. Divide up dough into 6 equal parts. Press dough ball into muffin pan with fingers. Push to cover bottom and sides. Try to make it an even thickness ~1/4 in.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. You might want to check after 10 minutes.
8. Put chocolate on bottom while still warm. Spread chocolate out on bottom when melted.

Strawberry Filling

• 1.5 cups fresh strawberries
• 3 T sugar

1. Cut strawberries into slices
2. Sprinkle sugar on top, and mix

Custard Sauce

• 1 c Milk
• 1/4 c Sugar
• 3 Egg yolks
• Ice

1. Heat milk and sugar until simmering, without stirring.
2. Take off heat, add slowly to beaten egg yolks
3. Return to burner, and let mixture thicken until coats back of spoon. Be careful not to overheat and cook the egg.
4. Take off heat and stir over ice until cool
5. Place in fridge until cold,

Tart Assembly:

1. Wait until the tart shells are cooled off.
2. Spoon a bit of custard into the bottom of each shell.
3. Assemble strawberry slices on top. If you can do it artfully congratuations, if you can't it's still yummy.

Makes 6 mini strawberry tarts.

You'll probably have a lot of leftover custard, mmm. Put on ice cream, dessert, or your spoon.

Strawberry Scones & Cupcake Craziness

I like alliteration.

But that really doesn't have anything to do with this post besides the title.

Anyway, I didn't cook much at all this past week because it was busy-busy-busy and I still suck at time management.  I did eat a lot of salad and hard-boiled eggs.  But I -did- manage to bake a couple things (real food? pshhhhaw...), and will now share them (or at least, photos of them) here~  Two recipes to recommend today:

First off...

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream Frosting~

Recipe from: Joy the Baker

The recipe lists all "organic" ingredients, but my (monetary) resources are somewhat limited, and I gotta move everything outta the apartment in a month or so, so buying a whole new *organic!* set of ingredients would have been...stupid.

Otherwise, both recipes were quite simple and reliable! :D
About the buttercream: What I adorrred the most, is that it doesn't use powdered (confectioner's) sugar!!  Instead, the frosting is thickened with a milk-flour mixture.  When making the milk-flour mixture, it doesn't ever actually need to boil; you just need to heat it until it's steaming a little, and it'll thicken up just fine.  I did notice that after a day or so in the fridge there was a bit of a not-so-smooth crystallization thing happening that probably doesn't happen with confectioner's sugar based frostings (don't really know, I don't usually make frosting...), but taste was still fine.  Compared to store-bought and other frosting recipes, it's not as sweet, but I still found it pleeeenty sweet enough.

 I made these on Easter day (4/4/10), so these were decorated to go with that lovely commercial-Easter kinda theme.  They were also frosted with some Betty Crocker vanilla whipped frosting I picked up at Safeway a while back, instead of the rose.

Concerning rosewater (that's how you get rose flavoring in the buttercream): You can get a nice, 12-oz (I think..) bottle of it at Whole Foods for $3.99 (or was it $2.99?  either way, less than $5).  That's cheaper than an itsy-bitsy bottle of vanilla at some places (definitely cheaper by-the-ounce than anywhere else).  Wow.  And it feels like such a luxurious, gourmet flavoring~  Don't try drinking it straight, though.  Please, please trust me on this.  Seriously.  Don't.

...and another set decorated with the vanilla store-bought frosting.  I gave these to some of the sophomore guys in my fellowship--the chocolate cake is our sinful lives before Christ, the red sugar the drops of blood Jesus shed, the white frosting the forgiveness and grace with which He purifies and covers our sins, and the egg representative of new life in Him.  Complex, cheesy (not in actual, physical taste! just in meaning), and...eggy all at once.  Yeah, I'm aware that the toppings look like bloody fried eggs...

and to finish...

Strawberry Scones! ^^

Recipe from: Confessions of a Tart (cute name, yeah? XD)

These were the first shaped/cut/then-baked scones I've made in a couple years.. you know, where you pat the dough into a circle and then cut triangle slices out to bake..?  yeah.  I usually just do drop scones because it's a lot easier and much less messy.  But I had a lot of extra strawberries, and I figured, as a scone-lover, I really ought to give these a try..

They were pretty yummy, and really not as much of a pain as I'd imagined (even the cutting in little butter cubes part).  The strawberries were quite juicy, and it all turned out rather tasty~

*J2 Special!* Strawberry Coffee Cake

This entry is special!

