The most important question you'll ever have to ponder...

Cake or pie? Watch Betty White, Tina, Steve Carell, and other funny folk tackle the question...

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

I love me some desserts. Cake or pie is not an easy choice...That's why I usually make sure that my dinner mates are all choosing different things so that we can all share without having to choose. I enjoy eating both equally.

However, when it comes to making either one, cake is usually the winner. I always have the ingredients for cake, but may not always have the fruit/pudding mix/flavoring/cream/etc. needed for a pie. Also, I've made some simple but pretty cakes in the past...Pies are usually more challenging for me to make. The crust has to be just perfectly flaky and golden, and the bottom crust shouldn't get soggy during baking, and you can't just stick frosting all over it to cover any mistakes! That being said, I do enjoy making pies, and they do usually come out quite tasty...It's just that they never come out looking as pretty as a well frosted cake.

Which do you prefer? Cake or pie?

Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting

Most success I ever had with an apple pie. It just looks like poop.

4th of July Flag Cake

 

 

 

 

 

What has happened to the time?

It's been such a long time since I posted at all, and even longer since I posted about anything that I've cooked. It's not that I've stopped cooking, taking photos of food, or thinking about this blog, but that I've been pretty busy. Here are some things that have happened recently:

-changes in job responsibilities, both good and bad
-I turned 26, and died a little
-I freaked out about the direction of my life
-Halloween, and I didn't get drunk, dress inappropriately, or gorge on candy

Although I don't have much time to do a real post about any of the food I've been eating or cooking, I will share some recent photos...

Apple dutch baby

Warm, cheesy goodness of a breakfast casserole with sausage.

We harvested the last of our cucumbers from the garden.

I think the plastic fork adds some class.

Eat the Gilbano sandwich at Grinders. Trust me, it's excellent.

I confess, I love Spam. Do NOT try to tell me what's in it!

NPR's interview with Harold McGee

To further pollute your minds with my obviously socialist/left wing agenda, here is a link to NPR's interview with Harold McGee. It's about how to make your food more liberal...Actually, it's about the science of cooking, and perceptions of flavor. Enjoy.

Link here:
"Keys to Good Cooking."

Listen here:

Quick + update = quipdate

There are so many recipes and pictures that I want to share with you, but a combination of laziness, a cold, and a need to enjoy the last few days of sunshine in Seattle have slowed me down a LOT. I'm sorry. Please, forgive me.

Being the snooty, Christian, liberal that I am, I was at npr.org today and found this:

Sweet potato fries!!! Photo by T. Susan Chang for NPR.

Tips and recipes for oven frying. I've done oven friend chicken before, and loved it. It means that I can eat all of my southern food favorites, without feeling like I'm going to diiiiieeeeeee.

Braised chicken with lemongrass and curry (Ga Kho Cari Xa)

We all have our own images of what makes comfort food. In America, the taste of creamy mashed potatoes, oozing cheesy lasagna, or fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies may be accompanied by images of grandma/mom standing in the kitchen. For me, comfort food can be a variety of things. It is spiced with the flavors from my Vietnamese ethnic heritage, the Cuban/Mexican tastes of central Florida where I grew up, or it can taste as full and hearty as the good ole American southern culture.  When I think of comfort food, a warm, happy feeling settles in the pit of my stomach, and stretches outward to my entire body.

It was a late dinner night, so no sunshine for good photos. Sorry.

Braised chicken with lemongrass and curry was one of my favorite dishes as I was growing up. I requested it at least once a week for dinner.

 

Braised chicken with lemongrass and curry (Ga kho cari xa)
Note: This is probably not the recipe for you if you don't like fish sauce!

Ingredients:
3 lbs boneless chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)
3 tbs vegetable oil (separate 1 tbs oil) 
4 tbs fish sauce (nuoc mam)
1 small onion, chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed, chopped finely
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbs chili garlic sauce (add more to taste)
2 tbs Madras curry powder (add more to taste)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in fish sauce for 20-30 min.
2. In a non-stick pot, heat 2 tbs oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken. Brown the meat, then remove chicken from the pot, and set aside.
3. Add 1tbs oil to the pot. Then, add the onion, lemongrass, and ginger. Stir frequently until onions are soft.
3. Dump in curry and chili garlic sauce. Stir.
4. Add in the browned chicken. Reduce heat to low, and cook covered for 20-30 min. 
*Once the chicken is cooked, I like to taste the sauce to see if the balance between the spices is right. I usually have to add more fish sauce/curry powder/chili sauce, depending on the spice brand that I used. It's all a matter of experimenting until you find the right flavor.

We like to eat it over steamed rice, with cool slices of cucumber to balance the heat of the spices. It's such a simple dish, but I really love how the flavors fight together without overpowering each other. Now, my sister requests that I make it at least once a month.

Halloween cupcakes

How cute are these cupcakes from Karen Tack and Alan Richardson?

I just finished reading the latest issue of "Taste of Home" magazine, and they have a really great article on how to make these yourself. (I've also included instructional links/videos from the magazine's website below, just in case your latest issue has not arrived yet.) I'm thinking about making these for the youth group at church. Anyone want to help me?

All photos: Taste of Home

Picture 1: "Orange You Spiky?"
Picture 2: "Purple People Eater"

Blackberry syrup

A few weeks ago, I set out to use up some of the blackberries harvested from our backyard. Since we already had full containers of both strawberry and blackberry jams, and because I was craving pancakes at 11pm, I made blackberry syrup.

Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancakes, still working on my pancake technique

Here's the problem though, I don't have a recipe. I kind of just made it up, and didn't write down any measurements. It is similar to this recipe. I mashed the berries through a colander first to remove some of the seeds, boiled it with some water and lime juice, and added Splenda rather than sugar a bit at a time until it was sweet enough, but not overly sweet. Because of the reduced sugar amount, I also added in a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken it. It was nice!