phone pic palooza

strictly phone pics of food from the past 2 weeks!

khanom chan, a sweet, steamed, 9-layered coconut dessert made with tapioca and rice flours. the green layers are pandan-flavored. i found out it is often given in celebration of advancement or promotion. nice and chewy, and many people enjoy peeling it layer by layer :) one of paul's favorite thai desserts so i wanted to make it for him after tasting a piece that his mom brought all the way from thailand! i was nervous about how close it'd be to the real thing since i'd only had about 2 bites of it. i followed this recipe, using pandan paste instead of pandan leaves since i couldn't find any at the asian grocery store. next time, i'll add a little more sugar, since paul said he's used to it being super sweet. personally, it was just the right sweetness for me.

i don't know why it looks a diff color here. lighting was weird, i guess!

it was interesting to make, since i had no measuring vessels at my disposal except for a sippy cup with mL and oz lines. yes, a sippy cup.
to my surprise and joy, his mom had tried the khanom chan that i made and even took some to her workplace. she told him that she really liked it, and it was on point! even her thai co-workers liked it... holy crap i almost died of happiness lol. i love her :) she even said to make it again.

steff gave me a donut plushy keychain from uo. bawse.

threw together a hot spinach dip yesterday as a trial run for today's potluck my bible study group is having :) it came out really well. chock full of spinach and cheesy goodness. has absolutely no mayo or sour cream, so you don't get that oil slick that sadly characterizes many hot spinach (and spinach artichoke) dips. i'll include the recipe at the bottom!!

sara, my aptmate, had a hankering for fried oreos after david changsta (christy's lil cousin) talked about it. so she looked up a recipe and we made it together. yummy heart attacky goodness.


random food fact of the day (via wikipedia): "Oreo (developed in 1912) is very similar to the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine, which was introduced in 1908, leading to speculation that Nabisco obtained the idea from Sunshine. Having lost market share to Oreo for years, Hydrox cookies were withdrawn in 1999."

Hot Spinach Dip
makes (1) 8x4 or 9x5 loaf pan (think: 2 generous restaurant-sized appetizers)

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 large stalks of scallions, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves of garlic

• (2) 10oz packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and thoroughly squeezed
•  8oz package cream cheese (reg or reduced fat), room temperature
• 8oz bag Italian blend shredded cheese
• hot sauce (I used Sriracha hehehe)
• pinch of nutmeg
• garlic powder
• salt & pepper

1. preheat oven to 400 F.
2. melt butter in a pan on medium-high heat and add scallions and garlic. sweat until fragrant, not browned! turn off heat.
3. in a large mixing bowl, add #1's mixture, spinach, cream cheese and shredded cheese, but reserve a handful of shredded cheese for topping.
4. add a few squirts of hot sauce, nutmeg, and garlic powder/salt/pepper to taste. mix well.
5. dump spinach dip mixture into a large loaf pan or other vessel, and sprinkle the reserved handful of cheese evenly on top. bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes until cheese on top is bubbling/browned. feel free to broil for the last 3-4 minutes for a crustier top, mmmmm.


love,
t