Your Very Own Chai Latte

I've been engaging in a love affair with Chai tea for almost five years now. One of my roommates is quite capable in the kitchen and, on a bitterly cold New England day, encouraged me to attempt to make my own chai latte.

I used whatever I found in my kitchen, but I'm sure it would have been better with whole milk.

I went for a 50/50 ratio of steeped tea to milk. That decision was not a good one.

Look at how delicious that froth looks.

Cinnamon + Nutmeg on top

Ultimately, the drink was way too milky and did not have much chai flavor going for it. I'll go with a B for effort, though.

Tiger Candy

This recipe is both incredibly easy as well as delicious. My mother made it every December and packaged it in red boxes tied with ribbon to hand out to our teachers. It was always a hit and everyone remembered receiving it from my older brother so by the time I was in their classroom they would ask excitedly, "is this the Splainin family's famous fudge?!"

It isn't really fudge. We've always called it Tiger Candy. I don't have my mother's actual recipe, but it doesn't matter because this is definitely a recipe that you can wing. And that is the kind of recipe that I always prefer!

You want equal parts white chocolate and milk chocolate. I've never tried it with dark chocolate, but note to self. It really doesn't matter if you purchase the chocolate in chip form or bar or whatever. My mom used to buy them in little wafers, which makes the melting and stirring easy.

*Melt one type of chocolate in the microwave for as long as it takes to become completely melted into a thick liquid (probably no more than 3 minutes). 

*Continuously stir the chocolate to keep it from hardening while you pop the other type into the microwave. 

*Mix peanut butter into one of the bowls of melted chocolate. Probably 1.5 cups will do. I normally am crazy for chunky peanut butter, but for this project, you'll probably want smooth.

*Pour one type of chocolate into your dish/pan/container and pour the other type on top.

*Use a spoon, fork, or knife to swirl the two together however you like.

*Place in the fridge or freezer to harden. I'm impatient so I use the freezer to speed up the hardening process.

*Cut the hardened candy into squares. This is the hardest and most frustrating part as the candy is difficult to cut and often splinters into little shards instead of neat squares. My brother and I definitely used to "accidentally" cause the candy to splinter while we were helping mom cut it because then there were more scraps that we couldn't give away and had to eat ourselves.

This treat is always a hit when we give it out. Just make sure to warn others that it contains peanuts.

Bring the falafel

I studied abroad in Jordan last year and became quite accustomed to eating falafel. Luckily for me, our neighborhood chain grocery store sells a small selection of falafel mixes. For the brand that I bought, you have to let the mix sit in water for 30 minutes (it's that planning ahead requirement that always causes me to stumble).

The frying requires both a lot of oil and a bit more time and attention than I really wanted to spend (although that's my problem with cooking in general). For the most part, the patties stayed together well and did not fall apart.

They were a bit spicy to me, but nothing some yogurt couldn't fix.

I brought this snack to several meetings of my thesis seminar and my colleagues were thrilled, which is good because they probably weren't thrilled to listen to me explain regulatory takings jurisprudence.

In other international food news, my roommates (all of whom are Hawaiian and/or Asian), have been cooking up some delicious appetizers. These seaweed wraps (made lovingly for the new freshmen from Hawaii) took a looong afternoon and evening to make, but were addictive.

How do you like them apples?

Staring at the leftover brown sugar in my cupboard for several weeks inspired me to bake a few apples.

I looked up a recipe on AllRecipes.com to see what we were up against, and was surprised to see that it really isn't that hard. I just glanced at one of the easy looking recipes and don't even remember which one.

What I used:

A rectangular ceramic baking dish

Apples (I'm sure it's possible to do this with any size, but the larger the better)

Brown sugar

Walnuts

Cranberries

The first step is to core the apples. I don't have a corer so I hacked away with a regular chopping knife. Not ideal, but it worked just fine.

Next, I mixed together the brown sugar, cranberries, and walnuts. Some of the recipes call for nutmeg and orange peel, and most list raisins instead of cranberries, but college cooking is all about using whatever's on hand, and those three items were what I had.

I didn't even keep track of amounts. I had about 11 apples and I used all of them. I also used up all of my brown sugar and that was about half a bag. For the other things, I just stirred together a dry mixture that I thought looked good. I placed the apples in my ceramic cooking dish and packed them as tightly as possible with the dry mixture.

The recipe that I was working off of says that you should boil a pot of water on the stove while prepping the apples. I did that and then poured about a half an inch of boiling water into the pan.

The idea behind the water is that it keeps the apples from drying out while they bake for about 30 minutes, and that sometime around the halfway mark you should use the liquid to baste the apples.

{Whoa, hold up! I just used the word 'baste'. You'd think this was a 100 level class or something. As I understand it, basting is when you cook something in juice or sauce and dribble that same sauce on the food item before/during/after the cooking process. You can get fancy basting brushes, but I just used a spoon to dribble the sugary hot water over the apples after 15 minutes in the oven and then again when I took them out at the end.}

I only used the 30-35 minutes as a guide, and took them out when the apples were soft and I could easily slip a fork into each one (and when I was hungry and had lost interest in staring at the oven). They were very good!

21

A few gfs and I went away for the weekend and cooked a full dinner with dishes picked from those that were popular in the 1920s. Thankfully, we had two experienced chefs with us and they took the reins.

And we had a version of "bathtub gin" because, well, of course we did.

What the fluff

Apparently I live in the town where Fluff was invented. There's even a yearly festival to celebrate in which people enter various creations using fluff as an ingredient. Some of the combinations are a little bizarre:

I tried one of these. The flavors just sit side by side. It's fine. Not terrible; not great. Not much point to it, really, since there are much better partners for fluff.

There are also performances and kind of ridiculous games for kids.

And of course a competition.

Cooking with the roomies

The roomies and I bravely attempted to (and did, in fact) make tiramisu. We learned a bit about cooking during this experience, the most important lesson being that equipment is key! At one point, we had to whip cream and yolks to create the filling. 

We didn't have an electric mixer and thought, "no problem. We'll just stir really really fast."

Let me tell you this now, no human can stir fast enough to do this. After having zero success procuring stiff peaks from the cream and worrying that the entire dessert would be a failure, we fortunately were able to borrow a mixer from the boys who live downstairs. (Yup, the boys have more kitchen appliances than the girls).

Me, flopping over after trying my hardest to be a human mixer.

The cream filling was made and we were able to finish the desert which turned out to be fantastic.

**FYI: Tiramisu needs to sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of four hours but preferably overnight. I didn't know this beforehand so if you're planning to make it, just be aware that you need plenty of time.

Pizza: Because It's Easy

This is an incredibly easy recipe and takes no more than 15 minutes. It's one of the first ones that my mother tried to get me to learn.

You need:

A baking sheet

Pesto (I buy it but my mother is fancy and makes it out of homegrown basil)

Sundried tomatoes (canned or dried - doesn't matter)

Feta cheese

Olives (if you want)

Pizza crust (I use the quick and easy Boboli crusts, but my brother is way ahead of me in terms of living-on-your-own skills, and he makes his own crusts from dough)

Preheat your oven according to the directions on the package for the crust. Spread a layer of pesto on the crust, then layer tomatoes, olives, and whatever other toppings you'd like to use. It's easier to chop the tomatoes and olives beforehand so that they will lie flat, but I'm usually lazy and just toss them on as is. Sprinkle a layer of cheese on top. (I told you - EASY!)

Bake according to the package's instructions. For Boboli, it's only about 8-10 minutes. I take the pizza out when the feta on top starts turning a light brown.

Gardening

Note to self: get gardening inspiration from Grandma's garden and file that away for your future house.

(Also, take packing tips from her).

Better Than What the Kids Be Selling

Towards the end of my study abroad time in Jordan, temperatures were getting into the high 80s and we started drinking a lot of mint lemonade. A few members of my host family were very good at throwing this together and it's too bad I never asked for the proportions because I haven't been able to replicate it as well as I would like.

The easy part about this is that you can use whole lemons. No peeling or squeezing. Just chop them up into fourths or so and throw everything into the blender.

Next, grab some mint. We have our own growing out back and this amount wasn't quite enough. I ended up grabbing about three more sprigs.

Throw everything together with some water and mash away. You can also put the sugar directly into the blender or food processor, but I found it easier to add later (directly to the pitcher) as that allows you to add to taste.

Pour everything through a strainer into a pitcher or glass. Add as much sugar as you think it needs.

What you end up with is a light and minty lemonade that I thought was pretty darn good.