The Aftermath of Culinary School [TAofCS]

Waaay Late Breakfast... Late Lunch.

2010-07-27T01:21:00.003-04:00

          Today I woke up at 1:30pm. Forgot to set my alarm clock. I truly hate waking up past 12pm, I always feel soo tired, my body hurts like I've been working out or something and then I just stay a couch potato for the rest of the day, I hate it.

          I needed something to wake my spirits. Of course, I had already planned on doing this, but much earlier. Lately, as in the past week, I've really been into having a smoothie for breakfast. Most people do not agree that smoothies are a good breakfast replacement but I'm simply adding coldness to what I already have every morning.

          A few months ago I discovered Carnation's Breakfast Essentials. I've only so far been using the Rich Milk Chocolate flavor, but I can't help it, can't possibly switch it, its delicious. This chocolate powder forces me to drink my glass of milk for the day. My doctor said since I'm so skinny I should drink 4 glasses of milk a day, 4 GLASSES! WHO DOES THAT?? No way doc.

          So like I was saying, lately I've been loving smoothies for breakfast. But I had a bit of a dilemma. My ice maker's been broken for a quite so time so here I was last week with everything in the blender and no ice. Luckily, I had sliced and froze a banana the night before. Why a banana? It was part of my craving, I wanted a Chocolate-Banana Smoothie. And why not? You can't go wrong with having a banana in the morning.

          The base of my smoothie is the breakfast essentials chocolate powder, never heard of it? Let me tell you a bit about it. The back label says "All the nutrition of a complete breakfast." According to this, each serving contains 2x protein of an egg, 2x calcium of yogurt, anti-oxidants, vitamin B, 45% of daily requirement of vitamin A, 50% of daily requirement of vitamin C, and 25% requirement serving of iron.

           Here's my recipe, usually I throw things together, but this time I measured things out just for this blog:

     M!na's Chocolate-Banana Smoothie:

Yield: 1 glass

Ingredients:

- 1/4 + 2TBS Rich Milk Chocolate Breakfast Essentials
- 6 oz of soy milk, I used Silk, the red box of regular soy milk. You may substitute for regular whole milk or any other milk you drink.
- 1 sliced frozen banana
- 1 TBS granulated sugar
- enough ice so that the liquid just barely covers it... keep reading =]

          I know I said I didn't have ice, but if you do, please, use it! Throw all the ingredients in the blender except for the ice. Once it's all blended add the ice til the mixture just barely cover the amount of ice, that's how I usually make smoothies, I never know exactly how much ice I add, because I never make the same amount of smoothie. If you are not using ice, then simply blend everything well, then grab a shallow bowl or a plate and pour the mixture in that. At this moment, it's just a ta thick, but no smoothie consistency. You must freeze it for 30 minutes to an hour. If using a plate, I'd say... 15- 20 minutes will be just great. for a shallow bowl, I did an hour. Cover and freeze. Scoop it into you glass of choice and enjoy! As you can see, having the ice is SOOO much easier and you get to have your smoothie right away. **NOTE**: the smoothie freezes up faster if you pour it in a dinner plate, IF you have the space in your freezer. ALSO, make sure to use Press n Seal Wrap.

          You can also freeze it for longer in the bowl til it's nearly frozen but still soft in the center, about 2 to 3 hours and then scoop it and mix it a bit, maybe add mini chocolate chips and you've got a soft serve ice cream!

          By the time my smoothie was done, it was 2:30pm... waaay beyond past breakfast and a little late for lunch. Hah! This doesnt stop me from having something good. I thought just the smoothie wouldn't be enough though... so I made a quick sandwich:

       M!na's Nutella-Apple Sandwich:

          I've made this before with strawberries, and I was going to have just the nutella, but I remembered I had a golden delicious apple in the fridge! Golden Delicious Apple are my FAVORITE apples to snack on.

   Ingredients:

- 2 slices of bread, toasted. Any bread will do, but I had Arnorld's Sandwich Thins Multigrain.
- a quarter of an apple, thinly sliced, padded dry, peeled or not, depends on you.
- Nutella, enough to spread on my slice... or both... depending how much of a nutella lover you are =]

Toast the bread to your liking, I like it perfectly golden and partly browned. while it's still hot, fresh out of the toaster, and spread it with the nutella. Arrange the apple slices all around to the edges and then start layering a bit. Add a bit of nutella on the other slice so that it sticks to the apple and there you go!

