The muffins didn't turn out to be as good as I expected (probably because I've had too many snack bar muffins that are DIVINE). I didn't use any butter, but fat-free yogurt instead. Also I didn't bother making muffin toppings, so they didn't have a typical mushroom-like look. I cut down sugar, as usual, and that made the muffins tasted more like unsweetened cakes. But the texture was better than the first time I made muffins, probably because of the use of yogurt. I also paid much attention not to overmix the flour mixture before I put them into the oven, so that made the muffins softer too. 

    The second thing I made was quiche. I'm obsessed with making breakfast/brunch because it's the only meal I allow myself to overeat. My mom had some dining hall quiche during the parents weekend and she really liked it, so I googled the recipe and found out that it was actually pretty simple to make, plus I had almost all of the ingredients on hand (except for grated cheese). So I bought some non-fat cheddar cheese from the supermarket. Basically, I fried some onions and brocoli and put them into the pie pan. I then sprinkle the cheese on top of the vegetables, and poured the egg and milk mixture over them. Then I put them into the oven. It smelled so good after thirty minutes, and ten minutes later I took it out. But after the first scoop I found out that it was watery, so I googled but found no answer as to why it was like that. It wasn't until a day later that I remembered there was an important step before I put the cooked vegetables into the pan: to drain them. 

   The quiche was quite a bummer, but the pretzels turned out to be great. They were the most difficult thing to make so far. I made my dough by activating dry yeast in warm water, and mixing it with flour, sugar, and salt. After the dough became a huge ball, I let it sit in a slightly oiled bowl. It wasn't until ten minutes later that I found out I forgot to put oil, so I hastily poured oil into the bowl and tried to mix the dough all over again. I thought I ruined the dough by doing so, but it still grew pretty fast. After an hour and half, the size doubled, and I cut it into four pieces and made four pretzels. I then boiled the water and baking powder mixture, and put the pretzels into the water for twenty seconds, drained them, and put them into the oiled baking pan. Then I brushed some milk on them so that they could have a crispy brown surface. I later realized that I should've used egg and melted butter, which would give the surface a more brown and crispy texture. Ten minutes later, my pretzels were ready. They smelled really good and tasted awesome. Unfortunately I made them at almost eleven at night, so I had to store them overnight, and the soft texture was gone when I heated them this morning for breakfast. Pretzels should be made to eat fresh!

    After the breakfast, or rather, brunch, with one large pretzel and orange juice, I was super hungry in the afternoon. While I was looking everywhere for food, I found out that there were some Korean rice cakes in the freezer. My mom bought them because one of her friends made delicious crab rice cakes last time we dined in his house; however, crab is not in season, so the rice cakes were left in the freeze untouched. I googled online, this time in Chinese, how to make the traditional Korean fried rice cakes. Much to my surprise, rice cakes were not fried, but stewed, in this dish, despite its name. It was really easy to make: first, I cooked the onions with olive oil, and put some sauce into the pan (the recipe called for Korean spicy sauce, which I did not have, so I mixed some chau siu sauce and Lao Ganma, a classical Chinese spice sauce, instead). I then poured a bowl of water and let it boil, and then put the rice cakes into the pan. Then I put the vegetables and some extra sauce and let it cook for a while. The original dish would have no watery soup left, since water evaporated during the consistent boiling, but I put way too much water, so there was still thick soup in the pan. However, the rice cakes were well cooked, so I ignored the soup and ate the rice cakes: they tasted great! It might be the fact that I was super hungry at the time, but it was one of the most simple yet delicious dishes I'd cooked. Tonight when my mom's friend's family arrived, I would cook them the same dish -- with less water, that is. 

    So far the holiday has been really great and relaxing. Unfortunately I have TOEFL test to prepare for. I should make use of the last couple days on which I'm pretty much free to keep experimenting with new recipes!

   Keep tuned!