Inspirational Sandwiches

Do you ever feel like a pregnant lady, given the amount of times you crave some new food you've recently fallen in love with? That's what I feel like now. For some reason I'm completely fancied - twitterpated - enamored -  by sandwiches with bean sprouts and avocado in them. Particularly when they also have turkey and tomatoes and yummy fresh bread. I think this fascination started when I had my first Jimmy John's sandwich a couple months ago, and ever since I keep looking for other things with those ingredients to indulge in. But nothing else matches the flavor my tongue so longingly desires!

For only the second time so far in my life, I returned to Jimmy John's tonight. By myself. With Bible study homework on the side. BLISS. I found the sandwich again - #12, no cucumbers - and was instantly in Heaven. My ravenous state at the time only contributed to how fast I devoured that thing, and shamefully, too. I was fully aware at all times that the speed at which the Beach Club entered my digestive system was unnatural, all the while thinking "Those employees who have nothing to do behind that counter besides watch me eat probably think I'm a beast right now." But my self-conscious thoughts could not trample the joy received from my satisfying meal. 

Keep in mind, people, that the Beach Club is not on the 8" Sub Sandwich menu. It's on the Giant Club Sandwiches Menu, which basically means I came about 1.5 inches short of eating a foot long sandwich all by myself, because that's how much I got down before my willpower kicked in and said stop eating or you'll be carrying an uncomfortable food baby later on. I'm actually surprised that I didn't have one anyway, because the amount of food I DID eat was quite a lot. But it was just hitting the spot, you know?? Currently I'm giving myself a mental pat on the back for even stopping at all. If I'm being completely honest, I don't know for sure if it was a foot long sandwich, but it had to have been at least 10 inches. 

This may be the most boring post ever, because who reads one paragraph about my love affair with bean sprouts and avocados in sandwiches, and decides they'll continue pursuing such intellectually stimulating material? If you got to the end of this, congratulations. I never expected my sad period of writer's block to be broken by a sandwich, but what can I say? I was just that inspired. For the duration of my meal I was wishing I could share my joy with somebody, and then I remembered that's what my blog is for, so here I am again! Back on the job. Of ... journaling about sandwiches ... 

Thank you, Jimmy John's for making my day.

Puffy Dutch Baby Pancakes

No, these are not what you get when you step on a baby with a wooden shoe, they're a really yummy, magical cross between a pancake and a crepe. They're simple (no syrup), huge, and fun to look at while they rise and get bubbly in the oven. Oh yeah, and pretty tasty. This recipe comes from an old breakfast issue of Relish Magazine, and I've made it numerous times since.

2      tablespoons butter
1/2   cup 2% reduced fat milk
1/2   cup all-purpose flour
1/4   cup sugar
2      eggs
1      tablespoon bugger, softened
       Pinch nutmeg
       Lemon wedges
       Powdered sugar
       Fresh berries


1. Preheat oven to 425° F.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in 10-inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat, tilting to coat bottom and sides of pan.

3. Whisk together milk, flour, sugar, eggs, softened butter, and nutmeg in bowl. Pour into skillet. Cook 1 minute.

4. Place pan in oven and bake 12 - 15 minutes, until puffed and golden. Squeeze lemon over top and sprinkle with powdered sugar and fresh berries. Cut pancakes in pan and serve with a spatula. Serve immediately. Serves 4.


Recipe notes: "Be sure to use an ovenproof skillet, and remember the handle will be very hot! Let the eggs sit at room temperature 10 minutes before making the pancake and have plenty of lemons on hand."


MY notes:
- Good berries to use are blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Usually I go with two to three different kinds, and it's ok to use frozen berries as long as they are thawed out. Fresh are always better, though.
- Cinnamon sugar is also good on top, according to my little brother, if the pancakes are too plain for your liking.
- The first few times you make this, it's easier to whisk the ingredients together first, so you're not hurrying to get it done before the butter in the pan turns brown.
- 2 tablespoons of butter for the pan may be a little too much. Use whatever amount coats the pan well.
- The recipe says it serves four, but I can usually eat anywhere from one half to one whole pancake, depending on how hungry I am. So take that into account when you're making these.

(Prime puffiness, pre-powdered sugar & berries)

Easter Sunday = Best Seafood in Utah

Yesterday was Easter. It was weird in my house because neither of my parents were home, and I didn't know what to do with my brothers. When mom is absent, I usually feel responsible for keeping the family together and taking care of things, but I wasn't about to go cooking a nice dinner when I know all they wanted to do was make a pizza and play video games like every other day. I went to church in the morning with Captain J, at a place I haven't been before, and it was pretty awesome. I could've pretended this year like I didn't care about the religious aspect of this holiday our culture has turned into an excuse for more candy and presents, but the truth is it matters a lot to me. I'm more aware of the significance than I ever have been, not because I didn't understand it before, but because my heart hadn't been touched by it yet. The IV worship service on Saturday night also got me really pumped up, and generally the weekend has been a good one in my relationship with God.

