Showing posts with label Fresh from My Kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fresh from My Kitchen. Show all posts

September 03, 2012

It seems like it is always a struggle for me nowadays to get into fresh from my kitchen foods. You know, I am a mommy who is so hands-ful to my family, yes not only to my daughter Sam since I am  not only a mommy but a wife and housewife. :-) Okay, my husband gave me a break since Friday and I hope it would be until Monday (Monday is holiday here in USA honoring for Labor Day holiday). Wink. I said "break" or a bit of day-off because I can sleep as I want (though not too long but it is such sweet if you somebody's does the job you are handling like giving milk to the precious princess, putting the laundry to the washing machine).

Then I woke-up feeling hungry and scouring in the kitchen what to eat (or what to cook). DH likes me to cook corned beef which I just simply turned it down because I like to have an easy-minute food which landed my mouth to a canned fish or sardines which I got to open the "hot ligo sardines" and mixed it with vinegar, salt and a little salt then ate it with rice along with Dr. Pepper soft-drink (my favorite drink as of the moment after meals).

Then suddenly DH requested again to cook for corned beef to which I wrongfully-thought lately for me to eat it. Ha! The thing is, he requested it for him to eat or viand. Ha! And so I cooked the big can of "Pam" corned beef I bought online. It is my first time to try this corned beef and I can say it is delicious. I heat it up with a diced of garlic and onions (of course a little olive oil with it to brown), along with a dash of salt. Minutes after it was cooked. But before that, I got to cook for rice. And so dinner had been great. I even ate twice. Ha! :-)

May 13, 2012

I am into fish nowadays. The most that I like to cook and craved for is cooking it without a cooking oil. I just had fish soups with vegetables and sometimes no veges on it, just plain spices like bell pepper, scallions (green onions or the onion leaves), tomato, ginger, lemon grass with salt. :-) My tummy already smiled (or can smile all the way) that way. Didn't I told you that it feels like heaven of eating without cooking oil on it especially these days? Yes, I did. Ha!

And you bet, I have a fish stew sitting over my stove this time. It is fresh from my own kitchen. Nothing beats home-made! The pompano-kind of fish (only thinner, sorry forgot the name) is just right for the time. Oops, I just remember the other fish I thaw, will check it after I finish this. I think, it is already great to cook. Okay, tomorrow first thing in the morning. Back to the stew, mmm.. I can now smell it's deliciousness in the air. Ha! As clear as crystal, I am now hungry. It's time for me eat. Ciao!

September 03, 2011

Have you ever put a beef meat for a mixed veges in a coconut milk recipe? How was it?

It was my first time to put a beef of a mixed vegetables in a coconut milk menu. Never in my life had I seen one with it, but out of curiosity and am craving of beef meat that time, I put it as a mix of such. For sure, it won't poison me because the beef and all of my ingredients are fresh. Then I began my kitchen journey for such menu. Yes, I put several ingredients of vegetables like leafy yum leaves, swamp cabbage/ kangkong, eggplant, string beans, taro root and squash along with the fresh spices like lemon grass, ginger, bell peppers of two different color, then a dash of salt and beef bouillon. Hoorah! I love the taste of it with beef! Well, for that time when it is still warm. Then since I cooked more than I one sitting of eating I  have the leftover to which I actually intent to stash for future meal(s) just a typical way when I cook such menu. But to my surprise, the time that I wanted to eat already, the food was not good anymore. It bubbled. It was not that I did not put it in the refrigerator directly because I did, I even put some in the freezer. And I thought of, because it is beef. Beef bubbles. I don't know but it will be a long time and have to persuade myself strongly with a strong proof that beef, is good to mixed vegetables in a coconut milk, that is hard to do. However, am not closing my mind for any experienced cook or chef about this. For now, I still cannot comprehend of mixing beef of such recipe. I promise myself of putting not. Really, it is a waste of ingredients thinking that such are not cheap. :-( Lesson learned for me.

September 02, 2011

I was hungry. I intent to sleep rather than eat. But am fine. No worries, everything's alright of me and my baby-in-my-tummy. Then I felt the need to eat already, yes, that was lately. I am already full right now. Thanks goodness. He he! " What to eat? " , was what in my mind. I have foods but I don't like it. In the nick of time, I thought of fresh " pancit " (noodles) and the thick pork chop stacked ready to cook. I already defrost it as I thought of cooking it anytime. And then I did. It was ten o'clock p.m. And I was done about 30 minutes. Aside from a plastic pouch of  fresh " pancit " I had and the pork chop, I also included cabbage and carrots along with an orange and green color bell peppers, onion, garlic, dash of black pepper, cooking oil and water (I like it soup-y) to complete my menu for the night. Now you do the cooking imagination. I will share it to you should you like. But I guess this is just an easy recipe for you so I do not mind of sharing. Should you like, I'll share it with you.

