The first post in a long time!

SO I have been a foodie slacker as of late but times are changing, I can smell it. This past spring I took a media ethics class and as an assignment for this class I was required to read the New York Times every day. I quickly became an addict and still find myself obsessively doing the crossword puzzle and flipping through the pages. As part of the Times' coolness they include a dining section every Wednesday, this section matches quite perfectly with my soul. I read it quite religiously and search fervently for it every Wednesday in the halls of UVU. Perhaps one day I shall write for it. Last week there was a very extensive article on the increasing varieties of whole wheat pasta available at grocery stores. I do not know if I will be brave enough to attempt whole wheat pasta, as I have recently become obsessed with making my own noodles and fear the density of the whole wheat may be too much, but still the recipes included within the article are worth trying, even if I forgo wheaty pasta for a more enriched variety. I'll work my way up to it, I promise. If any of you know of any good wheat pasta recipes let me know and I may work my way up to it a little sooner.

Ravioli

Made Italian sausage ravioli Sunday and it was fantastic! Yesterday I spent
the afternoon making some excellent sou bourek with André and it turned out fantastically! Today I ate flaming wok.. Everyone needs a day off :D

Making sou bourek again tomorrow, stay tuned for a better post, I swear it.

July 24th, pioneer day!

Yay for barbeques and fireworks! 'nough said,

Blog of the day

I made a promise and I will keep it. I really want to learn to make chile relleno, best food ever! Better blog coming tomorrow.

Sou Bourek

I was reading Dean Koontz's book Life Expectancy when I came across Sou Bourek, Turkish Lasagna, and it sounded delicious, so I looked up a recipe and made it. The sauce was really good and lemon tinted and I made spinach garlic pasta for the layers, but lacking a pasta machine I used a rolling pin which did not quite achieve the thinner than paper effect. Still, it was fantastic! Picture and recipe will be coming real soon! My main goal is to make all kinds of things I find in the regular books I read, any ideas? Let me know!

Red Velvet Cake

This is me reattempting to get into the cooking blog world, sorry for my slackage!
Last night I went to The Chocolate, and it made me desire to make a red velvet cake, here is my attempt, it's not super red due to only having pink food coloring which did not battle very well with the cocoa powder. But it is good, real good.





I used a different frosting recipe than Bobby calls for, but otherwise, this is it!

Ingredients
Cake:

* 3 3/4 cups AP Flour
* 3 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
* 3/4 cups vegetable oil
* 3 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
* 1 tablespoon red food coloring
* 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
* Frosting, recipe follows

For the cake:
Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans and line each pan with a round of parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl

Cream the butter, sugar and oil in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beat until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla, vinegar and food coloring.

Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches alternating with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool on a baking rack for 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pans. Let cool completely before frosting. Slice each cake into 2 layers and frost.

Frosting:

* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 1 cup whole milk
* 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
* 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar

Combine the cream, milk, vanilla bean and seeds in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Remove the vanilla bean and discard. Add the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened to a paste, about 2 minutes. Scrape into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 2 hours.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat until the mixture is very fluffy and the sugar is totally dissolved, about 6 minutes. Add the cold paste, a few tablespoons at a time to the butter mixture and whip until light and fluffy.

The food which I have recently made

I will start with my pork roast, this thing was pretty much the most delicious thing ever! But texturally not my favorite, I will definitely use the crockpot next time for a more fally aparty feel and then perhaps broil it to crisp up the bacon. It was bacon wrapped with a garlic herb rub and potatoes, onions and apples. So good!!!





Next are my hamburgers with my attempt at homemade kaiser rolls... they were very delicious but I may or may not have exploded a pyrex pan while making them... also there may have been a hair in a hamburger... I cannot believe I am even admitting to this via the internet as i find myself super embarrassed, but I decided to be honest... and I am quite ready to shave it all off dang it! Despite all this, it turned out well and I hope that you are not now forever afraid to eat my food!!!




This was chicken Parmigiana, it turned out really well and I was certainly a fan but it would have been equally delicious had I not done the red sauce, just a slightly different effect.




Rice and Sauce. This may very well be my favorite food in the world, it is pretty much the easiest thing ever and not particularly exciting to the palete but I am in love. I think I have eaten this practically from birth and for no reason other than that it is absolutely fantastic. I do not know if anyone else agrees, except perhaps my cousin Marley, but I seriously reccomend it.




Fettucini Alfredo. I made this with some chicken I had marinated and I thought it turned out quite well although, I love alfredo and I prefer a more saucy approach, this particular one was more noodles which had sucked up all of my sauce, but the taste remains quite good.





I know that I promised this last time but serioiusly, I will be more consistent from this time forward! I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise.

Card Reader, and a Brief Update on my Serious Start

So I have been a serious slacker as of late, and I am so sure that it is driving the lot of you crazy! I have been cooking, a lot. And I thought I had lost my card reader, and thought this correctly. But with the help of a friend, a replacement card reader was located and I am all set. By now though, I am not quite certain that I am going to remember what everything I ate was, but hopefully I will muddle through, starting with today. What I am certain of is, that, this blog will most likely be stricken with comma splices as I am still just getting a grasp of them. So good luck getting through this frustration free to all of you English Majors, Teachers, and Obsessors. I think from this point forward I will attempt to have my brave but oh-so-willing taste testers rate my creations on a 1 to 10 scale so that you will get a better and less biased view of delicious, or not-ness.
Sunday April 11th, my first pot roast!
I personally think it was quite good, very fally-aparty which was fantastic, and the 12 baby carrots were indeed delicious.





Friday April 9th, Brocoli Cheddar Soup
SO I am terrible at pre-reading recipes which led to not buying all neccessary ingredients, which led to improvisation, which led to some pretty good soup, if not perfectly textured.




Wednesday April 7th, Big Sandwiches, need I say more?



Tuesday April 6th Ricotta Ravioli, Fun but WORK!!! Totally worth it.




Pasta of some sort... this was supposed to be my first real recipe I totally wrote myself! Small batch:Totally perfect! Larger Scale Reproduction: Tasted fine, but I was quite ready to cry.




I am now beginning to forget the dates... Meat Ravioli, Pretty good as well, made using Alton Brown's Meatloaf Recipe, sounds crazy, tastes good. Pasta was a little to thick for me this time, but a lot easier to work with, without fear of breaking.





Stir Fry, TOTAL CHEATER DAY, used the bagged stirfry mix for sure, all i did was cook some chicken and rice, easy cheesey, but still good.



Rachel Ray's only pizza you will ever want to eat again, or something like that... super delicious, but I think I will use a different recipe next time. It looks super healthy because it has broccoli on it! If it is not healthy then, who am i to judge?


Grilled Flank Steak with Habanero Mojo, with pasta and salad. It definitely had a nice kick, but it could have been spicier... although without gloves the habanero juice made my hangnails want to cry... this recipe came from the cooking new american cookbook.






Easy Enchiladas? Yeah... I don't think so... it turned into casserole but didn't taste half bad...




Rocky Road Brownies, I prefer to think of them as cake, because in my opinion boxed brownies are the only brownies... but as cake this was way good!




Baked Macaroni! Amazing, Amazing, Amazing, Amazing.



Chicken Cordon Bleu Burgers! Also Very good, thank you Rachel Ray!!! All though the mini size was my idea. I also ground my own chicken, kind of crazy... and made the bread we used for buns, it was SO GOOD!!! Thank you to my cousin Sarah!




Pasta Making with Sarah!!! THis was like my favorite thing ever, I made pasta until almost 3 in the morning... I am psycho, I know.






AMAZING roast chicken, thank you Tyler and your ultimates! And a flourless cake!









Dinner Party!!! Now, this was totally fun, I cooked from like 10 in the morning until nearly 7 when everyone arrived but it was worth it! Everyone performed for me and everything, Que Bueno!










Meatloaf. I just love Alton Brown, mainly due to this recipe!



Butterflied chicken... or at least that is what the recipe said to do but i did not... first time with whole chicken... I was so sad!




Chicken Cobler (New York TImes) Obviously i did not get a picture of the final product... sorry! IT was quite good though, and not too difficult

Parmesan Chicken And Roasted Potato Salad

Alright, that is all for now and from this point forward all posts will be much shorter and more frequent, i promise.