Showing posts with label kitchen journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen journey. Show all posts

November 25, 2012

Whenever we want something to be chilled or whenever we want to preserve some food, we place them inside our refrigerator. It is one of the most important appliances in our house because it can stretch the shelf life of almost every edible thing. Others can’t even survive if they don’t have a fridge at home.

However, we should also bear in mind that our fridge can become awfully smelly if not being cleaned up properly. There are several ways on how to neutralize its odor and one of which is to place a charcoal inside the refrigerator.  Coffee grinds placed in bowl can also do some magical powers to remove the odor as well as baking soda. There are also people who have been utilizing lemon juice combined with vinegar and water.

Accordingly, a teaspoon of vanilla in a cotton pad can also remove the odors. These are just few tips on keeping your fridge fresh and odor free.

August 12, 2012

A day before the third day backwards from today (yeah, just on this week), I never thought I encountered a vegetable called "red spinach" which is far way different of what I expect of what it is after I heard from a co-blogger friend told me that she always bought it from their market in Norway. She said it's what we called an  " alugbati " vegetable in our birth country Philippines. Then, looking back the day I saw the label red spinach in the market where I shopped (yeah, last Wednesday this week) I immediately felt the giddy feeling that after how many years I can now eat one of my favorite leafy vegetable ("alugbati"). To my dismay, it isn't apparently. But still, I got it to try and test its taste. I am looking forward of cooking mixed vegetables in coconut milk ("ginataang-gulay") after this. I can just imagine the excitement journey. Ha!

I have a complete leafy vegetables of sweet potato tops, swamp spinach "kangkong" and that red spinach to go with the taro root "gabi", purple eggplant "talong", bitter melon "ampalaya" along with its spices like ginger, onion leaves, bell pepper (orange, red and green), lemon grass and tomato. Yay! I can't wait. Now, am hungry. Ha!

July 23, 2012

I don't know about you, but one of the first things I check out whenever I go to a new place, say a friend's house, a hotel, a resort or a restaurant, is the comfort rooms! Not only that I find it really comforting to stay there a bit after a long travel, or a stressful drive, but I also take refuge in the relaxing  plus quiet ambiance. A piece or two of aroma therapy candles also helps a lot in making it a haven for travelers, diners or visitors.
I guess it won't be much of a puzzle why women spend considerable time in the comfort room, then. Apart from sorting our personal affairs and having a small chit-chat with our friends and companions, we also take the time to admire the beautiful and contemporary comfort room pieces there, especially those adorable sinks, which you can also find in the websites. We take our time reveling in their intricate details, memorizing each design and pattern in our heads, not forgetting to comment how they simply make the place look better with them around.

Oh well, musing about those beautiful sinks made me think of replacing the one I have in my own bathroom now! What do you think? ;)

July 21, 2012

Journeying in our kitchen is one chore that I love now that I am a wife. As a Filipina I do really love eating Pinoy foods. The one that you cannot take away from me is the love of ‘adobo’. Adobo can be chicken or pork. Those are my favorite meat by the way. Adobo is a very well-known easy Pinoy food. It is actually one brand of Filipino when it comes to food. Smile. I can share on how to do it, here:

Ingredients:
1.) Chop chicken or pork meat
2.) Soy sauce
3.) Vinegar
4.) Black pepper & Pepper leaves
5.) Garlic
6.) Salt
7.) Water

How:
  Mix them all together in a casserole and cooked it until it will be totally done. It will take 20-30 minutes depends on how much meat you are cooking. Check from time to time. Then right after your adobo is ready for serving . Try this one and surely you will say yummy… adobo taste so good and very easy to do, no need step and steps of process. Not much ingredients, so light and easy! Good luck guys, let me know if you do. I can teach you more if you need help! Just leave on your comments here.

June 28, 2012

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=b13390c247&view=att&th=13831435f24b9d9f&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=f_h3zb1c811&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P9f9IMynEaLnHZmEuzF9i6k&sadet=1340912576493&sads=e6YnfPDNLEBs5ctOpufY9rcSboY&sadssc=1 You can never have too many knives, especially if you are someone who likes to have the right tool for the job – you wouldn’t want to serve steak without steak knives nor would you wish to cut a tomato with anything but a tomato knife. That’s why you need to have boning and filet knives, bread knives and more – it’s all about having the right equipment for the task at hand.
While shopping for knives it’s important to begin with the basics – most cooks prefer to have two or more paring knives so they can handle everything from onions and garlic to lemons and limes along with potatoes, carrots and other vegetables. A serrated edge bread knife is another basic piece of kitchen cutlery that you will use time and again.

