Matcha Kick!

So lately I've been on a Matcha kick... I recently bought a Matcha set from Itoen and I love it! First off, let me give a little recap on what Matcha is for those of you who don't know what it is.

Matcha or  抹茶  (まっちゃ) as you'll most commonly find it in Japanese supermarkets, is green tea that is shade grown, picked and then laid flat to dry. Once It's dry, the leaves crumble up and then are stone ground to make the fine powder known as Matcha.  Matcha is really good for you to drink because it is rich in amino acids and contains the highest amount (more than 137 times more) of antioxidant EGCG's than any other green tea available.   There have been studies that state that EGCG is very good at treating many types of cancer's as well as other diseases. 

In Japan, Matcha is generally used for sado/chado (Japanese tea Ceremony) and that's where this story begins :)  When My husband and I went to Japan for the first time we went to a tea ceremony at the Tokyo Botanical Gardens and since then it started to peak my interest so the next time we were in Japan we had it at  Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto.  It was that time in Kyoto that I was the most memorable because till this day I can still taste the bold sweetness of the Matcha, it was the best I have ever had and I'm still looking for a Matcha that matches that one in taste.  I think I'm going to have to go high grade for that.  BTW, if you want better tasting Matcha, from what I've been told the Matcha from the Uji region of Japan is the best.

So getting back to the set I bought, it came with a bamboo whisk (chasen), bowl (chawan) and wooden spoon (chashaku) all for the low low price of $33 dollars! :) I think it was on sale. It's a really pretty and sturdy set, I was lucky to get this because after looking around the internet at different American and Japanese Matcha providers, this set seemed to be the best because it actually came with a tiny tin canister with Matcha.  Sadly, I'm not sure what type of Matcha it is grade wise or what region it came from.  It's probably not that high a grade because it's a bit bitter to me.   It also does not foam very well.  Good quality Matcha is supposed to foam up well and have a nice even consistency to it.  I guess it's ok for now.   I'm going to try to get some Matcha from this website, "O-Cha", which means "tea" in Japanese.  It was particularly recommended to me that I should try the following Matchas : "Kiri no Mori" and "Kiku Mukashi" . Since they are on the expensive side and Matcha is never cheap (if it's cheap, please stay way from it as it's most likely low quality) I'm going to have to wait a while till I have the extra funds to buy some good Matcha :)

Divine Brine from the Farmers' Market!

Have you ever had Wasabi Dills before? Well, what are you waiting for? Go try them! I discovered them during one of my trips to the Farmers' Market at Union Square.

My hubby and I love going to the Farmers' Market because there are usually some awesome finds there! They have some of the best apples and fresh fruit I have ever tasted. Paying just a little bit more for non chemically treated fruits and veggies is definitely worth the investment. I think my favorite apple supplier is "Red Jacket Orchards".  They have some tasty yellow apples and delicious hot apple cider :)

So getting back on topic, Divine Brine is this little stall that I found on one of these trips (on a Friday) that had samples out for the public, so naturally this means I'm going to flock right to it! Hehehehe....
They had a bunch of different pickle varieties and a few chutneys and the best Beet Caviar you'll ever taste! Yum!~ So my hubby and I bought this Wasabi Dill, some Peach Chutney and a jar of Beet Caviar! If we could we probably would have bought one of each of the things they were offering, everything is just so tasty!

Here are some pics from the Market !~ :

Cake Decorating Class!

So yesterday I attended my first Cake Decorating Class! It was so much fun, I gained a "Sim Skill Point" ( for those of you who have played "The Sims" you know what I'm talking about!) in baking!  It took place at "The Brooklyn Kitchen" , which is located at 100 Frost Street in Brooklyn.

Let me start this entry by stating that I almost never go to Brooklyn.  The last time I went there was for jury duty a few years back and then there was the time my husband, then boyfriend and I accidentally took the B24 and ended up getting lost there ...  In any event, you may be asking yourself, " your a Queens girl, why are you going all the way to Brooklyn to take a class at some shop?", well, the answer is that I've been looking for some decent and cheap classes to improve my baking skills as much as possible and at $65 dollars, it was not too bad.  Most places for a 2 to 4 hour class ask for a minimum of $100 and I said, "hey why not? If I like it I may take more classes?"

