The Foodie's Food Trip: kitchen

Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts

I Need a Pressure Cooker

A few hours ago, I was cooking pork sinigang for dinner. When I cook pork sinigang, as my mother taught me, I will usually boil the meat for at least 30 minutes (and can reach up to an hour, depending on the meat) to soften the meat. When the meat has soften a bit, that's when I add the sliced tomatoes and onion and leave it to boil some more. After everything has cooked, I'll add the sinigang mix & other vegetables and cook some more! :D

The stove in our apartment is an electric induction cooker, and I realized then that our electricity bill will surely be higher than expected everytime I cook meat! So now, I'm thinking of buying a presssure cooker. I am now searching for a few pressure cookers online. But the thing is... I don't know how to use one. I'm scared that in the middle of my cooking, it might explode or something! hihihi!

So for now.... it's still a thought. 75% possibility :D

My New Apron

A few days ago, my sister was here for a week of vacation with her friends.

When she was here, I accompanied her to this store that sells kitchen stuffs - baking, cooking, etc. We looked around and drooled at what the store is selling... we love them all!

Before we left the store, I was able to purchase something... this cute little apron.

By the way, that apron... it's for kids. :D I chose to buy this instead of their adult aprons (which also have cute designs) because this size fits me well, and covers all the right places. The adult size just hangs too low, I would need to clip the neck part.

Cute, right? :D

Bake On Baby!

Since I got my oven a few days ago, I've been baking more than once a week!

The first thing I baked is, of course, the classic chocolate chip cookies. Actually, hubby requested it. hihi!

Second: I tried making banana muffins. First time to try it out and it looked, smelled and tasted great! Will post the recipe soon.

The latest batch of food I baked are some chocolate crinkles. You can get the recipe from my other blog Journal of Thoughts (I posted it way before I had The Foodie's Food Trip). We gave them out as Christmas gifts to friends. I already gave out seven packs of them... still have a few more to give out. hihi!

My New Toy

Finally got a new oven!

It's a Tefal OV1002. It's a small table-top convection oven, just a few inches bigger than our microwave oven.

After buying this oven, I've realized some things that I should have checked and taken into consideration before buying:

The size. My baking sheets do not fit anymore. The inside of the oven is 13 inches wide. Even the smallest baking sheet I have which is 13.5 inches long won't fit it. So I bought a smaller one... went to a lot of stores looking for a baking sheet that's small enough.
The rack. It only has one rack inside. So I have no choice but to bake one batch at a time. And given point # 1 which is the size, I'm limited to at most 4 cookies per batch for a normal-size cookie.
The time. Given points 1 and 2, the size and the number of racks, baking will take longer than expected, almost double compared to a normal convection oven. There goes the electricity bill.

Other than those mentioned above, I have nothing else to say other than I AM SO EXCITED TO BAKE! :)

Baking Escapades

During my looong vacation in the Philippines, I did some baking. I've missed baking so much, that I baked three times in two weeks. :)

The first item I baked is chocolate chip cookies. When I was young and my mom just started baking, my brother and I gave our mom the Mrs. Fields Cookie Book: 100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields as a present.

We lost that cookbook but I can still remember the name of the chocolate chop cookies in that book, Mrs. Field's Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Thank goodness for internet, I was able to search for it online and that's the recipe I used during my vacation. It's yummy as expected. :)

The second item I baked is carrot cupcakes. I used the recipe that a friend of mine gave me. It was yummy! We served it at my grandmother's house during a family get-together. They loved it! One of my aunts didn't even knew that it was carrot cake until I told her. :)

Last but not the least, red velvet cupcakes. I used the recipe by Allysa Torey of the famous Magnolia Bakery in New York. The recipe can be found in her cookbook More From Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen. But instead of using vanilla frosting, I used cream cheese frosting... perfect!

Now that I was able to bake some goodies again, hubby finally gave in and decided to buy me an oven! Happy-happy joy-joy! I will just buy those table-top/bench-top ovens, and not those that comes with a stove.

I've been out of the house everyday since Monday, looking and canvassing. I saw some already but I don't know which one to buy. There's a DeLonghi AOV842/AOV843, a Tefal OV1002, a Baby Belling (heard some reviews about this... but I'm not familiar with the brand). The search is on... :)

Cutie Bottled Water

No posts for a while... I'm still on vacation. I miss my computer!!

Anyway, I want to show you guys something...

It's being sold at SM's supermarket.

Isn't it cute? :)

Rice Vinegar - A Splash Goes A Long Way

I chanced upon a recipe that requires rice vinegar. I’ve never used rice vinegar in a dish before. The only vinegar I’ve used is the vinegar usually sold in the Philippines, which is cane vinegar. Rice vinegar is completely different with cane vinegar, even in use, so this is totally new to me.

While doing my research on rice vinegars, I realized that sushi rice is mixed with rice vinegar. Another thing I discovered is that rice vinegar is usually used in Asian cuisines.

I chanced upon a website of a certain brand of rice vinegar called Mizkan. It is the distributor of Nakano Rice Vinegar. Mizkan has several flavors of rice vinegar, with each flavor for different purposes. With the flavors they have available like Original Seasoned, Roasted Garlic, Basil & Oregano, Red Pepper, Balsamic Blend, and Italian Herb, you’re definitely not limited to Asian food.

Rice vinegar is the perfect for the health-conscious because it is a healthy alternative to salad dressing, sour cream or butter.

How do you use rice vinegar in dishes? Splash a bit on green vegetables and sliced tomatoes for a simple salad, use it as marinate for grilled chicken, sprinkle some as an added flavor to your favorite pasta recipe, baked potatoes, or hot vegetables.

Check out Mizkan’s website and join the NAKANO Splash Recipe Club for more Splash Tips and free recipes. You'll discover how a splash of rice vinegar goes a long way.

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