Ah yes, another Video!

I’ve been doing some practicing with my technologies. Check out the video I made of my cat!

She’s too cute.

Hummus? UNBLENDED

I thought it would be really great to take another whack at making hummus. I was wrong. Although the end result tasted delicious, my blender just refused – IT SIMPLY REFUSED – to make hummus. My hummus is 95% blended. You can’t win at everything, But I wish I could have won at Hummus.

I will give you the recipe. This is usually delicious and easy to make. Once I master the blending I plan on making all kinds of varieties of hummus. Pepper hummus – red roasted pepper hummus – spicy hummus and anxious hummus. (Anxious hummus is hummus with anxiety. This is only served to unwanted guests.)

Ingredients you need:

Tahini – Tahini is a little jar of sesame paste that is everywhere. I had never heard of this. When I found it I was so happy. It is relatively inexpensive. (4 dollars for a jar – this jar will last awhile.) Apparently, if you don’t use tahini you are breaking all kinds of hummus laws.

Lemon juice

Garlic

1 can of chick peas

You will notice I did not put amounts. This is becuase it’s up to you how you want your hummus to taste. For one can of chick peas, I would use at least a table spoon of tahini. If you don’t want garlickey hummus, only put half a table spoon of minced garlic. If you want lots of garlic flavours, then put at least two cloves, or one table spoon of minced garlic. I don’t like as much garlic as I do lemon – I put lots of lemon. Not too much – probably a couple teaspoons. Keep tasting you hummus. This is the only way you’ll know its turning out how you like it.

Now for the actual making of the hummus.

Put the lemon juice, tahini, and garlic in. Blend it like crazy. Be careful, don’t hurt yourself. Drain your chickpeas can and start adding the chickpeas.

When you blend the chickpeas you want to use the pulse setting. This what it will be like:

Pulse – fwoop (thats the chickpeas sinking in the middle) – pulse – fwoop. And so on.

Hopefully your blender doesn’t give you hard times. If it does – if your blender is not sweet to you – then you have to show it who the boss is. Squish the chick peas down, or try taking some out. This can get very messy. Maybe burrow a food processor instead of a blender. Whatever your method – blend your chick peas and mix them with the other ingredients.

Now you will have delicious hummus. I know it is delicious because even though mine was not fully blended it was still really good.

I eat the hummus with cucumber! You can see my shadow looming over it. Hilarity!

Updates!

Now this blogging business has many different aspects to it. And if you take a look at the side of your screen today you will see a shiny new addition I have made: CATEGORIES. These will allow you quick access to any recipe. Please click away.

I will also incorporate some TAGGING. Tags are what make these posts show up as results in search engines. The more relevant tags you have – the more likely people will find your posts. So I must tag. I must tag like there is no tomorrow.

Now, back to food. I’ve had some flops lately. I tried to make some red roasted pepper hummus and it turned out like this:

Yuck. A little pukey. No one can be a master chef every time. I even tried leaving it in the fridge to see if the texture would change overnight. Still pukey. Pukeeeeeeeeeerific. Tomorrow I am making attempt number two. This time I will attempt original hummus, no fancy red pepper. After taking my Moms advice, I think it may be a technical problem with my blender.

Let’s hope its less pukish tomorrow.

Spicy Sausage Alfredo Pasta

Mmmmmmmm Spicy Sausage. I have never cooked with these before. I only thought that sausages could be used to make sausages. But then I realized, like many meats, Sausages could be used to make a variety of delicious things. I would like to share with you my adventures is sausage cooking.

You will require:

A pack of spicy sausages (if you are only making pasta, one or two sausages will suffice. If you would like   whole sausages as well, get the whole pack!)

Pinch of Garlic

Pinch of Ginger

4 squirts of lemon

Antipasto Red Pepper Mix!

4 Big spoons of parmesan

Cream

Oil

Pasta

Observe the sausages. These were bought 2 for 6 dollars. What What. I defrosted them. They weren’t completely defrosted  by the time I started cooking but that is alright.

Take one sausage and cut it up real nice like above. Boil a pot of water for your pasta.

Take your pinch of garlic and ginger and 4 squirts of lemon. This is my version of seasoning.

FRY IT! Heat up the pan a little with some oil on it. Put in your lemon ginger and garlic as well. Let it heat up. Check your pot of boiling water. Is it hot enough? Add your pasta.

Put in your sausage as well. Fry it up real nice. Let it turn   brown.

Now here’s my new superstar ingredient. This Red Pepper Antipasto was only 3 dollars for a good sized jar from the grocery store. Within the depths of this jar is a delicious mixture of red pepper and onions and pretty much every other awesome tasting vegetable. I used two spoon fulls of this for a flavour explosion.

Commence flavour explosion. Add two spoonfuls of your Antipasto. Check on your boiling pot of pasta water too. Drain it if it is ready!

While your meat finishes cooking get out a tiny pan. It is time to make some Alfredo Sauce. I do it a very simple way. I line the pan with cream than throw in lots of parmesan. You want it to bubble so the parmesan melts, but you dont want it to be dry. To help the process along and feel useful, stir it non stop.  It takes some practice, but once you learn its easy to do. The sauce cooks rather quickly, especially in a hot pan, So keep an eye on it. Try ot make the sauce last so it can go straight on your pasta. Once you think the parmesan has sufficiently melted add lots of pepper.

Once your pasta is ready things get really exciting. Put your fried sausage bits and delicious Antipasto into the pot.

Then add your made form scratch alfredo sauce. (You are so Pro) Mix it up and have a bite. I bet it’s delicious. Sinfully Delicious.

Now back to the rest of the pack of sausages. A nice complement to your delicious Pasta would be whole sausages. Fry these bad boys up on a little oil.

They should look like this. These didn’t taste burnt. But they sure do look it. The way to tell the sausages are ready is that they are no longer pink inside. You  want it to be a light shade of brown. It’s especially difficult with spicy sausages because they are naturally pink. Just keep simmering evenly and even try a little bit and see if it tastes ready. I fried these for quite a while. Near the end I put the stovetop on low heat just to prevent any mistakes.

I served with two sides, salad and corn. I wanted to balance out the greasy deliciousness of the sausages with something healthy. If you followed my recipe and liked the results – GOOD JOB! you just made delicious SAUSAGE CONTAINING FOODS.

Lasagna

Lasagna is THE indulgence food. When I was little, Garfield the orange cat would always talk about his lasagna and how he would eat the whole pan every time his owner John made it. I hope kitty doesn’t follow in Garfields’ footsteps.

Ingredients that You will need:

1 block of cheese
1 pack of old el paso taco or fajita powder
1 pack ground beef
i can of your choice tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce
1 pinch of garlic
1 pinch of ginger
5 shakes of salt
1 pot of water
1/2 box of lasagna pasta

Start Boiling your water in a pot. Put in your five shakes of salt. At the same time, get a non stick fry pan with a little bit of vegetable oil on it going. Put your ground beef in.

Put in One Pinch of ginger and one pinch of garlic. I use these jars of minced garlic and ginger. They last forever and you don’t have to cut it every time.  Now brown the meat.

When the meat is somewhat brown add your powder. Not too much! Usually 1/2 a pack will suffice. I usually prefer to put in the taco flavoring over the fajita one but its up to you!

Cut up some tomato, I only used one but two might be good as well. Also, cut about a quarter of an onion. Throw these in as well.

Now you probably want to check on your water and see what going on there. Is it boiling like crazy? If so, add your lasagna pasta. I use a small pot so I break mine in half before I put it in. Also, I put in a couple little pieces so I can taste these to see when its done.

Make sure to keep an eye on this pasta. You want to stir it a lot, it cooks deceptively quickly. Also, because the pasta itself is so thick its hard to tell when its done. SO watch it!

