Making the transition…
Check me out at WordPress now. :)
Double Chocolate Cookies :)
(AND some mushy, gushy stuff about home. If you’re just here for the cookies, you might want to skip the first four paragraphs. :)
Winter Quarter has commenced for only two weeks now, and already I long for break. I miss the relaxing days of being able to wake up whenever my body wants to, when the only things I occupied myself with were running, reading, baking, and laughing with my brother, Alan, until I fell on the floor. As much as I love school, research, work, and simply just being on campus, living such an unstructured life is incredibly refreshing every once in a while.
Before Winter Break, I hadn’t visited Portland for over six months—the longest duration I’ve spent away from “home”. I was on campus doing research over the summer, visited my sister in Salt Lake City for the last three weeks of summer, and spent Thanksgiving Break in Ohio. It had hardly crossed my mind how much I might’ve miss Portland; As the loads of work get more and more massive, and the amount of sleep I get becomes infinitesimal, I feel like I get too busy to remember to miss home. When I landed in Portland in mid-December, everything felt remarkably foreign. But the moment Alan greeted me at the MAX stop downtown, it all felt like home again (oh, the hallucinating homeless man who started yelling nonsense at us two blocks down the street, and the pack of over 50 Santas marching around town chanting “HO! HO! HO! HO!” certainly helped, too ;).
The reason why I put “home” in quotations the first time around was because, just last year, I was torn over where I considered “home” to be. I felt like this was an essential thing to know, and it was a pertinent piece of information I couldn’t provide for myself. I felt like I was being torn in a million directions: Is my home in Portland, where most of my family is? Or is it in Salt Lake City, where my sister hosts me for an extended period of time every year? Or is it on campus, where I spend 3/4 of time? Last year, I finally grew comfortable with calling Stanford my home—just like any other Stanford student would. But even then, I was still torn, because flying from one place to another and living out of a suit case really gets you thinking about this kind of thing. And not too long ago, I finally found an answer: I have multiple homes. I have multiple places I can travel to, unravel, feel comfortable, and be surrounded by familiar things and familiar people. I used to think I was underprivileged, because I felt like a nomad who didn’t have a single place where I owned a bed and a closet (that I didn’t have to evacuate every year). But that’s not what makes a home. And I’m far from underprivileged—I feel like the luckiest person in the world! Having so many places I can go to and feel “at home” is easily one of the best feelings in the world. :)
Winter Break was made wonderful by my big brother and best friend (let’s just say we’re BROS, yo), Alan, who devoured all the cookies and pancakes I made with a smile on his face, while tolerating my borderline terrifying obsession with Entourage; my oldest brother, Adam, who I got to celebrate and greet the new year with (by far, the most AWESOME new years celebration I’ve ever had); my older sister, Linh, who joined us in Portland/Seattle for a few days before Christmas; and my mom and grandma, who I swear never change (yes, they’re consistently crazy), and never fail to feed me the best food and funniest stories. I love my family, and wherever they are are places I’ll always consider home. :)
Okay, enough cheese. On to the suga’!
I made these cookies for Alan as a parting gift, and a big huge thanks for his hospitality over Winter Break. :)
I used my go-to recipe for chocolate cookie dough, and used chunks of semi-sweet chocolate I got from Trader Joe’s. The chocolate chunks were a lot more bitter than I had anticipated, so the next time I make these cookies, I think I’ll opt for some Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chunks. The texture of the dough is my favorite: crispy on the outside, slightly fluffy, but still chewy.
My sister made and gifted chocolate truffles that were “sweet & spicy”—they were dark chocolate truffles, spiced with cayenne pepper, with dried cherries hiding in the center. Amazed and inspired by this flavor combination, I decided to experiment with half the dough, and turn my sister’s truffles into cookies. I just mixed in a few teaspoons of cayenne pepper and dried cherries, and presented these cookies at a cookie exchange with a few friends on campus. These cookies could definitely use some work. The spice didn’t quite come on as strong as I had hoped, and I think they ended up being a bit dry by the time they reached California. I’ll have to try at this another time, with more cayenne, different chocolate chunks, and maybe making bigger cookies to retain more moisture over time (mine were about 1.5 inches in diameter).
And with that, I conclude my longest blog post ever. :)
Happy mid-January!
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Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting :)
I made this same cake around the same time last year. This time, I had a real purpose: my friend’s 21st birthday. :)
What else went differently this time?
1. Smaller cake + cupcakes
I didn’t want to overwhelm anybody with a huge, overbearing cake, so I decided to make a small 2-layer, (about) 2”-radius cake for my friend, and used the rest of the batter for cupcakes. The cupcakes served as a great little mid-day/post-lunch treat for my roommates. :)
2. Thicker, better frosting
I’m finally getting a hang of this whole “frosting” thing. I’m pretty sure I completely messed up the frosting last time (i.e. I didn’t have maple syrup sitting around, so I just tried to make frosting with cream cheese, powdered sugar, and butter only..). I usually don’t have pure maple syrup just sitting around, so I substituted honey for the syrup. Result? A smooth, not-too-sweet frosting. This frosting isn’t overwhelmingly sweet (like most store-bought frostings are); it allows the cream cheese to stand out and speak for itself, which makes the frosting so much more refreshing. Also, this light frosting complements the carrot cake, rather than overpowering it in the realm of your taste buds.
What would I do differently next time?
More stuff.
