Pickled Mango

I never thought about making my own pickled mangoes but since I'm up for all kines of challenges, I have decided to make this, especially when my coworkers came to work with tons of unripe mangoes!!

Pickled Mango
4 c sugar
2 c water
1/4 c hawaiian salt
1 tbs li hing powder
1 c rice vinegar
A couple of li hing mui (optional)

1) In a pot add in sugar, water, and salt, heat til dissolved. 

2) Remove pot from heat, add in li hing powder and rice vinegar, stir til combined. Let stand until cool. 

3) Pour in a jar or container of unripe mango slices, cover tightly and put in refrigerator up to 3 days before serving.

Yummy, cold, delicious pickled mangoes will be ready to eat in 3 days!!!!

Lechon Kawali Special

I have really only tried this dish about 2 years ago at Mililani Golf Course. When I first had it, I immediately thought my husband would LOVE it. So....I decided to create a quick version sometime later. I was right, he absolutely loved it! It's like roast pork poke! LOL!

Lechon Kawali Special (Quick version)

Chinese Roast Pork (with crispy skin)
Tomatoes
Onions
Black Pepper
Fish Sauce

1) Cut roast pork in small pieces.
2) Stir fry roast pork with oil for a min or so, turn off heat. (or you can completely skip this process if you are ok with them at room temperature)
3) Toss in diced tomatoes, sliced onions, pepper, and fish sauce (about a tbs or two). Give it a quick stir.
4) Place in serving plate or bowl.
5) Ready to serve!!!!!

So this is a quick version because I'd pick up ready-made chinese roast pork at the store. If you want to attempt making the real deal at home, following my chinese roast pork recipe!

Li Hing Lemonade

What a perfect summer treat! But...when you're in Hawaii, everyday is summer! =)

1 bottle Lemonade
1/2 tbs Li Hing Powder (more to taste if needed)
Strawberry slices (optional)

1) Open bottle of lemonade, add in Li Hing Powder, close cap tight and shake it up until powder is fully mixed.
2) Serve in a tall glass over ice, with strawberry slices. You can even rim the cup with li hing powder for more of a sophisticated look!

Make-Ahead Acai Bowl

Make-Ahead Acai Bowl (makes 2 bowls)

Acai Smoothie Packet (mine was 1 packet of Sambazon smoothie packs found at frozen fruit section)
Banana (1-2 for blending, 1 for toppings) blend one can be frozen
Frozen Strawberries (about a cup) 
Frozen Pitaya aka Dragon Fruit (about 1/2 cup)
Apple Juice (about 1/2 cup or 3/4 cup)
Honey (2 tbs for blender, drizzle for topping)
Granola (1/2 cup, I used Fiber One Protein cereal)

You can can omit pitaya or add frozen blueberries if you want. You can use fresh fruits too but it's best to have about half the fruits frozen to get the thick consistency.

1) Place acai, banana for blending, strawberries, pitaya, apple juice, and honey in a blender until blended.
2) Pour them in individual bowls
(if prepping for breakfast for next day or two) cover and freeze overnight. Then just take out about 30-60 mins before ideal breakfast time.
3) To serve, top acai mixture with sliced banana and granola, then drizzle honey on top.

I take my frozen bowl to work in the morning, by the time i get to work (about an hour later), my acai bowl is ready to eat and i just needed to add the toppings.

Malasada French Toast

Got leftover malasadas and you don't want to throw it out? Turn them into overnight French toast! 

Malasadas (cut up)

4 eggs

1.5 c milk

2-3 tbs honey

Granolas

1) Cut them up into smaller pieces, toss them into a greased baking pan. 

2) In a separate bowl combine eggs and milk and pour over the cut up malasadas, drizzle with honey. 

3) Cover with foil and refrigerate over night. In the morning, set oven to 350 and bake for 30 mins.

4) Uncover, sprinkle granolas on top and and bake for additional 10mins. Serve warm. 

