Avocado Pizza: Hodge Podge Goodness

I think I used a frozen vegetable mix called "Hodge Podge" for this, so the title is completely justified. Also, its moving season so my life and apartment are both 100% a hodge podge mess. Though maybe not as delicious as mixed frozen vegetables can be. And looking at this picture below, its pretty clear that the majority of this pizza is not frozen vegetables? Like hello avocados and mushrooms?

I thought about what I would talk about for this post, because I spend the majority of time on this blog talking about either my hate for finding natural lighting or some other random topic. Definitely not food, never! Have I ever actually described the taste or texture of an ice cream or pizza (wow my diet is so American) in a way that makes you go yum I want to eat? Probably not.

But I'll do what I do best, and make random comments and generalizations to the world of home cooking and dessert making. If its not obvious already, I started my kitchen adventures from the oven. From boxed cake mixes in high school to be specific. Baking has always been my favorite in part due to its lovely methodological ways. Which is funny since as a scientist, I follow a lot of protocols in lab, and then when I come home to relax, I follow more protocols essentially.

Cooking on the other hand initially terrified me (and kinda still does) for 2 simple facts 1) the ingredients lists seem way longer and detailed (like I have to buy A WHOLE JAR of oyster sauce for a "dash?") and 2) "to taste." Being a kitchen newbie and having to improvise ratios brought back awful memories of creative art projects in elementary school that looked akin to really sad clay volcanos. I've heard the other argument from people who started their adult lives cooking real food (unlike me) that cooking is easier in the sense that you can be messy and improvise ingredients without much backlash (like not including a dash of oyster sauce). It kinda speaks poorly to my ability to be creative that going off the grid makes me so nervous, so I'll have to work on that whole taking risks in life thing, starting first with pizza toppings.



Avocados are delicious in all forms, though I have to admit that warm is usually not my preferred route, but would still make it again.
Whole wheat honey pizza dough from Budget Bytes.

Tardis Tea Ice Cream: Better Astronaut Ice Cream

Remember those super trendy freeze-dried packets of "astronaut ice cream" that every science museum, art museum, or store that considered itself cool sold? While freeze dried foods are a fascinating novelty, do they actually taste that good? Not really. I mean, the freeze dried ice cream was actually pretty good given that ice cream is a delightful mixture of cream and sugar at its core. So even sucking the moisture out of it can't really do that much damage.



But here, I present an ice cream all astronauts, real and fictional alien ones, would probably enjoy. A bit of caffeine, some fruit, and some leaves- all part of a balanced space traveling diet. Though I get the impression that Doctor 12 is maybe not an ice cream type of person, or am I just grumpy old person stereotyping? He could very well be the exact opposite and be that crazy old man that subsists on ice cream. Related to that, ice cream for breakfast, while helpful with the whole natural lighting photography thing (which I still need to seriously work on), does not keep you full until lunch.

So what exactly is Tardis tea? It's this awesome early grey tea blend with blueberry and vanilla notes created in honor of Doctor Who! The blueberry is clearly meant to be associated with Tardis blue, and earl grey I suppose embodies the BBC. The tea leaves from this smell straight up amazing and as close to fantasy and exploration as a scent could possibly come close to. While the tea brews slightly on the bitter side when drinking it, the cream and sugar in the ice cream base more than help balance out the bitterness. For extra measure, I also added in a swirl of blueberry sauce, which gave it a nice pretty streak of purple/blue too.



Of course, Tardis tea ice cream isn't exactly a common Tazo or Twinnings or Celestial Seasonings tea, but normal earl grey works perfectly in this recipe. Heck, the recipe I adapted this from is an earl grey ice cream recipe. I've been pretty successful with my attempts at tea-based ice creams in the past making green tea and chai tea and now this Tardis tea ice cream. That just about covers the bases of my favorite teas. I usually hate drinking fruity teas, but now I'm thinking they might have a redeeming place in tea-infused ice creams now. Even if you're an anti-tea person, tea ice cream might just be the type of tea you've been waiting to be offered your whole life!

Sidenote-isn't it kinda awesome that freeze drying food was invented thanks to NASA and the amazing energy and funding that we poured into scientific exploration back in the day? Take that Ted Cruz! Not to mention like the gazillion other maybe slightly more useful things in our lives aside from freeze dried foods.

Tardis Tea from Adagio Teas
Earl Grey cream recipe via Gimme Some Oven
Blueberry sauce via My Baking Addiction

Biscoff Stuffed Snickerdoodles: Jane Bennet Cookies

So maybe in the original Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice cookies were not central plot points or character defining objects, but in the modern Youtube adaptation, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, the word snickerdoodles would probably make every character simultaneous awww and weep because of their pivotal role in highlighting the emotional downs, then ups, that was the temporary separation and then reunion of Jane Bennet and Bingley (or Bing Lee in the modern case). ~spoilers~ though, you can't really expect to avoid spoilers about a 100+ year of story? Plus, there's a psychology study that found having plot points spoiled doesn't detract from a reader's enjoyment of the novel (also, hi to my new future home!). But more importantly, a thousand apologies to spoiling a certain Game of Throne's death to my friend's friend (which can never be forgiven no matter how many psych studies are done).

Anyways, like the impression I have of Jane Bennet, snickerdoodles are one of those classic, beautiful cookies that are perfect for all occasions- birthdays, celebrations, sadness all are complemented by sugar and spice (specifically, cinnamon). Add in Biscoff cookie butter for added sugar and spice? Definitely go-to cookies for everyone. Like seriously, if your day doesn't improve with some of these cookies, you must have really really interesting taste preferences (and let me know so I can adjust accordingly).

These snickerdoodles are probably a little on the flat and crispier side for my liking. There's an interesting debate floating around the interwebs about what makes a true snickerdoodle- flat and mildly crispy, or super puffy and soft? I think my ideal snickerdoodle would achieve both flatness and softness. While these didn't quite hit the mark on the softness, I think I can forgive them for that thanks to the cookie butter center. Make these as any other cookies (or as the recipe indicates), but add chilled Biscoff spread to the center of two rounded halves instead of forming one ball immediately.
Snickerdoodles recipe via All Recipes

Roasted Garlic Rosemary Bread: Artisan Phases

Remember how in my last post about whole wheat bread I referenced that other loaf of bread that I technically baked first? Well, here it is. And as usual, I tend to attempt giant leaps forward before backtracking into baby steps.

My family has this vague history (if you can count 2 parents and 3 children who are barely in their teens and twenties as "history") of becoming obsessively fixated on hobbies or interests. This is pretty convenient for someone going into academia, but can kinda make you look crazy when it comes to hobbies. Like one summer, I went to hot yoga every single day at 6 AM. I'm still trying to figure out how I did that. Oh, and of course the one time my mom decided to go on a food network inspired cooking phase of multi-course dinners, it ended a few short weeks before I was home for Thanksgiving. And don't get me started on my cross-stitching phase of 2 months thats slowly dwindling, or my mother's recent gardening revival.

In this case, I would say bread baking is in its infancy as an obsession. For me, I think my obsessions tend to either 1) wax and wane fairly very quickly (i.e. cross-stitching), or 2) wax very slowly until I become the type of person who spends their weekend nursing an oven. Bread might be in category 1 at the moment, but it way has the potential to become 2. Especially if I actually do go through with buying a bread mixing stick, a giant bucket, and this fancy artisan bread book (which is where this Roasted Garlic Rosemary Bread recipe originally comes from).

I'm a huge sucker for garlic in general, but especially roasted garlic. It's the sign that I've truly fallen in deep with the "food snobs," "foodie culture," or you know, whatever label. As usual, the rise of this loaf was less than optimal- at only ~2-3 inches max. This is this thing I hate about food photos on blogs. At certain angles, you would totally not notice the lack of rise in a bread photo, and just think "omg, delicious, must try myself." But if you stare at it long enough, its totally obvious that the bread is not particularly tall. And then doesn't that just make you feel cheated?

Regardless of my high yeast/rise standards, the bread itself tasted great, albeit a little dense due to the rise problem. It was great as a tiny sandwich, or just by itself lightly toasted. Aside from the rise thing, the recipe is very easy to make (no endless kneading!). I think my rise problem was due to letting the dough initially rise for too long in a slightly heated oven. Since the bread is also left to sit overnight in the fridge, I think allowing the dough reach its rise peak resulted it in having massive deflation while in the fridge. Well, this is all untested conjecturing, so you know, don't listen to me.

Recipe via The Noble Pig