Week 1 July 3rd - July 4th (part 1 of 4)

Despite eating a lot we don't cook very often. That is to say, never. Eating out was a pretty fun activity for a while but you can only have so many burgers or bowls of ramen before it all starts tasting the same - not to mention it was getting a little too costly for a couple of people who are, essentially, jobless.

So to feed ourselves without going broke and disenchanted we've decided to start cooking; and as long as we're at it, why not keep a running journal to track our progress? So.... let's get started.

July 3rd and 4th

As first steps into any projects usually go, this first weekend was pretty ambitious for two people with almost no cooking experience.

- Scallion pancakes

- Roast chicken and potatoes

- Sauteed snow pea greens

- cheese cake

Let me make this post about the scallion pancakes:

The general idea behind scallion pancakes can't get any simpler: Flour, water, scallions and a hot pan. In practice, things got a little ..... stickier (pun intended!)

We found a recipe on the Serious Eats blog but it called for adding boiling water to the flour. (1 cup of water to 2 cups of flour if I recall.) If you're not careful about adding the water slowly, as I wasn't, you'll end up with a sticky paste that'll stick to nothing else but your hands rather than a pliable dough ball.

We fixed this by adding more flour - teaspoon by teaspoon - to the goopy mess then massaging it until it started to look like dough again.

The rest went sorta as instructed except that they didn't come out as light and flaky as we would have liked. Some parts of some cakes were, but it was not consistent through out the cakes. My guess? 1) Not enough oil when folding the dough over on itself (not unlike the layers of butter folded into dough to form a croissant) and 2) I need to work on my hand stretching technique.

- M

After M made the yummy scallion pancakes, we whipped up a cheesecake.  Because of our concern for the health issues white sugar can cause, we decided to substitute the cup of sugar the recipe asked for with agave nectar.  Agave nectar is not lower in sugar content, but it is healthier because the body absorbs it slowly. White sugar and honey, on the other hand, will spike our blood glucose level.  We only added half a cup of agave nectar (recipe called for 1 cup of sugar) and it came out perfectly!  I was concerned the higher liquid content and lower sugar level of the agave nectar will cause the final product to flop.  Turns out cheesecake is incredibly easy to make and allows lots of room for error.  Some recipes call for 2 eggs and some call for 5.  Some call for 2 packs of cream cheese and some call for 4.  It depends on how you like your cheesecake. It's a perfect beginner's dessert to make. (I added some blueberries for effect.)

-J