Featured Recipes
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This is a very basic carrot cake iced with a cream cheese frosting which I used for the “white cake” I wrote about in my last post. I tweaked the recipe to my taste and think this will be my keeper recipe. I just love this cake for the spice, the moistness, the crunch of… [Continue Reading]
Corned Beef with Mashed Potatoes with Leeks
I found another interesting way of making mashed potatoes in another Filipino blog, Rice and Noodles. This is flavored with leeks and much lighter than what I’m used to, a pleasant change from the heavy butter and cream mashed potatoes I usually make As I mentioned in a past entry on corned beef, the… [Continue Reading]
Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup
Lovely weather we’re having in Colorado…light snow and single-digit cold since yesterday and into the middle of next week! Perfect night for a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup. My recipe is based on Jeff Smith’s Chicken and Noodles from “The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American” cookbook. It’s a lovely, comforting soup with thyme and sage…. [Continue Reading]
Afritada
This Filipino dish was one of the first ones I learned to cook. It’s pretty simple and follows the very basic Philippine saute then braise manner of cooking. This particular recipe uses chicken breasts but you can use pork or a combination of pork and chicken, which is how we always had it… [Continue Reading]
Cooking the Perfect Steak at Home
Forgive this photo of my half-eaten dinner, I originally had no intention of making this dinner a blog entry. I was just happily chomping away when it hit me – this steak was perfectly cooked! Why is it perfect? Look closely, there’s only a little run-off from the meat itself. The juices stayed in the meat because it had… [Continue Reading]
Baubles, Bangles and Spaghetti Bolognese
How do you make your Bolognese Sauce? This is probably the oldest spaghetti sauce Filipinos are familiar with. You might be wondering why I have that title on this post. Its a tribute to a beloved aunt who is, undoubtedly, the most colorful and vibrant among the sisters. She had tons of bangles,… [Continue Reading]
Mango Salsa, Big Game Restaurant
I had my first taste of mango salsa at a restaurant in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. It was the site of the old Trawler Restaurant which Spouse visited years ago. We were there in early December last year and just went around the Shem Creek area trying to locate the old place but it was… [Continue Reading]
Tuna Salad with Farfalle
I was trying to follow a recipe for this pasta salad but ended up making it my own way. A cold pasta salad is always a perfect summer dish. This one is particularly healthy and light with the tuna and vegetables.
Steak Dinner
This was the Steak Dinner we had last night, with a few of the ingredients I used to prepare the meal. I have to admit, the steak was not perfectly medium the way I planned it….more medium-well, which is not all that perfect for a piece of good steak. I used a little under a… [Continue Reading]
Pancit: Philippine-Style Fried Noodles
This is probably the one Filipino dish most recognized around the world. You just can’t escape it at birthdays. It’s traditional to serve pancit on someone’s birthday because noodles represents a wish for the celebrant’s long life. It then follows that if you do cook noodles on a birthday, you don’t cut the noodles. This pancit… [Continue Reading]
More Recipes
- Pancit Sotanghon Guisado
- Tomato and Cilantro Salsa Salted Eggs
- Mama’s Ensalada
- Eggs in Salsa
- Deli Meats from Bretto
- No-Bake White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and a Hunt for the Pefect Gas Oven
- Spaghetti with Italian Sausage
- Pork Chops with Apple Slices and Brussels Sprouts
- Greek Walnut Cake
- Strawberries and Cream
- Clubhhouse Sandwich
- Mushrooms Stuffed with Feta, Pepperoni and Spinach
- Chicken and Bottle Gourd Soup
- Mock Beef Caldereta
- Asparagus and Scallop Spaghetti
- Sunday Brunch: Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Omelette
- Bangkok Fried Rice
- Bistek Tagalog with Veggies
- Baubles, Bangles and Spaghetti Bolognese
- Lentil, Chorizo and Spinach Soup
Trustworthy Reviews
Fish Fry Pan
I’m so happy to report I finally got a fish pan for my kitchen! It’s a 12-inch oval fry pan by Wolfgang Puck that also comes with a lid. I got it for a very good bargain on Ebay, new but not flawless. It had some scratches on the handle…something I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t so anal about handwashing… [Continue Reading]
Silicone Bundt Pan
I just tried this Hamilton Beach Professional Rose Bunt (sic) Pan that I got at the outlet store, Kitchen Collection. Original price was $9.99 and a comparable price on the tag says $12.99. The store gave us a very reasonable price of $4.47 (not including sales tax) mainly because we braved the crowds at the… [Continue Reading]
Pots and Pans Crazy
It’s hard to imagine a frying pan getting controversial but it did in one popular food blog. I’ve never met anyone who was so sensitive that the mere mention of a certain type of pan could send them ballistic and rabid. I don’t think I want to meet anyone like that. The incident really caught… [Continue Reading]
Cast Iron Skillet
I just love my cast iron skillet! I got it for under $25 at the ever-reliable Walmart a few months back and have used it several times since. This is a 12-inch skillet by Lodge Logic of Tennessee. This company has been in business since 1896, so you can be assured they know what… [Continue Reading]
Salads They Will Love
A Mix of Fruits
I don’t think this quailifies as a salad although I put it in that category. It’s really just a mix of fruits I intended would be a salad with lemon juice and honey….when I started out anyway. Once I tasted how naturally sweet the melons were, I thought it would be a… [Continue Reading]
Shrimp Salad
This Shrimp Salad definitely qualifies as an easy summer lunch. It requires a minimum of cooking, plus, it’s very light and cooling on a hot summer day. I love that it looks so appetizing too. There have been heatwaves in both US coasts the last few weeks. Thankfully, the summer has been pretty mild… [Continue Reading]
Eat Your Vegetables!
Do you like eating raw vegetables that’s not lettuce or tomatoes? Just the thought of it used to send shivers up my spine. But then, I was put to shame by my pseudo-grandkids a few years ago. Their mom likes serving crudites with dips on occasion and it would’ve been embarrassing if I didn’t at… [Continue Reading]
Easy, Everyday Salad
Here’s an interesting alternative to your everyday garden salad with bottled ranch dressing. It’s easy to prepare, but not quite as simple as opening that bottled dressing. Like most things in the kitchen, a little bit of effort will be well worth it…which you’ll only realize in the eating. With the kalamata olives… [Continue Reading]
Tomato and Cilantro Salsa Salted Eggs
Here’s an interesting way of serving a Filipino favorite, salted red eggs or itlog na maalat. Youngest Sister prepared it for lunch one time and it was so amazingly fresh tasting and different that I just had to make it for lunch today. The colors in the photo didn’t come out right for some reason… [Continue Reading]
Says Who?