A little bit food science, a little bit culinary...making you smarter one bite at a time.
Two finals of my undergrad career in college to go.
One today at 10am in food packaging and one Wednesday at 8am in food engineering. Because I’m swamped with studying today, I’m giving you guys a little throw back to my how to make fresh pasta video. If you’ve never made fresh pasta before it’s crazy easy, the difference in taste, texture, and flavor will blow your mind. Don’t be a dough head and watch the video!
You know that moment when you realize a friendship is transforming, it’s becoming something extraordinary, maybe unexpected but exciting none the less. My friendship with Anika began at Taco Tuesday’s at Nick’s Crispy Tacos in San Francisco, each week we would share and admire our newly painted nails (she’s a nail polish connoisseur) and chat about the cute boys at the bar during our weekly meal with a somewhat complied group of friends.
Over thanksgiving break we went out together in the city with some friends and had a wonderful time…yesterday Anika, who is also on the quest for a job (she majored in art history, if you have a job opening holla!) anyways, she found a job posting for the absolute ideal job for me and sent it my way. I feel it is so humbling when a friend finds a piece of information and goes out of their way to pass it along. I stopped to think, and realized I like where this friendship is going and I hope that it only continues to grow.
Crumb cake is messy, it has crumbs everywhere, it complements a cup of coffee and it makes the morning paper soooo much better. Sometimes when I have a big rich breakfast I feel like I have to go back to bed to digest the meal, this crumb cake is light and won’t drag you into a food coma, pair it with fresh orange slices and you’re powered up for the morning.
Okay wait.
I just googled crumb cake and of course all these pictures came up that had these perfectly crumb-free pictures. THIS IS A LIE PEOPLE. If you’re not trying to get wild with the crumbs I’m sorry then, cause you’ll be missing out on this little gem. Get ready, this cinnamon streusel crumb cake isn’t messing around.
So you think you can Streusel?
Serves 5
|Gather
For the Crumb cake:
1 Egg
2 Cups Bisquick light or multigrain pancake mix
2/3 C Milk
2 Tbsp. Sugar
¼ Orange Zest
For the Streusel:
1/3 C Baking mix
2/3 C Packed brown sugar
4 tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp. Vanilla extract
|Create
Heat oven to 375F. Grease a 9x9x2 inch pan. Stir together ingredients for cake. Spread into pan and place in preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes. While cake is baking make the streusel by combining all ingredients in a large bowl, should have a crumbly consistency. Personal preference, dictates the best streusel toppings are created by hand. Sprinkle on the cake and continue to bake for an additional 8-10 minutes.
|Enjoy
Serve warm and may sprinkle a bit more brown sugar over the top. Cinnamon streusel crumb cake compliments fresh orange slices and a steaming cup of bold coffee it will round out a fuss free morning.
Green drink. That just goes against everything we are told about beverages right? If it’s green, and it liquid, basic biology tells us to stay away. When you’re sick all you can think of is one of two things, or maybe both: How sick and miserable you are or, how badly you want to get well. Sick or not sometimes we all need a little pick-me up or if you’re still feeling sluggish from thanksgiving maybe a bit of detox.
Today, for my packaging class I did a presentation comparing baby food in a traditional glass jar package and baby food in a flexible package; more specifically a pouch. Glass is the primary choice for baby food it is estimated about 3.5 billion units will be produced in 2010. Why is glass so successful? Because parents want to see the food they are going to serve to their baby, it’s also inert package, which means that no chemicals leach into the food. Furthermore glass also dictates a certain premium-ness for the product. Think about it if you are shopping for lets say spaghetti sauce, and you were faced with the choice between a pretty glass jar of sauce and a steel plated can, which would you choose? I think it’s safe to say most of us would reach for the glass jar.
