CrackPot, round 2

Three posts in two days? Amazeballs!! I'm just too excited to tell ya'll about the incredible crackpot recipe I tested out last night. Drumroll please.....Italian Wedding Soup! I naturally began cooking at 10:45PM while Facetiming my Little Sorority Sister (who by the way, has a fantastic blog). However, not too much preparation was involved. A little chopping action with some celery, carrots, and onion, a little cooking of quinoa and wilting of spinach, and a LOT of rolling itsy bitsy meatballs (sidenote: blogger seems to think that quinoa and itsy bitsy are not words. HAH!). I bought most of my ingredients at a local watering hole, aka the Star Market in Allston, which I frequented nearly every week up until I moved this past September. Oh how I didn't miss the college kids, but it was nice to walk around the familiar isles, but I did miss the Market Basket prices dearly. 

I awoke this morning to a fantastic smell coming from the kitchen and enough food to last me through the next week at least. It is so incredibly tasty that I do not mind (and even look forward to) eating it several times in a day. .

Sorry friends, if I end up turning this blog into a CrackPot blog, at least until the small addiction to the CrackPot lyfestyle wears off.

'Til next time, little chefs!

From head chef to sous chef...making moves!

I am patiently awaiting the 11th of January. Why, do you ask? Well, in a few short weeks I'm going to be shadowing chefs at a pretty upscale restaurant in Harvard. I'm talking four $ signs and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp and Google reviews, $70 three-course dinner menus and octopus listed as a regular dinner item. I'll start by learning the ropes of prepping vegetables/meat for dinner, how to handle super sharp knives and stand in one spot for hours on end. I will then (hopefully) advance from prepmaster (copywright me, 2013) to novice chef, working the dinner hours on the weekends, and more nights if I wish. I'm super excited to take this next step to see if becoming a chef is the next step I should take in my career!

How did I nail such a gig? As summer wound down to fall wound down to winter, I found myself with increasingly more time on my hands. I am totally relishing in these free hours, but as you may already know, I'm a planner at heart. Rarely do I sit idle and not plan ahead, whether it be laying out work for the rest of my workday, planning after work and week activities, or rationing out my precious Paid Time Off hours in the form of mini-vacations over long weekends. By mid-November, I'm in full planning mode for Spring adventures.

It seems like nearly everyone around me is taking classes to further their education. I don't have a particular interest to obtain a masters for the following reasons, take 'em or leave 'em:

1. I'm told a Masters degree in engineering puts you outside of certain job's salary ranges. Furthermore, the salary increase is not substantial, at least compared to the salary increase that comes with completing a doctorate program. As much as I would love to have "Dr." in front of my name I don't know if I have time to obtain one, as determined by my rough life plan. Don't get me wrong - I am beyond impressed and jealous of those that know exactly what they want to do after they obtain various degrees or even what subject they want to get a degree in. In undergrad, I waited until nearly the last possible moment to declare a major, and all of my top choices were drastically different - I could have wound up as a Build-Your-Own-Major in fashion design, if I listened to my first-semester sophomore self. So I really don't know how you people even pick programs/majors/careers. To argue more to this point, see reason #2. 
I am aware that these lives we lead are unpredictable, but if there's one thing I do know, it's that life is too short to bury my face in a textbook for the larger part of the day. 

2. I have many, many, many interests. I don't see myself staying in engineering for a huge part of my career, as I would like to see where my passions in other industries may take me. The rough life plan laid out for my thirty- and forty-somethings unfortunately does not involve engineering. I couldn't be happier with my current job but I know that all good things end eventually. I do not see the ending to this current career any time soon, but as stated previously, I like to stay fully prepared for whatever may strike my fancy days/months/years from now.

3. Even in this economy, it is entirely possible to educate yourself for free. Textbooks do not immerse yourself in your possible future career in the same way as diving head first into your next career. In the year 2013 there are alternatives to "traditional" classroom education. Whether you check out online teaching portals or snag yourself an internship, you are already in less financial debt than the guy sitting next to you. 
Along this same vein, college was four years of learning about personal and interpersonal situations, interests, and passions. I don't look back at college and think fondly of abstract algebra homework, I look back at college and thing of all the incredible/ridiculous trouble I got myself into with my best of friends. 


Yikes, that was quite the tangent. TL;DR - formal, costly education is not for me at this point in my life.

Anywho, it may be cultivated by my cooking adventures over the past year or it may have come from watching various cooking shows on the Food Network, but I have become more and more curious about my inner chef. What if, with a bit of training, I could be the next big-name female chef? To quote some smart guy: you never know until you try. 

One random afternoon, curiosity got the better of me and I began Googling restaurants around town that I may want to be a sous chef at. Similar to college applications, I emailed some "reach" restaurants and some "safety" restaurants, and surprisingly the one email I received was from a "reach" restaurant. The HR and admin manager I spoke to this past week seems to know his stuff. He noted that he has employed four engineers as cooks, remarking that cooking and engineering share similar characteristics - preciseness, mathematics, multitasking, etc. He also noted that I will be learning to slice and dice quickly and precisely, a dance that chefs master before even shadowing a night shift -- an education that is not available at chain restaurants (he offhandedly mentioned an above average chain restaurant as an example!). He said that an equal number of employees come from culinary school or straight off the street, which validates point #3 above. I was growing more and more excited throughout the conversation -- what an incredible opportunity! 

So now we play the waiting game. Luckily December usually ends up being the busiest month of the year, and in due time you will be reading a blog post about my first prep shift!

Crack Pot, etc.

During a recent trip to Target, I caved and bought a $20 CrockPot (It was even of the CrockPot brand!). 

As I am diving into various food cultures through restaurant trips, and as CrockPots make cooking as easy as can be, I figured it was time to try a recipe totally out of my comfort zone. Thusly, I chose a Moroccan Lamb recipe from the vast landscape known as the internet. The list of ingredients alone is intriguing - garbanzo beans, olives, cinnamon sticks, and where on earth am I going to find a lamb shank? I ended up spending a good five minutes looking around the lamb meat section at Market Basket until I finally spotted the shanks (not long after I spotted the turkey necks...ew!). All of the ingredients cost approximately $15 to $20, and the recipe served far more than two servings, as I have had to freeze part of the leftovers to be eaten when I'm no longer tired of the taste.

While we're at it, let me update you on a few more cooking adventures! With pictures!

1. BFF cooking

Mel (and Barry) and I made some excellent doughy cookies with frosting, while using a Falzone original recipe card! As Halloween was just a few days before, we watched the Simpsons and Bob's Burgers Halloween specials, both of which were fantastic.



My roommate's cat, Barry, always has to be the center of attention. And purposely sits on whatever you're looking at.








2. Thanksgivingkkah cooking

For the Living Root Dragon Boat Team Thanksgivingkkah, I made artichoke mushroom dip (was going to follow my go-to recipe, as pictured in this blog entry, but I forgot to grab spinach. The mushrooms served as a sufficient replacement, and the casserole dish was cleaned out of dip at the party!









I also attempted sour dough, a challenge that has been sitting on my list of "Things to cook" for quite some time. I made the sourdough starter (consisting of water, yeast, and flour) several days before making the bread. Each recipe I found for sourdough bread called for a "starter", which was a separate recipe entirely. On the day of the party, I made a double batch of sourdough, with another cup of starter left over for a final batch, which I will make in a few days. Inspired by the sourdough creations seen during last years dragon boating trip to San Francisco, I sculpted a sourdough dragon. The dragon and separate large loaf came out too bread-y and too salty. I'll be sure to adjust the recipe accordingly for the final batch.

A Very UMass Halloween, Volume II

Nathalie and I kept up the tradition of cooking lobster and steak on Halloween this year. I purchased the lobsters at Market Basket, my new local grocery store. Unfortunately, with Market Basket's cheap prices comes half-dead or all-dead lobsters. One of the lobsters I was handed wasn't moving, and when I stated this fact to the butcher, he took the lobster out, shook it around in the air, and exclaimed "Yeah, it's moving!" As I knew these lobsters were arriving in lobstey-heaven in less than an hour, I didn't question the dude. 

