Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? Cuz it's cookies!

Sorry… I really just wanted to hide away into my own little world to have some Me time. But I'm back.

My guilty non-girly thing to watch on TV has aways been wrestling… WWE (or as I have known it / for you 90s kids… WWF) wrestling. My youngest cousin discovered WWE about 2, 3 years ago… and wished he grew up watching the Attitude Era (re-watching those matches for me is nostalgic while little funny), because the new stuff is kind tamed. And I digress… I was going through Amazon, and I found the WWE: Can You Take The Heat Cookbook and I added into the shopping cart after my little cousin was egging me to get it. Something happened and I never bought it. Then one day, my mother had to buy something off Amazon, so I helped her make the purchase. I totally forgot that I had the cookbook in the shopping cart, and all after I clicked the "purchase" button and checked my email… I then realized I had just bought the book. Face-palm moment, but so funny. The book is full of the Attitude Era puns and sass, and fairly easy to super easy recipes. Great book to get your little wrestler to help out on making dinner, lunch, and/or dessert.

After receiving the book, I gave it to my youngest cousin and told him "This summer, I want to teach you to cook using this… we have to at least try a few recipes." He approved, and we had to pick my favorite hunky wrestler with the sexy eyebrow and mutton-chops (so sad he shaved that all off)… oh yes… The Rock… with The Rock's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie. The recipe… I didn't change anything from it, other than that… I didn't add nuts. Instead of the recommended Hershey chocolate bar that the cookbook calls for, I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet baking bars… which I had my youngest cousin painstakingly shave one bar all by hand, by himself. He hated me for that, but enjoyed the end result. The cookies came out crispy, chocolatey, and delicious. Since I didn't change anything from the original recipe other than the chocolate used, I'm just going to post my scan of the original recipe here.

Please click for better viewing.

This is how our cookies turned out. Want some?

If you like the recipe, and is interested in the cookbook, please click here or the link that I put earlier in the post (which is the same link) to purchase the book. Haha! Total lazy post, I'll do one better next time. Enjoy everyone!

New semester calls for super chocolatey brownies... with a chew

Long time no post everyone~ So summer semester ended, left me two weeks of freedom that was dominated by work, and then the new autumn semester began! Yippie-skippie? Not really since the new autumn semester is all microbiology at night. Granted it is only for two nights each week, but still... so much to soak in. I've already messed up a lab experiment that was done last Thursday, and didn't realize it until on Tuesday. Basically, had to redo the whole thing. Bleh~ So today's post really does help with some of the stress. When you're stressed, what is the one food everybody says helps? (At least I think it does... sometimes...)

CHOCOLATE!!!!

... And what's even better?...

Chocolate BROWNIES! 

Lol! So today's recipe was adapted from justJENN's Chocolate Mochi Brownies. What makes mine different? I added an additional half a bar of Lindt's 90% Dark Chocolate, but decreased the amount of regular milk chocolate chips for the melting process. If you don't like the taste of dark chocolate, ESPECIALLY 90% dark, then opt it out and just follow justJENN's recipe. Adding the 90% dark chocolate helps cut the sweetness, and gives it a very slight hint of that distinctive dark chocolate bitterness. Instead of evaporated milk, I think I used whole milk because I did not have any evaporated milk in the pantry. Why mine turned out more flat and chewie, rather than more brownie-like... I don't really know. Haha. May be I lacked enough or missed out on the baking soda? May be I missed out of the egg? I don't remember.

Want the know the reason why I added the 90% dark chocolate? It is a stupid reason, but its sadly true...

1) I grabbed a bar thinking it was the Fleur de Sel flavor, paid for it, ripped it open, stared at it while thinking "Why is it so... dark?" and later thought "What did I grab again?" Sniffed it (EWW! BITTER!), then silently but neatly tucked it back into the box.

2) I think I saw something online that deterred me from revisiting/attempt to try my bar of 90% dark. Someone online challenged viewers to attempt to eat a whole bar of 90% dark chocolate, and submit their disgusting video results to them. Let's just say, it wasn't pretty.

3) I finally bit the bullet when I brought it with me to a friend's house, we all looked at it, and then they questioned me... "WHY?!?!?!" Two brave souls and myself, each took a tiny nibble of one square... my gosh! It was not edible. I think it is much more bitter than drinking the bitter Chinese herbal teas... and MUCH more than just black coffee. 

... and that's my story. Now onto the recipe!

Brownies~ Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

Ingredients:

1 cup mochiko (sweet rice flour)

1 cup sugar (regular granulated white)

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

4 tbsp unsalted butter

⅓ cup milk chocolate chips

½ bar 90% dark chocolate (Lindt's)

12 oz whole milk (best to have it at room temperature)

1½ tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

½ cup milk chocolate chips

How-To:

- Prep you pan with non-stick baking spray. (I forgot the parchment paper, but I used a heavy-duty non-stick pan.)

