Ricey Puddin'

Submitted by soroberts:

"Let's say you got some Chinese food. Great! But you have crappy Chinese takeout rice that is not so great. Well, you can make ricey puddin' with it! This recipe is easily generalizable, but the units used will assume you have the amount of rice that comes in a Chinese takeout container."

Ingredients:
~ Puddin' Base ~

• Milk (twice as much as rice)
• Rice (from crappy takeout place)
• Sugar of any kind, 3/4c. If you use maple syrup, 1/2c. This is highly recommended.

~ Recommended Extras ~

• 1 egg (optional; will make the pudding thicker)
• 1/2-1c raisins (optional; will make pudding more delicious)
• Rum (optional; will make raisins and pudding more delicious)
• Vanilla (small splash; to taste)
• Nutmeg (small dash; to taste)
• Cloves (small dash; to taste)
• Ginger (small dash; to taste)
• Cinnamon (big dash; to taste)

Directions:

1. Put milk, sugar and rice in a BIG pot. The more surface area the milk has, the better! Heat this concoction and get to work on your extras.
2. Put raisins in a bowl, pour enough rum in there to cover them, and stick in the microwave for 1 minute. Take the raisins out and let them sit. In a few minutes, for extra-plump raisins, repeat this process once they start to cool off. (If you don't like the taste of rum and want plump delicious raisins anyway, use water.)
3. Is the milk boiling yet? Give it a stir. Keep an eye on the milk so it doesn't form a gross skin. Nobody wants that.
4. Dash spices in there as desired; there are some recommended ones above.
5. Once the milk really starts to boil, stir it near-constantly, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. If you don't, milk will burn on down there and whoever's on dish duty will hate you. Add raisins if you have 'em; an extra splash of rum in the pudding won't hurt, either, if you are fond of the flavor.
6. After a while, the milk will stop making real bubbles and will start making craters. If you are choosing to use an egg, crack it directly in there and stir it up really fast. You should notice the pudding getting a little thicker all of a sudden. If you are not using an egg, skip this step completely; once the pudding starts making craters it is done.
7. Remove from heat and stir for a little while longer; it's still too hot to eat and you might as well help some of that water vapor escape. Once it's been sitting and you've been stirring it for a little while, you should notice that when you scrape the spoon or whatever along the bottom of the pot, it leaves a clear path that doesn't fill immediately. HOORAY! Pudding achieved!
8. NOM. Get housemates to do dishes.

Apple Walnut Baklava

Submitted by niclark:

Apple Walnut Baklava (adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baklava/Detail.aspx) 

Ingredients:

• 1 roll of phyllo dough (usually comes in a box with two rolls; you only need one)
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 2 large Granny smith apples (or 4-5 small ones)
• 1 cup butter (if you need the dish to be vegan, use Smart Balance)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup apple cider
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• ~1/2 cup brown sugar 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter the bottom and sides of a 9X13 inch glass or metal baking dish.
   
2. Chop apples into very small pieces and toss with cinnamon and walnuts.  Set aside.
3. Melt the butter and unroll the phyllo dough.
4. Place a sheet of phyllo in the bottom of the dish and brush butter onto it.  
5. Repeat until you’ve used half of the roll of dough.  
6. Spread the apple/walnut/cinnamon mixture over the dough and pour a little bit of butter over it. 
7. Finish with the rest of the phyllo dough in the same way you did the first half.
8. Use a sharp knife to cut diamonds or squares all the way to the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 50-60 minutes (in a SoCo oven it took 60 minutes, turning once halfway through to compensate for uneven heating)
9. While the baklava is baking, put the apple cider, white sugar, and brown sugar in a pot over medium-high heat and cook until it reaches a syrupy consistency, stirring frequently and watching to be sure it doesn’t boil over.
10. Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately pour the sauce over it.  Let it cool, then enjoy.

Easy: Apple and Cream Cheese MAGIC

Did your parents load you up with even more apples after Thanksgiving break, and you mysteriously have some cream cheese left that's not gone bad yet? 

This is by far the easiest thing to do with the apples... I whipped it up quickly before my friend's pre-Thanksgiving dinner and it was a hit. 

Bavarian Apple Torte. 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

YUM!

