The working life---the dawn of a new era

Or so it seems to two college graduates. And so it is with trepidation and excitement that we venture into this world, armed with a handful of recipes and an old spatula. Two women from both ends of the world, bonded by years of friendship and a newly discovered passion for cooking and baking. Care to join us?

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Sloppy Joes

This weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to try making some sloppy joes. My sister made it before, using this recipe, but I also found a recipe by Rachael Ray that got great reviews, and decided to incorporate some elements from that as well. We mainly followed the first recipe, but instead of using 3/4 cup of ketchup, we used 1/2 cup, and substituted the remaining 1/4 cup with barbecue sauce. We also added some Worcestershire sauce (per Rachael Ray's recipe). Delicious!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sushi Night!

This weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to be a bit more adventurous with our meal--we both love sushi, so we decided to stop by a Japanese market and make some for dinner!
It was super easy (considering we were able to buy sushi rice, which normally takes up almost 50% of the work), and just cut up different types of sashimi (in our case salmon, tuna, and hamachi), some green onions, avocado, and imitation crab.
We made three different rolls using different combinations:
Salmon roll with avocado and green onion
To make the spicy rolls, we took some tuna/hamachi and minced it, then mixed in some Sriracha sauce to get that kick:
Spicy Tuna roll with imitation crab
Spicy Hamachi roll with green onion and avocado
And used the leftover fish as sashimi:
Overall, a huge success! We stuffed ourselves silly while watching the Oscars (when I showed my mom the pictures, she said, "you ate all that?!"). What better proof of success do you need? ;P

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Fajitas!

This weekend was definitely a cooking weekend. This time, it was a team effort, with my boyfriend and sister helping as well. We decided to have some fun and make some fajitas! 
We marinated some steak (I believe it was flank steak?) using this recipe, and left it in the fridge for a whole afternoon. Unfortunately, our steak didn't look as mouth-watering as that recipe's, but it was still delicious!
As luck would have it, we had some Rice-a-Roni in the cupboard for Spanish rice, so we decided to throw that in as well, for some added flavor. 
After stir-frying some bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms, we were done!
 Overall, a success!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Mushroom Soup

It's been pretty cold, so I wanted to make something warm and hearty, but relatively easy to make. I decided to visit 101 Cookbooks, which I used for a lot of my recipes in the past and found a Mixed Mushroom Soup recipe that looked too good to pass up.


Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good variety of mushrooms at the local grocery store, so I just got one kind, and cut it up really small. I also used green onions instead of chives. I was afraid that the soup would not be a success, considering I was straying so much--I didn't have any barley or rice to add either, but it turned out great! Huge success, according to the boyfriend :)




Will definitely try again!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Chinese Corn Soup

I've been on a soup obsession recently, and have been looking for different soup recipes to try. This one is an oldie but goodie for sure:

It's really easy to make, here are the ingredients:
2 cans chicken stock
2 eggs (beaten)
2 cans creamed corn
1 can corn kernels
cornstarch
salt/pepper
green onions, chopped


Place chicken stock and creamed corn in soup pot and let boil. I like to put water in the empty chicken stock cans and swirl it around to get any chicken stock left, and add that to the soup pot. Use your judgement: if you feel that the amount of liquid is not enough, add more water (be careful though, I've added too much water before and ended up with really watery tasting soup). Once it's boiling, add corn kernels (as well as any meat/veggies you want to add--soft tofu is delicious with this soup) and let simmer. Make a cornstarch/water mixture in a small cup/bowl and add to soup until you reach the consistency you want. Remember that soup gets thicker once cold, so don't add too much cornstarch to the soup! Mix in eggs. I like to stir while adding about 1/2 of the eggs to get that nice wispy quality to it, and then not stirring as much with the rest, to leave bigger egg portions in the soup. Finally, add some salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with green onions. Enjoy!