Waffle

I made myself hungry. So I found a solution.

Dumpling Night

One of many dumpling nights that I've had lately - I actually didn't do any of the cooking other than prepping the sauces (garlic & soy sauce and garlic & vinegar w/ hot sauce), but thanks to Instagram (how did I live without it before???), I have some photos I wanted to share from the meal.

And now that I've successfully made myself hungry again by looking at these pictures again...I'm off to find some food! Perhaps an Ego Waffle with chocolate chips? I think yes...

love love LOVE garlic

 

 

We also had some fish ball (teehee) soup

Christmas Cookies

About a month ago I found the 12 days of cookie recipes for the holidays as a great idea for coworker gifts but never got around to my version of the cookies.

While I didn't actually end up making 12 different versions, I did end up with 4 types of cookies:

Candy Cane Blossoms Cookies (except I used Kisses w/ Almonds b/c I couldn't find the peppermint ones)

Oatmeal Cherry Pecan Cookies (except I used Craisins, Raisins & Walnut)

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies (pretty much the only one where I followed the recipe)

Lemon Meringue Cookies (but without the lemon filling because I knew I'd have too much left over)

     

Start & Finish of the Sugar Blossom Cookies 

(I call them sugar because really, that's what they mostly are...even though the colored granulated sugar didn't cover the cookies as well as I'd hoped it would).

Start & Finish of the Oatmeal Cookies

I mean, how do you go wrong with any type of oatmeal cookie, right???

Let it be known, that while these are not difficult cookies to make, they are very much TIME CONSUMING!!!

A result of over an hour or two of chilling the dough in the fridge

  + = 

Peppermint Filling!

So many cookies...so so many... 

I started experimenting with Instagram for these cookies b/c whipped egg whites look so cool...

Look ma, no hands!

So pale...someone isn't getting enough sun...

Lookit how beautiful and plentiful they look!

Mini Lemon Meringues

To Try - Cookie Bowls

Just saw read this handy dandy article on The Daily Buzz -  "25 Clever Ideas to Make Life Easier" and while I plan on trying many of these creative and/or space saving ideas, this one in particular caught my eye. It's food related of course, # 21 - Turn your muffin pan upside down and bake cookie-dough over the top for cookie bowls in which you can add fruit, ice-cream...or ANYTHING YOUR HEART DESIRES!!!

But seriously - anyone care for a cookie bowl of ice-cream sometime soon?

The recipe doesn't seem to call for any chocolate chips, but the picture looks like there's some kind of chocolate going on...perhaps I'll throw in some chocolate shavings when making the dough just for kicks.

Chocolate Covered...

...strawberries & clementines.

I was first moved by the desire to cook something last night when all I ended up doing was eating and watching tv on the couch all night...literally, I only got up to get more food or pee. Way to start the new year, right?

Today I was a bit more productive and actually dragged my butt to the gym, which was packed with new members and their freshly made New Year's resolutions to lose weight/be healthy. We'll see how long that lasts for.

When I came home, I noticed a box of strawberries sitting on the table, and [insert lightbulb moment here], I was inspired to cover them in chocolate! And cover them I did.

Then since I had some extra melted chocolate (I really didn't plan things very well...or at all rather), I grabbed a few clementines that happened to be lying around, and proceeded to dunk them in the remaining chocolate.

A few tips for melting chocolate...ok, really just one - adding a touch of milk helps to get the smooth texture necessary for successful fruit dipping. Otherwise, may turn out slightly grainy for some reason...maybe due to bad timing for heat settings? Regardless, the milk definitely helped!

Still grainy melted chocolate pre-milk

The drizzling of the white chocolate didn't work out quite as well, as I was starting to grow a bit impatient at this point, but I'm sure they'll taste the same anyway.

Happy 2012! It's going to be a most awesome year!

Helloooo yumminess!

The "overflow" of strawberries ended up on their own small plate
(again, due to poor planning, or lack thereof)

They look like mini clementine-zebras, no?

Pizza Competition

What's a family friend holiday gathering without some friendly competition? Iron Chef Holiday Series, theme: Pizza...COMMENCE!

While the parentals were out on a 3 hr walk post-croissant breakfast sandwiches made by Red Apple Teaching (apparently teachers can also cook), we "kids" took this time to play some Alaska Monopoly while watching Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakel.

After the movie, we went for some speed grocery shopping for our "secret ingredients" - there was a lot of dance involved on the way there, while we were there, and after we got back...our pizzas were made with DANCE!

The result? Smashed potato pizza (mine...and the ultimate winner!!!), butter & meats, white pizza and "delicioso" pizza (fangdrea).

I think we might be ready to open our own pizzeria! And then we had some David's fruit tart. Final result: Full and satisfied.