Kraft Ain’t Got Nothin’ On Me
I was in high school before I ever tried Macaroni and Cheese (blue box, of course). My parents avoided buying that kind of food most of the time, so we just never had it in the house, and I didn’t care because I’ve never been a big cheese eater anyway. Even when I did start eating it more often (which was still not very often) I didn’t enjoy it. I just thought mac and cheese was doomed to be gross no matter what. I mean can you really love eating something that you know is made with radioactive orange cheese powder? Read the rest of this entry »
Nachos. And, A Cloud Of Dust
…is what would have occured if this were a diary I just unearthed, since it’s been that long since I’ve written or even logged on.
MANY THINGS HAVE HAPPENED. MANY THINGS. I don’t remember what I wrote in my last post though (something about updating more often? oops) so I don’t know where to start.
On the personal front, here’s the scoop: registered for fall classes not too long ago–NOT cooking related, because as much as I enjoy cooking and baking and recipes and being in the kitchen, doing it at top speed for someone else just isn’t for me. Way too high stress, not enough return. I’ll stick to creating delicious food for myself and my friends and family.
Also working a job (that I don’t really like) BUT going away for two weeks to TURKEY (courtesy of and with my unfailingly generous mother). I look forward to taking a ton of pictures of everything, including the food, and writing about it (but don’t hold your breath) when I get back.
Now for the real subject of this post: NACHOS.
In all of their glory.
The First Week (and some other stuff)
My second week of class is almost over and I’m only now updating about the first week. I am so awesome. Right? Right, guys?
You may recall how nervous I was before things started. Among other things I was very concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to afford all of the equipment I needed and that I wouldn’t have it in time to really do well in the class. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Thanks to my amazingly supportive boyfriend and some money my mom had sent me earlier I managed to scrape together enough money to get my supplies (although I do still need a lighter and a digital timer, but whatever, I can go another week) and my uniform, so that was taken care of. As for some of my other worries… Read the rest of this entry »
New Beginnings
WOW. Basically I might be the worst blogger ever? Since I was all like “Oh, I am going to update this all the time” and then didn’t update for two months. Or more.
I have been stocking up on photos for material but then it’s like THIS HUGE OVERWHELMING AMOUNT of stuff and you don’t know where to start and you’re convinced that all your posts are just terrible and then you’re like “Well maybe I’ll update TOMORROW.” It’s a vicious cycle.
But! I actually have something really, really exciting to blog about now! I hope.
As of tomorrow morning, I will be starting a short course (four days a week, until August 30th) at the local community college called Foundations in Culinary. From what I know (which actually is not much, I’m a total noob when it comes to professional cooking–unless watching Food Network counts, herp derp), it’s a very basic course–definitely not like going to culinary school, but I should get the basics. I’m looking forward to improving my knife skills and time management, which I can definitely apply to even my home cooking. I’m also using this as an opportunity to see how I would feel working in a professional kitchen and a fast-paced environment. Even if I hate it I will at least have learned a lot of valuable things, and avoid spending the much larger sums of money and time involved in a full-time culinary program.
I’m pretty nervous about how the chef is going to be, and what the other students will be like (there’s only 12 of us), and my fear that I AM ACTUALLY THE WORST COOK OF ALL TIME AND I WILL FAIL HORRIBLY.
I want to blog about this whole experience as a way to keep myself grounded and, hopefully, motivated. STAY TUNED PLZ I promise I will stop sucking at updating this time.
05. Birthday Goodies, Part 2: Peanut Blossoms
Admit it, these cookies are freakin' adorable.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Welcome to Part 2 of my DELICIOUS COOKIES FOR MY BEST FRIENDS mini-series. (Part 1 is here)
So when I asked Jenn what her favorite cookies were so I could make her a birthday treat, her response caught me a bit off guard. She told me that her favorites were “these peanut butter cookies my mom used to make when I was a kid with a chocolate kiss on the top.”
I was basically like “…”
Seriously, when someone tells you their favorite whatever is something their mom used to make, that’s setting the bar pretty high I think. So after Jenn told me that anything with mint or cinnamon would also make her happy, I contemplated making homemade Thin Mints. Unfortunately, the recipe I had at hand called for a lot of ingredients I didn’t have on hand and some equipment that I really didn’t have the time to go out and look for. So I turned again to The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (I am not shilling for them, I swear–it’s just a really awesome cookbook). Flipping through I seemed to recall a picture of some sort of cookie involving chocolate kisses…and there it was. Peanut Blossoms. A peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss on top. Read the rest of this entry »
04. Birthday Goodies, Part 1: Snickerdoodles
On the road, not really ideal blogging conditions.
