Foodings: Macaron Maniac!

Hi Everyone! It’s been awhile, I know. I haven’t posted anything for almost a year! Although I haven’t been posting anything, I have been baking a lot the past few months. I think about a year ago, I found my new love for macarons.

The first time I tasted them, I quickly fell in love! The taste and texture was everything I had imagine from the description of various blogs I’ve read about them. Now I have this obsession for these yummy confectionery delights! I want to show you guys all the trouble I went through to finally bake them correctly because I refuse to have to pay over >$1 for a little cookie every time.

After going through the labor to create these beauts, I can see why they charge so much for each delicious morsel. I think I’ve got the techniques down now, but now my desire to create all the different flavors and colors possible have grown even more! It’s just a matter of keeping the right consistency, while tweaking the flavor combinations.

I’d like to share with you guys what I’ve done the past few months after a failed attempt about a year ago:

I don’t remember if these were green tea or pistachio..

Chocolate/Coffee with Nutella Cocoa Buttercream Filling

Failed greentea macarons

Alfie’s gift: Lemon/berry, Chocolate/Espresso, Pistachio, and Raspberry

SJSU Theme: Black sesame, Blueberry, and Mango

Raspberry with Nutella, buttercream filling with real raspberries in the middle

More raspberry macarons.  I guess this is one of the easiest flavors to make.

I’ve made more along the way but didn’t bother to take any pictures.  I think maybe from now on, I’ll keep you guys posted for the next flavor attempt and maybe dedicate this whole blog to macarons!  hah!  Enjoy guys.

Foodings: Titty Cakes

***Warning!! This post contains nudity and may be inappropriate for people under 18 years of age.***

I haven’t baked anything since Larry’s birthday. Which reminds me, I need to make a post about that soon. Anyway, here are some red velvet cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting. I was inspired by my friend Tiff to make these in the shape of boobies. Not to mention it’s still breast cancer awareness month. Hahaha

I ran out of red food coloring so the cake turned out pink instead of red. Piping them into smooth round domes was a little difficult. I had to play with it a few times before I got the right shape. I added more red and a tiny bit of blue food coloring to the rest of the cream to make the nipples.

This was Paula Dean’s recipe and you can find it by searching “red velvet cupcakes” on the foodnetwork website. I modified the frosting recipe a little bit by adding less sugar. I believe it’d be a little too sweet with 4 cups of powdered sugar. Hahah. I think you can adjust it to your liking.

I also added a little more cocoa powder to the batter to get more if the chocolate taste. Enjoy!

Foodings: French Macarons! (not macaroons)

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve updated this blog.  But honestly I don’t know anyone who follows this blog anymore! hahah But either way, here is something I’ve been currently obsessed with.  Macarons!  Ever since I heard about it from this youtuber “pincstuff” way back then, I wanted to look more into it.  And the first time I tried it, it was HEAVENLY!!!  Unfortunately, these cookies are really expensive.  I can see why, given how difficult it is to make these.  But anyway after a few tries I was finally able to make them:

My failed attempt from last weekend. (they tasted good though)

Finally! Baked correctly with feet on the bottom of the cookies! They kinda still stick to the paper though

Stuffed with cream, blueberries, and raspberries. Delicious but you have to eat them right away or the cream will make them soggy!

I still need to perfect the cooking time because they stick to the paper.  My next task is to try a different flavor for these cookies.  Perhaps, coconut or maraschino cherry?

L. Ngo

Check out my cousin’s music. He’s very talented!

http://www.myspace.com/lesliengo

It kind of reminds me of John Mayer/Oasis/you knoww! Just listen to it!

Egg’s Benedict

I missed out on Bill’s Cafe the other morning and was still really craving for a nice greasy breakfast.  Soooo I took the liberty of  going to Lucky’s to get some items to make Egg’s Benedict.  Here we are:

Whisking egg yolks, cayanne pepper, and lemon juice on a double boiler.

Whisk until the eggs are cooked.

Drizzle melted butter into eggs and whisk. NOT ALL AT ONCE.. It will scramble on you.

Smoooth consistency! =)

Attempting to poach the egg.

Failure. The eggs didn't stay whole the way I wanted them to.

Sizzling bacon. Delicious greasy crispy bacon. YUM!

Ore Ida Hashbrowns. =)

Toasted english muffin topped with cherry tomatoes, and egg's benedict. Hashbrowns and crispy bacon.

Yea the yolk popped on the way to the plate.  I need to figure out to poach an egg successfully.  At least I nailed the hollandaise sauce. =)

Hope you enjoyed this post.

<3 Fish Tacos. No Pun Intended….

I’m so sorry!!  I haven’t posted ANYTHING in so long.  Work makes me so tired.  =( But I finally have something for you guys!  I didn’t have work this weekend so I decided to make fish tacos for my family.  (plus my mom needed to seriously lay off the instant noodles shes been eating every single night. yuck)

Here’s my sort of twist for the fish tacos.  I looked up a few recipes from allrecipes.com to get an idea of the main ingredients used for this dish.

