BOO! It's Halloween!

Ahh... Halloween.  The time for kids to go on an endless sugar high, for parents to drag their kids around at night, and for those in-between to assume another identity and let their "other" personalities come out!  I've always enjoyed Halloween and this year is no different.

My department is holding a Halloween party this year and I'm pretty darn excited because of all the activities!  There will be three contests for everyone - costume contest, pumpkin carving contest, and a cupcake contest!  I immediately signed up for the cupcake contest and later signed up for the pumpkin carving contest after my coworker convinced me.  Good thing she did because I had a lot of fun carving different jack 'o lanterns on the pumpkin.  Three hours of hard and laborious work, but it was well worth it...

As you know, I've been trying hard to become a better baker, so this cupcake contest provided more of a motivation to do well (competitive much?).  In the days leading up to it, I have been researching cupcake flavors, frosting ideas, and Halloween-themed designs.  I also knew I had to do a test batch to make sure it will turn out edible and presentable because I did not want to start on the Sunday before and end up with disastrous results and no cupcakes to offer the next day.  The practice run was a great idea because for the second time around, I knew exactly what I was doing and the cupcakes turned out refreshingly moist and delicious!  The cream cheese frosting was just sweet enough and paired well with the pumpkin-flavor cake, and the finely chopped chocolate chips were a wonderful final touch to the cupcakes.  I hope the judges will like it.  Wish me luck everyone!

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin cupcakes from Ina Garden for HouseBeautiful
...I doubled the recipe to make bigger and plumper cupcakes.  It yielded 20 cupcakes.

Gently fold the flour mixture in the wet mixture until just combined.  The final batter should be thick and lumpy.

Use a cookie scooper to fill the pan, and use the back of the scooper to "round out" the batter so that you can get a good-lookin' cupcake!

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from Ina Garden for HouseBeautiful
Ingredients
- 9 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup

Decoration:
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, finely chopped
- 18 ghost marshmallow peeps

Tools
- electric mixer
- food processor

Steps
1. Cream the cream cheese and butter on low until softened.

2. Pour in maple syrup and vanilla extract.  Slowly stir in powdered sugar until softened.

3. Chop the chocolate chips in the food processor until fine.  Lay chocolate on a plate for dipping.

4. Take the ghost marshmallow peeps and cut about 1/4 to 1/3 inch of marshmallow from the bottom of the ghost.

5. Frost your cupcakes!  Once frosted, turn the cupcake upside down and dip the frosted cupcake in the chocolate.  Make sure the chocolate is abundant across the surface area of the cupcake (for mimicking dirt) and place a ghost peep on top of the cupcake.  If the ghost peep is not stable, spread a little bit of frosting on the bottom to ensure it stays on top of cupcake.  

The ghost peeps say, "BOO! I dare you to eat me!"

Chocolate Cupcakes - Moist and Delicious

I am working really hard to become a mediocre baker.  I am not even aiming for to be a great baker, because that is reaching far beyond the stars, but just one that can pass by from time to time.  Not exaggerating, but 8 out of 10 times, I would fail at baking something.  The end product would be too hard, too watery, or just too disgusting to eat.  I would stare at the pile of baked goods sitting in my trash can with sadness and wonder where did it all go wrong?! 

Lately, I have been failing more than succeeding.  I recall about a month ago, I was trying out a new muffin recipe, after making multiple delicious batches of other types of muffins, and I failed horribly.  Giving this some thought, I came to the conclusion that I am too ambitious about baking.  For savory dishes, I would typically look at the ingredients and how long it would take to make it.  If everything works out, then I would attempt to make the dish.  I took the same approach with baking.  Most of the ingredients are easy to find - flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk, oil, etc. - and it only takes a few minutes to incorporate everything together.  But what I forget are the skills and techniques that go into every batter.  Beat, stir, fold... I may think I know what they mean, but I most likely do not perform them correctly!  My goal now is to start small, tiny baby steps, with baking.  No more ambitious recipes or complicated techniques.  I hope my husband has the appetite because more are coming!

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
from Simply Recipes

The results?

Chocolate cupcake: easy to make, moist and delicious, just as promised.  I opted to cut out some sugar, from 1 cup to 3/4 cup.

Chocolate frosting: major FAIL.  I think where I went wrong was that I wanted to cut the recipe in half, and I did that with everything, except for the cocoa (old brain, forgot).  It ended up making the mixture really thick, which I tried to compensate by adding the other half of the butter and putting it back on the stove for melting, and this became a downward slope towards frosting failure.  Another strike added to my record.  Instead, I sprinkled powder sugar and placed a piece of strawberry on top.  It's healthier, right?

Barbeque Pork, Chinese Style

Char Siu, which literally means "fork roast", is a staple item throughout the world of Asian food.  This bad boy chunk of meat can be placed on top of anything, from white rice to noodle soups and porridge, and in buns such as "char siu bao", a popular dimsum item, or sandwiched in between bread.  When Bubba from Forest Gump started naming out all the different types of shrimp, "There's shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried.  There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp...", this is exactly what char siu is like for Chinese cuisine.  You can put char siu on everything and pair it with anything!  It is also quite delicious all by itself.

Char Siu (Chinese Barbeque Pork)

Ingredients
- 1 lb pork shoulder (aka pork butt)
- 4 Tbsp Char Siu sauce
I use this brand:

- 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp sugar

Steps
1. Marinate the pork shoulder with char siu sauce, garlic, and black pepper overnight.  At first the sauce is very sticky and hard to manage, but check on the pork a few hours later and the sauce becomes more watery.  At this point, ensure all of the pork gets covered in the garlic char siu marinade.

2. Preheat the oven at 375 degrees.  Take out the marinated pork and let it sit at room temperature while the oven heats.  Place pork in oven for 20-25 minutes.  In the last 5 minutes, spread 1 tsp of sugar on top of pork pieces and place it back in the oven until done.

3. Once the pork is done, let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes.  Thinly slice pork and serve.

Serves 3-4.

A few tips...
...if you desire the "barbeque-crisp-burning" type of barbeque pork, then about 10 minutes before the pork is finished, take out the pork and place it on a hot grill (medium heat) until done.
...pork shoulder is the best piece of meat for this, so don't substitute!  The shoulder contains fat sections that gives the barbeque meat its flavor while cooking.
...this barbeque pork will go well with a previous post of mine: Vietnamese BBQ Pork Vermicelli.  It also went well with a lunch meal I made for my nephew recently, BBQ Pork and Dry Tossed Egg Noodles (adapted from 3 Hungry Tummies.  To note: I only used the noodles dressing recipe and substituted caramel sauce with Hoisin sauce).

sweet and savory pork, tangy eggy noodles, and refreshing stir-fry cabbage with shiitake mushrooms

Fajita Fiesta

Sundays are usually the one day in the week that I am motivated to cook something new.  I spend the entire day looking through food blogs and recipe websites to get inspiration.  I usually have a set of ingredients in mind that I want to use or know I have and I start searching for that perfect recipe.  Although I may be doing this the wrong way (people usually decide what to make and then go out and buy the ingredients, right?), it has worked over and over again. 
This past Sunday's inspiration was steak fajitas.  My husband and I quickly scarfed down two fajitas during dinner, and we finished up the rest for lunch the next day.  That's success. 

Steak Fajitas
from Simply Recipes

Serves 4.

substituted flour tortilla with corn tortilla.  delicious!
also, the ceramic dish was an exciting purchase from Puerto Vallarta!

homemade guac and salsa :))



all wrapped up, yum!