Chocolate Cake Fail

Kids, this is what happens when you don't follow the recipe's proportion! You get an ugly mess that's impossible to fix and eat. Lesson learned: Do not try to reduce a recipe meant for a 9 inch cake to 2 small ramekins.

Notice: the plastic glaze on top of the "cake"

For those that have been following, this resembles the 5 minute microwave cake that JSB made. This breaks my heart. I can't believe I made such a hideous thing.

The hard interior.

Ugh. I will try this again in the future...

Coffee Cookie with Chocolate Chips

When I'm hurting, nothing makes me feel better than writing. In fact, I know when something is wrong with me when I wake up early. Strange? Not really. I usually wake up around 11 PM and I lounge around in bed until 12 or later. However, today I woke up at 8:30 AM and for the life of me, I could not fall asleep again. I tossed and turned, stared at the wall, and tried writing. Nothing helped. I finally crawled out of bed at 9 AM. I made tea to warm me up and here I am writing this post.

I have a vague idea of what's bothering me, but I will need to confirm it. I won't be able to figure it out until later tonight. In the mean time, I'm going to take a walk and relax my mind. Thinking too much about something you can't fix cannot be healthy.

When I'm feeling upset or emotionally off, I bake. Not necessarily for me to eat, but mostly to get my mind off of things. If my creation turns out well, it makes my problem that much smaller.

The Ingredients + Cookie

This is one of those "I am down so I'm experimenting" creation. It was only okay to me. The coffee flavor wasn't as strong as I had hoped. It's going to need some tweaking before I post up a recipe.

My Family Left me...

Close-up Shot.

and I'm left with this. Well, they didn't actually leave me. They drove down to San Luis Obispo for my sister's college orientation. I didn't want to go, but I can't remember why. I decided to treat myself while they were gone by going to the farmer's market. I bought nectarines, okra, tomatoes, and fresh edamame.

For dinner, I stir-fried the okra with chili, made fried rice with egg and last night's rice, and made tomato salad.

So Colorful.

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.