Sausage, Mozzarella and Artichoke Mini Frittatas

Why hello 2013! Happy new year and the best wishes to all you guys for an extremely lucky and prosperous 2013. Did you guys make any new year's resolutions?? I didn't even think of any because I probably can't commit to it. I've just promised myself to eat healthier and treat myself from time to time :)

Exciting news today is that I was asked to guest post for Yesle's blog "D for Dentist". We met at the American Red Cross club at Rice during my undergrad years and now she's at UPenn to be a dentist. I'm glad blogging has brought us together because her blog is super cute and I will need lots of dental work in the future (haha)...

Here's the link to a mini frittata recipe at her blog!
Sausage, Mozzarella and Artichoke Mini Frittatas

Happy Reading and Thank You 2012 readers :D

Before I forget my science of the day tidbit. In the picture above you'll notice my the delightfully green avocado toast. I usually avoid avocado like the plague unless it's in guacamole form. I think it's the texture or gummy taste I don't care for too much. But did you know that...

Consuming Avocado will Decrease Inflammation Protein from a Burger
After consuming red meat, there is a substantial increase in Interleukin 6 (IL-6), a marker of inflammation. At UCLA, males who ate avocado in their burgers had only a 40% increase, as opposed to a 70% increase with just a patty and lettuce.

That's speculatively good news for those prone to heart diseases, clotting and narrowing blood vessels. Although, don't go eating burgers like crazy with avocados. They're still high in calories and fat (well good fats), unless you want to invest in this crazy device... thanks segway inventor...

Avocado Toast

1 ripe Avocado
1 slice whole grain bread
Sea salt + paprika
Little olive oil

1. Slice your avocados up, lay it on the bread, drizzle some oil, sprinkle salt and crack pepper
2. Pop it into your toaster and Voilá!

Reese's Pieces Oatmeal Cookies

Hope for Acne-ridden teens (and adults)?
I'm glad that somehow some of my mum's clear skin genes made its way over to me. Although, during my awkward teen years, my raging hormones gave me pimple-face and I did all kinds of things to try to get rid of my zits. I'll have you know that a paper published last month, in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology found acne-fighting viruses that may zap your zits away!

These viruses called bacteriophages were found on the faces of flawless skin and helped to keep the acne bacteria under control says Laura Marinella at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. They even found the enzyme that the viruses use to kill acne and that could one day become a schmear-on cream ointment. Yay for good viruses!

However, with medication comes mutations and bacterial resistance :( Will we have super acne in the future?! D:

On the side note, I've been eating way too much candy in preparation for halloween and hibernation. Here's another cookie recipe I've been gorging on. Although, I made it healthy and eat them before working out.

Reese's Pieces Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 24 cookies

Green tea & Red Bean Mochi Cake

Ah! I've been so busy lately I haven't posted as regularly as I do. Definitely trying to juggle too many things and I need at least three clones of me. Boo. So I'll keep this one short with an interesting body fact.

FACT: A person can live without eating for weeks, but will only survive eleven days without sleep.

Well, I guess I should just go hungry and sleep. I'm so sleep deprived. I'm usually a morning person but seriously waking up every morning at the crack of dawn is driving me insane. Thankfully no cranky behavior (guess I can't be my own judge). But imagine people around those who haven't slept crazy moodswings...they'll probably only survive a day or two.

I made this super simple and tasty mochi cake. It isn't very sweet, which is perfect for me and a lot of my aunts and relatives who were eating them. They make lovely gifts when you wrap them up nicely. Koreans love this stuff. I mean, it's mocha and it's got red bean. What's not to love?

Matcha Green Tea & Red Bean Mochi Cake
Makes 2 loaves or 9x13" pan

Ingredients
3 cups glutinous rice flour (I used a mix of 1 cup brown and 1 cup white)
2 tbsp Matcha green tea powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 tbsp oil
2 eggs
Filling
1/2 cup red bean boiled (or measure from a can of prepared sweetened red bean and cut sugar to taste)
1/4 cup dried dates chopped (or use diced kabocha squash)
1/4 cup walnuts quartered

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Grease pan or 2 loaf tins with oil or butter
3. Whisk all your dry ingredients in one bowl (rice flour, matcha powder, sugar, baking powder, salt)
4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk and oil. Combine dry mix with the wet mix.
5. Gently fold in the filling ingredients. Feel free to use all red bean, or add raisins. Seriously, whatever you like.
6. Bake for 40-50 mins or until the sides pull away from the pan.

