Category: Cooking

It took me a long time to finally seriously learn how to cook.  However, it took me a much longer time to try out baking.  Just this month, I finally gathered enough strength to bake.  I spent a considerable amount of time preparing for the ingredients, reading & rereading the muffin recipe, and checking the recipe as I execute each step.

I failed at my first baking attempt.  Apparently, when the recipe says buttermilk, that means it’s in liquid form.  I bought buttermilk powder in a baking store, thinking that I just need to add it as is.  Well, I learned in the hard way, buttermilk should be in liquid form.  How about if you bought buttermilk powder like me?  You might be wondering how much buttermilk powder to add to how much water.  FYI, you just have to mix 1/4 cup buttermilk power to 1 cup of water, and you have a cup of buttermilk! Read More

I’m trying to keep as little food in my house as much as possible.  This is so I can plan what I have to cook better.  This december, I got a whole bunch of groceries from the office as a holiday gift.  One of those items was an Italian spaghetti sauce.  In line with my goal, I have to start using it already.  I made good success with the pinoy version so I thought that I might be successful in cooking this one too!

As usual, I got the recipe from the product manufacturer’s website.  It took me an hour to cook everything (including the pasta).  I’m sure it’ll be faster for you because I still took a lot of time taking pictures of every cooking procedure. Read More

Breaded pork chops are everywhere especially in Manila.  There’s katsu here, katsu there, katsu everywhere.  The price isn’t even cheap.  However, there’s one type of pork chop that I want, that is the Filipino pork chop!

In true Filipino style, I tried cooking Pork Chop Steak or Bistek Pork Chops.  The difference is with the marinade and the ingredient used in it … which is the calamansi! Read More

I want to eat vegetables as much as possible,.  It’s because I want to be fit and healthy especially since I’m not getting any younger.  Apart from that, I also want to try using my stove.  It has been there for almost a year and I haven’t really used it that much.  So when I stumbled upon a baked okra recipe online, I immediately took note of it.  Then I made the roasted okra as a snack one day.

Thanks to my best friend Christina for accompanying me and watching me prepare the roasted okra.  Honestly, it was very easy to cook.  However, being such a newbie, I had to spend so much time.  Of course, taking photos while doing so took some time too. Read More

I enjoyed cooking the meatballs that I couldn’t stop myself from finding new ways in preparing it.  So far, I’ve done it as is – baked meatballs dipped in sweet chill sauce.  I’ve also prepared meatball sotanghon soup.  Now, I tried my hand on sweet and sour meatballs!

After I’ve tasted the finished product, I think this is going to be my favourite meatball preparation.  Have you tried sweet and sour meatballs?  If not, I highly suggest you do!

Thankfully, Panlasang Pinoy’s recipe was spot on!  I was so proud of myself for being able to recreate the sweet and sour sauce from scratch, hehe 🙂

The sweet and sour meatballs is perfect to eat with steamed rice.  I’m happy to say this is one of my successful creations.  Believe it or not, I have more failures in the kitchen than successful ones. haha!

RECIPE: Sweet and Sour Meatballs
adapted from Panlasang Pinoy

Ingredients:

1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 cup pineapple chunks
1/3 cup vinegar
1 cup bell pepper
1 pc onion
1 cup water
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup carrots, sliced
1 tbsp cornstarch diluted in 3 tbsp water
1 lb. cooked meatballs

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan.
2. When oil is hot enough, sauté garlic.
3. Add onions, carrots, and bell peppers and cook for 3 minutes.
4. Add pineapples, and cook for another minute.
5. Add tomato ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar then stir everything.
6. Add water, and let boil.
7. Add cornstarch, and cook until desired thickness is achieved.
8. Pour cooked sauce over cooked meatballs.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Photos: