Chocolate Chip Cookies

I decided to make chocolate chip cookies this morning.  I've made them before and they have turned out beautifully, so I thought that I would make them for some friends that I was going to go visit.

So I made the dough and it looked okay and so I stuck them in the oven for eight minutes and this is what I got in the end.

Nice right?

I have no idea what went wrong. The chocolate chips are just sitting there, where I had placed the little dough balls. They look like rabbit droppings!

The cleanup was horrible too! The thing was all oily from the butter and then it had caused the cookie sheet to become filled with this puddle of oil. It was so gross.

It is going to be a while until I try making cookies again.

Fried Rice

I know it seems that I have been writing a lot about Chinese food and that is because I am, but also I have been going over to my grandparent's house a lot lately and my grandmother has had me help her in the kitchen.

Anyway, on one of the recent visits I got hungry. So I looked in her fridge and found nothing. So I went over to her and asked if she had anything. She looks in the fridge and whips out some random things and then says, "You are going to make fried rice!" Okay!

Now the thing about fried rice is that really anything can be put in there. First and foremost you need rice. Very important! In the one I made with my grandma, I had peas, dried shrimp, green onions, and egg. Then I made some more for lunch the other day and all I had was spam and egg, so that was what I used.


First get a pan and put some oil into it. then take your egg and scramble it and pour it into the pan. Cook it so it's like a crepe-looking thing. Flat and thin. Once it is done, pull it out and cut into strips and then set it off to the side. Next place your meat (if you have any) into the pan and allow it to cook for a little bit. Next place your rice into the pan and mix up the meat and rice together. Next place the vegetables and egg in there and mix them in. Now grab some soy sauce and pour a little bit in there. You don't need a lot, since it can be very salty. I mean, by all means if you want it to be really salty add more. And voilá, you have fried rice!

Tips:

• If you have clumps of rice don't smash them to break them apart, instead take the spatula and chop them with the tip of the spatula.
• The order doesn't really matter in this dish. Just make sure that if you have raw meat that you place that in the pan first.

Yummy Crab Dinner!

I cooked crab! It was so exciting and scary!

They were live, so first I had to kill it.

But like an idiot, my brother and I named the four crabs that we were about to kill. Carl the Crab, Peter, Doufus and Squash. Carl was my crab and the crab that I killed. Peter was my brother's. He held the crab before naming him and this stream of liquid kept pouring out from the crab. We don't know if it was pee or water. Thus his name was Peter, with an emphasis on Pee-ter. Doufus was because of reasons unknown. Squash was underneath Doufus, so he was being squashed. Great names right.

Now for the dirty work. First I took a knife and pulled down the flap and there are two holes underneath it. Looking at the eyes, look down and the first hole that is seen that is where you take the knife ans stab it. I know it sounds harsh, but that is what has to be done. I will admit my heart started beating really quickly. I made a first attempt at killing Peter, but I think I just nicked him and my brother finished the job. Then I had to muster all the courage I had and kill Carl the Crab.

After that ordeal, the crabs had to be cleaned really well.

Then we cut it up into pieces. We cut off the legs and we pulled the top part of it off and cleaned out the inside. Now for the actual cooking...

We placed onions and oil in a wok and let that sit for a bit, stirring it occasionally. Then we placed the crab parts on top and poured ketchup on top (about half of the bottle for two crabs). After that we poured water into the wok and let the crabs steam for twelve minutes. When the time was up, we put cilantro and green onions into the wok and stirred it up.

Now this is where I looked away so I'm not exactly sure about what happened next, so I will have to ask my mom about this next part, but there was an egg that was added, but I don't know exactly when. I think it was during this time as well.

Anyway, the sauce in the wok should be a reddish color and after the egg is cooked it is ready to go.

We served it up and ate the delicious and messy seafood ribs. The sauce tastes great over rice. Yummers!

Asian Market

Hello!

Okay, so last night I went to the Asian market.

Now you are probably thinking, this has nothing to do with cooking and why in the world would I care that you went to the Asian market? I will tell you... BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME!!!!

I love going to the Asian market. It reminds me of when I was little and I would go with my mom and grandma and we would look at the varieties of fruits and vegetables. I mean, I think I saw about ten different types of mushrooms last night.

Now I know this has nothing to do with cooking, but it has to do with food, which is needed to cook! So, I thought that I would write about it. So there.

Anyway... I love it there and it was fun and amazing and I bought sponge cake.

Sponge cake for those of you who don't know is like angel food cake. It is somewhat dense and tastes buttery. It is amazing! I had them a lot when I was a kid (and to be honest I still have them now).

Plus, to make it even more fun there was traditional music playing on the speakers. If you didn't know this, Chinese New Year has been going on recently. I think it lasts for fifteen days. Don't quote me on that though! So they were playing that music in the store and I am a sucker for traditional music from anywhere in the world, so it just made the experience that much more fun.

Here is a list of the different things you should look for in an Asian market(just because it is fun):

1. Durian. I have not had this since I was a little kid. I apparently did not like it when I little, but my grandparents did. Depending on who you are the smell is great and smells like corn or it smells gross and you    stay away from it. It is oval-shaped and is about the size of a medium sized watermelon. Now this is how you really know if you found a durian, the outside is all pokey. they also put it in a little yellow net so that way you can hold that and not the durian. They are smarties!