When selecting any kind of cutlery it’s important to look for well crafted pieces with no irregularities or rough spots which might trap germs or harbor bacteria. If a knife is constructed with the bladed sandwiched in a two part handle make sure the rivets are flush with the handle or they will become pockets which collect grime. Keeping knives sanitary is important and a smooth and well made knife helps to ensure proper hygiene.
The next basic knife you will need is a santoku style knife which is designed to make slicing, dicing and mincing effortless; the santoku's blade and handle are designed to work in harmony by matching the blade's width/weight to the weight of blade tang and handle. You may also wish to have one or two ceramic knives as they hold an edge up to ten times longer than a knife with a forged metal blade.

June 14, 2012

 Whenever there are special occasions such as anniversaries or birthdays, some people would choose to go to their favorite restaurant to have a simple and intimate dinner. Those who may be too busy with work and would want to just have a simple dinner instead of an extravagant party may just book for a reservation at their restaurant. Some would even use it as an opportunity to try out the newly opened restaurant that has been getting good reviews. But if you’re looking for an alternative to dining at a restaurant, you can instead choose to just have a special dinner at home. Your preparations journey should not be that elaborate especially if you are only planning to invite a few close friends for dinner. Prepare a menu that you know your guests would love. You can also serve them a dish that they haven’t tried before but you know they will surely love. You can also serve wine. A carefully chosen wine can enhance the flavor of the dishes that you will be serving. If you are unfamiliar with how to choose the best wine for your dishes, you can make some research online or you can participate in a Sonoma Wine Tasting activity, to which it has a bunch of wine to choose from. You will get to determine which wine would complement the dishes that you will be serving. Great food, great friends and family paired with great wine will surely make your dinner even more special. 

May 18, 2012

Wow! That was (I just had my dinner) my first time I finished four (4) pieces of medium drumstick deeply fried of olive oil by my husband. Yes, he is now the one volunteering to fry chicken every time fried chicken is our meal. I could not contain my happiness of what he is doing. I am happy because I don't like frying chicken. I usually had blisters out of a very hot oil. It is not my first time frying chicken but I don't know know I just cannot minimize the hotness or so. What my husband does and advises me at the same time, is he put a cover on the pan but that is close to impossible to me to do that because our stove is high. Putting a cover in the pan would make it worse for me. Good for him because he is tall. Alright, I am grateful he sees the problem. Ha! I can just remember, every time I had blister/s before, he is always there for me to put vaseline on it so it won't be painful. :-) Just being grateful, on the other hand. :-)

Okay, so, this is a record for me and apparently I am making a note. (*wink*) To pair with my viand 4 fried medium drumsticks, a half a cup of rice is doing great along with a lemon-sugar free maple syrup. Burped! Oops! Excuse me. I just had a great dinner (aside from DH cooked it). Smiley me. :-)

May 11, 2012

Yes, the fresh lemons would do for cleaning the kitchen tiles.

As much as I know lemons can be a good cleaning stuff for stained clothes,a very good cure for cough, meat marinade, an ingredient for detox cleansing, a usual juice and the likes, this can also be a good stuff for cleaning. Just as I said, it is a great stuff or kitchen tiles cleaner, to name just a few! It's not that I know. But days before this day as I extracted a juice from it, there are residue spilled into the tiles of my kitchen. And before I knew it, it already made my hard to clean dark spots in the tiles now squeaky clean. Whew! What a good find. Now I know. You  know what, I find it very hard what to do with the above tiles in the kitchen in a savvy way (yep, I don't want to put grout on it, well, before putting such you have to let it clean so the dark spots won't be spotted still since our tiles in the kitchen is color off-white (close to white).

So, that's a great news to those moms/homemakers/housewives like me who wants to clean their kitchen in a savvy way. I got a juice at the same time I have cleaned my kitchen! What a great day! Smiling left and right me. :-)

I love eating sea foods especially healthy tuna. It is either fresh from the ocean, canned or frozen is best for our health. As it has been said, tuna is pack with protein, omega-3, vitamin D, and selenium which plays an important role in our body. According to the research of scientific study, diet rich in fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, like canned tuna, can curb or prevent cognitive decline, dementia, depression, neuro-psychiatric disorders, asthma and inflammatory disorders. An issue between tuna and pregnant women questioned but scientific studies prove that tuna is safe to eat for pregnant women! It is even proven that pregnant women who always eat tuna boosts her child's brain. While it is true that pregnant women should stay-away see foods that have high-mercury (like shark, mackerel, swordfish, tilefish), it is actually SMART to eat seafood during pregnancy (following what your OB-GYN or doctor words about what fish to eat or not)!

For me, I prepare my healthy tuna food usually for sandwiches. My family (especially DH) likes it a lot and even always requests me of preparing him to bring to his work. Since I love pampering him and our tummy, I always do it. I also have come to search for another tuna recipe which I will have to prepare for my beloved in the next following days. I am chasing and been reading a Caribbean-Style Albacore recipe which I plan to cook. I find it good for us because we are into diet.

I can't wait to chase for tuna this coming days to cook this recipe. 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.

Liquid foodies like a soup or any kind of menu which has liquid on it, cooked foodies (even sauteed foods have little liquids, so most cooked foods). Be it a cooked one or uncooked. A lifestyle that has a combination of modern and old-school way in me, brings  back the latter way. Since we don't have a certain stuff that grinds the waste foods which then can easily throw away in the sinks, I use the old-fashion way of straining it. Yes, so the solid ones will be separated. In that way, it won't get stack in our in-sink making our in-sink errator happy. I just only use the in-sink errator when emergency, hoping though that stack stuff(s) down there is just soft and can be grind-ed. Using strainer for me, makes my job (of separating the solid and liquid of a menu or foods) easier. I just have to put the waste combination of solid and liquid foods into it and strain in a running water. Then put into a cellophane before putting it on the trash box.

What about you, do you do like what I do? Straining foods waste in a running water? How do you like it?

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 26, 2011

Or is it just reheating it? Which is which, cooking or reheating? Ah, either way. Ha ha! And my kitchen journey continues.

I used to cook a canned corned beef not just reheating it. I use cooking as a term when it involves cooking oil, garlic, onion, salt and a pan. While I just use the term "reheating" when I just poured-in a canned corned beef in a heated pan without putting anything. Now, if you ask me which is better, I have to say cooking the canned corned beef, well, at least to my taste. Who would have to eat after all, right? I don't know about you, maybe you prefer just reheating it up than cooking or making it a mix to a sauteed potatoes and carrots with bell peppers adding to the ingredients. I also love that recipe to which until now it doesn't taste monotonous unto my taste. Yummy as can be! Wink!

How about you, do you like cooking or reheating the corned beef? And how do you like eating it, by making it a viand unto your rice or put it in a bread? For me, I love both for the latter question. What about you?

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 24, 2011

Every homemaker love to have a good-looking kitchen stuffs. And include me on that, I guess you too, correct me if am wrong. It may  not be that fancy (of course having fancy ones are great!) but a clean and organized stuffs. It is great to journey in our kitchen if it is as what I mentioned, you know. Then, how do you like stainless steel kitchen stuffs like stainless steel sinks? I would love to have it, obviously.  It is elegant and easy to clean too. Stainless steels are an "in" thing nowadays. For sure, you would love to have it too, don't you?

August 23, 2011

Apron and other kitchen stuffs are essential in cooking. That "other stuffs" are good for cleaning for nail toes and the other one I used it for cleaning in the kitchen, those stuffs are the two favorite brushes to which got lost. The other stuff that I searched everywhere  but to no avail was the two aprons and two pot holders, my other favorite as well. It began when we moved here. There was no way DH put those in garbage because he knew how I like to have such aside from such other brush is his favorite too. I started looking that kind of soft big brush in the store where I bought before but unfortunately no stocks of it anymore. Should I have to buried it in my memory so I won't be thinking of it anymore? Would it helps for me? I don't think it was stolen but the problem is where is it now? I need those aprons and pot holders! Grrr! How I wish I could recall where I put those stuffs. Thinking and rethinking then searching won't help because I haven't found it. Maybe I will just wait that I could remember. Not that I have to wait it will go out and reach on my hand, of course.

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: https://www.cacainadjourney.com/2009/12/maja-blanca-recipe.html

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

I always love looking at stainless steel Undermount Sinks in the kitchen. I can feel the beauty and want me to stay in the kitchen for long. It also does help doing my kitchen chores easy because Undermount Sink like that as it is easy to clean and guaranteed won't get rust or stain easily.

August 19, 2011

Should it be this dawn time, or tomorrow? Am in for catching-up on my kitchen journey goal, to cook all my baking/cooking dessert ingredients before my tummy will pop-up in the midst of the first "ber" month of the year. *thinking*

I charged a good energy. Slept the whole day. And aside from that it got me into thinking that I could save electricity because it is off-peak hours. Lately as we arrived home after the baby care class DH and I attended, we just found out that bathroom's ceiling heater was on. That was almost three hours the ceiling heater was on and all the windows in the house were open. I know, DH accidentally turned it on, the switch is near the power light. He thought he turned off the light, yes he did but on the other hand, he powered-on that ceiling heater there. What a waste of bucks. But then it was not intentionally. And so I thought having the energy wasted break-even and so I am contemplating if I have to cook the maja blanca now. The ingredients were already out, ready to mix. Should I have to, or not? I am asking myself. Ha ha! Let's see where this contemplating journey goes. :-)

 
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