Christmas Cookies

These were the cookies served at my son's school Christmas Party.There were many  other desserts on the table so I ignored it  and just took a picture for a blog post. I never tried making cookies  for Christmas before and was thinking of making some next Christmas. Cookies are fun to do with the kids helping out .



Buttered Green Beans

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Green beans and Pork Chop

I grew up with  vegetables, meat or fish and fruits on the table for a meal. That is how my mother feed us, vegetables and protein to keep us healthy and strong. Now that I have a family of my own,it's my turn to serve my family a complete healthy meal as my mom does. One good thing about my children is that they loves to eat vegetables specially my 3 years old. If you ask him to choose between green salad and chicken, he surely will choose the first one.

Green Beans also called as string beans and snap beans are available all year round. Wash them thoroughly in water. Trimmed off the top only and leave the tail end. You can cut it at desired lengths  or leave whole.

Cooking Procedures :

 1. Boil water, add the green beans,blanch for 4-5 minutes until crisp tender. Drain and plunge into an ice cold water to stop the cooking process and retain its color. Remove from cold water and set aside.

2. Heat butter and oil together. Saute garlic and onion, add the green beans and the tomato. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add fresh basil(optional). Serve with hot.

Pork Chop 

1. Marinate with lemon  and pepper seasoning salt for at least an hour. 
2. Heat vegetable oil .
3. Fry until golden brown.

Cheese Cake

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Cheese Cake is one of my favorite to bake. I have a recipe given by an american friend back in KSA. The recipe it looks complicated but once you get use to it  you find it easy to prepare. I prepare bake than no bake but when  my hubby said that  he likes the unbake and ready mix from the box, I started making it for him, but  I still make my own recipe for me and my kids. It is much easier if you'll just buy a ready made crust  and bake it for at least 10 minutes for a golden crisp crust if you are making the ready made one. But if you are making the bake one, no need to do this.

Chocolates, Anyone?

Since yesterday, I was browsing at my picture albums looking for brown photo's  to join the Thursday Brownies. And I finally got me one, chocolates! When it comes to Chocolate, I am to picky probably because I don't have a sweet tooth. I just have it once in a while even if you are on a diet.

Queen Anne is one of my favorite, hubby introduced it to me last year when we came to US from then on fell in love with the Cordial cherry field dark brown chocolates. I recently  bought a box last week. It contains 10 pieces all in just a dollar. I love the sweet taste of the cordial filling and the chocolate itself is not bitter just right for my taste.

Dark Chocolate Queen Anne® Cordial Cherries.

Another favorite is the Reese's peanut butter cups. It has a perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate.

Fish Tempura

My version of fish tempura. serve with tartar sauce or any dipping sauce of your choice.

Ingredients:

• Fish Fillet or Prawns, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• oil for frying
• Japanese bread crumbs (panko)

Grilled Baby Back Ribs

One of my eldest sons most requested recipe is the barbecue/grilled baby back ribs aside from tortang talong (eggplant omelette) and fried fish. Out of the whole baby back ribs, my share would only be  1/4 and the rest goes to his tummy. He already took 1/4  of  the ribs while I already grabbed  mine and the rest shown in the picture will still be his. He'll  back later to get all of it.

Here is my recipe:
1/2   slab spare rib  or 1 kilo ribs
1/2 cup tomato /banana catsup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup pine apple juice(optional) 
1/4 cup vinegar
1/cup soy sauce
1 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp chili powder(optional)
1 tsp black pepper
1 T salt

Cooking instructions:
1.Season the  ribs with salt and pepper .Arrange in an iron skillet or oven proof dish and cover with aluminum foil.Bake at 350 degrees  for 1 hour. Remove from the oven .
2.Combine the remaining ingredients .Pour over the ribs , return to oven  uncover and bake for 30 minutes or more.

*You can add or put a little more of the ingredients according to your taste.
*You can put any spices available in your pantry.
*Cooking is fun  and easy if you just know how to use and experiment on  the spices.

Cinnamon Roll

I have been baking cinnamon roll  from  different recipes but still cannot make a perfect one. So far this one is a little better than the previous ones.Taste is good,  just needed  some more cinnamon sugar filling according to my critique son. If you  will look for some nuts, you will find nothing. It is not that I forgot to put some, I just don't have it at home. I need to try another recipe again and hoping it will be perfect this time

Birthday and Thanksgiving Celebration

Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated yearly in the USA for  the  blessings and good harvest  of  the year .It is not complete without the traditional  turkey on the table.It is also the time for family and friends gatherings.

The first time I celebrated Thanksgiving with hubby was in Qatar during our first year together.We  invited our friends over to celebrate with us. I cooked a lot of American food but only few showed up. From that day on hubby told me that we are not going to celebrate it there anymore .He was not so happy that I spent 2 days cooking and ended  up with too much left over food because many of our expected guest did not come.

Now that we are in the US there are so many reasons to thank God for all our blessings.This year we did  celebrate  thanksgiving and my eldest son's 13th birthday as well.

I forgot the candle for the cake so my 2 boys just pretended  blowing.

 Happy Thanksgiving to all and of course happy happy birthday to my son!

Mc Donald's Apple Slices

My youngest son loves french fries and chicken nugget so much.Everytime we go out and see the Mc Donald's fast food  he will say "French Fries".French Fries for him means"Chicken Nugget Kids Meal" and that includes toy in his order. Last Sunday before the weekly grocery shopping we stopped by Mc Donald first for lunch since he asked for  fries again when he saw the big yellow "M" sign near Walmart store.

While my eldest son was on the line for our orders, me and the small one headed  into the play area .The play area is one of the reason why I take my kids to Mc Donald because that is where they want to play and enjoy the day.The meal came as a surprise,Mc Donald has added  apple slices and reduced  the portion of French fries in its children's meal boxes.McDonald's has made changes to its menu over the years to drive more sales and to serve a healthier  food to their customers.

Blueberry Muffin

 I have this recipe from Dorothy's Cooking School cook book for a long time . This is one recipe that I really like .Very easy to bake and my kids loves it.

Blueberry Muffin Recipe

Muffins:
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup fresh milk
1/4 cup butter
1 whole big egg
2 cups sifter all purpose flour
2 tsps sifted baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

Streusel Topping:
1/4  cup granulated white sugar
13 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 12 cupcake with baking paper cups.
2. To prepare the streusel topping,combine all the ingredients in the mixing bowl .Keep in the freezer until needed.
3. In a mixing bowl ,combine sugar,milk,softened butter, and egg. Beat at low speed until blended.Pour in the flour,baking powder and salt.Continue beating at low speed until the batter is thick and heavy.
4. Gently fold in the blueberries using the rubber scraper.
5. Divide the batter equally(3/4 full) on the prepared molders.Get the streusel topping from the freezer and crumble with your finger.Generously top the muffins with this mixture.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Sinigang na Manok (Chicken Sour Stew)

I was always  cook sinigang at home using  lemon  as a souring agent ( pampaasim) because I cannot find any sinigang mix in my place. After a year, I finally got one from Walmart Paris, Texas. I love to shop there because the food is tax free and they sell  some Asian food stuff . Last week was my lucky day. At last, they were selling Knorr Tamarind Soup Mix. I immediately cooked Chicken Sinigang for me and my children. I put in the freshly harvest eggplant from my garden. Too sad that I don't have okra and pepper anymore so I just settled for bell pepper for added flavor.

Pakbet

Pakbet or Pinakbet is one of my favorite dish and  a very popular  Ilocano dish among Filipinos. It is made up of  sauteed or boiled mixed vegetables seasoned with bagoong. Most of the recipe calls for pork but I like it with shrimp too.I love to cook this because it is  easy to prepare  and we can cook it however we want it but the taste is still good probably because of the fermented fish (bagoong isda) or shrimp paste. My mom usually serves it with fried fish (galunggong) and a lot of rice.

In the Middle East pork is not allowed (haram) so for this this recipe  I used shrimp.

Shrimp with Brocoli

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Brocolli  is one of my families favorite vegetable .It is always available in the market and easy to cook and most of all  is high in vitamin C and fiber. It may be cook boiled and steamed but may also be eaten raw.

In this recipe, I blanched the brocolli first and added to the sauteed garlic ,onion and shrimp. And lastly poured the mixture of oyster sauce, oyster sauce and corn starch  to make a thick sauce then salt and pepper to taste.



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Siopao (Steamed Dumpling)

Siopao is one of my favorite snack .I like both  the asado and the bola bola. The last time I made my own siopao was years ago back in Qatar.Hubby's a picky eater and he did not like it so I ended up eating all the siopao.So  whenever I crave for it I just buy or order.Saves me time and effort.

Since siopao is nowhere to be found  here in my place ,I made one and just used the left over meat balls.The dough turned out good and the sauce was perfect for my taste. My boys even liked it. The recipe was from one of my old cook book and I even shared it to a friend few years ago  for her siopao business and it was a real hit.