- Pre-heat oven to 350˚F.

- In a small pot, melt butter. Then add the ⅓ cup chocolate chips and the ½ bar of 90% dark chocolate, and stir until melted. Let cool a little.

- In a bowl, mix mochiko, sugar, salt, and baking soda.

- MIMI'S TIP: I saw it on foodnetwork... gently coat the ½ cup of chocolate chips in mochiko (or flour). It should help the chips from sinking to the bottom of the pan during the baking process.

- In same bowl with the dry ingredients, slowly add and mix the melted chocolate mixture, milk,  vanilla, and the egg. 

- Pour everything into the prepped pan. Sprinkle the ½ cup chocolate chip on top.

- Put into the oven, and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until center is done / the brownie gives a little bounce to the touch like regular mochi does. 

- Take out of oven, invert pan over a cooling rack (or an extra large Asian metal steaming rack), and let cool for 10 - 20 minutes.

- Cut into squares for serving.

Its all fairly easy. I made this out of whim, so I don't remember everything so clearly. But I hope everyone will try this, at least try justJENN's recipe. Enjoy and good luck guys! (^o^)/

It's Spring! Strawberries are here!

Spring is here! Sorry for my long absence. I blame my physiology class. For one class this semester, it is a headache and too much to deal with. So yeah~ I've been ignoring life, in general. The only thing that I have a little time for between class, work, and assignments are the little silliness and quick entertainment such as 9gags.

I was sitting with my cousins a few weeks ago just chillin', one of my cousins looked at me, pushed his phone's screen right at my face and with a straight blank face, and he said "Make it." I had to adjust my vision to see what the picture was of, his phone was WAY too close to my face. It was a 9gags submission of a plate of strawberries stuffed with Nutella. It looked good. So I, also with a straight blank face, was like, "Okay." Couldn't have been a better time too! I was walking home from the bus stop, looking at what the local mom-pop produce store was selling, and big boxes of ruby red giant strawberries were stacked high on the stand, and was on sale too! So the next day, I went strawberry shopping. Went home, and realized I was more than half of container out of Nutella. THE TRAGEDY! So had to walk back out to get a new container of Nutella.

I don't normally like to eat strawberries because I have bad memories of them: either they are super sour, or I get to eat them when they have been drowned in a mountain of granulated sugar to the point where they ONLY taste and feel like sugar. But I like Nutella. The chocolaty hazelnut spread is creamy, rich,  and so good on just about anything. If chocolate and strawberries has been a tried and true tasty classic combo, Nutella and strawberries will be just as tasty of a combo. The creamy and sweet chocolaty taste of the Nutella just compliments the sweet tartness of the strawberries. Oh such a perfect dessert to have as an escaping indulgent moment from reality.

This recipe, I worked off of a photo reference on 9gags, because this recipe couldn't be easier. 2 ingredients, and it is yummy, but it is so messy.

This was one box of strawberries, and more than half tub of Nutella.

Ingredients:
1 box Ripe Strawberries
1 container Nutella

How-To:
- Wash your strawberries in a little bit of salted water, and rinse with fresh cold water.
- Pat each strawberry as dry as you can.
- With a sharp pairing knife, cut off the stem and a little bit of the top to slightly expose the core.
- With the sharp pairing knife, hollow out the core a little bit more with a gentle twisting motion to allow more room to stuff the Nutella into. *Use a bowl, a container, or over the sink to catch the juices and bits of flesh you dig out.
- Set the hollowed out strawberries to the side.
- Open Nutella, and gently mix the spread loose to a nice semi-runny consistency.
- In a zip-top sandwich bag (or if you have the fancy piping bags) in a small cup or empty jar, fill a corner of the bag with some Nutella. Twist the baggy to trap the spread in the corner. With a pair of scissor, snip off a small bit of the corner filled with the spread. Now you have a make-shift piping bag ready.
- Take a strawberry in one hand. In the other hand, take the Nutella-filled baggy, stick the open tip into the hollowed-out strawberry and gently squeeze the spread in. Top off the strawberry with a bit more if you wish.
- Repeat until all strawberries are filled.
- Serve immediately, or chill in refrigerator until serving time.

How easy was that?!?!?!?!? And let me say, my cousins each can inhale a strawberry container of these to themselves. Chilling them in the fridge until serving gives it a nice refreshing feeling. The Nutella's sweetness counters the tartness of the strawberry, which is a nice pairing. A great finisher to a nice dinner. Or even a nice simple gift to someone you care/love. If you don't want to stuff the strawberries, you can do is scoop some Nutella into a bowl and dip them for an even faster satisfaction. Hope you all enjoy this! (^-^)