I’m really hesitant to ever add nuts/dried fruits to baked things, because I’m always afraid someone might be allergic to nuts, or might just hate that certain dried fruit that I added to the recipe. However, I think that carrot cake is made even more delicious when it includes hints of walnuts and raisins. Next time, I’ll overcome my fears of displeasing people and toss in a cup or two of both raisins and walnuts. Yum. :)
Here’s the recipe for the carrot cake and maple cream cheese icing. Don’t lose it. This recipe is so delicious that I’m confidently making it my go-to carrot cake recipe for the rest of my life (yes, it’s that good). :)
Cream Cheese Wontons :)
Quite possibly the easiest type of wonton you can make.
Ingredients: cream cheese, red bell pepper, green onion, celery, red onion, salt. All wrapped up in a wonton wrapper. Yeah, it’s that easy!
I used sweet chili as dipping sauce, which goes really well with the wontons. My mom makes a sauce that complements the wontons much better than sweet chili — and if I ever remember it, I’ll be sure to share. :)
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Chocolate Chocolate Chip “Muffins” :)
Why, these look a bit familiar… They look strikingly similar to the chocolate cupcakes I filled with dulce de leche a while back. Hmm.. How could that be?
Oh. Because “chocolate muffins” don’t exist. They’re just cupcakes that we eat for breakfast! Oh, we’re so silly. Oh well. Whatever lets us get away with eating chocolate for breakfast, right? :)
I got this recipe from The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook that a lovely friend got for me a while back. Warning: This book will make you salivate.
For some reason, every one of the recipes I’ve tried from this book have ended in at least partial disaster… I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I should stop being so frugal and start using Ghirardelli chocolate? Hm. Well, whatever it is, I hope I figure it out soon. I love this book, and all of the recipes sound like they’d be amazing. Then I mess up. Darn.
Anyway. Back to the cupca— I mean, “muffins.”
My soul reason for making these muffins was to emulate the muffins that my former house-mates and I miss so much. Our dining hall made some pretty decent food, but their chocolate chocolate chunk muffins were beyond delicious. They were perfectly chocolatey, perfectly dark, perfectly moist, with perfectly crisp tops… I’m drooling just thinking about them. The moment I get my fingers on that recipe, oh, there will be nonstop muffin-making and nonstop muffin-consumption in this apartment! (Just kidding… maybe.)
These muffins were decent. Honestly, they were just too dry and not quite chocolatey enough. To be honest, I think I may have baked them a few minutes too long (instructions called for 20, I should’ve gone 17 for a more moist muffin). I also must admit that I kind of strayed away from the recipe a bit … (don’t ask). I should actually try the recipe some day just as is, too… Don’t know what came over me!
I won’t give up on this muffin experiment until I succeed — even if it takes all summer!
P.S. If you missed the note in my last post, be sure to check out this summer food blog my friends and I are all contributing to this summer. We’re all living on campus without meal plans, and, oh boy, we’re all stoked for the awesome food adventures to come! We just had our first potluck on Sunday, so be sure to check out the blog! :)
Cookies & Cream PANDA Cupcakes :)
Firstly, I’d like to wish another happy year of existence to one of my best friends from high school: Kim Tran. So…
HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, MA’AM! :)
Kim was actually my inspiration for these cupcakes (which I gave to her as an early birthday gift). Knowing how much she absolutely loves pandas, and having not baked in what seems like a decade, I knew I had to bake something panda-themed for Kim. When I started brainstorming what to make, the idea of panda cupcakes instantly popped up in my mind. I had seen about half a dozen different approaches to making panda cupcakes on various baking blogs and Tumblogs, so my challenge was sticking to something simple, yet cute and personalized.
Before I chose what type of cupcake to make, I decided I wanted to craft my pandas out of Oreos. Exactly how I wanted to craft them wasn’t determined until I actually had to start decorating (… silly me). So, I thought, what more appropriate cupcake body to make than a cookies & cream cupcake?
I used a cookies & cream cupcake recipe I found on Lovin’ From the Oven, and frosted the cupcakes with cream cheese icing (vanilla frosting may have been a better choice). I used Mini Oreos halves for the eyes and ears, and frosted on the faces with standard black frosting I found at Safeway.
The cupcakes themselves were decent. They didn’t taste as “cookies & creamish” as I had anticipated, but I think that’s mostly due to the fact that I used cream cheese icing instead of vanilla. The Oreo on the bottom of the cupcake is an awesome idea, and is a sweet little surprise when you bite into the cupcake, but the difference between the textures is a bit odd.. This might just be a personal problem, though. :P
As for decorating the cupcakes…
My older brother Alan helped me out with coming up with all the different faces (I didn’t want any of them to be the same!). Decorating them was an absolute BLAST, and I’d recommend this activity to any pair (or group) of bakers and friends looking for a good time. :)
All in all, a super fun project.
Now that it’s summer, I’ll be doing a lot more cooking (no dining plan = my friends and I fending for ourselves on a small budget in a small kitchen) and baking. I’m absolutely stoked! :D
Keep your eyes peeled for more blog posts in the near future. I’m hoping to keep this blog as lively as possible throughout the whole summer. :)
Speaking of summer, food, and blogs, check out this summer food blog my good friend Kevin started a few summers back. A group of us, plus Kevin, will be revamping the blog with tons of kitchen experiments this summer. It should be all sorts of awesome. :)
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Meet Boston, my sister’s roommate’s Boston Terrier. :)
I miss this little lady.
Definitely haven’t been able to do as much baking as I would like, but hopefully that’ll change soon. I just realized it’s been ages since I’ve updated, though, so, if not for baking, then I thought I’d update for love. :)