The Adventures of a Calamari Queen
Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
I shopped at the Asian market and Fred Meyer(kroger affiliate) this week. I only took a picture of my FM trip.My favorite was the organic tomato sauce(original price 99 cents,sale price 65 cents) and the milk (original price $1.85, sale for $1).
I’m officially an American citizen today! I took the test and did the Oath Taking this afternoon. I’m grateful that I’m living here in USA, and I know a lot of my friends back in the PI would like to be living and working here in US but just don’t have the opportunity to be here (land of the free!!). The Lord made it “easy” for me, the Love of my life happens to be an American thus the process of applying to become a citizen was “quicker”. There were 58 candidates from 26 countries (from Canada to Cambodia). Thanks to my Hubby who took the day off to be with me today and take pics of the event:)
I’m not a big Rachael Ray fan but I subscribed to her magazine because I like food magazines that have lots of food pictures, thus easy to follow whenever I’m cooking. I got this salad recipe from the latest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. Simple and delicious pasta salad. I paired it with chicken marsala.
We checked out Issaquah’s farmers market last Saturday morning and had lunch at Panera Bread after:
I had my friend Faye and her family for dinner tonight. It was such a nice summer day! I wanted to eat outside and grill some pork belly and bangus (milkfish). We got lucky because it looks like tomorrow we will have some rain again. Anyways, for dessert, I prepared this Filipino dessert, Buko Pandan. I got all of the ingredients from the asian market here in WA. Pandan (screwpine leaves) can be bought frozen in most Asian markets( I didn’t get any) because I opted to prepare it the easy way and use pandan extract. I also added nata de coco(pandan flavor) because I like the texture of it. I got the recipe online (www.panlasangpinoy.com)
More Pictures of our dinner tonight:
Quick, easy and delicious Chicken Marsala recipe I saw online. I made this tonight and will most likely cook this again:-)
chicken marsala with antipasto salad for dinner
Ingredients:
2 skinless,boneless,chicken breasts
salt and black pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
up to 1/2 cup olive oil
8 ounce sliced mushroom
2 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup sweet marsala wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup sherry or dry white whine
optional:2 tablespoon heavy cream
Garnish with parsley
Instruction:
1. plot each chicken breast through the middle to make 2 pieces. Place plastic wrap over them and pound each one flat using a meat tenderizer/mallet until they are about a quarter inch thick. Season a good amount of salt and pepper on both sides. Place flour on a plate and dredge each piece of chicken in it.
2. Heat the oil over medium high heat and when the oil is hot, fry each piece for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove chicken and place them on a serving platter covering with foil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add butter and mushrooms. Saute mushrooms for 4-5 minutes making sure to season them with salt and pepper lightly. Add marsala wine,sherry,cream,and chicken stock allowing the liquid to reduce slightly. Pour mushrooms and sauce over the chicken and serve.
I’m not feeling very well thus the delay of this weekend fun post! The weekend happened so fast that I can’t recall what we did already. I remember dogs playing, dinner with friends,”harvesting” more salads from the garden, Church, lounging around the house! Our weekend in pics:
I made these twiced baked potatoes this week,and this is one easy and great recipe. Although this recipe is a keeper, I still want to try other twice baked potato recipes (like Paula Dean’s).
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place the potatoes directly on the rack in the center of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Pierce each potato in a couple spots with a fork and continue to bake until tender, about 30 minutes more. Remove potatoes from the oven, and turn the heat down to 375 degrees F.
Hold the potato with an oven-mit or towel, trim off the top of the potatoes to make a canoe-like shape. Reserve the tops. Carefully scoop out most of the potato into a bowl. Take care to leave enough potato in the skin so the shells stay together. Mash the potato lightly with fork along with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the butter and sour cream. Stir in the scallion, nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Season the skins with salt and pepper. Refill the shells with the potato mixture mounding it slightly. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the potato filling. Brush the reserved top with the remaining butter and season with salt and pepper.
Set the potatoes and lids on a baking sheet, and bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
I shopped at Walgreens and Fred Meyer this week. I had a couple of RR from wags that I wanted to use because they’re about to expire. I really didn’t want anything from Walgreens this week so I got something that I can use in the future, thus I got packaging tape. I plan to send something to my family in the Phillipines before the year ends and I will be using lots of packaging tape.
For my Fred Meyer Trip (Kroger affiliate) I took advantage of their mix and match promo this week. My husband’s favorite cereal was included in the promo so I got 5 boxes (he’s been asking me since 2 weeks ago when can I get him Life cereal, but I told him to just wait another week and they’ll be on sale soon:-). They also have a good deal on their milk this week ($1 for half gallon,normally they’re $1.85). I also splurged on the Organic Chanterelle mushrooms because I wanted to try a recipe I saw online that need this kind of mushroom. I organized our pantry this week and realized that we only had 1 ketchup and FM had ketchup on sale this week too, so I got 2.
Part of my “summer bucket list” is to clean and organize our house, one room at a time! This week I started with our pantry and laundry room.
In our laundry room, we do have another pantry(smaller) where we put our opened boxes of pasta,cereals,and more condiments and candies.
I love crabs! It’s one of my fave seafoods to eat and I don’t mind the cracking part (honestly, I do enjoy it!! I know crazy, right?). So when I saw this dish in my fave food blog (Original Recipe) I knew right away that this was a must dish to make in the future. We are so lucky here in Pacific Northwest because we do have a great seafood selection (from salmon to crabs to shrimps). I got the crabs from our local fish market, it was kinda expensive but the crab meat was so worth it. Sweet and meaty:) Hubby requested to have it cleaned,but I did clean it again (scrub) before cooking just to make sure:) This is a VERY simple dish. Once I cleaned and chopped the crabs(it was cooked already when we bought it, you can steam it if it’s still “live”), I then sautéed Garlic, Onion, and Ginger with olive oil. I then added chicken broth and the crabs, let it boil and then put in the pre-soaked noodles. Then salt and pepper to taste, if you want you can add soy sauce to add that deep color. Garnish with chives or whatever herbs you have. I used parsley because I happened to have some right in front of me. You have to eat it right away because these kind of noodles tend to dry out so fast. Serve with rice if you want:-) I will be making this again in the future (maybe next week!!)
