My 2 Year Adventure, week 56: Asian-style veggie rolls

Week 56:
  So compared to yesterday's meal, today was a much lower strain on the budget. This dish was super fun to make and only cost me $13.31. The rolls are mostly prep work and then they're a breeze. I filled the rolls with lettuce, bean treads (a.k.a. cellophane noodles), bean sprouts, carrot, mint, cilantro, and green onions. The rice paper was pretty easy to handle and I only tore one sheet really badly. The sauce was pretty good. It had a lot of flavors and it was really well balanced. Overall, my parents gave the dish a 7.5/10.

 

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :) 

My 2 Year Adventure, week 55: Spicy chipotle shrimp salad with an avacado, mango, and pinapple salad/ lattice-topped blackberry cobbler

Week 55:
  Today I made 2 kinds of salad. Firstly, I made a shrimp salad and then to top it off, I made a fruit salad (well, made with fruit). The shrimp salad was the main component though and it tasted pretty good. The only problem was that my local grocery store doesn't sell canned chiles, so I just used chile powder instead of an actual chipotle chile. The problem was mainly with the complementary salad. I think I've mentioned this before, but I genuinely believe I have a talent for picking the greenest fruit possible and then convincing myself that it's super ripe. The mango was soooooooo sour, I was actually kind of tough to eat. Despite my fruit issues my parents gave the dish a 7.5/10. 
 

 

  Secondly, I made a cobbler. Blackberries aren't exactly in season so they were a little on the expensive side. However, when blackberries start coming in by the truckload, this will be a very common dessert at home. This dish gave me the opportunity to test out my new mini food possessor, which was recently given to me as a gift. I ground up some almonds for the dough and it turned out pretty well. The dessert was great. I hadn't done a lattice top in a while so I kind of cheaped out. Instead on doing the traditional, over, under, over, under, I just did the vertical strips first and then placed the horizontal ones on top. It was very good and the only thing lacking was some ice cream. My parents gave it a 9/10 and I have to say, I agree. 

 

See you nest time internet! Love, Alexa :)

My 2 Year Adventure, week 54: Sheep's-milk yogurt cheesecakes with grilled figs and pistachios

Week 54: 
  Today I made cheesecake. It was meant to be a couple mini cheesecakes but I didn't have the molds I needed. So I just doubled the recipe and made a 9-inch cake. Next problem: My local grocery store doesn't sell figs or sheep's milk yogurt. The figs weren't essential so that's ok but I just used regular yogurt instead of the sheep's milk stuff. When I was making the cheesecake I realized I had no lemons. I decided to improvise by using 50% grapefruit juice, 50% water and then I added some sugar and I guess it worked out well.... In the end the result was pretty good, bland, but the consistency was very yogurty. I might attempt it again but I doubt it.
 

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)   

My 2 year adventure, week 46: Greek inspired chicken and barley salad REPEAT

Week 46:
  So according to the recipe calendar, I should've made Golden peach soup with shrimp and crab seviche. There were a couple issues. #1: Peaches aren't really in season #2: Where I live, seafood is kind of expensive so buying a bunch of shrimp and crab would be overboard. So as much as I would've loved to try my hand at a seviche, I didn't get the chance. 
  Instead, I made one of my family favorites, the barley salad from week 5. Yeah, that's really simple and really good so I just repeated that. Yup....

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)  

My 2 year adventure, week 45: Walnut and rosemary oven-fried chicken/ Banana split ice-cream sandwiches

Week 45:
  WOW!I haven't blogged in ages. I can't believe how much I let that slide. But now summer vacation has begun and I will be cooking and blogging a whole lot more. 
  Yesterday was father's day, so I wanted to make something really comforting and tasty. So I made roasted chicken breasts. The recipe asked for cutlets which pretty much mean that the chicken breasts have been tenderized. Now, the butchers at my local grocery store were nice enough to use the machine to do it for me. However, everything was falling apart and the breasts were very variant in size. Because some were so big, I ran out of the crust and so, some had more of a drizzle of walnut and rosemary. Either way it ended up being good and my family gave it a 7.5/10. 
  Now for the ice cream sandwiches. I was really worried because there were only four ingredients in the cookies. Powdered sugar, flour, vanilla, and an egg. I didn't even have vanilla so I used almond extract instead. The cookies ended up being these really thin crunchy wafer-like things which were really good. In the middle I put vanilla ice cream but I added mashed bananas and crushed peanuts and it gave the ice cream more flavor and texture. I rolled the sandwiches in some peanuts and topped them off with a cherry, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup. They were really and my family gave them an 8.5/10. 

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)   

Baking for fun: banana cheesecake

For my birthday I got a springform pan, so I decided to test it out by making cheesecake. But not just any cheesecake, banana cheesecake. I found this recipe in a cookbook I got for my birthday and if all the recipes in this cookbook are this good, this is my new paradise. Here are the ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
16 oz. (500g) cream cheese
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Sliced banana, for garnish

Combine the rolled oats, pecans, brown sugar, and butter. Press firmly into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. Bake at 350 F for 18 minutes, or until golden brown. In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, bananas, 1/2 cup sugar, and lemon juice. Then, beat in the eggs one at a time. Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 35 minutes. Combine sour cream, 3 tbsp sugar, and vanilla. Spread over the hot filling, and put the cake back in the oven for 10 min. Cool. Chill until ready to serve. When serving, decorated with sliced banana. And, Enjoy!

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)            
  

My 2 year adventure, week 40: Grilled chicken with mint and oine nut gremolata with a sugar snap pea and feta salad/ Carrot ginger refresher

Week 40:
  I haven't been cooking. No, I'm not having a block like what Julie experiences in Julie and Julia where she eats yogurt for dinner and falls behind... I just went through mid-years. This is my first year in high school so this year I had mid-year exams. Right after mid-years it was my birthday (I'm 14), so I haven't cooked in a while. I was so excited to get back to cooking! The first dish had 3 components: the chicken, which I just grilled, then finished it off in the oven, the gremolata, and the salad. To make the gremolata I had to chop mint, pine nuts, and garlic really fine, since I don't have a mini chopper. I ended up getting a really good consistency and I was really happy with the end result. For the salad in blanched red onion and sugar snap peas, in addition to making a dressing and crumbling some feta into the mix. It was a really simple dish with minimal prep, I'll probably make it again. 
  The refresher was soooooooooo good. It was like a smoothie, but not quite. I put carrot juice, yogurt, applesauce, frozen bananas, ginger, and ice into a blender and I began to pulse and the blender was too full... It didn't explode or anything cool like that, but we had to pour some out and re-blend it. In the end, both dishes got 9/10 and I am definitely making the refresher again in the near future.  

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)