The apple and nutella go very well. Any fruit goes well with nutella. For me, I prefer using juicy fruits. These two chocolaty goodness items were great together. Will definitely have again. Probably tomorrow...

Once I was ready to eat, after taking all these pics[sorry for the dirty, splashy glass, but I was in a hurry to take these pics and eat my lunch!], I crushed some Honey and Oats granola and sprinkled in on top. It was SO GOOD.

Hope you try this out and enjoy it as much as I have, if you have any questions, just ask. I don't know if I made the freezing and adding the ice in a bit confusing, but I tried my best.

It's Been Too Long/Why Not Watch This Anime

2010-07-22T04:17:00.001-04:00

          I know, I know, I haven't posted anything in a WHILE, but this is because I simply had no ingredients. That's right, I ran out of ingredients and money. We had to use money for the necessary things and I was only allowed to shop for the essentials and this did not include chocolate chips, craisins, eggs[we don't really eat eggs unless it's in something baked], flour, etc.

          My main 2 issues were: no eggs, no chocolate chips. I couldn't even make chocolate chip cookies... My baking essentials include: eggs, flour, butter or margarine, vanilla extract[never essence] chocolate chips, cherry flavored craisins, pecans, sugar[white & brown] and a couple spices: cinnamon and nutmeg.

          Today, I was able to get a couple of those though and I've already got 3 things in mind to make, 2 this week and the other next week. I'll be making the simplest one later today. It's something that brings me back to my childhood but I've made it my own now and I'm excited about sharing it on here!

          Baking is just one of my many passions. I love watching T.V., drawing, painting, coloring, making things with duct tape, knitting[once in a blue moon though lol], crocheting, photography and reading teen novels, reading manga books and watching animes. Now, I haven't forgotten that this is a food related, better yet, a baking related blog... which is why I want to let any anime fans out there about this particular show: Yumeiro Patissiere.

I am a sucker for shoujo manga/animes and this one is definitely one of them. I love animes that are based on teens in high school with their everyday teen problems and romances. They're not quite realistic, but maybe that is why I enjoy them so much.

Yumeiro Pattisiere is about a young girl name Ichigo Amano, who attends LOVES cake and anything in the dessert category. She attends a Sweets Festival and eats lots of different desserts, one being the following:

This particular dessert takes her back to her childhood, back when her grandmother was still alive and would make her this to make her smile when she was sad. She had to find out who made it. There she met Henri-sensei:

Henri-sensei is amazed by this girls incredible palate, being able to distinct what ingredients were used in desserts. He encourages her to enter St. Marie Academy, a pastry school. This girl knows nothing about desserts besides eating them. She is a total and complete beginner, so she is very surprised to find out that she was places in the A group, the best group of all the students in her grade. Of course, she becomes the talk of the school amongst the students, a new girl, who shows obvious signs of not knowing anything about pastry making, has landed in the A group with the well known Sweets Princes.

Each of them have their own specialty. The blond one, Kashino, specializes in anything and everything chocolate. The green haired one, Hanabusa, specializes in candy sculptures and flower-based cakes. And the last one, Andou, specializes in Japanese sweets. All 3 eventually become quite overprotecting of Ichigo. They help her quite a lot along the way, through out the year but she does work hard and sometimes overnight practicing over and over. I really liked that about the character.

If you looked closely at the first picture, you may have noticed 4 little characters in there too. These are Sweets Spirits. They pair up with a human patissier/patissiere of their choice and help them with whatever trouble they may come along.

The one dressed in red is Chocolat, she is naturally Kashino's spirit. The one dressed in orange is Caramel, she is Andou's spirit. The blue one is Cafe, he is Hanabusa's spirit. And finally the blond one dressed in pink is Ichigo's spirit.

I really like how they make real desserts and how well drawn they are:

So, here Ichigo is, at this new school, being bashed by her classmates who don't really believe in her after she attempts make a Mille Crepe:

After a whole lot of trial and error she was finally able to make this one. Once she is done making ANYTHING that is a dessert that she makes, even if it is outside of school, any kind of good progress, Vanilla waves her magical spoon-wand and sends a picture card to the Queen of the Sweet Spirits, who keeps track of everything they do together.

Most of the episodes revolve around the dessert that is being taught that day. As the story progresses, the episodes start revolving around the competition they enter together. They face challange after challenge and this is of course how they become closer to each other as a group and as close friends.

There are of course a number of other supporting characters, including, Rumi, Ichigo's roommate and best friend at the school. There's Miya, whom people call "The Heiress". And lastly, Tennouji, the Student Counsil President of the school and Henri-sensei's favorite student. They all have sweets spirits as well, all except Rumi.

I do recommend any pastry/anime lover to give this show a try. Go ahead. Find it at lovelyanime.com

Craving of the Day: something chewy and chocolatey

2010-07-08T16:03:00.001-04:00

Pecan-Chocolate Chip Snack Cake from MyRecipes.com

I have been eye-ing this recipe for some time now. With all the simple-already-on-hand ingredients how can you go wrong? You can't! These are DELECTABLE and so incredibly easy to make. The recipe said to use a mixer but since it doesn't say to whip the eggs, I simply used a whisk and any strength I had to just combine all the wet ingredients. Turned out just fine.

So! First step, measure out all the ingredients. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl. in another bowl whisk the eggs til slightly foamy with no peaks, add the sugar and vanilla, whisk til just combined. The recipe doesn't say to, but I toasted the pecans. Also, I chopped the chocolate chips so the chocolate would be more spread out through out the batter, next time I will used mini chocolate chips. You can just spray an 8 x 8in pan or do what I did and line the pan with aluminum foil and then spray that.

Make a well in the flour and add the sugar/egg mixture, mix til just combined.

Now add the pecans and chocolate chips.

Mix til just combined.

Pour into the pan and make sure you spread it well into the edges. Remember: the edges bake first!

I baked it for exactly 18 minutes. The top wasn't exactly crusty, more slightly soft/firm. The center came out dry when inserted with a toothpick and the edges were crusty/crunchy like that of a brownie. Like other reviewers mentioned, this is definitely not a cake, it's more like a blondie/brownie. Let it cool completely on a rack before storing away.

This is what I use to store my cookies and bars. It's cute and convenient. I line it with a circle shaped piece of parchment paper. Sift powdered sugar over the bars.

For 87 calories per serving these sound like a great snack or dessert. Of course keep in mind that from a 8 x 8in pan I cut out 16 squares, so each piece is smaller than a toothpick. But don't let that hold you back from making them, they are still chewy and chocolatey as ever.

DEFINITELY eat them warm. If you just want one piece for yourself, or 2, just nuke it in the microwave for 5 to 10 seconds, depending on how warm you want it. I will definitely eat this with ice cream and this recipe is forever a keeper.

These are chewy in a egg-y way, I wouldn't say rubbery. But I can imagine it could get rubbery if you over beat the egg whites, SO DON'T! Other than that, I really loved these and might even reduce the sugar a bit next time. I hope the pictures help =]

Pecan-Chocolate Chip Snack Cakes:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=226738

The Awaited Cake: Cinnamon-Apple Cake

2010-07-07T13:02:00.001-04:00

In this household, I'm all about taking recipes and simplifying them to make them easier and faster to cook but still tasty. It's only 2 here, me and my dad, and my dad doesn't know ANYTHING about culinary arts. I don't think I could ever trust him to make me chicken, I kind of like my chicken well done. So I gotta rely on what I've learnt at school to make something good. What does this have to do with anything? Going back to having to make things easier for myself, I could've made this into a cake, because it is, it is a cake, but muffins are actually easier all around.

1. Muffins are portable, cake slices are not. I make these baked goods for two reasons, practice and my dad likes to eat them. Another reason for me to make them healthier. He likes to eat these with breakfast, and cake in a baking cup become a grab-&-go item.

2. Muffins bake faster. These were done in about 25-30 minutes, I think I might have over baked them, but I honestly can't tell since they are still incredibly moist. This recipe said to bake the cake for about an hour and that simply would not do.

3. Muffins are easier to store. I could have a whole cake in my fridge right now, instead I have individually packed muffins that I wrapped in Press-n-Seal wrap, per-fect. I don't exactly have something big enough to cover a cake so this really works out better.

Now, I have been wanting to make this cake for a couple weeks now. It's pretty healthy per serving and well, it just looked good. The thing is though that I didn't realize how much cream cheese it had. I made the batter and I could really smell the cheese, it's not a bad thing, I liked it. The tiny problem is that creamy cheeses like cream cheese, cottage and ricotta cheese, etc. give me a discomfort. Same reason why I stopped drinking milk and started on soy milk. Anyway, cream cheese = bad for Mina. I guess this IS why this cake is so incredibly moist and I do recommend it. i may have not eaten the muffin, but I ate the top! It was light and crunchy/crispy with a full taste of apples.

I used Golden Delicious apples because they are my favorite and it's what I had on hand. I think you can pretty much use any kind of baking apple, depends on taste and availability.

The visual texture of this muffin is incredible. The recipe called for chopped apples but I cut them up into half an inch mini batonnets. I think that depending on how much apple you want to taste/feel you can cut them up however big or small you want. I did add a bit more apple than called for, I just mountained the apples in the cups.

So if you like apples or just fruit in general, you should definitely try this recipe, it is a 5 star recipe after all. You can taste the cheese, the apples and the cinnamon in it, I would definitely make this again, maybe not for me, but I might try to make them into mini muffins. Actually, I most likely will.

Cinnamon-Apple Cake:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222502

Little Everything: Cookies

2010-07-07T04:48:00.000-04:00

So! I've made this cookies before, only this time I omitted the oatmeal and added the chopped pecans I didn't have last time. What happened is that I really wanted to make this Cinnamon-Apple Cake and I did, halved it and scooped it into a muffin pan. What I noticed once that batter was done is the heavy smell of cream cheese. I like cream cheese, but I really can't have a lot of it, so while the muffins were getting baked, I started a small batch cookies.

For the recipe, take a look at my other blog post, "Cookies and then... Cookies". I couldn't find min chocolate chips, so I had to settle for regular chips. I halved the recipe and then... halved it once more. I made a quarter of the recipe and got about 10 to 12 cookies made with a teaspoonful each. This recipe bakes at 350 degrees, so these baked for about 14 to 16 minutes, but I'd say check on them at around 12 minutes.

So why quarter the recipe? Because I had 9 Cinnamon-Apple Muffins in the fridge and half the recipe would've made too many cookies for me, so I would've had to share [with dad] and I simply didn't want to.

These came out crunchy and just slightly chewy in the middle, I really like them. I love the combination of chocolate with pecans and the craisins really top it off for me. Maybe next time I'll make the whole recipe like this, hopefully with mini chocolate chips next time!

No Regular Lunches Here!

2010-07-01T16:08:00.001-04:00

While making cookies yesterday, I realized I hadn't had lunch yet! I decided to quickly whip this up before I sat down and wouldn't have the strength to get back up again. I try to make this when I have the strawberries available to me. If I don't I ALWAYS have bananas, so I'll use that OR Strawberry Jelly.

For anyone that's never heard of Nutella, it is a hazelnut-based spread. It looks like chocolate and it may taste a bit like it, but legally it is not a chocolate cream, although it does contain cocoa solids. Still, it's a very tasty spread that pretty much goes on anything: bread, fruit, nuts, cereal, crepes, waffles, rolled pancake, muffins or cupcakes, sandwiches ^^^^ lol ORRR my easy fav, as a chocolate sub for microwave S'MORES!

Now, for this little concoction, simply toast your favorite kind of bread[I used multi-grain] and have a plate, your [3 to 4]sliced strawberries ready, opened jar of Nutella and your weapon of choice[I used a dinner knife]. As soon as the toast pops up, slather Nutella on it, both slices so it starts to melt on the hot toast. Quickly place the strawberries on one slice, single layer and then another layer on top if necessary. Smack the other slice of toast on top and eat, eat, EAT!

While looking for more ideas of how to use Nutella, I found this site: http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2009/02/04/nutella-virgin-50-ways-to-eat-nutella-and-nutella-lover-types/ . I love how they categorized Nutella eaters. I read them all and I'm definitely "The Spreader", "The Sandwicher" and of course, "The Chef" but certainly NOT in denial.

So, if you've never had Nutella before, then you should stop reading, grab the keys, drive to your nearest supermarket store, find your way to the PB/Jelly isle, find the glorious lights from heaven beaming down on the Nutella jars, and reach for it, don't be afraid, just go for it. Run-on sentence? Yes, it's a Nutella side-effect. Oh and once you've had your fill of Nutella, come back and read on.

Cookies and then... Cookies: Corrected to fit ME

2010-06-30T23:40:00.005-04:00

I love making cookies more than any other baked good. I love how with one basic recipe you can add other ingredients and make a new kind of cookie. These two cookies I made are both Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip, two different recipes and even more different with the adjustments I made!

The first one is an Oatmeal-Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Cookie and the next one is an Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookie. Both taste GREAT in different ways. The cranberry one is my favorite however; it's chewy and just crispy enough on the edges, it's sweet and a little chunky.

Oatmeal-Cranberry-Chocolate Chip

These were originally not cranberry but pecan. I love pecans but I had to omit them since I had none, but I REALLY REALLY wanted cookies and this missing ingredient wasn't going to stop me from realizing my craving.

Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1 cup regular oats
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate mini chips

I always half a recipe or quarter it depending on the yield to test the recipe myself. I halved this recipe and got 15 tablespoonfuls of cookies. For this one I didn't have mini chocolate chips, so I added the 1/4 cup of reg. semi-sweet choc. chips and then some... For the sugar, I had to bring the original recipe to 1/2 cup granulated sugar, so when I halved it, I used 1/8 of a cup. A reviewer said to add an extra egg white to make it moist, I simply didn't half the egg, I just made half the recipe with a whole egg. Finally, no pecans, yes craisins. I had a bag of my favorite Cherry flavored Craisins so I used 1/8 cup of that, chopped. Baked for 12 minutes and TA DA! **NOTE TO SELF: with the sweet craisins and extra chocolate chips, I could still lower the granulated sugar a bit. ALSO, I think I can easily turn this recipe into a breakfast cookie**

The banana one was, like a reviewer mentioned, cake-y, almost like banana cake, I guess because of the banana, but I liked it too, surprisingly. Half way through measuring the dry ingredients, I realized this was a vegan recipe! Oh well, it looked good, I went on.

Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip

Like I mentioned, this was a full on vegan cookie, meaning: no egg, no butter, raw sugar & soy milk. I substituted and then substituted and then, I substituted.

         Yield: 16 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup oat flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup plain soy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 ripe banana, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or other favorite nut
1/3 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips (such as Tropical Source)

No raw sugar here! I changed the recipe to 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. No canola oil here! I changed that to half veg oil and half apple butter. Soy milk? YES. I can't drink regular milk so I always have soy milk on hand. No walnuts or any kind of nut, I just omitted that completely. No vegan choc. chips but yes on the regular semi sweet choc. chips that I always have on hand along with all the other basic Chocolate Chip Cookies ingredients. I also halved this recipe because I already had 15 of the other cookies and it's only 2 people living in this apartment: me and my dad, with his up and down cholesterol, hence the healthier cookies. Baked for about 15 minutes and VOILA!

As soon as my dad got home from work, he had the munchies and had 2 of each before dinner!

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1687693

Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1854047

Little Everything: Mini Doughnut Muffins

2010-06-30T00:15:00.002-04:00

I was watching The Foodnetwork's show called, The Best Thing I Ever Ate and one of the celebrity chefs[I believe it might've been Giada] talked about this bakery somewhere that made Doughnut Muffins. I thought, "Doughnut muffins? Hmm, this should be interesting..."

You see, I LOVE things that are made small when they are normally regular size. Because of this, I tend to make cookies or muffins into mini sizes. I go crazy over it!

So when I saw the doughnut muffins, I immediately decided that I would make them into mini muffins. Then a question popped into my head, "Does the temperature change since they are smaller?" I researched a bit, found nothing I found trustworthy. Some people would say to lower the temperature to 325 degrees and then keep an eye on them. In the end I found THE recipe, Doughnut Muffins from Serious Eats.

This recipe yields 24 mini muffins and are baked at 375 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes. That's right, 375 degrees. I followed the procedure exactly, except I cut the recipe in half, as a test batch. This was an incredibly easy recipe with a delicious outcome, perfectly puffy and no flat muffin tops AT ALL.

Now, I try my very best to cut back on fat, because I'm reaching the age where I really shouldn't and sometimes can't just eat whatever I want. I mean, I'm only 22 but I know that I should start taking care of my body now. Also, at an age of 60, my dad too has to watch his cholesterol and sodium intake.

Once baked and cooled, the recipe says to "brush each muffin generously with melted butter", and there was no way I was about to do that, you can, but it's really not necessary. I grabbed my small brush [a brush I used in Peru to make Chocotejas(chocolate candies)], and used less than 2 TBS of butter to lightly brush the 12 mini muffins. Brushed, coat, set aside, repeat. You brush them with the butter, all around, coat them in the cinnamon sugar, and then just set them aside inside an air tight container. You can also skip the butter-brushing step and just dust them all around with powdered sugar. I didn't do this because I lacked the ingredient, but I will definitely next time.

These doughnut muffins are A-MMMMMM-AZING. It is, however, the only recipe I've tried so I can't compare, but I really liked it. The picture above just shows how small they really are, bite-sized almost, which is great for me. I don't know what it is about muffins with me, specially my favorite kind, Corn Muffins, but they really fill me up. They're so dense I guess, I'm not sure, but I love them. With these, I can have one or 2 and that's just enough, at least for me. Others might gobble up a few without restraint, and I wouldn't blame them.

Alfajores: Simple, delicate and SWEET!

2010-06-23T16:42:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago, my boyfriend told me about this woman he works with that talked about these cookies a friend of hers used to make. She began to describe them and he knew exactly what she was talking about. I've made these before a couple times, once to try out the recipe I had and the second it was an order for a neighbor's New Years party she'd been invited to.

It's been over 6 months since I made them, and I had to look up the recipe again when boyfriend asked me if I could make some for the people at his job. It would be 5 people, not counting him. I decided 3 would be enough as a serving, considering the size of the filled cookies[just a little bigger than 1 & 1/2 in diameter].

Have you ever made a quiche crust by hand? It'll give you arthritis for sure! At least it feels that way. That's the way you prepare the dough for this cookie. You have to rub the margarine or butter with the flour and cornstarch until there are no lumps of fat left, like a mealy cornmeal texture. Then you knead it a bit til it comes a little more together, wrap it up with plastic and in the fridge it goes, for about half an hour to an hour.

Here's the recipe, Alfajores de Maizena[Cornstarch Alfajores]:

Yield: about 50 to 60 cookies, depending on how uniformly thin you roll out the dough and the size cookie cutter you use.

- 1 & 1/4 cup all purpose flour

- 1 & 1/4 cup cornstarch

- 2 sticks of butter/margarine, minus 1 TB., softened at room temp, cut into small pieces

- can of Dulce De Leche

- 8 TBS powdered sugar

- extra powdered sugar for dusting.

To this dough, you can add flavorings such as, lemon or orange zest, vanilla or almond extract, etc. If you want, you can also make these into chocolate cookies, by cutting back on the 1/4 cups and add 1/2 cup cocoa powder.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, cornstarch, and sugar, combine with fat. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30min to an hour.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness or a little thinner if you prefer[I do]. Use the size cookie cutter you want. I don't have cookie cutters, so I used the little cap from a standard cocktail shaker. These cookies don't spread so you can set them up on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper close together, not touching, but close. I fit about 45 cookies on my sheet. Bake til you start to see a couple cookies starting to get lightly golden, about 5 to 7 minutes, depending on your oven, just watch them close, it won't take long!

Let them cool completely. Scoop the dulce de leche into a pipping bag or zip lock bag and just drop a little dollop on my cookie, about the size of a quarter. Grab another cookie and press together, very gently, these cookies are very delicate and fragile. For this reason, try to make a few more cookies than you need, just in case. set them all down on the cookie sheet again and sift powdered sugar on them, turn them upside down and sift again. Store in an airtight container at room temp, if you'll be serving them soon, or in the container and in the fridge for later.

All over, hispanic countries have their own recipes for this type of cookie, this is the simplest out there. I like to be able to have a good balance between the cookies and the filling, not too much filling so that its super sweet but enough filling so that you don't nearly choke on the powdery cookie.

This recipe came from a dessert book my mom has in Peru, I made a copy of it while I was there. Don't remember the name of the book at the moment, but I will post it when I do.

Father's Day Breakfast

2010-06-22T23:54:00.004-04:00

I don't usually make my dad breakfast. He leaves for work hours before I wake up every morning, so I don't see him til before dinner time. On weekends he also leaves early in the morning to play tennis and usually I don't see him til about 2 to 3pm.

Last week I decided I'd make him breakfast for Father's Day. I wanted to pick something good. It had to be something I know he likes or something I know for sure he'll really like. I could've made a typical Peruvian breakfast that usually goes along the lines of Cafe con Leche[Coffee with Milk], some kind of bread with butter, jam or cheese, and then eggs. Pretty blah if you ask me.

I decided to go with something I had a feeling he's never had and that I had a strong feeling he'd really like, French Toast. I've had french toast before at restaurants and I've made it at home once before for my boyfriend. I didn't love the recipe I used that time, I thought it was a little plain [Alton Brown's French Toast]. So I went to my trust worthy Joy of Baking site and found a good recipe that I will definitely use again.

I kind of halved the recipe and tweaked it to my liking. I can't drink regular milk so I drink soy milk. This recipe doesn't call for sugar and I did want it to be slightly sweet, so I incorporated a little bit of honey. Usually a recipe calls for either day old bread or stale bread. I bought mine yesterday and forgot to leave it out overnight to stale, so I stuck the slices in the oven on a sheet pan for 15 minutes at 200 degrees. Here's the recipe I used:

M!na's French Toast =D :

Yield: 2 servings

- 2 eggs

- 1/4 cup and 2 TB of milk [1/4 didn't seem enough for I added a little bit more]

- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/8 tsp cinnamon

- 1/16 tsp nutmeg

- 1 & 1/2 TB warm honey [heat up in microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds, don't let it boil]

- 4 slices of bread [I used Arnold's Premium Italian Bread]

- butter [I used 1 TB for 2 slices]

- powdered sugar for dusting

- fanned strawberries for garnish

Combine all the ingredients. I took this little part from Alton: heating up the honey, it combines better with the egg/milk[custard] mixture. I soaked the slices 2 at a time for about 10 to 15 secs on each side. Heat up the cooking surface to medium or just under medium, shake up excess custard and transfer to pan. Cook til it's golden brown on one side, then flip. If you're not serving these right away, you can have the oven previously heated to 200 degrees to keep warm. I like to heat up the oven to 300 - 325 degrees before serving and leave the toast there for about 5 minutes. I do this because I don't like how "soft" the bread can look right after cooking. Dust powdered sugar on slices and fan strawberries on the side. Serve with your favorite kind of syrup if you'd like.

These will not be flimsy french toast. They are quite sturdy, yet soft in the center, so you can easily cut these up into bite sized pieces or sticks and just dip them into the syrup or your favorite spread.

Joy of Baking French Toast:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/FrenchToast.html

Alton Brown's French Toast:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/french-toast-recipe/index.html

Bakeshop: The Test Out

2010-06-18T18:18:00.009-04:00

I didn't care for taking pictures of the test out for either cold foods or hot foods, but I definitely took my Nikon to school for the days I was testing out of Bakeshop. It was hard but fun at the same time. I chose to make things I had never done before, I liked the challenge of it, even if they were considered easy by another person.

For this test out, Chef Steve told me to look up 3 pastries, 3 cakes and 3 breads, bring it to him and then together decide on one of each to make. I ended up with:

pastry: French Macarons

cake: Spice Cake with Coffee Toffee Crunch

bread: Olive and Asiago Rolls

I had never made a macaron in my life, I didn't even know what they were, and I learned that it's nothing like a macaroon. A macaroon is made with coconut, a macaron with almonds. I had to manually crush and grind up toasted slices of almonds with a rolling pin since all of the food processors at the school were on strike. I continued with the recipe I had[not sure which one it was] and it was finally time to pipe them on the lined sheet pants. I baked them til they changed color and were firm to the touch, I knew they were done then. Took them out and piped a white chocolate-raspberry ganache on it; it had a Peptobismol pink color, appetizing... They should not be flat, they should actually look like this picture:

          I made about 20 cookies like these, they sold quick and I was satisfied. They should have that little sponge looking edges. If it does not look that way, they are wrong. These cookies should have a soft exterior, egg shell-like, with no cracks. I did pretty well for my first try. I felt pretty lucky. I had done a lot of research on it, determined to make them for this and seen blogs of people that had attempted them before. I must say... it made it all the more intimidating. I followed the recipe I had, it was the best one I found, I also found this video of a French/Japanese pastry place on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7fQudnY3Jw . This along with David Lebovitz "Making French Macarons: instructions and recipes" were very helpful.

          As I started to make them, I felt like the God of French Macarons had possessed my body and the whole mixing process is a blur. I didn't fold the egg whites too much or too little, just enough. I awaited by the oven, looking for my cookie sheet of french macarons among the other things in the revolving oven. Finally time to take the beauties out! There was no one with me in that back room but if there had been, they would have heard my sigh of relive. They were a lot better than my expectations had been.

          Next is the bread... Now the whole time I was in bakeshop, I never once made bread, at least not by myself, so I never really got the idea of bread making. I need to learn with my hands for the information to remain in my head for longer than a day so when I made this bread... well, it looked good.

I followed the directions exactly, then I used the machine to make the rolls, came out wrong, had to roll by hand, I thought it would be a disaster. Taste wise... like I said earlier, they looked good. They were sold on the cafeteria line.

At last, The Cake. Like the bread, I also had never done a cake by myself, but this one came out better than I expected, and it tasted great. I liked the combination of the spice cake with the toffee and the cream cheese frosting and Chef liked it a lot too. I think he liked the final product more than I did, I could tell because he took the camera from me and took about 15 pictures before I could get a chance to take a few myself. Here's the best one:

I was going to do something similar with the caramel brittle, like on the site, but he said something like this would look so much better, that is, if I wanted to test my patience in doing it. Obviously in the time I've spent in that class, Chef Steve didn't get to know me that well. I LOVE doing little detail work like this, I'd be happy doing things like these all day, it keeps sane. The mosaic art on this cake took time and he knew it would. He also mentioned that no pastry chef would pay me to do this since it's so time consuming, and I understand, it makes sense. Still, I wouldn't mind it if I had to.

I passed my bakeshop test out and I was off to cold foods. The one thing I was good at doing in that class, and said I didn't need to do it... FRUIT CARVING! another passion of mine. I've only gotten the chance to do it twice outside of school for my boyfriends grandma. She loves that stuff, she goes on cruises and holds up the buffet line to take countless pictures of the fruit sculptures, or so my boyfriend has told me. I probably would take a pic of each and then just stare in complete awe.

The recipes:

French Macarons: haven't found the exact recipe, but it was a basic macaron recipe.

Olive and Asiago Rolls: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=522320

Spice Cake with Coffee Toffee Crunch: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673099

The Culinary Program

2010-06-17T16:51:00.004-04:00

Just over a year ago, I entered a culinary program at ATC [Atlantic Technical Center], very good school, awesome program. I had already considered entering a culinary school before but the prices were intimidating. Then one day I got sick, still not sure what it was, probably a 24hr stomach bug. Anyway, I wasn't really eating and that was causing me to get nauseous, so I went to the doctor and she injected me with an anti-nausea medicine and then prescribed me it to take by mouth.... Three pills later, the next day, the side effects kicked in. I'm allergic to it. I started to experience one of the rare side effects, muscle tightening.

The muscle tightening happened on my upper back/back of the neck and it was causing my head to go back, so I was uncontrollably facing the ceiling. On top of that, my eyes were also going back, back as far as I could see, not all the way back to where you can't see my eyes. It was a very scary experience and I really hope I never have to go through it again. Called 911 and the ambulance experience was another thing, hopefully NEVER again as well. In the end, the doc cured me with benadryl HAHAHAHA.

This whole ordeal cost me more money than I've ever made in my life[no kidding], and why is that? I did not have health insurance at the time. I desperately started looking for ways to get it. One "easy" way was by getting into my dad's by going to school full time. The problem with this was that it was the late February/ beginning of march, the semester had already started at the community college. The only classes available were for accounting... there was no way.

Then one day my dad brought me a newspaper he got from the mail, the Broward Educator. There was a page on there about technical schools in broward, one of which was ATC, the closest to me. They offer a lot of different programs, but the culinary program called my name. It was perfect, the new term started at the end of march! I registered a little late but it was no big deal at all, I started a week late, but wasn't far behind.

Going to this school was one of the best decisions I've taken so far. It taught me a lot and I'm satisfied with what I accomplished.

          Now here I am, a year and 3 months later looking for a job near here because a car is not quite available to me. That and also, I don't have a license.... I know, I know, 22 year old not driving... I'm hoping I get it soon though, though the thought of driving scares me a lot. Something about being in control of a big machinery makes me unconfortable, I tense up and by the end of the driving lesson, my legs hurt like crazy.

          Point is, I need a job and no one is hiring around here, but rest assured that as soon as I start driving I will look for something. I'm hoping for something along the lines of a bakery or a breakfast/lunch cafe/restaurant... those kind of places would be ideal for me since commercial cooking does not appeal to me whatsoever. Commercial BAKING however.... pastries, confections, candy making, cake decoration... anything that may require little details, I'M THERE. I want this.