Mini Stromboli

Well, it really is faux stromboli because this turnover is not made with an Italian bread dough.  Instead, my favorite shortcut - puff pasty - is used to cover a variety of cold cuts/deli meats and cheese!

The recipe, as you may guess it as simple as that - enclose your deisred deli meat and cheese combo in puff pastry, seal the pastry and brush with egg wash, then bake!

Done!

Feta Tomato and Cucumber Salad

One of my most favorite salads!!!  Bonus that it is a cinch to make too!

There is no secret to this recipe - the vinaigrette can be homemade or store-bought, what makes the salad utterly delicious is the generous amount of feta!

I basically followed this recipe, except that I did not add olives.

Mushrooms and Cream Cheese Omelette

This dish doesn't look particularly good or appetizing but looks can be deceiving!  The combination of fresh oyster mushrooms and cream cheese with the egg is fantastic!

The first thing is to saute a handful of fresh mushroom oysters in a little butter.  Meanwhile, scramble 2 eggs (season with salt and pepper as you like), when the bottom of the eggs are set, arrange the sauteed mushrooms on the eggs and smear about 1 to 2 tablespoons of cream cheese on top of the mushrooms then fold the omelette into thirds or half.  (mine got a little crumpled and hole-y but that has nothing to do with its taste!)

Lunch at His Grandfather's Table

No recipe today.  Just a beautiful photo...

(Goco Ancestral House)

Steamed Eggs with Curacha

Looks impressive, right?  But it is an easy recipe.  Just plop the curachas (or crabs or even lobsters) on or in a basic steamed egg recipe and steam away!

Yummmmmmm!

Buttermilk Panna Cotta

I tried my hand at making my own buttermilk and quickly realized that I had more buttermilk in the fridge than I could use!  So, hello buttermilk panna cotta!

And used whatever fancy cups I could find,,,

...which was really and assortment!

It was yummmmmyyyy!!!

I followed the recipe from this book

The Philippine Tenors singing Isang Dugo, Isang Lahi, Isang Musika

The Philippine Tenors -

and their rendition of the patriotic song "Isang Dugo, Isang Lahi, Isang Musika" -

Just in time for Independence Day!

Cocomia Cookies

The original recipe was for the Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies from Better Homes and Gardens.  I changed it slightly (as well as halved it) because what I had were chocolate covered macadamias and desiccated coconut!

To be honest, I liked this version better than the regular chocolate chip cookies!

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
1 box 7 oz. Hawaiian Host Milk Chocolate Alohamacs, coarsely chopped

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Beat well.

Stir in flour mixture.  Fold in coconut and chopped chocolate-covered macadamias.

(Chill for about 20 minutes, if desired.)

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto paper-lined cookie sheets, 2 inches apart.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until cookie edges are lightly browned.

Makes about 2 to 2-1/2 dozen cookies.

Apple Tartlets

They don't look very nice but they are delicious.  Even better - they are a snap to make!

The shells are puff pastry (looks messy because I did not cut the pastry into rounds! too lazy I guess) placed in muffin tins.  Chopped apples are added to the shells and a tablespoon of cream in spooned over the apples.  Cinnamon-sugar was sprinkled on top and off it went into the oven!  Bake at 350F about 20 to 25 minutes or until the pasty is browned.

Sandwich Cake

For hubby's friend John... Happy Birthday!!!

But the cake is actually a huge 9-inch round sandwich.

I found a pack of dinner rolls baked as a round.  I sliced the bread in the middle (horizontally) and placed kani, cucumber and celery salad dressing in the middle, with lettuce leaves.  For the "icing" on top, I spread mayonnaise over then piped mayonnaise rosettes at the edge of the round as well as in the middle.  Lastly, I garnished the middle with kani and the other rosettes with finely minced celery!

It was a huge hit!

Homemade Banana Yogurt

I wanted to make flavored yogurt... to add the flavor before fermentation... but almost everyone told me that it would not work.  And indeed, my first attempt (with banana) was a sorry one!  But I decided to try again, after being told by someone in particular who suggested that I simply dice or cube the banana, not crush or mash it.  And, add a splash of vanilla while I was at it.

Well... this time I was successful!

When I opened the container, the cubed bananas had risen to the top.

I drained it overnight (we prefer the thick Greek-style yogurt) and the next day is was thick and creamy... and utterly delicious!  There was a slight tang but the banana flavor was quite pronounced.  The stirring and draining mashed the bananas a bit.  Yummmmy!

The recipe is simple!!!

Add 1/4 cup of yogurt (with live cultures) to about 800 ml of milk.  Stir in (gently!) cubed bananas from 1 to 2 medium sized bananas and about 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Incubate as usual.  Mine was done in about an hour less than my usual (6 hours, thereabouts).

