I Got An Award

Yep, you read it right, I got an award! And it felt just like when I found out I was pregnant, you know that feeling of happiness and excitement when you get something that is totally unexpected, just like a surprise birthday party or a an old friend popping out in front of you *grins*, I may suck a little, alright a lot, in analogy but you're getting the drift right?

Anyway, Lee of Earn Money Online graciously passed the award on to me and I am very, very grateful to her, this is my first blogging award, you know *smiles*.


The Rules:
1. Thank and link back the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 great bloggers you know.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

So here goes:

• I am a frustrated baker, hehe, I love learning stuff about baking and making desserts but the oven and me has this hate and hate relationship *lol*.
• I love juice combo, pine-orange (pineapple and orange), orange-mango, etc. I don't know why, but I do love those drinks.
• I am a Royal Tru Orange loyalist!
• I love Pinipig Crunch.
• I suck as a socially active person, so I am a loner, homebody and a couch potato rolled into one.
• I love reading, I can live without any material things as long as I have my steady supply of literary materials.
• I love food, my two food blogs can attest to that :)

I've seen a lot of blogs that I visited with this award already so I will hold on to this award until I find other bloggers who can have it... yeah, yeah, I'm just basking in the glory *lol*.

Crispy Crablets

My first time cooking Crispy Crablets, it doesn't came out as pretty as I want it to be, but I don't have the heart to label it as a failed attempt *pout*, in all honesty, it didn't taste as bad as it looks *lol*. Just do better than me and let this poor baby be, okay?



Ingredients:

• crablets (pehe)
• egg, beaten
• flour
• salt
• pepper
• cooking oil

Procedures:

• Clean the little crabbies and take the top shell off. You can opt not to, I just did, hehe.
• Season with salt and pepper and let it seat while you prepare the egg and breadings.
  
• The coat or breading is a mixture of flour, a little iodized salt and a little pepper mixed together.
  
• Dip each crablets in the egg and and roll on the flour, be sure to coat each one evenly.
• Deep fry until golden brown.
• Serve with vinegar and chili dip.
• Perfect as an appetizer or pulutan, it can even be eaten with rice.
  
  
  Happy Sunday everyone!
  
  
  

Fresh Pick: Green Mangoes

After the Christmas season and the chilly wind and cold weather that it brings, the next most-awaited season for Pinoys is the summer. I am not a beach bum, though I love the water and the scenery, my incapability to swim and my not-so-beach-worthy physique kind of hinders me from being one, hehe. But as a foodie, one of the best perks summer could offer for me, is the availability of those summer fruits. My father-in-law bought a few parcels of land in Bulacan a couple of years back, the land came with a number of fruit-bearing trees, and other plants, and we're already reaping (literally, hahaha) the benefits of it all.

Photo below is that of the apple-mango tree in the backyard, adjacent to the dirty kitchen, I wasn't able to take pics of the other trees as the sun was blazing above me and I'm kinda not your regular happy sunny camper, I am more of a happy shady couch potato kind of person *grins*.

I'll do it next time...

Kekiam Balls

I learned this recipe from my pops, remember that I hailed from Malabon City, thus making stuff out of fish is kinda an in-bred quality among us citizens, hahaha.



Ingredients:

• ground fish meat
• ground pork
• carrots, minced
• green onions, minced
• onions, minced
• garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• egg
• flour
• cooking oil, for deep frying
  

Procedures:

Note: My mom told me that you can buy ground fish meat in the market, you just have to ask, and be willing to pay a minimal fee. But if you opt to do it yourself, be sure to pound on the fish first to loosen its meat before you scrape it off.

• Ratio of ground fish and pork is 1:1
• In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients listed above except for the cooking oil, be wary of the seasoning and the flour, you don't want your kekiam balls to be flour-full and meat-less, nor do you want it too salty or too hot, right?
  
• Shape it into balls, deep fry and you're done.
• One tip though, just to make sure that you got your desired taste, try deep frying one ball first and taste test, then do the necessary tweaking. After that, try frying another one and taste it again, just keep on trying until you perfected it. If I can live with estimates, so can you, hahaha, good luck with that :)
• This is good as a pica-pica food or as a viand, it can stand alone or you can serve it with ketchup or any dips/sauces that you want.

Happy cooking!

Failed Attempt 1 - Salad Drink

As much as would love everyone to think that I am getting better in this homemaking business, I know better, and to start something different in this blog, I decided that I will chronicle not only those recipes that I succeeded in doing but also those that miss. Well, nobody said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it :)

So, for my very first entry in the failed attempt category, look and be amaze (more possibly the opposite of it) at my very own Salad Drink. This kind of thirst-quencher can be seen frequently among street peddlers and small kiosks around the mall, I am a fan so I decided to try making one on my own, oh well, practice makes perfect, hehe.


Truth is, it actually tasted good, it's just that, it didn't passed the aesthetic part, it doesn't look visually appetizing at all, right? It could have been something great *lol* but a few wrong moves and it resulted to this.

Let me count the ways (that I messed up):

• I shredded the jelly instead of cutting it into cubes, I thought, it would work just like that of Buco Pandan.
• I put it in it the freezer when I'm done and it's not yet time to serve it, I don't know why but those little Tapioca balls just won't show themselves anymore.
• Instead of using a gazillion ice tubes, I used a gazillion liter of cold water.
• I only used coconut milk, I think, it should be a mixture of canned and coconut milk.

There might be more that I don't know of, anyway, we'll find out the next time I try concocting one again.


This is a crappy post, well, it suits the topic, failed attempt in cooking and a failed attempt in blogging it *lol*.

Turbo Broiled Chicken

Lesson learned: Veggies and meat doesn't get cook at the same time, meat tends to cook longer than their soil-produced counterparts, so learn from my mistake, do not insert the vegetables in your chicken, hahaha. My carrots and potato chunks turned out burnt and mushy, the chicken tasted wonderful though, so that kind of made up for my itty bitty mistake, hehe.



Ingredients:

• fresh whole chicken
• lemongrass
• calamansi
• garlic
• soy sauce
• pepper
• paprika
• salt
• sugar (optional)
  

Procedures:

• Make a marinade out of the soy sauce, pepper, salt and calamansi. Set aside.
• Infused some garlicky taste to the chicken by rubbing minced garlic all over its body, inside and out.
• When you think you've had enough of the garlic smell on your hands, marinate the chicken. Let it sit overnight if you can, if not, give it at least a minimum of 4 hours. Be sure that the whole chicken is drench in the marinade, if you can't make that much of a mixture to submerge it whole, just turn it around from time to time just to be sure to marinate all parts equally. If you have those kitchen syringe thingy, do inject the prepared mixture to the chicken's body to lessen the marinading time.'
• When you're almost done, shake some paprika powder to its skin to enhance its color, paprika doesn't really give that spicy kick but it does make the food more picture-perfect.
• Put the lemongrass inside the chicken's body and tie the legs together to seal it.
  
• Roast the chicken in a turbo broiler, set the timer to an hour and gradually increase the temperature every 15minutes, start at 100 and end at 250. At this rate, you can be sure that you cooked the chicken meat thoroughly without burning the skin.
  
• When the machine dings, it means it's done.
• Serve with a dip, a sauce or none at all. It'll be yummy in any way *smirks*.

Happy broiling :))

Yang Chow

A no-seafood version of Yang Chow, I don't even know if it is still consider as such if the recipe doesn't follow the original version, ah basta, Yang Chow ito, hehe.



Ingredients:

• leftover/cold rice
• sliced ham, diced (I used two kinds, the regular and sweet one)
• Chinese sausage, dice
  
• eggs, beaten
  
• green peas
• carrots, diced
• garlic, minced
• soy sauce
• salt
• all-in-one seasoning granules
• cooking oil

Procedures:

• In a skillet, fry the beaten eggs. Slice thinly and set aside.
• In the same skillet, fry the ham and Chinese sausages, please do not overdo it, set aside.
• Still in the same skillet, saute the garlic, no need to brown it.
• Add the leftover rice and continuously mix.
• Season with salt and the all-in-one granules.
• Pour in the soy sauce and toss until the color is even.
• Add the ham, sausages, green peas, carrots and scrambled eggs, mix it up.
• Taste test, do revisions, if necessary.
• Mix and stir until done.
• Serve hot.
  

Easy does it :)


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Carbonara w/a Twist

My last post was about an experiment gone well, actually, great is a better term, hurhur. This one is not exactly an experiment but it was also done to maximize the benefits of an increase in our supply of Christmas ham, teehee.



Ingredients:

• pasta noodles (any kind will do)
  
• all-purpose cream
• ham, cubed (I used a honey-cured one)
  
• green peas
• corn kernels
• butter
  
• dried basil
  
• ground black pepper
• fish sauce/salt
• water

Procedures:

• Cook the noodles according to package instructions. Rinse and set aside.
• In medium heat, melt a quarter (of a bar) of margarine in a pan.
• Roll, not fry, the ham cubes in butter.
• Pour the all-purpose cream, add a bit of water and blend it all together.
  
• Add the seasonings - fish sauce or salt, ground black pepper and dried basil.
  
• Put the green peas and corn kernels last, stir and simmer until you get your preferred consistency.
• Taste test and do the necessary revisions, if there's a need to.
• Leave the sauce in low heat, drop the pasta noodles and toss.
  
• And you're done, let it cool for at least 15minutes, to make sure that the sauce are all stuck to the noodles, and then serve.
• I think, it will be great with garlic bread, sadly we have none *pouts*.

I think, I am Italian in my past life, with my obsession with pasta and all, hahaha.

Ham in Cheesy Cream Sauce

NOTICE: This is one of those dishes that just came out because we have the ingredients for it, it's not planned or expected, in other words, this is pure experiment. Lucky for us, it works, it actually tasted better than I can ever imagine.

You know like when it's Thanksgiving and there are lots of turkey leftovers and you make turkey sandwiches left and right, I have the same dilemma, we were given like three different variants of ham last Christmas season and there's only three of us, and we can't chow down on 1 ham each, right, so there were lots of leftovers and here's where mine and my younger bro's smart genes came in the picture - we decided to experiment *lol*.


Ingredients:

• ham (any brand will do but we used Purefoods Jamon de Bola)
• all-purpose cream (we used Nestle)
• cheddar cheese (we used Eden)
• butter (we used Dairy Creme)
• mushroom (small can)
  
• corn kernels (optional)

Procedures:

• Slice the ham in your preferred size and shape, I did it in jagged half-circles. One ball of ham is equals to a kilo, and I only used half of it. Set aside.
• Slice the mushrooms according to your preferred thickness. Set aside.
  
• Melt half a bar of butter in a frying fan.
• Drop the sliced ham and kind of saute it in the butter, I can't say fry as I didn't exactly fried mine, but if you want it like so, I guess you can.
• Add the all-purpose cream, blend it with the ham and butter until you get a consistent color and let it simmer.
• Drop the slice mushrooms.
  
• Add grated cheese, I used half of the regular-sized cheddar cheese, mix a little and then let it simmer.
• Add the corn kernels if you want to.
• Taste test. (Based on experience, there's no need to add any seasonings but to each its own, so do your deal)
• Perfect with rice and/or bread.

Try it and do tell me what happen, okay?

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