Chinese Roast Pork

All my life I thought roast pork is something that you have to get at a chinese restaurant or a chinese roasting market. Who would have thought this actually can be done at home?!

1 large even layer pork skin with fat and meat (my trial was without meat - used the meat for kalua pork)
garlic salt
five-spice powder

1) Par-boil the pork in boiling water, about 10 minutes
2) Remove and rinse pork, discard the hot water
3) Wipe pork dry with paper towels
4) Prick the pork skin with something sharp. (If you have a meat pricker, use it. I didn't so I used a toothpick, it broke in half, then I used both sharp ends but it got dull, so I end up using a sharp knife and stab it all over the skin)
5) Use a knife and score the skin lightly (score = make diagonal cuts across the skin)
6) Rub the pork skin with garlic salt and five-spice powder, generously if desired
7) Refrigerate the pork with skin side up uncovered overnight (this will help dry the meat further)
8) Remove pork and place it on top of a rack on an oven safe tray, skin side up.
9) Bake pork at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.
10) Turn bake to broil until the skin bubbles and turns to golden color, maybe another 25-40 minutes. (I recommend you watch it...if it's your first time, just for fun. It was pretty fun seeing the skin bubbles!)

 how do you like my disposable rack?

11) Remove from oven, let cool enough to the touch, chop them up into pieces.

Yes, chop....as in butcher knife chop if you have one. I didn't have one and end up using my palm to pound that thing down, it was pretty sore.

All in all, I really enjoy making this. I don't think I had this much fun watching the oven!

Taste testers gave me the thumbs up! Now it's your turn!!

Have you find me on facebook yet?

Spinach Ambrosia Salad

I was craving for this last night. Although this recipe doesn't call for dijon mustard, generally the dressing would include that which I didn't have at the time.

2 slices of bacon
3 cups of spinach
3 mushrooms, sliced
1/4 of an onion, thinly sliced
feta cheese (to your liking)
5 tbs red wine vinegar, more if desire
pinch of sugar, salt, and black pepper

1) Cook bacon on skillet, remove bacon and cut into pieces, set aside. Reserve bacon oil.
2) On low heat add to bacon oil red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper until well blended.
3) Pour warm bacon dressing over a bed of spinach, sliced onions, sliced mushrooms, and chopped bacon topped with feta cheese.
Optional: Can substitute onions with pickled onions for an even more tangy taste.

I made myself a small bowl last night. Yummers! Saving the rest for today's lunch. Putting this on What's for Lunch Wednesday - I haven't done this in a long long time...

Cupcakes Galore!

 

Lil P's birthday came and went. No dinosaur party, no nerf gun party, no star wars party this year. Just good ol' family get together. No birthday parties doesn't mean no cake! So I made an assortment of cupcakes for the festivity: Vanilla, Peanut Butter, Oreos, and Nutella.

Cupcakes
1) Prepare the cake batter by following my moist cupcake recipe here, except replace chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding mix with yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding mix. For vanilla cupcakes, follow the rest of the recipe's direction completely. For oreos, peanut butter, and Nutella, do the following:

2) Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
3) Pour 1/3 to 1/2 of the batter into each cupcake liner.

For Oreos cupcakes
4a) Place an oreo on top of the batter, push the cookie down to the bottom so the batter rises up

For Peanut Butter or Nutella cupcakes
4b.1) Use a cookie scoop to scoop out peanut butter or Nutella, place each scoop on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, then place them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
4b.2) Take one semi-frozen scoop of peanut butter or Nutella and place on top of the batter, push it down to the bottom so the batter rises up.

5) Pour additional 1/4 batter on top, use a knife to move the batter to cover the oreo cookie, peanut butter, or nutella completely.
6) Bake for 35 minutes.

Frosting

1 cup powdered sugar
1 stick of butter (soften)
1/4 stick of shortening

My super lazy, yet effective version
1) Place all of them in a sandwich ziplog bag, get all the air out then zip it.
2) kneed them so they're completely combined.

For vanilla, oreo, and peanut butter frosting
3a) Cut a slip at the corner of the ziplog bag, pipe the frosting directly on the cupcake

For Nutella frosting (or you can do that with the peanut butter too if prefer)
3b) Open the bag of frosting, add in a couple tablespoons of room temperature nutella (or peanut butter), kneed to combine, add nutella (or peanut butter) to taste. No need to add toppings since it is already Nutella frosting. =)

Toppings
For the vanilla cupcakes: just cut a vanilla straw in half, then affix on top of frosting.
For the Oreos cupcakes: coarsely cut oreo cookies into small pieces, then pile them on top of the frosting.
For the Peanut Butter cupcakes: coarsely cut reese's peanut butter cups into small pieces, then pile them on top of the frosting.

