ROC - More Rice Bowls

So I kinda lied in yesterday's post. Here's another re-cap entry from yesterday. While it was eating day with e-board, I also went and got another rice bowl for lunch with my friend Uly. We've become addicted and I'm not exaggerating when I say this because I saw Uly later and he got yet ANOTHER rice bowl for an early dinner.. and I was a little jealous.. 

Anyways, for lunch I ordered the Bangkok Thai Bowl that comes with broccoli, shredded carrots, lettuce, a sesame soy sauce dressing type thing, chicken, peanuts, mandarin oranges, and I caved and tried to be a little healthier by ordering it with brown rice. Go me. 

This tasted even better than the Florence bowl I got on Monday. At least in my opinion. I think it was the peanuts and dressing that sold me. It was exactly what I was craving this morning. 

Uly and I ended up sitting in the new building that this cafe is located in and eating on the pretty glass bridge study area on the second floor, just talking and wishing that this was actually our building. These lunches are getting to be pretty sentimental and deep. Of course it would be with the two of us softies but it's all good. We're both just trying to take it all in while we still can. 

ROC - Eating Day!!

Today was Reading Day! (Aka 'eating day') for my club's e-board. Last semester we started the tradition of turning the day before finals that's supposed to be for studying and instead make the night eating day! Last semester in a span of about 4 hours we went to Taco Bell, Very Berry Frozen Yogurt (where I work), and then ordered from Zonies (aka Calios) - Rounding out the night watching High School Musical. We're obviously the best e-board. 

This semester was very similar. Tonight, in that 4 hour span, we went to DogTown, Insomnia Cookies, and watched High School Musical 2 in the apartment movie theater. So. much. fun. We may not have eaten as much but we still had a blast and that's all that matters. 

DogTown is a Rochester restaurant that serves specialty hotdogs named after dog breeds. I ordered the Golden Retriever with loaded french fries. The Golden Retriever is a hot dog on a toasted bun in between a blanket of bacon covered in melted cheddar cheese. The Fries are covered in melted cheddar and DogTown sauce aka 'Cincinnati Chili'. Alright! It was really good. I probably should't have ordered the fries because with all the melted cheese and fast food I could feel my sodium levels rising. Worth it. This was actually the first tim I ordered a dog at DogTown. Usually I get a garbage plate or the fries but I've been meaning to try a dog and man was it worth it. Salty, but delicious!

Insomnia cookies is a chain of late night cookie joints so nothing insane but sure is convenient when you want a cookie at 2am. Not that I've gone that late but I've gotten a little closer before. Today I got my favorite chocolate mint cookie, white chocolate macadamia, and they didn't have my M&M cookies so I got a snickerdoodle but those things are incredible so I'm not even a little sad. 

All and all my last eating day was a success! Also, this blog as finally caught up with my life in real time! So from now on I won't have food posts every single day (darn!) but I will update whenever I go somewhere new to eat. Hopefully, here's to a good summer of a lot of new food!      

ROC - Festival Season!!

Summers in Rochester is the best time to be around because that means it's festival season! Every couple of weeks another festival rolls around bringing copious amounts of - you guessed it! - festival food! Now I know summer is swimsuit season and it does get pretty hot which makes my appetite go away a little because who wants to eat some much food when its hot and sweaty out. Eh. 

But this is the first festival of the year and my favorite - The lilac festival. I've been going to this festival almost every year since I can remember and growing up my mom's favorite snack to get us was the kettle cooked popcorn. These bags were huge and the salty/sweet combo of freshly made kettle corn in a giant kettle right in front of you was the best thing of the summer. However, starting in high school I started this deal of getting deep fried oreos with my friends instead. It stuck. 

So, of course this year I had to get it again - my first trip in. I happened to go with this guy who had never had them before so believe me - I was on a mission. He was a good sport about it too and even bought them for me (score!). 

It was at least 85 degrees, super sunny, and a little gross but it didn't matter. I still waited in line in the sun for 10ish minutes for these guys. And they were worth it. Soft and sweet on the inside and the great funnel cake kinda dough on the outside. Just one bite and you're covered in powdered sugar but it doesn't even matter because you're just warm and happy inside. One order is plenty to share for me, and I definitely make sure I don't get them every often because there's no way these things are good for you but that's okay too because sometimes you just need a bite of happiness.

I can eat healthy tomorrow.   

ROC - Poutine

For being a pretty small city, we have some really good food trucks around. Now that it's summer we'll have the food truck rodeo and for those of you who aren't familiar with it - it'll be a future post to come for sure. 

But one of my all time favorite food trucks in Rochester is the poutine truck. Poutine is a Canadian thing apparently - and thank Canada for that! I'm a potato addict as we know so this is the perfect meal for me. French fries covered in gravy and topped with cheese curds and some herbs on top. It makes my mouth water. 

I like the small size because it leaves room for me to try more trucks but sometimes I splurge and get a regular for the bacon order. Mmmmmm bacon! 

Poutine will never stop being amazing. And this truck will always hold a big place in my heart. 

ROC - Nostalgia

Graduation is approaching quickly. T-minus 12 days until we all leave this school and go our separate ways. These next few weeks are nostalgia central as we start doing things for the last time with people we wont see on a daily/weekly status. Life is getting heavy. 

Thursday was a good day. It was sunny, and beautiful out and things were good. I ran some errands around campus and ended up getting lunch with two of my friends here. We all are so busy but somehow managed to take a couple hours to spend together running around campus. We ended up getting lunch at one of the little side cafe kinda places in one of the newer academic buildings. Me and one of my friends were craving rice bowls and smoothies so it was a perfect decision. 

I got the florence which is a (white) rice bowl with pesto, tomatoes, spinach, roasted red peppers, cheese, and chicken. Beautiful. This was actually my first rice bowl but it was so good,  need to go get a few more before the school year is up. 

We sat on the roof of our building, enjoying the food, the sun, and each other. It's scary that things won't ever be like this again. That we won't ever be this geographically close to each other anymore. 

Here's to the stupid, good, dumb times. Let's never forget it. 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Dessert weeks in class continue and Tuesday I made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake!! Of course this was the day that I was going to take my time getting to class because it was so beautiful out and It was just a happy feeling morning. And as I walk into the classroom 75% of the class is baking and I'm just derping around. So smooth. 

So I jumped right in, got my chef coat on, and looked at the sign up sheet for recipes. I'm so happy (and lucky) that no one picked the pineapple. Of course mine was one of two recipes that didn't require me to make a frosting (but now I still don't know how to make frosting so that the consistency comes out right..oops..).

Anyhow, I was super psyched about the cake. I still don't know why no one picked it because it turned out great and was super easy to make! melted 4 tablespoons of butter in the baking pan but putting it in the 350degree oven for a few minutes. Once the butter melted, I took the pan out of the oven, and took a can of those pineapple rings and put the pineapple on the bottom of the8x8  pan (about 5 rings fit). Then I put maraschino cherries in the center of each of the pineapple rings and put little canned mandarin oranges in the spaces between the rings to fill in the square. I packed 2/3 of a cup of (light) brown sugar on top of everything to make an even layer, so far so good!  

Next goes the single layer of yellow cake batter. I took 7/8 of a cup of sifted flour and then sifted in a teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4tsp of salt. Now the recipe said to resift but I was a rebel and didn't.. my cake might have lifted a little more if I had though... Anyways, next in the mixer I threw in 3 tablespoons of shortening and then slowly added in 1/2 cup of sugar so that it was incorporated well and started to cream together. I added one egg to the mixer and beat it for a minute or so, to make it light and fluffy. After that I added about a third of a cup of the flour mixture and I lightly folded it into the egg mixture with a wooden spoon. I was trying to make sure not to over mix it which I tend to do, which makes my cakes dense.. whoop! After the flour mixture I added in about half of my milk (half of a 1/3 of a cup). I folded it in to the mixture in about 8 strokes, then added another 1/3 of a cup of flour. I lightly folded it in again until ti was incorporated, added the rest of the milk, then threw in the last bit of the flour. The key that I was remembering was that my professor told us that lumps are okay. The cake is gonna bake out and smooth over so as long as it's relatively mixed it's going to be alright. Over mixing is a cake killer so don't do it! 

I baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes then took it out. I was a little afraid so I let it cook for 10 or so minutes and then had my teacher flip it over. It was a success! Maybe a little sweet but everyone that tried it said it tasted great so mission accomplished! 

ROC - Bar Pizza

I've been craving pizza like crazy lately but healthy Emily keeps fighting the urge to. Until this week! Monday class was a rough night so a few of my friends and I decided to go to the bar nearby and get a drink and some food. Because two and a half weeks left of undergrad means let's just do work and not eat all day. Classic college.

Well, we all got drinks and when it came time to order food, I recalled that one of my friends mentioned that the buffalo chicken pizza at this bar is really good. Of course this meant that I had to order it because it's a Monday night and we're at a bar drinking because class was just awful and being healthy doesn't matter so pizza. 

This pizza ended up being really good. It was a blue cheese topped pizza with crispy chicken pieces on top and a hint of buffalo sauce that was just the right amount. Solid. It totally hit my craving perfectly and I was super happy by the end of the night. Monday just redeemed itself. 

ROC - Tap and Mallet

For one of my roomie's 22nd birthdays we went to a place here in Rochester called Tap and Mallet. It's a super cute, kinda rustic feeling place. It's the second time I've been there and the first was great. They have amazing fish fry there. 

This time around I ordered the Shrimp Po Boy with a side of fries. I'm addicted to the french fries here. They're perfectly seasoned and a good cut. Yum!  

The po boy was not what I was expecting. It was pretty sizable but the bread was nothing special. Just your average french roll. The popcorn shrimp was also not expected but it was pretty good. 

Overall, the sandwich was alright. There was a sort of chili aioli that was great but I wouldn't order the sandwich again. The fries however, I would go back for. And the fish fry.. I would just order the fish fry again...   

Vermonster Time of the Year

That's right! It was that time of the year again! Annual new e-board/old e-board Vermonster night. Turns out most of new e-board is made up of old e-board minus me and PR because the two of us are leaving. So we obtained 1 new person for now and secretary will be secretary/treasurer for next year. This means theres 6 of us in both e-boards. But old PR got sick the night of the Vermonster so there was 5 of us to eat this thing. Challenge kind of accepted skeptically. 

5 people, 20 scoops of Ice Cream, 4 toppings, chocolate chip cookies, a brownie, hot fudge, and whipped cream like crazy. 

Let's just say.. we tried. And even though there was only 5 of us I think we did pretty well!  

We managed to avoid another chunky monkey fiasco and nixed it this year. We did have some debate over my strawberry cheesecake as well as the coffee and the mint chocolate chip but in the end it was all pretty good. I think if PR wasn't sick we actually might've been able to finish it this time around! 

This is as far as we got after about 45 minutes which I think is pretty good. Also, no pizza this year... but I think it was alright without it.

Cinnamon Twists!

The sweets just keep on coming! Turns out "bread" day also includes cinnamon rolls and donuts and things of the like. So that's what I ended up making, Cinnamon Twists! 

First off I had to make a sweet dough. To start off I had to 'scald 1/2 cup of milk' which I took as simmering on a pot. Then I stirred in 1/2 cup of sugar, 1.5tsp salt, and 1/4 cup of shortening and cooled the mixture. In another bowl with 1/2 cup of warm water I stirred in 2 packs of active dry yeast, until it dissolved. I added two beaten eggs, and 3 cups of sifted flour. I beat this all together until it was smooth then I slowly stirred in another cup of flour. (The recipe calls for 2 cups but I felt the dough was dry enough with just one cup). I kneaded the dough on a floured counter until it was smooth, put it in a greased bowl, and rushed it on top with soft shortening. I covered it with plastic wrap, then but it in the proofing box that we had in class that was set to around 100 degrees. After about an hour took it out.

I split this dough recipe in half with another one of my friends in the class. So with my half i rolled it out flat on my floured counter to make about a 12x12 square of dough. I brushed it with 1/4 cup of melted margarine. I made a cinnamon sugar mixture with 1 cup of sugar and 1 tbsp of cinnamon. I sprinkled about 3 tbsp of this cinnamon sugar on the center third of the of the dough then folded 1/3 of the dough over the center. I sprinkled 3 more tbsp of cinnamon sugar on top. Then i folded the last third over the 2 layers. I cut the dough into about 1in strips and took hold of each end of the strip and twisted tightly in opposite directions. I placed them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper on top and sprinkled the rest of the cinnamon sugar on top and covered the whole tray with plastic. I put it back in the warm proofing box for another 20 or 30mins. Then they bake in an 350 degree oven for 25mins. 

I didn't eat them right away which was my mistake because when I got to one later that night it was a little cold and dense. Not bad though. I'm sure, right out of the oven it would've been great!  

Nailed It!!

April 21st was my cooking practical in class so we all walked into class, got recipes for a main course, and had to know how to cook the side dish that the professor placed with it. Each sheet of paper had a time that we had to serve. No later and no earlier. 

I got salmon cooked in paper with a side of brown rice pilaf. Served an hour an a half into class. Score.

I practice the brown rice pilaf recipe twice before and had the dish memorized. I made the steamed fish in paper in class with the halibut. I just had to do it over again with salmon. I was set. 

Everything was perfect. I got 12/12 all the way down the rubric. Perfect score. I was so happy with myself. I can't believe it did it. Felt incredible. 

I made one for the professor and there was one extra for me to take home. So I brought it home home. Tuesdays are the days my dad is home to make dinner so I still go home to eat with the family almost every week. 

Let's just say I'm glad my dad was not the chef in charge of grading me because he didn't think my dish was so perfect. We spend dinner with him lecturing me about the fundamentals of correctly cooking brown rice. Then he took one bite of my salmon, and told me how to make it better, aka how to make it more chinese. 

I know theres this whole running joke/meme about asian Tiger Moms and all that hilarious stuff that's kinda true, but apply that to my dad instead. This is why I'm so needy and weird. Thanks dad... I tried... 

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! 

Fish (Halibut) en Papilloute

That's right! I got to cook fish in parchment paper. It was so cool! 

I've seen this technique before but I've never actually done it, and turns out - it's super easy! 

We had a lot of Halibut so we decided we would use that which worked out fine. We cut a giant heart out of parchment paper (apparently some of the boys had difficulties with that part while it seemed perfectly logical to just about all of the girls in class...). We rubbed half of the heart with butter and oil to coat it, layered julienne strips of red pepper, carrots, celery, and zucchini near the center of the half. we placed the raw halibut fillet on top of these vegetables. Sprinkled around strips of leeks, then topped the fish with 3 or 4 rounds of jalapeño and then lemon slices. Then we just folded the paper over and then folded the edges together tightly. We baked the envelopes at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Then there was the great unveiling! We cut open the paper pouches and the halibut was perfect and flakey! it was so simple I can't believe it. Why doesn't everyone steam fish like this? 

Braised Balsamic Steak

What's great about this dish is that it's one of those things that you start, then you walk away for an hour while it cooks. Read a book (if people still do that.. ) or something.

We started off with a 3lb cut of thick cut of beef (Chuck roast or Sirloin or something). We rinsed it quickly with water then pat it dry. We dredged it in seasoned flour then quickly seared it in a pan with 2tbs of smoking hot basing oil. Once all sides were nice and brown we took it out of the pan and set it aside. 

We turned down the heat, then added 4 large minced shallots and 4 tbsp of sundried tomato paste and sauteed them until they started turning golden brown. We deglazed the pan with 1/2 cup of dark red wine, then once it started boiling we added 1 1/2 cups of beef stock and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar. We brought up the heat a little, added the beef back into the pan, and covered it with a lid to simmer for an hour. I made sure to flip it every 20 or so minutes but besides that, it stays on the stove simmering with the lid on. 

After an hour the liquid in the pan was reduced nicely, we pulled the meat out, and let it rest for 7ish minutes before cutting into it. Its good meat. With a side of rice or mashed potatoes, this stuff soars. 

Roasted Baby Potatoes

When we made the rack of lamb we had some time to make roasted potatoes also! Of course I ate all of them in class so when I got home later with left over lamb I wanted to make more potatoes. 

I think I have a potato addiction or sorts... 

Anyways, I went to the grocery store (shout out to Wegmans!) and found a cool bag of mixed baby potatoes (yellow, red, and purple) I decided to try. I got home, quartered the potatoes, and coated them in olive oil, rosemary, salt and I think some thyme (I just raided my pantry for spices and didn't think too much about it). 

I threw them in a 400 degree oven for I believe 40minutes. Then proceeded to sit on the kitchen counter and eat half of them while doing homework. Not even a little bit sorry. If I gave up potatoes, I would probably drop so much weight but man would I be sad. 

Rack of Lamb

First time making rack of lamb though it wasn't my first time eating it. Lamb is awesome, I'm not gonna lie. I was pretty excited to get to make it and it turned out pretty awesome!

In terms of cooking we seared the lamb on all sides first. Then we packed on our herb mixture on the top of the rack (the not bone side). This herb mixture was 1/4cup of fresh basil leaves, 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2tbsp minced fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves, and 1 clove of garlic all processed in the food processor with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. 

We put the rack in a 375 degree oven until it reached an internal temp around 130 (ish.. sorry not to be exact..) 

When the lamb was around that internal temp we pulled it out of the oven and packed it with our breadcrumb mixture. This was 1 slice of white bread, 2tbs parmesan cheese, 1 minced shallot, 1 tbs olive oil and salt and pepper in the food processor. We put the lamb back in the oven and finished cooking it. (Internal temp of about 165)

The original recipe had us made the bread crumb mixture, then the herb mixture, then start searing the lamb so if that's the way you wanna try it. It works. Our lab came out the perfect done-ness with just enough rawness in the middle that the lamb was super soft and tender. We also made a side of roasted potatoes but I'll talk about that in the next post. 

Easy to say I love lamb. I wish I could have it all the time.