Chicken Soup

This is a classic favorite of mine and since I had made a roast chicken the night before, I had left-over meat and the bones so I decided to make a soup.


Ingredients:
1 Roast chicken (or you can just use chicken breast and chicken stock)
2 large carrots diced (I used 1/2 bag of baby carrots)
4 stalks of celery chopped (I used 1/2 tub of aqua-pac celery - it's just pre-washed and cut celery in a tub of water lol)
4 cups of thin egg noodles
salt, pepper & spices to season

Method:
1. Bring chicken stock to boil and add in cubed chicken breast (I made my own stock from the chicken bones and roast onions from the night before and just brought that to the boil and then simmered for three hours and then removed the solids from the soup and threw in leftover cubed meat). Season as desired (I used nature's seasoning, salt, pepper, Italian spices)
2. Once boiling again, throw in carrots and celery.
3. Bring to boil before adding the noodles.
4. Keep at medium heat for 20 mins (or until noodles are at desired tenderness).
5. Serve =] garnish w/ some parsley

Banana choc-chip muffins

2
Err... the formatting for that last post didn't work out quite like I meant it to. Oh well, too lazy to fix that now.
Here are the most wonderful muffins I have made to date, they are so moist and yummy =]


Ingredients: (Makes 12 muffins)
3 mashed bananas (over-ripe and half browned ones are the best)
2 cups regular flour
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar (you can use 1/2 - 1 cup depending on how you like your muffins)
1/8 tsp salt (a pinch)
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp warm water
Optional: 1/4 cup rolled oats & 12 walnut pieces for garnish, 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used 1 cup because I like my muffins extra-chocolatey)

Method:

1. Turn oven on to 350F.
   
2. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.
3. Melt the butter (either over a stove or 30 secs in the microwave) and cream together w/ the sugar.
4. Slowly beat in the egg to the butter-sugar mixture.
5. In a small bowl, mix the baking soda w/ the warm water and then add to dry ingredients (this makes the muffins rise better than if the baking soda was just sifted w/ the dry ingredients)
6. Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and blend evenly (Add the chocolate chips in this step if you plan to use them).
7. Spoon the mix into a 12-hole muffin pan (prepared w/ butter) and sprinkle a couple of pinches of oats onto each muffin and a walnut if desired.
8. Bake for 40 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
   
9. Wait until okay to handle and twist to remove from the pans.
   
10. Eat. =]
    

A wide array of things

Here are some photos of foods I've previously made but haven't updated on. There's so much I haven't taken photos of =[ like that amazing roast chicken and rice paper rolls I made last night. Oh well...Here


Panna Cotta:
A custard-flan-like dessert that's very popular in Italy. It's basically a cream-pudding (cream & sugar boiled down w/ gelatin). I squizzled some chocolate sauce over the top for decoration and as an added flavor.



Mini-savories:
I think we all made these at some point in home-economics class but I was craving them so I decided to pull out Mrs. Smiley's old tricks haha.
These are made w/ 3-yo Vermont Cheddar, fresh ovaline mozzarella (cubed), eggs, diced bacon, thinly sliced spring onions, seasoned w/ salt and pepper. I didn't use bread for the crust of this batch (but I did for the 2nd batch and they came out lovely), for these half doz. I used a pre-rolled pie pastry.



Chocolate Oreo Mice:

Monika's mum had us make these for Christmas and I think I'll be making them again as decoration on the oreo-pie I'm making for Greg's birthday next Thursday. These are surprisingly easy: a maraschino cherry dipped in chocolate, placed on half a double-stuffed oreo, cement the almond slices and a hershey's kiss on the body before the chocolate solidifies and dot a couple of eyes (I'm using white-icing for mine so the mice don't look as evil)



Cream-cheese swirled brownies:

Okay, so I really cheated with this one. I used brownie from a box (but they're really good!).
Follow instructions on the box of brownies and pour the batter into a pan. For the cream cheese swirl, whip together 1 tub (8 oz.) of cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla essence. Pour into the mixture in criss-cross rows and swirl with a fork (I used a chopstick).

What's on tonight's menu...

Sorry I haven't updated this for a long time, I've had so much to update but keep forgetting and forgoing the opportunity (a lot of cooking has gone on in this time)!

Oh well... tonight I made:

Double-battered deep fried oysters (these didn't come out right as I was terrified of the oil popping so I put them in too soon and they didn't come out crispy enough)

Italian spinach creamed w/ mashed potatoes

Broccoli w/ butter & seasoning

Grilled tilapia w/ lemon rind, salt, and pepper

A wonton egg-drop soup

Cinammon rolls

Organic vanilla bean cookies (actually Greg made these, but we'll pretend I did :p)

I'm thinking of making some mini sliders next time. I'll try to update!

Japanese bounty from NYC lol

Lol just as the title says, everytime we go to NYC I buy lots of asian food - half of it (as pictured) is usually Japanese.
From left to right: wasabi, salmon rice seasoning, nori-tamago rice seasoning, two different types of natto, meiji mini chocolate sticks, super-thin pocky, brazilian pudding flavored pudding, flyfish roe, fresh udon noodles in a bowl.
top row: tea-cakes, fresh sashimi (yum!), sweet tofu shells for riceballs, miso soup mix

Low-fat yoghurt hummus

Ingredients Result

Ingredients: (for a basic hummus base)

- 1 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1/3 cup yoghurt (plain)

- 3/4 cup chickpeas (if you use dried chickpeas like I did make sure to soak them according to the instructions on the back of the packet as well as cook them thoroughly)

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped

- 2 tsp sesame seed oil

Additional (optional):

- parsley, tomatoes, cucumber (anything of your choice) to garnish

Method:

1. Put chickpeas and garlic in a blender (if you have an open-top blender where u can keep adding ingredients then start pulsing the chickpeas and garlic - if you have a cocktail blender or a bullet blender then put all ingredients in at once). - if the latter option, beat until roughly smooth and serve cold with or without garnish.

2. If the former option, add remaining ingredients gradually and then spoon out and serve cold with or without garnish.

Alternatively you can make a hummus with 1/3 cup olive oil, chickpeas, and garlic in the same fashion. Just two different types of bases.

Natto and mini onigiri-like things

I am currently in love with natto =] left: chopped natto (it came chopped) on daikon w/ spring onions. Right: mini-onigiri made from a mold, topped with rice-seasoning in salmon flavor and nori-tomago flavor.
Full-beaned natto on rice w/ spring onion.

Soo... I'm absolutely obsessed with eating natto for some reason... initially I thought it was the most disgusting thing ever, then I started craving it... and now I want it on a regular basis. <3

Natto = an acquired taste, but definitely worth acquiring!