The Summer of Cooking

As much as I enjoy cooking (and eating) good food, during the school year it's really not always an option. Tons of classes, homework and work time leave little room for cooking, not to mention I'm one person and can only eat one dish so many times before I get tired of it.

Enter summertime.

I've been fortunate enough to get to spend June at home in Maryland eating some good home cooking by my mom :)

With Dad's grill shenanigans thrown in..

And sometime from Sarah & her boyfriend, Sean.

And other times, I get in the baking mood and decide to make two kinds of granola bars & cookies all in one night. But at least there are plenty of people around to help eat them!

I tested out a recipe from my cousin, Erika for Peanut Butter Granola Bars. She had previously sent me a box of these during a really busy week at school. So tasty and much appreciated!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1 22-oz. box granola

1 cup nut pieces

3 cups crispy rice cereal or puffed brown rice

½ cup dried cherries or raisins

1 tsp. cinnamon, opt.

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 to 1 ½ cups brown rice syrup

½ cup honey

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix together peanut butter, syrup and honey;

combine with dry ingredients. Press into greased 12 x 18” pan; put a piece of wax or

parchment paper over the bars and roll flat with a rolling pin. Refrigerate until firm.

Keeps best in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 dozen bars

I tried some Gingered Carrot Cake Cookies from BrownEyedBaker

Gingered Carrot Cake Cookies

Yield: 18 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 16 to 18 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of grated nutmeg
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded carrots (about 3, peeled and trimmed)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans

1. Position oven racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and nutmeg.

3. With a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then add the egg and beat for another minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the vanilla. Continuing on low speed, add the flour mixture in 2 or 3 batches and beat only until they just disappear into the mix. The dough will be very thick, but don’t overbeat to incorporate the flour. Using a rubber spatula, mix in the carrots, coconut, raisins and pecans.

4. Spoon about three heaping tablespoonfuls of dough (or use a large cookie scoop, which is what I did) onto the prepared baking sheets at a time, leaving about an inch of space between them. Using your fingers, every so slightly flatted the tops of the cookies.

5. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cookies should be light brown and only just firm on top. Carefully transfer the cookies to racks to cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

And some Cherry & Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars from Healthy Food for Living. Although apparently I forgot to document those. Oops.

This past weekend we made our way up to New Jersey (after a long 7 hour drive due to flash floods and tons of traffic-- should have taken 4 hours) to spend some time with family and celebrate Father's Day!

Of course, there is the mandatory elevator shots in Eric's fancy Jersey City apartment complex (which by the way, I have decided that I'm going to move into the laundry room of the place if the rest of my life doesn't work out.)

On Saturday morning after breakfast I hopped on the train and headed into NYC to visit Jon for the day. Apparently my picture taking skills have gone down the drain because I failed to document any portion of it. But we spent a good long while wandering through Central Park, eating tasty pizza, and sitting on fire escapes.

Sunday was spent back in Jersey, after picking Eric up, with lots of outdoor patio time.

Tomorrow morning early we're headed off to Wisconsin for Grandma's 80th (belated) birthday celebration. But first a pit stop in Chicago tomorrow night to see Remy (one of my roommates from RIT this past year). After Wisconsin I have a few days at home to pack up -- and steal more of Sarah's clothes ;) -- before headed back up to Rochester for the rest of the summer.

"Hippie Loaf"

I've been in the mood for something more substantial lately after my week or two of salad eating. My roommate Remy & I have been talking about making dinner together forever and just never got around to it since we've both been so busy. Go figure, I choose week 10 to test out new recipes! But it was a nice break from homework.

So I tested out "hippie loaf" which is basically just a vegan meatloaf but loaded with protein & veggies -- quinoa & black beans! Yum!

We both gave it the thumbs up & would definitely make it for dinner again. Served with potatoes & peas of course. Hooray for well-rounded meals.

• 15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 whole onion, diced
• 2 whole garlic cloves, minced
• 1 whole carrot, minced
• 2 whole celery stalks, minced
• 1 cup mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup quinoa, cooked
• 1 tbsp italian seasoning
• 3 tbsp brown rice flour
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp ketchup

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a standard bread pan and set aside. Mash black beans in a large bowl and combine all ingredients until evely combined. Transfer to pan and pat down firmly and tightly using a spatula. Bake 45 minutes to one hour, until firm and browned on the outside. Allow the loaf to cool and firm up before serving, about 15 to 20 minutes.

