Update on My Kitchen

Long time no post... I have actually been busy in the kitchen. Now that we've moved back in with my parents, I hardly do any cooking at all. That's why I've mostly been focusing on baking. I know I'd cooked  a few things in the old apartment that I didn't blog about here. However, I did blog about them over at Spinning Lovely Days, so go see:

Blueberry pancakes and Spanish tortilla

Cabbage quiche

Ratatouille

Now for the baking I've been doing:

Bread

Apple pie

Mini banana muffins

Banana cream pie

Colcannon for St. Paddy's

Hmm, just when I was thinking about retiring this blog, I publish another post. On St. Paddy's Day, Marguerite and I made Colcannon. Since I don't think I've even ever personally come across a curly kale, I used cabbage. Found my recipe here. Marguerite actually liked it. Have to keep that in mind. That's a good way to get cabbage in her.

Tuna a la King

Tuna a la king. It's a modification of a recipe I found online. I used frozen mixed veggies instead of just peas, and I also added a cup of chicken stock and some grated cheese. Last night, we topped it on rice and today, we put them on buttered toast.

Cream Dory with Citrus Butter Sauce

Hail to the never ending cream dory recipes!

I love me so cream dory, lol. Anyway, this is simple, but my husband sincerely said it's good. I rolled the fillets in Crispy Fry breading and fried them. That's straightforward enough, lol. The sauce is:

6T mayo
4T butter
4 T milk
juice of 3 calamondins (calamansi)
salt
ground black pepper
thyme

Melt butter in a pan. Add the other ingredients. Simmer while stirring. Btw, sauce in picture doesn't reflect actual amount made. Lots more in the pan that we just added to our own servings.

Tuna, Mushroom, Mixed Veggies Rice Topping

This is a modified tuna casserole recipe. Instead of mixing it with noodles, I used it as topping on rice.

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tuna, drained
half an onion
1 C mixed vegetables, prepared
ground black pepper
5 slices of cheese

Over medium heat, mix everything in a pan, stirring constantly until the cheese melts.

Just an Update

If you've been following Spinning Lovely Days, then you know that I got sick and found it hard to regain momentum. Anyway, this is something I had a week ago. It's cream dory. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and thyme, then fried it in butter melted in oil. I ate it with kimchi that my SIL made. That's all the update I got. Haven't been experimenting in the kitchen at all. Will try to do better this week. :)

Chicken Burger

This was my dinner two nights ago. Yesterday, I was too sick to blog. Anyway, we have some homemade chicken burger patties courtesy of Husband (ground chicken, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary), so I cooked one for myself and two for him (Marguerite still does not have much of an appetite), poured some gravy (okay, it was from a mix) and added some mixed veggies cooked in herbed butter.

Tuna Flakes Adobo

I was feeling lazy. I dumped a can of tuna in the pan (oil and all), sautéed it a bit, added soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, a crushed clove of garlic, some ground pepper and let it simmer. At the last minute, I decided to add some chopped onions. Voilà my tuna flakes adobo.

Pasta with Fish

I had cream dory, mixed vegetables, almonds, and pasta, hence this pasta with fish concoction. My dish was inspired by this recipe. I naturally made some changes and subsitutions. I fried and sautéed in butter, for instance. The almonds were cut up instead of ground. I used oregano and basil for the herbs. I also used spaghetti noodles, as you can see. It was good. Or we were hungry. Anyway, it's all gone.

Some Other Kind of Fried Chicken

I know it looks particularly ghastly in the pic, but it actually tasted good.:D I didn't want to do the usual breaded fried chicken, so I looked around for another simple fried chicken recipe and came across this. I didn't have the spices specified, so I substituted with oregano and basil. I also adjusted a couple of things since I was only cooking three pieces of chicken.

Fried Cream Dory

Some more cream dory. I thought I'd look for another recipe and in my search, I found somebody asking if this was the fish in Finding Nemo. Good question. Is it? Anyway, it's just the usual fried fillet recipe: breading seasoned with salt and pepper. Dredge fish in flour (also seasoned), dip in lightly beaten egg, and then dredge in breading. Fry, turning until both sides are golden brown.

Semi-chili

I had tinned pinto beans, the kind some open and just spoon straight from the can. It already had tomato sauce, garlic, onion, and pepper. I'm not about to eat it from the can unless there's campfire. I want to use it though, so what to do? How about a variation of chili? I had ground beef in the freezer (left over from the batch Husband made hamburger patties with). So, with this as the aim, I thawed the beef and then cooked it in a saucepan with garlic and onion. I drained the juice and then added salt, pepper, cumin, tomatoes, and the can of beans. I let it cook, adding salt until it was seasoned to my taste. When it was done, I put my portion on lettuce leaves (something like a lettuce cup) and grated cheese on top. I loved it. Wish I had other beans though and chipotle.

Lemon Asparagus Red Snapper

This thing is a semi flop. It's edible, but didn't really become tasty until I added cheese. I got this from a Campbell's Cream of Asparagus label. The thing is, the recipe called for chicken, but I doubt if it would have been better with chicken. Whatever. I've found the recipes given on Campbell's labels to be on the bland side. That's me though. I like my food to be really flavorful. Anyway, here's the recipe:

1 T vegetable oil
4 boneless chicken (in my case, I used red snapper fillets)
1 can (305 g) Campbell's Cream of Asparagus Soup
1/4 C milk
1 T lemon juice
1/8 t black pepper

Heat oil in skillet. Add chicken and cook until browned.
Add soup, milk, lemon juice and pepper (in my case, I also grated some chicken bouillion on top of the concoction - not much, just shaved off one side). Heat to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat 5 mins or until done. Because the thing tasted bland to me when I tried it, I sprinkled a generous amount of cheese on top and that made everything better.

