Choco Chip Butter Cookies

Quick and easy.
5 mins prep time
5 to 10 mins cooking time.

I had one of those "time of my life" bonding with my 12 y.o Zarah baking this cookie. It was sure fun.

We have a certain connection when it comes to cooking or baking. I let her prepare the ingredients and we mess up the cooking together. Well, yeah..."mess" up some of our recipes if it's not so very successful at the same time "messing up" the kitchen is what we usually do when we're the one's manning it. She goes "Ma, where is the vanilla?! where's the spatula?! I just placed it there awhile ago!" I'd answer " Oh, i dunno with you Zar, i didnt eat them!" Then we'd have a big laugh when she realizes she was just holding it all the while. Or it would be the other way around, with me looking for one item, and all the while it was just under my nose.

But we always compliment each other when the end result is a big thumbs up to our customers ( my hubby, kuya &Yoshi ).

She loves pastries and pasta. That is why I make it a point to bond with her by cooking up the stuff she loves to eat. With my boys, eating is never a big issue, they gobble up almost anything you put on their plates. But with my lovely princess, its a different story. She is picky with food.I'd often wish we could trade appetites.

This time picky is the last word in her vocabulary. I was happy this cookie finally ooh & ahhd her taste buds.I had a great time with her.

Happy mode si mommy! ahehehe.Its fun having you baking in the kitchen with me, my Yari.. *twinkle-wink-wink*

So, here's our home made Choco chip Butter Cookie.

Happy baking!

INGREDIENTS:
-1/2 cup butter
-1 cup Light brown sugar
-1 tsp Vanilla
-1 egg
-3/4 cup All purpose Flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1.Cream together 1/4 cup softened butter and 1 cup light brown sugar.
2.Add 1 tsp vanilla & 1 egg,
3.Beat until light and fluffy.
4.Fold in 3/4 cup Flour,1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt
5.Drop spoonfuls of the cookie mixture on lightly greased baking sheets.
6.Flatten the mixture to form cookie size of your choice.
7. Drop in the choco chips on top.(this is where my 3 y.o joined in and made his own cookie. Not to mention, gobbling up most of the choco chips on the bowl..)
8. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees FAHRENHEIT ( in short :: 375 F ! i miss spelling out the entire word..)

Steamed SIOMAI MOMMY

One of our family favorites is eating Chinese. Anything chinese esp that of Chowking restaurant is very welcome to our tummy. yay!

Lately, while munching the yummy siomai from the chow chef, i allowed my imagination to drift. How do they make these stuff?

SO my search engine started rolling. Here's the recipe I tried around 3-4 times until i got it perfect! whew! the ups and downs of siomai... I had some siomai that watered around the wraps, i had siomai that hardened, i had siomai that went naked as the steam heated up..BUT FINALLY... its true. If you want to get a recipe right , you never give up after just one try.You gotta try and try until you get it! hahahah.

My recipe here has no QUAIL EGG yet, for the quail simply did'nt egg yet when i started this siomai venture.ahehehe.

Here's my share of Siomai . I call it my Steamed Siomai Mommy...

INGREDIENTS ::
1 kg LEAN ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3)
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion(s)
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
50 pcs. large or 100 pcs. small wanton or siomai wrapper
soy sauce, calamansi (lemon ), sesame oil and chilli paste (for the sauce)

Note: you can experiment on using ground chicken or ground beef and add some filling like shrimps (which i purposely failed to have when i did my experments--shrimp is costly noh!).

FOR THE WRAPPER: I buy ready made molo wrap squares.But if you prefer making your own wrap here's what you need :

1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS :

1.Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl.
2.Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal.
3.Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil.
4.When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces.
5.Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil. Chilli paste is optional.


THE Wrapper: I havent tried making this yet. But here is how to do it daw:::
Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps.
Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour.
Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball.
Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls.
Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Set aside.
[ that sounds pretty difficult, huh?i cannot imagine how it would look like.My head is filled with flour balls in the making.Period.NOT the classic siomai wrapper... agree! BUY THE READY MADE MOLO WRAPS INSTEAD ! thats if you don't want to go thru the phases of cooking agony..]

Simplest version of chilli sauce would be to chop chillies well and fry them in oil, sesame or vegetable oil, never olive oil if you want it to have an Asian taste.

The chilli paste found in restaurants is a combination of chillies, garlic and oil. Combine chopped chillies and mashed garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

A Simple PAELLA Recipe

Just like photography,they say that in every dish that you cook , there also is a story behind it.....

Unlike my other gastronomical pieces, my regret was not having been able to take a good photo shoot of my amateur cooking piece that is very well presented.

Anywayz...here's my Paella story...

Dig in if you wish!

MY QUICK PAELLA -- Last Chinese New Year was kinda special. It was my debut as a weekend or special occasion Chef in our home...Yes I know...Its Chinese new year but then I opted cooking a mexican / mediteranean dish! hahaha. Sssshh..

Though its not a regular celebration in our home, we just made sure we had some kind of a special dish on our table. As i said, I will adventurize the Quick Paella dish i found in one of my cookbooks. So, here's an update to my quick and easy Paella which I just finished cooking 4 hours ago!

It was..hmmmmm. more or less 75% successful.

I say its just 75% successful becuzz...I got confused with the word MINCED garlic on my recipe.Oh, my gulay ! i didn't realize the word Minced could mean differently from one cook book to that of Mirriams dictionary!! Ay naku.. further searches in culinary dictionary, to Mince is to chop it into small pieces. When i saw a ready made Minced garlic from the gocery, i convinced myself that this must be 'the "it". At the back of my mind, using the fresh garlic and mincing them myself was more appealing.But What the heck, i just wanted to hurry up and try using this ready made minced thing and see what happens.

I used this to first saute my onions. In less than a minute this tiny "minced" garlic turned really brown-- i concluded it won't last til i finish my whole recipe on the pan. To prevent another cooking disaster from happenning and turn my Paella into "charred" paella,I had to turn off the fire, chop another set of onions , chop FRESH MINCED garlic ( the ready made from the grocery didnt work out well...duh*;) & do the whole process again! whew! a blunder.

Thank God for the creation of automatic burners..i dont know what will happen if there ain't no auto burner in this world.As I reflected on my recent blunder, i should've just slowed down my fire a bit to prevent those tiny things from turning brown to black. I DIDNT KNOW GARLIC COULD JUST EASILY BURN UP LIKE THAT...whew! That was a neat lesson to pocket.hahaha.

I was already taking too much time chopping this and that, meal time was almost up so I had to hurry up. Truthfully, i was afraid of cutting my fingers as i chopped my onions and chili.I wanted to chop them quickly like the chefs who professionally do the art of cutting --so quickly. But then again, i remmbered my christmas finger accident with the scissor during my gift wrapping showdown -- ouch!! --so i did'nt dwell into the cutting extravaganza.Yet..

I turned my paella well on the pan. Poured in my ingredients, mix mix mix, heat heat heat...in less than 10 minutes my quick and easy paella was done! I tasted it..the aroma and the taste complimented well.. hmmmm.

MAGNIFICO! i congratulated myself..Its always myself who congratulate my self FIRST(who else would do it best !esp during the early stages of cooking..naka lusot.hehehe ). I dunno how well my consumers will like their dinner. Well, they had lesser options..i guess...wink.

My husband found it very tasty and said "pURRFect" and my elder son gobbled up his plate without much comment. My daughter who is never fond of not so normal food, just watched the boys gobble up their paella. I saw their faces. I was satisfied. No LOUD compliments from my son though.Are you sure?? I want to think so..ahehehe

Maybe..I didnt want to push for compliments..Maybe nga...Silence is a yes...coz the next time I looked, the paella disappeared from the serving plate..

The following weekend i heard my kid ask our yaya, when will mommy cook that again? Owwwws... He did'nt talk much when he ate it, now he's looking for another!?

yipee yeh yeh yeh..



Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup corn oil
* 1 tsp Annatto powder (i cant find powder in the local grocery, i used the seeds,liquefied in h20 and mushed them with my fingers! its juz 4 color color anywits :).By the way, ANNATO means azuetes or achuetes in laymens lingo.We used to use this to color our fingernails..way back that age of climbing guava trees and playing dolls.:).
* 1 tbsp MINCED garlic (best to use fresh garlic,they don't char easily.hehe)
* 1 cup chopped onions
* 1/2 piece red bell pepper,sliced
* 1/2 piece green bell pepper, sliced
* 3 pcs chorizo chinese bilbao,sliced (at least, this one's Chinese! Kwong Bee is yummy to use)
* 1 cup chicken breast meat, cubed
* 1/4 tsp paprika ( careful on using this.Fumes the nose and ears if you dash more of this on your recipe..)
* 2 pcs chicken broth cubes (you can use just 1--accdg to preference )
* 1&1/4 tsp salt
* 3/4 tsp ground pepper
* 3 to 3 1/2 cups cooked rice

Pls Take Note :: This is just A SIMPLE and quick PAELLA RECIPE. The complicated one( the one with shrimps, lobsters,squid,etc etc) is my next feat.This is best for beginners,like me. :))))

Directions:
1. Heat Oil in a large saucepan. Add garlic and cook.
2.Add in onions, red bell pepper,and green bell pepper--cook until aromatic.
3. Put in sliced chorizo, chicken, paprika and chicken cubes. Season with salt and pepper.
4.Pour in your annato liquid. simmer.
5. Add in cooked rice and toss completely until color has blended.
Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve well with cold lemonade or chilled coke..OR have cold water handy if your recipe is reallly -- oh, so hot! :>)

HAPPY EATING!!