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!