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.

Ginisang Chayote

I love eating ginisang chayote so I often buy chayote in the market or whenever we go to my brother-in-law's house, we always get chayote from their backyard. It grow there pretty good. In fact, we just went there last weekend and I got some chayote including the tops. So the best recipe for it is of course ginisang chayote.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced thin
3 chayote, sliced
Patis (fish sauce), to taste
Ground pepper

Directions:

Heat pan to medium heat and saute’ the ground beef in a tablespoon of oil until it turn brown. Add garlic and saute until it becomes fragrant, 1-2 minutes then add the onions. Cook for a few more minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the chayote, stir fry for a minute or two then add about 1/2 cup of water. Season with patis or salt and pepper, cover and simmer until the chayote is tender. Adjust seasonings and serve over steamed rice.

Baked Empanada

It's been a while that I haven't cooked empanada. My hubby likes it so I decided to make some yesterday. I just cooked 8 pieces the other day and I put the remaining dough and filling (I used chicken) in the refrigerator. Then this afternoon I cooked all of it, 11 pieces. After I cooked, hubby came in the kitchen and grabbed a piece. It was still hot, fresh from the oven. I prefer baked empanada than fried. My hubby loves it and he said he can eat it all. He said they are so good. Oh my, I told him to leave some for me because I was going to take a shower. I told him I will eat after I shower. He told me to hurry up before he can it them all. I know he was just teasing me. He just ate three pieces then when we ate our supper we also ate the remaining empanada. It was all gone in a matter of minutes.

Ingredients:

Dough:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
ice water (enough to make a ball)

Filling:
1 chicken breast, boiled and himayin
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
canola oil
salt
pepper

Instructions:

Mix the ingredients for the dough. Knead it well using a rolling pin. If the dough is already okay and doesn't stick to your hands no more, cut it into pieces according to your desired size. For the filling, sautee the garlic, onion, chicken then add the rest of the ingredients. Put salt and pepper according to taste. If it's already cooked, let it cool first. Then form a ball of the dough that you cut into pieces and roll it with the rolling pin to flatten. Then put the filling about 1heaping tablespoon. Then wrap it. Use a fork to seal the edges. Beat 1 egg and just use the yolk. Apply it to the empanada using a brush before baking. Bake it for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Fish Sarciado

When my mom was still alive, she often cooked fish sarciado. I learned to cook this recipe from her and this has been a family favorite ever since we were kids. I love eating fish more than meat and this afternoon, we had fish sarciado for supper. Everything was gone and all eaten up. Yummy...

INGREDIENTS:

Fried fish
4 cloves garlic
1 diced onions
3 diced tomatoes
1 cup water
oil for frying
1 beaten egg
salt and pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

1. Saute the garlic and onion first then add the tomatoes and cook it until soft.
2. Add water and put the fried fish, season to adjust taste
3. Add beaten egg last. Eat with rice. Yummy!