Date Muffins

I have a packet of dates sitting in our fridge for some time now - it was from a friend - pasalubong from Syria. Eating it by itself is quite good enough - but I thought of making some muffins or cupcakes or something with it, and only till today did I finally got into it.

Preparing the muffin is pretty quick except for the dates - it took me sometime because each date has to pitted out and chopped up.

I reduced the amount of sugar in the muffin ingredient because the dates are sweet. Overall they tasted goodah!!!

Tuna pasta

lunch for me today is tuna pasta ... actually i'm not in the mood to cook but i want pasta so browsed through the net and found this easy to make tuna pasta !!!

i used the recipe i found on jamie oliver's site: actually it was from one of the members of that site - so easy !!!! try it, you'll love it! :D


Ingredients:

Tin tuna in oil,
Medium onion,
Dried bow pasta,
Olive oil,
Freshly ground black pepper,
Chopped Parsley (optional)

Method:
:cool: Lunch for 1, Snack for 2

Bring a pan with slightly salted water to the boil for the pasta
Heat a glug of olive oil in a pan.
Roughly chop the onion and add to the pan
Put the pasta on
Add the tuna
Stir occasionally whilst the onions soften for 3 mins
Add the pepper to taste
Stir ocasionally
2 min before finishing (pasta ready) add the parsley
1 min before serving add the pasta to the pan, stir and serve

i don't have any parsley on hand - but still yummy!!

breakfast !!!!

tuesday morning, woke up early (imagine 5:30am!!!) - to be able to catch the live telecast of the Ms. Universe 2011 coronation and guess what .. hehehe yeah - i fell asleep again .... to be awaken by my roommate that it is the awarding portion of the top 5 na!!!! omg.....

so the winners proclaimed - all happy ... proud of Ms. Philippines - she was great - answered straight (walang kagatul-gatul!)

anyways - after that - breakfast time!!!! it is still early in the morning here in Dubai - right??? i saw something in the net when i was browsing - eggnest! so i decided to try it - nothing fancy just a different presentation of fried egg and toasted bread :D - why not di ba? for a change ....

sliced up a kiwi fruit and grab a cup of strawberry flavored yogurt, with a nice cup of coffee - i'm a coffee addict! ahahahaha .... won't be a day complete for me without coffee!!!

i flipped the bread/egg that is why it looked like that hehehe - next time i will not flipped it!!!

nice breakfast for a nice start of the day .... me feeling pretty too ..... like Ms. Philippines! :D


BTW: Congratulations to Ms. Philippines - Shamcey Supsup!!!!

pancakes !!!

i woke up feeling light ... and hungry, didn't have dinner last night :D checked the fridge for what to eat - then suddenly - pancakes! just popped in my head .. hmm .... there is egg, milk, flour - okey pancake it is then....

i made it fluffy but not as fluffy as i see on the photos on the net - wondering why???? i followed their recipe but then freshly made - nice - warm - what more to ask! i splattered maple syrup and butter and yummy!!! had it with some banana and a nice cup of coffee..... nice sunday morning !!!

recipe i used is from the basic pancake from Martha Stewart archives:

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Assorted toppings, such as butter, maple syrup, confectioners' sugar, honey, jams, preserves, sweetened whipped cream, or chocolate syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees; have a baking sheet or heatproof platter ready to keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, butter (or oil), and egg. Add dry ingredients to milk mixture; whisk until just moistened (do not overmix; a few small lumps are fine).

3. Heat a large skillet (nonstick or cast-iron) or griddle over medium. Fold a sheet of paper towel in half, and moisten with oil; carefully rub skillet with oiled paper towel.

4. For each pancake, spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter onto skillet, using the back of the spoon to spread batter into a round (you should be able to fit 2 to 3 in a large skillet).

5. Cook until surface of pancakes have some bubbles and a few have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter; cover loosely with aluminum foil, and keep warm in oven. Continue with more oil and remaining batter. (You'll have 12 to 15 pancakes.) Serve warm, with desired toppings.

Embutido

This was not the first time I made embutidos, I made them many times before but it was only recently that I again made them ... hmmmm ang gulo ko ah! hehehehe .....

Anyways, I used ground beef and the usual ingredients minus the bell peppers - i don't have any :D ..... also I used another brand of pickle relish and not the lady's choice - maybe that is the reason I tasted something different, but my friends says they are yummy !!! Have been using lady's choice sweet pickle relish - I got used to the taste of these pickles .. I will make another batch later on, when I find lady's choice! heeheheh

I steamed these for 45 min. - one hour, but when I sliced them after cooling - I noticed that it was a bit loose - so needs more binder (needs more flour and eggs!!!!) - nonetheless ... these embutidos tasted good!!! - will make better next time ... :D

pancit bihon - kuno!!

since the other day i was like craving (again :0) for pancit bihon. natakam ako sa kwento ng pinsan kong si marie eh hehehe ...

so today waking up it was bihon in my head - i checked the ref for what veggies are there - not much ahahaha (haven't done an grocery shopping yet!) so i ordered from the grocery down our building. in dubai you can see that most of the buildings have small groceries on the ground floor like in our building the ground floor is like the commercial area - there is a vegetable store (altho the grocery stores also carries certain veggies), a small cafeteria, a laundry shop, a hardware store, a rent-a-car shop, a typing shop, and a tailoring shop .. nearby is the fish shop! :D and a small poultry shop for fresh chicken and yes, the meat shop hehehe.... not to mention the internet shop and the barber shop! ahahaha

anyways, so i ordered a head of cabbage (i have few carrots still) but they don't have the green beans or baguio beans, and no baby corn :( (these are only available at the big supermarkets)...

to cut short - i just have to do with what i have .. chicken, carrots, cabbage, and to add some greens - green pepper na lang hehehe.... and this is what came out of it.... :D my craving is somewhat satisfied ... full belly as of this writing hehehe .. i finished the whole plate pictured below with a slice of toast bread with butter :D yummy!

butterscotch try-out

yap! tried the butterscotch recipe i tumbled into - also this morning .. therapy remember??? hehehe

however, i seemed to have overbaked it a bit :D - it didn't turned out to be fudgy and chewy as i expected it to be... oh well there is always a 'first time' ahahahaha :D

better luck next time ---maybe i should reduce my baking time to 15-20 min - hmmm.. well it says there that baking time is 25 min, but it was also mentioned 'depending on your oven' - ahhh so ok ... next time - i will get it right! pwede na rin .. hehehehe ..

depression therapy - BAKING!!!

i got up feeling low .. depression eating me up ... slowly - i could feel it .. i got to do something to shake it off :o and what i did? do my own therapy .. either cooking, baking or washing .... was thinking of making baked mac ... but i don't have the (full) ingredients. eyeing the 2 pieces of large ripe banana atop the microwave - i decided to whip up a batch of muffins instead of the butterscotch that i was thinking of trying out.

using the basic muffin recipe from group recipe, and after adding the wet ingredients with the mashed bananas, i divided the batter into two and added nuts to the first half and choco chips to the other half. .... the batter yielded 14 pcs. i remembered to use the ice-cream scoop, and glad that i am getting used to it :D ... my muffins are some kinda 'even' in size and guess what? they have nice domes!!!!

though i must admit that few pieces of the batch are slightly browned - hehehe - esp. the two extra muffin that i placed in the aluminum cups - so anemic in color! ahahahah...

i read that baking/cooking time is affected with the color of the pans used .. hmm should read that thing again! nonetheless - my muffins are 'still' .... yummylicious ....

i had one ( ok...ok .. i had two!!! one of each flavor!!!) :D .. with a nice cup of coffee ... no, not the latte - just plain coffee with milk .... and with both my feet on the cushion ... munching on the muffins .... thinking of the butterscotch recipe ....... heheheheheh

and you know what happened next!? :0

champorado

my cousin posted on her fb wall that she wanted champorado... and i commented that i wanted champorado too! i'm not sure if she was able to cook some or not - and i did! today .. it is a 'yet another champorado' day or something of that sort.. :D

because i do not have peanut butter - i simply added a few spoons of nutella - :D just to check how it will taste instead of the usual peanut butter ... well - it was smelling cocoa and nutella while cooking :O ..... but it didn't taste much nutella when i tasted it. maybe it was still 'hot' when i first tasted it? hmm.. lemme try again later.... hehehe.

my lola (grandmother) usually add peanut butter to her champorado and it always taste good! i wonder why i still cannot get that right taste?!??! i miss her champorado esp. on rainy days ... i miss her cooking .. :(

i should have paid more attention when she cooked!!! ;(