Omelet Muffin

I was home the other day and my mom showed me these cute little omelet muffins she had made herself for breakfast. They are perfect for anyone who is on the go and needs to grab something fast for breakfast because you can make a bunch (9-12) at one time and then have them for the rest of the week. I tried one while I was home and they were delicious. I definitely recommend you try to make some of your own if you're one of those people who is always too busy to eat in the morning. My mom made her's with spinach, mozzarella cheese, garlic and onion, but just like an omelet you can put whatever you want in it. Oh and one more awesome thing about these: you can eat them hot or cold (depending on how much time you have and your preference) making them that much easier to prepare in the morning.

Ingredients
6 eggs
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 milk (can be any percent you like)
2 cloves garlic - minced
1/4 small onion - minced
Olive oil
Pam
Salt
Pepper
Cupcake pans to bake in!


Here's how it's done
• Preheat oven to 375° and make sure spinach is defrosted before you start.
**Note: you can run the frozen spinach under hot water to defrost it quickly, just be sure to strain the excess water from it when you're done.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, cheese, and salt & pepper to taste.
• Put 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic until it is softened, then add the onions and continue cooking until the onion is also soft.
• Add the spinach to the frying pan and cook until the spinach becomes wilted.
• Add spinach, garlic and onion mixture to egg mixture.
• Spray the cupcake tray with Pam.
**Note:You don't need those little paper cupcake wrappers, just spray the tray so your egg muffins don't stick.
• Pour mixture into cupcake tray. You should fill each about half way.
• Place tray into pre-heated oven and bake until your egg muffins turn a golden-brown. This will take about 15-20 minutes.

This is how my mom had them stored in the fridge.
Put paper towel on the plate & cling wrap over the plate.

I hope that everyone can find this recipe helpful for those mornings when you're trying to rush off to your class, internship or job, but you don't want to skip breakfast completely. Just like a lot of my other recipes, this one can be tweaked to your own unique tastes. So pick whatever cheese, vegetable or even meat that you love and combine them all into your little egg omelet muffins and enjoy :)

Bow Ties with Hot Sausage

Over the weekend I went to Montauk with my cousins. For dinner we went to Harvest on Fort Pond. All of the food we got was absolutely amazing, but my favorite was the Farfalle with Sausage, Peas and Parmesan. I told my boyfriend about it, and we decided to try our hand at making it for dinner at home. There was a bit of guesswork involved and we excluded the peas because my boyfriend doesn't eat them. Of course the final product wasn't nearly as good as the original, but we were able to make a pretty nice rendition of Harvest's dish. 

Ingredients
Farfalle (bow tie pasta)
Italian sausage (we used hot, but if you don't like spicy you can use sweet)
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese


Here's how it's done:
• Bring water to a boil in pot large enough to hold desired amount of pasta.
• Once water is boiled, pour bow ties in.
• Heat a medium sized pan and coat the bottom in oil. (Not too much, just enough to cover the bottom).
• Place a few sausage links in the pan and cook them until they turn brown. You'll have to turn them so that they cook evenly.
**Note: cut them in half to make sure they are fully cooked. If they middle is bright red and raw looking they will need a few more minutes.
• When the pasta water comes to a boil for the second time, strain the pasta and put it back in the pot.
• Drizzle a little bit of olive oil onto the pasta.
• Once the sausage is done, slice it into thin circles and put it on top of the pasta.
• Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and serve.


This is definitely a dish I want to continue making, adding things to make it better each time. Maybe next time I'll be able to convince my boyfriend to give peas a chance (does anyone remember this All That skit?!) or maybe the dish could be made better with some red sauce. It's pretty plain to begin with, so there are many ways to add to it and create something new. So decide what you want to add to the recipe, make the basics, put it all together and enjoy :)

Sake II

I love Japanese food, both hibachi and sushi, which is why I'm so glad I discovered Sake II last year. (FYI don't click the link if you're in class or the library and your volume is on...their website plays music!) Sake II is located on E 187th, roughly 5 blocks from Fordham's gates. Just like I did with Simon's Deli, I'm going to make a pros and cons list for Sake II.

Pros:
1. It's real sushi...and you can even choose what goes into it.
    I don't know about you, but sushi from the caf really doesn't cut it. You can only put vegetables in it and the seaweed is on the outside. The premade sushi from the Grille or the Deli is nice if you like those kinds of rolls, and if they're in stock that day. I miss the days when the Ramskeller was still around and you could make whatever roll you wanted.
2. It's cheap. Most rolls are around $3.00 and the hibachi dinners (which come with soup, salad, vegetables and fried rice) range from $9.00-$13.00. They also have lunch specials everyday until 4:00pm.
3. They deliver to campus AND you can place your order online. 
   I just find it easier to place the order online and pay online with a credit card, this way you don't have to deal with misunderstandings over the phone. It's all typed up, making it less likely that you'll get a screwed up order.
4. The food just tastes good!
   I really wasn't expecting to like Sake II as much as I do. The food was so cheap I figured it must not be that great, but it definitely surpassed my expectations.


Cons:
1. You can't use flex dollars (damn you real world!) like you could if you were getting sushi on campus.
2. The delivery time is quite slow. Occassionally they'll surprise you and be at your door in about 20 minutes, but more often than not you'll be waiting 30-45 minutes for an order.
3. You have to spend $10.00 in order for them to deliver, which given their low prices may be hard to do if you're ordering sushi for one.


So if you're craving sushi or hibachi (which I definitely do at least once a month) and you haven't found a Fordham substitute to your sushi place from home, I definitely recommend you try Sake II. It's close to campus, so you could walk there for lunch with some friends, or you could always just order it to your dorm/apartment. The quality is great and the prices are low, what more could a broke college student living off Sodexo ask for? :)

College Cookbook: Dorm Eating and Apartment Feasting

I needed to review a book for an assignment, so given that my topic is cooking, I chose College Cookbook: Dorm Eating and Apartment Feasting by David Poran. While we haven't yet gotten a chance to make any of the recipes in the book, my boyfriend and I have already marked a bunch that we'll be trying out soon. I've decided to do my book review as a comparison between the cookbook and my blog. Here we go!

College Cookbook:
• It has a spectacular introduction! The first four chapters are dedicated to kitchen and cooking basics from the appliances you'll need, and how to store food, to tips on staying healthy. 
I'd like to take this time to point out that my biggest regret since starting this blog is not including an introductory post that explained the blog's purpose and covered some basic items. Mine would not have been nearly as comprehensive as the introduction to Poran's cookbook, but I think it would have been really helpful to my readers.
• It distinguishes between dorm food and apartment food, basically by level of difficulty and what is needed to prepare each dish. 
This is something I never would have even considered, but will definitely come in handy next year since my boyfriend is graduating, and I'm staying in O'Hare with my best friend who is in RA.
• It covers everything. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, salads, soups, sides, dips, and more. There is even a chapter at the end about how to make homemade takeout! (Okay so that's an oxymoron, but I meant making the food you'd normally get as takeout in your own apartment.)


Flavors of Fordham:
• It's created by a college student for college students. So the majority of the recipes are easy and not terribly time consuming. 
• You don't need more than the basic kitchen supplies to execute the recipes. While I love the introduction for College Cookbook, some of the recommended appliances in "Chapter 2: Great Gadgets" are a bit unnecessary for most college students. George Forman Grills and blenders are great, but things like mixers, food processors, rice cookers probably won't be used very often by college students. 
• My blog caters to the Fordham area. There have been some (and there will be a few more) posts on places to get take out in the area surrounding the Rose Hill campus we know and love. 
• It's personal. Poran's cookbook is definitely more informative and professional than my blog, but I never wanted my blog to be like that. I wanted to keep it lighter, funny at times, and keep a personal story going. 


I feel that both my blog and Poran's cookbook have strengths and weaknesses. Obviously Poran's book is more extensive and boasts expertise in the culinary area, but my blog has a bit more of the college feel because I'm still living in the world of college cooking, where Poran's college days were spent learning to cook like a pro. My blog is nowhere near perfect, but hopefully with some help from Poran's cookbook, I can improve both in the kitchen and in the blogosphere.

French Toast

French toast is not my first choice of breakfast foods, but my boyfriend really wanted to make it one night so I agreed. It turned out better than I expected and tasted a lot better than I remembered (the last time I'd had French toast was about 12 years ago). I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon, but when it's all mixed together and smothered with syrup you can barely even tell. I've become a fan of French toast now, so if you're like me and haven't had it since you were a kid, I suggest it's about time to try making some for yourself and giving it another chance. 

Sorry about the photo - it was taken before I got everyone's feedback.
Also, sorry my boyfriend took a bite out of it before I got to take the picture,
he was really excited about his French toast!

Ingredients
4 slices of bread (we used white bread)
2 eggs
Cinnamon
Syrup
Egg Whites (or just regular eggs if you prefer)
Hot sauce (or anything else you'd want on your eggs)


Here's how it's done:
• Crack the two eggs into a bowl and mix as if you were going to make scrambled eggs. Add some cinnamon into the bowl as well. (The amount really depends on how much you like cinnamon, but you shouldn't put in more than 3 tablespoons)
• Heat up a pan over a medium sized flame, put a little bit of butter in the pan or spray it with Pam. 
• Dip the bread into the egg and cinnamon mixture, making sure the bread is completely coated on both sides.
• Put one of the egg coated pieces of bread into the pan (two if your pan is large enough) and let it cook for a minute or two. Lift it up with a spatula to check the bottom before flipping and cooking the other side for about the same amount of time. You want to cook it long enough so that it is browned a little, but not too long or else it will dry out.


Meanwhile:
• If you're using regular eggs you'll have to crack them into a bowl and scramble them first, but if you're using prepackaged egg whites you can just pour those into your pan.
• Heat up a pan over a medium sized flame, put a little bit of butter in the pan or spray it with Pam.
• Add your eggs to the pan and mix around continuously until they become little fluffy balls of egg. Make sure there is no liquid left before turning off the flame and removing your eggs!
• Add some hot sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper, or whatever else you can top eggs with!


Now cover your french toast in syrup - or if you're feeling adventurous you can try topping it with the strawberry syrup sauce I posted a few weeks ago - and enjoy :)

Empanadas

What are empanadas? They're basically the Latin American take on beef turnovers, or beef patties. I'm half Puerto Rican, so growing up I always assumed empanadas were a Puerto Rican thing, however, according to Wikipedia, the Internet's most reliable source, I have learned that quite a few different Latin countries, and even some other nations, have their own versions of this dish. Normally, an empanada would be fried, but my mother always used to bake them, so that is actually my preference because the fried ones seem greasy to me. Don't get me wrong though, they are still muy delicioso when fried, so if you've got a deep frier or some spare oil you're dying to use, you could try frying some of them to see which you prefer! Also, it would probably be wrong of me not to warn you of how time consuming making empanadas can become, especially if you're making a ton of them. I suggest having your friends help out, so you can get done faster and everyone gets to join in on the fun!

The empanadas can be eaten by themselves, but I recommend pairing them with rice and beans. 

Ingredients
1 pound of chopped meat
1 packet of Sazón
Adobo
1 package of Goya discos grandes para empanadas
*There are a few things I want to point out here*
     1. The discs are found in the freezer section of supermarkets. I bought mine at Modern on Arthur Ave. However, they don't carry them in my Stop & Shop at home, so depending on where you live they may be a bit difficult to find.
     2. Goya makes discos and discos grandes (for those who don't know español that just means large discs). I used the discos grandes when I made these. With one pound of meat you can use an entire package of 10 discos grandes, but if you use the smaller discs you will need two packages of 10 in order to use up all of the meat.
     3. In addition to the plain discs that I used, Goya also makes orange ones. Technically there is a difference, but I personally can't really taste it. So if the orange ones are all you can find, the resulting empanadas will be just as delicious. 


Here's how it's done:
• First, make sure your discos are defrosted! They are impossible to use if they are still frozen.
(• If you're going to use the recipe I linked to earlier to make rice and beans with the empanadas, you should make the beans while you prepare the meat, and then make the rice while the empanadas are baking).
• In a medium pan cook the chopped meat thoroughly. Turn off gas once meat is fully cooked.
• Strain the grease out and put the meat back into the pan.
• Add the sazón and add some adobo to taste. Mix the seasonings around until they cover the meat as evenly as possible.
• Pre-heat your oven to 350°. 
• Place one disc on an empty plate. Put meat on one half of the disc, and be sure to leave some space around the edges. 
**Note: you don't want to pile the meat too high, or else your empanada will be difficult to close.

• Fold the empty part of the disc over the meat and match up the edges.
• Using a fork, press the sides together. Be sure to do this for entire half-circle, you don't want your empanada to pop open in the oven!

• Place your finished empanadas on a baking sheet, or pan to go into the oven.
• When all of your empanadas are ready, place them into the oven. Cook them for 10 minutes, flip them and then cook for another 10 minutes. Depending on the strength of your oven they may need an additional 5-10 minutes on each side. 
• You'll know they're done when they have those golden marks on the top and bottom, like in the first picture. 
**Note: They are basically little pockets of heat so make sure you let them cool off for a few minutes!


Once your empanadas have cooled off a bit and your rice and beans are ready, load everything up on your plate and enjoy :)

Fancy Funfetti

Last week my boyfriend decided to bake a funfetti cake. Easy enough...just follow the instructions on the box, and in about 30 minutes you have yourself a cake. However, he decided that plain funfetti cake would not do, especially since he forgot to buy frosting. So instead of going back to the store or just eating the cake plain, he made a syrupy strawberry sauce using frozen strawberries. It only took him a few minutes to make, and it really dressed up the entire funfetti cake!

Ingredients:
Frozen, whole strawberries (10-12)
Sugar (about 1 cup)


Here's how it's done:
• Put strawberries in a pan on medium heat.
• Pour sugar into pan over strawberries while stirring.
• Continue stirring (and adding sugar, if you want) until the strawberries are soft.
**Note: the whole process only takes about 5 minutes.


This entry was pretty short, but it's just a quick way to dress up a plain dessert! If you like it, try it out with other desserts like ice cream, or try cutting a hole in a cupcake and filling the inside with the strawberries! 
Now just drizzle some of the sauce over your cake, and pour the rest with the strawberries on the side and enjoy :)