Daring Cooks - Cornmeal and more Cornmeal

Work, sick, and Junk food

Not all There at Times

Daring Cooks - Tamales

Cioppino

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)

Marx foods Mystery Box

Tilapia Tacos

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.

Halibut Sinigang

No Carb Fajita aka Lettuce Wrap

Where did the week go?

I could swear it was just Monday.  Don’t get me wrong I love Fridays but I thought I had so much time to get things done.  It is Friday and guess what I got done - nothing.  Oh well, maybe next week.  There was one main reason – I have been putting all of my efforts and time to losing weight.   I came to realized the older I get, the harder for me to lose the weight.  Ohh aging.  I have always been in a constant war with my love of food and my weight.  I made a promise to myself that I will lose weight.  So I came to realization that if I didn’t get help to drop the added baby and husband weight, I won’t be able to drop the weight.

Kinda Working

Last week, I have been trying to get a ton of stuff completed before our second child comes and our world goes upside down for a couple of months again.  I am being very good and organizing the whole house, getting some of my homework done sooner, and as you know from last week planning meals.  As I was planning out what to eat, I didn’t realize how little we ate or I cook enough for 10 people.  Probably a little bit of both. 

As part of my meal planning, I actually just really cooked twice.  The first meal was on Sunday than on Wednesday.  It also helped that I was meeting up with friends twice that week for dinner. 

My first meal was a roasted chicken and baked sweet potatoes.  I never actually made a roasted chicken.  It was always so intimidating to me.  Too much of a risk in under and over cooking it.  It also takes a while to make.  This is why I deep fry our turkey each year.  I also prepped a 3-layer lasagna.

Sometimes you just have to Giggle

Kulinarya–Vegetarian Palabok

The lovely Erika from The Ivory Hut hosted this month’s theme.  Her choice was veggies.  I was so happy with this choice since that is all I have been craving.  My problem was trying to find something the family would eat.  Have I ever told you The Husband is extremely picky.  He loves to compare what I made to other places like Jewel (I know, it drives me crazy).  I went with dishes I knew he would eat and what I have been craving for a couple of weeks now: Fresh Lumpia and Vegetarian Palabok (yes vegetarian).  '

It was a Day of LOVE

Let me say that The Husband is not the most romantic person at all.  I had to listen to rant and raving on how Valentine’s Day is a scam and how girls get so much holidays and guys only have fathers day.  Blah blah blah.  My response was, “If you could give birth, you could have more holidays”.  As you could see, I’m totally looking forward toward child birth. 

FOOTBALL

Do you know what is next week?  THE SUPER BOWL!  I would be excited but the packers is in the game instead of the bears.  I know, I’m bitter but I did not see that coming.  The great thing about the Super bowl is the food.  I get to pig out on a bunch of junk food.  For the Packers and Bears game I made a bunch of food and we just vegged out in front of the TV and eating.  

Kulinarya Cooking Club–Tinola

I haven’t been able to post for a while.  Between 2 months of on and off of illnesses (flu, bronchitis, and the sniffles) and a few complications in with my pregnancy I  haven’t had the energy to cook or even eat.  You know what is the worse thing for a food blogger, not wanting to eat or cook.  I can’t wait until I get my appetite back.  It has been a fun winter.  On top of all of this, I also started the last set of classes for my masters program.  If it wasn’t for work, I wouldn’t have time or energy to look at a computer.  Unfortunately this means I need to slow down with my blogging. 

I was Scared, Very Very Scared

I’m pretty gutsy when it comes to food but for some reason, this one slightly scared me.  I have no idea why either. 

Here is some background:

Whenever The Husband and I watches TV, I totally hoard the controller and we watch anything food like food network, the cooking channel, TLC, and the travel network.  The Husband hates how much food stuff I watch.  Amazingly I actually don’t get hungry  but watch the different shows for ideas. 

One day we were watching Unique Eats on the Cooking Channel and one of the topics was Scottish Eggs.  For some reason, The Husband had to have it.  He gets like that when we watch any food stuff.  He curses me on a daily basis because he is hungry and he wants what ever food is on display.  It is a fun game for me.  So I told him, I’ll make him some for breakfast that weekend.  Well he remembered and reminded me to make some.  I was thinking…Dang It…I was hoping he would forget.  So I told him to start boiling the egg and I’ll cook it.  I love fried food like the next person but for some reason, this scared me.  It is a whole egg surrounded by beef and deep fried.  I know this is similar to Embudito (Filipino meatloaf) but I steam mine not deep fry it.  I went basic for recipe and since I had 1/2 a pack of Italian sausage in the fridge, I figured I will just use that. 

My Version of Scottish Eggs

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

1/2 Package of Italian Sausage (about 4-6 oz)

* If you used ground beef, I would season it with salt and pepper and add a little flour and egg to bind the mixture.

Directions

1. I was totally experimenting with this and I just took the Italian sausage and wrapped it around egg. 
2. I took a small sauce pan and filled it about 1/4 up on the pan with oil and fried. 
3. Turn it multiple times so it will cook evenly.
4. Serve

The Husband loved it.  He just had it with ketchup and rice.  I only had a little bit of it and it was good but it wasn’t my cup of tea.  He ate the whole batch. 

When you are under the weather

So for the past couple of days I have been dealing with a sick Daughter.  She had no energy or appetite.  After a day of not really eating, I was trying to figure out what to feed her.  I thought back when I used to be sick as a child what The Mother would feed me.  The first thing I thought of arroz caldo and salabat.  The one problem we have is that The Daughter is allergic to chicken so instead I used rib eye steak.  Yes steak.  I made a whole pot and by the next day, it was all gone.  The Daughter loved it and she enjoyed the salabat.  Food was always better medicine than some prescription drugs.  To cure the common cold, I also turn to arroz caldo, pho, or even the basic chicken noodle soup always made me feel better.  I don’t know about you but salabat was always my cure for a sore throat.  After a day, The Daughter was running around and terrorizing the house. 

Arroz de Rib eye (ok I had no idea what to call it if there is a name)

1 lb. of Thinly Cut Rib Eye Cubed

2 Cups of Glutinous Rice

6 Cups of Water

1 Clove of Garlic Minced

2 Tsp. of Thinly Sliced Ginger

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a medium size stock pot, start to sauté the garlic.
2. Season the meat with the salt and pepper.
3. Add the the meat to the stock pot and cook until it browns. 
4. When the meat is cooked, add the rice and sauté that. 
5. Add the water and ginger.
6. Bring to a boil and let it cook for 15-20 minutes until the rice is cooked. 
7. Serve

 

Salabat

2 Tbs. of Ginger (Thinly sliced and skin removed)

Water (Depending on how much you want to make)

1/4 – 1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar (I like it on the sweeter side)

Direction

1. Put the water and ginger either in tea pot or a sauce pot.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Once it starts to boil, add the sugar. 
4. Serve Hot

*The ginger is such a strong flavor that I am able to continue to add water for a good week and the tea is still as strong.  You might have to add a little more sugar or ginger. 

It is pretty brown because of the brown sugar