Quote of the Day...

"No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing"--- Julia Child 

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

 Ok, so let's get one thing straight, I'm not a big fan of chocolate, I don't go crazy about it and I can live my life without it, having said that, these cupcakes blew me away! The reason I knew I might like these cupcakes even before making them is because of two ingredients: unsweetened cocoa powder and coffee. I would not skip making the cream cheese frosting because First: its cream cheese frosting! Second: it complements the cupcake so beautifully because the cupcake itself isn't too sweet so the frosting provides enough sweetness. You can spread the frosting using a spoon or pipe it using a piping bag (what I went for), whatever your heart desires!

It is an easy recipe to follow and the result will surely be delightful!  

For recipe, click here!

Meal of the Week: Rashta (Laiyan's Version)

Ok, so this particular dish has a back story to it. 

For the past couple of months, I've been making this dish frequently ever since I got the recipe from my husband thinking that it was the original Lebanese dish "Rashta". Well, it turns out that I haven't been making the original dish but rather making my version of it and I think this is even better! Before knowing the truth, I've always wondered why haven't I had this back in Lebanon and now I know why! This has become one of our staple weekly meals and we prefer this to the original version so thats a BIG WIN!

It's such an amazing meal because it consists of ingredients that are normally found in your pantry and the end result produces an array of prominent flavors. The sour from the lemon juice and the sweetness from the fried onions is just beautiful! I hope you try and enjoy this dish as much as we did! 

For the recipe, please click here!   

Recipe: Rashta (Laiyan's Version)

Ingredients:

1. half box of pasta (you can use any shape but I usually use the "Bowtie" shapes)
2. 200 grams or around 1  1/2 cups of lentils
3. 2-3 medium to large onions (it may seem a lot but once you fry them they shrink) you can fry more if you like more onions.
4. 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
5. freshly squeezed lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
6. salt
7. vegetable oil for frying
8. garnish: chopped cilantro (if you're feeling fancy!)

Directions: 

1. Wash the lentils and boil them adding salt till they become soft. Keep the water. 
2. While lentils are cooking, slice onions into halves, then slice each half vertically. 
3. Fry onions in vegetable oil (don't let the onions get covered completely with oil), when done, remove onto plate with paper towel to soak excess oil.
4. Boil pasta according to package instructions and drain. 
5. Once the lentils are done, add drained pasta with lentil (with its water) and bring to a soft boil. 
6. Add chopped garlic, some of the fried onions, salt and some of the lemon juice and mix well so everything is incorporated. 
7. Let it boil to reduce some of the liquid (the fried onions will transfer some of its color and make the dish brownish and a bit of the starch from the boiled pasta will make the entire dish hold together).
8. Once some of the liquid reduces remove from heat. 
9. Serve and sprinkle remaining fried onions on top. Add additional lemon juice and salt if you need. Add chopped cilantro if you are feeling fancy but its totally ok to skip this and serve! 

Communicate

Life happens and problems arise.
I always try to remind myself to communicate and express myself with friends, family and loved ones. Don't keep quiet and expect the other person to know what you want or how you feel because they are not a mind reader (even though we usually assume or wish they are). It can be hard at first, but if the other person truly cares about you, the process will become easier and in return your relationship will flourish and grow even stronger.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

These have been my absolute go to cupcakes nowadays. The texture of the cake is so light and fluffy, thanks to the "cake flour" in it, that you could easily lose count of how many you've had! On top of this, the cream cheese frosting is the only thing to make this amazing cupcake even better! What's amazing with this frosting is the fact that you have both a savory taste from the cream cheese and the sweetness from the powder sugar, so the result is a mixture of yumminess on top of more yumminess!  You can't go wrong with this classic recipe!

As for the recipe that will be linked below, I've omitted the decorative stuff and stuck with the essentials!
For recipe click here!

Recipe: Tomato & Egg Drop Soup

Tomato & Egg Drop Soup

Ingredients:

• 2-3 stalks of green onion
• 2-3 medium sized tomatoes 
• Couple stems of Cilantro (depending on personal taste)
• Salt
• White pepper
• 2 eggs
• pinch of sugar
• sesame oil
• 1-2 teaspoon corn starch
• vegetable oil or olive oil
• 2-3 cups of water (more if needed)

Directions: 

1. Chop green onions and tomatoes into small pieces. 
2. Stir fry onions in vegetable or olive oil until fragrant then add tomatoes and fry till its water completely comes out and season with salt. 
3. Add water and bring to a boil (preferably hot water).
4. In a separate small bowl, mix corn starch and some cold water well and add this new mixture to the boiling water. Stir well so the soup becomes thicker. 
5. Mix eggs separately and pour into the boiling water while stirring to ensure the eggs spread evenly. 
6. Season with additional salt, a bit of sugar, sesame oil and white pepper according to personal taste.
7. Add additional green onion and cilantro and serve! 

Apple Pie (from Land O'Lakes)

What's a better way to prepare for the chilly fall weather than some fresh from the oven, home baked apple pie while the rich cinnamon and nutmeg warms up the entire room (it's probably the oven, but we are trying to be fancy here :P)

Recipe can be found here!

Soup of the Week: Chinese Tomato & Egg Drop Soup

When a fresh coat of snow covers the city, you know you need a freshly prepared, hot and light on the stomach soup that will surely warm your day away... Fresh simple pantry ingredients and you can whip up this fast soup in no time!

For recipe click here!

How I ended up behind an apron...

 

 I'm pretty sure I was looking for something other than studying for that Psychology exam I had the next day. Soon after, baking became an activity that helped curb the stress while allowing me to learn something new every time! What makes it such a great diversion is that it still allowed me to focus and concentrate on my tasks (whisking, measuring etc...) but on a subject completely different than what I was "running" away from. It was a refreshing break for me and the payoff at the end was sweet ;)

 Since then, it has become a part of me and something I identified with. Having had the basic cooking and baking skill surely paid off well when I got married and had to feed not 1 but 2 growling stomachs.

 Cupcakes were my first baking experiments, vanilla cupcakes with chocolate chunks to be exact. I mean who doesn't love cupcakes! They are cute, tiny and adorable and don't get me started with all those fun and colorful cupcake liners! The size aspect attracted me at first since I'm not fond of a lot of sweet desserts *gasp* so the smaller the size the better! I bake for the sake of baking and enjoy the end result and then give the rest to friends and family :)

 Cooking and baking has brought me a raw kind of happiness in my life, part of it has to do with seeing the smiles people have when they first take a bite into the food and the other is about how the method of combining and mixing raw ingredients plays a huge role in determining how the end result turns out, its basically yummy science :P

 I intend to put into writing my journey in the kitchen and share the ups as well as the downs. By sharing the whole process I believe it'll be a genuine and fun experience.

So Let's Get Cracking!