Pupusas

“What is that?! If it
has a weird name and looks weird it has to taste just as bad” that’s what I hear
from people who look at pupusas. This is
one of my favorite foods ever! It’s something that is served for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner in El Salvador. You don’t have to eat it for all three meals
but it is there if someone wants it. I had never made any by myself, my mom was
always there making some also. I realized that I actually have learned to make
them. Oh I guess I should tell you what these are shouldn’t I? Well pupusas are
like homemade tortillas with filling made of cheese, meat and beans inside of
it. Most people don’t like what they look like or the name but once they try
them they eternally fall in love. It’s a fact.
So
the first 3 weren’t very good, they didn’t come out to be a very nice shape and
I didn’t put enough filling in them. Once I made a few more they really started
to get better and by the end, I thought they were pretty well done. I don’t think
they were up to what my mom would have made but they turned out to be pretty
close. Mostly everyone I gave them to either liked them or acted like they
liked them. It takes time to make them but it’s worth it, they are
traditionally accompanied with a sauce and a salad called curtido. It
immediately reminded me of home and El Salvador!

Atol de Piña!

Even
though I have already made a Salvadorian dish, I was in the mood for another
traditional dish. Having been to El Salvador a few times, and having a mom who
cooks similar foods has allowed me to fall in love with Salvadorian food. Being
away from home cooking was a change, and so this week I started to crave a
pastry, specifically a pineapple delight.
This dish is a traditional
one for my family. It is a pastry that my mom makes… whenever she’s in the mood.
It takes quite some time and effort to make; this is why she doesn’t do it
often. On that note I decided I would try to recreate such a delicious traditional
dish. One of the pictures is the actual dish and the other some of the
ingredients. I had to go home and make this because some of the ingredients I couldn’t
find around here. My mom got a good
laugh out of watching me make the dish because I told her she couldn’t help me.
This pastry is made out of pineapple and it has soup like look to it, it looks
strange but it is delicious and sweet. I had to peel, cut, blend, fresh pineapple
to be able to make the dish. This dish, surprisingly, also includes rice which
is also blended therefore making the taste almost non-existing. My mom gave me
a quick rundown before I made it so I wouldn’t be a complete train wreck but
halfway through I just couldn’t remember what the next step was. I ended up
begging my mom for help because I didn’t know what was next. In the end the atoll turned out alright, not as good as
my mom’s but pretty tasty.

Tour of Asia

For my whole life I have always loved Asian cuisine, whether it is Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, or Japanese. I’ve always tried to find traditional restaurants with real food, I hate eating at those Americanized Chinese buffets. I’ve also always loved cooking different things but, for some mysterious reason, I’ve never tried to make traditional Asian food. I’ve made my own variations of stir fry an fried rice but never the real thing, so for my last cooking experience I decided to challenge myself with a “tour of Asia,” or full Asian meal. We started with an Asian slaw with ponzu dressing and Vietnamese spring rolls (which I forgot to take pictures of). The spring rolls were probably the most difficult thing. It took me awhile to figure out the rice papers used to wrap them then it took even longer to get the hang of wrapping it. Luckily for me, however, I had Laura with me who was used to rolling tamales. We filled the springs rolls with shrimp, lettuce, rice noodles, julienned red bell pepper, shredded carrot, and slivers of mango. The sauce was the traditional peanut sauce. For the main course I made Korean beef rice bowls. I marinated the thin slices of flank steak for about 30 minutes with fish sauce, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, and sesame oil. I then cut carrots into matchsticks and diced zucchini and onion. I caramelized the onions for a little bit before adding the beef then the rest of the veggies along with spinach at the very end. The meal was then served on top of a bed of rice. For dessert I made Thai iced coffee, which turned out a little better than I thought since I didn’t have the cardamom pods. Despite the first spring rolls not being rolled tight enough and the lack of cardamom, it all turned out to be delicious.

