Sunday, November 25, 2007

A great place to try!


I believe I have mentioned before how I just adore sushi. My favorite sushi place is in Chicago, called Sushi Wabi. However, since I don't live near there anymore, it gets harder and harder to make it up there. I have found a great sushi place right here in West Lafayette. Its called Heisei and I have been going there for a couple of years now. I used to go there so much that one of the sushi chefs, Jose, knew my friend and I and would send over some special rolls for us.

This place has great atmosphere!! It has the traditional seating where you take your shoes off and sit on the floor. Underneath the tables it is cut out so your legs can go underneath. There is also regular tables for those that do not want to take your shoes off and sit on the floor. The menu is great and has many traditional Japanese items. The sushi menu sits on your table and you mark off which rolls you want and the quantity. My favorites are the spicy spider roll (awesome and I highly recommend it!!), the french roll, the Philadelphia roll, and the spicy tuna. They also have great nigiri which is a slice of the fresh fish on top of rice with a dab or wasabi. Very yummy!

I have also had other dishes besides just the sushi. The mixed tempura is great, the Goma'ae, the combination dinners, and on the lunch menu they have a Japanese curry with tempura shrimp that is delicious. They also have edamame for an appetizer.

If you want to check out their menu and the hours feel free to check out their website here. They are open for lunch and dinner, but close between the two meals.

This is just a great restaurant that has a great staff! I have never had a bad experience here. So go check it out!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Oh sweet Lord, It's Pickle Day!

Peter Piper picked a patch of pickles... is not at all how the actual rhyme goes, but it makes for an interesting hook, yes?

So it just so happens that November 14th, National Pickle Day. (...I cannot believe that we have classes today. I have to celebrate, don't they know that...?) Yes, an entire day has been often devoted to different foods, and today's is pickles, or pickled cucumbers.

"Cucumbers were probably first pickled 4400 years ago in Mesopotamia. In India, pickles were well known by the Vedic period. Cucumber pickling might have spread through the Jewish diaspora.

The pickling process was also known to the Ancient Greeks. Aristotle is reported to have praised pickled cucumbers for their healing effects. Julius Caesar's soldiers ate pickled cucumbers as health aids; many other brine-soaked foods were part of daily life in Ancient Rome. Cucumber pickling remained widespread across the Levant and Maghreb regions, where it is still very popular today. A pickle slice is commonly referred to as a 'chip'.

Pickled cucumbers became popular in the United States due to the influence of the cuisine of Eastern European immigrants." (wikipedia.org)

It is well known that pickles are a staple in any Jewish deli, but especially welcome and unique are the half-picked pickles. These are lighter green and are softer than fully picked pickles. I prefer these, I don't know about you, because I can't stand any taste of salt being too strong on my palette, and these halfers are a great balance between cucumbers, which I do not like, and full-on pickles, which I do like, just not as much as half-pickled ones.

And I have to add that pickle juice, because of its sodium content, is great for curing sports cramps during those long training practices. It's also a great thing to chug if you want to throw up and never be able to smell pickles again without getting queasy. Seriously, I know a guy who chugged pickle juice... it wasn't pretty.

Yes, pickles are one of the oldest foods on this earth, seeing as brining has been a good way to preserve food that would otherwise go bad, a technique older than God. Of course, not everything pickles well to be preserved. You've heard of pickled herring, pickled pickles, and pickled pigs feet as well as pickled eggs and countless other disgusting foods to take well with brining. It is without doubt that many of these foods no one has ever tried. I know I've never tried pickled pigs feet. I cannot honestly see the appeal. I'll try anything once but, keeping it real, its pickled pigs feet. The feet of pigs having been soaked in a salty bath for weeks. WTF, Rome? WTF?

Anyway, go out and celebrate by getting some slices of pickles at your local deli counter at your local dining hall. Do it. It's good.

Cheers! (Oh, and if you didn't read, tomorrow November 15 marks the night that Purdue dining halls has its Thanksgiving feast. Do it. It'll be like every other meal, plus apple and pumpkin pies, aaaaand cranberry sauce. Mmmm...)

Thanksgiving, turkey, birthday cake? No, Poptarts.

So, I see that everyone else's excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas that are coming up and posting recipes and all that. But hey, someone has to post something random right?


Well, I'm a pledge at this one fraternity and this week is our Initiation Week (aka, Hell Week). All the pledges are forced to stay in the cafeteria of the house and we are only allowed to leave when we have classes or to get food. However we only get 15 mins to get food and that isn't even enough time to get McDonalds or Taco Bell. And there's no way for us to cheat the system because the brothers have our daily schedules and know when we should be back in the cafeteria. We are, however, allowed to order food from fast food restaurants but after ordering couple of my meals I ran out of cash and I didn't want to use my credit card.


Yeah, so the only option for me is to bum off food from my pledge brothers or run over to the On-The-Go at the closest dining court and grab a bunch of poptarts. For the most of the time my pledge brothers are too busy stuffing their own mouths that they can't afford to share their food. So, I've stocked up on tons of poptarts, all same flavor, cherry.


I've been eating cherry flavored poptarts and cold, leftover pizza for the last 2 and a half days. I'm sick of poptarts, and cold pizza. I want something warm like, roasted turkey, soup, and even double cheese burger from McDonalds. I just want some real food! I can't wait till this week's over. Even dorm food sounds really good right now. Man, I don't think I'll ever complain about dorm food anymore.


Well, wish me luck.


-Pizza

Thanksgiving breakfast

Okay so when we think of Thanksgiving, we think of dinner right? I was searching recipes and I found one for a Thanksgiving breakfast. This pumpkin pancake recipe is perfect for this time of year. Just make sure you like pumpkin flavored stuff. This recipe got very good ratings and only takes about 10 minutes to make!

Pumpkin Pancakes


100% would make this again
Serves about 4

1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons melted butter
maple syrup, heated In a small mixing bowl, stir together flours, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, beat together pumpkin, egg yolks, milk and butter. Stir in flour mixture. Beat egg whites until they hold firm peaks and fold them into the batter. Ladle about 1/4 cup of batter at a time onto a preheated, lightly greased griddle.
Bake until bubbles appear on the surface, then turn and bake the other side until lightly browned. Serve with warm maple syrup

One hundred percent of people who reviewed this recipe said that they would make it again. A comment even said that it was great and the family loved it. Its just like making normal pancakes but with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and pumpkin. This tastes good with a big glass of milk. Just don't get too full on the pumpkin pancakes or else you won't have room for Thanksgiving dinner. Pumpkins can be used for many recipes but most people don't expect them to be in pancakes. Surprising someone, who of course likes pumpkin, with these pancakes would be a pleasant surprise.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Some delicious chicken!


I knew that I was going to make chicken for dinner tonight, but I was really in the mood for something different. We always seem to get into a rut of making the same chicken dishes over and over again. Boring! I wanted some new flavors with my chicken. So, I started searching the internet. I have found this great recipe website called recipezaar.com. I have talked about it before in some of my other posts, but its a really great recipe site. It allows the users to rate and add comments on people's recipes that they post.

Anyways, so I am perusing the website trying to find something that looked delicious and that I also had the ingredients for. I finally found one, its called Deviled Chicken Thighs. It uses Dijon mustard coated chicken with bread crumbs. You then bake the chicken in the oven until crispy. It was heavenly to say the least. Here is the recipe:

1/4 cup creamy mustard (Dijon or Dijonaisse)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper
8 chicken thighs, skin removed (about 2 1/2 lbs.)
  1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
  3. In a large bowl, mix mustard and Worcestershire sauce until blended.
  4. In a pie plate or shallow container, combine bread crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper.
  5. Toss chicken thighs in mustard mixture and then coat with crumb mixture.
  6. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes; turn thighs over and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until juices run clear.

I made mine with spicy brown mustard and used my own homemade bread crumbs. Some people have said that when they used the homemade breadcrumbs that it came out soggy. I didn't have this problem with mine. They came crispy and yummy. I also did not turn my chicken over. I did notice that it took mine a little bit longer than 30 minutes to cook, but then again my chicken thighs had the bone in them and might have been a bit bigger than the ones used in the recipe.

Overall though, this was a great recipe. Its kind of like fried chicken only baked and the mustard with the Worcestershire sauce gave it a nice kick. I highly suggest that you try this!! I served mine with Caribbean jerk rice and peas. My family loved it and I bet yours will too!

Already Thinking About Christmas

Most people in their teens and up would exclaim that they want that new handbag from Coach or a Gibson guitar. Whatever it is, it's more normal than what I would want for Christmas. I know it seems odd that I'm talking about Christmas now, but a recent conversation that I had with my sister got me pondering about all holiday and Christmas related things. It's only approximately a month away, so I say what the heck, lets talk about Christmas.

So the question that got me thinking about all of this was "What do you want for Christmas?" Unabashed and almost automatically, I went into a rant about how I wanted cookware. My sister replied with a half exaspperated and humored tone " You're so weird", and I could just picture her rolling her eyes and silently grinning. I know, it seems silly, but this is what food blogs can do to you.

I've always been a foodie and a cook at heart but there are cooking/baking stores out there that will make a regular foodie like me feel like I'm in a candy shop. I've had several encounters with the William Sonoma store in Chicago, and let me tell you, I wanted to chain myself to the furniture and never leave. Once you walk into the store, there is display upon display of the newest and coolest cooking/baking gadgets of the season. The walls have shelves of pots and pans all lined up sleek and shiny, odd utensils and assorted cutlery that you never even thought existed are put on display like mouthwatering chocolates, and the china section in the way back proudly displays eggshell-toned creme brulee ramekins like sugar sculptures. Don't even get me started on the baking section. Let me just say, my sister had to pry my hands away from the pink kitchen-aid mixers and drag me out of the store. It's that cool. Trust me.

Here are some of the sleekest gadgets that would make any foodie the happiest person in the world:

The Imperia Pasta Machine (red). If you've never made you're own pasta, you should. It seems daunting, but really it's the easiest thing in the world to make. This gadget will definitely help get that task done faster.


Oil Mister. If you do alot of cooking with olive oil ( or any oil for that matter) you know that it is sometimes hard to control how much oil to use. This gives you precise control on how much you want to use. Its also nonaerosol, so you can refill it whenever you want.


Electric Egg Cooker. The space-age look of the this dome creates the simplest of foods. It hard-boils, soft cooks, and poaches up to 7 eggs. Just place the eggs inside and a buzzer alerts you when they're done. It would be great to have in the dorm.


Primo Milk Frother. For those of you who are latte and cappuccino aficionados, the milk frother will make hot milk into a rich and creamy concoction. It would be great for hot chocolates too. And now it's cordless, so you can carry it anywhere you would like for an emergency latte frother... not that anybody would have an emergency of such things, but still, it's a nice gadget to have around.


Lastly, Crème Brûlée Torch Set. Sadly, your's truly is not in the possession of ramekins, but I am determined to get these. It comes in a set of 4 with a mini blowtorch. With this, you can make the authentic creamy custards and crackly caramelized sugar crusts. But don't think that crème brûlée is the only thing you can make, the blow torch can be used for melting cheese, roasting bell peppers, and making tasty meringues.

Alas, if I were to buy these gadgets, I could only use them during the breaks. But it is so worth it. I hope you're reading this Stephanie (my sister). :]

Thanksgiving


Thanksgiving is approaching fast, and everyone is out shopping for food and believe it or not, Christmas! I went grocery shopping with my mom on Saturday for Thanksgiving stuff and the lines were long, and the store was crowded. We bought stuff to make mashed potatoes, corn , sweet potatoes, pumpkin and apple pie, and of course turkey!

Thanksgiving for us is all about tradition. We always go over to my aunts house and she cooks most of the dinner and we buy all the stuff for her to cook. She lives in a fancy house and it feels much more like a holiday when we go to her house. She makes many varieties for us to eat, and me and my brother are always allowed to bring a friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend. Dinner is usually almost ready when we get there so we sit at the table and talk until its done. As soon is dinner is ready, all the women get up to bring it all to the large table in the living room. Every one eats until they can't eat anymore, but there is always room for dessert.

After dessert and stuff, we usually sit around and talk about what has been happening in our lives. We also pick out the secret Santa out of a hat. Secret Santa is my favorite part, because you write your name on a paper with a few things that you want that is a reasonable price. The person who picks you is supposed to get you one of those things. Then after secret Santa we talk about who is going to have the Christmas party, which has usually been my house, except for the year my dad was sick. After we decide who is having the party, we decide who is going to bring the food and which man is going to dress up as Santa this year for the little kids.

I love Thanksgiving because it means that there is a lot of shopping ahead of me and Christmas is coming. Thanksgiving is also a time to eat all my favorite foods and see all my family. This year a lot of my family is going to be in Florida for Thanksgiving so we will be picking their secret Santa for them and deciding between who is home for all the rest of the stuff. Thanksgiving this year won't be the same as normal, but it will be just as fun. Also this is the first year that my boyfriend and I don't have family activities at the same time, so we can spend the holiday together with each others families.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for what you have, and to appreciate all the food that is there in front of you. Another thing we usually do at Thanksgiving is give a gift certificate to a grocery store to our church and they give them out to the poor families in the area. That way even the people who don't have much to be thankful for, they still have a large meal on their table to celebrate the family and that things that they do have. Also, we usually pick out an angel from the angel tree at church. Usually there is a kid on the tree who doesn't have much and put what they want for Christmas on a card. Its really sad because sometimes all the kids want is a pair of gloves to keep them warm. Every year we try to pick an angel off the tree so they can get the things they need and be happy for what they have.

Thanksgiving is defiantly one of my favorite holidays because of all these things.

Birthday Cake


So it is my birthday today....and I thought I would describe my favorite type of cake and you could describe your favorite kind as well.

I love Ice Cream Cake. A good ice cream cake with the crunchies on the bottom, maybe some cake layered in between as well. DELICIOUS! But actually I love all kinds of birthday cake. Chocolatey Chocolate cake with raspberries, or Strawberry Shortcake...ohhh man. It is all deliciously delectable.

So what is your favorite birthday cake?

Indulge your inhibitions it's my birthday after all!