Pizza Piety

My two friends from undergrad, Inky and Karen were over this week for New Year's. We had a nice Baldwin House reunion and were finally able to hang out without the stress of schoolwork hanging over our heads, which meant that we had time to experiment a little in the kitchen.

So was birthed this pizza. We used whatever I had in the fridge and pantry. The dough is made from 3 ingredients: flour, baking powder, and plain greek yogurt (using a take on this recipe). On top is grated cheese, pasta sauce, corn, mixed greens, leftover ham, and some sliced up hard boiled eggs for the vegetarian half of the pizza. 

Once it was cooked, it was tasty but the dough wasn't very crispy. Next time we need to actually knead the pizza dough, and maybe spread it a little thinner for a crispier crust. This definitely calls for a repeat!

We finished off the meal by whipping together some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

xo, Kristin

J'aime 昼飯

Lunch. Brie, apples, and tofu. Makes me feel very French for some reason despite the tofu and lack of baguette.

xo, Kristin

I bread to differ

First, I want to mention that this week is my "no carbs challenge!" week. I am abstaining from bread, baked goods, pasta, etc. Any kind of simple carb you can think of (even beer! D:). I started yesterday and will go all the way until Sunday when I will finally break my sad fast at my friend's Octoberfest party. Woohoo, beer and bratwurst on buns!!

Also, like Martin, I am a throw things in the pan kinda person. Therefore, tonight's dinner:

xo, Kristin

A Touching Story for All Ages

The other day I was at the supermarket, and there was a saleswoman trying to sell some sauce and noodles or something. And, suddenly, she called me over (!).

 I was very touched because it must have been scary for her to talk to a random foreigner who may or may not speak Japanese. But she did because she's very nice and she wanted my money.

 Long story short, we had a nice chat, and she showed me how to make food with the above-mentioned sauce and noodles. I felt joyful then so I bought them. And now I make them at home and it's delicious ever after.

 Don't laugh at the noodle-vegetable ration, 'kay? It tasted fine.

Martin

(Pie)ce of my heart

Kristin thinks she's so housewife-cool with her instagramed pie shots. Get out of town, gurl. I whipped this baby up with only a cake pan and a microwave. And a little love.

How about a Pie Throwdown next time we hit the lake?

Martin

Cake-tastrophy ??

This weekend I celebrated my grandpa's birthday with my family. I decided it would be fun to make a cake from scratch, and so I tried out the really chocolate-y recipe from the back of the Hershey's cocoa box.

I thought things were going well until the cake deflated, wouldn't come out of the cake pan, and then finally cracked down the middle. Turns out the baking powder was expired. Whoops.

But in the way things work out sometimes, what I thought would be a hot mess turned out to be a delicious chocolate delight ☆♪

xo, Kristin

surPIES!

Pie is just a gift from heaven. I made 3 apple pies today. Two are a surprise for my ex-cross country team, since they have their first meet of the season tomorrow. One was for me to eat with friends. I'm considering eating less carbs. Goodbye pies...

Rating: 10/10 (Who can go wrong with apple pie??)
Total Time: 1hr 15 mins total
Difficulty: 3/10

Also, check out my friend's food blog! Her blog, Eat The Impossible, addresses allergy friendly recipes!

Kristin

Free meal!

Tonight I made myself sauteed kale and tomatoes with rice. Preparation was exactly how it sounds. Not hard. Not impressive. Very delicious. 

The brown rice I bought using my parents' credit card last month at Price Chopper.

The tomatoes I got for free at Stop and Shop because they were mislabeled and I complained about it.

The kale I pilfered late last night from the college community gardens.

Rating: 7/10
Prep time: Set the rice to cook in rice cooker 30 mins before sauteing veggies. Total prep time, 35 mins.
Difficulty: 3/10

Next time I'll cut up the kale into smaller pieces and not overcook the rice (I hope).

Kristin

Dessert Weekend

This weekend I was able to get away from school (and my non-airconditioned 150 million degree room) and go to the lake with a friend. We made chocolate peanut butter bars, clafouti, and chocolate covered strawberries. Delicious weekend.

Rating: 10/10

Prep Time: 15 minutes (+ 20 mins in the freezer)

Difficulty: 2/10

Rating: 8/10
Prep Time: 15 minutes (+ 1 hour in the oven)
Difficulty: 2/10

Rating: 10/10

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty: 1/10

Kristin

"Rustic" Buttermilk Biscuits

I haven't been cooking much recently, but this morning I was inspired by a surprise ingredient in the family fridge: buttermilk! My dad bought some to make avocado soup, and it was just sitting there waiting to be whipped into some delicious buttermilk biscuits. I had never made these before, but when you're baking for someone with low standards (me!), I find that all you need to do is get some ingredients kinda mixed and in the oven, and you'll end up with something edible.

I used a recipe I found at food.com entitled "Southern Buttermilk Biscuits" (http://southern.food.com/recipe/southern-buttermilk-biscuits-26110).  

It was really easy and required almost no ingredients. My only problem was that I cut the butter chunks too big, so then they were huge and the dough (batter?) was really sticky and hard to work with. Also I had no circle cutter. Ultimately they looked nothing like the picture but tasted great. Case in point: you don't have to get better at baking, you just have to expect less from the results!

If I look at this picture too long, it looks like they're crawling towards me

Rating: 7/10

Prep Time: The recipe says 22 minutes, but recipe writers are always trying to impress you with their culinary skills when they estimate these things. More like 30 minutes. But still perfect as an "afternoon quickie"!

Difficulty: 4/10

Okonomiyaki Dinner Party

For those of you who don't know, okonomiyaki is a sort of cabbage pancake eaten in Japan. Okonomiyaki is relatively healthy, cheap, and ooo so delicious. Hands down it was my favorite food when I lived in Japan.

Not only does it taste AWESOME, but there's a certain social aspect that goes along with eating okonomiyaki. It's a food you eat with friends while sitting gathered around the electric grill to chat and make food together.

Since it's so cheap and easy to make, I decided to do okonomiyaki for tonight's impromptu dinner party.

Now, okonomiyaki can get complicated. You'll see some recipes online that call for special flour, daikon, things that you can only find at Asian specialty stores, etc. These are unnecessary. If you want to eat good okonomiyaki, all you really need is eggs, flour, water, cabbage, and the contents of your fridge.

Tonight's dorm fridge haul included:

tomatoes
onions
garlic

Not so involved, but enough extra ingredients to make a good, vegetarian okonomiyaki. We topped it with mayonaise and tonkatsu sauce and it was awesome!!

Batter and chopped vegetables

Okonomiyaki pancake

Over-ripe cherries

Finished !

Rating: 9.5/10
Prep Time: 1 hour (included frying up a TON of pancakes)
Difficulty: 3/10

Kristin