Taro, Tofu and Mushroom Stir-fry

This is one of the easiest dishes I have ever prepared... and with only 4 major ingredients, too!

The secret to the dish is a good XO sauce!

Basically saute onions, garlic and ginger.  Add a tablespoon of XO sauce and let the sauce cook for several seconds.  Add the taro (sliced into thick strips) and stir fry until almost done.  Throw in cubed tofu (1 big block of tofu) and mushrooms (any kind you prefer is fine) and stir fry some more.  Adjust seasonings and then you're done!

Banana Bread Cupcakes

Lolo Poldo grows a lot of fruits and vegetables in his backyard.  We have gotten all sorts - mangoes, malunggay (a whole plant!), duhat, kamias, ampalaya, kondol... and bananas!  And I don't mean the regular bananas from the palengke... his bananas (he says) are special bananas!

So what do I do with a bumper crop of bananas?  Banana cupcakes, of course!  But this batch is no ordinary banana cupcake...  it is made special with a built-in topping!  Cream cheese-Greek yogurt topping!

A cupcake that even my chocolate-loving girl will eat... with gusto!

The recipe is one I saw online... alleging to be the best banana bread recipe!  Of course I made a few adjustments... the first was baking them into cupcakes instead of a loaf.  Then I used chocolate chips instead of chopped pecans.  I also have to admit that I forgot the cinnamon!



The best adjustment I made was to do away with the frosting and instead add a cream cheese filling that was baked in.  It was no ordinary cream cheese filling either, it is a cream cheese-Greek yogurt filling!  Mix together 3/4 cup softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, 6 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 medium egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Spoon a heaping teaspoon on top of the batter in the cavities of the cupcake pan.  Bake the cupcakes about 20 to 25 minutes 

Truth is, the addition of the Greek yogurt was a way to use the last bits of Greek yogurt that I had!  Still... it was a great idea!

The cupcake was divinely delicious!  Is it because of the type of banana?  Maybe,  since Lolo's bananas has a sightly different flavor profile.  Then again we all agree - Lolo's homegrown, special bananas are better, way better than the bananas we usually find in the local market!

Not a Cake!

Apparently, it was a trend a loooonnng time ago to make sandwiches (or other appetizers) look like desserts... so this is my contribution...

Looks like a cake but it is really a sandwich!

3 layers of bread (cut into a round using a cookie cutter), with chicken spread on the bottom layer and a slice each of ham and cheese on to upper layer.  The "frosting" is a thin layer of softened cream cheese and the garnish is diced red bell pepper!

(Faux) Corndogs

The little girl loves corndogs.  She likes the one at the weekend market most of all.  She also thinks (for now anyway) that I am the world's greatest and ablest cook, and as such, can do pretty much anything and everything in the kitchen.  So (obviously) she thought I could make better better corndogs!

Hmmm, well, I told her (truthfully) that I don't know if I could make better ones, but we (and I do mean the little girl and I) could try!

My biggest issue was the cornmeal... I found some in our favorite supermarket but... it was so darned expensive!  And I only needed a cup!!!  So, never mind... I had to figure out what else I could use.  It was the little girl who gave me the idea when she said that the corndog was her favorite because it combined the hotdog and the pancake!  Hmmm, so then I decided to use a pancake recipe for the batter covering the hotdog!

My next concern was the amount of oil it would need!  I decided to go the same way as the mini doughnut last week and use the mini hotdogs and the smallest saucepan I could find.

My last question was the recipe for the pancake... I couldn't use my regular recipe because it's a thin batter.  I did remember that there was another recipe that I tried and it was a thick one...

Mix together:

2-1/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
4 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

It worked like a charm, although I had to double dip and fry the corndogs since the little girl complained about the first batch being too thin ("Mommy, why is this not taba (fat)?")

For this project though, the little girl mixed the batter and dipped the hotdogs but refused to go near the hot oil (she saw the oil sizzling and was afraid it would burn her...)

In any case, the project was a huge success, with the little girl and her playmate M declaring:  I want some more please!  And that was after each of them ate 3 pieces already!

Tropical Fruits Lassi

One of my favorite hangouts is the bookstore, and one the bookstores that I frequent is a secondhand books store named... Booksale!!!  I find many treasures there - cookbooks, magazines, kids' books.  Last week, a found a pristine copy of AWW Kids Cooking for Health.  I got it for the little girl.  She has a few cookbooks of her own, from which she chooses recipes to make.  I knew that she would like this "new" cookbook!

Of course I was right!  The minute she got her hands on it, she flipped through the pages (looking at the pictures mostly) and decided immediately that she wanted to make 2 of the recipes.  The first was the egg-in-a-basket sandwich (which we modified by adding ham) and this...

For this project, the little girl learned about how to weigh ingredients using the digital scale!

Here is the recipe:

Blend together:

1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup  water

100 grams each rockmelon (cantaloupe), mango, pineapple and strawberries

1 tablespoon sugar (honey in our case)

6 ice cubes

(actually the recipe specifies 1 small mango.  Our mango yielded about 98 grams of flesh.)

The little girl poured the lassi into glasses (each person got about half a cup to drink) and we all agreed... yummilicious!  Just perfect for the summer heat!!!!

Thai-Inspired Roast Chicken

Actually, this is a tale of 2 chickens, both inspired by Thai cuisine...

I bought 2 spring chickens from the weekend market... I was thinking of grilled or roast chicken for dinner... both Thai-inspired.

The first one was a chili-lime chicken, for hubby who loves spicy dishes!

The second one was this...

1 spring chicken, about 1 to 1.1 kilo (clean and rinse), cut in half lengthwise

8 to 10 cloves of garlic
3 to 4 stems of wansoy (coriander)
1 teaspoon black and white peppercorns
3 pieces 3-in tanglad (lemongrass, white part only)
2 tablespoons each fish sauce, dark soy sauce, honey
1 to 2 chilis, optional

Place everything in a (small) food processor or pound (mortar and pestle).

Marinate the chicken halves overnight.

Roast at 400F for about 30 to 40 minutes.  Cover with foil if the skin gets too burned.  (I placed each half in its own little roasting pan.)

Rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Everyone agreed that this was the better of the 2 chickens... and even better than the local Andoks!

Chocolate Ice Cream, in a bag...

It's summer break from school!  The little is happy... but bored!  So we try to find activities for her to do... one of which is making ice cream in a plastic bag.

Of course she wanted chocolate ice cream!

Our deal was for her to do everything... well almost everything... which she did.

1. She measured and placed into a 2-cup capacity Pyrex liquid measuring cup, 1/4 cup of each:  cocoa (then sifted), chocolate milk, and condensed milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  And she mixed everything until the cocoa was fully dissolved. (first pic, top left)

2. She measured 3/4 cup of whipping cream and added it to the chocolate mixture (second pic, top right)

3. She mixed until the mixture was well combined. (second row, left)

4. Then she poured the mixture in a small zip-lock bag (we used Reynolds secure seal) [second row, right).  We placed the zip bag in the freezer while we prepared the bag of ice - mix 1/3 cup rock salt and 3 trays of ice cubes in a bigger zip lock bag.  Then place the small bag containing the chocolate milk into the big bag of ice cubes and salt.

5. Shake, shake, shake... or massage the bags... We used gloves because the plastic bag was really, really cold!  (third row, left)  The bags were to be shaken or massaged for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the the consistency was that of soft serve ice cream.

6. Of course, the little girl got tired in about 4 minutes!  So I had to take over the shaking of the bags. Meanwhile, she decided that she wanted her ice cream stuffed with chocolate chip cookies, so she "chopped" some Mini Chips Ahoy while I was busy shaking and massaging the super-cold bags!  (third row, right)

7. The finished product!  (bottom row, left)  After about 15 minutes, the mixture had thickened.  We place the bags in the freezer for about 15 minutes while I looked for a container!  To transfer to the container, remove the inner bag from the out bag.  Wipe the inner bag well.  Snip a corner and squeeze the ice cream out (soft serve consistency) into the container.  Add the chocolate chip cookie pieces and fold.  At this point the little girl took a couple of spoonfuls.

Then she decided to save the rest for dessert after dinner (to share with Daddy, as well!)  So we stored the ice cream in the freezer.

8.  After dinner, the little ater with gusto and proclaimed:  Best choco ice cream ever, Mommy!

Yay!!!

Mushroom, Pepper and Cheese Omelette on English Muffin

English Muffin Breakfasts, Again!  Yes!

This time, it's a thick single-egg omelette with a lot of mix-ins - a large pinch each of thyme and salt, 3 tablespoons cream cheese, 1 red chili pepper (sliced) and a handful of sliced mushrooms.

I like using a very small non-stick pan.  The pan is really an egg pan, it even came with a spatula in the form of a fried egg! The diameter of the pan is about 4.5 inches!

screenshot from Google images

And it is the perfect size for a dish to put on top of an English muffin.

Choco Mallow Cupcakes

Sometime ago, I bought these humongous marshmallows...  the first thing I did with them was to make S'mores Cupcakes.  For the last remaining marshmallows, I made the simpler cousin - Choco Mallow Cupcakes.

The cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes, topped with half a marshmallow that is melted onto the cupcakes itself, then topped with chocolate ganache!

(Don't tell anyone but I liked these better than the S'mores Cupcakes!)