I made these today and shaped some of the cookies to letters for my friend's birthday! Easy and good. The only thing I changed was that I used whole wheat flour for half of the flour, and ended up pouring more pumpkin into the dough (adding extra flour because of that). They're not super super pumpkin-y but they're really good and moist. PLUS I made a cookie sandwich using the following filling:

Cream Cheese Filling:

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/3 sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or more), a little ginger
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp flour
  

Beat together with an electric mixer. Spread on top of cookies after they're cool.

This one's a winner

People have informed me that this has a high chance of winning the international dessert cook-off competition with this one. Unfortunately, I am lazy and won't be entering the competition.

Leftover Halloween candy? Still? It's almost Thanksgiving... time for sweet potatoes, not pumpkin and toothache. Well, here's a suggestion as to what to do with it: More specifically, use up those Butterfingers!

Butterfinger Pie (Adapted from here - essentially, I cut the filling in half, and tweaked it a bit, and it works perfectly! It's INTENSE.) Oh and this is not for the faint-hearted...

Ingredients:

Crust:
14 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos)
4 Tbs butter, melted

Filling:
7.5 ounces fun-size butterfinger candy bars (or 15 ounces of butterfingers), divided
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbs flour
1 cup milk
1 large egg yolks
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips, or other chocolate (I used a little bit of white chocolate chips because that's all I had)
3/4 cups whipping cream

Topping:
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Prepare crust: Preheat oven to 375° F. In a food processor, process the cookies into fine crumbs. Add melted butter to crumbs and continue to process until well blended. Transfer mixture to a 9-inch pie pan and press evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Bake for 8 minutes. The crust will puff up and shrink slightly. Use the flat bottom of a drinking glass to gently press down on the crust. Cool completely.
2. Prepare filling: In a food processor, process all but 3 of the butterfinger bars into fine crumbs. Divide the crumbs into two 1/4 cup portions and one 1/2 cup portion; set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour and milk. Slowly bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Beat egg yolk in a small bowl. Whisk in hot milk mixture 1 Tablespoon at a time until egg is tempered (slowly warmed up). Then add the egg to remaining milk in the pan, bring to a boil, stirring constantly until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter. Scoop out 1/2 cup of the peanut butter mixture and put it in a medium bowl; cover and set aside. Add chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of the butterfinger crumbs to the remaining peanut butter mixture in the saucepan. Stir until chips are melted. Pour this mixture into the cooled crust. Refrigerate while you’re preparing the next layer.
4. Prepare peanut butter layer: Whip 3/4 cups of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Scoop into the bowl with the reserved peanut butter filling and fold together with 1/4 cup of butterfinger crumbs too. Remove pie from refrigerator and mound peanut butter mixture evenly over chocolate layer and spread to the edges.
5. Prepare the topping: Whip the 1 cup of heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in remaining 1/2 cup of butterfinger crumbs. Spoon over the top of the pie, mounding slightly in the center. Chop the remaining 3 fun-sized candy bars and sprinkle over the top of the pie.
6. Cover loosely and refrigerate until ready to serve.
7. YOU DID IT! Good job. This was pretty crazy.
   

Submitted by vefehrm

Pear Dessert

Nicole made this over October Break with a few friends and it sounds delicious!

"This recipe would probably work with other fruits like apples or peaches, but pears were what we had on hand on night at the beginning of October break when some friends and I made dinner and dessert together. My measurements are just guesses, because I rarely measure when I cook anyway, and the whole meal that night was sort of spur-of-the-moment.

Ingredients:

• Canned pears (the ones I used had been canned by a friend’s grandma, but store-bought will probably work too, as long as there is some juice in with the fruit)
• Optional (if you’re using fresh fruit or there’s not any or not enough juice in the canned fruit): ¼ cup or so of pear juice (pear juice is often the base for juice drinks and the only part of it that constitutes “natural fruit juice,” even if it’s not supposed to be pear-flavored; if you can’t find it, water will probably work just fine)
• Brown sugar
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground nutmeg
• Optional: maple syrup
• Ice cream (butter pecan or vanilla bean are both great choices)

Directions:

1. If you’re using fresh fruit, chop it into small cubes before you start cooking. If you’re using canned fruit, you could chop it up ahead of time, but it will likely be soft enough to just chop it up as you cook it with your spoon or whatever you’re using to stir.
2. Pour some of the canning juice (or pear juice or water) into a medium-sized skillet. Add probably ½ - 1 tablespoon brown sugar (I don’t really measure when I cook; you’re making a simple thin syrup, so add enough that you get a nice brown liquid that’s just shy of being viscous). Heat over medium-high heat and stir until all of the brown sugar is dissolved. You could also add a splash of maple syrup at this point if it suits your fancy. If it comes to a boil, reduce the heat just a little.
3. Add your fruit to the syrup. Make sure it’s chopped into less than 1-inch cubes (more surface area = faster cooking time and more space to soak up the syrup). Stir to coat.
4. Add a dash each of ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg, and a little more brown sugar. Stir.
5. Cook the whole thing for about two minutes (longer if you started with fresh fruit, since you’ll probably need to soften it). Pour over a couple scoops of ice cream and serve immediately for optimum enjoyment.

Notes:

I recommend cleaning your skillet or pan pretty quickly, or at least putting it in your sink with a little bit of soapy water to set so that the syrup doesn't harden into a caramel and become really difficult to clean up later."

Submitted by niclark

Chocolate Babies + 1

I just found this recipe, and altered it a little bit to fit the stuff I had at home. You can hardly taste the walnuts, if that's your concern.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• a little bit of water
• raisins
• 3-4tbsp cocoa

Directions:

1. Put all things in a blender and chop/grind until a consistency that will easily be rolled into balls (if it's too dry/crumbly, add a little water and chop/grind again)
2. Roll into balls

These remind me of these chocolate balls my friends and I used to make all the time:

"Neger/Chokladbollar"

Ingredients:

• 3/8 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cups oats
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 3 tbsp strong cold coffee
• coconut flakes
  

Directions:

• Mix everything together but the coconut flakes
• Roll into small balls
• Pour the coconut flakes on a plate and roll the balls in the flakes
• Refrigerate for a while

Sometimes we just mess up. And then we correct it.

the other day I wanted to make a chocolate-y, delicious, fudge chocolate cake. There was a recipe on the back of the Stop and Shop All Purpose Flour for a "Quick and easy fudge cake". Unfortunately, we had almost none of the ingredients. Especially no sugar, milk, nor butter to use.
I frantically found different kinds of sugary things:

• imitation maple syrup
• Swiss Miss, honey
• tonic water (don't ask...)

...and proceeded to add these things into the mixture. And for milk and butter, I kind of just substituted a little bit of oil, some peanut butter, cream, greek yogurt... etc. At last minute I added some roasted peanuts (salty ones - MISTAKE AGAIN), and sweetened coconut flakes.

What happened? It came out as chocolate bread. Not only had I added a billion different things, but it was not nearly sweet enough. Luckily I had some whipped cream to sweeten the deal. It was really disappointing.

Now, yesterday I was kind of upset by this and so I decided that I needed to make something out of this untouched chocolate bread cake thing. Oh, I guess I should add that I went and got some sugar yesterday. *Drum Roll*

Chocolate bread pudding:

1. Grease a pan, put the oven on 350.
   
2. Put some of the bread in the pan
3. Mix a mixture of cream, butter, SUGAR, vanilla, eggs, cinnamon, coconut and whatnot.
   
4. Pour mixture over the bread.
5. Put some more bread on top.
   
6. Mix eggs, coconut, some cream, and sugar together.
   
7. Pour over the top layer. Sprinkle with a mixture of water and sugar to get a nice sugary crust.
8. Put in the oven until golden brown on top.
   

It worked! Yes! Sweetness accomplished.

Apples to Apples

There's an abundance of apples at my house, and thus I go to great lengths into trying to incorporate apples into every meal. So far... I've been (or meaning to start) indulging in the following:

• apples with yogurt, cereal, cinnamon, flax seeds, walnuts, peanut butter, coconut, oatmeal for breakfast (anything you can find)
• baking apples, put some sugar and cinnamon on it, stick it in the oven
  
• apple crisp/crumble:
• mix oatmeal, butter, sugar (brown and white), flour, cinnamon
• slice or cut apples, and pour mixture on top
  
• stick in a greased pan
• eat with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or something yummy like that
• I used to have a craving for the ACDC spinach, sunflower seed, lemon dressing salad with apples and cranberries. So mix all of this together, and there you go. Add cheese for some more substance and protein.
  
• instead of pb and jelly, try pb and apple
• melt butter in a saucepan, add sugar if you like things sweet, put cut up apples into the saucepan (season with cinnamon or curry)
• vegetable curry (mix apples into your curry)
• I'm sure that going without Gossip Girl for a week is almost impossible for you as well, so maybe some Blair Waldorf salad will help alleviate the wait? (Yes I've been dying to say this for a long time)
• apple scones
• apple pie
• apple butter
• apple jelly
• apples with cheese is also great - eat on crackers (I know grapes and pears are more standard choice, but hey, whatever)
  

Apple Honey Breadcake!

Sonia Robert's Rosh Hashanah-themed recipe: Apple Honey Breadcake!

"I have deemed it a breadcake because it has the sugar levels of a bread but I put a crumbly top on it. Also, my measurements are not exact because, well, that's not how I cook."

Ingredients:

• 2 2/3c. flour~1/3c. flax seed meal (for nutty flavor)
• 1c. honey
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• Lots of cinnamon. Seriously, open that baby up and pour.
• 1 tsp ground cloves (or thereabouts, depending on how much you like cloves).
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
• 1/2 tsp ginger (optional)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• ~1/3c. vegetable oil (big splash)
• 5 small chopped apples (I used green ones)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 325.
   
2. Mix this all up and pour it into a greased casserole dish, or two loaf pans, or what have you. As long as it fits.
3. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes. During this time, mix up a crumbly top from butter, flour, cinnamon and sugar, with a dash of cloves: about a tablespoon each of flour and butter should work, with maybe two tablespoons of sugar. Mix it around til it's crumbly.
4. After it's been in for 10 minutes, take it out and put the crumbly top on. Then stick it back in and bake it for 40-50 minutes at 325 degrees. HOORAY! You are done!
   

Submitted by soroberts

Red Velvet Cupcakes

A while back I made a batch of Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cupcakes (without knowing the extent of her fame and her love for butter). With suggestions from reviewers, I altered the recipe a little bit and they turned out... great! Make sure you have an electric mixer for the frosting though... it took me 2 hours to make it non-lumpy by hand.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
  
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tbsp white vinegar mixed with enough milk to make 1 cup)
  
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting: (this makes a LOT of frosting)

• 1 pound cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (the recipe called for 4 cups, but 3's enough)

Directions:

1. "Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
   
3. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, applesauce, butter, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer.
   
4. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness.
   
6. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.
2. Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry."

Submitted by vefehrm

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Muffins

Adapted from a recipe of "Country Wisdom Almanac"

Makes: 18 muffins.
Time: 15-20 prep, 20-25 min baking

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp apple sauce, 1 tbsp vegetable oil (alternatively: 3 tbsp veg. oil)
• 1/2 cup sugar (where 1-2 tbsp of that is brown sugar)
• 1½ cups plain yogurt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat to 400 Fahrenheit.
   
2. Crease the muffin pan with PAM, or use muffin paper cups to line the muffin pan.
3. Beat eggs, applesauce, veg. oil, and sugar in a bowl.
   
4. Stir in the yogurt.
   
5. Pour in both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon into the bowl with the eggs, applesauce, veg. oil and sugar.
   
6. Mix together until a moist batter develops.
   
7. Stir in the chocolate chips.
   
8. Distribute the batter into the muffin pans.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes (TA oven: 23 minutes)
10. YUM!

Submitted by vefehrm

Welcome!

Dear Vassar Students,

This blog is an attempt to collect and share all of your favourite recipes in one place. As it is in its beginning stages, we are aiming the collection towards those in senior housing (TAs, SoCos, THs) as well as Town Students. Of course you can also use these recipes if you are living in a dorm, but hey... the kitchens can be pretty limited in terms of appliances/measuring cups, etc.

Please contact vassarcooks@gmail.com for submissions, questions, requests and/or concerns. Please submit a source (book or website) if it's not your own recipe. We do not want any copyright issues!

ENJOY!

The "sections" (tags) are currently:
- quick: quick and easy
- few: few ingredients
- subs: substitutes (for situations like: "OH! I forgot vegetable oil... my cupcakes will be a disaster!" but don't worry... there's always applesauce!)
- basics: basics of cooking (boiling water, frying an egg)
- frozen: foods that can be frozen for a longer time (tomato sauce, meatballs)
- healthy: healthy/well-rounded meals
- desserts: desserts
- veg: vegan/vegetarian