Wrapping it Up

Hey!

So the cake post is actually gong to be my last post on Cooking While Distracted!  Parting is such sweet sorrow…

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting.

Obligatory 'The Cake is a Lie' comment

Every time I’ve attempted to bake something from scratch its been an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions. In fact I can clearly remember the last time I tried to bake from scratch. When I was in high school, I was going to participate in a bake sale for the club I was in. I came upon a recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes, that I felt would be a huge hit. The night before the big day, I started cooking the cupcakes and there were right  problems off the bat.

The recipe lied to me about how much batter would make 12 cupcakes  so I had to triple the batter. I over filled the cupcake pan (which, is of course my own fault but I just chalk it up being even more of a novice than I am now). When I took them out of the oven: sheer horror. They weren’t even cupcakes. They were just pineapple upside down overgrown nightmares. Thinking I could salvage them, I attempted to take them out of the pan, which just made it worse. I had to force them out, which broke them so our dining room table was just covered in broken cake, pineapple pieces and my tears. Needless to say, for the sake of time and my sanity I usually just bake boxed goods.

Until today of course. And given my track record with baking from scratch, it came out pretty good. I’m not a  cakes connoisseur  but I do know that you can’t go wrong with some good ol Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting.  The recipes for both the cake and the frosting  are  from the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.  I really like the cake recipe, its really buttery and delicious but I feel like I didn’t choose the right kind of icing (but then again, I’m not so big on frosting to begin with) . I don’t really like the texture of the icing and its too heavy for the cake. I think chocolate butter frosting would have been a better choice for the cake, but you live and you learn.

Fingerfish Crisped in Breadcrumbs

Apologies for the awkward photo.

This is probably one of the more difficult recipes I have made this month. Not to say that the recipe is very hard, its just that I lack a whole lot of experience in the whole breading thing. It just got incredibly messy. There was batter EVERYWHERE. My fingers, the table, it even got on my poor dog. The fish came out very well in my opinion but I will need to practice at this so next time my cooking experience isn’t so sloppy. The recipe is from Inn at the Crossroads, A Game of Thrones cooking website. I have been stalking this site for months and have been foaming at the mouth to make this recipe.I was so psyched that I finally got to make it.

Jajangmyeon

I really REALLY love Korean food. And this is probably my favorite Korean dish. Heck, it may be my favorite dish, period. I’m actually so glad this recipe came into my life because I was afraid I would never be able to eat it again, because I only found it in restaurants.  For those of you who don’t know, Jajangmyeon is a Korean-Chinese noodle served with a delicious  black bean sauce. I’ve made this recipe a couple of times, in order to perfect it and add it to my small ever growing repertoire of recipes.There is quite a lot of prep work that goes into making this dish.  For this recipe you are going to need to go to an asian/international market. For the best taste,  I would recommend not opting out of the optional ingredients.

Tags: beans, Beef, Noodles

Cheeseburger

This past month What to Cook and How to Cook it by Jane Hornby has been my favorite cookbook. Almost everything that I made from this book has been completely delicious. I say almost everything  because I didn’t really like this recipe. And I think I was the only one who didn’t really enjoy it (My mother loved it). I think its because its so different from the ways I usually prepare burgers. You should give it a try yourself and see what you think of the recipe.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I hated soup when I was younger. Like full on detested it for some reason, I can’t remember  why. Whenever my mother used to make it I would always refuse to eat it. In fact I just recently started enjoying it. The last meal I cooked was a bit heavy so I decided to opt for something a lot lighter and since it was so cold outside today, I decided to make soup. I really enjoyed this using this  recipe. Everything tasted so fresh and light! Its a fairly simple recipe with very few ingredients and even fewer steps. I will definitely be making this again!

Tags: chicken, soup

Food Rules: An Eaters Manual By Michael Pollan

Hello!

This is going to be a non recipe post today.

This month, along with my cooking, I was reading Food Rules: An Eaters Manual  by Michael Pollan. Initially, I wanted to read a chapter and blog about what I thought about it but once I actually started reading it I thought it would be better if I just finished the book and wrote about it.