Precursor Goodbyes w/ Baby Cheesecakes: Plain and Jelly

I cannot believe it is already my last week in Boston. This summer could not have gone by any faster. If life keeps going at this rate, I'll be seeing gray hairs before I know it (all the more reason for yolo-fish? I think YES). As summer reaches an end, I am feeling that familiar ambivalence of being sad and excited. I'm sad that I am going to be finding myself spending many hours in the library again. Being stressed out. Trying not to fail school/have an aneurysm. And the beginning of the year always means buying books, trying to get into wait listed classes, and just in general all things not fun.

At the same time, the beginning of the year means reuniting with friends, back-to-school parties and being back in California. And I'll be living much closer to all my friends, and can cook for them! These are things that excite me. I am also a semester (only one semester!) away from studying abroad, which really really excites me.

Again, it is a back and forth feeling. Being away from school for so long always makes it feel like a foreign entity that I am going back to, now that I'm accustomed to my working-life routine here. But I know that, within 48 hours back in Berkeley, it will be like I never left at all.

The saddest part about leaving is always saying good bye, and in this circumstance it is no different. I am notoriously bad at saying good byes, bringing with it my very classic Jennifer-awkwardness. All the friends that I have met this summer have been so incredibly fabulous to me, I only wish I could pack them in my suitcase and bring them to school with me. They will just have to be my home away from home I suppose.

One more notable good bye I have to make though is with my parents. And despite the jokes, and even the rough patches we face, I love no one in the world more than them. So each good bye I make with them is always taken a little bitterly.

Which is why this week I decided to sweeten it up with some cheesecake, since it is the Mom's favorite thing to eat. (I used the yogurt cup recipe from last time)

First, I tried to make a plain one with a lemon spread on top. Let me just show you how that went:

uhhh, what? Filtering out butter chunks that refused to melt? Oh jeez...

Err, yeah. I think that is burned.

Who knew it was possible to burn lemon curd? I didn't. Until now.

I don't think I need to elaborate much further except to say that it didn't go as planned, and we just had our cheesecake plain.

We were so impatient to eat it that we didn't let it refrigerate for long enough, but it was still yums.

I also forgot to put oil in the crust so it was really hard, oops.

This cheesecake was just a big hot ishfest.

Then I decided to make a cheesecake and try my hand at mah-belling. Marbeling jelly looks so. cool and I figured if I can frost cupcakes, then this would be a piece of cake (pun thoroughly intended and enjoyed). 

Turns out marbeling isn't as easy as it looks. 

Only afterwards did I realize I could have just youtube-ed how to do it. Womp...next time!

At least I remembered to add oil and made a normal crust.

To solve the problem of impatience, I put the cakes in the freezer first, then took them out an hour or so later and refrigerated them. By the time women's gymnastics was on the Olympics, these cakes were ready to be eaten. Which was perfect, because I definitely needed something to munch on to counteract the intense drama that is women's gymnastics (and the terribleness that is NBC commentators).

In the end, I hope the Mom sees these cheesecakes as my way of saying, it ain't that easy saying good bye.

post baked...this didn't look that pretty

But after refrigeration it still tasted REALLY good and formed quite well. You will just have to trust me on this one.

Olympic Lovin' Kimchi Fried Quinoa

Knock knock. Who's there? Quinoa. Quinoa who...wait. What!? Where is rice? This is supposed to be kimchi fried rice, right!? Is this some kind of sick joke?

Nope.  It most certainly is not.

The thing is though, it's Olympics season. Which isn't all about jaw-dropping, gorgeous men in speedos breaking world records in the pool. Or sexy Europeans that make you want to chuck your citizenship in the fire and be reborn on the other side of the globe. (Err, kidding...obviously. F-yeah Amurica!)

But in all seriousness...

The Olympics is about unification. It brings together athletes from all over the world to compete on a single, universal platform through athletics. Here, countries get to show off their colors (whaddup Zhong Guo-current medal count winner!), flaunt some spirit, but also transcend politics/geography/stigmatism in camaraderie and sportsmanship. There is nothing more genuine than bonds born from the common ground of dedication, fierce determination, and competition. Every Olympic athlete is a true champion, and they all recognize that in one another.

It's one of the reasons why I love Olympic season. The unity seems to permeate even into the most local levels. Everywhere I go, people can find conversation in the Olympics, no matter if you are with mere acquaintances or barely strangers. Everyone, to some extent, is caught up in the same fervor. It's fun times.

And those swimmers...yes...these are indeed fun times. Swooooooon!

What does this have to do with my dinner tonight? Meh, nothing really. Except actually, it is EVERYTHING.  Everyone expects kimchi fried rice to, understandably, be made with rice. Rice is to Asian as water is to dolphin. But tonight, I decided to introduce the native South American seed into the traditional korean dish. HA! Two different worlds...blending of cultures...Olympics! Relevant! And it worked. It worked so, so well.

Okay so I actually added quinoa to it because I had leftover cooked quinoa and didn't want to make rice. But lets just keep things Olympic themed, shall we?

Quinoa is continuing to prove itself as a very worthy substitute for rice. And this dish was so quick and easy to make, it literally took 10 minutes. I also added an egg on top (would that count as a dash of Amurrcan into my cultural medley?) Unfortunately, I had originally wanted to add cheese too (MORE cross cultural exchange!) but completely forgot. Sadface, will have to wait until next time! Because trust me, there will most definitely be many more next times with this dish.

Now off to watch women's beach volleyball (go China)!

Difficulty: 2
Willingness to make again: 10
Over-all: 8
Notes:
1) The kimchi is pretty salty, so make sure kimchi to quinoa ratio is appropriate
2) This was a very simplified version of the original recipe, primarily because I didn't have gochugang or any substitute. But it turned out fine without it. Next time though, I will be sure to have sirracha sauce
3) NEXT TIME: ADD CHEESE & TOFU & maybe some garlic? 
4) Definitely should have used FOUR instead of just 1 single egg. Too small, moops.

UPGRADED Vegetarian Stir Fry; Thanks Ma!

I can't get enough of veggie stir fry. It's just...so...good. Always. Just because I'm livin' yooooung and wiiiillllld & freeeeee, doesn't mean I don't appreciate some consistency once in awhile.

This is upgraded from the last time I made stir fry because the Mom gave me some great tips, and she taught me something called "gou qian," which is a process that will get your stir fry to have a nice, thick texture to it. AKA: make it 100x better.

All the advice from the Mom accumulated to make a much more outstanding dish of stir fry. To the point where I willingly listened to the Mom's instructions, and am now publicly acknowledging how right it all is. That's how you know this is kind of a big deal.

Advice 1: On What to Fry First - Last 
The Mom gave me advice on what the best order of frying the veggies would be to avoid burning and maximize flavor:
1) oil + cong
2) add the garlic
3) add the onions (NOTE: white onions > red onions, in my humble opinion)
4) add the mushrooms (fry until nice and brown. MORE COLOR = MORE FLAVOR = maximized amount of happiness)
5) broccoli

Advice 2: On Making your Broccoli Firm but Soft and Yummy 
1) boil a pot of water (bad images of chickpeas BEGONE)
2) dump your cut broccoli into said pot
3) let water boil again
4) take out steaming broccoli, dump out hot water, and rinse with cold water immediately afterwards

Okay, WARNING: impending nerd alert.

But this process makes sense because you are manipulating the turgidity of the broccoli. By heating the broccoli you are denaturing enzymes and making it softer, but by immediately cleansing with cold water you are reversing the osmosis within the plant cells. Extra water means the solute concentration is higher inside the cells than outside, causing an inward flow of water into the plant cells, thereby expanding their cell walls and making them turgid (nice and hard, that's what she said) as opposed to limp.

WOOO applications of plant bio FTW. Except not, because plant bio is still the absolute worst of all things.

Advice 3: On how to Gou Qian 
1) add some salt and wei jing AFTER all your vegetables have been added and mix in
2)  then take a spoonful of starch and dissolve it in some water
3) pour solution into the skillet and continue mixing in
4) mix THOROUGHLY so you do not get weird starchy clumps

Okay, I am sorry, I'm sorry!!!! But, NERD ALERT PART 2:

Here we see that by adding salt, the water and juices of the veggies will start flowing out onto the skillet, because now the water concentration is much lower in the skillet than in the veggies. Utilizing this, we add the starch, which will combine with these yummy veggie juices to produce a nice, thick, almost syrupy mixture that adds a delicious texture to the vegetables. They don't get soggy, but just make the veggies thicker.
(READ: SCIENCE IS COOL???)

Over-all: 9.9!!

And now, to completely undo all the intelligent-science-chick points that I earned with a question: does anyone else have a really hard time spelling brocolli,  brocalli BRO-CC-OLI?? Or is it just me. Because my post is filled with these ridiculously annoying red squiggly lines of death right now. And no matter how many times I have to write BROCCOLI, I keep getting it wrong. It's demoralizing. It is almost making me not want to make broccoli ever again just to preserve what small shred of dignity and self-worth I have left.

Psych. This stir fry is toooo good to quit over a lack of elementary spelling skills. I'll just have to live with the fact that I can describe the biological processes behind my cooking but cannot spell the vegetable I am cooking in the first place.

WELCOME TO MY LIFE. 

POST-DARK KNIGHT RISES PB Tofu Take 2

Obligatory:

YOU GUYS I WAS AT THE DARK KNIGHT RISES MIDNIGHT PREMIERE LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS AWESOME NOW I AM REWATCHING ALL THE ANIMATED BATMAN EPISODES I CANNOT STOP BATMAN4LYFEEEEEEE.

Okay, I'm done.

the sauce turned out much better this time

So I kept my word and decided to make some peanut sauce tofu. I was super wiped out today after sleeping at 4 am, waking up at 9 am to go see Walter Lewin speak at MIT, then hauling my butt into work, before taking an hour to commute back home.

zzzzZZZZZZzzz I am p o o p e d out.

Which is why delicious, but super easy-to make tofu sounded especially appealing today.

I am very happy to report that this tofu turned out much better than the first version I made at the beginning of summer. I just used the peanut sauce recipe from Wednesday and fried it with some tofu.

Difficulty: 3.5
Willingness to make again: 10 (practice makes perfect! I am very invested in tweaking/perfecting this recipe. I think we already covered that tofu+pb=eternal happiness)
Over-all: 8.5
Notes:
1) FORGOT TO TOAST PEANUTS  :( I think that really would have added a nice extra crunch. Next time!!
2) Should add more salt to it as I am frying
3) Out of a spontaneous impulse to be healthy, I bought this peanut butter substitute:

While still good, it definitely has a slightly different flavor from normal pb.

4) So this time I had a lot of sauce in ratio with my tofu (more than 1:1), but as I continued to fry the tofu the extra sauce became to solidify into super tasty pb chunks that significantly added to the tofu and gave some extra crunch to the dish. TL;DR: MORE SAUCE = GOOD

5) Maybe try with more cong next time?

Now just need to muster the energy to do some Insanity before I really melt into a lump of Batman-watching lard. I just finished downloading all four seasons of the Animated Batman Series! The fun just never ends; life is goooood (read: extra screwed for GRE). Is there such thing as too much Batman? Leading up to the movie, I finished watching all of Batman Beyond. And now this. Regardless, can't stop won't stop. Shameless die-hard super hero geeks, UNITE! Wait...that might just be me.