visions of clarity...do as infinity

Sunday, April 15, 2007

A Cooking/Baking Weekend

Hello

I didn't do anything significant this weekend except um... Cook. And bake. O dear! I MUST go shopping soon!!! xD Haha. And get away from some of this domesticity. I'm quite sated in the "must-cook-NOW" department.

I must warn you ahead of time that this will be an image-heavy post.

Yay! So I saw this recipe in Today for Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon. And it sounded SO GOOD! =D And I also made Garlic Bread from 101 Cookbooks and Asparagus with Tarragon Dressing from Donna Hay Magazine.

Part of my mise en place:

The finely minced garlic was ordered by my mother who was all, MAKE IT FINER OR YOUR GARLIC BREAD WILL BE BAD! Or something like that.xD In any case, I found mincing garlic as finely as possible a most therapeutic activity.=) Seriously. I got all zen while using this huge and dangerous looking chopper to chop up garlic as small as I could.^_^

Mincing Garlic = Good for you. [Plus garlic has all those antioxidants and what not! xD]

The chicken before going into the oven! I hate touching raw meat so I used chopsticks to attempt to poke the garlic and all that marinade around the chicken. I love chopsticks. They are SO useful.

The final product after 40 minutes in the oven. Sadly, I think rubbing all that marinade in by hand would have been better in infusing the chicken with more flavour.

For the garlic bread,

This:

Plus this:

Equals this:

xD Garlic-Lemon Bread with chives. YUMMY. This was actually quite good except that I felt I could have let MORE butter soak into the bread. Which would make it very good but very very very very very fattening.=S But seriously. The lemon brightened it up and made it really yummy.xD

The tarragon dressing on asparagus.=) The recipe called for white wine vinegar but I couldn't find that in Cold Storage so I used this Japanese brown rice vinegar we had lying around at home instead. It was quite yummy.=D Beams. The taste of tarragon is pretty unique and slightly spicy [I tried eating it on its own when I was plucking it off the stem because I've never tried tarragon before] but quite aggressive. It is not a mild-flavoured herb.

I also made my usual chocolate cupcakes.=D Beams.

That day, Jiamin and I watched The Neighbour No. 13, starring Shun Oguri and this really ugly other guy. It was just.. FREAKY. O.o O my gosh. It was shot in a very suspenseful way and was quite art-housey because... the ending was very HUH-DON'T-UNDERSTAND. Haha.=X And Shun Oguri was like, hardly the lead actor there.-_-"

Thankfully, after Joyce came and I had fixed my old DVD player on top of the new one [the new one CAN'T PLAY JAPAN DVDs!!!!!!!!!!! Of all the horrors. I was MOST upset. But with our superior technical abilities, we managed to fix the old DVD player to the new sound system so we can watch alice nine. and Gackt in concert but with surround sound! xD Yay!] we watched a bit of alice nine.'s Alice in WonderFilm! xD It horrified Joyce. Haha. She was less horrified at Gackt's Sixth Day and Seventh Night though. Yay for Gackt and his drama!! =D

Then we watched Gigolo Wannabe which had a MOST unsatisfying ending.-_-" But! Shun Oguri had a MUCH bigger role here and was very charming and goodlooking so that was good.=D Haha. *bimbotic* It had a very simplistic plot that leaves for a nice-to-watch but not-critically-acclaimed show.=P

For dinner, we snacked on the cupcakes, the Dutch-Swiss rolls and Japanese instant noodles!!! xD

Joyce excitedly took photos of the instant noodles because each flavour is represented by an animal and then these animals are featured as miniature fishcakes in the noodles! =) Very cute. So here you go:

^_^ Kawaii! I liked the... Ummm.. Can't remember. Haha.=X The panda one I think? Plus it had thin noodles, which I love.^_^

Then we watched SNOW QUEEN!!! Hyun Bin! xD xD xD Wah, it is SUCH a sad drama. O goodness me. (T_T) Too many sad moments!!! We must find 1 or 2 weekends to finish the series!!! Beams.=D

Then today, I made low-fat banana bread for my mom:

It's very very very moist.=) And it had quite a good flavour. But still, not the banana bread/cake texture I'm looking for. Hmm.

And I baked up my korova cookies.=D For this batch, I used my darling Valrhona cocoa powder instead of the Margaret River one that I used the last time.

It made SUCH a difference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The flavour this time is REALLY rich, flavourful and almost-complex! xD And SO chocolatey!!! Yummy. My mom still thinks it's too sweet. I must remember to cut down on some sugar next time.

But omg. I am SO using Valrhona cocoa powder from now on!!! xD xD xD BEAMS! Ahaha. Sadly though, my mom reminded me that Valrhona is ummm REALLY expensive. X__x O dear. But heck it's worth it! xD Like the last time I made these, my mom kept going, HEY! That one's BROKEN! *eats* =P And sadly, I was doing the same. Haha.=X

I also got much more even/nicer cookie shapes this time.=) The last time, they spread too much.xP Must remember to cut them thick from now on.=)

Thank you Pierre Herme for coming up with this wonderful recipe! And thank you Dorie Greenspan for adapting it for the home cook!!! xD

Yay for baking! Boo for calories. At least this might cure some Monday blues.^_^"
cheers
*[-witchstone-]*

[music : Training Days 2006 Drug Party set list + Missing Gackt]
[mood : ^_^]
[food : Korova Cookies!]

cch: Ahem. Why do I need to BUDGET for UNIVERSITY?! -_-" And go away. You get the most from Temasek and that's ALL you're left with?! -_____-" Omg! I am earning FAR BELOW the median!!! (T_T) Sobs. And indeed my friends are all rich. WAILS. *counts pennies in a corner*

Wendaye: I actually think the squirrel is cute! Haha.=P Omg! I'm going to see King Lear with my brother!!! =D =D =D Beams. Like, omg. SO EXSPOONSIVE. X__x But yay Ian McKellan or however you spell his name! ^_^ I have to ummmm read King Lear... Soon.^_^" Have you bought tickets? We can all wave at each other in the theatre!!! Haha.=P

Labels: alice nine, Asparagus with Tarragon Dressing, baking, Banana Bread, chocolate cupcakes, cooking, edibles, Gackt, Garlic Lemon Bread, Korova cookies, Roast Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary, Snow Queen

Welcome

visions of clarity...do as infinity
by witchstone

My Emotible!
starry-eyed: filled with such youthful hope and optimism that one's eyes twinkle even when it's dark

Wish List

ie: motivation to save money!
- clothes
- shoes [heels! boots!]
- the perfect tote
- coats/outerwear! [Soïa & Kyo, Burberry...]
- Gackt - nine*nine
- Gackt Photobooks:
1 The Gift The Sixth Day & Seventh Night Tour Document (2004)
2 Crescent Photobook (out of print)
- Cookbooks!
1 Thomas Keller The French Laundry Cookbook
2 The Nobu Cookbook
3 Emily Luchetti A Passion for Desserts
4 Alice Medrich Pure Dessert
- Anime/Manga
1 Rurouni Kenshin
2 xxxHOLiC
3 Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-
- Proficiency at Japanese!
- Learn French for Food!

Links

My Flickr Page
spoonerisms*inc a food blog (by wendy & I)
my translation blog

witchstone...

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Checklist: EAT!

The Common Grill, Chelsea
The Black Pearl, Ann Arbor
Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes, Detroit
Bella Ciao, Ann Arbor
Craft, NYC
Momofuku, NYC
Alinea, Chicago
The French Laundry, California
Goto, Singapore

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