Ice Cream... with Croutons!

So in preparation for becoming a party host extraordinaire, I have decided to start practicing making fun appetizers! And for my first experiment, I decided to use what I already have in my fridge...


As you may remember from my last post, my mother overstocked my fridge three weeks ago, and I am still feeling the side effects of it. Just a couple of days ago, as I was scavenging for sweets in my kitchen and started looking for ice cream, I saw this package of cinnamon raisin bagels that she bought for me. The only problem with that is that I don't particularly like cinnamon, and I'm honestly not that big of a fan of raisins, either. So while trying to figure out how to use these bagels and not throw them out, I had a brilliant idea: why not use these bagels in a dessert?


Turns out, when you Google what flavors match best with cinnamon and raisins, apples turn out to be the most popular choice. Lucky for me, I knew exactly where to find those and I was ready to try it out. In fact, this recipe is so simple, I will even type it out for you guys on here so you can make it too! It's really simple, and if you're low on ideas and/or time for making dessert for a dinner party, I highly recommend making this. All you need is some vanilla ice cream, some cinnamon raisin bagels, apple cider, apples, and a little bit of olive oil. So let's get started!


As long as your bagels aren't moldy, you can use them. So even if they're a little stale, you should be fine. But if you are grocery shopping quite a few days before your party, just put them in the fridge or freezer to keep it for longer. First, go around your bagels and chop them up into 10-12 pieces total. I didn't get a picture of this when I was doing it, but the best way to explain how to cut it, I would say cut it like you would a pizza.


Then, spread a little olive oil on your cooking pan and put the bagels on there. (When I say a little bit of oil, I mean 1.5-2 tablespoons of olive oil.) I moved them around on the pan, just to make sure the bagels were covered pretty evenly with the oil.


Third, I peeled a couple of apples and cubed the edible parts of the apples. And when I was done, I threw those on the pan, too.


To make sure the apple taste was infused in the bagels and that they wouldn't become really crouton-y, like you would have in your salads, I poured apple cider on top of the bagels. I had never done this before and wasn't sure how to pour the apple cider out of the huge bottle it came in; also, I have no measuring cups yet, so I had to use the closest thing I had to a small measuring device... I used a shot glass. This may have been the reason why the bagels ended up tasting a little bit like bread pudding pieces, and it was amazingly yummy.


In total, I ended up using two bagels, three apples, and four shots of apple cider. I left them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes and that's it for the preparation part.


Let them cool a little bit and then serve them just as a topping on top of some vanilla ice cream. When I served them, it had been a while since I'd taken them out of the oven, so I just put them back in a microwave for 25 seconds and they were ready to be served!


Here is a picture of the serving I made myself. This dessert will most definitely be making an appearance at one of my parties, so be on the look-out kids!

Too Much Food In the Fridge... Again.

Since my parents came to visit me two weekends ago, my fridge was overstocked with veggies, carbs and meats. This actually always seems to happen when my mom finds a fridge that is not adequately overflowing with food. Although it was all done out of love, I think they grossly overestimated how much I could eat by myself. I would not have minded if this was limited to cans and pasta -- food that could last for more than two weeks without me living in fear of it going bad. One of my saddest and hardest errands and household duties is cleaning out my fridge and throwing away food that I used to have such high hopes for. When I go to the grocery store, all the limitless supplies of perfectly aligned apples and avocados, croissants and butter sticks, eggs and milk cartons just inspire me. That and I'm a sucker for pretty designs, so put a pretty wrap around that vegetable smoothie bottle, and you've got yourself an inspired customer! But then, I work late hours and by the time I come home, I hardly have the time or energy to prepare the extravagant meals I concocted mentally while rummaging around the frozen vegetables section. And then, a few weeks later, when I see the mushrooms shriveling up in my fridge and my avocados becoming unhealthily soft, I avoid throwing them out as long as possible. Not because I have any intention of eating them, nor am I delusional into thinking they'll get better, but because I hate throwing food away. 


It is this exact train of thought that brought me to the idea of having a private dinner party for four tonight. My abundance of veggies, pita pockets and chicken (all of which had been in my fridge for a little longer than I had originally intended for them to be there) needed to be eaten. And since I could not eat that much alone, I figured I'd spread the joy and feed my friends! My only experience in making pitas had come from watching the cute boy at Pita Pit who worked at the store I went to on Tuesday nights in my last semester of school. But not having any prior experience in cooking, preparing or making pitas did not discourage me from deciding tonight's menu would be based around pitas. Turns out, I have quite the beginner's luck. Here is the picture of one of tonight's concoctions. I think the best part of having pitas for dinner is the fact that I could make sure each of my guests was fully satisfied, since everyone got to personalize what went in their pita. I think I'm going to make a regular event of these fridge-cleaning dinner parties, considering the success I had tonight. Want an invite? Let me know and we'll see what we can make happen!