Pizza Brings the Family Together

Some of my best memories I have are the times my family all gathered in the kitchen and made pizza. My mom and I would always make the dough in the morning when we woke and let it rise throughout the day. Then, when everybody starts to get hungry, we would cut up the dough into little balls and get started. Sometimes we would each do our own small pizza and then compete to make the best one while at other times we would all work on the same pizza but at different stages, like an assembly line. My mom would roll it out and shape it then pass it on to us kids who would top it with whatever we wanted and then give it to my dad to stick it in the oven. We always had extra so we would either invite friends and family over to help us eat it or freeze the pizza before we cooked it for later. It’s been awhile since we made pizzas, however, so I decided to introduce Laura, my girlfriend, and friends to the tradition.

Laura and I made the dough at about 2 and then at 6 we called in for help and some friends showed up. We cut the dough into 4 portions, 3 for pizza and then the fourth we divided to make bread sticks. I started to pizza making and not before long everyone started have a blast and doing their own thing. The great thing about pizzas is they only take about 5 minutes in the oven to cook so by the time we are ready to put the next pizza in the first one is ready to be taken out. Also we can eat the pizza as we go! I think the only downside to making pizzas is how hot the kitchen gets from the oven being up so high.

All together we made a pizza with pesto as the base sauce, topped with sundried tomatoes and chicken, and then we put the cheese on top of that due to the tomatoes tendency to get a bitter flavor from burning and the chicken sometimes gets overly dry. We used fresh mozzarella cheese and a mixture of fresh grated parmesan, romano, and asiago for all of the pizzas. Next we made a pizza with an olive oil and garlic base for the sauce topped with our cheese then fresh basil and tomatoes slices. Our last pizza had our homemade tomato sauce, thin sliver of onion, chicken, and diced tomatoes. With the remaining dough we made about 3 breadsticks stuffed with the fresh mozzarella and about 4 regular bread sticks, each one brushed with garlic and olive oil and topped with a pinch of our grated cheeses right before going into the oven.

Everything turned out great, although the shape of the pizzas weren’t exactly perfect circles the taste more than made up for it!

It Rained! (Also, I made a cheesecake)

For my final dish, I decided to make a Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake. My mother and sister have been making this dessert on holidays for years, and I thought it would be nice to try to make the cheesecake myself.

I have never been confident in my cooking abilities, but my sister was kind enough to supervise me and make sure I didn’t make any mistakes (that couldn’t be corrected). Our food processor was not large enough to contain all of the ingredients at once, so I had to make several smaller, messier batches and then try to mix them together and give them some consistency. After turning the kitchen into one large mess, I was finally able to start putting the cheesecake together. The “crust” on the bottom of the cake was made out of crushed Oreo cookies, and on top of the cake, several handfuls of chocolate drops were added.
Ironically, I think the most stressful part of the whole process was when I pulled the cheesecake out to cool. I was worried that I had forgotten some ingredient or that I hadn’t let the cheesecake bake for long enough, I even found myself worrying if I had let the cheesecake cool too much before placing it into the refrigerator.
In the end, the cheesecake came out fine, and it went perfect with a cup of coffee and getting to watch some overdue rain fall on the backyard.

Grace and Virginia- Expert Chefs

This past weekend was fall break. We were under the impression that the cafeteria did not open again till Wednesday morning. Grace and I decided that we would make dinner for everyone on Tuesday as our challenge cooking project.
We had our dishes and recipes picked out, but we got a rather late start. We spent more than an hour at the H.E.B. because we were completely indecisive and unfocused. Our original plan was to make the steak and potatoes dish we watched Julia Child make in class, but after we arrived at the store, we decided to buy cheaper chicken in place of the steak. After leaving the store, we had our meal plan finalized. On the menu for Tuesday's dinner: barbecue chicken, teriyaki chicken, Julia Child's Gratin potatoes, corn, garlic bread, and brownies. We did not start cooking until sometime after 5 pm.
Grace's special contribution to the dinner was the chicken. She began preparing and seasoning the chicken. My special part of the meal was the potatoes. We bought 6 potatoes, so we both got to work slicing them. I grated the Swiss cheese that goes on top of the potatoes and melted butter for them. I then went about layering, seasoning, and adding the Swiss cheese and butter to the potatoes as we had seen Julia Child do. The potatoes were placed in the oven for 30 minutes. We bought way more potatoes than we needed, so we will probably be snacking on those for awhile.
Together we made garlic bread and brownies and Shannon even made some corn for the dinner. The dinner tasted really good, perhaps that is because we had not eaten a proper meal all day and it was probably about 8 pm when we sat down to eat it.
We ended up with a lot of food leftover so Grace and I wondered through the halls looking for hungry boys. Eventually, all of the chicken, corn, bread, and brownies were gone. Try as we might, we could not get rid of all of the potatoes.

