Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I adapted this muffin recipe from Allrecipes.com. I modified the original recipe a little bit. The recipe I used is below. The muffins were delicious. They were moist and just sweet enough ( I don't like muffins being too sweet). I would add more bananas next time because I like a stronger banana flavor. Overall, my sweet tooth was definitely satisfied.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup French Vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
3/4 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips


In a large bow., combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt).In another bowl combine the egg, butter, yogurt and vanilla.


Stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and combine just until moistened. Add the mashed bananas and chocolate chips.


Fill paper-lined muffin cups and bake @ 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes.




I baked the leftover batter in my greased ramekin.



The final product =)

Sweet Potato Fries!

I loveeee sweet potato fries, but cannot seem to make them crispy. I tried to bake sweet potato fries in a variety of different ways and haven't been able to manage the level of crispiness that's found in restaurants. Finally, I decided to try to fry them. I found that this double fry method really works well, especially since sweet potatoes have more moisture in them and don't tend to crisp up as much as regular potatoes do.

1. Boil the potatoes for ~10 minutes and let cool.

2. Peel them and cut into match sticks (make sure they're evenly cut so they will take the same amount of time to cook).


3. Heat up a pot with oil, making sure to leave some room (about 3 inches) from the top of the oil to the top of the pan to minimize splatter.

4. The recipe I used said to heat the oil up to 300 degrees, but since I don't have a thermometer, I just put my burner to medium and hoped that worked.

5. Add the fries in batches to the hot oil. Stir occasionally until the potatoes are soft. This took about 3 minutes.


6. Remove the fries from the oil and drain them on paper towels. Continue to fry the rest of the fries.


7. Let the fries rest for 10 minutes and in the meantime, heat up the oil to 350 degrees. I just turned my burner up to high.

8. Add the fries to the hot oil and fry them until they look golden and crispy. This is a fast process so keep a careful watch. Remove the fries from the oil and drain them on paper towels. Repeat until fries are done.The fries pictured below are not as crispy as the rest came out, but they were still good.


9. I added kosher salt to mine and ate it with some ketchup. Feel free to add whatever seasoning you like.

Jajangmyun

The first time I had jajangmyun was at Bukyung in Union Square. It was super delicious and of course after that experience, I saw it every where (mostly in korean dramas). It's actually really easy to make. There's a video of how to make it start to finish here. For those who haven't had jajangmyun, it's definitely worth a try.

Ingredients:
pork
2 potatoes
1 big onion
1 carrot
- Cut all ingredients into cubes.

1. Sautee the pork.

2. Add potatoes and carrots and sautee them for ~ 2 minutes.

3. Add onions and sautee for another 2 minutes.

4. Add water until all the ingredients are just submerged. Put a lid on it and let it sit for 15 minutes.


Meanwhile, put some oil in a small pan and once the oil is heated, add 5-7 tablespoon of black bean paste and stir it around for a while until heated. Take it off the heat.


5. Open the lid and if there's foam, skim it off. Add the fried black bean paste and stir until it's all dissolved.


6. Add some corn starch (put the corn starch in some cold water first) to the pot and stir it together. The corn starch will help to make the jajangmyun thick.

7. Add 1 tabespoon of sugar and stir.

8. Add to noodles. =)

Craigie on Main

For our anniversary this year, we decided to splurge on a dining experience instead of getting each other a present. We decided to go to Craigie on Main, one of the hottest restaurant in Boston, even though it's actually located in Cambridge, near Central Square. The Chef Tony Maws has been rated on of the hottest rising chefs nationally.

Craigie has a really relaxed atmosphere and a variety of dining choices. We decided on a 6-course tasting menu (they also have a 10-course). The meal was amazing and in total, took us about 2.5 hours. Everything was delicious and time flew by - a great indicator of a good meal.

The bread was absolutely delicious. The chef and the had of Iggy's Bread know each other and they developed different recipes for the restaurant together. I really want to go to Iggy's in Cambridge to buy their bread.


Ben really liked the coffee here and the wine that the waiter recommended was light and went well with pretty much everything that came to our table.



The amuse-bouche contained a squid noodles, mussels in some special sauce, and fried clams. The squid noodle salad and mussels were sooooo good, but the fried clams were mediocre.


The scallop sashimi was really good and refreshing.


The monkfish dish that came next was good. I've never had monkfish before and although it won't go down as my favorite fish, it was good nonetheless.


The pasta was hand made fresh that day. It was tossed lightly in olive oil and pesto.


The pork belly was my FAVORITE dish. It was crispy on the outside and so tender and flavorful on the outside. I have no idea what they marinaded the pork belly in but these two small pieces were enough to send me into food heaven.


It was so good I needed two pictures of it.


Artisan cheese plate with sheep, goat, and cow milk cheese and dates, honey and bread on the side.


Grapefruit gelato with champagne foam on top.


Sour creme panna cotta - creamy, slightly sour, just the right level of sweetness. This was delicious.


There were three types of chocolates on the plate. I don't remember what they were, but although it was good, it was great.


What a great night. Great food is always a fail proof way to celebrate. I completely recommend this restaurant as a must try. I heard their burger is AMAZING (voted one of the best burger nation-wide) and I can't wait to go back to try it. You have to order it off menu since it was so popular, they had to take it off because it ran out too fast. All in all, a great experience =)

Orea Cupcakes

Recently made oreo cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for a friend's birthday. Amy found this great recipe for orea cupcakes and it's hard to go wrong with oreos. Each cupcake also had a half an oreo on the bottom which was really cute when the paper wrapper was taken off. The frosting was standard cream cheese frosting (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla). I could not stop licking the left over frostings off my fingers - it was soo good. g Click here for the recipe.






Final product!


I only have one cupcake pan and so I decided to put the leftover cupcakes into my cake pan. I realized as I was putting in the batter that the paper cake wasn't going to hold its shape, but it actually worked out really well because it ended up looking like a cupcake cake =)

Homemade Dumplings

I think homemade dumplings are super delicious and I had such an urge to make them the other day. Although a little time consuming ( more than I would really like), these dumplings are so worth it. Wayyyyyyyy better than the frozen ones I usually resort to when I crave dumplings.

I started with 2 lbs. of ground up pork and added in nappa cabbage, shitake mushrooms, ginger, garlic and scallions. For seasoning, I just used some cornstarch, ground pepper, sesame oil and soy sauce. After mixing everything together, I usually cook a little bit of the filling in the microwave so I taste test it.

After making all the dumplings, I love pan frying them. I like the crunchy texture of it more so than boiled dumplings.



Here they are getting happy in the pan.



Ready to go!



Final product =)