Macaron-eee

I made super cute pandan flavored macarons using this recipe. They were WAY easier, and turned out much better than I expected. You know you want to make some!

nOm NOm NoM!

You may have heard of the awesomeness that is Hungry Girl's Chocolate Cake...If you haven't, listen up! It has two ingredients, and it will change your life. I modified the original recipe by using chocolate fudge cake mix (in place of Devil's Food), and adjusting the cooking temperature and time for cupcakes. I promise, you can not taste the pumpkin. These suckers taste just like the cake in Ho Ho's! They are dense, moist and uber chocolicious! Hubby and Jayson both ate two as soon as they came out of the oven. Minor tongue burns may have been sustained.

Bonus: They contain no raw eggs, so you can lick the beater without getting Salmonella! Yay for not getting Salmonella!

Easiest Semi Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes Ever

Ingredients:

1 box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

1-15 oz. can 100% Pure Pumpkin

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 375 F. Mix together cake mix and pumpkin until well combined. This mixture will be super thick. It's OK! Spoon into cupcake cups, filling about 3/4 full. The batter will keep it's shape, so you may want to smooth out the tops. Bake for 20-23 minutes. Enjoy. 

129 Calories

1.5g Fat

2g Protein

2g Fiber

per cupcake 

Lazy Girl Pandesal

This morning, I made pandesal! With my bread machine! These yummy little rolls baked up soft and tasty, which lead to me eating way too many of them... I used this recipe, but used the dough cycle on my bread machine to make the dough. Super easy. It turned out well, but I found that it needed to be baked quite a bit longer than the the recipe specifies. It also seems like the amount of sugar in the recipe could also be reduced a little bit. I will try that next time.

In Da' (Gingerbread) House

Here is our little gingerbread house! I've got icing in my hair, and my kitchen looks like a hurricane just blasted through Candy Land, but it's done! I don't really bake, but Jayson has been begging to make a gingerbread house since Halloween. So, I really had no choice. I used this recipe for the dough, but designed my own template. The dough came together really well and I didn't even burn it. It's a Christmas miracle!

I was disappointed with one thing though: Safeway had no old school, cheap candy! No peppermints, no gumdrops...WTF Safeway?!

Mama's little helper, except for the 350 times he bumped my elbow while I was piping on the icing.

Melted Jolly Rancher window!

Creepy Gingerbread Man.

Our Frosted Mini Wheats roof and coconut snow.

Upset of the Century.

This is my angry face.

Last weekend, my sister and I entered the Mountain Mandarin Festival recipe contest. And, we. were. robbed.

1. Someone who had a food booth at the festival won the side dish category...With SALSA. Have you ever eaten salsa as a side dish? What kind of food booth did they have? You guessed it, SALSA. Let's just invite Bobby Flay to an amateur barbecue contest.... 
2. One of the winners turned in a handwritten recipe, when it said right on the rules that handwritten recipes would not be accepted.
3. Another winner was friends with the judges.  HHmmm....
4. Frog Eyed Salad placed.

How dedicated were we? We were almost late, so we drove there with the gas light on. Then we (I) had to book it across the muddy fairgrounds in high heels. (I think I was the only person in Auburn that day who owns a pair of heels.) Did I mention it was RAINING? 

Yes, we came home empty handed, but we will be back next year. Just you wait.

Without further ado, I present to you, our non-prize-winning recipes:

Nyki's Recipes

Mandarin Baklava

  

Ingredients

1 package Phyllo Dough

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

3 mandarin oranges, peeled, chopped, and drained

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar

Sauce:

