Two Girls One Kitchen

Cooking on the cheap and simple

[2girlsonekitchen]

[2girlsonekitchen]

We had a dinner party last night. Twelve matzo balls, two batches of kugel, three six packs of shock top, thirty blintzes, a matzo ball crisis, a huge bowl of cucumber salad, two hours of hookah, and one impromptu reenactment of toddlers and tiaras later, we had successfully pulled off our first dinner party outside of Robyn's tiny on campus apartment. 

Putting together a dinner party is an all day thing week long process but it's totally worth it especially if you split up the work. Bare with me for a second while I shamelessly plug the company I intern with, I have a good reason. To invite all of our guests we used Zokos, an awesome website that makes putting together a dinner party way easier by splitting the cost with the guest, which in turn makes it easier to confirm attendees and buy better stuff. I set the chip in price at 7 dollars which wasn't a huge financial burden for anyone which meant we didn't have to buy shitty off brand products. Basically we bought all of this food and didn't pay anything for it which was awesome because we are both broke. If you are interested check out some of our blog posts on throwing a dinner party on the cheap and cooking by committee.

Robyn had to monitor the sound lab in the afternoon so I started cooking after she left around 4 in her tiny ass 90 degree kitchen with no ventilation for 3 hours.

Lax/Simms Family Chicken Soup Recipe:

3 boxes of chicken broth

2 cups of water

1 package of chicken breast

1 package of carrots

1 package of celery

1 onion

Everything in your spice cabinet

Prep: Slice up everything and slow cook it in a huge pot for 4 hours. Somehow it came out delicious.

Sweet Dairy Noodle Kugle (Taken from Giora Shimoni)

16 ounces (400 gm) broad egg noodles

4 Tbsp. (50 gm) butter, melted

1 pound (500 gm) cottage cheese

1 pound (500 gm) sour cream or Israeli white cheese

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup crushed cornflakes

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

Prep

1. Cook noodles in boiling water according to package direction. Drain and rinse with cold water. 2. In a large bowl, mix the noodles with the melted butter, cheeses, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  3. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan.  4. In a separate bowl, mix the cornflakes, cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle the cornflake mixture on top of the noodle mixture. 

5. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 45-50 minutes, or until the top is brown.

The party itself was fantastic. We wound up eating outside so we set an extra place to whomever wanted to join us that was passing by (plenty of people actually did stop by  and grabbed a plate of food or a beer)

Sorry the pictures are shitty

Stay tuned for the next installment of this dinner party when we move to Brooklyn this summer.

[2girlsonekitchen]

Hey guys!

Sorry we haven't updated in a month or so. Robyn and I are throwing a dinner party tomorrow night and will be sure to post lots or recipes and pictures!

[2girlsonekitchen]

The Do's and Don'ts of Baking a 4 Layered Cake

Last semester Jackson, his roommates, and I decided to bake a cake. The entire situation wound up to be an absolute fiasco but it was totally worth it. If you are going to bake something so outlandish and unnecessary feel free to follow some of the do's and don'ts that we learned along the way.

Do

Realize that the entire idea of baking something so elaborate is insane.

Allot an entire day to baking.

Make sure you have the right materials to cook with. We wound up using one bunt pan for each layer and our hands to mix the ingredients.

If you are using someone else's kitchen, be respectful of the space. Even if they are 4 guys who have never baked anything in their lives, they still appreciate a clean kitchen or they might not allow you back.

Share

Don't 

Turn on Netflix and forget about the oven. We actually made 5 layers and burnt one.

Steal other people's eggs. (I'm banned from their kitchen partly because I got really drunk and used all of Mickey's eggs)

Pick up the cake because it will break and someone will get really mad because they spend an entire day baking you a cake and they let you do ONE thing and you ruin the entire thing. 

I'm still bitter that he broke my cake

[thedailywhat]

[2girlsonekitchen]

thedailywhat:

Wines Of Unusual Awesomeness of the Day: The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is releasing a signature collection of Princess Bride-inspired wines called “The Bottle of Wits” to coincide with a special Quote-Along & Feast for the Rob Reiner-helmed cult classic.

The collection is composed of two wines — a California Cabernet called “Inconceivable Cab,” and a California blend called ”As You Wish White.”

The launch event, which honors the film’s 25th anniversary, is scheduled to take place in Austin on Valentine’s Day. Similar feasts are taking place in other cities at later dates. Check the official site for details. 

[eater / neatorama.]

[2girlsonekitchen]

I guess I should have posted this picture before... oh well. Getting ingredients at Stop and Shop in White Plains, New York

[2girlsonekitchen]

Lemon Bars

Hey guys, welcome to the first instillation of Two Girls One Kitchen. Since we are both college students (one of us has a kitchen and the other doesn't), we figured we would make and share some simple, easy and delicious recipes that you can make on a tight budget. Neither of us are chefs, but thats ok because you probably aren't either.

Tonight Robyn and I experimented with Ina Garten's with lemon bar recipe which came out absolutely delicious and we ate while enjoying a late night hookah session at Robyn's with some of her roommates and neighbors. She says that the total time for cooking is 1 hour and 35 minutes but honestly, it took us close to 4 hours.

What you need:

For the crust:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 cups flour 

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt  

For the filling:

6 extra-large eggs at room temperature 

3 cups granulated sugar 

3 tablespoons grated lemon zest (we used 3 lemons) 

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 cup flour Confectioners' sugar, for dusting 

Directions:

First and foremost, preheat the oven to 350. 

       The Crust- Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. If you don't have an electric mixer, thats okay, we don't either. The texture of cream is caused by friction so if you put all of your ingredient in a bowl together and mix it with your hands at room temperature, thats okay too.   

Once the mixture is soft add the flour and and salt to to create a dough.    Flatten the dough into a crust on the bottom of your pan and let it chill for an hour. We have no idea why we had to do this, but we did anyway.

While your crust is sitting in the fridge, start to make your filling!           The Filling-  For the filling, mix your eggs, sugar, lemon zest (a BITCH to do!!!) lemon juice, and flour together. Creating the lemon zest alone took about 30 minutes, and each lemon yields around tablespoon of zest.  Mix together well  

Once an hour has passed put your crust in the oven without the filling for around 30 minutes or until it turns golden brown.     Next, you are going to add the filling and bake for 20 minutes or you can tell that it has firmed up. It took us around 30ish minutes. Once the filling and the crust is ready, add confectionary sugar and you have delicious lemon bars that everyone will love!