Moving On!

Hey everyone, I am moving to a new blog, which will be much more active than this one. Here is the link: http://countingyourpennies.blogspot.com/

I hope to see you there!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I love my friends

So life in general is pretty dang amazing. I'm switching my major from Hospitality and Tourism Management to Elementary and Special Education. I couldn't be happier about this :) I love kids and I love the idea of teaching!

Oh and then I get a break from school for a whole 4 months! I will be doing an internship at Disney World. Which of course means I will be back on the mainland. And I will have my own apartment, with a full kitchen, all to myself! Well most of it that is, I'll be sharing with with a few others. Way better than an entire dorm full. And you know what else that means? More cooking for me! I will have to make all my food myself, and, it's a million times cheaper.

Here's a list at some of the things I'm tired of prices being high.

A small box of life cereal : $7.75
A block of cream cheese: $3.79
A dozen eggs : $4.00
A gallon of milk: $7.00-$9.00
A gallon of Chocolate Milk: $10.00-$12.00

Yep. It's pretty ridiculous. But then again, I live in Hawaii for the time being, and the thought of that is priceless (before thinking about food that is).

One other thing before I leave to go talk to my advisor about changing my major. I have this amazing friend and next door neighbor named Lucy. She has a fantastic blog found here. The reason why I tell you this? Not only like I said, she's amazing, but I feel special. She blogged about me and it makes me feel special. And hereis a link to the specific blog about me that makes me smile every time I read it.

I'll post another recipe sometime this week hopefully :)

Yours till the cookie crumbles.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Happy Days

So I have been in a really weird mood lately. I have been crazy happy for some reason the past few days.

I'm trying to debate this source of happiness but I'm not sure.

Now most likely you are not fantastically happy like me at the moment, and in that case, chocolate will solve the answer to everything.

I found this recipe on another blog for these cookies. And I have to say. They are the most fantastic chocolate cookies in the entire world. I can make 3 batches of these at once and have them be gone within the day.

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/4 cup sugar plus add 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, set aside
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat and cool slightly
Add 1 1/4 cups sugar, stir until smooth
Whisk in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla
Stir the soft butter mixture into the flour/cocoa mixture until combined
Wrap the mixture in saran wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours
Shape dough into even sized balls (usually about 1 1/2 inches wide)
Roll balls in sugar. Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees

And there ya go, you really need to make them. You won't know what happened to you after tasting one of these.

Yours till the cookie crumbles

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Time Flies

It has been a long time. A long long time. Two weeks to be exact. 
Things here have been hectic. Essays on procrastination to write, midterms to take, and packing up my room.


And my computer decided to hate me. It died. So I bought a new one. And now I finally have it. Yay!


Something I made while this whole fiasco of computers being broken that went on. 


I made something I absolutely love and my family makes it all the time. We are huge fans of Mexican food as my mom is from Texas and my dad is from New Mexico. So it makes sense. 


This is all purely guesstimation on about what I used in this. 


1 onion, chopped up
2 pounds of ground pork
2 cans fire roasted green chili's (Ortega sells these if you can't get the really good ones and they aren't spicy at all), diced
Butter
2 Tablespoons flour
Red Chili Powder
Cumin
Water
2 cans diced tomatoes
Tortillas (for dipping when you are done)


So get a big pot, melt the butter and put the onions in and cook them until they are soft.
Add in the ground pork and brown it


I know this next part is going to sound kind of gross, but it's just to help it thicken up some. 


Move the pork and onions somewhat out of the way in the pan so you have access to the fat that has  come off the pork.
Whisk the flour with the fat until it's mixed together well
Add in the cans of tomatoes and add water...um... I did equal parts of water to tomatoes, so just take your empty tomato cans and fill them up with water and dump it in. 
Mix it all together
Bring it up to a boil and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes on medium low heat


Next add the chili's (you want to add these last always)


Finally, add some red chili powder and cumin, I would say about one-two teaspoons maybe, it's completely up to you, so just keep adding and tasting until you like it!


And that's it!


Now eat it with some tortillas :)


Or you can make a variation of huevos rancheros. 


Get a tortilla, spread refried beans on it(you don't have too) and then make an over easy egg, and put that on top of the tortilla, and cover in green chili stew. Feel free to add cheese and sour cream on top as well :D


We always use the left overs of green chili stew to make them :)


And that will all I shall be posting for the day, more will be up later :)


Yours till the cookie crumbles :)


(And I just used a bunch of smiley faces in those last few thingamabobs...)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Cooking Crazyiness.

This weekend I went a little crazy when it came to cooking.

First I made banana bread, one loaf of regular, one loaf with cranberries.

Next comes the doughnuts I made for our survivor competition for work (which my partner and I won the challenge this week :) )

Then I made these fantastic crescent rolls, which were made into squares and they were filled with a mixture of chicken, cream cheese, and green onions, and then baked.

Next we made chili rellenos, which are whole chili's that have been stuffed with cheese and then battered and fried.

Now we are onto Sunday. Today we made....stuffed French toast (which is King's Hawaiian Bread that has been stuffed with cream cheese and strawberries) and then homemade mashed potatoes, which were absolutely delicious.

I will post the recipes for these later, but for now it's time for me to finish my procrastination paper. Wait I lied, start it. And it's due tomorrow. Fantastic.

Yours till the cookie crumbles.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Farmer's Market

So every payday they hold a farmer's market here at school. I must say, it is the best things in the entire world!

Especially when you live in Hawaii and everything is expensive...

After putting away my bundles of grocery's, I realized that I more than likely am taking up about half of the space in our fridge in our dorm kitchen. Oops?

What can I say, I love to cook.

In fact, that's the whole reason as to why I'm behind on my homework and I have no money. All my time and money seems to be dedicated to food. I wish there was a way for me to do this all the time. Culinary school is just too expensive though.

Cooking is my passion though, and I will do it always.

I cook when I'm happy.
I cook when I'm sad.
I cook when I'm angry.
I cook when I'm depressed.
I cook when I'm feeling on top of the world.

So that results in me cooking all the time. Which I don't mind at all.

I wish I had more money to buy food to make whatever I want. That's not happening anytime soon though. I will be back on the mainland next month though, and I will be making all my own meals, and I'll have more money to spend, and I won't have to worry about school :)

I should probably sleep now. I have to get up early to make doughnuts for someone.

Yours till the cookie crumbles

Friday, March 5, 2010

Banana Fanna Fo Fanna

I know this post took forever. But school has been ridiculous. Like completely craziness. Here is the wonderful recipe for banana bread that Lucy helped me cook :) It's absolutely delicious :)

So. I love making bread. The only problem is half the time you spend letting it rise. But with this though you don't have to wait. You just mix and cook.


3 or 4 overripe bananas
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. 

2. Place the bananas and sugar in mixer bowl and whip the heck out of them, about 2 or 3 minutes (I just used a fork cause I don't have a mixer and I couldn't find my whisk. It's alright if it's a little chunky)

3. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla, whipping well and scraping down the sides of the bowl before each addition. 

4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the flour, salt, baking soda, and nuts, if using, and mix to combine. 

5. Pour into the prepared pan and transfer to the oven. Bake until golden brown and firm in the center, about 1 hour.

If you carry this down your dorm hall, you will have followers, I found this out when I was taking upstairs to my friends room :)