A Wednesday Chocolate Tart

Wednesdays really aren't that great. It's right smack in the middle of the week, but once you get over it, you're on the other side, yipee! I was having a pretty blah Wednesday this week, at least during the work day.

But in the evening, I got to see my favorite niece, spend time with family and go to a dance class with Nikita, which was a great workout.

I love that I worked out and sweated for an hour and then came home to make my buttery chocolate tart. Yum.

Chocolate makes my world go round =)

Side note: It's really fun to melt butter and chocolate together. It's so gorgeous to look at! What's not so fun is having my mom make fish cakes right next to me. Fish and chocolate aromas do not mix.

Perfect Chewy Golden Chocolate Chip Cookies!

 
Chocolate chip cookies and I could write a bad romance. I love them far too much for my own good! One of the best things about America? The abundance of chewy chocolate chip cookies! I used to love trying them at random bakeries; I always go with classic. The chocolate chocolate ones are too much chocolate for me (although there was one cookie like that in my college dining hall that I occasionally dream of), and I dont like things like peanut butter or nuts taking away from the original taste.

My Wintry V-Day Weekend

This weekend has felt so long.. maybe it was the getting to go home early because of the burst of snowfall that hit Atlanta, fast and hard... I came home and was planning to go out with friends, but since I've never driven in snow before and I wasn't sure about the amount of ice on the road (not to mention people in Atlanta do NOT know how to drive in this kind of weather), I ended up having an entire Friday night to myself. I did make these, out of boredom:

I made a pretty typical sugar cookie dough a while back and then discovered I don't care much for sugar cookies. I've tried several different kinds and they just don't satisfy my taste buds. For some reason though, my sister just LOVES these. So I made a batch and took them to her. Covered them with milk chocolate ganache and some nonpareils. I love nonpareils, please don't ask me why. I get excited when any chocolate has them on there. It's the same excitement I get when I eat vanilla yogurt/ice-cream with rainbow sprinkles (they must be rainbow). I just feel like a kid again!

Coconut Macarons

I made my last set of macarons for a while. I'm going to try to focus on other desserts, and I have many other ideas to work on in the coming months...

Unagi

I looove me some unagi (freshwater eel in Japanese)!!

Ever since I had sushi with my friend Judith many many years ago and she ordered it, I've been hooked. I used to say it tastes sort of like soft chicken but now I think it's just a flavor and texture all on its own, as it should be. 

Donburi is a dish of sliced eel served on a bed of rice. You can get this at most Japanese places, and I love it at the new Super-H mart (Korean grocery store with a nice foodcourt) on Peachtree. But since I can't afford that all the time, I bought some pre-seasoned frozen eel and made brown rice to eat it with.

I also love ordering it on sushi rolls, often called Dragon rolls in restaurants. I think I'd eat eel in any way, really. It's always crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and got this nice coating of sweet saucy flavor on it. I've actually never seen it without the sauce or pre-cooked. Hm. Most Asian grocery stores in the ATL have it on their shelves and it's perfect for a quick meal. 

I'm so glad I got past my terrible phase at age 12 of not trying new foods! Yum.

In fact, I think I might make some more soon... :)

X-O-X-O

In lieu of Valentine's Day, and my JBS giving me hope of visiting and then taking it away from me (ok, so he didn't realize he had an exam right after, but still), I decided to make something and send it his way.

I would love to take credit for this idea but this girl came up with it first. I only thought of the other designs. But all in all, this was really fun to make and super cute! I chose a simple shortbread cookie base that was listed in the Ratios book, and chilled it overnight before using.
I also found cheap fondant cutters at Michael's and used them for the little squares and circles; they were only about a 1/2 inch big. Then I made icing with some butter and powdered sugar. I hate making multiple icing colors at once. I didn't realize what a pain it is, or maybe it's because I dont like to waste many bowls... I honestly don't know how people make such gorgeous cookies and cupcakes using so many different colors; it takes a lot more patience than I like to have! Also, I'd need a bigger kitchen to lay them out, I suppose.

