raspberry jam cookies.

A little experiment, putting jam in the dough rather than on top of the cookie.











































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french martini.

One night, after a day painting the studio for the degree show, we headed out to go listen to Kitty the Lion play at Stereo. Toni's friend Anna is the lead singer, so we went (basically) as a class to go support her!

But before, we decided to meet up at The Hummingbird for half price cocktails! Ohh their cocktails are so good, they almost rival Firenze's Art Bar...

I ordered a French Martini, mostly because I love raspberries. It had Chambord in it, and I've always wanted to try that. It was just as I had expected, except I forgot that it was alcohol (I guess I get too excited about fruit-flavored things?), so the bitter taste was a surprise in the beginning. It was quite enjoyable though!

Here, watch the cute bartender make my drink...












Kitty the Lion was AMAZING. I genuinely enjoyed the music, and Hannah and I danced the entire time, regardless of the fact that no one else had the stones to (C'MON EVERYBODYYYY).

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lemon zest cookies.

It finally started to get warmer in Glasgow. Warmer weather means summer means sunny thoughts means lemons! James and Kathy had a barbeque dinner at their flat, so I brought some cookies. Lacking a zester (a surprisingly useful tool), I used a peeler and then chopped away.






The bad thing about letting food blog entries pile up is that sometimes you forget what the foods tasted like. I remember these being buttery creamy and quite soft...almost cake-like on the inside! A far cry from the usual biscotti that I make. I don't remember if they were too sweet or not, but everyone seemed to enjoy them and that was the point!





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ricotta and apple spaghetti.

On the farm I stayed at in Italy, I worked everyday from 8 until 12, eating a simple breakfast of bread + jam + fruit + tea in the morning, and coming home to a filling spaghetti dish for lunch.

Maria made ricotta and apple spaghetti a couple of times, and I loved it. She used olive oil from the farm and a variety of spices that neither of us could translate. Giuseppe loved putting paprika on it (well, everything really...), so I thought that I would recreate the dish using paprika instead of throwing random spices in.

I chopped up some apple (gala, I believe) while the spaghetti water boiled. Threw in salt (the more the better!), the spaghetti, and when the noodles were almost al dente, I tossed in the apple bits to boil a little. Strained everything, mixed in some ricotta with the spaghetti/apple bits, drizzled some olive oil and sprinkled on some paprika.




I promptly brought this to the studio to eat during lunch. It was really good! I think that it would have tasted a little stronger if I had used really good olive oil (or perhaps a very very small amount of garlic? no, onions!). The ricotta made the spaghetti just rich enough to be very filling. I'll have to try to make it with my own ricotta, now that I know how to make it (wait until I put up photos from my 21st birthday weekend...)!

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grilled salmon on zucchini risotto.

There was some crazy seafood sale at Marks + Spencer's (the one out of four times I bought food there...), so that night I had some yummy garlic grilled salmon with risotto...the usual recipe, but with zucchini pieces in it. The zucchini made the risotto slightly sweeter and added color, which was the original reason why I added it to the dish. Of course, you can't really see the green bits here.




A little spritz of lemon juice and it's good to go.
A couple of days later, I discovered that garlic grilled salmon goes tremendously well with a spinach and lancastershire (I think) cheese salad.

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croissant with jam.

There is nothing better than a warm buttery snack after a day of shopping.




Check out that stone pot the jam came in. How cute! From Vanilla Black (Ariel's favorite) on Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Scotland.

not pictured: iced coffees in coca cola flared flute glasses.

zucchini fritters.

A thousand apologies for being M.I.A on this blog. I've got SO many posts to catch up on, all from Glasgow...


I believe this dinner was a collaboration with Ariel. I chopped up some zucchini, added flour, cheese, egg, salt, pepper, and fried little patties in olive oil. Ariel prepared a little salad in a bowl for each of us. The fritters went on top and we drizzled the whole thing in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. What a perfect amount of food.


(sorry for the crappy quality)

YUM!

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homemade gyoza, rice, and miso soup.

As you know from my previous post, I bought lots of delicious Japanese ingredients at the local Chinese food store. One of those things was gyoza skins.

Originally I had planned to do a dinner party and make tons of gyoza...thank goodness I didn't because the pack mad much less than I thought!

I chopped up garlic, leeks, kikurage mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, edamame and sesame seeds and put them in a bowl. Add a little bit of sesame oil and mirin and tadaaa, you've got the mix for the inside of the gyoza! Ariel helped me make them; it was her first time! I ended up finishing them, but she did a pretty good job. I guess I'll have to thank my mom for turning gyoza-making into a family activity.

Then I fried them up and they were ready to eat! They were delicious, but definitely don't beat my mom's. I think next time I need to include some cabbage and tofu. AND SHRIMP.

udon noodles etc. in miso.

I don't often make Japanese food for myself (which will mostly likely change next fall, when I will have to cook for myself in a country where a rice cooker would be a convenient investment). I think it's because my mom does such a great job making dinner, so that whenever I try to make Japanese food, it just doesn't taste as hearty.

HOWEVER, sometimes the craving is so great that I can't resist it. I found a Chinese food shop that sells a handful of good quality Japanese foods (!!!), and there I indulged my inner Japanese. Things weren't too expensive but I made sure to calculate how much I was spending as I went along, just so I didn't go overboard. The first thing I went for was a decent pack of miso paste. As I've experienced from my mother's past experiences in miso testing, unless you're in a particularly explorative mood, don't mess around. Stick with what you know; there's nothing more upsetting than getting cozy for Japanese breakfast (rice + miso soup+ whatever) and having it taste too sweet. Or too salty. My favorite is shiromiso.

When I got home, I obviously made myself miso soup with tofu and a bowl of Japanese rice. A couple of nights later, this made its way into my stomach:


Udon noodles with shiitake mushrooms, carrot slices, and bamboo shoots in a miso broth. I made sure to drop an egg in right before the noodles were done. The egg cooks (boils?) in the heat of the broth so by the time the food makes it into a bowl, it's cooked just right – softly cooked with a little bit of goo in the middle.


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butternut squash spread and custard tart.

Whenever pies and tarts are made at my house, it's always with pre-made crusts. Don't get me wrong, they're always deliciously buttery so there's no complaining. It definitely saves time and anxiety.

Buuuut, I've always wanted to make one! There's something about being able to make your own tart crust that really appeals to me. I know, I'm getting more domestic every day.

It definitely came out much better than I had anticipated. A bit unfortunate about the fork marks though (they were mandatory).


I still had tons of that butternut squash spread leftover, so I filled the bottom of the tart crust with it. I sprinkled some extra cinnamon to give it a little kick, and then covered the entire thing in custard. Duh.


The slice looks really pretty. Tasted pretty darn good too! It really was a perfect way to use the squash spread. As for the crust, well, the amount of butter and sugar in it was perfect! It wasn't overpowering at all (as in, I didn't feel guilty having two slices in one sitting).



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cinnamon and white chocolate cantucci.

Cantucci strikes again.

This time, I've tried a new combination: cinnamon and white chocolate bits.


I apologize for the lack of a macro shot.

My original plan was to do a pistachio-white chocolate combination, but then I realized how expensive they were (last time there was a 2-for sale). The white chocolate bar was only 89p, and I had the other ingredients at home, so that pretty much determined what the outcome would be.

They tasted pretty fabulous. Ariel was a huge fan. One of my other flatmates even paid me for one. The cinnamon flavor was quite subtle (I should've added maybe another teaspoon). You could definitely taste the white chocolate; unfortunately, I forgot how sweet white chocolate is, so I didn't decrease the amount of sugar I put in....aka this was DEFINITELY a dessert (as opposed to a morning coffee accompaniment). Well, at least I know now so that when I make the pistachio-white chocolate batch, I should balance out the sweetness.

I wish I took a photo of the plain (amaretto/vanilla) batch that I made for a friend's whiskey tasting party. They were literally two-bite size and absolutely adorable!

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olive oil bread.

Ariel and Hannah bake bread all the time. After baking so many batches of biscotti, I decided that it's about time to try bread. I've always wanted to try, but I guess I never really got around to it.

So I tackled olive oil bread. On the farm, Maria and I made fives loaves together, so I knew what the dough should look like...she bakes bread all the time, so she didn't need to use a recipe. Which is great for me, really.

Pictured here, is my attempt.




It was fairly good! I think another 10 minutes in the oven would've made it pretty delicious. Because of the olive oil, it's kind of thick, I think. It probably could've used more salt. More bread-related updates to come...I haven't had a loaf that's good enough to call it a completely success yet.

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shrimp, broccoli and greek yogurt spaghetti.

Greek yogurt is quite cheap here in Glasgow, which totally helps because 1. making breakfast can be a hassle sometimes 2. it's good for you...well, at least better for you than grilled cheese. Anyways, one night I really wanted to have some sort of cream sauce pasta, but I knew it would be a very bad idea if I bought a pot of heavy cream. What about yogurt? It's pretty heavy and not flavored (the Greek kind, at least) so I can do whatever I want with it! Yay for art student creativity!

I started with garlic and olive oil, as always. Broccoli went in next, then the shrimp (I always cut the backs open so the flavor seeps into the shrimpies a little more), followed by a couple of dollops of yogurt. It got a bit runny when heated, so I added some flour to give it a more creamy texture. Through many attempts, I have discovered that sifting the flour into the yogurt makes it creamier and not as chunky (flour chunks = always gross). Add some salt, pepper, sugar (negates the tangyness of the yogurt a bit), veggie stock powder, and voilà, dinner.





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tomato and leek spaghetti.

On the farm, I literally ate spaghetti every other day (pasta on the others...). You think I would've gotten sick of it, but I had some serious spaghetti-withdrawl when I got back. I bought myself a pack of wheat spaghetti (hence the color being a bit spaghetto)...and then realized that I don't eat tomato sauce enough to merit the purchase of a whole can of tomato pulp. So I chopped up some normal tomatoes (took out the seeds because it makes the sauce kind of bitter) and sautéed them in olive oil with garlic and leek. And then I added a squirt of ketchup, which helped the tomatoes turn into a saucy consistency. It tasted like a slightly sweet and leeky tomato sauce. Yum!




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butternut squash spread.

And sadly, the same night as the granola and salad/roasted potatoes dinner, I made one more thing...butternut squash spread.

On the farm, Maria made this delicious pumpkin jam-spread. I used to have it almost everyday for breakfast, with pieces of her bread. It. Was. Phenomenal. I don't think I've ever enjoyed pumpkin that much (aside from pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread and...okay, so I enjoy pumpkin). I went to the store but they didn't have pumpkins (or I couldn't find it...Saino's can get pretty confusing sometimes), so I bought butternut squash. I've made butternut squash muffins before, so I figured that if that came out fabulous, this shouldn't be too bad.

I boiled the butternut squash into oblivion (Maria said she baked the pumpkin) and made a huge pot of mush. I boiled some apple along with it. Some cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, salt, lots of mashing, and TADAAAAA.



Pretty darn good on bread with butter; it's still a bit too savory though. Honestly, the pumpkin would've worked better.
AND THEN I THOUGHT WHY NOT PUT IT IN A TART?
(this post to come later)


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dinner #1: salad and roasted potatoes.

The same night as the granola-making, I also made dinner for Ariel and I. I wanted to experiment with some of the things Maria used to make on the farm.

First up was the salad. I threw some leaves in a bowl, and chopped up some tomatoes and feta cheese. A handful of mellow-tasting edamame went really nicely with the sharp feta.


For the dressing, I made something Maria used to make for almost every salad. Instead of just pouring olive oil on top of the leaves, she would put some in a metal bowl, toss in some chopped garlic, and let that cook. She took it off the heat right before the garlic was going to brown. I did the same (with less tasty olive oil, unfortunately), and added a little bit of pepper. It really adds flavor to the olive oil, enough so that you don't need balsamic vinegar or whatever other dressing you would usually add with olive oil. Now that I think about it, I bet adding some red hot pepper flakes would've give it more of a kick. Hmm, maybe next time.


For the main dish, I made roasted rosemary potatoes! Maria made this a couple of times, and I know it's nothing exotic, but I really hadn't thought about making it before. I sliced the potatoes as thin as I could, and put them in a bowl. After adding some of that olive oil concoction I made earlier, I drizzled even more olive oil and freshly chopped rosemary. I spread all of that onto a pan, crushed some sea salt on it, and put it in the oven. After a bit, I flipped over the potatoes so that both sides of the potatoes had a relatively roasted skin on it.


SO. GOOD. Ariel said it was the best batch of roasted potatoes she's ever had (win!). None of the garlic/rosemary/salt/pepper flavors were too strong; I hate it when one taste overpowers the others, it's kind of distracting. I really liked that the thickness of the potato slices were varied, so that you got the mush bites and the crunch bites all on one plate. x

granola.

Usually, when I get home from traveling, I take a nap or some other delightful non-activity. This time, I ran the store and bought food (granted, I was quite hungry considering I didn't have anything substantial to eat during the my sleepover at the Bristol Airport). The moment I got home, I went straight to work.


During my time at the farm, I had a lot of thinking time. A lot of thinking time. I thought about my life now and what I hope to be doing in the future...and of course, what I hope to be eating in the future. While swinging on a hammock in the warm Italian sun, I had little brainstorming sessions of things I could make. A lot of them were based on things I ate on the farm. The idea to make my own granola was based on the fact that my favorite travel snack, granola, is stupid expensive.


Porridge oats, honey, a bit of sugar, vanilla, crushed almonds and a dash of cinnamon mushed together, chucked in an oven. I added some dried fruit mix....which wasn't too great. The raisins/sultanas weren't bad, but the cherries were terrible. Ugh.


It's not too sweet, which means it's perfect with yogurt! I usually have it for breakfast with greek yogurt, so its more hearty than it is a sugary snack. I had it with mango/papaya/passion fruit yogurt this morning, and the yogurt itself was insanely sweet so the granola kind of toned it down. Great with a cup of coffee, that's for sure.



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spring break food part 4: prague.

From Italy, I flew to Prague to stay with mah best frieeend, Karen. It was my first time in Eastern Europe, so I was excited; heard Prague is beautiful and who knows what kind of delicious things I would discover!


The night I got in, I was starving. Karen picked me up from the airport and on the walk back, we stopped by one of those food stands to get a Smažený sýr...aka a fried cheese sandwich. ohmygod. I have photographic evidence that I ate it..which may be a good thing. But honestly, it was delicious.

The next morning, after loading my memory card into Karen's beautiful camera, we set out to take on Old Town Prague. We stopped by Bohemia Bagel to get breakfast bagels...which is something I haven't had in forever! And for some reason, kind of associate with Karen. I had egg and cheese on a spinach bagel (really good!) and two cups of coffee.



The city of Prague is beautiful. I don't even know how to describe it. So here's a photo.



The main square still had Easter celebration things going on - lots of hand-painted eggs and candy and stand treats. Here's trdelník, sweet dough wrapped around a hot rod, rolled in sugar, cinnamon and almonds. Great food for sharing.



I also wanted to try this smoked cheese rope that Hannah (who studied there last year) recommended. It was okay...it was too waxy tasting for me, although I really did enjoy the consistency.



After more roaming, Karen took me to one of her favorite teahouses. It was on a main street, but it was very relaxed and quiet inside. We sat down on little stools and perused through their enormous tea collection. Then we rang a little bell signify that we were ready (SUCH a good idea! I hate being hawked on). I picked a black tea that was stored in bamboo; I was scared that it was going to be too bitter and woody, but it was actually perfect! I definitely tasted the bamboo, but it wasn't overpowering. It reminded me of home.



We walked over the Charles bridge, towards Prague castle (which I explored the next day). Karen lead the way to a really nice restaurant...that was normal priced? After the Norway trip, it was very surprising to get a really filling and delicious meal for a cheap/reasonable price. Anyways, being pescatarian is a bit difficult in Prague. Aside from the salad options, my options were either a pasta dish with vegetables or fried cheese curd with potatoes.



Obviously I chose the fried cheese curd with potatoes (by this point in the trip, I'd given up on eating right). The word "curd" is really gross and off-putting. I think it's because it's so close to the word "turd", but that's just my personal theory. I figured I'd give it a go...and if I didn't like it, there was a whole mound of potatoes to devour anyways. Luckily, I really enjoyed it! It was really nicely crunchy on the outside and..kind of like a hard goo? of cheese on the inside. I almost finished the entire plate (yikes), but I had to leave 3 curds (hah) because after a while it got to me. Kind of like eating too much smoked cheese. You know?

Karen had Moravian sparrow, which was actually pork. I had a little nibble (when am I ever going to try Moravian sparrow?!) and it was actually really good! If I remember correctly, it was in a dark sauce that wasn't too heavy, but kind of sweet. And then it just tasted like pork. I was grossed out so I went back to my cheese curds. Hmm. Now that's a weird thing to say.



After the feast that we ate, we were way too full for dessert. We decided to walk home (not that big of a trek...) and then indulge in my final czech food conquest...MEDOVNÍK.



It's Czech honey cake. When Hannah first told me about it, I pictured a light-colored sponge cake - maybe some whipped cream with honey drizzled over it or something. Ohnonono. It's a multi-layered cake of honey sponge and sweet cream....covered in fine honey cake crumbs and walnuts. Every bite was a perfect amount of sweetness, although after a while it did get kind of strong...perfect with a cup of tea or coffee, I think. It kind of tasted caramelly. It also kind of tasted like being granted the power of flight. Apparently it's very difficult to make. I can't wait to try! x