Nabisco Picola Matcha Green Tea Biscuit Rolls

In addition to Pocky and egg/honey balls, these green tea Picola sticks are one of my favorite kinds of Japanese snacks. I doubt I would have liked them when I was little because these are pretty bitter and not as sweet as Pocky sticks, but now that I love green tea anything and am starting to prefer less sweet things (like dark chocolate vs. milk chocolate), these are amazing. I could easily eat 10 little boxes nonstop. I need to learn how to make things with the matcha powder I have. It's currently one of my favorite food-related things.

Notes:
- You have to like the bitter taste of matcha to like this
- These are light, thin, and slightly sweet

Food at One of UCLA's Dining Commons

This is not a dining hall. It's just a pretty building.

I visited my cousin, Kristy, at UCLA last weekend. I had been there before, but this was my first time eating their campus food. I've blogged about UC Berkeley's food a few times (see this and this).

 
Now... On to the food. We each had salads and dessert, so I didn't take pictures of the other food options, which included pizza, meat, and other things. It reminded me of Crossroads because you swipe your ID to use your meal points, there are several food stations with different types of food, and there are many options for salad ingredients, desserts, drinks, etc....and everyone grabs whatever and then puts their trays on a rotating tray collecting thing. :P I should have taken more pictures. My bad.

They had a nice salad bar that reminded me of UC Berkeley's.

We split a s'mores pizza. Yeah! It was pretty good. Not overly sweet.

Other dessert options (I enjoyed this very creamy pumpkin mousse, although it was quite spiced up):

Corrie Food in a Cookbook!

It's here! It's actually been here, but I've had some issues with blogging and being in the same city as this cookbook long enough to take pictures. So...I apologize. Take a look! Please note that the wording was changed a little and that the recipes were inspired by Fresno, California (not really Berkeley, although they do have great fresh produce and farmers' markets there too).

If you don't know what I'm talking about, Mary Elizabeth Roarke contacted me one day and asked if I'd submit recipes for their latest book (Cooking Across America) in their Country Comfort Cookbook series. How on earth could I say "No" to that? What an awesome opportunity! So I played around in the kitchen and came up with some recipes (with the help of my taste-testing parents and brother) for things I had already made many times before either alone or with my family. I make that corn & bean salad every summer. My parents actually inspired the mushroom and the pear-tini recipes. I wish I could send you all samples through the internet. What might surprise you most is how delicious those panko-battered hon shimeji mushrooms are. Oh...my...gosh. So buttery and tasty. If you like panko-battered chicken or pork, you have to try these mushrooms.

Purchase here or on Amazon.

My Corrie Food Facebook group here.
Cooking Across America Facebook group here.

Yummm