The Refrigerator Rules

1. Temperature Keep your refrigerator's temperature set to at least 40 degrees. Bacteria loves to grow between 40 and 140 degrees.

2. Cleaning Make sure to wipe up spills as soon as they happen. Clean your fridge with a thorough wipe down every week. Use a solution of half-and-half water and distilled vinegar.

3. Storing Store leftovers in containers with lids. This will prevent spills and cross contamination with other foods that might soon be spoiling or are already spoiled. All leftovers should be stored within 2 hours of cooking or 1 hour on hot summer days.

4. Chilling To chill hot leftovers, place them in shallow covered containers and immerse them in a bath of ice water to cool rapidly.

5. Discarding Toss any leftovers that have sat in the fridge for more than 4 days. Do not rely on smell, taste or sight. But if something is growing on your leftovers, it's definitely a sign to toss.

6. Reheating When you want to eat leftovers that need reheating, be sure to heat them to a temperature higher than 140 degrees.


*www.kitchendaily.com

Nutella Roll

I saw this easy to prepare snack somewhere and I decided to try it also. The original recipe was Peanut Butter Roll but I replaced peanut butter with Nutella instead.

Remove the outer part of the bread then flattened it with a rolling pin. Spread the Nutella and roll then cut it depending how thick you want and put a toothpick to lock.

My kiddo enjoyed it and went home with her snack box empty.

The Perfect Sauce for Every Noodle

I love pasta.
And did you know that every noodle has its best pair of sauce?

Read on...

• Farfalle: Also known as bow tie pasta, the cinched middles of this shape keep it from overcooking and are ideal for catching bits of sauce. Farfalle goes well with light, vegetable-based sauces like primavera.

• Linguini: This pasta shape translates to "little tongues." Its flat shape helps sauces adhere to it, so it’s excellent with delicate, olive oil–based sauces.

• Orzo: This rice-shaped pasta works great in soups and salads. It can also be used to make a faster version of risotto.

• Pappardelle: This wide, velvety egg noodle has a relatively soft texture. It’s wonderful with chunky, ragu-style sauces, which usually contain ground meat, tomatoes, and onions. For a vegetarian dish, pappardelle goes nicely with gremolata—a topping of parsley, garlic, and lemon zest.

• Penne: This tubular pasta comes in both a smooth and ridged (rigate) variety. The slanted ends of the penne help pull sauce up into the tubes, and the ridges on the rigate-style noodles help to grab even more sauce. Serve penne with rustic tomato sauces, such as puttanesca and marinara.

• Spaghetti: The most popular pasta shape in the world, this long noodle goes well with any thick tomato-based sauce.


*source

Pork Binagoongan

Last week was full of cooking for me. 

I'm in the mood, that's it!

I suddenly craved for pork binagoongan and was lucky to have everything [ingredients] available.

A lucky day indeed!

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork, cubes
• 2 cups bagoong alamang
• 1 head of garlic, minced
• 1 big onion, minced
• 4 chili peppers, minced
• ½ cup vinegar
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• ½ cup water
• tomatoes

Directions:

• In a casserole, boil pork in lower fire with water until evaporates and pork oil starts to come out.
• When pork is lightly crispy, put in on the side and sauté garlic, onion, and chili peppers and tomatoes then mix.
• Add in the bagoong and cook while stirring for 5minutes.
• Pour in the vinegar and stir well.
• Add in the sugar and let simmer for 10 minutes or until cooked.

Adidas on Barefoot Shoe

Nay or yay???

Personally, its nice :)

Cheese and Bean Quesadillas

ingredients

• 1/4 cup refried beans
• 4 6- to 8-inch flour tortillas
• 2/3 cup shredded colby-and-Monterey Jack cheese
• Salsa (optional)

directions

1. Use a table knife to spread half of the refried beans on 1 tortilla.
2. Place bean-topped tortilla in a medium skillet or griddle with the bean side up. Put skillet on a burner. Turn the burner to medium heat. Sprinkle half of the cheese over tortilla. Top with 1 plain tortilla.
3. Cook over medium heat about 3 minutes or until cheese begins to melt. Use a pancake turner to turn quesadilla over. Cook 2 minutes more. Use pancake turner to remove quesadilla from skillet. Repeat with remaining tortillas, refried beans, and cheese. Turn off burner. Remove skillet from burner. Use pancake turner to remove quesadilla from skillet.
4. Use scissors to cut each quesadilla into 4 triangles. Serve with salsa, if you like. Makes 4 servings.

*www.shine.yahoo.com

1.  

Refried Beans

This is in preparation for the Quesadillas that I want to try. Since I still don't know how to make refried beans, I might as well make a separate post about it.

So here it is..

• Cook time: 45 minutes

We use bacon fat in this recipe, though you can easily use olive oil or lard. Although the recipe only calls for 2 Tbsp, we find that the flavor is greatly enhanced with the addition of a couple more tablespoons of bacon fat, just for flavor. You can also get some smokey flavor in the beans by adding a bit of chipotle powder, sauce, or chipotle Tabasco.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups of dry pinto beans (about 1 lb or 450gm)
• 3 quarts of water
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (optional)
• 2 Tbsp (or more to taste) pork lard, bacon fat, or olive oil (for vegetarian option)
• 1/4 cup water
• Salt to taste
• Cheddar cheese (optional)

METHOD

1 Rinse the beans in water and remove any small stones, pieces of dirt, or bad beans.

2 Cook the beans in water.
Regular method Put beans into a pot and cover beans with at least 3 inches of water - about 3 quarts for 2 1/2 cups of dry beans. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer, covered, for about 2 1/2 hours. The cooking time will vary depending on the batch of beans you have. The beans are done when they are soft and the skin is just beginning to break open.
Pressure Cooker method Put beans into a 4 quart pressure cooker with a 15 lb weight. Fill up the pressure cooker with water, up to the line that indicates the capacity for the pot. Cook for 30-35 minutes - until the beans are soft and the skins are barely breaking open. Allow the pressure cooker to cool completely before opening. If there is resistance when attempting to open the cooker, do not open it, allow it to cool further. Follow the directions for your brand of pressure cooker. (See safety tips on using pressure cookers.)

Strain the beans from the cooking water.

3 Add the onions and lard/fat/oil to a wide, sturdy (not with a flimsy stick-free lining) frying pan on medium high heat. Cook onions until translucent. (Note the onions are optional, you can skip them if you want.) Add the strained beans and about a 1/4 cup of water to the pan. Using a potato masher, mash the beans in the pan, while you are cooking them, until they are a rough purée. Add more water if necessary to keep the fried beans from getting too dried out. Add salt to taste. Add a few slices of cheddar cheese, or some (1/2 cup) grated cheddar cheese if you want. When beans are heated through (and optional cheese melted) the beans are ready to serve.

Note that many recipes call for soaking the beans overnight and discarding the soaking liquid. We don't. We discard the cooking liquid and just add some water back into the frying pan when we are frying the beans.

*www.simplyrecipes.com 

Graham Cake| Vhen and Sasha Style

Last weekend my tot and I was in the mood to make graham cake. Its been awhile since the last time we have eaten a slice.

This of course is not new to most of you or probably everybody knows this already. Since this is a simple recipe and easy to prepare, I also let my kiddo help me do the preparation.

Here are the ingredients, I added marshmallows to be more attractive.

And here's how I did it.
I guess there's no need for 123 directions :)

Easy-peasy.
We made 6 and we added a piece of apple because the fruit cocktail was not enough.
But over all, its a success! ;)

Bento

I'm seeing food blogs doing bento and I'm kind of curious what is it really.

Pardon my ignorance please :)

So to feed my curiosity, what's the use of Google right? lol

Bento (弁当 bentō^?)^[1] is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass producedto hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops(弁当屋 bentō-ya^?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box.

Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or "character bento". Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon (anime) characters, characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Another popular bento style is "oekakiben" or "picture bento", which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants. Contests are often held where bento arrangers compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements.

There are similar forms of boxed lunches in the Philippines (Baon), Korea (Dosirak), Taiwan (Biandang), and India (Tiffin). Also, Hawaiian culture has adopted localized versions of bento featuring local tastes after over a century of Japanese influence in the islands.

OK, that's it...

I think I have to do this since my kiddo is bringing snack in school. Sometimes I run out of ideas what to prepare everyday. And she seems too bored already with the foods in her snack box and left untouched.

Now, I am looking for cute bento boxes as well as those bento stuffs that I can use to attract my picky eater.

Salsa Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 6 small ripe avocados, halved, pitted and peeled
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup salsa
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt or salt-free seasoning blend
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Tortilla chips

Directions:

• In a bowl, mash avocados with lemon juice.
Stir in salsa, onions, salt and garlic powder. Serve immediately with tortilla chips.

*www.rd.com

10 Minute Zesty Salsa

Ingredients:

• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 6 green onions, chopped
• 1 cup (4 ounces) finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
• 1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
• 1/4 cup prepared zesty Italian salad dressing
• Tortilla chips

Direction:

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients; mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve with tortilla chips.


*www.rd.com

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

Ingredients:

• 24 medium jalapeno peppers
• 1 pound uncooked chorizo or bulk spicy pork sausage
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 12 bacon strips, cut in half
• 
  
• Directions:
• • Make a lengthwise cut in each jalapeno, about 1/8 inch deep; remove seeds. Combine the sausage and cheese; stuff into jalapenos. Wrap each with a piece of bacon; secure with toothpicks.
  • Prepare grill for indirect heat, using a drip pan. Place jalapenos over pan; grill, covered, over indirect medium heat for 17-20 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer inserted into filling reads 160°. Grill, covered, over direct heat 1-2 minutes longer or until bacon is crisp. 

    *photo and recipe courtesy of www.rd.com

Mini Corn Salsa Tostadas

I love Mexican food, super! 

And I am so glad I stumble on this certain article about Mexican appetizers that I think I want to try someday. heehee!

First in line is this Mini Corn Salsa Tostadas.

Ingredients:

• 3 flour tortillas (8 inches)
• 3/4 cup fat-free sour cream
• 3 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro,divided
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

• 3/4 cup fresh or frozen corn, thawed
• 1 plum tomato, diced
• 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno pepper
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Using a 2-in. round cookie cutter, cut 12 circles from each tortilla. Coat both sides of circles with cooking spray. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 4-5 minutes or until crisp. Cool.
• In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, 1 teaspoon cilantro, onions and garlic powder; cover and refrigerate. In another bowl, combine the corn, tomato, jalapeno, orange juice, oil, salt and remaining cilantro; cover and refrigerate. Just before serving, spread 1 teaspoon sour cream mixture over each tostada. Using a slotted spoon, top each with a teaspoonful of corn salsa. 

  *photo and recipe courtesy of www.rd.com