Foodie!

Apple Pear Crisp

2015-01-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Chopped apples and pears from earlier in Dec and frozen.

Cooked it down til it was soft and mushy. Turns out, pears are not so great at being frozen, then cooked, as it gets really mushed. At least apples still hold their shape... Added sugar, butter, and other good stuff... Check out the apple crisp recipe here.

Made the crisp part with grape nut cereal, oats, sugar, n butter.

Wasn't too shabby considering the pear disintegrated. It turned out to be apples in pear sauce sort of crisp, so still tasty! :)

Lemon Pudding Cake

2015-01-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

So my dad had just given me a small bag of huge lemons from his dwarf lemon tree. We hardly just lemons, so it usually just sit around the kitchen. And then my hubby's boss gives us a huge bag of more lemons. I thought, "What to do with all these lemons?!?," searched the web and settled on this recipe because it looked different. Lo and behold! It only called for 1 lemon. -_-

"In a medium bowl, whisk 3/4 cup granulated sugar with 1/3 cup all-purpose flour. In another bowl, whisk 3 large egg yolks with 2 tablespoons unsalted butter until well blended. Whisk in 1 cup milk,

5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest. Pour the lemon mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until smooth." For those that know me, I used the kitchenaid thingy as we don't have any hand whisk... I just hate washing those...

"In a medium bowl, beat the 3 large egg whites with 1/4 teaspoon salt until firm peaks form." If I remember correctly, this took 15 minutes. I was running out of time before people showed up so the peak isn't all that firm...

"Gently fold the egg whites into the lemon mixture." I then poured the batter into a Pam'd silicon thing that had 12 rectangles. I thought it'd look like a cute mini cake. A bit too mini for my liking. Poured the batter in half way cuz I thought it would rise, it did very little, then when I refrigerated it so it could cool, the rise deflated... Then placed it in a pan. "Place the silicon pan in the oven and pour in enough hot water [in the pan] to reach halfway up the sides of the [silicone pan]."

"Bake the pudding cakes for 35 minutes or until they are puffy and golden on top."

Ta-da!

Served with whip cream and ice cream. Twas light and refreshing! The texture took getting used to though. It was like half moist cake, half pudding.

I was thinking it'd be a great batter for those fruit tart desserts.

Half mushed Bacon Peas

2015-01-02T21:04:00.000-08:00

What you need: 32oz pea bag, 4 tbs bacon fat or olive oil, 1 med sized onion, 1 tsp ground garlic, 1/2 tsp beef bouillon, 2 tbs water, 8 slices of bacon

Chop and brown the onion with the bacon fat/olive oil in a fry pan.

Add in the peas! I added them while they were frozen... then add in the seasonings (garlic and beef bouillon) and extra water if needed.

In a separate fry pan, fry the bacon! You could do this step first and then just cook the onions in the fat... mmmm tasty bacon fat! Chop the bacon and set aside.

Before mixing in the bacon, I took a hand blender and scooped about 1/3 of the peas and blended it in a cup, then mixed it back in. Then, mix in the bacon!

Viola! The most tasty peas ever!

New Year's Feast

2015-01-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

Fruity delicious wine. Simply added strawberry and pear pieces and a bit of sugar to a Malbec. Stir in sugar and let sit for awhile before serving. Yummy!

Half mushed bacon peas. Turned out the hubs would've like it better if it was all mushed.

Hubster made these awesome drumsticks and wings. Totally tasted and looked like KFC or PopEye's crispy fried chicken. We made lots more, of course!

Bruschetta. Hindsight note: Better to have chopped tomatoes on top. Whole pieces of sundried tomatoes meant putting the whole piece in your mouth...

Beef ribs.. mmmmm

Lemon pudding cake with mint ice cream.

Chocoholic candies,

And we actually left this apple pear crisp in the oven and didn't eat it til the next day.

Eggnog

2014-12-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Southern Comfort traditional eggnog was surprisingly delicious! Le hubs and I thought it could be gross so we got a small carton so we won't feel bad if we had to dump it. Turns out we want to covet it and drink it all for ourselves! It's also pretty decadent and rich and creamy and sweet. Perfect combo. Le hubs said you're supposed to mix it with rum, but we didn't have any so we tried the above stuff. Let's just say, Disaronno is the best out of the three, but really by itself was the best. Anyways, since it was very rich and creamy, I thought it would make a delicious ice cream. I poured what we had left into an ice cream maker and lo and behold, the ice cream was delicious. I should've eaten it all once it was done because now it's just sitting in our freezer hardening...

Christmas Eve Feast

2014-12-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

The hubs wanted a feast for Christmas to commemorate our first Christmas in our first home ever. I said, "Sure, why not?" It turns out we had to have our feast on Christmas Eve because Kay usually holds a Christmas day with her family and invited us over. So for our Christmas Eve feast, we ate heartily and much. There's sausages, sourdough bread and olive oil, liverwurst, brie, salami, caviar, duck for the entree, sun-dried tomatoes, pita chips and best of all blue crab spread and french onions. Needless to say, it was ridiculously more than enough for the two of us. We wish everyone a belated happy holidays! This is definitely memorable. What would I do without my hubs. <3 p="">

Perfectly Crunchy and Moist Waffles

2014-11-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

I wanted to try a new waffle recipe and came upon this one.

You need: 2 eggs, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 3/4 cups heavy cream, 1/2 cup oil, 1 tbs sugar, 4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

It was so amazing! Its got this super crunch on the outside and was super soft and moist on the inside. I'm pretty sure its because of the heavy whipping cream that we subbed in for the milk. This recipe is a definite keeper!

Steak

2014-10-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

Per le hubby: Pretty marbled steaks!

Steak for dinner again! On actual dinner plates. With a salad. :o)

Steak

2014-10-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

is what's for dinner...

First homecooked meal in our house! No place to sit. No real dinnerware. But we did buy flatware and 2 steak knives! Om nom nom... :)

Breakfast burrito

2014-09-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Homegrown bellpeppers!!

Chopped bellpeppers and shiitake mushrooms

Made my hubby and me a breakfast burrito. Scrambled some eggs, added the chopped bellpeppers and mushrooms and cheese. Roll it all up and brown the tortilla. Twas yummy!!

Late Night Treat - Caviar n Rumchata

2014-09-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

The hubby and I thought we'd try cheap caviar and this thing called rumchata that a friend of a friend raved about. Both are interesting... lol. I'd say the caviar is an acquired taste. And the rumchata is a good sipping drink because it's thick and creamy and seems decadently sweet.

Pumpkin Banana Nut Bread

2014-09-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

I made pumpkin banana nut bread. It's very similar to my Persimmon Banana Nut Bread.

I used 2 bananas and 7.5oz of pumpkin puree (half of the 15oz canned pumpkin). My bananas were frozen so I microwaved them til they were soft enough to mash.

Mash them together.

Mix in 2 eggs.

Add in a 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and a 1/2 cup of melted butter.

Fold in 2 cups of all purpose flour and 2 tsp baking powder.

Mix mix mix.

Fold in 1 cup crushed walnuts.

Place batter in a greased loaf pan and bake in a preheated oven of 350 degrees F for about an hour plus 15 - 30 minutes or so.

Ta da!

It's so pretty and you can definitely taste the pumpkin and bananas. Twas very delicious!

More Fried Shrimp

2014-09-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

Fried Shrimp!

2014-08-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

Fried shrimp is super easy to make. Seriously, all you do is take raw shrimp and prep it the usual way (de-vein, rinse, pat dry), dump it in a fryer (be careful though!) and when it turns pink, take it out. We used Lawry's to salt it along with some crushed black pepper. And if you have lime on hand, sprinkle the juice on top. Deeeeeelicious! We made this as an appetizer to munch on. It was most definitely a wise choice.

Pork Chops

2014-08-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

So behind on posts.... But I just remember these being delicious so here's a picture blog on delicious pork chops:

DIY Chili Oil

2014-08-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

I've been growing and drying lots of chilis just because my plant refuses to die. And finally, I got around to making chili oil. I used this website as a guideline: Homemade Chili Oil.

But this is what I ended up using:

1 3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tbs sesame oil

a crapton of dried chilis, chopped

Pretty much just throw everything in a pot and heat it up on low heat til it bubbles.

Then pour in a container. Hubby wanted the chili flakes in there so I poured those in as well.

It was still bubbling a lil bit so I took a pic, but it's hard to see here...

Chili flakes falling down.

Hubby said not to put in the seeds part because they're hard to eat...

All canned up!

Awhile later, the chili flakes fell to the bottom. Hopefully, it's as spicy as hubby likes it.

Fry Day!

2014-08-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying it's FRY-day!! Le hubby wanted to fry up shrimps, chicken wings, onions (blooming onion style), cheese sticks, mushrooms and anything else we could thing of. I can tell you we did end up frying everything but the mushrooms only because we ended up have WAAAAAAY too much foods.

To make the batter, we used something along the lines of 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp cajun seasoning and a bottle of beer.

Came out glueish looking. haha

Bought these shrimps from pavils. I believe they were only deveined and we just left the shells on.

They were rinsed, patted dry, and then coated in cornstarch.

Then, I got the brilliant idea of adding panko to the batter. Added about 1 1/2 cups of panko.

Deep fried the shrimps after a dunk in the panko batter.

Squeezed some lemon juice on top. Twas delicious!

Our attempt at a bloomin onion. Learned how to cut one here.

Ended up quartering it because it was too big to fit in our small fryer. We coated the onion in cornstarch before dunking it in our panko batter.

Fried shrimps and onion with fancy ketchup on the side. It's fancy cuz hubby added some spices to it. Also, as you can see, the bloomin onion didn't turn out too well.

Lunch time! We could barely finish it.

PS: we fried up the chicken wings and cheese sticks for dinner. The cheese sticks didn't turn out too well as we decided to try frying that last minute when the cheese part really should have been frozen beforehand.

Apple Crisp

2014-08-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Time for an apple crisp! I made it similarly to the Persimmon Apple Crisp and Pear Crisp. So easy!

I used 5 apples. 2 reds, 2 greens and 1 yellow.

The apples are all chopped and added to a pan with a 1/4 cup of butter.

Added a bunch of sugar and spice. More specifically, 2 tbs sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves, and a generous pinch of salt.

Here, the apples are almost done. In a small bowl, I mixed about a 1 tsp of cornstarch with 1/4 cup water and poured it into the liquids and stirred it all up.

For the crisp part on top, I totally cheated. Buahahaha. :o) I had hubby squash 3 of the oats n honey bars. See, it's easy!

Apples are all cooked and deliciously soft. Note, you should taste test your apples every now and then. I didn't want my apple crisp overly sweet so the 2 tbs were just fine for me.

Place the cooked apples in a pie dish. Add the crumbled oats bar on top. Baked in preheated oven of 375 F for 10 minutes just to brown the top.

Ta-da!

PS: pics were taken from my phone so not the usual quality...

Apple Butter

2014-07-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

I finally made apple butter! Sadly, no pictures. :( But it's awfully similar to the persimmon butter method via slow cooker. Easy peasy. Here's what I used:

5 red apples
4 yellow apples
3 granny smiths
1/4 cup water
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
1/2 tsp ground gloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Peel, core, quarter and chop all the apples. Place in slow cooker. Add water and vanilla extract. Add in the remaining ingredients. Mix it as best as you can. Cook on high for 4 hours uncovered, stirring at least every hour to ensure it doesn't burn. Once the apples are soft, I used a hand blender and pureed it. Afterwards, it cooked on low heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Once thickened, the sauce was canned. Yummy! :D

Steak

2014-06-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

Hubby's keto friendly steak with side salad and cheese chips, which are homemade and super easy to make if you have the time.

Le hubby always cuts up my steak for me. Yum! Also, strawberry salad is quite delicious. I should add fruit to my salads more often!

Baked Salmon

2014-04-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

The other half of the salmon from yesterday, we decided to bake it in foil.

We salted the salmon piece and placed it atop a bed of chopped bell peppers, carrots and sliced lemons. We added pats of putter and sprinkled with chopped dill from my garden! :) It sat in our fridge overnight.

It was then baked in the oven.

Delicious salmon served with mashed potatoes and grilled tomatoes.

Om nom nom nom!

Panfried Salmon

2014-04-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

Salmon from Costco

We bought a huge piece of salmon from Costco. We pretty much just pan-fried half the salmon. I'm afraid I much prefer cooked salmon with some kind of sauce or gravy...

Salami Sandwich

2014-04-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Om nom nom nom :D (for ME!)

For le hubby!! Kind of like a decontructed sandwich without the carbs..
There's roast beef, salami, cheddar, tomatoes, pickle, fried eggs and a dollop of may topped with ground black pepper.... keto friendly!

Chili, Bone Marrow and Corned Beef

2014-03-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

is what's for dinner! :)

Something Different

2014-03-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

We've always made rice in a rice cooker. But this one time, I decided to try something different. I added curry powder! It was interesting. I added too much water so I decided to pan fry it a bit and added chopped shitake mushrooms. It was definitely something I would totally make again. Yummy!

This dish is ground pork with tofu and baby corn. Something my mom used to make and definitely one of my favorite dish.

Dinner! The sliced zucchinis were slightly sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper.