Week 10: Festive Food

    This week I’m going to discuss the true fuel of the college lifestyle—parties. What else keeps us on track throughout the week and gives us something to look forward to after tests, papers, and homework heavy days?  While I’m not condoning the type of lifestyle that today’s popular music glorifies (think Ke$ha), I am suggesting that having friends over and enjoying each other’s company is a great way to spend your weekend. And what better way to improve a night with your friends than to have some awesome and cheap home made food?

    Not every party has to have a theme, but themed food and decorations can be a great way to spice up a night in with your friends. If you’re not the dinner-partying type, there are also several cute and festive seasonal snacks to fuel your weekday studying or weekend picnics. As the year comes to a close, all we can think about is beautiful spring weather and the impending summer vacation. Below are a few examples of my favorite festive snacks and dinner time treats that will help you celebrate springtime and get excited for summer (not that you’ll need the help after surviving finals week!).

    A great way to perpetuate the chosen theme for your party is by using colors. People often relate springtime to pastel colors. There are so many easy and inexpensive ways to add a little extra oomph of color to your food—classic food dye is a wonderful option for this (about dollar in the baking aisle of your grocery store). Even choosing certain colored fruits and veggies can contribute to your theme. The delicious chocolate strawberries below were simply made by dipping fresh strawberries into melted white chocolate that was mixed with a few drops of red dye.

    Approach using food coloring with caution—a little bit goes a long way when it comes to most types of food dye, and just a few too many drops can take you from white to fire engine red. These strawberries could serve as a great afternoon snack or a classy dessert to your spring themed dinner party. Coat the strawberries with clear sugar crystals or colored sprinkles for a little extra character.

    Although not everyone celebrates Easter, it is a popular springtime theme in the way of food and decorations. It is nearly impossible to miss the pastel colored candy and excess of plastic eggs that fill the store shelves at this time of year. One of my favorite nerdy family traditions is to bake an Easter bunny shaped cake before Easter dinner—this is an adorable and incredibly simple addition to a springtime meal.

    This cake is very simple. Just cut the pieces of your cake as pictured below and decorate. I like to either use colored coconut shreds as grass surrounding the bunny, or mix the shredded coconut with my white icing to make “bunny fur.” Kind of dorky, but you’ve got to admit this guy is pretty cute!

    For something to serve your dinner guests, I love fresh veggie pizzas in the summer time. It’s always so much tastier to use in season veggies than the frozen ones—it just adds that much more of a home made feel to the meal. To see what veggies are in season now, check out my new gadget! As for the recipe to this fresh pizza, I like to use basic pie crust from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Spread the crust with a mixture of goat cheese (8 oz), cream cheese (8 oz), and one egg on the uncooked crust. Add a sautéed mixture of your veggies of choice (I like squash, corn, and zucchini) and bake as the crust package directs. Voila- your very own fresh veggie gourmet pizza. Goat cheese a little too adventurous for you? Try sour cream instead. If you are more into the classics, there’s always basic tomato sauce! The great thing about pizza is that there is never one set recipe. You always have room to make it your own.

    I’ll close with a great warm weather staple- the popsicle. These are so simple to make. One option is always to buy a popsicle formed container at the grocery store and fill it with your favorite fruit juice, lemonade, or kool-aid flavor.  A healthier and more seasonal twist on the classic popsicle can be easily achieved by cutting shapes out of fresh fruit with cookie cutters, inserting a popsicle stick, and freezing the shapes on a cookie sheet, as pictured below using Watermelon.

    These recipes and many more can be found with the help of good old Google and the keywords “Spring Themed Food.” Enjoy these recipes at home with your friends or by the pool with a good book.

For the summer of 2011, I wish you Happy Eating!

Week 9: Supreme Sushi

In my opinion, sushi is some of the most delicious and beautiful food out there. No matter what you order, no two rolls will ever be perfectly identical. Unfortunately a passionate love for sushi is rather expensive in the upkeep, especially on a college budget. I spent my last few days of spring break investigating local sushi places and doing some research to find a few of the cheapest places near campus. I also spent some time looking into the healthiest options out there. In this post I’ll offer you a few inexpensive options and go over some of the most basic types of sushi for those of you who are sushi beginners.

I like to consider myself a bit of a sushi veteran. I’ve been trying everything from the basic roll to nigiri and eel (which is one of my favorites!) from a pretty young age. My dad introduced me to the basic types of nigiri, in my case small pieces of raw salmon and tuna with rice, starting when I was about 13 years old.

There are plenty of nice places to get sushi in the Fort Worth area. From classics like Piranha to the new and trendy Blue Sushi, it’s pretty hard to go wrong when selecting a place to get some great sushi. But if you’re looking to eat sushi on a budget, Sushi Q is definitely the place that you should consider trying on your next night out. Located on Hulen, Sushi Q has a happy hour special on the weekends from 7 p.m. to close that allows you to get edamame (a boiled soybean appetizer) for $2 and sushi rolls from $2.75-$3.75 each. Not to mention low priced drinks for those of you who are over 21, it’s hard to go wrong with such inexpensive food. The place is definitely a hole in the wall, but in this case you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

Now I’ll go over a few of my favorite basic sushi rolls. When I’m introducing anyone to sushi who has never tried it before, I usually suggest that they start with the classic California roll. The California roll contains cooked crab, cucumber, and avocado. Pretty basic stuff for beginners. One thing that all rolls have in common is that the inner ingredients are held together with seaweed before being wrapped in sticky rice. Sushi rolls are also sometimes coated in toasted sesame seeds (also called tobiko) or orange fish eggs.

My next basic roll is the Philadelphia roll. This favorite usually contains smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber. It sounds like a strange combination, but this roll is seriously delicious.

If you’re looking to step it up a few notches, the spider roll is a good transition to some of the crazier sushi options. The spider roll usually contains deep fried soft shell crab, cucumber, avocado, sprouts, and spicy mayonnaise. This one is definitely a step up from the basics.

The spicy tuna roll is a great option for your first experience with a raw sushi roll. This roll is pretty straightforward, usually containing only sushi grade tuna mixed with spices and a bit of cucumber. The spicy tuna roll is always a crowd pleaser.

And now on to my favorite—the dragon roll. This roll is simply a California roll with a filet of eel on top. Eel, much like many other strange meats, tastes a lot like chicken that has been soaked in soy sauce. It can be a little tough if overcooked, but for the most part I find it extremely delicious.

All of these pictures can be found on google, along with the pictures of pretty much any other sushi roll you can dream up. I wish I could say I was lucky enough to eat every one of the rolls pictured above this weekend, but frankly thats a whole lot of fish!
For those of you who are watching your figure, picking healthy sushi is pretty straightforward. Any roll with tempura shrimp or crab contains double the calories of your basic roll that hasn’t been deep fried. Also, brown rice is a much healthier alternative to white rice, and most restaurants can substitute it upon request. 

So the next time you’re hoping for a night out with a little bit of Japanese food, keep this basic sushi guide in mind and don’t be afraid to take a few risks.

Happy Eating!

Week 8: Semi Home Made Baking

    This week’s entry is based on one of my favorite Food Network shows- Semi Home Made Cooking with Sandra Lee. I referenced her in one of my previous posts, but I am a huge proponent of putting your own spin on the basic store bought cooking and baking shortcuts that are available to us these days and that make the college student’s life just that much simpler. It can transform your everyday pan of store mix brownies from something basic into something amazing, unique, and most importantly delicious. Right now, for example, she has ten recipes available on her website that relate to baking. I’m going to take this theme and run with it. Today I will be listing for you a few of my favorite unique but simple recipes. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do!

    The first recipe that I will share with you is for my cookie dough cupcakes. The first step is to purchase the chocolate or vanilla store bought cake mix of your choice and prepare it as directed. Distribute it evenly into paper lined cupcake pans, just as usual. Here’s where things get a little unusual- drop one spoonful of store bought cookie dough into the center of each filled cupcake paper. It should look just like this once this step is completed:

    Now that you have inserted the cookie dough, pop the cupcakes in the oven and bake as the cake mix box directs. Once you’re a few minutes away from finish time, stick a toothpick into a few of the cupcakes and make sure the bottoms underneath the cookie dough are cooked through. These are supposed to be cookie dough cupcakes- not cake batter cupcakes. It is important that all of the cake parts are totally cooked. Once they are totally cooked, let them cool for a few minutes. As far as icing and decorating goes, I like to top them with a thin layer of basic vanilla icing- also store bought if you’d like- and then I usually top with a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips or Oreo crumbs, whichever I can get my hands on.  This is what your finished product should look like:

    Now that we’ve conquered the feat of unique cupcakes, I have a tasty brownie recipe for next time you’re in the mood for some serious chocolate. My S’mores brownies are the perfect treat for a summertime bonfire, and they are just as easy as the cupcake recipe. Start off once again with your favorite store bought boxed brownies. After spraying your pan with nonstick spray, line the bottom with a layer of graham crackers. Pour the brownie mix over the crackers. Top with a layer of mini marshmallows, smashed graham crackers, and chocolate chips (I also like to add peanut butter chips for an extra surprise sometimes). Bake as directed and voila- easy and impressive s’mores brownies! This is what your delicious confection should look like:

    Each of these recipes will be included in the Flash project I am currently working on for my Interactive Communication Design class- It will show 4 of 5 pictures of my favorite easy and unique confections and provide the recipes for each item when you hover your mouse over its picture. I will try to find some way to include this in my blog so you can see it and use the other recipes provided there as well. But until then,

    Happy Baking!