Keep Calm and Carry On: The Diary of Foodie and Gourmet

This weekend, I decided to challenge myself and roast my own chicken. I love roasted chicken, but I've never made it myself. Also, for some reason, I feel like it is a dish that everyone should attempt at least once in their life.  For this task, I turned to my culinary guru: Gordon Ramsay. I came across a great recipe for "Stuffed Chicken." I have to say, the fact that it is a Gordon Ramsay creation alone had me interested, but this dish genuilely looked delicious. Not your typical roast chicken --- more like roast chicken with a Spanish twist. Really delicious and a great family meal! To watch Gordon cook this recipe, click this link: Gordon's Oven Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Chorizo and Cannelloni Beans.  Ingredients: - 1 whole chicken (mine was about 7 lb) -2 tbsp olive oil - 6 oz chorizo sausage, chopped - 1/2 onion, diced - 4 cloves garlic, minced (you can add more/less) - 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes - 14 oz cannellini beans (1 can) -...

A couple days ago, my mom went to our local seafood store and bought some monkfish. I will admit, monkfish is not my favorite, by my mother loves it! In Japan, monkfish, especially the liver (ankimo), is a delicacy. Mom asked me to make her my "aromatic monkfish", which is recipe that I discovered courtesy my favorite chef, Gordon Ramsay. This recipe is super fast, easy, and delicious. Not to mention, it smells phenomenal!  Ingredients: - 4 fillets of monkfish (since there are 3 of us, we had three, but this is really flexible depending on how many people you are feeding) - 1 teaspoon paprika - 1 teaspoon five spice - 1 teaspoon salt - 2 tablespoons olive oil Directions: 1. Prepare a baking tray with aluminum foil. Be sure to lubricate the foil (cooking spray, oil, etc…). Preheat oven to 375F, placing baking tray inside.  2. Mix the paprika, salt, and five spice together. Rub fish with spices. Be generous with the amount of spices you use and really c...

With the semester over, I now have a little bit more time to myself. Not a lot, but it's an improvement form my hectic semester. For months now, whenever I go to the gym, the trainers there (including mine) incessantly ask when I am going to bake for them. My answer is always the same: when I am not buried with school work!  Well, now that I am on winter break, I am no longer buried with school world, so I decided to surprise the trainers with carrot cake (their favorite, apparently) and some cupcakes. I make really tasty red velvet cupcakes, if I do say so myself, however, after visiting a couple of grocery stores and even Party City, I was unable to find red food coloring! Can you believe it? Undeterred, I decided to make my red velvet cupcakes anyway, just without the food coloring. I am pleased to say, even though they looked like snicker doodles, they tasted exactly the same as my red velvet cupcakes!  Ingredients for Cupcakes: - 4 tablespoon unsalted butter, a...