So a few weekends ago, my friend was having a birthday potluck that I was going to attend. I made plans to make these cookies and cream cupcakes that I have seen on many others' blogs. I found a recipe on We're So Starving for these cupcakes (came from the Edmonds Cookery Book), and I used the cupcake portion of the recipe while substituting in a buttercream frosting adapted from Cupcake Project that sounded simply amazing. Turns out that I had a headache the day of the potluck, so I ended up making these cupcakes and sending them off to the potluck with another friend (after keeping a handful for myself, of course).

These cupcakes were indescribably amazing, I think my eyes rolled to the back of my head with the first bite. The cupcake itself is moist and soft, and not too sweet. But better yet, with the chunks of oreos mixed into the cupcake batter, they baked up to be soft and cakey surrounding pieces of still somewhat crunchy oreo chunks, which made for the most wonderful texture combination I have ever had in a cupcake. And really the showstopper for this cupcake is the frosting. It is simply perfect - smooth and buttery, with the perfect amount of sweetness that makes each bite of the cupcake just right. It's the kind of cupcake that you could eat one of and want at least 3 more, because it's not overly sweet or rich at all. Not kidding at all, but at least three people who tried these told me that they were the best cupcake they've ever had, and I got requests to make more of them right away. Try these cupcakes for yourself, I promise you'll be glad you did!!

Cookies and cream cupcakes

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes    (makes 34 cupcakes)                   
cupcake recipe adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book "Fail-safe Cupcake" recipe
frosting recipe adapted from Cupcake Project

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
2 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 package Oreo cookies, crushed (divided amongst cupcake and frosting)

Buttercream Frosting:
1 stick + 6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioner's sugar
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
crushed Oreo cookies

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

2. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Don't worry if the eggs start to separate out from the butter after it sits for a few minutes, just stir it back together.

4. Sift flour and baking powder together, and fold into creamed mixture.

5. Stir in milk, then add crushed oreos. Choose the bigger oreo chunks for the cupcakes and leave the smaller chunks as well as the cookie dust for the frosting. I used maybe 4/5 of the crushed oreos from 1 package for the cupcakes, and the remaining for the frosting. Adjust as you see fit.

6. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched (they will be a bit browned on top).  Transfer to wire rack to cool.

7. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Beat together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth.

8. Add the vanilla and milk, and beat for 1 minute more. Finally, fold in the oreo crumbs left over from the cupcakes, saving a handful to sprinkle on top of the cupcakes. The more you stir the oreo crumbs into the frosting, the darker it will get, so don't stir too much if you'd like your frosting to be more white (mine came out quite gray).

9. When cupcakes are completely cooled, frost them with the buttercream frosting, and sprinkle the tops with any leftover oreo crumbs.  Serve the same day, or refrigerate to store (don't want to leave them out because of the butter in the frosting, but you can warm them to room temperature anytime and they will still be just as good) Enjoy!

Cookies and cream cupcakes

Cookies and cream cupcakes

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I was visiting my family in Massachusetts the week before summer vacation ended, and I just had to bake them something delightful that could be enjoyed in the sweltering heat that captured our town during that time. I didn't have a whole lot of ingredients on hand, so I turned to something I've done before in cream puff form... the eclair. I adore eclairs! They are so wonderful to bite into when fresh... the delicate crunch of a pastry shell filled with cold and creamy custard, and sweetened with just enough chocolate. Perfection. Luckily for me, elcairs use the same dough as cream puffs, which needs only basic ingredients found in every kitchen. The same goes for the pastry cream filling as well.

This was my first time trying the cream puff recipe from JoyofBaking, which sounded like it was going to bake for a really long time. The eclair shells actually turned out quite well, with just a slight problem, which was that the bottoms were so thin and delicate that when I tried to peel them off the wax paper I lined them with, the bottoms broke right through, leaving me with a gaping hole on the bottoms of my eclairs! Thus I decided to simply turn them upside down and fill them with pastry cream as is, since the work to make a hole had already been done for me, clearly. I used the pastry cream recipe for the fruit tart from the same website. I've made the filling once before for mini fruit tarts, and they were delicious. Drizzled with melted chocolate on top, these eclairs were just wonderful, even though they looked funny. I wish I knew of a good way to make cream puffs or eclairs without always having to worry about the bottoms breaking. Does parchment paper really make that much of a difference? I thought wax paper or foil would do it, but those have not saved me from the breaking bottoms. The trial and error continues! And deliciously so :)

Upside down vanilla eclairs with chocolate drizzle

Eclairs Filled with Vanilla Pastry Cream (makes 12)     recipe adapted from JoyofBaking.com

Pastry Cream Filling   (adapted from JoyofBaking.com)
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water (more as needed)

Chocolate Icing
handful of semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vegetable oil

Directions:

Eclairs
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place rack in center of oven. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (I used wax paper).

2. Stir together flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Combine butter and water for the eclair shells into a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil.  Remove pan from heat and immediately stir in the flour mixture all at once, stirring until a ball of dough forms in the pot. This should happen pretty quickly.

4. Let the dough cool slightly (you can stir it up to release the heat), then add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition until the egg is well-blended to form a smooth batter.

5. Spoon the dough into a ziplock bag and snip off the tip to about 1 inch in diameter. Pipe the dough into 3-4 inch long stripes onto the lined baking sheet, spacing the eclairs 2 inches apart.

6. Gently brush the surface of the piped eclairs with the beaten egg white.

7. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn down oven temperature to 350 degrees F to continue baking for another 30 minutes. The shells should be a nice golden-brown color. Turn off the oven and leave door ajar, with the eclairs sitting inside for another 10-15 minutes to let them dry fully. Remove from the oven to cool on a wire rack, peeling eclairs off carefully (this is where all of my eclair bottoms broke off). They will have a wonderful cracked appearance on top.

Eclair shells cooling

Pastry Cream
1. In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix together sugar and egg yolks.

2. Combine flour and cornstarch in a separate bowl, then add to egg mixture and stir until a smooth paste forms. Add vanilla.

3. In a saucepan (preferrably stainless steel, I find non-stick pans to be awful for making custards), heat milk on medium until just boiling. Remove from heat and slowly whisk into egg mixture, careful not to let egg curdle.

4. When fully incorporated, place egg and milk mixture back onto the stove to cook on medium heat, whisking constantly until it starts to boil. Keep stirring and it should thicken up very quickly. When it has reached a desired thickness (I prefer mine to be pretty thick), remove from heat immediately and whisk in the water. You can add more water if your pastry cream is too thick.

5. Chill pastry cream in fridge for several hours, covered with a layer of plastic wrap touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming.

Assembly
Normally you would slice the eclairs open by cutting horitzonally on each one to cut off the tops. Since mine had holes in the bottom I just pried the holes open until they were the same size as the eclair and piped in the pastry cream (using the same ziplock bag trick that I used for piping the elcair dough). Fill each eclair with enough pastry cream to fill out the shell, but not so much that it bursts. If using cut open shells, replace the tops once the filling has been added.

Finally, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, and stir in the vegetable oil to thin out the consistency enough to drizzle. I just eyeballed this, so you can adjust the chocolate icing how you like. Take a fork and dip it into the chocolate to drizzle it over the eclairs. Serve immediately for the best taste and texture. If not serving right away, I suggest you not fill the shells so that they don't get soggy. Fill them just before serving and you will wow your guests with how fresh they taste, nothing like the pre-filled ones you buy at stores!

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Vox doesn't seem to have an option to search within each blog individually. So I created one for my own Vox using Google. You can find it embedded on the right hand side if you scroll down a little. This technological update now makes it that much easier to find things I've written about :)

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During winter break when I was thinking about what Christmas-y things I wanted to bake, a lot of things that came to mind had really nothing to do with the holiday. (Have I mentioned yet that I'm really slow to update btw?) But something that I really really wanted to make again were the black and white cookies that NYC is known for, because I just really adore them. Their soft cakey cookie topped with a sweet and mildly tart combination of vanilla lemon and chocolate icing that has a perfect little crunch when you bite into it. It's divine really, especially when fresh. I've made black and white cookies once before, in the traditional giant cookie size. But for Christmas, I thought I would switch it up a little with mini cookies, sprinkled with Christmas colored sugars on the white side to jazz it up with some holiday spirit! I also decided to give a different frosting recipe a go, which turned out much better than the first recipe, in my opinion. These disappeared fast... I think their small size makes them really tempting to reach for whenever someone passes by the platter in the kitchen :P Anyway, with these cookies you can substitute any type of colored sugar for various holidays (pastels for Easter anyone??), or leave them naked for any occasion.

