Mac and Cheese

While this may not sound like the most exciting post, lately I have been really into homemade mac and cheese. It's nothing like out of the box (which is all I had ever had until my cousin Aidan's birthday), it's delicious!

I made my own little version: it's a mix between Alton Brown's recipe and Emeril's recipe.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 pound penne pasta (use whole wheat, it's healthier!)
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole milke
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 onion (red is prettier), diced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch cayenne
• 2 1/2 cups grated Cheddar (about 6 ounces)
• 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
• Pinch of whatever spices you want! I recommend garlic powder, paprika, basil, and oregano)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 2-quart baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the penne and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Drain well.

Melt the remaining 5 tablespoons butter in a heavy 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, being careful not to let the flour brown. Using a whisk, add the milk in a steady stream and cook, whisking constantly, until thick and smooth, 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the salt, pepper, cayenne, and 2 cups of the cheese, and stir well. Add the noodles and onion and stir well. Pour into the prepared dish.

In a mixing bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese with the bread crumbs and spices. Sprinkle evenly over the macaroni and bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

One fine day in the Emerald City

Whilst wandering about San Francisco this winter, I came across this billboard:

Since I had been wanting to see the show for years, naturally I gave it a try. With my phone, my mom's phone, and my dad's phone. We got a reply telling us that a winner would be chosen by 8pm that night.

At 7:59pm, I got a text: "Sorry, you are not a winner . . . ", I checked my mom's phone: "Sorry, you are not a winner . . ." Then I checked my dad's phone: "Congratulations!"

So, this past Thursday I flew back to San Francisco with my dad to take advantage of our free tickets!

The Orpheum Theatre, downtown San Francisco.

Inside the theatre! Waiting to be let in to our seats.

The show was AMAZING. To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. Of course I was expecting it to be good, becaus e I knew I enjoyed the music. However, I have not enjoyed any of Gregory Maguire's books, and I've never been a huge Wizard of Oz fan, so I figured it would not live up to the expectations I had been given from others.

I was wrong. Everyone should go and see it! Immediately!

Hummus

I love Hummus. It is so delicious. For the past week I have been eating hummus on toast every day for breakfast! That is how good it is.

For those who don't know, hummus is a spread made from pureed chickpeas.

If, like me, you don't eat a lot of meat, hummus with wheat toast makes a perfect snack that includes a complete protein. Making your own hummus is the healthiest way to eat it, so here is a delicious recipe for traditional hummus:

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned garbanzo beans, drained
• 1/3 cup tahini (sesame seed paste: can be found at Whole Foods)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cloves garlic, halved
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pinch paprika
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley

Directions

1. Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt, olive oil and garlic in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl.
2. Sprinkle with paprika and parsley (optional).

If you don't want to make it yourself, my favorite store-bought hummus is the roasted garlic hummus from Whole Foods. Trader Joe's also has some good flavors.

Hummus is good on toast, with any sort of flatbread, on crackers, with eggplant, with fish, with grilled chicken, on a sandwich with tomato, or as a dip for your cold cut veggies.

Garlic Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon

Wow. It's been over a month since I last posted a recipe! Which is sad, because I know I've cooked some good things, but I just can't remember what they are!

Luckily, this semester I should have some good recipes to put on here! A group of us girls (10 to be exact) are making dinner for each other every night. Sunday through Thursday (taking off Friday and Saturday for our dates to buy us dinner), and we'll each cook every other week. So I'll be able to try out some new recipes and hopefully get some that the other girls try out!

Tonight was my first night, and for the main course I made:

Garlic Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves stripped from stems
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 tablespoon grill seasoning
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Arrange chicken in a baking dish, 9 by 13-inch. Add garlic, rosemary, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon zest and grill seasoning or salt and pepper to the dish. Toss and coat the chicken with all ingredients, then place in oven. Roast 20 minutes. Add wine and lemon juice to the dish and combine with pan juices. Return to oven and turn oven off. Let stand 5 minutes longer then remove chicken from the oven. Place baking dish on trivet and serve, spooning pan juices over the chicken pieces.

The chicken turned out pretty good! It wasn't browned as much as I usually like, so if I make it again I think that I would brown it on the stovetop before serving. To go with it I just made some couscous (just to shake things up and not have rice all the time!) and diced some red onions, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and carrots and fried them and mixed them with the couscous. A pretty good meal if I do say so myself!

"I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox." - Woody Allen

I have returned from the winter travels! I posted all my pictures on Facebook, so that should give you an idea of the trip. We started out with 2 days in San Francisco, then 2 days in Hong Kong, and then 2 weeks in Taiwan. Though most of the time in Taiwan was spent at the hospital with grandma, we still managed to have a little time for fun.

Oh, and after talking about nothing but the Kindle on my blog for the past few months? For Christmas/Chinese New Year, my uncle in Taiwan gave me the money to get one! The only problem is . . . now I can't bring myself to actually buy it. I keep hearing all these rumours of a new Apple e-reader, and seriously, so many of them are coming out! I need to wait a few months before making a solid decision. Hopefully by then I haven't already spent the money! haha.

On the last day of our journey home, I somehow got food poisoning and I ended up in the hospital with an iv stuck in me getting lots of tests! It was crazy.

Okay, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that obviously waking up early with jetlag does not help with my writing skills, so I'll have to continue with the post another day.

Waiting for the New Year's Eve fireworks to begin.

Hanging out on the Star Ferry in Hong Kong.

San Francisco!