View from the Top

Just thought it'd be nice to share a little something with you all.
Something that makes hiking uphill through the UC Berkeley campus worthwhile.
A sight that makes working late at the residence halls satisfying.
From the stairs of Foothill or the balcony of Stern Hall,
You can see the beauty of Downtown and the City (short term for San Francisco).

  

Granted, this image does little justice to what I see on most nights.

My 5 Megapixel cellphone camera cannot do the nightscene justice,

But I do hope this gives you some feel of the euphoria that fills my soul everytime I turn around

And take in the beautiful view.

Especially at night, when all is relatively serene,

Some lights softly flicker. The clocktower ("Campanile") shining erect.

On a warm night, it is all I need.

If you do ever take a visit to Berkeley, take a hike uphill to the landmark "Big C" at night. Sit up there, stare at the surroundings. Deer wander by sometimes too. It's wonderful.

(Upcoming posts: Eat Real Festival at Jack London Square, Improv Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Bread Pudding, and restaurant reviews)

Baked Donut Update 2

To continue my Baked Donut Project update from yesterday, I continue with the Dark Chocolate Espresso Bean Donuts and the Pumpkin Donuts.

Based off of the original VeganYumYum vanilla base, I added in dark chocolate coffee beans. I had these dark chocolate espresso beans from Trader Joe's and chopped them in my spice/coffee bean grinder.

I ended up with kind of a dark chocolate dust, dark chocolate bits, and espresso bean bits. This I blended into the batter, with some leftover. After baking, I melted the remaining dark chocolate dust (with espresso bean remnants) and used that as the frosting. Like last time, I frosted with my pastel sprinkles.

Normal vanilla-nutmeg donuts (top left). Dark ChocoCoffee Bean (bottom right).
Basic and Dark ChocoCoffee Bean frosted with sprinkles.

 As you can tell from the picture, the addition of the dark choco-coffee bean bits made the donuts crumbly. This also could have resulted from me leaving the batter in open air on the countertop as I waited for the first batch of regular donuts to bake. The batter could have dried, losing the moisture it needs to stick together during baking. Next time, gotta cover and refrigerate batter.

20 mini donuts for enjoyment ^_^

What I like to do when I bake my donuts, is leave it in the oven for 6 min, then turn the pan around and bake for another 6-7 minutes, just to ensure even browning, since my oven is tiny! It's like a third the size of my oven bake home. So, I have to make my donuts in two batches - which works because I only have one donut pan, but I could do stuff in my multiple mini cupcake pans.

Next up are the pumpkin donuts, of whose flavor is the quintessential, nearly hackneyed predilection of foodies and bloggers during the fall season. For this one, I did not use VeganYumYum's recipe, but based it off this one: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Donuts. Again, I did not make it vegan, nor gluten-free. I used all-purpose flour, a blend of white and brown sugar, butter, and a blend of pumpkin puree, soymilk, and frozen yogurt.

Some frosted, some not.

Such good texture...*drool*

 The results were fantastic. I loved just munching on them without frosting (a general statement for all the donuts I've been making). Frosting for me is purely for decoration purposes; I'd rather eat the cake in all its normal, not overly sweet euphoria.

Puffed up in the pan, hot and toasty!

 Yup, so that pretty much sums up my donut project so far. Every time I make some, I give some to my housemates and then to my friends at UC Berkeley. I even called up my old roommates to meet them on campus and extend some yummy baked donut love.

It's always good to share (but of course save some for meself too! ;-P )

In the meantime, I've cooked a few random things and made an impromptu pumpkin pie which I'll post up soon too.

Baked Donut Update

For lack of posting, you must forgive me.

I am a college student, a senior in bioengineering at UC Berkeley, and juggling projects, clubs, assignments, and some tests here and there. I do have a legitimate excuse for not posting as much.

It's called PFAT: procrastination, Facebook, ADD, and Tastespotting (okay, so the ADD part isn't really real, but I have such issues focusing sometimes).

Zits really tells you how us college teenagers (wait, I'm no loner a teen, dangit!) work (please click the images below to read):

Another funny Zits comic about blogging:

Well, besides this detour, the purpose of this post is really an update on my semester Baked Donut Project. So far, I've made about 5 different types of donuts (1 of which failed and we will not post pictures of the lava flow it produced on my pan x_x ): basic vanilla from NorPro (the baking pan I bought), vanilla-nutmeg from VeganYumYum, dark chocolate coffee bean, failed eggless carrot cake, and pumpkin.

For now, I will only post my first two trials so that people with slow to average internet connections don't suffer from the load times.

Norpro Vanilla Cake Donut Recipe: came out flat and more cookie like
(harder and crispier than cakey). Simple frosting with pastel sprinkles.

Try 2: VeganYumYum's Vanilla-Nutmeg Donuts. Very very awesome and delicious.
The nutmeg added a very pleasant flavor, while the texture was perfect.
Even the day after and after it was still delicious.

Cakey interior texture, springy under strain (omg, viscoelastic!).
Have to admit, the sprinkles are pretty, but I don't like how much
crystalline crunch it gives to the top. I want normal sprinkles.

I modified VeganYumYum's by making it non-vegan and using unsalted real butter, milk, and eggs. Instead of apple cider vinegar, I used fresh lime/lemon juice. For the frosting on both, I mixed powdered (confectioners') sugar with a touch of milk, lemon, and vanilla. To frost, you just dip the donuts upside in it, let some drip down and wipe some off, smooth it a little, then dip the frosted top into a small flat bowl of sprinkles, making sure to roll along the sides.

Because Norpro's failed me in terms of shape and texture (flavor was good), I will not post their recipe. Above are links to VeganYumYum's recipe, so you can go there to experiment with hers. It is a great recipe base, which I modified with the aforementioned dark chocolate coffee bean, which will be posted up next soon sometime...

-------

Note to self: try the recipes on this page

Paula Deen Will Be Proud: Mini Donut Project Prep

I just bought three 1-lb blocks of unsalted butter from Safeway at 11 pm.

Mini Baked Donut semester-long project.

It's on.

XD

Food Blips from Texas

A long overdue and unfortunately truncated post, this is a picture recap of some food-related things I pursued during my internship in Texas.

Sundried tomato risotto (Lundberg) with Blue Baker Olive Focaccia,
made for an intern dinner I planned.

Bourbon Bread Pudding from Bell Ranch Steakhouse,
in the Hilton Hotel.  Very very sweet and very large portion.

Pho Bo Tai - rare sliced beef pho - from Rosie's pho. This was so good.
I never realized pho could rival or exceed my mom's homemade pho.

Japan vs US cake made for the Women's FIFA Final game.

Cream cheese frosting....Japan or US. Who would win?....

Hard to celebrate after, since most of my friends were rooting for
America, so they didn't feel like eating cake. Cake was like a cinnamon
muffin texture and flavor.

Failed attempt at beer bread (made it bland this time around), and
surprisingly delectable cornmeal cookies. Easy to snack on.

Like crisper, but still light and airy, corn bread in bite sized pieces,
lightly dusted with powdered sugar.

Secret menu item at McDonalds: Strawberry Pie McFlurry.
Only $1 in Texas. So good! Not overtly sweet like DQ Blizzards.

La Bodega crab enchiladas. Decent. Their tomato sauce is like
a strange pasta sauce.

Fish burrito. Green sauce is okay. Too much creamy topping. Red
sauce also like pasta sauce. Innards do not have enough fish >:(

Potbelly's Berry Smoothie. So many seeds, so you know
it's real fruit. Good taste, good price. So cute with the
cookies on top!

My last baking in Texas. Had to make Texas "chicken in a chive biscuit"
with my Texas cookie cutter. ^_^

That pretty much recaps my food adventures in Texas. Sorry for the lack of recipes of some of the things I made. The result of these recipes I think were only all right, not anything spectacular. I was mostly proud of the presentation for my FIFA cake and my Texas-shaped biscuits. And I had to share the Pie McFlurry with you all. Everyone has to definitely try this at least once. The saltiness of the pie crust complements the sweetness of the filling and the sweet milkiness of the ice cream.

Hope you have enjoyed my (partial) itinerary of Texas!

Forgot to thaw your meat? Try...Tofu Sloppy Joe's!

Oh no. You've done it again.

After a long day at work (or school, in my case), you return home in the evening and realize that you never put out your frozen meat to thaw out. It is sitting nice and frigid in the freezer, encased in frost and icicles, hard as a rock.

Source: What's Cooking America

You don't want to try and thaw it now. Nuking in the microwave would just result in an exterior of tan-white cooked sections over a still-frozen nucleus. Darn, why does that cell have to have both a membrane and a cell wall as barriers!

...But I digress...way too far into biology.

The matter is that you have no centerpiece to your dinner tonight? What do you do?

This is where tofu comes to the rescue. Yes, all you carnivores. Tofu. Although many people cringe at the thought of tofu, prepared correctly, it can be the shining star of a dish. The great thing about tofu nowadays is that it comes it so many varieties and can keep in the refrigerator for one or two weeks without going bad. Even then, you can just freeze it for use later.

Source: Restaurant Widow

Last week, I had come home and had nothing for quick dinner options but ramen, soup in a can, or buying out. Luckily, I had a pack of firm tofu in the fridge, which would complement well with the abundance of tomatoes I had. The idea for tofu sloppy joes came up. Healthy, quick, and not too warm for these hot summer nights (which are fading soon!).

I started off by looking up recipes for tofu sloppy joes, coming across this and this, but nothing was really satisfactory to me nor to the ingredients I had at hand. So I improvised, which means the recipe below is a rough estimate of what I did. I admit, what resulted did not have the original smoky, hearty flavor of a classic beef sloppy joe, but it was very flavorful and made a great sandwich filling that was not sloppy at all. Maybe I should call these Tofu Clean Joe's, instead!

Tofu Sloppy (or Clean) Joe's (serves 4-6)
Ingredients
1 block (12-16oz) silken firm tofu
3-4 tomatoes, diced, some seeds and liquid innards removed
3-4 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2-3 Tbs Gochujang sauce (Korean red pepper paste, *see Notes)
1 Tbs ketchup
1 small white or yellow onion, fine diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 stalks of green onion, chopped
Sprinkling of sugar
salt and pepper

For assembly:
8-12 bread slices (Whole Food's organic multigrain is a great one)
8-12 green lettuce leaves
2-4 tomato slices per sandwich if desired

Directions
1. Drain the tofu and mash. Set aside.
2. Heat a medium skillet pan over medium heat. Add in some oil and saute the onion till yellow. Add in half of the garlic and saute until fragrant and lightly tanned. Add in the tofu and cook, stirring occasionally for 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. In a large pan, saute the garlic until lightly tanned. Throw in all the tomatoes and simmer. Add in the Worcestershire, Gochujang, and ketchup. Add in sugar, salt, and pepper until you get the taste you want. For more spicy, add more Gochujang. More tang, add more Worcestershire. More sweet, add more sugar or molasses or brown sugar.
4. Add in the tofu onion mixture. Simmer about 5-10 minutes. Adjust seasoning further as desired. Sprinkle top with chopped green onion.
5. To assemble, spread the tofu mixture 1/3-1/2 inch thick on one bread slice. Place tomato slices on top. Place two lettuce leaves on the other side of the bread and serve (let guests see the wonderful filling before they place the sandwich it all together!).

Notes:
*This came out super tasty and my two housemates really liked it. Really try the Whole Food's organic multigrain small batch bread. Its texture, thickness, and taste is great for pretty much anything. I would definitely make this again when I have some extra tomatoes and silken firm tofu lying about.
* If I had more ketchup laying around and had the made the effort to cut one or two more tomatoes, it would have made more sauce, which I think would have added to the dish overall.
* If you don't have gochujang, you can probably just use some tomato paste from a can and add in pepper flakes or powder.

Random Food Likes

I always come across certain marketed foods, try them out, and am both surprised and delighted when I find that I like them. When I eat consumer foods (i.e., fast food, packaged grocery items) and I like them, I wonder what other people would respond to these foods and with whom could I share my enthusiasm? For lack of such people close at hand, I generally turn to the comical review website, The Impulsive Buy. One late night, I stumbled across this consumer foods review site and laughed so much at its ridiculous comments, which verged nearly on Family Guy kind of humor.

But, I digress.

The reason for this blog post (no, I am not avoiding studying for my GRE, which is in 12 hours and 44 minutes...) is that I would like to share my thoughts on particular food purchases I have made recently.

1. Greek Yogurt: Danone and Fage
You've heard of the Greek yogurt craze. You've seen the yogurt/dairy shelves slowly being replaced by  new number 5, PP, plastic yogurt cartons with strange Greek words on them. Fage??? Oh wait, it's pronounced Fah-yeh. Repeat after me, faaaaaa-yaaaayyyyy. And Danone? It's always been Dannon, but now they're all being European fancy with their Danone. Anyhoo, recovering from pedantic appellations, I have to say that Greek Yogurt is the shiz. It's thick, but not cream cheese-choke you up thick. It's a euphoric kind of thick and glorious texture, with a slight tang of yogurt cultures.

Fage flavors: Cherry Pomegranate, Strawberry Goji, Mango Guanabana (Custard apple), Blueberry Acai, and Honey. (Courtesy of Trendcetera)

I enjoy having my yogurts not pre-blended. By having the fruit spread on the side, or underneath, you can get a scoop where you have an angelic layer of pearl white, plain Greek yogurt, juxtaposed by the deep color of the sweetened accompaniment. Once it enters your mouth, the contrast is enhanced on your tastebuds, as it encounters the tanginess of the yogurt, then the sweetness of the fruit spread. It really is super tasty, and the individual cups are great portion sizes with the right proportions. One 5.3 ox cup is 130 calories, and about 13g of protein, and much less sugar than the regular blended yogurts such as Yoplait of Dannon regular yogurt. I would recommend trying all the flavors.

2. Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill
Is there a word to describe food institutions that combine freshness, natural and organic ingredients, and quality? Would "healthy" and "responsible" suffice? I wish I knew, but until then, I can only describe it by "Sharky's". This place is like an upscale fast food restaurant - better in decor, service, and quality than seemingly synonymous Rubio's Baja Fresh. Sharky's is an all organic (meat, fish, produce), health-conscious Mexican Grill that does not sacrifice flavor one bit.

I've been here twice. The first time, I got an eclectic "wild salmon 'lite' burrito." For only $7.49 here in Aliso Viejo, I got salmon, avocado, cabbage, poblano brown rice, and interestingly enough nori (dried seaweed found in sushi) wrapped inside a whole wheat tortilla. The salmon was grilled to a nice crisp bust still juicy and tender. The inclusion of the nori really gave it almost an obfuscating (definition: confusing, confounding) flavor that was redolent (definition: reminiscent) of sushi. The flavor isn't bad at all, but it's just...interesting.

Second time - today actually - I ordered the kids BBQ salmon rice bowl, which came with a small (less than 3 oz) piece of salmon, poblano brown rice, grilled veggies, a drink (yay Organic Valley lowfat milk!), and a min churro. The brown rice occasionally had an unexpected crunch to it, but was surprisingly still good. The salmon was again cooked perfectly, tender and juicy, but maybe could have used a slight extra brush of BBQ sauce. The grilled veggies were a tad too crispy, but eating it all together with some salsa melded it all together. Overall, a really awesome plate for a kid to have. Nearly gourmet in that it was presented in a large white bowl-plate with a thick rim. They even bring it out to your table. I love the experience and food here. If I could, I would eat this often (and feel good about it!) and force someone to open a store near me in Berkeley!

Kids BBQ Salmon Rice Bowl - $5.92 (tax incl)

Hrm, I'd like to include some more ravings, but alas it has hit the 1:30 am mark here. I really should sleep soon so that I don't impair my test-taking abilities tomorrow afternoon. Well, wish me luck and talk to you all soon!