The class was scheduled for 6.30pm and lasted for about roughly 2 hours.  When I got to the store I smiled to myself cause they had a "singles" wall post right next to the wall.  The funny thing was it was a "Cooking themed personals board" and had sayings like " I would like to cook ________ for you", I thought it was cute :)  The store its self was nice and spaceous and had a lot of interesting items that you wouldn't find in your local target's cooking section like mason jars and squirrel shaped cookie cutters.  There was even a mini herb garden under UV light (it looked like a mini botanical)! I probably should have taken pics of these things but sadly the only pics I have are in my mind :)

Megan Fitzroy

So after quickly browsing through the store I got my name tag and proceeded to go to the class room.  I actually consider myself lucky to have gotten the big classroom on the first floor for my first class there, it made a great impression.  There was another class being held the at the same time on the second floor and it seemed a bit more cramped up there (it was off to the side almost mixed in with the baking merch for sale..).  The classroom that I got was big and very rustic.  The walls were mostly bare brick and there was a lot of natural light coming in through the high ceilings.  Next to the coat rack there was a rack of animal meat hanging from the ceiling.  Not sure if they were real though... They looked like they were cured or smoked..  It kind of seemed out of place but I guess that was part of their decoration.

Rosettes

Our class was taught by Pastry Chef Megan Fitzroy who proceeded to teach us the art of piping and decorating cakes with the following techniques : Beading, Shells, Reverse Shells, Vines, Leaves and Rosettes.  She had us practice onto cake boards, I kinda wish we had our own mini cakes to practice on but hey.. at least we got a small decorating kit included to show for our hard work! hehehe.  We also learned how to make cornets (which i thoroughly suck at... sigh...) Oh and after practice we each got a piece of her wonderful chocolate cake!

All in all I enjoyed the class and now I can practice my piping to my hearts content to get it perfected!  I think the best ones that I got were Reverse Shells and Rosettes.  Regular Shells are a bit hard to get that point on... I also thought that the frosting was just slightly on the thicker side for them too.  Well practice makes perfect!  I can't wait for my next baking class !!

Sorry I have not updated in a few months!

Wow.... so I just realized I've been a very bad blogger.... It was my goal to make this a personal journey website and well, I kinda let other things in life take over and forgot about you. Well, I'm back now!! I'm going to be posting things a bit more often and hopefully keep a realistic goal of posting at least twice a month.  I also should mention that my computer decided to die on me about a month ago and I had to get it restored and get a new hard drive so all of my pictures that I had stored on my computer of foods I had made are completely gone.  I had done so many things that now I have no pictures to document my stories with... I had made fish twice, some baked beans ( that really were not that good... but I wanted to put them here anyway lol) and some other things I can't remember for the life of me.   I don't even really have my original backups of the pics on this blog up till today...  It kinda sucks but I guess that will teach me to keep backups in two locations rather than just solely relying on my computer.

So now that the sad news is out there, get ready for tomorrow because I shall return with some Green Tea goodness!

So I did end up making that soup....Sebzeli Sulu Kofte

So I really did end up making that soup last week.  I kinda took my dear sweet time to post this up though, but at least I can say I made my quota hehe. It seems like my posts are kinda stretching thin these days though.  My goal is that I want to post at least two posts per week, one in the beginning of the week and one at the end, and if I get more in between that then even better!

Ok, so onward to the soup. Last year my mom and I took a tour package of Turkey and I have to say, I was most inspired.  I really enjoyed the food there and this soup is something that I had on several occasions :) It's called "Sebzeli Sulu Kofte"  which is Meatballs and Vegetables in tomato sauce.  It's not really a soup, it's more of a stewish soup, I guess it really varies where you go to get it hehe.  I had made this once before and this time around I stuck a bit closer to the original recipe.  Last time I did not add the peas and it was a bit soupier. I also added red pepper paste to the mix to give it a more tomatoy taste to it. The one thing that I still notice is that I need to add more water next time. I'm not really that fond of chunky soups :)










I got the recipe off of this wonderful turkish cooking site called " Binnur's Turkish Cookbook".  I loved the concept of so many of these dishes that I actually got her book for Christmas! :) Since I'm not allowed to post the recipe here for the dish I'll link it here :  Sebzeli Sulu Kofte recipe.

Enjoy~~!!

And now for a little something extra! Shiba Cookies!

"Oh Mama! For me?"

