ROC - Owl House - Always

Made another trip to the Owl House because it is THE place to go. Somehow my friends and I tend to end up there. No regrets about that though. 

This time I went for a late lunch with my friend from high school (hey Sofa!!) and got one of their daily specials, a Frittata kinda deal.  

It was a vegetarian frittata made with tofu and asparagus. So. Good. I got it with sourdough toast because yes. And it came with a side of potato hash-y which is just the cherry on top because we all know I"m a sucker for potatoes. I love owl house. It just never ceases to disappoint. 

Queen of Sugar

We're starting the sweet section of cooking classes. From here on out, we're moving to baking and desserts and candies. And I've rightfully earned my name as queen of sweets. Obviously, I'm all over baking and cupcakes and muffins (though breads still elude me...). Turns out candy is no different.

Crystalizations class was awesome. This was my first try at hot sugar and boy did it go well. My stress levels skyrocketed during class but it was honestly 100% worth it in the end. 

I got to make peanut brittle. And it was nerve racking. I cooked 1.5 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of white corn syrup, and 1 cup of water until it boiled. I got the temp up to 250 degrees to get the sugar to the hard ball stage, then I added a tablespoon of margarine and 1.5 cups of peanuts and stirred until the sugar was brown and caramelized. 

This was when the scary part came. I took it off the heat, quickly stirred in 1 tsp of vanilla and 1.5tsp of baking powder and kept stirring, FAST. I kept going for a little bit until every thing was well mixed, then I poured it out on to a greased cooking sheet and waited. And waited. And waited some more. After quite some time, it was finally cool enough, and my professor took the end of a wooden spoon and just went crazy on this peanut brittle. It was perfect. The peanut brittle was awesome too. 

I'm super proud of myself. It was so good my professor stole about half of it while I was cleaning the classroom. I should've paid better attention to it!  

Wrapped in Bacon

We've established that bacon is incredible. Simple as that. So one day I decided I was going to wrap asparagus in bacon. It was magical. 

I cut the bacon in half, wrapped it around the asparagus, and baked it in the oven on 425 for a really long time... I mean really long... it takes patience...but it's worth it. It's really worth it. 

Breakfast Froyo!!!!

One of my current jobs this school year is a cashier at a frozen yogurt bar next to my apartment. My boss is awesome and lets all of us lucky employees have as much free froyo as we want. I think he realizes that we don't actually eat that much.... Smart move... 

Well, one day I was opening the shop which happens at noon and I decided that I was going to make an awesome brunch froyo cup for myself. I like to think I'm kind of brilliant just for this one. 

I layered the cup with cheerios then banana slices that I brought to work with me. Then I added strawberries and a little vanilla custard. I repeated this of course, and since it's me and froyo I topped my cup with rainbow sprinkles. 

CEREAL BRUNCH CUPPPPP!!!! I'm so smart.    

Poached Salmon

I'm not a huge fan of Salmon. I know, I'm crazy. But this poached salmon in a cream sauce was beyond good (I think it was the cream that made me like it..) Honestly... these fish dishes are fast. I like them.

What we did to poach the salmon was place about an 8oz piece of salmon in a pan with 1.5 cups of water, 1tbsp of lemon juice, 1tbsp minced onion, a peppercorn, a parsley sprig, and a bay leaf and covered it. We heated up the pan to around 160 or 180 degrees and let the fish cook for about 5minutes. We took the salmon out of the pan then added heavy cream, white wine vinegar, and white wine to the pan and reduced it all to create the sauce. (My professor eyeballed the amount of liquid so I have no idea how much was used). We topped the fish with the  sauce then sprinkled on paprika and served. 

I'm telling you, the cream was so good. The fish was perfect and everything was pretty quick and easy. It made me actually like eating the salmon. I'm ready to go to restaurants and try some more!