Ok, so this post is more for personal amusement than anything else. I grew up on having almost everything homemade... so the recipes I learned (and don't really remember) are all home recipes. Recently, my mom came back from the States and did something unprecedented - Normally she isn't an advocate for such but... she brought back a few packets of mac & cheese for me. For purposes of easy traveling, she removed the contents from their original boxes and ziplocked them.
It was the first time I had mac & cheese - from a box.
Now this put yours truly in a quandary. How do I make this? There's no box with a recipe on it... I've never had it before... I don't know how it's supposed to look at the end.
I do
, however, know how the oh-so-good macaroni & cheese pie looks and tastes... *rubs tummy nostalgically*
So, here is a photo documentation of my trials and tribulations with making mac & cheese -
from a box(or ziplock bag).
***
The macaroni and cheese packet.
First step: Observe the specimen
This step is pretty simple. It's typical pasta that just cooks faster. I mean, theoretically speaking, since it
is supposed to be a "quick easy to make" meal.
Step 2: Boil water
Step 3: (not necessary) Pour out cheese packet into a bowl
Let me explain why this happened. I noticed some ants near my goods. I was suspect. I opened it to see if they were trying to attack my cheese and whether they succeeded. *perturbed expression* Luckily, they didn't.
Step 4: Add pasta to hot water & stir occasionally.
Step 5: Drain water
Step 6: Add cheese
Step 7: Stir
Step 8: Serve and eat.
So I may have deceived a little. This is the third and last packet. The first one I had to acquire the taste, which made me feel nauseous... but then as is typical with me, regardless of whether I like something or not, I start to crave it. Now I'm all out of mac & cheese. Le sigh.
Shelli out.
(depressed)
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I changed my template again. I figured out how to widen my page span so that my photos and videos fit right within the designated blog post area. However, I got fed up of the old background so I changed it... It might change again. Below are the before and after screen shots...
before...
after...
I might switch back. I wanted a little colour but nothing too overwhelming... But side by side, this one looks like it lacks life doesn't it?
***
So I baked a cake. It came out lovely - perfect texture and everything. There was a minor snafu because mom didn't put it in properly and the strawberry layer baked on a slant and some spilled over... But it still came out nice regardless.
It's a double layered cake. The top layer is strawberry with crushed cherries. The bottom layer is chocolate and coffee. Ideally, I would've loved to do a cream cheese icing but I didn't have cream cheese... So instead, I substituted with lemon icing.
Here's my recipe:
1 cup margarine
1 3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3-4 heaped tbs. unsweetened cocoa
3-4 tbs instant coffee
6 heaped tbs. strawberry milk powder ( I used Nesquik)
3 crushed confection cherries
2 mixing bowls.
You'd need a huge bowl.
First you incorporate the butter and the sugar together. Add the eggs in one by one, beating the cake mix after each egg has been added. Then add the vanilla extract. Add the salt. The next step, add a little milk, mix. Then add a little flour, mix. And keep this up until all the milk and flour has been added. This step was a little daunting for me because the milk made me a little paranoid after it became so watery. However, the flour reduces the watery appearance. If you think you've added too much milk and it's too watery - I assume adding a little more flour might be the quick fix. Otherwise, the texture would come out somewhat pudding-ish. (Speaking from a disastrous experience *sigh*)
**If you want to make a chocolate cake solely use the cocoa alone for the entire mixture. You might need more cocoa to make it extra chocolately. However, 6 heaped tbs. is ok.
At this point, you're basically done. Separate the mixture into two bowls (or just pour half into another bowl). In one bowl, add the chocolate and coffee. In the other, add the strawberry powder and the crushed cherries.
I encourage you to taste both mixtures to make sure it tastes sufficiently strawberry-like and choc/coffee-like for your tastes. The first time I made a coffee cake, I put in a little coffee and tasted it mildly and thought it sufficed. Lo and behold, when the cake was done what was once mild was not even a taste but just a coloured presence on my cake. Stupes.
I iced the choc/coffee first and then put the other layer on top... and iced the whole thing.
Here's my finished product. It looks a bit messy because I didn't flour my pans properly and then there were the minor glitches... And I didn't have enough icing to mesh the two properly. It's covered in plastic wrap.
Again... don't mind how it look so... it tastes very good. :D
Now I must quickly get ready for class...
Ciao.
Shelli out.
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