Why so special?

Because it's the first one we've made together this year AND uploaded to the blog. :D

Strawberry Coffee Cake, recipe from Joy the Baker

yayyy~ :'D

Look it's so puffy! Look it's so sweet. Look, I am hungry all over again.

Back to the Book - Cloverleaf Rolls & Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

There's something oddly comforting about using recipes that (wow this is going to sound so 20th century) come from a book.  Or print resource (i.e., magazine).  NOT from allrecipes, NOT from epicurious, NOT from someone else's foodblog.  So weird..

 try to ignore the mirrored text.  yay for free browser-based webcam apps.

Seeing the method/photos/commentary on someone else's blog makes me feel way more reassured and trusting about the recipe they recommend, though.  Whereas when it comes from a book, you get maybe a couple sentences of intro/commentary, a perfect result picture/photo (haha, step-by-step, those books are...more expensive), and a supposed assurance of recipe-testing because, yeah, this did make it to print, right?  That strange tendency to believe in solid things..

Anyway, enough rambling!  The following recipes are both from real books.  Like, the book was open while I was cooking!  In the kitchen, on the counter, getting splattered by batter!  CRAZY, I know.
(I was going to copy the recipe WORD for WORD, but then I realized that was, like, plagiarism.  You know, that thing that makes a 10-page paper worthless, screws your academic record up forever, bad-bad-bad, etc. hmmmmm.  Err I'm no awesome recipe writer, so this is still going to be sort of word-for-word, and then where there are more words, i'll use my own.  oookay.)

Rosemary Redundancy

I'm terrible at clever titles, so I really ought to stop trying. >_>;;;

Anyyyway, this commonality in this batch of recipes is...ROSEMARY.  mmmm.  very...fragrant.  yeah.  kinda minty.  often featured in scalp washes.  but uhh that's not what I used my $2.69 (+tax!!) little .75 oz (not even a full ounce!!) box of the herb (no, not that kind of herb) for.

1) Rosemary Bread - this was the main reason I bought rosemary.  I reeeally wanted to try baking bread from scratch, this recipe had pretty decent reviews and a nice picture (yeah, photos really can matter), so..I did it. 8D  Probably because this was my first time baking bread (allll by myself), the results, though lovely-smelling, were kinda so-so on taste/texture levels--a little too dense, not much flavor.  Probably could've used more kneading.  In all honesty, it was mediocre, and one of my first thoughts was: "I'll stick to store-bought".  It did make really good toast, though (like on reviewer on allrecipes mentioned, haha..).  Less of a sandwich bread, far more suited to soup-dipping.  Which leads rather nicely into...

2) Creamy Potato with Rosemary Soup - AHHHH.  it was good.  (need I say more?  not really, but I will, hahaha.)  I eventually might also add it to a possible post, perhaps titled "Adventures in Immersion Blending: Going Outside the Canister".  Or I might never write that post.
Anyway, this soup is awesomely-amazingly thick and creamy.  it's kind of like liquidy (in the best way possible) mashed potatoes.  I happen to like mashed potatoes, so this really worked for me. :P  It's a bit of a fatty, starchy soup, though (well yeah, "creamy", duh), and time-consuming to make; I'd use it again for a special occasion.
note: expect more potatoes in future posts.  I bought a 10-lb bag of them, on sale, at Safeway for $0.99.  Less than a week later, 5-lb bag is for $3-4.  :)

3) Rosemary Lemon Cookies - most delicious shortbread I've been able to bake. probably thanks to an excellent recipe.  ^o^  The only thing I did differently from the instructions was to add half a teaspoon of peppermint extract (was going to use it for peppermint bark, but never got around to it with finals and all...).  There's still one more log in the freezer, so maybe I'll have more cookies to enjoy (with half the effort!) in a week or two~~

Recipe Recommendations [I]

Not everything I make comes from the amazing, fermented brilliance of my mind.

In fact, quite a lot of it originates in other people's recipes, especially those of the huuuuge community at Allrecipes.com~

here are some of the things I've made from there that are worth trying for yourself :D

1. Gingersnaps!  they don't snap, but they're sweet, spicy, and deliciousss
   
2. Soft Sugar Cookies IV -- ahh they're kinda cakey.  really yummy~~
3. Rasberry and Almond Shortbread Thumbprints -- oooh they're rather buttery.  but an excellent, homemade substitution for those knott's jelly-filled cookies i used to often buy from the vending machines at school.
4. Easy Fruit Cobbler -- made this with apple slices leftover from an apple pie~  a very bread-like base, and i'd like to try it again with peaches or some other fruit..maybe plums?  mmm..
5. Black Magic Cake -- AHHH it's wonderful.  and wonderfully easy.  definitely making it again, and trying it with frosting~  (last time it was totally finished even w/o, kept fairly moist for 3-4 days, maybe more!)
   
6. Quiche Lorraine -- haha, it's not sweet or a cookie.  it's SAVORY and supersuper good.  also very easy, and open to modification, like adding spinach~
7. Chicken and Apple Curry -- i made a couple modifications, like cooking it on the stovetop and chopping the chicken breasts into cubes, but the heart and taste of the recipe was still there.  my first successful curry ♥
8. Caramelized Pork Slices -- a little bit sweet, but still quite good.  I'd make it again :)
9. Spam Musubi --It's so simple that you really only need the recipe the first time; the marinade was tasty, but since i'm usually kinda pressed for time, i don't mind frying the sliced spam straight-from-the-can; also, as long as you're using a non-stick pan, you don't really need oil to fry spam...it's plenty greasy on its own..

click to see full-size! :D

Notes:

• I never use shortening or margarine... if they're in any recipe, i always replace them with butter.  I do so because shortening scares me, and butter somehow scares me less by being uhhh "natural".  it just seems easier to trust. :P
• The recipes listed here are simple & ones I haven't made much modification to; they can be followed pretty much as-is (or by reading one or two of the reviews); only the butter thing, halving recipe yields (i usually only cook for 1 person...and for one person to finish everything...too much, yeah?), and ummm dropping-out-spices-because-i-don't-have-them

I went through a whole pound of butter in about one week.
((just thought I'd mention it.))

Pumpkin Mochi

I ♥ Daiso's $1.50 SUPERcute cookware~

Mochi is delicious. Cake is delicious. Pumpkin is delicious (and wonderfully appropriate to the autumn season~).

Something that combines all three? 3x the deliciousness! Plus, it's really easy to make. :D

Recipe from Allrecipes.com : http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Mochi/Detail.aspx

I followed the recipe nearly exactly--my only two changes were:

1. I added the mochiko (rice flour) mixture to the liquid-y ingredients; ever since a certain experiment with making nian gao (rice cake), I realized it's a lot easier to mix stuff when you add the dry to the liquid. There may be times where you shouldn't do this, but mochi is not one of those times.
2. I baked some of the batter in little star-shaped souffle dishes (see picture); these took about 30 minutes in my toaster oven @ 375°F (temp. from recipe). There was still pleeeenty of batter left for the 9x13 pan.
   

Scones

Cranberry Scones

This scone recipe is really easy to make, really easy to modify, and yields results most delicious when eaten warm from the oven (or microwave)~ It only takes [me...and I'm slow..] about an hour (20 minutes of that being bake-time where you can wash the dishes or finish last homework or something), so you can bake them in the morning for a fresh breakfast. To speed up the process, prepare the mix of dry ingredients the night before.
Reference: All Recipes - Blueberry Scones

Servings: approximately 12 three-inch diameter scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 cup white sugar, plus a little more for later
  
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, chilled
• 3/4 to 1 cup dried cherries, cranberries, some kinda small fruit pieces
  
• 3/4 cup half-and-half cream
• 1 1/2 tbsp almond OR vanilla extract
  
• 1 egg

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Mix flour, sugars, baking powder and salt in a medium-large bowl. Cut the butter into these dry ingredients (I use two knives and just kinda chop at it until it all looks very crumbly). Stir in the fruity bits so that they're distributed somewhat evenly in the mixture.
3. In a separate, smaller bowl, beat together the cream and egg, adding in the flavoring extract when almost mixed. Slowly pour these liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, and gently stir until the wet and dry are well mixed. At this point, it'll look and feel pretty sticky.
4. Take a spoon and start dropping spoonfuls onto a parchment-covered (or else ungreased, but hopefully nonstick) baking sheet. Space the blobs apart a little because they do spread 1/2" to 3/4". When done dropping the scone batter, sprinkle the tops with sugar, then pop them into the oven to bake for about 18 - 20 minutes.

And that's it~ Eat them warm with butter, jam, etc. They keep for at least 3 - 4 days (perhaps more in a refrigerator?). Microwave cold scones for about 10 seconds to bring back to original tastiness.

Cherry Almond Scone