Christmas-themed black and white cookies

Mini Black & White Cookies  (makes about 50)                                recipe from Epicurious

Ingredients:

Cookie base
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk (substitute with 1/3 cup milk + 1/3 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice, mixed and left alone for 5 min.)
1/2 tsp vanilla
7 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg

Icings
2 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
4-6 tbsp water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
colored sugar for decorating as desired

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350deg F. Grease baking sheet or line with foil.

2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) in a bowl. Separately, mix together buttermilk and vanilla.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer on med-high until pale and fluffy (~3 mins). Add egg and beat until smooth. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture in alternating batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix just until smooth.

batter on baking sheet

4. Drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls, 1 inch apart onto baking sheets. Bake until tops are puffy and edges are a pale golden (cookies should spring back when touched, see picture below, in the back). About 6-8 minutes total. Transfer to cooling rack with the flat sides up, the bottoms will be a golden brown.

cookie base transferred to wire rack, flat side up

5. Meanwhile, make the icings. Start with the vanilla icing: stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tbsp of water in a small bowl until smooth. Add more water (1/2 tsp at a time) as needed until icing becomes a spreadable consistency.

6. (This departs from the original recipe, but trust me from experience, it makes sense). Transfer 1/3 of the vanilla icing to a second bowl, and stir in cocoa powder. Add more water, 1/2 tsp at a time, to reach the same consistency as the vanilla icing. Cover surfaces of icing with saran wrap if not using right away.

7. When cookies are cool, use a butter knife or small spatula to spread vanilla frosting on one half of all the cookies, on the flat side (that's right, the rounded dome side is the bottom of the cookie!). If you frost the rounded side by accident the frosting will just slide off. Sprinkle on colored sugar as desired. Set on wire rack to harden a bit.

8. Finally, frost the other halves of each cookie with chocolate icing and let set completely. Happy munching!

iced and decorated black & white cookies

Christmas-themed black and white cookies

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Yes, it's been half a year since my last update... medical school has been eating up all my time and not having my own kitchen nor my cooking and baking supplies is seriously hindering my ability to make things. I am loving it here in medical school though, so it's good that it's keeping me busy. I've learned so much in just the first semester of my first year... and even though I don't feel even remotely close to being competent enough to take care of anyone yet, I can definitely see myself getting better and better as I learn more things each day. It's an amazing and exciting feeling.

Unfortunately, living in a dorm again and sharing a kitchen between 2 floors is not very convenient, so I've been more or less cooking my meals in the comfort of my own room by using my rice cooker, steamer tray, and microwave, as well as raw foods to get in all the necessary food groups. It's pretty healthy, but I sure miss the creativity of cooking on my own. Luckily I had a chance over the last semester to form a "cooking club" with some of my classmates in the dorm, and we cooked a bunch of meals for each other about once or twice a week depending on our schedules, so it was good to have some homecooked food and mess around with new recipes together from time to time. I put up a blog to showcase some of our meals at http://www.olincookingclub.blogspot.com if you want to see them :)

I finally got a break over Christmas vacation to go home and enjoy the pleasures of having a kitchen and all the baking supplies I could want. I certainly didn't waste a minute! So the next few entries will be catching up on a few things I made for the holidays.

One pastry that I was introduced to in college was rugelach, a Jewish pastry that is similar to a cross between shortbread and croissant, with a filling that's usually fruit preserves and crushed nuts. Its cream cheese dough is buttery and has a hint of cream cheese flavor that gives it just the right amount of tartness. The textures and flavors all come together in a pastry that is neither too sweet nor too rich, which is really nice. I have had the Costco variety that is often spiraled with raspberry jam, apricot jam, or chocolate paste. For my first try at rugelach, I made it with apricots, pistachios, and a cinnamon sugar mixture, and it was absolutely delicious. The texture of the pastry is like that of a soft (but not chewy) cookie, and it's conveniently bite-sized so it's great for impressing at parties. I made some over Christmas break to give to a friend recovering from open hip surgery, and he loved them! The dough can easily be frozen and stored for later (I baked some from a frozen batch to bring to my boyfriend in California the following week and he also loved them :) The hardest part is rolling out the dough and making the crescent shaped cookies ready to bake, but it is well worth the effort!

Rugelach with apricot and pistachio filling

Rugelach with Apricot and Pistachio Filling   (makes 4 dozen)      
adapted from Barefoot Contessa and Diana's Desserts

Ingredients:

Dough:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour

Filling:
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into halves
1 cup water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream together softened cream cheese and butter with electric beater until light and fluffy. Beat in the 1/4 cup sugar, salt, and vanilla.

2. Mix in flour on low speed until just combined. Take out dough onto a floured surface and roll into a ball. Cut into quarters and shape each quarter into a disc before wrapping in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the apricot for the filling. In a small saucepan, combine dried apricots and water, on low heat. Stir ocassionally until all the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Cool briefly, then puree in a food processor until smooth.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the 6 tbsp of white sugar, the brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pistachios. Set aside 3 tsp of this mixture for later.

5. When the dough is chilled, remove one disc at a time and roll out into a circle on a well-floured surface or between 2 sheets of wax paper, until about 1/8" thick (approximately a 9-inch circle). Spread 1/4 of the apricot puree in a thin layer over the circle, leaving a 1/2" border on the edges. Sprinkle evenly with 1/4 of the sugar and nuts mixture. Gently press the nuts into the dough to help it stay. Your dough should look much like a pizza now :)

prepping rugelach dough with filling

6. Using a pizza cutter or a knife, divide circle into 12 equal wedges. To help make them even, divide circle into quarters first, then divide each quarter into 3 wedges.

7. Gently remove one wedge at a time, using a spatula as necessary, and roll from the wide end towards the pointy end to make a pastry crescent. Set onto a baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment or wax paper, with the seam side down, 1 inch apart from one another. You can curve the points on either side to get a more cresent shape if you would like. Chill for 30 minutes on the baking sheet in a refrigerator.

rugelach ready to be chilled

8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush each rugelach piece with the prepared eggwash, and sprinkle some additional sugar and nut mixture on top from the reserved portion.

9. Bake rugelach for about 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Let cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet, then carefully transfer over to a cooling rack, using a spatula to help as needed (the filling tends to bubble out and stick to the baking sheet, so do this before it cools and hardens).

rugelach just out of the oven

10. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired, or serve as is. Yum!

Making rugelach takes a little bit of effort, and seems confusing the first time around. But once you get the hang of it on the first disc of dough, the rest will fly by easier, I promise. I had a little cycling system going where I would prep the second disc of dough while the first batch of cookies were chilling in the refrigerator before baking. It works out better if you can have 2 or more baking sheets ready to use at a time, but I didn't, so I had to rotate using just 1 sheet, making it a bit more time-consuming (took me the better half of an afternoon). Definitely plan ahead, you can't rush making rugelach! You'll be glad you spent that time when you take your first bite... they are simply heavenly :)

Rugelach with apricot and pistachio filling

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Catching up on a few things first that I made before my trip to China... I never realized how difficult it would be to get back into blogging once you've taken a long break heh. That plus the fact that using dialup internet to upload food photos is just a pain!

I've always found homemade pound cakes to be incredibly delicious in a way that no store-bought equivalent could match. And it was those rare moments of delight, when a co-worker or friend brought in a homemade pound cake that made me want to try my own hand at it. I have heard great things about the use of sour cream in pound cakes, so I went in search of a simple sour cream pound cake recipe. I was looking for a classic, somewhat dense cake that was moist not but greasy, and rich in that buttery vanilla flavor so typical of pound cake. Of course, the recipes I encountered all seemed a bit on the scary side in terms of the amount of butter, sugar, and eggs that were used, so I tried to find a compromise between taste and healthiness.

