Bucket list.

- Watch a shuttle launch
- Go to Seattle
- Camp in a teepee
- Try pottery
- Shoot a gun
- Shoot an arrow
- Get a tattoo
- Repierce ears
- Learn to write/read Vietnamese
- Go to Germany
- Build a snow man
- See a white Christmas
- Use a fireplace in the winter
- Buy a telescope
- Learn about Astronomy
- Pick up Astrophotography
- Buy a DSLR
- Buy a tripod
- Create a recipe
- Learn guitar
- Drive across the USA
- See Northern Lights
- Go to Alaska
- Go to Oregon
- Go to Vietnam
- Buy a microscope
- Buy a kitchen scale
- Switch from F to Celsius easily
- Cook an all organic meal
- Have a samoyed
- Have a home
- Have a vegetable garden
- Start my own compost
- Repay mom
- Get married
- Have solar panels for house
- Kick boxing lessons
- Take dad on vacation
- Take mom on vacation
- Learn to develop film
- Make bread successfully
- Go kayaking
- Go snorkeling
- Rock climb
- Find self assurance
- Get a pedicure
- Learn to curl my hair
- Self acceptance
- Go to Australia
- Go to Hawaii
- Surf
- Ride a motorcycle
- Apocalyptica concert
- Iron and Wine/Bon iver concert
- Start a camp fire easily
- Set up tent easily
- Mudding
- Go to a wine & cheese tasting
- Go to Food & Wine festival
- Be good at origami
- Make my own pizza dough
- Be in a race car
- Make a snow angel
- Stand up for myself
- Cook Vietnamese food
- Get a kitchen torch
- To be continued..

Day 1 - Your favorite song. (30 day song challenge).

No camera. No time to cook. Might as well embrace this blog anyway and post something :)

Red Velvet Cake.

So I'm back from my trip and I was all excited to start cooking but then two awesome things happened:

1) My camera broke at the airport.
2) I've got some serious strain of the flu.

So instead of a post about Vietnamese food with pictures where the lighting is perfect and such, I'm going to post an entry of something I made a while ago for Christmas.


I attempted to make Red velvet cake, and it was a pretty successful turn out!

 
For the cake recipe, I tweeked and mixed ingredients and amounts from various Red Velvet Cake recipes that I saw while browsing.

Red Velvet Cake:

1 C dark brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
3/4 Cup butter (room temperature of course)
2 eggs
2 C cake flour
1/4 C cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk
3-4 tbsp red food coloring (I used liquid not gel)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar

* I added a bit more cocoa powder than traditional but I think it added more flavor.

Directions:

- Cream the butter until fluffy, add in both sugars and mix until incorporated.
- Beat in 1 egg at a time.
- Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt)
- Mix together wet ingredients in a different bowl (buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar)
- Add parts of the dry mixture into the butter/egg mixture, mix, then add parts of the wet mixture into the butter/egg mixture, mix, alternate until all the ingredients are incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into two 9 inch cake pans (oiled/buttered/lined with parchment paper, whichever you fancy)
- Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes depending on oven.
- Allow to cool on cake wrack before icing!

Icing:

2 sticks of Cream Cheese (no reduced fat!)
2 sticks of unsalted butter
3-4 C confectioners sugar (to taste)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy then mix in sugar 1 C at a time until desired taste and texture is reached. Then mix in the vanilla extract.

*Next time, I am going to try 3 sticks cream cheese and 1 stick of butter, since I feel the icing tasted too buttery and I'm curious to see what will happen if I use more cream cheese.

Yummy!

Testing the Waters.

No food yet (from the book). Just updating to see how the blog template looks with another entry and uploading some old photos. These were from when I made Banh Bao (Vietnamese Steam Dumplings) with my father.

I could eat about a million of these things in one sitting (maybe). There's something about the semi-sweet, chewy dough and the savory, rich filling that makes these things one of my top favorite Vietnamese foods. They're certainly not a lunch or dinner meal typically but I would have no problem eating these things any time of day.

 

This was all cooked such a long time ago. It was my first time making steamed dumplings and I haven't had time to make anymore since then. Perhaps after I come back from my trip I'll make a few of these. School will be starting soon and they're a good thing to grab and go. 

Doesn't that just make your mouth water? Typically the Banh Bao are filled with ground pork, a hard boiled egg (quartered, halved or kept whole if you're feeling ravenous) and Lap Xuong (a kind of sausage). I kind of wish I had one now. Mmm.

PS: I used and followed the instructions behind a bag of dumpling flour for making the dough (which you can find at any Oriental Market). I used this bag. (Pardon the bad photo quality)

Eureka!

I've got it!

Special thanks to my friend Katie, I've finally gotten the book that I've been yearning for. It was a birthday present and now I finally have no excuses in delaying this blog and starting my cooking.

I've been wanting this book for a while since I've been wanting to learn the backbone to the recipes of my family kitchen. I want to familiarize myself with the Vietnamese names for each ingredient as well as the English translations and I want to be able to create nom-licious food that says "I've got history, culture AND I taste good". (Yes, my food speaks to me as should yours).

 I'll be gone for the next two weeks but when I come back I'm going to hopefully cook up a storm. Be prepared for all the trials and tribulations I go through in order to master the Vietnamese ingredients and Vietnamese palate. I'll be pulling a Julie & Julia moment (cliche, yes, but I don't think you understand how excited I am to make every recipe in that book, I can expand my knowledge and my palate) so hopefully that'll give my blog some substance.

I'm excited!