Mango bars!!!

I used to bake a lot when I was younger. My mom bought me and my sisters as nice electric stand alone oven, and I would bake whenever time and my allowance money lets me. Back in the day, my apple pies and chocolate truffle cakes were a big hit with my family. I was the queen of baking...until I ended up with a flaming sponge cake!Note to self...tape down excess wax paper to avoid flames! That was the end of my reign as the baking queen.

After many years I tried baking again. This time, mango bars! In age of internet its so easy to find recipes,blogs of other food lovers are especially helpful. One day I will blog about my favorite ones, the ones who inspire me to cook and the ones that make me wish I live elsewhere but here because of the ingredients.

This holiday season I was busy baking mango bars for Christmas, and some people even ordered! Yehey! This second foray into baking was by accident. My friend needed to bake her Christmas giveaways but had no time to make them herself. Since I had time and an oven...I offered. I experimented with a few recipes off the net until I found the one. Its rich in mango flavor, just enough sweetness, the base is flaky and flavorful, overall a big hit. I will post the recipe when I get permission from the writer  to link her page. My best gauge of yumminess: the boss digs the mango bars!

Happy cooking!!!!!!

lemons and lemonades

When life hands you lemons..make lemonades..or somethings else! My little sister is here in Palawan for the holidays, wanted her to try my version of beef bourguinon. Yeah, the reluctant cook in me wants to show off, hahaha.  So bought the meat the day before, trimmed it, cut it to size and put it in the freezer for cooking the next day. While we were feasting on a breakfast of lamayo (fish marinated in vinegar, pepper and garlic), rellenong bangus and garlic rice, I remembered the beef and put it out to thaw . Was planning to cook it for dinner. Was happily going about the morning activities and a little before lunch I remembered I ran out of red wine! disaster if youre making beef bourguinon. Went to the kitchen to ask the helper if she can go to the liquor store and get a bottle..thats when I saw the or did not see what I needed to see. The thawing beef is MIA!!!!! I asked where it might be, thats when I was informed she already boiled it cause she assumed I'd be making beef nilaga.uh oh! Thought  ok, I can work with that, make beef nilaga instead of bourguinon, only to find out that she boiled the beef without any seasonings, no nothing, just water. Hmmmm..

As I was racking my brain trying to think of something to do with the beef, the boss said" just make it into some other sort of stew". yeah, ok lets do that.

To my surprise, boss said he wanted to help. I drained the beef and kept the stock for later, put onions on the board for chopping and asked boss to peel the carrots. The bratty boss said, can I just sear the beef? Peeling carrots is for sissies! hahahaha

Anyway, here is what we made out of the boiled beef:

Ingredients:
1 kilo stewing beef , cut into 1 inch squares and boiled till tender, keep the stock
1 400gm can whole tomatoes
1 250gm pack of tomato sauce
1 small can of liver spread
3 medium size potatoes, cut approx same size as beef
2 medium carrots, cut approx same size as beef
1 tsp oregano powder
2 medium size onions, chopped
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp dired rosemary
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried basil, crushed
1/4 c cream
salt
pepper
olive oil
beef cubes (optional)

1. Heat the pan with olive oil. Sear meat on all sides, be carfeful not to over crowd the pan to get even cooking. Take the meat off the pan and set aside.
2. Saute the onions in the same pan, adding a little olive oil if necessary. When it is softened, add the flour. Saute the flour until just slightly brown, do not burn the flour.
3. Add the whole tomatoes and let it simmer for a few minutes, add the tomato sauce and the spices.
4. Add the beef, carrots and potatoes. Bring to a boil, add some of the beef stock to get the amount of sauce you want. You can add beef cubes if you like. Let it simmer for 20 mins, stirring once in a while to make sure nothing is sticking in the bottom.
5. Add the cream and liver spread, let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

We ended up with a really nice dinner, creamy, spicy and filling. It taste sorta like beef caldereta, but not exactly beef calderata. It was yumyum!

Thanks lemons and lemonades!

Hi blogosphere!

I have always loved to eat. Many women in my family love to cook and most of my friends are excellent cooks, some of them have their own restaurant. I did know how to cook, just the basics, but I never really found any joy in cooking until some things changed in my life.

I am not a single lady anymore and, to follow the advice of all my aunts, I need to learn how to cook so my Boss will not go elsewhere to eat. That was when my adventure with cooking began. For over a year now, I have been cooking regularly and to my delight, Boss seems to like most of what I cooked. He is the best taste tester ever! I hope he really likes them and not just pretending to spare my "delicate" feelings.

ok, that is all for now. gotta go head to work . Have a great day and happy cooking to all!