A friend of mine asked me the other day what it felt like to finally be a senior. I told him that it felt great because for one, everything sort of doesn’t really matter anymore; all that’s left to do is to enjoy your classes and the experience of college before it all ends. But then I also told him that there was this sense of urgency behind everything I did, an urgency to enjoy and appreciate everything one last time before I graduated.
Throughout my college years, one of the greatest opportunities I had was to work at the Reference Department at the campus library. I met so many wonderful and unforgettable people working there (with, of course, a few exceptions) — it’s the kind of experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. As I’ve mentioned before, one of the perks of working in the Reference Department was that some of the librarians were really great bakers, including my boss, Debby — it’s from her that I get this recipe.
Debby used to bake these for us around final exam time at the end of both semesters, crammed into a goodie bag filled with all sorts of delectable baked goods from the other librarians as well. It was almost worth it to suffer through finals just to get my hands on one of those goodie bags. The first time I had these cookies, I thought that Debby had bought them from the store or bakery as there was no way anyone could bake cookies this good at home.
When she said that these were one of her most favorite cookies to make, I had to get the recipe. These cookies are almost like little cakes with a orangey, sweet glaze on top (think along the lines of a madeline cookie). The lightness of the cookies, that almost just floats on your tongue, is weighed perfectly down with the rich glaze. The subtle flavor of orange, from the zest and juice, balances out the sugary glaze for delightfully fluffy bites. Speckled with orange zest and pulp against a pale white glaze, these cookies are as pretty to look at as they are to enjoy!
Orange Glazed Cookies
It’s been awhile! Senior year is starting without any downtime and I’m hitting the ground running, only now two weeks into the fall semester. It’s exciting just as it is a little sad that this is my last year on campus. I’ll miss the college days of hanging out with friends and doing things with a carefree air. But I am definitely looking forward to having my own, well-equiped kitchen after graduation! The kitchen I have this semester is rather inadequate which has contributed to the delay of updating the blog. I’ll try to be more frequent with entries but with the semester starting, it’s really up in the air how often I’ll have time to not only cook but write about cooking!
Despite the lack of updates though, I have been keeping up with the food blogging world with daily visits to the aggregate food blog sites! So much inspiration, creativity and ideas for recipes! I admit that one of the more difficult things about cooking as a college student on campus is the lack of ideas for recipes and meals. It’s great to log on and see who’s cooking what and get ideas that way.
I’m always on the lookout for some familiar recipes that I can reproduce away for home, which often means any Vietnamese recipe I happen to come across. Living in a college town, as I’ve lamented before, limits the ingredients and availability of more ethnic foods, so I try my best to make my own. When I saw this recipe from Wandering Chopsticks, I knew that I had try it out.
When my mother makes this recipe at home, she usually uses either a whole fish or a bone-in and skin-attached fillet, whereas I opted for a simple fillet of pure, white meat (I never really enjoyed the fish skin anyways). The delicate combination of soy sauce and fish sauce, salty and sweet, combined with the oniony flavor of the scallions and spicy ginger makes such a subtly complex steaming liquid that is light but packs a whole lot of flavor.
Once steamed to perfection, the flakiness of the fish, swathed in the delicate flavors of the broth, is a gentle game of salty, sweet, and spicy on your tongue. Not to mention the striking contrast of green scallions, red thai chili, and golden ginger resting on top of a moist filet of chilean sea bass, swimming in the dark and flavorful broth that is both striking to the eye, and more importantly, to your taste buds.
Steamed Chilean Sea Bass with Ginger & Scallions
Chocolate chips, raisins, nuts and other ingredients can add an entirely different taste to a cookie, changing the way it crumbles in your mouth or how its flavors meld with every bite. Who doesn’t like biting into a gooey morsel of semi-sweet chocolate or the burst of a raisin with hints of cinnamon and cloves in their cookie? Sometimes, though, it’s nice to have a simple, stripped down cookie with no fancy chocolates or exotic nuts to contend with its delicate sweetness.
I made these cookies once for a movie night with some friends and they were a hit. One of them said that it was like eating crunchy butter, which isn’t at first very palatable to think about but is definitely a good description for how these shortbread cookies taste. The dough is simple to make, though perhaps a bit difficult to work with, using only butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, and salt. The smell of these cookies and the dough is very indicative of their taste, simply sweet and buttery.
Each bite is crisp with a satisfying snap, breaking away from an airy cookie that’s fragrant of butter, sugar, and vanilla. The simple flavors of the ingredients come together with each bite that’s sweet and definitely buttery. The hint of vanilla in the background brings it all together and, if anything, if you could simply turn butter into a cookie, it would taste just like this.
Shortbread Cookies
I know what you’re thinking, yet another cookie recipe. I won’t deny that I love baking cookies just because they are easy, familiar and tasty. There are so many different types of cookies out there, not including simple variations on classic recipes, that I could probably bake one type of cookie a day for a year and still have many, many recipes still to make. In fact, I would be quite content dedicating this blog entirely to cookies and wouldn’t have a difficult time finding new recipes to try. This certainly isn’t the first cookie recipe on the blog, and it definitely won’t be last (though it may very well be the best so far).
I’ve made peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. All were delicious so when I saw that this recipe combined peanut butter, chocolate chips and oatmeal into one cookie I knew I had to try it. And I am definitely glad that I did as this is probably one of the best cookie recipes I’ve had the pleasure of finding and baking. You can’t really go wrong when all three of those classic ingredients are found in one cookie, can you?
Peanut butter and chocolate is, of course, a classic pairing. Add in the oatmeal to give these cookies a heartier texture that complements the peanut butter and you have a cookie that is not only a mouthful to say, but also a mouthful of delicious melt-in-your-mouth goodness. These cookies are very soft and moist but the oatmeal prevents them from being too soft and boring in your mouth. If you’re a peanut butter lover or a chocolate lover or a peanut butter and chocolate lover give these cookies a try — it is a must!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
One of the great things about summertime is eating all the fresh berries. Whether it’s strawberries earlier in June, raspberries towards July, or blueberries which carry us into August, there’s never a shortage of them at the grocery store or farmers’ market. Of course, we can get fresh berries throughout the year but there’s just something about the warm, lazy air that makes those berries taste just a little bit sweeter.
I recently got a pint of blueberries and while I made half of them into a cool, summer smoothie, the other half I made into these delightfully light muffins. I do have to confess though, that blueberries are my least favorite berries (I prefer raspberries or strawberries) yet blueberry muffins are one of my favorite baked goods. There’s just something wonderfully wholesome about biting into a muffin that’s neither too sweet or bland and baked with healthier fruit flavors. They also make me feel less guilty than their sweeter cupcake counterparts.
These muffins baked to a wonderfully dusky brown and were so light and moist. If the muffin itself wasn’t moist enough, the blueberries added that extra burst of flavor and moisture to each bite. While some berries bursted during baking, filling the muffin with their distinct dark purple streaks, some retained their shape and biting into one of those is like eating a perfectly ripe berry right off the bush.
Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
I have to admit that I am one of those people who enjoys the pizza dough a little bit more than the toppings sometimes. In my opinion, the dough can either make or break a pizza in most cases and for me, it’s biting into the chewy and warm crust at the edge of the pizza that defines the pizza-eating process. You can top a pizza with all the best toppings in the world, but if the dough is tough or soggy, then you might as well use the worst because the pizza just won’t be good.
And then there’s always that last “golden bite” of pizza at the end with the perfect ratio of crust to cheese to topping to sauce that is perhaps, even better than the first. The dough is definitely the foundation for a great pizza; with a sound and tasty base, the toppings are given the best chance to showcase all their flavors as well.
This recipe, for a crust lover like me, is wonderful. What better than cheesy bits of mozzarella and pepperoni (or whatever “toppings” you prefer to turn into fillings) encased in a warm and steaming ball of dough? The topping is crunchy and fragrant with a mix of parsley, basil and parmesan cheese. When dipped into some warm marinara sauce, every little bite of this recipe becomes that last “golden bite” of pizza we all look forward in the end.
Pizza Bites
I love oats, especially in baking. They add such a wonderfully hearty and wholesome texture to anything, whether it is to cookies or bread. As oatmeal sprinkled with brown sugar and raisins or granola with nuts and honey, oats are so versatile to fit anyone’s tastes. Good for your heart yet also to your taste buds, these cookies will give you a boost of energy and help mitigate that little tinge of guilt for indulging on something so yummy.
I normally prefer the traditional oatmeal cookies with raisins and the sweetly spicy notes of cinnamon but I didn’t have any raisins around. I was craving some oatmeal cookies and still had half a bag of chocolate chip cookies so I thought I’d make these cookies. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, these cookies are delicious either way.
These cookies actually taste like a cookie version of a granola chewy bar. They’re like the heartier and slightly healthier version of the classic chocolate chip cookie. Seemingly tough on the outside, these cookies are so soft once you bite into them, falling apart neatly in your mouth into chewy little morsels. The oats give these cookies a nice bite and texture to go along with the sweet and slightly bitter chocolate chips.
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
