Dinner Party!

        For my final product I made a dinner for my family and mentors. I didn’t have a big enough house or kitchen to host everyone but my aunt generously let me use her home. A couple days before the dinner, I decided my menu and went grocery shopping. My menu consisted of a warm artichoke dip with baguettes, fruit with jasmine infused syrup, creamy fettuccine with shrimp and bacon, bacon wrapped asparagus, Caesar salad, and apple pie. I arrived around 3 o’clock and got to work. Since I had prepared the dough and cut the apples ahead of time all I had to do was roll out the dough and put the pie together. Once I had finished, I popped it in the oven and let it bake. Next, I made the jasmine infused syrup. I had seen my mentor make it but I had never made it by myself before. But there is a first time for everything, right? I filled a small pot with a little bit of water and let it boil. Then I put a jasmine tea bag into the hot water and let it steep. I then added a few spoonfuls of sugar and waited for the liquid to thicken. Next I started on the artichoke dip. I cut up the artichoke hearts and added mayonnaise and parmesan cheese. It didn’t really look appetizing, but it tasted great! After, I cut up the strawberries and the tangelos, I mixed all of them into a bowl with raspberries. I put them into the refrigerator to wait for the jasmine syrup.

       Now that I was mostly done with my appetizers, it was onto the next portion of the menu. The bacon wrapped asparagus was fairly simple to make. I washed the asparagus and then took about 3 and wrapped a bacon strip around them. Once I had a good amount of asparagus bunches, I put then in the refrigerator and waited to put them in the oven. At this point I could really smell the pie and I decided to check on it. When I opened the door and saw that the top was getting a little bit burnt, it dawned on me that I had forgotten to change the temperature after 20 minutes of it baking. I quickly took the apple pie out of the oven and let it cool. It was a bit disappointing messing up the pie because it was the one dish that I had a lot of practice making, thought it still tasted good!

        Now that the pie was out, I took the remaining bacon strips and placed them on a tray in the oven to cook. Once they were done, I put in the bacon wrapped asparagus. Afterwards, I moved onto the Caesar salad. I washed the lettuce and cut it into small pieces. And what is Caesar salad without dressing? It wasn’t too difficult to make the dressing, but it was time consuming to cut up all the tiny ingredients and mix them together. Now that the salad dressing was done, I moved back to the jasmine syrup.  To my surprise it has actually gotten thicker and tasted great as well! I poured it over the fruit and set it on the table with the artichoke dip. I cut up the baguette and toasted them in the oven. After ten minutes I took the warm, crispy slices of bread and put them on the table next to the artichoke dip.

       The pasta had been my biggest concern. I wasn't sure how long that it would take to cook. I was assuming that it would take some time, while my mother and aunt insisted that it would only take half an hour. I decided to trust them as they had had years of experience. First I boiled the water and cooked the fettuccine while in another pan, I sauteed the garlic and shrimp.  Then I added the peas and carrots. A couple minutes later I took the pan off heat. I combined milk, flour, salt, and pepper in another pan. I added cheese and then let it simmer. I poured the milk mixture back into the pan with shrimp and let that cook. After a couple minutes I added the pasta and viola, the pasta was done! I checked the bacon wrapped asparagus, as it had slipped my mind for while, and saw that the bacon was perfectly crisp, while the asparagus was a little bit dry. Never the less, I put all the food on nice plates and set them on the dinner table. 

The Main Dish!

The Dinner Table

I would say the dinner was a success!! A special thanks to my aunt and uncle for letting me use their home!

Taste of Italy

My dear friend's mom took it upon herself to teach me how to cook Italian food today. How sweet! And while we were getting ingredients at the store, she found a $100 bill on the ground in the parking lot. Karma is a wonderful thing. On the menu for today was Lasagna and Pizzelle cookies. 

To start off, we sauteed the sausage. I then proceeded to cut the zucchini and carrots. On the stove I also boiled a couple eggs. While cooking, Deborah told me about Italian culture and how import cooking was. It was quite interesting. After getting all the ingredients ready, we started the layers for the lasagna. We did not cook the pasta in advance, it was going to cook while it was in the oven. Keeping this in mind, I put tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan so the moisture would cook the lasagna. In the pan we used, the lasagna strips were too long, so breaking them at the perfect length was the most difficult. After carefully layering all the ingredients in the pan, we popped it in the oven.

