OMMGGG!!! im going craaaaaaaaaaaazy!!!!!

@_@ my bum is sore, my back is aching, my head is pounding, i can`t jam anymore facts in my head!! my poor lil brain is exhausted .......

i was tryin to update my blog design ...... well.... that woz a drama and a half!! i nearly lost my blog (yes, im the only person who could lose a blog)

but its all better now

mmmm yummee, eatin sum mango pudding *sleeurp* hehe!! too much bbt this yr!! oh wells!!

waffles are good

but i put to much butter on mine. ;( waffles, pancakes, cereal, french toast, etc always tastes better in the afternoon when you're awake enough to enjoy them...know what i mean jelly bean?

HeLLO agaiN

dunno what made me post here right now..... i just don't feel like posting anything, but i'm here..... making a sumptuous dinner of duck, wild rice, & baby carrots. just made the apricot sauce for the duck. have a nice bottle of wine..... tryin' to come up with something to finish off the dinner..... pie? Ice Cream?

writersblock

Just got back from supper. Burp!

Honest, this is one of those weeks where i’m just sick of blogging and everything that’s connected to it.

p/s: i’m slowly coming out of it already obviously because i’ve actually published this

Cooking with the twitterer! Sweet Rice Pudding!

1 cup uncooked regular rice
2 eggs
1/2 cup. evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Fill a 2 quart heavy saucepan 3/4 full of water (about 4 1/2 cups), 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Bring to a full boil and add rice stirring until returns to boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until rice absorbs water and is tender about 45 minutes.

Rice should look dry and sticky.

While rice cooks, beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt until foamy and thick. (I use a wire whip).

Pour into rice and stir over medium heat until bubbles start to break over surface.

Pour into dish and sprinkle with nutmeg as much or as little as you like. Add raisins too if you like them.

This is a sweet rich pudding mom taught me to make. I learned while watching her.

Best served warm.

Mashed Potatoes Don't BOUNCE

dinner disaster today - mashed potatoes don't bounce....

And I begin
in the middle of my life
in the middle of a day
old enough to know
that beginnings
dont always begin
fresh
early
bright
or with destinations.

WAffLES!

waffles for breakfast today! this website makes me want to create attractive breakfasts.....

Comfort Food

I was starving after I my workout today--had the day off from the j.o.b. :) I came home, chopped some fresh brocolli and green bell pepper. I tossed the veggies and a handful of corn into the steamer for about 10 minutes on medium heat.

In another pan I heated a little olive oil and added some garlic, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper. I let it sizzle for about a minute and put in a 1/4 cup of water and brought it all to a boil. I put in a 1/4 cup of whole wheat couscous, covered the pot and shut off the heat. After 5 minutes I mixed the couscous and steamed veggies together and topped it with slivered almonds.....mmmmmm, mmmmmmm!...Delishush lunch with lots of veggies, fiber, protein and very low in fat.

The lunch took me precisely 15 minutes to fix---now I'm full and can sit and read for a few hours :)

after dinner blogmint

hey tweeps.......i was just finishing up dinner......it was really good :) later my family and me (of course...lol) will all play cards. i am looking forward to it a lot! we spend too much time online and connected! i am so very excited about going to work tomorrow since i have a whole new outfit that i am sure to get comments on..... its really cool, one of my favorites.

Baking Magickal Banana Cookies with the twitterer!

Neat, sweet and a treat to eat! The family will call for more!

Ingredients

* 3 ripe bananas
* 2 cups rolled oats
* 1 cup raisins
* 1/3 cup Smart Balance oil
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F .
2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Stir in oats, raisins, oil, and vanilla. Mix well, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly brown.

Baking with the twitterer: Healthy Oatmeal Cookies!

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (a pinch more depending on the moisture of the mix)
• 1 1/2 cups of Rolled Oats
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp Cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

Wet ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup olive oil or Smart Balance Oil
  
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses
• 1 egg (beat with 1 Tbsp Water)
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Additional ingredients

• 1/2 cup raisins
  
• 1/2 cup walnuts
  

Prep:

1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. Hint: when measuring out the honey, spray the measuring cup with oil or baking spray--your honey won't stick).
3. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. If the mixture seems too wet, add a bit of flour. If it isn't binding together very well, you can add an egg white.
4. COOL the mix for 20 minutes in the ref.
5. Preheat the oven to 330 degrees (lower temperature due to the honey in the recipe which will burn more easily).
6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto your baking sheet (It is recommend to line the baking sheet with parchment paper). Press down with a fork to ensure even cooking.
7. Bake for about 17 - 22 minutes or until golden on the bottom of the cookie. The cookies freeze very well and make a great snack!

Baking with the twitterer: Rockin' Choc'lit Cake

Here's a recipe for scrumptous chocolate cake!
...
2 cups flour
1 cup margarine
1 1 / 2 cup sugar
1 cup bitter cocoa powder
1 / 2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 / 8 tsp salt
1 cup water at room temperature
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preparation - Cream margarine with sugar - Add the cocoa and mix well - Add the eggs - Add the baking powder and salt . - Continue adding water alternately with flour until well blended. - If you're including walnuts, add to the mix.

Preheat oven to 350 F -
Grease a pan with margarine and pour in the mixture , bake 45 minutes. Decorate with powdered sugar (as seen in photo) Yummy!

Cooking with the twitterer! Grilled Corn With Maple and Chipotle!

Here's a late-fall favourite sure to please everyone at the BBQ! The corn is grilled with husks on, and then it's coated with a spicy-sweet glaze. The glaze is a mixture of butter, maple syrup, garlic, and chipotle chiles.

It's an easy recipe with spectacular results. The blend of maple syrup and chipotle chiles is magnifique; the two ingredients level each other, so the glaze isn't too sweet or too spicy. It's a classic side with a modern twist!

Ingredients

8 ears corn
1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 chipotle chiles in adobo, pureed
2 cloves garlic, chopped to a paste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Peel away the outer husks on the corn without actually removing them. Remove the inner silky threads, then wrap the outer husk back around the ear. Soak the ears in water for 1 hour.
In a small saucepan, combine the maple syrup, butter, chiles and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Allow to simmer over medium heat for about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm.

Preheat a grill for medium heat. Grill the corn, turning occasionally, until the kernels are slightly charred, about 20 minutes. Brush with the maple butter.

Serves 8.

the twitterer serves adult dessert: Beer ice cream!

I still favour chocolate, but for those who don't care for cocoa (and for the beer-a-holics in your house) this is heaven on earth!

Prep time: 20 minutes, plus up to 60 minutes for freezing

You'll need an ice cream making machine.

Serves: 2 to 4


4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup beer

1 cup heavy cream

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they are pale and lemony coloured. Bring the beer and the cream to a simmer in a heavy-bottom saucepan, then slowly pour over the sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over low heat, whisking frequently, until it thickens.

2. Pour through a strainer into a mixing bowl set over ice and whisk until cool. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

Each of 4 servings: 384 calories; 4 grams protein; 30 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 27 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 292 mg. cholesterol; 25 grams sugar; 34 mg. sodium.

Bakeaway

I've been baking a lot of bread because I love to do it. I found an amazing recipe for sourdough, and though it takes several days to make it's well worth the wait. I want to find a good recipe for rye bread, because it's so delicious. I tried it once, but the dough didn't rise properly, and though I baked it anyway it came out too sweet. I love baking. I could be happy as a baker.

Rose Wines

Rose Wines

I can't think of a great meal without a great wine to accompany. Hubby and I enjoy red wines, particularly port and rose. Wine brings out the flavour in foods (and sometimes adds zest to your guests!) A rose wine has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques

The first is used when rose wine is the primary product. Red-skinned grapes are crushed and the skins are allowed to remain in contact with the juice for a short period, typically two or three days. The grapes are then pressed, and the skins are discarded rather than left in contact throughout fermentation (as with red wine making). The skins contain much of the strongly flavored tannin and other compounds, which leaves the taste more similar to a white wine. The longer that the skins are left in contact with the juice, the more intense the color of the final wine.

Saignée, or bleeding, is used when the winemaker desires to impart more tannin and color to a red wine, and removes some pink juice from the must at an early stage, in a process known as bleeding the vats. The removed juice is then fermented separately, producing the rose as a by-product of the red wine, which is intensified as a result of the bleeding, because the volume of juice in the must is reduced, and the must involved in the maceration is concentrated.

Blending, the simple mixing of red wine to a white to impart color, is uncommon. This method is discouraged in most wine growing regions now except for Champagne. Even in Champagne, many producers do not use this method.

Historically rose was quite a delicate, dry wine, exemplified by Anjou rose from the Loire. In fact the original claret was a pale ('clairet') wine from Bordeaux that would probably now be described as a rose. Weißherbst is a type of German rose made from only one variety of grape.

After the Second World War, there was a fashion for medium-sweet roses for mass-market consumption, the classic examples being Mateus rose and the American "blush" wines of the 1970's. The pendulum now seems to be swinging back towards a drier, 'bigger' style. These wines are made from Rhone grapes like Syrah, Grenache and Carignan in hotter regions such as Provence, the Languedoc and Australia. In France, rose has now exceeded white wines in sales. In the United States a record 2005 California crop has resulted in an increased production and proliferation of varietals used for roses, as winemakers chose to make rose rather than leave their reds unsold.

In the early 1970s, demand for white wine exceeded the availability of white wine grapes, so many California producers made "white" wine from red grapes, in a form of saignée production with minimal skin contact, the "whiter" the better. In 1975 Sutter Home's "White Zinfandel" wine experienced a stuck fermentation, a problem in which the yeast dies off before all the sugar is turned to alcohol. Winemaker Bob Trinchero put it aside for two weeks, then upon tasting it he decided to sell this pinker, sweeter wine.

In 1976, wine writer Jerry D. Mead visited Mill Creek Vineyards in Sonoma County, California. Charlie Kreck had been one of the first to plant Cabernet Sauvignon vines in California, and offered Mead a wine made from Cabernet that was a pale pink and as yet unnamed. Kreck would not call it "White Cabernet" as it was much darker in colour than red grape "white" wines of the time, yet it was not as dark as the roses he had known. Mead jokingly suggested the name "Cabernet Blush", then that evening phoned Kreck to say that he no longer thought the name a joke.[8] In 1978 Kreck trademarked the word "Blush". The name caught on as a marketing name for the semi-sweet wines from producers such as Sutter Home and Beringer, although Mill Creek no longer produce any rose wine.

The term "blush" is generally restricted to wines sold in North America, although it is sometimes used in Australia and by Italian Primitivo wines hoping to cash in on the recently discovered genetic links between Primitivo and Zinfandel. Although "blush" originally referred to a colour (pale pink), it now tends to indicate a relatively sweet pink wine, typically with 2.5% residual sugar; in North America dry pink wines are usually marketed as rose but sometimes as blush. In Europe almost all pink wines are referred to as rose regardless of sugar levels, even semi-sweet ones from California.

Guinness Record for Most Facebook ‘Likes’

PepsiCo brand Frito-Lay has just set a new Guinness World Record for the “Most Fans on Facebook in 24 Hours” with 1,571,161 new ‘Likes’ on 11 April. There was no previous holder for the record.

To celebrate its new record, Frito-Lay is giving away 24,000 free bags of chips; more details can be found on their Facebook Page here.

Cooking with the twitterer: Pepper Pie!

Ingredients

* 3/4 pound lean ground beef
* 1 cup sweet red peppers
* 1 cup green peppers
* 1/3 cup ketchup
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms (toss the water)
* 1 cup shredded very sharp Cheddar cheese
* 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie


Directions

1. Place peppers, including liquid, into blender or food processor; use "pulse" setting or lowest speed possible until peppers are in very small pieces.
2. Brown meat and onions. Add peppers, mushrooms, and cheese. Spoon into bottom crust. Cover with top crust; seal the edges.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until crust is brown, and pie is heated through.
4. Don't overeat! ;)

♥♥♥ Happy Valentines Day! ♥♥♥

My family surprised me with a simple V-day dinner, filled with love! Here's a pic of the table with the appetizers in place. The main course was Roast Duck, with Pumpkin Apple Sweetheart Cake for dessert (2nd pic - almost looks like a duck with fruits sprinkled on, LOL!), but I was too busy stuffing myself to continue snapping photos! Tomorrow it's off to Hong Kong for R&R with family and friends, and I doubt I'll have a chance to post, so enjoy your week, peeps!

Cooking Chicken Adobo With The Twitterer

When the Spanish invaded the Philippines in the late 16th century through Mexico City, they found an indigenous cooking process that involved stewing with vinegar. They referred to this method as "adobo". Over time, dishes prepared in this manner came to be known by this name as well.

Here is a tasty, spicy treat that serves about 4 to 5 people!

1½ cup vinegar

1 cup coconut milk

¼ cup soy sauce

12 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled

3 whole fiery chilies

2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh ginger root

3 bay leaves

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 pounds of chicken thighs

1. Combine marinade ingredients in a large bowl or ziploc plastic freezer bag. Add chicken and turn or shake to coat. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (Or - better yet - overnight!)

2. Place chicken and marinade in a large pot over high heat. Bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, put a lid on the pot and stir occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.

3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.

4. Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan. Place under broiler for about 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce.

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS may be added at your discretion:
3 medium-sized potatoes, quartered -or- WHOLE or halved hard-boiled eggs.

What's for dessert? Ginataang Monggo!