Not too much to tell ya that wasn't covered in last year's episode, except that we ran out of room in our tummies for lobster after eating the delicious overdone steak. We ended up picking apart the lobsters and put their delicious parts in a container to be cooked with later. And cook I did! Made some homemade breaded lobster mac and cheese, inspired by a delicious meal recently eaten at John Harvard's in, you guessed it, Hahvahd Squeah. No pictures due to it's astronomical deliciousness.

  

Nath showing some lobster murdering determination!

No idea why their claws turned white. I left my lobster cracker at my old apartment so we couldn't enjoy the best part :(

Not to toot my own horn, but I kicked some serious butt in Halloween costume creating this year. Going to have to top myself next year -- I've already begun brainstorming.

Pumpkin Pure-b

Whenever I have friends over during my cooking adventures (which has historically been all but maybe three times), I have wondered if things would go smoother without them. This is not to say that they serve as poor soux chefs, but rather we get caught up in conversation and get a bit clumsy. Well, I cooked by myself last week and can tell you that is certainly not the case.  

It all began when I left work. Whatever recipes I had running through my head were quickly swept away when I got easily distracted by a farmer's market at South Station and picked up an adorable 3-pound pumpkin. This pumpkin purchase was inspired by an excellent fellow cooker blog post I recently found on how to make pumpkin purée. Once I found this blog post, I think I was nervous about how it would turn out and thusly didn't do much research on the recipes involving the purée. In hindsight, this was a key ingredient to my frustration.

I tried to get most of my pumpkin-cooking ingredients at Target that night. I really didn't know what recipes I was following, so I picked up a few logical items - milk and condensed milk, cloves, and graham cracker pie crusts. I couldn't have bought eggs at Target because the food section is subpar. Only at 9:00PM did I discover, after many moments hunched over my iPad searching for "pumpkin pie no eggs recipes", that eggs are a key ingredient to making any cakey dessert taste divine. So there was my frustration for the night. 

I've really got to get better at taking pictures while cooking, as I only remembered to take pictures of the purée portion of the night. As you may find out someday, making pumpkin purée is not any sort of risky business whatsoever, and is actually quite simple with the aid of a trusty blender. I quartered the pumpkin, degunked it, and put the quarters on a baking tray in the oven for 45 minutes. I was able to get some euphonium practicing in those 45 minutes (!!! must be really playing some hard music in Northeastern Concert Band this year, I think the last time I practiced music for an ensemble was for The Cadets). Once out of the oven, the skin could be removed easily with a knife. I then quartered the "meat" and blendered (that's a verb now) it with some water. Simple and fruitful! Ended up with about 6 cups of purée.

There wasn't much to the pie or the brownies, my bouts with baking have so far been simple, but I know that will change when I try a more complex recipe, like fudge or flan. 

Side note: I have recently realized that unless I put the time (and dough into a nice camera) into creating a blog like Annie's eats or The Pioneer Woman, it is doubtful that this blog will ever be internet-famous. At this point I am writing for my own entertainment, and if that gets me recognition by Smitten Kitchen, that's an even bigger win in my book!

'Til next time, little chefs! 

Apple-licious

Aaaaand we're back! After my most intense summer in the real world (I've only had two, but still), I'm back in the kitchen. Summer '13 was filled with lots of farm shares and Subway. Let me elaborate - the farm share arrived to my office every Tuesday, kindly delivered by The Food Project, and I mostly ate it raw with some leafy greens. Some days I wished to cook my raw veggies, but I can't ever pass up all the activities. Subway and other assorted fast food 'wiches were the were consumed during many long weekends far away from my fridge teaching drum corps. But life has returned to moderately normal activity and now my fridge is filled and emptied more frequently than that mom's womb on "19 Kids and Counting".

New season of blogging, new kitchen. This one comes equipped with ample walking space, a high-top table, and I just requested a portable kitchen island for my birthday. Since I resumed my cooking endeavors in the fall, and coincidentally went apple picking the weekend prior (Happy Birthday, Hannah Bo!), it felt only appropriate to cook fall-themed dishes. Twenty apples and one butternut squash peeled and cored, with the gracious assistance of my new neighbor and long-time dragon boating friend, Irene! :) 

In case you were wondering, PYO means "Pick Your Own"

Cooking with apples is as easy as 1-2-3-4!

