For all the kids who don’t know what love languages are or aren’t familiar with them, love languages are different ways in how you express and receive love. There are five types: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving/giving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Although I already wrote this in my first entry (which I think is the best written entry so far—go check it out!), baking and cooking for people is a way I say, “I love you.” Now, I haven’t posted in over month because my workload has been maddening, but that hasn’t stopped me from making food! And every time I cook and bake, I’ve felt this overflow of love pour from myself into others. So my love language to others is giving (edible) gifts and acts of service (I’ll get to how I best receive love in a minute). I’ve especially been cooking and baking for people in my fellowship, Cru (or Campus Crusade for Christ). Whether you’re Christian or not, finding a group of people who just love on you and support you is so wonderful and I’ve found that in Cru. They have filled me with love, and so I naturally desire to want to fill them with food!
When I made pillow cookies last time, I had lots of egg whites left over and the first thing that popped in my head to make were meringue cookies. I know you’ve seen them at fancy French bakeries. I remember as a kid they were the most legit treat ever. They seemed like whipped cream frozen in time and when you bit into them, the whole thing crumbled and melted in your mouth. Meringue cookies were pretty magical to me. Being the college kid that I am and not having many resources, I didn’t have a whisk. Meringue cookies call for lots and lots of whipping so that the egg whites would be frothy. And thus, the fork whisk was created. I ended up tying two forks together and whipped that sucker like mad. I didn’t get the frothy consistency I wanted (it was still a little runny), but my arms were dying and I could only muster so much strength (cooking and baking is a work out, no lie). I used a plastic Ziploc bag (with an edge cut off) to squeeze the egg whites and sugar into nice swirl shapes and dusted them with Oreo crumbs to add flavor. They actually turned out pretty well. They were a tad chewy, but I heard no complaints!
POTLUCK! I’ve grown up opening my house up to people and so I love to invite people over to eat and talk. Thanks to the grace of my roommates, I threw a potluck for Cru and made spicy Italian sausage pasta. This is an original recipe. No Punchfork. I’ve made a similar impromptu pasta for my sister and her boyfriend before, so I knew what flavors I wanted to hit. If you are curious, I’d be happy to share exactly how I made it (pretty simple stuff). But, man, that potluck was amazing. Not only did I get to taste a bunch of other great dishes (it’s fascinating to me how people bring such different flavors to their dishes and how it kind of reflects their personality), but also the fellowship and conversation was awesome. Some pretty hilarious embarrassing moments were shared and laughter filled the room. Not only were our stomachs filled that night, but also were our hearts (wow, I think I even vomited a little in my mouth… but cheesiness is sometimes needed, and it is so true).
Now, my aunt’s 50th birthday…excuse me, I mean 25th birthday… came around and my sister and I decided to cook for her and my grandma as a treat. I ended up making shrimp scampi. I’ve never worked with shrimp before. I love seafood and know how to peel the little buggers, but deveining? Say what?! Peeling, decapitating, and deveining the shrimps was the nasty part, but everything else went as planned according to the recipe on Punchfork (did I mention that I love that website?). My sister made a killer Asian pear tart that night as well. It was beautiful and oh so delicious (maybe I’ll make it in the near future myself). Although I do love the whole cooking process, my favorite part of that night was being able to cook beside the grand master, my grandma. She also loves people through her food and, boy, is she good at it. What really touched me was when she said she really enjoyed eating my pasta. I just remember thinking, “Wow.” I encourage all of you to go cook with loved ones. On a side note, the recipe calls for two lemons, but I would use just one. I thought the pasta was a bit too sour.
Last time I baked for Cru’s big group meeting I came with pillow cookies. This time: pumpkin ginger snaps! I had a bit of time on my hands this week, so I thought, “why not?!” The weather right now (biting cold… well biting for SoCal) really calls for holiday flavors and so I thought these cookies were super apropos. These fluffy delights were super fun to make and I got good feedback on them. One of the great perks of baking things with pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves is that your whole apartment will smell like Christmas. I am so ready for winter break and the smell the ginger snaps made me want to curl up in a warm spot and listen to Christmas classics. But alas, I had to pull them out in the oven in 13 minutes and head over to Cru right away!
Lastly, I end with a chocolate cake. It was one of my apartment mate’s 20th birthday and I found a recipe for, “the best chocolate sheet cake ever.” Now, a sheet cake is great and all, but it ain’t a birthday cake or at least it doesn’t look like one. My solution: put it in a round cake pan! I used the same recipe, but just had to bake the cake longer (using the round pan made the cake thicker) so it was baked all the way through. On top of the cake, I also made chocolate frosting from scratch. Although the original recipe calls for pecans, I used walnuts ‘cause I had a lot of walnuts lying around and it still tasted great.
Referring back to the theme of love language, I’ve already explained my love language to others, but the way I receive love the best is through words of affirmation. Hands down. Although I don’t cook and bake for compliments, it is so nice to hear when what you’ve made tastes good. Honestly, someone can just make my day by appreciating my food. But if I do make food that tastes out of whack, TELL ME. We all give and receive love in different ways and I’m just glad people have been so receptive towards my food. I’ll keep them coming.
*Looking back on this entry, this is so formal! It’s much more orderly than my other entries, but it doesn’t flow well. Well, you can only do so much when running on little sleep. At least I know that most (if not all) people are focusing on my pictures than my words.
