Cooking adventures!

Today I made this beautiful (if I do say so myself) little cake for my mother's birthday. It is full of rich chocolatey goodness covered in chocolate ganache and almonds. Yum!

But seriously, it could not be simpler or more classy. Though I made about thirty dishes, I did this in just over an hour between classes. Worth it? Yes.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
(adapted from a recipe from KirbieCravings.com via foodgawker.com)

Cake:
7 oz semisweet or milk chocolate chips (I used bittersweet and added about a 1/4 c. sugar)
1/4 c. butter
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract/dark rum/orange extract/whatever you feel like (optional)

Ganache:
1 c. heavy cream
9 oz chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a 6-7" round pan with parchment paper (cake will stick to a greased-only pan).

Microwave chocolate and butter in 30-second intervals, stirring between each go, until melted and smooth (probably about 1 - 1.5 minutes). Meanwhile, beat eggs at high speed for about 7 minutes until almost tripled in size. Add egg mixture by thirds into chocolate, folding carefully until no egg streaks remain.

Pour into pan and bake for 22-25 mins, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Will not rise very much.

Ganache: Heat cream over medium heat until just boiling. Pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add powdered sugar for sweetness or thickness. (You can also cool it in the fridge and then whip it for a lighter frosting.) When cake has cooled slightly, poor over it starting in the middle and working toward edges.

Add chopped almonds and powdered sugar (or orange peel, or sprinkles, or whatever floats your boat). EAT WITH A VENGEANCE!

______________________

I also recently made replicas of Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits. I've never had the real thing, so I'm not sure how close they actually come to the real thing, but they were extremely good. Worth making if you're craving deliciousness.

This is actually the recipe I used (or a censored version of it...ha. Thanks Imgur.)

4 c. Bisquick
1 1/3 c. water
4 oz shredded sharp cheddar




Mix!





Bake @ 375F for 10-12min

Combine:
1/2 c. melted butter
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp salt
black pepper

Brush as it comes out of the oven!

EAT!

Banananananana

SO MUCH BANANA IN MY DORM ROOM. O_O

It's seriously a little ridiculous. 

We have bananas, banana pudding, banana bread (right), and banana chocolate chip bars (left).

OH YES!

Seriously, though. You should make the banana chocolate chip bars. It's a freakin' banana miracle.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars

3/4 cup butter

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla 

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)

1 3/4 cup flour (all-purpose or wheat)

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chip (any variety)

To make: Cream butter and ALL THE SUGAR! With one hand, gracefully break the egg into the bowl. Do a backflip. Add vanilla (with generosity). Throw in flour, baking powder, and salt and mix together. Add as much chocolate as your heart desires. Bake for 20+ minutes (seriously, it takes forever) at 350F in any cake pan, preferably one that's unicorn shaped. Eat with your face. 

On another good note, I am all registered for classes next semester! :D God I love early Honors registration. 

I am taking American Literature from 1870 to Present, Advanced Readings in French Literature, Organizational Behavior, Honors Technical Writing, and Physics of the Solar System. Wheehoo! 

PS - My professors are Conn for American Lit, Lawler for Physics, Powell for Organization, and Kaplan for French, in case you know anything about any of them (I'm looking at you, Alex). 

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Muffins!

I made these muffins yesterday in an attempt to bring some sunshine back into an otherwise dreary day. And it worked! They are freaking delicious, perfect with their dense but not too sweet flavor, fresh strawberries, and just enough chocolate! Yum!

So, without further ado, MAKE THESE MUFFINS!

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I used all-purpose, but there's no rule against whole wheat!)

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 egg

1 cup sugar

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 1/4 cups sour cream or natural Greek yogurt (I used the yogurt with no problems)

1 cup(ish) fresh strawberries or thawed frozen (I used fresh and you can just kind of guestimate based on how much strawberry goodness you want in each muffin)

3/4 cup chocolate chip of your choice (semi-sweet was nice)

Chocolate drizzle:

     3 Tbsp chocolate chips

     1/2 Tbsp butter

Directions:

Oven: 425F

Pan: Large muffin tin, lined and greased and ready to go! (Although honestly I always do this last...hehe)

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in your largest bowl. This shall henceforth be known as the "dry bowl". 

Now in your second largest bowl, whisk (ahem, I definitely just used a wooden spoon) the egg until yolk and white are just combined and lightish yellow. Dump in the sugar and combine. Add the butter in three additions, whisking together sloooooooowly. Then gently add in the sour cream/yogurt and mix until just combined. Do not overmix! This is very important. I don't know why, but it is. This is henceforth known as the "wet bowl".

Add the strawberries and chocolate chips to the dry bowl and mix up until the strawberries look weird all covered in flour. It's okay. That's good. Then slowly dump the contents of the wet bowl into the dry bowl in three additions, and fold slowly and carefully until all the dry ingredients are wet. Again, don't overmix. This batter will be quite thick. 

After that, you know the drill--spoon batter into muffin tins, but this time make sure you fill them all the way up. The batter won't rise an incredible amount so you want the tins pretty full. Then bake them at 425F for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350F and bake for another 20-22 minutes. Let them cool for five minutes while you melt the butter and chocolate together (I had a stupid amount of trouble with this--shut up) and then drizzle (or plop) the mixture over the muffins. When they've cooled a bit longer, invite your friends over and eat them all! It'll probably make about a dozen muffins. 

Enjoy!

302 cal/muffin (1/12 of recipe)
With healthy substitutions (butter > apple sauce, fat-free sour cream, sugar substitute, no chocolate drizzle) = 169 cal/muffin (1/12 of recipe)

(From Sally's Baking Addiction)

(Thanks Mom for successfully melting the chocolate and putting it on the cupcakes.)

Playful Parties and Plentiful Picnics!

This is the masterpiece with which we celebrated the birth and subsequent adulthood of two of my favorite people: the lovely Crystina Renteria and the incredible Jackson Strecher:

The lobster's name is Armand and he decorated Jena's hair for most of the night.

And there's nothing like a beautiful picnic followed by a dip in a (ridiculously pool-like) fountain with three wonderful (if somewhat insane) people!

  

Also, my wonderful kitten Sue has something to say:

)(999jkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk]g5vbe\r=dgvbwdspc -0v

Word.

Day 28: Adventures in Fruit Pickin' and Park-n-Floatin'

We started today with a trip to Chyreen Farm, a pick-your-own fruit farm with an abundant bounty of black currants and gooseberries. Luckily it wasn't raining, so we were able to pick almost 3 pounds (or was it kilograms?) of both fruits, which you can see me carrying below :)

Then we went down into Falmouth and rented a small boat to take out for four hours. We (my dad, mostly) drove the poor little 6-horsepower thing all over the bay (in the freezing wind) to Smuggler's Cottage, the cute little coastline pub we've been coming to forever. Recently, though, it has changed hands and lost some of its homey charm, though the food was still good. The significance of the place, actually, is that Eisenhower stopped there to have a meeting when all the boats converged there to set out for D-Day. So that was nice. Then we took it back, trying desperately to beat the high tide. We made it.

When we got home, my grandmother and I made black currant jam. It's actually not difficult. Just a cup and a half of water boiling with a pound of black currants for twenty minutes, then for ten minutes after adding four cups of sugar. We put them into four hot jam jars, and tomorrow they will be cool and ready to eat! I will also be taking some home with me, of course. :)

And that's about it. I have four busy days left before I take the train up to London for a night and leave the next day. Phew! It'll be nice to be home. :)

Day 20: Crashing Cafés, Hopping Trains, and

McDonalds ice cream sucks. I remember thinking that years and years ago, the last time I had it, but I decided to give this "classy" McCafe a second chance, as, after my travel- and waiting-filled day, it is the only food place near the hostel and I am starving.

Also I just looked to my left and saw a hefty woman grope her equally hefty boyfriend's crotch. Oh god. McDonald's. O_O

I have spent an inordinate amount of today sitting quietly in cafe corners, far outstaying my I-bought-your-food right to a seat. I had to leave the hostel at ten but my train for Liverpool didn't leave til four thirty and I've done everything in Stratford worth doing. So I did laundry. And went to a used bookshop. Both things I somehow thought would take more time, but I still managed to sit in Starbucks for an hour, The Tea Room Cafe for two hours, and the train station for three. And then, of course, spend an hour and a half on one train, half an hour in another station, then two hours on yet another train. And after navigating my way to the hostel dragging my stupid luggage, sitting in Mcdonalds. Stealing their Internet (hey, it's free) and eating their almost-water lettuce and a Cadbury McFlurry (sadly, the two healthiest things on the menu).

But on the bright side, I bought two books for £4! Seriously, why don't they sell $2 books in the US? They're new books too, and in good condition. I read one today, while I was doing all the sitting and waiting, and that's where the glass comes in.

The book I read is called The Girl With the Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. It was a very mature, beautiful, sad, and magical book - not because of its content really, which encompasses fantastical beasts (that aren't actually that important contextually but have a more subtle metaphorical role) and death and illness and love and how the past haunts the present (but only because the present unwittingly lets it) - but because of the delicacy, sensitivity, and honesty with which it was written. I have never read a book quite like it (and never will again, I suspect) and it's hard to say I enjoyed the experience. I loved the book, yes - adored it, even - but it's not an easy story to wrap yourself around. On the one hand it's a painfully true love story between a reclusive young man who can't stand the idea of touching people and a once-adventurous girl whose feet, to her immense confusion, are turning into glass. The setting is a remote British isle riddled with strange, inexplicable things hiding in the bogs that go unnoticed except by the odd few, whom this story concerns. Despite the elements of fantasy, this is not a fantastical book. At times it can be uncomfortable in its rawness, it's incisiveness into these characters' struggling souls as they face every unglamorous new emotion possible, where before they were carefree and numb, with all the pain of the past buried under the distractions of seclusion and routine. A truly, truly fascinating and moving book. Worth reading if you like to be challenged and left with questions you otherwise would not have thought to ask yourself. Strangely beautiful, quietly powerful, vibrantly colorless, and unfailingly even-toned. A work of literary merit.

Day 15: The Alps and Driving to Hiedelburg

Today was rather adventurous (except, of course, the six hours of driving). Let me recount, including all the breathtaking, vomit-inducing, and hungry-making details.

When I woke up (or more, when i gave up on the whole sleep thing) in Kitzbuhel it was raining, the town church outside my window was making an unholy fuss about it being seven o'clock, and my head was killing me. You see, despite it's many merits, the hotel Tiefenbrunner has possibly the hardest beds I've ever slept on. Dad, never sleep there.

But it had a lovely breakfast with a gorgeous assortment of granolas and cereals and meusli and fruits. And also more of those scrambled eggs. Seriously, what does Europe put in their scrambled eggs that make them so damn good? I thought The US was supposed to be on top of the "American breakfast" thing.

Anyway, it was still cloudy when we left, so we decided to hit the road instead of going up the mountain in the cable car. But as we were driving the clouds cleared miraculously (stupid clouds), so we turned around and sped back into town. After some tense disputes with the ticket lady about what the definition of "student ID" was and whether I really was 18, we hopped on a car and went to the top (1900 meters up?) where we then hiked downhill through an Alpine garden to the next station. The evidence of this adventure is below, including my encounter with a curious cow on the roadside. The other cows ignored me, but this one seemed to be very friendly and think I was interesting. Nice cow. We also saw a deer and some kind of hawk.

Fast forward several hours and we're in the road again. We stop for lunch at a rest station and I get a croissant. When I pull off a piece of it I discover that its not just any croissant - it's a ham and cheese croissant! I eat the piece and go in for another bite - only to glimpse, in one horrifying moment, a fat black fly living inside the pastry.

Oh my god. I don't even want to think about that anymore. :-S

You can imagine how difficult it was to explain to the German boys who'd sold it to me. But yeah. That whole situation was awful and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to eat a ham and cheese croissant again. Oh god.

So after that rattling incident, we continued on until we reached Hiedelburg, where we are now. We found dinner at a delicious Kurdish restaurant down the street. You know how good Mexican food is in Texas? Well, Middle Eastern food is that way here, because Arabic people are the main immigrants. Mmmmm. I love Middle Eastern food. :) And no insects! :D

So yeah. Now I'm sitting on a bed that is about as wide as my bed is long and is hopefully more comfortable than the one in Kitzbuhel. Tomorrow, we go back to Brussels, completing our European Circuit, and from there back to London, where I will strike out on my own the day after tomorrow. Hopefully that will go well. Ahem.

Stay tuned! :)

Day 14: Kitzbuhel, City of Oh-Wait-This-is-Definitely-a-Village

And quite a cute one at that! After driving from Vienna all up into the Alps (past Hitler's infamous Eagle's Nest) and stopping at a breathtaking mountain lake at Zell am See and to get fresh strawberries, we arrived at this adorable little fold in the mountains containing this gorgeous little retreat, quite in contrast, as you can see, to my previous adventures on this trip.

We're staying at a Fancypants hotel - the Tiefenbrunner, where everything is decorated like a lodge and the staff wear traditional Austrian dress (think liederhosen and the female version). Below you can see the view from my window (as well as my window!) and the fancy light and fancy key.

After checking in we wandered around a bit and found, in the churchyard, the most fascinating cemetery. Each gravesite contains, at the foot of a wrought iron grave marker, A small 3' x 4' garden plot, each one unique and lovingly tended, obviously by the family of the deceased and the community at large. The plots are usually family plots, dating as far back as the 1800s and as recent as this year. Just being there for twenty minutes, we saw at least six people tending various plots. It was truly a neat concept, somehow so much more respectful and caring than the standard grey rock in the middle of a field of grey rocks. This cemetery was a happy place; perhaps mournful, perhaps full of death, but also overflowing - literally - with life. Also, it contained the most creative and personal grave stone I have ever seen - see the miniature mountaineering man below.

Lastly, I feel I must record for you the magnificent four-course meal we had in the hotel. It was a set menu with limited choices, but oh! It was delicious.

Melon with prosciutto (I only ate the ham)

French Onion soup (amazing!)

Salad bar with about a dozen different gourmet vinegars and oils and plenty of unique add-ins & a make-your-own bread basket with French baguette, seeded rolls, German black bread, and others

Spaghetti with basil, olive oil, and garlic (my choice out of three fancier meals, but it was surprisingly flavorful!)

Apricot strudel with vanilla ice cream and red currants (yummmmm!)

Near-perfect meal for a hungry Ariel. :)

Kinder Egg Inventory

On a side note, I bought a bunch of Kinder Eggs in Brussels and I've eaten two so far. In the first one I got a stupid little ripoff Barbie cell phone that looked like luggage. So that was disappointing.

ButTHEN! Today I had another one and guesswhatguesswhat?!?! I GOT A FUZZY BABY RHINO!!!! 8-D

Look at how cyoooot he is!

UPDATE: Look at my new Kinder buddies! :D I am suddenly so lucky!

(yes, that is a very tall giraffe and a tiny polar bear)

UPDATE (again): Apparently my luck has run out. I got a stupid slutfairy whose barely wearing underwear (and you can tell). -_-

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: My last Kinder Egg was hiding a baby lion! I have half the collection now. I just need a baby elephant, hippo, and panda! But my lion is cute, even if he's got demon eyes. :)

Day 5: Amsterdam, City of Water, Brothels, and Fine Art

You are probably not aware that a normal Dutch breakfast always includes sprinkles. In fact, our hotel breakfast gave us the option of six different kinds, all in little boxes to spread on your bread: milk chocolate bits, milk chocolate shavings, dark chocolate bits, dark chocolate shavings, colorful bits, and smaller colorful bits. In order to keep with local customs, I ate a breakfast of kiwis and milk chocolate sprinkles on a baguette. And it was surprisingly lovely. :)

After breakfast we caught the tram into town and visited the famous Reijk Museum, home of many many Rembrandts (and a lot of stuff by other people, none of whom I recognized--not that I am an art connoisseur--but a few of whom I liked) including The Night Watch, which was gigantic and vaguely cute. My favorite part, though, was a small exhibition at the end about etchings. I thought they were beautiful and intricate and masterful and a lot more interesting than the paintings, in my opinion. There are some pictures of my favorites below. Also, an amazing doll house made in the 18th (?) century. (Again, sorry I can't put them throughout the post...basically the only drawback of mobile blogging.)

After that we went on a canal tour of the city, and we had a very nice captain who definitely had the humor of the Dutch - very dry and quiet, so it takes you a second to realize that it was a joke, but hilarious in a laugh-to-yourself-for-hours kind of way. We saw all the oldest parts of Amsterdam this way: many beautiful houses (including the narrowest one at 1 meter wide! Look for it in the pictures below!), the mayor's house, the oldest bridge, the smallest canal, the view of one of Monet's paintings, electric smart cars that you can rent hourly, and a lot a lot of adorable houseboats. We also went our to the bay and saw a recreation of a 17th century shipping vessel built voluntarily by unemployed people and a bunch of 100+ year old sailing ships, one of which our captain lived on and sailed. It was really surprisingly interesting.

Then we found Rembrandt's house, which he lived and worked in for fourteen years, and at one time was Holland's biggest art studio. They had refurnished it based on documents from his time to look just like how he had it (or pretty close, at least). The walls were covered in paintings and there was a room full of random artifacts - shells and swords and busts and African things. They had a demonstration of how he did his etchings and one on how he mixed his paint and set up his canvas. Still, I really loved the almost-complete collection of Rembrandt's etchings at the end. His portraits are especially beautiful, and some of my favorites are below.

Next we...well. Our destination was the Old Church, the oldest building in Amsterdam, built in the 1100s. But the problem was that the Old Church is right in the middle of the Red Light District. This should strike you as ironic - a gigantic, grand church marking the way to the brothels from the very edge of the city. Walking through it was very intimidating; every building was fronted with glass doors covered in curtains, which would occasionally be drawn back by women in various shades of barely-clothed making awkward eye contact with everyone who passed by. The square was full of about 75% male, most of them tourists coming to gawk. Most of the locals, male or female, just walked by, shaking their heads and smiling at the women. I felt weird - it's obviously such a man-oriented kind of place, not at all somewhere I ever want to be, but it was interesting to see. You know, in general I am a believer in an It's-your-life philosophy, i.e. you can do whatever you want to yourself as long as you don't affect people around you. If those women want to be prostitutes, fine, whatever, they have the right. They're not the part that bothered me, though I wonder why anyone would choose that life. But there's something creepy and vaguely sick about people coming and staring and pointing and laughing at these women who are displayed behind windows like merchandise. It's just...ugh. :-S

Oh well. It's all part of the experience, part of the city of Amsterdam. I'm glad I saw that side of it too, though thankfully not in too much detail. And maybe this isn't something that I was expecting to post about in my blog, but hey - if you want to travel vicariously with me through Europe, you're gonna get the bad right along with the good just like me. So deal with it. :)

Oh, and also, we went to the best freaking Italian food restaurant ever - Lo Stivales d'Or - where I ate olive bread with herbed garlic butter, cheesy endives, and the most perfect spaghetti carbonara ever. So yeah, if you're ever in Amsterdam... :)

Now, to Berlin!