This recipe doesn't call for sugar because... Duh, already has plenty! It goes well as dessert pair with ice cream, too.

Vegetarian Summer Rolls

1 container of Tofu (extra firm)
1 tbs olive oil
Garlic & Ginger (sliced)
1/2 teriyaki sauce (store-bought is fine, add more if needed)
Rice Paper
Green papaya (shredded)
Lettuce
Avocado slices

Vegetarian Summer Rolls

1. Press tofu between two paper towels to squeeze out water.
2. Slice them into thin pieces.
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet, add in sliced garlic & ginger.
4. Remove garlic &; ginger then fry tofu in skillet in a single layer about 3-5 mins, flip and cook the other side.
5. Add in teriyaki sauce (i used store bought), and cook both sides about two mins each, or until sides are brown.
6. Remove and let cool.
7. Wet rice paper then place moisten rice paper on a flat surface.
8. Add in tofu, green papaya (shredded), lettuce, and avocado slices (shredded carrots too if you have them, it adds color!)
9. Roll them up and serve them with peanut sauce.

For more step by step on how to roll summer rolls or recipe for peanut sauce, go HERE. 

Pressure Cooker Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs

I really feel terrible that I have neglected this blog for over a year! I felt that it was easier to use Facebook to share my recipes but I realized, they are not searchable on the internet, nor can you pin the recipes on Pinterest.

So....After today, I will be sharing all of my facebook recipes here too.

I have recently purchased a pressure cooker, I have been thinking about getting one in a while and then I saw one of the infomercial showing how fast it is to cook a meal. Being a busy momma with a full time job, I think I have made a good investment. I end up getting the Instant Pot because it was on sale on Amazon. I received the pressure cooker last week Tuesday, and my first cooked meal in it on Wednesday. I have used it for 4 meals already and I am loving it! While I have pinned a bunch of recipes on my pinterest to try, other than the lasagna recipe, I never really followed any single recipe to the fullest. There are always some tweaks and addition just because I don't have the ingredient, or I just wanted to add a little wine. lol!

Today let me share with you something that Mr. P enjoyed!

Sweet & Sour Short Ribs

2 lbs spare ribs, cut into smaller pieces
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbs chili pepper
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup shoyu
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbs honey
2 tbs ketchup
1 tbs lime juice
1 tbs fish sauce


1) Combined the orange juice, shoyu, rice vinegar, honey, ketchup in a separate bowl.
2) Turn your pressure cooker to saute and saute onions in olive oil, then add in garlic, ginger, and chili pepper. Saute for about a min or two, turn off.
3) Pour in the orange juice mixture, add in spare ribs, toss to coat.
4) Add in lime juice and fish sauce, toss again to coat the spare ribs.
5) Cover the pressure cooker, set the pressure on for 20 mins.
6) Once done, remove the cooked ribs and set it on the side.
7) Saute the sauce in the pressure cooker to reduce the sauce and thicken it up. Turn off heat.
8) Toss ribs back into the pressure cooker, give it a good stir, and they are ready to serve!

Miso Pork

I am alive and well!! Just been busy with so many things that I didn't have time to post. So recently I bought a tub of white miso for something I can no longer remembers...but I still had leftovers so I decided to try making something else with it -- pork. I'm not trying the brag but ho....that buggah was so ono! it had the right taste and oh so juicy!!

Pork chops
Garlic (minced)
Miso
Mirin

1) Spread pork chops with generously with minced garlic.
2) Take a fork and poke into the pork chops.
3) Spread miso generoulsy over pork.
4) Drizzle 2-3 tbs Mirin,  then "massage" pork chops.
5) Let sit for 15-20 min in room temperature.
6) Add some oil in a heating pan,  I used vegetable oil.
7) Cook pork until cooked,  about 5-7 mins per side pending thickness.
8) Let stand for another 5 mins then cut and serve!

