Burger Patties

My husband loves burger sandwiches. In fact this is what we had for lunch today. I cooked beef burger patties. My hubby went to buy some buns while I was cooking. He also bought chips. When I'm done cooking, I called hubby to eat. Would you believe, he ate 4 burger sandwiches? That's how he loved it. He even asked me what did I put in the patties because he said it tasted so good.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 pounds lean ground beef
* 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
* 3/4 cup crushed saltine crackers
* 1 onion, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the grill for high heat.
2. In a bowl, mix the ground beef, ranch dressing mix, egg, crushed crackers, and onion. Form into hamburger patties.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place patties on the grill, and cook 5 minutes per side, or until well done.

How To Poach An Egg

I love eating eggs because it's rich in nutrients that are good for the body. Aside from scrambled eggs, I love my eggs either boiled or poached. I heard that boiled or poached eggs are better than scrambled/fried because you don't use cooking oil. So I tried to poach my eggs once in a while. Since you do not need butter or oil, poaching is a very healthy way to prepare eggs. The perfect poached egg will have a nice undisturbed yolk surrounded evenly by a shiny opaque oval of egg white. Presenting the perfect poached egg is a guaranteed way to impress a breakfast or brunch guest, but it can be tricky to master. Here's how to do it.

Steps

1. Set a saucepan to boil that is about two-thirds full of water.

2. Add a dash of white vinegar (while it's not absolutely vital, it helps the egg's appearance - the vinegar coagulates the egg white turning it into a perfectly poached egg). Any other vinegar apart from white vinegar (balsamic, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar) will stain the eggs and likely add an undesirable flavor.

* The fresher the eggs, the better they poach. An egg straight from the chicken will poach without any need for vinegar.

3. Crack an egg into a ramekin, small bowl or soup ladle.

4. Spin the boiling water to cool down the water before you drop in the egg. You will want to bring the water to a temperature of about 160-180ºF (71-82ºC).

5. Carefully lower or drop the egg into the center of the whirlpool. Make sure that you do not drop the egg into boiling water (100ºC/212ºF), as this will toughen the eggs and make them unpalatable.

6. Wait 3-4 minutes until cooked.

7. Remove with a slotted spoon. Work quickly to transfer each egg onto the plate, letting excess water drip back into the saucepan. Poached eggs should be served as soon as they are pulled from the water. Poached eggs get cold quickly, and cold poached eggs are decidedly less than perfect.

Ginataang Kalabasa At Sitaw

I already harvested a lot of my squash from my garden, also string beans and okra. I even gave some to my Filipino friends. So yesterday, I decided to cook ginataang kalabasa at sitaw and I added okra too. All my veggies were freshly picked from my garden. My hubby love it. I even gave some to my neighbor here. Here's the recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1 squash, peeled and cubed
a bunch of sitaw (10-15 pcs)
8 pcs okra
1 medium size onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of ground beef or
1/4 kilo of shrimp (whatever kind of your choice from the small one to the big ones)
1 cup of coconut milk
oil for cooking
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste or ginisa flavor mix

DIRECTIONS:
Put oil on a saucepan and saute the garlic and onion, after that put your choice of "sahog" (beef, pork or shrimp), then put the squash and saute for a while then add the okra and the sitaw then again saute again for a while then add the water. Cook for a few minutes and then add the coconut milk and cook until the veggies are done then seasoned with salt and pepper to taste or some ready ginisa mix if you want. Then serve with steam rice.

Butterfly Award

I would like to thank my fellow Ilocana for this cool award. Thank you girl. I appreciate the thought.

Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog;
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you;
3. Nominate 10 other blogs;
4. Add links to those blogs on yours;
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs;
6. Give a reason why you consider their blogs cool.

I would like to award this now to the following people whom I consider has the coolest blogs and I enjoy visiting and reading their posts:

Juliana
Ging
Richelle
Selina
mom of four

Making Lumpia

I was busy making lumpia last night for my US citizenship party in our church this coming Sunday evening after our service. Hubby was in the computer and surfing the internet. When he was done, he got the camcorder and all of a sudden he took photos of me. I didn't want to pose because I was not ready but he kept clicking the camcorder so I had to pose and showed the lumpia that I made. When I checked the photos that he took they were not that clear. Hubby didn't turn on the flash of the camcorder. He said he doesn't know how to do it. I told him I have to look at the manual because I can't figure out how to do it either. I have already made a lot of lumpia for Sunday night. I still have to make more just to be sure that everybody in the church will have their share of my lumpia because they all love it.

A Simple Celebration

It's been a few days since the last time I updated this blog. I've been busy doing some other things. I had my US citizenship oath ceremony last Thursday at Arlington Convention Center here in Texas. I was so glad that finally, my immigration journey came to an end. I am now a full pledged US Citizen. Yesterday, my friend Ann, her hubby and their baby came to our house and we had a simple celebration. She requested me to cook pancit and also I cooked puto and lumpia. In addition to that, I baked a store-bought pizza. Ann brought lemon-pepper chicken from Wal Mart and she also gave us a big box of Cheerios cereal, peanut butter and sliced cheese.

Ann loved my pancit and she said she's going to miss it when we go back to the Philippines and live there. We'll, we enjoyed our supper last night and I gave Ann some pancit to take home.

Pancit For My Neighbor

Yesterday afternoon, I was busy cooking in my kitchen. It was my neighbor's birthday and I cooked pancit for her. She fell in love with my pancit the first time she tasted it. It was my hubby who went and gave her the pancit for a couple of times. She told my hubby a couple of weeks ago that she really love it and she asked him if I can cook pancit for her birthday. My hubby said I might and he told me about it. I said that I'm willing to cook pancit for her birthday. They are good neighbors of ours. Her husband mows our yard and even trim the edges of our grass several times already. Hubby told him he's been spoiling us. So in return, I gave them pancit and lumpia everytime I cook. Yesterday, when my hubby went to give my neighbor the pancit for her birthday, hubby said she was so happy and she said, "Yey!". If you want the recipe for my pancit, just click HERE.