Surprise Cookin' Stuff

I haven't had much time to update, seeing as I had a ton of really important things to do over the past couple days.  These things included:

1) Doing my laundry for the month (when you run out of certain essential items, it's really not a choice anymore)
2) Hanging up my laundry (there's a lot, do not underestimate this step)
3) Cleaning my room (it's JUST SO MESSY ALL THE TIME GOSH!)
4) Cleaning the kitchen (apparently our landlord doesn't like to pick up our phone calls all the time so we have to keep it as clean as possible to avoid mousies and roachies)
5) Decorating my apartment because right now it's just an off-white blueish gray zone of despair a little bit and nobody really wants that
6) Gymming because I bought this dang membership and now I'm going to use it!
6a) ^^^Also I have to catch up on season 6 of How I Met Your Mother which is on CBS on Monday nights and the premiere is next week and I don't have cable

I also had a ton of non-important things to do over the past couple of days:
1) Hanging out with peeps because I miss them when I'm in my basement apartment alone, sniff sniff
2) Watching The Office
3) Squealing about the Four Town Fair
4) Squealing about Homecoming
5) Willing myself not to get sick (okay I guess that's kind of important but it doesn't really take up a lot of time
6) Doing other things that are so unimportant I can't even remember them for my unimportant list

But in the meantime I have to talk a lil' baby bit about the dinner I made yesterday.  I defrosted some chicken so I was already to cook up some barbecue chicken and maybe some potatoes and veggies and have myself a good ol' time after work.  But then I was all I have this leftover coconut milk from my mushroom chicken and gee that might be good so I told Reece I was going to mix the barbecue sauce and coconut milk together and see what happened.  I think he was a bit skeptical.

BUT it was actually pretty delish and I added a few other things (although I wish I had used less barbecue versus coco-milk).  These things were: soy sauce, ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper.  Things I didn't add but could have: peanut butter, spicy chile sauce, uhmm maybe some sesame or sesame oil or something?

And guess what you have there?  You have a nice little off-the-cuff coconut thai-ish sauce.  Way to go, you kitchen master, you!  I would suggest that you go on Hell's Kitchen but I do not want to be responsible for sending you off to the wrath of Gordon Ramsay.

I just simmered the sauce for a bit, added it to a pan-cooked chicken breast when it was almost cooked through, added veggies, let all the stuff simmer together for a bit, and serve over rice.  When you don't have all day to plan out your meals like you used to (cry for the days of having 15 hours of class a week) it's a nice surprise to eat something that's not stir-fry or any variation of pasta.

Let's not talk about my weirdo eating habits on Sunday: rice-a-roni, a whole tomato, some popcorn, and ice cream.  That's it.  All day.  Someone send me an intervention.

Love,
Courtney

Lemon Meringue Pie Please?

Today I biked to the grocery store to get lemons to make a lemon meringue pie for my parents anniversary.  I biked.  With a backpack on my back.  I'm really cool.

But then I made the pie (and shrimp scampi!) and it was really good and I took some pikshures for you to see here.

LEZZ MAKE A PIE!!!

Start by combining four egg whites and a pinch of cream of tartar (save the egg yolks!).  Whip in your REALLY AWESOME YELLOW KITCHENAID STAND MIXER until they form soft peaks, then add in two tablespoons sugar.

Keep whipping until they form stiff peaks.  I almost just said hard peaks.  That would be incorrect.

You need a baked pie shell, so bake it if you have an unbaked one.  Unbaked + the oven = baked.  I got a 5 on my Calculus AP.

In a saucepan, throw in 1/3 cup cornstarch...

1 1/3 cups sugar...

1 1/2 cups water...

And a pinch of salt.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until boiling.

My hand looks really weird in this picture and I hate it.

While you're waiting for it to boil, you gotta zest some lemon.  I had a really difficult time at this part.  Is this what you use to zest a lemon?

I mangled this poor lemon.  I definitely didn't do this correctly.  Good thing I don't pretend to be perfect.

I even forgot to take a picture of the zest.  You need a tablespoon.  Imagine that here.

Next, you need 1/2 cup of lemon juice.  It took me 4 lemons, probably because I juiced them wrong.

This is what a half cup looks like, in case you were wondering.

Remember those egg yolks I told you to save?  This is why!  You're going to...

WHISK THEM!!  Good job.

Does your cornstarch/water/sugar mixture look goopy and gross now?  Good!  You're ready for the next step.  Remove that pan from that there heat!

Now, this part is very important... you need to temper the eggs.  Basically, you need to add the hot hot mixture to the eggs slowly so that you don't cook the eggs instantly.  Otherwise, you'd have scrambled eggs instead of a pie, and I really hate eggs.  Which is weird, I know, but they just gross me out.

So, as you are whisking the yolks, add the hot mixture into the eggs one ladle at a time, until at least half of the hot stuff is mixed in.

I added in pretty much all of the mix.  This is what it should look like if you did it right!

Now, pour the egg mix back into the saucepan and cook over low heat for another minute or two.  Then, remove from heat.

Add in three tablespoons of buttah...

...and the zest and juice.  I'm silly and knocked the zest into the juice while I was taking pictures.  Don't be like me.

Stir until completely combined!

Like this!  This tastes really good, but don't eat a lot of it because it has raw egg yolks, and while I've never gotten salmonella, it's just a little yucky.

Pour the yellow goo into the pie shell.

Nom!  Now comes the fun part.  Take your meringue (if it has fallen a little like mine did, whip it back into shape again!)...

...and if you like to be cool and creative and make more work for yourself you can put it in a bag, cut a hole in it, and pipe it on the pie.

It looks like packing peanuts!

Or a cloud.  No, mostly just packing peanuts.  Make sure the meringue covers all the filling, even to the edge, then pop it in the oven (375F for 10-14 minutes!).

And then it will look like this yummm!

Deliciouso.  Stick the pie in the fridge after a little while or else it will turn into soup like mine.  But it still tasted really good!

Ta-da!  You made a pie.  If you want the original recipe, you can find it on the Food Network site. 

So now I have a raging headache and I'm going to go to seeps seeing as I have to wake up tomorrow and unpack.  I have no clothes.  None.  My life is in the garage.  Ahhh!

It was really a pie not soup I swear,
Courtney

Bored Cupcakeing

Happy Easter, everyone!  I'm fairly confident I doubled my body weight through all the eating I did today, from french toast at Amy's to hors d'oeuvres to Easter dinner to delicious dessert, which I made and will be posting here shortly.  Our local fire department gets calls all the time to carry 400 pound people out of their houses because they can't do it themselves (I should know, my dad is the chief), so if they have to come lift a 250-pound Courtney out of here tomorrow, it's really quite a break for them, I think.

Since I forgot my camera card importer at school, I can't post my french silk pie step-by-step, so I figured we could make some cupcakes instead.  I got bored a couple of weeks ago and decided to bake, and I had all of the ingredients for this recipe in my apartment, thus, it was meant to be.  Plus, cupcakes are the best.  Duh.

My KitchenAid mixer made a guest appearance for this baking expedition, so I shall give credit where credit is due.

Let's get started, shall we?

Start by creaming together a cup of sugar and a stick (half-cup) of butter in your mixer, or whatever other inferior piece of equipment you may have on hand.

If you eat some of this, I support that decision.  Just don't eat it all.  No mixture = no cupcakes.

Then violently crack two eggs...

...and add them into the butter/sugar mixture.  If you're taking pictures for your blog, do this slowly, because you don't really get a second shot at this.  Well, actually, you're cracking two eggs... so you actually do get another shot.

Sorry I lied to you.

Next comes two teaspoons of vanilla extract...

...one and three-quarters cups of baking powder...

...and one and a half cups of flour.  If you're using a mixer, be careful.  Flour loves to go everywhere.  I learned this the hard way.

Clearly, I'm not the neatest baker.  It makes it taste better.  I swear.

At this point, the batter is rather thick.  Oh yeah, and it's also freaking delicious.  Be careful.  This step is not for those without self control.

Oh wait, that would be me.

Then, stir in a half-cup of milk until the batter is smooth...

...like this!!

Or like this!!  I don't really know what the difference is between these two pictures.  That's what happens when I wait two weeks between taking the pictures and posting them.

Bake the batter in cupcake pans for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Again, I don't remember how long they actually took because I waited too long.  I keep failing you.  Disappointment reigns.

I mean, but not that much.  I'm not worried about it.  Don't worry about it.  It's cool.

I took a lot of pictures for this recipe, so I'm making you wait on baited breath (she said sarcastically) until tomorrow for the frosting nom recipe.  All I can say is that it's chocolate, it's delicious, and it's served warm.  Cake gods help me now.

Here's the recipe again that I used for the cupcakes - it's a little bit heavier, like a corn muffin: Simple White Cake Recipe.

Now I must return to my eventful night of fitting all of my shopping, painting supplies, and leftovers into my tiny suitcase to take back tomorrow while watching the first Royal Wedding Week special on TLC.  This week is going to be very unproductive for me.

Love and cupcakes,
Courtney

Pralines, Kids

I made pralines.  I don't really know why.  Oh wait, yes I do.  BECAUSE THEY'RE DELICIOUS!

After our trip to New Orleans, I fell in love with pralines.  I don't really know why I was so surprised.  I mean, I love sugar.  I love candy.  And I love pecans.  In fact, when we used to have the Orchard Harvest Salad at Panera (I miss Panera!), I would eat the pecans straight off the line when it was slow.  Pecan, pecan, pecan.

Panera probably doesn't miss me violating health codes and stuff.

So anyways.  Pralines.  Let's make em.  I used this recipe because I did not want a praline recipe from some random place.  I wanted New Orleans Pralines.  I'm an elitist.

Lezz go!

You need white sugar and light brown sugar.   You also need to make sure that you don't have an aversion to sugar because that's pretty much the bulk of this whole recipe.

You also need half & half.  Actually, you're supposed to use light cream, but the Bronx didn't have any of that.  So we'll bootleg this part.

There are a lot of things that I expect the grocery stores outside my apartment to be missing (ripe avocados? Frozen fruit? Baked Lays?), but light cream really wasn't one of them.  I should be used to this by now.

Combine the above in a saucepan over medium heat and start stirring.  Do not eat.  Trust me, it will just begin a vicious circle that will lead you to eat so much sugar that you don't even want a praline at the end.  I speak from experience.

Psst... I ate some.  And I still ate a praline at the end.  It was worth it.

Keep stirring until the sugar begins to boil.  Starting to see bubbles...

Okay, here some a few more... but not quite...

Yes!  That's what we want to see.  Rejoice.  Do not eat.  For real this time.  It is very, very, very hot.  You will burn yourself.  I speak from experience.

Please, my friends, learn from my shortcomings.

Guess what?  These aren't pecans.  Because the Bronx doesn't have any of those, either.  They don't even have them at the fake Nuts 4 Nuts stand.  I checked.  So these are walnuts.  Whatever nut substance you have (teeheehee), you want to add it now.

We're makin' Bronx Pralines now, people.  Get your big kid pants on.

Whee!!!  One and a half cups.

Also add two tablespoons of butter at this point.  If you're Paula Deen, add four times that amount.  In other words, a full stick.  If Paula Deen read my blog, that would be awesome.  I wonder if she's seen this blog yet...

Then STIR!  Don't wimp out on me.

Oh dear.  Oh my.  Candy-coated walnut cluster.  Seriously, do not eat this.  It's still very hot.  I speak from experience.

Then, I decided to add some salt, because nothing goes better with caramel-like substance than salt.  Salty-sweet nom!  Also, if I add salt, I can say that I "modified" the recipe, and therefore, it is my own.  Tricky, tricky, tricky!

BAM!  Salt.  Stir it in, then let the pot sit off the heat for a little while, until you can tell that it's starting to firm up.

Drop spoonfuls of the warm candy onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or wax paper.  I was planning to use one of the thirteen rolls of wax paper that I bought for the Mimes back in October, but I was too lazy to walk to the theater.

Mannnn, do these look good.  They'll be hard in five to ten minutes (and they're even better when they're still warm!).

But guess what...

GUESS WHAT?!?!....

We're not done yet, kids.

Because I had this brilliant idea... what if we made pralines with pretzels in them???

Ohhh yeah.  Just do the same as above, adding pretzels instead of walnuts.

Oh yeah, this was totally a good idea.  But I still don't think this is done...

Chocolate.  Yes.   Now you're speaking my language.

I don't have final pictures of the concoctions because I had to make dinner and run off the the Vag Mons, but everyone who ate them looked a bit like these two cuties:

I just can't handle it.  Speaking of that, I started a Tumblr.  Follow me!

Recipe (with my modifications) is below!

TGIT (Thank God It's Tuesday),
Courtney
-----
New Orleans Bronx Pralines

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup half & half
• 1.5 cups walnuts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tsp salt

Combine sugars and half & half in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally to a boil.  When mixture becomes thick, add walnuts, butter, and salt, and continue to cook until desired thickness (or viscosity, if you prefer, fancy!).  Remove from heat for 5-10 minutes, so that the mixture is starting to harden but is still liquid.  Drop onto wax paper or aluminum foil in balls.  Allow to cool.  Eat with vigor and zest.

Variation: substitute pretzel sticks for walnuts and drizzle melted chocolate on top!