A Family Comfort Food

In all honesty, the spelling of the dish that I decided to make is unknown. But the “roljtyas” that I decided to make have been enjoyed by my family for so long that worrying about their spelling feels trivial.

I remember my grandpa telling stories about his life in the Ukraine before World War II, how he once carved his own pair of skis from the neighbor’s fence posts or how he ended up on a boat to Canada instead of Argentina, as he had planned, and he always told stories about the farm he worked on. My grandfather had grown up poor, and on a farm where food was abundant, he often tried to sneak food out and take it back home.

After being caught several times, my great grandmother, frustrated with her son always being in trouble, sewed pockets into his pants that ran all the way down the leg. This was not exactly the kind of punishment one would expect, to aid and encourage a lousy thief, but he was helping the family. As a treat for my grandpa and his siblings, some of the fruits that he brought home would go into roljtyas, their favorite dessert.

Roljtyas were a way for my grandfather to remember his family and home, and for my father, it was a way to remember my grandfather after he had died. While cooking the roljtyas, I was taken back to my childhood memories of Canada: back to when my grandfather and I would sit on the back porch snacking on the raspberry bush and sour cherries, waiting for the roljtyas to finish baking.

Julia Child on Mabee 2

For my second cooking project, I decided to cook barbecue chicken. I came back from fall break a day early, and those of us from our FYS that were on campus already decided to make dinner together. Our meal was composed of barbecue chicken, teriyaki chicken, Julia Child's potatoes gratin, garlic bread, corn, and frosted brownies. The delicious meal was satisfying after all the time, efforts, and money put into it.

We headed to the store with the idea that we knew what we needed, but once we got there, we realized that was not true. We spent a lot of time wandering around HEB, during which our original plan of steak and potatoes turned into a dinner consisting of twenty chicken legs, six whole potatoes, and sides to go along with them.

We eventually returned to the dorm, already hungry, and began to cook. I began to bake the chicken after seasoning it with salt, pepper, and oil. After twenty-five minutes, I covered most of them in barbecue sauce, leaving the remaining few to be brushed with teriyaki, and returned the chicken to the oven.

We sliced, layered, and baked the potatoes just as we had seen Julia Child do. We ended up with two whole pans of potatoes gratin, leaving leftovers for days to come. Our sides consisted of an entire loaf of garlic bread and a pan of sweetened corn, made by Shannon. Then our dessert was a pan of frosted chocolate brownies. We probably over-estimated in terms of portions, especially in terms of potatoes, and once we began to eat, we realized just how much food there actually was. When we finished eating as much as we possibly could, we wandered the halls, rounding up athletic guys to help us finish everything.

I enjoyed the meal, not only because it tasted delicious and was extremely satisfying, but also because it brought us all together. Everyone worked together, from the time we made our shopping list until late that night when we were still giving out chicken and garlic bread.

Is that Corn Bread Blue?

Yes the corn bread is blue. And it is supposed to be because it was made with blue corn meal from blue corn. Surprisingly to me, most of the people in my dorm did not even know that blue corn existed. Blue corn is a staple food in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, but perhaps not in Texas or Tex-Mex food.
Growing up in New Mexico, it was not uncommon to get blue corn tortilla chips while waiting for your meal or even enchiladas rolled in blue corn tortillas for your actual meal. This was because of the Native American influence that has affected New Mexican Cuisine. The Pueblos Indians of New Mexico have been using blue corn at least as far back as the 1500s, when the Spanish explorers discovered the region.
I decided to make blue corn bread as my comfort meal because it reminds me of New Mexican Cuisine. In researching a recipe, I found out that blue corn produces a much sweeter flavor than yellow or white corn and actually contains 20% more protein.
Not being able to decide on which recipe I wanted to use, my dad helped me out by sending me some blue corn meal from New Mexico and his simple recipe for his yellow corn bread that he makes for Thanksgiving. I just substituted blue corn meal, which is actually rather gray, for the yellow corn meal that the recipe calls for.
Unfortunately there were some mistakes made in the kitchen. The recipe calls for 1 cup of milk, I accidentally put in 2 cups. The mixture then became extremely runny. My dad, bless his heart, measured out the exact amount of corn meal that I would need for the recipe, so I only had enough corn meal for what the recipe called for. I just kept adding flour to try to make it thicker.
Eventually I gave up and just put it in the oven. It was a little dry, but it actually did not taste to bad.

FINAL DISH!! Homemade Carrot Cake

For my final dish I decided to bake a carrot cake... with the help of my aunt who knows a thing or two about baking. The process was a lot harder and longer than I thought it was going to be. Just grocery shopping for the ingredients took an hour and a half! Then the actual cake took about three hours. I used a recipe out of a cooking book I found at Michaels. The recipe looked easy, but apparently you have to know a thing or two about baking to be able to follow it. For example, the recipe called for white sugar and brown sugar, but the directions told you to add the sugars (plural) instead of telling you to add both... that is where I went wrong. I forgot the brown sugar, and did not realize until afterwards. The good news is that the cake still tasted very good. (My aunt called in low-cal because it had less sugar.) Baking a cake from scratch was definitely a lot harder than just buying the cake mix and adding eggs, obviously. In order to bake well you have to be very meticulous and patient. My aunt told me before I started that she learned that her best baked goods were those where she was precise about how much of each ingredient she added to her treats. I noticed that is the main difference between cooking and baking. When you are cooking it doesn't matter if you put a little more of one ingredient in than the recipe calls for, but when you are baking it does matter. Another thing that was very complicated about baking this cake is which type of ingredient to buy. On the grocery store shelf there are many different brands of the same exact thing, so I found myself buying what I knew and that was sometimes the most expensive! It is definitely saves you money and time to just buy a pre-made cake rather than baking it yourself. By the time it was over (at 11:30 at night) my friends and I got to enjoy the cake I had baked... in a quarter of the time it took to bake it. To me that seems like a complete waste of time to slave over a cake that is gone right after it is done!

~Lauren

Gambas al ajillo

Gambas al ajillo, or shrimp with garlic sauce, is a traditional Spanish tapas dish. Tapas are just small plates, or small portions of different foods. Some are severed cold, for instance mixed olives and cheese and even a Spanish omelet, and others are served hot, like albondigas and Gambas al ajillo, the dish I prepared at home. Shrimp with garlic sauce is one dish my father makes frequently, and in spite of not being the biggest seafood fan, I love to eat.

The preparation is fairly simple but we do have one wrinkle that makes it different from the traditional recipe. If you roast garlic it gets soft, isn’t as strong, and becomes spreadable. So, I roast the garlic in olive oil or if we are in a hurry, put it in the microwave in 30 second intervals until it get soft. I then mash up the garlic and mix it with olive oil to make a paste and use this for the sauce. We take a couple tablespoons of paprika, some salt and pepper to taste, and sauté that with the garlic paste in some more olive oil, about ½ cup. After a few minutes we add 2 pounds of medium sized shrimp and sauté them until they curl a bit, and then finish cooking them while adding ¼ of brandy (which I couldn’t get at school unless I went to a fraternity party and I’m trying to stay out of trouble). You serve the shrimp with crusty bread and some lemon wedges.

Dove

A couple of weekends ago I visited my Uncle’s ranch, hunting, or better watching people hunt dove. I’d never hunted birds before, had only shot a shotgun once, and so didn’t want to “Dick Cheney” anyone. It was the opening of dove hunting season and the birds were plentiful. Folks shot their limit and I got a lesson in dressing the birds, which isn’t a line of work I’m looking to pursue.

I’ve eaten a lot of different game birds, but don’t think I ever had dove before. My cousin and I though, made the most delicious thing I’ve eaten recently. The ingredients were jalapeño, the breast of the dove, cream cheese, and the most important ingredient –since it makes everything taste good -- bacon that was wrapped around the Jalapeño stuffed with cream cheese and the dove breast. We first cut the jalapeño in half, then quartered it and stuffed it with the cream cheese. The dove breast was then pressed against the cream cheese filled jalapeño and finally wrapped in bacon. We threw these treats on the mesquite wood fired grill and cooked them up. Man, were they tasty. Everybody was saying it was the best dove recipe. I never had dove before, but this preparation was extremely good. One thing I might want to do differently is use a different cheese. Manchego, a Spanish cheese I really like, might be a nice replacement for the cream cheese.

Chicken Fried Rice!!!

Chicken Fried Rice!!!

Okay, so here's the deal. I discovered this delicious meal this summer, and from the first time my mother made it, I made it a tradition for every night before an athletic event. I seemed to never get tired of it. Just chicken, fried rice, eggs, and some seasoning. I always thought it would be really easy to make, but man, was I wrong. I had an assistant, the one and only Katherine Martin. :) I first went to target and got all of the supplies. Then, had to wait to have the kichen to myself. Rawr.

BUT then, I had to start. I had to get out a cutting board and get my hands a little dirty. There were three pieces of big chicken that I had to cut the fat off of, trying my hardest not to gag, and then cut them into really little (mostly) square pieces, and put them in the pan to start making it edible. I had to wait until all of it was white, then put in the rice, seasoning, and water and let it boil. Then, of course the mabee kichen didn't have the right lid for the pan I was using, so we had to improvise, and use a plastic bowl to let it sizzle...

That was not the best idea. We kinda burnt a little of the stove, but I fixed it. Then, the bowl kinda started to melt...but we figured that out too. Then, the way the recipe told me to make the eggs didn't work, and they burned in like five seconds...twice. So I said screw the recipe, and made them like I always do, mixed everything together, and BAM.

Chicken Fried Rice.

It was quite the adventure, but it turned out fantastic, and made me miss home.

Ps, thanks Katherine. :)

-Hayley

A PAWful Experience

I found this recipe on the internet. The title was "Pueblo Indian Bear Paw Bread". I had never made bread before, and this sounded pretty cool. I spent 60 dollars (that I didn't have) at H.E.B for all the ingredients (such as 10 cups of flour) and supplies that the kitchen didn't have.

The first time I attempted this recipe I killed the yeast. Three hours in, when the dough didn't rise, I realized I made a mistake. Penny was kind enough to explain that "warm" water didn't mean boiling water, and the yeast probably hadn't made it.

I tried again the next day, being sure to provide the yeast with adequate living conditions. All went well until I got to the forming of the "bear paws".

There was no picture on the internet, just a lengthy description of how to fold the dough into a "bear paw". My result was something more like a club foot. It was after I had dominated the dough and forced into a paw like shape that I realized I had neither pie plates nor cookie sheets to bake the bread on, as called for in the recipe. I was able to remove the plastic handles from two sauce pans which I hoped to heaven were oven proof (they were!).

The end results was mediocre. The dough had risen, and made a hollow sound when tapped, which the recipe said was good, but didn't explain why...It tasted ok, but was rather bland and disappointing after 2 tries and 5 hours of work. I think next time I'll just make cookies.

making gumbo makes my tummy grumblyyy

there's a lot of chopping and preparing in gumbo making. I always knew there were a lot of vegetables, meats, and spices in gumbo to make it tasty, but I didn't expect to spend almost 5 hours making it.

I don't have the recipe with me at the moment, but I will tell you what I remember from this experience.

First I went to the grocers and bought all the ingredients I needed, which included- a whole roast chicken, andouille sausage, green peppers, red peppers, celery, onion, chives, garlic, ocra, canned tomatoes, and a bunch of spices.

After my shopping experience I gathered all the knives, chopping boards, and containers I could find and began chopping like crazy. Okay, that's a lie, I first watched an episode of Criminal Minds, and then I began to rip/ chop the chicken to bit sized pieces for the gumbo. After that I chopped the sausage into inch rounds. It looked pretty good, so I actually got out a skillet, fried some, and tried it. It was spicy. good.

Then came the veggies. There was so much to do for them. I first washed all the celery and took them apart from their stems and took off some of the stringy stuff. Then I diced them. Then came the bell peppers, which I washed, halved, and cleaned the inside. Then I diced them. Onions were a bit difficult to dice, as I needed so many, and they made me cry. But I dealt with it for you guys. <3

so I chopped up the other vegetables without any care as I was kind of tired from chopping then. Then I washed my hands and measured out the spices. I was a bit worried about this part as I know even the littlest spice can alter the flavor. However I did the best that I could.

The end result, from Katherine's taste test as it was spicy, but not spicy enough and didn't really have a Cajun kick. However it was filling and was good so I guess, I still have a lot to work on.

From the chopped vegetables, and spices, I combined them in a big pot with some flour to make roux. After cooking that for awhile I began to add the large cans of tomatoes.

That is were I hit some problems.

The pot was too small.

So I poured everything from that pot into the biggest pot I could find.

And I poured the rest of the tomatoes in and let them cook for some more.

I stirred.

and stirred.

oh, what is this black stuff?

OH NOES, THE POT IS STICKING!

so I quickly transferred the ingredients from the large pot into two smaller non stick pots and continued to cook from there.

it was tons of fun, moving boiling hot, red soupy masses around by my onesome.

It ended up being alright(no smokey, burnt flavor!), so I added the meats into the gumbo. After stirring for a bit, I just let the gumbo sit and simmer for approximately an hour, occasionally checking it and stirring the great vat of it around.

In the end, it turned out to be quite delicious and I saved some of it for my parents, who in turn asked for more to give to their friends, until I was left with one small pot of it for our FYS. which went to a good cause- feeding a hungry girl who was pulling an all-nighter. Love you Katherine.

Despite it being a big mess and a lot of work, I think I will make gumbo again. It was homey tasting and made a lot of bellies full.

yeah, I eat everything with rice.

if I could have only one food...

I would want an INFINITE AMOUNT OF RICE!

For my comfort food, I decided to share rice with my FYS. However I usually eat white steamed rice at home which can seem kind of plain, so instead of white rice, I prepared fried rice.

This is a dish I usually make with my mom. We would rummage through our fridge to find whatever leftover meats and raw vegetables. Taking everything in a hot wok, we would cook it and throw it around. After everything was almost cooked through, it would be taken off the heat, hot oil would be poured into the wok with rice and then some soy sauce and sugar(only a little!) Once the rice was all hot and separated, a little well would be made in the center of the rice and I would crack an egg into it as my mom handled the wok. The egg would get scrambled and cooked, and all the ingredients were then altogether mixed in the wok with some diced scallions for a final flick of the wrist.

When I made fried rice for our FYS, I didn't have any leftover rice so I used freshly steamed white rice instead, which worked perfectly fine. The only thing I had to watch about that is to use less water when steaming the rice to reduce the moisture of the cooked rice. The vegetables that went into the rice were diced onions, corn, and scallions. I was a bit hesitant to use corn as first, as we had just finished reading section 1 of the Omnivore's Dilemma, but then decided to go for it as I couldn't really find another vegetable that paired well with the chicken breast in the rice. The chicken breast in the rice was marinated beforehand with a bit of soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and flour. All these ingredients were diced, stir-fried, and incorporated into the fried rice for a simple dish.

Love You Mommy

Being a single working mother didn't exactly leave my mom with much time to show Betty Crocker up in the kitchen. The pantry was stacked with prepackaged meals, and my siblings and I would often be passed around from neighbor to neighbor when my mom had to work late. Looking back I don't remember many home cooked meals, but I do remember my mom at every single one of my soccer games, ballet recitals, school plays, and mother daughter events. How she managed to be so involved in her children's lives while at the same time working the snot filled hours of a Kindergarden teacher, I have no idea, but her hard work did pay off in the end and when I became a senior in high school she was able to stop working and spend my last year at home with me.

Although she had plenty of time to cook now, my schedule didn't allow me time to eat. I was never home for dinner during the week due to basketball, team dinners, numerous church events, and eating out with friends. The weekends followed a similar pattern and I would be lucky to every now and then find leftovers in the fridge. Once again though my mom went above and beyond and decided that if she was not able to cook for me at home, she would bake for me on the go. Our kitchen soon became filled with cookies and brownies and other delicious pastries. She would randomly show up at school around lunch and drop of gobs of sweets for me and my friends. Life was good….