Whoops! It’s been a crazy few weeks and I’ve been all over the place–from celebrating my 23rd birthday with some of my favorite people (especially Beth and Jenn, who are the topic of this and an upcoming post, and my amazing Josh, who made it all possible) to visiting my folks up in Maryland–so it’s taken me a while to get my focus back. I have been making plenty of goodies in the kitchen though, so I’ve got lots to share.
On to today’s topic: DELICIOUS COOKIES. Beth’s birthday is a few days before mine, and Jenn’s is several weeks after, so I had made plans to get together with them while I was in MD since I couldn’t be there for their actual birthdays. I love giving people presents and although I couldn’t afford to buy them anything, I could definitely make them something. And considering that they ended up driving eight hours or so to Asheville to surprise me for my birthday, they definitely deserved a token of how much I appreciate having them in my life. Cookies it was! But what kind? I didn’t want to be generic and make chocolate chip when not everyone even LIKES chocolate chip cookies that much. So I went straight to the source. I’ll get to Jenn’s cookies in a later post, but Beth told me her favorites were snickerdoodles. Read the rest of this entry »
Green Thumb
One of my favorite ingredients to cook with is fresh herbs. Unfortunately, the herbs you can buy at the grocery store (assuming they have what you’re looking for, which isn’t always the case) tend to be overpriced, possibly wilted, and usually in quantities that I can’t use up before they go bad in my fridge.
With that in mind, I’ve always wanted to grow my own herbs. I’ve started seeds on a few occasions (actually last year I had a glorious crop of Thai basil growing on my parents’ deck but after I left Maryland the plant didn’t make it) but haven’t always followed through, this time around I hope to change that.
With some seeds (obviously) and a seed starter greenhouse (I tried using leftover egg cartons but that didn’t take), I’ve managed to already sprout some plants.** Hopefully with a little effort and care, I’ll have full-grown fresh herbs in no time.
Basil seedlings just recently emerged.
*Herbiculture tag invented by Josh.
**My good friend Beth helped with the seed planting, so I’m giving her some credit here as well. =)
03. Baked Potato Soup
All for you, Jenn. All for you.
So, I had never really thought about making baked potato soup. I like–nay, love–baked potatoes on their own! I don’t need to put them in a soup! That would be weird. Besides, every time I saw this particular soup on a menu somewhere, it had bacon in it, which I can’t eat (for those of you who don’t know–I don’t eat pork products of any kind) so I had kind of ruled out the soup entirely. Then, via Twitter:
BaileysBelle @Commiewench You know what you should look into making? Baked Potato Soup. Whenever I try, it’s far too thin 
Well. Okay! And I just so happened to have some TURKEY bacon in my fridge from this past weekend, so the bacon factor wouldn’t even faze me this time.
02. Beef Empanadas
HOLY SHIT GUYS.
This blog. It exists. Okay, it never stopped existing, but I stopped posting after the first major entry because I didn’t have a good enough camera to take pictures I had too many ideas I didn’t have enough ideas I am a lazy asshole. Also legitimately because the vast number of hugely superior food blogs out there was kind of intimidating. I don’t know. OH WELL, NOW I’M BACK. SUCKERS. And now that I’m basically a housewifegirlfriend, I really have no excuse to not update all the goddamn time.
So we’ll see how that goes.
Anyway! This is actually the second time I have tried to make empanadas. The first time, Eric and I were going to do it at my parents’ house, but after we bought all our filling ingredients, we could NOT. Find. Wrappers. Anywhere. So then we ended up buying pizza dough from Trader Joe’s and making these pan-fried weird pastry things that weren’t anything at all like empanadas… so since I had some ground beef in the fridge I needed to use and I didn’t want to do the usual tacos/hamburgers/whatever it is we usually do with ground beef, I figured I should give empanadas another shot. AND THIS TIME I WOULD MAKE THE FUCKING WRAPPERS MYSELF. Ha!
01. Drunken Noodles
Holy crap, my first food-related post. Totally nervous.
So this weekend I was even in more of a mood to cook than usual, and I decided to experiment with Thai food, which is something I’ve never made before. I wasn’t sure what to make (pad thai just seemed too obvious if you know what I mean), but since it was Mother’s Day weekend I settled on my mom’s favorite dish: drunken noodles.
I found the original recipe here 
, but I ended up tweaking it a little bit. Here’s my version, and then more info on what exactly I changed and why:
