Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 ½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons red food coloring

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

½ pound cream cheese (softened)

1 stick butter (softened)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Eating dessert is one of my family’s favorite pastimes, and when we have the time and energy we love to bake. We make all kinds of cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, and experiment with different recipes. But the most popular dessert that my family bakes is red velvet cupcakes. My dad found a recipe online a few years ago, and ever since then they became a traditional dessert in my family and an all around symbol of togetherness and celebration. Usually my sister and I bake these cupcakes on special occasions, or sometimes just when we have a taste for them. Sometimes we bring them to the family parties that my aunt and cousin throw on certain holidays, and they are a huge hit. We even got paid once for catering our special cupcakes during a wine tasting that my cousin hosted.
 

Red velvet cupcakes are similar to chocolate cupcakes, except they have a cream cheese frosting on top. Even though I make these cupcakes all the time, putting on the frosting is always the hardest part. I have a cake decorator that allows you to design the icing in the shape of a petal, circle, or star. On the cover of the box it looks easy to use, but whenever I try to do anything too fancy it never works out. Other than that, making the cupcakes isn't too difficult. Though it is a bit time consuming, since the recipe yields about 24 cupcakes, and it always leaves behind a huge mess of powder everywhere, it’s all worth it in the end.        
 

My kitchen counter after adding in the flour

Food and Culture in the Smith Household

Every day, my dad, my mom, my sister and I eat breakfast and dinner together at our kitchen table, a tradition that occurred in my household since I was a child. Dinner time is our time to talk about how our day went, reminisce on past memories, or have heated arguments, usually sparked by my dad, that almost always end in a lecture. Typically my dad cooks a big meal on Sundays, and we continue eating the leftovers throughout the week. During the week, my mom cooks, or occasionally I will make something simple. On Fridays we always have pizza, and on Saturdays we either go out to eat or stay at home and make burgers or other foods that take little effort to make.

The total amount of money spent on food each week is typically around $230. However, only $99 is spent on groceries while the other $131 is spent on outside food, including the estimated $90 spent each week in the RPS dining commons. In my semi-health conscious family, snacks aren’t too big a part of our diet, and when we do buy snacks, as with certain beverages and meats, we sometimes make sure to purchase the low calorie or fat free version. Our diet revolves around meat, which we eat with almost every meal, and eggs, since we eat breakfast every day. We also buy a lot of bread and grains, most of which is breakfast food.

Food is one of the most important aspects of my family life. It’s what keeps us all grounded and helps us to stay close. No matter how stressed out we are and how busy our schedules are, we can always depend on our daily dinner bonding sessions and a fresh home cooked meal to get us through the week.


Grains and other starchy foods: $28.67

Whole Wheat Bread, $4.69

Kaiser rolls, $2.79

Bran Muffins, $3.49

Blueberry Muffins, $2.49

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, $4.69

Minute Rice $1.99

Spaghetti Noodles, $1.25

Cinnamon Toast Crunch $4.29

Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Cereal, $2.99

Diary: $8.50

Land o’Lakes Yellow American cheese, ½ lb, $3.50

Yogurt, 5, $2.50

Cream Cheese, $2.50

Snacks: $9.47

Tostitos Chips $2.99

Chocolate Chip Cookies $2.99

Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles, $3.49

Meat, Fish, and Eggs: $20.21

Eggs, 18 $3.49

Chicken Legs, $4.95

Turkey Bacon $3.49

Turkey Sausage $4.29

Ground Turkey, $3.99

Fruits, Vegetables, and Nuts: $9.83

Kale $2.50

Canned Green Beans, 3 $0.49

Gala Apples $1.79

Bananas $1.57

Applesauce $2.50

Beverages: $22.04

Cherry Coke Zero, 2 Liter $1.50

Bottled Water, 24 pack $4.49

Orange Juice, 2 $5.98

1% milk, 1 gallon $3.29

Vanilla Almond Milk, 1 gallon, $4.29

Crystal Light, $2.49

Fast food/Restaurant food: $40.98

Pizza, ½ Cheese ½ Meatball, $14.98

Chipoltle burritos, 4, $26

Dining Commons food: $90

Total: 229.70

Meet the Mendozas

The Mendoza family. From left: Susana (47), Ignacio (15), Cristolina (19), a family friend (standing in for Marcelucia, 9, who ran off to play), Fortunado Pablo (50), and Sandra Ramos, live-in helper (11). Not pictured: Xtila (17) and Juan (12).

Deep in the rural town of Todos Santos in Cuchumatan, Guatemala lives the Mendozas, a family of eight. For the Mendozas, the center of family life revolves around the kitchen. This is the typical week's worth of food for the Mendozas, and it all comes to the cost of 573 Quetzales, or about  $75.70 in U.S. dollars.

The majority of the family's diet consists of fresh fruits and vegetables, which cost the family around $34.75 a week. Most popular are dried black beans (13.2 lbs), green squash (12 lbs), tomatoes (10 lbs) and bananas (7.4 lbs). Also important in the Mendoza family's diet are grains and other starches, which the family spends $11.49 on each week. 48 lbs of homegrown corn are eaten every week, as well as 20 lbs of potatoes. $8.85 each week is spent on condiments such as salt, pepper, oil, and cinnamon, and $7.93 is spent on 4.4 lbs of chicken and 30 eggs. The drink of choice is water, as 5 gallons of bottled water are consumed each week. Not much is spent on snacks, dairy, or prepared foods, which have a combined total of $7. 

The Mendozas seem to have a very healthy lifestyle, since almost all of their weekly foods are fresh and virtually none of it is processed. Their foods are prepared using a gas stovetop and a wooden stove, and they are preserved in a refrigerator. Cooking and eating in the Mendoza house helps to bring the family closer together, and according to Fortunado Pablo Mendoza, he is "happiest when I'm eating [my wife] Susana's rice and beans, her homemade tortillas, and her turkey soup."

Food and Culture at RPS

From being on the Rutgers Prep campus for a week and studying the students’ eating habits, I have come to the conclusion that the diet for these adolescents is mostly unhealthy. It is not completely their fault though, since they can only eat what the cafeteria serves them. Every day there is a kind of pasta drowned in oil, and when there isn’t pasta there are tacos, burritos, and burgers. If the students don’t want pasta, they usually make a sandwich or a salad drenched in dressing, and the seniors go out to eat some fried, processed foods at McDonalds or Taco Bell. There is always a dessert served, usually chocolate chip cookies or ice cream. When they aren’t in the cafeteria, the only other option is to go to the vending machine and eat chips or chocolate.

As I walked onto the RPS campus, the first thing that I noticed was that although the school was an area for learning, the most important thing to the students seemed to be food. No matter how different the students were and which social group they belonged to, their shared love for food gives each one something in common. Whether they are anxiously waiting until morning meeting is over so they can walk to the vending machine, complaining about how hungry they are during their long band class, or criticizing how bad the school lunch is that day, there is nothing else that could bring the students closer together.