Tag Archives: Delicioso!

Toaster

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Who doesn’t love toast?

Luckily, I have a toaster in my apartment.

Looks normal right?  Well I spent the better part of 10 minutes figuring out how it works.  I pushed down, pulled, turned nobs.  Finally I figured out how easy it is.  Slip the toast in, turn the dial and when it’s done, pull it out.

I could have sworn I bought some jam, but apparently I didn’t.  So instead I had cheese on my toast with a side of yogurt and green tea. I don’t know if I was just hungry, but this cheese tasted amazing!

Strangely enough we don’t have a coffee maker.  As much as I love coffee, this just means I have to go to a bar/caffe to get coffee.  I’ll survive.

After a getting ready and going to the Cornell in Rome campus to print some internship stuff, I decided to wander.

I walked around aimlessly, and it was great.

After a while, I picked up some lunch:

and sat in a piazza to enjoy.

Great view, right?

The did some more wandering.

 

Finally, when a borderline creepy Italian man hit on me, I decided I was tired and headed home.

Now, I’m going to do more internship prep to see how soon I can start!

 

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Discovering Indoor Exercise and Roasted Vegetables

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As much as I hate to admit this, being at my parent’s house was driving me crazy.  For some reason, being there makes me the most sedentary person on the planet.

Example: I watched every episode (5 1/2 season) of How I Met Your Mother in the nearly 3 weeks I was home.  Hilarious show! But that’s wayyyy too much TV.

The truth is, I feel better when I’m more active.  I like walking places and working out.  It just makes me feel better about myself.

So now that I’m in Ithaca, I’m trying to find ways to feel better about myself and my health… despite this:

I won’t lie.  The weather here can be terrible.  I walked to meet up with some friends and my toes were numb even though I was wearing tights, thick socks and snow boots.

But to keep myself moving, I present to you, my home gym:

Real state of the art, right?

Lately I’ve taken to doing circuits while watching episodes of last season’s The Biggest Loser.

Circuit 1: 25 Step ups
Circuit 2: 20 crunches
Circuit 3: 25 jumping jacks
Circuit 4: 20 bicycle crunches
Circuit 5: 25 bunny hops (back and forth over my computer charger)
Repeat

Not the most exciting work out ever but definitely better than sitting and doing nothing.  I’ve also recently discovered ExerciseTV online!

I made another discovery.  It’ll revolutionize lunch (or dinner… for me, at least).  Okay so I didn’t really discover it.  Rather, it’s new to me.

Roasted Broccoli

Who knew it could be so delicious.

What you need:

  • Broccoli, Carrots, Onions, etc.
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • salt and pepper
  • baking sheet
  • oven preheated to 400F

Combine broccoli, other vegetables, olive oil, balsamic vinergar, salt and pepper.  Put it all on a baking sheet like such:

Roast at 400F for about 25 minutes.

Makes a wonderful side dish.  I’m so pleased!  Last night I went and bought more broccoli just so I could have it again.

Definitely recommend it if you haven’t tried it.

Off to try to get some work done, or at least move myself a bit.  Have a wonderful day!

Remix to…

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…Ignition

Well, maybe not. More like Remix to Curried Kale with Lentils and Mango.

Somehow that doesn’t sound as good as Remix to Ignition.  I’m going to stick to my day job… err that is searching for one…

Anyway, I remade curried kale with lentils and mango.  I made a few changes, I only used 1 tsp of olive oil, omitted the shallot and used 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar instead of lemon.  Everything else stayed pretty much the same.

Pretty delicious.

Take that R. Kelly… or something…

Speaking of day jobs.  I’m off to work on some job applications.  Wish me luck!

Cakes and Rum Balls

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I left Ithaca where it was a chilly 10F for California, where countless friends and family members had been bragging about the warm weather.

The second I landed, the weather turned rainy and cold.  It’s been raining for 5 days straight.  I have the worst luck.

So since I’ve been stuck at home, I worked on the never ending report! made a cake (among other things).

Okay really I made 2 cakes.  Both were mistakes.  My brother asked me to make a cake for a party he’s going to.  For some reason I thought his party was on Monday December 20th.  Nope, it’s on Thursday December 23rd.

Clearly a cake made on December 19th would be no good by the 23rd.  So instead, I took one to a party, and another was made for family friends.

Chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse and frosted with raspberry whipped cream.

I didn’t try it, but I can only imagine it’s good.

Facebook wall confirmed.

Great!

Now, you know everyone favorite part of making layer cakes… leveling off the top?

Well I had a lot of leveled off cake tops after making 2 layer cakes.  So instead of stuffing my face, which ordinarily is my favorite thing to do.  I decided to make something exciting.

Chocolate Rum Balls

1 1/2 cups crumbled chocolate cake
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tbsp dark rum
1 tbsp honey
Extra powdered sugar, cocoa powder, or melted chocolate

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Any good Guatemalan household has Guatemalan Rum…

Use your hands to form it all into a mass.  Break off pieces and roll into one inch little balls.

Then you can roll them in powdered sugar, cocoa powder or dip them in melted chocolate.  Refrigerate for a few hours and serve!

My brother gave one to my niece; she wasn’t a fan.

Me on the other hand… I’ve eaten about 5 today… Clearly I hated them.

Now I need to figure out what cake to actually make for my brother’s gathering.

In the meantime…

 

Pear Almond Galette

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Last night, I couldn’t sleep.  Around 11pm, after a while of tossing and turning, I decided to just get up and have a glass of wine.  Because really, wine makes life better.

Around midnight, while I sipped on wine and did everything BUT read about the global food system, I decided this was a good time to start baking.  So I made tart dough, since the idea for a pear almond galette had been brewing in my head for a few days.

Galette Dough

adapted from Joy of Baking

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sugar
1 stick butter, cold and cut into pieces
about 1/4 cup ice water

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Using a pastry blender or knives or your fingers, blend butter into flour mixture.  Gradually add in ice water and mix using your hands until you get a ball of dough.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours (I refrigerated over night).

Once the dough has chilled, roll it out to about a 12-13 inch circle.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a perfect circle.

Put the rolled out dough, place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then put it in the refrigerator while you make almond cream (frangipane).

Almond Cream

adapted from Joy of Baking

1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)

Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar.  Next, beat in egg and almond extract until smooth and sorta runny.  Blend it one tbsp flour.  Lastly, add almond flour and continue to blend until smooth.

Take the dough out of the fridge and spread the almond cream onto the dough, leaving a inch or two border all around.

Next, take some pears.  I had some raggedy old ones that were on their last leg…

Peel, core and thinly slice.  I used two but I wish I had used three because they definitely would have fit.

Arrange the sliced pears onto the almond cream part of the galette.

See I could have fit 3 pears… Oh well.  Next fold the edges up over the top.  Trim any excess dough.

Take one tablespoon of melted butter and brush it onto the assembled galette.

Then sprinkle it with sugar.

Bake at 375 for 45-55minutes.  (Mine took about 50 minutes but start checking it around 45).

Allow it to cool.  If it’s 28 degrees outside like it is here, putting it next to the window speeds up the process.

Once the galette has cooled

Sprinkle it with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream or creme anglaise.

Now I just need to figure out who to feed this to…  Shouldn’t be that hard to find a worth recipient, right?

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with a sweet tooth the size of mine.

I can pretty confidently say that I would almost always choose something sweet over salty, and if I could, I would eat only dessert and never eat a real meal.

Okay maybe I’m exaggerating, but I love sweets.

Regardless, sometimes we all need a break from our dear loves.

Sugar and I are taking a break.  Not for long.  For two weeks, until Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, I bid sugar farewell by making some Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies for my class this past Wednesday.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar (Note: I used all plain white sugar)
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
zest of 3 oranges
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars.  Add vanilla, eggs and orange zest.  Add dry ingredients (except chocolate chips).  Mix until combined, fold in chocolate chips.

Chill the dough while you preheat the oven to 350F.  Bake tbsp sized amounts of dough for about 9 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.  Allow to cool and enjoy!

Pretty tasty.  They were gone in about 5 minutes! I say that’s a good sign.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Fall Cake

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It feels like fall.  That’s probably because it is.

Lately, we’ve had daytime highs of 43F.  To most Californians that would sound like winter.

Most mornings it’s below 30F.  Most Californians (including my former self) don’t even know what that feels like.

Regardless of what fall looks and feels like, I generally have a vague idea of how fall tastes.

At work, there is a cake called the Fall Collection.  I’ve never tasted it in it’s full glory, but I’ve tried pretty much all the component parts: Gingerbread Cake, Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake, Caramel Pecans and Vanilla Buttercream.

Sounds like fall.

I was inspired to recreate it.

I won’t lie.  This was sort of a process.  It pretty much requires two days since the cheesecake has to cool completely and set.

BUT totally worth it.

Start with the cheesecake.  I used good ol’ Paula Deen’s recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake.  I’m not 100% pleased with the recipe, I think it could use a little more spice.  But definitely not bad for my first try at cheesecake.

I didn’t have a springform pan, so I greased and floured two round 9″ baking pan and lined the bottom with wax paper to keep it from sticking.  After baking and letting it set overnight in the fridge, I used a knife along the edge of the pan and turned the pan over.  The cheesecake slipped out pretty easily.

The next step was the gingerbread cake.  Using this Food Network recipe, but adding extra crystallized ginger.  Great flavor, but would like it to be a little less dry (or maybe I just overbaked it a bit).

While your gingerbread cake is cooling, start making the caramel.  I’ve never had my caramel turn out right.  This time it did!  It was great!  Thanks to Yummy Supper!

Toast the pecans and mix it with the caramel.

Then the layering can start.

Start with the gingerbread cake.  Put it on a plate, remove some of the cake to make a little well for the caramel pecans.  This will keep it from overflowing.

Next, place the pumpkin cheesecake layer.  My cheesecake had a little bit of a well in it naturally (mistake maybe?), the well allowed me to pour more caramel pecans in there and keep them from flowing out.

However, if you, unlike me, make perfect cheesecake that is flat on top, you can create a barrier with buttercream that will keep your caramel from flowing all over the place.  Which leads to the next step, frosting.

Make traditional vanilla buttercream with butter, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract.  Frost the cake all around.

Lay it on there thick, because we could all use a little more buttercream in our lives.

Green Cake for Your Half Birthday

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Okay, it’s been a while since I last posted, but let me tell you… I’ve been a busy bee.

I haven’t really mentioned this before but aside from taking classes and writing my exit project, I also thought it would be a good idea to get a part time job.  Being the foodie that I am, I applied to work at a patisserie.

Sounds fancy, I know.  It is.  Sorta…

3 days a week, I’m surrounded by butter pastries.  It’s amazing.  Not only that but it’s fun all around, and I get to watch the chef make incredible goodies.

So basically, I’ve forgotten to take pictures of things but largely I haven’t had time to make anything aside from the most boring meals ever known to mankind (and in my world that basically means large salads with every vegetable and grain I can possibly add to it).

But today, at work, as the chef was making a chocolate cake with marzipan filling and green buttercream for a little boy’s birthday, I was reminded of something I made a few days ago.

A bright GREEN half birthday cake for my (Irish) former (but still near and dear) roommate, Christina (aka Boo).

The cake was a delicious Almond Raspberry Layer cake with green cream cheese frosting.

It tasted delicious.  It looked ridiculous.

But then again I think that’s a pretty good way to describe our friendship.  Amazing, but also pretty ridiculous.

Happy Half Birthday, boo.

Mango Pico de Gallo

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Friends, it’s hot.

I can’t deal.

This weekend is supposed to be in the 60s but honestly, that cool weather can’t get here fast enough.  Consequently, there’s noooooo way I’m turning on an oven, heck even the stove is getting lonely!

So what do you do when you really want to make something but it’s too damn hot?

Make something that doesn’t require an oven or a lot of cooking time. I have a suggestion…

Mango Pico de Gallo

1 cup mango, diced
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
2-3 tomatoes, diced
juice of 2 limes
1-2 tbsp (or more) fresh chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.  Toss together and serve with chips, tortillas, fish, rice, beans, sauteed greens, salads, etc.

Super easy, right?

I also have another suggestion: BBQ Tofu with Mango Pico de Gallo

Press, slice and marinate some tofu in your BBQ sauce of choice.  Using a handy George Foreman grill (or a pan or a BBQ), grill the tofu. On a plate, place one slice of grilled BBQ tofu, top it with some sharp cheddar cheese, top that with another slice of grilled BBQ tofu, then layer on some of the Mango Pico de Gallo.

Aaaamazing!  Sweet, smokey, spicy, salty, citrusy all in one delicious little package!

Perfect for a hot summer day!  You should probably enjoy this outside with friends and a cold beer.

Any other way would probably just be blasphemous.

Go make it now!

Goya Stuffed Tomatoes

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So I’ve been pretty bad about blogging this week.  I think it’s the combination of the heat, the start of classes, new part time job and my strange desire to do absolutely nothing at the end of most days.

I wish I could say my time away from this blog has been super exciting but sadly it hasn’t been.  I’ve been sort of underwhelmed with most things, cooking and blogging included.  But today I’ve decided to be my usual chipper self again.

I’m done being underwhelmed.

So a few days ago, I finally made something new today with fun ingredients.  Last week, I got a shipment of Goya products from Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker’s program.  It was perfect  because I didn’t feel like making something super complicated, but I’m not one to compromise on taste.  Consequently…

Stuffed Tomatoes

1 package Goya Yellow Rice, cooked according to instructions*
1 tbsp Goya olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper
1 garlic clove
1 can of Goya Black Beans, or about 1.5 cups cooked beans
1 cup greens, chopped
A few large tomatoes
1 oz shredded cheese (optional)

Cook the rice according to the package instructions.  Actually don’t do that!  The package said to simmer the rice for 25 mins but mine was done after about 12!  It definitely would have burned if I had left it on for 25 mins.  Once rice is cooked, set aside.

In a pot, heat olive oil.  Add onions and peppers and cook for a few minutes until onions are translucent.  Add garlic, beans and greens.  Continue to cook for a few minutes, until the greens have wilted. Mix in the cooked rice.  Then you have a delicious tomato filling or just a tasty, versatile side dish on its own!

Should you have a ton of tomatoes from your garden or CSA like I did and actually want  stuffed tomatoes not just a delicious rice dish, core the tomatoes by cutting off the top and removing the center with a spoon.  Preheat your oven to 375F. Fill tomatoes with rice filling.  Sprinkle with cheese and bake for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Pretty delicious.  I’m definitely a fan of this yellow rice! Thanks for letting me try it out Goya!  I’m also excited to try out the Adobo Seasoning.  (P.S. You can get some Goya coupons on their website!)

Well off to do some reading and hit the gym!  Have a happy day!