New Year, New You: Hiking A-Mountain

As a Community Mentor (fancier word for Residential Assistant) I put on a lot of different programs here and there. Just the other day, I had a hiking program up the infamous A-Mountain. I must admit, this hike showed me how out of shape I am when the youngin's (the residents) are like giddily skipping along the path while I am steathily trying to dial 911 to come and help me with the hike. So I will definitely have to add "get in shape" onto my New Year Resolutions list. Here are some pics of me and my friends acting brave for the camera though :)

I love how this picture turned out, the weather was just beautiful this day and these pictures barely do the sky any justice!

Green Tea Cupcakes w/ Lemon Frosting

It's only been 19 days into the New Year and I've already broken my resolution of baking every week. These cupcakes were from last week's kitchen adventure that I'm posting now. But to my defense - one of my friends let me borrowed the Sims 3 and all of the expansion packs, so I've been hooked to say the least. That is why I didn't get around to baking this week. Anywaysss, I have to say that I'm super suspicious of the Betty Crocker's "The Big Book of Cupcakes" at this point. Not to toot my own horn, but I would say I am a pretty competent baker. However, these last two cupcakes recipes I have tried from her book have not been as successful as I would have hoped. My greentea cupcake batter tasted nothing like greentea so I panicked and did the only thing I could think of at that moment - add lemon juice and just went full fledged on the lemon theme. Nonetheless, in the end they were tasty but not as delicious and greentea-ny as I would have wanted them to be.

Here is the big book of lies about cupcakes and the greentea packet I used. 

My frosting turned out runny again, but this is probably due to the extra lemon juice I squeezed in during my attempt to act like I wanted to make lemon cupcakes w/ lemon frosting. 

Final product posed and looking super delicious and sexy.

Greentea Cupcakes Recipes: (adapted from Betty Crocker)

- 2 greentea bags

- 3/4 cup of boiling water

- 2 1/3 cup flour

- 2½  tsp baking powder

- ½  tsp salt

- 1 cup butter, room temp

- 1¼ cup granulated sugar

- 3 eggs

- 2 tbsp lemon zest 

- 1 tsp vanilla

1. Heat oven to 400^o and line cupcake pan with liners.
2. Boil the 2 teabags with the 3/4 cup of water & let the teabags steep.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. 
4. In a separate bowl beat 1 cup of butter until creamy; add sugar and eggs into it as well. 
5. Add the lemon zest and vanilla; then alternately add the flour mixture and the 2/3 cup of tea into the wet mixture. 
6. Divide batter evenly among the cups about 2/3 full for both mini-cupcakes and standard-sized cupcakes.
7. For the mini-cupcakes, they should be in there for about 12 minutes to get the beautiful golden crust. For the standard-sized cupcakes, they should be in there for ~20-25 minutes. 

Frosting recipe:

- 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese

- 1/4 cup butter, room tempt

- 2 tsp lemon zest

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 2 cups of powdered sugar - the original recipe called for way more, but I'm always scared of diabetes and I don't like frosting that are too sweet ;)

- the rest of the greentea

1. Mix the cream cheese, butter, lemon zest, and vanilla together.
2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until it reaches desired consistency and/or taste. 

Orange Chicken

Yes... so typically I know. But being at home and away from campus has made me miss the deliciously guilty taste of Panda Express's Orange Chicken. I am not even ashamed to say that I would eat that every day if I could. So with the leftover lone orange from my Mimosa Cupcakes adventures, I decided what a better use for that loner of an orange than to fulfill that void in my heart that calls for orange chicken. 

So began my search on the fantastic internet for a good orange chicken recipe... however, with me being sick and on strict orders to stay inside my house I could only attempt to copy the recipes to my best lazy ability :P Although it turned out not exactly like my beloved Panda Express's Orange Chicken - too healthy and not deep fried enough ugh.. - it was still yummy despite its fatal flaws!

So began the orange's sacrifice for the greater goods of my cravings. 

All the self-less chicken pieces simmering in the pan! The sauce from this was so delicious because it was simmering in the pan for a while... partly because I was getting too engrossed in the Friends episode I was watching, but I will say that it was for the greater good of the dish that the chicken stayed in the pan for a while ;)

Tada! Here's the final product, all dressed up for the camera. 

