Sweet Potato Bake

I know it's been a while since I updated this blog. Finally, I'm here now and making a new post. It doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything in my kitchen. In fact I've been cooking a lot lately than the previous months. Only, I was just too busy and lazy to make a post here.

The other day I cooked the sweet potatoes that I bought. Actually, I bought 6.5 lbs of sweet potatoes in the market. I gave some to my sis and they boiled it and ate it just like that. The rest I cooked and made sweet potato bake. It's the 2nd time that I made this recipe and my hubby always love it. He loves sweet you know. I gave some to my nephews too. Here's the recipe:

Sweet Potato Bake

INGREDIENTS

* 4 cups cold mashed sweet potatoes (without added milk and butter)
* 1/3 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/4 cup butter, softened
* 3 eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* TOPPING:
* 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans or rolled oats
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons cold butter

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, beat sweet potatoes, sugar, milk, butter, eggs, salt and vanilla until smooth. Transfer to a greased 2-qt. baking dish. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, pecans and flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over potato mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.

My Birthday Celebration

I celebrated my birthday last August 5th with my family, friends, relatives, neighbors and my Sunday School kids. I just had a simple celebration with just 5 menus and 2 roll cakes. I wanted to have more foods but it's hard to cook a lot and I only have my brother to help me. It's good my sister-in-law came home early from work at around 3: PM so she was able to help us. She helped prepare the veggies and she cooked chop suey. I cooked goulash and my brother cooked beef caldereta, chicken adobo, rice and fried chicken legs. My guests arrived at around 5:30 PM but we finished cooking at around 7:00 PM. We started eating at around past 7 and the first menu that was gone was the chop suey. We only had a few fried chicken legs so we did not really serve it openly. I forgot that one pack of uncooked chicken legs were still in the refrigerator. I didn't see it when we were cooking. My brother only cooked one pack of chicken legs. My 2 nephews love the fried chicken legs, they said it's like the chicken joy from Jollibee.

Cooking a lot makes me tired so maybe next time that there will be another occasion I will just ask my neighbor who is a caterer to cook foods for me. Anyways, my guests got full and some of them even took home foods for their housemates who were not able to come. I enjoyed my birthday and I thank God for another blessed year in my life. Hubby didn't give me any gift but his mere presence and love is enough for me. I can live without any gifts as long as I have my loved ones who love and care for me and my Jesus who is my rock, Healer, Lord and Savior of my life.

Green Chile Beef Enchilada

This recipe is easy to make but it's delicious. I got this recipe from my step-daughter Shelly. She cooked this on her birthday 2 years ago. My hubby loved it that's why I made the effort to cook it for him. We ate this during supper and we just paired it with vegetable salad. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground beef
1 can cream of chicken
1 4oz can of chopped green chilies
1/2 lb shredded cheddar cheese
1 onion, chopped
6 corn tortillas cut in half

DIRECTIONS:

Brown meat in skillet, drain. Pour into saucepan the cream of chicken, green chilies, 1/4 can of water and heat to almost boiling. Begin layering in a baking dish corn tortillas, meat mixture, onions and cheese. Make 2 layers. Bake at 325 degrees until it bubbles around 30 minutes.

Vernice's Birthday

My niece Vernice just turned two last Wednesday and of course we celebrated with family, friends and loved ones by eating the foods that we prepared. My brother cooked pancit, beef caldereta and fish patty and my sister-in-law cooked chop suey. On the other hand, I cooked goulash, lumpia and chicken afritada. Hubby and I also bought a birthday cake for her. It was a late dinner but we had fun. My niece is now officially in her terrible two's and she's been acting that way a few months ago. Despite that, she's still lovable, sweet and cute and she's the apple of our eyes.

Get Together Lunch

Last Thursday, my God-child Aika and her family came over at our house to have lunch with us. My brother and I prepared the foods that we're going to cook as early as 9:30 AM. I cooked chicken afritada and my brother cooked ginataang kalabasa at sitaw, ampalaya with eggs and fried fish. I also prepared vegetable salad and macaroni with fruit salad. Aika brought buko salad and we had a good time eating those Filipino foods. My brother and I are both good cooks, he-he!

Squash With Okra and Bitter Gourd

It's been a while since I posted here. I know I've been lagging behind but what can I do. I haven't been cooking much lately. It's my youngest brother whose done the cooking most of the time. I just enjoyed eating without getting tired cooking, LOL! But this week, hubby and I are up here in the city of pines enjoying the cool weather. My brother is not here to cook so I have been cooking the past 3 days. What else would I cook but my favorite vegetable recipes of course. So here's my recipe of squash one more time. They said squash is good for the eyes. I hope it would improve my vision which is getting blurry due to constant exposure to the computer.

INGREDIENTS:
1 squash, peeled and cubed
10 pcs okra
2 pcs ampalaya (bitter gourd), sliced
3 pcs tomatoes, sliced
salt or fish sauce (I used liquid aminos)
cooking oil
1/2 lb ground beef
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cups water

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the cooking oil in a pot and saute the garlic and onion. Put the ground beef and brown it. Add water and let it simmer. Add salt or fish sauce, and all the vegetables. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Serve with rice.

Homemade Meatloaf

One of my favorite recipes that I learned to cook in the US is meatloaf. It's easy to cook and I often cook it whenever I have my organic ground beef. My hubby loves homemade meatloaf. In fact he's the one who taught me how to cook it. I just modified it and added some ingredients and it tasted better.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tsp spicy brown mustard or Creole mustard
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 red or green bell pepper
1 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried leaf oregano

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, ketchup and bread crumbs. Crumble beef over mixture; mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Shape into a round loaf. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

If desired, spread about 1/2 cup of ketchup over the top of the meatloaf 15 minutes before it's done.