The Adventures of a Calamari Queen
Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
This recipe is a little of Ina’s lemon and garlic chicken recipe and little of Racheal Ray’s roasted potato recipe, like “half-half”! I marinated the chicken drumstick with lots of lemon, chopped garlic, herbs like rosemary and thyme (just a little) salt and pepper to taste, EVOO too.. with the potatoes I drizzled with EVOO(extra virgin olive oil), herbs, salt and pepper, and I added chopped sweet potatoes too! Baked in the oven for 45 minutes(425 F).
I was really excited to prepare this corned beef dish because growing up in the PI we only had the canned “purefoods” corned beef which we prepared with scrambled eggs breakfast style. So when my father in-law Phil brought over this meat, I immediately looked online specifically Foodnetwork to check some corned beef recipe that’s easy (coz this is my first time to deal with “real corned beef”)..This Sandra Lee recipe caught my attention because it looked simple and I had all of the ingredients and I’ve always wanted to use our slow cooker so I thought this was perfect! The cooking time was around 8 hours, so I prepared all the ingredients mid morning so by dinner time everything would be ready to eat!
So after 8 hours, I still find the meat kinda hard so hubby suggested to add another 4 hours because he agreed that the meat is not as tender as we thought it should be after 8 hours..By this time I decided to stir-fry some easy dinner because Sandra Lee’s recipe failed us!LOL…so to conclude I will not prepare this again because after 12 hours in the slow cooker,the meat was dry and tasted awful if you ask me,hubby said it’s OK..such a waste of money and time but then I learned a thing about corned beef: DO NOT USE SANDRA LEE’s recipe!
We had dinner @ cheesecake factory with sis in-law Julia! I was kinda worried that we will be waiting for a long time to be seated, good thing they had an alternative for people who don’t want to wait for an hour just to have dinner..We opted to sit in the heated patio section of the restaurant. It’s always crowded at this resto, I think it’s because the food is decent and the prices are reasonable!
Here are some of the dishes we’ve had for march 2011!
I love this recipe!! It’s so simple but so full of flavor:) I’ve always loved short ribs, there is something so comforting and makes me feel so giddy! LOL..This is Claire Robinson’s recipe from her show “5 fix ingredients”..I cannot believe how flavorful it is and there’s only 5 ingredients in this dish. I wanted to make something yummy for my husband whose been so hardworking these couple of weeks (his hardwork got paid off, he got a promotion, praise Jesus!). It makes me so happy that when he got home he said the house smells so good and he cant wait for dinner! I feel a little guilty because he thought that I spend the whole afternoon preparing for this dish when the truth of the matter is I didn’t do a lot! I just patiently browned the meat and the oven did the rest 🙂 Let’s just say I didn’t correct his “impression”..Anyway, this recipe is a keeper! I will definitely prepare this again. Here’s the link to the recipe if you want to try it yourself: Braised Short Ribs
Earlier today we went to a Japanese buffet and were kinda disappointed with the food! This is our third time to visit this place so I was really looking forward to it and didn’t expect it would turn out like this. I was not happy with their sushi selection and the dessert part was limited to fresh fruits (helloooooo where are the chocolate cakes and fondue here, Im sure Japanese people loves chocolates too!). I included some of the pictures of our mexican dinner a couple of weeks ago, I had carne asada my fave mexican dish..I’ve never ordered anything else whenever we go out to a mexican resto, Hubby has been encouraging me to try other stuff but I’m not yet ready to let go of my carne asada obsession! LOL..
This is a recipe of one of my fave celebrity chefs Giada de Laurentii. I was inspired to prepare this after watching her show and how easy the whole cooking process was. My husband liked it a lot and said he would love to have this again, but for me it’s OK. I find it similar to a Lasagna, however, instead of being layered its stuffed pasta..here’s the recipe if you want to make this at home and if you’re into pasta dishes. Giada’s Recipe
I didn’t plan to make this when I realized that I have lots of leftovers from our taco night. I wanted to use the rest of the flour tortilla and shredded cheese. Perfect for a quick lunch for my home based hard working hubby!
I Love Ina Garten! I’ve seen all of her shows/episodes on her Food Network show Barefoot Contessa! Aside from the fact that her recipes are easy and she’s so in love with Jeffrey! I think she has the best kitchen on any food network show!! How I adore her kitchen and her 8 burner stove, 2 dishwashers! LOL..Im feeling lucky that we have a little specialty store here in Issaquah where I can easily buy some of Ina Garten’s products, although I’ve checked it online and found that you can also buy her products on the Barefoot Contessa website (I’ve never done this yet).
I made a not so yummy corned beef dish the other day, so I wanted to compensate with a yummy dessert to make up for it. I especially love the frosting of this cupcake recipe, creamy and sweet! You can check the recipe on the food network of this Red velvet recipe if ever you’re up for making cupcakes from scratch!
Few pictures my hubby took when we went to seattle and watched the Seattle symphony (Songs of Cleopatra)..
