Sunday Dinner: Mushrooms with Cream and Apple Cinnamon Cake

First off: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I have two dad's. My biological father and my step-father. No one could ever take the place of my daddy, but my step-dad is absolutely wonderful.

So, you all probably thought that I forgot about last week's dinner. Well that's just not so! Since I knew I was going to be in Luxembourg most of this week I left it off until this week since I knew I wouldn't have time to cook this week.
I got this new (well technically used) cooking book at the New Age store in town that is closing down. It's a Celtic Folklore cooking book. Think what you will, but I think our ancestors knew a thing or two about using a the ingredients at hand. This past week I baked apple cinnamon cake and cooked mushrooms with cream.

The apple cinnamon cake was great. Though our oven is a little sketchy so the middle wouldn't cook so the edges got slightly burnt. But I made it twice anyway and in both cases I took the cake to friends. In both cases I only got one slice. I guess that means it must have been good! *smiles* And it is soooo simple to make. I've already got the recipe memorized.

Top view of the whole cake; sliced apples are in a spiral on top

A bad picture of a slice of the cake

And the Mushrooms in Cream? Well...I'm not the biggest fan. First off, I like mushrooms OK, but they're not my favourite thing ever. I think I would have liked this dish better if the mushrooms were in a cream sauce instead. As the recipe stands now it really is just cooked mushrooms in warm cream. It was great on mashed potatoes, but I can see it getting boring. I might try and switch up the recipe a little and make a sauce to bake the mushrooms in.

Mushrooms in the cream

Sunday Dinner: Bitter Chocolate and Satled Caramel Torte

I meant to post this up yesterday, but Marlene came over in the afternoon for a chat and then we went to see Prometheus in the evening. I do suggest seeing it if you haven't already and are a fan of the original Alien movies. There wasn't much in the way of character development or much dialogue at all, but it's fun and entertaining and good for a night out. The only thing that ruined last night was the stomach pain that started about half way through the movie. Ah well, I'm feeling better now and I think that's really what matters.

A slice of the Bitter Chocolate and Caramel Torte with pouring cream drizzled on it.

This week (well really two weeks ago) I made a Bitter Chocolate and Salted Caramel Torte. I know that this is suppose to help me be a better cook, not a better baker but when I saw this recipe I couldn't say no.

I don't remember too much of the experience anymore. What I do remember is that the caramel was such a pain. I think I made it fine, but it sunk to the bottom of the spring form pan so it stuck and made it difficult to get the pieces unstuck from the bottom. It also became liquidy in the oven and stayed that way when it got out of the oven. This means that some of the caramel leaked onto the counter where it was resting and made a big mess. I set it in the refrigerator on a plate after that the solidify the caramel. And our oven isn't the best. It's super old and sometimes it doesn't cook things the way they out to. So, actually making sure it was fully cooked was also a little annoying.

Despite the few obstacles, it came out great and tasted wonderfully! I got rid of about three quarters of it at a roleplaying game, but I had a whole quarter all to myself after that. The picture above isn't the best I could have taken, but it was the best out of the ones I took. I really should start taking pictures of the food on my purple plates instead of the white ones.  

Sunday Dinner: Dumplings

Yes, again I realise that it is Monday. I just didn't have the will power to do anything yesterday. I starting studying in the library after the Roleplaying Society's committee meeting and then, of course, I got so nauseous. I didn't get much revising done, but I did get some planning and organizing done. I guess that's a good thing right? Today's been sort of the same way without the stomach ache, fever, and head ache. Trying very hard to get into this whole revising thing, but perception is not the most interesting thing. Well, at least not the way it's taught here. At least I have cooking to keep my spirits up.
This week was a two for. First, I cooked pot stickers (or dumplings, the recipe in the book doesn't seem to know). They were really fun to make, but definitely not the easiest thing. Second, I made Garlic Lemonade (I don't have any pictures of my lemonade).

The filling comprised of carrots, savoy cabbage, mushrooms, spring onions, with garlic and ginger

Unfortunately you can't see the wrapper, but I promise that I didn't just place the filling on the counter

Dumplings all wrapped and ready to start cooking

The dumplings cooking

The biggest problem I had with the pot stickers was folding the dough around the filling. I don't think I cut the savoy cabbage enough so I got some really long pieces that ended up being a hinder when folding. Cooking them was also pretty interesting. I think my second batch turned out much better. I still have another batch to cook though and I've had four a day since Thursday. Haha! At least they are tasty. *smiles* If anyone is interested, I got the recipe from the cookbook simply called Vegetarian by Alice Hart. It has some wonderful recipes for the herbivores among us. All pretty simple and so far very tasty.

And now on to the Garlic Lemonade. I know, I know. It's sounds awfully weird. But trust me, it's wonderful. Now, I love garlic. It's absolutely the most wonderful thing in this world (right there with sesame oil, salt, a chocolate with chili). And it's full of antioxidants and cleansing agents. Now, I got this recipe at Eating from the Ground Up. I know I've linked it, but I'm going to write up the recipe here so that you guys can go straight to the kitchen and make it. You'll absolutely love it.

Garlic Lemonade:

2 quarts water
8-10 garlic cloves, whole and peeled
the juice of one lemon
honey to taste (I use about 2 Tablespoons for 2 quarts)
optional: a chunk of peeled ginger

Combine the water and the garlic (and ginger, if using) in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for one hour. Remove from heat. Add the lemon and the honey.

Sunday Dinner: Sweet Red Bean Buns

I am very aware of the fact that it is Monday morning. I had a Psychology report to finish up last night, so that was at the top of my priorities list. I'm just taking a quick break (while letting my hair dry) before scuttling off to campus to turn it in and meet with my Psychology poster group (yes, they're still making us do posters). But on to this week's Sunday Dinner.

The dish for this week is Steamed Sweet Red Bean Buns. These are something that I have had since I was young, but never homemade.

Red Bean Buns

I was recently introduced to an Asian store that's very near the flat. I think the expression, "like a kid in a candy store", applies aptly to this situation. I was running around looking sushi nori and mochi and rice crackers and lots of frozen goodies. I even went a little overboard and bought a wok and steaming baskets. What you have to understand is even though I'm as white as a snowflake, my childhood food memories include Indian curries, pad Thai, sushi, and other such ethic foods you would expect a child of three to turn their nose up to. I don't actually ever remember stepping foot into a TGI Fridays or Applebee's until I started to drive and go out with friends who wanted to go to such places (and let me tell you, I was not impressed).

My dad travelled a lot when I was a kid so he and my mom almost made sure that their kids would turn their noses up to places like TGI Fridays and Applebee's. Not to mention the fact that two of my childhood friends were Japanese. And when I have attended a few youth Buddhist meetings back home I had a few Japanese ladies comment on my skinniness and shove two or three rice balls into my hands.

Anyway, I got the recipe from a very cool blog which is linked here. It's a very fun blog and I'm sure I'll probably try more recipes from here in the future.

Making these buns were really fun. I've always enjoyed making bread (it's a good stress reliever) and getting to attempt to crease the dough and form them into a bun was a real challenge, but a fun one. However, I don't think that I'll use the canned red (azuki) bean paste anymore. The stuff I got from the shop was not at all good so I'm finding it difficult to scarf down all of them. Next time I make them I'll probably make the paste myself (which may end up on Sunday Dinner in the future). I'll probably also make the buns a little smaller so they fit in my medium baskets better...and because the ones I have now are pretty darn big.

That's all for Sunday Dinner this week. If you have any recipes you'd like me to try please post them as a comment. I'll eventually get around to making any recipe that is given to me and put them all on Sunday Dinner.

Some New Blog Ideas

Well, I know that I've been absolutely horrible about updating lately. I feel like I've been busy, but at the same time I don't feel like I haven't done anything at all in the last few weeks. I guess it's just the feeling that I can get when it's close to exam time.

So, obviously, trying to condense my Psychology notes every week on here hasn't motivated me. I guess it's because this semester's Psychology sections haven't been too interesting. I won't lie and say that I'm not nervous about the Psychology exam, because I am. Very much so. But I'm doing the best I can with reserach and studying so I think I'll do alright. At least I hope I do better than last semester...oh dear, I just got worried again. *nervous face*

Anyway, I've been thinking about ways to update more often and I'm going to start two weekly posts. Both weekly posts have a little something to do with life as a college student. I haven't really been able to find something that is specifically geared toward being a college student in Scotland. I guess all college students around the world deal mostly with the same issues. How 'bout that huh?

The first is a tribute to something we use to do at home a while ago. I call it: Sunday Dinner. Here's what Sunday Dinner is all about. When I was home, before my dad and step mom got married, we would have a big dinner every Sunday. I don't exactly remember the reason it fell apart and I won't say that I wanted to go to all of them or that I enjoyed all of them. But, I enjoyed a majority of them. Over the two years I've been here in Scotland I've gotten a little bored with dinners. Why? Becuase I don't really know how to cook. I'm a fairly accomplished baker (though I'm still working on decorated and frosting and such) but I've never been all that interested in cooking. I guess my giant sweet tooth always pulled me toward baking cakes and cookies rather than soups and stews. But, I got so bored with salads and pasta that I wanted to learn to cook different and better things. So, every week I shall be cooking something new and posting pictures. I'll be making the food at some point during the week, but always posting on Sunday.

The second is a weekly debate. Nothing too wild and crazy, but I figure it might be nice to get some discussion going on this blog. College is the age where we all become set in our traditions and really start to be comfortable with who we are. What better way to celebrate our individuality and difference in opinions than asking some hard questions? I'm planning for these debates to be posted every Wednesday. You can chime in whenever you see fit and, if I get some good comments, I'll tell everyone my opinion on the following Wednesday before I announce the new debate.

Well, those are the two things that will be starting on this blog this blog in the next week. I'll post updates whenever something interesting happens. Speaking of interesting turns of events, I have some pretty interesting updates which I shall post about tomorrow afternoon.