Weekend En Espanol

this weekend was pretty interesting. i spent friday night, saturday, and sunday morning camping at lake Hemet with kelley and jesse and his family. and while most of what was said was in spanish, it reminded me a lot of Deutschlager, or german camp (that is, german language camp). the crisp air, the clear lake, and only being able to understand half of what was said. besides that, it was pretty fun, and a hell of a lot better than just staying at home, which was probably what was going to happen. it's really dark there at night, but it helps to see the stars better, and i noticed that the stars actually twinkle there.

i couldn't help but reminisce about Deustschlager while i was there, and then about german. sigh. it turns out that out of the eight of us who took the german 4 AP test, none of us passed (that i know of). where did we go wrong?! i guess there is something wrong going on when we have too much fun. and boy, did we have fun. THIS IS SPARTA!! in the end i suppose i don't care about that score as much as i should. some of the most fun i've ever had in high school were in that german class, and that's the most i could ask for. and we all know it's better to have tried and failed than to not try at all. for now though, i'm just worried about the next time i visit frau rovell.

a week ago or so i made these cranberry oatmeal cookies, just so i can finally get rid of our craisins (the crazy raisin!!). also, we had a lot of oatmeal at home, and i think we both know it's not that appetizing on its own. but in a cookie? yes. deeelicious.


the cookies were nice and soft, with a buttery taste and a tartness from the cranberries. mmm. while craisins are completely good on their own, it helps to have a somewhat healthy snack around the house to keep you away from the potato chips. it also helps me realize that there are other desserts out there besides cakes and pies.

so without further ado, the recipe, which i based off of another recipe and made a few modifications to.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 each eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 c. oatmeal
2 c. dried cranberries (craisins!)

directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees f.

in a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. beat in eggs and vanilla.

in another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. add to butter mixture and mix together until completely combined.

fold in oats and dried cranberries to mixture until distributed throughout the dough.

drop dough in rounded tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. makes 48 cookies. :)

you can add nuts to the cookie dough if you like, just minimize the amount of cranberries if you do. i've also seen recipes online that top the cookies with melted white chocolate, for more of a christmas-y taste.

Pictures Can Be Deceiving... VERY Deceiving

i suppose we all make mistakes once in a while, and this just seemed to be "one of those days." i decided i really wanted to make mini vanilla cupcakes, and i really wanted to make use of those strawberries and raspberries i had sitting in the fridge. for the cupcakes i decided to use this recipe, mainly because it was the simplest one i could find and... sigh... let's just call it a disaster. the cupcakes came out of the oven really dry, with basically the texture and taste of a flour-y sugar cookie. i took one of these cupcakes and hit it against the table, and it actually made a kind of "knocking" noise.

not that that wasn't enough of a message telling me to just stop, i thought that maybe i could make up for it with some good icing and a nice presentation. i mean, the cupcakes didn't taste too bad. i desperately tried to save these little babies from the humiliation they would have suffered if i had just left them alone for my family to find when they got home. so, being the "innovative" cook that i told myself i was, i tried to make a strawberry buttercream icing for the top by adding finely chopped strawberry bits to the icing instead of the milk. no. NO NO NO. big mistake. i forgot how much water berries retain, which left my icing very juicy, to the point where it had a syrupy consistency.

but i didn't stop there. oh no. now i had to save both the cupcakes and the icing, because it is forbidden to waste any kind of food in this house, and also because that "icing" took up all the confectioner's sugar i had left, and i refused to throw it out. i decided i would just use the icing as a kind of creme filling to the cupcake. i mean, it's taste was acceptable to pass as some sort of strawberry creme, kind of like those strawberry creme frappuccinos they have at Starbuck's. so i filled each cupcake and topped it with a strawberry slice and a raspberry.

a closer look at the lies these pictures tell.

a shot of the "creme filling."


so what did we learn? well, for one thing, pictures can make almost anything look delicious. i mean, damn. that cupcake there looks really good. another thing (re)learned is that things that you love can still let you down. i love love love strawberries, and i really thought i could save these things with them. it didn't even stand a chance. another lesson: taking the easy way out usually leads to trouble, or in this case, a really dry cupcake. also, substitutions in recipes should only be used if they have been proven to work.

now the only thing i have to worry about is how to get rid of those things without actually having to eat them.

