More Cookies. Shapes Included.

Being part of the Varsity Football Team Moms, my mom had a little task to do. Before every game we are provided with a pre-game meal which includes desserts, such as cookies or brownies. My mom decided to go all out for this. So I was forced into helping her, which was fine, but it was a lot of work, which was not fine.

First off, these cookies had to be made a day in advance because they needed to be frozen before you iced them. Second off, when they were ready, the icing wasn't easy to make because it required food coloring, and it wasn't easy to ice the cookies at all. It was probably one of the hardest things I've done culinary-wise. One mistake and the cookie was sabotaged. So my mom did them.

In the end, I think everybody on the team was satisfied with these cookies. I can safely say that they were the best cookies I've ever had... in my life. And watching my mom was like watching a professional. It was a good learning experience.

Filet Mignon...and Chili?

I tried to be a professional chef, but that didn't work out so well. Making a steak may not sound like a hard task, but cooking a great steak is a challenge. Especially if your cut of meat is filet mignon. If you don't know what that is, it's like Italian pizza compared to Pizza Hut. Filet mignon is the cream of the crop; it's the most tender cut of beef you can get. This is because the meat is from a non-weight bearing portion of the body, so it's not tough at all.

Unfortunately, even though I had an amazing cut of beef, I couldn't perfect it. Somehow, I made the meat tougher than it should have been. And my idea of using chili as a side didn't turn out so well. And the bellpeppers didn't compliment the steak at all. For the price of this meat, you should get a professional to make it. Not an amateur.

Thanks,
Ming

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Check the bony fingers of a real chef.

A nostalgic childhood favorite, and still remains to be one through all these years. I'm not much of a chocolate person, but mix it with cookies and I give in. I'm sure all of you people have watched your parents make cookies, even if they were pre-made ones. Taking on the responsibility of making cookies for your kids is a skill that I think people should take very early on.

The cookies turned out a-ma-zing. Just as I expected. ;) But mainly because I took a lot of the work out of making cookies. Instead of making little balls of dough and placing them perfectly spaced apart, what I do is spread all the dough over a baking pan and then after they cook cut them into squares. Lazier cookies with all the same taste. Oh, and for some reason these cookies were very oily... probably because I put two sticks of butter in. Delicious!

Thanks,
Ming

Fast Foods

So this is a deviation from the norm, but I want to take the time to share my thoughts on fast food. Let me also say that I do not prefer fast food over regular cooking, but some of it I do enjoy and would like to try to make some attempts at making some of my favorite fast foods.

Let's start with McDonald's. I hate almost everything there. The burgers, the cheeseburgers, the soda (except Sprite), the fish, and even most of the chicken items that they have. Except Chicken McNuggets. I've been eating those ever since I was about 4. I have no idea what it is about them, but I can eat 40 of them in one sitting without barbeque sauce (and I have). I always have and always will love this fast food.

Another fast food chain, that happens to be owned by McDonald's, is Chipotle Mexican Grill. I crave these burritos almost every day. I've tried to imitate them but I never could! It's a goal of mine to create these amazing burritos. Here, my preference is chicken as well. I don't know what McDonald's does to it, but they're doing it right.

Cooking Block

I have no idea what to make! I have too many ideas in my head and it's stalling my cooking adventures. I want to do something big. Something that will make this interesting for people to read. But when I looked through our cabinets there's not much there that will fulfill my big dreams. I could make appetizers, entrees, or desserts! French fries, onion rings, steak, chicken, Mexican food, Italian food, cake, and even ice cream!

Also, I want to start a process that involves more than one post. This means a bread that needs to rise, or bacon that needs to be cured, or something else that needs to be aged. Basically something that takes a lot of time and will pay off for the hard work in the end.

I just wanted to share some of my ideas with you because I haven't posted anything lately! Sorry about that, I'm getting on it.

Thanks!
-Ming

The First Meal

Homemade Chicken Nuggets!
Chicken nuggets have always been one of my favorite dishes (but I've only ever had McDonald's chicken nuggets so that's not saying much). But tonight I got home and saw that my mom had taken chicken out for dinner. I didn't want whatever she was making so I made dinner for us. I cracked an egg into a bowl and put seasoned flour into a different dish. Sorry, I never measure or keep track of the spices I use, I just create food. So then I dipped the chicken that I had cut into "nugget-y" pieces into the egg and then into the flour and put them in the frying pan that was heavily oiled.
This is what I got:

Delicious.

-Ming

Amateur/Mediocre Chef

Hello!

This is going to my first blog I've ever written.
I enjoy cooking a lot, and I enjoy trying to make people laugh. In this blog I'll try to combine those two. I also would like to say that this is not and spin-off of the book/movie "Julie and Julia". I'm expecting this blog to actually be interesting, and it's me making whatever I want to make! Not any cookbooks or anything.
I'll be trying to make appetizers, entrees, and desserts at least once a week, take pictures of them, then write about the experience of making and eating the food was.
There might be a little snippet in this blog about something that REALLY piques my interest (the 49ers making playoffs?), but I doubt that will be too often.

Hope you enjoy this blog as much as I plan on enjoying it!

-Ming