Chop up all the sides first:

• shredded green/red cabbage
• cherry tomatoes (I think they have the most flavor)
• shredded carrots

Chop up the stuff for the guacamole:

• 1  ripe avocado
• 1/2 tomato
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove of garlic (minced)
• cilantro (chopped)
• 1 jalapeno (depending how spicy you want it)
• cumin (for the smokey flavor)
• lime juice
• salt and pepper for taste

Mix together the white sauce for fish:

• 1/3 cup of plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup of sour cream
• 1/4 cup of mayo
• some lime juice
• tabasco sauce
• chili paste (the one in the jar with the green cap)
• pepper
• little cilantro
• 1/2 a jalapeno
• 1 tsp of sugar

Keep in mind I didn’t really use the EXACT amount listed.  I just went according to taste.  It’s however you like it!

For the fish taco batter:

• flour
• chili powder
• pepper/salt mixture
• beer (if you have any, but I didn’t..just use water)
• egg
• Panco bread crumbs (cover with this after dipping fish in batter)

So all you need to do is cut some white fleshed fish in pieces so it’ll fit in the tortilla.  Dip them in the beer batter and cover them in panco bread crumbs.  Deep fry them on medium heat until cooked inside and crispy on the outside (kinda golden brown).

Fish tacos should be left for people to put together themselves because who knows how much sauce or cabbage they want on their taco?  Personally I like a lot of cabbage and sauce in my taco.  Here are the results:

It looks plain but its packed with so much flavor and texture!!

I gotta say that this was better than those nasty fish tacos I had at Una Mas.  They practically tasted like cardboard. .

OH!  Some of you probably already know I painted my room finally!  I’m just still in the process of tidying up the place.  I’ll post up some pictures soon.  Sorry for lagging so much.

Update

Sorry I haven’t really been posting anything lately. I’m not exactly busy or anything. Maybe a little preoccupied with the new member of the family.. Bambi! I never imagined I’d get a Chihuahua for a dog. I used to always say they were the most annoying dogs EVER. But this guy is just too cute.

Anyway, hopefully there will be many things coming ahead the next few weeks, since summer has finally arrived. I’ve definitely got a lot more time..sorta?

Project: Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride?

Yea, that’s another name for Benadryl.  I just thought that was the prettiest looking capsule I could think of.  Here’s another one of my clay creations. 

Prescription bottle with a capsule. They go together in one keychain!

Hope you guys like it!  Let me know if you have any requests.

Mother’s Day Weekend

This year, it was a 3 day-span for Mother’s Day, and usually every other year.  Dinner Friday night with my grandma on my mom’s side, dinner Saturday with my grandma on my dad’s side, and of course the official Mother’s Day on Sunday with the mom.  Oh and a couple of birthdays in between.  I have a few things to show you guys this time.

So for Friday night I made cheesecake cupcakes for my Aunt’s birthday and Mother’s Day for the grandma.  I got the recipe from allrecipes.com.  Here’s the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Mini-Cheesecakes-III/Detail.aspx

I used cherry and peach filling instead of strawberries.  I also manipulated the recipe a bit.

The next day I made rainbow cupcakes for a friends birthday.  I got this idea somewhere on seriouseats.com.  They made a rainbow cake instead but to make eating easier for everyone, I made them into cupcakes.  This was topped with cheesecake icing.  Yum!

6 different batches of cake batter separated.

Layering the colors in each cupcake bin.

All batter in the bins

Beautiful and Fluffy!

Rainbowy Goodness.

Topped with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.

Eating a Rainbow!

Just as good as Sprinkle Cupcakes huh?? hahaha  Just kidding.  I’ve never had them before.  So yea, and here’s the present I made for the mother.  A nonedible cupcake:

Cupcake with pink frosting and sprinkles, topped a swarovski crystal.

I also made a little chihuahua out awhile back and thought it would be kind of cute next to the cupcake.  My mom loves them!  They’re going under the rear view mirror in the car.

Oh.. I did the dumbest thing last night.  I came home around 2-3AM this morning and remembered I still had to write something in the mother’s day card.  So I pulled out the card out of the brown bag.  I didn’t exactly bother to look at the card again because I already knew what it said.  So I went on writing my little note.  I placed it in the kitchen for my mom to read in the morning.

I woke up in the morning and told my mom happy mother’s day and she says her thank yous.  It wasn’t until my dad came out and told me I used his card, that I realized I had used the wrong card.  The same day my dad bought his anniversary card for my mom and I had accidentally written in that instead of the card I had originially bought for my mom.  This is what you get for writing in the dark with one of those book lights.   I was tired okaY!!!

So that’s all for now.  Thanks for reading!

Project: V. 2 Knock off of Hayley’s Beanie and More

In one of my first posts, there was a “knock off” of Hayley’s beanie which didn’t look that great.  It was just a basic k1 k1 p1 p1 pattern.  This time I just finished another beanie a little more identical to the beanie.  I added a cable stitch pattern.  The only thing I didn’t add was the puff at the very top of the beanie.  I got lazy.. haha

Oh I know the winter/spring season is practically over but personally, I think the weather is still a bit chilly.  I was supposed to post this Cowl Neck Scarf up a loooong time ago but I never had a chance to until now.  Easy to put on when you’re in a hurry and you want to keep your neck warm:

Should probably wear this with a crew neck top and not such a low cut top.