Glossy with honey and walnuts!

Daikon and Carrot Pickle {Bahn Mi Sandwich}

Woo. Going to a low country boil tomorrow. Filling my belly with some mud crawlers crawfish. I had a Vietnamese friend who loved crawfish and introduced it to me. But, I still think they taste a little like mud. She can pull off their heads so quickly, it's pretty amazing. Hmm... I just realized that there are so many crawfish places that seem to have Vietnamese owners...is that a thing?

Anyhoo, we're going to one in Virginia, and the Southern-ness (whole 4 years I've lived in Texas) is excited to be eating andouille sausages, corn and maybe some crawfish :D

Factoid: Sleeping Too Little Gives you a Heart Attack
At the SLEEP convention this month, researchers from the University of Alabama surveyed first stroke symptoms and how much they slept. They amassed a study of 5,666 people and followed their sleeping pattern for 3 years. Sleeping less than six hours increased the risk of stroke symptoms! And that's not just fat, old prone adults. Man, I really need to sleep more...

Not only for strokes, too little snooze time is a risk factor for many other disasters. So skip the exercise and sleep more. Haha kidding.

Daikon and Carrot Pickle - Do Chua (Vietnamese)
Makes about 1 huge jar

Pickles are the best sandwich accessory

Savory Oatmeal Cookies - Parmesan & Rosemary

My friends know that I don't drink coffee, don't need to sleep much, don't need to take naps and I will function just fine. Jelly? 

But now I've started drinking coffee and taking naps because bubs does. It's like yawning. Napping is contagious. What I'm trying to get at is that...I have no idea...haha. I just wanted to say something about coffee before I introduce you to my factoid of the day. 

Factoid: Humans are Predisposed to Spill Coffee

In an experimental study conducted at UC Santa barbara, we apparently are just built to spill our drinks due to the way we walk, liquid sloshing engineering and other complicated dynamical phenomena :P They tested the extend of spills for various walking speeds and the liquid levels in the cups. So we spill coffee either by accelerating too much for a given fluid volume and generating a swirl in the cup by the way we walk.

So...when I spill my drinks at a bar, I shouldn't blame it on the booze? Haha

Anyway, I had 1/2 a block of cream cheese left after making the Jalapeño Cheese Poppers and wanted to use it before it went bad in the fridge. I love oatmeal cookies and I love savory and not too sweet desserts. So I stumbled across a recipe for savory oatmeal cookies. And I know cream cheese makes baked goods oh-so-fluffy. Also, we have tons of Rosemary plants growing next to the library at Georgetown, so I make bubs pick them up haha. So students at Georgetown, whenever you need some Rosemary there are sprouting all along NRB building and DML!

Savory Oatmeal Cookies with Parmesan & Rosemary

Loosely adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup cream cheese (or 1/2 cup sour cream, whatever you have left over)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 teaspoon rosemary (fresh)
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.
Pour into a medium size bowl 1/4 cup of water. Microwave that for maybe 30 sec so its warm. Mix in 1 cup of oats to it and mix it good. It should be pretty doughy and thick.

In a large bowl, mix the olive oil, sugar, egg and cream cheese. Add the oatmeal mix to this.

In another medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, fresh rosemary, parmesan, pepper).

Add the dry with the wet and gently fold until everything is incorporated.

Dollop about 1 tbsp onto a parchment paper lined baking tray and flatten then to 1/4 inch thick. Try to keep it roundish in shape (or not, however pretty you want to make it). Sprinkle on some more sea salt and crack some fresh black pepper over the cookies.

Decorate with rosemary leaves if you like again.
Bake 16-18mins.


Makes around 25-30 cookies.

These are pretty subtle tasting cookies with a sort of soft biscuit like texture. Great for mornings or afternoon teas!

Another variation would be to cut out the oatmeal and add 1/2 cup more flour for a crunchier and crispier cookie. Try dunking that in some balsamic vinegar reduction. HMMmm...

Great with some jam, honey or a smear of soft goat cheese!

Perilla Leaf wrapped Beef Jeon - 깻잎 고기전

No!! It's raining again. Stupid DC weather. Bubs and I are supposed to go on the embassy world tour, mostly to eat free food experience different cultures through food. Hopefully, DC doesn't make walking outside a pain the the butt.


Sometimes it pays to listen in class. Today, we had a Gastrointestinal pathophysiology lecture and our professor actually mentioned something interesting. Usually this is never isn't the case... But did you know....


Factoid: You swallow 15 ml of air into your stomach with EACH swallow
The average person swallows more than 2000 times a day. If you don't belch, you'd bloat up like a hot air balloon! For babies you have to burp them or they get fussy, fart everywhere and get explosive diarrhea (haha). Then we all grow up and properly develop our abdominal muscles, so they contract and expel gastric air out into the esophagus (food pipe). The rumbling burping sound is then caused by the vibration of the upper esophageal sphincter as gas passes through it. 


Also, did you know in some cows that fail to burp, it can be extremely dangerous? There is such a high pressure buildup of gases in their stomach, they need to insert a rubber hose down their pipe to expel it. In some severe cases, punching their sides open!


I say let it rip. And in the words of Shrek... "Better out than in!"


It's approaching Mother's day and maybe this year I'll remember to thank my mum for doing everything for me (oops). I was just reminded of all the times she made these Gogi Jeon (meat patties) for me for lunch, picnic or for snacking. These are sooo good dipped in ketchup.


Perilla and Beef Jeon - 깻잎 고기전

Ingredients
1/2 cup carrots
1/2 onion
2 stalks spring onion
2 tsp ginger minced
1.5 tbsp garlic minced
2 tsp serrano chilies minced

1lb ground beef
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 tbsp soysauce or Yundoo
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp korean chili powder

2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
20 perilla leaves

Chop up finely all the veggies in the first list. Mince up your ginger and garlic.

In a large bowl, put your ground beef and all the seasoning in to it (2nd list of ingredients). Add in all your chopped veggies too. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix everything really well.

Wash your perilla leaves and dry them with a paper towel or wait until it's dry.

Place the 1/4cup of flour in a shallow dish and scramble the eggs in another dish.

Flour both side of the leaf and flatten a ball of the meat within the leaf. The flour helps the meat stick to the inside of the leaf.

Fold the leaf in half and dip it in the egg. The flour also helps the egg stick onto the outside of the leaf.

When you're making a batch, you can flour and stuff all the leaves first and then dip it in the egg one at a time when you're about to fry them.

Turn the heat to medium low and put a good amount of oil in the pan. When the oil is heated, you can add you egg dipped perilla meat jeons.

Each side takes a while because you want to make sure the meat is fully cooked inside. Maybe around 8 mins each side. It really depends on how thick the meat patty is inside.

We also made mini meat jeons made the same way except no leaves. Just make small medallions 1 inch in diameter, roll it in the flour, dip into the egg and fry it up.











Serve it with some ketchup! Trust me, it's really good.

Baked Jalapeño Cheese Poppers

Are you gearing up your liver for Cinco de Mayo?!  Más cerveza por favor! We're making some spicy Mex inspired party finger food. I don't have a potluck to bring it to, but maybe you do. Did you also know that Cinco de Mayo isn't a celebration of Independence in Mexico. I used to date a Mexican so I've been told 235398 times. Terrible. Here, it's a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. But also to commemorate the Mexican army's victory over ze French in the Battle of Puebla. It didn't really gain popularity until the 1980s when beer (think corona) capitalized and promoted the holiday.

Myth Buster: Our tongues are mapped into 4 areas: salty, bitter, sweet and sour
Busted! The entire tongue can taste these senses almost equally. We have taste receptors or taste buds concentrated on the surface of our tongues that can differentiate between different tastes based on different molecules or ions that binds to those buds. If we get to the deeper biology of things, sweet and bitter taste is triggered by activated G protein-coupled receptors; while salty from Na+/ sodium ions and sourness from H+ protons/ acid entering the cell. Don't ever believe those wine snobs who think you should direct wine to a certain area of your tongue to taste the different tones. Bogus.

Nerdy cooking tip: 
If you think you've over salted your food, just add some acidity like lemon juice. Since they both activate the same taste buds, the lemon juice will interfere with your salty taste receptors and fool your brain.
Thank you science.

