Our pot of pasta without flash. No matter how many pictures we took, it still looked bad.

Our food with flash. It's ridiculous at how not photogenic the pasta was in the pot.

Hyunnie's plate. She had a cup of root beer. There was no ice in it and it was warm. How does one have warm soda? -.-;

My plate. I had a cup of Minute Maid Fruit Punch mixed with Root Beer. It was delicious if I do say so myself.

My empty plate, cup, and my cell phone. The aftermath of my destruction on this episode of YASU VS. FOOD.

— Ingredients

» Frozen Spinach + Green Peas
» Block Cheese
» Milk (Preferably Half & Half)
» Flour
» Salt, Black Pepper, Ground Cinnamon, Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Adobo
» 1 Stick of Butter
» Oil


— Directions

» Taking your oil, place a few drops of it into your sauté pan and make sure that the oil coats the bottom of the bottom pan...all of the bottom needs to be coated in oil so nothing sticks during the next part. (Note: Make sure it isn't too much oil, just a thin layer.)
» If you hadn't thaw your vegetables, this is when you're going to thaw them. Once the sauté pan has it's oil, pour in your spinach and green peas. No, the fire should not be on until all the vegetables are in*. Once your vegetables are in the sauté pan, shake the pan a bit so that the vegetables are rested some what decently in the pot and then turn on the fire. You don't need the heat to be at too high of a temperature, no higher than medium heat.  
» Placing the pan's cover over the vegetables*, let it cook through and thaw itself out. While that cooks down and thaw out, check on it every two or three minutes and stir it occasionally to keep the vegetables from sticking together.
» Depending on how close to medium heat you have your fire too, the vegetables should be cooked through. Once it's all thawed out, it's time to add the butter and yes, the whole stick is going in. Melting the butter with the vegetables gives it a wonderful smell and gives it a bit of a salty taste.
» Once the butter is melted, you may add your seasonings. No more than a pinch of salt and pepper (each) and few shakes of the ground cinnamon, lemon pepper seasoning, and Adobo seasoning is required to bring the vegetables to a good taste. The ground cinnamon should be the prominent taste you get from these vegetables, but it should still remain decently savory.
» If you haven't put your fire to medium heat completely, now's the time to do it. We're adding the milk and flour in. A cup of milk and two tablespoons of flour is enough for this sauce. Our flour is going to act as a thickening agent for this sauce. Remember that once these ingredients are added, you will need to stir them in immediately so that everything is incorporated and thickened properly.
» Once your sauce is half way thickened, it's time to add the cheese. You'll barely be able to taste the cheese in the finished product, so one and half to two tablespoons of the cheese should be added at most.
» As the cheese melts into the sauce, you should notice that not only does the area around you smell like yumminess, but the sauce remains a light colour. Remember to continuously stir the cheese so it melts properly.
» Now that the cheese has melted, turn your heat down to low so that the sauce is simmering down. We're doing this to keep it warm. At this point, you should taste test the sauce to see if anything more should be added.
» As the sauce simmers, your pasta should be cooked by now* and before you strain your pasta, take a ladle and add two ladle-ful of the water from the cooked pasta into the sauce.*
» Once the two ladle-fuls of water are added to the sauce, strain your pasta and place it back into the pot you cooked it in. The pasta should still be warm as you add your warm sauce to the pasta*.
» Rather than stirring the sauce, you should fold the sauce into* the pasta to combine them. It may bit tough to fold it, but that means that your sauce has thickened appropriately.
» Now that your pasta and sauce have been folded together completely, you're done! You can plate your food and enjoy your meals.
» OPTIONAL: If you are making the toast like we did, slice your block cheese and place it on the bread before popping the bread into the oven. As the bread cooks, the cheese will melt and once you take the bread out, just spread the cheese along the bread.


— Notes

» Keeping the fire off until after all the vegetables are in the pan gives all the vegetables the same amount of time to cook and prevents some of the vegetables from being overcooked and others from being undercooked.
» Covering the pan keeps the heat from escaping and also cooks the vegetables quicker while making sure to keep the cooking time even for everything.
» I omitted the directions for cooking the pasta because people cook pasta according to their own tastes and I believe pasta is one of those things that need no directions.
» Pasta is a starch. Starches can be used as a thickening agent in cooking. In this case, the water from the pasta has some of the pasta starch in it and adding it to the sauce thickening it a bit more. Kind of like tightening a screw until it bucks.
» Adding warm sauce to cold pasta would have cooked the pasta and cooking pasta after it's just been cooked changes the texture of the pasta slightly. On the flip side, adding cold sauce to warm pasta would cook the sauce and it could soft the vegetables or mess with the consistency of the sauce due to the starch in it (starch is a thickening agent, but if cooked too long it will thin out horribly).
» Folding the sauce rather than stirring it keeps all the vegetables intact and saves the sauce from looks like a green mess.

Hyunnie on Thursday night. Idek why this picture makes me giggle, but it does. xD

Hyunnie on Thursday night. She was mid-sentence when I took the picture. It came out great tho. Darn you Hyun for being pretty.

Hyunnie on Friday night. For some reason, her camera was being stupid (I think...) and she made this face just as I took the picture. xD

Me on Friday night. This was after cooking and a previous night migraine. I look constipated and tired. I know.

New Rings Ugh, I love these babies. The reason I separate them even though they are supposed to be worn together is because I like them individually and not together.

New Earrings I'm starting to really adore feathered earrings. The Black Feathered Earrings are for NIL (if he likes them) and the earrings on the left of those black earrings are for Hyunnie (I hope she likes them). The rest are mine. I have an earrings addiction.

New Hat Soooo, happy I finally got a new hat. I would have preferred a new fitted cap, but this works too. It's very cute. Oh and ignore the Melatonin in the background, I need it for my insomnia.

Three New Boots One of the boots (the one resting on the box) didn't have it's own box. The boots resting on top of the box are two weeks old and the orange box is old, I just am now getting a good picture of it.

Boots and Boxes Ayee, I love my boots.

Boots On Display The boots on the top left can't fit me because my legs are too thick for them. Oh well. The bottom two boots are mine and the top right boots is shared with my mum and I (we wear the same size).

PIZZA I didn't make it through the second one because it was waaay too greasy. Le siiiigh.

Three New Books I've already started reading Ellen's book. She's hilarious. I swear.

Chips, Salsa, and Queso The salsa remained untouched, but the Queso was devoured. It was too yummy.

Strawberry Lemonade - Mum's Drink She proceeded to sip her drink and then complain about how she didn't really enjoy it cause she couldn't taste the strawberry. Mum's a strawberry fiend.

Mango Iced Tea - My Drink I love mangoes (and tropical fruits in general), so when I saw this on the menu I had to get it. Yeaaah, it was delicious. I got a refill! <3

Mum She didn't really dress up, but she wore my earrings still cause she fell asleep in them. I snapped this like mid bite, hence her eyebrow being raised like she's angry.

Ribs, Baked Apples, and Fries - Mum's Food I forget the actual name for the ribs, but they were good. (I snatched a piece later on) We ate the fries and apples while there cause my mum hates when they get cold.

Baked Apples It was too yummy. I ended up finishing this yummy thing for mum because she didn't want it anymore.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas - My Food I only ate one before I stopped eating and asked for a To-Go container.

Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce - Mum's Dessert Mum and I love cheesecake, so she got some for dessert. I ended up eating it and mmm...it was good.

Red Velvet Molten Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Syrup + Ice Cream - My Dessert It was a "new" dessert so I ordered it and it was damn good. That big chocolate mound atop the cake is a ice cream inside a chocolate shell. You crack it and then the ice cream just falls unto the cake like a fountain. I call it Diabetes On A Plate.

FOTD Blue Contacts from Born Pretty Store, NK Eye Pencil (A05 - White), NK Auto Eyeliner (AA01 - Black), Carmex (Original) Rimmel London's Lasting Finish Lipstick (038 - In Vogue).

Labels: Beauty (Cosmetics), Dailies (FOTD), Eyes (Liner), Lips (Lip Colours), Others, Personal, Rimmel London