(blue) cheesecakes and chocolate covered raspberries

As you may know, I live in a 13 x 11 foot rectangle. While I have fun cooking in my cozy dormitory quarters, there's just something about having an actual, beautiful, bona fide kitchen to bake in that makes the whole experience so rich and enjoyable. Countertops, an oven, a sink, measuring cups and bowls, a stove, and cupboards may seem like simple amenities, but when you live in an expensive rectangle, they become pretty special. Okay, I exaggerate a little, but really, it is a very rare opportunity for me to have a kitchen to cook in when i'm at school, so when I got the chance to make cheesecakes in a REAL KITCHEN at a wonderful gal's apartment (thanks BDAY!!), I jumped at the chance. I had so much fun, and definitely satisfied my kitchen addiction. We also made chocolate covered raspberries, which you can also make in your dorm!
Turbinado sugar-in-the-raw, mixed with FIVE blocks of cream cheese!
blue food coloring made these little cakes special. We had to use A LOT!
EGGS! in a SINK! I love sinks.
little mini graham cracker crusts - we doubled the recipe, so we were able to make 12 cheesecake cupcakes, an entire cheesecake pie, and another rectangular pan of cheesecake bars! I feel like we quadrupled the recipe! So much cheesecake. But so good.


isn't it beautiful? Here, you can find over 100 cheesecake recipes for any occasion!
Perfection!

IKEA dark chocolate bar: $1. Making chocolate covered raspberries with your friends: priceless
Raspberries: on sale for 99 cents!
the assembly line...
all the raspberries have little chocolate button hats on!
these sweet treats are simple and easy to make, and very elegant! Impress your floormates with these gourmet creations. Or make them just for you. You can be classy all by yourself. :)

Chocolate Covered Raspberries:

1 bar of chocolate (milk, dark chocolate, or otherwise)

1 pint of fresh raspberries, washed and drained

Break the chocolate bar in pieces, and microwave it in intervals of fifteen seconds - stir with a spoon after each interval. I probably microwaved mine for a total of 45 seconds. Make sure you stir the chocolate so it stays glossy and beautiful! Ina Garten says that the trick to glossy chocolate is to stir it often!

Once the chocolate is melted, decorate your raspberries! What I found to be easiest was to take a small spoonful of melted chocolate, and drizzle it on top of the raspberry. Gently set your raspberry on a serving dish and let the chocolate harden. (or sneak a taste when the chocolate is still melty.) YUM.

Novel

Books and Breakfast. If you enjoy these two B-words, you will most certainly enjoy The Novel Café in Westwood. The ambiance is low-key and casual, and the FOOD is fantastic.
Their beautiful belgian waffle has a giant dollop of sweet whipped cream with heaps of strawberries and bananas on top. The waffle is light and airy, with a satisfying crunch on the rim. ( I was going to say edges, but belgian waffles don't have edges).
While browsing through their extensive book collection (non-fiction and fiction alike), you may enjoy a fresh and flavorful omelette. This one had sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and creamy goat cheese. Rye toast and a side of potatoes make this meal complete.
The various colors of cups give the table a funky feel. Enjoy three fluffy and delicious blueberry (or strawberry, banana and walnut, or plain) pancakes with powdered sugar and generous amounts of pure maple syrup. (not that artificial, chock-full-of-chemicals syrup you see for a fraction of the price of the real thing in the grocery stores). I've always wanted to go to Vermont and collect my own maple syrup! How cool would that be?

Novel also offers many lunch options and scads more things for breakfast, ranging from breakfast quesadillas to eggs florentine! They have several other locations in Los Angeles, including Santa Monica. Here's there website: The Novel Café

I love this place!

Banana Trifle!

What do I do with all the bananas from the dining hall? Make banana trifle o' course! (did you hear Hagrid in your head when you read that?)

You will need:

1 blender

1 pint of heavy whipping cream

6 sugar packets (easily gotten from B-Caf or any dining hall in the tea section)

1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 box of instant vanilla pudding (or chocolate, or whatever your favorite flavor is!)

1 portable coffee cup of milk from B-Caf (or 2.5 cups of milk procured from another source)

Lots of vanilla wafers! (about three-fourths of the box)

4-5 bananas, thinly sliced

1/2 of a lemon's juice - to mix with the bananas to keep them from getting brown

lemon curd, blackberry jam, nutella

First, make the pudding! Mix the milk and the pudding mix together in a portable container, like an empty yogurt carton or a tupperware. Vigorously whisk the mixture together until it gets thick. Then pop it in your fridge and let it set up.
Next, make the whipped cream! I found out that you can, in fact, make whipped cream with your blender. I put the blender in the freezer to ensure the best whipped cream possible. The cream whips up better when it's blended in a really cold container. Pour the whole pint of heavy cream into the blender. Flip the switch and watch simple cream turn into a tasty treat! Add the sugar packets and the vanilla extract. Keep churning that blender till you have copious amounts of whipped cream.
Break the vanilla wafers up into little bits. Slice the bananas and put them into a bowl.

Now begins the layering process:

vanilla wafers, bananas, pudding, whipped cream, repeat. End with whipped cream and a decoration of bananas on top. We flavored the whipped cream with several different things: for the first trifle, we folded lemon curd and blackberry jam into the cream. For the second batch, we used nutella! YUM.

Enjoy! Very simple and fun to do in your dorm room.

PB and Strawberry Smoothie

Strawberries! I brought some organic strawberries back to school from home and I thought they would taste delightful in a rich and delicious smoothie. I found my inspiration from Jamba Juice. They have this item called a "chunky strawberry topper": strawberries, bananas, yogurt, soymilk, and granola all mixed together in what they call an "ideal meal". I augmented this a bit and used:

- 3 Organic Strawberries

- 1 banana (frozen)

- 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (but I think crunchy would also be a great choice!)

I blended this all together and it made a thick concoction with a lovely ice cream-y consistency. I sprinkled some raspberry granola (from Andy's!) on top and voila! The perfect late afternoon snack...

(not your average) Brunch in the Dining Hall

This morning, creativity was afoot in the De Neve dining hall. Brunch was the goal, but there were rules. 1: Food must be created by YOU. Simply taking a plate of food already prepared for you was not an option - you had to take the food, and change it and make it your own beautiful food creation! 2: HAVE FUN! 3: Share what you made with your friends. For my culinary experiment, I made cinnamon cream cheese frosting (per the advice of Lauren): a little bit of cream cheese, a little bit of powdered sugar, and several dashes of cinnamon and vanilla spice. Mix it all together, et voila! I spread that on a waffle, and then added some fruit to take it to what Matthew deemed a "Giada gourmet" level. :) I cut up an apple into bite size chunks, added a drizzle of honey, and microwaved the whole thing for about two minutes. The apples were warm and delicious. I topped the waffle with those, and then sprinkled fresh peach slices, blueberries and strawberries on top. PERFECTION.

Lauren made a fresh croissant sandwich... pesto/feta/greens/fried egg/bruschetta + mini croissant = YUM

Bethany made this ridiculously tasty casserole - a mixture of tater tots, red peppers, scrambled eggs, copious amounts of cheddar cheese, and sriracha! Microwaved all together till the cheese melts = wow. Decadent and delicious.

It was a lovely day for creativity and experiments in the dining hall - you should try it sometime!

Oh, and there were human-sized chickens everywhere celebrating the inception of cage free! eggs in all of the dining halls. Progress!

Damon and Pythias

If you're in the mood for some deliciously orange sweet potato fries, drop by Damon and Pythias at 1061 Broxton Avenue. Discounts for UCLA students! I tried the California Garden sandwich - filled with tons of veggies! Portabello mushrooms, grilled eggplant, grilled peppers, arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers and this really tasty honey mustard sauce. You can make it vegan without the garlic aioli! Enjoy :)

IKEA and LA

Two weekends ago I found myself on an adventure around LA. What was originally just a pilgrimage to IKEA turned into an entire day of urban explorations.

We went to the Grand Central Market (http://www.grandcentralsquare.com/), where I got two huge cartons of strawberries for ONE DOLLAR, and a delicious homemade cannoli for $1.84. I tried El Salvadorian food for the first time, and I can't wait to try it again. We got three carto

ns of blueberries for ONE DOLLAR, and had a lovely picnic lunch on the bench that Tom and Summer fall in love on in 500 Days of Summer. So much fun!! After that we made our way to Burbank for our IKEA adventures... more 500 Days of Summer...special cloudberry jam, only made at IKEA, Swedish meatballs + mashed potatoes + mushroom gravy + lindenberry sauce = how much? ONE DOLLAR! Later, we got coffee at this special diner in Chinatown and it was 9 CENTS! What a beautiful and unforgettable day of food and friends. And cheap. LOVE!