Green tea isn't easy being Green

Green tea.  Can't just boil water and add green tea to it.  I think it would've tasted better than this green tea cake I made.  The reality of this was that it looks too much like a Pacman.

I wasn't too impressed with the results of this cake simply because it tasted a bit too dried out.

Cake to me needs to be moist or at least have some bite to it to be tasty.  At least to me anyways.

Tuna

Fresh tuna.  Why ruin it? Sushi is always a fun experiment, but when the knife isn't sharp, the sushi looks a bit sloppy.

Perhaps the next time we do sushi, we don't do it when really hungry.  Takes a bit too much time to be considered a "quick fix."

Comfort Food

Comfort food comes in all forms.  In the land of America, comfort food involves a possible childhood favorite.  Unfortunately, the only time I ever had this childhood favorite was in the school cafeteria since my mom never cooked it.

I decided to get a little adventurous and tried making sloppy Joe's with oven baked fries.  I was ridiculed a little for making oven baked fries, but with the amount of oil the boyfriend used, it might as well have been fried.

Eh well, served with a cold beer, this childhood classic made the boyfriend happy and it honestly tasted better than what I remember.  Then again, my memory of cafeteria food as a kid almost would make anyone's stomach turn a different direction.  Where's Jaime Oliver when you need him?

Ginger to be Revisted...

Ginger.  Given on one of the hottest days of the year.  I really didn't have the motivation to cook.  I mean, cooking on a hot day in a hot apartment (despite the AC on, two dogs and the boyfriend don't cool it :) ).

I decided to make a vegetable smoothie with ginger and serve it with cucumber sandwiches.  Light and healthy just like this entry.

Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Strawberries are one of the many fruits I don't mind just eating straight out of the carton once washed of course.  Thinking of what to do with strawberries is also a bit of a challenge.

I chose the simple route for this one since I was hitting a roadblock.  I chose strawberries with balsamic vinegar.  To complicate the challenge though I paired it with fresh vanilla ice cream.  I had never gotten the chance to make ice cream out of my Kitchenaid and thought, why not?

A good pairing even though the ice cream was more like frozen yogurt since we were too impatient to taste it.

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

Have you ever had one of those moments when you wish you understood the American culture better?

Okay, so maybe its just me.  Either way, the boyfriend wanted a taste of St Louis.  I have never been to St Louis, so I'm not entirely sure what the flavor of St Louis entails.  He handed me a piece of paper with a recipe on it.  It consisted of minimal ingredients and even more minimal instructors on how to prepare the infamous Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.

We had to cool down this cake before tasting it.  We also had to figure out a way to keep it out of the boyfriend's dog Cheever from eating it.  For Thanksgiving 2012, the boyfriend wanted to take a "pake" to his brother's.  A "pake" consists of a pie inside a cake.  He was in the middle of cooling the pie when he left it on top of the stove top.  Big mistake, Cheever ate half the pie by the time we got him to stop!  No "pake" for Thanksgiving to say the least. It was this instance that we decided to cool anything off the stove top.  We've gone to the lengths of putting things in a cabinet to cool and away from the dogs.

Though I have to admit, some of things might be better off not on my waistline.  Who am I kidding?!  A foodie has to find balance.  The balance for me is going to the gym 3-4 times a week to keep these challenges from appearing on my waist.

The results of the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake was tasty and to see the boyfriend weak at the knees over it was more than enough to see Cheever pout a bit.

Celery Root at its Finest?

There are weeks when the boyfriend suggests something totally ordinary, and then there are weeks where he suggests something out of the ordinary.  He suggested that I work with celery root.  Earlier in the week, I decided to see what the not so ordinary vegetable had to offer.  I made the mistake of going to Ralley's to pick up a celery root.  I say a mistake because the celery root was the size of a small rock.  I don't have a problem with it being the size of a small rock, but paying over $3.00 for it was the mistake!  I'm a true believer in buying good food for cheap.

When I actually went to get the ingredient of the week, I went to a place called Sprouts and spent $3.00 for the celery root.  The kicker was when I found the celery root at the size of small boulder, I was a happy camper.

I used the celery root for a Jacques Pépin recipe called, celery root and carrot with fresh Dijon mustard.