Scalion Pancakes!

Earlier this week I came across a recipe for scallion pancakes, which is just about the only part to Chinese food I'll eat. For some reason no restaurant around here offers them. I started discussing it with Emily who recommended a slightly different recipe. Who knew scallion pancakes are so easy to make!!! The other nice part about making them at home is that you can use less oil, and put them directly on paper towels to soak out more oil when you are done. mmmm so delicious.



Emily was also inspired by our conversation and made them as well this week!

LDCM Cookies

Today we had a govt shutdown party. I made cookies stamped with the image of the satellite our instrument is mounted on. They came out alright

Pizza!!!

Friday during the day peter and I were emailing back and forth trying to figure out dinner plans. We decided on home made pizza...who knew almost all recipes out there require you to start a day in advance! Luckily I found This recipe which only takes 45 minutes to rise! We made two small pizzas and peter and i each added our own toppings. Mine was a white pizza with caramelized onions, spinach, and gorgenzola cheese, and peter's was a pesto pizza with the onions and spinach and ricotta.

Here is my pizza (the more delicious one)



And Here is Peter's less delicious one

Poached Eggs!

I was really late on watching Julie and Julia, but when I did I loved it. Also it made me realize that I've never poached an egg and it looked like fun! So this morning I made peter a poached egg (since I dont want to eat it myself).

Check it out! I'm super proud that it worked first try!

Tomato Sauce

I like to make big portions of home made tomato sauce to keep around in the fridge for whenever we feel like pasta. I like making my own for two reasons, one is that I like the taste better, and the second is I can control more about it such as salt content. Generally I use canned tomatoes of any sort, and include sauteed tomatoes, garlic, and herbs and spices. I decided recently to try using fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and started with the fun first step of blanching the tomatoes. I also used fresh herbs instead of dried ones. The outcome was pretty good, but in my opinion the the canned tomatoes result in better sauce both texture and flavor wise. I'll probably go back to the cans for next time!

the best Peanut Butter in the world

Last night while watching the snow fall outside, I decided it was finally time to try making my own peanut butter. This is something I've been wanting to try for a while. I found an easy recipe and got to work.



This is seriously the best peanut butter i've ever had. It almost tastes like the peanut butter in a reeses cup!

Home Made Gingerale!!

I made my own ginger ale last night, using most of Alton Brown's Recipe, but replacing the step where you add yeast to carbonate it, by using my awesome Soda stream to carbonate it!

My apartment smelled delicious as it simmered. After straining out the ginger I decided to try the syrup on its own. It was spicy and hurt my mouth, I wouldn't recommend that. I then mixed it with my bubbly water and a splash of lemon juice and it tasted almost store bought!


I'd like to try rootbeer next, but I'm not sure where to buy sarsaparilla.