Thanksgiving

Seeing as I have little desire to study right now, and I'm waiting for the caffeine from my latte to kick in.. it seemed like the perfect time to write about thanksgiving weekend eats!


I started out making the cranberry sauce on Tuesday night. It is probably the easiest thing to make - I just put a couple of peels and the juice of 2 Florida navel oranges and brown sugar in a large pan with an entire bag of cranberries, cooked it down until it thickened to where I wanted it to be. I like to see the cranberries left whole so my cooking time was only about 15 minutes, stirring gently and not too often (plus I used a really large pan so there was greater surface area, so it reduced cooking time).


This is about how thick the end product was before cooling it down and putting it in the fridge.


SO DELICIOUS, it took a lot of energy to resist finishing this before Thursday.

On the day of Thanksgiving.. I made...


First I stuck the turkey in the brine, consisted of 2 gallons water, 10 oz soy sauce, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup sugar, 4 tbsp fresh sage, 2 tbsp fresh thyme, 1 1/2 tsp crystallized ginger, 2 tbsp black peppercorns, half a head of garlic. I made the brine the night before, because I dissolved the salt and sugar in some hot water before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. So on Thursday morning, I stuck the turkey in the brine for about 5 hours.


These are the things that I stuck inside the cavity of the bird, and for what couldn't fit, I just put it on the side on the bottom of the pan to help flavor the pan juices that dripped from the turkey and also so those juices wouldn't burn.



Baked Brie is a yearly tradition of mine. It is not Thanksgiving until I've had a bite of this deliciousness. This year I put the cranberry sauce I made in it - SO GOOD. We ate it with some sliced apple and pear for lunch - best way to perk up your appetite for the oncoming feast!


Cornbread muffins! I used Pat and Gina Neely's recipe from the food network. Simple, easy and really delicious. I didn't put any sugar in them, so I put some extra honey than the recipe calls for; I was making these for a group of Chinese people who do not like food that is too sweet, so the honey added a perfect amount of sweetness. I also doubled the recipe. I ended up with about 30 muffins. Cornbread is my mom's favorite, and there were none leftover by the end of the night.

This is my beautiful turkey, a perfect 160 degrees inside, crispy skin and nice and browned on the outside.

This is how the turkey was plated after carving :) Everybody loved it, the soy sauce brine was a success! Someone told me that it tasted like duck to them, which was supposed to be a compliment, haha. Sadly there were no leftovers!!! Makes me want to go out and buy another turkey...

Today, I made...
This is the study snack I made for myself this morning. Needless to say most of it is already eaten and I haven't gotten any studying done. This is one of my favorite go-to desserts - it is the French Apple Tart by Ina Garten. I LOVE LOVE LOVE apples when they are cooked.

I hope everybody had a great, food-filled Thanksgiving.

-J

I love Florida

This was my breakfast this morning. It was the perfect beach day when I woke up this morning, so I headed to the beach before it got crowded.

Also, I made some butternut squash soup with the VitaMix today. I roasted the squash first, along with a red onion. After that, I just put everything in the VitaMix with some sea salt and chicken broth -- a couple minutes later I had some steaming hot soup! The soup was so unbelievably creamy and I didn't even add any cream or butter to it. I made a huge salad to eat with it, and I am so full right now, haha. It was a pretty satisfying dinner.


The salad had green leaf lettuce, half an avocado, half a granny smith apple, carrots and dried cranberries. It was dressed with some lime juice, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. I like colorful salads.


Here is a video of the VitaMix at work. It is really loud, so that is my warning to you before you press play.


Bought the turkey.. so I will be starting the defrosting process tomorrow!
-J

Procrastinating...

I really can't focus enough to get some productive studying done, so this post is going to be pretty random. :D I recently got a mani/pedi (every girl enjoys getting pampered every now and then) and I'm really loving these fall/winter nail colors. Even though the temperature has only cooled to around the 70s here, I can't ignore the fact that it is fall and the quickly approaching holidays. I got my nails square shaped, which is a first for me. It's subtle, but as my nails have been growing out, the shape is much more obvious. I think I will try to maintain this shape because I am really liking how it looks. The only down side is that I'm finding it a little more difficult to scratch things. I got a couple of mosquito bites the other night and it is so difficult to itch them!


I forgot the name of this polish.. it was an Essie polish. I know it is not Chinchilly. Basically it is a gray with some purple/mauve undertones, I know it's hard to tell in the photo. Anybody have any ideas?


I picked this color for my toes since it was in the same color family as my fingers. I'm pretty sure that this is Luxedo by Essie. It's hard to tell in the photo but its definitely a very dark purple. I LOVE IT. Although I think darker colors make my nails look even smaller than they actually are. They did a really good job on my toenails, it's not easy painting such small areas!

Now onto what I baked last week. My mom bought way too many vegetables so I took the zucchini that she bought and make Zucchini bread and muffins! These are definitely one of my more favorite breads to make, the other being banana bread. It's kind of the same concept as carrot cake. You can't taste the vegetables in it but adding them really makes it so moist. I really enjoy the spices that go into zucchini bread too, and I love being able to see the green specks in the bread, its so pretty!


These are the wet ingredients mixed together before adding the dry ingredients. I added a lot more zucchini than the recipe called for.


I ended up with 1 loaf and 12 muffins! It's definitely lasted us more than a week, and has made the perfect snack during class or breakfast on the go in the car.

Here is the recipe I used (except I had to add a 1/2 cup more flour since I put a whole cup extra of zucchini; and I added about 1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts as well):

Ingredients:
WET - 2 cups grated zucchini, 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 2/3 cup brown sugar, 3 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla extract
DRY - 3 cups all purpose flour, 3 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
1. Mix all wet ingredients together, beating the eggs before you add them to the rest of the mixture.
2. Into the same bowl, sift in the dry ingredients (I usually do this for easier clean up!)
3. Lightly stir everything together and when its just about all incorporated, stir in walnuts or any add-ins you want.
4. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan or lined muffin pan.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.



Another breakfast I have been enjoying since buying a jar of Nutella -- banana + Nutella sandwiches on toasted challah bread. What an indulgence!


Apple Cider - my drink of choice these days.

I cannot wait for Thanksgiving! I have decided to make a turkey from scratch this year, so I'm currently looking for an easy and delicious recipe. I'm leaning towards brining and then roasting it. Don't want to try for something too elaborate for the first time I do this. I will definitely make a post on that after Thanksgiving.

-J

Vita-Mix 5200

My mom surprised me with this fancy piece of kitchen equipment the other day. A Vita-Mix!!!! It is basically a really powerful blender that produces heat from the friction from the blades, so that if you leave it on for a couple of minutes, you get steaming hot soup! You don't even have to cut whatever it is you want to blend into small pieces. If you wanted to, you could put a whole apple in and within 30 seconds it would be liquefied. Pretty amazing! My mom was really excited, so she immediately went to the grocery store and bought a ton of vegetables so we can make soups.


Who could imagine such a simple blade could hold so much power? haha.


Ain't it pretty? that long black thing on the side there is the Tamper, where you can stick inside the lid to stir up anything that might get stuck inside the blender.. now that I would ever foresee that happening..

The first soup we tried to make was an asparagus soup. Now, this was the test run and basically it was probably the worst tasting thing I've ever had in a long time. But at least now I know what to do next time...


This was the asparagus soup. Basically, what I did was put 2 cups chicken broth, an entire bundle of asparagus, and some cauliflower to fill the whole blender to the top. Yes, the veggies were raw when I added them into the blender -- I was really interested in seeing how hot the final product would be. Lo and behold, after about 3 minutes of blending this concoction, I got really impatient so we stopped it and poured it into bowls. There was still a very raw taste and it was extremely bitter. I could only bear to have about 5 spoonfuls.

Next time I attempt to make soup, I will either leave the blender on for a longer period of time or, since I am pretty impatient, I will heat up the liquid first and maybe even blanching the vegetables first to speed up the cooking process even faster.

After getting frustrated from making nasty green soup, I tried to make a juice. After doing some research on the Vita-Mix I found that most people use their to make juices. Juices are great for packing in all types of nutrients to consume quickly as well as sometimes masking the not-so-popular flavors that might be really healthy for you. The good thing about the Vita Mix, compared to a juicer, is that it does not discard all the pulp from your fruits and vegetables. That's where a lot of nutrients are! This blender is able to make the pulp fragments small enough that its easy to drink.


Ingredients for Carrot Apple Beet juice.. I added pomegranate juice to overcome the beet flavor, although I am starting to like it more now. I also forgot to add ginger! Doh!


The result.. what a nice RED color! This tasted pretty good - I definitely could still taste the beets and think next time on top of adding some ginger, I'll add either orange juice or lemon juice to brighten it up.

Now.. what am I supposed to do with our old blender?


-J

October Favorites!

Here are a few of my favorites for the month of October. Wow, it totally just flew by, which I'm kind of glad in a way. I'm actually excited this Holiday season and can't wait for it to get here sooner!

1) Songs: Check it Out by Nicki Minaj & Will I AM; Mike Posner!; Back to December by Taylor Swift (her new album is not that great)

2 ) I love the fact that Panera finally got a "rewards" card, God knows I'm there enough to enjoy some freebies. I was immediately rewarded with a free pastry. I will go there tomorrow to study and partake in refills of their iced green tea. Delicious!

3) I have recently became a "candle burner". I was never into this stuff. For some reason, maybe because it's finally feeling like fall where I live, I really just love having a candle burning when I am in my room. Currently addicted to "Autumn" from B&BW. I need a back-up soon.

4) Favorite beauty products this month: Dark Kiss Body Lotion from B&BW: I was totally over B&BW stuff for a while. I mostly buy their hand soaps. Since I had a coupon where I can get a Signature Body item for free I picked this up. I can't stop lathering myself with this stuff right after I get out of the shower! To me it smells like raspberry & dark chocolate, perfect right before bed snack without the calories.

I also picked up this Soap&Glory "Mist You Madly" on one of my Target trips. You know how you always end up getting a lot more stuff than you planned when you go to Target? Well this was one of those because it was on Clearance. Soap&Glory is an UK brand of bath & body products that I've only heard of through youtube. After some "googling" I found out that it was started by a former CEO of Bliss, so must be good. This body spray isn't the typical scent that I go for, it's woodsy & patchouli, seriously just cedar on the first spritz. But somehow it manages to meld into my skin at the end of the day and is just lovely.

I just painted my nails again with this Sephora by OPI nail polish in "Meet For Drinks". I thought it was vampy for Halloween, even though I wear this all the time. It's the only nail polish that I have where you can actually see the amount of polish in the bottle, I'm a third done! Incredible, since I have a nice stash of nail polishes.

5) Other favorites that are not pictured: Tresemme shampoo & conditioner makes my dried out hair so soft and silky. Lush Brazen Honey Mask: I am just starting to get into Lush products and this mask is definitely worth the $6 and 3 weeks expiration date. It smells of honey & herbs and gets rid of my blackheads. It is meant to detox your skin after you're been bad to it. Forever21: I don't know what I'd do with my weekends if I didn't live near a Forever21. This store seriously gets so much of my money. It helps that it's cheap & that they tilt the mirrors in the dressing room so you think you look better than you do in reality.

I also made 2 purchases from the MAC A Tartan Tale collection:

Her Blooming Cheek Blush & The Faerie Glen lipstick (lustre)

Umm...isn't the swatch of this blush gorgeous? I can't stop starring at it. The only bad thing is that I think it looks better swatched than on my face. But it's still lovely, gives me that "just pinched" look. I'm a little iffy about The Faerie Glen lipstick, it turns a little grey on my lipsticks but I will try to play with it some more. Those two were the only things that appealed to me out of 100 products, which I guess would make the collection in general underwhelming.

Lastly: I love driving home when the sun is setting. Pretty. Too bad I have bad astigmatism and have trouble driving at night when everyone has their lights on...this picture is an accurate representation of how it looks to me at night.

~ A

Halloween nails & new makeup!

Trick or treat?

Last night, I painted my nails to get in the spirit of Halloween.. I did a spider web design on my thumbs and a jack-o-lantern face on my big toes. The faces took the longest to do (and you can tell which one I did first.. haha), but I am satisfied with the results. It looks better from farther away than it does really up close.






Now, onto the haul..

The new A Tartan Tale holiday Mac collection just came out today. I got a couple of things from it.. the majority of which are their Viva Glam products, of which 100% of the proceeds go to the M∙A∙C AIDS Fund. It's good to give back! :)


I got the 'Tis Noble to Give Viva Glam Bag, which included the Viva Glam V lipstick with accompanying lipgloss and one of their tartan themed bags. I also got the Pearlglide Intense Eyeliner in Undercurrent, a nice sparkly teal. These eyeliners dry quickly and do not budge!


This is the bag that came in the Viva Glam Set.


These are the M∙A∙C Kids Helping Kids cards, which are illustrated by children for children affected by HIV/AIDS. They are completely blank inside, so they can be used for any purpose, not just for the winter holidays. The interesting thing about them is that Mac sent these kids their makeup, and that is what they used as medium for their illustrations.


Here are swatches: (top) Undercurrent eyeliner, (middle) Viva Glam V lipstick, (left) Viva Glam V lipglass. The bottom is a comparison to L'Oreal Colour Riche Fairest Nude lipstick, dupe anyone? (the L'Oreal is a bit more brown and not shimmery)


Sephora had their friends and family sale this week...


I took the opportunity to stock up on my face wash, and now I probably will have enough to last me at least 4 more years. Haha, yes, I got the 32 oz. Philosophy Purity Made Simple one-step facial cleanser. I really love this stuff, it takes off all makeup, so I don't even need to use makeup remover. You only use a very small amount each time, which is why this bottle will probably last me forever! I also go their Supernatural mascara. It doesn't smudge at all, and is very light and natural looking - I like it so far!


This is the smallest mascara wand I have ever seen. I like it because I have small eyelashes so this is easier to use for me.


On the box, it says to "remove by massaging a little purity made simple and water onto lashes" and "small 'shells' of mascara will release from your lashes." This is what I found when I took the mascara off.

-J

More butternut squash!

I've been itching to make this soup for the longest time, so I'm so glad that I finally was able to make it. We made a roast chicken the other night so I used the left over scraps and bones to make a chicken stock (basically just simmered it for a while with garlic and ginger), and I used it to make butternut squash soup! I had about 5 cups of stock and a 3 lb butternut squash. First, I cut the butternut squash into 1 inch cubes and roasted it in a 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes, until they were soft. It's not really necessary to roast them first, you could alternatively just plop the butternut squash cubes straight into the stock and cook them that way. I just really enjoy the flavor of a roasted butternut squash and I LOVE the smell that comes out of the oven while roasting, perfuming my whole kitchen! So, while it's roasting, chop up a medium onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Saute in a bit of butter and olive oil, (if you wanted to add other flavors in, this is when you add additional veggies, such as carrots, celery, apples, parsnips..) and then add your roasted butternut squash. stir this for 30 seconds and add the stock. Once everything reaches the same temperature, the soup is pretty much done. Now all you need to do is blend it up, either in batches in your blender or with a hand immersion blender (if you are lucky enough to own one! and I'm jealous if you do). I also didn't blend all of the squash, I left some pieces in there whole, just to have some different textures. Obviously you can change this to whatever your preference is. After this, just add the puree back into your soup pot and if its a bit watery, you can just simmer it for a bit until you reach the consistency that you want. Here, you can also add some cream if you'd like. I didn't because the squash itself has an inherent creamy quality to it and that's enough for me! I truly love the simplicity of this soup and the pure butternut squash flavor that you get from it. This is definitely for the butternut squash lovers out there. Especially with winter coming up, this is perfect! I wish I lived in a cooler place to justify making this more often :)


I served the soup with some grated parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and with a piece of baguette on the side for dunking. DELICIOUS! I drank about 3 bowls of this after I made it. I still have a lot leftover so I've been heating it up in the mornings, putting it in a cup and drinking it in my drive to school. Strange breakfast, yes, but it works for me and good alternative to coffee, haha.


This was a lunch that I made for myself this week.. basically just took what was available in the fridge to make this. Made a simple sauce with half a large tomato, garlic, corn and some garlic tops that my mom grows (like a green onion but more garlicky). Then, I sauteed this with al dente cooked pasta and finished with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Simple & fast.


This is the nail polish I am wearing now! There's nothing like a bright nail color to brighten your mood. This is Whitney from Zoya. LOVE IT. It's been on my nails for almost a week now, and it's barely chipped.

-J