Another relationship has been budding too, and it brought me to Scott's house for the first time yesterday when his family invited me to dinner somewhat last-minute. I got to meet his mom, and get to know both her and his dad a little more. Thankfully I already know and feel comfortable around his brother, so it wasn't a full-on stranger fest. The whole experience was really fun, and although I was naturally nervous at first about making a good impression, I felt comfortable by the end of the night. They were even so welcoming as to let me watch their hilarious and cheesy home videos with them, which they created last summer and obviously had a blast doing. 

But for those of you reading who don't care about my personal life as much as you care about other things like food, you can start paying attention now. For dinner we went to this amazing place called Market Street Grill, one of the fanciest restaurants I've ever been to. The chain has 4 main locations, boasts numerous statewide awards, and is known all around as the best seafood place in Utah. Scott's brother's girlfriend was serving us, and I can honestly say if the rest of the staff is as skilled and professional as she is, they have a great team on their hands. So, top points for the superb service, and the atmosphere was perfect as well for its theme. I felt like I could've been on the East coast, due to the simple but elegant decor, and the freshness of the food. 

I love seafood but I'm a pasta girl first, so I had to get the Dungeness Crab Ravioli that came in a creamy tomato sauce. There is nothing bad I can say about this dish, it was absolutely perfect. I would have it again and again. And would you believe that I had never tried clam chowder before in my life? The family lamented for me, as I will no longer be able to have clam chowder anywhere else, because it was the best you will find in a 200 mile radius, at least - all other chowders will pale in comparison. And even the sourdough bread was top-notch, described by the ever-eloquent Scott as "sour and doughy." Don't let his misleading words fool you, that just meant it perfectly fulfilled its role as a good bread. 

As for the rest of the food, I had a bite of Scott's super soft stuffed halibut (a specialty item not on the menu!), some of his homemade flavored lemonade, and then we all got different desserts and passed around each one to try. Maybe it's just because I'm not a good food critic, but I wasn't let down with anything I put in my mouth. I will now be looking for all kinds of occasions to use as excuses to go to the Market Street Grill again. Of course it's in a lot higher price range than most of us can afford, but you must try it at least once. If my excellent descriptive powers haven't persuaded you yet, just read this excerpt from the website's press release, which gives a much more fine-tuned summary than I:

"Literally, from soup to nuts, from fresh-baked to fresh-from-the-sea, 

the Market Street Grill restaurants offer not only exceptional value-priced 

dining, but a sumptuous selection of menu choices that will satisfy even the most 

discriminating of clientele. Recipients of numerous dining awards (Best Business 

Lunch, Best Seafood, Best Desserts), the Market Street restaurants are acknowledged as “Salt Lake’s Most Popular restaurants.”  The Zagat Guide to American’s Top Restaurants says “nobody does it better when it comes to fish…dishing menus that consistently excel in all locations – and the legendary clam chowder is second to none."

The Most Magical Ice Cream Place

So there's this ice cream place called Sub Zero. It's a small chain with a few locations in and around Utah, relatively new. I'm sure that I and everyone else on this planet are currently fascinated with all the new frozen yogurt shops popping up, but this place is almost cooler, and I'll tell you why. Instead of manually dishing out your own flavors into a bowl and smothering them with numerous toppings that almost never seem to go together (there are so many choices, you have to get some of everything!), Sub Zero gives you the choice of one or two flavors with one mix-in, and get this - they make your ice cream from scratch, right in front of you!

To elaborate on this, it starts out as liquid cream - you pick the kind you want, based on its thickness and fat content (premium being 14%, then custard, low-fat, and even nonfat). Then you choose your flavors, from a looong list with names you probably can't find anywhere else - Huckleberry, Tiger's Blood, Brownie Batter, and so many more. Specify your mix-in (again, a long list, although not as diverse as the toppings at some frogurt places), and watch as they put everything in a metal bowl and then spray LIQUID NITROGEN on it. They shake it up and stir with a spoon while it freezes in a matter of seconds, in a totally safe way that looks like a magic trick. And it almost is! Obviously this new innovation was created by some very smart engineers who creatively put chemistry to good use by making delicious treats with it.

An eerie space-like fog quickly emerges from the machine, spilling out underneath the glass barrier so you can run your hands through it. Then it disappears just as fast, and voila - suddenly that stuff in the bowl has turned into ice cream, and it's ready for you to eat! Just the process alone is reason enough to visit and give this place a try. If you end up with a combination you don't like, it's your own fault, and don't be upset with the establishment. Keep trying and you'll find one you like. The first time I went (a while ago), I think I got mango custard with chocolate pieces mixed in. It was good, but would've been better in a different cream. The next time I went was this past Friday, where I tried Cheesecake Batter (custard) with kit kat pieces mixed in. I actually didn't expect it to turn out well, but I was pleasantly surprised. And then when I raved about it and made my little brother jealous, he convinced our mom into taking us there the very next day, when I tried low-fat Fudge with snickers pieces.

Here's the key - fruity flavors are good with the low-fat creams, but anything chocolate or creamy in nature needs to be made with a thicker cream. The most unexpected delight was the brother's mix of Mountain Dew, Watermelon, and gummy bears, in premium cream. I honestly thought it was going to be disgusting, but boy was I wrong. And I'll admit, that specific mix is probably a love-or-hate scenario, since our mom wanted to spit it out while I thought it was the heavenly taste equivalent of rainbows and unicorns. And I don't even like Mtn. Dew.

Comparing Sub Zero with frogurt franchises, there are definitely pros and cons. You can't test-taste anything before you've committed to your own bowl that you have to pay for, so you might end up with something you don't love. However, there are a lot more flavors to choose from, plus the option of what cream you want, and the process of watching it freeze in front of your face is really cool and different. But hey, the beauty of this country's economy is that people can open businesses whenever and wherever they want, and if you're lucky enough, your geographic region will cover a wide spectrum. You might feel like frozen yogurt on Wednesdays, but Sub Zero ice cream on Saturdays, and you can go back and forth as often as you wish. Between the two styles of making and serving, and all the ways you're allowed to specialize within each, the options are endless.

Iggy's

I am not unlike many of my peers in the fact that a large portion of my budget goes to food and eating out. It is one of my main "extra" expenses that comes out of every month's paychecks. However, when I pay a totaled $12 for a mediocre lunch while killing time between obligations during the day, that does not fly with me.

While driving around town today I had a place in mind for a cheap lunch, but when I got there, I found out they weren't opening for another half hour, so I went into their neighboring restaurant, Iggy's Sports Grill instead. I've always liked the ambiance of that place. The layout is open and friendly and they have the perfect balance of interior design - not a chaotic mess of decorations on the wall, like some popular chains. I quickly ordered a BLT and strawberry lemonade and quickly my meal was delivered, since the place had just opened and not a lot of people were in there at the time. For this I am thankful. I barely got done eating my slice of bread (dipped in their unique sweet/tangy sauce) before my sandwich arrived, and that's much preferable to waiting half an hour.

$6.95 got me two pieces of bread, shredded lettuce, bacon, and tomatoes, along with a large side of fries and a very tiny cup of coleslaw. Oh, and a pickle. Which looked like it would have been a pretty good quality pickle if I were the kind of person that enjoyed cucumbers soaked in evil. My sandwich was fine. Nothing wrong with it except the crusts of the bread were stale and hard to bite off. All of the components of a good BLT were there (including a good amount of crispy bacon), but somehow altogether the sandwich as a whole was just lacking excitement. On the other hand, at least I had some excellent fries for supplementation.

The thing that really got me, though, was the $3 strawberry lemonade that was so strongly flavored with artificial sugar syrup, that I ended up pouring about 1/3rd of my bottled water into the drink throughout my stay there. Every time I added more it didn't even seem like the overbearing taste was getting any lighter. There were no strawberries either, which is just unacceptable. I left without finishing the entire lemonade, and was quite pissed I spent so much money on it, especially since I had to almost remake the drink myself.

After leaving an appropriate tip, the total spent on my ho-hum lunch was about $12, and I wish I could take it back. I know I could've gone to McDonald's and gotten a cheeseburger combo for like $4 or something, but I wanted to avoid that type of high-fat fast food. Except at least their burgers are tasty (in my opinion). Taking Iggy's out of the equation, I'm getting more and more annoyed that healthier options are always more expensive than those that clog your arteries and offer no nutritional value. It's a trade off between saving money and preserving your body. In the case of today's lunch, I probably didn't so well on health either, with those french fries and bacon. But whatev. Tomorrow is a new day.

And even though my meal today was unimpressive, I'll still probably go back another time. I know that other items on their menu are well done, and their service is good, so I probably just need to learn what their best choices are before I order something boring. For example, the one time I've had dessert at Iggy's I shared the "Homemade Bread Pudding" with one of my besties, and it was delicious. Trial and error is the name of the game I guess, but now I'll be more careful when going to a sit-down restaurant and expecting to get a good meal for a cheap price.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies ... with nuts!

