English Tea with Donut and Biscotti

I love any kind of tea especially Japanese green tea and English black tea. I take afternoon tea with anything sweet on the side like biscuits, cookies or donuts. Today, I had English tea with cream and sugar paired with Chocolate Donut and Biscotti. This is my entry to Food Friday.

Fried Vegetable and Pork Potstickers

Potstickers are one of our favorite snacks or dinners depending on the amount I cook ;-). I normally steam them in my bamboo steamer, but for a change I fried them in canola oil. I used lite soy sauce mixed with calamansi juice for dipping sauce.

Cassava Cake

Here's another easy dessert recipe for everyone to try. Promise you can make this with eyes closed, but don't try it anyway, you might make a big mess in the kitchen ;-). Cassava cake is a very easy and popular Filipino dessert, as the name implies it is made of cassava, a starchy tuberous root crop common to tropical region like the Philippines. Cassava is sometimes called yuca, manioc or tapioca. Cassava is already great as it is, we used to just boil them and eat them with sugar sprinkled on top. Sometimes we boil them in water mixed with sugar as syrup.

CASSAVA CAKE

INGREDIENTS
1 lb Frozen Grated Cassava
1 can Coconut Milk
1 Can Condensed Milk
1/4 cup Sugar

PROCEDURE

1. Thaw the frozen cassava
2. Mix all the ingredients together and pour in a baking dish
3. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for approximately 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Chicken BBQ for Cookout

Hi friends, how did your 4th of July celebration go? We had a cookout in my house yesterday and of course my hb, the master chef was so busy manning the grill. Nobody touches the grill except the man ;-). We had the usual hamburger, hotdogs, back ribs and chicken barbeque on the hot grill. I want to share this very easy and no-brainer chicken bbq recipe. For the marinade - whatever you have in the pantry that you think will make the marinade tasty and juicy just throw them in. That's what I did and it turned out great. These are some of what was left from the cookout and I paired the chicken bbq with hot steamed white rice and vinegar with hot green pepper on the side, yummy!

CHICKEN BARBEQUE

INGREDIENTS
Boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite pieces

MARINADE
Toyomansi (Soy Sauce with Calamansi)
Vinegar with Hot Pepper
Ginger Ale
Teriyaki Sauce
Hot Chili Sauce
Sweet Chili Sauce
Ketchup
Sesame Oil
Oyster Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Garlic Powder with Parsley
White Ground Pepper

PROCEDURE
1. Just mix all the marinade ingredients together and soak the chicken there overnight.
2. Thread the chicken in skewers and discard the marinade.

Kitchen Tip #4
If possible, I use kitchen shear instead of knife to cut the chicken or other meat and
cut them up in the sink. That way, I won't use chopping board anymore and
therefore only have few utensils to wash and
won't make the kitchen counter messy too.

Grilled Salmon Salad

Last night we had a very light dinner of grilled salmon salad. I usually partner the salmon with steamed veggies and mashed potato, but for a change we just mixed it with greens.

GRILLED SALMON SALAD



INGREDIENTS
Grilled Salmon
2 hearts of Romaine
Artichoke hearts marinated in oil
Kalamata Olives
Raddish

MARINADE OF SALMON
Lemon juice
Lite Soy Sauce
Garlic Powder with Parsley
Ginger Powder
Ground White Pepper

PROCEDURE:
1. Mix the marinade ingredients together, I just eyeball them depending on the amount of the salmon. Marinate the salmon for an hour and grill 2 minutes on each side. Cube.
2. Drain the artichoke and kalamata olives and slice the raddishes.
3. On a bed of lettuce, put all the ingredients and serve with your choice of dressing. My husband prefers Italian dressing while I normally use Thousand Island Dressing.

Food Friday - Frozen Lemons

As my first entry to Food Friday, here is a shot of my frozen lemons. Lemons in US are usually expensive so I buy them in bulk at Costco and freeze the juice in ice trays for later use. Here are some pieces I popped out of the tray and used to marinate the salmon we grilled for dinner.

BBQ Season

Summer will officially start after midnight tonight and bbq season will be making its official debut by then. Here's one appropriate message just for laughs to us women, to remind us of our role in the summer-long cookouts.

After long dragging months of cold and winter, we are finally coming up to summer and BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking as it's the only type of cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved.

When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...
1) The woman buys the food.
2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.
3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - Beer in hand.

Here comes the important part:
4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine....
5) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another Beer while he deals with the situation .

Important again:
7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine.....
The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.
9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:
10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off." And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women .

And so that's the story of our outdoor cooking life.

Drink Water!

It's been very hot lately and I always crave for ice cold water to quench my thirst. I prefer water over soda, I only drink soda occasionally when I feel like it or when in a party. Here are some useful facts about water that is worth sharing about.

* * * * *

Water makes up 83% of the blood and acts as a transport system, delivering nutrients to the brain and eliminating toxins.

Your brain needs to be fully hydrated so that the circuitry works well and it functions at optimum levels. Water is essential for concentration and mental alertness.

Studies have shown that most people are permanently partially dehydrated. This means that their brain is working considerably below its capacity and potential.

A study by Trevor Brocklebank at Leeds University in the UK discovered that schoolchildren with the best results in class were those who drank up to eight glasses of water a day. (source: Bill Lucas, Power Up Your Mind, 2001)

Therefore, you should drink at least 2 litres of water every day.