Indexed Cutting Boards
Anyone who spends a lot of time cooking in the kitchen knows that you have to have at least 2 separate cutting boards. 1 for the vegetables/fruits and 1 for meats. How about an Indexed Cutting Boards for meat, cooked food, fish, and vegetables?
Red board for meat, white for cooked foods, blue for fish, and green for veggies/fruits. A color-coded chopping boards to avoid cross contaminations. The indexed cutting boards even have a filing unit for easy storage. I have been wanting to buy myself this but haven’t had a chance to do so. I think as soon as we’re moved to a new place, this will be something new that I’ll be adding in my kitchen. Not only do I love the different colors, the obvious fact that there’s a cutting board for each food item is the best reason to buy it. $85 at MoMa store.
(Image : MoMa)
—-originally posted at the old Blisstree/b5media—-
Family’s Favorite Lemon Chicken
One of my family’s favorite chicken dish is this lemon chicken that get a lot of compliments from my son who happens to be the picky eater in the family. This is one dish where I don’t have to tell him to finish his dinner. I don’t cook separate dishes (unless for spicy dishes) for every member of the family so If we go through dinner without having to tell anyone to finish what’s on their plate is a welcome experience.
Beef and Tofu Lo Mein
I was in a hurry to make something quick for dinner the other day so I just whipped up this Beef and Tofu Lo Mein for the whole family. It didn’t take a long time to cook and only needed a few ingredients. In my rush to cook dinner I made a mistake with the tofu.
I absentmindedly sauteed the beef strips, onions, and garlic without frying the tofu cubes first. This made stirring the tofu a little difficult than I would’ve wanted. See, when stir-frying tofu, you must cook it before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients. Unless you’re making soup. Boiling tofu with the broth is fine but adding raw tofu on stir-fries is a little tricky.
So one adjustment I’d suggest if you make this dish is to fry up the tofu slices before adding it in with the rest of the ingredients.
Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies
My project last weekend was to make Valentine’s Day sugar cookies. I did the cookie dough on Saturday night, put it in the fridge to cool overnight, then took it out in the morning to soften it up before rolling and cutting the heart shaped cookies.
I got a little frustrated during the frosting process because I didn’t have a red food coloring to make a red colored frosting. My husband told me you can’t create a primary color. Well, stubborn me wouldn’t give up. I just had to try to make something close to red. I was able to create a very pale red color with the help of orange, pink and purple food coloring mixed in with the frosting. It was a lot of mixing and eyeballing the mixture and in the end I was to come up with something close to red 
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Italian-BBQ Marinated Baked Chicken
This is a marinade that would work for baking and grilling. I wish it’s summer already so we can start grilling. But not yet so we’ll contend with the oven for now . Before I give you the recipe for the Italian-BBQ marinade I must ask that the first step is to parboil the chicken.
Parboil means boiling the chicken pieces in water for at least 25-20 minutes. This precooks the chicken so it shouldn’t take you a long time to bake or grill ‘em. If you decide to bake, parboiling is unnecessary but you’ll have to cook it longer.
Once chicken are parboiled, drain the water off and marinate overnight or at least 2 hours or so.
Aubergine Fritters & Ranch-Basil Sauce
Pardon me for being snotty-ish but Aubergine is the fancy name for eggplants. There, you learn something new everyday .
When I grabbed a 2-pack eggplant from the sales bin at the Commissary a few weeks ago I knew I had to make something that the whole family will like. Something that my son would enjoy too since he’s a picky eater. I’m always trying to find ways to introduce him to “new” food I think he should eat or at least try a couple of times before declaring that he doesn’t like it. My husband and I are such foodies that it’s really a crime when we have to convince our son to eat something other than his favorites pizza, nuggets, pasta, or salmon. Surprisingly, he likes tofu, dumplings, and a few Asian, exotic, other culture cuisines that I’ve introduced on his plate. He can either eat them or starve because Mom is no short-order cook. You eat what she cooks or you’ll starve. I’m not that mean though. When I cook spicy dishes, I also make something else for the kids.
Anyhooooo, I apologize for once again digressing from the topic on hand. I tend to do that a lot, don’t I? Well, what could possible make eggplant sound, look and taste appetizing and child-friendly? Fritters of course. If all else fails, coat it with flour, bread crumbs and deep fry.
