College style cooking

It's a little embarrassing that I am well past (well not that far past) my college years, but I am still cooking like a college student. By this, I don't mean I am cooking ramen every day or reheating TV dinners, but I just don't have a lot of specialty cookware and sometimes I need to improvise.

And by specialty cookware, I mean basic cookware. Or bakeware. Like a rolling pin. For your viewing pleasure, here is the "rolling pin" I used to make my egg tarts for Chinese New Year:

Yes, that is a liquor bottle (99 bananas to be exact) covered in plastic wrap. It wasn't perfect by far, but it got the job done.

Oh, and my "steamer" prior to Chinese New Year was this:

Allow me to explain this state-of-the-art steamer. That is a big pot with a little upside down bowl, on top of which I place a slightly bigger bowl, whose base fits on top of that little bowl. In that slightly bigger bowl, I place whatever I want to steam. Sounds foolproof, doesn't it? Except that the biggest bowl that will fit in this "steamer" is 5" in diameter, essentially only fitting in 1 serving of vegetables to steam.

Since I wanted to steam a fish and a turnip cake for Chinese New Year, I decided to cave and buy a real steamer. It was a beautiful, 3 tiered stainless steel beauty from my local H Mart. The one problem?

The dishes I wanted to steam were the right diameter, but just a tad too tall for the height of each tier. So I was forced, once again, to rig the steamer to fit a taller dish by turning the top tier upside down and putting the lid on the "bottom" of the top tier.

Apparently I am doomed to always turn things upside down when I steam.

Anybody else have any, er, "creative" cooking methods?

I don't heart having to break in new shoes

(WARNING: picture of part of a foot ahead)

I hate when this happens. I was breaking in my Pumas, and went for a walk a little longer than I intended to, and now I have bandaids across both my Achilles tendons. Boooo stiff new shoes.

Anybody know of any way around this?

Oprah's Favorite Mac N Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese. Like whoa. It is one of my absolute favorite comfort foods. I usually use Pioneer Woman's recipe for macaroni casserole, but when I found a recipe for Beecher's Mac and Cheese whose claim to fame is being on this year's Oprah's Ultimate Favorite Things, I knew I just had to try it. Both PW and Beecher's involve making a roux, so this ain't your quick five minute mac and cheese, but I bet you anything it'll taste better than your fluorescent yellow Kraft meal.

Recipe Originally posted on Martha Stewart's website.


You will need:
Beecher's Flagship Cheese Sauce:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
3 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, preferably Flagship, grated
1/2 cup Jack cheese, preferably Just Jack, grated
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder (I used chili powder)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
For the Beecher's Mac and Cheese:

6 oz penne pasta
2 cups of Beecher's Flagship Cheese sauce
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup Gruyere cheese, grated (I wasn't paying a $10 for Gruyere, so I just used Jack)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.

Whisk in flour. Continue whisking and cooking for 2 minutes.

Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add cheeses, salt, chile powder, and garlic powder.

 Stir until cheese has melted and all ingredients are well incorporated, about 3 minutes. Use immediately or refrigerate up to 3 days. To reheat sauce, place in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until heated through.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or oil an 8-inch baking dish and set aside. Cook penne according to package directions for 2 minutes less than recommended on the package. Rinse pasta in cold water; set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together cooked pasta and sauce gently but thoroughly. Pour pasta into prepared baking dish; sprinkle with cheeses and chile powder.

Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!! I thought this mac and cheese was okay--I enjoyed the different cheeses and the kick from the chili powder, but I'm torn between this one and Pioneer Woman's. Oh well, more mac and cheese for me to rotate between!

Jennifer Aniston in Allure

Oh, Jennifer Aniston. Guys love her (MM for one, would surely put her on his freebie list.) Girls want to be friends with her (except when she whines about Brad Pitt. Nobody wants a whiny friend.) I, for one, think she looks fantastic for 41, and she always has a way of looking fresh and pretty, even if she's never the most fashion forward.

Other people clearly think she's gorgeous as well. She came in second for Most Desired Body, as well as Most Desired Hair. So when I saw that J. An had an upcoming photoshoot in Allure, I expected her signature look: shiny straight locks, and something breezy and white or fitted and black.

Whoa, Nelly was I wrong. Or at least, partially wrong. It's breezy.

Source

Well, she sure showed off her body. But what is with the rest of it?! Dark smoky eyes, trendy choppy bangs?? Oh, sweetie, no. It doesn't even look like her. This is way worse than The Rachel. Worst of all, they photoshopped her (and her chin) beyond recognition. Looking at her closeup, she looks like a Barbie doll. Playmate edition.

Anybody else disappointed in the photoshoot? Or do you love Aniston's new look?

Strawberry scones (food FAIL)

I recently bought a big bag of frozen strawberries in attempt to curb my sweets cravings. Then I realized I crave refined sugar, so I decided to make something sweet with my strawberries using things I had laying around the house.

Enter strawberry scones.

I got the recipe from Tyler Florence, and I don't entirely recommend the recipe for reasons you'll see below. But I already took the freakin' pictures, so deal with it.

You will need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsps sugar, plus more for sprinkling scones
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups fresh mixed berries (I used my frozen strawberries)
3/4 cup buttermilk, plus more to brush scones

There were several things I did differently in this recipe, and they may all explain why this recipe was a major FAIL for me. First, the linked recipe above has an accompanying Orange Honey Butter from which the buttermilk for the scones is derived. I didn't have heavy cream, so I made my own buttermilk (see below). Second, I did not have a food processor, so I used my hands.

First, preheat your oven to 400 F.

If you are sophisticated and have a food processor, add your flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder to the food processor. If you don't, dump it in a big bowl. Add the cubes of butter and pulse until you have the texture of coarse bread crumbs. Or, like me, work the butter in until you get finger cramps and a close approximation of bread crumbs.

Close enough.

Next, add buttermilk. If you did not make the Orange Honey Butter recipe, and you do not have buttermilk in the house, you can make your own by combining 1 cup of regular milk with 1 Tbsp of vinegar and allowing that to sit for 10 minutes. (Thanks, Cook's Thesaurus!)

Stir to combine, and as the dough comes together, add the berries.

This may actually have been my next mistake, as I think the berries were supposed to be folded in prior to it forming such a nice lump. Because of this, the next steps were really gross and messy as I tried to force the frozen strawberries (which at this point were getting soft) into the dough. Hence, no pictures. If I had a slightly weaker stomach, I don't think I would have been able to consume the final product having seen the gross wet pink dough that was that last step.

ANYWAY...drop spoonfuls of your gross dough onto a parchment lined sheet. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle sugar on top. Or if your dough is already ridiculously wet with frozen strawberry juice an your tears, just sprinkle the damn sugar without the buttermilk.

Bake until puffy and golden brown, about 17 to 20 minutes.

Believe it or not, this was the best looking one.

The scones came out a little dense, and the dough around the berries seemed a little undercooked, while the rest of it was a little dry and overcooked. Again, it could have been due to all those changes I made, but I likely won't be retrying this recipe.

Anyone have a good scone recipe they can share?

Online shopping

I don't think of myself as a shopaholic, per se, but I am definitely a window shopaholic. Especially online. I love searching for sales, adding things to my cart, then closing the window before I am tempted to hit "Complete Order".

It's a sickness, I know.

But for anyone else who shares my love of online window shopping, or just loves sales, I thought I'd share my favorite online shopping sites for your viewing pleasure (and wallet displeasure)!

Luxury Sites
We'll start at the top, AKA the places I rarely spend money at. While the savings at these sites are no doubt fantastic (50% off, 70% off), they're still a little rich for my blood.

Gilt Groupe
This is a shopping site for high end luxury items, where you can find the likes of Dior, Valentino, all for up to 70% off retail price. I love browsing through their daily sales, which open at noon ET, but usually that gorgeous $10,000 gown on sale for $3500 is still exactly what it would be in a high end boutique: a beautiful D&G gown that I can't afford. Nonetheless, they do have great deals on makeup occasionally, and they will often have great shoe sales as well.
There used to be a credit for referral, but now it's only free shipping.

Shopbop.com
This is another site for high end names, although I'll be honest when I say I usually only rummage through the "sale" portion. I'd say the lowest price I've seen on this site is $40, which still isn't bad for a Vena Cava dress, but I'd only consider looking for real when I'm willing to splurge.
There is also a $25 referral for friends, so if you love it, sign up and start referring!

Moderate sites
These are sites that still carry some big names, like Tahari or L.A.M.B., but aren't quite as pricey as the sites above.

RueLaLa
I recently shared about my PUMA purchase, and I love it! There may still be items that are completely out of my price range on this site, but there will always be one or two mega deals per sale, which open daily at 11 AM ET.
There is also a $10 credit for referral, so get shopping and referring!

Knockoff sites
Finally, the sites that eat most of my money. These are no frills, no  name sites, but have great prices, and sometimes you can find some pretty convincing replicas of your favorite high end items.

ASOS
Stands for "As Seen On Screen", this British shopping site features knockoffs of apparel worn by celebrities on screen and off. The prices are reasonable, the sale prices are ridiculously reasonable ($12 for a dress? Yes please!), and best of all, shipping to the US is only $6!

GoJane
Reminiscent of Forever 21, this is a great place for super cheap knockoffs. Don't expect high quality ware, but if you are wanting something to wear for a season, then throw out, this is perfect. As a warning, most of the site is probably for tweens/teens who want something to wear for prom, and I would stick to the shoe section of this site.

[Source for Dior shoes]

Alright, your turn! Any favorite shopping sites to share?

I heart shoes

So I got these shoes a while back from RueLaLa, but just now got around to posting them. I had been looking for some sneakers that I could wear for casual events, that were just a little dressier than my running shoes, which are starting to look a little beat up.

I had been looking at Pumas for a while, but I couldn't justify paying upwards of $60 for casual footwear! I don't even spend that on heels! So when I found the sale on RueLaLa, I knew they had to be mine...

5 days after I pushed "Submit my order", these showed up in my mailbox!

LOVES!! I haven't had velcro shoes in so long, but these were so cute, so PINK (I did say I was girly, didn't I?), and perfect for brightening up a dreary Chicago winter.

Plus, how ADORBS is the little card that is included? I am a sucker for packaging, and RueLaLa has just won my heart.

I will have to share the rest of my favorite online stores with you next! Stay tuned (and prepare your wallets)!