All in all, I had a yummy dinner. The bonus is, DH ate too (he seldom eat cooked noodles or pancit). And so I was a happy kitchen camper. Now am hungry again. Ha ha! :-)

August 29, 2011

Five days ago, I posted about my quest of thinking any recipe with spam canned goods since I my taste bud cannot take its taste if I eat it alone. And then I thought of my stashed gourd vegetable I had in the refrigerator waiting for me to cook. :-)

And yes, yesterday yours truly cooked soup-y sauteed gourd vegetable with spam canned good and a little bit of corned beef from left-over. Ingredients (gourd, spice(s), cooking oi, spam, a little left-over corned beef, salt and a little bouillon beef) were gathered. I then (1) chopped the spam into small quarters along with an onion (the only spice I had in the kitchen). I wanted to put garlic and bell peppers but I cannot find any. So only onion was being mixed with it. Then what I did after chopping the spam and onion, (2) I heated a little bit a pan and put cooking oil as well as an onion and spam with corned beef while waiting for me to (3) skinned and chopped the gourd vegetable. The next thing I know was I already finished chopping the gourd and washed it in running water while the. And the sauteing began. I put a cup of water because I like it soup-y. (4) After boiled and half-cooked, I then put salt, a dash of beef bouillon to taste. Wait for another boil and done! Yummy soup-y gourd vegetable with spam and a bit of corned beef!

It was my first time having this recipe out from scratch.

August 25, 2011

It's not a date sandwich, that such term use when there's a legal holiday which falls on the last weekdays of work, but a common term of a food or snacks. Do you love eating sandwich? Or how do you like doing or preparing it for your kiddos, spouse or anyone? Or to sell it on your cafeteria or store?

Alright, yours truly is just a mere homemaker (and a mommy-to-be) who enjoys homemaking as my full-time career. I love cooking and preparing foods which my husband love to eat. One food he likes me to prepare is the sandwich. He let me prepare it for his snacks (but he call it "for lunch") at work. And it is already a routine for me when we get-up at 5 a.m. in the morning while he fix for himself to get ready for work and me, doing the ironing and preparing his sandwich to put in a brown paper lunch bag together with another sandwich bag of potato lays or pringles on it. 

I used to put pickles and lettuce on his sandwich but currently he don't want me to include in the ingredients so I just follow what he said, after all, he's the one will eat it. His sandwich includes: 2 slices of bread, sandwich spread, turkey slices and top with a single cheese. To prepare it, (1) I just put the sandwich spread on one side of the slice bread then followed with the turkey slice and the single cheese. (2) Then put the other slice of bread on it. (3) Wrap the sandwich beautifully with a paper towel and put it in a plastic sandwich bag before putting it up on the brown paper lunch bag with the other bag of  classic "lays" potato. That's it! One of my creation in my kitchen journey. :-)

August 20, 2011

First, I wanna thank Te Willa, the host of Food Trip Friday meme for featuring my last FTF entry, White Pomfret Stew with Vegetables. Yey! I couldn't be more proud of my homemade foodies in my kitchen journey. Wink.

Now, the question is why rough? Instead of my usual recipe ingredient whole kernel corn to put unto the maja blanca, I put quartered pineapple chunks. I wanted it like that and I was not disappointed because it suit to my taste this time. Also I like it a bit sticky, not so sticky and so I did. Now, am going to answer why it has a rough side. It has a rough front side. That is so, because of the pineapple pieces. And since I like a bit of sticky one, it is one cause also the surface isn't even, so that is what you can see below. The spatula didn't make it. Grin.
(click images to enlarge)
However, I have also a smooth surface side of it. And that is the back side because the back is even. :-) Hours after I freeze it,  I flip one from the two medium and small corning wares then put it in a microwavable plastic that is a bit bigger size. And that you can see below (you can enlarge images by clicking it). Yep, a smooth backside of my current cooked maja blanca, fresh from my kitchen. Smile. -_- Yeah, it's my food trip yesterday, Friday. I cooked it at dawn time. Ha ha! Ah, craving and my goal of cooking my dessert ingredients before my tummy will pop-up! What I like cooking this dessert is that it is pretty easy as long as ingredients are complete! I posted its recipe already here so you might like to dig on my archives should you like my recipe. I still use the ratio of 4:1 . The recipe is here: http://www.cacainadjourney.com/2009/12/maja-blanca-recipe.html

Do you like maja blanca dessert? How do you like it?

FTFBadge

August 16, 2011

And the kitchen journey continues. As I said in my other post that I want to cook the baking ingredients I had before my delivery date. To that, I can guarantee the freshness and the time I allocate. You know having a baby in the so-called "fourth trimester" , which is the one-three months after she born is the sleepless nights (as well as days). I can feel the time collapse. The busy days as a new mom. And so I have to begin cooking it this night. I wanted to move it tomorrow but I already told my friend, Te Claudine, that I will going to cook/bake it this day. Well, it's already night and haven't been doing it. But for sure, I will since she will going to visit me tomorrow very early morning for our breakfast hot milk time (or coffee for her) with the rice cakes am going to bake. I hope it will turn out good as the first time I did. This will be my second time so am a bit confident. Char! But am I doing? Am still here. Okay, minutes from now I will start it. I have the ingredients out so I just have to measure and mix, then the steps of the cooking/baking in the oven through steaming. 

I just ate the four pieces fried plantain I cooked. I ate it with butter and sugar with water since it is already a bit sweet. I can tell you, it's yummmy-licious! "Love-my-own" I know but really, my taste loved it. When I don't like the way I cook, I also tell the truth, to what am expecting. Anyway, let me go now and see yah around. Thanks for reading or the visit. God bless and all the best! ~hugs&kisses~

Which do you prefer on the two, electric or gas stove?

When it comes to my kitchen journey, it does not matter to me what preferences of stove do I have as long as it is a working stove. Ha! But oops! I just did not realize (or because it is my first time, *naive huh!*) after my first time to use a non-lighting electric stove that I do love the gas stove or the visibly seen fired-stove. It seems to me like I am cooking in a ghost stove. Ha! Yes, am serious. Thought there is an intended little hole which is enough to see the light if stove is in use (you have to intentionally have to see it though), still am not comfortable if it is already up and running. I still have to put my hand over a particular area of pan rack where I have to cook to check if it is heated up to make sure it is active. I like that better than looking up in the peephole. *grin* 

Sometimes, I forgot to turn it off when it is in low state (thanks goodness it is just in low state but still it is not safe aside from bucks wasted because I have not cooked anything. When it comes to monetary value, using electric is pricey than using gas. So speaking of saving, DH and I prefer using gas. However, by using electric stove, it has its great perk. And that is fast in cooking. You just have to put the arrow to high and at one snap, it already boiled. So which is which?

August 13, 2011


And my kitchen journey continues. This is my second time to eat white pomfret fish stew. The first one was made and given by my sweet friend Preciel. Then this time, I was the one cooking it. I just knew that this fish is expensive than pompano fish (the smaller one which looks like white pomfret fish. You just don't know but I paid $7.97 for three pieces raw and I can recall my friend gave me four pieces and it's already cooked yummy-liciously. Thanks again Ciel for it. You're such a sweet friend! Anyway, I saw several friends picture that they put vegetables on it and I reminisced my grandmother how she cooked just like how they did it. And then I cooked the same way, my first time. Usually it would only have one kind of vegetable or two. And I did the latter, two kinds of vegetables with it. I put bitter melon and eggplant vegetables. I wanted okra but I cannot find it in the market so I settle with those two. Images (above and below) were taken during its cooking time. Yes, the skillet in the stove whilst it is in the process of cooking. Meaning, it was not yet cooked. As you can see the color of the eggplants. And I love its taste especially the bitter melon vegetable (aside from fish)! I really had a great food tirp. Yay!

FTFBadge

July 27, 2011

My body clock changed. I already asleep at 2:00 or 3:00 A.M. But still I have to get up at 5:00 A.M. (my eyes already knew its responsibility) to iron my husband's upper working shirt unless if I will iron it at night, but I like to do it at  morning, you know I like to go with my even just at the door. :-) And besides am going to make him sandwich.  It is my responsibility and I obliged myself to do it. I love that. And because I have to wait of him until he gets dressed-up and go with him in the door, I thought of preparing the ingredients to cook for breakfast lately. I thought of cooking beef soup cabbage. And I did. I finished it after DH went ahead on his journey going to his workplace. I had the bone-y beef (the best when it comes to soup is with the bones on it) soup with the spices, such as: ginger, bell pepper and scallion/onion leaves together with beef bouillon and salt to taste. I wanted to put tomato but it's not good for me as pregnant. Then cabbage for the vegetable mix. It's yummy! And my kitchen journey continues! It's eating time! :-) I had it with rice! Whew! What a breakfast. The leafy vegetable which is the cabbage was emptied first. ;-)

July 22, 2011

I might guess what you have in mind, yes, you bet those were our (DH&I) foodies lately. And yeah, I cooked early in the morning for that boney beef soup (or "nilagang-baka" in Filipino primary language *Tagalog*) and spicy chicken stew ( or "halang-halang" in Filipino bisaya dialect). I had an energy cooking it despite I asleep at 2:00 A.M. last night (my body clock extends the dawn time to about-afternoon). DH prepared to work at 5:00 A.M. and I also wake-up when he does because I have to iron his upper clothes. But usually no ironing for me during Thursdays because he will just wear a long-sleeved GIS work shirt, and that already hanged good from dryer which no need to iron. That saves electricity and energy. :-) And so what I did was then cooked and those were it along with rice and began to clean the house slightly. :-) After my awesome breakfast, relax a bit, stand and walk. Then after that, a journey of checking emails. Sleeping was the next thing happened. My friend, Ate Claudia visited me and brought fruits and stuffs. That made me smiled, complete morning! I let her brought some of my spicy chicken stew fresh from my kitchen and the rest of such was my husband's dinner along with the beefy ground chili and beans viand with rice. My kitchen journey was great! I was not able to take pics, next time.

What about you, how's yours?

July 10, 2011

Hello folks, how are you? I hope you are in the best of health and everything. Whatever it is, I hope you all the best in everything you do! Now, am sharing to you my kitchen journey. What I cooked and the ingredients of my sweetened root crops (or binignit in visayan dialect in Philippines or bilo-bilo in tagalog/Filipino language) this time. I said that because it depends on you root crops you want (or available) to mix with coconut milk, sugar, sago/tapioca pearls, fruits like jack-fruit and young coconut along with the water to soften the ingredients.

Below in the left image shows the ingredients I put on my sweetened root crops. Those were: yucca root, sweet potato, taro roots, jack-fruit, white tapioca pearls, brown sugar and of course the milk and water to soften the root crops. And on the right image below is the outcome or the about-done sweetened root crops in a pot. This recipe by the way taste sweet.
Then image below shows the about-done recipe (sweetened root crops mixed) in a pan over the stove fresh from my kitchen. Ah, kitchen journey! (Click images to enlarge)

Now am craving for this! Happy eating there!

July 01, 2011

I am a vegetables whore, tell me about it! Ha! But yep, am really into vegetables probably because I was born with a lot of vegetables than meat. I could even remember my grandfather has a garden of veges, most of it for consumption and some for commerce. But then lo and behold, I don't know how to cook of those until I got married. :-) Well, I have a lot of time of cooking now than then. Before, I enjoyed much on cleaning or washing than cooking but now I enjoyed it all especially the cooking thing because I have much time now as being a stay-at-home wife. Image below is a sauteed different kind of vegetables without meat mix but just a seasoning given from a friend called "magic sarap" and it did it's job, it made my sauteed vegetables "sarap" (sarap is a tagalog word for yummy/delicious)!
That's a serve of what I cooked, the sauteed vegetables composed of green beans, squash, mushroom and okra along with its spices: red bell pepper, onion and garlic sauteed with canola oil and "magic sarap" seasoning with a little salt and water. And image below is this sauteed vegetables in a skillet. I like it with a soup-py sauteed. So here it is.

How about you, do you like cooking? And how do you like eating sauteed veges like above?

And the kitchen journey continues...

October 29, 2010

 Unusual potato was what. Usually, I do mashed potato but such that time (while doing such image below) DH requested by cutting the raw russet potatoes (I still have a bag of ten pounds) and made it into soup. It just only took some minutes, if not only two to three minutes after boiled. Then, while having it boiled, I also put the beef into the reheated broiling pan. By the way, I put meat tenderizer and bell pepper unto the beef just the time a broiling pan reheated so it the meat won't overly tenderized. And so while waiting for the meat to turn, I checked the potato and after it was cooked, I drained the water then sit aside. Here comes the peas and carrots in a can, I warmed it up in a microwave high for about one to two minutes. Just in time, it was heated up, I have to turn the beef then waited again for ten to 15 minutes or until cooked.

I served the broiled beef with an A1 sauce. Can't you see, DH and I both love A1 sauce. ;-) What about you, what sauce you're in when it comes to broiled beef? Whatever it is, for sure you enjoyed eating it, I think so?!

October 23, 2010

If you followed me here, you know how I love to cook chicken for my beloved DH. He likes chicken so much and so I love to cook it for him. As a stay-at-home-wife, I could never be happier seeing my dear husband likes how I cook, though there are also few times he does not like it. What I do for that is I have to learn how to do it more. Sometimes also it is not just his taste. Or he prefers to say he likes so I won't be disappointed but then I know it. And I love him more because of that. It inspires me to make it better. So it is just a matter of understanding and loving. :-) And be there with each other. :-)

The last time I was pretty love the party chicken style which is smaller than usual chicken in the market though it is just of the same cut. I guess it is also for a change. Now goes to cooking, I saw Kuya Mel's comment in one post (not on this blog though) that to have a crispy, one must have to put the chicken meat once cooking oil already hot (which is I always do) and it should have to under such cooking oil (which I do not usually do to save cooking oil, Ha ha ha!). Because of the big chicken sizes, I need to have a lot of cooking oil which is I do not like. Ooh well, thanks to the party chicken to which I can minimize such now because small cuts would minimize space in the skillet. But then when I cook fried chicken again, even with big ones, I have to let it be under the oil (I use olive oil for DH health) to make it crispy. Credit to Kuya Mel too. Anyway, below was my finish cooking. I love to hear how he said it is crispier. ;-) I would not sacrifice being thrifty of cooking oil (I usually had it like "on the neck side" of oil part of the chicken) than having a crispy one.


Happy eating! :-D


It's Friday once again. How time flies. So today am in again for a food trip post which is what I cook last more than a month ago. It was a crispy pork chop and a chicken partnered with steamed rice and chicken gravy over it.

It was not actually a typical type of cook how this served as DH prefers broiled one. But during that time, he likes the fried one. And so I deep-fried the meats with olive  cooking oil as for a low cholesterol and some other benefits an olive cooking oil possess. What a relief to have cooking oil as we won't worried about typical cooking oil has. 

Alright, so it is your time to share what has been your food trip this day, what is it? ;-) You may like to share your yummy food trip though. And so, have a great Friday and happy food trip!
FTFBadge

October 12, 2010

I just wanna share one of my currently typical vegetable-meat food for me once I like to cook vegetable. It is  a sauteed chayote with beef meat. By the way, I emphasize me because my dear husband seldom eat sauteed vegetables. Once I cook like this, expect it to to believe I will eat it alone, I meant just by myself as from a fact given. :-) By the way, do your American husband eat foods like this?


Well, would your American husband would like foods like this or not, nonetheless because wives like me can eat it alone. He he he! Ooh well, chayote vegetable is one of my favorite especially talking about saute-ing it. ;-) By the way, I also put beef bouillon even there is meat mixed and I put more than a usual fresh green bell peppers (different color to make it colorful. *wink*) and the rest is typical cooking style just like putting up garlic, onion and cooking oil with salt. I also put by the way more water because I like it "soupy" like (but of course not too much which just deserve of what its taste).

October 11, 2010

Okay, I said I will give you my own recipe of beef chili beans. Yes, my own version. I didn't read it anywhere or anything like that which I could improvise. Just that I got it from my cousin of cooking ground beef with slices of fresh bell peppers, onion, garlic, potato and carrots. This time, no more potato and carrots. This time without potatoes and carrots but with a can of "Hormel Chili with beans" as shown below.
Oops  it is not all about that, of course. I did not only heat that up to make my beef chili beans recipe. But what I did was heat up all the ingredients (green and red bell peppers, onion, garlic) in skillet with olive oil. Then let it brown. After that, I put the washed ground beef together with the brown spices under heat. Then simmer a bit like two or three minutes then put a can of an image above, do not forget to include some water. In short, I mixed it altogether. Then put a bit of iodized salt. Simmer again for about just a minute then that is it! Beef Chili Beans by Cacai M. ;-) Is not that easy? As easy as 1-2-3!

October 03, 2010


Forget about the five months late date on an image above. You can click an image by the way to enlarge, should you like (of course). And so, that is my version of beef chili and beans. I just cooked it like only two times. Yes, I cooked last eight days ago (well you can see as you enlarge the image, dated 28th of May and since it was late for five months, then it was last month ever) then again yesterday. My DH actually got this idea and told me how would I cook it. Then I just figured out it's just easy as 1-2-3. Yes, as simple as that. Once you have the raw ground beef, bell peppers (it is plural since I put red and green ones), garlic, onion, salt, beef bouillon (optional but it's necessary for me) and a can of hormel chili with beans then you're good to go. I will share my simple recipe next time around. For now, let us feast this beef chili beans above then serve over with rice and soft drink. *wink* Have a great day! Happy eating. Ciao..

 
Cacai's StEps and JoUrNeY © 2009-2012 Recoded By: Grace O. D., Dhemz, and Cacai M.