Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Almost a week after Anita's post I am finally getting to mine. Anita came to me with this idea and I thought it nothing but brilliant. Like every kid growing up, i have the classic "top five dream jobs list". To this day (in no order) it contains: an assassin (borne status), a professional runner, a photographer for national geographic (who wouldn't want to get paid traveling to the worlds most beautiful places taking pictures), a victoria's secret angel model (i know this is in every girls list), and of course a chef. Only in the past five or so years has the last one popped into the list. I cant say when the joy to cook came about, but its definitely there. I've spent numerous hours of my childhood, looking over my mom's shoulder asking her 'why she does this, and why she does that', but the answers have sunk deep into my memory.
Now that I am away at school, there is limited time to look over her shoulder in curiosity, but i still call her with my curious questions. Often times my dad answers; I immediately ask to talk to mom. He then reply's with "cooking question? just a second...." He always knows that's exactly what i'm calling about. She enjoys talking about it as much as I do and is now the curious one asking me what i've done recently. One of the best things about cooking is the experimentation that comes along with it. Its always fun to change something and add your own twist to it. And besides this, it is even better when you hear someone say they love what you've made them. Watching someone take that first bite it a little nerve-racking.
Its that time of year for pumpkin; and as my own personal rule, i never eat anything pumpkin until October first. Now that we are well into the month i've been getting my fair share of pumpkin and am loving every moment of it. To finish it off, here is a recipe for some pumpkin cookies which are my favorite. Everytime I get to see my brother around this time of year, these are what he requests without fail. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown suar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt and ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg and ground cloves
2 cups MILK chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350F. Beat butter until smooth and then beat in both sugars until mix is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time and mix in vanilla and pumpkin. In a seperate boel mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Slowly beat flour mixture into the batter. Fold on chocolate chips. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Rice Pudding

Who knew it would be so hard to find pumpkin carving kits? A couple days ago, I decided to carve pumpkins despite knowing that they probably won't last longer than a week. Not that I have anything against the classic "Boo!" face design, but when I take the time to go through the messiness of "degutting" a pumpkin I want to do something make it count. So after searching two stores with no luck, I finally found some designs at the drug store. Something inside of me wishes I were artistic enough to make some wonderfully creative design on those unconveniently curved pumpkin walls, but its just too hard. I need the paper designs that I tape to the side, the hole puncher and the mini knife...you just need to accept your abilities for what they are sometimes. They ended up turning out pretty good. I did one and Ryan did one...please feel free to vote on your favourite.

So the trees have offically accepted that fall is upon us, I have already carved my first pumpkin, and I find myself facing aisles of candy everytime I walk into the grocery store. It's Halloween season. I have to admit...I'm not one for the pumpkin flavour. Sure, the idea of pumpkin pie is great...but I'm just not a fan. Can't even get myself to like the pumpkin latte's that people go so crazy for at Starbucks every year. I went as far as to roast the pumpkin seeds from my carved pumpkins last week in an attempt to find something I could appreciate about pumpkins apart from carving them. I can only remember my mom roasting pumpkin seeds one time when I was younger, and all I can recollect is her telling me, "not worth the work". Unfortunately, I have to agree with her. However, I know alot of people really do like them so I'm just going to take it as me not being a pumpkin person. If anyone thinks they can sway me into liking a pumpkin recipe, by all means do tell.

I'm going to be on the search for a good "fall" recipe this week since I don't really have one worth sharing with you at this point. I do have a recipe I'd like to share though. Both Mel and I have made this and we really enjoyed it. Its a good dessert, not too sweet, but something you can keep in the fridge in a tupperware for after dinner.

Rice Pudding

2 cups water

1 cup Arborio Rice

3 cups vanilla soymilk

1/4 cup sugar

pinch salt

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (+ dusting)

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 tsbp. sweetened condensed milk (+ 2 tsp. for drizzle ontop)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Bring water to a boil in medium saucepan. Add rice, cover and simmer for 20 min., until rice is nearly cooked. In large bowl, whisk soymilk, sugar and salt. When rice is cooked and sitll hot, add soymilk mixture and cinnamon stick. Cover, place in oven and cook for 45 min. (you can transfer the mixture from pot to an oven safe dish (casserole dish perhaps...whatever works but needs to be covered).

Remove from oven, uncover and remove cinnamon stick. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 tbsp condensed milk. Pudding will be slightly liquidy, but liquid will be absorbed by the rice as it cools. Distribute into serving bowls, drizzle with additional condensed milk, dust with cinnamon, and nutmeg if you want.

-Anita

Spicy Mango Shrimp over rice

Well, her it is...my first post. I'm sure this blog will prove to be yet another tool for me to avoid reading, homework or school related activities of any sorts. Don't worry, I'll get the homework part done at some point, it'll just have to wait til' the last minute as usual.

I came up with the brilliant idea of having a blog about two weeks ago. I like to cook. My mom and I are always trading recipes back and forth, sharing tips. Since I came to college my parents have outfitted me with an entire kitchen worth of equipment. My christmas gifts have brought me a Mix-Master, crock pot, pot set, bakeware, spice racks...you name it. You can't help but try and make good food. My mom wanted to make sure I wasn't that kid that moved away from home and made TV dinners and chicken strips every night. I guarantee I won't be that girl...not putting anything past a chicken strip dinner though.

It's always fun to have people to cook for. You can tell that quality of your dish when your asked for seconds. After a recent conversation with my mom, I somehow managed to commit myself to the biggest culinary challenge of my life to date. Sounds dramatic I know...but I said I would make the turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. Yes, DINNER. Not just the turkey...everything. I always miss Canadian Thanksgiving since I'm down in Seattle. This year it was on Oct.12th (the second Monday of October) and my parents had some friends over. But its become more of a tradition to have a mock Thanksgiving during the American holiday when I actually do get the chance to go home. So thats when its all going to happen. The goal: have people get up for seconds. Updates to continue.

Since it's the first post...and this is a foodie blog, I'm going to put one of my favourite recipes up. If a recipe is posted...its good and definitely worth sharing with you. I know how it can feel to make something that doesn't live up to the hype. Ryan found this in a magazine...I've been told I need to give him recipe credit where it is deserved...so here it is.

SPICY MANGO SHRIMP over rice

1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp red chile flakes
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
12 oz (~1 lb.) peeled & deveined medium shrimp
2 cups UNRIPE mango (mango will soften as it is warmed)
coconut (shredded/sweetened for garnish on top)

-heat 3 tbsp. vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute onion until golden brown.
-add 2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp red chile flakes, 1/2 cup basil leaves, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp lime juice, and shrimp.
-cook, stirring often until shrimp turns pink.
-add 2 cups cubed fresh (unripe) or frozen mango and cook until warm.


-sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded coconut.

Serve with white rice. Makes about 3 servings.


Hope you like it.

-Anita