Every away game in basketball someones mom would put together goody bags for the all the players. When it was my moms turn I was so stoked! That was until she forgot to make them and we ended up not having goody bags that game. Even though it wasn't that big of a deal, my mom felt horrible, and the next day during lunch she showed up in the locker room with a bunt cake I had never seen before and a gallon of ice cream. Seeing how our basketball team was never going to actually win a game, we might as well sit around getting spoiled with cake right? And spoiled we were… that thing was delicious! She ended up making three that week just to satisfy me and my teammates. Whenever I had company over you could find a freshly, sugar powder covered, chocolate bunt cake on a platter in the kitchen. I defiantly owe about 10 pounds of my body weight to that thing.

Every time I eat that cake, memories of my mom and senior year come to mind. In a way, the chocolate chip bunt cake serves as a reminder that although my childhood was different then many, my mom was as great if not greater than any other mom, and always loved me with her entire heart. Choosing to make this cake was a simple decision for me, but it was not my first time to try and recreate my mom's "masterpiece". Although the one I made today might be a little a dry and not even in the same category as mi madres, at least this time I remembered to mix the cake mix in with the other ingredients before attempting to cook it. Note to self: pudding mixes, water, eggs, oil, and chocolate chips mixed together and put in the oven for an hour is a hazard.

Easy as Pie

I have been baking with my grandma for as long as I can remember. She teaches me the recipes that were passed down to her by her mother, including lemon meringue pie, spritz cookies, scotcharoos, and my favorite, apple pie. Since she first taught me to bake an apple pie a few years ago, I have been making it for my family for holidays and and get-togethers. I have even changed the recipe a little to make it my own.

The filling of the pie is easy, but tedious. It calls for 6-8 cups of apples, which must be cored, peeled, and thinly sliced, then set to absorb sugar and cinnamon. My grandma also gave me the family recipe for the home made crust, and insists that a pre-made crust would be "sacrilegious". My mom and sister have been unsuccessful in their attempts at my grandma's apple pie, so I feel like it is something that I can share with my grandma. I like having something that only we can do.

I was worried about making the pie in the Mabee kitchen. The climate here is very different from California, and the oven is here is evil. I sat in the kitchen the whole 50 minutes it took the pie to bake because I was scared it would burn, or combust, or explode. I was relatively happy with the result. The filling was mushier than usual, but the crust was flakier, and not as dry as I have found it to be at home. I bought vanilla Bluebell ice cream from the cove to serve with it, and served it to the neighboring FYS, who fought over it bite for bite. I think it was a success.

My ultimate comfort food is tuna noodle casserole. It has been a favorite of my mom's and mine for as long as I can remember. She makes it for dinner sometimes and we eat it warm, then we finish the cold leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

My mom never actually wrote down a recipe for it because she usually uses what she has around the kitchen and doesn't measure anything out, as she does for many things she makes. Most tuna and noodle recipes also involve baking time in the oven, but we eliminated that step throughout the years because we were ready to eat as soon as the stovetop heating was done.

Here is the basic recipe for my mom's tuna and noodles:

Add cream of mushroom soup and milk to cooked egg noodles on stovetop. Stir in onion, cheddar cheese, tuna, and peas. Turn heat to low and add curry, thyme, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. As soon as everything is heated through, it is ready to eat.

I made this as a late night snack, and shared it with members of my FYS. Only after finishing his serving did one of the guys tell me mushrooms make him sick, though. So although he enjoyed the treat, he was regretting his choice later, and I felt bad. Sorry Ross!

Delicious On The Whole

I was a tad skeptical about how much I would enjoy my trip to Whole Foods. I thought that all I would see was expensive food and stuck up employees. Man was I surprised!! Don't get me wrong, the food was still fairly expensive, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The employees though, those guys were awesome. They all really knew what they were talking about and were super friendly about sharing that info. (as well as some of their food)

While some of the group went throughout the store looking for stuff on the shelves, Luc, Ross, and I all took the easy way out and went back to the BBQ bar for some lunch. I got the pulled pork and mac and cheese (as both of my sides) haha. I got a mug of root beer too; draft, straight out of a keg into a frosty mug. It was all fantastic! I don't think I've ever had BBQ or root beer that good! The mac and cheese could have been a little better though. But all in all, it was a fantastic field trip. Yay college! hahaha