Watermelon Sorbet

My roommates and I wanted to make some watermelon sorbet before watermelon season ended and I picked up one from the farmer's market. This was my first time making sorbet and something went wrong. I ended up with basically a giant watermelon ice cube. Did I add too much water?? I have no idea what went wrong.... I'll have to try again.

Look at all the watermelon pulp left!!

It froze so hard that you can't even scoop it, just shave off thin slivers at a time.

Baked Eggs with Polenta

This recipe for baked eggs is a mash up of this recipe and this recipe. I basically had a lot of eggs to get rid of and a tiny bit of cornmeal and tomato sauce that I wanted to use so I looked to these two recipes for guidance. Also, do you see that tiny baby basil leaf? I GREW IT FROM A SEED!!!!! YAAYYYY The leaves are all about that size, I hope it experiences a growth spurt soon.

This is a super easy and surprisingly filling dish- the polenta + egg is enough for a meal if you have some veggies on the side. I roasted some cauliflower and garlic while the eggs were cooking. I was still a wee bit scared of salmonella because I made this a few weeks ago so I cooked it until the yolks were just about solid, but this has great potential to be accompanied by bread to soak up the yolk + sauce. Yum.

Various herbs from my sad balcony garden (chives, rosemary, basil) + polenta.

Dab of tomato sauce.

Egg! (Not shown is the bread crumbs + parmesan I later added on top)

Focaccia Pizza and Green Tea and Chocolate Marbled Cake

Just look at this magnificent pizza! It combines focaccia bread + pizza. I freaking love focaccia- this was awesome. It's still a thin crust pizza so it doesn't turn into a chicago deep dish, but enough bread so you get the focaccia feel in the crust- still chewy, crisp on the edges.


Okay now look at my new measuring spoons- aren't they awesome? They're skinny so they can fit into all sorts of spice jars. I got them from Sur La Table.

Okay now look at this awesome mixing bowl! I had to buy new stuff since I was using my old roommates baking equipment. This one is from Giada De Laurentiss' line for Target. I was debating between this plastic set and the stainless steel and decided I needed the larger bowl so I got these. I like that there's a little spout so it's easy to pour batter out and a rubber ring on the bottom so it doesn't slide everywhere. The only problem is when I need to melt chocolate or use it over a hot pot of water, but I can switch to the various glass bowls I have instead.

Anyways... I made green tea and chocolate swirled cupcakes. I like the way the loaf looks, but it's easier to hand out cupcakes. It's really good, but possibly too moist? I guess I like my cake a little dryer, but the 1 cup of yogurt really made these sticky/fudgey despite being cooked all the way through. They looked great though! Chocolate and green tea are a great combination.

Bacon and Pea Orecchiette and Garlic Knots

Did you watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution show? I didn't see any of it, but I read about it online. It's a really great cause- I know the food I ate in school was terrible (cheese fries!), but luckily I also liked vegetables and my taste changed as I grew up (still love cheese fries though). This recipe for Pasta with Creamy Bacon and Peas is from Jamie Oliver's show and I don't really know how this is "healthy." It has peas, but it also has bacon. I guess you could substitute whole wheat pasta, but EH I'm not a fan. It was good though-


Do you see all this garlic?? That's only half of it!! I love garlic bread, but I wanted something with more oomph. This recipe for garlic knots has, perhaps, too much oomph. I tasted garlic the next day and into the next 2 meals. I probably reeked of garlic after making this. You probably want to use 2/3 of the amount of garlic it asks for unless you are hunting vampires. Very tasty though- especially when you put some butter on top.

Momofuku's Compost Cookie

It's the one and only compost cookie from David Chang's Momofuku (well... actually Christina Tosi since she's the pastry chef). It is a delicious use for all your leftover baking bits and salty snacks. The annoying part is that you have to refrigerate the dough for a few hours before baking AAHH! Does anyone ever bake 6 hours before they crave a cookie?

The first time I made it with potato chips, honey wheat pretzels, a skor bar and chocolate chips.


The second time I made it with regular kettle chips, thin pretzels, chocolate rice crispy cereal and chocolate chips.

The first batch I made still had some large pieces of chips and pretzels left so there were some bits of salty, chewyness. EH not the tastiest cookie, but I made sure to bash the chips and pretzels properly for the second batch. The only complaint (if you are a butter hater) that I heard was that it was "too buttery" so I'll decrease the butter by a tablespoon or two for the next batch.

Dirty Risotto

Risotto was another one of those mysterious Italian dishes that I've had at restaurants, but never made at home... until TODAY! This recipe for dirty risotto is from Giada De Laurentis, who I am big big fan of (no matter how much she smiles and enunciates every syllable).

It starts out looking pretty bland and ordinary. What good can come of rice + pancetta + bell peppers? But when you add in the chicken broth, slowly and keep stirring- magic happens. It plumps up and the starchy rice and chicken broth make tasty happen.

I had a bunch of leftover pancetta and sausage leftover so I diced the rest and fried it with onions and potatoes to make some dirty hash. Pancetta is my new favorite.