Microwave Scrambled Eggs

I made another video! Well, actually I made three more videos that I haven’t shared on here yet, but I figure one video at a time is less overwhelming.

The number of views on Youtube is growing, so that’s kind of exciting! This video is up to something like 156 (a small feat, but it makes me happy that it passed the 150 mark).

So without further ado… Microwave Scrambled Eggs. There’s also cheese and sausage in there, and they’re super easy and really fast when you’re trying to make a decent breakfast in your dorm room. The definitely break up the monotony of milk and cereal.

Also, if you learn one thing from this video, I hope it is that you should always have microwavable plates and mugs. I had a mug that wasn’t microwavable, and I can’t tell you the number of times I burned myself on it. Not cool.

Also, since I’ve been a bum about adding music to these posts, I’ll give you one final song. It’s coming at you in Youtube format, not an mp3. It’s about something not as good as scrambled eggs, but a decent breakfast option when you want something colder.

Hint: I’ve already used this phrase once in this post.

You can ignore the pictures if you choose.

Dorm Room College Cooking – Homemade Granola and Breakfast Parfaits

I made this video for StudentHealth101 (a college health online magazine). You can cook a lot more in a microwave than you think you can.

For the Granola you’ll need:
Oats
Honey
Olive Oil
Nuts (whatever kinds of nuts you like)

Microwave Pyrex Pan and Microwave

For the Parfaits:
Greek Yogurt
Strawberries
Granola that you made earlier

Enjoy!

Also 4over4.com (a printing company) is doing a promotion right now if you link to their website, they plant a tree. So this is me planting a tree and saving the world!

Epic Cooking – Salmon Cakes

My friend, Steve, downloaded a bunch of epica (that’s apparently the term you’re supposed to use for epic music) onto his computer, so of course there’s only one thing to do with all that music: Make cooking videos as we make salmon cakes for dinner.

The actual Salmon Cakes we made are really easy and pretty good, so I’d suggest trying them out. Here’s the video and the recipe.

Salmon Cakes:

1 large salmon fillet
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can green chilies
1/2 cup sour cream
Dijon Mustard — eh… like a tablespoon or two
2 egg whites

Cook cakes over medium-high heat for 4ish minutes on each side. Also, you should probably grease the pan or something first.

Tartar sauce:
1 part mayo
1 part relish
like a tablespoon horseradish (I like mine tangier/spicier…)

Also, I wouldn’t suggest cracking your eggs like we did here (that was just for fun… we didn’t actually use that egg…), and you probably shouldn’t stab your knife into your bowl like Steve did. He ruined that bowl. And then he showed this video to the secretary in his office who was like “isn’t that MY bowl?” So yeah, Steve destroyed the secretary’s bowl.

Oh and your eggs probably won’t defy gravity either.

So it’s been a while (Cranberry Scones)

Heyy folks–

So it’s been a while! I’ve been to London and back with my study abroad program. Currently holding down 2 internships, 2 jobs, a part-time cooking video thing for StudentHealth101, some freelance designing and working as a Marketing Director for a new(ish) theatre company in Boston.

So yeah–I guess I’ve been busy. But I’m back in the states, and although I may be a few months late, I will keep my promise to return to my cooking blog!

This entry is about scones. They’re surprisingly easy to make. My friends and I went berry picking in northern Massachusetts at Connor’s Farm, and it was great. But when we got back we had no idea what to do with all the berries. We made a blueberry crumble, raspberry-chocolate tart, peach cobbler, and we still had over 2 cartons of raspberries left (keep in mind that this is AFTER we ate like half of the cartons in the fields).

So clearly the answer to this was to make scones. I guess London rubbed off on me. And like I said it was rather easily. Turns out you don’t actually need a food processor to “pulse together” the butter and dry ingredients–you can just use a fork!

So after that endeavor turned out to be surprisingly tasty/flaky, I decided to continue on this scone journey. They’re pretty much the same whether you make sweet of savory scones. Currently in my oven is a batch of cranberry-orange scones (which I’ll have for tomorrow’s breakfast with some of that apple butter I bought from Connor’s Farm.

Anyway, you’re all (and by that I mean the people that still read this blog after my 6-month hiatus) wondering how to actually make scones! Here’s the Martha Stewart recipe I followed for the raspberry scones and how I changed it for the cranberry ones:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (6 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor, pulse together flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and pulse until pea-size pieces form. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and egg yolk. Slowly pour buttermilk mixture through feed tube into processor, pulsing until dough just comes together. (seriously, just do it with a fork if you don’t have a food processor.)
2. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle raspberries on top. Knead three times to fold in raspberries (there may be loose pieces of dough and a stray berry or two). Gather and pat dough into a 1-inch-thick square and cut or pull apart into 2-inch pieces. Place pieces, about 2 inches apart, on two parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets and sprinkle tops with 1 tablespoon sugar. (I cut them into triangles–more surface area than the squares so you get more contrast between the browned flaky corners and the soft middle)
3. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let scones cool slightly on sheets on wire racks. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 day.)

Martha says this makes 20–I found it made more like 12, but then again I like bigger scones.

For the cranberry-orange scones. I used dried cranberries and the zest from 1/2 an orange instead of raspberries.

I also subbed out the buttermilk for 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 teaspoon vinegar. Combine the wet ingredients in this order: Milk+Yolk THEN (Milk+Yolk)+Vinegar. The vinegar adds the tang that comes from buttermilk, but in my head I was afraid it would make the milk freak out, so I figured the yolk would do some sort of tempering.

I also found that I had too much liquid for the amount of dry ingredients, so I just kept adding flour until it felt like a fairly stiff dough and not so much a batter. I’m clearly a terrible baker; I hate following recipes. I’m a much better cook because it involves being less precise. My current roommate, Jenny (who has an art blog here), is much better at baking. Probably because she’s more patient and will actually follow the recipes and not “wing it” like I tend to do).

Seriously, these are actually the easiest thing you’ll ever make and you’ll completely impress your parents with your baking abilities. Doesn’t the word “scone” sound fancy?!

Pictures to come!

Much love, and I’ll be posting again soon! In the meantime, check out my youtube channel for the cooking videos I’ve been making for StudentHealth101 along with some other frivolous videos. I know they’re silly. Don’t judge.

Phineas and Ferb Drinking Game

Yes, friends, here in Warren, NJ we have figured out how to turn the BEST DISNEY CHANNEL SHOW into a DRINKING GAME! You’re impressed, don’t deny it.

“How can I play such an awesome game?” you may ask. Well, here’s the rules:

1. Find an adult beverage. (We drink wine… yes, classy. Also tried some smirnoff coolers… strawberry acai coolers. Not that good, but they grow on you).

2. Watch Phineas and Ferb on Disney Channel (Or online if it’s not on TV)

3. Drink when any of the following happens. The best part about this game is that most of these things happen every episode.

• Phineas says, “I know what we’re going to do today”
• Perry growls
• Perry sneaks off
• Phineas says, “Hey, where’s Perry?”
• Candace tries to tell her mom about what the boys are doing
• There’s a song
• Isabella says, “Whatcha doing?”
• The boys build something ridiculous
• Someone asks, “Aren’t you a little young to….?”
• Major Monogram makes fun of Carl
• You hear the “Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated” jingle (Or any variation of said jingle)
• Doofenshmirtz says, “How un/in…. and by that I mean COMPLETELY….!!”
• Doofenshmirtz calls his invention a “…..inator”
• Doofenshmirtz says “Tri-State Area”
• Doofenshmirtz screams “Curse you, Perry the Platypus!”
• Phineas says, “Oh there you are, Perry”
• Ferb talks

Drink two sips when any of the following happens (These are more rare and don’t happen every episode”

• The Fireside Girls show up and do something hardcore
• We see the Giant Baby Head
• Someone sings, hums or makes reference to “Gitchi, Gitchi, Goo”
• The Dad lets the boys do something crazy and/or joins them
• The Mom makes reference to her past as a pop star
• Someone makes reference to the fact that “Platypuses don’t do much”
• Vanessa, Doofenshmirtz’s daughter, is in the episode
• There’s a reference to Candace’s parsnip allergy
• Buford is nice/sensitive
• Balgeit is nerdy
• Suzy (Jeremey’s little sister) is mean/evil/frightening
• Norm (The Robot Man) shows up
• Doofenshmirtz flashes back to his past

Also, the final rule is that you have to sing along to the “Doobie doobie doo wop” Perry theme music when he defeats Doofenshmirtz.

Enjoy. Please comment with any new additions/rules/changes to the game!

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What? You don’t know what I meant when I said that someone makes reference to “Gitchi Gitchi Goo?!”
Oh wow! Ok well it’s the song with meaningless lyrics that the boys write when they become one hit wonders. Disney recently released a full version for people to enjoy on a regular basis. Here’s the video and a download (via mediafire):

Phineas and the Ferbtones – Gitchi Gitchi Goo

Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is not the first time I’ve been baking cookies until 2AM. Last time I was up so late I was trying to make cookies for Ardea Arts/Family Opera Initiative‘s Opera, Ice Cream and Goodnight Moon event featuring composer, Glen Roven, and soprano, Charlotte Cohn. I managed to make 200 chocolate chip cookies from scratch with the other intern. It was truly epic.

These cookies were for class. At the end of my Oral Presentation class (to BU students: Great Class! Take it with Professor Byrne), we decided to have a class party on the last day of class, so I volunteered to bring cookies. We all know that I don’t ever make food half-heartedly, so after making the cookies, I had to embellish them with some extra chocolate touches.

I found two bags of Nestle’s chocolate chunks in my fridge and happened to have all of the other ingredients, so I decided that this would be a good idea. I used this recipe that I found online at allrecipes.com (it’s pretty self-explanatory):

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

The most important thing about making these cookies is that you really beat the egg, yolk and sugars together at the beginning. Most people think that this is just so the ingredients are mixed well and don’t beat it for long enough. What actually happens here is that the sugars break down the egg chemically. You’ll even notice that the mixture gets lighter as you beat it. If you don’t have a hand mixer, just whisk it for a long time. If you get tired, make your roommates beat it for a while.

Also, these cookies are huge. They actually grow to be 3-4 inches in diameter. Be prepared for that and only bake a few at a time. For me, this recipe made 23 cookies (which was perfect because there were 17 kids in our class).

Most people would stop there and say they were done with the cookies, but not me! I chopped up some pecans and put them in the batter halfway through so I had some plain chocolate chip cookies, and some with pecans.

When the cookies were cool, I melted some chocolate in a double boiler (the entire other bag of chocolate chunks, to be exact) and dipped 1/3 of the cookies in. Only dip half in the chocolate. It looks kind of gourmet–a cookie half covered with chocolate. It gives the eaters a chance to switch between the two options–the super chocolate-y side and the regular side of the cookie. So delicious!

You can also drizzle some of the melted chocolate over the whole cookie to add extra chocolate. Again, this makes the cookies look really pretty. I did this on 1/3 of the cookies as an option. The three different options for cookies (half chocolate, chocolate drizzle, and plain) made a really pretty platter for the class.

Because I used chocolate chunks and not  regular chocolate, I couldn’t temper my chocolate. (Chocolate chunks and chocolate chips contain stabilizers so they won’t temper properly). If you have an option to melt down some plain chocolate, follow these directions to temper the chocolate. Tempering makes the chocolate hard and shiny and always helps make a pretty presentation.

Also, my new obsession is this site: cookingforengineers.com. It has some great information and scientific explanation of what happens when you cook, which really peaks my interest as a former chemistry major!

Also, I apologize for the lack of photos. Baking at 2AM makes me want to go to sleep immediately after rather than have a photo-shoot with my food.

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Currently Cooking to:

The Chemical Brothers – Where Do I Begin

Sticking with the science theme of Cooking for Engineers, we have a song by The Chemical Brothers. I’ll warn you right now–don’t skip through this song. It builds, and by the end it’s really weird if you hear it out of context. It’s like a theater piece or an oral presentation–you have to catch your audience at the beginning and then you can take them anywhere you want because they’ve suspended their disbelief. If this song started out crazy, I’d probably hate it, but it’s so pleasant at the start that I totally accept the ending.

