Fun with Friends Pt. 6: Clubbing!

 I was able to rest most of the day on the 29th and play some games, do some cursed cooking, etc. Which was good because I went clubbing that night with Xerenite!!

Random Cooking Stuff

 Been doing some experiments in the kitchen recently!

Also went to the hospital with my mom a couple more times for more blood transfusions and some medical appointments so had a casual but nice outfit on~

Tiana's Kitchen~ Veg Dumplings

I've been on a roll recently! Since living alone and trying to save money, I've experimented a lot with new recipes.  There have been loads of failures, but I'm happy to share my successes.  Here are some vegetarian dumplings I made almost entirely from scratch!  The skins are from the market by my house as I don't have the equipment to make it, but the recipe is dead simple and you can swap out the ingredients to please your palette.


Only make sure the filling is not too wet, or the dumplings will fall apart!

Tiana's Kitchen~ Cauliflower Crust

Common in western cooking communities, I finally gave cauliflower a try as a replacement for processed carbohydrates!

The sudden turn for chilly weather has me all wrapped up in a cocoon wishing for warm, toasty comfort foods without the post-binge weight gain.  After simplifying many recipes I've found online, I decided to give this one a try.

It is a tedious process, but worked surprisingly well!  The ingredients I used may be more simple, but many items are not so common here compared to the west (what is nutritional yeast???) with the most exotic "trendy" food being chia seeds.

This recipe is based off of Chocolate-Covered Katie (definitely recommend her) but scaled for my equipment available



The crust is surprisingly firm and holds up well if you don't get it wet (as with regular flour pizza-crust)

I would like to use this to make sandwhiches as well.  The wringing process is the most tiring, but if possible, making a larger batch on the weekend would make this recipe a good, healthy replacement for processed breads in the cabinet. Unfortunately my food processor and toaster oven can only make one of these mini batches at a time so I need to make a fresh batch each time want it!

As a side note, the cheese topping on the pizza was also something I made myself.  I think I over-salted it though.... The flavor was heavy!

What's your favorite type of pizza?  And if anybody has other low-processed carbohydrates recipes to share, please do!

Tiana's Kitchen ~ Healthy Banana Oatmeal Cookies (ASMR video)

This is the simplest cookie recipe ever! 1 banana + enough oatmeal/oats to make a dough and then bake!  Good for small batch cookies.

I've been trying to lose the 4kg I gained (yes, I gained it all within around two months - very unhealthy!!) and this is one of the recipes I found online to help curb sweets cravings.  The bananas in all the other recipes I found were about double the quantity of one of the locally-grown bananas here, but I really don't think the measurements are as critical in this recipe (another bonus!) Just mix in enough oats to make the consistency of a cookie dough.

Ingredients:
1 banana (around 56g)
30g rolled oats

Steps:
1) Mash banana and mix with oats.

2) Bake at 180*C for 9 minutes (NOTE: this is for a convection oven. I'm not sure how it would translate to a larger oven, but it's a short baking time so you can just watch the cookies every five minutes or so!)

3)Add cinnamon if desired.

You could really do any sort of mix-in, such as chocolate chips, raisins, chopped nuts, etc.

What's your favorite cookie flavor?  I actually do like oatmeal raisin, though it seems to be an American joke that raisins pretend to be chocolate chips in cookies and are a nasty shock when you bite in.  I don't prefer one over the other, really.  Maybe I'm just an all-around sweets lover!

As with any healthy sweets recipe, do make sure to enjoy in moderation as too much of ANYTHING is unhealthy.  The entire batch of this recipe only yields about five miniature cookies, or one large cookie, so it's OK to make and eat this whole recipe for yourself!  Just make sure you're not making it over and over ^_~

Halloween Treats (Plus My Trick)

Halloween is one of the most fun holidays to me!! So here are some fun and easy food links for you all! I also included a devilish little trick at the end :P But I only suggest you try it on people you know won't mind!

Treats

Melted Witches
(Slight side story: I agree completely with her mini-rant on Halloween costumes in the USA! Halloween shouldn't be a time to see who can wear the least amount of fabric. I am super glad that costumes in Taiwan are still the regular "Disney Princess" or "Fairy" or "Minnie Mouse" type!)


Poisonous Parfaits
These are super easy but look awesome!


Twig Mini Caramel Apples a cute twist on a classic treat!


Brain in a Jar Cupcakes
It looks like that's a lot of frosting for the brain, but there is actually cake inside that too! ;)


Spiderweb Cake in a Jar


Sweet Acorns
Ultra fast and easy! Could be re-used for Thanksgiving and all other Autumn-theme parties too ;)


Pumpkin Pudding Ghosts
Super cute!!! Vegetarians remember to sub agar agar for the gelatin~


Ghost Cake for the slightly more culinary-ly talented! (I am pretty sure it uses the same technique as the heart cake)


Something Savory this way comes!


Coffin Spinach Dip

Tricks
When I was in grade school we got these National Geography-like "magazines" which were usually around 4 pages long. There was always a small section of "fun facts" like how fast a sneeze travels or how much blood our hearts pump. One of the facts that stuck with me was that "Apples, Onions, and Potatoes all taste the same. It is the smell that makes them taste different to us!"

OH REALLY? I have yet to test this theory (plus, I'm sure the textures would give them away) but this gave me a little idea called "Trick or Treat Apples"

Ingredients
*1 bag of apples
*1 big bag of caramels
*1 bag of potatoes
*1 bag of onions
*Something for sticks (popscicle sticks or twigs, etc.)
*Chocolate, sprinkles, nuts, etc. (optional)

Directions
1) Wash all your produce and peel the onions
POINT! You may want to trim your onions and potatoes into a rounder, more apple-y shape to be more convincing! Though if you use a lot of toppings, the shapes will be disguised

2) Melt your caramels in a stovetop pot or in the microwave. While they are melting, put your sticks into your apples and potatoes and onions

3) Coat all your produce with a nice layer of caramel, covering all the way up to the very top! Set down on some wax paper to cool and harden. You can repeat with a second layer of caramel if you wish

4) Time for toppings! Roll in nuts while the caramel is still warm, or drizzle chocolate and sprinkles on top! Crushed cookies also make for a great topping. Actually, it makes it incredibly sweet, but some people like it like that ;)

5) Mix up all your caramel "apples" so it is impossible to tell which is an apple, onion, or potato. TIME TO SERVE YOUR PARTY GUESTS!!!!

**Please Note** As with everything you find on the internet, trying this is at your own risk. You may or may not lose some friends over it ;D (but then those are lousy friends anyway). I do not suggest trying this on your neighborhood children. Their parents may be upset.

Originally I wanted to propose this idea to my manager at the cram school I teach at (I was drunk and on Facebook at the time) in order to teach the children the REAL MEANING of "trick or treat" but luckily I didn't ;D

In all seriousness, if you do try this, LET ME KNOW HOW IT WORKS!!! Do they really taste similar??

Tiana's Kitchen~Easy "Ice Cream" 簡單DIY冰淇淋

熱熱的夏天令人很想吃冰食來降低體溫。但好吃的冰淇淋通常高熱量高脂肪而且加了很多防腐劑和其它人工塑料。想吃健康又天然的冰淇淋也不難! 只需要一種材料就行了!
In the high heat of summer, there is nothing quite as satisfying as cooling down with a scoop or two of delicious ice cream. Unfortunately, regular ice cream tends to be high in fat and calories and/or filled with preservatives or artificial chemicals. Today I will show you how to make a healthy and delicious "ice cream" with only one ingredient!


Ice cream??

Ingredients/材料:
1-2 bananas/香蕉

Directions/做法:

1) 將香蕉剝皮切丁。Peel and cut the banana into slices


POINT! 香蕉越熟越甜。稍微過熟的香蕉不必加糖會健康一點。 The riper the banana, the sweeter it is. Slightly overripe bananas will make the ice cream sweet enough without the need for extra sugar, which is healthier!

2) 把切好的香蕉冰到凍箱裡。 Freeze the banana slices.


3) 想吃冰淇淋時就把凍好的香蕉丟到大杯子裡用料理棒打成泥。When you want to eat ice cream, take out the frozen banana and blend it with a food processor or a hand held blender.



4) 挖出來就能吃了! Scoop it out and enjoy!


POINT! 試試其它水果來換別的口味! 芒果，火龍果，等都能試看看喔! Try different types of fruit for different flavors! Try mangoes, dragonfruit, etc.

Snapshot!

Homemade food is good. It is delicious and the making process is fun. You also don't need to worry about cancer-causing chemicals in your food. By the way, that post was just the first one I found :3 It has spread past drinks and has been found in breads and other foods too :o

Anyway, baking is fun, but requires lots of equipment and space to keep said equipment. Taiwan is rather short on space. And thus, we avoid buying single-purpose goods. Like waffle-makers, which only make.... waffles. Well guess what? I LOVE WAFFLES SO I GOT A WAFFLE MAKER.


Look at my waffle maker all making waffles and stuff!

Except, it's not making waffles in that photo. Oh no, it's a multi-functional machine! It's busy making pizza pockets.



This was a fun experiment fueled by my lack of oven and recent craving for pizza! It is quite easy to make. Simply make or purchase some pizza crust dough (we made our own) and roll it out quite thin. Then layer crust, toppings, crust on the iron and gently close the lid. Remove excess dough and allow to cook for 5-15 minutes (depending on your iron)

I suggest NOT using liquid-y fillings such as pizza sauce. Use fresh tomatoes instead! Also, the crust may seem too much in a crust to filling ratio, so I would recommend using stronger flavors for the filling. Garlic, basil, and other spices can brighten the flavor intensely!

This would be sort of fun to bring to a picnic or just as a surprise food (like cupfakes!) where it looks like a sweet but is savory!

If you find that your iron is not very accommodating of the amount of filling you would like, you can also put a small wad of dough into the iron to bake (remember, dough expands, so don't overfill!) and then top with toppings and put in an oven or under a broiler for a few minutes to warm up/melt your toppings. Have fun with this!

Tiana's Kitchen~NiYa Toast

I would like to start this post off by telling everybody that I am terrible at editing videos. Seriously. It took me 3 days to edit less than 15 minutes of footage! But I felt that this recipe would be more fun with a video!!

Remember the Mini Garden Meetup I blogged about after Mother's Day? And remember I said, "We were joking about how it was too sweet and decided we are going to invent our own version, but savory instead of sweet"

I actually did it :D I named it after NiYa, who joked about needing to drink soy sauce. NiYa Toast sounds a bit like Honey Toast (MiTang Toast). The subtitles are actually in Chinese, but I wanted to share my hard work! I am planning on getting an English version up too, but the video itself should actually be pretty self explanatory ;D


This is Seafood Flavored NiYa Toast! I plan on trying Curry next :D


Ingredients:
Uncut Toast
Basil
Garlic
Butter
Parmesan Cheese (or any white cheese)
Tri-color veggie mix
Seafood mix
Broccoli, Asparagus, etc. for decoration

Directions:
1) Chop garlic finely and mix with melted butter
2) Cut loaf of bread in half
3) Cut four sides of a square in the center of your half-loaf. Leave about 1cm border and base (don't cut through the bottom!)
4) Cut the bottom free from the side
5) Pull out the center and cut into long rectangles
6) Cover with garlic butter and toast lightly
7) Stir fry veggies and seafood mix in a pan. Season and thicken with cornstarch.
8) Chop basil, garlic, and cheese together to make handmade pesto
9) Place bread rectangles back into the hollow toast center
10) Top with seafood mix and a scoop of handmade pesto (to replace ice cream on Honey Toast)
11) Add small broccoli florets in place of whip and use asparagus in place of wafers
12) Transfer to a pretty plate and decorate the plate
13) You are done!

I think the video should explain everything OK, but if you have questions please feel free to ask in the comments below!

Tiana's Kitchen~Swan Lake

A part of the lure of Lolita fashion is the attention to detail and bringing magic to everyday things. I especially like edible food art because it makes an everyday "blah" event into something more special!

Fancy events always seem to have beautifully presented food displays that look good, smell good, and taste good. I am no expert at food art, but something quick and simple that I CAN do, is make apple swans :) It's not too difficult! I just practiced a couple times and can make one fairly quickly now.



Ingredients:
An apple
Lemon Juice (optional)

Click photos to expand

Directions:
1) Wash your apple. If you will not be eating or displaying it right away, prepare some lemon juice to prevent it from browning after being cut.


2) Cut a thick slice of apple to the side of the core.
POINT! The thicker the slice is, the easier it will be to make the following slices


3) Make a shallow, angled cut in the apple. Turn the apple around and repeat to make a small V-shaped incision shape.


The piece should be removable now


POINT! The shallower you make the cut, the more layers you will be able to make.

4) Repeat this procedure, making deeper and deeper cuts but don't cut through to the bottom.


When you've made all your layers, you should be able to slide them into layers like so:


5) For the wings, first make a cut parallel to the cutting board, then another cut parallel to the last V-shaped cut you made like this:




6) Repeat on the other side


7) One apple can make two swans, so cut another slice of apple and save the core piece. This will make your swan's head and neck!


8) It is difficult to explain how to do the cuts, so I will let the picture show you. the black dot represents the eye of the swan :)

Make sure you pull out the stem!

9) The head should be able to balance itself on the body. Adjust the angle of the base of the neck so your swan isn't leaning its head too far forward. That may make it fall over!


POINT! If needed, you can cut an angle at the base of the neck to help it sit in the V of the body

Tiana's Kitchen~Perfect Parfait

Need a quick snack? Want an easy-yet-pretty dessert? Why not try making a parfait?


BABY Parfait Print!! Haha this photo is over a year old :o Anyway, moving on....

A versatile, adaptable dessert, parfaits work for just about any setting. They can be transportable in the right containers. They can be a simple combination of 2 flavors or a complex and elegant display of culinary art. Adjust according to your own tastes, event themes, and layering skill level!


Directions:

Start by putting your cookies in a plastic bag and smashing them:


You can combine 2 or more types of cookies to make unique flavors


*POINT* Try using granola, Oreos, corn flakes, Chex Mix, nuts, or anything else in small, crunchy sizes!

Next, whip up some whipped cream! Adding flavoring or sugar is optional



*POINT* If your cookie layer is quite sweet, don't make the whip layer too sweet or it will become overpowering!

*POINT* Try using yogurt instead! Yogurt is a bit sour and contrasts nicely with a sweet or lightly salty crunchy layer.

Now, for the fun part: layering!

Start with your container. I am using a take-along container that would be nice for a picnic meetup or potluck-style meetup where the parfait needs to travel. Plastic container is resistant to breaking and the lid helps keep everything neat!


Put a crunchy layer about 7mm-10mm thick on the bottom:


Add an equally thick layer of whip:


*POINT* Try not to touch the sides of the container with your spoon in order to keep it neat. Use a smaller spoon if you need to. Touching the sides of the container will leave white streaks that will be seen in the final product :o

Repeat your layers until you reach the top, finishing with the crumbly layer. Add garnishes such as fruit, cookies, chocolate, etc. if you wish. Then put in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours


And that's it! This "recipe" is simple enough for children to help out in the kitchen:


If you are having a meetup or party at your home or if you don't need to travel too much with the parfaits, try using wineglasses, shotglasses, crystal goblets, etc. for an extra touch of elegance. If your container is tall enough, you can do layers with three different ingredients such as a cookie-fruit-whip combo. Have fun!