Almond Joy Cupcakes? Heck yes!

During my last internship, I discovered that the best way to convince people to not mind coming to your cubicle and helping you out is to be able to offer them something. Although my charm, personality and humor usually served well enough during my college career in gaining people's willingness to help me, people in the real world needed something more tangible than my friendship. That is when I realized the importance of always having a bag of bite-sized Almond Joys in your cubicle. People will unknowingly stop by to ask for a piece of chocolate, which is when I would rope them into helping me on whatever I was working on. And if I didn't have any questions, they usually would offer me their contact information -- which I never failed to take note of and actually contacted them later for help.

Well, during that summer I realized how amazing Almond Joys really are. I love coconut. I love chocolate. And I definitely love almonds. Whoever came up with the idea of mixing the three was really onto something. But why keep this amazing flavor combination only in a chocolate candy bar form when you can adjust it to become a cupcake? And that is how the adventure started...

My first almond joy cupcakes made an appearance at the end of last summer. They were quite interesting to make. The actual cupcake part was made with brown sugar, which I failed to realize would definitely affect the sweetness of the cupcake. To make the cupcake, I had to cut out a bit of the middle to fill it up with the coconut-sugar-cream cheese filling, and when I tasted the cupcake part I had cut out, I was really disappointed. My first thought was "did I forget the sugar??" That is the only way to describe the taste. I was horrified, especially considering I had spent so much time on the recipe. But I did not give up. Turns out, the coconut-sugar-cream cheese filling more than made up on the sweetness of the cupcake once you bit into it.

Since I will always hold a special place for Almond Joys in my heart (and stomach), I decided to let them make another appearance. So here's one of them!

Perhaps I'll try to make cupcakes with the taste of Twix bars next.... Who can say no to a Twix bar? Probably no one. Who can say no to a Twix cupcake? To be determined.

(P.S. The Iana - Oven saga continues to unfold, although I claim this as a major step in the right direction, considering the awesomeness of the cupcakes.)

Burnt Offerings

So I thought it would be almost impossible to mess up a recipe, but alas, was I wrong. Turns out, when you don't know your oven well enough, it doesn't go over too well. I was baking my plain chocolate chip cookies about two weeks ago, even setting a timer -- something I never do -- just to realize I am not invincible in the kitchen. I always knew in the back of my mind that one day I would make a big mess in the kitchen; I just never knew when that time would come. Well, now that I've made my first mistake, the next couple will go by easier.

The whole adventure started innocently enough... I wanted to make almond orange coconut chocolate chip cookies. But instead of having my conventional kitchen events go as planned, I realized along the way how completely unprepared I was. Being in a new apartment, I did not have oven mitts or cooking spray. I didn't have a cutting board, and I definitely did not have a Iana-friendly oven. Within 8 minutes, smoke started coming out through the stove tops and about two minutes later, the fire alarm started blaring. I had never understood how people said things like "I make the fire alarm go off when I cook... don't trust me in the kitchen." But I had now become one of those people. I had never made a fire alarm go off. I had no idea how to make it stop... I had heard urban tales of home remedies for stopping the fire alarms -- stories ranging from covering the fire alarm with a wet towel to waving a pillow in front of it. Well all these people with their solutions must have obviously had a much more furnished apartment than mine, because not having a couch or chairs will definitely be a disadvantage when trying to stop the loud, embarrassing noise. I just opened all my windows and doors and hoped my neighbors would take my noise-making as a premonition of the volumes at which I would play the Tyra Banks shows from that night on every day when I got home.

I did not get a picture of these burnt cookies, although I meant to. Only one friend saw them and actually dared to have one. He didn't rave about them, but he didn't complain either. They were rather edible... I just have really high standards for cookies. But I still think it was the oven's fault, and not mine. Because let's be honest... have I ever made such a major mistake in the kitchen before that I turned up a half a batch of burnt cookies? No. Has this oven of mine turned up a half a batch of burnt cookies? You bet your bottom dollar it has! This Iana-Oven saga will continue... And you can be sure I'll show it who's boss!

Restaurant Reviews: The Palm and The Thai Restaurant

As much as I love to cook, I love to eat out too and get ideas for myself. And in this past month, before I had my full-sized kitchen in my apartment, I ate out quite a bit. The restaurants I will review today feature a variety of cuisines -- both Italian and Thai.


The Palm 


The food was delicious, this is true. The prices were slightly higher than I would usually pay for a regular dinner. However, if you want to go to a nice restaurant with a date, or with several friends, and don't mind paying upwards of $40 for a 9 oz. filet mignon, then this is the place for you!