So yeah, I made these, and they're really cute and bite-sized. I love them. I thought they would spread but they surprisingly didn't (that's what happened with my disastrous Linzer cookies). I added vanilla extract to the dough, and almond extract to the icing.

These would be fun to play tic-tac-toe with... that was the first thought I had before I realized they were meant to be 'hugs n kisses'. And I bet that's the first thing JBS is going to do when he gets these, too...

Taco Soup

J came over the other night and we decided to make a quick meal since I was babysitting at the same time.

This dish is delicious and deliciously easy. It's called taco soup but it's not very soupy at all. Not to mention it's super cheap! I don't even know if you can call it a recipe, since you're just throwing a bunch of canned goods on a stove (ok not literally but you know). My mom sent it to me in a random email and it's made the rounds with my friends ever since.

Anyway, here is my adapted version of the recipe in case anyone is interested.
It's perfect for that cheap college student who is too lazy to cook!

16oz meat (ground beef or w/e you like... I used TJ's basil/pesto chicken sausage)
1 14oz can tomato sauce
1 14oz diced tomatoes w/green chilies
1 4oz can chopped green chilies
1 14oz can corn
2 14oz can dark kidney beans
1 clove of chopped garlic
1 small onion chopped
1 packet taco or fajita seasoning (if you don't have this, you can throw all your herbs/spices in the pot. I put in some cayenne pepper, oregano, pepper, salt, etc


Put all of these into a giant pot and heat until bubbling slightly. You can eat this by itself or add sour cream and cheese to it. On several occasions I've forgotten to add cheese and I hate sour cream, and I've never noticed.

I love to eat this like dip with tortilla chips, specifically lime tortilla chips...

Happy eating!

Cinnamon Red Heart Macarons

In the spirit of Valentine's Day and the latest MacTweets challenge, I decided to attempt heart-shaped macarons. It's very tricky to do since the shells spread as soon you pipe them out. You have to do a kind of V-formation. Unfortunately, mine ended up looking more like Vs than hearts!

I used my same macaron recipe that I love (Lebovitz is the best!), but swapped out a tablespoon of cocoa powder for cinnamon. I thought I loved cinnamon but it definitely didn't need that much. Oddly enough, that was my first time baking with cinnamon... It turned out... interesting. I think cinnamon sounds much more delicious to me than I actually find it to be.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate/Peanut Butter Ganache

I had the leftover peanut butter and chocolate ganache that I had sandwiched the chocolate macarons in. I decided to use the rest of it as a frosting on cupcakes...

I wanted to try a vanilla cupcake with this frosting. As I was checking out recipes, I found that no one puts peanut butter on a vanilla cupcake, and I don't understand why not!! It was the most delicious cupcake I've ever made. And that's a big statement, coming from me, since I am my own worst critic.

Macaron Fever

I definitely have macaron fever. Also, I think I just like separating my egg whites now, for funsies. And beating them until they look like lava really is fun!

I made lavender macarons with a vanilla cream filling that I added lavender extract to, and they were definitely very lavender-y but in a good way. At least for me. They were rather sweet though. Definitely needed a glass of water after one.

I also made regular macarons that I dyed red for no good reason and filled with dark chocolate ganache. Since I was mailing these to JBS, I wanted a variety of colors so that it looked pretty when it arrived.

Frittata Frittata

I love desserts, and in order to balance out my love for sweets, I try to eat healthy meals. I prefer sweet to salty, and I rarely get cravings for things like chicken wings or potato chips. I'd eat a salad for every meal if I could have a cookie for dessert!

Over the last couple weeks I've been buying vegetables and not doing much with them. I had been enjoying my lean cuisines (yes, I enjoy lean cuisines) and leftovers. I also recently bought an enormous box of eggs since I run through them like crazy for baking. So I decided to make a frittata!

I used the tart pan that I had bought a long time ago but then never really made a tart with.. And I decided to throw all the contents of my refrigerator that belong in a frittata into a pan. I sauteed them and added some basil pesto chicken sausage from Trader Joe's into the mix. Then I elegantly tossed them into a pan and they landed like this: