Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

Gin and Tonics are my favorite drink. To me, they are the perfect balance of flavors (which is hard to come by in the world of well drinks). They get me happy drunk (as opposed to embarrassing drunk) and are so light and refreshing. I was so excited when I came across this recipe for Gin and Tonic Cupcakes. At first it seemed like kind of a weird idea. Gin and Tonic...in a cake? Hmm...something about juniper berry, quinine and lime does not really scream "dessert" to me. But hey, I wouldn't be a pragmatist if I didn't try!

The recipe consists of two parts: the cake and the frosting (duh). The cake is an angel food cake flavored with tonic water. I have nothing against Angel food cake except that I don't have an electric mixer and I must admit that I suck at whipping stuff up by hand and suck even harder at making cake from scratch. The frosting is a mixture of powdered sugar, mascarpone cheese, corn syrup and gin, also requiring an electric mixer. I had to put my innovative cheap college student mind to this. My roommate usually keeps our cupboards stocked with at least 6 boxes of cake mix and cans of frosting. Whenever there is a sale...ho boy, watch out!

So instead of fretting over getting things right from scratch, I took the cake doctor approach. I used a box of white cake mix and a can of cream cheese frosting, doctored them up and came up with a very good approximation to the recipe.

The original recipe did not call for very much lime flavoring to be incorporated into the cakes themselves besides the garnish. To me, the quintessential part of a gin and tonic is the lime. It makes the caustic combination of gin and tonic into a refreshing beverage. Plus, I am always a proponent of citrus fruit in baked goods. Here is my process:

FROSTING

Fresh out of mascarpone so had to doctor up a can of cream cheese frosting I had laying around the apartment. I added 2 tbsp of gin and about 1/3 of the zest I got from a lime. The lime adds a very nice touch since it goes really well with gin. I figured that some people really like to eat the frosting first or a bit of it alone before biting into the cake and the flavor of gin would be a bit overwhelming. The gin loosened up the frosting quite a bit so I added about 3 tbsp of confectioner's sugar to tighten it back to the right consistency. Per the original recipe, I dyed the frosting a pale green with two drops of food coloring. It looks very pleasant, wouldn't you say?


CAKE

Mmm...white cake mix, my dear friend. I followed the normal directions on the back of the box except I replaced the some of the water for 3 tbsp of Tonic water and the juice of one lime, subtracting that amount (about 4 tbsp) from the 1 1/3 cups of water called for. I also added the remaining zest from the lime I had zested for the frosting. I used the remnants of a bottle of tonic that had gone flat in the fridge since I only wanted the tonic flavor. I baked the cake according to the directions on the box and let them cool completely before frosting.


RESULTS

These cupcakes are as light as refreshing as the drink! The slight hint of tonic and lime in the cake goes so well with the hint of herbal-ly gin and lime in the frosting. What seemed like a pretty disgusting idea turned out to be quite delicious! I made these for my roommate's birthday. And once she and her friends return from Six Flags this evening, I bet they will be pleasantly surprised by these scrumptious little delights!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some friends visit me recently and i decided that i wanted to make them dinner and dessert. My friends are vegans. Though i am no longer a vegan, i still have a couple of vegan friendly dishes in my recipe file. The menu consisted of Moosewood Collective's Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie and Chocolate chip cookies. I have to admit, i make the BEST chocolate chip cookies, unfortunately they are not vegan. My past adventures in vegan baking have consistently ended up with tears and disappointment so i was hesitant. My friend suggested that i just substitute the egg in the recipe with half a banana and vegan margarine for the butter and ta-da! Veganized!

The recipe is adapted from Fanny Farmer's recipe for chocolate chip cookies which i got from my friend Caroline. It contains what i call the golden ratio of cookies. 1 stick butter to 1+ cup flour to 1 cup sugar to 1 egg (about). The finished product is just the right amount of gooey, crispy and chewy. To substitute the egg, I think it is best to use a mashed really ripe banana. If your banana is still a little green at the edges, mash in some vegetable oil with the banana. The margarine i used was Earth Balance which is a really high quality vegan margarine. It's kind of expensive. Many of the cheap margarines usually contain some sort of milk product in order to provide creaminess. I'm sure there is some sort of cheap run of the mill margarine that is vegan, i haven't really checked the labels. Though, the Earth Balance resulted in a very delicious tasting cookie Here is the recipe:

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1/2 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 banana, mashed (with a touch of oil if your banana isn't really ripe)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (i always put a little more)
1 1/8 cup flour (that 1/8 cup is INTEGRAL to the texture)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
(optional: 1 cup chopped nuts)

Oven: Preheated to 375 degrees F

1. Melt the margarine in the microwave and add the sugars and mashed banana. Mix well
2. Add the vanilla, baking soda and salt and stir until incorporated into the margarine, sugar, banana mixture
3. Add all the flour and fold in until incorporated.
4. Lastly, add the chips and whatever else you want. Fold until uniform.
5. I like my cookies to spread and become crispy and chewy so i really like using a warm dough. If you like doughier, cakier cookies refridgerate the dough for 30 minutes or so.
6. Using a 1/2 tbsp measuring spoon, spoon balls of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes until cookies are golden brown and set.
8. Eat your heart out!

Crazy Easy Pie

Sometimes, you just want pie. You don't want to make a short crust. You don't want to peel fruit. You don't even want to preheat the oven. All you want is that gooey sweet contrast to some delicious flaky crust. Well, last night was one of those nights. Those nights of pie lust nuanced with sloth. My friend Anne and I had been wanting to make on of our pudding pies which are oh so delicious. After our very delicious dinner of Samosas and Bell pepper wedges, i found an old oreo pie crust that we had been saving since last semester. I asked Anne if she had any chocolate puding mix. She indeed did. We were planning on Dirt Pies with crumbled Oreos and gummy worms. We made a trek to the student marketplace and found that they did not have any sort of gummy candy...nor oreos for that matter! Instead we bought 2 boxes of Junior Mints and resorted to making a chocolate mint type thing.

What we ended up with is sort of a delicious Girl Scout Thin Mint tasting pie. It is really easy and really really really delicious. I ate 1/4 of that pie last night and it was delicious.

Thin Mint Pie

1 Oreo Pie Crust (available at most supermarkets)
1 Package of Instant Chocolate Pudding (4 servings)
1 3/4 cup of milk
A few handfuls of Junior Mints
2 tsp. Peppermint Schnapps

1. Whisk milk and pudding mix together until all lumps are gone (It will be liquidy)
2. Add 2 tsp. of Schnapps into pudding and whisk until incorporated
3. Pour spiked pudding into pie crust
4. Put pie into the fridge for about half an hour for pudding to set
5. Decorate with Junior mints
6. Eat like a greedy little pig, or share with friends.

Where in the Kitchen is Irene Duong Pants-Lover?

Gah! School is seriously eating my soul! I haven't been updating very much here and i apologize. Do not interpret my silence as a dry spell in the kitchen. When i am stressed i cook a LOT. When i get some free time (read: when i am bored during xmas break) i will post some recipes that i have devised and tried this semester. Among the ones to look forward to:

Perfect Pie Crust and Best Apple Pie ever!
Indian Breads - Parathas (plain, potato and spinach) and Naan
Best Chocolate Cookies in the World!
Indian style Curries
Cale and Quinoa
Vegetarian Shepherd's pie

Oh man and a whole lot more that i can't think of right now. I leave you with a picture of the top of my christmas tree! Happy impending holidays everyone!

Good morning, starshine! (er... pasta)

Oh, pasta. OH, pasta. Long-standing lover and comforter of souls. I can't get enough of it.

Although, sometimes, occasionally, once in awhile, nearly never.... one does tire of the usual skillet of jarred spaghetti sauce with sliced Adell's sausage thrown in for good measure. I know, I know. It seemed impossible, but believe it. Take a moment for yourself, have a cleansing cry, but it is time, my friends, to move forward! Onward, compadres! Into the brave new world of pasta delights.

On that note, let's unveil a nice little treat I like to call "breakfast pasta." The inspiration: halfway into slicing the sausage, I decided to get fancy and dice it into tiny crosswise pieces rather than the usual round slices (cut on the BIAS!, for those so inclined to inquire about such information) before browning it in the skillet. This reminded me of breakfast sausage patties, the flat crispy kind relegated to the plates of those diners with the orange booth seats and waitresses named "Flo."

Being a lover not only of pasta but also of breakfast foods in all their many incarnations, I quickly adapted/improvised a carbonara sauce - eggs, parmesan cheese, and ground pepper scrambled together with a little milk, then tossed in with the hot pasta and sausage pieces while still hot. The result, dear friends, is a rich, creamy sauce that fills in all the holes. It heals what ails 'ya, is what I'm saying. A picture? Why of course.

I added a couple of torn basil leaves, fresh from my herb garden (a phrase which brings me unbelieveable amounts of joy) but that's really up to you, as well as the extra parmesan grated on top. You are free to ignore the to-do list from ages ago that the bowl is sitting on top of (lord knows I do!) and as a special favor, I ask...nay, implore you to ignore the Vanessa Carlton CD sitting there in the corner.

On second thought, I will NOT apologize for my guilty pleasure!

(On third thought... how did that get there, anyways?)

Anyways, a recipe.

Breakfast pasta, for one

hot pasta - start this first, and when you're done with everything else it should be ready and drained and still hot

1 sausage, chopped first into slices, then into crosswise, smaller-than-bite-size pieces. Brown em' until nice and crispy

In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg, 1 tbsp milk, and maybe 2 or 3 tbsp of fresh grated parmesan cheese. Throw some ground pepper in there if it pleases you.

When the moment is right - pasta is still hot, sausage is crispy - toss everything together, stirring vigorously (there's a fun phrase!). The residual heat will be enough to cook the scrambled egg sauce without turning it into, well, scrambled eggs and pasta and sausage. (Which can, incidentally, be quite tasty when it's 9:45 and you've just spent the last 3 hours explaining the difference between "it's" and "its" and the intricacies of MLA format.)

Garnish as you like - more cheese? Basil? Sure! - and serve. As they say in Singing in the Rain, Good mornin'....good MORnin'!

Peanut Sauce Noodles!

Peanut Sauce and Noodles is a delicious standby. It is easy, I usually have all of the ingredients lying around in one form or the other. The idea came from something they USED to serve at the dining establishments right here at my University, but no longer since the dining services has recently established a new system of dining...to my dismay. They used to serve these made to order asian noodle and rice stir fries. (Lovingly referred to as "bowls" by students) They were vegan, readily available and soooo delicious. They were simply noodles or rice (jasmine or brown) served with a stir fry of your choice of vegetables and your choice of sauce. The sauces were all pretty good, I was quite found of the spicy teriyaki, but the peanut sauce was pretty good too! Well, the days of hoppin' it to the Summit to get a bowl are long bygone and have since been replaced with stirrin' one up at Irene's house. And my rendition of the bowl is damn tasty.

You can use any vegetable you have laying around for this dish...as with so much of the other dishes i make. For the version above a I used a convenient frozen Asian vegetable stir fry medley I bought from Trader Joe's. It's not the best, but it is really convenient. The vegetables i would suggest are snow peas, broccoli, bell pepper, mushrooms and onions. Here is the recipe:

Peanut Sauce Noodle Stirfry (Enough for One w/ leftovers =D)

For the sauce

1/8 cup peanut butter and equal or less amount of water (to thin it out)
1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
Hot Pepper Flakes

For the Rest

Vegetable oil for stir frying
Vegetables that you like (my suggestions are above)
Tofu, drained and pressed, cut into bite sized slices
1 clove garlic minced
2 tsp garlic, grated
1 serving of noodle of your choice (I use whole wheat spaghetti)
Fresh lime

1. Boil a pot of water and start boiling your pasta. If you're using a quicker cooking noodle, do this later.

2. Mix all your ingredients for the peanut sauce. Mix it really well. It's going to look really unappetizing in the beginning but will form a homogenous mixture. Gauge the consistency and flavor to your liking.

3. Put enough vegetable oil into a sautee pan to more or less coat the bottom and turn on to medium high heat. When the oil is hot, put in your slices of tofu. Brown the tofu on both sides.

4. When tofu is browned add aromatics (garlic, ginger, and onion if you're using it). Saute for maybe a minute then add the rest of your vegetables and stir fry until cooked. If you're using fresh broccoli, I suggest putting it in before anything else (besides the tofu) with a little bit of water for a quick "wok steam" make sure to put the lid on the pan if you do that.

5. Drain your pasta/noodles and put into saute pan. Stir fry for about a minute.

6. Pour peanut sauce over everything and stir to combine making sure that everything is coated in peanutty goodness.

7. I garnish with some flax seeds (or sesame seeds but i don't normally have sesame seeds) and squirting fresh lime all over the noodles at the very end gives it that WOW factor.

- - - - - - - -

I have read a similar recipe on one of the most gorgeous vegan foodblogs i've ever seen VeganYumYum. In her version, she makes a soy-mirin sauce and flavors the tofu with it before anything else goes into the pan. I think i will try that next time because the tofu could use a little more flavor than the peanut sauce offers.

Chicken Pot Pie of GLORY

Hello friends!

This is Meghan here, Fork Dork number two and Irene's platonic life partner. After seeing so many of Irene's delicious posts - and having finally started getting back into the swing of apartment life, the general insanity of senior year of college, but most importantly COOKING - I feel that it is time to add my $0.02.

I have my screensaver set to display the pictures I have uploaded onto my computer. This combined with my compulsion of taking pictures of food that I deem particularly good-looking (not at all hard-and-fast criteria... I have been known to eat things that look less than appetizing simply because I made it, damn it, and that is all there is to it...) means that quite often I am taunted with visual memories of food adventures past. Por ejemplo...















Oh sweet baby Jesus, tell me that that doesn't make your heart smile and your innards dance at least a little bit!

Now this seems as good an opportunity as any to say a little something else about yours truly, FD #2, in relation to her Fork Dork counterpart. Irene follows a mostly vegan diet and lifestyle, and I admire her for that (not only do I admire it... I also gladly partake of it when visiting her kitchen of non-meatly delights!)

I, however, have an inexplicable love of two things: a) comfort foods from cultures not necessarily my own, and b) Italian food. This tends to mean meat... not a lot, but not always a little. Chicken, fish, and turkey mostly for me - the occasional pork, but not usually steak, for reasons we won't delve into just now. But hey, as I see it, we are equal opportunity foodies, Irene and I. Different sides of the same delicious coin. Keep on keepin' on my meatless amiga!

That said... it's time for some pahhhhhh! (Say it loud, say it proud.)

This was a thrown-together concoction with not a whole lot of extensive planning - a day or two beforehand, maybe, as well as a general desire for things of a pastry-crust nature. Full disclosure: I cheated on the pastry crust and actually used the refrigerated roll-out-and-cut-to-proper-size variety! Oh noez! Forgive me pie gods for I have sinned. Later I will attempt to do you justice - I did pull off a pretty sweet tarte tatin once, by your grace - but this is neither here nor there. For now...

Chicken Pot Pie, the easy way (sorry for the lack of measurements... going off recipe... it's the way of the future... ?? I figure you can adjust to your pie pan size this way...)

1-2 chicken breast halves
Some frozen and/or fresh veggies (frozen work best in the baking process to me - they don't get as mushy!): includes carrots, peas, green beans
a few good mushrooms
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 box pie crust rounds, unbaked of course (there should be 2 of the lil' suckers in there)
The herbs that bring your heart joy - in my case, fresh rosemary and fresh sage

Soooo...!

The chicken: cut into bite-size chunks, and saute gently in olive oil with some chopped garlic (what's that? I didn't include that in the ingredient list? oh ho ho my friend, that is because in my house, garlic is one of those "given" ingredients that you do not even need to think about. Do not question. Just do.) and rosemary. Cook until just barely not pink in the middle anymore - the baking will do the rest.

The saucy-filling bits: Throw down the contents of that soup can into a small saucepan, add maybe half a can of water - not too much, you want it still the consistency of a realll thick soup rather than something broth-y. If you like, throw your veggies in here and heat just so you take the frost off 'em but everything should still be pretty cool. Keep it cool, my friends.

The crust: Lightly oil your pie tin or pan or whatever it is you bake your pie in. Put one of the crusts in, laying the edges lightly over the pan and trimming them so they just barely reach over the top. Pour everything else in - chicken and filling - and throw crust number two on top. Crimp the edges with your fingers, making sure all is well sealed. Brush with some melted butter or egg white. And then - THEN! - make a couple small incisions on the top of the crust so that steam can escape safely and not cause pie explosions, which are generally unattractive to other pies. Don't be the cause of embarrassment for your pie!! So sad.

Anywho, bake for a good 35 or 40 minutes or until the crust is properly golden. Take out, let cool, stand back, and wait... just wait. Soon you will be everyone's best friend. Hooray!!! I made this like 6 months ago and can STILL taste it. Mmm-hmm!

With love,
Miss Meg