The ambiance was lovely (although it was a little bit hot in our part of the restaurant), our waiters were very attentive, and the food was great. And if you go here, the house specialties are lobster and filet mignon, so at least I got one of their best meals!

Here is the food I had with a rating between 1 and 10, with 10 being the max:
- mashed potatoes (8.0)
- potatoes au gratin (8.4)
- filet mignon (8.8)
- mushrooms (9.6)
- chocolate cake (9.3)
- creme brulee (9.8)
- cheesecake (8.2)

By far, hands down, best creme brulee I have ever tasted. It has inspired me to go make my own!


The Thai Restaurant


Although the name of the restaurant lacks in creativity, I did not expect the food to also be bland. Maybe I chose the wrong thing on the menu (although can you really go wrong by ordering chicken dishes?), but I was not too impressed with my first Thai experience. I don't think I'll give up on eating Thai just yet, but I will obviously need more suggestions on what dishes to choose. Or perhaps I'll convince people to go try different Thai restaurants around town... Yes?

Anyhow, my meal was under ten dollars (before tax), but I feel that it was overpriced based on quality and taste. In fact, I feel as though all they gave me was plain rice, steamed broccoli and chicken. Why would I pay that much again for something I could prepare for half the price, you know?

Where shall I go next in my take-out adventures? ... stay tuned to find out!

Workin' my 9-5... and a little bit of Quiche!

I know I promised a blog by the end of last week, and we're already half-way through this one but my job has literally taken over my life. I wake up at 7ish and come back LATE late. Meaning Monday I left work at 9 pm, Tuesday I left at 9:30 pm, and today it was 10:50 pm. Why so late??

But anyhow, I made a quiche last week and it was delish! So at work, it was my turn to bring breakfast on Thursday morning, so I woke up extra early, went grocery shopping and here is the result!

So to make it...

I mixed fresh spinach with sour cream and put it at the bottom of the pie dish. I then fried some bacon, and after it cooled down, I crumpled it and put it aside. At the same time, I sauteed some onions and oven roasted golden classic chicken (from the deli, sliced on 10, diced). I mixed in the bacon and put the mixture on top of the spinach. Next, I put lots and lots of parmesan and mixed cheddar/American cheese on top. I beat some eggs, mixed them with half and half and poured that on top of the pie dish and put it in the oven. And voila! It really wasn't hard, but the preparation took longer than expected. 

Sorry for the short blog post, but I have to go sleep now... seeing as how I have to be back at work in less than 8 hours. 

Until next time, wish me luck bartering to get my living room furniture for cheaper than listed on craigslist! :)

It's Been a Long, Long Time...

So I've been on hiatus for the last three weeks, mostly because my life has quasi turned upside down since my last entry. In a good way, though, no worries!

Drumroll please....

I now work for The Man! I started working in Corporate America three weeks ago and so far... it's not that bad. :)

But now that I'm in a new city and have started my grown-up life, I had to go around and get all settled in. Between my 6-hour, 12-apartment complex, 29-floor plan apartment hunt and three-week legal paperwork wait for my car titles, I've found that there's a lot to consider and do when starting over. Advice for the future: get a ThankYou Rewards credit card before you go around buying expensive mattresses and furniture and stuff left and right. It will help and it's like free money! (Yes, I know there's no such thing as a free lunch...) Anyways, I just now discovered that there's an AT&T Universal Card that would get me 10% off all my AT&T purchases for the first year, and 5% after that... so it seems like a good deal... right? :) I mean considering I just signed up for cable, internet and a phone plan all through AT&T.

So, on to the more important things: Fish Tacos!

I know I promised in my last post (forever and a half ago) that I would talk about Fish Tacos and the time has come! I forget everything I was going to originally tell you guys about the tacos, but I DO remember that my whole family loved them and they were really healthy! But I did remember to take pictures... :)

Just in case the picture doesn't come out perfectly clear or anything, the plates in the picture above are like this (clockwise starting top right):
1) Lettuce
2) Sauteed onions
3) Sauteed red bell peppers and avocado
4) Grilled salmon
5) Tortillas!

It wasn't too difficult to make. The only thing I had a little bit of trouble with was grilling the salmon (which was marinated in this yummy sauce I made with lemons and garlic and pepper and I forget what else), but I only had issues with it because I've never before grilled fish in my life. But overall, I would say the fish tacos were a success.

Random question of the day: should I get a Starbucks Reward Card? I tried signing up for one a few days ago and for some reason Starbucks' website didn't recognize my card as valid so I took it as a sign to reconsider my sign-up.

Anyhow, this blog hardly seemed organized and for that I apologize. I actually had a very nice blog typed up yesterday and then I walked away from my computer and I guess it had one of those automatic updates that it does every two weeks and it restarted... without saving my work. Oh well... Look forward to a blog about quiche by the end of the week!