Tuna and Quail Eggs Dish

I have been besieged by MyLot tasks (which is a good thing) so I mostly spent last week writing those pieces. Anyhoo, we had this dish last night. I don't even know what to call it. Main ingredients are tuna, mixed veggies, and quail eggs. I started by sautéing garlic and onion in butter. I then added the tuna, followed by the mixed veggies and boiled quail eggs. I added about 1/3 C chicken stock and let the entire mess cook for another 3 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper and then serve over rice.

Simple Mushroom Rice Dish

Last night, I made some mushroom rice, the recipe of which I found here. I just substituted some ingredients with ones that I had on hand. I used half a regular onion instead of the green kind and basil instead of parsley (I'm not sure if basil is really a substitute for parsley, but I decided to go on a whim). I later sprinkled my own serving with parmesan cheese, as recommended in one of the comments.

Broccoli Milanese As My German Translated It

I have been trying to feed my daughter more greens, but she won't accept them unless they've been juiced or puréed and then mixed with something like eggs so she can't tell that they're there. Anyway, knowing the above doesn't stop me from trying to feed them to her in a form otherwise. Yesterday, I made us some fries and broccoli milanese for lunch. I first came across the idea of broccoli milanese here ("In Lombardy, florets are dipped in egg, cheese and breadcrumbs and fried in butter to create broccoli Milanese."). I thought that certainly seemed a tasty way of serving broccoli. However, when I googled for a more specific recipe, the ones I found were this, which is kind of far from what my original source described, and this, which is in German. Would you believe I ended up following the German recipe? No, I don't speak German, but I can guess what most of the words meant having been exposed to German talk while a member of the UP-Deutscher Verein in college. Also, there was Google Translate. At the end of the day, the verdict was 50-50. I loved it while Marguerite simply picked at the cheesy breading. I think it's mostly a texture problem with her because taste-wise she really doesn't seem to have an issue with veggies.

Sesame Cream Dory

Another lovely fish I've encountered is the cream dory. I got about four slabs from the freezer and proceeded to follow a sautéed sesame fish recipe I got from a book called "Easy Meals in Minutes" (Time Life Books, 1997, Alexandria, VA, p.223 - or however you're supposed to cite; this is one other reason why I won't take a gig from a term paper mill). Here's the modified version:

Ingredients:
1/4 C flour-------------------------------------- 1 egg
1 t salt------------------------------------------- 1 T milk
1/4 t pepper------------------------------------ 2 T butter
four fish steaks (about 2 lbs total)------- 2 T vegetable oil
2/3 C breading
1/4 C sesame seeds

In a bowl, combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dredge fish lightly in this. In another bowl, combine breading and sesame seeds. In a third bowl, beat the egg with milk. Dip fish into the egg mixture, then into the breading mixture, coating the fish completely.

In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium high heat. When butter and oil are hot but not smoking, add the fish and cook them until golden brown, about 5 mins on each side.

Mushroom Quesadillas And a Little Fun with Jello

Made a couple of mushroom quesadillas for dinner. I used this flour tortilla recipe (I prefer corn, but masa's hard to find here). Of course, I had my little helper, who treated the entire thing as sandbox-cum-playdough time; place was covered with flour in no time. I fried the mushrooms in butter. I made pico de gallo using 2 tomatoes, half a medium onion, a clove of garlic, salt, basil (didn't have cilantro), juice of half a lime. I basically just layered cheese, mushrooms, and pico de gallo between two tortillas.

For dessert, I served this Jello atrocity, the recipe of which I got from The Biggest Loser (this is a modified version of creamy layered squares). This is edible, but if you ask me what I have done today to make myself proud, it wouldn't be this. Next time I'll stick to Jello shots, lol.

No-bake Tuna Casserole

Having woken up at 4am yesterday, I was really beat when it was time to prepare dinner. I thought I'd make an easy no-bake casserole and got hold of the ever-present tuna and some pasta. I was inspired by this recipe, but had to adjust it, considering the ingredients I had on hand and the number of people who were going to eat.

Ingredients:
fistful of spaghetti
1 can cream of mushroom soup
handful of frozen mixed vegetables
1 can tuna, drained
1/2 C chicken broth

Cook the spaghetti and drain. Put the soup, broth, vegetables, and tuna in a pan and heat the entire mess, stirring to mix thoroughly. Mix in the drained pasta and serve. You can top with cheese if you wish.

Making Short Work of the Tagaytay Goodies

I had a salad for lunch and dinner yesterday (if you must know, I had ice cream, chips, and other junk too, so it wasn't really a healthy day, lol). Anyway, I just tore some lettuce, threw in some cucumber and tomato slices, some carrot sticks, some goat cheese chunks and drizzled that with the olive oil from the jar of herbed goat cheese.

Last night, had basically the same thing (smaller amount and I think I was too lazy to slice a tomato), but used this lime dressing instead.

Got to try the chicken and mushroom pie. It was okay. I think many people will really like it, but I would probably have liked it better if it had been cheesy.

The apple pie was good and was gone in no time. I could have gone a la mode, but I forgot that we had ice cream in the freezer, lol.

I hope you weren't expecting a proper review, lol. I usually have a great time with adjectives, but I'm pretty insecure about my knowledge of food and how they should taste.