Chicken Congee / Arroz Caldo
While being sick all week last week, I had a craving for Filipino comfort food, arroz caldo, or congee. It’s basically rice soup with chicken in porridge consistency. I wanted that taste of ginger and soupy rice so badly. So I made some. The thing is, I actually can’t remember the last time I made arroz caldo. Let’s just say I enjoyed every warm bowl of arroz caldo last week.
By the way, the best rice to use in congee is sticky rice. The kind I use for sushi but I didn’t have any so I just used what I have which is the regular long grain rice. Fish sauce is also good with this but I’m low on Pinoy supplies so I just used salt. Believe it or not, my life didn’t crumble with those substitutes. When you crave for something, make it work with what you have.
4-Hour Chef By Timothy Ferris
I most probably don’t need another cookbook because I already have a lot of those sitting in my baker’s rack but I’m always open to buying a new one that I think is interesting enough and will teach me new recipes and tricks in the kitchen. I saw this 4-Hour Chef book from Tim Ferriss blog and it sure caught my attention.
4-Hour Chef could actually be the 2nd installment of Tim Ferriss’ book 4-Hour Body. People who bought it wanted to know more so they’ve clamored for healthy recipes, and anything else they could learn to help them in the kitchen and continue with a healthy lifestyle. This is how 4-Hour Chef came about.
The book showcases techniques in the kitchen that any novice could learn in just a matter of time, and delicious recipes to make with ease. 4-Hour Chef has been called as the cookbook for people who doesn’t like buying cookbooks. I’m a passionate homecook who wants to learn as much as I can in cooking and get more ideas in dishes that my family and I could enjoy. Hey, the halthier the recipes, the better. I would love to have a copy if this book sometime. If you do too, check out Amazon for purchase.
Nutella-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Apparently, it’s National Chocolate Chip Day. I was going to wait until later this week to write about my Nutella-Chocolate Chip Cookies as another shout out for my love for Nutella but since it’s national chocolate chip day, I might as well. To all the health nuts out there, don’t worry, I baked this a week after I made the Nutella-Chocolate Cake With Nutella Frosting, and I do workout, I swear.
…Click here to read more about Nutella-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Nutella-Chocolate Cake With Nutella Frosting
When news came out that Nutella decided to settle a lawsuit filed by Athena Hohenberg, for $3.05 million, I felt rebellious. I was sending Facebook statuses and Tweet loves and hugs and kisses to Nutella. I mean, I love Nutella and I admit that my family loves eating nutella off of a spoon sometimes for that quick sweet cravings but I never actually served it on a toast for breakfast on a daily basis even though the commercial made it so appealing to do so. Screw that. I made these treats instead: SELF-FROSTING NUTELLA CUPCAKES, Banana Bread With Nutella, Crepes With Nutella & Raspberry Sauce, Classic Pound Cake With Nutella, Chocolate-Nutella Brownies, Nutella-Chocolate Cake With Nutella Frosting which I’m posting below, and nutella-chocolate chips cookies which I’ll write about some other day.
$2.5 million of that $3.05 million settlement by the way is going to be distributed to anyone who bought Nutella from Jan. 1, 2008 to Feb. 3, 2012, or Aug. 1, 2009 to Jan. 23, 2012 in California. That is if they file a claim, of course.
I’m sure you can guess by now that I’m not filing my claim. Nope. I went to the store and bought a jar instead. I even took a picture of the Nutella jars for the Instagram just to show them some more love.
So the recipe for Nutella-Chocolate Cake With Nutella Frosting… I’m getting to that…
…Click here to read more about Nutella-Chocolate Cake With Nutella Frosting
Pizza Games, Anyone?
If you and your family, especially the kids in the family, love pizza, then I’m guessing you will all love building pizzas online too. I did. I haven’t shown my kids yet because I wanted to test out the games myself first. I had such a great time building my pizzas. First one is the virtual version of a meat lover’s pizza using a square dough. I filled it up pepperoni, bacon, sausages, then cheese. There are options for veggie lovers pizza too of course. or you can combine meat and veggies. The adventure here is being able to pick the style of the dough, different meat or veggie toppings, and how you want to load the cheese. The possibilities are endless. You can put whatever you want, or don’t put the toppings you don’t like at all. Just load it with pepperoni or just cheese if you want. Who’s going to stop you? No one, that’s for sure.
Honey-Mustard Pork Tenderloin
When it comes to pork tenderloins, I usually grab the pre-marinated ones coz when I read the combo flavor on the package, they just sounds so good. And I admit it, it saves time. But for a while now we haven’t been satisfied with the pre-marinated tenderloins that we’ve bought. Either the meat was a bit dry, or too salty. I don’t know, maybe it’s my oven. HUH? To solve the problem, I bought the fresh tenderloin then made my own marinade.
…Click here to read more about Honey-Mustard Pork Tenderloin
Ghirardelli’s EAT…BLOG…REPEAT!
Imagine my excitement when I received an email from Ghirardelli Chocolate asking me of my address so they could send me samples of their new chocolate products and flavors as part of their 160th year celebration campaign, EAT…BLOG…REPEAT! How can a chocoholic say no to that?
…Click here to read more about Ghirardelli’s EAT…BLOG…REPEAT!
Grilled Cheese Ham Tomatoes Spinach Sandwich
I made my daughter a grilled cheese sandwich yesterday and as I was cutting it in triangles, the melted cheese oozing out of the bread just looked soooo delicious. I wanted one for myself, so I made one. I decided to make a hearty grilled cheese sandwich by adding ham, tomatoes, and spinach. It definitely hit the spot.
…Click here to read more about Grilled Cheese Ham Tomatoes Spinach Sandwich
Strawberry-Vanilla Yogurt Smoothies
I made this Strawberry-Vanilla Yogurt Smoothie last Wednesday night. It was one of those, “I want something sweet” cravings a few hours after dinner. I was already in the middle of folding laundry and waiting for American Idol to come one so whipping up a batch of cookies was definitely not something I wanted to do at that moment. But my husband really wanted something sweet. He didn’t want fresh strawberries or yogurt. So I suggested Strawberry-Vanilla Yogurt Smoothie. That solved the problem.
…Click here to read more about Strawberry-Vanilla Yogurt Smoothies
Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds
Summer means a lot of things. One of them is making cold pasta salads. I suppose it’s ok to make them during winter too but it is usually during the Summer that I get to indulge in whipping up different kinds of cold pasta salads. They’d go with any grilled meat entrees, including kebabs, satays, burgers, just to name a couple. Pasta salads prefect to serve as side dishes during the summer parties in the backyard or as lunch for the family on regular days. This Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds is basically another version of Pasta & Broccoli Salad W/ Golden Raisins and Sunflower Seeds but without the golden raisins and chopped fresh broccoli. I added chopped eggs instead.
…Click here to read more about Mini Rotelle Cold Pasta Salad W/ Cheese & Sunflower Seeds