Fried Nori Wrapped Ahi

Fried Nori Wrapped Ahi with Wasabi Aioli and Sriracha sauce.
1 Fresh Block of Ahi
1 sheet of Nori (dried seaweed)
1/2 cup egg wash
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup panko
Oil for frying
Wasabi
Mayonnaise
Sriracha sauce

1) wrap in nori (seal the end with water if needed).
2) dip in egg wash.
3) drench in flour.
4) dip in egg wash again. 
5) cover with panko. 
6) quick pan fry in oil in medium high heat, about 30 sec to a minute per side but ensure the crust is golden brown (need some practicing) , transfer to paper towel to absorb oil. 
7) cut them into thin slices, plate.
8) mix wasabi with mayo to your liking, drizzle on side of plate. 
9) drizzle sriracha sauce on top. 
10) serve immediately!

Softshell Crab & Italian Sausage Pasta

This pasta is more than just softshell crabs and Italian sausage. It has mushrooms, olives, spinach, bacon, all tossed in garlic oil.

 

2 servings of pasta (pictured is whole wheat spaghetti)

4-5 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 softshell crabs

1 Italian sausage

4 button mushrooms (sliced)

1 bacon (chopped)

1 cup of fresh spinach

1/8 cup olives (sliced)

 

1)  Cook pasta in a pot of water until cooked thru (or slightly under)

2)  While pasta is cooking, place olive oil and garlic in a large pan, set on medium heat to lightly cook the garlic (do not let garlic brown)

3)  Reduce heat to low, place cleaned softshell crabs in the large pan with garlic and olive oil, cover, and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until crab turns orange (turning once)

4)  While softshell crab is cooking, in a small pan, cook Italian sausage and bacon, slice up the Italian sausage and set sausage and bacon (with it's dripping) aside

5)  Remove softshell crabs and cut them into pieces, place them back into the large pan

6)  Add in pasta, Italian sausage, bacon (and its dripping), spinach, olives, and mushrooms

7)  Turn heat to medium high and toss often

8)  Add in salt & pepper to taste

9)  Plate and serve

 

The "poaching' of softshell crab allows the crab juice to go into the garlic oil. The softshell crab and bacon gave a bit of crunchiness which worked exceptionally well in this dish!

 

Mr. P really likes the dish....minus the softshell crabs (he end up finishing the entire plate anyway), but I LOVE this dish because of the softshell crabs!

 

This dish is pretty versatile, you can add more meat/veggies, or remove any of them if you wish. It's like making fried rice!! LOL!!



 

Okinawan Sweet Potato Stuffed French Toast

Photo Courtesy of KHON2

I have recently gotten the honor to cook like a MasterChef! It was part of KHON2's community contests. The contest is open to home cooks with no professional cooking backgrounds, winner will be flown (for free) to the audition of the Master Chef season 5, bypass public auditions and go straight to the producers of the show. The criteria is you have to submit a 100-word or less essay, explain why you wanna be on MasterChef, and what entree and dessert you will make if you are selected to do a live one-hour cook off. Lil P saw the commercial and told me I should do it so...I did! I thought long and hard of what I want to make, I have a crazy idea that I should not cook something that I have done before, wanted to make something with a local twist, something that stands out but yet tasty and true to what I love. So...I went with:

Wasabi Peas Furikake Crusted Ahi and Okinawan Sweet Potato Stuffed French Toast

I got the nerve wrecking call 2 days before the cook off and I was in on the run!! They said they went thru 3 rounds to select just 2 competitors to do the cooking throwdown, and I am soooo honored to be one of them!

