Burgers in Winter

Today I was bored. So I made a chicken curry burger. Wanna know what's hard to do without a meat grinder? Make ground chicken. You have to mince the raw chicken and then crush it with the flat of your blade. It takes about 25 minutes to "grind" a normal sized chicken breast.

Worth it?

OMG GENIUS

*salivate*

VERY MUCH SO YES.

Here's how to make the burger.

I also have curried mayonnaise as a dressing. For that I just added a strong dash of paprika and a 1/2 tsp thai red curry paste to 3 tbsp Hellmann's Mayo. In addition the burger is garnished with iceberg lettuce and Newman's Own Pineapple Salsa (medium). The taste is super lean but in the future I am adding more curry powder to the chicken mixture. I only made one patty, even though the recipe called for 4, but reducing the amounts must not have worked out. I'm just gonna eyeball it in the future.

It was also made in an oven set to broil, NOT on the grill. I dont' know how well the chicken mixture will stand up to an open grill, since it was not firm at all and I had to use a pan in my oven for it.

P.S. If you have the time to prepare the meat, I cannot communicate how AMAZING this burger tastes. Try it!

Locked in... with brownies

As an RA, I sometimes get assigned a really really shitty shift. Usually I can plan out this shitty shift and put it on a day that I wouldn't mind having it on. Aparently though, if you exercise your right to come back early from break, you are auto-assigned the worst shift possible. This happened to me.

I had planned to spend most of the day miserable, until my friend Liberty, also an RA, IMed me. She got my attention by talking about baking, and the next thing I knew she had come over and we were making some heavenly cream cheese brownies.

YEAHHHHHHH

Oh, they were tasty

Here's the recipe!

Grilled Brownies (don't worry, we didn't grill them. I don't even know why they're called this.)

They turned out fluffy and cake-y, which, if you know me, is not my ideal brownie. I like them dense and fudge-y. But after I got over that, I found them a pleasant, tasty surprise. Try it!

Epic for all the right reasons or The Molten Mess

In honor of the end of classes my friends decided I would make a cake. This cake in fact. And we knew that it would be delicious in our mouths and we would eat it.

It turned into a pretty epic cake.

A daunting task ahead of me

Taken no less than 1.5 hours after the first photo. You can't see me but i'm covered in cake stuffs.

MMMM LOOKS GOOD DOES IT NOT?

.... Right until I poured that chocolate ganache on.

Things I have learned from this experience: Ganache is hot. Hot things melt frosting. They melt frosting right off the cake. And you know what else? If you do the ganache wrong, it separates into oil and chocolate paste. You cannot see it and I didn't want to take that tragic photograph, but that is exactly what happened to this cake. It was a molten mess of peanut butter frosting and semi-sweet chocolate goo clinging to the porous fluff of the inner cake.

I then transported this cake all the way out to Allston in that driving rain last Thursday. Four of my hungriest friends, and myself could barely make a dent in this rich Reeses cup masterpiece. As shitty as that beast looks? THAT WAS HOW DELICIOUS IT WAS.

Cleanup was kind of a bitch though. Just sayin.

Also, subbed light cream for the half and half in the ganache. No difference, imho.

But what have you done for me lately?

So, my friends, I've been pretty absent from this blog, but no more! I have for you a mondo post that will somehow encapsulate everything cool since September began.

I am still with Andy. And that's pretty great. Not terribly much else to say other than things have been pretty great. He has been DJing everywhere recently, and I have been along for most of it, being supportive and dancing by my lonesome.
He can be found at:
His blog
His music blog
His radio show's podcast upload
His radio show (Wed 10p-12a)


I have a new-found obsession with food blogging and have gone a little nuts creating brand new things to feed myself with.

In the past month I have made:

Apple Blackberry crumble (no pics or links, sorry friends)
Butternut Squash and carmelized onion galettes
(original recipe) (no pics :()
Chocolate cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream frosting
(original recipes) (My version featured left)

I made this last one for my only truly successful House event (I'm an RA this year D:) which was Urban Capture the Flag. Only 8 residents showed but they really enjoyed themselves and desperately want to do it again when it snows. I am, of course all for it. Goodness knows how much I love tackle sports. SO few people turned out that everyone ended up getting a cupcake. The winners just go two.

Lemon Crusted Chicken on fresh bed o'greens (which is dinner at mi casa this evening)

And not least I am about to embark on the dessert which I plan to take to Rory's:

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes (original recipe) drizzled with caramel


Also!
I recently went to New Hampshire with Rory and Tom. Id est, pic spam.