Filipino Beefsteak with Onions aka Bistek

It's Christmas Eve Eve here in San Diego and I finally got the chance to sneak away and upload this blog. It has been a crazy few weeks for me. I love to cook, mainly because I like to eat. But nonetheless, I still love to cook and love when people love what I've made. Usually, it's just my hubby's compliments but its always nice to hear when people eat my cooking and give it praise. I sooooo want to go to culinary school but am deathly afraid of not doing well. I heard those teachers are hard core and are not very patient. Anyway, I would only be taking it to perfect my cooking and not to go into the field. My career will stay in the medical/science/sales arena for now.

Moving on, I love when I am able to put together a home cooked meal that seems like it took forever even though it didn't. I love things fast and easy (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID). Bistek which is basically "beef steak" prepared with onions is so easy, my 18 month son who only says cat, could probably whip this up....not saying he's stupid because he's not, just saying he's a toddler and if a toddler could cook then I'd have a shipment of them for slave labor so I don't have to do it...*note, I am not in favor of child labor, I am merely joking and if you are taking me serious on this then you've got more problems than I do...

Again, moving on. The ingredients for this recipe is probably already in your kitchen so if you're ever being lazy one day and realize you have these ingredients feel free to give it a try. The dish, much like other Filipino recipes is best served with white rice.

Filipino dishes are usually one of three flavors: salty, sweet, or sour and often a combo of all 3 or 2 of the 3. Bistek is a combo of salty and sour. Sounds weird but when you taste it, it's awesome.

This is the recipe as follows:

Ingredients:
1 lb of top sirloin, thinly sliced and cut into strips
1 med yellow onion cut into rings
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon lemon juice squeezed from a lemon or from a bottle (fresh lemon is better, I didn't have any so I went for the bottle)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
*1/4 cup of water mixed with 2 tablespoons cornstarch (to thicken sauce...this is optional)

You can use any cut of beef really. It all depends on how tender you want the meat. I was lazy and thinly sliced top sirloin was all they had. I really wanted to use a rib cut because that would be the best to use because of the marbling of fat found in that cut however I deal with what's in front of me. You can usually ask the butcher to thinly slice the cut for you and then at home you can cut them into strips.

When I'm not prepped for time, I'll put a tenderizer on it and let it tenderize so that when I cook it, its soft but I didn't so oh well...I'm not a professional chef and you don't have to try this...so deal with it.

Next combine the meat, garlic, pepper, salt, sugar, soy sauce, and lemon juice in the bowl and mix. Set in refrigerator for at least half an hour or overnight if tenderizing.

After you've set it aside. Slice onion into rings. After marinading the meat for a half hour is done, heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add onion rings into pan and saute for about 2 mins or until a bit translucent but still holding their shape.

While sauteing, break up into individual rings.

Once onions are done, take out of pan and set aside on a plate.

In same pan, take beef from bowl, leaving marinade still in bowl (use tongs to take meat out), and stir fry over medium high heat browning all sides for about 5-7 mins (this will keep beef tender). Toss in marinade when beef is browned, let cook in marinade for 1 minute, you can add cornstarch/water mixture if thickening sauce (this is optional)

Toss in onions, turn heat down to medium, cook for 2 mins.

And there you have it...beef steak with onions. Best served with rice. Happy eating!

Mozzarella with Tomato and Basil Garlic Bread

I wasn't planning on doing a blog today but I got really upset over something on a work level and decided to cheer myself up by making something yummy for dinner and posting about it. I decided on something easy like spaghetti and decided to make my yummy bread that goes with it. You can eat this bread with or without a dish, and again, I can't eat anything unless its a whole meal so I ate it with spaghetti. This bread also goes great with any pasta dish but I especially like it with spaghetti or lasagna. Here is the finished product paired with my famous spaghetti. I ate two helpings. Seriously, I don't know why I'm not obese.

On to the recipe. Super easy just a bit redundant with the toasting of the bread, really. Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:
9 slices of sourdough bread (you can use french bread also)
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of garlic salt
2 Roma tomatoes (use roma, they are less runny than regular tomatoes)
2 small bunches of basil (found in the fresh herbs section of supermarket) cut into small pieces
1 block of mozzarella cheese sliced thinly into 9 pieces

Take a baking pan and line with foil, then spread out the 9 slices of toast and toast in oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes.

