I had such a fun day of baking and cooking. You can find the dinner meal I made tonight HERE, Filipino Bistek. Now time for the dessert or afternoon tea. These were originally cupcakes with frosting but to make them a little healthier I cut out the frosting and called them muffins. They are adapted from one of my all time favorite cookies/cupcake/muffins cookbook that I share with you bellow. I HIGHLY recommend it if you enjoy baking :) Anyhow! Here we go...
Ingredients
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 ripe bananas
8 tablespoons of butter, softened
heaping 1/2 cup of superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 tablespoons yogurt
3 oz/85 g of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
1. Heat oven to 375F/190C.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda. ALWAYS SIFT, don't skip sifting EVER. It makes your cakes SO much more light and fluffy, especially if you don't have an electric mixer.
3. In a separate bowl, use a fork to mash up the bananas into a pulp.
4. In a large bowl (I used the electric mixer bowl at this point), cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in eggs to that mixture one at a time. Be sure to beat thoroughly.
6. Stir in mashed bananas and yogurt.
7. Fold (this would be the slowest setting on a KitchenAid mixer or the 'Stir' setting) in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.
Distribute into 12 lined cupcake liners.
Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and golden. Know your oven, they are all different.
Enjoy!
Adapted from 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies and Other Tempting Treats edited by Susanna Tee.
xoxo
~M
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Bistek
I love this dish, it has to be one of my all time favorite Filipino dishes. Although this didn't turn out to be as good as the one my boyfriend's mom makes, it still had that same simple but Delicious flavor. Plus it is amazingly easy to make! Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 pound sirloin steak, cut into thin pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Sprinkle of salt
1 red onion, cut into rings
cooking oil
Directions
1. Marinate meat in lime juice, soy sauce, pepper and salt.
2. Using a generous amount of oil, cook onion rings until transparent and soft. Transfer to a serving dish.
3. Cook meat in the same skillet, on high heat, stirring often, until browned and tender.
4. Add lime juice or salt to taste if desired.
5. Add onions back into the skillet, cook for another two minutes.
Serve with rice or baked potato wedges.
Adapted from The Philippine Cookbook by Reynaldo Alejandro.
~Muni
Ingredients
1 pound sirloin steak, cut into thin pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Sprinkle of salt
1 red onion, cut into rings
cooking oil
Directions
1. Marinate meat in lime juice, soy sauce, pepper and salt.
2. Using a generous amount of oil, cook onion rings until transparent and soft. Transfer to a serving dish.
3. Cook meat in the same skillet, on high heat, stirring often, until browned and tender.
4. Add lime juice or salt to taste if desired.
5. Add onions back into the skillet, cook for another two minutes.
Serve with rice or baked potato wedges.
Adapted from The Philippine Cookbook by Reynaldo Alejandro.
~Muni
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Jell-O Shots
1. Cut an orange or lemon in half and gut it.
2. Mix the jello shot (1 cup hot water, box jello, 1 cup various liquors)
3. Stir till disolved.
3. Add the jello mix to the shells
4. Place in the fridge for 3 hours or more.
5 Once solid, slice and serve.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Vanilla Lemon Bundt Cake with Glaze
This is such a simple delicious light cake that it SO easy to make!
Ingredients:
Cake:
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/8 cup salted butter, softened (if you are using unsalted butter go ahead and add a teaspoon of salt..I always use salted so I NEVER add salt by itself)
1 3/4 granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 cup yogurt
Glaze:
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 3 cups powdered sugar
Oven & Special Equipment:
Bundt pan
Set to 350F, rack in the middle.
Instructions:
Pre: butter Bundt pan thoroughly and toss flour into it making sure it is coated. Tap the rest of the flour out of the pan so you have a thin coating.
1. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Cream together granulated sugar and butter in an electric mixer until light and cream colored. Lots of "air" inside. I beat it on a high speed for a couple minutes.
3. Add vanilla extract for the cake into wet mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly.
5. Add lemon extract and mix thoroughly.
6. Now grab that dry ingredient mixture you set aside and alternate with the yogurt mixing into the wet ingredients.
7. Spoon into the Bundt pan and spread evenly. Cook for about 50 minutes. You have to know your oven. I cooked mine for 30 minutes at 350 and the last 20 at 250 and it came out PERFECTLY.
8. While it's cooking, pour milk and vanilla extract for the glaze into your electric mixer's bowl. Let sit while caking is cooking.
9. While cake is cooling, add in the powdered sugar to the glaze mix until you get you desired consistency. It wants to be runny enough to dribble over the cake but not too runny that it runs right off.
Enjoy!!
Adapted from Sweetapolita.
Xoxo
~M
Ingredients:
Cake:
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/8 cup salted butter, softened (if you are using unsalted butter go ahead and add a teaspoon of salt..I always use salted so I NEVER add salt by itself)
1 3/4 granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 cup yogurt
Glaze:
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 3 cups powdered sugar
Oven & Special Equipment:
Bundt pan
Set to 350F, rack in the middle.
Instructions:
Pre: butter Bundt pan thoroughly and toss flour into it making sure it is coated. Tap the rest of the flour out of the pan so you have a thin coating.
1. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Cream together granulated sugar and butter in an electric mixer until light and cream colored. Lots of "air" inside. I beat it on a high speed for a couple minutes.
3. Add vanilla extract for the cake into wet mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly.
5. Add lemon extract and mix thoroughly.
6. Now grab that dry ingredient mixture you set aside and alternate with the yogurt mixing into the wet ingredients.
7. Spoon into the Bundt pan and spread evenly. Cook for about 50 minutes. You have to know your oven. I cooked mine for 30 minutes at 350 and the last 20 at 250 and it came out PERFECTLY.
8. While it's cooking, pour milk and vanilla extract for the glaze into your electric mixer's bowl. Let sit while caking is cooking.
9. While cake is cooling, add in the powdered sugar to the glaze mix until you get you desired consistency. It wants to be runny enough to dribble over the cake but not too runny that it runs right off.
Enjoy!!
Adapted from Sweetapolita.
Xoxo
~M
This Week's Menu
Hey everyone! So another goal for my spring break is getting some more cooking experience! Particularly a couple of my favorite Filipino dishes! I will be uploading the recipes as I go, but first I though I'd share something to make your meal planning easier.
As I said before, I use Pepperplate.com (read my post about this great tool HERE) and I still do. But there is something missing. I like to be able to flip through my recipe books and drool at all the goodies, have something tangible in front of me, and something I can jot down my plans on without having to sit in front of a screen also.
Since I don't live by myself I am not always the one cooking, but even so, I'm a big fan of planning and organization so I like to think out my cooking best I don't have to rush out and get some groceries.
I am going to share with you a super simple way to take a little stress and hassle out of your life to enjoy cooking more! HERE is free printable for you that you can put to use (or not) if you would like.
Also a glimpse of my planned cooking for this week:
Vanilla Bean Lemon Bundt Cake
Filipino Sirloin Steak (Bistek)
Pancit Miki (Noodles with Bean Sprouts)
Twice Baked Bacon Deviled Potatoes
I will link each recipe to its post as soon as it's up!!
Have a delicious week! Xoxo
~M
As I said before, I use Pepperplate.com (read my post about this great tool HERE) and I still do. But there is something missing. I like to be able to flip through my recipe books and drool at all the goodies, have something tangible in front of me, and something I can jot down my plans on without having to sit in front of a screen also.
Since I don't live by myself I am not always the one cooking, but even so, I'm a big fan of planning and organization so I like to think out my cooking best I don't have to rush out and get some groceries.
I am going to share with you a super simple way to take a little stress and hassle out of your life to enjoy cooking more! HERE is free printable for you that you can put to use (or not) if you would like.
Also a glimpse of my planned cooking for this week:
Vanilla Bean Lemon Bundt Cake
Filipino Sirloin Steak (Bistek)
Pancit Miki (Noodles with Bean Sprouts)
Twice Baked Bacon Deviled Potatoes
I will link each recipe to its post as soon as it's up!!
Have a delicious week! Xoxo
~M
Sunday, April 1, 2012
DIY Nail Polish Rack for UNDER $10!
I am super excited to share this with you all. It is the first Sunday of my spring break and already I have accomplished one of my "goals" for this week! So let's get started so you all can have a chance at it too! First...the materials you will need.
- 2 foam boards (bought 3 as pictured here but didn't use one), 1.95 each
- hot glue gun, 3.99
- hot glue gun glue sticks, 3.99 for a pack of 18 (I only ended up using 6)
- Stanley knife
- pencil
- ruler
- a few nail polishes to use as measuring tools
Let's get started!
First you want to determine how big of a shelf you want to make, I decided to cut one board in half and use that as the back board of the shelf. A whole board just seemed to big and I'd rather have two small shelves than one really obtrusive one, but it's all up to you. My measurements are going to be for a 20 by 15 inch board.
Just to get an idea for the size, mark halfway across the width of the board and line up your nail polishes to see if they fit nicely into that space.
I was really pleased, halfway across the board looked nice and proportional and it perfectly fit 13 nail polishes.
Now it's time to start measuring. I took pictures of all the lines I drew but they didn't come up on camera too well so I'm not going to put all of them up.
Just one tip to start, always have the ruler pressed against a flat pre-cut edge of the board to ensure your lines are straight. As pictured bellow. I used my own line here, but for even more accurate measuring use the edge of the board.
Draw a straight line up the middle of the first board, as pictured above. Since we know the board is 20 in vertically, I decided to have shelves spaced 4 inches apart, making it nice and even. Take a quick measurement of your tallest polish to make sure it will fit, most if not all will fit in these shelves.
Now we've got our spacing, go ahead and draw the 4 lines for where your shelves will be placed, plus on on the bottom and one on the top.
I used the first board to also measure out the long sides of my shelf. I decided to have the shelves and the sides 3 inches in width. Go ahead and measure out 2 20 by 3 inch strips on that first board.
On the second board, measure out 6 15 by 3 inch strips for the actual shelves the polish will be sitting on.
Time to cut them all out. Be careful when using the knife, it is extremely sharp and has to be to get a nice cut edge, or else the foam will be jagged. Make sure you are using a fresh blade.
Use a ruler to help guide the blade, like so, hold the ruler real tight, and always you have something under where you are cutting that you don't mind getting cut up.
Now you have all your pieces. Should look something like this:
Time to get out the glue gun and start gluing away! You have to work fast because glue gun glue dries super fast. Start with the edges, they will help guide your shelves later on to make sure they are straight.
Next the shelves, from bottom to top or top to bottom. I lined the sides with glue and then went back when they were all in and reinforced the bottom, top and sides of all the shelves. Nail polish gets heavy so it's better to use more glue than less. Use your fingers to get rid of all the whispy glue threads. You final product will look something like this:
I hope you guys enjoyed this and that it has inspired you to go out and make something of your own! Making things yourself is often a lot cheaper and much more fun and rewarding! This is such an easy project, it took me no more than a couple hours max. It's spring cleaning time of the year and nothing can be better than cleaning out some clutter and displaying it nicely!!
xoxo
~M
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Inspired by Dulce Candy.
- 2 foam boards (bought 3 as pictured here but didn't use one), 1.95 each
- hot glue gun, 3.99
- hot glue gun glue sticks, 3.99 for a pack of 18 (I only ended up using 6)
- Stanley knife
- pencil
- ruler
- a few nail polishes to use as measuring tools
Let's get started!
First you want to determine how big of a shelf you want to make, I decided to cut one board in half and use that as the back board of the shelf. A whole board just seemed to big and I'd rather have two small shelves than one really obtrusive one, but it's all up to you. My measurements are going to be for a 20 by 15 inch board.
Just to get an idea for the size, mark halfway across the width of the board and line up your nail polishes to see if they fit nicely into that space.
I was really pleased, halfway across the board looked nice and proportional and it perfectly fit 13 nail polishes.
Now it's time to start measuring. I took pictures of all the lines I drew but they didn't come up on camera too well so I'm not going to put all of them up.
Just one tip to start, always have the ruler pressed against a flat pre-cut edge of the board to ensure your lines are straight. As pictured bellow. I used my own line here, but for even more accurate measuring use the edge of the board.
Draw a straight line up the middle of the first board, as pictured above. Since we know the board is 20 in vertically, I decided to have shelves spaced 4 inches apart, making it nice and even. Take a quick measurement of your tallest polish to make sure it will fit, most if not all will fit in these shelves.
Now we've got our spacing, go ahead and draw the 4 lines for where your shelves will be placed, plus on on the bottom and one on the top.
I used the first board to also measure out the long sides of my shelf. I decided to have the shelves and the sides 3 inches in width. Go ahead and measure out 2 20 by 3 inch strips on that first board.
On the second board, measure out 6 15 by 3 inch strips for the actual shelves the polish will be sitting on.
Time to cut them all out. Be careful when using the knife, it is extremely sharp and has to be to get a nice cut edge, or else the foam will be jagged. Make sure you are using a fresh blade.
Use a ruler to help guide the blade, like so, hold the ruler real tight, and always you have something under where you are cutting that you don't mind getting cut up.
Now you have all your pieces. Should look something like this:
Time to get out the glue gun and start gluing away! You have to work fast because glue gun glue dries super fast. Start with the edges, they will help guide your shelves later on to make sure they are straight.
Next the shelves, from bottom to top or top to bottom. I lined the sides with glue and then went back when they were all in and reinforced the bottom, top and sides of all the shelves. Nail polish gets heavy so it's better to use more glue than less. Use your fingers to get rid of all the whispy glue threads. You final product will look something like this:
I hope you guys enjoyed this and that it has inspired you to go out and make something of your own! Making things yourself is often a lot cheaper and much more fun and rewarding! This is such an easy project, it took me no more than a couple hours max. It's spring cleaning time of the year and nothing can be better than cleaning out some clutter and displaying it nicely!!
xoxo
~M
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Inspired by Dulce Candy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)