Student Food - What's good to eat around here?

End of Summer? End of Watermelon…

Unfortunately the end of summer does mean that some of my favorite fruits are officially going to be not available for the next 6 to 8 months and one of these fruits includes watermelon. Usually people associate watermelon with 4^th of July BBQs but I am here to say that watermelon does not have to be an occasional fruit. Because of its cheap price I buy watermelon all the time. There are so many different preparations for watermelon but one of my favorites is the Watermelon Feta and Balsamic Vinaigrette salad. I say this is one of my favorites because of many things: It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s delicious. It sounds a little weird at first but TRUST ME it is a delicious and refreshing salad that you can pair along side one of your favorite summer dinners.

You start out with a nice hunk of watermelon then you cut your watermelon up into many pieces about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. If you have too many pieces you can always store the rest in a container and a nice low calorie snack. Now for one salad serving I would take about 6 to 9 pieces to put on you salad plate this is depending on how big you cut your watermelon slices. Next cut up some red onions. Put however much red onion you think you would like on your salad. After that sprinkle some feta cheese onto your salad. Pour on a tiny bit of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle some cracked pepper and salt. There are some optional ingredients, which include a sprig of mint and or some kalamata olives but really just do what you like. VOILA! A perfect summertime salad!

Now I know that some people might find this salad to seem a be for a more adventurous palate but I assure you the mix of these ingredients really blend nicely together and just try it. You probably won’t believe how much you actually like it.  

Inception Cookies

I have seen chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Oreos on various food blogs but never had I ever attempted to make them. Apart of me thought they were too decadent. It was too much for just one cookie. Every once in awhile its perfectly okay to be a little over the top. So I finally get up the guts to make these amazing cookies. From the week before I had bought Peanut Butter Newman O’s and I decided to make my chocolate chip stuffed cookies with a little twist.  Also I ran out of all-purpose flour so I used ¼ cup of cake mix. The cookies came out nice and round. I think it has something do with the cake mix.

So you’re probably wondering why I call this post “Inception Cookies”. My friend Katie came to visit me in D.C and we went over to one of her friend’s house. We brought over the pizza while her friend made us cookies. She had made us chocolate chip cookies that were stuffed with Oreo cookies. To make a long story short we had sort of a long day before going over to her house since Katie’s car overheated and we had to deal with that. We arrive at her friend’s house and dive into these cookies that she claimed were “Inception Cookies”. It was just what we needed after the misfortune we encountered with Katie’s car. I thought the name for these cookies was flawed. Inception refers to something’s origin I believed these cookies to be two “origin” or “foundation” cookies combined. So to quote Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character in the hit movie these cookies are named after it seems as if we have a “paradox”. The name doesn’t exactly match the cookie but cookies like this deserve a name as grandiose as that.

The recipe is available right here: http://veryculinary.com/2011/03/22/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/ . I cut the recipe in half because I didn’t have that many cookies and I cannot possible eat all of those cookies by myself. Also I made some swaps, which I talked about above.

Now who wants a cookie because they are fresh out the oven and I already ate two!!! 

The Three P’s - Purple, Pesto and Peaches

This morning I got up pretty early so I decided to put on my lazy Sunday outfit (cotton dress with a cardigan) and I headed out to a farmer’s market out in Dupont Circle which is located in Washington D.C. Now for those of you who did not read my introduction I currently reside in the Washington D.C metropolitan area. I live pretty close to the circle and have wanted to come to this farmer’s market for ages for multiple reasons.

Reason 1: It looks so lively. There are always so many people there. A lot of them seem to be families and in most cases I get upset when there are a lot of families because many times this means screaming kids and that does not bode well for this chick. However the families provide this wholesome fun sort of aura which I kind of like.

Reason 2: My friend Jessica came here with a friend of hers when I was a freshman and college and raved about it. Now being that I was a freshman in college my exhausted body wouldn’t let me arise before the clock struck noon so by the time I would get out to Dupont Circle it would be 4 pm and they like to pack up around 2 pm. Now that I have some how trained my body to be okay with getting up in the morning these tasks seem to be easier to tackle.

Reason 3: Farmer’s Market remind me of my dear mother who would drag me out to them every weekend when I was in high school. Now as a high schooler getting out of bed was a difficult task as well however my mother was quite forceful.

Peaches seem to be in season now but I recently got a whole ton of peaches from my fruit guy who sells the most awesome fruit at the intersection of Idaho and Massachusetts. I have a rapport with these guys I like helping them out by buying their fruit. But MY GOD if you haven’t bought peaches this season, go out and get some they are at their peak. I haven’t had a mealy peach this entire season. This is the summer of the peach for me at least. So I couldn’t bring myself to get any of the peaches but of course I sampled everyone’s peaches.

Something that did catch my attention was purple basil. I had seen this before because I am a huge fan of the Vietnamese dish Pho and they use a sort of Thai basil that always has a hue of purple to it. But this basil I came across had the most beautiful deep purple shade to it. And for an entire bushel it was only 3 dollars! Purple basil is not that different than your everyday green basil but it tends to be a little bit sweeter. Now I know a lot of people think about what can they do with that much basil. Fear not friends there is a TON of stuff you can do with basil. One of the most revered herbs, basil goes well with a lot of things. One of my favorite dishes is a slice of mozzarella, a slice of tomato and a leaf or two of basil. Sprinkle some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper as well. Delicious and simple. I even often times just put a few leaves on my sandwich and its serves as the perfect garnish. The purple basil led me to want some pesto so I decided to go out and get a premade pesto but if you have the right equipment pesto can be easy. I like Ina Garten’s recipe, which is available right herehttp://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/pesto-recipe/index.html. Now I know I don’t have a food processor so sometimes what I do is buy these grinded basil leaves from the frozen food section at Trader Joes and then I just end up crushing my walnuts and or pine nuts with the back side of my spoon and I roast the garlic so it is easier to crush.

So I bought olive bread, tomatoes and took it home where I made a delicious turkey sandwich that included pesto, lettuce, tomato and some red onions. It was delicious. A perfect end to my time I spent at the farmer’s market today.

Food and the Student and a Vision

So you might have read my about me section or you might just be a friend of mine that I made read my blog. And you might even be a person who just stumbled upon my blog and found me interesting. My name is Alli and I just graduated from college. This year I have found myself a hobby and that is food. Now a lot of people might say don’t you mean cooking and the answer to that is no, I mean food. I love cooking it, watching the food network, eating it, and so much more. Now I want this blog to be about my adventures with the food I encounter in my life. I’m from New Orleans, Louisiana, which some people might refer to as the epicenter of all things holy in culinary magic. I blame New Orleans for any passion I retain for food.

My love for food started young. My mother (who is cooking in the picture above) is the most amazing self-taught cook. I would always be willing to help her in the kitchen. It was incredible to watch her prepare incredible meals without even needing a recipe. I still rely pretty heavily on recipes but lately I have been experimenting in the kitchen. My most recent experiment (which turned out to be delicious) was a graham cracker, peanut butter and chocolate cookie. I had no recipe and they turned out delicious. I was so proud of myself. I included an image below. Also lately I have been more willing to adapt recipes to make them healthier or more tasty. I attribute this to a new found since of comfortability in the kitchen.

The amazing Peanut Butter, Graham Cracker and Chocolate Cookies I made.

Ingredients:

12 Graham Cracker sleeves

1/2 and 1 tablespoon of Peanut Butter (or Almond Butter)

2 tablespoons of butter.

2 tablespoons of Almond Milk (or regular milk)

1/3 cup of milk chocolate chips (whatever chocolate you have will probably work to be honest)

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pre grease a large cookie sheet. Crush the Graham crackers in a bowl. Melt the butter and pour it into the crushed graham crackers.

Mix in the peanut butter. All of it. Even put a little more if you’d like!

Melt the chocolate with tablespoon of almond milk and pour it into the graham cracker and peanut butter mixture. Then add the rest of your almond milk. Add enough almond milk until the mixture is soft but keep in mind that the mixture should not be runny.

Create dollups that are about 1 1/2 inches wide. You probably want to scoop a little over a tablespoon to create a dollup. Now place each dollup you make on the pan. Put the pan in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes and take the cookies out when the are firm-ish. They should also be a slightly darker in color. ENJOY!

As a student and 20 something year old chef I am particular in tune with several things.

1.)                   I like my food to be affordable. Right now I am a nanny and I don’t really make that much money. Lets just say money is tight. I don’t eat out a lot and when I do I have to say I try to make sure it is in my budget. But if I do eat at an amazing restaurant I will totally post about it.  It is very rare that I splurge on items when I’m in the grocery store but when I do it is usually prosciutto or a pretty awesome cheese.

2.)                   I like my food to be healthy. I am a student who doesn’t always have the time or energy to work out. I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which means I don’t eat fast food of processed foods if I can help it. I am pretty knowledgeable on what foods are good for me and which ones will help fuel my body better. I try to eat healthy but this doesn’t mean I won’t allow myself one big mac once in a while because lets face it I’m human and in college.

3.)                   I like my food to be easy to prepare. I love to cook but many times I have so much going on in my life that I cannot possible find the time to cook for hours on end. So many times I try and prepare food ahead of time and I am also the QUEEN of making leftovers that will last me a lifetime or a week. Leftovers also overlap with affordability.

I decided to start a blog was so I could further explore and share my love of food but also I wanted to give tips to my fellow 20-year-old home cooks who struggle with creating fabulous dishes with little kitchens, a lack of equipment and miniscule budgets. Cooking great dishes in your 20s is difficult. I will try and put some helpful tips on here so you can make sure that most of your meals are awesome and delicious. But I also wanted to talk about food in general and awesome food I will eat. I assure this blog will only be the highlights. Why would I want to right about something lame when I could right about something awesome right? And so it begins… hopefully I can find good stuff to eat and post about. What am I saying? Of course I will because my life is filled with the most awesome food ever!!

Also on another note, all the photography on this blog was shot by me unless I state otherwise. I am an aspiring photographer and would love to find a career in food photography so if you see anything you like please shoot me an email I’d be happy to hear from you.