By cutting the butter and sugar, and boosting moistness with extra sour cream, I found the results to be a much less guilty deliciousness :) The texture of the cake was a little lighter than regular pound cake, sort of like a combination of pound cake and angel food cake, yet it was still very moist. But it was the rich vanilla butter flavor that remained that pulled everything together for a satisfying experience. I put together an effortless apricot glaze to go with the pound cake, but I actually found it to be most delicious eaten alone, especially when fresh out of the oven, when the outer crust has a light crunchiness, yielding to a warm and soft melt-in-your-mouth cake inside. Oh, it's making my mouth water just to describe it. The cake is still great after it has cooled off, though you want to keep it sealed to retain the moisture, which thus softens the crust. So choose your own adventure... or have it both ways!

Sour cream pound cake with apricot glaze

Sour Cream Pound Cake                (Makes one loaf in a 6 inch tube pan: serves 6-8)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream (use fat-free sour cream for less calories, may also substitute with plain or vanilla yogurt)

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 6 inch tube pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and smooth, about 7 minutes. Beat in eggs one a a time, mixing for a minute after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

3. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold dry ingredients into creamed mixture just until smooth. Gently fold in sour cream. Spread batter into baking pan.

4. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in oven. A toothpick poked into the cake should come out mostly clean. Remove from oven and cool cake in the pan for 10 minutes, before inverting gently onto a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired. Optionally, make an easy fruit glaze by stirring some fruit preserves with water to reach a glaze consistency, and spoon over slices of pound cake to serve.

Sour cream pound cake

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My apologies for having disappeared for so long! I went to China for a three-week trip, and it wasn't until I got there that I discovered that Vox is actually censored in China. So I had no way of writing anything, even though I really wanted to! I took lots of pictures of the wonderful wonderful things I ate though, so keep an eye out for posts to come soon :) 

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Story time! So I'm feeling under the weather this weekend. I thought I was getting another wave of allergies, but then my throat started to feel sore, and pretty soon I was feeling weak and mildly feverish. I realized that I must have a cold of some sort. Since I had slept my way through most of Friday night, I woke up at around midnight thinking about what I could make for a late late dinner / snack that wouldn't drain me of all my energy.

The fridge is mostly empty since I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while. But in my cupboard I had an unopened bag of fine ground corn meal that I bought back when I was getting my wisdom tooth out and thinking of making grits. Well I never did get around to using it, and now grits sounded pretty good to me. Looking online for some good recipes, I noticed that most of them were savory grits, with cheese, gravy, sausage, etc. Unfortunately for me, my fridge was so empty that I didn't even have the usual milk that goes into grits. I did, however, have a single slice of American cheese and a little bit of spam. I discussed the prospect of making spam grits with my boyfriend, who thought it sounded gross and could not find a single recipe for it online. I personally thought I could invent a really cool spam grits dish, but alas, when I went to prepare it, I noticed that my spam was spoiled. Great.

So by this point I was starving to death and really annoyed that I had water boiling for my grits, but nothing to put in it. Finally, I decided that I would make a light grits with garlic and that one slice of cheese, and eat it topped with canned chili, which would provide most of the flavor. I guess in that sense it sort of takes on the role of polenta haha. So let me tell you, this was an exercise in persistence. When my water was at a full boil, I poured in all the corn meal I was going to use, at once, before reaching for tongs to stir with. Bad idea. That corn meal puffed up in a matter of seconds, absorbing all the water and forming these giant clumps with dry corn meal still in the middle. No matter how hard I stirred it and added water to thin it out, the messy clump in the pot was just not edible. So down the garbage disposal it went...

The second time I got smarter and turned down the heat before slowly adding the corn meal while stirring, and everything came out just fine - it was nice and smooth, with no clumps. Plus, my favorite part is that using finely ground corn meal shortened the cooking time dramatically. I was done in just 10 minutes! Now that's a good fast meal I could handle any day :) It's also relatively healthy too, since I don't use any milk or cream for the grits, and the chili is quite good for you with all its beans. I used canned chili here for convenience, but I'm sure it would be even better with home-made chili, if you have the patience that is!

Chili-topped garlic cheese grits

Chili-topped Garlic Cheese Grits       (serves 2)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup finely ground corn meal (it's like a powder rather than little gritty pieces)
2 cups water
1 slice American cheese
1 pat salted butter
onion powder, garlic powder, and salt to taste
canned chili
chopped raw onion for garnish

Directions:
1. Bring 2 cups water to boil in a small pot. Reduce heat to low.

2. Slowly add the corn meal to the water, while stirring constantly with a whisk to avoid lumps.

3. Cook on low for about 7-10 minutes, stirring often, and adding water as necessary to thin out the grits to your desired consistency (I prefer mine to be on the creamy, lightly viscous side). They absorb a lot of water so I think I added maybe an extra cup's worth of water before I reached a nice consistency. Season with onion powder, garlic powder, and salt to taste.

4. When grits is finished cooking, stir in a pat of butter and the slice of cheese, torn to pieces, stirring until melted and incorporated. Serve immediately, topped with warm canned chili and garnished with freshly chopped onions if desired.

Chili-topped garlic cheese grits

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The Chinese sure seem to know how to make dozens of starch variations using rice. Aside from white rice, there are rice noodles, rice noodle sheets, edible rice paper, rice milk, rice flour, glutinous rice and its various incarnations. One particular product, made from glutinous rice flour, you may have heard of - the nian gao. It's a sticky, chewy, popular dessert for celebrating Chinese New Year. A variation of the nian gao is a long log made out of glutinous rice flour and water, which is sliced on the diagonal to achieve thin oval slices, commonly known as "rice ovals" in English, but still called "nian gao" in Chinese. These rice ovals have no flavoring, but are an opaque white color and have a distinctive chew to them. They are usually sold pre-cut and either partially or completely dried, to be reconstituted in water before using.

Rice ovals are used in a variety of dishes and soups in Chinese cuisine. One of its most popular uses is in Shanghainese cuisine, where they are stir fried with sliced meats and vegetables in a clear sauce. My mom makes a lot of great authentic Shanghainese food at home, and she likes to make stir fried rice ovals with a brown sauce (which is called "red braised" in Chinese, even though they're not red nor braised in this dish haha). When cooked properly, rice ovals are uniquely chewy but also soft, which is an interesting way to vary the starch in the dish. The brown sauce is made thickly so that it coats the rice ovals generously, and gives them a lot of wonderful color and flavor. It's one of my favorite Shanghainese dishes, and it always reminds me of home when I think of it. Since today also happens to be Mother's Day, this recipe is my tribute to my mom's home cooking. She inspires me as a cook, and I am always amazed at how there is nothing that tastes quite like a mother's cooking, made with love and care. A woman who has made countless delicious dishes, who cannot write down a recipe for a single dish... that is a woman who knows how to cook with her heart, to harmonize ingredients rather than to follow a list of instructions.

This recipe is made with a package of partially dried rice ovals that I got from a Korean market, also available at most Asian markets. I made red braised rice ovals with beef and Shanghai bok choy (you don't get much more Shanghainese than that!). There is really no difference between using partially dried and fully dried rice ovals other than in preparation, so if you happen to get fully dried rice ovals (they'll be dry and hard, like little oval plastic chips), soak them in a container full of cold water overnight before using them. Otherwise, if using partially dried ovals, they just need to be boiled prior to stir frying.

Shanghainese stir fried rice ovals with beef and bok choy

Shanghainese Stir Fried Rice Ovals (上海红烧炒年糕)          (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1 package of partially dried vacuum packed rice ovals (2 lbs) - see here for picture of what they look like
4 heads of Shanghai bok choy, washed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
8 oz. lean beef, sliced thinly
vegetable oil for stir frying
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp rice wine
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
dash of white pepper
soy sauce and oyster sauce to taste

Directions:
1. Marinate sliced beef in soy sauce, white pepper, rice wine, and cornstarch, for about 15 minutes.

2. Bring a pot of water to boil. Place rice ovals in water for 6-10 minutes, until soft and chewy. In my case, I dumped the whole 2 lbs into a small pot of water and it didn't really come back to a boil, but after about 10 minutes they were done. Rinse with cold water, drain, and toss with a little vegetable oil to prevent sticking. Set aside.

3. In a hot skillet with vegetable oil, stir fry bok choy with a few pinches of salt until soft but still a little bit crunchy, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet.

4. Now sear the beef on each side until almost cooked through. Turn the heat down to medium.

5. Add the boiled rice ovals to the skillet, add soy sauce and oyster sauce (I can't tell you how much I ultimately used, but maybe start with 1/2 tbsp soy and 2 tbsp oyster sauce first, and add as needed), and stir around to coat rice ovals evenly. Try to separate the ovals that are stuck together.

6. Add the cooked bok choy back to the skillet and mix everything together. Heat through and adjust for taste by adding more oyster sauce as needed. The final sauce should be thick enough to stick to the rice ovals. Serve immediately, and store the rest in an airtight container, reheating in a microwave until it is hot all the way through before serving again to avoid hard rice ovals.

Shanghainese stir fried rice ovals

Enjoy and happy Mother's Day!

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I told you that my favorite sugar cookie recipe of all time was coming up, and now I'm finally delivering. This chewy sugar cookie recipe is one that I hold absolutely dear to my heart. It was one of the first cookies that I made successfully when I was in middle/high school, and everyone that tried it loved it. Just loved it. I made dozens and dozens of them for my family and friends, and they were always gobbled up with delight. To this day, my ex still asks me to make him these cookies heh. Of course, I'm not going to pretend that I invented some amazing recipe because I was a child baking prodigy. But it is different from the most popular sugar cookies that you'll find when you google "chewy sugar cookies". Admittedly, it is based on the recipe found here, one of the first entries on google. What I did, however, was to adapt the recipe to suit my family's Asian tongue.

As some you might know, Asians usually don't have much of a sweet tooth, especially when it comes to things like cookies and cakes. When I wanted to bake something at home, I wanted to make sure that my parents were going to eat it - that's part of the joy of baking! For one thing, they didn't like chocolate chip cookies much, because it was too sweet for them. So when I came around to making sugar cookies, the first thing I was quick to reduce was the sugar. Out of guilt, I also reduced the butter in the recipe (it's a little shocking how much the recipe calls for...). But I keep all the other ingredients at the same proportions, and add some almond extract for aroma. I love combining vanilla and almond extracts in my baking - it gives everything that little something extra. It's funny, because I didn't really understand the science of baking when I was younger, so I didn't really think about how altering the proportions of sugar and butter can really change the texture of the cookie. As a matter of fact, a few times I went back to the recipe to make cookies for some friends, and figured I'd go for the full sugar and butter content, only to end up with surprisingly disappointing cookies that didn't have that incredible chew I always liked. For the longest time I couldn't understand why, but now I finally do. It's a real relief.

These cookies have a really satisfying chew that doesn't go away after a day. In fact, they stay just the way they are for nearly a week, if you can keep them around that long hehe. I like to make the whole batch of dough and just bake half of it for about 3 dozen cookies, then freeze the rest for quick and easy cookies when I want them. These are not the cookie cutter sugar cookies that you'd want for decorating, they're best for just eating :) So now I'm sharing my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe with you, I hope you'll like it!

Lucy's favorite chewy sugar cookies :)

Lucy's Favorite Chewy Sugar Cookies  (makes 5-6 dozen 2" cookies)      Adapted from Robbie's recipe

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt (use 1/2 tsp if using unsalted butter)
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions:
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

2. In another bowl, cream softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add one egg at a time and stir until incorporated. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts.

3. Gradually add the flour mixture into the batter, stirring until well-mixed. Don't be afraid to stir it a lot. (Stirring the dough well will develop the gluten in the flour, which is important for chewy cookies!) When everything is incorporated, the dough will be heavy and slightly sticky. Cover it up and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. When the dough is done chilling, scoop out balls of dough about the diameter of a quarter, and place them on foil-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart from one another. 

5. Grease the bottom of a flat glass and gently flatten the dough balls until they are small discs about 1/3 inch thick. This will help your cookies spread evenly instead of mounding in the middle.

6. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are just very slightly starting to become a golden-brown. Immediately remove from oven and let sit on the cookie sheet to finish baking for another 2 minutes. While cookies are still warm, remove from foil using a spatula and finish cooling on a cooling rack. They will be perfectly chewy starting from the moment they are cool enough to eat, until they are all gone :)

Chewy sugar cookies enjoyed with a view of the Charles River

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