Not Very Good Buttermilk Apple Tart

I’m not sure if it’s obvious yet, but I’m not really a particularly fastidious – or good – cook. However, if you’re throwing pretty good ingredients in together, and you have a general idea of what fire does,  it’s pretty likely that it’ll end up tasting pretty good. (Don’t get me wrong – cooking the Food Network way definitely takes skill. But getting something easy and delicious on your dinner table is still not that hard.)

This is not always true.

Sometimes – my experiments fail, and the word “sometimes” is sometimes an understatement. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to document my less successful recipes – so I remember them.

Rice Porridge

My favourite sick person food is porridge. That’s not really giving it enough credit because it’s also a breakfast food(or lunch…or dinner), a 5 minute prep food, a “I’m really broke this week” food and a “what do I do with the rest of this rotisserie chicken” food.

The nature of my gastronomical upbringing has for the most part, been very rice-centric. When I lived in Malaysia, we ate a lot of rice congee. Simple, slightly chicken flavoured. I remember always picking the green onion bits out. That was probably the Chinese version(one of many Chinese variants). We also ate plenty of the Malay variant, called bubur ayam (Malay vocabulary lesson for the day. “bubur” is porridge. “ayam” is chicken. Woo.)

Pigs in a Blanket

If someone would like me to write the book “Cooking the College Student Way”, please feel free to send me an advance. I’ll even take it in the form of gift certificates to classy eating establishments in LA. I can make the perfect microwave ramen (protip : heat the water first).

Okay, pigs in a blanket. Hot dogs are delicious, right? Actually, I don’t like them. But put some dough around them, and some processed cheese, call them “pigs” and I’ve suddenly eaten 4.