Birthday Pineapple Coconut Cupcakes

It's my birthday :-)  I wrote a post last year on my birthday and it's interesting to see the evolutionary change in my blog-writing style.  Hopefully, it has gotten better.

Well, I didn't go to bed until after 2am this morning.  Why?  Well, frankly, my complaint is this: why can't anyone bake me a birthday cake?  Break out the violins!  I mean, really, I bake and cook for everyone else... why can't I get it in return?  Maybe this means I'm truly missing my mother as she's away on her trip.

Well, since no one made me anything, I decided to take it into my own hands.  I decided to make myself a pineapple coconut cake.  Those are two of my most favorite ingredients in the world, one of the best combinations ever.  However, I decided to do it without a recipe.  Yup... that's very bright--setting myself up for disappointment on the cusp of my birthday!  I looked in the pantry to see what ingredients I had and threw things together.  

I mixed, I melted, I stirred and poured.  I poured the batter into two round cake pans and let it bake.  And what happened?  The bottoms and sides were a little burned :-(  I have a bad track record with cakes not turning out right and this was no exception.  Bah humbug.  However, I still had lots of batter left so I decided to do what I do better--make cupcakes.  I hauled out my muffin tins and cupcake liners and filled them up and baked them in the oven.  The result?  Way better.  

Thus, the birth of these pineapple coconut cupcakes made from scratch and with an original recipe, whoo-hoo!  They are incredibly delicious, moist, and reminiscent of lying on a tropical beach, watching a golden sunset.  I smeared some cream cheese frosting I had on the top of some; I think it adds a bit of specialness to the cupcake without detracting away from the great flavors.  I'll write more about these in the future after I've tested out the recipe some more but, I thought I'd give you something to drool over.  Happy birthday to the rest of the Tax Day babies out there :-)

Mom's Asian Chicken Salad

My birthday is this upcoming Friday, April 15th.  Yes, I am a Tax Day Baby.  However, my mom's not home.  She's currently on a cruise to the Panama Canal; I think they'll be there tomorrow.  I think I've been a little melancholy.  The house is so empty.  Miss you, Mom.  So, I've been keeping myself busy and whatnot.  I've been contemplating on what this next year will bring.  As you know, I had my first anniversary for this blog last Wednesday.  That was nice.  Now, I'm another year older.  Wiser?  Eh.  More mature?  Eh.  Closer to graduating?  Heck yes :-)  Well, some good news is that The Chef Doc is really starting to take off and I'm excited to get my "brand" out there!

Yes, leaving me alone to think constantly is not necessarily the best thing, haha.  However, in part of the keeping busy I've been cooking a lot.  Surprisingly, much of what I've been making has been reminiscent of what my mother would cook for us.  This Asian Chicken Salad is something I've always enjoyed having.  I'd always have a major part in it--it was my job to cook and shred the chicken.  My mom would buy those frozen chicken breasts from the freezer section of Sam's Club.  After I got home from school, while she was still at work, I'd fill a pot with water and then put in some frozen chicken and let it cook, cool, then shred.  Miss Piggy that I am, shredding is probably not the best task for me as I'm prone to munch on the shredded chicken as it's making its way to the "DONE" bowl.  Whoops.  But, yes, that was my job.  Then, when my mother would come home from work she'd assemble the rest of the salad.

There are a lot of memories associated with this meal.  Not only is it salad but it is also rice porridge.  Wasters we are not, the liquid that was used for boiling (now full of chicken-y goodness) was used to make rice porridge.  What is rice porridge?  Rice porridge is simply a little bit of rice (cooked or uncooked) and lots of water.  There is no lid used; you just add a bit of rice to lots of water and cook it on low, stirring occasionally, and watching it bloom into porridge.  Well, this is how I've been taught to make it.  I guess another term for rice porridge is congee; I didn't know.  You learn something every single day :-)

So, I made this dish over the course of a couple of days since I needed to let things marinate and hang out and whatnot.  When I finally put it together, all I could think about was how fabulously tasty it was and the food memories that it brought back.  Having to do everything myself this time, the work load was larger but, I did not mind.  And it's not even hard work.  It's just prep and then really, the salad is just a matter of putting ingredients together and tossing them in the dressing.  A-ha... the dressing.  Well, it's a sauce.  It's fish sauce.  Or, rather, that's what I always call it but it's not fish sauce, not entirely.  It's the Vietnamese Nước chấm, a dipping sauce.  

The salad:  Simple.  Delicious.  Fresh.  It is thinly sliced cabbage, sliced onions marinated (for a long time) in a vinegar/sugar solution, shredded chicken, chopped mint, and the "fish sauce."  Yeah... that's it.  And it just simply tastes amazing, especially when you have a hot, steaming bowl of rice porridge with it.  There's the plain and slightly salty from the soup and then the cold, sweet, spicy, crunchy, and savory from the salad; it's a great combination.  

So, while my mom and stepdad chow down on cruise ship food, whatever that may be, here I am making food that I grew up with.  And I highly urge you to make my mother's Asian Chicken Salad because it is absolutely scrumptious!  

Hope you're having a great vacation, Mom!  And I can't believe you're paying $55 + $4 activation for 100 minutes of internet connection.  People!  What is up with cruises??!?!  That's pretty ridiculous to me.  That's less than two minutes a dollar.  Gross!  However, I guess she misses me, too, as she wants to stay in contact with me somehow.  Aw.  Motherly love.  You know that all this is going to change once they get home and the constant barrage of nagging begins, don't you?

Tell me: What motherly nostalgic dish do you have in your repertoire?

Yup, I've even got mad chopstick skills.  Hi-ya!

Mom's Asian Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cabbage, cut in half (core out), and thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced into semicircles
• Shredded plain chicken (white meat, dark meat, it's up to you; I do both)
• A large handful of mint, roughly chopped
• "Fish Sauce"
• Vinegar/sugar solution
• Optional: chili garlic pasta aka Sambal

1. For at least a few hours (you can go for a couple of days), marinate the semicircle onions in the vinegar/sugar solution.  It's about 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups vinegar to 1 cup sugar.  I really do not measure.  It should taste more on the sweet side than the horribly sour side.  After a few hours, the onions will have softened a bit and this entire process really reduces the sharp bite of an onion.

2. The chicken.  If you have raw chicken, boiling it in slightly salted water until cooked is one way to go.  Cool it before you shred it.  If you want to make life easy on yourself, then you can probably buy a plain roasted chicken and shred that up.  Aw, but then you can't make a rice porridge...

3. To assemble the salad, in a bowl add some cabbage, mint, and onions.  To that add however much shredded chicken you want in that serving.  Give it a few large spoonfuls of your "fish sauce."  Toss it around.  Transfer it to your serving plate and you're done. 

*For my "fish sauce," I put in fish sauce, a bit of water, lots of sugar, lots of lemon juice, a touch of vinegar, fresh chopped garlic, and chili garlic paste.  However, you can find many different variations and measurements over the internet.  It is honestly up to whatever suits your tastebuds.  I prefer mine to be on the spicier and sweeter side... JUST LIKE ME!*

The cabbage.  This salad is probably one of the only ways I'll have raw cabbage.

The onions in the vinegar/sugar solution. 

Cabbage, mint, and onions.

Yes, I'm rather generous on my chicken shredding sizes.

My "fish sauce"!  I happen to think it tastes better the longer it sits.  I mean, we used to fill the large Sunny D jugs with this stuff to always have on hand :-) 

Now that's some good eats right there.

To flavor up the boiling water, I added salt, fish sauce (the salty stuff not the dipping sauce), pepper, and green onions are put in at the end before serving.  Mmm... this soup is soooooooo comforting!  If you're ever ill, make some rice porridge and you'll feel so much better.

Blogoversary

I woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat and a whole lot of sore in my body.  Yeah, working out yesterday and being in UCI Arboretum's Pond #5 probably took it out of me.  Have you ever walked barefoot through a marsh with brackish freshwater up to your upper thighs?  I couldn't believe the people who showed up to class wearing jeans.  This is a very active lab IN THE MARSH WATER.  Major fail.  

However, this morning I woke up and thought, "Hmm... is it around this time last year that I started my blog?"  I just got onto my computer and lo and behold, it is!  It's been one year!  And holy cow, what a year.  It's great that a lot of this first year has been documented on this blog.  Not only do I share a recipe but I will also share what's going on with me, as I am a natural talker.  

The first bloom in our rose garden.

This past year has introduced me to many people, in the cyberworld and in person.  My blog and The Chef Doc "brand" has given me some opportunities that I might not have had if I didn't start this.  It was a lovely leap into an unknown that has brought, for the most part, wonderful things.

Our jujube tree has woken up to Springtime :-)

Over the year I have been bestowed numerous awards on other food bloggers' blogs.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to repay the gesture.  I'm sorry about that, everyone.  However, I want to do a humongous (can you believe this word didn't get underlined in need of a spell check!??!) thank you to all the people who routinely visit my blog and comment on my posts.  It's always happy times when I read your wonderful comments.  So, off the top of my head, I'd like to thank:

Monet Moutrie of Anecdotes and Apple Cores--she is an incredibly strong woman with uber-fabulous baking skills.

Kim Kelly of Liv Life Too--Kim is always sharing with us the most drool-worthy goods and keeps us up-to-date with her fun family life.

The Mom Chef of Taking on Magazines One Recipe at a Time--she is always sharing fun recipes from the magazines that she receives.  I applaud her for doing this as I don't have much patience myself for recipes.  And, she has the most amazing critics--Hubby and Dudette--who add amazing colorfulness to her posts :-)

My dear friend, Kathleen, for being my official taste tester and for constantly encouraging me to explore and write up new posts.  

Sophia Lee of Burp and Slurp--she is amazing!  A woman my own age at USC living her dream life.  She gets to eat a lot and write about it, as well as write about a bunch of other things as she is a journalist on the Daily Trojan.  Journalism had been my first major, you know.  I'm so happy to have met Sophia in person at the Food, Inc. talk with Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser; she was busily scribbling away in the dark on her notepad!  If you're ever in L.A., hit up Sophia for she knows a lot of good places to eat!

And, of course, we cannot forget Miss Jackie Minite for suggesting that I chronicle all my foodventures in the first place :-) 

Thyme... it grows like a weed.  However, it's great to have around to add into your dishes!

There are many more of you to thank and unfortunately, too little time.  With that said, I hope that this next year will be even better and full of major A-W-E-S-O-M-N-E-S-S!

Thank you so much for visiting my website and leaving great comments!  I am just so happy to share my passion for food and life with all of you!  

As The Chef Doc says, "Happiness and smiles through food."

Apparently, I lived this mantra when I was a tiny tot :-)

Besos y abrazos,

Hester

One of the many fruit trees on our property, these loquats are beginning to grow like crazy as they climb higher and higher into the sky!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I believe I've finally nailed it.  I've made this cookie three times now and all with slightly different tweaks.  I think I've got it!  Maybe it's a "third time's a charm" sort of thing. 

I first made this triple chocolate cookie recipe the same day that I made my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.  What can I say?  I was on a cookie roll.  Well, I made the cookie a second time and added more Nutella to it and whoa, it looked quite different.  The taste was slightly different, too.  Finally, I made the cookies again and well, I think I'm happy with the outcome.

The triple chocolate comes from 1) Ghiradelli Sweet Ground Chocolate, 2) Nutella, and 3) chocolate chips.  Believe it or not, I used different types of chocolate chips each of these three times.  The first was with semi-sweet chocolate chips, the second time was with milk chocolate chips, and the third time with Ghiradelli 60% Bittersweet Chocolate Chips.  Mmm mmm mmm.  And I shall be honest with you--they all work great!  Depending on what chocolate chip you decide to use, the cookie might be a little sweeter or a little on the sophisticated "bitter" side with sweet notes balancing it out.  I honestly think 60% is a good percentage for chocolate.  Whatever chocolate you decide to use, I guarantee your cookie will be a huge hit!

This cookie is chewy, chocolate-y, and deliciously fantastic.  Good luck waiting for them to cool on the wire rack ;-)  I'm sure your face will be a chocolate mess.  Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 4 tablespoons Ghiradelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa
• 1/2 cup melted butter (brown butter stage)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 1 1/2 cups (one whole bag) chocolate chips of your preference (semi-sweet, milk chocolate, bittersweet, etc.)

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix in the chocolate chips; set that aside.  In a mixing bowl, combine the sugars, melted butter, and shortening.  Don't worry if it looks like wet sand.  Add in the vanilla extract and milk to the bowl and mix until smooth.  Add the eggs.  The mixture will gain a little volume.  

2. After a smooth homogeneous mixture is obtained, add the Nutella.  Once that is one homogeneous mixture, add in the dry ingredient + chocolate chip mixture in thirds.  

3. Once the dough has come together (try not too overmix it), refrigerate the dough for a couple of hours.  

4. Prior to rolling out the dough balls, preheat the oven to 325F.  Form dough balls (see picture for size), and bake the cookies for about 11-12 minutes.  Remove them from the oven and leave them on the sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to completely cool.

In case you don't know what I'm referring to :-)

The dry ingredients.

The bittersweet chips from Ghiradelli were a little bigger than the usual chip sizes you see.

Don't freak out.  The shortening, brown butter, and sugars are going to look like this.  Just mix it until it's all one consistency.

The milk and vanilla extract start to bring the mixture together.

The eggs give you a velvety, smooth mixture.  I love the brown butter specks mixed throughout.

Time for adding the Nutella.

Add the dry mix on low speed so you don't wear the mixture.

Refrigerate for two hours.

Form the dough into little balls.  I'd say a little more than a tablespoon will suffice.

It is important not to move them to the wire rack too soon because they will seem extremely soft.  Leaving it on the baking sheet for a few minutes will let them firm up a little.  Not to worry--this does not interfere with the lovely chewiness of the cookie.  Happy eating!

From Naked to Real: The Birth of the Owl Cookie

As you know, I was recently on Spring Break and on one of those days, I had lunch with my girl, Kendall.  Hanging at her house for some time after awesome food at Rutabegorz, I saw her mom's owl cookies sitting in a large gallon Ziploc bag on the counter.  They were naked little sugar cookies in the shape of owls.  They were for Katie's (Kendall's older sister) baby shower.  I was like, "Ooh neat!"

They're supposed to look somewhat like this, except, I swear, these are partially made with fondant.  Wendy found these and other examples on Etsy.com.

Well, the next day I received a phone call from Kendall's mom, Wendy, with a proposal to decorate the cookies for her since she was swamped throughout the next week with other preparations for the baby shower.  They're supposed to look like these owl cookies she found on Etsy (see above).  Unfortunately, I hadn't seen the printout she had next to the cookies so I just kept saying, "Uh huh... uh huh... okay..."  It was basically a project that would be time-consuming and something a tad bit different from the way she usually decorated cookies.  I was up for the challenge!  I was to work with vanilla dip and royal icing mix from ABC Cakes in Orange.  I was to work with colors because there was a color scheme to the baby shower: red, turquoise, and yellow.  I've not worked with food coloring, vanilla dip, or royal icing.  But, I have a woman who has confidence in me to get the hang of it and do a good job.  So, that helped me get over any fears I might have had.

Well?  What do you think?  How'd I do?

On Monday, I made my own owl sugar cookies using Wendy's recipe and practiced getting the right consistency for the vanilla dip with those because I didn't want to mess up on the real cookies that she had made for me to decorate.  Vanilla dip is something that takes a little practice to get the hang of it; you add tiny amounts of water until you reach the correct consistency.  When I finally figured it out, I started dipping the cookies in the different colors.  Then, I let those dry for a long time as I was in Long Beach the next couple of days.  I came back Thursday afternoon and started back on the cookies.  Their colorful naked bodies were so plain and sad-looking.  I added water to the royal icing mix and then started making the circles for the eyeballs and then the feathers on the body.  I continued decorating and mixing colors together and eventually, I was finished.  It was quite a laborious task!  But, here the cookies were finally finished!  The owls had come to life!  It was not until the very end when I was making the different eyes that they finally became owls.  All I had left to do was bag them and tie them up with ribbon and make them look pretty.  

I've totally got this now.  The beginning apprehension soon dissipated and I was on a roll.  Each owl has its own personality as, well, I am not perfect and thus, they weren't all the same--wings, beaks, toes, feathers, eyes, etc.  But, that's okay.  Spunky owls are good.  Asked if I'd be interested in ever doing this kind of thing again--making cookies that look like they were bought from somewhere--my answer is yes.  So... feel free to contact me if you should like something special done :-)  I hope Katie loves them!  (Thanks for hiring me, Wendy!  I'm so glad that you like them; it was a big WHEW moment!)

Enjoy looking through the transformation :-)  Let me know what you think!

 

Nakedness for three days!

"Why, I can almost sort of see..."

"Now I'm a bit warmer because I have feathers."

"A beak and feet... I'll take it!"

"Wings!  Oh, how I almost feel complete."

"Hoot!  Hoot!  Hoot!  I'm now an owl."

I told you they come to life :-)  Can I get a woot woot?  Or, rather, a hoot hoot?  Congratulations to Katie and Casey on the upcoming birth of their first child, sex unknown, ergo, the owl--a neutral animal that is perfectly fitting for a boy or a girl.  You're going to be awesome parents!