Corrie Food

Elephant Thai Cuisine - Riverside, CA

2012-01-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Elephant Thai Cuisine

3720 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside, CA 92501

(951) 682-9300

Appetizer: Money balls

Had Thai food with Mia and Nicole in Downtown Riverside after The Amazing College Race on Sunday, 1/22/12 (I will blog about that later because I had a smoothie that was directly related to the race). The food was great, but my favorite will probably always be Thai Royal Orchid in Fresno and Thai House in Berkeley, which I don't believe I ever photographed. I would go back to Elephant though! While the money balls were interesting and tasty, I think they could have used a tiny bit more flavor on the inside. If I go back, I'd try a different appetizer (but if I were in a group and most people wanted the money bags, that'd be fine with me too) and other dishes too, although I did think the pad thai and the pad see-ew were delicious! Reminds me of the time when Michelle S and I made pad thai for Filipino Club in high school. Yeah...I know that doesn't make sense. Anyway, here are the pictures!

Inside the "Money ball" - veggies, ground lean meat, rice. Not amazing, but still interesting and yummy!

Pad thai. I will never get tired of pad thai unless I have a bad dish or if I eat it every single meal. This was great, but if you don't like green onions, don't eat those big green onions, of course.

Pad see-ew, another one of my favorites. We got beef since the pad thai was chicken.

Facebook Page + Delicia Italian Fine Dark Chocolate Truffles

2012-01-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry. I've been slacking here. Here's something to distract you for a bit while I scramble to read for school and prep for work: I have a Corrie Food Facebook page. I made a big announcement there that I will announce here sometime in the future. I want it to be official before I post about it here.

I loved this dark chocolate (but not really the Delicia Milk)! It had a slightly grainy texture with bits of cacao nibs or something. I love good dark chocolate.

Teppanyaki at Sakura Chaya - Fresno, CA

2012-01-15T12:23:00.000-08:00

They just do the fire thing for show. It's pretty effective in entertaining people though!
Teppanyaki = Cooking with an iron griddle. Nowadays they do this in front of the people about to eat.

...and without flash.

Sakura Chaya

690 East Nees
Fresno, CA 93720

Went to Sakura Chaya with old high school friends (and current newer buddies) over winter break. My cousin, Ashley, has been encouraging me to go here for their teppan yaki because she said it's better here than at other places. I've been here for regular dining several times because my family is in love with this place (lots of Japanese families go here, if that means anything to you as a potential customer/guest). It has a fantastic box lunch special, and the food quality is consistently great.

Fried rice is always good at teppan yaki places

My order: Teriyaki chicken. Sooo delicious!! I usually eat everything on my plate--including the side of fried rice. One time I cleared my plate the night of formal at my high school. Not sure if that was a good idea, but whatever. It was delicious.

Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's

2012-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

I love these things so much. Their free samples really work on me! I had one and had to buy a box. They're basically Oreos but with crushed candy canes in the cream center. Yum! The only thing that bugs me about these is that they're called "Joe-Joe's" instead of "Joe-Joes." I guess the apostrophe makes it look better, but I'm just a grammar and punctuation nerd sometimes. Sorry...I had to say it! I also hate when restaurants spell things wrong on their menus. I've seen "wasabie" for "wasabi" before. Embarrassing.

Japanese Sesame Chicken Wings (Sweet & Sour Chicken)

2012-01-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

My mom made these little chicken wings for our New Year's party this year. They were SO good. I wanted to eat all of them in that tray (I should have taken a picture of them all lined up), and I even stole some to take back with me to SoCal. The juice at the bottom of the pan is sooo delicious--especially with white rice. It's seriously one of my favorite chicken dishes, and I eat a lot of chicken. Anyway, Mom got the recipe from her cousin. Not sure how her cousin got it. I'm excited to make these for the next party I attend or host!

I don't really get the name. These aren't sweet & sour, which is why I renamed them above.

Here's the recipe:

Chicken

3 lbs chicken

garlic salt

ajinomoto (Japanese for MSG)

2 eggs

cornstarch

1) Sprinkle chicken w/garlic salt & MSG
2) Let stand one hour
3) Dip in beaten eggs
4) Roll in cornstarch
5) Brown in fat
6) Set in baking dish (Mom used a big dish lined with foil)

Sauce

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup dashi

3-4 cup shoyu

1/2 cup vinegar or 3/4 C. Japanese vinegar

1 tsp MSG

dash salt

1) Cook until sugar dissolves
2) Pour over chicken
3) Bake 325 degrees F for 1 hr & 15 min, turning every 20 min
4) Sprinkle w/sesame seeds

Mantra (Fine Indian Cuisine & Banquet) - Corona, CA

2012-01-08T19:01:00.000-08:00


My first plate (to figure out which things I liked the most)

Mantra

480 N. Main Street
Corona, CA 92880
Website here

All-you-can-eat lunch buffet (11am-3pm)
Dinner (5-10pm)

Michelle and Chris invited me to join them for Indian food at this place. I happened to be coming from somewhere on the other side of Corona, so I met them there after I saw Julie and her baby. SO CUTE. Anyway, the food was delicious. My favorite was the one I thought I'd hate: One of the orange-red chicken dishes. It wasn't chicken tikka masala...I didn't think it was butter chicken. I know for sure it listed "ginger" as one of the ingredients because I thought for sure I wouldn't like it, and then I did and went back and looked at the name and ingredients again. I can't find the name on the website. Weird. Anyway, it was SO good.

KHEER on the left and RAS MALAI = "Homemade cheese flatten balls of vanner) soaked in malai (clotted cream) flavored with cardmom [sic]"

The ras malai up close

The restaurant from the outside. Pretty big place.

Shaved Snow at Class 302 - Rowland Heights, CA

2012-01-08T02:02:00.000-08:00

Class 302
1015 S Nogales St., Ste 125

Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Christy told me about Class 302 last school year, but we didn't end up having it together until last quarter. It was awesome and so weird but cool at the same time. It's like piles of thin sheets/layers of slightly sweetened frozen milk topped with fresh fruit and sweetened condensed milk. We shared the Mango Strawberry Shaved Snow. There are other topping options, of course. If you've had halo halo before, it's like that but without the beans and other crazy (but delicious for the most part) ingredients...and this ice is like no other ice you've ever had. It's not really shaved ice technically because it's not just frozen water, but has a similar concept to those of the shaved ice dishes you can find at other places like Guppy Teahouse, Ten Ren's Tea Time, etc.

So layer-y and milky but light and not too sweet!

*Thanks to Christy for letting me take pictures on her camera because I left my memory card in my computer at home!

Quady Winery's Electra Wines: Moscato & Red - Madera, CA

2012-01-07T00:10:00.000-08:00

Sold at Quady Winery in Madera

I absolutely love both of these. They are in the top five of my favorite alcoholic beverages. They're my top two favorite wines for sure. I was so relieved when my dad introduced me to them because I had finally found wines that I didn't force myself to drink. I first had Electra frozen, which, I have to say, is AMAZING. Seriously, go try that. Then I had the Red blended with ice, and then I tried each chilled. You can taste a little alcohol in each, but the Electra is kinda like apple cider or sparkling soda (but better). Or like apple (or I guess grape makes more sense) juice morphing into a sparkling wine. The Red has slightly more body or whatever you want to call it...as if it has more of something in it than the Electra. I tried hard not to let the darker color influence my perception of the taste, but there is a difference. They both have light flavors (to me that means they don't bite or sting you as you drink them like a lot of regular wines do), and they're both delightfully fizzy. That sounds SO cheesy, but it's the truth. I could drink these over and over again and not get sick of them. These are even better than Quady's Purple, which I loved and which a few friends went crazy over when they tried it. It still is pretty awesome though. I really could do a commercial for these drinks.

Here's what the Quady Winery people say about the two:

Electra

"Electra – With the first sip you feel the wine- light as springtime, delicately sweet, refreshingly crisp, a bouquet of flowers with the taste of peach and melon. Electra is electricity for the mouth!

"In 1990, we decided to produce a new type of dessert wine, light, delicate, easy to drink, and very refreshing. We tasted Orange Muscat grape juice as it was turning into wine. When the juice was just on the verge — halfway between wine and grape juice, a small test batch was bottled. The wine tasted wonderful, but the alcohol was only 4% (most wines are at least 12%). The wine was bottled using sterile filtration to prevent re-fermentation and the new creation named Electra after the electric like texture one notices on the tip of the tongue.

"Electra goes with summer fruits (strawberries, nectarines, peaches, melons), salads, spicy Asian and Indian foods, light desserts, blue skies and fresh air. And with only 4% alcohol, you can still play volleyball after the picnic."- Quady Winery

Red Electra

"Red Electra is a yummy wine with only 5% alcohol, a pretty red color, a grapy sweet taste, and a tangy, spritzy mouth feel. It's a good wine for angels to drink when they party." -- Quady Winery

Russian Tea Cakes

2012-01-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

Snow balls/Russian tea cookies/Mexican wedding cakes: One of my favorite cookies!

I made the walnuts chunky instead of finely chopped for the first time!

I love these cookies so, so much. I brought them to a kids event the other week, and some kids thought they were donut holes. haha Then I made more for Christmas Eve because my aunt and I like powdered sugar-covered cookies and they look so pretty and snowy!

Recipe from AllRecipes

1 cup butter (2 standard-sized cubes)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2) In a medium bowl, cream butter & vanilla until smooth
3) Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar & flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended
4) Mix in chopped walnuts
5) Roll dough into 1-inch balls & place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet
6) Bake for 12 minutes in preheated oven
7) When cool, roll cookies in remaining confectioners' sugar (I actually roll them when they're still at least a little warm)

Fantastic Eclair Cake w/ Chocolate Ganache

2011-12-26T23:38:00.000-08:00

Seriously, what could be better?

Fluffy clouds of HEAVEN

Oops I think "chocolate ganache" is redundant. It's clearer for those who don't know what ganache is (chocolate + cream) though I guess.

Ohhh....my goodness. I wanted to bring Auntie Joanne's custard pie/cream puff pie to Christmas Eve, but it wasn't big enough, and I didn't want to make two separate pies, so I found this recipe, which is basically the same thing but with a ganache topping. Heavenly...unless you don't like eclairs or cream puffs or chocolate or something. It does have a lot of pudding, but it's dang good pudding because it's mixed with real whipped cream. HECK YEAH. Making this again for New Year's Day, so I'll take better pictures and update this post soon.

Got the recipe from All Recipes (I just broke down the directions into easier-to-read steps and changed "and"s to "&"s and stuff to save people's printer ink.

Pastry shell:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Filling:
2 cups cold heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups cold milk

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli's 60% semisweet chips)
1 cup heavy cream

Pastry:
1) Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
2) Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish
3) Chill a mixing bowl in the freezer
4) Combine the water, butter, & salt in medium saucepan & bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium & stir in the flour. Cook and stir until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan & forms a ball.
5) Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl & beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated
6) Spread the dough evenly in the bottom of the baking dish.
7) Bake the pastry in preheated oven until golden brown (25 to 30 minutes - Dough will rise & make a boat shape but should drop as it cools)
8) Cool completely on wire rack.

Filling:9) Remove chilled mixing bowl from the freezer & pour in 2 cups of cold whipping cream
10) Whip until cream thickens (about 1 minute)
11) Stir in confectioners' sugar & vanilla extract
12) Continue to whip until cream forms stiff peaks
13) Refrigerate whipped cream while you mix the pudding
14) Pour pudding mixes & milk into a mixing bowl & stir until creamy
15) Fold in the whipped cream
16) Spread the filling over the cooled crust & refrigerate

Ganache:17) Place chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl
18) Bring 1 cup of cream almost to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat
19) Pour the hot cream over the chocolate & allow it to soften for 1 minute
20) Whisk mixture until smooth
21) Let mixture cool slightly to thicken (~10 minutes)
22) Pour ganache over the cream filling, spreading to cover the entire surface
23) Return pan to the refrigerator & chill for at least 1 hour before serving

Dad's Fresh Fruit Jumble

2011-12-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

My dad made this awhile ago for a family get-together. I loved how this was so colorful and full of different kinds of GOOD fruit (in my opinion). Too often fruit salads are mixed up with cantalope or something I dislike, ruining the flavor of the entire salad. All of these fruits above were fairly dry, so even if you hate grapes (who ARE you?!), you'd be fine picking the non-strawberry fruits without worrying about goopy grape juice mixing all over your fruit. Also, a lot o f the fruit is sitting inside of a pineapple.

Fruits: Grapes, cherries, blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, mandarin oranges, watermelon, and raspberries.

All you do is pick your fruits, wash 'em, and throw them together into a pineapple. I guess the only hard part is cutting open the pineapple and slicing the watermelon if you choose those fruits. The rest is easy!

How's that for a fresh, HEALTHY dish to take to a holiday party? Unhealthy holiday posts to come. I highly recommend this peppermint hot chocolate drink in the meantime if you want an easy homemade drink for a cozy night in.

Swirled Peanut Butter Brownie Cups

2011-12-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

Swirly peanut butter brownie cups

Recipe (adapted from the regular brownie recipe at Now...you're Cooking!). All I did was change the baking time and the fact that you use a muffin/cupcake tin instead of a brownie pan/dish. These are so good!! I've made these twice over the past few days for elementary school teachers and other people who help me out throughout the year. When cooled, they slip quite easily into those little good bags that tie with a twist-tie. For these I'm going to use ribbon to make them look more festive. I hope I see my co-workers today. I hope I have enough for the kids' parents too....

Brownies: 1/3 cup butter 2 squares unsweetened chocolate 2/3 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla Topping: 1/3 cup peanut butter 2 tablespoons butter, softened 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon flour 1 egg

Brownies: (1) Melt butter & chocolate together. Set aside to cool. (2) In a small bowl mix flour, baking powder, & salt together. (3) In a large mixing bowl, beat the 2 eggs & sugar together until light. Add vanilla. Stir in flour mixture & cooled chocolate mixture. (4) Pour into a greased muffin/cupcake pan. Topping: (5) Beat all ingredients together until smooth. (6) Drop spoonfuls of peanut butter mixture over the brownie layer. Marble with a knife. (7) Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes. Cool.

2 Casey's Cupcakes: The Pumpkin & The Peanut Butter

2011-12-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

Casey's Cupcakes (they won on Cupcake Wars!)
I went to the Riverside location connected to Mission Inn.
3649 Mission Inn Avenue
Riverside, CA 92501
Website here.

I believe this was the most moist cupcake I've ever had. The cake/base was excellent! However, here are the rest of my notes:
(1) I dislike artificial-looking foods, so the orange frosting kinda weirds me out. If it were naturally orange, that'd be okay.
(2) I HATE edible glitter, so the glitter atop the fake orange frosting really weirds me out. Oh--and the employee reassured me that the glitter is edible. Thank you. I was so sure you were selling people glitter that would cut up peoples' insides.
(3) The top swirl was just a regular buttercream frosting as far as Melissa and I could tell, so it wasn't anything special. It would have been cool if it had been cream cheese frosting. It did make this cupcake pretty though!
(4) Aside from the color of the frosting, Melissa thought the glitter made the texture weird, and Mia wasn't a fan of the frosting either.

Sooo...although I loved the base, the frosting was bleh to me, so I wouldn't buy this. Maybe if you could request the base with a different frosting without glitter I'd get it!

I actually just sampled Melissa's pumpkin cupcake and got myself a peanut butter cupcake (not sure of the exact name because their website picture of the peanut butter cupcake looks different, so that could be a special PB cupcake). Anyway, so far the only GOOD cupcakes here are the peanut butter, and the red velvet cupcakes. The only EXCELLENT ones (in my opinion) are the strawberry and red velvet cupcakes. The red velvet is apparently their most popular, according to the employees, so if you like red velvet cupcakes, you should try it and let me know what you think. I liked it, but the frosting wasn't sour enough for me (it's supposed to be cream cheese, but I didn't taste it).

Homemade Peppermint Hot Chocolate

2011-12-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

Delicious plain...

...but KILLER with real whipped cream & cinnamon

I'm not a huge fan of candy canes unless they're in a drink or crushed up into something like peppermint bark or the Candy Cane Joe Joes from Trader Joe's, which I absolutely love (both the Joe Joes and Trader Joe's).

This hot chocolate is soo good. I'm drinking it as I write about it.
I don't really measure things when I make drinks, but here's a really easy recipe that I just now put together for the drink above:

~1 cup hot water
1 1/2 Tablespoons Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa (THE BEST!)
1 1/2 Tablespoons brown sugar (not packed unless you want it sweeter)
3 Tablespoons whole milk
1 candy cane
Heavy whipping cream (however much you want)
Ground cinnamon

1) Heat the water
2) Mix in the cocoa
3) Add brown sugar & mix
4) Add whole milk & mix
5) Plop in candy cane
6) Top with whipped cream (use a mixer to whip liquid heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks and add however much sugar you want
7) Sprinkle with cinnamon

* Notes:
1.)This would work well with mocha instead of just hot chocolate
2.) For a healthier version, use less whole milk, exclude milk, or use low-fat, non-fat milk, or soymilk instead
3.) For more peppermint flavor, add more candy cane pieces at the bottom or peppermint extract
4.) For an alcoholic version, add some Peppermint schnapps

Mia makes this drink in a similar way! Here's a picture of my drink at her place:

My hot chocolate at Mia's

hehe This is what happens to the cane

Obleas con Cajeta de Leche

2011-12-05T21:19:00.001-08:00

These things are so yummy! And weird at the same time because you kinda feel like you're biting into stiff tissue paper or something...but then you know it's a light wafer...and then you get that milky caramel that's awesome. I can't remember the first time I had it, but I got it the other day at this huge Mexican grocery store.

The inside:

A smoother bite:

Magnolia Bakery - Los Angeles, CA (also NY)

2011-12-04T09:12:00.001-08:00

Chocolate & vanilla cupcakes from visit #1

Chocolate, vanilla, & red velvet cupcakes from visit #1 (I gave some away as gifts)

Melissa, Jason, Izzy, and I saw a taping of CONAN last Monday, 11/28. It was pretty awesome. Conan O'Brien is hilarious live in person and on TV. Melissa held up a sign that said something about having red-headed babies with Conan, but he didn't see it. :(

Anyway, Melissa introduced me to Magnolia Bakery last year when we helped someone in our program collect her dissertation data in LA, but I never posted about it! Here I'll combine both visits into one post. The original Magnoia Bakery is in New York, but this one is in Los Angeles at 8389 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048.

I have to say that their vanilla cupcake is the best I've ever had. See below.

On 11/28, I got a flourless chocolate cupcake topped with vanilla bean frosting. The cake was good and reminded me of this kind of flourless chocolate cake from Crixa Cakes in Berkeley (not like this kind from Limón Peruvian Cuisine in Fresno, which was more dense and moist), but the frosting......I don't know. I can see why people would love it and why they would dislike it. At first I loved it, but then I realized that the texture had a silky, almost plastic-like feeling on my tongue that made me feel like I was eating fake frosting that would never digest and would automatically clog every artery in my body. I don't know. Conclusion = I don't like silky frosting. Here is that flourless cupcake:

Back during visit #1 to Magnolia Bakery, in February of 2011, I tried a vanilla cupcake (one of the ones pictured above) and this red velvet cupcake. Stupid blurriness. My fault. Anyway, the vanilla is the best vanilla cupcake I've ever had. It's magical, I tell you. This red velvet one was good too, but I still hold to my belief that Chiffono's has the best red velvet cupcake ever.

Haha!!

Thanksgiving 2011!

2011-12-03T09:36:00.001-08:00

Of course I take pictures of my Thanksgiving food. I'd say that my families have semi-traditional Thanksgiving food. Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc....plus a few awesome non-traditional dishes that are AWESOME.

Meal #1: Uncle J and Auntie J's house

Soooo good and filling and fancy. That cup has a butternut squash soup, possibly my favorite soup ever. Definitely one of my favorites.

Appetizers! That green thing is a type of guava that tasted like a sour apple candy...plus some other things. The skin was mighty sour.

I usually hate clams, but these were yummy, and I had three.

I also usually hate beets, but these below with goat cheese were yummy. Uncle Jerry has a way of making things I hate into things that I actually like. Crazy.

Yummmm

Meal #2: Uncle G & Auntie R's

I didn't eat much salty food here because I was still full from the first stop.

Green tea pudding/jello with pumpkin pie. My favorite was the green tea stuff. I love that matcha powder texture. The brown stuff on top is sweet red bean paste
(an pronounced kinda like "awn" or "on")

Meal #4 (No pics from meal #3 with Blake's dad's side): With Blake's mom's side

and immediate family. This was actually on Sunday, 11/27/11. Chicken, veal ravioli, cherry pizza/tart, salad, pilaf, fruit salad, garlic bread. Perfect!

Sprinkles Cupcakes! Red Velvet, Pumpkin, Salty Caramel, & Vanilla

2011-11-29T23:51:00.001-08:00

My cousin, Ashley, brought these Sprinkles cupcakes to a family & friend party our cousin, Sayuri, and her husband, Kevin, hosted recently. This was my first Sprinkles experience! So exciting! Anyway, go here for Sprinkles locations.

Red velvet ("southern style light chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting"). So good! My taste testing buddy, Jodi, and I both agreed that the red velvet was the best out of the ones we tried. I did not try the cinnamon sugar cupcake. I still think that Chiffono's has the best red velvet cupcake in the world (the frosting and the cake base are just to-die-for). This frosting is way good but not as cream cheese-y as I like it. That doesn't mean you won't like it. It could easily be someone else's favorite frosting.

Left below = Red velvet again
Right below = Vanilla ("madagascar bourbon vanilla cake with creamy vanilla frosting"). Good, but I'd prefer fewer sprinkles...like maybe just on the outer rim or even just a circular area on top. I do enjoy the texture of sprinkles, but this was overboard.

Salty caramel ("an irresistible salty-sweet flavor combination using fleur de sel crystals hand harvested from the pristine seas off Brittany, France. These fleur de sel granules are a delightful complement to the sweet, buttery caramel which flavors both the cake and frosting. Taste the rich, delicious complexity of Sprinkles take on this classic French duo."). Oh man...amazing frosting. Not too salty, which is often the case for my taste buds. The cake was good too but not as memorable or delicious as the frosting. My taste tester buddy, Jodi, and I both enjoyed this cupcake. I think the pumpkin cupcake crumbs got on the frosting because we were probably reusing that knife.

Pumpkin ("spiced pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting" - only available Oct. 31- Nov. 30th). DELICIOUS! The mix is also great. Melissa made some the other day for Thanksgiving, and they were, in my opinion, as good as this one pictured here appearance- and taste-wise.

Melissa's awesome rectangular cupcake that she brought to class (haha!):

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-11-25T14:10:00.001-08:00

I love this recipe. It's so simple, and you don't need ground nutmeg, cloves, etc. I left out the nuts because I didn't have any on hand, but they'd probably taste good with them included. I want to try this with Pumpkin Pie Spice instead of or in addition to cinnamon. Everyone but my mom said these were good. The pumpkin flavor is there but not over-powering, it doesn't taste spice-y because it only contains cinnamon, and the texture is cake-like...kinda like the texture of persimmon cookies. You could even consider them muffin tops!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III
Featured on AllRecipes

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1) Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, & egg
2) In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, & salt
3) Dissolve baking soda with milk & stir in
4) Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture
5) Mix well
6) Add vanilla, chocolate chips & nuts (optional)
7) Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet
8) Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for ~10 minutes or until lightly brown & firm

Fish Tacos at The Getaway Cafe - Riverside, CA

2011-11-22T21:33:00.001-08:00

I had fish tacos for the first time about a year ago, and I LOVE them. The Getaway Cafe is where UCR students (and Riverside people in general) go to get away from school for a bit. It's convenient because it's right across from campus. I've had a few things here, but I think this is my favorite so far, although I've heard the pizza is good, and I loooved their cider. Anyway, overall these weren't the best tacos because (a) they were mighty greasy and (b) the sauce was a bit too thick and saucy for me. Check out the sun on that top part of the sauce in the picture above! It almost looks like cheese! I don't like goopy stuff in my tacos. Anyway, if you take off some sauce, it's delicious. I wrote about the fish tacos at BJ's too.

Stricklands - Thai Tea Frozen Custard

2011-11-21T22:31:00.001-08:00

Before two nights ago, I had never heard of Stricklands (originally from Akron, OH), so I was excited to hear about it from my cousins and then try it a few minutes later! Apparently there's a location in Irvine, CA that runs out of the thai tea flavor really fast. Oh man...it really did taste like thai tea. Exactly like thai tea in soft serve form. Delicious! I'd definitely order that myself.

A li'le history:

More about those SPRINKLES cupcakes later!

A scoop of the delicious thai tea frozen custard:

The Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino at Starbucks

2011-11-21T08:43:00.001-08:00

Oh HECK YEAH. That's beautiful!
Melissa and I took advantage of Starbucks's buy 1 holiday drink, get 1 free between 2-5pm deal (ended Nov. 20th).
While she got a Caramel Brulée Latte ("Espresso and steamed milk flavored with caramel Brulée sauce, topped with sweetened whipped cream and caramel Brulée topping"), I got the Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino ("Coffee blended with flavored peppermint syrup, rich mocha sauce, milk and ice. Topped with sweetened whipped cream and dark chocolate curls").

The Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino is supposed to be topped with dark chocolate curls, but I requested the caramel Brulée topping and just said "chocolate" at the last minute when the barista was handing me the drink, so she assumed chocolate sauce I guess. Oh well. This was still delicious. It's cool that you can ask for a different topping!

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie -- But Rectangular

2011-11-20T10:46:00.001-08:00

Who said you have to make a round pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving?
Also, make sure you have a pie pan before you decide to make a pie.

My housemates and I had our first bonding activity! Pretty sure you can guess what we did.
We used the Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe, which I've used for years with a few adjustments (sometimes we use less sugar and fewer spices). This time we didn't have any grated cloves or ginger (and not even Pumpkin Pie Spice), so we just made this with cinnamon. We also made mini round pies with a muffin pan using a second batch of the crust recipe, which is on the back of the pumpkin can label. To clarify, we used two batches of the crust recipe and one batch of the pumpkin "good good, as Grace was calling things that night.

Just ignore those little slits. Or pretend we wanted to give the pie some eyes. Bomberman-style eyes.

And then your slices will be square- or rectangular-shaped!

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (we didn't use)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (we didn't use)
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
Whipped cream (optional - we didn't make this, but we should have!)

(1) Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger & cloves in small bowl

(2) Beat eggs in large bowl

(3) Stir in pumpkin & sugar-spice mixture
(4) Gradually stir in evaporated milk
(5) Pour into pie shell
(6) Bake in preheated 425° F oven for 15 min
(7) Reduce temperature to 350° F
(8) Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean
(9) Cool on wire rack for 2 hours
(10) Serve immediately or refrigerate
(11) Optional: Top with whipped cream!

Libby's Homemade Pie Crust Recipe
Makes 1 crust (can double for two)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons cold water*

(1) Combine flour & salt in medium bowl
(2) Cut in vegetable shortening with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly
(3) Sprinkle with water; & blend until mixture holds together
(4) Shape dough into ball & place on lightly floured surface
(5) Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness
(6) Line pie plate (or rectangular dish like we did) with pastry
(7) Turn edge under; crimp (if desired)

*Add 1 additional tablespoon water as needed.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's Pumpkin Ice Blended

2011-11-17T23:43:00.001-08:00

As much as I love Starbucks's PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) drinks, I've decided this is my new favorite pumpkin drink. Like Melissa said, it has a different flavor than the Pumpkin Spice Latte/Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino at Starbucks. I actually prefer this Coffee Bean drink, although since they do have different types of pumpkin flavors maybe that's not a fair comparison. I'd need to do a sit-down comparison between these two drinks to clearly identify their differences.

In case you were wondering, I topped this with vanilla powder, cinnamon, and chocolate powder. I LOVE the various topping options at Coffee Bean! Ginger, cardamom, sea salt, chili powder,

The Lunch Buffet at Punjab Palace - Riverside, CA

2011-11-16T00:08:00.001-08:00

Punjab Palace Restaurant
1766 University Avenue, Suite 102
Riverside, CA 92507
Other location at 10359 Magnolia Ave, Riverside, CA 92505

Thank you, Jason, for introducing me to this place. I'll post about my first time at the Magnolia Avenue location soon.

Isn't that beautiful? Oh my goodness. My friend had had a little too much fun with alcohol the night before this, but then he woke up and wanted Indian food. Not a good idea. I loved it, as did Mia, but I think the other one had one or two bites.

Anyway, this is my new go-to place for Indian food in the Inland Empire/Riverside/SoCal. It's actually the first Indian restaurant I've tried down here! Soooo good. The Magnolia Avenue location is kick-ass too. I'll post about that someday.

$8.95 for the luncheon buffet (11:30am-3:00pm) Mondays through Fridays for the following:
Appetizers, Samosa Pakora, Green Salad, Fruit Salad, Dressing, Condiments, Tandoori Chicken, Butter Chicken, Chicken Curry, Fish or Lamb Shank, 5 Vegetable Dishes, Rice, Nan/naan, 3 Desserts

Naaaaan!!!! I really want to try their keema naan.

Inside of a samosa: