Apple Streusel Cake

I found this recipe in a cookbook of mine and was originally called Apple Streusel Bars, but after I made it for the first time and changed a few things since, it has become what is known know by

Apple Streusel Cake
prep time: 30-60 minutes
bake time: 45-60 minutes

Batter:
1/2 cup of soften unsalted butter
3/4 cup of superfine sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced

Streusel Topping:
Normally I use this recipe
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnimon
2 tbsp melted butter

But for the pictured above, I had leftover graham cracker crumbs, so I did this:
1 cup or 1 pan of crushed graham crackers
2 tbsp of superfine sugar
3-4 tbsp melted butter


Set the oven to 350 F. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla extract. Gradually mix in the eggs. Sift the flour in and fold evenly. Finally, stir in the apples

Spread in a 9x9 in pan. For the topping, mix the graham cracker crumbs with the sugar. Add the melted butter and mix. Hopefully there was enough butter to make little clumps of topping (I ran out of butter so I only used 2 tbsp when I made my topping, so it was majority just crumbs than streusel-ish toppings). Sprinkle the batter with the toppings and bake for 44-45 minutes.

Update Three Months Too Late

^^;

I'll give you all the short excuse: Dad and I fell into a routine of making the same things every week with a little twist each time, so it was never worth posting again. A week before my mother came home, I finally earned a job and came home too tired to try cooking with my dad. As the month passed by, I never kept up with how to make things for dinner. For my own sake, I asked, but I wasn't able to stand with the chef and make dinner side by side. And then there was the fact that this the first summer my little brother didn't have continuous camps throughout the summer and so with me gone at least 8 hours a day because of work, he took temporary ownership of my laptop which is the only computer in the house that I have the patience for. I hardly ever have time to check my emails and keep up with Facebook, let alone update my lonely blog :(

But don't worry. School starts in a few weeks and I'll be cooking for myself and having the freedom to snap my camera away and post any creations I can. I can't promise consistent updates, but that's my goal. This does sound like a fun idea, and I truly do want to keep up with this.

Egg Drop Soup

It pays off to have your dad work at his brother's restaurant for years before he got married. That way he make awesome dishes like this: EGG DROP SOUP

Who doesn't like egg drop soup? And you can have it as plain and simple with nothing but the eggs or extravagant as you want. We like to have other stuff in our soup and last night we had shrimp and tofu in ours. You can always put other things, like corn or cubed ham.

Shrimp and Tofu Egg Drop Soup


prep time: 10 min
cook time: 20 min
servings: 3 meals or 7-8 appetizers

2 cans chicken broth, low sodium

5 eggs

raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into bite size, depending the size of the shrimp

1 pkg tofu

soy sauce

2 generous tbsp cornstarch

water

Start by heating the 2 cans of chicken broth in a large pot over medium heat. Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch cubes and add it to the pot. Turn the heat up to medium-high. One tbsp at a time, add about 3-4 of soy sauce to the pot, stirring and tasting in between. Dad told me it was to give the soup its color, but might as well take advantage of the flavor it gives as well. In a bowl, combine the cornstarch with about 1/3 cup of water and stir it to it's all dissolved. While stirring, slowly pour the mixture in. Beat all the eggs as well as possible. Slowly pour the eggs in while stirring to get that light, flowing look in the eggs. Stir for another minute to make sure the eggs have all solidified. Add the shrimp. Don't overcook the shrimp or they'll get all tough. And there you are! I love it anytime my dad makes this :)

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! I made this wonderful cheesecake once again for a gift for a friend. This is another recipe that a friend gave me, the same one who gave me the Zuchinni Spaghetti recipe. One day last spring, we had a free afternoon, so we ran to the store to gather everything and went back to his apartment and made it. It was good back then, but today, WOW, it was amazing. I wish I could have taken a picture of the process, but I was making it late at night and I kept forgetting to take a picture of the finished product. Sadly (or maybe not), it was mostly devoured at a Mother's Day family party, so no pictures to share :(

It's a rather creamy cheesecake, so if you have a preference for a firm cheesecake, you might want to try and fiddle around with the recipe. I wish I could give some suggestions to making a firm cheesecake, but I'm not very experienced with cheesecake making to know.

Again, this isn't my recipe, but a friend's and I don't know where he or his mom got it from, so I'll just credit them.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

prep time: Took me about 45 min

Crust:
1/4 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 12 cookies)
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
1 packet (1/4 oz) powered unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup milk
2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups slightly crushed Oreos (about 16)
1 cup whipping cream (35%), whipped

Crust: In a bowl, mix cookie crumbs and butter. Press into the bottom of an non-greased, 9 in springform pan and refrigerate.

Filling: Beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high until very smooth. In a separate saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over milk and stir over low heat until completely dissolved. Let it cook slightly, but don't let the gelatin harden any. Pour it over the cream cheese mix and continue beating. Add vanilla while still beating. Fold in whipped cream and cookies with a spatula. Don't beat it or it won't be quite as light and airy. Fold it gently and pour over crust. Smooth it out, cover, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.

Some decorating options is to top it with whipped cream and sprinkle more crumbled Oreos on top before serving.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. :)

Clam Chowder Pasta

I can't believe I forgot about this! This is another favorite that my brothers and I love and it's so quick to make too! I don't know when my mom came up with this idea, but for as long as I can remember, she would serve us basically Campbell's clam chowder soup with spaghetti. My assumption is that as an immigrant in the states, she didn't know what was Alfredo sauce and came up with her own substitute for the creamy sauce. I don't really know if that's true; maybe it was simply a stroke of genius to come up with this idea.

Anyways, I make this a lot at school and you can add a lot of other ingredients to make it more interesting and to suite your preference. And you don't even have to use clam chowder. We just use it time and time again because we love clam chowder and always order it at any seafood restaurant we go to.

Clam Chowder Pasta
There are a lot of variations what we've taken on to this, but I'll give you the recipe for how I did today for dinner.

prep time: 10 min
cook time: 10 min
servings: 3-4

1/2 pkg linguine pasta

2 cans Campbell's Chunky Clam Chowder

1/2 lb raw shrimp, thawed

1 can mushrooms

1/2 lb cooked ham, sliced or chopped

Start by boiling the water for pasta as the package instructs. If you need to, have the shrimps peeled and divined. Rinse them and set them on the side. Start preparing the soup by bringing the two cans to a boil. If you need to, you might need to add a little water, but remember that when you add the other ingredients and pasta, some water might get in and will thin the soup out enough to be a sauce. When the soup is to a boil, add the shrimp till they are pink and cooked all the way through. Then add the mushrooms and ham. Add the pasta and stir it all together.

Char Siu

In Chinese culture, we have a dish that we make called char siu, which is basically barbecued pork. It's a traditional and family favorite that I finally learned how to make these past few days!

Char Siu


prep time: 1 day
cook time: 45 min

1 pkg, about 2 lbs cut pork shoulder butt pieces

1 jar Lee Kum Kee char siu marinade

1 tbsp chopped green onions

Start by cutting off as much of the fat from the pork as you can. It's okay to leave a little bit here and there since it holds in flavors, but let's face it, the fat isn't very healthy. Just try to cut the large chunks off. Once that's done, put the pork and green onions in a bowl. Add about half of the jar of marinade and about a half cup to a cup of water. Mix everything together either with a spoon, a pair of chopsticks, or your hands. Cover it at let it sit overnight.

When ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a baking sheet, place all the pork and pour any leftover marinade all over the meat. Bake for about 30 minutes before flipping the pieces over and adding a little bit of water so the meat doesn't dry out in the oven, then bake for another 15-20 minutes.

This tastes great with rice, which is what we normally do. After a few days, when there are still leftovers, my mom likes to either chop them into bite sizes and throw with other leftovers to make fried rice or she puts some of the slices of char siu into our bowl of noodles. However, my favorite food with this barbecued pork is char siu bao which is basically chunks of the pork in the middle of Chinese steamed buns. If you ever get the chance to go to dim sum, order this because it will be worth it. Trust me.

Ground Beef and Tofu

Day 1 without Mom. Yep, Mom will be gone for a few weeks, so now begins the survival test. And we're doing a good job of surviving actually. My dad and I did a joint effort of cooking a dish that my Mom makes a lot. This is a more Asian styled dish. I just have to say that it was wonderful being home and eating real rice for once. Enjoy this dish because I like it a lot.

Ground Beef and Tofu

prep time: 5-10 min, depending on whether you need to thaw or not
cook time: 15 min,

1/2 lb ground beef or turkey

1/2 -1 lb tofu

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

Brown the beef or turkey in a skillet. My parents actually prefer turkey, but sometimes we get beef. While the meat is cooking, cut the tofu into half inch cubes. When the meat is done, add the tofu, and 3/4 cups of water. Add the different sauces and sugar and mix it all together.

 Let it boil in the skillet for about 5-10 minutes until the sauce starts to look a little thicker. Serve with rice.

This is with the thicker sauce if you can see past the steam

Thousand Island Tilapia

Okay, so you know Parmesan Chicken? You know, the chicken covered with mayo, Parmesan, Italian seasoning, and bread crumbs and baked to yummy goodness? Well, one time last semester, I was making it and had extra Parmesan/mayo mix left and I was looking through my fridge thinking, "What else can I use?" Then I saw the tilapia fillet in the freezer and threw that in with the rest of the chicken in the oven.

Tasted great, but that's not what I'm trying to get to. I started to think, "What if I tried a different sauce/mix that wasn't mayonnaise based?" Once again, I'm staring at everything in the fridge and the Thousand Island dressing catches my eye. Dare I...?

The first time I did it, last semester, was in the oven. When I was doing it today, I didn't feel very patient for the oven (it's finals week, did I mention that? O_O), so I tried to microwave it. It wasn't the first time for me to microwave tilapia, but it was for Thousand Island. My advice: If you want to try doing this in the microwave, pour the Thousand Island in the last 15-30 seconds or else your plate is going to look like this:

Thousand Island Tilapia


prep time: 2 minutes
cook time: 20 minutes

any desired amount of tilapia fillet

1/3 cup Thousand Island dressing for each fillet

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. Have your packaged fillets run under lukewarm water, just enough to make it easy for you to take them out of the packaging. Or if you have time, let them thaw properly. Place fillets on a baking sheet and cover them with the dressing. Bake for about 20 minutes or until you fillets are ready. You can tell this by sticking a fork in there to test if they flake by twisting it a bit.

Mango Lassi

I would have done a much better job of presenting this, but I never really thought about making a post for this until I was halfway through sipping my lassi. Lassi is an Indian yogurt based smoothie. My first experience with lassi was at a friend's wedding reception. She had done a summer field study in India one year and came back in love with everything the culture had to offer, so of course she was going to incorporate lassi and chupas into her wedding. In fact, now that I remember it, I was one of the ones behind the scenes helping to make the lassi before and during the reception... I got stabbed by a knife cutting those mangoes. Good times.

Please igore everything in the background; we're in the middle of packing

This recipe is sugar-free. I made this because one of my roommates is on a sugar diet until her marathon is over (three more days!). Since I couldn't make cookies or cakes for my all my roommates without leaving her out, I decided to make her sugar-free mango lassi instead.

Mango Lassi


I actually don't have a solid recipe to give :/ These are all guestimates, but this basically what I did:

3 mangoes, peeled and diced

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

All you really do is cut some mangoes, throw in the yogurt, pour the milk, vanilla, and blend it all together. How much yogurt and milk really depends on how thick or thin you want it, so you don't really have to follow the recipe.

If you want a more sweeter flavor, put in a bit of vanilla ice cream. I've never tried it, but that's what I was told to do. Also, if you aren't really into mangoes, go for strawberry lassi! Or even plain lassi and just add a little extra vanilla extract and sugar.

Cake Batter Truffles

This would be the second time I've made these; the first time I hadn't made this blog just yet, but now I can post it! I found this recipe on Pintrest from the Six Sister's Stuff blog:

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com

I did a few things differently, so here's the modified recipe I used

Cake Batter Truffles


prep time: 15 min
crafting time: approximately 1-2 hours
servings: makes around 15-20, depending on the size of your balls.

Cake Batter:
1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup Funfetti cake mix (original recipe asked for yellow)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8  tsp salt

4-5 tbsp milk

Truffle Coating:
16 oz (8 squares) almond bark (or vanilla candy coating)

4 tbsp cake mix

Cream butter and sugar together. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 tbsp of the milk and mix, adding another tablespoon one at a time until the batter is about right. You'll know if it sticks together and can be formed into shapes. If desired, mix in sprinkles (if using Funfetti, that's already taken care of ;D). Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet.

Since I'm a poor college student who is almost done for the semester, I tried just lightly flouring a surface instead of parchment or wax paper. Chill the balls in the refrigerator to firm them up, approximately 30 minutes.

I could only find Kroger brand candy coating, which came in a nice, microwavable pan!

While dough balls are chilling, melt almond bark or candy melts as the package instructs. Stir in the extra cake mix (here's where the Funfetti isn't that fun, unless you want sprinkles mixed into your coating :/) If you want to make cake pops instead of truffles, here's what you need to do: Stick one end of the lollipop sticks into the coating and then insert it into the balls.

I also find that it helps to add a little more coating in the surrounding area as extra reinforcement for them to hold together. Refrigerate them. Once all the balls are ready, dip them into the coating and try to shake of excess if you can. Note that depending on how cold your cake batter is, your coating will start to harden after a while and might need another 30 seconds in the microwave after a few truffles. If you don't want cake pops, use a fork. Chill the finished truffles. Something I noticed was that if you accidentally leave any uncovered parts of the batter, it expands and start squeeze itself out of the hole. What I did was since I had extra, I would just dip that little section into the coating and hope that would be enough.

My awesome, make-shift pop holder. Notice that my recipe sadly does not make the most round and perfect cake batter truffle, but I'm slowly starting to get the hang of this and hopefully you will too.

Enjoy. I must warn you, they're very sweet :D

Spaghetti with Zucchini Sauce

So here's the first post! A friend of mine made this recipe about a year ago and I wanted to make it again. The recipe came from a family cookbook that his mother had.

I added mushrooms to it because I happened to have a can in my cupboard and with the semester ending shortly it had to be sued sooner or alter. Also, instead of a garlic clover, I used garlic powder and sadly I didn't have basil or bay leaves, but it still tasted great. You can't see it in the picture, but there were two slices of Kraft cheddar cheese on top and beneath the spaghetti since I didn't have Parmesan and spaghetti without cheese is not acceptable. Anyways, this was definitely tasty.

Spaghetti with Zucchini Sauce

prep time: 15 minutes

cook time: 25 minutes

servings: 5-7

1lb ground beef or turkey

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

4 medium zucchini, sliced

2 14oz. cans stewed or diced tomatoes

1 8oz. can tomato sauce (optional for thicker sauce)

1 8oz. can mushrooms (optional)

1 tsp salt

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 cup water (optional for thinner sauce)

Parmesan cheese

spaghetti

In a small pan, brown the ground beef (or turkey) and drain. In electric skillet, saute onion in hot oil until crisp-tender. Add meat, zucchini, tomatoes, salt, bay leaves, pepper, basil, and oregano. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Uncover, add mushrooms if desired, and simmer 10 minutes longer. Discard bay leaves. Serve cooked spaghetti topped with zucchini sauce and Parmesan cheese.

How This Came About

Hello everyone! This is an exciting moment for me to start this blog. My name is Melinda and one day when I called home, my mom told me she would be visiting her sister and mother for about two months during the summer. I wish I could go with her, but she leaves before I'm done with school and would be coming home after I start my summer internship, so I need to stay home and feed the rest of my family. It will only be my dad (who will be working), my little brother (who is too young to cook), and me, but it's still a daunting task ahead of me to satisfy their appetite.

I didn't start cooking until this school year since my dorm has a kitchen. Sadly, my mom's home cooking are done from memory and I don't have a cookbook to follow, so that's where the adventure begins! Being a novice and having to feed my family this summer, hopefully I'll get a more generous grocery budget and get to let my creativity go and make any recipe I have or find on Pintrest (or dare I try and imitate my mother's wonderfully talented cooking). It'll definitely be interesting to see how my picky little brother will react or what my dad thinks about my creations (although he no longer cooks, he worked at his brother's restaurant for years before he got married).

Enjoy this blog as I document entrees, snacks, deserts, and who knows what I'll make this summer and for the years to come as well :)