Mexican Hot Chocolate

Another recipe post about chocolate! This here is Chef Sophia Garcia's recipe for delicious steaming mexican hot chocolate. 

Secret ingredient? Corn flour is added to make the drink extra creamy mmm 

So go grab a big pot and pour in your milk and heat it so it starts steaming, no need to boil. 

Open up your Abuelita Chocolates and chop them up.

 Throw them into the hot milk and stir.

Take a whif and bask in the glorious chocolate mixture. Whisk in the corn flour until it reaches a creamy consistency. 

Crack open some sweet treats too, while you're at it! Here are some flaky almond croissants, apple turnovers, and pie. 

Keep the munchkins away!

This recipe will surely produce smiling faces...but too much sugar can make some interesting situations.

Thanksgiving Part 2

Everyone knows about post-Thanksgiving leftovers and only a few will stretch out the holiday season to do another gathering. For the Suns, we invited over some very old family friends. The best part was that these people were old friends with my grandparents and hadn't seen each other since the late 70s. 
This time, the lunch was more focused on delicious seafood. 

How was your post Thanksgiving? Did you spend it lazing like Fluffy here? 

Thanksgiving Part 1

Thanksgiving, that lovely time in the middle of November where weary college students return home for some good old fashioned home cooking! Also a time of thanks, I suppose...
At the Sun residence, we also dragged two Garcias back to celebrate! 
Fluffy, the master of the house, decided to pamper them with massages. 

The morning of Thanksgiving was blistery and cold but I decided that these Californians didn't know cold until they saw the majestic Hudson.

Lucy seemed more interested in the ice though...
After our walk, we got back home and got ready to entertain the guests. Food was made, tables were set up, and drinks were poured! Like any huge gathering there was the kids table,

The college/ graduate school/ high school kid table, 

The adult's table

and last but not least, the senior table plus a few grad students with old souls. 

To feed all these people, we asked everyone to bring a dish of their own, all in the spirit of giving and thanks!

What turned out was an epic potluck!

There were vegetables, fish, duck, chicken, tea eggs

jellyfish, but no turkey! At our chinese thanksgiving, we prefer good duck.

Everyone chatted, ate until we groaned, and laughed late into the night. It was definitely a very successful thanksgiving. 

Wasik's Cheese Lecture

On December 5th, Bryan Wasik came to a Microbiology class as a guest lecturer. Can you guess what the topic is...?
CHEESE!
Mr. Wasik kindly brought over not one, not two, not three, but THIRTEEN DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHEESES for us all to try!
But what makes all these cheeses different?
It starts in the grass that cows graze on. The better the grass, the better the cheese. Simple as that.

The milk is collected from cows twice a day and put into a giant vat. Salt is added to the milk and then everything is heated. Last thing to add is the culture AKA microbes. 

In the olden days, cheese makers would stir the milk with their hands and the microbes on their hands would act as the "culture". Now the culture used is Rennit. 

Once this rennit is added to the milk, the enzymes within Rennet breaks down casein protein of milk, making the cheese coagulate and separate from whey. 

Once the cheese coagulates, the curds are pressed and microbes are left to work their magic. The flavor and smell is developed during this step. 
After going through all the science of the process, the class got to enjoy amazing cheeses from around the world. 

Cheeses ranged from fresh and soft cow and goat's cheese, to really moldy blue cheese.

Don't forget to check out Wasik's Cheese shop in Wellesley and ask about all their cheeses!