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

another lazy weekend gone, another lazy week ahead of me. saturday was filled with doctor's appointments, injections, blood tests, and eventually watching Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, which i really do not recommend. now, i know i haven't seen any of the previous Journey movies, or have even read the book, but geez. not good at all. also, 3D things tend to give me headaches.

yesterday i went out with laura and reinalyn to eat lunch at Chipotle, and then later wandered around Kohl's, played dress up, and took pictures of it, just like the good 'ol times when we would have minimum days at school and just take the 30 minute walk over there (this was before any of us had cars). we also wandered around Pier 1 Imports for a change, sniffing candles and incense, relaxing in the couches before anyone kicked us off, and wondering what parrot soap is made of. all in all, a good day; i finally got out of the house on my own for something besides grocery shopping.

i also got around to making a shepherd's pie for dinner. i don't know what's up with this picture... looks kinda yellowish. anyway, it was nice to finally make one of these on my own instead of just buying the pre-made frozen ones. also, it tasted really good.

i don't really remember which website the recipe was from, but most of the recipes for shepherd's pie are basically the same; ground meat, cooked on the stove with carrots, peas, onions, garlic, corn, and whatever else vegetable you want, then put in a casserole dish with mashed potatoes on top, then baked in the oven to make the top crispy. gotta love the home cooking. :)

sorry, no dessert today. today i woke up unusually late for some reason, and just decided it would be another day watching tv, using the treadmill, watching more tv, and maybe reading a magazine. hopefully tomorrow i can come up with something to make, which might be a little hard since we don't have milk. also, i'm finding it a little more difficult to just make desserts whenever just because i'm bored, and my sister is complaining of me making the family a little hefty...

"Rustic" Nectarine Galette

another day stuck at home, another dessert. what? i have to do something to occupy my time, dammit! it wasn't just me at home today, it was my sister and my dad too, so i didn't have a chance to make a huge mess and just clean it up before everyone got home like i usually do. anyway, here it is; a "rustic nectarine galette." i got the recipe from a book i bought a long time ago on sale for $2. pretty good, right? i wasn't quite sure what a galette was before i made this, but if i had to guess, i'd just say it was basically a pie without the pie tin.


hot damn. this thing was delicious. i've never made a pie or galette before, so i'd say this was a success. the crust was nice and flaky, and, even though i usually don't eat nectarines, i definitely would buy another batch of them to make another one of these. you probably can't tell from the pictures, but underneath the layer of nectarines there is a layer of almonds, which added a nice crunch. i also over-estimated the number of nectarines i needed for this, so i decided to turn the leftover nectarines into a marmalade.


it turned into a nice rosy-pink color after i put it on the stove for a few minutes, most-likely because it had a few pieces of the nectarine skin in there-- you can't even really see them now. i was planning on putting it in a nice glass jar, just so it would look a little more presentable, but apparently we don't have any containers in this house that aren't plastic... sigh. at least it tasted good, right?

Summer Loving...

welcome to my new blog! because this summer has been pretty much just a whole heap of laziness, i've decided to start blogging again. yay!! new blog, new elaine. now that i'm basically stuck in the house (apparently 17 is too young to get a job in any of the places i want to work in), i'll have more time on my hands to make things. i'm definitely going to start posting more of the stuff that i make, since i missed out on posting about some of my biggest creations with my last blog, including things from sewing my first piece of clothing to making my prom dress. i will also be sure to include pictures, because who are we kidding--the pictures will probably be the most appealing part of the entire entry. so without further ado:





yesterday i made green tea pound cake using this recipe, with a few changes. since i didn't have any matcha powder (or any money to buy it for that matter), i decided i would just grind up some tea leaves myself, which was SUPER tedious. a lot of it wasn't really pure powder, but the tea leaf remnants left nice little flecks of dark green in the cake, which i think added to the look. i also didn't get the bright shade of green that the matcha would've brought, but i like the light yellow-green look of this. it makes it look more natural. instead of using the loaf pan used in the video, i just used a regular square pan and cut out the shapes after the cake cooled, then topped it with confectioner's sugar. overall, it tasted pretty good... the tea taste was subtle and it wasn't overly sweet. and i had to add strawberries, of course, cuz they're my favorite :)

hopefully the pictures look nice; i don't have my own camera right now, so i'll be relying a lot on my dad's, because anything taken with a high quality camera looks nice!

and, while i know it's a few weeks late, i wanna mention the biggest cake i have ever made. you can see the picture here. i did NOT NOT NOT take these pictures (obviously), so i have a link for you instead. my cousin asked me to make this cake for her debut, which is basically just a huge 18th birthday party. like wedding-big. it was a carrot cake, as requested by the birthday girl, with cream cheese icing for the filling and buttercream icing on top. mmm. :P