Friday, December 27, 2013

Corned Pork... Adobo???

Helloooooo domestic rockstars!!!

How was your holiday celebration? Mine was a bit tiring, but nevertheless, amazing. Great people--family and friends, nice presents and awesome food... I just couldn't ask for more!

Anyway, speaking of food, I discovered something today out of boredom--CORNED PORK ADOBO!

I know it sounds a bit weird, but trust me, it's good! I was getting too tired of the usual corned beef/corned pork cooked with potatoes. Heck, I sometimes even use that for a quick spaghetti! So yea, I thought of mixing things up a bit. I was thinking of making a corned pork sinigang as I remembered having corned beef sinigang at Sentro. But then I thought, why not try something else? Then I remembered adobo flakes and so I thought, "why the hell not?!"

There it was, a gastronomic epiphany.

I followed my guts and quickly grabbed a head of garlic, some vinegar, salt and pepper.

I mixed the corned pork with the adobo ingredients and let it simmer, boil, until the adobo finally dries out like the adobo flakes at the local resto. Aaaahhh... Warm rice, sliced tomatoes and that. Awesome. Just. Plain. Awesome.

Anyway, since I was very happy with the result, I decided I'll share it with you guys so you might try them too!

Hello there, dinner! :)
All you need are the following:

1 can corned pork
1 teaspoon salt
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/3 cup of white vinegar

Procedure:

In a pan, mix the corned pork, salt, vinegar and garlic altogether. Place under low heat, mixing occasionally, until the adobo dries up and become flakes. Add more salt and vinegar if necessary.

Serve with warm rice and/or sliced tomatoes.

Adobo with rice and tomatoes... Yum!
The best part: my 4yo and 1yo daughters were sooo happy with the adobo that they had seconds! Even I did. We all know adobo without extra rice is cruelty to mankind, yea? Haha!

Anyway, I hope you all would try this soon. I promise you'll love it! :)

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

My Banana Caramel Cream Cheese Pie for Christmas

Happy holidays y'all! :)

It's our last holiday season here in the country before we leave and well, in this home, I'd rather go big or go home... or should I say, go home and get fat! Haha!

Santa would have loved this... If only he was real. Lol
I have been slaving for hours in the kitchen today making my Christmas cookies and pie for our noche buena. I made extras so I can bring pasalubong for tomorrow's get together with the whole fam. It's our last holiday season here in the Philippines before we leave for Canada next year. Might as well leave them happy and full, yea?

They say the ham is a Pinoy's "star" at their noche buena,
but not to my kids. This is theirs. Haha!
Aside from the usual Pinoy tradition of fiesta ham dinner, I thought of making our own dessert this time. A couple of days back, I dreamt of making pie and thought I'd make a banoffee pie. This morning, though, I thought of cream cheese as well. So I figured, I'll make a banana caramel cream cheese pie instead. It's like banoffee pie with cream cheese frosting, instead of whipped cream.

As my Christmas gift to you guys, I am sharing you the recipe. :)

Ingredients:

Pie crust:

250g graham crackers, crushed
100g butter, melted

Caramel sauce:

1 can condensed milk
150g brown sugar
150g butter
1/4 tsp salt

Cream cheese frosting recipe here.

Toppings and filling:
5 large bananas
Chocolate chips/buttons
Chocolate sprinkles (optional, topping)
Crushed nuts (optional, topping)
Chocolate and/or caramel drizzle (topping)



Procedure:

Caramel sauce:
1. Under low heat, melt butter and sugar in sauce pan.
2. Pour condensed milk and bring to a rapid boil, stirring constantly for about a minute or two.
3. Set aside until it has completely cooled down.

While the caramel sauce cools, you might as well prepare the crust.

I prefer mine with some chunks. Gives it a bit of crunch. :)
Pie crust:
1. Mix crushed grahams with melted butter.
2. Pour in a round pan.
3. Using a spoon, create the base of the pie crust first, then onto the sides to make the pie shell.

Prepare the cream cheese frosting afterwards.


Assembly:

1. After creating the pie crust/shell, place sliced bananas on the bottom layer of the pie.
2. Pour caramel over the bananas until about 2/3 of the pie. Make sure it has completely cooled down to avoid having a runny cream cheese frosting as well as to avoid melting the chocolate chips/buttons.
3. Place chocolate chips/buttons over caramel.
4. Pour cream cheese frosting on top, covering the rest of the pie.
5. Top with sprinkles, nuts*, bananas*, chocolate/caramel drizzle*. I made mine with just the sprinkles just to make people believe that I really made it. Haha!
6. Chill for about an hour before serving. Enjoy! :)

A step-by-step guide in photos.
Merry Christmas!!! :D

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Chewy Toaster-baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

When people hear oatmeal cookies, the first thing that usually comes in their minds are those hard-as-rock cookies. But fear not, my lovely domestic rockstars! I have come to save the day. :) I'll be sharing with you my recipe of cookies. If you make this right, you'll have a perfect batch of cookies that are slightly crispy on the edges, but chewy in the middle.

Just this morning, I made my kids some oatmeal cookies. My eldest, Renee ate about a third of the first batch without even waiting for it to cool down fully! I made a total of 32 cookies altogether--first and second batch. Renee devoured (yes, that word!) 5 cookies in one go, while Allie had 2, and the rest was eaten by the grown-ups. Renee asked me if I could make more. She'd like to have some more cookies for desert after lunch.

Sometimes I wonder where she puts all those food in her tummy... The kid never goes fat! Ah well, probably all those food would melt away quickly, considering how crazy energetic she is all day. Haha!

Her second batch. She wanted me to take a "shocked" photo
of her because she wants to be a cookie model. Haha!

Anyway, here's my cookie recipe.

What you'll need:

Tools:

Toaster oven
Aluminum foil
Baking tray (most toaster ovens come with these)
Small spoon/scoop
Mixing bowl

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) of butter, cut into small cubes; softened
1 large egg
2/3 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup instant oats (or crushed Frosties cereal)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk chocolate
1/2 cup pistachios or walnuts (optional)

One of the most common mistakes most people do is over-softening the butter.
To check if your butter is just right, gently press on the butter using your index finger.
It should look like the one at the center. If your butter turns out like the one in the right,
then that means your butter may cause you a runny batch of cookies.
(Photo source: cookinglight.com)
Procedure:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Once those are already incorporated, add in the oats or cereal.
2. Add in the butter. Make sure you don't melt the butter--or over-soften them--before adding it to your dry ingredients. This will make your cookie dough look more like a batter instead, making your cookies runny. Using your hands, mash the butter with the dry ingredients until it forms a grainy bowl of mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and vanilla.
4. Combine the egg and vanilla mixture to the dough.
5. Add in the chocolate (and nuts, if you want to add them too) to the mixture. I used my kids' favorite chocolates instead of chips and chopped them into small chunks. I wanted to use half dark and half milk chocolates so they won't be too bitter nor too sweet.
6. Line the baking tray with aluminum foil, shiny side down.
7. Scoop a ball of dough and flatten them on the lined baking tray.
8. Bake them for 4 minutes in the toaster, turn them over and bake for another 3-4 more minutes or until golden brown (Sometimes, you have to adjust your baking time with the altitude as well, especially if you live in the mountains. No, I'm not kidding). Bear in mind that you are using instant oats and that they are easily burnt if left longer in the oven.
9. Set the cookies aside to rest and cool down.

What was left of our first batch after Renee ate about 4 of them (that time I took this photo.
She ate more after), Allie had 1 at that moment, and the other 4 by the grown-ups. 

So there you have it. I hope you guys would enjoy making and eating them as much as we do. Happy baking! :)

Saturday, December 7, 2013

A List of Lists... Goals, To-Do's, To-Buy's for the Year's End

Now that 2013 is almost over, not only am I writing down my "naughty and nice list" aka people we should be giving presents, but I am also writing down a list of our to-do's before we migrate, our moving itinerary for 2014 once we land in Canada, and a list of my to-do's (and to-cook) for the holidays. Bit by bit, I am already collecting ingredients for my Christmas menu--herbs, spices, cookie and pie ingredients, etc.

Aside from that, I am also writing down my list of goals for the coming year. I personally do not believe in resolutions. I mean, people always write things like...


New Year's Resolution:
1. Be nice
2. Be more compassionate
3. Abs
4. Abs
5. Abs
6. Stop hoarding
7. No more shopping sprees


Trust me, you can only go with number one and two. I'm pretty sure you won't last a year sticking on to the rest of that list!

Anywayyy... I made my own list of goals. Not resolutions. I want attainable things. You know, just simple ones that you can assure yourself you can always do--pursue drawing, get my eldest through her first year of school, learn to drive, learn to cook more recipes--stuff like that. Oh yea, and I also wanna make my own bacon, turducken, etc. I love food, don't judge me. Haha!



Nothing's wrong with the resolutions, mind you. But then again, if you come to think of it, those things that you would write EVERY SINGLE YEAR is not going to work if you'd just write it down. You wanna be nice, be nice. You wanna go on a diet, then go. Don't just do it this week, then stop the next just because "you were PMS'ing" or something. If you want something, set it as a goal. Eye on the prize!

What I'm trying to say is, resolutions are firm decisions. That said, you shouldn't be writing about something you are "firm" to do so, if you're not really into it. You'd rather aspire, and then step by step, you reach that particular goal you once wrote on your old list of resolutions.

Well, that's just me. Lemme know what you think. What are your 2014 plans?