Pour olive oil into a small bowl, add garlic salt, mix together with a pastry brush.

After bread has toasted in oven, take out and flip bread over so that soft side is on top then brush soft side of each slice with olive oil mixture. Make sure you keep oven on because you will have to place it back in.

After each slice has been covered with the olive oil mixture, place back in oven for another 5 minutes. While bread is baking, slice the tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella.

Take bread out of oven, but keep oven on. Sprinkle the basil pieces on each slice.

Then add Mozzarella on top of basil.

Add tomatoes on top of mozzarella.

Lastly, place back in oven for 15 minutes. Bread should be toasted, cheese melted, and tomatoes molded into cheese...SCRUMPTIOUSNESS.

Serve with your favorite pasta dish or eat as a side snack. It will be delicious. It's also a great party appetizer, super cheap and easy to do! Enjoy!

Prime Rib Roast with Au Jus and Twiced Baked Potato...YUM

To my few blog readers out there,

I'm so sorry for not posting lately. My schedule for work hasn't been the best lately so I'm just getting to this blog now. I would bitch about my life at the moment but since most you are my fb friends, why bother, I'm so vain I share my whole life story on there anyway, so, let's get to the real reason you're reading this blog!

I love a great rib roast! I love beef really. Alright, I love food. Anyway, nothing says holiday season like a great cut of Rib Roasts on sale at the supermarket. I'm sure your local supermarket probably has one on sale so its perfect timing that I post about one of my favorite dishes.  This is probably the easiest and tastiest dishes I've ever made. There's really no thinking into how to marinade the meat. The baked potato took more time, no, seriously!

So....let's begin and start with the Rib Roast. You can marinade this thing up to 3 days, for me it was 4, only because I was in Vegas and had a party the day before so...blah blah blah, it marinated for 4 days. This is my version of a no frills rib roast.

Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb rib roast (recipe can go up to 5 lbs) with bone or without (mine didn't have bone...I usually prefer the bone (that's what she said) but this was on sale, will adjust for cooking time if bone in)
1 packet of dry italian dressing
1 packet of dry onion soup mix
1 tablespoon lawry's seasoned salt (regular salt is fine)
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
Meat thermometer

This is another dish you'll have to get your hands dirty. So take roast and rub olive oil all over it making sure the entire roast is covered. In a bowl combine all dry ingredients together and take mixture and rub all around roast so that entire roast is covered. You will want to do this over a bed of foil.

Then once its covered with ingredients wrap in foil and let marinade overnight or up to 3 days in refrigerator. The longer you wait, the more tender the beef will be. But either way, it will taste awesome.

On the day you cook it, pierce roast with meat thermometer and place on roasting rack, if you don't have a roasting rack, a broiler pan is fine too. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place in oven at 425 degrees to sear the roast for 25 minutes. After it sears, turn down heat to 350 degrees (DO NOT OPEN OVEN), and cook for about 1 1/2- 2 hrs or until meat thermometer reaches 135 degrees for boneless (for medium rare), or 140 degrees for bone-in roast.

After it gets to appropriate temperature, take out of oven and let it "rest" (leave it alone) for at least 20 minutes (this will make sure the roast stays moist, and finish off cooking itself). Don't be surprised to see the temp on the meat thermometer go up after you take it out of the oven.

This roast is easy and scrumptious. It looks awesome too!

My mouth watered as soon as I cut into this bad boy...yours will too! Now onto the Twiced Baked Potato!

Keep in mind, there are only 3 of us in our household, and one of them is a toddler so this recipe is for two people really.

Ingredients:
Two large potatoes
4 stalks of green onions, sliced into small pieces
5 strips of bacon fried and crumbled (3 pieces for inside potatoes, 2 pieces to top off after cooking)
3/4 cup of shredded sharp chedder cheese (save about 1/4 cup to top off potatoes after cooking)
1/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Take the two potatoes and wrap them up in foil and place in the oven (I used a convection/toaster oven) at 350 degrees and cook for 60 minutes or until soft. You can also cook it in a microwave, but I prefer the oven method. If they are on the large side, try cooking for 1 hour and 15 mins to ensure doneness.