Orange Chicken Recipe:

- 3 chicken breasts cut into cubes

- 1 clove garlic

- ½ cup soy sauce

- 3 tbsp honey

- juice from 1 orange ~about a little less than a cup

- orange zest - amount up to your indiscretion 

- vegetable oil 

- green scallion

- parsley 

1.  Cut up the thawed and slimy chicken breasts into bite-sized cubes... ugh I hate the feeling of raw meat so I just try to think of the delicious end product while I deal with the slimy piece of mess in front of me.
2. Put chicken into a bowl and mix in the soy sauce, honey, orange juice, and orange zest. 
3. Let it marinade while you gallivant away and pour vegetable oil in the pan enough to cover the surface. 
4. Next, dice the garlic into little pieces and saute it in the pan until golden brown.
5. Put all the content in the chicken bowl into the pan, juices and all (it's the best part!)
6. Keep cooking the chicken on medium heat until the sauces have reduced to a thicker sauce and the chicken have turn into a deep golden brown from the sauce.
7. Serve the chicken with a sprinkling of green scallion and parsley on top, wit of course sriracha and rice! 

New Year's Mimosa Cupcakes

For Christmas I got the Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Cupcakes" - I have already gone through the book and bookmarked all the recipes I HAVE to try out this year. I made a promise to myself that by the time 2015 ends that I would try all of the recipes I marked off in the book. I figure, what's a better way to start my new year baking adventures than with the New Year's Mimosa Cucpakes?! This cupcake embodies everything that is good about ringing in the new year... cupcakes and a little bit of booze!

Makes - 
28 regular-sized cupcakes or 60 mini-sized cupcakes 

Cupcake:
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 
- 3 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup melted unsalted butter 
- 1 2/3 cups sugar
- 5 egg whites
- 2 ½ tsp vanilla 
- ¾ cup champagne
- ½ cup orange juice
- 1 tsp orange zest 

1. Heat oven to 350^o degree and line cupcake pan with liners. 
2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
3. In a separate big bowl mix together the butter with the sugar, egg whites, and vanilla.
4. Next, alternately add the flour mixture along with the champagne and orange juice into the big bowl of butter, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla.
5. Using an ice cream scooper, scoop the batter into the cupcake liners to 2/3 full. 
6. Bake 16 minutes for mini-cupcakes or 18-20 minutes for regular-sized cupcakes. 

Frosting:

- 5 cups of powdered sugar

- ½ cup of unsalted butter

- 1 tsp orange zest 

- 3 tbsp champagne

- 2 tbsp orange juice

1. Beat the butter until creamy.
2. Add in the orange zest, champagne, and orange juice and mix it all together.
3. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, feel free to stop when you feel as if the frosting is sweet enough to your liking. The original recipe called for 6 cups of powdered sugar... but it is a new year and some of us are trying to keep our resolutions and not get diabetes.

A page-view of the "The Big Book of Cupcakes". You can see all my bunny page-markers in the back, there are way more of them than the pictures show so look out for all of those exciting cupcake posts!

  

Sooo much mini-cucakes! Just the sight of them makes me happy :)

Here's the final product! My frosting was a little runny even after being in the freezer... the champagne did me in (there was too much of it!).

New Year Resolution!

It's been a whole year already?! Geez time flies too fast. 2014 has been a great year - getting my MCAT over with, interning and shadowing at the Mayo Clinic while still enjoying life in the meanwhile. However, in 2014 I have admittedly given up a lot of the things I like to do in the pursuit of doing well on my MCAT and in classes. So, here are some resolutions I have made in hope of making 2015 even better!

1. Bake/cook once a week (and blog about it!).

I used to constantly bake... not like once a week, but at least twice a day if I can help it. Anyways, since I've entered college I have lost my passion for cooking and baking. But now that I have a kitchen right next to my room at my own disposal, I really don't have an excuse for this. I will hopefully document my successful adventures in the kitchen on the blog for everyone :) 

2. Read a book per month. 

This resolution explains itself, now with a little more free time I really want to spend it expanding my book reservoir!

3. Eat at a new restaurant per month. 

This goes with the whole "Eat, Pray, Love" theme I attempt to have for my life. For those who have not seen the movie with Julia Roberts, long story short it's about a middle-aged woman exploring herself by doing those 3 things and in the end she found herself. I try to be adventurous in all aspects of my life and trying out new food is never dull. 

4. Become a a better person holistically. 

Hmm... I'm really not even sure what this means but it's been something that I've been wanting to accomplish for forever now. I want to be more positive, more physically active, more fun, and more adventurous. From this point forth, I want to only do things that help me be more of all those things.