• Chinese Inspired Seafood Risotto
  • Made with:
    • STOCK: Scallops, Mussels, Shrimp, White Onion, Soy Sauce, Ginger, Carrots, Paprika, Korean Peppers, and Korean Red Pepper Flakes.
    • RICE: Chinese Rice toasted with Vegetable Oil
    • THOUGHTS: It was HELLA salty. Probably 'cause I thought it was a good idea to add in additional salt after the soy sauce and not measuring it. But overlooking the saltiness, the seafood stock came out pretty nicely and the rice was fully cooked. I topped it with chopped green onion so it at least looked presentable. Note to self: Actually know how to make real risotto. 2/5
• Brown Rice Onigiri with Seasoned Beef
  • Made with:
    • SUSHI RICE: Cooked Brown Rice, Mirin, Sugar, Rice Vinegar, and a pinch of Salt.
    • BEEF: Chinese 5 Spice, a shit ton of Cayenne Pepper, Pepper, Garlic Salt, and Curry Powder.
    • THOUGHTS: They tasted great! Honestly, I thought that spices would come out overpowering but it didn't! Huzzah. The Mirin (something I always heard about but never used) was a lot more "alcohol-y" than expected so when I put it in the rice it was no-ti-ca-ble. The sugar was probably the saving grace though which contrasted nicely with the beef. I ate it with siracha and amazing miso soup (made by Gary). 4/5
• Gingerbread Pancakes
  • Made with:
    • Uhm, I used a recipe for this, but I forgot the ingredients... There was flour, molasses, sugar (I had no brown sugar), ground ginger, ground cloves, cinnamon, baking powder, pinch of salt, 3 eggs, and butter. I may have left out a few things, but that's all I remember.
    • THOUGHTS: NEVER AGAINNNN. Okay, granted that I should learn how to make normal regular pancakes. I somehow made these thinking that there was already maple syrup in the fridge but that syrup's use by date was 2010. Before continuing on the pancakes, the sugar crystals that formed underneath the maple syrup bottle stuck together to make a brick. No one in this family eats pancakes so I guess it's not that surprising but it's been there since I was 15. That sir, is nasty. The pancakes themselves tasted like silicon. It LOOKED like they were silicon. As I was making them, I noticed that they didn't bubble right when they hit the pan. They sort of, like, curled up. Not unlike when a bug dies and it does that really gross leg curl thing. With the lack of syrup, I made a quick blueberry sugar syrup which still did not save these horrible pancakes. Never again/5
• Pepperjack Mac & Cheese
  • Made with:
    • SAUCE: Grated Pepperjack Cheese, Yogurt Butter, a bit of Water (no milk in the house), Flour (to thicken), and Salt & Pepper to taste
    • PASTA: Spaghetti (no shells) with Olive Oil
    • THOUGHTS: It's good! At one point, I put too much flour so the sauce started to turned doughier than wanted so I just added more water and stirred 'til it reached sauce consistency again. I drained the pasta before it was fully cooked so by the time I finished with the sauce, it was at the right temperature to eat. Note to self: a little less salt since the Pepperjack has a good amount in it already. 4/5
• Gingerbread Latte
  • Made with:
    • ESPRESSO: 3 Spoonfuls of Instant Coffee mixed with hot water
    • STEAMED MILK: 2 Cups of 2% Milk, 1 Cinnamon stick, Ground Clove, 1 Spoonful of Molasses, Ground Ginger, a pinch of Salt, and 1/3 Cup of Packed Brown Sugar (Finally found some disguised inside a Red Pepper Canister!)
    • THOUGHTS: WOO, it works! The seasoning has a lot more impact in liquid than it does with batter (ie. the pancakes). Because of that, it makes the coffee taste really rich! I put a bit too much brown sugar, so the aftertaste left that "too much sugar" sour taste but besides that, it's nice to drink outside when it's twilight-y. I left the cinnamon stick inside the teapot where I poured the coffee so it continues to steep while I cleaned up the kitchen. 3.5/5
• Salami and Cheese Open-Faced Sandwich
  • Made with:
    • INGREDIENTS: Baguette Bread 1/2 Cut, Crumbled Pepperjack Cheddar, Self Sliced Sweet Italian Salami (Thick), Fried Egg (with Olive Oil), Tomato (Thick), Yogurt Butter, Oregano, and Ground Pepper.
    • THOUGHTS: Not as hard to eat as expected, but still sort of hard, but it tastes yummy. It's also sweeter than expected ('cause I've never used Sweet Salami before), but with everything combined, it was sweet, slightly spicy and salty. Not adding extra salt was a good decision since over-salting things seemed to be my weakness. The yolk accompanied the meat well while the cheddar and the bread made a good base. Probably "once in a while" comfort food sort of thing 'cause it's pretty heavy. 3.5/5
• Shinji Ikari Omelette
  • Made with:
    • OMELETTE: Eggs, Oyster Mushrooms, Green Onions, Finely Chopped Korean Peppers, Tomato, Salt, Paprika, and Pepper.
    • FILLING: Grated Pepperjack Cheddar, Mashed Yams, Hummus, and Fresh Grated Ginger.
    • THOUGHTS: I have no idea what I was thinking when I made this omelette. There were things in the refrigerator and I took them all. THIS OMELETTE HAS NO IDENTITY. WHO IS THIS? THIS IS OMELETTE. WHO IS OMELETTE. WHAT IS OMELETTE. WHAT IS OMELETTE. OMELETTE IS OMELETTE. Surprisingly, it was a very bland omelette considering all the stuff that was put in it except for the occasional chunk of ginger that wasn't grated properly. The yams ended up tasting very familiar to potatoes so everything tasted...thick. There were also a lot of different flavors jammed together 'cause the hummus was sour, the yams sweet, the cheddar salty and the ginger spicy. Yet all of it was mulled by an extremely thick mashed potato texture. Eventually after the fifth or so bite, I decided to throw it away... "goodbye mother"

STUPID SHINJI/5

• Rare Beef Sushi
  • 
    • With a Pot of "Colonel" Tea
  • 
    • Made with:
      • SUSHI RICE: Japanese White Rice, Apple Vinegar, Salt, and White Sugar.
      • STEAK: Ahaha, it was left overs from Longhorn Steakhouse (which I got rare).
      • GINGER FLOWERS: Green Onion and Pickled Ginger.
      • SPICEY BBQ SAUCE: Barbecue sauce with Wasabi Power and Red Pepper Flakes.
  • 
    • THOUGHTS: I didn't do much cooking but I still wanted to take a picture, hur. With sushi rice, I also tend to put too much of either Vinegar, Sugar or Salt so I carefully measured stuff with a spoon and had as much vinegar as there was sugar. Ended up being perfectly fine, yay! At first the sauce was weird to eat with the sushi rice alone, but with the steak it tasted a whole lot better. I had the beef chilled in the fridge for a couple of hours so it had the same texture as tuna sushi (which is why I turned it to sushi). Overall, pretty great! (Thanks guy that cooked the meat)! 4/5
• Beggar's Green Tea Milk
  • Made with:
    • GREEN TEA "SYRUP": Sugar, 2-3 Green Tea bags, and Water.
    • MILK: 1% Milk
    • THOUGHTS: Originally I wanted to make this with Green Tea Matcha but turns out it costs around $25-45 dollars for a tiny tin of it. ;-; Because my pockets are terribly thin, I thought that would be a bad idea to buy one so TEA BAGS (which were still $7, but they're nice quality). After making the syrup in the microwave for three minutes, I put a few ice cubes in it to cool it down but took them out before they made the syrup too watery. I was afraid that the milk would make everything look too "water mixed with milk"-y (which has a gray color) but it came out alright. It even had hints of green which is a lot harder to get out of tea bags then matcha (which is freakishly green from the chlorophyll). The taste was immediately green tea, haha, and very reminiscent to a Starbucks green tea latte. It would be more so if I added another tea bag so that'll definitely be done the next time! The downside however was there were a lot of tea leave remnants at the bottom (possibly because one of the tea bags burst) but they were easily avoided. (Maybe with loose leaf green tea, it'll be better).

Overall, GOOD JOB. 4/5

• The First Salad
  • Made with:
    • Romaine Lettuce, Cherry Tomatoes, Assorted Bell Peppers, 2 Caps of Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 Cap of Olive Oil, 1 Cap of Mirin, Pickled Ginger, Squeeze of Lemon, Sesame Seeds, and Red Pepper Flakes.
    • Thoughts: I uh, don't eat salad usually but this one was pretty good. I think I'll eat vegetables more.