TEA

Tea making in English Class

We made three different types of teas in english class and tasted each one. My professor used three different styled tea pots to make it. We all were able to watch the water turn to tea. Each one tasted very different. The tea flavors were White, Black and Green tea.

Brooklyn Sushi

SUSHI

My sisters and I traveled to New York this spring for my sister's bachelorette weekend. One the best memories was our journey to a sushi restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. We went into this restaurant and it was so elegant. The lighting was dim with a tint of blue. The darkness made it feel like a relaxed atmosphere. This was the most fancy sushi place I have ever been into to. We were amazed by the lit tunnel we had to walk through to get to the huge seating area. We took a ridiculous about of pictures capturing all the details of the restaurant and every moment of our evening. While at dinner, we ordered many different kinds of sushi rolls we’ve never had before. We also bought a bottle of sake to enjoy between the three of us. We wanted to make this experience different from the others. We took turns going around the table trying all the new sushi presented to us. We watched each others face expresses and laughed as we bit down in the new kind of sushi. We realized we like most kinds, but not all. It was a great night of celebration and fun memories that I’ll have forever. One of our favorite sushi rolls was the Philadelphia Roll. Sushi for me will always resemble not just great food, but also the great experiences and the memories that follow behind it. 



Philadelphia Roll Recipe


Ingredients

1 cup rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
seaweed paper
1 1/2 onces Salmom
small cucumber
2 tablespoon cream cheese



Use "Sushi Rice" only, also knows as "Kagayaki" or"Koshihikari" rice.
Put rice in a bowl and fill with water you will notice the water is cloudy. Drain water out and repeat the process until the water is clear.
Bring 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of water to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer and cover.
Cook about 15minutes. Just until all the water is adsorbed, could be more or less time. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
Remove the rice from the heat and let sit, still covered, for 10min.
Spread rice on a flat surface. You want it to spread out as much as possible to cool quickly.
Sprinkle on 1 Tbs of SEASONED Rice Vinegar.
If you have just "Rice Vinegar" combine 1Tbs Vinegar with 1Tbs Sugar and 1tsp Salt and it is the same thing. Put mixture over heat in a sauce pan or in the microwave to dissolve sugar and salt.
Work vinegar through rice by pushing around with a spoon, also start fanning your rice. You want the rice to cool as quickly as possible.
The rice should have a sheen all over, if it does not add a little more vinegar.
Wet your hands and form the rice into a ball, it should stick together and still pull apart into individual pieces.
Place a piece of plastic wrap on your bamboo mat and put Nori on top of it with the rough side up.
Spread out 3/4 to 1 cup of cooked rice per sheet of Nori (seaweed paper). Use wet hands and spread around the whole sheet leaving a 1 inch border on the bottom.
Turn the sheet over so the rice is facing the plastic wrap and the nori with nothing on it is facing up. Make sure the 1inch rice free border is on the bottom.
1/3 of the way up from the bottom smear a line of cream cheese.
Place Salmon on top of the cream cheese.
Cut Cucumber into small strips and lay beside the Salmon.
Fold the bottom of the sheet over the rice and continue rolling into a log.
Cut with a wet serrated blade.
For a step by step video on how to make the sushi rolls search "Nikki Dinki Sushi" on youtube for my instructional video. I go through every step!


Recipe from Food Network

TIMMY"S

Tim Horton's Cafe & Bake Shop

An iced Cappuccino made with milk and a shot of expresso. Its my favorite coffee drink. They have so many things to choose from, its always hard to decide. I love sitting in my study corner and working on homework when sipping on a cup of coffee.

Orange Cake

Picture from Foodsforthesoul

Orange cake has been in my family quite sometime now. It is the most moist cake you'll ever have! By adding orange juice to a yellow cake batter before cooking, It creates the best outcome. The orange cake is topped with a sugar glaze icing. Yum.

Chicken Enchilada Ring

CHICKEN ENCHILADA RING

Growing up and even still today, my mom makes a Chicken Enchilada Ring very similar to this one. There were a few recipes my sisters and I always looked forward to. This was one of those dishes. Whenever my mom would start adding everything into the bowl, I would be munching on it behind her back. The chicken mixture could have been an awesome chip dip. The ring part is always good too. 

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Chop chicken and olives using food chopper; place in Classic batter bowl. Add cheese, green chilies, mayonnaise and seasoning mix.
Seed and chop 1 tomato. Slice lime in half. Using juicer, juice one half of lime to measure 1 teaspoon juice. Reserve remaining lime for garnish. Add chopped tomato and lime juice to chicken mixture.
Reserve 2 tablespoons crushed chips; add remaining chips to chicken mixture and mix well.
Sprinkle reserved crushed chips over flat side of cutting board. Unroll crescent dough. Place dough, sticky side down, onto crushed chips; press down lightly so chips adhere to dough. Separate dough into triangles. Arrange triangles, chip side down, in a circle on round stone with wide ends overlapping in the center and points toward outside. (There should be a 5-inch diameter opening in center.) Using medium scoop, scoop chicken mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle. Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough at center of ring. (Filling will not be completely covered.) Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
For garnish, cut remaining tomato into 8 wedges. Cut remaining half of lime into 4 slices; cut in half. Arrange between openings of ring. Cut. Serve with salsa and sour cream.
For 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken, bake, poach or microwave about 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast halves. Or for added convenience, use a rotisserie-cooked chicken, available at most large supermarkets. A 9-ounce package of frozen diced chicken breast, thawed, can also be used in this recipe.
To make a tortilla shell to hold the salsa and sour cream, preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly spray Classic Batter Bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Gently press one 6-7-inch flour tortilla into bottom of bowl to form a shell. Bake 14-16 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool in bowl 5 minutes; remove to cooling rack and cool completely. To serve, place cooled shell in center of baked ring and fill half with salsa and half with sour cream. Garnish ring with shredded lettuce, if desired.

https://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe/Main+Dishes/Latin%7CSpanish%7CMexican/Chicken+Enchilada+Ring/19993

Image found on Google Images

BANANAS FOSTER PIE

Texas de Brazil

I was at Texas de Brazil for a birthday celebration and had the most amazing bananas pie I have ever had. I love any dessert that has bananas. Everything was super creamy and was served with a grilled bananas. YUM!! 

Bananas Foster

Ingredients

1 stick salted butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 bananas

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1/2 cup dark rum

Dash cinnamon

Vanilla Ice Cream, for serving

Directions

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the brown sugar. Stir together and cook for a minute or two. Pour in the cream and stir it around to combine.

Peel the bananas and slice them on the bias inside the peel. Drop the slices into the pan. Next, add the chopped nuts and stir them into the sauce. Then - and this is where you need to be a little careful - stir in the rum. Let it start to bubble, and then carefully use a long lighter to ignite it. (Be sure to have a lid handy in case you need to extinguish the flame.) Let the fire burn and go out (it'll only take about 30 seconds or so), and then stir in the cinnamon at the end. You may also cook the mixture without flambeing it.

Spoon it over a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream and enjoy immediately.

Spoon bananas Foster over French toast, waffles or crepes. Substitute peaches, pears or cherries for the bananas. Of course, then it probably wouldn't be considered bananas Foster.

This recipe isn't the exact same but something similar.


Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/bananas-foster-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

Pressed Juicery

GET BACK TO YOUR ROOTS

The best pressed juice. A little store in Soho, New York sold tons of different juices and smoothies. We walked in and couldn't decide what to get. This juice had a combination of Citrus, Pineapple, apple, lemon, and mint. The apple and mint over powered everything but it was still a really good tasting juice cleanse.

MIMI CHENGS

MIMI CHENGS had the best grilled dumplings I've ever had. They were served with a secret spicy sauce (I wish I knew what was in it). The dumpling consisted of chicken and veggies. One of my favorite parts of eating this meal was the chop sticks. I love eating foods from other cultures.

Pumpkin Bars

Every year on my birthday I have pumpkin bars made for me by my family. They are so delicious. I need to learn how to made them myself.

Recipe

Ingredients

Bars:

4 eggs

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

15 -ounce can pumpkin

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

8 -ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

ADD CHECKED ITEMS TO GROCERY LIST

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Photo and recipe found on

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-bars-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

Delicious Bagels

                          


Ess-a-Bagel is a little bagel place that has grown so much on the streets of New York City.

It's a little place where they makes many kinds of sandwiches and bagels. Essa-a-Bagel uses a different technique to make their bagels, which makes them so much better than bagels made at home. They boil their bagels. I never knew boiling bagels was a thing before entering. They refuse to toast bagels for costumers because they believe it doesn't need to be done.

I got a plain bagel with cream cheese and it was the best thing i've ever had. The bagel itself had such a great taste.

Milk

We all love eating our favorite cereal and then drinking the sweet flavored milk at the bottom of the bowl.

I came across a little ice cream shop called Milk in New York City. The ice cream mimicked the sweet milk you would drink after eating a bowl of cereal. The cornflakes covering really made it feel like I was eating a better version of my favorite breakfast meal.

OTTO TACO

New York Tacos! I was walking the streets of New York and saw Otto Taco. I had to stop and get a bite to eat. I love trying Mexican food in different places. I experienced green salsa (which I never have before). The flavor was quite spicy, but really enjoyable. My taco consisted of a corn tortilla, chicken, cilantro, onion and the green salsa. It was quite messy to eat, but I would definitely recommend to others and eat it again myself. 

Pies and Pints

                                             

I had Pies and Pint a couple weeks ago in WV for the first time. The pizza was so good and I enjoyed looking at all the cool stuff on the walls. The pizza was extra cheesy and the crust tasted awesome. I'll need to go back to one in Columbus. I highly recommend to the pizza lovers! 

Melting Chocolate Lava Cake

                                                   

Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Served with a nice brewed cup of coffee. One of my favorite desserts from my cruise.

Recipe

Author: Stephanie Manley @CopyKat.com

Recipe Type:Dessert
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4 

Prepare this chocolate melting cake, it tastes like the Carnival Cruise version. 

Ingredients

• 6 ounces of butter

• 6 ounces of baking chocolate (ideally 60% cacao)

• 2 whole eggs

• 2 egg yolks

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cup flour

• 2 teaspoons to butter ramekins

• powdered sugar for dustiing

Instructions

In a small bowl melt together chocolate and butter in the microwave. Melt for 30 seconds and stir, and repeat until chocolate and butter are melted.

Whisk together eggs and sugar until they are lighter in color and foamy. Add melted chocolate to egg mixture. Stir in vanilla extract, salt, and flour.

Spread butter in ramekins to grease the dishes. Pour batter into dishes. Cover dishes with plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, you can refrigerate these for up to 4 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12 to 15 minutes. The tops will be firm, but the insides will be melting.

Dust with powdered sugar, and serve with a scoop of ice cream if desired.

http://www.copykat.com/2014/12/12/chocolate-melting-cake/

Sushi Around the World

                                       


I experienced wonderful sushi in the middle of the ocean. My family went on a cruise out the country. Sushi was on the menu as an appetizer and I knew id like to try it. I ate each piece savoring the flavors.

The first piece of sushi was cooked shrimp laid over a bed of rice. The second one was a piece of raw salmon wrapped in a seaweed shell. Lastly, the third piece was a tuna steak laid over a bed of rice topped with greens. Soy sauce is always great to top all sushi with. I enjoyed each piece more and more as I ate the entire plate clean.