During my presentation I used my glass baby jars as a demonstration for the tamper evident button, which is found at the top of each jar. Consequently, the pouch that I had, of the peas, spinach, and pears flavor was unopened and needed to be used. Since I don’t have any babies or know anyone that does. I got thinking…what to do with this pouch of baby food? Then it hit me, Get You Movin’ Green Drink. I could use it in a smoothie drink, that would hopefully make me feel better, as well as use up some kale and a frozen banana. Kale, especially in the raw form is a great source of vitamin A. The baby food of course is packed with nutrients, if you don’t have any on hand don’t worry just add an extra handful of kale.
Get You Movin’ Green Drink
Serves 1
|Gather
For Smoothie:
1 Frozen or overripe banana
½ Pouch of 12.4 oz. baby food: Peas, Spinach, and Pears
¼ C Mango Orange Juice
¼ C Low Fat milk
1 tbsp. Honey
2 Ice cubes
Small bunch of Kale (with the stem removed)
For Garnish:
Fresh Raspberries
|Create
Peel the banana and place in a blender. Add the juice, milk, kale, baby food, ice cubes, honey. Blend for two minutes to make sure that the kale and banana are well distributed. Taste test to make sure the flavor meets your liking.
*Note- any of the above ingredients may be substituted for your choice for example: almond or soymilk in place of cow milk or orange juice instead of mango peach.
|Enjoy
Garnish with fresh raspberries. A straw makes everything better when you’re hurtin’ so feel free to stick one in and slurp up!
I think I have a fever right now. In my sickness this song, Against the Grain by Hudson is bringing me to a peaceful place as I stress about finals, projects, and presentations. You should check it out..not to mention the music video is so sick, not actual sick like me, but like cool sick. Here is the link to the youtube video:
I’m too sick to cook today so I’m doing The Top 7 Gifts for the 20 Something Gal in your life whether it be: a daughter, niece, cousin, family friend you name her!
Gifts from Top to Bottom:
1. Essie Nail Polish- Great Color, easy on the wallet, can be found at Target, Walgreen’s, etc. I’m lusting after ballet slipper the color pictured above, it’s the polish Giada DeLaurentiis wears while taping her shows on the Food Network.
2. Kindle-UHMMM so amazing! I love my kindle. I read it almost every single day, and charge it about once a month. Downloading books is super easy and at $78.00 it’s such a steal. All the cool kids have one.
3. Entry to a fitness event- Offer to pay for entry into the fitness event of her choice whether it be a 10k walk, marathon, or a long distance swim getting active is so trendy! Not to mention what a great gift and a great goal to set, maybe you two can even do the event together!
4.Bee’s Wax Candles-Laura my ultra awesome roommate, took a bee keeping class this quarter and made amazing bee’s wax candles. They smell so amazing, I can’t get enough of them. Everyone loves a great smelling candle whether you choose to burn these cute little ones is up to you. You can find ‘em online or maybe at a local gift store. If you wanted to take it to the next level grab a cute plate from Ikea or Crate and Barrel and a couple candles and you’ve got an adorable decorative piece.
5.I-phone/ Smartphone case- These day’s it seems as though everyone has got a great phone, why not protect it? There are tons of adorable cases to choose fun, I like this one because its multifunctional it can serve as a clutch/wallet for going out or running a quick errand to the store, plus it’s cute to boot!
6.The Hunger Games- A wonderful book, and it’s an easy and fun read, once you start you’re bound to read through the trilogy in record time.
7. A Photo Print on a canvas-Pick a nice photo and get it printed on a canvas, it’s a great memory and it’s super easy you just have to upload a picture to a photo print shop like Costco photo and select your size and pick it up!
I promise to have a tasty new recipe up soon!
Beginning in 7th grade and spanning a time period of seven years I was a vegetarian. I consumed dairy and the occasional seafood product but aside from that, I had zero animal sources contributing to my diet. The original reason I choose to be vegetarian was because all the cool kids were doing it. HAHAH JUST KIDDING!! Hopefully no one changes their diet on a reason like that but hey…kids these days. Anyways, I actually choose to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle because I simply did not care much for meat.
When I began my freshmen year of college I had a real rough time trying to eat in the cafeteria on campus as I lived in the dorms. Some nights my only option for dinner was salad. And believe me, that gets real boring after a while. I once complained to the staff that there were not enough vegetarian options, and was met with the response, “There’s a salad bar.” Uhmmm I think you missed the point there buddy.
In my struggle to find complete protein for my active lifestyle (I was NCAA D1 diver) I ultimately could not find enough non-heme sources to satisfy my body’s need. Heme protein is the type of protein found in meat sources, it is my understanding that this type of protein is more easily available for use by the body. Non-heme protein, which is found in plant sources, is much harder for the body to make use of, and often much less is available gram for gram as compared to its heme counter part. As I became weaker and lost a good portion of the hair on the top of my head it was time to seriously look at my diet. Beginning in June of that year, I began to slowly introduce meat and meat products into my life. OH MY! What I was missing…don’t even let me begin to tell you. Bacon, wow. Facon bacon does not do it justice and I’m so happy to have it back in my life.
But the main reason I went off on that tangent is that while I was a vegetarian my mom would come up with all of these creative items for dinner with veggies. One of my favorites was a roasted marinated mushroom with fresh creamy polenta. I wanted to jazz it and up and what did I do? Add Beer, of course. I have two more weeks of college and I’m going to milk it for all its worth! I created Drunken Portabella Mushroom it’s got a portabella mushroom marinated in a rich beer with garlic, salt, and pepper. Topped over creamy polenta, and completed with crispy onions (using the beer marinade as the batter) and a bit of fresh arugula to round it all out.
Drunken Portabella Mushrooms
Serves 2
|Gather
For the Marinade:
2 Portabella mushrooms
1 Dark beer
2-3 Gloves of Garlic, chopped
Salt and Pepper
EVOO
For the Polenta:
1 C Dry Polenta
2 C Water
1 C Milk
1 Tsp Butter
1 Tbsp. Chia Seeds (Optional)
Salt and Pepper
For the Crispy Onions:
½ C Flour
1 C Beer Marinade
Canola Oil for Frying
½ White or yellow onion
Pinch Salt and Pepper
Arugula, for garnish
|Create
Place the mushrooms into a plastic zip lock bag and pour the beer over the mushrooms, add the garlic and sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over the top. Let marinate for two hours occasionally flipping the mixture so that both sides are easily coated. Preheat the oven to 400F. Place the mushrooms on a baking pan and drizzle with EVOO. Bake for 10 minutes then flip the mushroom and bake an additional 10 minutes.* For the polenta, bring the water milk and butter mixture to a boil then slowly stir in the polenta with a whisk. Make sure to stir continuously and in the same direction to prevent lumps. Reduce the heat and continue to stir until mixture has thicken, if you choose to add chia seeds you may do so at this point. For the crispy onions slice half a white onion half ways to allow the rings to stay in tack. Heat the oil on medium till hot enough to fry. Put the onion pieces into the marinade for a few minutes to allow the onion to soak it up a bit. Then dip them into the flour and place in the hot oil, fry until golden and crispy. Allow to drain on a paper towel.
*Note: Depending on the thickness of your mushroom more or less time may be required to fully roast the mushroom.
|Enjoy
Assemble: Place a bed of fresh polenta then place the mushroom over the top and stack onions and arugula.
The funny thing about social networking is you can follow the pilgrimage of all of your friends as they arrive to their respective hometowns for the holiday weekend.
I came to Momma’s house last night after loads of traffic on lovely fwy 880. Boy, I’ve missed central heating and Dakota the dog. Oh and of course Momma, but that’s a given. At my house at school there is one heater for the entire 5 bedroom house, which was built in 1903 and it happens to be 3 rooms away from my bedroom. Guess how much heat makes it to my room? ZERO. It’s the little things in life that get me.
