Lemon Drop

I've always wanted to take bartending classes; yet, never found the right time to do it. Now that I have quite a bit of free time on my hand, I decided it was time to start experimenting with cocktails. What with all of the speakeasys popping up in Philly, I had enough inspiration to push me in the right direction.

Bar Set, here
The Ultimate Bar Book, here
Cointreau liquor, description here

First step was to get a really legit bar set (which I happened to acquire for V's birthday) and an equally legit bar book (all courtesy of amazon).

Next step was to start stocking up the bar with some respectable liquor (who knew liqueurs would put such a dent in your wallet). Fortunately, we managed to follow (some rather straightforward) instructions and voila. Who needs a speakeasy when you can whip up cocktails right at home?

The (Straightforward) Instructions:

(Fruity) Colors of Thailand

So we did street food. kind of. Does juice in a bottle count? Well we also did have tofu out of a bag. Papaya out of a bag. Banana out of a bag. Lots of food out of plastic bags. OH right and (Thai) iced tea. Although, is it still called Thai ice tea in Thailand? Do Thais even drink Thai iced tea? But they do drink coconut water. Lots of it. Considering all of the coconut meat that gets used to make all of the coconut cream for all of the green curries, paid thai and tom yum soup that us tourists consume :)

Dragon fruit juice. Who knew dragon fruit was a fruit much less juice producing fruit? All freshly hand squeezed! 

And I'm back!

Wow I can't even remember the last time I posted, this semester has been absolutely ridiculously crazy. Fortunately, things are finally settling down which means I can get back to blogging! I think I must have 10 posts worth of pictures sitting in my camera right now. Here's a treat I actually made over break and did not even realize I had not posted yet!

Soo the story behind phyllo dough and apple strudels (not really a story but I'll tell it anyways) is that the first time I tried making apple strudels, it was with my grandmother. She used to make them for my dad from scratch and it was a crazy Austrian recipe she had perfected over the years. When we tried making the ridiculously thin layers of strudel goodness, the flour kept ripping apart on us  (apparently we didn't have the right brand of flour). Anyways, it still ended up being delicious but ever since then I've been terrified of making strudels.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always thought I should just use phyllo dough but for some reason I could never find it in the grocery store (of course I've probably only tried looking for it twice in my life). Since I finally bought a box over break and was on a crazy baking spree, I decided to make apple strudels on my last day at home.  I had also just seen Inglorious Bastard probably for the third time in three days and wanted to make a strudel so I could dollop a big spoonful of cream on top. (Turns out we didn't actually have any cream, but the greek yogurt worked nicely :).

I'm actually very particular about my apples. The only kind I like to eat and cook with are Figi apples. The reason for this is that they never get uncrispy. Mushy apples are gross. Seriously. (5 medium apples used here).

I also don't think you can ever go wrong when baking with apples. Every homey spice you can think of goes well with apples. I used: 1 tsp of vanilla, 1/2 tsp of lemon extract, 1 tsp of crushed cloves and all spice, 2 tbs of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. (I think this was for two big strudels).

We're also very big on using mortar and pestles for some reason.

Mix apples, previous spices, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar.

I want to say I used 5 sheets of phyllo here but you really can't go wrong. Brush a thin layer of butter in between each layer and pour apples on the top layer. Fold the sides in and roll to form a log. Brush more layer over the whole thing.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting. (or not).

Garnish with powdered sugar and cream (or yogurt in my case).

Random aside: Wegman's has really really delicious thick Greek Yogurt.

Friends and Frenchiness

Remember a few posts back when I had that divine French toast from RX (which you can relive here)? Well 2 days ago when I was cramming for my Marketing final, the smell of fresh baked bread wafted down into the kitchen from the basement. An hour later, my dad shows up with one small piece of bread that he gives me to try. I’m thinking “yum, the usual French bread” but no! I was wrong. It was not just any typical bread that smelled like French bread. It was egg bread and egg bread apparently, is very good for making French toast. So what did I think next? Cereal crusted French toast, here I come. (but first, I had to go buy cereal because that’s one of those things that never caught on with my family.) Soooo with the cereal purchased, I was ready to make me some toast.  [cue exciting music] 

So I looked up a quick recipe and honestly its literally just regular french toast tipped into cereal (here I though there was some magical concoction going on in secrecy...) Best part about all of it was I got to make it with my gfs from high school which always makes cooking so much more fun =]

Some big slices of bread. I think next time I'll tone it down a little.

Raisin bran courtesy of Nature's Promise.

Ingredients

1/2 loaf of of egg bread (honestly it tastes like brioche)

3 eggs

1/2 cup of milk/cream (I used half & half)

1-2 cups of crushed raisin bran 

cinnamon and vanilla for seasoning 

Dunked the bread into the egg mixture and then the cereal

mmmmmmm.

As if the french toast wasn't enough, I found some frozen fruit in the freezer which meant we had to make smoothies. Except we had no juice. So we used soy milk and greek yogurt. Check it out.

Dole frozen fruit mix is quite handy.

and yes it was deliciouss.

ok ok I know it looks a little burnt, but in my defense, I like things extra crispy.

At least I'm fulfilling my promise of cooking more over break. And can you believe it, I already have another post waiting to be written?

Next time: desserts galore: chocolate truffles, cookies and a french cake who's name I do not know.

Study Break Time

Ok, I understand this is not a food post (although there are two pictures of food!), but I thought I'd share these snapshots of Columbia from last weekend. More importantly, I need a desperate break from my finance notes. Enjoy! :)

Ok. Back to studying. Hopefully, I'll get some scrumptious pictures when I visit Boston this weekend!

Summer Scenes

As promised, here are some snapshots of our vegetable garden, herb garden, and fruit orchard. I wish I could take credit for the bountiful plants and trees but unfortunately, I just snapped the pictures. Props to my dad for his diligent gardening efforts :)

I also ordered my first dslr camer, a Canon Rebel XSI and I can't wait for it to come in! After reading some really great articles on food photography, I decided to fiddle around with my Point and Shoot as I anxiously anticipate my belated Birthday present to myself (..along with the help of my dad).

These are the shots I liked the most (after a little fiddling on Photoshop):

Pear Tree

Peach Tree

Basil aka Best Herb Ever

The Lonely Lime

Over-Ripe Cherry Tomato

The rest of the pictures are a lot softer but I like the semi-muted shades. They are also kind blurry because I still had the camera on a really low ISO from my Macro shots, but I really liked the way they turned out :)

This one's probably my favorite, I tried to recreate the same color temperature for the other pictures but no to avail.

Yellow Crocs :)

Another basket of tomatoes..what to do with them all??

I was so excited by all these pears because it meant making another crisp for dessert (which is already half devoured my our family)

One last Macro shot!

I really had no idea what I was doing when taking the pictures. I just kept adjusting different features on Manual and kept snapping pictures. I actually wore the battery out! (oops). I mostly used the Auto Functions and Curves adjustment on Photoshop. Hopefully my graphic design class this semester will make me a little more proficient. :)

Is it ending already?

It feels like August came and left. Granted it is only half-way through August, but with everyone preparing to leave for college or leaving Penn for home, it really has given me the impression that things are winding down to an end.

Fortunately, the great thing about August is that everything you have planted is in FULL bloom. Tomoatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peaches, pears...(pictures of our garden/orchard coming!) With all this summer bounty and the talk of crumbles and crisps on the food blogs I constantly peruse, it was only natural for me to start craving a summer dessert.

This little gem (Summer Nectarine Crisp) took no time to whip up and was the perfect dessert on a hot summer night.

Crumble Mixture

Fruit Mixture

Pre-baking

Finished Product!

Here's the recipe:

Summer Nectarine Crisp

Fruit Filling:

2 lb of Nectarines

1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour

¼ cup light brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

⅛ cup water

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoon cornstarch

Topping ingredients

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

⅓ cup all purpose flour

⅓ cup rolled oats

¼ cup sliced almonds

½ cup packed light-brown sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions: Combine the topping ingredients until it resembles a crumble-y texture. Combine the fruit mixture until the fruit is well coated in the sugar and cornstarch. Grease a baking dish and pour in the fruit mixture. Pat down the crumble and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy hot with vanilla ice cream. yum.