Keep an eye on the meat too. This is close to done, its pretty much the right shade of brown.Back to the pasta!

This is pretty much done. It moves around really easily when you stir it.

A surefire way to tell is by taking out one of the little pieces and tasting it. It is also slightly see through. YUMMY!

When the meat is done, you want to put some sauce in it. I always have to be careful on this part because I’ll sometimes add to much, or sometimes too little. (And one time I forgot to put in the sauce completely. Don’t tell anyone about that.) Unlike this picture – you want to stir in a little at a time. That way you are guaranteed to get the right amount. Some people like to simmer the meat in the sauce. I usually don’t do this because I’m paranoid the meat won’t finish cooking.

You don’t want it too soupy. But a little soupy is okay.

Now go crazy and shred lots of cheese. If you REALLY like cheese shred a lot to put in between layers. If you’re not a big fan (what’s wrong with you?) just shred enough that you can make a nice top layer for your lasagna.

So you want to start the layering process. I usually use some clamps and my hands. (Make sure your hands are clean BE HYGIENIC!) Also, you can grease your pan or lasagna dish or whatever in case you are worried it’ll stick. But at this point the lasagna had so much oil in it I didn’t bother.

Put some of your meat sauce and then start up another layer. You’re building!

When you get to your final layer, cover it with LOTS of cheese. Be a DAIRY MANIAC.

Heat it up. You want the melting process to begin. DO NOT leave it alone for too long. It’ll burn and all that work is out the window!! Melty Melty.

DROOL. When your lasagna cheese has melted to your satisfaction remove it from the oven. If you have the willpower let it sit and settle. Or just dig into it immediately. Don’t even get a plate just eat it right out of the pan.

YOU JUST MADE LASAGNA!

Hmmmmm Where have I been?

Hello!

It’s been a very long time since I have returned to blogging. Where have I been?

Updates!

1 – Nayanas kitchen has moved! I moved from my old place and now the kitchen has changed. This one is even more epic if that is possible.

2 – I was in my final year. SKEWL OVAH!

3 – I have a new addition to the family.

Isn’t she so cute? We got kitty from the Toronto Humane Society. It was like cat jail. There were all these cages and all the cats meowed. But they are treated very sweetly. Anytime someone comes up to the cages the kitties come close for pettings. The lady who interviewed us for kitty’s adoption was very Sweet and informative. Right now they just got in all these beautiful puppies from Iqualuit.

http://www.torontohumanesociety.com/ soooooooooooooooo cute. whats stopping you? GO GET ONE!

4 – And this – http://nayanaism.wordpress.com/ That’s right I have started a little jewelery business. While that blog is right now pathetic (it only has a SLIDESHOW and not a single word post!) I am working on it. It needs to have a very professional businessy tone in comparison with this one. VERY PROFESSIONAL YOU GUYS.

Despite all my fantastic reasons there is no excuse for my bad behavior. So to make it up to you i’ll give you a little taste GET IT of whats to come

ROASTED RED PEPPER HUMMUS

SPAGHETTI AND MEAT BALLS

LASAGNA

THIS INDIAN CUCUMBER STUFF I DON’T KNOW THE NAME OF

CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMY

Look forward to regular postings! I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SUPER UPDATE – Premier video!

I have a super special Surprise, the first actual finished product of many on going projects. I am going VIDEO. Now for any of you internet peeps looking for porn, this is not the place. And also, shame on you. HAHA i’m just kidding. Keyboards need love too.

So here is the action line up for this video:

Writer, Editor, Producer, Special Person – Nayana Kulkarni

Assistant Script Editor – Lauren Quinn

Filming and Stage Direction – Squishy

Test Audience – Robbie Kulkarni

Inspiration – Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Matt Stone, and Trey Parker

Okay so without any further nonsense – my SUPER AWESOME WICKEDNESS VIDEO PREMIERE

The Squirrel Versus Frog Debate!

LOLZ

Kashi has officially become a member of lol cats -

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=1012265

sooooooo cute!

PRETZELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was watching “The Office,” which is beyond excellent, and Michael, the boss, is all “Soft Pretzel Day.” It’s about 2:30 in the morning, I have an exam the next day, and all I can think is mmmm pretzels. Pretzels are freaking awesome. So I looked up some recipes online and here we go:

You need:

4 1/2 cups of Flour (keep your flour bag or whatever next to you, cause you don’t use it all at one time)

1 – 2 tablespoon Sugar (How sweet do you want them? I used one table spoon but I wanted Sweeter! So next time I would use two)

1 Tablespoon salt

1 package of active dry yeast (these come in packs – i didn’t knwo this – i was all HOW MUCH SHOULD I USE – but they come in little packs and are separated, so like 1 little pack is 8 grams, which is good to use

1 cup boiled water (might need more or less depending on how savvy you are with the dough.

I egg yolk, in a bowl, beaten with one teaspoon of water MIX IT UP

Toppings – Course Sea Salt, Cinnamon Powder – Icing! Whatever you can think of BUT DEFINITELY USE TOPPINGS

and finally…..

Mad Skillz

This is a slight variation of the recipe I found online – This ones better – INSULTED!

Take Bowl and take take 2 cups of flour, pour it in. Take about One Cup of your warm water and pour it in. Put in your salt and your sugar (you can totally deviate form what i’ve written, its to your taste) and your yeast. Mix these ingredients up with your BARE HANDS – sticky fun! Keep in mind it’ll get messy. If you’ve got one of those wimpy food processors that do all the work for you – go ahead and use one of those. But know that you’re not a true man.

Your dough is going to be sticky and threadyish. Like ear wax when they take out a big chunk. Observe.

It’ll be feathery almost. So add more flour, add at least two cups. It s okay if your dough gets dry, becuase when you’re making it you can add some water to make it a little sticky, add a little flour at a time. When you feel like it is it a manageable consistency, get to work constructing your awesome pretzel.

Work on a cleaned floured surface. a bid flat surface so you can really get into it and make some ginourmous pretzels. The way to construct a pretzels is like this snake – unusable noose – flip. Allow me to explain.

First you make the snake. Take a chunk of dough – rip it out like an animal, from your gigantic dough ball. Take your chunk and roll it and roll it and spin it and whatever, do whatever you need to do to make and awesomely long skinny snake. Keep in mind that the dough might get dry and unmanageble, keep some water handy. You only need to dip your fingers in it or wet your hands and the dough will respond and you’ll have some friction to create with.

Make the unsusable noose. Which is basically a circle with a twirl. This can also be known as a tie with no arrow, or a balloon with two strings. oh or a twist tie. which makes more sense….

Anyways, now for the flip part. Flip your little bottom part up and make them touch the tops of the circle. And there you have constructed an awesomely excellent Pretzel…

You can also get a little crazy with it and make people. Cannibal!

Or words. This says lol. heheheheheheh EPIC LULZ

Remember that egg yolk you beat? Take a brush, or use your fingers, and coat this on all the pretzels before they go into the oven. Now put on all your crazy toppings – don’t hold back!

Set your oven at 400 – 450 degrees, preheated, and let them cook up real nice. They should be placed on a cookie sheet, I had none so I used tin foil – bad idea. They should get brown, but if you’re not sure if they’re done check them out a bit.

A pretzel with icing……….

Classy. Pretzels will turn out edible no matter what, and overtime you can figure out what works for you best, how much flour, how much sugar or salt. You can change the taste up too. I don’t see why other stuff like herbs and such cannot be put in the mix as well. On this first try I did not like two things- I felt like there was too little sugar, and that the crust was hard. I may have used too much flour and not enough egg yolk, or I may have left them in for too long, – but they were still good! Some of the recipes say you can leave the in the freezer and microwave them later – but I don’t recommend it. Eat them up right away man! They’re your freaking pretzels! No ones looking! Its also a kind of cool surprise to give someone a massive pretzel. Its like “Here’s a massive pretzel” Next time, I’m making a totally gigantic massive one. We’re talking anaconda size, like I’ll need one of those professional pizza ovens. Ah yeah.