While potatoes are baking, fry bacon until crispy. Take 3 pieces and crumble or cut into tiny pieces with knife. Save the other 2 slices to top off potatoes after cooking.

After potatoes are done cooking, let them sit for about 10-15 to cool off, they should be soft and a bit firm to the touch to make sure they are cooked through. If they are not cooked through, nuke them in the microwave 1 at a time for about 1 minute and 30 seconds.

While the potatoes are cooling, combine the crumbled bacon (3 strips),  1/2 cup of cheese (1/4 cup will be added later to top), milk, sour cream,butter, salt and pepper in a bowl.

After combining ingredients together, proceed to cut potatoes in half, make sure they are cooled off before slicing into them.

After they have cooled, take a knife and gently poke around the rim of the potato being gentle enough so you don't pierce the skin because you want the skin to be the cup or container.

With a spoon scoop out the inside, being careful not to tear skin.

Place the potato in bowl to mash with the other ingredients.

With a potato masher, mash the ingredients together. Or if you want you can use an electric hand mixer. I went for the masher, less stuff to clean.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, scoop potato mixture back onto potato skins.

Place potatoes on a foiled baking sheet, add the remaining cheese and the 2 strips left of crumbled bacon on top. Then bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle a few green onions on top if you like, but you don't have to. I love onions so I did! You can eat it as a meal or a side dish...this hungry beast of a women must eat it as a side. Anyway, I ate every last bit of it, but I also made steamed broccoli...so I don't feel too bad LOL...hope you enjoyed this VERY long blog, well, it took me a long time to upload all the pics so please enjoy...oh and to make the Au Jus, just take the pan drippings and put it in a medium sized saucepan, add a can of beef stock (you can use chicken if you don't have it), add about a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of worcestershire sauce, and this is optional but if you have an extra packet of dry onion soup mix, throw it in there, wait for it to boil, then strain out the onions and you'll have a wonderful Au Jus!

Bon Apetite!

Filipino Chicken Afritada aka Chicken in tomato based stew/soup

I think its about time I blogged about a Filipino dish. This dish is so easy to make with so few ingredients but tastes like there's a ton of effort. When I was a kid my grandma would make this for me all the time, to the point that even as an adult she would make it when she knew I was coming over. This is my go to dish when I am too lazy to think of cooking something else. It's a no brainer and you will like it. Anyway, on to this dish. These are the ingredients you will need and can be found at any local supermarket. If you're wondering what it tastes like, I would say the closest it tastes like would be Indian Chicken Tikka Masala. This is best served with white Jasmine rice.

Ingredients:
4 lbs chicken (I like chicken wings, but you can use any cut of chicken)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 can large tomato sauce
2 garlic cloves minced (to save time, I use ready minced garlic but fresh makes it taste better)
1 large onion (I ran out while making this so I used a red onion, the real recipe calls for yellow onion)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced into small cubes
2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
*1/4 cup of fish sauce (can be found in asian section of market or any asian store...optional but enhances flavor)

Slice and dice all vegetables and place potatoes in water to keep from turning brown, set aside

In a large pot, over medium high heat, add vegetable oil, heat through, add onions and saute for about 1-2 minutes until its a bit translucent, add garlic and saute for about 1 minute.

Next toss in chicken in small batches, browning it.

Then add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1/2 tablespoon of pepper to browned chicken.










Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water to pot. Turn heat to high.

 While bringing broth to a boil add potatoes. Boil for about 10 minutes on high and frequently stir together.

Turn heat down to medium low and add bell peppers. Add remaining salt, pepper, and fish sauce.

Stir in everything together, cover pot and let simmer for about 30 minutes until chicken and potatoes are cooked through.

Just spoon some over white rice and enjoy! Happy eating people!

