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! :-)

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!

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.

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.

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. :-)

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

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?

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!

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?

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)!

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?!

Happy eating! :-D

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.

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..