Well I've officially graduated. It doesn't feel any different, other than the fact that I don't have classes to look forward to come fall! Although I do have to work. Which, I need to find. Hey, I'm working on it, okay?
I see people get all emotional over graduating. Honestly I see it as an inconvenience. There were so many things I was able to do as a student: I could get discounts to things, I could use computers in the SLC, hell, I could use my computer
anywhere on campus, and, most importantly, I could still be a part of BPG.
Granted, I plan on taking a class this summer, so technically I'll still be able to do those things, but come on: look at all the things I'm
not looking forward to! Heh.
Anyways.
Food.3
Yesterday was Mother's Day, and we decided to make dinner and dessert for our mom. It's actually pretty easy doing things for her on said day, her birthday, or just anything where we should "get her something." She likes flowers and sentimental things with meaning behind them. So yesterday we got her flowers and we made food. Awesome.
We had this Sweet Thai Chili pork loin that we got from Sam's Club. It's delicious, by the way. I took the other one with me back to Athens and I can't wait when I get to have it. I'm saving it for a special occasion. So we seared the pork loin in a cast iron skillet (absolutely love those things. I have one and I cook nearly everything in it. Can get really fucking hot though) and stuck it in the oven where we cooked the rest of it. So tender. So flavorful. Even my sister kind of enjoyed it and she's not a big meat eater (hi, Em).
Veggies wise there was this stir-fried kale/bok choy mixture. I think. Or maybe it was all kale. Kinda fuzzy on the details because I checked out after doing my bit of the cooking.
And then as a starch, we cooked this hand-made, lemon-chive spaghetti/pasta our mom got from the farmer's market earlier last week. It was really tasty. It's very fresh and clean tasting, thanks to the lemon.
Finally, the sauce...the damn sauce for the pasta. I knew we couldn't really do a marinara/tomato-based sauce because I thought the sweetness from the tomatoes would compete with the sweetness from the marinade used on the pork. I decided a cream sauce would be better, like alfredo. However, the alfredo sauces I knew about required cream, or at least half-and-half. All we had was 2% milk. Great. Then our mother found a can of Coconut Milk in our pantry. I know, I was thinking the same thing. "I'm too derpish on cooking still, how the fuck can I make a for-pasta cream sauce from coconut milk?!" I knew the flavor of the coconut milk would go with the pork nicely already - the problem for me was I couldn't figure out if it'd do well as a pasta sauce.
I went ahead and tried to make something happen. And you know what? It worked. I guess.
Coconut Milk-Alfredo Sauce
Makes enough sauce for pasta servings for 3-4 people
- 1/2 can of coconut milk
- 2-3 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
- few dashes of chili powder
- garlic powder
- salt
- pepper
- a dash or two of cumin
Pour 1/2 can of coconut milk into small sauce pan over medium heat. When warm enough, add cheese, stir to melt. Add chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper - all to taste. Add a small shake or two of cumin. Stir. Let simmer/keep warm until ready to serve.
I was really skeptical about using coconut milk. Again, I was all "wtf am I doing" the entire time. But in the end, it turned out pretty good. At least my mom and sister thought so. It tastes like alfredo sauce, but with coconut milk, which they said had added very Thai taste to it (of course. It's coconut milk). Like, Thai curry, almost. But alfredo. Yeah. Anyways, it paired nicely with the freshness from the lemon-chive pasta, and it complimented the sweet Thai chili pork loin well too. All in all, great success.
And then dessert. I made strawberry shortcake, all from scratch: the shortcake biscuits, the strawberry topping, and the whipped cream.
I followed this recipe. It was so damn good, easily my favorite part of the entire meal. I was especially proud of it. And it was relatively easy, too. You know what this means? I'm totally using this if I want to impress a girl with awesome dessert one day. Hell yeah.
The only thing I would've gone back and changed about the dessert is that I would've added a few splashes of bourbon to the whipped cream prior to the whipping/blending. Mm. Bourbon-whipped cream on strawberry shortcake. My mouth just watered a little bit.
And I'll close with a picture of the above-mentioned dessert:
So. Good.