Chinese Sausage and Shrimp Fried rice

Hello all four of you! Well, I've finally had time to put together my fried rice blog Yippeee! Of course it didn't go the way I planned since someone hates me and wants me to always keep me on my toes...so F You to whomever that is...jerk. I really do love Asian Food. If I had to put it on a totem pole it would go in this order: Sushi, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, and then Filipino (but I only really love homemade Filipino food or Filipino food at parties...I'm Filipino so I'm a little biased...that gives me an idea for my next blog, something Filipino!) Anyway, I digress...

I was eagerly excited to post photos for a step-by-step process but unfortunately I am having technical difficulty on transferring my photos from my memory card to my computer...so without even more further delay on this posting, I will just show the end result. This has a lot of prep work so don't think you can just whip this up on a whim. Most of the ingredients can be found at any local Asian Market. Comment me if you can't find a certain ingredient. Otherwise, feel free to add other meats if you would like.

Ingredients:
3-4 cups cooked white rice, must be a day old...make night before or early in the morning if making at night. Note: Just cooked white rice will not work, it will be too moist.
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 lb raw shrimp, peeled with tail, deveined, marinated...see below on marinade (to save time you can buy the already peeled and deveined version...but I've tried both and the already peeled tastes like it's been already peeled so I prefer it with the shell on but deveined, costco is my favorite so far)
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1 14 1/2 oz can of peas and carrots drained
half a package of Chinese Sausage (located in the refrigerated aisle of local asian market)
1 egg scrambled
1 whole stalk of green onions whites and greens separated (light green to white separated from just green...if you're confused)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

shrimp marinade to be marinaded for 10-20 mins
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon white part of green onions
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon sesame oil
*1 teaspoon Sriracha Hot Sauce (optional)
*1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds (optional)

1 Wok or large Frying Pan

Marinade Shrimp for 10-20 minutes, set aside. Dice Chinese Sausage into penny sized rings or to your size liking. Scramble egg in bowl.

In wok or frying pan over medium heat, place 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and scramble egg. When egg is cooked, remove from pan and set aside on a plate. In same pan/wok add remaining vegetable oil and saute chinese sausage for about 2-3 minutes, remove from heat and set aside on plate. Add sesame oil in same pan, wait about 30 seconds for oil to heat, add remainder of green onions, saute for about a minute, add in shrimp and saute for about 2 min or until pink, add egg and sausage, toss for about a minute, add rice into pan then add soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and rice vinegar. Turn down heat to medium low. Keep folding in rice to get everything mixed together. If you want to add more soy sauce to have more color, add about a half tablespoon at a time, then mix in, and keep doing so until desired color. (Note: If rice is too dry, you can add in about 1/2 cup of water to moisten it) Last, add peas and carrots, garlic salt, salt, and pepper. Mix in everything, turn heat to low, cover for about 10  minutes to heat rice through. Sounds complicated but once you've done it, you will realize how easy it is and you can use any ingredient in your fridge to add into your rice dish. I like chinese sausage and shrimp so that's always in my fried rice. Please make this dish yours and change it up to your taste buds. Sometimes every now and then, I take pieces of nori (seaweed) and toss it in my rice.

Good luck...it's all about trial and error and I won't judge you...too much.
Please let me know if you would like me to do a certain dish I've posted on FB...Until my next post peeps!

Sick and Not Forgotten

To the Four people that read my blog, one of them including me, I have not forgotten about you. I have had an extremely busy week. I was in Vegas for 1 1/2 days, driving straight from Vegas at 3am to work including a lunch, took a day off to attend a taping of Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways, worked until midnight with paperwork on Friday night, and now  I'm sick. I wanted to update my blog about the super tasty fried rice I made the other night but I have very little energy right now and have been sleeping most of the day.

The little joy I've had today was watching my son dance along to "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." I can't help but laugh every time I say "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." For the longest time I kept calling it "Jake and the Neverland Ranch" (Michael Jackson's estate). I seriously thought that was the name of it!

I have watched the taping of Day 2 of Ellen's show and I look like a total creeper trying to get into the aisle as she does her dancing segment.

Yup that's me! But I don't care, I scored a bunch of awesome swag.

I have nothing left in me to write soooo....

Well, I guess this blog will suffice. Tomorrow I will upload recipe for Fried Rice, so stay tuned.