Huge Thanks

Thanks so much to Kate from Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails. Her recent cookbook give away has provided me with a copy of Extraordinary Meals from Ordinary Ingredients. Expect a post about some of the recipes in it sometime in the very near future! Thanks again, Kate!

Spinach Salad with Chevre Cheese and Balsamic Reduction (Rabbit Food)

Roommate Kristin is a big fan of meat: bacon, sausage, steak… really anything that comes from an animal. So when I make salads with no meat involved, she calls it “Rabbit Food.” So when I made this salad a few days ago, sure enough it earned the title “Rabbit Food.” But I don’t care; it was delicious and really fast.

Things in this salad:
Spinach Salad Mix (the spinach leaves are a little more meaty than some other forms of lettuce and have some great vitamins in them. Vitamins A, B, C, E, and K… not to mention a LOT of Beta Carotene)
Cherry Tomatoes
Olives (I can’t help it; I’m addicted to the olive bar at Shaws. My favorites are the Katamala Olives with pits–they last longer)
Avocado (how to slice an avocado)
Chevre Cheese (a soft goat cheese)
Toasted Almonds
Reduced Balsamic Vinegar

To toast the almonds, put them in a skillet over medium heat and flip them every once in a while until they darken a bit.

It seems like the ingredient of the week is balsamic vinegar! I’ve used it twice already (here and for the balsamic butter sauce over my tortellini) and will probably use it once more before the week is through. For this salad, I like to reduce it. I’ve found that if you just use it straight from the bottle, it dissolves the chevre cheese and you end up with a lot of extra cheese-y vinegar at the end. The reduction is thicker and doesn’t run off the spinach leaves.

To reduce balsamic vinegar, put about 1 cup of regular balsamic vinegar in a skillet. If you like it sweeter, you can add some brown sugar or honey. Put it over medium heat until it boils. Then adjust the heat down and let it simmer until it’s syrup-y. Remember that it will continue to thicken as it cools, so you should let it simmer until it is just a little more viscous than you want it.

I find that it is easier to reduce balsamic vinegar in bulk (and by that I mean about a cup at a time). You can save what you don’t use for future salads, sauces, or fruits and cheeses. It goes with just about anything really. You can drizzle it over salmon for dinner or fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil for a caprese salad. It’s always a nice thing to have around. Keep it in a tupperware container (I keep mine in the fridge).

To assemble a salad, rinse the spinach and put it in the bottom of the bowl. Add the olives, tomatoes and almonds. Open one side of the chevre cheese and scrape a fork over the cheese. It’s a soft cheese so you can’t really cut it and it has a tendency to stick to itself. As you scrape the fork over the cheese, it will fall out of the package and into your salad in little clumps. Arrange the avocado slices around the outside, and drizzle balsamic reduction over the whole thing.

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Currently Cooking To:

It’s not really a song I’d download and put on my iPod, but since we’re talking about rabbit food, I figured what’d be better than this youtube clip from Parry Gripp with small animals eating food. It’s one of those videos that makes me smile every time I watch it. Check out their youtube channel. There’s a lot of fun videos that are basically clips from other youtube videos set to songs about them. For example: “Young Girl Talking About Herself” is a song that makes fun of all the girls that just talk about their lives and post it to youtube. It’s set over videos of girls doing exactly that. I’m also a fan of Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute. Obnoxious song, but SO MANY cute animals. Especially the bunny at the end.

On a more serious rabbit based music level:

Frightened Rabbit – Keep Yourself Warm

It’s a little sad but also kind of epic song from Frightened Rabbit. Enjoy!

How to Cut and Eat an Avocado

It may seem odd, but I’ll eat an Avocado for lunch. While cutting one open today, it occurred to me that they’re actually a confusing kind of fruit. You can’t eat the skin… you can’t peel them… what do you do with them?! Here’s some simple steps for opening an avocado. (This one is a little under-ripe. When they’re ripe, they’ll give a little when you squeeze them (but if they’re soft and squishy, they’re probably over-ripe.)

1. Run a knife around the avocado, cutting through the skin and flesh, and just touching the pit. Make sure the knife goes through the place that the stem originally was.

2. Twist the two halves in opposite directions. They’ll separate.

3. To remove the pit, slice a knife into it. Press down hard on the knife to make sure it’s lodged in. Then twist the knife parallel to the flat surface. The pit will pop right out.

4. To make slices of the avocado, run a knife down each half at whatever thickness you want. You can do this while holding the avocado, but make sure the knife doesn’t go through the skin. If you’re afraid of cutting yourself, do this on a counter. Then take a large spoon and go around the edges. The slices will fall out perfectly.

If you want cubes, you can just run a knife in the opposite direction before you use the spoon. Basically, with an avocado, you can do all the cutting before taking out the flesh.

I’ll eat each half with a spoon and a little oil and vinegar. The hole where the pit once was is a perfect place to put some salad dressing.

You can use the slices in a salad. This salad has olives, toasted almonds, spinach, tomatoes, chèvre cheese (a soft goat cheese), and a little balsamic vinegar. And of course, avocado.

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Currently Cooking To:

 

Decemberists – Crane Wife 3

I honestly don’t know what to say about this song. It opens The Decemberists‘s album, The Crane Wife with a mix of bittersweetness and determination. Yes, I, too, think it’s odd that you’d open an album with a song that is in a series of 1, 2 and 3, but it’s such a lovely introduction to the album that I wouldn’t have it any other way. The album opens in the middle of the story and eventually makes its way back to the beginning.

In recent news, The Decemberists will be releasing their multimedia project next week! Here Come the Waves will feature pieces of the band’s album The Hazards of Love accompanied by animated shorts created specially for the occasion by filmmakers Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria. I just learned that there will be a screening in Boston! Oh, goodie!!

Tortellini with Balsamic Butter Sauce

For our potluck Thanksgiving dinner, my friend Kelly Gallagher made mushroom ravioli with a balsamic butter sauce. I have no idea how she made it but I figured I’d make up my own version of it. This meal took about 5 minutes to make, so I’ll try to write a post that takes only 5 minutes to read. Ready? Set? Go!!

You’ll need:
Frozen tortellini
Butter
Balsamic Vinegar
Walnuts (if you like them, they’re not necessary)
Salt and Pepper

First start a pot of water boiling. Salt the water and when it boils, throw the tortellini it it. The tortellini should only take a few minutes to cook. 5 minutes should be plenty of time.

While waiting for the water to boil, toss some walnuts in a pan and put them on the stove over medium heat. Toast them for a few minutes (stirring or flipping occasionally). When they’re done, toss them in a bowl for later.

You should be able to put the tortellini in the water by now. It should’ve boiled.

Then throw some butter in the pan (for a meal to feed just me, I used maybe 3 tablespoons). Keep the pan over medium heat and the butter should brown. Once browned, throw in some balsamic vinegar (I used maybe 2-3 tablespoons) the amount depends on how much balsamic flavor you want in the sauce. Add salt and pepper.

By now, the pasta should be done cooking, strain it and toss it in the pan with the sauce. Throw the toasted walnuts in the pan as well. Toss the whole thing together. The tortellini will continue cooking in the hot sauce for 1-2 minutes over medium heat. Then pour the entire contents of the pan into a bowl and enjoy!

You could also absolutely use this sauce over any kind of pasta. I bet it’d be great on angel hair!

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Currently Cooking To:

The New Pornographers – Myriad Harbor
The New Pornographers – The Bleeding Heart Show

Despite the band’s slightly off-putting name, The New Pornographers have an upbeat and catchy thing going for them. The super indie sound of a bunch of people singing makes me just want to throw my hands over my head and wave them back and forth while doing the pony. Don’t understand what I’m talking about? Listen to the end of “The Bleeding Heart Show.” I won’t lie, I played it on repeat for the last 20 minutes of my bus ride back to Boston at the end of Thanksgiving break. The girls sitting next to me probably didn’t understand why I kept bouncing my head from side to side.