Sushi Cake

This cake looks like sushi. I looked up sushi cakes online, and they had a bunch of pictures of hardcore cakes made with colored glazed sugar (i think its called) its the kind of frosting that dries but looks totally smooth. While these look awesome, they must be difficult to make. So here is an easy suggestion to get the same result.

You need:

oreo cookies

chocolate and vanilla icing

fruits!

cake mix

eggs

1/3 oil

1 1/4 water or milk

Make your cake mix and pour it into a round pan. Use the eggs, cake mix, oil and water and mix it up til the batter has no lumps. VERY IMPORTANT: oil the pan with olive oil before you pour the cake mix in so you can remove the cake easily after it is cooked. Cook the cake according to the cake instructions which is approx. 25 minutes and at 350.

While you are letting the cake bake, grab you oreo cookies.

This is a tray of oreo cookies:

Bam. Take each cookie and using a sharp knife carefully separate the squishy center from the back parts. Consume the center and save the black part.

Once your cake has finished baking you will know by sticking a knife in it. If the knife comes out without any batter it is complete. It will also smell nice. Lifting the cake out of the pan in the tricky part. The olive oil will separate the batter from the side of the pan. You will see a clear space between the edges of the cake and the pan. Let the cake cool a bit. Going around the whole circumference of the cake, lift up the edges a little bit using your fingers. You will lightly feel the edges of the bottom of the cake separate from the pan. This will loosen it up so it comes out of the pan in one piece. One you have worked up the courage, lift the cake out using your hands and place it on a plate.

Take a bowl and place it on the top of your cake. Using a sharp wet butter knife, cut around the edge of the bowl so that you make a circle.

Take the butter knife and go around the hole a second time. Once you are sure it is too the bottom, use a knife and a spoon to lift out the little hole you have made. This makes it a ‘sushi’ cake, because your fillings go right to the bottom. This part can be tricky, but we used SUPER MOIST batter which is usually more fragile and it was just fine. I found that wedging the spoon on one side and a knife on the other made the middle circle pop out not too horrificly.

Refine the middle circle with a butter knife once again and make it even, then take out the crumbs. What do you do with the middle part? Consume it. QUICKLY!

Frost it! Do the top first. Now, the top of sushi is white, but there are many differnt ways you can make the top. For example, you can frost it with vanilla frosting like we did, and then sprinkle it with coconut shavings. Not a fan of coconuts? That cool – you can also coat it with white chipits. They are white chocolate chips you can get a bag of in the baking aisle. It didn’t look white enough with just vanilla frosting, so i put the frosting and then coated it with powdered sugar. I used a knife to smooth out the powdered sugar so it would cover the whole top. This does make the cake dry – so it is essential that you use ALOT of fruit for the middle. Also, frost or whatever the top of the cake first. The sides are easy, but if you do them first it gets messy. To make the oreos stick on the border of the cake, put a dollop of chocolate icing on them and stick them to the side. This looks pretty badass. We debated crumbling the oreos but then decided against it. This way it looks smoother , like the seaweed part of sushi, but isn’t difficult to make.

Deal. Now fill the middle with fruit. I filled it in layers haphazardly using strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries. The top is the only part you want to make look neat, so it resembles the top of sushi. You can do this by cutting slices of the fruit into shapes and lining them up, I made kiwi squares and strawberry circles, then a side of blueberry.

Other things you can use are cherries to look like the fish eggs some restaurants use as garnish for sushi. Or you can get green melon and cut it into sticks so it resembles the cucumber in sushi.

BAM! There’s more stuff you can do., If you’ve got time and want to make multiple sushis, you can buy smaller pans and just pour the batter into the separate ones. You can pile these on top of one another and make them stick with frosting too!

Happy Birthday Jenn!!!!!!!!!