Wow, that's 2 myth busters today... Also, don't forget to wear gloves or wash your hands after handling Jalapeño peppers. Or else fire in yo eye!

Baked Jalapeño Cheese Poppers
Prep time: 10mins          Cooking time: 20mins

Hot from the oven!

Ingredients

8-10 Jalapeño peppers - sliced in 1/2 (seeded if you hate spice in your life... haha kidding)

4 oz cream cheese (feel free to use fat free)

3 stalks scallions (chives, parsley, cilantro all work)

1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar

2 tsp Red Chili flakes (optional)
salt/pepper

1 egg

1/2 cup Panko crumbs

1/2 tbsp Chili powder

1/2 tbsp Cayenne

Salt/Pepper

Start washing your peppers and slice them in half lengthwise. Cut off the tops and deseed them.

Preheat the oven to 350F








In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, cheddar, chili flakes and a pinch of salt and lots of pepper.

Chop up your green onions finely and using mostly the green parts, mix it into your cream cheese mix. You can taste it and adjust it when you want it saltier or spicier







Stuff your deseeded peppers with the cream cheese mix.

In another small bowl, scramble an egg. This will be your binder for your breadcrumbs/ panko.








On a plate, lay out your panko crumb mix (with chili powder, cayenne). Adding paprika is nice too.

I used a seasoned breadcrumb mix of rosemary and lots of pepper. I think the panko would give it more crunch though.

Roll your stuffed pepper in the egg and then roll it around in the crumb mix. Coat it nicely.

Lay them out on a baking tray. You can sprinkle some olive oil over the poppers. But that can be skipped for lighter fare.

Let it bake for 25-30 mins or until you see that cheese oozing out!






Let it cool before you eat it. Or you'll burn the roof of your mouth like I did :(

Happy Early Cinco de Mayo!

Adapted from skinnytaste.com

Oatmeal Ricotta Choc Chip Cookies

So I was thinking that I should do health myth busters or some factoid about medicine in each post. Ya know... just going along with the MD theme. For those who have asked. MD stands for Medicinae Doctor (latin). Like how JD stands for Juris Doctor, a law degree. So yea.. I realized people didn't get my blog name.. "does that stand for Mabel Dddd...duhhhh iono???!" 

@$&*@% it doesn't.

Soo.. I give you Health caution of the day. Don't Double Dip.

Studies show that every 3 times you dip that chip back into that delicious green salsa, that's 10,000 bacteria going from your mouth and to that reservoir of GERMS. And then imagine that going back into your mouth when everyone else has dipped in it maybe 2983 times?? 

HMM delicious. 

BUT that doesn't stop me from dipping my fries into mah ketchup a gazillion times. Ketchup is so damn good! Like suck it out of their packets good! What? Ketchup has 7% of my daily sodium intake in a tbsp? *shrug*

Bacteria, germs and what not. Now aren't you in the mood for cookies?? :D

These cookies are like pillows and healthier-than-your-mum's cookies. Only 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of olive oil in two dozen of these bad boys. My taste-tester bubs thought a stick went in. A good use to that left over ricotta you had making pasta. Give it a whirl!

Oatmeal Ricotta Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chips!!!

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup Brown sugar + 2 tbsp white sugar

1⅓ cup Quick cooking oats (instant, rolled)

2/3 cup Ricotta

1/3 cup Yogurt (or just 2/3 cup yogurt w/o ricotta)

2 tbsp Vegetable oil + 2 tbsp melted butter

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup Chocolate chips

1/2 cup Nuts (optional)

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I forgot about that while mixing my ingredients!
Anyhoo, mix all your dry ingredients from flour to oats in a large mixing bowl.

In a separate medium sized bowl, mix your wet ingredients (from ricotta to vanilla) until smooth. I melted my butter in the microwave for ~10 secs.

Then, add your wet to your dry ingredients and mix until no lumps or dry spots. The batter appears to be really dry but that's okay. The cookies come out really moist!

Fold in your chocolate chips and nuts if you like. Dried fruits like raisins are also yummy.

Bake them for 11-13 mins at 350F. Or until the edges are a little bit brown. These cookies appear a little pale because of the ricotta. So don't over bake them!

Leave them to rest on the tray for 5 mins and then leave them to cool.
Makes about 24 healthy cookies!

I enjoyed it with some tapioca pudding...nomzzz