Cup-a-Soup by Lipton

Oohh lala.. Check out the Box.

My mom saw this new instant noodle package, and bought it. It's called "Cup-a-Soup." Lame name, huh? There's not much to say about it, because it wasn't impressive. It lacked noodles, veggies, and it was crazy salty.

I do have a confession about the poor quality of the product...the tagline is to "kill the 3 P.M. craving." That's the only excuse "Cup-a-Soup" has for not having enough noodles in the package.

Noodles.

Check out the MSG and salt.

It needs more noodles!

It's so bad that I added my own veggies to improve the noodle/soup. Go go fresh onions and lettuce.

The extra additions: veggies.

Doesn't that look better?

"Fruit Tart" = Fail

View of the 2 Tarts.

It's been awhile since I "failed" at making a creation. To be fair, it wasn't all me. I'm too good to mess up this poorly. What happened? Well, I'll have to start from the beginning.

I was over at my friend's place and we impulsively decided to make desserts! We had a sudden craving for sweet sugary, crispy goodness. He wanted a thin, flaky, puff crust with a simple filling. We googled a simple crust recipe and we improvised the filling. The crust was easy enough: sugar, flour, butter, salt, and several tablespoons of water. The filling was even simpler: dice up some peaches, boil sugar water, add peaches, and reduce into a thick sauce/paste. Everything was coming together perfectly. My friend began making miniature sized tarts, and I topped it with filling. On top of that was either a sprinkle of pecans or apple slices. Quite pretty, I gotta admit.

We pop the goodies into the oven and waited...the aroma of the buttery crust filled the kitchen. I was beginning to drool. The timer finally went off and we took the goodies out of the oven. I couldn't wait...I grabbed a spatula to lift a tart off the cookie sheet and onto a plate. I used a fork to break off a small piece.

Apple Topped Apricot Tart.

I was expecting a crispy, light crust with a hint of sweetness from the filling. Guess what I got instead...

An overly salty, buttery crust that tasted like saltine crackers.

WHAT?! I know....be glad you're reading about this and not facing this mess in person. I was so so so sad. I was waiting for something spectacular and I was soooo hungry.

Turns out the butter was salted already, which was why the extra salt I added to the dough messed everything up. /sigh. Next time, I will prevail and beat the salt!!! Muahahahaha.

Matcha Cookies v1.0

Don't you hate great ideas, but poor execution? I had a craving for matcha and I had the brilliant idea of making matcha sugar cookies. Sounds simple right? Use a sugar cookie base and add matcha powder, then BAM! AWESOME MATCHA COOKIES!! Whoooo! NOT! I wish, I wish, I WISH! It turned out as well as I imagined. Here take a look at my product:

Cookie...

What's wrong with it you ask? Well, a number of things. First, it tasted like a sugar cookie. No matcha flavor whatsoever. I put 2 tablespoons of matcha powder, but that wasn't enough. Second, it was overly soft...not chewy, soft and that's gross. I love my cookies crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. What else did I learn? Cheap matcha = cookie fail. =( Perhaps next time, I will add heaps of powder instead of skimping on it. My biggest fear is that by adding too much, my cookie might taste bitter instead of having a hint of green tea to it.

I love the color of matcha.

Quick English Muffin Sandwich

Mmmmm....yums.

The healthiest, easiest sandwich ever if you don't want to leave the house. Toasted English muffin with melted cheese on both sides of the bun, a slice of red onion, and half an avocado. Oh my...so simple, yet so good.

Call my taste buds boring, but I love tasting the natural flavors of fresh veggies. So go screw yourself if you think this is naaaasty. Hrrrmp....more for me in the long run.

Making Soy Milk is as Easy as Reciting your A, B, Cs

EDIT!!!
I have a confession. I'm a horrible food blogger. I was so excited about devouring the food we had that I didn't take any pictures!!! ahhhhh!! /tucks tail between legs

Last year, I wanted to go to Alice's summerthing too, because Lifehouse was playing for free!. Sadly, I had work. This year...I am unemployed with plenty of free time. I told JSB about it and we decided to do a picnic. As we were putting our picnic together, we thought we made too much food. Turns out we didn't make enough!

We made:

Pasta salad with salami, onions, and celery.
-delicious!

The Salad. I realize it seems "plain," but that's the way I like mine. Not overly saucy.

Sandwich: sourdough slices with spinach and melted mozzarella cheese.
-also yums! Simple, and easy enough for JSB to make! <3 style="font-weight: bold;">Fruits in separate containers: lychee, apricots, mangos, white nectarines.
-sweet and juicy, but the nectarines turned into a nice shade of brown. =( At least it still tasted delicious.

Lychees and Apricots.

Ginseng with honey jello.
-great idea, poor execution. What went wrong? Needed more knox! It tasted fine, but it was practically melting before our eyes.

It was an awesome day. The sun was out with a minimal amount of breeze, which is super rare in SF. I loved it. I was lounging around on the grass reading a book and listening to the awesome free music. For those that are curious, the bands that played were Parachute, Sugar Ray, Matt Nathanson, and Gavin Rossdale.

The only negative aspect of my day was my sunburned face (forehead, nose, and cheeks). Dammit, time to break out the sunblock like sunblock obsessed JSB! She is practically a vampire when it comes to the sun. She refuses to stand in it. If she has to be in it, she puts on sunblock right away, covers her face with her hands too, and wears a cap.

Oh oh, I was also productive in the morning before I left. I had soaked some soybeans the night before to make soy milk. I recently discovered how to make it a few days ago. The process is extremely simple and cheap to make.

Soy Beans.

Soy Milk
Adapted from Just Hungry and Beauty and the Biscuit

Serving size: Unlimited

Ingredients:

• cheesecloth (or any other type of material that will strain tiny granules)
• dried soybean
• water
• blender
• a big pot

Directions:

Important key point: 2.5:1 ratio of (water: soybean). That's it! You can make an endless supply of soymilk now.

1. Soak dried soybeans overnight in a bowl of water that covers the soybeans by at least 2 inches.
2. The next day, pour out the water. Put 1 cup of soybean and 2 1/2 cups of water in the blender. Blend until all the big chunks are ground up. Pour into the pot. Repeat until all the soybeans are used up. Remember: 2.5 to 1 ratio (water to soybean).
3. When all the soybeans are ground up, make sure the soy mixture in the pot is not past the halfway point.
4. Time to boil. As the soy mixture is heating up, skim off all the foam from the blending process. You have to be observant at this point. Watch closely, because as soon as the soy mixture hits its boiling point, it will foam quickly. The moment you see it happening, turn the heat to the lowest setting or if you're scared, just turn the heat off. Add 1 1/2 cups of water.
5. When the foam subsides, turn the heat to medium/low so that the soy mixture is at a gentle boil, but not at the point where it will start foaming.
6. Boil for 20 minutes. Stir often to prevent the bottom of the pot from burning, which will give the soy milk a burnt taste. When the heat is turned on high and the soy milk does not foam when it boils, allow it to continue to boil for 10 more minutes. 
7. When time is up, take another container, place a strainer on top of it, and the cheesecloth on top. Ladle soy milk on top of cheesecloth. When the cheesecloth is filled with soybean fiber (called okara), pick it up and squeeze to take out the remaining soy milk. Repeat until all the soy milk is filtered!

Yums!! Fresh and delicious soy milk for consumption! You can drink soy milk unsweetened, but I prefer my soy milk sweet so I add sugar.

Creme Puff

Cream Puff.

The scary attempt at cream puffs...

Creme puffs are surprisingly easy to make. The recipe came together perfectly. The only thing I would improve is piping the mixture instead of using a spoon.

oooh....Shiiiny!

I also found out I need to work on tempering chocolate. My chocolate came out horrible.

Driiip.

Next time, I also want to work on a custard filling for the cream puff.

There's a reason why chefs toss pizza dough...

Mmmm...the finished pizza.

For the past week, I've been dreaming and craving for cheese. Mac n' cheese, grilled cheese sandwich, and even a slab of cheese would make me happy. I decided today to make pizza to satisfy my cheese craving.

Drool once.

Drool again.

JSB and I made pizza dough from scratch and it turned out better than we expected. I decided to play safe and stretch the dough on a surface instead of tossing it.

My huge air pockets on the crust.

JSB preferred the more dangerous route of tossing the pizza. She did a pretty good job and it showed on the pizza.

JSB's perfect pizza crust -- the magic of tossing the pizza crust.
(JSB's picture)

As you can see, my dough crust shows all the air pockets from the yeast, but JSB's was dense, smooth, and perfect. Another lesson I learned was that a pizza stone or pizza baking pan is necessary. The pizza crust turned out wonderful, but the center of the pizza was soggy. Lessons for next time.