Here is a picture of how the Nutella cupcake looks like someone says this taste like there is a truffle inside the cupcake.

The peanut butter and the oreos cupcakes were devoured before I get a chance to cut it in half to show to take a pic!

Just so you know, I made 6 of each (24 cupcakes total with one patch of cupcake/pudding mix, and with that measurement of frosting. (I had to mark the pans so I know which 6 is what so I don't put the wrong frosting on the wrong cupcake!) If you like more frosting I would recommend you double it up. It got a bit messy for me when I had to transfer the vanilla frosting to another uncut ziplog to add in the nutella before piping...but overall, I am super duper happy with the results.

Cinnamon Pull Apart Muffuns

Todayis the end of 2012! This year have flew by soooo fast!

I have been extremely busy juggling many different things. I have been cooking my usual, so I haven't had anything new to post. Last night we got kids sleeping over so I knew I had to make them breakfast quick! I looked on Pinterest as well as searching thru the internet for a french toast recipe using pillsbury biscuit dough that I currently have on hand...but no luck. I thought about attempting it on my own but I don't want to spend too much time on it in the morning. So I decided to just pull a couple of recipes together to make this. So it's kinda like a monkey bread, but it's kinda like a cinnamon pull apart bundt bread. Well, I'm calling this cinnamon pull apart muffin. lol. It's super easy!




















1 can Pillsbury Grand Buttermilk Biscuit Dough
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
2-3 tbsp butter (melted)
2-3 tbsp brown sugar

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a large ziplog bag, pour in sugar and cinnamon, toss until combined.
3) Open the can of biscuit dough, cut each piece (comes in 10) into quarters, you should have 40 small pieces.
4) Toss the small pieces into the ziplog bag, seal, then toss the pieces with the cinnamon sugar until evenly coated.
5) Place them in a greased muffin pan. I did 3 in each muffin hole, you can do 4, or 2 would work too. I end up having 2 in one of the holes, and the other hole is empty, i filled the empty hole with water 1/2 way full (this is supposed to help distribute the baking...so I have read a long time ago).
6)  Combine melted butter with brown sugar in a small bowl, then using a coffee spoon, drizzle brown sugar/butter mixture on top of each muffin.
7) Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
8) Remove and serve!

Hope you guys had a great 2012! Happy New Year and may your 2013 be exciting and fresh! I am hoping to have more posts on here!

Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

First of all, Happy Holidays!!!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! This past Thanksgiving I made something different than my usual Spring Rolls and/or Mochiko Chicken. I still went with the Asian Cuisine though - Summer Rolls and Peanut Dipping Sauce.

SUMMER ROLLS

Rice Papers
Cooked Rice Noodles (often called Vermicelli) - DO NOT USE LONG RICE OR RICE STICKS
Cooked Shrimp (you can slice them in half for double the spring rolls)
Lettuce

You can put anything and everything you want in it, but I made it with just those 3 ingredients for Thanksgiving.

1) Cook the rice noodle according to directions. If none, just boil the noodles in water for about 5 minutes, then off heat and let it rest in the hot water for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until noodles are white. Drain, then rinse with cold water.

2) Soak rice papers in hot water (I pour hot water on a plate, then submerge it entirely)

3) Place soaked rice paper on a flat surface, on the middle of the rice paper, place 3 shrimps down, then top it with rice noodles, then lettuce.

4) Roll rice paper over once, pressing to secure the hold, then fold in the sides (just like you would with spring/egg rolls), then continue to roll to the end of the rice paper.

I think it's easier to follow this guy...except he didn't put the shrimp right on top, although he's probably done more rolls than me!!

The below is made with lemon shrimp (whole), lettuce, spinach, and tomoatoes. Less carb but just as delicious!

PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE
A friend of mine shared this recipe with me, hope you like this as much as I do!

4 tbs Peanut Butter
4 tbs Hoisin Sauce
2 tbs Sugar
4 tbs Water
1-2 tsp Sesame Oil

1) Combine and heat thru in a small sauce pan, taste and add more or less to your liking!



 

Cap'n Crunch Oreo Bars

 

 

It's been a long long time since the last time I blogged. Sorry I have been MIA. It's been a crazy basketball summer and the madness hasn't stopped yet! But I just wanted to drop in to say "I'm still alive!"

 

I have been a fan of Pinterest, I'm sure most of you are too. I have been cooking using recipes I found on Pinterest and I even made crafts!!

 

Anyway, this past weekend I made a special treat that I just threw together with the ingredients I have at home, and it was a hit so I'd like to share with with you, and you can probably pin it. :)

 

Cap'n Crunch Oreo Bars

 

1 1/2 cups of Cap'n Crunch cereal

5-8 Oreo Cookies (finely crushed, about 1/2 cup or more to your liking)

8-10 pieces of large marshmallows

1 tbs butter

1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips

2 tbs milk

 

1) In medium heat, melt butter in a pot, stir in marshmallows until marshmallows melt.

2) Meanwhile, in a microwave safe bowl, melt dark chocolate chips with milk, using 30 second intervels and stir, until completely melted.

3) Turn off heat, add in Cap'n Crunch cereal and 1/4 cup oreo cookie crumbs (or more to your liking), stir until cereal, crumbs, and marshemallows are mixed well. (You do the same steps as you would as rice krispies treats)

4) Remove mixture and press them firmly on a lightly greased pan (I use toaster oven size pan).

5) Spread melted dark chocolate on top, sprinkle with remaining oreo cookie crumbs.

6) Refrigerate for 30 minutes until chocolate hardens, cut and serve!

 

I made a small batch to try it out, that's why I used a toaster oven pan. It was a HIT! So if you prefer to make more, double or triple the amount and use a 9x9 pan or 9x13 pan.



 

Enjoy!!

Italian Sausage Pasta & Mother's Day Bouquet

I haven't updated this site in awhile....but didn't think I was gone for THAT long, but the setting on this site changed! Still trying to get used to it!

Anyway, I'm still cooking, just not much time to blog. Today I want to share my pasta dish: Italian Sausage Pasta:

1.5 cup of dried pasta (I used Garofalo organic pasta)
4 Italian Pork Sausages (or any other sausages)
5 cloves of garlic (sliced) half an onion (sliced)
1 cup fresh spinach
1/2 cup cooked quinoa olive oil
Dash of dried basil
Dash of black pepper
Dash of salt
Dash of chili pepper (optional)

1) Cook pasta according to package, drain and pour into a bowl, toss in olive oil, dried basil, black pepper, and salt. Mix well then cover to keep warm.
2) In a big pan, cook sausages with olive oil until cook through, remove from pan. (OR, you can remove the outer skin of the sausage and cook it like minced italian pork, works just as well!)
3) Add in onions and garlic in pan, drizzle alittle more olive oil and let them cook until tender, while onion and garlic are cooking, cut sausages into bit size.
4) Return sausage to the pan and let the onions and garlic work it's magic with the sausage.
5) Add in pasta and spinach to the pan, cook until spinach soften, mix occassionally to avoid pasta sticking to the bottom of the pan, add chili pepper if desired and more salt to taste if needed.
6) Add in cooked quinoa and toss until fully blended. This will give the pasta a "nutty" flavor.
7) Serve!

Mr. P loves pasta and he actually like this! So once a week I would whip up something similar, sometimes using chicken, or lil smokies, shrimp, sometimes I add parmasean cheese, make it a jumbalaya! Making this is just as easy as making fried rice!

In the picture I added shrimp, I cooked the shrimp separately because Mr. P is allergic to shrimp, and I LOVE SEAFOOD. But if you want to add shrimp to the dish I would recommend you add the shrimp in at the last second of garlic and onions, before adding the cut sausage and pasta.

For Mother's Day, I wanted to give my mom and sister something extra special because they deserve it. I went online to look at Edible Arrangements because at least they could eat the bouquet rather than just plain flowers. Then the idea hit. I can make them a strawberry bouquet.

I skewered the washed strawberries to the end of a wooden skewer stick, then dip some of them into melted chocolate then kept it refrigerated until chocolate hardens. Next, I place a ribbon around a tall glass (I used The Old Spaghetti glass). To make the ribbon from falling down, I wrapped a rubberband around the glass first then tie the ribbon by wrapping around the rubberband.Pour in some m&ms, then place the strawberries sticks in there. It looks pretty cool huh? Just the many ideas I have in my head. I dropped it off to my mom's house but she wasn't home. But she said when she opened the door, she smelled the chocolate and the strawberries and knew that I must have stopped by and was really happy to see the bouquet. YAY!