Dakota the dog was so happy to see me….oh wait, he said hello and then promptly returned to his pillow. Cameron (Brother) and I ventured to Trader Joe’s today to pick up some last minute items for thanksgiving, scary, I know. Luckily we made it out alive and with all of our needed items. Unfortunately, without the crispy onions I needed for a recipe I’m working on this week for the site. We were standing in line and I was talking rather loud, typical, to Cameron complaining about how I couldn’t find the crispy onions and an employee walks by and says, “Oh actually, we are out, they were a seasonal items and they are sold out.” Sad day…I guess I’ll continue the search or stop being a baby and just make ‘em myself.
Momma and I love to cook together, obviously the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree. We decided on black bean pumpkin soup from Smitten Kitchen although we put our little spin on it. I love the pumpkin flavor but don’t care much for pumpkin pie so I’m always stoked to find new and scrumptious ways to make use of the tasty squash.
Party in Your Mouth Pumpkin Soup
Serves 4
|Gather
For the Soup:
1 Can Black Beans
1 Can Pumpkin Puree (15oz)
1 Can Diced Tomatoes, drained
4 C Chicken Broth
2 Tbsp EVOO
1 tsp Salt
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 white onion, diced
1 tbsp Ground Cumin plus 2 tsp to taste
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
For the Garnish:
Balsamic Vinegar
Greek Yogurt
|Create
In a large pot sauté onion and garlic with EVOO, cumin, salt and pepper over medium heat. Then add the broth, tomatoes, and pumpkin puree. Use an immersion blender to blend soup into a thick constancy then add black beans and continue to cook until soup reaches desired thickness about 25 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper accordingly.
|Enjoy
Garnish with a dollop of greek yogurt and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
At first I thought I’d just post a recipe for thanksgiving like the rest of the blogverse. But if you know me, you know I really don’t like thanksgiving that much.
I know I just lost some readers right there. But hear me out. Please?
There are two striking reasons why I struggle with thanksgiving:
2. I don’t LOVE the food that’s served on thanksgiving either. So, unlike the rest of the nation, I’d be just as happy with any old meal as long as my family was gathered around the table. Furthermore, because people have such high expectations it seems to bring on large amounts of stress regarding the preparation and delivery of the meal.
My family is having a traditional thanksgiving. That being said, I’ll be bringing my Not Yo Momma’s Brussels and eating the ham they are cooking alongside the turkey. Oh did I forget to mention I don’t care much for turkey. Whoopsies!
Have a wonderful thanksgiving I hope you enjoy the time with your family, friends, and loved ones.
OMGGGGEEEEE
I picked up my cap and gown today for graduation. I have 7 more days of class not including finals. Whoa. I guess that means I really am graduating…holy smokes it’s really starting to hit me now. I got a touch sentimental, and decided my 5-mile run could wait, I wanted to hit the kitchen.
Typical.
As a tribute to one of my favorite resturants, Big Sky in San Luis Obispo, I decided to come up with my own version of my favorite salad from their amazing restaurant. You may have seen it on the Food Network I think Rachel Ray did a spot about it or something.
Okay, wait, weird tangent I’m eating some frozen yogurt while I write this and I just had a bite and sublimation just happened in my mouth ahhh crazy! My yogurt mouthful released vapor straight from a frozen solid, uhm so cool! Sublimation is when a frozen substance changes phases from a solid to a vapor as opposed to going through traditional phase change: from a frozen solid, to a liquid, to a vapor. The most common example of this is dry ice, which at room temperature produces sublimation. I know what you’re thinking; wow we have a certified science nerd on our hands. Tell me you don’t love it!
Back to the salad, it’s certified yumm-o. After all it has bacon (warm) the parenthesis declaring the temperature is quite nesscascary since bacon is so much better warm, chicken, blue cheese, cucumber, romaine, tomatoes, and Dijon mustard vinaigrette. Salivating like Pavlov’s dogs yet? Good.
Bomb.com Warm Bacon Chopped Salad
Serves 2
Side note-bomb.com is not a real website, it’s just trendy 20-something slang.
|Gather
For the Roasted Chicken Breast
1 Chicken breast
1 tsp. EVOO
Pinch Pepper
Pinch Italian seasoning spice blend
For the Salad
4 Slices, maple bacon
1 Medium tomato
½ Medium Cucumber
3 C romaine lettuce chopped
¼ C Blue cheese, crumbled
For the Dressing
2 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
½ tsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
|Create
Preheat the oven to 350F. Coat the chicken in the EVOO and sprinkle pepper and the Italian spice blend seasoning on each side of the chicken. Roast the chicken; mine was pretty small and thin so it took about 15 minutes. Remove and let cool, then slice into strips. Fry the bacon, after frying pat any excess grease with a paper towel and tear, cut or break bacon into bite sized pieces. Slice the cucumber julienne and then halve, place on the perimeter of the plate. Dice the tomato, and crumble the blue cheese. Assemble the lettuce and sprinkle the tomatoes, blue cheese, chicken, and bacon over the top. To make the vinaigrette in a small bowl add the EVOO, mustard, and vinaigrette, and the salt and pepper to taste, whisk until combined, drizzle over salad.
|Enjoy
Serve as soon as possible so that the bacon is still warm. Perfect for an easy lunch or make it a filling dinner.
Tuesday, I had an amazing and informative conversation with fellow food blogger Adrianna from A Cozy Kitchen. I have followed and loved her blog for a very long time and she shared so much helpful knowledge, it was a great conversation and learning experience. After talking to her it made me want to do two things: 1. Bake, cook, and write for my blog 2. Paint my nails. Well, one of those got accomplished Tuesday and let me tell you these cobalt blue nails are looking mighty fine. Wednesday addressed the first item on the list and so the baking began…
I love butternut squash. It’s friendly cousin the pumpkin, always steels the spotlight this time of year and cute little butternut squash takes the backburner and the sale prices at the grocery store. However, it is the most widely grown winter squash. I decided that butternut squash needed a little bedazzeled lovin’ in the form of something sweet! Here, in San Luis Obispo, it was nearly 72F today hardly fall/November weather by any account, which perhaps, contributes to the fact that I’m a touch late on the fall treats, sweets, and dishes featuring the lovely flavors of harvest.
Bedazzeled Butternut Squash Bars
|Gather
Butternut Squash Puree
1 butternut squash
2 tbsp. Butter
2 tbsp. Brown sugar
5 tbsp. Heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp. Brown sugar
2 tsp. Pumpkin pie-spice
½ tsp. Cinnamon
Bar Base
2 C Sifted flour
½ C Granulated sugar
½ C Butter
1 Egg
½ tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. Salt
½ C Pecan pieces, chopped finely
¼ C Honey
2 tsp. Water
|Create
Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Cut the butternut squash half wise and add a tablespoon of butter into the center of each half. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar over each half. Sprinkle ¼ tablespoon cinnamon over each half. Roast the squash for about 25 minutes or until fork tender, then remove and let cool. Meanwhile make the base for the bars. Mix the flour, pumpkin-pie spice, soda, and salt into a sifter. Cream butter with granulated sugar until fluffy in a large bowl; beat honey and egg in. Sift in dry ingredient, a third at a time, blending well to make a thick batter. Spread into a greased 9x9x2 baking pan. To create the puree take the roasted butternut squash and remove the skin and place into a food processor add the whipping cream, brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice. Bake the bar base in a 350 oven for 25 minutes, or until top is firm; spread butternut squash puree over bar base and cook 10 more minutes and then broil for 5 additional minutes to create a brown crust on the surface. Then remove and cool on a wire rack.
|Enjoy
Cut and sift powdered sugar over bars. To store bars place in an airtight container in the fridge.
A Sheriff of the Kitchen Orginial
Molecules with no odor, such as starches( flour, cornstarch, etc), bind to odorant molcules and prevent them from acting on our senses hence; too much flour in a sauce ruins the flavor.
