How to Make: White Chocolate Mahjong Tiles

this is all you need: white chocolate, a small paint brush, some sort of small-headed chiseling tool like a needle or toothpick, and food coloring























hmm yea; i definitely need some practice. willy wonka here i come..

-Angela

BBQ Ribs

In my high school days, my grandpa would sometimes pick my younger brother and I up after school and treat us to a late lunch. Despite his modest aged appearance, he is quite the eloquent socialite and always sports aviator sunglasses with a charm reminiscent to Top Gun. He probably went out around town more often than I ever did as a teen (I prioritized my studies you see.. cough*cough*).

Anyways, my old old man knows the dining scene in Sacramento like the back of his hand, especially when it comes to burgers and the like. One day, he drove us around a dim alley lined with shady empty warehouses and a valley of cold rusty delivery trucks. He chimed, "I'm gonna treat you to something very special today; it's one of my favorite lunch spots"

Me and my bro look at each other with frightened eyes "Uhh...grandpa.. are you sure it's around here.. this place looks..not exactly family friendly"

He payed us no mind and continued driving confidently and smugly.

"Has he finally gone senial, sis?"

Finally he stopped the car in front of this long warehouse with faded pale blue paint and a lot full of cop cars and vans that looked like they've snuck in a couple immigrants in their time. Family-friendly was not the word indeed.

A thick trail of smoke slithered through the sky from the warehouse's small chimney and a blinking 'OPEN' sign welcomed us at the front door.

As my gramps opened the door and let us through, a long bench of tough and rough looking cops and truck drivers greeted us with curious stares. Instantly, however, my fears were distracted by a fragrant smoky and inviting smell tickling my nose. "Oh...that smells...goooood!!"

Before we know it, me and my family are chowing down on some of the best ribs I ever had at Junior's Texas BBQ.

Here's their sauce and homepage:http://www.jrtexasbbq.com/jr.htm



Softest, porkiest (i don't actually know waht connotation this word implies..) ribs in Sac! Go! Go!

Here's my attempt at following Jr's footsteps-





Here's a helpful video for grilled and oven-baked ribs:

I actually followed another recipe, so I can't say I know whether or not this guy is right; but from what he says the recipe sounds basically the same. Also, I like how the page the video came from allows a lot of room for individual preferences regarding flavor.

1) Season and Marinate!
I just layered on a lot of black pepper and minced garlic and some salt cause I figured the BBQ sauce would being overpowering anyway..but who knows until they try?



2) Spread on the BBQ sauce and bake at 325 degrees for and hour and raise the temperature to 375 for another 10-20 minutes.



3) Eat!


I used frozen ribs so that may have compromised the tenderness, so it wasn't as soft as I expected, but still very good. This was definitely easy, just takes time.

-Angela

Blueberry Pancakes from Scratch

Finally!!

It's blueberry season, people!!

Bust out your weaved fruit baskets, frolic in a Disney-esque enchanted forest, and come home with enough blueberry gold to make any sweet fairytale grandmother croon with approval.

Or just hop on your rusty bike and pedal to your local farmer's market under the merciless heat and come out of the trip feeling that the blueberries were worth the eight buckets of sweat and sunburn.

Anyways, here's how I celebrated my favorite fruit over the weekend:




Made with love :). See how!-



The goods:

1 cup flour 

2 eggs 

2 tbs milk powder 

2 tsp vanilla extract or almond powder (shown on the blue spoon)

3 tbs heavy whipped cream

 as many blueberries that you can fit in your stomach

Here's my baby egg beater, cute huh? Plus, it's very handy when you just want to whip up some dipping sauce or dressing or something small.

Mix it all up and heat the griddle over medium-high heat. 


My first attempt at making a heart was... off...

Much better!

After bubbles start surfacing, toss the blueberries on top and slightly layer on some more batter. Let it sit another 2 minutes, then cross your fingers and tell anyone nearby to take cover, and flip the pancake!

Successful?



- Angela

How to Make Kick-Ass Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I have to say, my pizza could have given California Pizza Kitchen (which sucks anyways) or BJs (they know their pizza) a run for their money.



Here's how to save money on delivery and save your stomach from cheap-quality pizza overload-




You need two things:

1) An At-Home Bread Maker




2) A mini non-stick round baking pan for mini-sized pizzas which is great so people can individualize their sauce and toppings.



Pizza Dough:

3/4 cup water (80-90ºF)
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

1) Toss all the ingredients in; preferably, throw all the liquids first, then the dry ingredients.

2) Set the settings to dough, which would start kneading the dough for about 1:15 minutes. 3) After it's done, the dough should be fluffed and puffed. Take as much dough as you need to make the crust as thick as you want. Try not to fold or handle the dough too much or else it will get dense and flat.

4) Glaze over your sauce- this was my weapon of choice:


A few recommendations:
-I sauteed the chicken breast bits in the buffalo sauce so the flavor would sink into the meat. If you put raw chicken on top of your pizza to cook in the oven, it will taste very very bland.
-Don't cook raw vegetables before you put it on top of your pizza, or else it will overcook and get mushy.

5) Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on it while its baking in case it burns.

Man I love my bread machine

- Angela

Nintendo Gamer's Cupcakes

Candice and I want to work with marzipan soon.. maybe we can do Kingdom Hearts cakes.. :O****... If anyone is interested in joining us, drop a comment! :D

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Candy Art by Craig Kanerick and My Starburst Bouquet

For my art class last quarter I had to make a sculpture out of materials that cost $2 total- this was the result!


On that note, here are some spectacular shots by Craig Kanerick. He is a candy photographer based in New York.

http://www.rockmade.com/wall/

I am in love with these colorful close-ups.
-Angela

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Slideshow Potluck & Recipes

Photographer Casey Kelbaugh founded the non-profit organization in 2000 in Seattle, where he hosted more than 20 of these gatherings in his backyard. When he moved to New York in 2003, the events continued in his East Village apartment before landing in larger venues such as storefronts, art galleries and outdoor parks—not only across the nation but also in international locales such as São Paolo, Barcelona and Berlin.

Each Slideluck event usually encompasses a general-topic portion, as well as a themed segment in which participants submit images relevant to that particular subject. While past contributors have included the Guggenheim Foundation, Elliott Erwitt, Shepard Fairey, Chris Buck, Nina Berman and other well-known names, each exhibition also features an equally impressive number of amateur shutterbugs.

I think this is a cool idea; plus, it's very fitting for a campus event.

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Upcoming Slideluck shows will take place in Portland and San Francisco. See below for details.

Sandbox Studio 
25 April 2009, 7-11:30pm 
420 NE 9th Avenue 
Portland, OR 97232 map 
tel. +1 503 784 7331

Left Space Studio 
8 May 2009, 7-11pm 
2055 Bryant Street 
San Francisco, CA 94110 map 
tel. +1 415 285 5338

Also, people post their recipes online- http://www.slideluckpotshow.com/index2.php?PageName=recipes

I'm definitely gonna give that 'Butterfinger Rum Cheesecake' a try; keep you posted.

-Angela

Crispy shrimp wraps and more exciting hot pot

We were very fortunate to have guest Chef Jim stop by for a visit ready to try a recipe for crispy shrimp wraps in lettuce. At the same time, we were throwing a hot pot extravaganza so the house was packed with people preparing food!

The idea of the shrimp wraps was to add crushed ramen noodles to the diced shrimp and fried rice filling for the crispiness. We started out by dicing the shrimp:

And combining all the fried rice, shrimp, and ramen noodles into a pan:




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However, we made the mistake of adding the ramen noodles a bit too early so it became a little soggy and not quite so crispy.
Jim does a taste test!
Not bad! The end result:
Delicious!

Next, we had a whole team preparing hot pot dishes, such as wontons:
We also needed many vegetables such as onions.....
...and bok choy....

Angela's dukboki dish, which was delicious but VERY spicy!!!

The spicy pot:

The mild pot:There were a LOT of people....
And even more food....
If anything, we were successful in making everyone leave with a full stomach!

- Candice