Self proclaimed "CHEF"

Chocolate Vodka

2013-08-03T23:04:00.000+08:00

Here's one that will sure to tickle your taste buds! A drink that is straight up simple, great for a small gathering of friends or whatever event you're planning on doing.

I've seen some flavored drinks out there including chocolate vodka, but I tell you, this one is made from real Dark chocolate. Which gives it a lovely thick lusty flavor to it. The best thing about this basic recipe too is that you can add not just chocolate but you can add some other flavors too! The minute I've tried this, I thought to myself, maybe I can add a bit of mango or pineapple or apple flavor to it. So it's not limited to only chocolate. Lemon, orange and other zingy, acidic touches are important to this to mellow down alcohol taste.

The first time I made this, some weren't exactly a fan due to the fact that I only had one lemon and orange. I combined them. You can't really taste or feel them much since I made like a liter of this drink. So here's the recipe below:

1 kg Chocolate
a bottle of Vodka ( Don't worry, the whole bottle wouldn't be needed *wink*)
3 lemons
2 oranges
1 kg sugar
1 liter of water

Now what you need to do first, on a medium high heat, dissolve the sugar into the water. Stir for a bit, just a bit though. Basically, what you're doing is a simple sugar syrup. Once that is done you can add the chocolate. I'm using a dark chocolate so by adding some sugar syrup in it, the bitterness of the dark chocolate will be toned down a bit, leaving room for additional flavors. Also add the lemons and oranges at this part.

Once the chocolate is melted, add a bit of water if it's too thick. Make sure that the chocolate is at the right consistency according to your preference. Now comes the fun part! Adding the vodka. I know I have written in the ingredients list "A bottle of Vodka" but you don't need to use the whole bottle (unless you love alcohol that much). Try adding bits and bits of vodka to it until you feel it's enough. I used almost half of it, since I liked it like that. Some might not like it but I do. Now stir it, and cool! you can also put some ice in it.

If you are making small amounts and serving it immediately, you can just divide the ingredients per person then use a cocktail shaker to cool it instantly.

There you go! A perfect chocolate vodka to brighten up your chocolate-alcohol craving. .

Cheers!

Rib eye steak with a homemade barbecue sauce and baked potato wedges

2013-06-10T23:20:00.001+08:00

Picture may not look as appetizing, taken by my sister Hannah. <3

A successful dinner I made today. . It's the first time that my mom really liked my cooking, she liked some before but not as much as this one. It's just a simple steak with a simple homemade barbecue sauce that is sure to fill up your stomach. . Here's the recipe below,

Yield: 6 servings
Time: 30-45 minutes

1 kilo Rib eye steak
3 tbsp Salt
3 tbsp Coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup Olive oil

2 whole red onions, finely chopped
A stick of Celery, chopped
1 Carrot, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 pcs tomatoes, diced
1 mango, sliced
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp black pepper
1/4 cup vinegar
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup Tomato Sauce / Ketchup
1/3 cup Soy sauce
1/3 cup Oyster sauce
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Soda (anything you want)

4 large potatoes, cut into wedges
1 tbsp salt, for this I used rock salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano

First of, caramelized the onions. It may take some time. As you can see, the prepping for the veggies are already on the ingredients list so it will be easy for you guys. Now once the onions are caramelized, add the celery, garlic, tomato and carrots. Just saute this for a bit then add the liquids ( Pineapple juice, Tomato sauce, Soy sauce, Oyster sauce, Honey, Soda, vinegar) then mix it well. Bring it to a boil then add the sliced mangoes and let it simmer for 15 minutes. This will thicken up the sauce.

Now while letting the sauce simmer, start on the potatoes. Don't forget to preheat the oven while making the sauce, 200 degrees celsius. As what the ingredients said, the potatoes are cut into wedges.

In a bowl, put the potatoes and add the olive oil and the salt, black pepper and dried oregano. Mix it well, remember to be very meticulous when doing it so the potatoes will be seasoned well. Place the potatoes, skin side down on a baking sheet and into the oven for 35 minutes.

Now, after the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, blend it up. Use a blender then strain it back. Don't blend it too much though, you don't want to have a really thin consistency. Besides you have to strain it so don't worry about some chunks. Once strained, heat it up again on a low heat and just let it reduce. This enhances the flavor.

For the steak, just add the olive oil gradually and massage the salt and pepper gently on each slice. Let it sit for a while until the potatoes are almost done cooking. By doing this method, everything will be finished together and will be served hot. These are served separately. You don't want a cold meat with hot potatoes and a hot sauce.

Now when grilling the steak, there are a few things to consider. As the cook, you need to make sure about what the preference of each one. Some may want rare, medium or well done. I myself prefers it rare unlike my mom she likes it well done and my sister medium, my dad on the other hand like anything. HAHA.

So what you need to do, cook the well done first, then medium then rare. Timing is important here. Below are the times for cooking.

Rare: 5-7 minutes on each side.
Medium: 7-9 minutes on each side
Well done: 9-11 minutes.

You can pair it with some corn kernel and buttered baby carrots like what I did or some other buttered vegetables. It's all up to you.

There you go, another recipe from the Self Proclaimed Chef! Hope y'all will like this for a decent dinner for the whole family. Cheers!

Lasagna

2013-05-15T23:53:00.002+08:00

Ever since, I have made only a few lasagna and I really haven't grasped the idea of it. I don't know why but I'm just not a fan of it, though I have been curious. Before, I used to complain about the taste of the lasagna, on how cheesy it tastes. Then I tasted one of the best lasagna, there everything changed. I realized, the taste of the lasagna mostly relies on the type of cheese and the taste also of the bolognese sauce ( meat sauce ). So I've been searching some great cheese to pair with my lasagne and found most of the cheese they use are Mozzarella, Ricotta and Parmesan. Got me thinking, I should change things up a bit and so I used Brie and Camembert, mixed together in one layer, Mozzarella and Parmesan mixed on the top most layer. This is just an experiment of mine using a combination of two similar cheeses. The only difference is that Camembert originated from the Isle of France while Brie is from Normandy. Yes, I googled it and Normandy is roughly 5% French territory. .

Now back to topic, I used it since there's a slight difference in the taste if both cheese. The concept of this recipe is to portray the simplest recipe there is, it's just the cheese that is different.

Bolognese sauce:

453 g Ground beef
a cup of diced onions
3 finger chilies, diced
4 garlic bulbs, finely chopped
1 ginger root, finely chopped
2 red and green bell pepper, diced.
3 cans of tomato puree, 260 g
basil and rosemary, chopped
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 tbsp cayenne

Cheese:

Equal parts of Camembert and Brie, about 225 g each.
225 g Mozzarella
50 g Parmesan

Pasta:

2 boxes, unbroken sheets, about 453 g

So first I made the bolognese or meat sauce. Just saute the onions for a couple of minutes until it's a bit clear then add the finger chilies, garlic, ginger and red and green pepper. Saute for a 2 minutes then add the beef. At this stage you should make sure that the beef is cooked perfectly ( I like my meat brown ) can be medium to high temp.

Once the beef is cooked add salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne, I just want to add this at this part, you can still adjust it on the latter part if the sauce tastes a bit bland. Then add the tomato puree, I used the canned tomato puree that can be bought at your local grocery stores. Bring it to a boil then simmer. You can even add a little bit of water if you want then reduce it. My way is just a bit quicker though. ;)

Now once the sauce is a bit thick and all the flavors have been blended well, you can add the chopped basil and rosemary to give it that fresh herb flavor to it, then voila! the meat sauce is done. It only takes 15 minutes to make.

Now for assembling the Lasagna ( I used the oven-ready pasta for this ), since I didn't use the bechamel sauce, I just placed straight on to the baking dish the pasta and that served as the first layer, then, I added the meat sauce, then another layer of pasta, then the brie/camembert cheese mix, then the mixture. I only did one layer of the cheese since I made it thick so you can really taste it. Cover with foil and cook it for 50 minutes at 170-180 degrees celsius ( 350 degrees Fahrenheit ), the steam will cook the pasta. For a quick meal with no hassle, use the oven-ready pasta, so much better than the one where you need to boil it first.

Now you must be wondering where the H is the mozzarella and parmesan, well, I added them at the last 10 minutes of cooking. That's why I set the cooking time on 50 minutes is because the you need to remove the baking dish from the oven and remove the foil and add the mozzarella with parmesan then bake it for 10 minutes. If 10 minutes is too long for you well, just keep a close eye on it until the cheese melts and browns perfectly.

There you go, a simple and easy yet tasty recipe of lasagna. My own take of the popular lasagne, hope you guys like it! Til next time, Hugs and kisses from the Self Proclaimed Chef!

Cheers!

Negros Adventure pt. 2

2013-04-30T16:32:00.000+08:00

We arrived in the port at Amlan at around 1 am or so. We then took a pedicab that cost us P300 from Amlan to Dumaguete City. They have a weird looking tricycle than the ones we have here on Cebu, I was struggling due to my height. Not having problems whatsoever with my weight since it was only my mom, aunt and I on the tricycle. Oh! and the driver. Let's not forget the driver. LOL. I was leaning the whole time, I think it was a 30 minute ride, I forgot about the time. It was the worse 30 minutes of my life. I was leaning forward sometimes leaning on my side, and the only thing I can see was pitch black. If only you guys can feel my agony that time. The only thing that was inside my head was "This is once again, part of the adventure I wanted for some time now! DEAL WITH IT!". That phrase kept on echoing inside my head. Well, I also imagined a really nice and comfy bed in a hotel room that we are about to stay ( My mom promised me that! *wink*).

Now we're in Dumaguete, we need to go to the Boulevard where the hotel was located, unfortunately the driver said, he wasn't allowed to go near there due to the restrictions. There are certain tricycles that can go to some places. So my mom asked him to just continue since there are no police at that time of night. He was a bit hesitant at first but in the end he did continue. We didn't know the name of the hotel, only the location. What my mom knows is that the hotel is near Shakey's restaurant. That's all, again the driver doesn't know where it is. We just followed the street until the end, still no signs of the restaurant, we did pass a few numbers of Inn's and hotels but my mom wanted the one that she "knew". A few minutes passed the driver can't go on further and transferred us to another tricycle/pedicab, one that can go anywhere in the city. My mom paid him P200 and another P100 for his kind gesture during the time, that's the reason for the P300 cost that I said earlier.

The next driver gladly accepted us and guided us the whole time. Here comes the fun part and one of the highlights of the adventure. We started off by looking for that hotel and I swear it took us a while. The driver said that Shakey's has been closed for a long time now and that he knew the hotel beside it. It was named Bethel but my mom insisted that it wasn't it, so there has been an argument for a while but not a heated one, just a friendly argument. But here's the thing, the driver then said, "Almost all of the hotels and inn's are fully booked, due to the Palarong pambansa!" That was a bit of a shocker for us since we didn't have anywhere else to stay. By the way, the Palarong Pambansa is for a bunch of high school students from around the country competing in a variety of different sports. So back to the hotel search, the driver then just went around the whole city asking but luck wasn't on our side that not for all of them are fully booked. We were a bit disappointed since we don't have anywhere else to go, the driver even told us that he'll just stay with us until morning. Such a good man, we then just went to Mcdonald's to buy dinner. While on our way, I just ate the hard-boiled eggs ( what can I say? I'm really hungry that time and that also caused my hard-boiled egg addiction, if there's such a thing ). All of us have the same order, a quarter pounder meal and I on the other hand had large fries and coke and a double hot fudge. Yes! I was that hungry. . While still on the search, the driver remembered a motel in Sibulan, a few minutes away from the city. Then we immediately head on to that motel.

Long story short, there are available rooms in this creepy motel, well it was creepy during the night. . It was really dark and we went inside there garage as seen in the picture the one on the right, each room has their own garage, then we were greeted by a creepy shirtless guy. He was nice but creepy at first. I just have these weird feelings when it comes to motels. LOL. We never know maybe someone died in there without us knowing and again, YES! I'm the paranoia type of guy. The rooms were good though and it come with a price. P250 on the first two hours and P100 in the succeeding hours. . We stayed there for the night, more or less 6 to 7 hours. You do the math! :P

The next day we then checked out and went on with our plan, go to my mom's "friend" and talk them into something. Not sure what that something is and if ever I knew about it, I wouldn't mention it here but there's no dirty business, just something personal between them. Wild guess!

We took a bus to a place, I forgot the name, it's in the mountains, I think it's a 3 hour ride from Dumaguete. Did I mention that we rode a tricycle from Sibulan to Dumaguete city where the bus terminal is? Yes, we did. Now, on the trip, I noticed some really good views but I wasn't able to get some shots due to the difficult position I was in and I don't know how to take pictures on a moving vehicle, I'm pretty slow in adjusting the settings of the cam. Still learning so bear with me on this one.

I'm not gonna talk about the bus ride since nothing special happened there and I would like to cut to the chase. We went there, my mom talked. Oh wait, I saw some horses and we crossed a dried up river, all there is were some huge rocks. It was a difficult walk, look at me, I'm huge! I was sweating a lot. If I stayed I would probably fill the whole area with sweat. Eck! So here are a few pictures there,

As you can see on the picture on top where there's a tree and some rocks, that's the river we crossed, no water there which is a bit weird. I do love seeing the horse men and the kid. There are two men on the horse that day but only took a pic of one. He's the one who showed us the way to my mom's friend's house.

It is on that same day that we also met my uncle and aunt who lived in Bacolod. We met back in Dumaguete after the trip to my mom's friend.

We didn't have lots of activities that day, well we went to the park at night and watched the festival there. You can see lots of small shops that sells mugs, key chains, toys, hats, shirts and some other souvenir items. There is even a small carnival and an Observation wheel a.k.a Ferris wheel. It was a bit fun. We ate at a Filipino restaurant that is really expensive. We hated it, the food isn't even that great. We should've gone to the cheaper ones instead.

It is that night that we just strolled around the boulevard also and just rested on the sides since we were walking around the park enjoying the crowd and the things that were sold there. . Again, I was sweating crazy.

I didn't have a picture of scene in the boulevard since there people taking pictures first and it seemed like they were practicing on doing night shots, so I just sat down and waited for my mom to buy some water since I was a teaspoon short to being dehydrated.

My Aunt Bebet and Aunt Cherry were talking and my Uncle and I were also talking for a while. My mom on the other hand was still admiring the things sold by the vendor near us. I think she bought some bracelets there. She gave me one, I said that it wouldn't fit me but she said to just soak it in water then it will fit me. i guess it was like magic. LOL.

I didn't know what material it was made of but I'm pretty sure it was one of the weirdest thing I've heard since the bracelet has this woody texture to it. Everything here has been weird.

This one on the right was taken in the park. Heck, all these pictures were in the park. There's my mom looking at the necklaces and stuff. She was looking for some dream catcher necklaces that my sister asked. It was really fun, I knew I should've bought that big dream catcher. LOL

This was the last stall we visited since we were really tired. We needed some place to sleep.

Remember we went to the Boulevard to rest and my mom bought that weird bracelet? Well, I think it is there that she knew about the Wuthering heights Resort. When she knew about it, we then head there since we can't go back to the motel due to its price.

It's a bit of long drive from where we were but I reckon it wasn't an hour drive, 20-30 minutes give or take. LOL. So we arrived there and stayed for the night since we still have lots of activities for the next day.

I must admit though that the building is kinda creepy too and a bit old fashion but the beds are cozy and they have a huge room that fits 5 people. You just pay extra for the mattress. So the pictures were taken during the day, after we got a good and proper rest. Look at how we're all ready for the next trip. . Oh I'm not in those pics. . Just to clarify that.

I'm gonna take a few minutes break, so I'll continue writing about the adventure on the next post. . It would be a long post since it's a three day trip! Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Negros Adventure pt. 1

2013-04-27T22:42:00.000+08:00

So last Saturday April 20, I woke up to a really wonderful and exciting news. That news made me skip the internet for a few days and it also made my summer awesome. My mom told me that we're going to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. She told me that we need to find someone as a help. She knew someone there namely Emma, I believe she was related to my mom or something like that. Not so sure about it.

She told me about that around 1 in the afternoon and that we are bound for Dumaguete at around 4 am Sunday. I was a bit hesitant though, I never thought I can wake up around that time since I usually sleep really late nowadays. At first I replied that I need to think about it ( though deep inside I was happy as a pup ) since there are lots to consider.

After a few minutes, I had a talk with my mom about the whole trip. I told her, why don't we just go at that moment so I can just sleep on the bus and on the boat, it took a while for my mom to agree with me. She then called my Uncle who lived in Bacolod, a few hours from Dumaguete. Then they planned a whole new trip after looking for Emma. They said, they wanted to go to Apo Island where you can go snorkeling and watch some beautiful corals and fishes in the marine sanctuary there. There were heaps of plans made by them.

I on the other hand searched the bus schedule and saw there's a 7 pm trip, though I only saw it on some forum online so I wasn't so sure about but still my gut tells me to take the trip, it was also said that the 7 pm trip was the last one. So we immediately prepared everything, packed all the essentials ( including two rolls of TP, can't go anywhere without them, LOL ) and everything was in a rush. My Mom and Aunt were in a hurry packing their stuff. I wasn't rushed though, as long as I have my camera and my shirts, face towels, and my "NECESSITY" ( tp ) were there, then I'm ok. .

Time came and we were set to the bus terminal. It's an hour away from our house and we haven't eaten dinner yet because it was still 5 pm. My mom wanted to have a quick stop at Mcdonald's but I was so excited and worried about the time that I decided not to.

We got to the bus terminal at around 6:30 and found that the bus has already left and that was the last one. Luckily there was a bus bound for Bato a place in the province of Cebu that has a port where the boat travels to Dumaguete. So we hopped on to the un-airconditioned bus so we can still make it to the boat. I think it was a four hour travel by bus and another hour by boat.

While on the bus I felt my stomach growling and it's not a pleasant feeling at all. I can feel the hunger but there is no food inside the bus. We haven't brought nor bought anything, since then I felt regret of not stopping at Mcdonal's. I was starting to imagine the huge quarter pounder with large fries and coke ( my usual order btw ) Oh! and a double hot fudge! writing it now even makes me hungry and I had a huge dinner. LOL. I was so hungry at that time.

An hour passed and we're in Car-car, a place in Cebu where it's famous for their scrumptious Chicharon ( Pork cracklings ). The bus door opened and suddenly a vendor went inside bringing some delicacies and thank God! there's chicharon and ampao ( It's sort of like rice puffs, LOL ) I was really hoping then that my mom would buy some since we're not seated next to each other. I kept on looking at her, waiting for her to call the vendor. Alas! she called the vendor and bought us some. I was really happy then, in my mind I thought, Eh, this is part of the adventure I wanted. Travelling is not always full of luxuries, you need to be able to think of ways to survive. . I'm not that kind of guy but I want to be. I'm an adventurer wanna be. So just bare with me in this. HAHA.

Now, I was happy with the food and Oh, there was water, my mom also bought it from the vendor. . Ok, so we arrived at the port and my mom got the tickets together with a few chips and HARD BOILED EGGS!!!! As you can see I emphasized the egg part. Yes, I love hard boiled eggs. :D We got on the boat, I finally got to use the restroom and ate a few chips and saved the eggs for later! *wink*

Then the second part of the Adventure Begins. . . That would be on the next post since I would be posting lots of pictures and so you guys won't be bored reading a really long post. If you want something to look forward too, here are spoilers below:

Loads of stories behind these pictures and a lot more pictures to come! :D stay tuned! <3

Cheers!

Mercado!

2013-04-14T23:28:00.002+08:00

Today I was awake early and went with my parents to the "Wet Market" or as what we call it "Merkado" which came from the Spanish word "Mercado" meaning market. It is called wet market due to the extreme use of water to keep the fish or meat fresh and clean. The market is located in Cordova named Pilipog, a couple of kilometers away from our house. Everything the sold there are fresh, from any kind of meat, fishes, poultry and vegetable selections. . .

It has been a really busy day for them there, the whole market is flooded with buyers. And yes I am the only guy who's bringing a camera there, I stood out from the crowd. Lots of people were staring at me, some even smiled for the camera, unfortunately, the shots were out of focus or underexposed or sometimes overexposed. Too bad though. Here are some of the fishes there. I don't know some of them for I am not really familiar with them. I only know a few. For some reason, going with my parents to the market was a good way to start the day. They only go there during Sundays for it is the only day that my father is available, it's his day off from work. He's the only one that knows how to drive around here.

Here is my mom buying some shrimps. By the way, I'm allergic to shrimps so this is not for me. I used to love them but unfortunately, I became allergic to it all of a sudden which is really weird. Back to topic, she knows what she's doing, On the right you can see some crabs, I don't know what those are but there are orange things in there bottoms. HAHA. I really think it's funny to see those there. While I was taking some pictures, I can't stop but staring at it, I think it's the fat or something. Still not sure.

Here is my dad checking out the small fishes which is known as "Bolinao". It can be bought dried or fresh. Depends on how you like your fish to be.You can also see some clams, mussels and other kinds of shellfishes. On the right you can see some women busy with cleaning the shells. They use this really big knife where they cut a tip of some of them. It's really fun seeing them work in harmony.

They are just there working while talking and just making the most out of their time. I bet they were just talking about some rumors or gossips going on there. HAHA.

That's what I hear most of the time, that some "Tinederas" or female sellers or whatever you call it. ;)

What my mom bought that really caught my eye was the parrot fish also known as "Mol-mol". That is one of my favorite fish of all along with Tuna, salmon, etc. . . I don't have a lot of favorites for I am not really a fish eater kind of guy. I'm more of a beef/pork/chicken. Oh! I also love shellfishes and crabs. .

Now for the meat and poultry part, we went to the next market just a few meters away from this one. This one is not that crowded at all, I guess it's due to the fact that the other market is new and somewhat an appealing place.

There's not much here really, just some chopped up chicken parts. You can see some whole chickens, chicken legs, breasts, feet, and the chicken heads. One of the disturbing ones there. It's a bit creepy seeing it there and the weird part is that I can't help my self but to take a picture of it and share it with you guys! HAHA

And here's the pork section, who says women can't butcher? This amazing lady is cooler than I thought. Not only that she knows how to chop up pig parts but she's also really friendly. I took a shot of her smiling but ended up deleting it due to the really poor quality of the picture. I'm guessing she knows my mom too. Maybe my mom always buy her meat there. You can see it there that the meat is clean and fresh. It's my first time here and seeing them. I have always wondered where my mom buys the pork. . . I've been having trouble taking some pictures here due to the fact that every time she slams that huge butcher's knife, bits and chunks flew and I don't want my camera or myself to get dirty and stuff. We still need to go to another market for the vegetables. LOL. I don't want to seem like a neat freak ( which I am not ). Just saying. HAHA

I did have fun today, it's a good thing I was up early. If I haven't, maybe I would never have taken these pics. Maybe I would never have a post for today! ;)

Oh for the vegetables, we went to the market under an old bridge (I'm just taking a wild guess since they call it "Tulay" meaning bridge.) I used to go there with my mom when I was a kid. Even the "Tindera" there was shocked when she saw me. According to her, I was really small when she last saw me, so apparently it was a really long time ago. That lady in the picture was the one who said that. She's a really nice lady too. . Really friendly. Though some of the veggies she's selling

This is the set up of the market there, It has improved since the last time I've been there. A lot has changed. It's much cleaner too.

I guess if we were there earlier, we can still see the place crowded and such. So many familiar faces there.

It's fun seeing them after such a long time. Maybe this won't be the last time I'll go with my parents since I had fun.

Oh! they don't just sell vegetables there, at the back, there's a vacant lot where they sell plants too. I remembered before, seeing lots of plants there but now, there isn't a lot. Hmm. Maybe the whole plant business doesn't click or they sell some of the stocks some place else. Here's my mom checking the plants out. <3

So that's the whole Wet market business.

Cheers!

Business???

2013-04-13T04:48:00.000+08:00

For some time now, I've been trying to figure out some ways to earn some extra cash since I'm still not able to work. It's been hard with all these expensive medications that does nothing to you but making you feel even worse about yourself. There has been improvements when we talk about my seizures but when it comes to the medication, you get tons of migraine headaches, muscle cramps, tiredness, nausea, loss of taste, dizziness, paranoia and so on. You can't really get everything when it comes to modern medicine. I don't really know why but those are the side effects I've been having. Oh I forgot to mention about the over eating which makes you really, really fat! I'm really huge now, I went from 240 lbs to 265 lbs in a year. I'm afraid it will continue to go on. Now I'm trying to change my sleeping habit so I can incorporate some exercise time in my daily schedule. . .

Since I wanted to change my sleeping habit, I needed some inspiration. The only thing I can think of is baking. YUP! baking, I'm pretty sure I have mentioned it before that I really loved baking. Even made a silly post before this about the stand mixer.

Baking is really expensive for me right now since my parents have a lot to pay with all my medical bills. Then I realized, just "What If?!", what if I run my own business of pastries. I post an ad online or tell my friends about it, then bake some cupcakes or cakes whenever they wanted to order. Just that sort of business. You don't lose anything if it won't click due to the fact that I will just make them cakes when I get some orders.

BUT! there are problems with this kind of idea, I don't really have the right market for it, like I don't really know anyone who would be interested in buying them. Since I've been sick, I haven't talked to people lately, I've been in complete and total solitude. By that I mean, lacking of any "Social interactions" with strangers, in short, making friends.

Aside from that, I don't really know how to really run a small business. Yes I have a few insights and a few knowledge about it but unlike others, I'm not quite proficient in the business industry.

I don't know why but every time and I mean "EVERY TIME" I think about doing something worth it (aside from practicing photography and improving my writing skills), making a small business is the only thing that comes into mind.

Also, even if I'm proficient with the whole business administration, I don't have a large amount of pastry recipes in my reservoir. I have only done a few and if I'm gonna enter the world of pastry business, I really need to think of new ways to reinvent the realm of cupcakery.

I think I need to spend a lot of time on this, I really wanted to make a risk, maybe ask some few friends on who wants to accompany me with this journey. Hopefully, I can do this,

For now, I'll just stick to practicing more. I need to perfect everything. After all, practice makes perfect, right?! *wink*

Cheers!

Stand mixer. . .

2013-04-09T06:16:00.000+08:00

Since I haven't slept last night, I was in my bed staring at the ceiling thinking of the future me owning a pastry shop, the one I have been dreaming of. Then it struck me, how can I open one when I only have 6 recipes on hand. That got me thinking more and more, .

I then went online to look for recipes. . There are thousands out there that are mouthwatering. .

Whenever I try to think of something new to add for my recipes, most of them require the use of electric mixers and the stand mixers are the most efficient ones. Some are a bit pricey but those are just the ones with designs.

My whole life ( in this case, my entire culinary life ), I have been dreaming of owning a stand mixer, a Kitchenaid stand mixer to be exact. .

These things make mixing the ingredients more efficient. I'm not saying that mixing it manually is a no fun thing to do, it is and you get a free workout at the same time but if you're gonna be making a lot of dishes that needs a lot of mixing, doing it manually will just be wasting time.

I plan on making some money someday to buy my own stand mixer. I know once I have one, there will be countless dishes I will be making later on.

I can imagine myself whipping creams and egg whites at their very peaks without any sweat at all and in just minutes. How amazing is that right? If only. .

Well, maybe soon, . For now I must try and stick to the manual mode and practice the easy ones. Besides, people made lovely desserts before using only their hands.

cheers!

Squid for dinner

2013-04-05T21:01:00.001+08:00

For tonight's dinner, we're having Grilled squid and sauteed squid since my father bought a fresh batch this afternoon. . Both are delicious! even ate a lot tonight.

Nothing better than freshly bought squid. I was not the one who made it but it's just really simple. You just clean the squid ( just slit the center, cook it whole ). Mix soy sauce ( just a small amount of soy sauce ), black pepper and some kalamansi and marinate it for a few minutes. . It doesn't take quite long to marinate. Then grill it on coal or on stove top, just until it's cooked properly. That's for the grilled one.

Here's a picture of the grilled squid:

Now for the sauteed squid, you just slice some onions, a bit of garlic, peppers (optional, but I prefer to have it in mine since it adds more flavor to it), salt and pepper. Slice the squid into bits and pieces not too small nor too large. . Bite size! Saute the onions, garlic and peppers, then a few minutes add the squid. For some reason, the squid will release some dark liquid, just leave it like that. It adds taste to it and you can even add a bit of water if you want and you can also reduce it for richer taste. . .

That's how I love my fresh squid done!

Cheers!

Month of March

2013-03-25T14:58:00.002+08:00

It's been days since I haven't made anything. I've been struggling a lot with this extreme heat. As a huge guy, heat is one of my worse nightmare. I've never been a fan of it. I love the sun but the extreme heat that radiates from it is just too much nowadays.

I have a cough that I'm so pissed about, been eating ice cream. That's all I can do to relieve myself from the heat due to the poor air-conditioning system in our house. The air-conditioner has been here a long time, so it has been expected.

Been wanting to go to the beach now but I just can't go alone, I have no one to take there with me. My parents are busy, my Mom has been having physical troubles and my Dad is still busy with work. I want to go alone but that's just it, I have this social anxiety lately that every time I try to think about going somewhere alone, I get all nervous and stuff.

My friends are busy with their lives and to be honest, some of them just don't want to be in the sun. LOL. I don't get why some people are afraid to get a darker skin. Well, I'm afraid too sometimes but I prefer getting dark than to suffer headaches and stuff.

If only there's a place where the sun can't penetrate. Well if there is such a place, I would totally go there. Also where there are lots of ice cream. I can only imagine it, since there's no place like that on earth. whew!

It's summer and the only thing that made me felt the summer fever is the heat. . Nothing more, nothing less.

I just hope this won't last a few month. Maybe next week, the clouds would be as forgiving as they were before. . LOL. .

So, that's the reason I've never been really in the mood for making stuff right now. Maybe tomorrow when the sudden change of temperature and weather would alter my mood and maybe I can make something. I can only hope.

For now, I need to find a sweet escape. . Cheers!

Oh one more thing, how about I share this pictures I've taken few days before. :D I have been interested in photography for a long time, thought maybe I'd give it a go, so here's few practice shots, this is my first time. . . So again, Cheers! Hope you all have a pleasant summer or whatever season some of you guys are at.

Spiny orb-weaver spider

Dead Bonsai

Random white flower I saw at our backyard. .

Practicing how to do the depth of field thing. . .

Search for the right frosting. .

2013-03-17T15:09:00.001+08:00

As what the title says, I've been scouting the net for the right recipe of a frosting. I'm completely out of ideas for it, the only thing I know is the basic traditional buttercream frosting which I have mostly used. The thing is, I can't really get the right taste for it.

It says that the "American buttercream frosting" is really sweet. That's just it. The problem is, I sometimes get greasy and a wet frosting if I don't add the required amount of icing sugar.

I like the sweetness but it's just too much that it overpowers the flavor of the cupcake itself. I've been to lots of websites explaining them and came across this site called " Cupcake Cavern ". I love this blog and been reading it for the past few days.

The publisher even says that the buttercream frosting is one of her faves, I'm guessing, maybe there's something wrong with what I have done. I only use whisk when making it. Strenuous as it may seem but it's the only thing I can do for I have no electric mixer. Oh we have the handheld one but I'm afraid of using it, I always lose control and I haven't used that one before. The only mixer I've used before was the electric table top mixer. So to satisfy my hunger for making cupcakes, I just do it manually, ignoring the stressful whisking, it is a good work out for my left hand also.

I'm still not sure about what I've been doing wrong for now but soon, I will do my best to figure it out and present to you guys the best frosting there is. If ever I can do it. HAHA.

I don't feel good using the meringue or the boiled egg white ones, I haven't done it on cupcakes, so I'll just stick to what I do for now. I've tried making meringues before using only a whisk and I must say, it's a pretty tiring task too but totally worth it in the end.

So while I'm on the search, why don't you guys check out the blog above, highlighted in red and named Cupcake Cavern. I assure you guys, you will love it as much as I love it too.

That's it for now, Cheers!

Lemon cupcakes with Cinnamon buttercream frosting

2013-02-23T15:08:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I decided to make some cupcakes for me to bring to my friend's house. Also something I can add to my recipes page.

I've been craving for something lemony ever since and wondered about making lemon squares, since I don't have any recipes for it, I just made those cute little cupcakes and I also enjoy making them as well.

I googled for some recipes and found only a few. This one recipe I saw was so easy to make but I don't have some of the ingredients and some of them were expensive too. Desperate for some baking action, I decided to make some tweaking to it. So this time it's a bit experimental.

I made two batches, the first one was a wreck. It overflowed so I panicked! I didn't know what to do at that time, I said to myself, now I'm gonna be late. That's the reason I made another batch, I realized the oven was too hot, instead of 180 degrees I had it on 220 degrees. It was the stupidest thing I've done. I've made cupcakes before and turned out great, well I made it months ago. LOL.

So in the second one I changed the temperature to 180 degrees. Thanks to common sense, my cupcakes came out great. I tasted one without the frosting and I loved the taste, you can taste the lemon in it but due to the vanilla, it tasted like banana bread with lemon in it. Overall it's ok. I need to adjust the frosting though, too sweet and it somehow lessens the lemon flavor to it. .

That was it, I got late for my friend's get together party and had a good batch of cupcakes, they said it was okay. Guess I need to do some more tweaking to it, maybe in time It'll be good or maybe great. So, cheers! :D

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Lemon cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tbsp lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons

Frosting:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioner sugar, Sifted
2 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon

Procedure:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. By dry ingredients, I mean the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius.

2. In a different bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Make sure it's mixed well, no lumps. Add the eggs, one at a time and the vanilla. Mix well.

3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well and make sure there's no lumps. At this stage, once there's no lumps you can add the lemon juice and the zest. You might notice that it will start to curdle a bit, don't worry, just keep mixing it but just don't over mix it.

4. Pour the batter in the prepared muffin cups evenly. I suggest pouring it half of the cups so it won't overflow during cooking. Once this is done, pop it in the oven for 25 minutes. Make sure to check it once in a while.

5. Put it in a cooling rack once it's done cooking. Be sure it's cooled down so the frosting won't melt when applied.

6. You can pipe the frosting now however you want. Just be creative with this. .

Frosting:

1. Cream the butter then whisk in the confectioners sugar. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon. Whisk it until it everything is fully incorporated and when you lift the whisk, it starts to form stiff peaks.

2. Once done, place it in a piping bag and pipe it or you can store it in an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator for future use.

Tartlet shells

2013-02-20T18:48:00.000+08:00

This post is dedicated to what I did last February 15. I made little chicken tartlets, it's like the basic chicken pot pie but instead I made it into little tarts. Though this one is just dedicated on the recipe for making the Tart shells. Just used the basic recipe and molded them into small cupcake tins.

Now for the Recipe, it's just 2 cups flour and 125 g butter (not melted) and a pinch of salt. Just that.

Cut the butter into small cubes ( really small ones if you're gonna do this by hand, you can also cut them a bit bigger if you're gonna use a food processor ), for this one, I did it by hand.

Once the butter is cut into small pieces, you can now start mixing it in the flour. Just use your hands (clean hands) to crumple the ingredients together. At this stage it may start to look like bread crumbs and that's exactly what we're gonna need.

After all the butter has turned to pea sized and no sign of dry flour, add 3 tbs of water at a time and start kneading it gently until it becomes soft and smooth. This will look like a really soft bread dough.

Once it's smooth, take it out of the bowl and place it in a plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. This makes the gluten in the flour to rest if not, the pastry will shrink during cooking.

Above is a picture of the dough wrapped in a plastic wrap ready for refrigerating. . .

Once done, you can start rolling the dough. Firstly, you need to dust the work area with flour so the dough won't stick to the surface and flour the rolling pin also, same concept. Roll it and rotating the dough 90 degrees each time. Make sure it's even though. You can stop rolling when the pastry is about a quarter of an inch thick.

After rolling you can now use a cookie cutter or anything the same size as the mold to cut the sheets of pastry. Don't forget to dip the cutter in flour. Just a precaution, you never know when the dough strikes and starts sticking and eventually destroys the whole thing.

Here it is, it's fitted in the tin and make sure to poke small holes in the center, just use a fork for this. This is now ready to get refrigerated for about 10 minutes. Same concept as the last.

After refrigerating, add some wax paper, you can just cut small papers that fits in the shells and add some weights to it, in this I used Mung beans. This is what's available at that time.

Oh before I forget, when refrigerating the pastry make sure to preheat the oven as well to 180 degrees Celsius.

Bake it for at least 10 minutes, after that remove the weights and bake it for another 5 minutes to brown it a bit. This can make the shells crisp. Voila! your tartlet shells are good and ready. You can do anything you want with these little fellas, any savoury appetizers can be made with these. It cost less and is easy to make.

Try them on some of your little gatherings with friends and family, be creative with what you want with these. Just remember, it doesn't have to be expensive to have decent appetizers for your gatherings, all you need to have is your imagination. Like what the late Albert Einstein has said, " Imagination is more important than knowledge". So just let your creative side flow and have fun with it.

Cheers!

Yields up to 24 tartlet shells. 12 when using cupcake tins like what I used.

Ingredients:

2 cups All purpose flour
125 g butter
3 tbs water
pinch of salt

Oh if any of you out there has any opinions whatsoever about this post, feel free to comment below. <3

Creative juice

2013-02-16T20:06:00.000+08:00

So, I was thinking of something to make in addition to my recipes page. Sadly, I can't seem to think of any. I have lots of ingredients laying around the house and still can't figure out what to do with them.

I surfed online for some recipes that are easy and quick to make still none of them just catch my eyes. So I just went and listened to some music hoping I get inspired and get this brain of mine to function and work its magic. . I remembered listening to this before and wondered why I never downloaded it. So freaking weird.

Now I'm starting to get a bit creative, just hope it will be enough to come up of something. hmm

So I'm sharing this to you guys out there hoping it will inspire y'all too. . Turn up your volume and listen to this wonderful beat in the kitchen and get your creative juices going!

Cheers!

CUPCAKES!

Bohol Trip

2013-02-14T17:47:00.002+08:00

Last February 13, 2013 we went on a 1 day trip to Bohol. My parents had some important stuff to do there. That was one of the most exhausting and fun trip I've had.

We left the house around 5 am, making us miss the first trip of the boat which made us take the second one instead, only an hour difference. .

After buying the tickets we then waited at the terminal at the port. I was so excited for it was my first time travelling after a year of being sick and stuff.

Minutes before boarding we saw some politicians about to go on the trip as well. They were gonna do some campaigning for the coming election. It was weird seeing them there.

When we were on the boat, 20 minutes past the schedule time for departure, one of the passengers behind us kept on complaining about how it is unfair for them to wait for some of the VIP's to be on the boat while normal people gets left behind for just 5 minutes late. It was quite a laugh for me to hear him moan about his "PROBLEMS" with the management. LOL

Enough about that, once the VIP's has settled, the boat then took its course and head out to sea. :D

In the middle of nowhere, some of the politicians went up to the economy class where we are seated ( 'cuz the business class is full just for them ) and they started greeting everyone and letting us know about their candidacy. I was so happy to have my pic taken with one of my idols. He is a senator and the chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. It was a good way to pass the time for it's an hour trip.

From the left: my dad, Senator Gordon, my mom and me.

When the boat arrived at the port in Bohol, there was a marching band greeting the politicians. I just made it seem like they were there for me. LOL.

Let's just fast forward to where we got some breakfast, there isn't much story there when we arrived. So we met the driver of the car my mom rented for the day and he took us to where my mom always eats when she gets there. It's not a fancy restaurant, it's just a small informal restaurant in which all people have known it as an Eatery.

This is it, Kan-anan Exacto ni Ate Jo. . It's quite small really but the best part is that it's cheap, clean and just along the way to our destination. .

There are a few varieties on the menu for them. Some are good and some are just okay. Most of items we ordered are Filipino foods that are a bit hard for me to describe. We ordered the Stingray simmered in vinegar and coconut milk along with other spices. We also ordered the Filipino style Beef steak, and the Pork menudo. .

Filipino Style Beef Steak

Pork Menudo

Stingray

Ordered each for us though I only ate the Beef steak and just tasted the rest. Not so much a fan of the stingray. . .

After breakfast we then started our journey to San Miguel, where my sister's farm is located. It's a one hour drive from where we were. There were lots of really nice views along the way, too bad I'm not good with photography. Haven't taken some good pictures of the scenes there. The ones I took are okay but not that good though. Here is a glimpse of Bohol from the path we've taken:

You can see how there are lots of greens there. . It is really relaxing to just stay in the car cruising through the empty highway.

Here's a picture of the farm too,

The dog being cozy in the small garden. .

Here's my mom with her Ipad. haha

They were all busy doing their stuff while I was taking some pics, some are posted on my facebook page and some I've deleted.

Time for lunch, my mom and I just bought some food in a small eatery again for there is no time to cook. most of the food we bought for lunch were fried. Fried native chicken, Fried pork, and Stir fried vermicelli. .

I don't recommend eating the huge slice of fat of the pork, eat at your own risk. . . We ate outside knowing it may rain at any time. The weather that time wasn't really that good. By the time we got settled in, the rain just poured. One by one took whatever we can inside and continued eating there.

It was fun if I may add. LOL.

The only thing that pissed me off was that after eating it stopped raining. It's like the heavens are playing with us. >.<

Then after eating back to how things are, they did their own thing while I did mine. LOL. I still had nothing to do there. Have I mentioned I was soaking in my own sweat? YES! walking on mud really exhausts you. Well, that is if you're like me, big and heavy.

By 3 pm we headed back to the port so we can go back to Cebu early. An hour car drive and another hour boat ride again. It was just a 1 day plan really. I wanted to take the last boat trip at night but my mom wanted to go home early. So that's the whole day activity we had. It was really fun even though we only did a few things and the whole thing didn't really cost that much.

You don't have to spend so much to have fun. You don't have to eat in a fancy restaurant to be full and have a decent meal. What's important is the company you have and how you spend your time with it that makes it fun. We were laughing a lot during the trip. This whole thing is like going back to being simple.

I just hope we can go back soon! Cheers!

Here are more pics taken on our way back to the port from the farm:

High school friends. .

2013-02-09T00:31:00.000+08:00

Hmm. . as you can see there's no post about food for today. There were plans made right after tennis, my high school classmates hung out at my house and had rum coke. . Unfortunately I wasn't able to have any drink whatsoever due to my medications. .

I wasn't even able to prepare any food for them. . If only it was planned ahead of time. . .

This is us, me with the yellow hair and my friend Lee wearing black, Khaye, Isaiah doing the somehow offensive sign and Karl my tennis buddy.

and another one, with a very awkward shot of me. . I don't really look good in pictures. LOL

and these are just crazy pictures of us. Doing wacky faces. Just playing and waiting for the time to pass. .

Look how crazy we are. . LOL

Khaye and me just messing with the cam. . Doing whatever we want.

Isaiah and Karl are the musically inclined ones. Karl has a good singing voice and Isaiah knows his way with instruments. He's pretty amazing behind the guitar. .

And this is the wacky group shot and again Isaiah with his offensive sign. Sorry 'bout that. .

This event has given me the idea of hosting a small get together with friends and make some great party planning topics for my blog. Though I'm not good, I can always ask help from the best party planner that I've known. She's one of the best.

She knows how to make ordinary things work great. She even organized my sister's wedding and that woman is my one and only MOM. . . Yup! She knows her way too with organizing stuff. . Too bad she haven't passed her party planning genes to me. LOL! But I guess I can learn in time. . .

Cheers!

Month of hearts. .

2013-02-07T20:18:00.000+08:00

I can smell the lovely couples everywhere excited about Valentines day. . . Seems like a good week for bakers and pastry chefs everywhere.

I'm seeing lots of cupcakes, cookies and other pastry items on social networks that are made for the sole purpose of celebrating the day of lovers expressing their love for each other. .

Soon, I'm planning on making a few desserts made especially for that day. Still searching for some recipes since I don't have much recipes in hand. . I want something cheap and quick like my other posts.

Since I love making pastries and I'm not yet good in making them yet, I'm gonna start practicing Monday next week.

I just feel envious on what everyone made. Those heart shaped cookies and stuff. Though it's common, it's still cute. Still need to incorporate the healthy stuff in it.

Time to get my thinking cap on and think of ways to make some cheap and easy desserts for that special day! Cheers!

Hungarian Pork Goulash

2013-02-07T02:14:00.001+08:00

Another day for a new recipe to try. I thought about making Hungarian Pork Goulash which is new to me since what I have done in school before was beef. I tried pork since it's all that was available and can be cooked in a short time.

After a really tiring game of tennis, I could really use some nice warm meal to relax. . . .

First things first, prepping of the ingredients. This includes cutting the vegetables and such. Will be specified below in the ingredients list. Procedure will be stated as follows,

First, what I did was I dipped the pork in flour. Not too much though. Just dust off the excess flour. Then put a tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauce pan and wait until the pan gets really hot.

Once the pan is hot enough, sear each slice of pork on all sides. Don't crowd the pan. What we need at this time is the brown color, that gives the pork its flavor.

After the browning process remove the pork from the pan and into a plate. At this point, the pork is not fully cooked, we need to cook it thoroughly later. Now, add another tablespoon of olive oil and start caramelizing the onions. When caramelized, you can now add carrots, bell peppers, chilies, tomatoes and just saute them for a few minutes. Then add half a cup of water at this time.

Now, I wanted to use the canned tomatoes where there are huge tomatoes and the juice of it inside but unfortunately we don't have them here and there's no time to buy some. Instead I used real tomatoes, the small ones and just used some tomato paste. I added the tomato paste when after adding the water. Remember to mix it well.

After adding water, add the fried pork and let simmer for a few minutes to properly cook it.

This is the time to add more water and add the salt, cayenne pepper, black peppercorn, cinnamon and paprika. I just used the spices that are laying around in the kitchen. I don't know why but adding cinnamon to it gives it a unique flavor.

A few minutes before the pork will be properly cooked, add the potatoes. That will make them soft and tender at the same time.

It is also good to add Yogurt in it to make the taste of the stew richer.

Voila! That is how I make my own version of the Hungarian Pork Goulash. I've found other recipes online but I don't have some of the ingredients so I decided to make my own using the ingredients that are easily available at our own house. Easy and quick to make!

NOTE: The measurements for the powdered items are still temporary. Will be changed as soon as it will be confirmed. . . .

Ingredients:

1/4 kilo Pork, cubes
2 pcs Carrots, diced
3 pcs large Potatoes, diced
4 pcs Tomatoes, quartered
5 pcs onions, minced then caramelized
5 pcs Chilies, roughly chopped
3 pcs Bell peppers, diced
1 pc Ginger, chopped
3 cloves Garlic, peeled, crushed and chopped
2 tbsp Olive oil
A packet of tomato paste about 150 g
1 tbsp Black Peppercorns
1/4 tbsp Cinnamon
1/4 tbsp Cayenne pepper
1/4 tbsp Paprika

Another fish for tonight's meal. .

2013-02-05T21:01:00.001+08:00

Tonight I made Fried Pangasius with Roasted Vegetables. Weirdly enough, it tasted good. It wasn't even planned, just went to the kitchen and saw the bought fish like last time then vegetables popped in my mind.

Pangasius is a shark catfish. Mostly found in Asia.

Source:Pangasius

The only vegetables laying around were tomatoes, carrots and bell peppers. Even added some garlic, chilies and some caramelized onion on top of the fish. .

On top are the vegetables getting ready for roasting. Just seasoned them with salt and black pepper then drizzled with olive oil. .

Best thing about this is that you can use any kind of vegetables laying around and can be easily made.

After seasoning them I just popped them in the oven for about 5-8 minutes or until they're done. . I don't really like some of them overcooked.

The fish was marinated in a mixture of lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. Just as simple as that! I was also looking for something that can be done easily. Just marinate it for 15 minutes for the fish is a bit delicate. Longer than that will make the fish more brittle and unappealing.

Once it's done marinating I just seared it in a pan for about 5 minutes. The fish is really thin so it doesn't need to be cooked too long. 3 minutes on one side and 2 on the other. On the last minute, just turn off the heat and add a bit of butter to it for added taste and so the fish won't be dry.

What I liked most about this fish is that, unlike other fishes, it doesn't have that nasty fishy smell and taste.

Everything will be done under 30 minutes. So it's a recipe for those who want an easy and quick meal and a bit healthier too.

My parents loved it! I love the look on their face when they've tasted it. I just love it when someone appreciates your cooking.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Fried Pangasius with Roasted vegetables topped with caramelized onions

There you go, another fish recipe for my reservoir. Simple yet tasty. Cheers!

Ingredients: 1 serving

1 Pangasius (filleted)

Marinade:

Olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Black pepper

1 Carrot, diced
1 Onion, minced then caramelized
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 pc Chili, diced
2 pcs Tomatoes, cut into quarters
2 pcs Red bell peppers, diced
Salt and pepper to taste, for the veggies
two tablespoon olive oil, for the veggies

Not so healthy topic for the night

2013-02-05T01:09:00.002+08:00

Warning: The following is not for the health conscious people out there. Just a random post about what we had for dinner. Also not included for the health awareness week though it can be a great idea for lunch or dinner on a lovely Sunday.

Tonight I came home from tennis practice and saw a freshly bought fish. I was a bit reluctant when it comes to fish, I'm not a real fan of it. What I did was ask my mom what it is and she said, "It's a blue marlin!" . .

The first thing that popped into mind was fats and oil. YES! Fats and oil. I used to like that fish but as I grew up, I started hating it. I don't know why but there's just something about the taste that stays in your mouth for hours.

My mom wanted the fish marinated in a simple marinade and grilled. She just wanted something simple. So the fish was marinated with a soy sauce mixture. I then started thinking about how to give it more taste and every time I think of fish, the only thing that comes into mind is HOLLANDAISE.

I kept saying to myself "NO, too much fats!". I opened the fridge and only saw eggs, butter and some lemon. . Maybe that's what encouraged my thoughts to bring up hollandaise.

So after two hours of marinating (yes, two hours! to get rid of the awful fishy taste, it won't really damage the fish due to its fats.) the fish was grilled. Just until it's properly cooked, it only takes 15 minutes to properly cook it.

After grilling the nasty piece of fish, I then started making my dreadful hollandaise sauce. Dreadful not for the taste but for the process of making it. Whisking it is just a pain in the ass but still I love doing it. Weird right?

To make the sauce you must first need to separate the egg whites from the yolk. All we need are the yolks. Once separated whisk in the freshly squeezed lemon. Whisk until it increases in volume. . You'll start to see the egg and lemon mixture thickening.

Once it is done, put it over a saucepan with hot water in it, not too hot though and careful not to touch the bottom of the bowl to the water. This may cause your egg to be cooked and scramble.

Start pouring in slowly the melted butter and whisk vigorously until all the melted butter are incorporated. Voila! your very own Hollandaise sauce. Don't forget to season it with salt and pepper too. :)

I also added some chopped pine nuts just to give it some texture, I just roasted a handful of pine nuts and chopped them roughly.

It's pretty exhausting but still worthwhile.

Grilled Blue Marlin with Hollandaise Sauce and chopped pine nuts.

So here it is, doesn't look like much but taste good. Cheers!

Ingredients:

Blue Marlin

Marinade:

1 cup of Soy sauce
1 cup of Vinegar
a handful of Black peppercorn
1 lemon
1 bayleaf
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
Hollandaise sauce:
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup melted butter
Fresh juice of 1 lemon or 1 tbsp
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Health Awareness Week for me. . .

2013-02-03T04:31:00.000+08:00

Sunday, the day where mostly everyone stays at home, spending time with the whole family and some even spend time with friends. There are also some who loves spending their time outside like on the beach and on the park.

It's just the perfect day to rest and unwind from the stressful week of school and work. That's why it's preferable to have something home cooked.

The first two paragraphs are way off topic from the title I have specified, well, I just wanted to state that today is always the day to have a scrumptious home cooked meal for all the family members to enjoy. I on the other hand, always end up thinking of ways on what to cook and such. I find it hard for the budget and the facilities to cook. There's a big book of recipes here but some of the ingredients are just expensive and I'm not that good on substituting things. So, I was thinking, if you want a meal for your family to enjoy on a lovely Sunday, why not cook something healthy and delicious at the same time.

So starting right now, I'm gonna try and search some healthy and delicious recipes to put up for the whole week. I guess it's not that hard, the only challenge is that I need to find ingredients that are affordable. hmm.

Now this is a challenge I will be willing to undertake. .

Everyone are so health conscious these days so I'm guessing there will be lots of healthy recipes lurking around the web and some magazines.

Can't wait to find my very first recipe, . I don't really have any health conscious recipes on my sleeves at the moment so this would be a really good start and maybe draw in some good crowd to my blog.

Let the healthy way of living begin. . ;)

Cheers!

California Maki

2013-02-02T19:16:00.004+08:00

Wow. It's 2013 and still haven't made anything about me cooking up something good. In fact, everything I wrote last year was plain and boring for me. Hmm.

Last January 20 was the day I invited my high school friends to come over. I invited them days before and ended up with only one who showed up. The weird part is that I never really got to prepare anything that time. The only thing I had in mind was to buy some barbecues and make maki rolls. I love making some maki rolls.

I'm obsessed with them rolls. I used to love making Japanese food when I had my internship at Shangri-la Mactan Resort and Spa. That's when the time I fell in love with it.

When I was in school, I made a recipe called Chicken Adobo Maki, it's sort of a Filipino/Japanese fusion style. It was a failure, for me. I never really liked it that much. There's always this thing where I imagine a really beautiful creation and then "BAM" reality hits me with an axe and presents me with an awful presentation of it.

So, I decided to buy some mangoes, cucumbers and crab sticks for my maki rolls. Just used those as the fillings. It's the same as the california maki, the only difference is that I didn't have any ebiko. Ebiko means shrimp eggs, the orange, caviar-like thing on california makis. I think it's common, though unsure of it.

So what I did was, placed a piece of nori (dried seaweed) on the rolling mat shiny side down then took the cooked Japanese rice and spread it all over the nori sheet. First place rice near you then spread it away, leaving at least an inch, so it will be sealed easily. I kept thinking not to put too much rice, just enough so that all the ingredients will fit in there.

Next, I added the sliced cucumbers, crab meat and mangoes. All sliced thinly of course. Then I added the Japanese mayonnaise, which I find a bit weird at times. .

Once everything is in their place, the rolling can begin! LOL.

I'm not really an expert on giving exact details in writing. Still working on that. To know how to roll, I suggest that you just search on on youtube or try googling it.

There it is, I made a batch of california maki or whatever it is called.

Credits to my friend's phone for the picture. So the dinner went on, made maki rolls and just bought some barbecue, I didn't have enough time to prepare for my friend confirmed on that day. I hated cancelling plans sometimes.

so there you go, that's my first post for this year, I know it may be crappy but in time I can improve. No harm in trying and also, I want to be positive for this year. . . wish you all the best!

Ingredients:

Sushi rice

3 cups Japanese rice, cooked
60 ml Sushi vinegar
10 g sugar
5 g salt

Note: For the sushi vinegar mixture, just add the sugar, vinegar and salt and make sure to mix it well and make sure that the sugar and salt granules are dissolved properly. Then mix with the cooked Japanese Rice

Crab stick / meat
Cucumbers, sliced into thin strips
Nori, Roasted seaweeds
Mangoes, sliced into thin strips

Bibingka for breakfast

2012-09-27T09:39:00.001+08:00

Today my parents bought "Bibingka" for breakfast. It's a Filipino delicacy that is our version of the old rice cake.

Here is a pic of it, though not a good one. I'm not that good with taking pics:

Think my dad bought these, a few minutes from our place there is a small shed that sells these. They bake these yummy rice cakes in a small mold with banana leaves (hence the burnt banana leaves) then placed on top of coals.

Gosh! I love the traditional way of cooking. It gives it a bit of a signature taste to it. I mean the charred sides of the rice cakes gives it an appetizing look and the burned banana leaves, leaves it's banana-ish taste and is really good.

This even has the simplest ingredients and it's not hard to make. The main ingredients of it is rice (again, hence the name rice cake) and the coconut milk. YUP! I love coconut milk.

As you can see the rice is grounded finely which makes it soft. Recently, I've seen my mom eat it with melted cheese on top. I have no idea how it tastes because I haven't tried it yet, still hesitant to try it. I've heard that there are different types of how this is eaten. Meaning, some pairs or tops it with different things which is interesting really.

So for today that's all for the Bibingka breakfast.

Cheers!

Cooking Depression

2012-09-26T19:15:00.004+08:00

This really is a real condition for me, the cooking depression thing. Been months since I have cooked something and posted stuff here. I really wanted to make something up, even decided to put up some posts about the every food we eat just to have something on.

I haven't been able to cook because I've been sick all these time and not allowed to do anything. I know it SUCKS! I even broke my neck 3 days ago. and I've been wearing this really annoying neck brace. Makes your neck feel hot and wet. UGH!

So right now, this post is all about ranting. YUP! the good ol' ranting. I don't have anything in mind right now except for the feeling of my stomach tingling from hunger. Kept on saying " FEED ME YOU FAT BASTARD WITH A NECK COLLAR!" LOL.

I know what you guys are thinking, this cooking depression thing is making me crazy. Well guess what, it does. I'm CRAZY as hell. Damn straight crazy. I have the urge to make those rainbow cupcakes but I don't know what flavor.

I wanted to cook something Indian but I have no recipes. I wanted to write something so bad but what? That is the real question here. I'm out of ideas right now, I'm not even a really good writer as what you can see. I write like a 5 year old. LOL. Even attempted to write a book but I got stuck at the second page of my synopsis. See? I'm really not a good writer.

Been wanting to use writing as a way to gain money online since it's the only way, found a lot of jobs like that but I don't think I qualify for that. HAHA. Didn't even went to college. lol

So that's it for the ranting for now, This post is just to keep the flies away from my blog. HAHA.

Here's a pic of me looking all beaten up by chickens! haha. :))

Cheers!

joy of baking

2012-07-02T01:27:00.002+08:00

Ok, when I was on instagram searching for some pictures of cupcakes, I became envious of the different piping techniques they did. I really dig the whole baking thing, I love pastries but I'm not really a fan on eating them, just the making part. In school, I wasn't the best pastry student there is. I even got punished during our wedding cake class for making a black colored cake with a tombstone on top and two skulls. I won't take the credit of making the skulls due to the fact that I'm also not a good artist. It's such a shame really but I think when I practice more, I can achieve it. So back on the wedding cake I made, I think it sends a beautiful meaning about how true love never dies. It takes away the statement " til death do us part ". I'm kind of a romantic guy on the inside, I just don't feel like showing it. The punishment was two weeks of mopping the kitchen. In my side of the story, the punishment was kind of unfair. I just wanted to be creative, the cake doesn't really look good but the message is.

Back to the cupcake madness, Today i made a carrot cupcake with buttercream frosting. I was planning on making a different kind of frosting but the only thing we have on stock was butter. The last time I made a carrot cupcake, it was a failure due to the miscalculation of the measurements. It didn't rise as expected but the taste was good. My sister even told me to make more but I used up all the ingredients and I need to have another recipe. Today I googled up a recipe for it and luckily, it was a success. Got it to rise like how i wanted it to and the texture and color is ok for me.

This is the pic of the cupcakes fresh out from the oven. The picture is crappy cuz it was taken from my phone.

The frosting on the other hand, I made two batches. The first one, I planned was a lemon buttercream frosting but unfortunately the butter I used was salted and it was too salty for me. I was a bit disappointed with that. The second batch, I finally used unsalted butter but no lemon. So it's just a simple buttercream frosting. Piping it was the nerve wrecking part. I'm kind of a perfectionist in my own way, I don't want something to fail. If it does, I will keep practicing it until it's good enough to look at and good enough to eat. I used a 1 M tip to make the fancy swirl that I loved. Right now, due to the meds I've been taking, my hands were a bit shaky and maybe it's also from the fact that I haven't done it in a long while. I don't think the last one counts as an experience. LOL

This is the final product with the buttercream frosting piped in a fancy swirl.

That's also what I loved about making these adorable cupcakes, the idea of different techniques and crazy designs that may come up. You can just imagine thousands of ways to design it. Also, the taste. Which makes it a bit tough. Now that I'm just beginning to practice, I'll just stick to the basic techniques. Who knows, maybe next time I can invent something new. It's just a matter of exploration with your creative side. I'm finally happy with the end result of this. Hopefully this can get me a good night's rest. I'll post the recipe soon. My eyes are tired and needs rest. Cheers!