Our family has been trying different cheeses for the past few months. We’re not cheese experts but we do like cheese. Whole Foods has a wonderful selection to choose from and you can sample before you buy.

Tonight we had a mild cheese called Pavino from Sardinia. It’s made from pasteurized cow milk and not a “stinky” cheese. You can eat it cubed or put a slice on a water cracker. TIP: to add a different dimension to the cheese add just a touch of raspberry purée or jam. Delicious!

Have you got any favorite cheeses? Leave any suggestions in the comments below.

Watch for more entries on the cheeses we try!

Bruschetta is a simple appetizer which is a great starter to my daddy chicken recipe (see my earlier post 12/4/2009).

Bruschetta
Serving for 6

Ingredients
4 medium tomatoes chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil chiffonade
1 large clove of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese (don’t use the grated Parmesan cheese on the grocery shelf near the pasta sauces and boxed pasta)
1 loaf French baguette

In a bowl combine the tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Slice the French baguette into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place slices on a baking sheet and broil each side for 1 min until golden brown. TIP: Have your grocery baker slice your bread using their machine. One less thing to do.

Arrange the toasted bread on a serving platter. Top each slice with 1-2 tablespoon full of the bruschetta topping. Sprinkle or grate fresh Parmesan on top. Serve immediately.

Buon appetito!

This morning I made one of our favorite breakfasts: beignets or French doughnuts. Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans, Lousiana has been serving these wonderful light french doughnuts (no holes) since 1862. You get three large beignets with each order.

But you don’t need to go to New Orleans to try beignets. You can purchase the beignet mix online at www.cafedumonde.com. Then you can make and eat as many as you want.

We love this mix because it so easy to make and tastes great! Just add water. Directions are straight forward and can be found on the back of the box. TIP: The dough will be sticky. Make sure to cover your work surface, rolling pin and dough with a lot of flour before you roll it out. Continue to sprinkle flour as you roll out the dough to about 1/8 thickness.

Once your beignets are done cooking, sprinkle the beignets with a liberal amount of powdered sugar and serve while it’s still hot. Pair your beignets with a cafe au lait, latte or coffee. For the kids, try steamed milk flavored with a hint of hazelnut syrup or other syrups used for flavoring coffee).

Bon appetite, mes amies! (Good eating, my friends!)

I slice a lot of apples during the year especially between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pies, crisps, or puff pancakes require sliced apples cut to a consistent thickness. I recommend getting an all-in-one apple peeler, corer, slicer. Watch the video clip below:

product demo apple peeler, corer, slicer from z/ball/studios on Vimeo.

Make sure your apples are firm. I use granny smith apples in my pies and crisps. You can always adjust the tartness with a bit of brown sugar. Fuji, red delicious, or golden delicious apples are also great for baking and are sweet which can help cut down on adding sugar.

If the apples are not so firm you may have to peel first and then place it on the apple slicer or opt to keep the peel on and just slice and core only.

The kids love to watch the peel come off the apple and sometimes just eat the peel. You can always slice more apple if they carried away eating the apple slices.

This gadget is definitely a time saver and easy to clean as well. I bought mine from Pampered Chef. It would probably work with potatoes too but I haven’t tried it.

If you have one of these, let us know how you like it and what you use it for.

On cold winter mornings it always feels good to have something warm to eat for breakfast. If you are one of those people who likes a bowl of oatmeal or grits, you might like Champorado. Champorado is a Filipino breakfast dish…a sort of porridge. It’s main ingredients are sweet (a.k.a.-sticky) rice and chocolate. The ingredients make this breakfast item seem more like a dessert.

To make this dish you’ll need sweet rice. You can find this in any Asian grocery (like many of the ingredients used in this blog). It’s a very short grain rice usually not bought in large 15-20 lbs. bags like jasmine or sushi or even brown rice.

From my experience, sweet rice is used more for desserts rather than with meals. Though, I’ve always wondered why it’s called “sweet rice” when its not really sweeter than any other rice. If someone could enlighten me on “sweet rice” please let me know.
Anyway back to Champorado…the sweet rice is placed in a pot with water roughly 2.5-3 times the amount of rice (if you use 1 cup of rice then use 2.5 cups of water) Bring it to a boil. This is when you add the chocolate. The chocolate I use is powdered. Nestle’s Quik or Ovaltine are the ones I use when I make this dish. If you want to go “high end”, use Dark Hot Chocolate Powder from Godiva. Use whatever brand you prefer. I’ve even used chocolate chips before. It was delicious but very rich. Stir it slowly but constantly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom and burning. Once it starts to thicken, turn down the heat. Continue to stir until its the consistency of oatmeal. Remove from the heat. Serve.

Once you have it in a bowl, drizzle it with sweetened condensed milk to taste and eat.

Champorado can be served with bacon or sausage on the side to balance out the sweetness. Traditionally, salty dried fish is served with Champorado. (I’ll stick with sausage, thank you very much)

Instead of sweetened condensed milk, regular milk or evaporated milk can be used with a bit of sugar too.

Also the consistency of Champorado may vary depending on preference. it can be thin, soup-like or thick like oatmeal. I prefer it thick like in the picture above.

Anyway, on the next cold morning start it with a hot bowl of Champorado. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy New Year Everyone! Here’s a recipe to start of the New Year with a BANG!  Sweet chili chicken (Mae Ploy Chicken is what we call it at home) is a really quick & easy Asian dish. (We posted this on Twitter a several weeks back but here it is again in more detail.)
Here are the ingredients you will need:

2lbs. of chicken breast. Cut it into bite size pieces.
Green Onions
Fresh Garlic
Olive oil ( or whatever oil you prefer)
Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce

(This is what we use. You can find this in your local asian grocery. You can also substitute your favorite sauce here)

Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in wok on high heat. Sauté the chicken breast, minced garlic, 3/4 cup sweet chili sauce (Mae Ploy) & chopped green onions until golden brown.

This dish has got a little kick to it. Eat with steamed rice to balance it out. Enjoy!

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 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove pan from oven and tranfer cookies to a cooling rack. Make approximately 3 dozen cookies.