ValenTHYME's Week (Pretty Pictures Included)

In celebration of the week leading up to Valentine's Day and my friend Angela's birthday, I made red velvet cupcakes. It's so very in-theme of this week's mood. (Also, please don't be intimidated by the length of this blog. It's mainly recipes... but make sure you go to the end so you can see all of the pretty pictures.)

But before I get to the velvety cupcakes, you must know about the dinner I helped cooked with Kelsey and her boyfriend, Shawn.

Tuesday night, Shawna and Kelsey invited me over to Furnald for "Pesto Pasta". I met them at Morton William's, our local market, and bought ingredients.
We got:

-1 package ground turkey
-1 package whole wheat penne
-parmesan
-whole wheat bread
-garlic
-cilantro
-salt and pepper
-pine nuts
-olive oil

With this, we made garlic bread with parmesan and pesto pasta with turkey and pinenuts. It was a simple spontaneous meal that turned out quite well. So well, that almost all of Furnald 7 stopped by for a sniff, and sometimes a taste. (Forgive me for the bad quality photos. They were taken on a friend's iphone.)

Garlic Bread with parmesan
-You want to start up the broiler for this recipe

-lay whole wheat bread on a baking pan and drizzle olive oil over the whole pan.

-smash garlic (to release its flavor) and cut up into small pieces.

-Then spread the garlic over the bread. Sprinkle some parmesan over the bread.

-Broil for 2-3 minutes. Et Voilà!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Pesto, Turkey, and Pinenuts

We made the whole wheat pasta according to the box. Except we put some oil and salt in the water before it boiled.

We then chopped up the cilantro and put in in the ground turkey, as well as with some garlic, salt, and pepper. We mixed it all up, and put it to the side.

In a pan, we warmed up mashed garlic in a very little amount of oil. Allow the garlic to heat up in the oil first, as it will infuse its flavor with the oil (thus adding it to the meat as a whole). Allow the pinenuts to roast in the oil and garlic. Then add the meat. Watch closely as you stir and flip the meat. Make sure every piece is fully cooked. It should take about 7 minutes.

Then take out the pasta and drain. Put in the pesto, and the meat/pine nut mix (from the stovetop). Mix it up and serve with some parmesan.

(feeds 6-7 people) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was quite the delicious meal, as usual. This week I could feel the oozing love in the air. The very next night I was invited to eat again. Paul made some delicious pasta and steak. The steak was very simple, but incredibly rich in flavor. He cooked it on the stovetop in a mixture of butter and oil, after marinating it in cayenne pepper, herbs, and oil. That's all it took for a delicious steak. I don't mean to overwhelm you with recipes, so Paul will have another post dedicated to him making a delicious steak. So now you have something to look forward to...

The rest of my cooking this week involved baking.
I don't only love to cook, but I also love to bake.
I made red velvet cupcakes, funfetti cupcakes, chocolate cake, and brownies. The last three were out-of-cardboard-boxes, made-for-bakesale material. I had a waterpolo bakesale which was pretty successful. Five hours of public hassling and begging later, we made a satisfying amount of money to begin to help make up for the fact that Columbia University Club sports has suffered from the nation wide necessity for budget cuts. But no worries, we understand.

The red velvet cupcakes were for a less-wholesome-more-selfish--but nonetheless important--reason: Angela's birthday. But because the recipe I usually use was given to me by my best friend's family, I feel like I do not yet have the right to distribute their recipe. Copyright issues.
However, here is an incredibly delicious recipe for red velvet cupcakes that should blow your valentine's mind. (This is the recipe I tested out for the cupcake campaign pictures... with a few of my personal touches) (Don't worry. I put them in the recipe... )
Red Velvet Cupcakes (makes 24+ cupcakes)

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 5 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package Cream Cheese
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp rose water (or citrus zest, or whatever suits your fancy)
  
• 1 16oz package powdered sugar

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

-In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.

-In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. (It makes things easier to have an electric mixer, but it is possible by hand... It just requires a little more effort)

-Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl. Mix until smooth and thoroughly combined. (WARNING: Do NOT overmix the batter... This causes your batter to get tough)

-Fill the cupcake pan until each one is 2/3 filled.
-Bake in oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. You can turn the pans once half way through, but I never do... (Some argue they cook more evenly. depends on your oven).
-The cupcakes are done once you can remove a clean toothpick from the middle. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

-Mix the butter and cream cheese until they are smooth and creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar and mix. This is easiest with an electric mixer (my broken hand mixer and sore arm muscles can prove that).
-Add the vanilla and rose water (or zest). If the icing is too thick, try adding milk (1 tbsp at a time) until it's the right consistency.

Et Voilà!! Red Velvet Cupcakes... or "mo-cakes" as Angela has now coined.


I have yet to introduce you to Angela. (Hint: She has a headband on in the last post...) She has been taking my deliciously beautiful food photographs. So the day after her birthday, Columbia University and Barnard College cancelled all classes due to a blizzard. Now my Angelino self has never actually experienced this thing called a "snow day," so I took advantage of this day to have a Cupcake Campaign Photoshoot.

We popped a bottle of Martinelli's from Angela's birthday celebrations (oh, the life of an underaged college student...)

Well here are the beautiful pictures that Angela took that will soon adorn lovely posters across Barnard and Columbia's campus.




















Good food is delicious, so that's my current adjective for life. And as always, live well. Eat well. And in the spirit of ValenTHYME's day, please love well.

Living the Life

So this is blog post numero uno, and I welcome you.

Now before I begin I should probably explain why I have joined the world of unceasing chatter. Well here it is. Why not?
(You'll find if you ask yourself "why not?" instead of "why?" you end up with a lot more choices)

The point of this blog is to let me share my love for food with anyone who is interested. I titled this section "Living the Life." Why? Because I want to live "the life." What is "the life?" Whatever I want it to be. In this case I want to be healthy, eating well, eating conveniently, and on the cheap side. I feel like most cooking shows/blogs/books/etc are focused solely on one aspect. My plan is to tackle all of them. But bear in mind that it's a big task. Not every recipe will cover every goal. But part of living the life is indulging yourself!

I plan on having a post once every week... ish.
And once my friends and I become more technologically advanced, cool video clips with demonstrations and fun amusing randomness will be posted. Pictures, too... Just give me time.
For now you will have to deal with rambling. blah blah FOOD

So Friday night I went to my local dining hall (Hewitt at Barnard College) and took out a few ingredients I thought I could use. Now this will be a common theme of my blog: maximizing your meal plan/dining hall. If you're cooking for yourself, this is especially easy since you don't need to take out too much. I went to the salad bar and picked up some raw mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. (This Friday was an especially heinous night in the cafeteria.) I also picked up some cod on the way out.
I tried to save the tasteless cod. I put chili powder and pepper on it. The insides were too bad to save. One bite was like rubber. So that was trashed.
That being said. Everything on this blog is an experiment. Cooking is an experiment. It won't always work out, but a good chef can still make a meal in the end.

I took a few other ingredients that I had laying around my room:

-canned artichoke hearts
-capers
-olive oil
-pasta shells
-canned tomato sauce
-garlic

Now most of these ingredients last a long time and can be stored for a while, so I recommend them. But if you need to cut something out, I'd start with canned artichokes or capers. (But they are delicious). I sauteed the tomatoes and mushrooms in oil and garlic and added half a can of sauce (only because I was making a meal for 5 people). If you're only cooking for one or two, the cut up tomatoes should make enough sauce for the pasta. When cooking for more, having a little canned sauce that you can add a few spices to will be essential.

When the pasta was done, it was pretty damn deliciouso.
It reminds me of the movie "The Big Night." If you haven't seen it, go see it. It's amazing. Probably the best food movie ever created. A really good friend of mine gave it to me as a present, and for that I am indebted to him forever.



Otherwise, have a good week. And I hope that you're enjoying your food and your life. Remember. Live Well. Eat Well.