Today I am going to share with you my recipe for my dessert: Okinawan Sweet Potato Stuffed French Toast (I have a link to the Ahi dish at the end of this post):

Ingredients:
1 medium size okinawan sweet potato
4 tbs evaporated milk
1 heaping tbs of condense milk
1 loaf of french bread
Eggs
Milk
Coconut Chips
Honey
Oil for light frying

1) Boil sweet potato in water until fork tender (about 20 mins)
2) Set oven to 300 degrees, toast coconut chips for a few minutes, toss, then in for a few more until nicely toasted (watch carefully so they don't burn), set aside
3) While sweet potato is cooking, heat oil in a pan.
4) Slice french bread
5) In a separate bowl, mix together beaten eggs and milk (depends on how much french toast you make)
6) Dip sliced french bread into egg/milk mixture
7) Fry bread on each side until golden brown, drain, then keep warm in oven at 170 degrees.
8) When sweet potato is soft, run sweet potato with water and quickly remove the skin under running water
9) cut it up into pieces, drop it into a food processor
10) add in evaporated milk and condense milk
11) pulse sweet potato filling until well-blended (you may add more evaporated milk if you want the filling to be less thick)
12) Let filling cool, then place filling a ziplog bag
13) place a french toast on a plate, snip the corner of the ziplog bag then pipe in sweet potato filling, sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes
14) repeat for a 2nd layer
15) drizzle honey all over the stuffed french toast

VOILA!

I would LOVE to add haupia to this but there's no way I could make it in an hour so I nixed the idea. But after speaking with the chefs, they said I could have added a haupia sauce over the french toast to make it into breadpudding-like dessert. Wow, that is why they are chefs because they've got great ideas!! They did give me a bonus for creativity!

All in all, I had a great time on the competition. Win or lose, the experience in itself was just uncomparable! I would like to give a shout out to Lil P for encouraging me to take on the challenge, Mr. P for all his support and providing me the kitchen of my dreams so I can cook the way I want, all my friends who provided me feedbacks, suggestions, and words of encouragement. I would also like to thank all the sponsors that made this contest possible: KHON2, Ferguson Honolulu, Hawaii Gas, and Anthology Marketing Group. Best of luck to Amanda Price as she represent Hawaii on the real MasterChef Competition!

Please refer to my Facebook page for my Wasabi Furikake Crusted Ahi recipe!

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!

Oreo Frosting

I baked some moist cupcakes for lil P's teammates...and decided to make some oreo frosting to pipe on top. Little did i know i ran out of butter! so it was margarine and shortening to the rescue! One of the moms said it's really good, so i decided to share it with ya!

1 1/2sticks of margarine (divided)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 stick of shortening
6-8 oreos, crushed

1) Beat 1 stick of margarine until smooth, add in powdered sugar, continue to beat until smooth.
2) Add in remaining margarine and shortening and beat until fluffy.
3) Add in crushed oreo, stir until combined.
4) Place frosting into piping bag and pipe on cooled cupcakes.

makes enough for about 20 cupcake if you pipe it the way I did. :)

You can also place half of an oreo cookie or mini oreo cookies on top for an extra Oomph!

Portobello Mushroom Fries

Mr. P almost refused this yummy treat! I made him take one and he said this is actually really good! That's all I needed!

1 Portobello mushroom
Dash of salt & pepper (or steak seasoning)
1 tbs olive oil
1 egg, beaten (add more if needed)
1 cup panko bread crumbs (add more if needed)
oil for frying

1) Remove stem and gill of mushroom, rinse an pat dry.
2) Brush olive oil on both sides, sprinkle with salt & pepper or steak seasoning.
3) Place mushroom in toaster oven and broil 3 mins on each side.
4) Remove mushroom from heat and cut into strips.
5) Heat oil in a pan for frying, dip eah strip into egg then into panko.
6) Fry strips until golden brown, then place them on paper towel to absorb oil.
7) Serve as is or with your favorite ranch dressing!

I think it took more time to make it than it is to eat it!! ...but it was just a taste test so I only used 1 mushroom.

I experimented different ways to use portobello mushrooms from the pack i got at Costco. My first recipe was stuffed portobello mushroom. Then I did the fries. The last one I chopped it all up and made chicken & portobello with tomatos and garlic egg noodle pasta with chicken broth. It sure hits the spot on a cold day!