Blogalag

SOME THINGS DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE INCLUDING MY OATMEAL COOKIES

 

I have this irrational fear of baking.  In cooking, my instincts are enough for me to create wonderful dishes.  But baking requires a more scientific approach which deals with measurements, ratio, etc.  Just setting up the temperature of an oven to preheat it often makes my heart pound and sometimes paralyzes me.  Hestiaphobia is what it's called.

So one day, I woke up and told myself to stop being silly and face my fear of baking.  It took me a year before I can finally stare at the oven in the eyes, a month of watching baking shows on youtube (every single day), 2 weeks of preparation (buying ingredients and bakewares) and 2 weeks of imagining myself baking (and not f**king things up).  I'm a kind of person who wants to make things right the first time so the whole ordeal was scary and exciting at the same time.

Finally, the day when I have to face my fear of baking arrived.  I decided to make the easiest thing in the world first, COOKIES.  Oatmeal cookies to be exact.  Don't laugh but I did some yoga first to clear my mind and ease the stress before I started baking.  I gathered all my ingredients and even decided to use my Ninja blender a try since it can also double as a mixer.

 

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups old-fashioned oats

 

I also preheated my oven to 375F.  To get started, I put the butter, brown sugar and white sugar in the mixer and creamed them.  Next, I mixed the egg in.  Then on a separate bowl, I combined my flour, baking soda and salt using a whisk before dumping them in the creamed mixture in my mixer.  I added the vanilla extract to complete the cookie dough.

GOING BACK TO BASICS: PANCAKES!

 

Start your day with a simple but delicious breakfast.  Pancakes!

For those of you who are not aware, making pancakes is very easy and you don't need to depend on any pancake mixes available in the supermarkets.  As long as you have the following ingredients below then you're good to go:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tbsp of sugar

Just remember the ratio 1:1.  If you want more pancakes then just add 1 more cup of flour, 1 more cup of milk, 1 more egg, so on and so forth.  Capisce?

 

Mix everything together, whisk them lightly remembering not to overmix the batter.

GARLIC BEEF WITH LEMON, ANYONE?

 

Kung Hei Fat Choi! 

It's a special day so let's make something special.

And that something special is called Garlic Beef with Lemon.

The ingredients are very simple:

• Sirloin steak
• garlic
• lemon
• beef broth
• fresh parsley
• all-purpose flour
• salt and pepper to taste

 

The steps are pretty simple too:

• Cut the steaks in bite-sized pieces and coat with a little bit of flour.

A FIRST-TIMER'S CRISPY BAKED CHICKEN WINGS

 

Have you ever felt a food craving that seemed to last for days and just won't stop until you give in?  Mine started about a week ago and the name "chicken wings" is the culprit.  I don't know how it happened but I woke up one morning with this craving in my mind all the time.  I knew it wouldn't go away so I decided to give myself the chance to indulge.  Since I don't want to fry the wings, I thought of baking it instead.  It's healthier anyway.  I haven't done it but you know me, I like to live dangerously.

I gathered a few ingredients to make my wings.

• Mixed seasonings (paprika, salt, garlic powder, pepper, chili powder, thyme, etc.)
• All-Purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Olive oil
• Chicken wings

Now let me take you through my super easy step-by-step process:

1.  Season the wings.

PINOY BAKED ZITI IN THE CITY

 

Christmas is nearing and in my side of the world is the start of Simbang Gabi or Misa De Gallo.  If you've been an avid reader of this blog, you know that I always make it a point to attend Simbang Gabi.  It's the time to give thanks for the wonderful 2011, to ask for forgiveness for the mistakes we made, to wish for whatever our heart's utmost desire with the hopes of the Almighty granting it, to promise a new us in the coming brand new year and to make true those promises regardless of the year being new or not.

And when we say Christmas, we don't just associate it with gifts, we also associate it with feasts.  I'm not yet sure who's going to cook this Christmas (but I'm positive that it won't be me) but I thought of maybe bringing something to share at the table.  It's a toss between Baked Ziti or Lasagna.  And the thing is, I haven't tried cooking any of those 2 dishes.  So I said to myself, I've to give it a test run.

First dish for the first test run: Pinoy Baked Ziti.  Why "Pinoy"?  You'll find out later.

I gathered all my ingredients:

• lean ground beef
• fresh mushrooms
• tomato sauce
• dried penne pasta (couldn't find dried ziti)
• shredded parmesan and mozzarella (about 2 cups)
• garlic
• onions
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• a 13x9 pan (you can use any size but this is just my preference)

 

And that one ingredient that will make it Pinoy: