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!!! ;(

more bakes ...

i wanted to make apple pies - but i have only few apples on hand, thought of going down to the supermarket to buy few more but it's darned hot to walk outside! so i settled for what is on hand (anyways .. first time to do this :D )....

for the crust - i used the recipe for the empanada crust - seems the same to me (or so i thought - heheheh ) well, there is always a first time for everything yeah?!

i think these were a bit 'overbaked' coz they are a bit 'dry' :D and looks pale - didn't do the 'eggwash' thing .. yeah yeah - now i know :D :D

but - they still are yummylicious!!!

for the filling - i just chopped the apples, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar tossed it up and stuff them into the crust.

for the crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5-6 Tbsp cold water

1. Combine well the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.
2. Cut in butter to the flour mixture with pastry cutter or two knives until particles are pea-sized ( i used fork only :D)
3. Add water a tablespoon at a time while tossing the flour mixture with a fork until all the flour is moistened and can be formed into a ball. Press the dough ball while turning a few times to incorporate all the flour in.
4. Wrap in plastic cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

To assemble:

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C.
2. Remove cling film from the dough and flatten with a rolling pin on a floured surface and shape into a log.
3. Cut a piece and form into a ball (1-inch in diameter).
4. Flatten on a surface and roll out thinly into a round shape.
5. Put a heaping tablespoon of the filling on the rolled out dough.
6. Pull one end or half of the dough over the other forming a half circle shape.
7. Seal edges by pinching by hand or with the tines of a fork while cutting excess dough in the process. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
8. Arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet and brush tops with egg was (1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. milk)
9. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove and serve warm or cold.

* Note 1: you may also deep-fry instead of baking.
* Note 2: crust recipe is adapted from English Patis

more on cravings....

yet another craving (or was it simply hunger?!) anyways, i was like wanting to eat muffins since last night - and have something in my head to whip up. however, this afternoon (teehee... it was just after lunch! :D) .. while preparing the ingredients - i saw the bunch of apples that i already have forgotten .. :D. so instead i made a batch of apple spice muffin and half of cherry-jam muffin (again heheh .. i just love jam-filled muffins!)

after just cooling for a few minutes - i ate two ... the cut ones .. :D and had them with a nice cuppa coffee .... my afternoon is complete, or almost complete :)

the recipe i used for these muffins was from 'basic muffin recipe' of Group Recipes:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/8 cup oil (that is 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons)
• About 1 cup of any additional optional ingredients

How to make it

• Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add wet ingredients and any optional ingredients and stir just until moistened. (Adjust amount of milk depending on how moist your add-ins are - add less for moist things like banana, crushed pineapple, or pumpkin and add a bit more if needed for dried fruits.)
• Scoop into greased muffins tins (an ice cream scoop works well for this).
• Sprinkle the tops with sugar if desired, and bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until done.

for the apple spice - add i/2 cup chopped apples, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and dash of nutmeg ( i don't have the nutmeg but still tasted good!)

for the jam - i added 1 tsp of jam into each muffin cup and topped-off with more batter.


ref: http://www.grouprecipes.com/72374/basic-muffins-with-variations.html