FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: PEANUT BUTTER CHOCO CHIPS OATMEAL COOKIES

My mother makes peanut butter at home and jars them. We had so much it needed variety. I checked the pantry and there's a bag of whole oats so I thought why not cookies.

So i started to roll them using canola instead of butter. Tossed in some semi sweet choco chips then put them in the oven to bake for 12 minutes or so.

Took them out and put them on the cookie rack to cool.

And saved some in case it starts to rain again. Tea would be perfect with these.

Happy weekend to all!

FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: FARMER'S SANDWICH

I've been experimenting with sandwiches lately and while cheese pimiento and peanut butter butter (yes peanut butter with butter) sandwich are my staples, I thought why not put a little more effort into it. So I bought Emmental cheese, farmer's ham, made my own mayo with mustard seeds and honey and made me a farmer's sandwich.

Poached an egg, thinly sliced an apple and red onion plus salad tomato and lettuce.

While I was eating this I was taken to a place where there are greens and flowers around me, soft wind blowing, my rug under a big old tree, birds chirping… and then the sandwich was gone. Hahaha!

I would have shared it. Anyway, Happy Tuesday y'all.

FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: CHOCO BANANA MUFFINS

There's nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread or in this case, muffins in the house. Banana muffins!

We got lots of overripe bananas, a few chunks of dark chocolates in the fridge, a lazy niece who got nothing to do and a cub who loves muffins. Perfect, so it's bake day!

I used brown sugar for this and cut the quantity by a third. So as soon as the first batch came out, someone can't wait to get a taste, see that hand?

I made hot dalandan tea with honey (I steeped a tea bag of earl grey and squeezed dalandan on it) and downed 2 muffins. Burp!

Enjoy the long weekend!

FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: SQUID WITH BURST CHERRY TOMATOES AND BEEF TERIYAKI

I needed to salvage myself from death by boredom. Good thing I got some cherry tomatoes from the supermarket and I saved some fresh squid from last night's menu. Tada, Squid with Burst Cherry Tomatoes.

Well, the cherry tomatoes over blistered and juiced but the broth was awesome. I used malt vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. It's a good break from just being used on fish and chips.

I don't think this is a stand alone dish so I had to think of another one to complete the menu, the easiest I could think of: Beef Teriyaki.

I make mine from scratch: marinade beef (the thinnest lean) on mirin, kikkoman, wasabi, grated ginger, honey and  garlic.

This is always a hit and whatever left over we have can be made breakfast with just a pairing of eggs in the morning. I used dark sesame seeds and omitted the spring onions.

So cooking the two dishes kept me afloat for a bit and now I'm preparing to be idle again.  Haay! Rain go away!!!

FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: FOCACCIA

Focaccia anyone?

I didn't want to work so I thought of something else to do. Maybe I can do my own bread. So I started my dough. After doing the math for half a recipe for a baguette, full loaf and a focaccia, obviously, I was not able to get it right so I added and added more flour until it was soft and gummy.

After almost thirty minutes, my dough looked like the above picture, it has to sit for an hour till it doubles the size, turn it inside out so the yeast will spread and let stand for another hour. I added fresh rosemary to this one. I halved the dough and made this rosemary cheddar focaccia sprinkled with sea salt.

Then the other half I made basil and brie. Both should stand for another hour. Heated the oven put dimples and fork pinched the basil and brie, put olive oil before it went in.

Wait till it's brown or your desired bread colour or toast it. Viola!

This is the freshly baked Rosemary Cheddar Focaccia. I made myself the traditional dip but I made this with my homemade chilli olive oil, truffle oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese.

I like the Brie and Basil Focaccia better. Both are yummy, nothing beats freshly baked breads.

Thanks to the cub who held my mixer and the arte niece for sprinkling flour on my work table.

The house smells sooo good! Independence day bliss!

FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: PAELLA & SANGRIA

I know I haven't updated this blog for a long while. So today I had a postponed lunch with good friends and our only visitor went out before I started cooking this Paella and mixing up my Sangria.

I have been wanting to try this paellera which I bought from Terry's at Podium.

And I was so glad that SM Hypermart in Silver City now have this. (looks like Arborio to me)

And so after so much fuss, here's the Paella before it went to the oven. Actually, with Paella the prep time takes long, but cooking it is very simple really.

And here it is when it went out of the oven after I garnished it.

Take a closer look.

Now that and this Sangria which I also made, are lunch.

Got another glass. Happy weekend y'all!

FOOD SUGGESTION OF THE DAY: FUSILLI PASTA WITH SARDINES, SUNDRIED TOMATOES AND BASIL PESTO

I had a good 20km ride yesterday on my bike. So, while on my last 2km I thought of the sun dried tomatoes in my pantry and the leftover fresh basil from prior day's chicken parmesan dish. So I thought pasta.

I had bought some good sardines from duty free and had put some chili on my olive oil so I also used them to make this dish.

So this makes for a good brunch and the fusion of the flavors were wonderful. I really got tempted to open a bottle of white wine.   

This is a healthy way not to waste the calories I lost doing the 20km ride. I hope you had a good weekend. I wish you a better week ahead! Stay positive everyone! Eat healthy too.

Till next!