I Am... Friday Finds: 9.2.16
I've got that summertime, summertime sadness, but not really. I kinda feel like I should be feeling the end of summer something hard over here, but, really, how can I complain? Autumn happens to be my all time favorite season. Bring on the crisp and chilly mornings, afternoon sun, and scarves! To be honest, I really love the tail end of summer into early fall.
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I Am... How to Make Galaxy Glaze
I have a very obsessive personality. I can fixate on one thing for hours and hours, days, even weeks. Lately it's been galaxy donuts. I could spend hours looking at their delicious, glossy glaze. That mix of blues and purples with sparkly silver...swoon. I've been going down an internet/instagram hole of galaxy things, so much so that every time Mike looks over at what I'm doing, it's inevitably galaxy related. I wanted to give galaxy glaze a try but didn't want to make donuts, so I came up with the brilliant idea of glazing some oreo thins. I thought it would be relatively simple, especially because I googled the heck out of it. But it turns out, even if a website boasts that they know the key to galaxy glaze, they most probably don't. Most of the sites I ended up on had a picture of the donuts that I wanted to make, but then, at the end of the page, they'd show their pathetic, unattractive and very un-galaxy like donut glazing attempts. Lesson learned friends: don't just drop food coloring into a bowl of icing thinking it'll end up as a gorgeous galaxy. I had quite a few sad oreos before Mike took pity on me and told me he'd figure it out. Mike's exceptionally good at color theory (he is a designer, after all) and after a quick experiment, we were churning out galaxy oreos like there was no tomorrow. This galaxy glaze is seriously out of this world fun. Chat soon, I'm going out to buy a bunch of things I can randomly galaxy glaze! xoxo steph galaxy cookies to go with galaxy hair >_<
How to Make Galaxy Glaze makes about 1 cup glazeRead More →Inspired by @h.rebel This is a standard donut glaze that will glaze just about anything: donuts, cookies, cakes. Like most icing sugar based glazes, it will harden over time. I used Americolor gel colors in navy blue, red red, and maroon. I also used a bit of silver pearl dust for that extra bit of shimmer. Mix the icing sugar and milk together until smooth. Spoon a bit of icing out into a separate bowl and keep it white. Tint your base with just a bit of food coloring – you want it to be very pale, with just a hint of hue. Mix well. Drop on 2 drops of blue and one drop of red and using a chopstick or skewer, drag the color back and forth in one direction, not quite mixing it together, but creating streaks of color. Dribble some of the white icing back on top. With a smooth swooshing motion, dip your cookie or donut into the surface of the glaze, pulling it along the surface to achieve streaks. Let the excess drip off and place on a plate to let dry. Dust with glitter, if desired. From time to time, add more white icing to the bowl to ensure the galaxy effect.
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1.5-2 tablespoons milk
- gel food coloring of choice*
- edible glitter, if desired
- foods to glaze
I Am... Camp Cooking: Hot Dog Jalapeno Hash
Hot dogs are a must when camping. I love roasting them over the fire – they get smoky, snappy and are the epitome of outdoor cooking. And to be honest, I love hot dogs period, no matter how they're prepared. I love them so much that I don't have a problem having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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I Am... Blueberry Crisp
Do you guys ever stress about what to bring over to people's houses, food-wise? I'm a people pleaser so I always want to bring that perfect dish that everyone will love. Mike is completely the opposite of me. His philosophy is: if you like it, they'll like it because obviously you have good taste. I wish I could have his conviction because I'm always flipping and flopping between making something that I think is good and what everyone else will think is good.
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I Am... Cherry Vanilla Soda
I love all things cherry flavored: lollipops, sour candies, popsicles, and of course, soda! From what I gather from my friends and even random people I meet, artificial cherry flavor is not something people look upon with glee. I mean, there is a huge difference between artificial cherry and real cherries, but still, all cherry flavored things are delicious in my books!
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I Am... One Pot Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Burrata
I'm all about the carbs, especially while camping. There's something about being in the great outdoors that just begs to be paired with a big ol' plate of pasta. This is an extra hearty take on a super simple one-pot pasta. Sausages are browned, tomatoes are blistered, and the spaghetti is cooked in the pan, no draining needed. I added some hand-torn chunks of burrata on top for a bit of extra decadence – not your typical camp cheese, but if you bring it with you on your first day and use it right away, I say, why not?! You're camping, treat yourself!
One Pot Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Burrata Recipe serves 2 very generouslyHeat up a large cast iron pan over medium high heat and fry the sausage slices on both sides until lightly browned. Remove from the pan and in the leftover fat rendered out from the sausage, blister the tomatoes until the skins burst and slightly soft. Remove from the pan. Heat up a touch of oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and pepper flakes, stirring often, until lightly golden. Add the water and pasta to the pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil, stirring and flipping pasta with tongs until pasta is al dente and cooked through and water as nearly evaporated, about 8-9 minutes. Add the sausage and tomatoes back into the pan. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper and top with burrata. Enjoy!
- 1 link farmers sausage, sliced
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- oil, for the pan
- 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper flakes
- 6 oz spaghetti
- 2 cups water
- 1 ball burrata
I Am... Green Onion Pancakes
If I had to choose one herb to have magically appear in my fridge, everyday replenishing itself, it would be green onions. I love them so much that Mike came up with an acronym for them for me when I'm making handwritten notes in my notebook: FCGO. Before that, I was laboriously writing out, finely chopped green onions. He wanted to both make fun of me and streamline things so my hand wouldn't get cramped, so he started throwing around "FCGO." It's supposed to be like my version of EVOO, heehee.
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I Am... Lemongrass Beef Salad Rolls
I'm reliving that camp life every time I look through our camp photos. I miss cooking in the great outdoors! We're definitely going to camp s'more this summer, we just need to get out butts in gear. I made these lemongrass beef salad rolls way back in May, when the sun came out after two days of camping in the rain.
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I Am... Prawn Tempura: First Attempt
I'm a huge fan of prawn tempura. And to be honest, I don't know anyone who isn't. I mean, what's not to love about light and crispy batter around tender, juicy prawns? Prawn tempura has always been one of my favorites, ever since I was a little girl. You might even say that it's comfort food for me, as strange as that sounds.
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I Am... Rainbow Cake, Malaysian Edition (Kek Lapis)
When I was young, my mom used to bake. A lot. She made multitudes of muffins, loads of loaves, countless cakes. There was this one cake in particular that our whole family was in love with. She called it butter cake and I think it was a simple pound cake, but I'm not sure; I just texted her to find out. She always made it in an angel food tin, even though it was nothing like angel food cake. It was dense, buttery, sweet, and the smell while it was baking was out of this world. We used to eat it fresh out of the oven, barely cooled. It was pure love, baked into a cake.
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I Am... Friday Finds: 8.12.16
The weather has been flirting with fall over here and while I'm still in summer mode (give me ALL the stone fruit), I'm getting excited about pumpkin season. I've also been making lots of mini mini pancakes, just for fun. Mike and I are addicted to picking them up and dipping them, kind of like little pancake chips (but soft and fluffy).
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I Am... Mac and Cheese Scotch Eggs
Mike's favorite cheese is Jarlsberg. This wouldn't seem particularly significant to you because you don't know Mike's history with cheese. The truth is, he doesn't have much of one. He spent his youth being that sad dude who had his pizzas cheese-less, with only a slick of tomato sauce valiantly trying to keep the pepperoni hanging on (he still prefers it this way sometimes). See, Mike grew up allergic to cheese. Not a crazy allergy, just the hive-y kind. He didn't avoid cheese like crazy, but it definitely wasn't something that he enjoyed.
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