Thanks to this lovely app I have on my iPhone, "Epicurious," I can browse thousands of recipes for any kind of food without having to flip through multiple cookbooks. I love it because most recipes are rated and reviewed, and by looking at the percentage of people who say they would make it again, along with the number of people who actually voted, you can easily determine which recipes are winners. With 91% of 79 people saying they would make this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie again, I figured the chance that the cookies would come out unsatisfying was small. Some reviews tell of their slight revisions of the recipe, but when I followed the exact instructions and used the exact ingredient amounts, they came out pretty much perfect. So here's me sharing this yummy recipe for ya'll!


"Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal and Pecans"


Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)
1 cup chopped pecans


Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 2 heavy large baking sheets. Beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until fluffy and well blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, the vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt over butter mixture and stir to blend. Mix in oats, the chocolate chips, and pecans.


Working in batches, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets. Bake cookies until golden brown, about 14 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Store cookies airtight at room temperature.)


Bon Appetit, December 1996

Ok so I guess I kinda lied about changing the recipe. I normally don't have unsalted butter on hand, so I used the regular salted kind that we had, and left out the extra salt the recipe calls for. When using this technique I've never found my cookies to be too salty, so it must be working. Also, my brown sugar was not "dark brown" sugar, just regular ... brown ... sugar. And it worked fine. 

The cookies came out looking gorgeous, as you can see, and it really makes me appreciate the ice cream scooper I've started to use for baking. It truly does make nicely rounded cookies more efficiently and with less mess on your fingers. You know what I'm talking about - the thing where you squeeze the handle and it plops out the dough for you? Sometimes I'm wary of all the kitchen gadgetry on the shelves these days, but this nifty tool actually has some use.

I feel like I've been praising so many things in this one post! If you take anything away from it, I hope you either check out the Epicurious app, bake these awesome cookies, or even invest in a cookie dough scooper (find a good one at pampered chef). Otherwise I will at least have another well-made recipe documented for my own sake. Ha!

Cotton Candy Making and My New Favorite Sandwich

Yesterday I had the privilege of producing clouds upon clouds of sweet, pink cotton candy, something I've never done before. As part of my job I showed up to the stand and was placed in front of this foreign machine with little instruction on what to do and basically no instruction on how it works. I understand processes a lot better if I know how they work, so without that knowledge I was a little lost and, well, let's just say things could've gone a lot smoother.

The first time I laid eyes upon the cotton candy machine, I was amazed at how the motor was running but it appeared that the cotton candy just magically formed out of the air onto the sides of the large bowl. You couldn't see the strings of sugar being thrown from the spinning device into the middle, they just mysteriously showed up. I quickly got over that shock in order to keep up with the pace of grabbing the fluffy rings when they were ready and twirling them around my hand to create a ball to place in the bag. I learned that it's important to keep as much air in as possible, because obviously that's when cotton candy is the best.

For a long time the machine and I were not good friends. For whatever reason, it was always upset with me, displaying its nonaffection by: making very loud noises when I tried to put sugar in, spitting the sugar back out and into my eye in large chunks, and getting the cotton candy rings tangled into the hot motor, which was NOT supposed to happen. That melts parts of the candy cloud into hot pieces of crystallized sugar that are not desirable for eating (or touching right after the act has happened). Granted, I did some klutzy things of my own accord, such as spilling about 2 cups of sugar onto the floor. In general, I probably made the biggest mess of anybody ever assigned to that shift. Cotton candy was all over my clothes and apron, my hat, the equipment, and even places high enough on the wall that I couldn't even reach to clean off.

When it's not yet wrapped in fluffy clouds like you're used to, cotton candy resembles spider webs, and I felt like I had just gotten into a really mean brawl with one after that experience. Two hours (!) of continuous cotton candy making later and I was finally done, with minimal bruises except for the emotional ones on my soul from the machine's cruel abuse. I must remember next time I'm introduced to something new to make sure the whole process is explained to me first so I don't become the poster child for how to mess things up in every way.

To segway into my next, unrelated topic of this post, I will now place a decorative line of random symbols here. It's not really a segway at all, but it clearly distinguishes that this next topic has nothing to do with the first.

<<{##*@*~~~%+X8//\\8X/+%~~~*@*##}>>

In other food news (so it's somewhat related), I just invented a great sandwich that everyone should try if they have the following items on hand:

Italian Bread

Mozzarella Cheese

Heirloom Tomato

Basil Pesto (the store bought kind in a tub)

Capers 

You will also need some sort of heat source. I used a stove. I don't know whether to call this a fancy grilled cheese or a panini, because it has elements of both. If you haven't figured out already, all you do is put those ingredients between the two slices of bread and cook it. I buttered the bread so it got crispy, and let the cheese melt first on medium heat - if this takes too long, place a cover on the pan so the heat stays inside. The capers aren't so important, but the pesto is pretty much necessary because that's where the flavor comes from. Lately I've been finding that pesto goes well with a lot of things, and cheese & tomatoes are not excluded from that list. A friend of mine seems to have the impression that I don't like sandwiches - do you still think that, Brayden? I even have a picture of my delectable creation. So Ha. 

