Finger Lakes Cheese Festival

Today I dragged my apartment mate out to the Finger Lakes Cheese Festival. Upon arrival, I was told I looked like a twelve-year-old. I shouldn’t have corrected the lady; I could’ve gotten in for free, but seriously? You’re only off by over 8 years hun. Someone please teach me how to look my age. Our first stop at the festival was the petting zoo because apparently we are small children. Also, alpacas.

I must admit the small children petting the animals were just as cute as the animals themselves. I must also mention that alpacas make the strangest noise that I’ve ever heard come out of an animal.

Next, we wandered around the farm. The tour started out well with some cute newborn cows and a goat, but then we suffered quite the shock when the cow right in front of us starting pooping. And didn’t stop. For a very long time. It just kept coming out. And was definitely not the consistency I was expecting. Sorry for that description. Moving on now.

We bought some cheese because it was a cheese festival after all. Then we milked a goat.

We stopped by Seneca Lake on the way back to Ithaca because so pretty.

On to the next adventure of the day: making a wheat-free cake for my friend’s birthday.

I stupidly decided it would be okay to whip egg whites by hand. It only took 15 minutes and the sacrifice of one arm. Would not recommend. I’d say that was enough exercise for the weekend.

Final product came out pretty well though. We’ll see how it tastes tomorrow.

Fail-proof Guide to Cooking Meat

DISCLAIMER: This guide is for the desperate, not-fully-a-real-person, cooking novice (a.k.a me). If you are actually a proper person who cooks all the time, this will be of no help to you. Sorry.

So today, I discovered the magical elixir that is cooking wine. This is the result of my discovery.

How to make edible, not-too-bad tasting meat:

1. Put your rice in your rice cooker, and turn it on. (I realize this has nothing to do with cooking meat, but I keep making the mistake of cooking my dinner and realizing at the last minute that I have no rice to eat.)

2. Put a drizzle of oil in a pan. Turn the burner on. Put the pan on the burner. Wait for pan to heat up.

3. Put the meat in the pan. Listen to it sizzle.

4. If your meat is cut up into small stir-fry-sized pieces, toss the meat around with a utensil of some sort in order to cook all the sides. If you have a chunk of meat, let it sizzle on every side for a minute or so. Then cover the pan with a lid and leave it to cook for a couple minutes. Flip the meat and repeat.

5. Before the meat is done, pour enough cooking wine into the pan to cover the bottom. Add chopped garlic. Add salt if needed.

6. Wait until the meat reaches a level of doneness that is considered safe to eat.

7. Remove from pan and let cool.

8. Eat when cool enough to not burn your tongue.

Yum. You’re welcome.

Halp.

So I was supposed to play soccer with a bunch of people from church today, but my friend bailed because she wasn’t feeling well. Instead of going anyway like a normal person, I had a mini anxiety attack over the thought of being around people I don’t know. Needless to say, I stayed home. And made steak.

Someone please teach me how to be a normal human being.

Oof.

Struggles of the day:

– Forgot to defrost my beef in the morning. Frying a block of ice isn’t easy.
– Forgot to put the rice in the rice cooker until I was done making everything else. So. Hungry.
– Cooking is hard.

Confessions of a No-Longer-Teenage Procrastination Queen

I have a confession to make. I am dreadfully inept when it comes to being a proper grown human being, particularly in the cooking area. Since leaving the life of dining halls and unlimited meal plans, I’ve been eating only rotisserie chicken, baby carrots, and granola bars. It’s time to change. It’s time to learn how to cook for myself like a real person.

A few things I learned while buying supplies:

1. Knives are expensive.
2. Napa cabbage is cheap.
3. Wegmans cashiers love it when you weigh your produce yourself.
4. I am incapable of going to Wegmans without buying stroopwafels.

*drools*

Firsts that I accomplished today:

1. Purchased a kitchen appliance. (A rice cooker because what else would an Asian buy)

Ain’t it cute?

2. Cooked meat without help (It was edible too!).

shocker

Lessons I learned a little too late:

1. You can freeze meat and it will keep for a long time. (Oh well I was looking forward to eating the same thing for a week anyway)
2. Oh wait, there was only one.

Overall, I’d say that was a pretty productive day. +1 real person point for me!