B"efore you ask, No these are not cookies made from Shibas or are they made by Shibas. :) While cooking I decided to make a little extra something for my dog :) Sad thing is It was from a doggie cookie mix bag I bought in target recently and I only found 1 bag. It was just your standard  "Take this flour mix and add water and then cookie cut the shapes and bake" recipe.  I couldn't really tell you the ingredients even if I wanted to because it was not made from scratch. I would love to find a book out there for some cheap doggie baked goods! That would be fun :) 

These guys came out nice and crispy when they first came out of the oven but as time passed and I put them in a jar, they kind of got soft. I guess it's the ingredients in them or something? It was kinda odd. Ah well, but Ayato (my Shiba) loved them! He's lucky this week cause he's going to get a lot of these guys to finish them up quickly.  Now next on the agenda will be some cat treats!

Lemon Bars part 2 :D Woot! #2 is done!

Ok! So I finally got my lemon bars out! :D Not exactly in this weekly's order but who's counting right? This time a bought a real 9 x 9 brownie/cake pan and made them in there! :) The bars came out so much better this time around! I didn't have to fight with them to get them out of the pan and the texture was nice and even through out! Not as porous and bubbly like last time. I even coated them with confectioner's sugar and they looked and tasted even yummier than last time!

The recipe  that I used came from this page

" Cooking Done Light "
and here are the ingredients:

1/4 cup confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 eggs
scant 3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
additional confectioners’ sugar, for dusting.

 If you want the actual directions please feel free to go to the website listed above. :) Thank you for these awesome lemon bars!!! I think they will be a family household staple! hehe. Now I just need to do them a couple dozen times and get them down packed so that I'm not looking at the recipe on a piece of paper all the time !! I kinda still wish I bought a Chumby to place on my kitchen counter so I could view recipes on it. Unfortunately in reality its not that practical for that use.. I'd prob get it messed up and dirty with little bits of lemon peel stuck on it and we don't want to do that to poor Chumby now do we? No we don't.. The text would probably be too small on it anyway... Oh! side note, I need to buy another 9 x 9 pan. These babies don't last a full day lol!!

Things that I want to make soon!

So there are a  few things on my mind that I want to really make in the next upcoming week. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to my list!

1. Some sort of Blackberry or Raspberry cupcake.
   I recently bought a new Wilton's 23 piece cake/cupcake decorating tool set and I really want to use it! I   like decorating things :)
2. Lemon Bars
   I want to make my lemon bars again, they are soo good. 
3. Sebzeli Sulu Kofte (Meatballs-Vegetables in Tomato Sauce) 3 months ago I discovered this awesome website " Binnur's Turkish Cookbook", and I made several things since then from her site! I made some pide in December and took pictures of it. I really need to post them up. Anywho, I love her site so much I got the physical cookbook for Christmas! :)

So there's my list. I'm not going to add anymore because I may get carried away and well, not really end up doing them all. If I spread myself too thin I won't get them done. I think I may start with item # 3 and work my way down to #1.. 

Honey Pineapple Chicken~! Slow Cooker Edition!

 

 So my sister-in-law for Christmas gave us a big electronic menu Slow Cooker and a Slow Cooker recipe book :) I'm really happy that she gave these to us because since we opened it up we have been making things left and right with it! hehehe.  I actually have always wanted one because I think it's a pretty nifty idea to prepare things earlier in the day and just toss it in the cooker and not have to worry about it for hours. It does all the hard work for you~! You don't even have to really thoroughly clean it if you use cooker liners :) I think I'm going to write a post in the future about the wonders of it hehe.

So one of the things that I did this week to mix things up a bit was " Honey Pineapple Chicken Tenders".  I really like pineapple it's one of my favorite fruits to eat in dishes. I think it goes well with almost anything! Since I had bought prior some chicken tenders, I took this recipe and modified it a bit. I had somewhat of a tough time because the recipe called for 3lbs of chicken and I only had 1lb so I had to cut the recipe down to the appropriate measurement :) It called for a bunch of math, some head wracking and some eyeballing! I really don't do too much eyeballing at this stage of the game because I don't yet feel too comfortable with the " a pinch of this a handful of that " way of cooking.

So for this dish what I did was I chopped up the tenders into tiny chunks, placed them in the Slow Cooker and then added the other ingredients, which were, honey, vegetable oil, soy sauce, garlic, pineapples, salt and pepper. I also added the juice of the pineapples into the mixture even thought it didn't call for it, because I figured it was such a small amount of chicken it would probably get dry in the cooker. I set it for 8 hours on low. After like 4 hours I added a lot more pineapple and nuts to the mixture and then at the 5 hour mark, it was pretty much done so we took it out and it was dinner time!  (the dish was prob. done a lot sooner but I was not so sure so I called Chef Richy in for the grand inspection lol)

So how did the dish turn out? It was really good! With some rice and veggies next time it will be perfection! Richy ate most of it sadly so I didn't have too much of it in the end hehe. What did I learn from this? Buy more chicken that just 1lb!

Time to make more low fat Lemon Bars!

So last week I was on a quest to make low fat lemon bars! Actually the truth is I had been wanting to make them for the longest time because about several months ago I was watching Paula Deen on the Food Network and she was making these super decadent Lemon bars bursting with butter and well, they looked so good. Then about a month a go I saw Giada de laurentiis making some lemon bars and well, that sealed the deal! It was like the lemons were screaming out at me " Make us into bars!! Maaaaaakeeee Ussss!".

Gosh I make them sound like evil little lemons don't I? Well, they are evil if they tempted me to make them into bars! So far, I must say, this is the only recipie/dish I have had the urge to reeeeeaally make twice! They call to me!

All the yummy ingredients :)

Ok so getting back to the bars, I wanted to make lemon bars that were low in fat because usually they are not low cal and I could stand to loose several pounds so after much searching the internet for the perfect recipe, I found it at the blog "Cooking done light".  Here is the link to her Low Calorie Lemon Bars!




I still can't believe these bars are only 66 Calories! That's nothing! I could eat like three of these and not feel guilty! They are so rich in lemony flavor goodness that you don't even realize that they are low fat~! These guys were so good that they were all gone by the following morning :)  (Not all by me, don't worry) My only gripe about them is that I need to buy a normal 8" x 8" pan as the recipe states because I used an individual brownie portion pan and it was a bit hard to get these guys out since the bottom of the bars were so crumbly. I think it would be easier to get them all out as as a whole and cut them in an even pan. So that's the plan today! I'm going to target to get a new brownie/cake pan! :D I think I'm going to need some new cabinets or storage for all the baking things I'm going to eventually want to get :)

The Finale!

Cheescake pudding?

Doesn't it look yummy?

So my husband, Richy and I  decide that we wanted to make a cheesecake last night.  Actually It was all his idea, as he puts it, "I've been dreaming about this cheesecake all week!~"  So we made it together. Richy's pretty much an expert when it comes to making things like this because he's made them in the past and they have come out quite good! This time it was more of a "watch and learn" lesson for me.  It was pretty easy to make this cheesecake, just a few eggs, butter, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, ricotta cheese and yogurt. I think that's about it. oh, and it had a graham cracker powder crust. If anyone is interested in the "Exact measurement" recipe I'll put it up :)  I'm pretty sure I am missing something or other in that list of ingredients I just gave for the cake, and it's probably something important he he...

So after we put all the ingredients into the stand mixer and mixed them up nicely he poured them into a cake pan with the graham cracker crust coating the bottom. After setting the oven to 325, we placed the cake in and left it for 1 hour, then we turned the oven off and let it sit for another hour. Yea, its kinda a long process.. I really thought it was going to be a bit faster but I guess cheese and yogurt take longer to cook and set ?

Ah, having a stand mixer makes life so much easier~! It has made me really develop a love for baking. I think it's kinda funny.. I have only really done like 2 or 3 things myself when it comes to baking and they actually have come out quite well! I've made cookies (and helped out in the making of many a chocolate chip cookie with Richy as the head "Pastry" Chef), bread (which I will get into later) and really decapitated muffins... I guess I can add cheesecake to my list lol!~ but honestly, even though I did help out in the making of this cake, I don't feel like it's truely mine until I have done every piece of it myself. :)

Getting back to the cheesecake here, when the cake was ready and we took it out of the oven, Richy was so excited to taste his masterpiece that in flipping over the cake to put it on a nice plate, it kinda slipped... Swiftly trying to recover the pieces. he managed to save most of it and put it in a bowl. So now, it ceases to be a cheesecake, it's more of a cheesepudding cake type mixture hehehe.. oh well. On the upside, the cake is really really really tasty! I just ate some in a little bowl! which I'm not regretting cause it's 1.02 am and it just hit my stomach like a ton of bricks... urg.. I should know not to eat things after a certain time. ah live and learn..

I think Tofu hates me..

So I think Tofu hates me. Why does it hate me when I love it so? I love it in all it's forms! Agedashi Tofu, Tofu Teriyaki, Soondubu jjigae, Toffutti ice cream bars... mmmm... I'm hungry now.. anyway, the point is , I really love Tofu and dispite my love for it, every time I try to cook with it I end up messing the dish up.  It's one of those things that will elude me forever I'm afraid. Maybe I'll master it some day.

So some time in December I decided that I wanted to make tofu. Again. And so I bought some Firm Tofu at my local H Mart and proceeded to go to town with it. Ok, not really. I'm not that skilled yet that I can cook without a recipe! I looked one up and found someone on a message board who had suggested BBQ. I had some BBQ sauce in the fridge that I really had not used up so I said, "Hey! that sounds like a good idea! BBQ tofu~! I'll grill it on my Cast Iron grill pan!."

I strained it, patted it dry and cut it up into little peices. Slathered my BBQ sauce all over and let it marinade in it for about 30 mins or so. Then I grilled it.  The idea was good.  It smelled good. Did'nt look all too appealing but here's hoping it tasted good. That was the most important part.

End result? Tofu that was kinda leathery, smelled like BBQ on the outside, had no flavor on the inside and well.. my husband didn't even want to touch it...  and he likes food !

Saddened and disheartened I tossed it and am currently perplexed and back to the drawing board when it comes to Tofu.  Well, at least it's a small conciliation that to this day even my husband who can cook up some awesome dishes is intimidated by it!! Tofu Gods, Help!!

The ever elusive 2/3 measurement.....

Ah, the bane of my existence! The Elusive 2/3 measurement. Oh how I hate thee... Why can't you be a normal measurement like our friends 1 cup, 1/2 a cup and 1/4 of a cup ? Those guys I can count on! but you, 2/3 of a cup, away with you! You know, I kinda tolerate your best buddy 1/3 but only in a pinch.

Why do I hate thee so much? because of the simple fact that math and I do not mix. I'm really not good at it and personally speaking I think math is not really something you should be implementing while you cook. It just makes you think long and hard about things and makes your work a tad bit more difficult when you are just getting your basics around the kitchen down. Who came up with 2/3 of a cup anyway? seriously...  It's like saying oh, look. let's take 1/2 of a cup and add a wheee bit more to that. yep. that will do.

For me, well, make mine Gryffindor!

Want some Limeade?

Limes. Limes are what inspired me to start this blog. You see, my most famous cooking disaster started with these little guys and my desire to please my family, whom I had not seen in a while, with my wonderful abilities.

In Colombia, the notion of a lemon does not exist. I mean, well, it sort of does but it's really a lime instead. And I had a craving for lemonade! So I took my cousins down to the supermarket around the bend and bought the biggest bag o' limes I could find! I had an idea and I was determined to see it through. They had no idea what what in store for them he he he....

So take a guess how many limes I decided to juice right there and then? yep, the whole bag. There were easily about 20 + limes in there (it was a big bag) and I managed to fill a pitcher will all of their juices. Nope, no water. Not a single drop. Oh, and no sugar either. Just pure 100% limey goodness. After all, what goes better to wash down that heavy lunch you just had but some "let me watch you as you choke and scream as your esophagus closes up" lime juice goodness. You should have seen my Aunt's face as she was the first victim to drink my concoction. Classic.

Needless to say I learned my lesson right there and then that that's not how you make limeade or any type of juice for that matter. It was only several years later that I actually realized that there is a reason why most commercial juices only have 10% juice.

Limeade anyone?

The lemon that started it all!~

 I recently decided that I was going to make it my mission in life to teach myself how to cook.  Now this is a little something that my husband has been trying to teach me for years back when we were just dating in college and well pretty much failed. The bitter truth is I was never taught as a child (how can you be taught when your own mom has not the slightest idea about cooking? hehehe) nor did I have any inclination to learn the art.

One day I just woke up and said... I really need to learn to do it. I may not like it at first but everyone learned somehow. Hell, my own Grandmother once told me that she went into her marriage not knowing a thing about the kitchen and ended up learning with much sweat and practice how to cook some awesome meals with a little help from her neighbor and best friend. Too bad she never really taught my mom this trade, it would have saved me from so much experimentation that nearly killed the people who tried my dishes! :)

"So what's with the lemon obsession you got there?", you might ask? well, in first things first, I'm not going to be making a blog about the wonders of lemons or 10,000 lemon recipies. So no worries there. Unless you like that sort of thing and lucky for you, one of my next posts will be about just that! This blog is basically going to be dedicated to my own personal growth in the world of cooking and my thoughts about my mishaps, adventures and sucesses! Thanks for joining me!

- Jen