Rice Cooker Fun!

For my birthday this year, my parents gave me a rice cooker, a crock pot and a little George Foreman grill. Thank you, parents! I think it's because I never ask for anything in particular for my birthday (which I guess makes it a little impossible to find a good gift for me considering how picky I am sometimes), so buying me cooking supplies/kitchen appliances is a pretty safe bet.


But I'm also scared of the unfamiliar and since I'd never used a rice cooker before, the idea of using the rice cooker intimidated me for a while. Finally, one night, when my boyfriend insisted we watch the movie Hidalgo -- a quasi-Western set in the Middle East -- which was close to 2 hours in length, I decided it was the perfect time to experiment with the rice cooker. My mother had also given me some brown rice and my rice cooker adventure began.... Turns out brown rice takes about two hours to be done. And since I hadn't accounted for two hours (I assumed the rice cooker would be more efficient than me cooking rice normally), I ended up eating scrambled eggs with Feta as a snack instead. I may be wrong, but I think that's probably a very healthy, tasty snack.


Anyhow, my next adventure with rice was Basmati rice. There's this amazing Persian restaurant close to where I live and their rice is divine. And since I want to also make delicious rice like them, I decided to use my rice cooker to make some Basmati rice. Well you can't just eat Basmati rice plan -- I guess you could, but that's not a meal then -- so I also made some tomato sauce and served those two with chicken. It was delicious and healthy, but I need to learn some portion control. I made that rice on Sunday and I still have half a pot of it left and my boyfriend and I have eaten about 5 or 6 servings of that meal until now. 


So here's how I did it,  although you may want to cut down on the ingredients and not make enough for a small army. 


I put two cups of rice in my rice cooker. Also, it turns out that you're not supposed to measure cups of uncooked rice in regular cups but in standardized rice cups (?) which are 180 mL, not the regualar 240 mL. 


It only took about ten minutes to cook (as opposed to the brown rice which took a century!)


In the meantime, I got a can of diced tomatoes, put it in a pan and started heating it. In a separate pan, I began sauteeing some bell peppers and onions. As soon as they started heating up and looking like they were ready, I moved them over to the first pan with the diced tomatoes and mixed everything together.


Then I used a pot and cooked some pieces of chicken through. I originally just cooked/boiled them in water for a healthier alternative but then added some oil to make it tastier. 


And here is how a plate of this concoction ended up looking. Deliciously healthy and satisfying. 

First Month Anniversary Dinner!

My boyfriend and I are celebrating our five month anniversary in about two weeks. Obviously, the title gives away how slow I've been at updating. I don't have any good excuses except "life happened." 

But here's the story anyway...

So when it was almost our first month anniversary, I thought I'd treat my boyfriend to his first taste of my culinary adventures. I could have gone with something safer/simpler or maybe even something I had cooked before, but I don't like repeating recipes in the kitchen unless there's a good reason (like training a puppy or being enrolled in one too many self-improvement classes). And since I wasn't short on time or creativity at the time of our anniversary, my boyfriend got a pretty good meal: chicken breast with sauteed onion/vinegar/cranberry sauce -- its formal, chef-friendly name escapes me now -- and hasselback potatoes. 

I figured the chicken breast part of the recipe wasn't too crazy, so I won't provide an in-depth explanation of how I made that part. Really, I just got the chicken breasts at the grocery store, put them on the stove in a pan (not having either an outside or inside grill, a pan was this girl's best friend at that point in time) and let them cook through thoroughly. 

While the chicken breast was cooking, I melted some butter in a second pan, cut some onions in pretty small cubes and sauteed them. I then put some vinegar and cranberry sauce in there for extra taste. Since it's been so long since I actually made the recipe, I forget how much of each I put in. 

Now, for the funnest (and most time-consuming part) of that dinner: the hasselback potatoes. There's a little bit more prep time than I usually like for any of my recipes, but I knew the outcome had to be delicious.

First, I got about eight small/medium sized red potatoes, cleaned them off and started cutting them. I cut them about halfway to two thirds through all the way across in increments of about a quarter or a fifth of an inch at a time. You can look in the picture below to see what I mean. 

Cut potatoes about 2/3 of the way through at increments of 1/4 or 1/5 inch.

Then I cut some garlic clovers thinly and put them between each section of potato. Don't worry if you're not a huge garlic fan, because the taste won't be overwhelming once the potatoes are cooked through. After you've put all the garlic in, put some melted butter on the bottom of a baking pan, and some salt sprinkled all over and rub the potatoes around until they're all covered in the butter/salt. 

Put the sliced garlic cloves between the sliced potato wedges.

Put the potatoes in the oven for about 40 minutes. I forget what I put the oven on, but really it's like you're making baked potatoes. You can take them out when the tops are all golden brown. 

Now, the next part will be the dollops of sour cream you put on top. Delicioius!!! You get about 8 oz of sour cream, you're supposed to put real garlic and parsley for better taste, but I didn't have any in my apartment, so I just used garlic powder/salt that had parsley sprinkled in there, too. Put the garlic/parsley in there to taste. Mix it well and put it in dollops on top of the potatoes once they're out of the oven and ready to serve.


Here is a picture of our final meal all put together. Good luck to everyone who tries this recipe!

Final dinner. Yum!

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!