The Occasional Chef: Sam

Hi everyone!

My name is Sam, and I'm going to come right out and say it: I probably cook less than most people. Although I enjoy eating good food and care about what I eat, I tend to only cook for myself, and I'm often content eating what can be best described as "picnic food" -- cheese, sandwiches, fruit, etc.

However!

I do genuinely enjoy eating good food and am embarking on a new effort to eat less meat, so I'm excited to try out new recipes and expand upon my picnic food recipes. I like to think of good cooking as a tasty solution to a logistical problem, so I tend towards strong flavors and practicality. In my posts, you'll probably find:
- tasty dinner recipes that can be easily packed for lunch tomorrow
- recipes with minimal prep work (aka: "easy" recipes!)
- vegetarian options

I'm excited by all the fabulous recipes that everyone is posting. Hope you enjoy!

Hello!

I'm Thuy-An (on the right) and I like Vietnamese food. Unfortunately, I don't know how to cook it.

I'm currently a junior in college, and for the first time, I'm living in my own apartment, which means I am responsible for cooking for myself. I love the freedom of being able to eat whatever and whenever I want, but it's also quite daunting since I've never cooked very much before, so I do give in to the occasional ramen or sneak into the dining hall.

I'm excited about sharing my cooking ventures here, especially my baking recipes. I LOVE baking! I find baking therapeutic and fun, and a great way to keep up with friends. Ironically, I don't like sweets very much, with the exception of cookies and banana bread, which I bake quite often. My friends and I have a Baking Sunday tradition that we hope to hold up for the rest of the year, so I will share our best recipes here. So far, it's been a success!

Last week, we made snickerdoodles (which comes from the German word schneckennudelns, according to Wikipedia), which were a HUGE hit! Snickerdoodles are basically butter cookies with a sugar and cinnamon coating. Yum! I pulled the recipe from Betty Crocker online.

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 1 1/2 cup sugar (I usually use a reduced 1 cup sugar)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla (if desired - I put vanilla in everything, even if the recipe doesn't call for it, like here)
• 2 tsp cream of tartar (you can replace this with 2 tsp baking powder)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon (I like to put about a tsp more)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Mix softened butter with sugar, then stir in eggs.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough for 10-15 minutes.
6. In a separate bowl, mix the 3 Tbsp sugar and cinnamon.
7. Roll the chilled dough into 1-inch balls.
8. Coat the balls by gently rolling the balls in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
9. Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies are done when you see cracks on the surface of the cookies. Don't leave them in for too long, or they get hard, and don't worry if they are not flat.

The result should be delicious, moist, soft, and fluffy cookies that taste great with a cup of milk. Enjoy!

My name is Yelena and I want to learn to cook

Hi everyone, I'm Yelena and I am a novice at cooking. However, I have made it my New Years Resolution to cook more so this is a perfect blog to help me stick to it! I have a feeling I will mostly be reading about all of your masterpieces, but I will try to not be shy and submit my cooking attempts as well. In fact, I started off my resolution last week by making Beef Barley Mushroom Soup


I grew up on Jewish/Russian cooking which tends to be mild and characterized by slow cooking on the stove. I'm always telling people I cook for that they are going to want to add their own salt and pepper because apparently the amount of salt I put in isn't enough, but that is just the Russian way. This soup is an elementary version that my grandmother might make, but hey, I'm just starting out! The soup was yummy, but it would have been better had I not put too much barley in there (I ended up putting in like 3 times the amount the recipe called for because it didn't seem like enough). It was a good lesson to stick to the recipe, at least while I'm starting out. In the cold weeks we've been having though, this was a perfect way to get a hardy meal and warm up at the same time. I look forward to trying new things and getting ideas from you guys!

This recipe was from Allrecipes.com :


Ingredients:

• 1 pound cubed beef stew meat
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 3 large carrots, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 6 cups water
• 3 cubes beef bouillon cube
• 1/4 cup pearl barley
• 1/4 cup sour cream

1. Brown small cubes of stew meat in vegetable oil over medium heat until juices become a rich brown color. Add 2 cups water, and simmer meat while preparing the vegetables.
2. In a large soup pot, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Saute carrots, onion, garlic, celery, and mushrooms.
3. Add meat, 6 cups water, bouillon cubes, and barley to vegetable mixture. Cook until barley is soft. Adjust liquid and seasoning as desired. Remove from heat, and stir in sour cream. Serve immediately.

Buongiorno Cooking Companions!

Hi everyone, my name is Katelyn and I am really excited to join this blogging community =). I absolutely love cooking and eating so this blog is purfect for me! Not to mention that I am always searching for new recipes to make. I love the idea of working with my hands to create something yummy. I began serious cooking about two years ago when I finally buckled down and decided it was time for me to get healthy and lose some weight. It's important that I cook at least a majority of my food because I like being aware of what goes into my meals. I like to consider myself a pseudo-vegetarian because while I'll still eat meat, most of meals tend to be meatless due to the San Francisco based food blog, 101cooking.com, in which I've been using for over a year now. You'll find that most of my meals can be contributed to this site =).

Over this last year I have been tackling many of my food fears (i.e. pies, pie dough, yeast, cooking whole chickens, etc). And whether I succeed or fail in the kitchen, I enjoy each experience of attempting to create something new. Cooking has become both an example of leading a healthy lifestyle and also a form of therapy. But don't get me wrong y'all, just because I like to cook healthy does not mean I won't dabble in the occasional coconut macaroon, apple pie, or gratin ;).

I'm super excited to start adding recipes to feasting with friends as well as trying out everyone's recipes.

LET'S COOK! =)

hello! i'm christina :)

Hi everyone! My name is Christina! I'm currently a graduate student in public health at UCLA.

I love cooking and baking and collecting recipes. My earliest memory of making food is from my second grade classroom. We learned how pasta and butter were made. That recipe book is still in the pantry at my parent's house. Ever since then, I've been collecting recipes to add to my recipe book, to an expanded binder, to my favorite bookmarks on the world wide web, and now to this awesome blog created by Song-My!

My two favorite dishes in the world (which ironically, don't require much cooking): sashimi and papaya salads.

angela. pleased to meet you!

Hello everyone! Consider me an amateur at cooking. I'd rather eat Song-My's master pieces. However, inspired by her, I'll do my best to participate!!

My current interests in cooking are in sweets, other than chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies. I hope to one day graduate to cakes and pies. I'm currently going to grad school in Fullerton, CA studying speech and communication, and I love hanging out at the beach there.

Happy cooking everyone. I look forward to all the tips and recipes!

helllloooooo, I'm Jung-Ah

Helloooooo all!

First of all, thanks to Song-My for creating this awesome blog. I'm very excited for this to come into fruition as well as all the recipes I'll be stealing from it!

My name is Jung-Ah, originally born in Seoul, South Korea. I moved to the States at a VERY young age (9 mos) and grew up in Charlotte, NC (yes, North Carolina on the east coast). I moved out to San Francisco a little over 2 years ago after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill. GO TARHEELS! I currently work for Accenture consulting, based out of SF, but thus far, my client has been in Milpitas, so I've been commuting back and forth from the city Mon-Thurs.

As for food, I love MOST EVERYTHING and am willing to try anything once. Although I was not raised with a strict diet, I've learned in the 4 yrs of college that unrestricted eating/drinking makes you feel 'not so hot'. So I've definitely taken some turns to eat a much more healthy diet and exercise more, to accompany our decreasing metabolism (so sad...). However, I like to splurge and have what you may call a 'dining out tooth' (how can you help it in the city of SF?). In just the two years I've lived in the Bay Area, I have definitely expanded my palette a 1000000000x and have tried a bajillion things I've never heard or seen of in lil' ol' Charlotte, NC.

If I were to choose one type of food, I'd have to stick to my roots, any good ol' Korean food. And by that I do not mean Kalbi/BBQ, I mean the stews, kimchee, seafood, fish, all the different spices/flavors...all that good stuff.

I know this is a recipe blog, but just to throw out there, if anyone is ever looking for an AMAZING restaurant in SF, check out NOPA (and their pork chops). BEST THING I've ever had! great atmosphere, great drinks, great apps, and all shareable.

That's all! Look forward to stealing/sharing recipes with y'all!

Hi, I'm Song-My!

Just thought I'd post an introduction of myself, to set a good example :)

I'm a Bay Area native, and I currently work in Palo Alto at Facebook, where I deal with operational issues regarding our open Platform. One perk is that we have a group of chefs who cook fresh food every day at Facebook, so I'm constantly discovering new grains (such as bulgur and quinoa), ways to cook vegetables, and soups. I'm Vietnamese-American, so I grew up eating delicious home-made Vietnamese food, which is still my favorite cuisine today. I love cooking with fresh, organic ingredients, and I like making well-balanced meals. I generally try to eat healthy foods, but I indulge on the weekends, and I love eating well-made fatty foods.

I haven't eaten fast food (with the exception of In N Out) since 2007, when I read Fast Food Nation. I also don't like to eat canned foods (I'd rather eat a fresh version if possible). I love eating a good salad, where all the ingredients come together in a tasty way.

Introducing a Community of Cooks!

I love eating and cooking, not only because it (generally) tastes good, but because it brings friends and family together. I want to build that community here so that we have direct and quick access to successful recipes posted by friends. This will be a place where we can share awesome recipes, comment on each others' posts, and share cooking tips.

This is how it will work:

- Post the recipe that you used, where you got it from, and pictures (if you have them)

- Add any tips or adjustments you made to the recipe

- Give us an idea of how the recipe turned out
- Tag it with an appropriate label (in the "Labels" field on the bottom of the blog composer)

- Also optional but encouraged: stories, general cooking tips, and anything else you might want to share!

The types of recipes for this blog:

- ANYTHING and everything! 

- This includes: family recipes, something you made up off the spot, the recipes you're eating because you're on a diet, the recipe you found on allrecipes.com, etc.

I'd like for this to be an active community, so please comment on others' posts if you've tried the recipe, or ask questions. Also, we're all friends (or friends of friends), so if you are comfortable, please post an introduction of yourself on the blog so we can all become well acquainted.

This will be fun - I'm super excited!

Yours truly,

Song-My