I'm a Slacker

….......... but we do have a winner to my little giveaway. The winner is.....

thehungryartist

This actually happened to my husband not me -- I was sleeping thank goodness! He heated hot chocolate in the microwave and then put it in this Tupperware shaker we have to shake it up. After he put the lid on, it literally exploded upwards like a volcano, spraying hot cocoa all over the place, included part of the ceiling, walls, lamp (we have a small apt.!) He said he kind of stared at it all in shock for a minute before he could take action of any kind. If i had been awake, I would have helped him, so selfishly, I was relieved I wasn't in the vicinity and conscious at the time!

I was laughing for a while.  It was a much needed.  I feel like I'm a slacker lately.  I have neglecting my little blog.  How I miss thee......  Unfortunately, life has been taking over.  Work mainly has been consuming every minute of my life.  Too bad I can't seem to concentrate when I'm at work or I wouldn't have to work as many hours and then I have the Son.  Any suggestions to get a teething 8 month old to sleep, I'm open.  I miss sleep and I believe I'm starting to talk in strange language whem I'm talking (I am starting to get strange looks). 

The funny part, I have been cooking and baking to release the stress.  I just haven't had the chance to write.  So I'm currently hiding in my cube trying to write something because I'm busting at the seams.  Normally on Fridays, I like to post something other about anything that doesn't include food but I felt that since it has been a couple of weeks since I posted, I need to post a recipe. 

I am in the process cleaning out my freezer and I found a collection of random nut flours.  Each one wasn't enough to make anything so I combined it all to make a macaron. 

I used my normal macaron recipe but I used a mix of nuts to equal the weight of the cashew flour.  I hate wasting.  I also added a little coco powder (about 1 Tbl).  As the filling, I used the buttercream recipe I found on CD Kitchen.  Instead of ube flavored, I added coffee.  I need to figure out what to do with all the random flours I have like chickpea flour :}

Update: I just realized I forgot to include this on my post.  I was getting ready the other day while The Husband was tending to the kids.  He proudly tells me" did you know macarons is made of almond flour and powder sugar".  I just looked at him. I guess all day as he was watching the kids, the cooking channel/food network was on.  I believe he doesn't ever watch or taste anything I make.  

Help, I need to be Entertained and a GIVEAWAY

I don’t really like talking about my life outside of my home or even kitchen but unfortunately my professional life has been taking over every aspect of my life. Once I get home and I’m way to tired to get anything done. Why do you need a full-time job. I wish we could go back to bartering.

I normally get the crazy looks from my friends and family at this point.

A little background:
I’m was and kinda still in Information Technology. I have probably one of the most boring jobs. I look at data (sheets of information) all day. I’m a geek through and through.

Due to my “chosen” career, I had to find something creative in my life. It took a few trials and experiments to finally find a way to express my creativity (I kept telling myself I was an artist in college, LIES). Having a job where I am essentially a data monkey (this is what like to call myself), I found cooking/baking allowed do as I like without boundaries. This is probably why I tend to have a failure here and there.

For the next month at least, I’m “stuck” in the middle of a system upgrade (could it get any more boring?). I hope that I could share with you all of the different food experiments I have been making at home. I just have to sneak an hour here and there to actually write a post. Shhhh - don’t tell me boss. In hopes to keep me sane, I have a favor to ask of you and I have a little prize in return:

I’m sure some of you may be aware that valentines is coming up. If you ask The Husband, he will play dumb. I have 4 chocolate molds, melting chocolates, and lollipop sticks from my favorite chocolate place: Morkes.

This is what I ask of you: Tell me what your favorite misadventures in the kitchen or even in life.

For example: I have the most horrible way of forgetting about what I am cooking so when I tried to make dulce de leche. I thought The Husband turned off the stove and he thought I did. The can exploded all over my kitchen and The poor Husband was doing his homework when it happened. He said he sounded like an explosion. He is amazed I didn’t wake up from it. It was everywhere! I’m sure you are giggling right now. The Daughter was and told me I was in trouble.

A winner will be picked via random.org. Creativity does count and you will get extra entries if you have successfully got me to cry from laughter. Anna will confirm that it is fairly easy to achieve since I laugh at everything.

For bonus chances Follow me in
This Blog
Pinterest
Twitter

Leave a comment for each follow.

Entries will be accepted until Monday February 6th. I’ll pick a winner on Tuesday. I want to make sure you have enough time before Valentines Day!

Please excuse the pictures, I actually just took these this morning as I was getting the kids ready. I can’t wait until the sun is out longer.

I had to include some pink chocolate

Milk chocolate, no need to temper - just melt and use

Kulinarya Jan 12 - Sugar Free Mocha Cake

 

The first month new year which always results in new years resolutions or goals.  This month's Kulinarya theme is to make a healthy version dish of a birthday favorite hosted by Pearl of Sassy Chef and Thea of Words and Nosh.  This completely coincides with one of my goals this year.   Attempt to be healthier.

For any celebration, I always expect some sort of cake.  My personal favorite is mocha cake with a fluffy layer of butter cream.  Not the healthiest of food.  But I used Agava sugar instead of regular sugar.  I did question if it would work well since I had to whip the eggs into a medium peak but it came out beautifully.

Instead of putting frosting throughout the cake, I just topped the cake used fresh strawberries as a filling.  In my head, less frosting, fresh fruit, and no sugar justifies as healthy.  This is why I battle with my weight for years.  I used LaFuji Mama's strawberry shortcake recipe with this.

Sponge Cake
4 Eggs separated
1/2 Cups of Agava Sugar
3 Tbs of Milk, at room temperature
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
14 Tbs of Cake Flour Sifted (could use coconut flour or rice flour for gluten free)
2 Tbs of Melted Butter (I used low fat butter that is mixed in with yogurt)

1 Tbs of Instant Coffee

Directions for Sponge Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. 
2. Heat the milk slightly and than add the coffee.  Make sure it is well dissolved.
3. Add the agava sugar to the egg whites and beat the egg whites until they reached a medium peak.
4. Add the egg yolks one at a time to the egg white mixture while folding in the yolks until they are incorporated.
5. Add the coffee mixture, vanilla extract, and butter to the batter and gently fold them into the batter.
6. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan (8 inch or I used long snack cake molds).  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. 
7. Let  it cool.

For the stabilized whipped cream frosting:
1 Tsp of Unflavored Gelatin
4 Tsp of Cold Water
1 Cup of Cold Whipping Cream (less calories than heavy whipping cream by a little)
1/6 Cup of Agava Sugar
1/2 Tsp of Vanilla Extract

To make the Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting:

1. Place the cold water in a small saucepan than sprinkle the gelatin onto the water.  Let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Heat the saucepan on a low heat than stir constantly with a wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the whipping cream, agava, and vanilla and beat until slightly thickened. Then, while beating slowly, gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture.  
4. Then whip the mixture at high speed until stiff.

To assemble the cake:

1. Slice the cake(s) in 1/2.  
2. Arrange the strawberries on the lower 1/2.
3. Spread the whipped cream frosting on top.
4. Serve

I tried to make a sour cream frosting with brown sugar.  

Since I was a child, I would eat strawberries with brown sugar and sour cream.   I decided to make a frosting with that flavor combination.  I did have to use powdered sugar to stiff up the frosting.

Hong Kong Cakes

Daring Cooks - Tamales

No Food Friday Kinda - Progress

 

Filled Monkey Bread

Cioppino

No food Fridays - New Years Resolution

It is the time of year where you swear to yourself you will complete a task for the following year. Normally it is the same thing each year. My favorite one I say each year is to lose weight or get healthy. This year I have a few. I don’t really expect to complete all of them but at least I plan to try.

1. Try to hold my temper and be more patient with my kids, especially with a certain 3 year old that loves to say...Mommy, I WANT IT NOW! I will try to speak calmly instead of stomping and itching when I would get frustrated
2. I will try not to get irritated when The Husband criticizes me on how I made something. Of course Honey, you are right. I’m sure I’m doing it wrong even through you have no idea what is puff pastry or a macaron is. (He actually knows these since I have made them enough times. A marcaron is a little hamburger)
3. Of course, to lose weight and eat healthier (sucks when all I want to cook involves frying or sugar).
4. I will make time for myself somehow: like reading, cooking, exercising, and attempting to relax
5. My main one is to be organized. I have a feeling that if I was more organized, I wouldn’t be scrambling in the last minute and I wouldn’t get irritated when someone would criticize me or bug me for my attention. I might even get a chance to plan stuff where I could eat healthier and exercise.

I know this may be a lot of stuff but one could hope and there is always next year.

I do hope that I will be able to do more recipe development and blog more often. I just need an extra 4 hours of my day. If anybody have some extra time handy, please pass it my way. Thanks!

I hope you have a wonderful and safe New years. Please eat for me since I “should” eat healthier starting now.

Cheese pin wheel - Remake

Happy Holidays

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays.

Love, eat, and enjoy the ones you love.

Love,
Joy of Joy's Misadventures

Kulinarya Dec '11 - Prime Rib Tocino

Bake, Decorate, and Donate

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

No food Friday - Diaper Cake

Short on time - Remake #2

Ice Cream Cupcakes

A Twist to Thanksgiving

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Mine was nice and peaceful - I did not have to cook, I just had to bring dessert.  I spent most of the day cleaning up around the house and read all of the Black Friday sales.  I had to work on Friday so no shopping for me.
On Thanksgiving, I jst spent some quality time with my famil and I wanted to do something with our friends.  But instead of having even more turkey we decided to host a "wing-off".  The rules went like this.....
There will be two categories:
1. Traditional
2. Exotic

RULES
1. Must be homemade
2. Everybody needs to enter both  *it was just myself and The Husband made both
3. A lb of each type
4. Judging will be voted by the majority (You can't vote for your own)

DailyBuzz Moms' Kids Friendly Thanksgiving Table 9x9

Once again, I'm participating in the monthly 9x9 by DailyBuzz Moms.  This month's theme is making a Thanksgiving Table Setting.  Thanksgiving is the time when the good china and silverware comes out but when you have little ones, it isn't always the best choice.  I wanted to create a kid friendly table.  That was friendly enough that my kids could feel comfortable sitting at without getting told how to behave or not to break anything. 

Kulinarya November

This is the time of the year where the weather becomes colder and flu season begins.  All you want is a large bowl of chicken noodle soup, especially the ones with the alphabets.  I choose to pick Arroz Caldo as this month's theme for our cooking club.  Arroz Caldo is the Filipino version of chicken noodle soup.  I had to put a little twist to my normal recipe.  How could I not? Instead of using chicken, I used short ribs.  Does that make this dish called Arroz Short Ribs?  I know that is just weird.  I came up with this just when The Husband decided to slow cook some shorts ribs but had no idea what to do with it.  It sat in my fridge for a couple of days until I decided to use it.  It was pretty good and I would totally make it again.

Arroz Short Ribs

1 Lb Shorts Ribs

4 Cups of Sweet Rice

5 Cloves of Garlic Minced

10 Cups of Water

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions

1. First cook the short ribs either in a slow boil for a couple of hours or in a slow cooker.  The meat should be falling off the bone.
2. Once the ribs are fully cooked, heat up a large dutch oven with a little oil.   
3. Add the garlic to start the cook and than the ribs including the bone (the bone provides so much flavor instead of adding powder flavoring. 
4. When the garlic starts to brown, add the rice and season.  Let it toast slightly.
5. Add the water and bring to a boil.  
6. Reduce the heat to a medium to a medium-low heat.  
7. Cook for 15-20.
8. Serve with green onions and toasted garlic (I love myself some toasted garlic).

Check out the other members posts.

My latest Obession

Like many of my posts, I have been meaning to write this for the past couple of weeks. 

One day......
I will not be as busy at work
I won't be called to attend to one child or another
I will have free time to myself without having to schedule it in

Probably when the kids are out of the house. 

Taking you blog to the next level

Have you guessed?
I'm at the foodbuzz blogger festival. Jealous, I know you are. I am sitting in a room listening to a bunch of great bloggers listening to their tips and advice. My big take on this, Be yourself I find that being the most valueable part of the whole discussion. The other part is connecting with your readers

Want to guess where I am

Here is a hint. 

Keep tune, I'll keep updated. 

HALLOWEEN with DailyBuzz Mom 9x9

From Daily Buzz moms halloween

No food Friday

Marx foods Mystery Box

Caramel Apple Cake

Tilapia Tacos

Ensaymada donuts.....Whaaaa?!?!

Daring Bakers - Croissants

Red, Yellow, Red, and Blue?

I’m know to procrastinate on multiple things in life like cleaning, deciding what to cook for dinner, and making decisions.  I try not to with any food challenge i participate.  The key word is “try” because i tend to brain storm for most of the month, debate when is a good time to get the ingredients, than loaf around until I’m motivated.  I actually got stuck with this challenge.  Ray of Work with Ray, Oggi of I Can do That, and Chef Theodore of Chef by Day, and Boyet of Reel and Grill picked a very unique twist.  A dish must contain blue, yellow, white, and red.  We had to use a natural food color which was not easy to figure out what to do.  I even made my own blue dye out of red cabbage.  I had no idea what to do with it and I don’t think anybody would appreciate a Puto (rice cake) with a hint of cabbage.   It took the the whole month to finally decide what to do.  Want to hear what i came up with?   Pianono filled with blueberries, strawberries, cool whip (sorry i had 3 tubs in the freezer and i was in need of using it) and mango.  I used my pianono recipe from a past post.  The Daughter has been bugging for a cake for a week now so why not kill two birds with one stone.  She did look for a birthday candle because she thinks every week is her birthday.  I have no idea why,  she is probably wanting stuff.

One of those Days–Maybe week

I’m a food Geek

Some people are able to just put a recipe together.  Some are able to follow a recipe word by word and achieve the desired results.  I do research on an idea I may have.  Every time I try to leap into something it fails = misadventures.  Instead I do a lot of research.  I’m a geek in that way.  I look up multiple recipes, I read up on techniques, and I even go to different places to see how they do a similar recipe.  That is what I did when I did the Daring Baker’s Chocolate Challenge.  I “researched”, which really means I ate a lot of different types of chocolate.  The day before I actually made the chocolate, I had the opportunity to be a taste taker for a hot chocolate line that a local company called Chocolatine had.  I have seen multiple versions of a hot chocolate on a stick, even my friend Anna made me one, but this one was different.  It had a marshmallow in the middle and the chocolate surrounded it.

Dailybuzz Moms and Clorox

Some of you may not know this but I was actually featured on dailybuzz moms about a month ago.  It was a total surprised to me since I tailor this blog a little more food orientated.  They featured my vegetarian palabok recipe from my Kulinarya Cooking Club.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Dailybuzz moms has been my part of my daily readings as part of my morning ritual.  I love reading about all of the things that could be adapted when there is children in the house. 

Stupid Weather

For any of you who has ever lived in Chicago or visited here, you would know the weather changes its moods like a teenage girl.  Yes, I did just say that and I’m not look forward to The Daughter’s teenage years.  The weather here is so strange sometimes.  Last week it was almost 100F and than it dropped to 60F a couple of days later.  Every time this happens, I get sick.  So I have been battling a cold all week.  I don’t know about you but I crave soup when I’m sick, especially with noodles.  I figured it was time to me to overcome one of my misadventures - Homemade Pasta – and make some soup.  I decided to tackle The Mother’s recipe this time.  This has got to be the easiest noodle recipe ever.  It is pretty much at 1-2-3 ratio.

Back to Laziness

Chocolate, Chocolate, and More Chocolate

A lovely Gift

When I started blogging, I didn’t realize how big the community was.  In the past two years I got to know so many people all over the world.  Their stories inspired me in a way I couldn’t imagine.   I even made friends from people across the world.  One of these beautiful people I got to know is Maya from Foodiva.  I was admiring some molds she used in one of her posts.  I have been looking for something similar to use for my hopia recipe.  She was so sweet and asked if I wanted some.  I felt so touch that she would even consider sending me anything from so far away.  Load and behold I received a package of a set of molds.  Unfortunately when they arrived they sat for a while.  I was nearing the end of my pregnancy and I was so tired.  I never had a chance to properly thank her. 

Back to the Grind

I don’t believe it has been a couple of weeks since I posted.  There is multiple reasons for this, the main reason is that I went back to work.  Fun huh?  My summer vacation is now done and it will be missed.  No more day-time TV, after lunch naps, and walking back and forth from the fridge to realize there is still nothing to eat.  I was so productive (I hope you hear the hint of sarcasms).  My list of to-dos just got longer and longer as the days went on.  But instead of getting things done at home I took the kids out.  The Daughter had a blast while the Boy would have preferred to stay home. 

One Day When I’m a Baller

I’m sure you are wondering about my title.  Let me explain, during college The Best friend (Girl) and myself used to say that when we wanted something or go somewhere that was out of our reach financially.  I’m not exactly a Baller but I get to pretend I am once in a while.  This past weekend it was one of my good friend Anna’s Birthday.  I decided to take her out to Graham Elliot here in Chicago.  If you do not know who Graham Elliot is, you might recognize him from television shows like MasterChef Season 1 and MasterChef Season 2.  He is the guy with glasses. 

Farmers Market, much needed Chocolate, Book Review, and even a Recipe

Halibut Sinigang