Juice of 3 mandarin oranges

1/3 cup honey

1” of vanilla bean

Zest of one mandarin

2/3 cup Snow’s Citrus Court Mandarin Orange Syrup and Desert Topping

Directions

1. Prepare sauce: In a small sauce pan, combine the sauce ingredients, except for the Snow’s Citrus Court Syrup. Before adding the vanilla bean, slice it down the middle and scrape out the contents with a knife. Add this, plus the bean to the pan.  Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Place the sauce in the refrigerator to cool.
2. Butter an 11” x 7” baking pan. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
3. Mix the walnuts with the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Layer the ingredients: The dough sheets should be the same size as the pan. Place 2 layers of phyllo dough in the pan. Use a pastry brush to evenly coat dough with melted butter. Repeat 3 more times. You should have 8 total sheets. The top sheet should also be buttered. Using half the walnut mixture, spread an even layer over the dough. Add two more sheets of phyllo, and brush with butter. Spread the chopped mandarins evenly over the phyllo. Sprinkle the remaining walnut mixture evenly over the top. Top with 6 more sheets of phyllo dough, buttering every second sheet, as before. The top sheet should be buttered.
5. Cut the baklava into triangles, cutting almost but not completely to the bottom.
6. Bake for 50 minutes.
7. Remove the sauce from the refrigerator. Remove the vanilla bean, and stir in the Snow’s Citrus Court Syrup.  Pour the sauce evenly over the hot baklava.
8. When the baklava has cooled, cut completely and serve.

Spiced Mandarin Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes

Zest of one mandarin

2 mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned

¾ teaspoon Caribbean Jerk Seasoning

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar.

 Candied walnut topping:

1 tablespoon butter

½ cup chopped walnuts

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon Caribbean Jerk Seasoning

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon white sugar

Directions

1. Make candied walnut topping: Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the walnuts and sprinkle with the salt, Caribbean Jerk Seasoning, and sugars. Cook, stirring constantly until the sugars are melted. Remove from heat. Stir occasionally as the mixture cools to coat the nuts.
2. Boil the sweet potatoes until fork tender. Remove the skins and cut into 1” cubes.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
4. Toss together the sweet potatoes, zest, mandarins, and Caribbean Jerk Seasoning.
5. Place mixture in a baking dish.
6. Top with small pieces of butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar.
7. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Top with walnut mixture.

Charity's Recipes

Lucky 7 Mandarin Bread Pudding

7     mandarins

1   large loaf of day old French bread, cut into one inch squares (6-7 cups)

2½  cups of milk

½    cup heavy cream

1    cup sour cream

3     eggs

1     cup sugar

½    cup brown sugar

½    vanilla bean

2    tablespoons dried cranberries, finely chopped

¼    teaspoon ground cloves

½    teaspoon cinnamon

3    tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 baking pan.
2. Zest and juice 4 mandarins.  Soak the dried cranberries in the juice while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3. Peel and section the remaining mandarins.  Chop the sections into smaller pieces, 3-4 pieces per section. 
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, sour cream, and milk.  Split the vanilla bean and scrape the inside into the milk mixture.  Whisk until the vanilla is evenly distributed.   Add the cubed bread to the bowl and stir gently so all the cubes are saturated with the milk mixture. 
5. In a separate bowl, gently beat the eggs and add the melted butter while whisking continuously.  Whisk in the sugars, spices, and mandarin zest and then gently stir this mixture into the soaking bread.
6. Drain excess juice from the soaking dried cranberries and the chopped mandarins and gently stir into the bread cube mixture.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until set.  The bread pudding is done when the edges brown and begin to pull away from the edge of the pan. Serve warm or cold.

Sweet and Spicy Mandarin Chicken Wings

2.5   pounds chicken wings, disjointed

2      tablespoons vegetable oil

4      mandarins

4      tablespoons honey

½     cup brown sugar

½     teaspoon onion powder

½     teaspoon salt

½     tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes

1. Line 2 baking sheets with foil and preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Lay wings on baking sheets and pat dry with paper towels
3. Brush wings with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the skin is crispy
5. Zest and juice the four mandarins.  Boil the juice, zest, and remaining ingredients in a large saucepan for 3 minutes or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat.
6. When the wings are finished baking, remove from the baking sheets and put them into the saucepan and stir gently to distribute the sauce. 
7. Using tongs, return the wings back to the foiled baking sheets and broil for 3 minutes.  Enjoy!

Redneck Macaroni Salad.

Macaroni salad has a way of showing up at nearly every family get-together we have. My mom and sister both make a mean macaroni salad. My salad skills in no way compare to theirs, but here is my attempt at the ever-present side dish.

Redneck Macaroni Salad Recipe

1 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked, drained and rinsed.
5 sweet pickles, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
about one cup sliced or chopped black olives
6 boiled eggs, peeled and coarsely chopped

For the dressing, mix:
1 cup mayonnaise
dash paprika
salt & pepper
sugar to taste
dill pickle juice (brine), to taste. Yep, that's the secret ingredient...pickle juice.