Pizzelle Cookies were actually quite easy to make. You just beat eggs, sugar, flour, anise, and vanilla together. Then comes the more challenging part. You put a tiny dollop of dough in the Pizzelle maker and hold it down for 30 seconds. After, you sift powdered sugar on them and you have yourself a delicious treat! But actually getting a perfect shape was difficult to achieve. Most of the time I would put too much in the maker and it would go out of the mold. They were a little deformed but scrumptious all the same.

I want to give a special thank you to Deborah for being absolutely wonderful and taking her afternoon to teach me how to cook some Italian cuisine. 

Easter Dinner!

Yes, this is what my family does at the dinner table on Easter. We spent the whole day cooking and it was so much fun. On the menu was pork roast, mashed potatoes (of course), bacon-wrapped asparagus, raspberry tart, and key lime pie. I made the raspberry tart and the gravy. My siblings all cooked something as well.
 I started on the raspberry tart because that was going to take the longest. I mixed together the sugar, flour, salt, butter, and eggs to make the crust. I put the dough in the pan and popped it in the oven. While I waited for that to cook, I worked on the chocolate and other topping. I boiled water in a pan and then took a metal bowl filled with chocolate chips and put it in the water. I stirred the chocolate chips until the were melted.

Once the crust was done baking, I took it out of the oven and let it cool. I then proceeded to put the chocolate on top of the crust. The final layer of the tart was made by beating mascarpone, cream, sugar, and vanilla. It wasn't as fluffy and firm as I thought it was going to be, so after pouring the mixture on top of the tart, I put it in the freezer to firm. After dinner I took the tart out of the freezer and decorated it with raspberries.

After we finished cooking the roast, I used the juices to make the gravy. I added cornstarch and after cooking it a bit, it thickened and tasted delicious.

It was great cooking with the whole family and the dinner turned out fabulous!

Thank You Cake

I made cake once again. I intern at Health and Human Services in Special Investigations and as a thank you I made them a cake. It was a quick and easy cake because I decided to do this all so last minute. It was just like the one I made for my mom's birthday cake. So after dumping all the ingredients together and throwing it in the oven, I got to decorating. Like last time, I just used home made whipped cream and food coloring. It was still difficult. I left it in the freezer to firm a bit, but I forgot about it and it froze. So I tried to let it thaw, but them it started dripping everywhere. It really didn't work well. And on top of that, the cake was really uneven,
so I decided I would try to cut it to make it look even. It was even worse. So after losing all hope, but continuing because I had already put all this work in, it actually turned out okay.

Hamburger

 Well, I decided to continue to conquer my fear of cooking meat and take the skills I learned from cooking with Rachelle to make a hamburger. It was surprisingly easy. There wasn't much to it. I put the patty in the pan and cut up some onions and put them in the pan along side the patty.

I didn't mention this earlier, but Rachelle taught me how to cut and use knife properly. I was definitively using the knife incorrectly and quite frankly, I'm surprised at how I managed not to hurt myself. The first thing she taught me was that a sharp knife was safer than a dull knife. Luckily for me, my father loves knives and even has a knife sharpener, so that base was covered. Secondly, she taught me where to put my fingers on the thing that I was cutting. It never occurred to me to curl my fingers over the produce so I wouldn't cut my finger.

So I put the hamburger buns in the toaster while I waited for the patty to cook. I guess the most difficult part of this was knowing when the patty was finished cooking . I didn't want to take it out of the pan and have it not cooked, but I also didn't want it over cooked. After a while, I finally decided that it was most likely done. I put the buns on a plate and stacked the patty, lettuce, and the onions together. I dabbed some ketchup and mustard on the buns and the hamburger was ready to go.

I have to say, it was a pretty quick and easy meal. I'm glad to know that I can make one of America's most popular foods now.

Shepard's Pie!

 Let me just take a second to proclaim my love for Shepard's pie. I love it. :) And let me take another minute to express my gratitude for Rachelle Boucher who graciously took time out of her busy schedule to help me learn how to cook this fantastic dish. I greatly appreciate it.

So first, we got all of our ingredients together. Rachelle taught me a great trick for keeping the kitchen organized, put everything on trays, so the clean up is easier and and everything is more organized. We took the potatoes, peeled them, cut them into cubes, and then dropped them into a pot  of water.

