Every year for my children’s school festival, I make 5 large pans of Leche Flan for my children’s school fall festival. I’ve made it for the past 4-5 years for the Filipino food booth. It’s a traditional Filipino dessert made out of two types of milk and egg yolks.

There are a lot of variations depending on the nationality and even among Filipinos. This is a recipe I learned from my mother. It has a lot of egg yolks (so watch how much you eat). The flan is served cold and has a smooth creamy texture. It’s very easy once you get the hang of separating the egg yolk from the egg whites. I usually separate the yolks by hand but there are tools you can buy to help you separate the yolks.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
6-8 servings

Leche Flan

12 large egg yolks
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporate milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp sugar
dash of salt

Directions:

1. This recipe calls for the flan to be cooked in a water bath in the oven. To do this. Place a cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven. The cookie sheet should be large enough to have your leche flan pan be surrounded by water on all sides. Add water to the cookie sheet until it is approximately 1/2 full. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a 9″ round baking pan or a 8×8 square baking pan, add sugar and place on stove top on medium low to medium heat. Melt sugar until it becomes a dark golden brown. You can move the pan around to melt all the sugar. Be careful not to breath in the fumes from the melting sugar. Set aside to cool.

3. You’ll need two mixing bowls, one for the yolks and one for the egg whites. Carefully separate the eggs yolks from the egg whites. Try to separate as much of the egg white as possible. Set aside the egg white to make a meringue treat or freezes the egg white up to 6 months for future recipes. Hint: make sure you label the container with the egg whites with the number of eggs.

4. Beat the egg yolks slightly to break them up.

5. Add the evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla extract and dash of salt to the egg yolk. Beat with a hand mixer until mixed.

6. Strain the egg yolk mixture into the baking pan with the melted sugar.

7. Place pan in the water bath and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until slightly golden brown. To check if the flan is done, insert a toothpick in the middle and it should come out clean. If not add another 3-5 minutes. Don’t open and close the oven too much since this will cause air bubbles to form within the flan and the texture will not be smooth.

8. After removing the pan from the oven, let cool for 15 minutes and then store in the refrigerator to completely cool. When you’re ready to serve, loosen the sides of the flan with a sharp knife around the edge. Then place a serving plate on the top of the pan. Flip it over and the flan should come out onto the plate. There will be some syrup from the flan so be quick and careful when you flip the plate and flan.

9. You can either cut it up into even portions or do what I do and let your guest slice the portion they want.

I’ve got my work cut out for me and my kids are asking for their own pan for home. Its a traditional dish which will hopefully bring something different to the desserts you prepare. Let me know how your’s turns out and what you think of the recipe.

To help with meal preparation, I try to cut meat prior to freezing. For example, we eat a lot of chicken breast and prepare it several ways. I usually cook about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs of chicken and I tend to buy 4-6 lbs of chicken when it’s on sale. I cut the chicken three ways: scapollini (thin sliced chicken), stir fry (about 1/4″ thick and chicken nugget (thinner strips than stir fry). By cutting up meat before you freeze, you save time when you are preparing to cook (one less thing to cut and clean up) and it can get you to start thinking about what you will be cooking for the week. It saves time and it also saves money. Typically, pre-cut chicken is more expensive than uncut chicken breast. If you know how to de-bone chicken, you can do that at home and boil the bones for chicken broth. The chicken broth can be frozen and used in later recipes such as soup, pot pie, gravy’s and sauces.

This recipe was specially named by our children because its their favorite dish that daddy cooks. It’s a different take on Chicken Milanese. Depending on who helps cook the dish, the recipe gets renamed to whoever is cooking it. The recipe calls for chicken to be sliced 1/4 inch in thickness or less. We prefer our chicken to about 1/8 inch thick since the kids prefer the breading to be equal parts to the chicken.

The recipe calls for three separate containers for dipping our chicken. The following recipe separates the ingredients by container.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6 servings

Daddy Chicken

2 lbs chicken breasts sliced about a quarter inch thick or less
olive oil for pan fry

Container 1:
3 cups flour

Container 2:
3 eggs beaten

Container 3:
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1 tsp ground black pepper
3 cups of Panko bread crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs)

Directions:
1. Mix the ingredients in container 3 together.
2. Take a slice of chicken breast and dip into the flour in container 1 until covered. Remove excess flour.
3. Dip flour covered chicken breast in the beaten eggs until coated with egg.
4. Place egg covered chicken in container 3 and press mixture onto chicken until covered with bread crumbs. Place breaded chicken on a plate and repeat steps 2 though 4 until all chicken breast slices are breaded.
5. Preheat wok or frying pan to medium to medium high heat.
6. Add about 1/4 cup of olive oil to the heated pan.
7. When the oil is heated, add breaded chicken to pan. Make sure to leave space between the chicken so the the chicken browns properly. Cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over the chicken and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Place cooked breaded chicken on a paper-towel lined plate.
8. If the oil looks low for pan frying add more olive oil and wait a minute or two for the oil temperature to come up again.
9. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all breaded chicken is cooked.

Daddy chicken is ready to eat. We usually don’t add salt in the recipe since the Panko and Parmesan cheese have salt. It’s personal taste and the salt can be added after the chicken is cooked. My daughter likes to load on more grated Parmesan cheese on top of the warm/hot chicken.

I usually make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for the school bake sales or as a quick treat.  The recipe is fairly simple and you can always have the ingredients in your pantry or refrigerator.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup oatmeal, dry

1 cup chocolate ships, semi-sweet

2 eggs

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Preheat over to 375 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar (hand held mixer or table top mixer). Add eggs and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients together (except for the oatmeal and chocolate chips).  Slowly mix the dry mixture to the creamed butter mixture until combined. Add the oatmeal and chocolate chips.  LIne a cookie sheet with silpat or parcment paper and scope about a 1″ ball of dough onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. TIP:  Use a 1″ scooper to form the balls of dough (insert picture of scooper). If you want larger cookies, most stores that sell kitchen supplies have varius size scoopers.   Place in oven and bake for 110-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove pan from oven and tranfer cookies to a cooling rack.  Make approximately 3 dozen cookies.

This is a recipe which gets better the longer it simmers. I recommend making a double batch and freezing half for later. The ingredients in this recipe change based on the vegetables I have in my refrigerator. The recipe that follows has the basic ingredients for a wonderful spaghetti sauce with or without meat.

The key to this recipe is to finely chop all your vegetable. I save time by using my food chopper which is from the Pampered Chef.

It cuts down on time, can be a stress reliever, and the kids can help out under supervision. Watch out! The blades are very sharp.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

1 cup finely chopped carrots

1 cup finely chopped celery

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 tbsp finely chopped garlic (or pressed garlic)

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

2-28oz cans of whole tomatoes (crush in a bowl and set aside)

1-8oz can of tomato paste

1/2 cup grated romano cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

3 tsp Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black papper

2 tsp chiffond fresh basil (or 1 tsp dry basil)

2-cup of beef broth

1 tbsp olive oil

optional vegetables:

1/2 cup finely chopped mushroom, bell pepper, zucchini, squash

1/2 cup chopped spinach

In a stock pot, brown ground meat over medium heat. Add salt and pepper. Add chopped vegetable (onion, celery, carrots, etc) to the browned meat and cook for 5 minutes. Add crushed whole tomatoes, Italian seasoning, basil, bay leaves and garlic. Mix the beef broth and tomato paste together and add to the stock pot. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes or more. Fifteen minutes before the end of simmering, add the grated cheese.

It’s ready to eat! If you don’t want a meat sauce, skip browning the meat and saute the vegetables. I would add additional vegetable (spinach and mushrooms should be added at the same time as the cheese). Instead of beef stock use vegetable stock.

This sauce can also be used in lasagna and reducing the beef stock to one cup. I’ll share my lasagna recipe soon.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. My next recipe is a cookie recipe: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

In this section, I’d like to give you an idea of the ingredients/products I like to have in my pantry or refrigerator…just in case. A surprise guest, an unexpected bake sale or party.  These usually will keep well and have a long shelf life.  I’ll mention them in my recipes and past them in this section as well.

Here are a few items to start with:

Grate-I Fresh Parmesan Cheese:  Requires refrigeration but keeps up to six months in the refrigerator.  It never last that long in my house.  My daughter tends to pile it on and we use it in several recipes other than a topping.

Panko: Japanese dried bread crumbs.  Can now be found in the ethnic food section of your local grocery store or in the asian supermarket (cost is nearly half of the grocery store).  Keeps indefinitely and can be used in meatballs, meatloaf, crusted chicken/fish.

