Recycling leftovers

I remember growing up that my mom always has this rule that we need to finish dishes and any leftover food will be served until it is done.  I some how share her value of not wasting food so when become a homemaker myself I make it sure that we don't throw away food.  But sometimes I don't want to eat the same food in a row so i need to be creative to not waste leftover but not also eating the same food over and over again.  What I thought was to recycle leftovers and my husband was really impressed how I do it.  It's not really that complicated, i just think how the food is cooked and most of the time recipes call for the same ingredients and same basic cooking procedure.  Like for example sauted ground beef can go a long way,  it can start as Picadillo, then you can make the leftover as a filling for empanada or turnover, you can also add some tomato based pasta sauce and serve over pasta, or add some veggies and make it into pot pie or shepherd's pie. I experiment a lot and sometimes it'll turn out good sometimes really bad. :-)

 
Here is another easy way I recycled our left over chicken curry.  So we cooked a big batch of chicken curry a few months back and freeze the left over.  Last week took if from the freezer and though it's still good and the veggies were over cooked from reheating and it's not appealing to serve as it is. So what I did was get the chicken chucks and the potatoes and carrots and lightly mashed it together with a fork, then I got  puff pastry and filled it with curry. Then baked it over 425 degree.  When it was done, it looked so nice and tasted something like samosa or turnover.

This is good for appetizer or served with soup.

This batch looks fancy, I just put a spoonful of the curry and place it in a middle of 3"x3" puff pastry and  fold  all corners towards the middle.

I made several batch, then wrapped them individually with wax paper so they wont stick to each other then freeze it.  Then I just get a few and bake it, a very quick meal.  Here I serve it together with Butternut squash and curry soup.

My sweet Valentine

Every Valentine's day Joshua always manages to surprise me.  Last year he took me out for dinner and surprised me with a huge teddy bear and some lovely flowers.  He also bought me a new wedding ring, well since the old one won't fit me anymore.

me and my teddy bear, we named it Valentino

my new ring, it's white gold band, with wheat design engraved, and studded with diamonds.

This year's Valentine's day we decided to make it simple, we won't go out for dinner and Josh won't give me flowers but even though we have talked about  it even the night before he told me not to expect anything, I still know that Joshua will be planning something. And guess what? I'm right! I got a text late in the afternoon telling me to go out and when I did go out  I found gifts under the staircase.  A singing bear in the middle of herb plants and chocolates.  And ofcourse a sweet note from my sweetest Valentine.

 Of course I planned a little for Josh too, it is always kinda hard to think what to give a guy on Valentine's day so I thought of a silly idea using some of the stuff I have in the kitchen. And made a presentation...

Our valentine's day loot. I made a simple Valentine presentation for Josh.

It starts with "My Darling, your the apple of my eye and I go banana in love with you. Your my butterfinger and  nobody's gonna lay a finger on my butterfinger (he loves Butterfinger and I just made refernce of their comercial slogan). 

"You're the sweetest Valentine and I'm happy you're mine. (there's supposed to be a heart candy tart with "happy" written on it)

"Happy Cheesy Valentine's Day"  I used laughing cow cheese.

and lastly "Orange you glad the cheesiness is over.." ha ha we had a good laugh.

And my valentine card with an adorable fuzzy monkey. (he likes monkey)

Then Joshua cooked me dinner and light some candles.

Celebrating love doesn't need to be fancy and elaborate, what makes it special is that you celebrate it with the person you love. 

our simple meal of steak, sweet potato, sauted vegetables and ramen noodle salad.

Birthday week

This year my sweet husband made a big deal about my birthday, not just for a day but for the whole week.  I never really had made a big deal of my birthday and I never remember celebrating it in a big party it was always been a small celebration. This year it was really different and so amazing how Josh planned everything.

The birthday week started on Decemeber 4 with a surprise lunch with our friends from our church which Joshua organized so well.  The next day we went out for a fancy dinner in Carrabas. Tuesday we just have a fun dinner with small group friends. On the day of my birthday (December 8)  he cleaned the house and I went out with my sister-in-law Jenny and friend Rachel and watched a movie (Morning Glory) then when I came home there are flowers and card waiting for me. On Thursday, he bought be dessert.  Then came Friday, he told me that he want to take me out for a nice lunch so he picked me up from work. When I went out from our building I saw him talking to a couple and when I looked who they were, it was Larmi and Ochelle!, our friends  from the Philippines (who are now in Maryland. So they planned all this out so I can spend a weekend with friends whom I missed a lot. The last surprise was a birthday party with his family and friends.

I felt so loved and cared for on my birthday week...

And there's another surprise, my first niece was born on this week too, December 10, 2010.

Adelina's Ham

When I was a teenager we always work for a family friend's ham store (Adelina's Ham) on Christmas break.  It's a fun experience selling ham and just being with my brother, sister, my cousins (Jermain and Me Ann), and friends from church.  We get to meet lots of people, even celebrities! We will work all day and at night we will all go home together, share stories about funny experiences and interesting people we sell ham to. We always get tired but it's fun experience.  On our last day we will get paid which is so awesome because that means more Christmas money for shopping! Then the second best part is that we get to bring home some ham and other goodies for our Noche Buena (Christmas Eve Dinner).  Now this ham is no ordinary ham, it's actually one of the best in the Philippines and it's a favorite in our household. I always crave for this ham and for the past 7 years I hadn't tasted this heavenly ham.

This Thanksgiving  we brought home some left over ham and me being nostalgic about Adelina's ham I tried to recreate it using the left over ham.  I think what make's that ham especially good is that it uses a special sauce.  I don't know exactly what's in that sauce but all I know is that it's basically sugar, pineapple juice and rum.




So here is how I recreate it. I have some left over caramelized sugar from making flan, I used that caramel and heat it up on the pan, put a splash or pineapple juice and rum. Boil it to reduce then when it's reduced I put the sliced ham to coat. This is definitely a sweet ham, Josh doesn't like it that much but i love it since it brings back memories of my favorite time of the year in the Philippines, Christmas!

Fun desserts

Eclair and cream puffs are some of my favorite pastry dessert.  I like the soft airy texture of the pastry and the cream filling is delectable, and the added sweetness of the chocolate coating of eclairs is such an added bonus and the caramel toppings on the cream puff just pull everything together.

So when I was craving for these desserts I research some easy recipes and it really turned out easy, though it's a bit involve.  I discovered that the dough for eclair and cream puff are basically the same, it's a French dough called "pate a choux", only the eclair is piped into a log and cream puff round.

here is the recipe for the Pate a Choux that I tried (i got the recipe from foodnetwork.com)

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 5 eggs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a saucepan, over high heat, whisk the butter and milk together, until all the butter has melted. Bring the liquid up to a boil. Whisk in the sugar. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly stir in the flour mixture and continue to stir until the mixture forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat and turn into a bowl, of an electric mixer. Beat the dough on medium speed and add theeggs, 1 at a time. Continue beating until the dough no longer looks slippery. Remove the dough from the mixer and cool. Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe out 3-inch logs (round mounds for cream puff) onto a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart or use a large spoon and spoon them onto the baking sheet. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. and continue to cook for 25 minutes. Do not remove the sheet from the oven until the rounds are firm to the touch. Cool the shells before filling.

For the Cream filling I tried this recipe it's a vanilla cream

Basic Cream Filling

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a chilled large mixing bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until almost stiff.  (This cream is good enough to fill the pastry but I want to take it to the next level :) )

Vanilla Cream

1  1/2cup
1 package (1.5oz) instant pudding mix
1/2 tsp almond extract

In a bowl whisk 1 1/2 cups milk, pudding mix and almond extract for 2 minutes.  Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Fold in 4 cups of whipped cream.


Assembly

Eclairs - piped in cream and dipped the top of the pastry in melted semi sweet chocolate

Cream puffs- cut a slit in the puff and pipe in the cream and dip the top in caramel.   

My new baby

I finally got my 2009 Christmas present. Josh wanted to give a sewing machine last year for Christmas but I hold off for a while. The wait pays off since the Brand I'm interested last December had a latest version that's marked down in Amazon.com. This is Brothe SE 450 sewing and embroidery Machine.

I had fun trying the different stiches

the embroidery machine is so cool too.

Josh and Joy in the kitchen

A few weeks back Josh went home with bag full of Indian spices and fresh curry leaves from work. His friend from the office gave it to him.  So we decided to cook chicken curry using the spices.

some of the ingredients.  The green leaves are fresh curry. The yellow stiff is curry powder  for chicken  curry dish.

Indian cinnamon bark and cummin seed

Josh cooking! a very rare occasion.

ready to eat.  It was really good curry... we grilled some naan  too.

The finished dish tasted good.  The fresh spices really made the difference.

I have to ask Josh where he got the curry recipe and post it here.