Oven-baked Milkfish

Baked Bangus

This is our viand yesterday night. It’s very easy to prepare and all you have to do is pop it in the oven after cleaning and filling it with a mishmash of tomatoes, minced ginger, minced garlic and onions. Oh, and don’t forget to rub the outside and the cavity with salt and pepper. I baked it for 45mins at 200 degree celsius. Hubby and I actually finished this medium-sized bangus in one sitting.  Thank God for this food on our table. 🙂

I, Working Mother

The phrase working mother is redundant.

Off the top of my head and as far as my recent stint as a “new” mother to my two-month old son, I’d say motherhood is itself a LOOOT of work. When you’re a mother, you are ACTUALLY WORKING. Working to EARN money is another story.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the new job descriptions recently added to my label as a mother :

Feed the baby (and sterilize his feeding bottles, too).

Bathe him.

Soothe him when he’s fussy.

Change his soiled diapers.

Put him to sleep (this is probably the hardest at this stage)

Wash his clothes (already taken cared of by the better half, thank God)

Complete his vaccinations……

Okay, let’s get real here. These can be overwhelming tasks, too, sometimes — especially when you’re not getting enough sleep and you’re also running a household. You know, cooking, doing the dishes, fixing the bed…. Sometimes my super mom syndrome is on and I just work non-stop, multi-tasking as much as I can — and then I’d get exhausted. And cranky. Boooo.

Now, what motherhood has taught me so far are these two golden rules that I am applying to keep my sanity intact :

1) Be a fast worker. I work so fast lately that I think the plates could almost fly from the table to the sink, and then back to the dish rack. And bathing? Oh my, long baths are already a luxury to me. Sometimes I’m not even half way finished with washing my hair, and then I’d hear my son screaming, crying for dear life. The next thing I know, I am already out of the bathroom, wrapped in a robe, dripping wet, and rushing to his cot to check on him.

2) Get some rest. If at all possible, sleep whenever the baby is sleeping. When he wakes up, you’d be more willing to pick him up and give him some lovin’. A well-rested mom is a happy mom, and a happy mom means a happy baby!

Fresh Oven-baked Spanish Bread

As we speak, I already finished two pieces of spanish bread straight from the oven. This recipe is most probably going to be another staple at home. We’ve nailed it once again on the first try, thanks to uncomplicated instructions from filipinocooking.net.

Bon Appetit!

16 soft bread rolls!

First (Successful) Bread-making Attempt

My lucky stars are shining on me today because I’ve finally come up with a well-baked batch of “monay”. Yes, monay! I’m soooo happy, I’m not yet over it!

Me being a bread person, I know I had to learn my way to bread-making one of these days so that we can have fresh, home-baked breads anytime. Breads in general are basically made with yeast. Yeast is happiest when mixed with warm water at 100-110 degree farenheit, and they had to be foamy and bubbly after 5-10 minutes of proofing with a tablespoon of sugar.

I left my mixture in the kitchen, hoping against hope that by the time I come back it will be indeed foamy and bubbly. When hubby called my attention and told me he can see foam and bubbles already, I was ECSTATIC! It’s all I need to proceed with the rest of the bread-making steps! It sort of opened all the doors of possibilities for other yeast-based breads I am eager to make! Spanish bread, loaf breads, crescent rolls, pan de sal….I’ll surely try them all soooon!

Anyway, this version of bread is very much like pinagong, or putok. They’re heavy, thick and dense in the inside and you can pretty much make out the milk and sugar from the taste. I like it because it is already tasty by itself, even without jam, butter or other spreads. This recipe wasn’t as time-consuming as I expected, and we nailed it the first time. It yielded 8 lovely buns and I made them in different shapes. Here they are :

Fresh from the oven!

 

Free Software Downloads, anyone?

Hello!

I just felt the need to share this website that provides games and software downloads — for FREE! Best of all, the download links are working, and the applications are the real deal. No viruses nor malwares masquerading behind the .exe files! (at least with the two apps I’ve downloaded, that is).

A colleague requested for Microsoft Frontpage 2003 for her daughter’s laptop who’s currently in high school and my first resort was to check out the torrent sites but to no avail. Google results led me to Raza Ahmed’s website and from there, I got the 198mb installer, complete with a cd-key. Su-weeet, isn’t it? I had to extract it though using a third party app , the PowerISO software, which is also available from his website.

I did a quick tour at his website and spotted more download-worthy apps like full version anti-virus programs (Avira, Avast, Kaspersky and NOD32) and some registry cleaners / optimizers so I’d probably go back to his site to hoard some more if time permits. 🙂

31 Weeks!

Officially 31 weeks today! 9 weeks more or less and my bouncing baby boy will be in my arms God-willing.

I finally had the will to fix my baby’s closet and stuff. I removed the price tags, arranged them in the drawers, so they will be all ready for laundry — not now — but maybe by mid-April. I re-listed what’s left of my to-buy list, too, and reduced it to toiletries and beddings as urgent needs.I’m actually imagining how my bundle of joy will fit into the clothes we bought, how I’d use the washcloths, yada, yada…I guess you can pretty much sense my excitement. It hasn’t really sank in, but everyday is a day closer to seeing our first-born, and everyday I’m inching towards motherhood!

Anxious? Yes. No mom, nor in-laws beside me to help me take care of a newborn. I, with zero experience, will have to trust my mother instincts and my hubby, my only support system for the time being. It sucks to live abroad, far from everyone who could shower you all the help you will need in your D-day. But of course, there’s my generous mommy friends who are always ready to dish-out advices, and mom will always be a phone call away.

Anyway, here are the baby stuffs spread out in our bed…And here’s one pic where I somewhat based how I’ve reduced my to-buy list. Not exactly followed to the dot but as far as PRACTICALITY is concerned, this is the thang! 😉

Kutsinta Part Deux

This is my second time making kutsinta whose recipe I posted previously here. This time, I used my silicone baking cups and it did work well with the steamer. I liked how they looked in different shapes. I arranged this platter so hubby can bring this to his friends. Tadaaan!

 

Home-made Mais Con Yelo

The last time I had this sweet refreshment was during my last vacation in the Philippines and my sister-in-law tirelessly crushed some ice with a traditional pangkaskas ng yelo (I have no idea what it’s called, by the way). So anyway, winter in this part of the world is almost over and in most days as of late, I find myself thirsty and craving for something cold. I saw the last can of sweet corn kernel in the pantry staring at me and without second thoughts, I grabbed my ice cube holders and made some ice. I thought I’d deal with how to crush them later.Remember my grinding assistant which I used in the graham crackers for my  home-made munchkins? I poured the ice cubes in it, gave it a pulse, some more pulse, and voila! It did crush the ice beautifully!

Crushed ice + sweet corn kernels + sugar + milk = home-made mais con yelo!

Buttercream Frosting on Banana Bread

Using my go-to banana bread recipe, I made a batch in a small-size baking pan but after baking it, I finally found it to be a little boring. It looked so lame and lonely as if it needed company. So I searched for an easy frosting recipe and found this which is by the way my first time dabbling on anything frosting. hehe.The ingredients were readily available in my pantry except I don’t have a very helpful tool that would save me time and a LOT of effort — electric hand/stand mixer.  I do have a family of whisks though (you know, whisks/beater in three different sizes) but surely, it can’t compete with the speed and convenience of the said kitchen machine. *writes in wish list*

So it all started with this…..

And then this…..

Finally,

I still have left-over frosting in the fridge. Let’s see where I can use it next time. 🙂

Easy Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

First time to bake chocolate cupcakes and first time to use my silicone baking cups. Before I dish out the recipe, here’s why silicone baking cups are baking-friendly:
(I just copied what’s written in the box).

no muffin pan needed!
oven safe to 500 F
convenient fill line
stain/odor resistant
reusable, dishwasher safe
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Recipe from maruism

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

    1 cup all purpose flour
    1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
    1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and warm
    2 large eggs
    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    1/2 cup hot water

Procedure:

    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt together thoroughly.
    Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for one minute.
    Add half of the water and beat for 20 seconds. Add the remaining water. Beat for 20-30 seconds until the batter is smooth. Pour and divide it evenly among the 12 lined cups. Bake 18-22 minutes.
 
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 Reminder to myself : Fill the cups with batter only halfway to the brim or a little over it, otherwise they’d spill.

 It was soft and yummy anyway despite the messy overflow, plus very easy to do. By the way, I used nesquick chocolate powder instead of cocoa because it has been sitting in the pantry for quite a long time already. I had some left-over semi sweet chocolate chips from previous chocolate chip cookies baking attempts so I decided to add them as well. 🙂