Doesn't that look yummy? That dark spot on the bread is just cheese that got stuck between 

the sandwich and the pan. 

First Sushi Experience

What a lame title, right? At least you know what you're getting yourself into. This is not a post about what I'm learning in anthropology right now or a How To make a trendy scarf or anything. This is me talking about my first real sushi experience. Go figure! According to more than one of my friends, the one time I had a bite of a Costco sample a few years ago does not count. Back then I spit it out into the garbage can, surprised that any food could make me gag. This time I did no such thing. Instead I masticated and swallowed like a normal person, and my taste buds weren't even cringing. 

As a side note, I just want to say that I'm very energized right now, and I still have accounting homework and the rest of this post to finish before my personal goal of getting to bed by midnight. Which is in about 20 minutes. And also, I had another great night with Intervarsity which I would love to blog about more than food, since it is the true experience that's making my life fantastic right now, but since this is not a private journal, I won't delve into religion a whole lot. Let's just say that I am falling in love with Jesus, and leave it at that. 

Back to sushi: Danielle and I went to Tona tonight for dinner and went all out with trying new things and picking the most exotic items. Danielle wasn't a total noob at Japanese food but I was, so every time I was able to even get rice into my mouth with chopsticks was an accomplishment for me. I've used them before, but with rice it's a lot harder. It kept slipping through, you know? Those darn pieces of wood. Anyway, here's what we ordered (to share, cause we were on a date ;) ) -
Vegas rolls: salmon, tuna, and cream cheese. with the rice and seaweed of course. deep-fried. yummmm.

Rock 'n Roll rolls: "barbeque eel w/avocado"

Bento Box with Tempura and Ton Katsu: "fried prawns and vetables in light tempura batter" and "tender pork loin coated with panko bread crumbs, vegetable-fruit sauce"

Yeah, that's right, I had eel. And prawns. And raw fish! Do those dishes not sound delicious and totally foreign? Ok so the titles of the sushi were actually very American-sounding, ironically, but it was all very different from anything I've ever tasted. My favorite things were the pork dipped in the sauce (Ton Katsu) and the Vegas rolls, which are not actually on their menu. If you go to this restaurant looking for them, you'll have to specially ask the waiter. Another new thing I tried tonight was Miso soup. I'd heard about it a lot but never had it. It's nothing too extremely special. I liked it. The end.  

My favorite new part about Japanese food is the dessert. Tonight marks the second time I've tried Mochi ice cream, which is basically a ball of ice cream wrapped in rice pastry that sort of has the gel-like consistency of a gummy bear, but not as sticky and hard to chew. We had the strawberry flavor with raspberry sauce, which was the perfect ending to a great meal. For those interested in the restaurant itself, our meal ended up being split to $20 each, so it's a little pricey. The service was good and we both enjoyed the ambient live instrumental music. I would definitely go again. 

Here's what I want to know: why was eating sushi not on my bucket list (or 20s)? I keep doing things that warrant List Status instead of the stuff I'm actually supposed to be accomplishing. Oh well. It all leads to an interesting life. Oh, also, I now know I do not like the taste of Wasabi at all. It can go crawl into a sewer and die, and it'd probably fit in with whatever other nasty chemicals are lurking down there. I don't see how people like that stuff ... 

In all my excitement about trying this abundance of new foods, I had to take a picture of every dish. Props to the iPhone creators who gave it the best camera ever (check out the close-up photos). I am continually amazed by this thing. It knows how to focus all by itself! Good job, buddy. *gives iPhone an affectionate noogie*

Remember, you can click on each photo to see the full-size. It lets you see all the details ... like HD television! 

Whoop Whoop! A Recipe

Let me start off by saying it's been an interesting week thus far in my head. I've had days where I just sit and read all these blogs from creative geniuses who are so much better at this than me, and all I want to do is crawl inside their imaginations and soak up the juices so I can become an awesome writer like them. I've had days where I just want to post something but nothing inspires me (hence the ipod game). And more often now I'm getting these days where I'm having religious experiences that are really digging at the core of my soul, chipping away like I'm an ice block being formed into a beautiful sculpture. I'm growing ... but not every feeling I get during this process is a happy one. So for some reason tonight I'm left with the non-ability to blog about anything personal or important.

However, Danielle and I did make some awesome treats today which I will now share the recipe for. It is courtesy of the Everyday Food Magazine, which is part of Martha Stewart's amalgam of money sucker products that together are slowly taking over the world. But I must say, if the world is going to be taken over with delicious desserts like this, I'm all for it. I do not take credit for any of the following information. Please, someone try making these because they are amazing, and pretty easy, too.

Raspberry-Lemon Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

Makes 15

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup fresh raspberries (4 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, 1 cup brown sugar, and lemon zest until light and creamy. Add vanilla and egg and beat to combine, scraping down bowl as needed. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk and ending with flour mixture (scrape bowl as needed). Beat well to combine.
2. Drop batter in 2-tablespoon mounds, about 2 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until puffed and pale golden around edges, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cakes cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
3. In a large bowl, whip cream and 3 tablespoons brown sugar to soft peaks. In a small bowl, mash raspberries with a fork, then fold into whipped cream. Divide raspberry cream evenly among bottoms of half the cakes, then sandwich with remaining cakes.

Grocery Stores & Lychees

Mother and I just got back from the grocery store. We went into town to buy school supplies (3 notebooks and a new backpack! yay!), which took about 5 minutes, and then decided to make a trip to Harmon's, a place I've never been before. From all the cheesy commercials on TV, I never would've guessed it was such a high quality store, but I was pretty impressed. First of all, their produce section alone was enough for me to bypass the whole processed snack foods aisle - all I wanted to do was get one of everything and try it. We picked up three new-to-me and exciting fruits: dragonfruit, lychees, and a kiwano (horned melon), along with perfectly ripened and sliced mango and a bowl of mixed kiwi and berries and such. They have a whole row dedicated to prepackaged bowls of sliced fruit and vegetables, one that would made Target's 2 feet of peppers and onions jealous.

I tried about 5 different dipping olive oils with bread, of which we purchased the basil flavored one, and went back for 3 pieces of whatever delicious cheese the nice employee was sampling. They had many more brands in the regular aisles than your average grocery store, thus new food items to explore. When we got to the kitchen appliances section, my mom and I were like two kids in a candy store. "What does this do?"  "OH MY GOSH a mini spatula!"  "That is the cutest whisk I've ever seen!" etc. etc. For Christmas I just want a giftcard to spend on cupcake toolery and one of those double sided peanut butter and jelly spreaders.

And did I mention how they have drive-up grocery bag loading? Yeah. You just drive up along the arrows and they load your car with your groceries. Plus the checker-outers were so nice and friendly. I love Harmon's!

So when I got home I was super excited to try my new and exotic fruit, but I didn't eat all of it today, I'm going to spread it out. I had some mangoes and went on an adventure with the lychees, which are small, ping pong-sized fruit with a spiky skin that peels off, and kind of has the structure of an orange on the inside. Except not really. What I mean is that the fruit needed to be pulled off the inner seed in chunks, kind of like a citrus fruit, but without the core. My first thought was the juice had a slightly milky taste, like coconut, but that wore off as I actually ate the lychee (pronounced lee-chee). It was somewhat sweet, and of course yummy. One of the best parts was I didn't need to research how to open the thing, I just began peeling off the skin and then dug in with a knife and pulled it apart with my fingers. I suspect I'm going to have to read a bit more about the other fruits so I don't mutilate them. All in all, trying the lychee was a fun experience, as I always like to try new things, and I would recommend doing so for anybody else who loves fruit as much as me. Here are some pictures of the process.

Dragonfruit, Lychees, and Kiwano

During peelage

Inside

Quick Update: The general consensus from the family is that the lychee is similar to an eyeball, in texture at least, and doesn't taste very good. All I have to say is that they are wrong, and obviously don't have an appreciation for exotic food. 

Not All Smoothies Are Created Equal

Some people think you can throw any mix of fruit into a blender and it will always taste good, but this myth is NOT TRUE.

Here's what works: frozen strawberries, banana, cinnamon apple sauce, OJ, and milk. Really well, actually. It's delicious.

Here's what apparently doesn't: peaches, mango, pineapple, honey, and ice.

I figured they are all somewhat tropical types of fruit so somehow it'll come out tasting good, but I was wrong. The flavors didn't mesh together and it tasted really watery. I'm definitely a proponent of using frozen fruit instead of ice to bulk up a smoothie because it just gives it so much more flavor. I use a little bit of milk because I like my smoothies slightly creamy.

Target's Market Pantry brand has these really good smoothie kits that come with frozen fruit and a flavor packet that probably is mostly sugar. You just add water, or juice, or whatever liquid suits your fancy. One combination I like in particular includes bananas, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. I never would've thought the banana could get along with all those dark berries, but once again I was proved incorrect.

Currently I'm looking for some sort of recipe that would involve Guava nectar because on a whim I picked it up at the store a few weeks nack. I know it tastes good, I just need something to do with it. If anyone has ideas, let me know!

The Most Epic Kitchen Experiment of 2010

As most of you know, I work in a fast food-like setting that involves fryers and a grill and grease and all that jazz. Let's call this place the kitchen, sorta similar to a McDonald's or something. Well our special yesterday in the kitchen was orange chicken like they have in Panda Express, so we had a large pan of sticky white rice as part of the dish. My favorite thing to do when we have rice is to get a little ball of it and squish it between my fingers for a while until it all mushes together and becomes like silly putty and then you play with it when you're waiting for people to serve because it's fun. People are always looking at me funny when I do this.

It was pretty slow in the kitchen at this time, so my boss Jared* took the ball I had and placed it on the grill. Tiny rice pancake, how cute! Next, he puts it in the fryer. It cooks. We cut it in fourths and eat it (*Jared, Paul, Daniel, and I) while everybody is like ewwww.

I get another ball going, this time a little bigger, and add in some shredded cheese, and Jared cuts up a piece of bacon for me, so I incorporated that into the ball as well, and flattened it into another small patty and put it in the fryer. They were all like what are you doing, Shannon, are you crazy?? I take full responsibility for this and the following operations of the night since I am the weird one who wants to try eating strange and un-natural things. I do not know why this urge came over me. But the guys continued being squeamish little babies and saying it was so gross and yucky when they took a bite, but really, it's all just food that we eat anyway, put together in a different way.

After that second one was eaten up (still begrudgingly), I told the guys to grab some more rice and start playing with it so we could make a big one, and they ended up getting a lot more than I had expected, and making this HUGE squished rice patty. This time the mix-ins came from the wide selection of the salad bar instead of our small prep station. I had to help people out while they went over and folded in a plethora of goodies into our rice patty (remember, it's not really rice anymore at this point, it's just a big ball of white gooey stuff), such as carrots and beans and I don't know what else because I wasn't there when they did it. By now it was the size of a large hamburger, and we let this one get comfy in the fryer basket for about 10 minutes, then placed it on a bun with some melted cheese and bacon. When Paul started eating his fourth of the sandwich I almost couldn't stop laughing long enough to try mine! He himself was laughing while trying to choke down what he thought was a really disgusting creation, and everyone had the funniest looks on their faces. Somehow my quarter of the sandwich did not taste bad at all! It looked like I got most of the carrots, and Paul complained that the beans in his part of the patty were what killed it, but even with beans I don't think it would've made me gag. He even ended up spitting his out. Haha.

Daniel had a few bites of his, and a bystander employee came and tried the other fourth - everybody ended up throwing the rest away because they thought it was nasty. Personally I thought it was kinda tasty with the bacon and the melted swiss, and that extra crunch from the crisped up shell of the patty. It tasted like a chicken sandwich!! I am proud to say that while everyone else was a sissy, I gladly finished my portion and spent the next 20 minutes trying to get gooey crap out of my teeth.

The whole experiment was one of the best I've seen in the kitchen so far. And that, my friends, is one of the reasons I LIKE working there.

Without access to my good camera, I had to resort to using my phone. Not such good quality but at least it's evidence. Look, it even had chipotle sauce. 

*Names of the actual people have been replaced in this story with fake ones.

Tea Party

I'm not a fan of tea. Or coffee. I wish I was, because hating tea feels like hating little children - they did nothing wrong to me and are sweet and innocent, therefore I should have no reason for my negative feelings. Awesome friends H & C and I went to the Beehive Tea Room in Salt Lake today, and whilst I did not get my own pot of straight-up tea, I got the peach tea smoothie and it was DELISH. It's not on the menu on their website but it exists, I assure you.

The Beehive Tea Room is such a fairytale - I could not imagine a cuter, quainter spot in which to curl up with a book or chat with friends on a sunny (or rainy) day. Small, individual rooms are partitioned off with romantic curtains. Soft lighting and the most awesome decor, including crazy lamps and color-coded book shelves, comfy vintage chairs with "arms that hug you," beautifully mural-ed walls, and a perfectly ambient soundtrack that could easily have been taken from Cinderella, all together create the perfect setting for a tea shop. The whole place is whimsical, fantastical, and just makes you feel happy, with the urge to talk in a British accent and lift your pinky while you sip your beverage. Add to this all the different types of actual tea and what I'm sure is amazing food, and they definitely get 5 stars. I just wish I knew more about tea so I could appreciate and marvel at the specifics of how well they keep with tradition and such ... I mean, they actually have berries and cream. That sounds pretty legit to me. It's tasty, too, I tried it. 

So anyway, if you haven't already been inside the place, be sure to pop in for a visit sometime. If you don't know what to get, just tell them what flavors you know you like and they'll help you with the rest. 

Mothers Are the Best

Today my family celebrated Mother's Day by going to the Gateway in Salt Lake to hang out and do fun things. We saw Iron Man 2, walked around and shopped for a little, and ate a plentiful dinner at Thaiphoon.

While Iron Man 2 couldn't quite live up to the it's predecessor, one of my favorite movies of all time, it was still entertaining. Tony Stark is one of my favorite characters from any movie, and even though his buddy Rhodes was replaced by actor Don Cheadle, their friendly banter was one of the best aspects of the movie. I thought it wouldn't be the same as the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard in the first movie, but they did a pretty good job of pulling it off. I'm glad Stark is still egotistical as ever, and Mickey Rourke made a reeeally good villain as Ivan Vanko. And I just LOVE all the fancy technology Iron Man decks out his home with; if anything improves as the number of sequels increases, that is definitely one of them. I hope some day in the future, we too will be able to play with virtual maps, blueprints, and everything computerized just by swiping our hands this way and that through the air that fills our rooms.

If you haven't ever been to Thaiphoon, I'm telling you now it is a good restaurant. We had tons of food on the table, from pork fried rice to calamari to spring rolls to honey walnut chicken ... Everything was tasty and the portions were huge so we pretty much paid for dinner for the next two nights as well, a la reheating in le microwave. We planned on baking a banana cake as is tradition for the combined Mother's Day & my birthday that is tomorrow (!), but since I haven't smelled anything of the sort wafting from the oven in the last few hours, I'm thinking we're holding off on that for today. But that's ok because I'm still stuffed, and we got a free Mother's Day volcano dessert thingy at Thaiphoon.

To top the day off I got to open my presents (mom got hers in the morning), which included some clothes I knew I was getting, the new John Mayer cd, and some loooovely DKNY perfume among other things. None of which could top the gift of seeing the happines on my mom's face upon receiving the two things I spent some time and effort on this year for her. However, the big winner of the night for me was a new ipod classic, which I'm so thankful for because I had almost run out of room on the nano, and the screen was completely shattered anyway. SO here's to now never running out of storage space for my music, and having one more valuable and fragile item I have to worry about dropping and scratching all the time! I plan on investing in some type of shield to protect it from my inevitable clumsy antics. Speaking of which, I may be undertaking an investigation of the myriad of broken sunglasses I still hoard in hopes of fixing one day. Expect a blog post about it sometime in the future.

Chicken & Shrimp Paella!

Tonight I decided to experiment and cook dinner for my family with the help of my awesome mom. I sort of combined/modified two recipes and came up with my own and thought I'd write down the rough version, so here goes:

For about 6-ish servings:

• 3 - 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• cooked shrimp - however much you want
• 1 bag of authentic spanish Saffron Yellow Rice (10 oz)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
• 1 roll of beef chorizo sausage
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 spoonful of crushed garlic (like in the store-bought jars)
• 1 tsp. paprika

Cook anywhere from half to the whole thing of chorizo in a skillet like ground beef so it gets all mushy, then set aside. Start cooking the rice according to the package directions (should be about 20 minutes). Chop up the onion and most of the bell pepper into similar sized pieces small pieces. 

Cut up the chicken breasts into bite-size or a little larger pieces, then season with salt and pepper. Cook in a small amount of oil in the bottom of a large pot. When done, remove the chicken and set aside. 

Place the onions, peppers, canned tomatoes, garlic, and paprika in the pot, stir and simmer for a few minutes. When the rice is almost done, add it to the pot and stir in the chicken, chorizo, cooked shrimp, and peas as well. Let sit for a few minutes until ready to serve. 

A few notes: More chorizo = more flavor. It's easier to eat if the shrimp do not have tails. Saffron yellow rice is important to get those good flavors in there. Annnd if you like more rice than meat, you might want more than one package. And you can vary the amount of veggies and stuff you want, too. 

* Blog Update: There's this cool new thing at the bottom of the page where you paint masterpieces by waving your mouse around and clicking to change the colors. It's fun to play with.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I love to bake, and I'm always looking for new recipes. I rarely make the same cookies more than twice, even if they're delicious, because I just enjoy trying new things.

You always see these decked-out recipes that are all modernized and such, but the simplest and best recipes are the ones that have been around a while. Sometimes the most successful recipes I've tried come from my moms's old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (copyright 1981), like this one. I made these today in bite-size, medium size, and then a few with chocolate chips in them (mmmm). They're pretty easy and don't require any crazy ingredients, so give them a try if you like to bake easy stuff!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flou

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Oven 375°

Stir together flour, soda, and salt. In a mixer bowl beat butter for 30 seconds. Add peanut butter and sugars; beat till fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture; beat till well combined. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar, if desired. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet; crisscross with the lines of a fork. Bake in a 375° oven about 10 minutes. Cool about 1 minute before removing to a wire rack.

Also: They're pretty good dipped in melted chocolate, if too plain by themselves for your liking.

:)