2. The fish section. I love it over there! I love looking at the little clams. The ones that have their meat part of the body out from the shell, I take the strainer that is provided and poke them. They instantly pull their body back in. Yeah, my grandma taught me that! Great times! Plus you get to see the live fish swimming in the fish tanks, if you are lucky you get to see one pulled out. If that is gross to you, then don't go over there.

3. The Chopstick Aisle. Yes, they have a whole aisle dedicated to chopsticks! They have cute baby ones with pictures of cows and monkeys, to the fancy-shmancy hand-painted ones, to the Western style ones that connect at the top.

4. The baked goods. I love this section! they have the prettiest cakes and it smells great and you just want to try one of each! They have yummy Ube rolls, sponge cake, egg custards, and cakes with frosting and decorated with a variety of fruits. Yummers!

So go and find your local Asian market and EXPLORE!!!

My apologies and onions

Hi guys! Heh... It's been a while...like a month plus...um...yeah. But I really did some cooking over the holidays. I did.

So let me give you an update:
1. I got a cupcake maker for Christmas. One thing you must know about me is that I LOVE CUPCAKES! They are my favorite dessert. So when I got this I was extremely happy. So I made some yummy chocolate cupcakes frosted with chocolate frosting.

2. My mom made me her sous chef. It has its perks, like I will be able to learn how to cook and I will actually learn something. But it also brings some unhappy circumstances, such as her wanting me to always cook when I have a boatload of homework.

Great news though! I cut an onion! I have cut an onion before, but for some reason I didn't cry. That is my great news. I always cry and my eyes sting and I get miserable and start to hate cooking and hate onions and then I just want to throw down the knife and leave a half finished onion. So I am hoping that as I continue to work as my mom's sous chef I will grow immune to their tear-enhancing powers.

Gingerbread Cookies!

So as it is officially the Christmas season, I decided to make gingerbread cookies! Yay!

I started to make it from scratch and was gathering all of my ingredients when my mom suddenly remembered that she had a “loaf” of gingerbread dough from Pillsbury in the fridge. So, being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to use the premade dough.

Now don’t think, “Wow, she made a cooking blog and she isn’t even going to make anything.” No, I am just starting out small. Plus, the recipe required molasses and we didn’t have any and it was raining and I didn’t want to go to the store. So I have many excuses reasons for not making the dough.

My first problem was before I even touched the dough. I had turned on the oven and was beginning to prepare the dough, when all of a sudden my mom shouts, “Did you take the wok out of the oven?” O.O  I quickly moved to the oven, opened it and there it was. I took it out and boy was it hot.

Now this oven is new and what my brother and I love about it is that it makes this little chime when it is at the right temperature. So, being the total dorks that we are, we decided to videotape it. My brother had set it up and was filming the oven before it hit 325 degrees. Can you guess what happened next? It was at this moment that my mother decides to remind me of the wok in the oven. So…the entire escapade is on video.

Another thing, USE FLOUR!!! Like on everything! I opened up the package and it said to roll it out to a ¼  inch thickness. So I grab the rolling pin and start to roll out half of it. It’s going fine and then all of a sudden it starts sticking to the rolling pin. Then I scrape it off and it is sticking to me and then it is sticking to the mat that I had used to roll it on. It was horrible. So my brother being the smart aleck that he is comes over and says, “ Didn’t you use flour? Wow, you didn’t even know to use that, you are a horrible baker.” Thanks for the self esteem boost, bro.

After that setback was fixed, I took my little cookie cutter and made the little cookies, placed them in the oven and waited. When they were done I took them out, allowed them to cool and then made the next set of gingerbread cookies.

For these ones, my brother helped me and he decided he was going to roll the other half of the dough. Let me just say that karma works in AMAZING ways. So he takes out the other half and he puts flour on it, the rolling pin and the cookie mat thing (I don’t know what else to call it!) So its working and then I don’t know what happened but then it decided to start sticking to the pin again. But this time it was worse.

So mine looked like this too, but his was by far worse.

We cut out the cookies and baked them. I pulled them out and for some idiotic reason I took the spatula and began to scoop up a cookie. Note to self: DON'T DO THAT! My poor gingerbread man was beheaded.  I still kept him, but now he wasn't a beautiful, happy and mainly a whole cookie.   

After I let the others cool it was time to DECORATE!  

Decorating is hard. It got all over my hands and the table and if I messed up on the cookie it left streaks on it. Horrible, just horrible. But in the end I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. To tell you the truth, I am actually eating one of the cookies as I type this, and they are good!

Here is the frosting that I used:
1 c. powdered sugar
1/4 t vanilla extract
1 T milk

*It is really runny when you first make it, but (as I found out later, after I had made the cookies) you can add more of the sugar to make it thicker.

Lessons Learned:
1. Take out the wok.
2. Flour is my new best friend.
3. Be patient or else you will have dead gingerbread men.

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my new blog, CJ Cooks!

Oddly enough even though it sounds like I cook, I actually don't. So when someone says ,"CJ is cooking!", what they really mean to say is, "Oh my gosh, CJ is actually cooking something!"

So my plan was to post recipes and pictures of what I created in the hopes of staying motivated to keep cooking.

So please help me stay on track!!!