Tag Archives: food

How to make Brussels sprouts

December 5, 2017adultingadulting, brusselssprouts, cooking, foodbrainandthewind

Wow – Thanksgiving break feels like such a long time ago and all eyes (and ears) are on Christmas now. My Christmas lights have been up since October, so I’m very super excited for this! But you’re still not ready for another gigantic-I’ll-ate-so-much-i-can’t-move meal yet, I totally understand. So, instead of making some heavy meal, how about we try something healthier?

Brussels Sprouts trivial: Where are Brussels Sprouts from?

*drum roll*…Brussels, in Belgium. ITS IN THE NAME! I totally had my mind blown; never thought about BRUSSELS sprouts that way before, but apparently you need to capitalize the B since its for Brussels, the city/region. Now you can never read it the same way again! Check it out the next time you go to the grocery store, I bet they have Brussels capitalized. Remember to grab some on the way out! Because they’re really easy to make.

WHAT YOU NEED

(1) Brussels Sprouts / (2) Olive Oil / (3) Pan

STEPS

(1) Chop each of the sprout into half
***Please, please be careful with this. These sprouts are like tiny cabbages, and its easy to roll around. Don’t chop your finger off!

(2) Put some olive oil in the pan

(3) After the pan is hot, put Brussels sprouts into pan

(4) Cook for 4-8 minutes

(5) You’re Done! Add salt & pepper and enjoy.

Fancy it up

version 1: add herbs such as Sage, and cook with the sprouts

version 2: you can bake it instead of using a pan (e.g. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/67952/roasted-brussels-sprouts/)

Honestly, despite all the many recipes on the web, these are the only variations I’ve tried because the simple version is already so damn awesome!

Illustrated by Marko Mille (@marko_mille).

How to cook pasta

November 17, 2017adultingadulting, dinner, easy, food, fun, pasta, simple, teachingbrainandthewind

Dear millennials, adulting is difficult. As a result, I’m going to cover here the things that I’ve slowly learned over the last few years. Tiny steps that I’ve made towards being an adult that I am actually pretty proud of. As a heads up, they’re mostly going to be recipes that surprised me as actually pretty easy to make.

Whenever I open Instagram (which is more often than I would like), there are basically two types posts: dogs and food. My response to dogs = awwww! and food = oooo yummm! But whenever I read the recipes from professional food bloggers, I’m always intimidated by how many ingredients there are (endless), how beautifully it is put together (even filters can’t save me from that), and the fact that it is always portioned for 4-8 people (I’m either 1, at most 2. maaayybe 4 if we do leftovers, 8 if I end up hating my leftovers). As much as I love the food pictures I’m scrolling through, I never imagine myself making it. Everything about it seemed so perfect, and as an extension, so daunting.

For dinner tonight, how about I just stick to my boiled pasta + canned sauce instead?

So here’s my first post on #adulting. Let’s start with making pasta at home:

You’ll need:

Pasta Pasta Sauce Salt + Olive Oil Pot ingredients

Steps:

pastacomic

boil water
put pasta in a pot, along with the hot water (add a bit of salt and olive oil to improve taste) and leave it to boil for 13-15 minutes
separate the pasta from the water using a strainer (or however you can separate them, even with a fork or spatula)
pour sauce over the cooked pasta
Enjoy!

Need help with the ingredients?

Pasta: you can buy a box from your grocery store. Anything you like – long ones, short ones, fat ones, tiny ones…[forget the fancy Italian names if that’s too much for you – the pappardelle, fettucine, rigatoni…], you can always stick with spaghetti, that’s Italian!
Pasta sauce: also from the store, choose whatever you like. they’re usually right next to the pasta boxes

Special shout out to Marko Mille for illustrating. Check out her other work on instagram @marko_mille.

Pumpkin Pie

November 30, 2015Travelbaking, food, nudging, pumpkin, pumpkin pie, temptationbrainandthewind

pie2

One of my proudest moments in the past 2 months was getting my mom hooked on pumpkin…foods. No nudging was needed, when she caved to the temptation of those pumpkin spice cakes at Trader Joe’s (yes, they are amazing). After that, the list went on – pumpkin muffin, pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin bread…do they sell pumpkin puree in HK? ah, I hope they do.

So when Thanksgiving rolled around, I naturally had to incorporate some sort of pumpkin food into the meal. In fact, it was the only item I made for Thanksgiving: the glorious Pumpkin Pie.

I cannot pinpoint when it started; when I would say “pumpkin [something]” and my friends would roll their eyes and mumble “of course”. Well, here it is again my dear friends! But let me tell you, its not a normal pumpkin pie, it is made with a gingersnap cookie crust, a significant life upgrade from the packaged frozen crust I sometimes use.

This recipe was taken from Fork Knife Swoon, a new food blog I found that has recipes simple enough for amateur cooks to follow. At least it seems more manageable to me. If you’ve experienced cooking paralysis from reading fancy food blogs with a list of ingredients you couldn’t pronounce and seven too many steps you know you couldn’t follow, I think Fork Knife Swoon might be a good bet. I’ll have to let you know.

I have also decided to make pumpkin pie my perfected dessert. I am impressed at how other bloggers have the patience to experiment with different ingredients/cooking times/mixing methods and make the same dish a dozen times before posting. I want to try to do that, so lets start with the pumpkin pie. This might even become my new years resolution for 2016 (note to self)!

Hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving break. Christmas in a few weeks – let the countdown begin again!

Recipe again is here: Fork Knife Swoon – Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie

Love,
Steph

NEW REBOZO

August 10, 2015TravelChicago, chocolate, food, mexican, mole, new experience, New Rebozobrainandthewind

Hello everyone, Happy Sunday! Hope you’re enjoying your weekend. My weekend has been a combination of new experiences – brunch spots, dishes, and some not-so-new chores – doing laundry. One of the highlights of my weekend was in itself a mix of new and familiar experience.

My friends and I went to New Rebozo, a mexican restaurant in River North, Chicago. It’s a familiar experience because I’ve been to this restaurant twice before. The first time was after I signed my lease for my first apartment (woop!) That itself earned New Rebozo a special place in my heart. Then, I went again with Shraddha after my first (and only) attempt at aerial yoga. For those of you who have not heard of aerial yoga, lmgify here. That time, we established that they have pretty good margs.

This time, I decided to try mole poblano, a traditional mexican dish. Even though I rarely venture outside of my fish tacos, chipotle burrito bowl, and guacamole for my mexican choices, I wanted to see what this featured item on the menu was all about. So here we go, mole, pronounced “mo-lay”, which is slightly different from guaca”mole”, is a chocolate based sauce that is poured over your dish. I ordered the Fiesta Mole, which was a platter of 6 moles over 6 enchiladas, the best way to try out all the varieties. To put inside the enchiladas, I chose chicken and cheese, though you can also choose beans, guacamole, or chorizo.

The experience was interesting, though I confess I’m not the biggest fan of this traditional mexican dish. The different mole flavors were chocolate (plain), pistachio, pumpkin seed, almond, etc. Each of them tasted very different from the next, making each bite an exciting experiment. The chocolate mole, which I was told is the most basic or traditional version of what people call mole, is probably my least favorite of all. I’m usually a big proponent for mixing sweet and savory food, but the chocolate mole had a strange after taste to it. A few of the flavored ones tasted better and complemented the chicken and cheese enchiladas.

I’m glad we tried moles at New Rebozo. It was definitely a new experience for me, though I’m most likely going back to the tacos and margs next time (which are great, btw!)

Lastly, while we are on the topic of mexican food, here’s a game for a BOGO chipotle if you’re a fan (or not): Chipotle Friend or Faux

Have a great week!

Steph

Beef Stew with Beer

November 10, 2014-, Psychology, TravelChicago, cooking, foodbrainandthewind

Hey guys!

Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve been getting addicted to the idea of “Lazy Sundays” and have been slacking on “Blogging Sundays” – my apologies.

This past weekend has been quite productive though. I’ve cooked Beef Stew for the first time, and made Apple Muffin – both of which I’ll share with you today.

Old-Time Beef Stew

Paula Deen's Beef Stew — Paula Deen’s Beef Stew

I came across the idea of making beef stew because I’ve never made anything that required cooking time of over 30 minutes – my usuals are stir-fry, salmon, pasta, salads, quick soups, etc.

Continue reading Beef Stew with Beer →