InspectorOfFluff

"In the best tellers I know, the stories grow out of their lives like roots grow a tree; The stories have grown them, grown them into who they are. We can tell the difference. We know when somone has grown a story, and when a story has grown them." -Clarissa Pinkola Estes Hey everybody, so I'm the InspectorOfFluff, check me out on FanFiction! :) I enjoy reading, writing, baking, and occasionally eating like a hobbit! Though I don't quite like the excercise required afterword to ensure that I don't become as big as a house! But que sera sera! Feel free to ask me anything! ;)

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How do you come up with those cute little one shots of Titans Kindergarten its just so adorable and i love it! Its so cute! OK I think i'm done Fangirling... But i really love your little BBxRAE One shots it just simply adorable!

I'm so happy that you enjoy the Titan Kindergarten Series so much! :) To answer your question I'm inspired by two sources. my main source is my experience as a high school helper, and my second although I tend not to use it as much is my five year old cousin ( although I usually use her for speech patterns). keep reading and hope to hear from you again! - Inspector

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Me with my cousin!

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Cinnamon Rolls with my Cousin. So tomorrow is my Auntie's birthday, so if course I had to make her really yummy food, right? So I decided on a specialty..... cinnamon rolls! As I'm getting ready to make them my adorable little cousin asks if she can help.... and who am I too deny such cuteness?

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Shrimp Baozi

so this is a simple variation of the baozi recipe that I posted, except I added a spicy shrimp zucchini filling instead of pork.

And I finally got to use my bamboo steamer!!!

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The First of Several Posts: Mujigae ddeok (Rainbow Rice Cake)

Hey, so there has been a slight period of inactivity....I want you to know that this period of inactivity has been because of an incredibly malicious bit of malware, which took quite a bit of work to get off of my poor tired little hard drive but it's finally off, so there's a few things that have just been waiting to be posted, and here it is!

Now I have recently fallen in love with this incredibly awesome Korean Youtuber named Maangchi! (if she should ever come across this I'll totally fanboy!) On her youtube channel she has something called Mujigae ddeok, which is rainbow rice cake. According to Korean tradition, this cake is only made on special occasions like a wedding or a baby's first birthday (because a lot of work goes into one) and the assorted colors make it so that once you give the cake to someone, their wish will come true!

Which is just awesome so I decided that now that I have my awesome steamer I'll make it. I should have known better...

The first obstacle that I encountered was the fact that the cake called for rice flour...which I normally don't keep around the house...however after some searching I discovered that you can make rice flour at home simply by grinding up some rice that sat in water over night; then grind the hell out of it! Which I did in my family's ever faithful Ninja! So I had my rice flour...second obstacle was that my spring foreman wouldn't fit into my beautiful little bamboo steamer...so I had to use my family's tamale pot...

The last thing that should have clued me in that my cake wouldn't turn out right was when the flour wouldn't go through my sifter the second time...when Maangchi was able to get it to go through...

My cake came out rather hard instead of soft and fluffy. However I got the colors right. Lesson learned? Buy rice flour next time... But here are some pictures anyway (and my uncle ended up loving it!)

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Baozi (Otherwise known as Delicious Steamed Pork Buns!)

So I was cleaning my room the other day when I came across my Chinese cookbook, which had been hiding under my bed! (I have a lot of books...when I run out of room in my bookshelf and closet....they end up under my bed....) anyways I had forgotten that I had it! So of course as I looked through it I remember the reason why I got it! I had wanted to make steamed pork buns! (and Winter Melon Pond Soup....but we're saving that for Chinese New Years....)

So my nana came over, saw the recipe and she says that she wants to make some too! While she prepared the meat at home (some delicious pork roast seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper and a little cornstarch!) I prepared the dough, which was the simplest thing in the world!

Here's the recipe, since it's so quick. One tsp of yeast in two tsp lukewarm water. While the yeast is activating, mix together three and a half cups of flour with one tbl of sugar. Five minutes later add the yeast, (after making a small well in the flour, ((hint: the flour will look like a volcano)). Then knead the dough till it's smooth, cover and place in a dark warm place to rise for 1 and a half to two hours.

Though the original recipe called for 1tsp yeast, for fluffier dough, I'd use 2tsp, since mine came out pretty dense.

Later, it's time to make some delicious baozi! Divide the dough in two, and then divide those two in eight, leaving you with sixteen little balls. roll them out to about four inches each, stuff with meat, lift and pinch the edges up, to seal them with your love, and them steam them for twenty minutes, then you'll have delicious little baozi!

Because I know just someone will ask, here are the pictures!:

Here is the steamer that my nana brought over!

Look at my delicious (if slightly malformed...) baozi.

Because my mom is weird and doesn't like steamed buns O.O My nana and I made her some pot stickers (we steamed them, then fried them!)

Look how beautiful they are!

And then later, when nana and me (hahaha) went to the Asian market, I was gifted with this amazing bamboo steamer by my beautiful nana so that I can make baozi any time I want.

I cant wait to use it!

So try making baozi, it's really fun, and it's pretty simple!

And for extra enjoyment, here is the history of baozi

There is a legend about the origin of Jiaozi. In the later years of the Eastern Han Period (Dong Han) an official called Zhang Zhongjing invented a kind of food to help poor people keep warm in cold winter containing hot pepper and some medicinal materials as the fillings. Baozi, on the other hand, dates back almost 1,800 years. It is said that the history of baozi dates back to the Three Kingdoms period (220-280). Zhuge Liang (181-234), a military strategist of the time, was on an expedition to far South China when his army caught a plague. The incarnation of wisdom in Chinese history, he invented this meal shaped as a human head and made of flour and pork and beef to offer as a sacrifice and then as food to cure the soldiers' plague. This food, originally called mantou (flour head), became a typical food of the Chinese people. In some parts of southern China, for example Shanghai, steamed bread, either with stuffing or not, is still called mantou. But in the north, people started to call stuffed buns baozi, with bao meaning "wrapping."

http://grandtaste99.blogspot.com/2012/06/history-of-baozi-chinese-steamed-bun.html

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The French Monstrosity: also known as the Souffle

So, I recently decided (after watching Julie and Julia) that I wanted to make a soufflé. Now for those of you who live in the kitchen, we all know that the soufflé suffers from an infamous reputation no doubt inspired by sissy chefs who just couldn't find it in them to make something so legendary, or so scrumptious.

So, with my ever handy search engine, I tracked down a seemingly simple recipe, grabbed my apron and prayed that it would turn out right! (for those of you interested I'll also post the recipe.)

Now, I've never before worked with soufflé, but I didn't think it'd be as evil as my fortune cookies...the little SOB's....er...back to the point. As I said before, the recipe was seemingly simple (after all it's mostly just egg white) and after a quick run to the store after discovering I was out of milk I was ready.

With the ever handy words of wisdom from my sainted mother (seriously though, it's a surprise the Catholic Church hasn't canonized this woman yet, she's amazing!!!) I managed to make the batter perfect, and I stuck it in the oven for 25 minutes...which later became 28 when I lloked at it, and it didn't look quite done. And this is how it turned out

Beautiful and perfect looking right!?

Well wouldn't you know it, the little bastard deflated three minutes later till it wasn't even peeking out of the pan...so...once again...I put it in the oven.....well after five minutes, it was completely puffed up again and my mom and I declared it done...only there was a slight mix up in the directions....

I thought she said to leave it in the oven (turned off) so that it would settle. When what she really thought I should do was take it out so that it would settle....and wouldn't you know it, the poor thing died, and became more like pudding....oh well....at least now I know what to do next time.

And here's the recipe:

Vanilla Souffle Recipe

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons salted butter, melted

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/3 cups whole milk, divided

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs, separated

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Fresh berries

Preparation:

How to make vanilla soufflé:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a large soufflé dish and roll 1/4 cup of granulated sugar throughout the dish, making sure to cover all the interior surfaces. Set aside the prepared soufflé dish.

Bring 1 cup of the milk to just steaming in a medium saucepan set over low-medium heat. Stir together 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, and the remaining 1/3 cup milk until it forms a smooth batter.

Slowly whisk half of the hot milk into the batter, making sure to combine the ingredients until they are completely smooth. Add the tempered batter back to the hot milk in the pan and bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly. Stir and cook the mixture until it has thickened, for about 1 minute. Stir the butter into the mixture and allow it to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on medium high speed until they become foamy, and then add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Continue beating the egg whites on high speed until they hold stiff glossy peaks.

Gently stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the vanilla mixture, then carefully fold in the remaining whipped egg whites. The vanilla mixture should be evenly colored and light and bubbly, without egg white streaks or marbling.

Spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared dish and allow it to rest, covered, for up to 30 minutes or bake right away for 25 to 30 minutes (slightly longer at high altitudes) until the soufflé has risen with a crusty exterior. Serve the soufflé with a dusting powdered sugar and a few plump berries, if desired.

This vanilla soufflé recipe makes 6 servings.

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I know, I know, this is about two days late, but....eh I was lazy....

Anyways, since I am such a patriotic American (USA!) I made an apple pie, and instead of doing the lattice pie top, I decided to do stars!!! So of course I woke up at five thirty to make sure it was ready for my family to eat once everyone had gotten there, and wouldn't you know it, nothing goes right! First the kitchen hadn't been cleaned (we all take turns at my house, so you already know I wasn't on kitchen that day/night), then I can't find the gorram peeler and I spend thirty minutes looking for it! Than I can't find my cookie cutter to make the stars and that took ten. ANd let me tell you the most time consuming process is making the dough. I had made it the night before so it should have only taken me twenty minutes to make the pie, not an hour. Finally I got the thing in the oven at 6:48...and since I was already up I thought that I might as well clean the kitchen (because nothing is worse than cooking/baking in a dirty kitchen), so my mom wakes up at around seven and sees me cleaning and being her sweet self offers to help. But I tell her that it's fine, and we end up singing off key to the Divinyls and dancing. Luckily everyone else was asleep so it wasn't too embarrassing.

End result, everyone gobbled up my pie, and I think it came out pretty good? Thoughts???

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Delicious Apple Pie

So I was out at the supermarket the other day when I spotted some granny smith apples, and I'm like, hey why don't I try to make an apple pie.

And let me tell you, not only was it relatively easy, it was delicious and my family gobbled it up in no time. Luckily I was able to get a picture since I made it at six this morning (it was too hot to bake it in the afternoon, what with my air being broken...stupid air conditioner.

Here's the recipe! :)

Scrumptious Apple Pie

This apple pie is a classic, from the scrumptious filling to the flaky pastry crust. It is homemade goodness at its very best.

Prep Time

45

Minutes

Total Time

2:20

Hrs:Mins

Makes

8

servings

Pastry

2

cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1

teaspoon salt

2/3

cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening

4

to 6 tablespoons cold water

Filling

1/3

to 1/2 cup sugar

1/4

cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/2

teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2

teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8

teaspoon salt

8

cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (8 medium)

2

tablespoons butter or margarine

In medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).

Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half; shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.

Heat oven to 425°F. With floured rolling pin, roll one pastry round into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.

In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/4 cup flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Stir in apples until well mixed. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1/2 inch from rim of plate.

Roll other round of pastry into 10-inch round. Fold into fourths and cut slits so steam can escape. Unfold top pastry over filling; trim overhanging edge 1 inch from rim of plate. Fold and roll top edge under lower edge, pressing on rim to seal; flute as desired. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of foil to prevent excessive browning.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking. Serve warm if desired.

Makes 8 servings

  It's easy, delicious and entirely from scratch! Try it out, you won't be disappointed!........unless you're allergic to apples....

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Book Review One!

So I just read a pretty amazing book, calledYear of the Unicorn, by Andre Norton. Now to be totally honest, the book was part of an omnibus, and when I was reading the inside flap I'm like, "Huh, that sounds pretty interesting I think I'll read it!" Well, about three days later I entered finals and I needed to study my butt off for my math final! (math...evil's true name...)

Which meant that I put aside the book, and didn't pick it up until yesterday...and you know if I finished it in a day, that meant it was a good read!

The book is written by Andre Norton, who admittedly I had never heard of before but Life Magazine has named her "the grand dame of science fiction"! And I can tell why!

Her writing style is very unique, and one that I've never come across before (which is kinda rare...when you read as much as I do you have read a little bit of everything--and to give you all a clue as to how much I read...my local librarians know me by name! :) )

So the writing style was unique, and only slightly difficult to follow, but once you're in, you're in until theyou get to the end. And it wasn't one of those obnoxious reads where they use fifty words to describe the one little leaf on a tree fifty yards away, that has nothing to do with the plot. Every description she added enriched the story, made the prose and syntex even more complex, and mesmerizing. To be totally honest, it was practically hypnotizing the way she drew you into the story.

Now that you all know how amazing Norton's writing style is, let's talk some about the story! :)

So the plot, at it's most basic form, deals with creatures known as Were Riders, who gave the people of High Hallack military aid in exchange for twelve and one brides, who were to meet the at the Throat of the Hawk on the dawn of the Year of the Unicorn! (Doesn't this sound like fun already!?!) Gillan is a woman who has spent the vast majority of her life in an abbey, but she is not like the people of High Hallack. Where they are fair, she is dark and there is a mystery about her that not even Gillan knows the depth of. Well when her distraught friend is chosen as a bride for the Were Riders, Gillan decides that she will take her place, and is whisked off to the Throat of the Hawk to meet her future husband. But things take an interesting turn when she chooses someone that no one thought would be wed, and discovers powers that she never knew existed her journey into the unknown will be thrown into chaos as she and her lord face obstacles of every imagination...

In short, find it, read it I'm very confident you'll love it!

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"Truth may not be a sword with only two sides to the blade, so you look upon one and then the other. Rather it is like a faceted jewel with many faces. You may think you know one well, and another; and then you discover a third, a fourth. Still they are all truth or truths." -Andre Norton

Year of the Unicorn, by Andre Norton

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The Sorcerer and The White Snake

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Awesome Asian Movies 1

So since Blockbuster, Superstar, and Hollywood Video have gone out of business, I only have Redbox and Netflix to fulfill all of my movie needs...which kind of sucks because now there's one less reason for me to leave my house and gain some human interaction (which, you know I like every now and then...during a blue moon...on a leap year...blah). However, Netflix has now just started to fulfill some of my movie needs! I'm probably one of the only people I know who loves Asian Movies-you all know which one's I'm talking about. The ones where if they're dubbed in english their mouth's don't always sync up correctly, they're very cheesy and there's some inquiry about the acting skills of their characters??? Great, now that we're all on track with one another, let me tell you I don't love the really bad ones, I prefer the movies that are just B enough to be lovable.

Speaking of movies, I just watched one this weekend...well...okay on Monday, but since Monday kind of sucks I'm just gonna call it the weekend...I watched this pretty good movie called The Sorcerer and the White Snake! It's a dramedy (drama-comedy) it's funny, there's love, there's Jet Li (so you know there's gonna be martial arts) there's fantasy, there's sorrow, there's mind blowing romance that will remind you of how your heart aches with every beat...(so I paraphrased that last line from Whispers of the Heart, but I digress). It was freakin' awesome! It made me laugh, it made me sigh, it made me yell, it made me cry...(what is this a poem!?!?!)

Anyways, check it out if you like those really cheesy, sometimes good asian movies...you may or may not regret it!

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Would you happen to have any pictures of the delicious food you made?

Haha. Unfortunately no, the vicious harpies that I affectionately know as my family swooped in before I had a chance to take any photos of my food. But, que sera sera. :)

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Hobbit Food

So I recently just hosted a hobbit theme party (which involved, of course, a whole lot of food and somehow we didn'twatchThe Hobbit, until around eight o'clock at night. Well, there's this fantastic recipe that I found, after loads of searching, for Seed Cake, which for any of you that know The Hobbit (movieandbook) is practically cannon!

Now unfortunately, I of course have no knowledge of the metric system, being American and after hours of searching I couldn't find the damn recipe in anything but UK measurements (which is not easily converted for American Kitchens!) However, just as I was about to give up hope and end up serving cinnamon honey scones, I finally found the recipe with AMERICAN MEASUREMENTS!

Stoked, I printed it out, and let me tell you my family couldn't keep their hands off it (even though there was some reservations about the carraway seeds...)

Since I liked it so much, I though I'd post it here for anyone interested in trying it out.

Recipe: Bilbo’s Seed Cakes

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg and cinnamon

1/4 cup brandy (now my family doesn't like brandy so we used rum, which is amazing!)

4 teaspoons demerara sugar (which is just brown sugar.)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300°. Grease four 4 1/2-inch springform pans.

In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl in between additions.

In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, caraway seeds, and spices.

Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture, stirring well.

Add the brandy and combine.

Add the remaining flour mixture, being sure not to overmix.

Spoon batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon demerara sugar over the top of each cake.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 35 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

Try it, it's delicious!

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ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Very good question! I would have to say that Robots are by far the superior creature because there are the infinite possibilities when it comes to robots as opposed to dinosaurs, as well as several pre-existing rules that govern robotic functions. A perfect example would be Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which dictates the actions that robots can have in tandem with humans, where as dinosaurs really don't have a definitive protocol in their actions towards mankind...which of course makes them scarier. But then again, who doesn't love R2D2, C-3PO, I-Robot, or David? A better question would be which is better: Ninjas or Pirates?