You will need to adjust the seasonings to your taste, as NO ONE knows the exact proportions. It's more secret that the KFC chicken recipe. Maybe some day, someone will actually write down the exact amounts of stuff they put in. Until then, you will just have to do what we do and gain 10 pounds by testing, and re-testing mayonnaise laden dressing every time you make the salad.

Directions:

In a massive bowl, mix the macaroni, pickles, onion, eggs, olives and dressing.

Makes enough to feed about 100 hungry rednecks.

Charity: If you have corrections to this, let me know. This is how I made it yesterday, and it was pretty good. But, it wasn't as good as the one you made on the 4th of July! That was legendary macaroni salad.

Good Things Grow On Small Trees.

We got a calamansi tree! I've been wanting one forever. I decided last weekend that I absolutely needed to have one NOW! So, we drove down to Fremont in over 100 degree weather, and picked one up. It's just the cutest little tree ever! It even came with fruit and blossoms on it. INSTANT GRATIFICATION!

Git 'Er Done!



So, what's the big deal about calamansi? Well, what other fruit makes an awesome dip for lumpia/seafood/anything deep-fried AND cures the common cold? ...Yeah, that's what I thought.

Super Dip
soy sauce + a squeeze of calamansi juice.

Lime-onade AKA Best thing ever, when you have a cold.
calamansi juice + honey + hot water

How to eat soup when it's 9 million degrees outside.

This how you eat soup when it's flippin' hot outside. This is a hot soup, but eating it during summer won't make you want to die, like, say...beef stew would.

Chicken and Hominy Soup with Lime and Cilantro

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil
6 Green onions, sliced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 (49.5 oz) can of chicken broth
1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes in juice
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and chopped. (I like to season mine with chili powder and cumin, then toss them in the turbo broiler.)
Hot sauce to taste
1 (29 oz) can hominy in juice
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 Lime

Directions

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add cumin and paprika, stir spices constantly for about a minute. Add broth, hominy with juice, green onions, tomatoes with juice, 1 tomato can filled with water and chicken. Add lime juice and hot sauce to taste; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes. Garnish with cilantro just before serving. Enjoy.

Tune in next week for a second installment of summer friendly soups. The lovely Penelope will be making us the Vietnamese beef noodle soup known as Pho. (Pronounced "Fuh"...like you almost said something really naughty, but stopped yourself, because there were children present.)

Look Who's One!

Here's a quick photo roundup of Kyle's first birthday party.

Before.


After.


Extra festive.


I didn't get a picture of the food before it got attacked. We did tons of Filipino food: Pork BBQ, Pancit, Lechon Kawali, Ukoy, Fried Rice, Lumpia Shanghai, Fresh Lumpia, Siomai, Ube-Coconut Cupcakes, and Halo-Halo.


Kyle gets help from the present opening experts.

Best Can Opener. Ever.

I just got the Oxo Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener...and OMG...I never thought I could be so in awe of a can opener.

Let There Be Lumpia.

Today a friend and I had a mini lumpia making party. We rolled up the tasty little Filipino spring rolls while our sons tore through my house like a couple of preschool-age tornadoes.

Lumpia Shanghai Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 lb mild Italian pork sausage
1 large carrot, shredded
1 medium onion, diced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon diced garlic
2 eggs
a few grinds of black pepper
50 lumpia wrappers (Keep covered with a damp paper towel, to prevent drying out.)

Directions:

In a big bowl, mix up everything except for the wrappers, like you were making meatloaf or meatballs.

Place a wrapper on your work surface. Grab a small handful of the meat mixture (2-3 tablespoons) and work it into a rope as long as your wrapper is wide. It should be about 1/2" thick. Lay this along the edge of the wrapper. Roll tightly, straight up; no fancy folding in the sides or anything. Use a bit of water on your finger or a pastry brush to seal up the edge. Repeat.

When you are done rolling, use a sharp knife to cut the lumpia in half.

Now you can either pop the lumpia into Ziplock bags, and into the freezer; or you can fry them up immediately, and eat until you pass out.

To prepare them, just deep fry over medium heat until golden brown.

