Tinkering Thursday - Just breads

Does tinkering applies only to other things but not food? So I had to check on the exact meaning. It says an attempt to repair or improve.  Now I now I can use it for today because it's all about the one recipe I know how to make an awesome bread.  But I am not taking all the credit because I found the initial recipe on Pinterest and have used it ever since.  Even my daughter has made some amazing variety of the No Knead Artisan Bread.  As for tinkering, I had to try my very first Focaccia bread. OMG it turned out really good and our neighbors who were joining us for dinner really loved it.  Even their daughter said that it was very yummy.  Not just yummy, very yummy.  This week I delivered one olive and garlic bread to a neighbor who was returning from a 6 week vacation.  She actually gave me a big bag of flour before she left and I promised her that I will bake her a bread.  The next day I baked another bread with sundried tomatoes, olive and garlic for another neighbor whose daughter and family was visiting.  They were so appreciative and truly enjoyed it for their dinner.  Of course I can't just make them for other, I also made a jalapeno and cheddar cheese for us. I am very happy to report that each and everyone of these bread turned out perfect.  The good news is that I remembered to take photos to share for today.

My very first Focaccia bread.

My daughter's bowl bread.

Olive and garlic with everything but the bagel seasoning.

Jalapeno and Cheddar Cheese

Sundried tomatoes, garlic, olive and seasoning.

Wheat Wednesday - Does it matter?

Do you remember when you last went to a breakfast place and you are ask what type of bread you want?  White, whole wheat, rye, sourdough, multi-grain, English muffin and bagel.  But sometimes the choice are only white or brown or in the some places, it's white or

wheat.  It's funny but most bread comes from Wheat, right.  Anyway, this week I decided to make another artisan bread since it was snowing and we didn't want to go to the store to buy bread.  While browsing through my Pinterest, I noticed one with a slightly different version of the artisan bread.  Still 4 ingredients, same process with a slightly different measurements.  If you want to try it, it starts with 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp instant yeast, and 1 1/2 cup of warm water.  Mix together in a bowl, cover with plastic, place is a warm area of the house for proofing or rising for 15 to 18 hours.  Then bake in a dutch oven at 450  with cover for 30 minutes.  After remove cover and bake for an additional 8 minutes.  And that's it, you have a light and fluffy bread that's amazing with butter and honey and consumed warm.

I use all purpose flour instead of bread flour.

Chocolate swiss roll with dark chocolate ganache.

with whipped vanilla cream and fluffy marshmallow filling.

Banana, oatmeal, coconut muffin with dark chocolate shavings on top.

Wholesome Wednesday - Yummy for my tummy

When it's snowing heavily and there's no need to go out of the house, then I will always find something to cook, bake or make or do something productive.  Lately there has been three consecutive days that the snow decided not to stop, it just kept coming.  After getting all my chores done, I started checking Pinterest and other sites for things to make. Today is just all about yummy for our tummy.  

I bought a plain croissant and made it an almond chocolate croissant.

This is my hubby's version of quick cinnamon roll (pillsbury)

Banana roll aka Turon

Chocolate Swiss Roll with vanilla creamy filling top with chocolate ganache with nuts.

Bannock aka fried bread

One slice of the roll with whipping cream topping

Sweetest Saturday - It's all about presentation

During the holidays most of you are probably doing a lot of baking.  Some will do it a month or two before and freeze them.  Unfortunately my freezer is not big enough so I can only do a couple of containers and will have to consume or give away.  Once the container is empty, then I will start baking again.  To date, I have a couple filled with squares and cookies.  But it didn't stop me from making some other ones.  For example, I made this butter pecan crack cake with toasted almond on top.  Next I made a bread pudding because I had left over bread that Jeff baked and I wanted to make use of it before it goes bad.  Half of the pudding was delivered to the By-law office last Tuesday.  On Thursday night, I took a plate of assorted cookies and bars to the RCMP Detachment since I was working my volunteer shift.  Of course, you now that when it is snowing, I tend to stay indoor and just bake.  I wanted to bake my artisan bread for one of our neighbor who made my charcuterie board.  He loves artisan bread and I wanted him to try my version of cranberry and walnut bread.  So this weekend, here's my presentation of my variety of breads, cakes and cookies.

Flavorful Friday - TGIF for working friends

Sometimes we like to invite a couple or two couples to share dinner with us.  I have been trying to invite one couple but it seems like they were out of town on the days that I pick.  Last week we finally got a chance to get the two couples together and since both of the couples are still working, I thought that it would be good to give them a break from cooking on a Friday specially after working. I gave them a few choices of the type of food they would like to try.  Both couples agreed that they would like some Asian cuisine.  So I started checking online to see what would be a good combination.  Of course I wanted to make something that I sort of know the recipe and how it is actually cooked.  For our starter, I made a chicken lettuce wrap.  Then it was the Singapore Noodles with shrimp, Rich man's fried rice with lobster, Chinese BBQ Pork and Black pepper chicken.  They we so appreciative of the fact that there was plenty of food to have seconds and even some to take home.  For dessert, I made a Purple Yam pound cake, mango flan, buko pandan salad and Jeff's chocolate chip cookies.  It was a great evening sharing old stories and life experience.

Everyone was so thankful that we all live in a great neighborhood. 

Sweet and Sour Sunday - It looks so yummy

Every now and then I would try some old recipe that I use to make.  Then one day I would remember it and try making it without looking at recipe.  It is actually a very easy one to make and I don't know why I don't make it often.  On Fridays, I usually try to have fish.  I guess this should have been my Friday post.  Anyway, I learned something new when it comes to coating the fish.  I read somewhere to combine regular flour and rice flour, I did.  First I dip the fish in egg and then on the flour mixture.  The fried fish is set aside while I make the sweet and sour sauce.  I added a bunch of different vegetables that I could find in the fridge.  I stir fry garlic, onions, carrots, celery and peppers then add the sweet and sour sauce that I combined.  Then the final step, I added the fried fish and sprinkle some fresh green onions.  When my hubby saw the finished product, he said, "that looks like something from the Chinese restaurant.  Of course I sent a photo of it to my daughter, my friends and my MIL.  Almost everyone commented the same as what Jeff said.  You can be the judge.

My sweet and sour fish.

And this is a photo from my Google search.

Savory or Sweet Saturday - All mixed up

When deciding what to bring to a pot luck event, I am always debating between savory or sweet.  But lately our neighbors are usually requesting sweet since they have been to our home and have tasted a variety of desserts that I serve during our events or just simple dinner.  Another event is coming up in a week and the host has already requested if I could bring desserts.  It is a pot luck event and the host is making two main entree and rice.  The rest will be bringing side dishes or maybe even an appetizer.  Today I am just sharing some of the savory and sweets that I have made for guest or just for our use. 

Savory - Prosciutto, asparagus and swiss roll

Jalapeno and cheddar corn bread - savory.

Mixed berry and nuts cracked cake - sweet.

Fresh vegetable roll aka lumpian sariwa - savory.

Peach Pecan Personal Pie - sweet.

Macapuno and custard pie - sweet.

Foodie Friday - International Delight

Between our two weeks holiday in Toronto and five days RVing in Idaho, we manage not to get gain weight but actually maintained it.  But even with all the watching what we ate, we were still able to eat and try as many different type of foods and drink while on vacation.  I think it was more me than Jeff that had a list of what I wanted to have while visiting the great city of Toronto, which really is a very multicultural area when it comes to food.  I had two weeks to figure out which are the ones that I really miss and in the end of the trip, I was able to check every thing on my list. I am not sure if I was able to get photos of everything but here are some of them. What I forgot to take photos of are the dim sum lunch, jamaican meal, hakka chinese food, filipino lunch, portuguese snack and tarts, carribean goat roti, and a couple of authentic home made Italian dinner. 

Tartufo, the real italian ice cream.

Poutine, fries and gravy with cheese curds.

A charcuterie board prior to Jeff's birthday dinner.

The famous beaver tails.

Special breakfast prepared by my son in law.

Beer tasting at the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in Toronto

Authentic variety of Tacos in Hayden, Idaho.

Foodie Friday - My new favorite cake

While my MIL and CIL were visiting, I was in the zone for trying out different cake recipe.  Then I finally found it and started tweaking it.  I had so much fun combining different ingredients for this recipe.  So far I have tried four different variety.  It all began when I found a new bundt cake pan at the thrift store.  It was only $2 and I have always wanted to try making some type of cake using the bundt pan.  The first one I tried is a Lemon Raspberry cake with a lemon drizzle.  The second one is a double chocolate bundt cake with chocolate drizzle.  The third one is a Crack Cake recipe with a white wine/icing sugar drizzle and finally the one I just did yesterday is the Blueberry Crack cake with lime drizzle.  Now that I am doing this post I am not sure if I took pictures of all of the above.  Anyway, if I didn't you can just imagine it because they kinda look alike except for the chocolate one.

Raspberry Lemon Bundt Cake

Blueberry Crack Cake

Double Chocolate Bundt Cake

Have you tried any of these new flavors of M&M's?

I made this olive bread specially for Little Gracy.

Savory Sunday - Glamping Meals

We finally got a chance to do the RV Camping with my childhood friend from kindergarten. The meeting place was halfway between LA and SJC.  The spot was Pismo Beach.  We luck out on our RV spot and the owners were so nice to accommodate our request to have our RV side by side.  It made it easier to get together for meals and for any other activities we wanted to do.  Unfortunately, the weather was only nice when we arrive and when we left.  During our stay, the weather was cold, damp and windy.  We weren't able to eat our meals outdoors as it was either wet or cold.  Our RV had more room for dining specially when the slide out give us plenty of room to set out our extra table for three.  We ate most of our meals during our stay except for one day when we ventured out the downtown Pismo Beach and had a seafood lunch at the awesome restaurant.  We got along so well that we want to plan another meet up somewhere halfway maybe Summer 2019, possible Yellowstone National park in Montana.

I made this artisan bread for my friends to try.

Seafood Friday, garlic prawns and grilled stuffed fish.

Sunday breakfast, bitter melon and Tapa (marinated beef)

All you can eat pasta buffet

This was my meal, the one above was Jeff

This was our second day at the RV park, it was wet and cold

The day we arrived at Pismo Beach, a beautiful sunny day.