1. Butternut squash lasagna

This recipe was described to me over the weekend by my good friend Caity (hence no recipe hyperlink), whom I requested to dictate the recipe to me over the phone on the night of the apple cooking extravaganza. The last time I cooked with butternut squash was when I attempted spaghetti squash (which I still haven't tried again). It came out alright, but tasted strangely of layered apples and butternut squash with a bread crumb topping, which was pretty much all it consisted of. 

2. Apple butternut squash soup

This was an obvious recipe of choosing after purchasing a ginormous (technical term) butternut squash. Although I'm not sure what apple butternut squash soup is supposed to taste like, I think I flavored it incorrectly with cumin or something. A three-month cooking hiatus leaves a cooker quite rusty with her spices, my B.

The beginnings of the squash

3. Applesauce

I wish I made way more 'sauce, it was so damn good. I added the right amount of sugar but left the cinnamon and nutmeg to the consumer's discretion (although there's been one consumer so far and that would be me...). I now know that homemade applesauce is loaded with sugar but quite tasty and sugary, and may revisit this recipe during the Thanksgiving season.

Licking the spoooon! Not sure why I look so orange..

4. Apple crisp

At the beginning of the night, I had fully intended to cook an apple yogurt pie. However, as my bedtime was fast approaching and I was approaching hour three of cooking after a three-month hiatus, I decided to take the easy road. After a quick stop at a neighbor's house for an additional glass pan, the ingredients went into the pan, which went into the oven faster than you could say "Dana has the best cooking blog ever". I managed to pull the crisp out of the oven right before beddy-byes. 

Crisp not pictured, consumed too quickly :)

'Til next time, little chefs! Oooh I've missed saying that! Eeeee! :)

Happy birthday, EEEVOO!

Wow, what a year it's been! From my first dish chicken cacciatore to my most recent dish of beignets, I think I may actually finally enjoy cooking! I've learned to enjoy the creativity that comes with bending the cooking rules and altering recipes. A few random remarks:

- The conversations I've had at the fanciest restaurant in Boston don't hold a candle to the weekly conversations I've had while cooking. Cooking should be a team-building activity for the corporate world. I've learned to trust friends judgement and handiwork - at the end of the  day, it's just food. The worst situation (which has yet to happen) would be schlepping over to Wings if dinner was a bust. Furthermore, the conversation is only interrupted by comments such as "MAH THE MEATLOAF" and other cooking-related phrases. Point being, a waiter is not getting up in your grill and adding an "element" - whether it be an element of charm, rudeness, or unappreciated flirtation.

- The Shaws on Commonwealth has become a second home to me, and I've learned that if I can't find an ingredient, it will take an additional half hour and five employees to finally find it. I am now a huge fan of Trader Joe's - their customer service, decent prices, and aisle of candies are hard to beat. 

- Perfecting this blog for it's path to stardom has been a small goal of mine that I haven't even touched this past year. A year's worth of entries is minorly impressive, so I'm hoping I can use that as my selling point to convince new subscribers that this blog is to be taken slightly seriously. I think the first step I'll take will be creating a Facebook page and posting to it every time I write an entry. Also, I'm going to hopefully get my butt to some cooking classes at Clover!

- Readers, thank you for putting up with my poor grammar, spelling mistakes, and awkward language. I'm not sure if my writing has improved - it really should have, I don't think I've ever read so many books and written so many journal entries in a year. I hope you've enjoyed at least a few of my entries, and I look forward to mildly entertaining you with more!

-I'm a bit sad I'm only 7 entries shy of 52 entries in a year, but I'm hoping to reach that goal by the end of the year. However, I'm actually kind of impressed I posted 45 times in a year, despite taking a 3 month hiatus when work got tough last summer, as well as taking a month off here and there this year due to tutoring and being sick. 

I am open to suggestions for new challenges and cooking sprees for the upcoming year - I've toyed with the idea of cooking with a theme for the year, but I run the risk of having to change my eating habits. I like that my diet has little to no boundaries and I hope to keep it that way until my digestive system insists that I cannot pulverize it any longer. 

Welp, that's all I've got. 'Till next time, little chefs!