Anqi: Cheesecake!

I have finally acquired all the ingredients for a cheesecake! Yay!
I know Cooking Mama never made this, which is why I've opted to not include the other things I've been making, but no one can resist cheesecake! And if you know me very well, you know that I admire Alton Brown from The Food Network, and his recipe for cheesecake is wonderful. =)




This is the... fourth (?) time I've made this cheesecake. I think it might be the best! Check it out! :D
At first I thought that all that filling would not fit in that pan...
... but it did! There it is, baking away.

Yum yum yum yum yum!! Delicioso!

Emily: Blegghhh.....

Junki and I made two dishes this weekend. One was good. The other... well. Blegghh....

Here are some pictures:

Good--

Bad--and how we felt after eating it...

Peace!

Emily

Emily: Cooking is a lot like Chemistry lab, only less toxic.

Hi everyone!!!

I am home and have recently made a few dishes. =) The first is an experiment with dessert and the second is the usual Asian stir fry. Enjoy!

This is called Nutella dumplings--haha. Kristen came over last weekend, and we made them for our movie night. We didn't actually get to watch the movie (Avatar) since we spent all night 9-12:30am making these, but it was super fun! =) The recipe is very simple. First you mix flour and water to make dough. Then, you roll the dough out and cut it into little squares. Finally, you fill each square with a bit of nutella (and peanut butter!!) and boil it all in a pot of water. When it's done, add chocolate shavings and some melted butter. I really enjoyed making the dumpling shapes. I think the little round ones that look like onions taste the best, for some reason:

They turned out pretty good--the second try was better than the first because we made lots of different shapes and added peanut butter. It was a little too buttery for me, but they were pretty tasty. Here's Kristen rolling the dough with a plastic cup. (I couldn't find the rolling pin. Typical. :P)

Yummy!

Tonight, after lab (hence the title of this post), I made dinner because I beat my mom home!!! (For once after labs!!!) I made the classic Asian eggs and tomatoes, chili tofu, and bacon stir fry with peppers.

Have a great July 4th weekend!!!

Emily

Sumi: Baker at heart

So it's midnight, and I'm sitting here looking through cookbooks because I've banned myself from watching Criminal Minds at night. It's a great TV show (you should check it out), but when Megavideo happens to leave me hanging in the middle of the episode, I feel a little jumpy--even walking around in my own house. Last night, it got to the point where I had to watch an episode of Friends to make me feel better. But back to the cooking...actually baking. I'm actually looking through baking books and reading about how to make cakes and cookies. I've never wanted it to be someone's birthday more because I'm dying to make a birthday cake! I still have to make Emily's, but I'll wait until we have some party or I'll just make it soon. It will be a suprise! I know you're going to eventually read this Em :P I had a lot of fun when Archana was here. I love baking for her because she appreciates the cakes. I know that sounds funny, but when we were little, Archana and I used to look through baking books and pick out which recipes we were going to make. Our sisters, would be the taste-testers. We baked so much together, and I'll never forget that. I guess that's why I always get excited making cakes for her. So for her actual birthday, I made Key Lime Cupcakes (recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2008/09/key_lime_cupcakes) which became mini-cupcakes not by choice. However Archana loved the mini-ness. Then the next day, for the small party Archana's mom had for her, I made strawberry shortcake-like cake (Emily's summer challenge: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wayne-harley-brachman/diner-style-strawberry-shortcake-recipe/index.html).

Obviously, Archana's birthday was a while back. I guess I was reading her favorite baking book, and I thought about her and all the good times we have together. And despite our summer goals of learning how to cook, I keep baking or wanting to bake. I guess right now, finding the urgency to learn how to cook is really difficult. I want to, but it's so hard when my mom is in control of the kitchen, making super-delicious gourmet fusion food. I think I'll make her belated red-velvet birthday cupcakes when my sister comes at the end of June if Physics 142 doesn't take my life away. That way we have more people at home to eat them :)

Also...please check out Second Nature's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npJqgiQGybA We're a fairly new group at Emory, and we need your support since we're applying for this grant. Please watch our video (sadly I'm not in it, but I'm a part of the group). You can also check out our blog for some interesting health and sustainability articles: http://eusecondnature.wordpress.com/.

Happy Thursday!

Anqi: Too Lazy for Fast Food?

I have a confession: On Fridays, my family usually just goes to a fast food place because we're all too tired to make dinner/clean up afterwards. But today was different. My brother couldn't decide which fast food place he wanted to go to, and my car was almost out of gas. I decided to just stay in for dinner and cook a frozen meal or something.

But then while rummaging through the refrigerator and cabinets, I saw a leftover half of an onion, some mozzarella cheese, and a few sheets of lasagna pasta!

I've made lasagna years ago (hence the leftover pasta), but I decided that lasagna was basic enough to just wing it. While the pasta was cooking, I cooked together some diced onions and ground pork, then stewed it in tomato sauce. Then I layered the darn thing, not even paying much attention to the layering pattern. It wasn't that hard; plus, I've played the course many times on Cooking Mama:

To my surprise, my winging it and the directions from Cooking Mama were extremely similar (subliminal cooking?).

Here are my end results after I took it out of the oven! :D It was delicious, but it could've used more cheese.

Yum!

Mary Rose: Study Abroad!!

Soooo, guess what. Maymester study abroad next summer? I think so! My parents will probably pay for it and everything!! Yay!!

As for this summer, so far I have failed at cooking. I've made a few grilled cheeses. Once when we were out of bread I got really innovative and made one with a hamburger bun. I've helped my mom cook some. And I made a batch of brownies. It was really yummy, but my mom made fun of me because I cut it with a really dull knife so the edges were really crumbly. So yes, I fail at cooking. Good thing I'm doing seven day meal plan next year. Yes, I like Emily caved and am doing seven day. Gross. On the pluss side, I have discovered that the freshman 15 really comes the summer after freshman year, when you're coming off of meal plan and back onto real food. Prepare yourselves girls, because I'm getting fat!!

Emily: Fun in the Kitchen

Hey guys!!

I know I'm so lame updating two days in a row, BUT I took some pictures today and wanted to share them with you all.

For tonight's dinner, I made mac-and-cheese Sumi style (or at least, from whatever I remember of Sumi-style mac-and-cheese!). Instead of corn, though, I substituted green beans mostly because I do not have any corn.

So here's what I did:
1. cut up and stir fry (can't get away from it can I?) 10-15 green beans in oil and salt--NO SOY SAUCE!
2. boil water/prepare shells
3. dump green beans in a pan and rinse the pan
4. add milk and 2 slices of cheese to the pan, stir and wait for cheese to melt
5. after the milk/cheese mixture becomes liquidy, add the boiled shells (after straining of course)
6. mix things around, add green beans, add salt
7. pour into a bowl, add oregano, and eat. voila!

Derek and Sara joined in on the food-making, and here's what they made--

Derek: a WHOLE pizza in 15 minutes. What skills.

Sara: peppers, tomatoes, and rice!

Bon appetit, everyone!