[recipe from happy herbivore]

let's make it a lovers

my small group is pretty awesome. there is a group of about 6 or 7 of us that get together every monday night from 8-10:30 and just hang out, share stories and talk about the bible. for the past two quarters we've been reading through the book of john. now, john does not have enough chapters to fill up two quarters once a week therefore we have "free days" these days usually include cooking of some sort and then going around to the apartments near us and handing it out! these days usually fall around week 9 or 10 so everyone is super stressed and can really appreciate free homemade food :)

tonight's food adventure was homemade pizza! crust and all.

we each took a designated job and ended up making four pizzas.

picture of most of the small group (minus tim who was taking all of these pictures!)

kneading that dough was a lot harder than we originally thought but the guys turned out to be pretty good at it. we didn't have a rolling pin so we improvised with water bottle. i decided that i will be sticking with my strengths in dessert making and not become a pizza kneader anytime soon.

towards the end we started getting artsy so i put two hearts on. two of the members of our group are from the dominican republic so we're constantly making comparisons between the two cultures and sometimes the translations are not exact. we were in the middle of making pizza (with ham and pineapple) and one of the guys goes "let's make a lover!" what he meant was a meat lovers pizza like from pizza hut :) it was pretty funny so thats why we put the hearts on. plus it's almost valentine's day.

looks pretty tasty, right? the heart on the right got a little bit more mosaic-y because i was funneling it through the end of a sandwich bag and the stuff was just flying everywhere!

next blog post will be my own dinner creation from tonight. i'll combined it with a post for tomorrow because i'm eating the same thing all week. mmmm.

3 point hats

i've often found myself getting ready in the morning and reaching for my 3 point hat and black harry potter cloak. often, this is not enough to complete the whole ensemble so i decide that carrying a half gallon of chocolate milk will fill in the missing elements.

true story. seriously. there are some weird dress codes going on around here. i had to suppress my urge to whip out my camera and document the shenanigans walking in front of me.

i did bring out my camera around dinner time (taking a picture of food in your apartment is so much less creepy than taking one of some bozo trudging down the quarter mile)

sensing a trend in the dinner picks this week? if you guessed sweet potatoes and asparagus, you're right!

in case you're just dying for dinner ideas try:

roasted asparagus (with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, basil)

broccoli

provolone cheese

whole wheat pasta

cauliflower

(and leftover sweet potato mound on the side)

cook the asparagus like you would normally except instead of eating it whole, cut it up and throw it into the pasta. (obviously when i'm cooking for one person i don't even use half a box of pasta which means that there is plenty leftover for many other experiments.) while you're cooking the pasta put the broccoli & cauliflower in 3 minutes before it's done. drain accordingly. then throw it all back in the pot & add cheese and a little extra lemon juice :) good, healthy & there are leftovers for another 2 meals. what good planning.

food blog

apparently i'm turning this into a food blog. tonight's dinner was mashed sweet potatoes and cauliflower! (notice: more BASIL!) guess i need to try some new seasonings at some point, but it's super tasty. threw a whole sweet potato in the oven when i got back from class. watched an episode of the gilmores and 45 minutes later it was ready. removed the skin and put an immersion blender to it and what do ya know, mashed taters :)

so, should i make a food blog? separate from this one? or just keep my life and food together? i'd keep this one regardless and if i had two, id prolly post some food stuffs on this too. hmm... decisions, decisions.

in un-food news, rochester weather is weird. i walked back from work today and it was a bright sunny 28 degrees but it was snowing. how weird is that?!

lots of stuff going on currently. papers to write. presentations to make. videos to edit. books to read. photos to take and process. art history to study. it's never-ending. but fun. 3ish weeks until spring break, speaking of which i need to buy plane tickets home before i forget.

this weekend is freeze fest. more on that later.

asparagus stars

dinner tonight was lettuce, corn (it's on the bottom because i actually cooked it this time) and roasted asparagus :) doesn't take long at all to make a good dinner. 20 minutes in the oven and a little bit of lemon juice and basil later, you've got yourself some pretty tasty food stuffs.

small group tonight was fun. i got a text about an hour before asking if i could bring a snack (we usually eat something like peanut butter on celery or something else easy) well, it turns out that my night class was cancelled tonight so i decided to make some cookies! just regular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. apparently if i fail at this whole graphic design thing i'll go into cooking or food design.

din din

mmm looks tasty? i think so.

maybe i should quit and go into food photography...

no, no. i'd have to live in a cardboard box.

we'll just continue on with this graphic design nonsense.

this was dinner tonight --and last night too for that matter. i made rice and pinto beans yesterday after class and then had soybeans for dessert (yummyyy) so tonight i decided to be radical and eat them all together. plus broccoli of course because who doesn't like broccoli? if you answered no, we can't be friends.

ooh and good news there are still enough beans and rice left for at least another 3-4 meals! what fantastic planning on my part.

got some projects to tackle. finished up my typography poster design thingamabob. working on editing some photos now. more stuff to do after. we're hoping for a full night of sleep tonight -- so did not happen last night. i washed my pillows, sheets, comforter and quilt tonight so they are all sweet smelling and still a tad warm. maybe that will help?

ps: snow update-- ITS STILL SNOWING. in fact, it has not stopped since saturday. and we're not talking like a 2 flake an hour type of nonsense. real snow guys.

adventures

Life has been rather eventful lately (both good and bad). So much so that this blog post has been postponed a few days.

Last Thursday Rochester, like much of the rest of the country, got slammed with snow and wintery weather. It wasn't so much deep snow drifts but the ice that was created on top of the snow. Walking to class on Thursday proved to be quite the challenge... involving not one but two times when I totally wiped out. Luckily the first time no one was around to experience my awkward tumble as it was 7:30 in the morning. The second however was in a more populated space in the middle of the day. I felt a little better when I found out that I was not the only person this happened to. Both times were not particularly bad falls although my leg is still sore days later, but they did make me feel a little nervous for my tour Thursday afternoon! Which ended up going just fine and I didn't fall once walking backwards.. go figure! It was kind of fun to give a tour in the snow, it adds a level of excitement and I got to take some back routes to avoid the outdoors. Hopefully my tour group wasn't too cold!

Life event number two... Thursday after classes I was hanging around working on homework or something of the sort when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. Now ordinarily, not a problem. However, as mentioned above, it was snowing bucketloads and also about 25 degrees out so I was slightly less than excited to be standing outside. I had the sense to first put on sweatpants, a winter coat and grab a blanket before heading outdoors. Public Safety came after some time to figure out the problem (no actual fire or anything as far as I know). After about 45 minutes of cold we were allowed back in except the catch was the fire alarm had not yet been disabled so we stuffed a bunch of hats and sweatshirts on to mask the noise. Ironically when it finally turned off an hour and a half later I didn't even realize it because I had become so accustom to the obnoxious noise.

Moving on, Friday morning my roommate and I decided it would be a good idea to go out to lunch and do some Christmas shopping because we had some extra time on our hands. Ashley wanted to stop by Tim Horton's for a quick cup of coffee. That quickly turned into an hour and a half cup of coffee when we realized that she had left the keys in the ignition and the car was locked. Not to worry, my handy internet searching phone found us a locksmith and we were soon on our way.

Last night was the only RIT hockey game in the WHOLE month of December. I've been rather hockey deprived lately and I've had to resort to watching tons of NHL games. Anyway, after a long winning streak, the Tigers lost to Niagara. Our shots on goal were nearly double but their goalie was on all night and their shots looked a little stronger. Definitely a good game, just wished the Tigers could have pulled out another win! Now we'll have to wait until January for another game.

And the final event was our christmas party today! Last night after the hockey game we got back and immediately set to work decorating our entire apartment with those old school paper chains and snowflakes! It looked very festive along with all of our holiday lights and live christmas tree. This morning we woke up and got to work baking lots and lots of cookies! Chocolate chip, cranberry white chocolate, peanut butter with hershey kisses, and puppy chow. A bunch of people came over for dinner and a movie. We had spaghetti (minus the syrup) all inspired by Buddy the Elf, which was of course the movie choice of tonight.










All in all, a pretty decent weekend. The nice thing about these three weeks is that while there is still work to do, there is a good amount of time for hanging out before we all leave for the holidays. The good thing about blogging is that no matter how unfortunate the situation, the first thing I think about is what a good post it would make :)

everything but....

...homework.

no classes yesterday, no work, no ice skating. and pretty much everyone and their brother went home for the weekend. so what did i do? nothing. just kidding that's only half true. i got some of my to-do list done. and went to IV. but every once in a while i just really need a day off. i realized that i had a paper due at midnight (realized this around 11:25) good thing i'm ahead of the game and had finished writing it a week ago. good thinking.

woke up at 6:30 this morning and got out of bed after only 15 minutes of snooze buttons. worked from 7:45-12:30 doing various things. made grilled cheese and carrots for lunch. well i didn't make the carrots but you know what i mean. washed them at least. now i need to take 2 tests for political science and write the paper due tuesday. that one i dont have written already but i finished the outline so yay.

i've decided to minor in art history. thoughts? i'm not sure. too indecisive for this declaring business.

hmm, what could i do instead of homework now? the possibilities are endless. i enjoy playing music and singing out loud. this activity is best when no one else around. also, good thinking. got some good stuff on my itunes, its fantastic. there will be no concerts anytime soon.

five weeks until this quarter is over. i've been here for eight already. this seems like a long time. what have i done? not sure. i should probably figure that out.

i just realized i'm still wearing my name tag. seeing as there is no one else around i think it's safe to take it off. i wonder if people even read all of this? maybe. maybe not. hi mom. i figured you'd make it this far ;)

oh yeah, it snowed two days ago. not enough to warrant a blog post but still. winter's here. it's like 32 degrees on a regular basis now.

89 exploding leaves.

i'd like to think of myself as a decently nice person, you know? i mean we all have our days, but for the most part. apparently not. guess i'll have to work on that. or maybe it's not me...

in the mean time, i'm thoroughly enjoying fire alarms. especially when they allow me to leave class an hour early. fantastic.

got an 89 on my typography quiz. it was 50 questions, fill in the blank.

working on a typography project with a school in california over a server. we took goofy pictures today and emailed them to our "partners". seems cool.

brick city homecoming pictures will come in the next post.

it's week 6. crazy?! can't believe it.

life is going generally pretty decent. for the most part. i guess.

i have brussel sprouts in the fridge for dinner. i'm kind of excited. i had an avocado last night. squash for later this week. yumm.

it's supposed to snow on friday. i'm still wearing flip flops. this could be a problem.

foodventures

the guys made us pasta for dinner
looks quite professional, huh?
dave got the little chair
baby forks
i made cornbread muffins :)
and chickpea stuff with onions
and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!
balanced dinner tonight, yes? spinach, applesauce (made that this weekend), corn and a veggie burger with sauce on top. yummmmm

it feels like fall

today is friday. five days from my last post.

this blogging thing doesn't seem to be working so well this year. i was so good about it but somehow this year there is always something better to do. i think it might have something to do with the fact that i hardly spend anytime on the computer anymore-- shocking, i know. other than working on projects i dont spend too much time on it. yay me. actually i haven't really spent all that much time in our apartment lately either.

speaking of which, i'm leaving in 5 minutes.

i worked 28 hours last week, on top of classes, club meetings, hanging out and homework. i don't exactly know how that's possible but i fit it all in. and i get to bed at a semi reasonable hour.

went to pittsford today with ash. and grocery shopping. all we ever buy is soy milk, vg splash, cheese and apples. i mean food stuff too, but these are the most used. we had to do some pantry re-organization to fit it in.

tomorrow is admissions open house at 7:30 am. study session from 11-1 then a hockey game. club team, not the d1 one. im going to iv tonight 7-9 then a hockey game from 9- who knows when. lots of stuff to do tomorrow on the hw front.

more later. plus pictures.

its 57 degrees today.

midnight shoe excursions

broccoli with a peanut butter and soy sauce mix and rice!

fancy grilled cheese with 2 cheeses, mushrooms and spinach

midnight trip to walmart

i actually took this picture with the camera upside down so its correct

my shoe broke in the middle of the walmart parking lot...

new orange curtains. we can never seem to keep all of the pillows on the couch at once

soup i made for us for lunch...

cheesey crackers!

potato soup with corn and cheese and real potatoes, crackers and VG splash what a good sunday brunch