Italian Seasoning Mix:  Mixed seasoning with oregano, basil, thyme, etc.  his is great for italian dishes such as spaghetti sauce, lasagna, and crusted chicken.

Olive Oil

Canned whole tomatoes

Oatmeal

Chocolate Chips

unsalted sick butter

flour

sugar

brown sugar

The kitchen tool section will highlight tools that I use in my kitchen and will hopefully  help  in yours.  remember this is my opinion and is limited to what I currently have  in my kitchen.  Eventually I’d like to try differnt gadgets and give you my opinion on the products.  Ultimately, I would like this venue to provide and opportunity for the readers to comments/reviews and recommendations.

The first kitchen tool I will review is the Pampered Chef Food Chopper.

Pampered Chef Food Chopper is a kitchen tool I use  2-3 times a week. It can be a stress reliever when you hit the chopper to chop the vegetables. It has a lid on the chopper to confine the vegetables in the cup.  The great thing about the chopper is the ease of finely chopping vegetables.  Its somewhat easy to clean by hand if you clean it right after you use it.  It’s also dishwasher safe.  I’ve had my for about 5-years and it still performs well.  I would definitely recommend this as an essential kitchen tool.

This simple recipe was contributed by my sister in Boston. Thanks, sis!

Garlic fried rice was a staple in our house growing up. We even ate it for breakfast sometimes! It’s easy to make, requires minimal ingredients, and whenever we make it, it just takes us right back home to our mom’s kitchen. Make sure your rice is cold or at the very least room temperature so that the rice won’t get too sticky when you make the fried rice.

Mama’s Fried Rice

Lots of Garlic (roughly 1 large clove per cup of cooked rice)
Leftover rice (cold or room temperature works best)
Cooking Oil (I use Olive Oil) roughly 4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a wok, or large pan, add oil and make sure it coats the bottom of the pan over medium to mid-medium heat (you don’t want the garlic to burn!). There should be enough for a small pool in the bottom of the pan.

2. Add garlic and let it brown. Smells good!

3. Add rice and stir.

4. Sprinkle with salt

Enjoy!

My husband asked the question, “What do you love to do?”. I had a dream…really (must have been hungry)…about cooking. I love to cook and I love to bake but have limited time. Working full time during the day and a mother of three, cooking becomes a challenge and we just eat out. With prices rising, eating out becomes less of an option.  I’ve taken steps to make it easier to cook quick meals that my whole family enjoys. The hardest to cook for are my boys who are very picky eaters. They like to know what they are eating which usually mean little to no sauces or gravies and simple vegetables. Slowly but surely the range of foods they like is widening.

Hopefully this blog will not only give you some delicious recipes but also provide tips and suggest products that will make cooking easier and help you stay within your budget. I will also post more challenging recipes which require more time but are well worth the effort.

I’m always looking for recipes, tips/shortcuts or products that I can try and share with others. If you have something you would like to share, please email me at thewoodenforkandspoon@yahoo.com. Check back soon for my first recipe.

This is an easy recipe that my kids love.  Some of the ingredients I use, I keep in stock at home.  I will also be using these ingredients in upcoming recipes.

Kraft has a product called Grate-It Fresh Parmesan. It’s parmesan cheese with its own grater.  It makes having fresh parmesan cheese easy, convenient as well as kid friendly (nothing sharp).  My children love to grate the cheese.

Italian seasoning mix (such as McCormick’s) is a must especially with any Italian dishes you may have.

Panko bread crumbs are Japanese dry bread crumbs that can now be found in the ethnic foods section of most grocery stores.  If you are looking to save money, a stop at your local Asian market will cost you about half of the grocery store prices.

Well, I hope you enjoy this recipe.  My next posting will be my recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce which is also great for lasagna.

EASY MEATBALLS

 

1.5 lbs ground beef

1.0 lbs ground pork

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

3 tbsp Italian Seasoning

3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (depending on your love of cheese)

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and form into 2 inch meatballs.  Place the meatballs on a foil lined baking sheet.  Place in the oven to broil on high for 10 minutes then flip over meatballs and cook for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes.

My kids eat them plain or you can top it off with gravy or spaghetti sauce or just sprinkle with more parmesan cheese!  If you want to spice it up add 1 tsp of crushed red pepper.