Des Crêpes du Nutella

J'adore des crêpe et j'adore le nutella. Donc, j'ai partagé avec ma classe de la parole. Avant-hier, j'ai cuisiné avec mon ami. Et nous avons fait beaucoup de crêpes. Désolé. J'ai tendance parler français quand je fais des crêpes....I love crepes and I love nutella. So, I shared with my speech class. The day before yesterday, I cooked with my friend. And we made lots of crepes. Sorry, I have a tendency to speak French when I make crepes.So, yeah, that's what I did Wednesday night after workshop (which ends at 8:10 at night). I ended up staying in the kitchen until about midnight. YAY!But...I made crepes. Which is just so much fun to do because they aren't always successful, but they're almost always delicious.And I'm pretty sure everyone in my class loved them (I was giving a tribute speech to nutella...yeah, I'm a freak). But anyway, here's how to make crepes. They aren't necessarily dorm friendly by any means, but I made it work. Also, the recipe makes about 20 crepes, so this is something to do when you want to make friends.

You will need:

A frying pan

Pam or other spray oil, or butter if you so choose

6 eggs

1/4 Stick of Butter2 cups of flour

Sugar (the original recipe calls for 2 tsp of sugar in 20 crepes, but I probably used more like 4-8 tablespoons...anywhere between these to limits will work)

Salt (about 8 dashes worth...real specific, huh?...this is probably about 1/2 tsp of salt)

4 cups of milk (or 4 of the things of milk they sell at the cafeteria...they're the same amount)

Nutella

KnifeForks (for mixing ingredients, though a wisk would be best if you have one)

Mixing bowl (I used 4 cereal bowls...which is a bad idea)

Spatula (unless you're one of those cool kids who can flip crepes in the air, in which case I hate you)

Recipe:

First, beat the eggs. This is pretty much the same thing as scrambling, if being done with a fork. Just stir it until the eggs are all one color.

Then, add the milk. Again, mix it until it's all one color.

Next, add the dry ingredients. Stir in the flour and add salt and sugar. It's gonna be a bit lumpy. That's only temporarily ok.

While you do this, melt your butter. Stir this into the batter. Seriously stir. Then stir some more. Keep stirring until it is all uniform. Stop for a moment. If anything at any point floats to the top of the batter, mix some more. Make sure there's no flour on the edges either. Really, it should be super thin and uniform.

Once this has finally occurred, heat up your frying pan (which should be greased) on a low to medium, but more like low, heat. As it heats, stir the batter even more. Really, this is an important step.

Put about 2 tbsp of batter into the pan and move the pan in a circular shape so that the bottom is covered entirely with a very thin layer of batter.

When the edges are golden brown, flip the crepe. Then, after about a 45 seconds, check the other side to see if it's done. Both sides should (hopefully) be golden brown. If it's too white, just continue to fry the crepe. Then, put it on a plate.

Repeat this about 4 times (putting something like paper towel between each crepe you put on the plate). Then, regrease the pan.

Do this whole process about 5 times.

And by this point you've wasted several hours and have a rather large stack of crepes.

Pez eyeing the crepes.

Now, you can spread the nutella on them. You can use other things to fill your crepes too (like apple pie filling and cinnamon, lemon juice and powdered sugar, strawberries and whipped cream, bananas pineapple and coconut, whatever you want). Since these are sweet crepes, you should not use meats and cheeses to fill it - it just won't taste right with this recipe. If doing a proper crêpe du Nutella, then be generous with the nutella because nutella is the best thing on earth and you can never have too much nutella.

When you are done with this, eat, share, enjoy, and for the sake of humanity and clenliness: CLEAN UP THE MESS! It's awful to clean up after it gets hard (I know from experience because I missed several spots which are not rock solid clumps of yuckiness). This might need to be done before you eat, share, and enjoy. It is seriously a mess, even if you clean up as you go.

Despite the mess and the fact that it takes several hours, this is so much fun and tastes so good. I recommend trying it if you are a) adventurous, b) not hungry at the moment, c) have a lot of friend, and d) have nothing better to do with your day.

I'm sorry, by the way, for not posting this yesterday. Yesterday was...awful. The fire alarm went off in the middle of the shower. My dr's appointment lasted 1 hour and a half and required getting another 2 vials of blood taken from my body. I couldn't eat anything (and still can't). And everything appeared to be collapsing. Then, when my day finally calmed down, I decided to self inflict personal drama that turned out not to be drama at all and instead was seriously just my imagination (perhaps I'm going insane...maybe that's why my stomach's been hurting so much...this would not be much of a surprise...anyone who knows me knows that I'm completely crazy). Anyway, now tomorrow I have to cross town to determine if my spleen is enlarged (which, if it is, could be a sign of just about anything from mono to infection to blood disorder...

hurray!). On the bright side, if I gain the courage to ask (which knowing myself, I probably won't...I never have the courage to ask questions), I might be able to see the inside of my body tomorrow (which would seriously be the coolest thing ever, ever). We'll see what happens with that.

Anyway, crepes. Yes. Very good. One of the few things my body lets me eat at the moment and I am oh so glad of it. Seriously. Delicious. Enjoy! =)

Dorm Food

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Something New

So, as you might have noticed, I decided to redo the design of my blog. It looks really cool in chrome, but I have no idea how it will work in other browsers, and especially how it will look in mobile browsers. So, let me know if this design doesn't work for you and I'll see if I can try a different one.

Also, today marks my 400th page view. Actually, as of today there have been 410 page views (24 today alone). This is excellent. My goal is 500 page views by the end of the month, though I'm not sure how realistic that is. So feel free to share this blog with anyone and everyone.

My food stories:

Yesterday, during history class, I decided I really wanted Chinese food (specifically sesame chicken). So, despite the rain, I decided to go to Panda Express. My friend David tagged along. Panda Express happens to require 6 miles of biking. Which was fine because it was raining and I'm from Washington and David's from Oregon and we both like the rain. But it also wasn't fine because that meant we didn't even get back to campus until about 8. And then we wanted to hang out, and we talked about our ed class that we both are taking (which is pretty much the same as studying) and then...I came back to my room at 11. I am seriously the worst roommate ever. I come home late, I leave without saying anything, and...there may or may not be a large pile of banana bread dishes and other assorted dishes from other meals, resting next to the sink...said pile that may or may not exist, totally has my name written all over it and has been staring at me as I sleep (my bed is across from the sink). And there may or may not also be a large pile of books and bags, just sitting on the floor by my bed, waiting to be taken care of. And my bed may or may not be covered with even more textbooks. Yeah, I'm kind of a horrible roommate. I'm surprised Anna puts up with me.

So, other than my awful roommateness and the fact that I went to Panda Express (which, by the way, does not have sesame chicken :( but it does have the best broccoli beef ever, so it was ok), I haven't been up to too much. I honestly don't know what I've done with myself today, since it obviously hasn't been cleaning, and it hasn't been homework, and it hasn't really been much eating (I actually never got around to eating lunch...I just had early supper at like 5:30). In fact, perhaps I should do some homework. Or clean my room. Or watch Glee!

hmmm...I think homework. I am, after all, paying to go to this school.

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Vegan Banana Bread

Last week I bought a pound of bananas that became bruised on my bike ride home (perhaps because I put several cans and a half gallon of milk on top of them in my bag...). I ate 2 of the bananas over the week, but eventually they were too ripe to eat (the fact that they were already bruised allowed them to ripen much faster). So, the area around my bed (under which I keep all of my food) smelled of bananas these past couple days. But we couldn't eat them. So it came down to two things: either we could waste the bananas and throw them in the trash like so many unfortunate vegetables from our fridge, or we could make banana bread. I think we made the proper choice.

Anna being vegan, we decided to make vegan banana bread from scratch. This actually meant that we used fewer ingredients, which is always a plus in dorm cooking. And it actually tasted much better than normal banana bread. So, I will share the recipe with you.

Since there are so many ingredients, I will share with you ahead of time what they were.

4 very ripened bananas

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup of walnuts

Cooking spray

2 bread pans

1 fork

1 spoon

1 knife

First, in a large bowl (or sauce pan, in our case, since we didn't have a mixing bowl), mash the 4 bananas. We did this using a fork, which worked pretty well. They should be mashed to the point that it looks creamy. Then, mix in the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Next, add the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Stir this well. This can be done with any spoon you happen to have.

Then, chop the walnuts into coarse pieces (into 1/2s and 1/3s). This can be done with a standard knife. Mix the nuts into the bowl. (If you are allergic to nuts or simply don't like them, you can of course skip this step.)

Now, pour the well blended batter into 2 greased bread pans. (As bread pans turn out to be quite expensive, we bought the disposable metal kind from the baking section for only a couple dollars, which worked just fine as a pan). If you are using walnuts, you can add some whole onto the top, to make a pretty design. However, they tend to crisp easily in the oven, so I do not recommend this.

Finally cook at 350 degrees (make sure to preheat the oven before you put the bread in) for anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour. We're not quite sure how much time it needs because we had ours in for an hour and the edges started to get quite crispy after 50 minutes, so we assume 45 minutes is probably a good time. Just keep checking on it every now and then.

Remove from the oven, and let cool. Then, you'll be ready to eat, enjoy, and clean up the wonderful mess (I recommend doing this as you wait for the bread to cook or as you wait for it to cool, as you'll have quite a bit of time to kill).

This recipe turned out really well. The inner part of the bread was super chewy and delightful. And the outer part of the bread was strong enough to keep intact. As it's not made with butter like the standard recipe, it does not taste buttery. Instead, you really get the natural flavors of the banana. It is a tad sweet, but it's banana bread, it's supposed to be sweet.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS RECIPE. It was honestly so good. And as it was baking, people from all over the dorm kept coming by to tell us how good it smelled (you could smell it everywhere on our floor...we became quite the popular girls). If you want to, you could double the recipe and make enough to share with the rest of the floor, which would make you super popular. But, we didn't have enough bananas (or foresight) to do that ourselves.

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Homesickness Soup

I'm not homesick. I feel guilty for two reasons:

• I bought this soup specifically for if/when I become homesick, but so far I have not had this need. I have missed my boyfriend, my cat, and my friend-friends (in that order... apologies to everyone listed below my cat...), but have yet to miss my family, my hometown, my bedroom, or the other animals at my house. This makes me feel like a horrible person. But I just don't miss them. Like, at all. What kind of person am I?!
• I also feel guilty. I just didn't feel like going down to the cafeteria after a rather long, sweaty, intense bike ride this afternoon, and I wasn't in the mood for, well, anything I have (which happens to include A LOT of food). So I made this soup.

The soup I made was on sale for 59 cents, so I decided to get it. It happens to be Grandma's canned soup (chicken noodle soup with the long, skinny noodles, thick chicken broth, and no vegetables). Just the smell takes me to my grandmother's dining room, where I have spent many a lunches eating canned chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese with cheddar cheese and wheat bread (which differed from my mother's American cheese with white bread...and only tasted good when Grandma made it). I wouldn't be surprised if the only reason we had this so much every time we spent a week with my grandparents is because it was the only thing they knew my little sister would eat (and now, she won't even eat the soup...seriously, she becomes pickier of an eater with age, though some parts of it I know aren't her being picky since she also gets sick eating certain foods, other parts (like her hating the "taste and texture of meat" and her distaste for any vegetables besides peppers) can only be summed up with one letter: Elle).

Anyway, I digress. So, I made this soup, despite the fact that I wasn't homesick, using the microwave directions. There were several off things about my soup (though it still tasted pretty good). The first was that the directions ask you to cover the bowl. The only thing I could think of that I had that could possibly be used for this was paper towel...but it fell into the bowl around minute 3 of the cooking process. The second, was that the soup was scalding hot. I cooked it for the lowest suggested cooking time, but still had to wait several minutes before I could eat it. The third was that there was something missing: the chicken. There were literally (and I'm not exaggerating) two pieces of chicken in my chicken noodle soup, making it, in essence, noodle soup with chicken garnish. Seriously. The final, and most important thing, was that it was missing something else: oyster crackers.

(insert family laughing here, other people not even caring). Oyster crackers in chicken noodle soup is just how it's done at Grandma's house. My sister does it. My older brother did it. Even my 6 year old cousin does it. It's just a necessity that there be more oyster crackers in your soup than chicken (though in my case, that only means there needs to be 3 oyster crackers...).

So, that was my diner tonight. It was...reasonable. It sort of reminded me of my grandparents' house, and wasn't used for a bout of homesickness. I feel full of guilt for the reasons I listed before, but also full in general because I ate 2.5 servings of soup today. But, hey, I haven't had any yogurt covered pretzels yet today. =)

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A Salady Salad

So today was a salad day. Mostly because I realized I have a lot of vegetables in my fridge that I haven't been eating yet. And because I really need to use up the salad dressing that's been in the soda can holder in the door. So, I decided to use all the vegetables I have (which isn't very many, sadly, as my mushrooms and green beans are off to a better place...aka the trash).

Salad making is pretty easy, so I really wonder why I don't do it more often. Anyway, this is my salad:

First, I created a bed of 50% mixed Spring Greens and 50% Spinach. This just happened to be what I had in my fridge, but it actually works really well for a salad like this.

Next, I rinsed some of my broccoli. This time, I think I used a full serving of broccoli. I then toor the ends off in punches and scattered them amungst my bed of greens.

Then, I rinsed my baby corn. Apparently you can get it fresh, which is healthier for you, but I have never heard of fresh baby corn (I just amused it grew from the ground into a can). However, canned baby corn tends to have lots of added sodium. And with all the yogurt covered pretzels I've been having lately, I don't really need more sodium. The can I got contained over 10% of my daily sodium intake, in just one serving of baby corn. After rinsing the baby corn quite a bit, I added it to my salad.

Then, I added a few Caesar Parmesan croutons. Not too many since the point of the salad is vegetables, not starch, and baby corn was already an added starch. Plus, I'm not terribly fond of the croutons I bought.

Next, I added just a bit of Caesar salad dressing. I have yogurt based dressing because a) it's half the fat and calories of normal Caesar salad dressing, and b) it's new, so it was on sale when I went to the store. Cheaper = better. However, since the yogurt makes the taste a bit sharp, it's actually kind of important to use less of it. Otherwise you won't be able to taste the rest of the salad.

Finally, toss it up. Eat, enjoy, and clean up the mess. All of the veggies and the dressing need to go into the fridge (even the baby corn). If your baby corn is in canned form, cover it with a bag and put it in the fridge. If you don't have sandwich baggies, it's totally fine, I don't either. I just use whatever plastic bag I can find (an old fruit and veggie bag from the store or a plastic grocery bag will work fine...I used an old Fuego bag, which worked great. The important part is just keeping air out).

Your final product might look like this:

I really liked this salad. I think my favorite part was the baby corn, followed closely by the broccoli and spinach. My least favorite part was the croutons. What's wrong with this picture? I kind of wish I had black olives for this salad though. This is two recipes in a row where I wish I had black olives...perhaps I need to invest in a can or two...

If you need further reasons to eat this salad, besides the fact that it is DELICIOUS, here are some health benefits of each ingredient. Spinach contains vitamin K, folate, iron, and beta carotene (spinach is one of the best sources for beta carotene, which converts Vitamin A in the intestines and liver). The mixed spring greens include quite a bit of antioxidants, as well as even more folate. The broccoli is a rich source of vitamin C, calcium, Vitamin K, and Vitamin A. Baby corn, which is not actually a vegetable, contains about 30% of your RDA of folate, close to 20% of your vitamin C, 15% of Vitamin B6, 10% RDA of riboflavin, and 10% RDA of fiber. The yogurt-based dressing contains a little less than 5% RDA of calcium and about 2 g of protein...which isn't bad for such a small amount. And a serving of Caesar parmesan croutons contains 1 g of protein and carbohydrates. Pretty good for something that actually tastes good, huh?

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You Gotta Love Broccoli

I am truly sorry for those of you in this world who do not enjoy the marvelous flavor of broccoli. You are truly missing out with your cliche distaste. If you don't like broccoli, you probably won't like this recipe. But maybe you will, the flavor isn't terribly strong, anyway.

This recipe is actually a spinoff of my grandmother's recipe, which calls for olives and peppers. However, I don't have olives or peppers, so I decided to subsitute with broccoli instead. It would probably work with spinach, too, and maybe even baby corn or celery (I have all of these in my fridge, but have yet to try with this).

To make this, first, spread a thin layer of cream cheese over a flour tortilla. I'm not sure if it is acceptable to use whipped cream cheese, but I would assume this would work.

Next, wash your broccoli. You won't need very much for this, actually. Maybe a piece or two (about 1/2 a serving size, I would assume). Pretty much, just rip the dark green ends off and scatter around the cream cheese side of the tortilla.

Then, roll the tortilla up without folding in the ends. Slice it as you please.

Finally, eat, enjoy, and clean up the mess. Especially the cream cheese (it should be in the fridge, of course, and the knife used for it should be cleaned quickly as the cream cheese will get a bit crusty if left on).

I decided to try this today because, well, I ate a little bit too large of a snack after math class. As in 3 servings of yogurt covered pretzels and a banana. I'm becoming a tad bit too obsessed with these yogurt covered pretzels lately, but who knows, maybe I'll teach myself to make them and it'll be a whole new blog post on its own.

Anyway, this recipe was pretty tasty. The cream cheese and broccoli both provide calcium, as well as a plethora of other vitamins. Plus, the tortilla makes a great alternative to using a bagel with your cream cheese, since bagels tend to equal carbohydrate overrode...especially on a day like today where I've probably already eaten enough...though maybe a few more yogurt covered pretzels...no, no more yogurt covered pretzels today. Goodness they are a tempting snack. But I know to beware: just because they have yogurt in the name, doesn't mean they're healthy. These things are loaded with sugar, fat, salt, and every other thing under the "Use sparingly" category. But I love them...so I will eat them anyway...just sparingly.

Anyway, back to the recipe again. This is quite delicious. Great for a light lunch (paired with yogurt covered pretzels) or a mid-afternoon snack. And rather healthy for you, as well. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU TRY THIS RECIPE (and eat yogurt covered pretzels).

Dorm Food

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A Small Trip

Wow. So sorry it's been so long since I posted. It's been a while since I went to the grocery store, which means I couldn't make my own food. That, and my stomach has still been bothering me, so I haven't felt too adventerous in the whole food-department. I should be getting my lab results soon, to find out just what's been going on, but until then, I'm stuck in limbo.

So, today's blog is about trips. It's broken up into two categories: the first being yesterday's trip, the second being today's trip. That pretty much sums it up.

Yesterday's Trip:

My roommate and I decided to go to Target and Ikea yesterday. It took us about 2 hours to get there via bus and MAX rail system (since we missed the bus by literally seconds and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one). So, we went, and about five minutes before our stop, I get this text from my lovely boyfriend. It turned out, he was in the main lobby for my dorm. The guy had spent three hours of train and about half an hour busing from the train station to my college, just to surprise me! I was ecstatic. And also about an hour and a half away. But, of course, I had to go back right away, and that I did. I was just so happy to finally see him after being away for a month, and so surprised that he spent five hours of traveling and waiting, just to see me. He took the last train North out of Portland, but, of course, that was a 6, so we really didn't get to do much. But, much isn't what's important anyway. Goodness gracious, I am still in shock. But it is a super, duper positive shock, indeed. =) =) =)

Today's Trip:

Today's trip was nowhere near as exciting. I went to the grocery store. I bought bananas, raspberries, mixed green salad, and beans; bread, bagels, and two boxes of cereal; canned soup, SpongeBob EZMac, frozen pizza, and yogurt covered pretzels, ; milk, string cheese, and cream cheese. Oh, and purple duct tape. All for about $35. I am proud of that. I am especially proud of the yogurt covered pretzels, since they were the same price as my small baggie from the school, but contained a POUND of pretzels. I've also been eating these a little bit to much already. But a girl can't help loving yogurt covered pretzels.

Coming home with all of this was quite a pain. Since I was alone on this trip, I couldn't pawn any heavy item on some unsuspecting victim. The cereal boxes proved the most challenging to deal with, though the heavy cans and half gallon of milk were also difficult. I ended up putting the boxes on the back of my bike, tying them on as I had done with Anna's soda cans earlier. Here's what it ended up looking like:

Yes, I am impressed with my tying skills too. Who knew sailing knots could have any sort of value in everyday life? Oh, and should I mention it was raining on my bike ride home?

Dorm Food

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