zolac_no_miko | This post is made of food, music, and nostalgia.

Lauren came over today and we had our Cooking Awesome Food and Listening to Awesome Music party. We enjoyed the musical talent of such artists as Arcade Fire, Dr. Dog, Girl Talk, The New Pornographers, Sea of Bees, Mersault, Menomena, Mumford and Sons, The Decemberists, Patrick Stump, Kristeen Young, and Trampled By Turtles. We also enjoyed listening the sweet sweet voice of Stephen Fry, watching The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, and playing biology-themed Bananagrams ('dissection' for the motherfucking win!).

Foodwise, we made Pumpkin Halwa: kabocha, almonds, cashews, craisins, saffron, condensed milk, etc, rolled into little gooey balls of tasty. We also made– and

omg_alchemist veterans will appreciate this– orange zest brownies. Or, Three-Orange Super-Special Brownies, using orange zest, orange essence, and some chocolate-dipped candied orange peel we just happened to have lying around. They are just as amazingly delicious as Clara and I always thought they would be. T_T We also tossed together a pretty amazing soup at the last minute when we realized halwa and brownies did not a dinner make, comprising a whole pile of random things in the kitchen, including turkey broth, chicken, kabocha, two kinds of potatoes, a turnip, a leek, mushrooms, celery, parsley, garlic, ginger, shoyu, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and hot peppers. It was meant to be stew, but I'm not complaining.

Basically, for a rainy January Saturday... pretty freaking perfect.

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I wish I could cook well. D:

I used to collect cook books, but I've been clearing them out lately and donating them to charity. I do lurk at allrecipes.com sometimes, and belong to some cooking comms-it's like window shopping. But it's not the same as being able to whip up something like that. ~sighs

Sounds like a great way to spend a rainy day-food, music, and a friend! \0/

I cook very rarely. I've been spoiled for quite some time... I lived with Lauren for a couple of years, and she's a fantastic cook and she enjoys it, and then I moved in with another friend who's the same way. When I do cook I enjoy it and I'm good at it, but I very rarely put in the time and energy. It was nice to set some time aside and make a party out of it, and cook things that had fun ingredients that we'd never done before.

Cooking's... easier than most people think, but it does take practice. I'm just getting to the point where I can be creative, come up with good ideas, know what tastes good, know what kind of alterations I can make to recipes, know how much of something to use without measuring carefully. I find what works best for me on an ordinary night is doing a quick survey of what's already in the kitchen, picking out a couple of ingredients as a central concept, Googling recipes with those ingredients, then picking one and modifying it as needed based on what it asks for and what I actually have.

That's the hard part! I can follow a recipe, but I get REALLY pissed when I do exactly what it says and it doesn't come out right. I don't know how to "read" the interactions that will happen in the food, and make adjustments.

I borrowed this Amish cookbook from my brother once, and made a few things from it. I really had to watch it, because these were all recipes that had been orally handed down, and the cooks weren't used to measuring-and they used onions quite liberally. I made a cucumber salad thing that had caraway seeds in it, and gaaahh!!! The amount of caraway they said to put in there completely overwhelmed the dish. NOW I could make it better, because I know.

It's more fun cooking when you have people to do it with, and for.

Yeah, I hate that... it pretty much never comes out like the recipe says. That's where the practice comes in... and you just kinda have to accept that the first time you try something, it's not going to come out exactly right, but it will probably still be delicious. Our halwa was a little bit gooey... it probably could have used a little more ground almond or a little less milk or a little more cooking, although it was getting to the point where we had to be real careful not to burn it. ...Although, I dunno, maybe the ones we stuck in the fridge have firmed up well. Guess I'll have to try one and find out! :D

Oh yeah, definitely more fun for/with people. Although, my roommate was out of town for most of the month of November, leaving me all by my lonesome; I had a lot of fun cooking huge fancy meals on the weekend so I would have leftovers to eat most of the weekdays. I made some pretty awesome things, and it was fun just to put on some music and dance around the kitchen.

I hold to the idea that they would be really excellent if rolled in ground almond. More almond, either way, would have been a good thing.

Mmmmmm, yes.

*clicks Like button*

^_^

You forgot the kabocha that was in the soup. :)

Anyway, yes, that was so much fun! If only we had the time and ambition to set aside an entire day to just cook stuff more often. I think we should at least one more time before you head home, though.

I also forgot THE DECEMBERISTS. DDDDD: ~~They were tasty in the soup.~~ I have edited for a slightly more complete account of the experience.

We totally should! :DD There are so many more excellent recipes to try, and so much excellent music to listen to! Let's definitely do this again.

My stomach is jealous. And also my ears. T_____T

Aaaaawwwww, we wish you were here, bb! You would've been an awesome addition to our party! And Bananagrams is more fun with three. ; )

I need to play for you guys some Savoire Adore, Patrick Watson, and then some dudes that Jia introduced me to.

I AM ALSO SUPER JEALOUS OF YOUR BROWNIES.

They're super easy to make! We used a standard brownie recipe, replaced the vanilla extract with a few drops of orange extract, chopped up candied orange peel like it was nuts or something, and grated some orange peel into it. It takes, like, twenty minutes.

I believe you, mostly because I am imaging you as Old Spice Man saying this.

Haha, s'why I used the icon~!

This post is made of food, music, and nostalgia.

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