Thanksgiving

Well, the roommates, the bf, and I survived our first Thanksgiving on our own. After three days of shopping and price-comparing, two days of cooking, and a full day of eating (and drinking), we are as fat and happy as stuffed turkeys on December 1st. At least, the turkeys who don't realize that Christmas is right around the corner.

Thanks to Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens, and the World Wide Web, we successfully served a 12-pound turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, gravy, spinach salad with pomegranates, and even champagne punch in a fountain--most of it for the first time and all of it from scratch. Granted, we were a little lopsided in our portions. For instance, we have bowlfuls of salad and green beans left over, but hardly any gravy or stuffing. But thank God we have so many leftovers! Any weight I've lost this semester by eating healthy will be back to visit after this week is over.

I'll post the recipes soon, with modifications and exciting stories. Until then, it's off to bed before racing the Black Friday crowds!

Following Betty and Julia

I went with my parents to see Julie and Julia the other night. What a great movie! It was thoroughly enjoyable, and after a summer without any real opportunity to cook, tantalizing and mouthwatering. The next day I went to a local used bookstore and bought a few cookbooks. For years, my mother and grandmother have used their respective editions of Betty Crocker's Cookbook and I have been wanting to get my hands on one ever since. Unable to find an older printing, I came home with the 40th anniversary edition from 1991. It's paperback, but I may take it to Kinko's and have it rebound so it is more durable and lays flat. I also picked up a 1965 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, which Kyle's mother uses, and book of bento recipes. The latter, I confess, is more for eye candy since I don't even know where to find some of the ingredients, much less someone who will eat them.

Then I came home and started scouring Amazon for a 1973 edition of Betty Crocker's Cookbook so I could have one identical to my mother's, only to be interrupted by her handing me a box and saying, "Happy moving out!"

What was in the box but a brand-new 2005 Betty Crocker Cookbook, New Edition! Don't know what the lack of possessive in the title means, but I'll take it anyway. So now I have several cookbooks and finally a few American ones. I would like to get my hands on the Julia Child set, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I can wait.

Inspired by all this reading last night and the fresh, aromatic peaches I found at the farmers' market, I made a Peachsicle (although Kyle also called it a Peach Push-up, which I like better) by pureeing a peach, vanilla rum, and half-and-half. It was yummy. After dinner, I experimented with eggs, trying a Julia Child omelette and toaster-poaching in foil cups and muffin tins. The first omelette I made was near perfect, but I couldn't quite replicate it for breakfast this morning. They were tasty, however.

I'm moving into my apartment at school in a few days, and I am most excited to move into the kitchen. I've been scouring our basement for extra pots pans, and tupperware containers, so I'm well-stocked. I can't wait to start using these cookbooks!

Fall food

Heh, so you may have noticed that I haven't updated in a long while. Back at school life is really busy. And by really busy I mean super busy. I doubt I'll have time to write in here till Christmas, or maybe fall break. I am trying to keep my LJ in the loop though. BUT good news- pumpkins are in season! Adele and I both have our own personal pumpkins to smile at us from our desks. =) Mine will only last until I have time to eat/juice it. Yum!

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarty Hogwarts, teach us something please!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is coming out tomorrow night! I'm going to see it with some of my friends, and since I keep running into different Hogwarty recipes online, I decided to try some of them. So this morning I made butterscotch sauce for butterbeer and tonight Ellen and I made cauldron cakes, licorice wands, acid sour candy things (sort of a desperate combination of fizzing whizbees and acid pops, and cockroach clusters. I can't wait to sneak them into the theater and give them to everyone. =D I'll post recipes and pictures tomorrow, but I've been neglecting my LJ for way too long. I'm going to give that some love tonight.

so much food...

>_< I've fallen behind again...so much food to eat! You'd think that during summer I'd be able to sit down at my computer every day and post something here, but I guess Buffy really takes up more time than I realize. So here I go catching up for the week.

Lots of food and random ingredients sitting around my house. Not only am I buying whatever I need (or might need) for my recipes, my parents are bringing food home whenever they take a fancy. I gotta face it, I'll never get the fridge empty. Ever. =)

Think I'll break these entries up. Got cookies, lime salad, honey orange ham, thyme chicken, and mmmm butter. All were big hits and I have a bunch more that I'm waiting to try out.

Herbs

All I know about herbs I learn by smell. When I'm cooking something, I go through our spice cabinet and smell everything, dumping in what seems like appropriate amounts of whatever smells good. I guess that's kind of how I cook as a whole...just keep going till it smells done.

While visiting the farmer's market today to buy veggies, honey, and herbs, I was told that marjoram is great with chicken and would be delicious in chicken salad. I have no idea what it tastes like; the dried stuff in our cabinet smells like tea. I'll try adding that next time and see what comes out.

I convinced my dad to run down to the store and get some Southern Comfort because my mom keeps talking about mint juleps and I decided I wanted to try this mystery drink. Making it was easy enough, just crush some mint in water, add crushed ice, and dump in a shot or two of SoCo. I haven't really acquired a taste for that yet, so I didn't drink much. But hey. I can say I've had one now.

P.S. I really want some egg molds. There are some on ebay, but the sellers require PayPal, which I haven't quite figured out yet. It's such a cute idea though! I tried it a little with chocolate molds, but they were a bit large. Got the idea though- it's fun! I've been reading through bento websites, including cookingcute.com for cute ideas like that. Hopefully I'll get to try some of them before too long!

Chicken Salad part 2

Mom says the bag of m&ms has to go. Being a good daughter, that means I must eat them. Summer diets are silly anyway.

Turns out the gazpacho was really good with chicken and flatbread. Also I realized today that the fruit salad is best eaten the day it's made, or the grapes start turning red and the strawberries get soggy. I think I can handle that.

Lunch tomorrow is chicken salad with pecans walnuts, celery, red and green apples, and fried egg yolks. It's very colorful. I'm trying to think of what else is yellow that I could add...I don't think I want corn in my chicken salad, maybe summer squash or I wonder how plantains would taste?? It should be something crunchy I think. Yellow apples, perhaps. Red grapes and green and/or yellow apples. Drew suggests baked corn tortilla strips (sprinkle with oil and bake at 300° until crispy - I got some tortillas to try this with sometime soon. And glazed nasturtiums. o.O Any other ideas welcome.

I have a rather large amount of this salad, so (also per Drew's suggestion) after sandwiches tomorrow, I'll try it out over a fruity mix, with some combination of grapes, cantaloupe, strawberries, and maybe I'll go get a pineapple. I wonder if I should mix in some kind of herb with it...what would be good with chicken, mayo, and fruit? Elise.com says tarragon (along with cranberries). I'm tempted to add some mint just for kicks.

some explanations...

Ah, maybe I should make a note of how my posts/recipes will go. Obviously I'm no cookbook author (yet). If I copy a recipe I like, it'll have all the culinary language and precise measurements and stuff. But I'm kind of a big fan of measuring by sight (when it's practical) and using a culinary/artistic eye to take care of proportions, colors, etc. So when I'm adapting a recipe or just copying someone else's dish, I will probably only specify the most necessary measurements. Culinary art (still looking for a better synonym, in any language) is as dependent on the style and personality of the creator as music, dance or painting. So I want there to be as much room for elaboration and adaptation as is necessary.

Basically, some of my posts (like the only recipe I have at this point) might only be a list of ingredients and some seemingly obvious instructions. This means that I either have no idea what the best way to go about it is (i.e., I haven't actually made it yet), I want to leave room for artistic freedom, or it actually doesn't matter how you do it as long as you do it and it tastes good. I mean, how many ways can you screw up a salad? (The visual side of my brain is begging to be expressed, but I'm suppressing it until a later date.) Putting ideas and experiments into an organized format just seems better to me than hiding them in five paragraphs of a story about the history, creation, and experience of the recipe. That's not to say that I won't have stories to share (such as mopping soda off my kitchen ceiling), just that they will be separated from the more business-like posts. Yay blogs! They're so addicting.

我很喜欢吃中国饭，日本饭。

Awesome. 好吃 - Good Eats is up and running. I've never used Blogger before, so I look forward to exploring the possibilities.

Basically this blog exists because I like food. I like eating food, making food, sharing food, and thinking about food. I think my life goal when I'm old and retired is to be a godmother to someone's child and make them lunch every day. So until that happens, this blog is my place to muse on recipes, wonder about combinations, and share my ideas with you, my benefiting reader. Aren't you lucky?

So my title. 好吃. Hao chi (3rd and 1st tones, if you care) means delicious in Mandarin. I am inordinately fond of Asian food (including India and all the tiny scattered Asian countries), plus I'm taking Chinese, so that's my story. Let's get started!