While we waited on the potatoes to boil,  we worked on the filling. In a pan, we sauteed onions and carrots. We also peeled our peas and put the pods in the pot of boiling potatoes to cook for a minute. We then added the lamb to the pan or sauteed onions and carrots. I added the flour, peas, and extra spices while cooking the lamb. I let that sit for a couple minutes and turned my attention back to the mashed potatoes. I took the potatoes and put then through a food mill (I had always just mashed them with a potato masher, it was much easier this way). I then proceeded to add butter, salt, and cream.

Once the potatoes were done, I put the filling of the Shepherd's pie from the pan into a baking pan. I then continued to layer the mashed potatoes on top of the lamb. I popped it in the oven and then it was ready to eat. My family loved it. I guess there is still hope for me yet.

I have to say, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The idea of cooking meat has always come across as so difficult, and it was exciting to see that it wasn't at all. It was quick and painless.

So I went to a cooking class taught by Rachelle earlier that week and it was eye opening. I would probably say that I am a picky eater and I just don't eat things I don't like, much less would I cook with them. And in this cooking class, Rachelle ,and a dietitian who came to speak as well, talked about the benefits of vegetables and certain foods. After cooking and eating  the plethora of foods, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't so horrible. It was actually delicious! Though I still think broccoli and I are on bad terms, but besides that, it was fantastic. I guess what I am taking from this journey is to keep an open mind, try new things, and to get out of my comfort zone. It's crazy what you learn when you put yourself out there. So a special thank you, again, to Rachelle for all your help!  I could never have done all of this without you.

Apple Pie

So last night I spent the night at a friend's house and her dad decided he was going to teach us how to make an apple pie. We got out the cook books and gathered the ingredients and started to measure away. After mixing the ingredients into dough, we put it in the refrigeration to harden.

This is when we started the filling of the pie. we gathered out potato peelers and were ready to peel the skin off the apples. This was unacceptable, by her father's terms. He grabbed knives and gave us an in depth lesson on how to peel apples with knives. I was quite horrified of this. I am so clumsy and I knew this would end in disaster. But I found a hidden talent I didn't know I had, I am really good at peeling apples with knives. I cut it all in one long strand and didn't cut my finger off. I became the official apple peeler.

After cutting the apples into small slices and weighing them, I added the flour, cinnamon, an other ingredients. Once we finished the filling, we wen back to the pie crust. I took out the dough and split it in half. Half for the crust, half for the top of the pie. I learned the fine art of rolling out dough and putting it into the pie pan. I poured the apples into the dough covered pan and then rolled out the other half of the dough. Once accomplishing all of this, we made the side of the pie "pretty" - it wasn't really that pretty- and put our masterpiece into the oven.

It doesn't look like much, but I promise it was delicious!

Only after cleaning up did Miranda's father realize the pie wan't for everyone to eat, but a gift for another friend. I felt so bad that at 9 o'clock at night, after the first pie finishing, I decided I would make her father a pie to thank him for taking his time to teach us how to make apple pie and show him all that I had learned. I did the process over again, though we were out of lard and had to use vegetable shortening. Because of this the dough as really gooey and wouldn't harden.I ended up adding flour to try to make it less sticky. It didn't really help. after rolling it out and putting it on the pan, there were many rips. I decided it would still taste like pie, regardless of my poor patching job that I did with the crust. Finally, around midnight, it as done baking. We let it cool and then dug in. I think it was a job well done.

Chinese Chicken Salad and Apple Pie

Last night I made Chinese Chicken salad for dinner and apple pie for dessert. I must say it was quite delicious, though it took more time than I would have liked. May I begin by saying last night was not  good night. I was clumsy, and frustrated, and ready to give up on cooking. It first started with the chicken, I took it out of the plastic and put in under the faucet to wash. While doing this I managed to drop half of it down the garbage disposal. That's a rat way to start off, right? So after I got everything back under control, I put the sauce over the chicken and shoved it in the oven. Though this required help from my dear mother because I had no idea when the chicken was done. It ended up being way over cooked. I chopped up the lettuce and mixed the rest of the ingredients into the salad. Once the chicken was done, I cut it into thin slices over the salad.  I tossed the salad and it was ready to go, but ,of course, not before I dumped piles of it on the floor. I don't think I was gifted with good coordination.




While making the salad I made the apple pie. I made the dough and once again it was way too gooey and wouldn't harden. That was another frustrating aspect of dinner last night. Peeling the apples and cutting them into thin slices too much longer since I did it by myself this time. When rolling out the dough to make the crust, it tore in a couple places, which was disappointing. But everything ended up coming together and the dinner tasted great.




With the extra dough and apples, I made a pandowttie. I just put in the apples and ripped up the dough and placed it over the apples. Into the oven it went and this was the turn out. It was delicious.



Cooking is really difficult for me. I hate feeling like I just don't understand something, and I constantly feel that way when i'm cooking. I want to be comfortable cooking and baking, but it's hard when it's so discouraging when things don't want to work out the way they are planned. But I am starting to see a difference. I really like baking - apple pies that is - and with more practice, hard work, and time, I can see myself getting there. Getting to a place where cooking is something I can say I like to do.

BIRTHDAY CAKE!

In honor of my mother's birthday I decided to make her a cake! I used the recipe from the side of a carton of  heavy whipping cream. One might be skeptical about using a recipe about from the side of a cream carton,  but it turned out really nice. Following the instructions was easier than I anticipated. Everything mixed well together and got into the baking pan without  hitch.

After the baking is when the fun began. I love decorating food, so after letting the cake cool, I made whipped cream. I took the heavy whipping cream and whisked it. I separated it into different bowls and then added food dye. While decorating I decided that whipped cream wasn't the best frosting to decorate with. It started to melt and dripped over everything. Halfway through I put it in the freezer so it would stop melting.


                                                                               
                                                                                                                 

Before

After

                                                       

I surprisingly did quite well with the cake. It tasted good and turned out, more or less, the way I wanted it. The next step is making more difficult desserts! Yum.

After an hour of hard work, it came out really well. The end result was a very happy mother and a great way to end a birthday.

Pasta with Alfredo Sauce

This endeavor was quite an adventure of which I gathered I have no patience for cooking. I was hungry, so I decided I was going to make pasta with Alfredo sauce. I boiled some water and then put the noodles in. While I was waiting for them to cook I started the make the white sauce. I looked up a recipe online for a simple way to make the sauce. After successfully putting in the milk and butter, I started to have trouble with the flour. No matter how long I cooked it, I couldn't get out the clumps. Once I had given up on making the sauce, I turned back to the boiling noodles. They never seemed to be ready. I kept checking them, but they never seemed fully cooked. At one point I finally gave in and just drained the noodles and put the Alfredo sauce on top on them. They didn't taste horrible, but they were average at best. It was a success in the case that I didn't starve.

I need to learn the art of cooking before I am hungry so I am not so impatient. I also learned, after the fact from my mentor, to sift the flour into the pan so it does not clump. Good advice to know for next time I try to cook a sauce that includes flour. Overall, it's more experience that I get and one step closer to my goal of becoming a better cook.

Chinese Stir Fry

 

My first step toward chef mastery! For dinner tonight I cooked Chinese Stir Fry; I liked the idea of my first cooking experience having to do with Chinese food. I must say that it is a favorite of mine. So I started with bell peppers, onions, ginger, and Yaki Soba noodles.

First, I chopped up the onions, bell peppers, and ginger. I added sesame seed and olive oil into the pan. Then I added the chopped ingredients into the pan and sauteed them for a few minutes. It was hard making sure that the  ingredients didn't burn. It was also difficult to tell when they were soft enough. Next, I added the Yaki Soba noodles. While I was taking them out of the package, my father told me to "Massage them. Love them... like they are going to love your stomach later." That way, the noodles would be separated before I put them in the pan. This might have been my favorite part of cooking tonight. 

After adding the noodles, the cooking process became a little scarier. The steam after adding water to the pan scared me: I wasn't used to such a reaction. Plus, my lack of coordination didn't help when I stirred  the noodles. Throughout the process there were numerous noodles that escaped onto the stove top with my not so great stirring skills. Also, my lack of experience did not help with the timing of how long the noodles needed to few minutes, the noodles were ready.

My finished product! It was quite good, but then again, my standards for food are not quite  gourmet. I don't have much of a developed pallet, but I think I did great for my first try. Some things I hope to work on are my technique and gathering experience to judge the readiness of the food in a certain amount of time. I'm excited, and ready to learn recipes and become a better cook. I can't wait 'till I can just whip out some great food for my friends and family to enjoy. 

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Special thanks to my Dad for giving me step-by-step instructions. I know it was difficult for you to watch  me mess up and not take over. Thanks for your patience.