You can serve them with sweet and sour sauce, sweet chili sauce, or soy sauce with a squeeze of lime and a dash of spicy vinegar.

Enjoy!

Kyle's Eggless Baby Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat or all purpose flour, or a mixture of the two.
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup fruit, pureed or 1/2 cup puree. Peaches, bananas, pumpkin and applesauce will all work.
1 1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil

Click the stop button to go through the slides at your own pace.

Fond of Fennel

Once again I am lauding an obscure vegetable. You've all heard me rave about kale, now it's time to talk about fennel. It's slightly sweet with a mild licorice flavor, and the longer you cook it, the more mellow, and sweeter it gets. I like to slice it thinly and saute the heck out of it. it's also really good roasted. You can even eat it raw for a crunchy veggie that beats the heck out of celery. (raw celery is one of my most hated foods, so I'm always looking for alternatives.) And, how cute are those feathery little fennel tops? They make a perfect garnish.

Here, I have sauteed fennel served alongside a tilapia filet, both garnished with some of the fennel top.

Something Spicy and Pink for Valentine's Day.

Hubby got me the cutest pepper grinder ever for Valentine's Day. It's much more than a cute counter top accessory, though. It's made by William Bounds, who are known for their incredible quality and lifetime warranty. They are even made in the USA.

Death By Cuteness.

There exists no cuter lunch than the bento. These little Japanese lunches have gained quite a following here in the U.S.. Bento blogs and Flikr groups abound. I, being such a fan of cuteness, and a lover of Japanese food, could not resist the lure of the bento. But, let's face it, bento paraphernalia is pricey. I was shopping around on sites like Jbox, where even the simplest bento boxes are around $20. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm a major cheapskate. So, no $20 bentos for me. I finally found an awesome site called, "Ichiban Kan" They have lots of bentos and accessories for way cheap, like $1.50! I even thought that it must be too good to be true. My order arrived today. Only 3 days after I placed it. How sweet is that?

This is Jayson's first bento.

When Life Gives You Radishes...

So, I ordered groceries online from Safeway.com, and got an unexpected surprise, of the produce variety. I ordered 7 radishes. I got 7 lbs. of radishes. What do you do when life gives you obscene amounts of radishes? Make pickles of course! I didn't have any canning jars, so I just made "refrigerator pickles." They were super easy, using this awesome little recipe. I had some on my salad at lunch today, and I must say they were excellent!

What the Kale!?

Tonight I made one of my favorite, quick meals. It is creatively named "Smoked Sausage with Kale and Chickpeas." Kale is a misunderstood and often frightening vegetable. Just tonight, as I pulled the kale out of the crisper someone exclaimed, "only a dinosaur could eat that!." Kale is seriously undervalued and often ignored by American cooks. It's tasty, versatile, super healthy and cheap. My kind of veggie! So, get over your kale-o-phobia and give it a try.

Between the name and the picture above, you can probably figure out how to make it; but, I'm going to tell you anyway.

Smoked Sausage with Kale and Chickpeas Recipe:

1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 to 1 lb smoked sausage, sliced.
Canned tomatoes with juice. Diced, stewed, Italian style; whatever floats your boat. Mine came with garlic. If yours don't have garlic, you will probably want to add some.
1-2 cups of chicken broth
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed.
1 bunch of kale, washed, stemmed and torn into manageable pieces.

Other things that would make it even better:
deglazing the pan with some white wine
onions
bay leaf
Italian seasoning
a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese
some crusty French or Italian bread. MMmmmmm....bread...Dang low carb diet! How I loathe thee.

Brown your sausage. (add onions and garlic now if using).
Deglaze the pan with white wine now if you like.
Add the mountain of kale to the pan even if it looks like it couldn't possibly fit. It will...eventually.
Add the tomatoes, beans, broth and any spices you like to the pan and cover.
Simmer for about 5 minutes. By this time your kale should have wilted down a bit. Give it a stir and replace the lid. Simmer for another 25 minutes or until the kale is tender, stirring occasionally.

Nothing Says I Love You Like Fish Sauce and Bitter Melon.

What is stinky, unattractive AND delicious? Ginisang Munggo (or Filipino mung bean stew). Now, this is not a dish I would recommend for the Filipino food virgin; as it contains a few ingredients that take some getting used to (like bitter melon, and fish sauce). Once you learn to love the bitter, wrinkly squash and sauce made from fermented fish, you are ready to experience the wonders of ginisang munggo. Not only is it ultimate comfort food, it's also extremely healthy.

Ginisang Munggo Recipe

1 14 oz. bag green mung beans
1 bitter melon, seeded and sliced
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, or 2-3 fresh ones, chopped
1 cup frozen spinach
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 lb of your meat of choice. We use ground beef, because hubby loves ground beef so much, it's a little weird. Pork and shrimp are traditionally used.
Filipino fish sauce, also known as Patis

Rinse your mung beans in a colander. Place in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender. keep covered with at at least a 1/2 inch of water. Mung beans don't need to be soaked like other beans. Beans love to get all foamy and crazy when you boil them, so keep a close eye on them. A bean-foam explosion is a very bad thing.

Brown your meat. If using pork, make sure it is cooked and cubed first. Add the onions, garlic and bitter melon to the pan. Sauté until the veggies are limp and the bitter melon is no longer bright green.

When your beans are soft, add your tomatoes and spinach to the bean pot.

Add the sautéed veggies and meat to the bean pot. Simmer for 15 to 30 more minutes. If you are using shrimp, now is the time to add them. Cook just until opaque.

Season with fish sauce. Patis is EXTREMELY salty. Add just a little at a time.

Serve over rice.

Now that's some good eatin'!

Un(fortune)ate Cookies

We got Chinese take-out tonight, and somehow, someone ate all the fortune cookies before hubby got one. So, I had a sad hubby and toddler begging for "mo' tookies." There was only one thing I could do: Make mo' tookies. Not my most brilliant idea.

The tutorial I used was great. The source of my problems was my own warped (as in no longer flat) Air Bake cookie sheet. Super thin batter + wonky cookie sheet = one giant cookie. Yep, that's right, all the cookies ran together to create one giant mega-cookie. Well, Jayson and Hubby were happy take mega-cookie off my hands. It was crispy and especially delicious due to my use of banana extract in place of the almond extract.

I still really wanted some pretty cookies that I could actually fold up with a fortune. I attempted to make some more cookies, pancake style. That resulted in much more attractive cookies. They look good, but somewhat resemble week-old pancakes in texture. As an added bonus, they are massive and weigh about 4 pounds each.

Well, I'll give myself an "A" for effort, and Jayson will take care of the remaining cookies. And, maybe the bakeware fairy will come and bring me a new cookie sheet.

Not Yo Baby.

When Jayson was a baby, I started buying those little, fancy pants organic baby yogurts (YoBaby from Stonyfield Farm). I think they were about $38 for a six-pack. Ok, maybe not $38, but you get the point.

Well that got old real fast.

Being the frugal mama and do-it-yourself-er that I am; I got myself a yogurt maker. Making yogurt tuned out to be pretty easy. I used my yogurt maker a lot, until Jayson turned two. Then I had the green light to just be lazy and buy him "Grown Up" yogurt.

For almost a year, my poor, lonely yogurt maker has been collecting dust. But now that Kyle is old enough, we are back in the yogurt making business.
Whole Milk Yogurt Recipe:

3 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup powdered milk
3 heaping tablespoons store-bought plain yogurt

Preheat your yogurt maker.
Combine the whole milk and powdered milk in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Heat just to boiling, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.
Once the milk has come to a boil, turn off the heat.
let the milk cool to about 110 degrees.
Add the store bought yogurt to a small bowl.
Gently stir in a few tablespoons of the warm milk mixture into the yogurt. This will thin it out and and make it easier to combine with the remaining milk.
Pour the yogurt mixture into the pan with the milk, stirring gently.
Pour this mixture into the yogurt maker container(s).
Cover and let it do it's thing for 8 hours. Do Not Disturb.

Bacteria never tasted so good!

You may be able to skip the powdered milk, as this made some VERY thick yogurt.

For Kyle, I just mashed some fresh blueberries with a fork and mixed in the yogurt. Jayson wont eat yogurt on its own so I upgraded him to a toddler friendly smoothie with banana, blueberries, strawberries and (Bwa hahahahaha) some fresh baby spinach. I don't know why tricking a 3 year-old into eating spinach makes me feel so dang smart, but it does!