Cheese Crispies

I remember when I was a kid, I would cook up those Kraft cheddar singles in the microwave. The cheese would melt on the little saucer. The edges would harden and the center was nice and melted. I'd scrap up and eat the center first, the I'd carefully remove that one ring of outer cheese that's slightly hardened and eat that up last. Bring back so many memories. My mom would look at me funny, but I didn't care. I had myself some melted cheese.

These are sort of like that melted cheese I used to have. They're great in sandwiches or as a garnish on a salad.

Cheddar Crispies

Shredded or Grated cheddar cheese

Note: you may also used mixed blended cheese.


Preheat your oven to 400˚F

On a parchment paper lines baking sheet, Take 1 2 tablespoons of cheese and lay it on the parchment paper. Carefully pat it down to lightly spread the cheese into a flat circle. Place in the oven for 5-6 minutes. Then let it cool and harden before handling.

Lemon and Pistachio Cookies

I remember tasting these cooking at Stir It 28. Esi of Dishing up Delights was the one who contributed to serving up these deliciously yummy cookies. I had more than a few of these over the course the event. I went for seconds and thirds. Maybe even fourths. Suffice to say...I enjoyed them quite a bit. So the day before Easter rolls around and I'm in need to bake something. I barely had time to plan out a meal to cook. I wanted to be sure that I make a little something. Simple and easy, which these cookies were. The original used meyer lemons, but I only had regular one. It still tasted great. with the bits and pieces of pistachios. These are definitely worth making again.

Makes roughly 30 cookies.

Meyer Lemon and Pistachio Cookies
(Adapted from Dishing Up Delights)

3/4 c (4 ounces) roasted pistachios, ground until almost powdery (chunks are ok)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 cup lemon zest
2 egg yolks
Coarse sea salt for finishing

In a medium bowl, mix together the pistachios with the flour and salt. Set aside

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugars, and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about three minutes on high speed. Beat in yolks. Turn off mixer, dump in flour mixture, then beat on low speed for just a few seconds, or until the dry ingredients are absorbed. Refrigerate dough for one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment .

Scoop 1-2 tablespoon balls of the dough, placing 12 to a sheet. Sprinkle each dough mound very lightly with coarse salt. Bake for roughly 6 minutes Cookies are done when the centers are set and the edges are nicely browned.

Cool on a rack. 

An Easter Meal

I hope you all a lovely weekend. I'm glad that I survived lent.  I had originally planned to cook up a nice big meal, but work has been quite consuming these past couple of week and there's no sign of stopping. I guess it would be good to have someone else do the cooking today. Gives me a break from the hustle and bustle of life.

We decided to eat at Salo-Salo Grill in Glendale, CA. It's a Filipino restaurant. Salo-Salo meaning banquet. Their slogan is "Kung Hanap Ay Lasa" translation: "Where you find taste."

There wasn't much of a crowd when we arrived, meaning we were able to get some booth seats right away. Service quick and prompt. Quite a change from the last time I was there, which has been quite a while. They serve up traditional dishes. We order:

Pancit Sotanghon

Rice noodles with cabbage, chinese sausage, pork, green onion

We ended up taking half of it home.

Pampano

This belly of the fish is stuffed with onion and tomato, seasoned with salt and pepper, then wrapped in some  banana leaf and foil, then finally steamed until tender and cooked.

We ate this one up pretty good. Though, it was a small fish for two people. I really liked it quite a bit. Cooking with banana leaf really does bring a great flavor to foods. It arrived wrapped in a foil pouch, so when you opened it the steam just billows out.

Lechon Sa Kawali

Deep fried pork pieces with skin and meat served with a liver sauce (Mang Tomas Dipping Sauce)

Yeah...what can I say. I love my pork. I love lechon! The crisp chicharron skin with tender meat. Dip it in the liver sauce. Sooo good!! Yum!! You don't really taste the liver in the sauce. But it is a key ingredient along with vinegar, sugar and spices. It brings a nice balances flavor to the fried meat. There was also the traditional steamed rice to make it a complete meal. It's not an asian meal, if you don't have rice and/or noodles, right? My companion for this Easter Lunch... non-other than my lovely mom. You've seen her make a cameo here a few times. Say hello to my mom everyone. :)

It was a nice simple day. For dessert, I had some of the cookies that I made the day before, which you'll see tomorrow. I had a couple of the with those peeps and chocolate. Yum!!

Happy Easter!!

I hope you all have/had a lovely and fun day with family and loved ones. Today, I'll be having these...

It's a peeps party!!! It's not Easter for me until I have some peeps. Purple, pink, orange, and we can't forget the original yellow. Though, the store I got these from ran out the birdie kind. It's alright. Can one overdose on peeps? As long as I have my marshmallow treat, I'm good.

Peep s'mores anyone? I have the graham crackers and we can't forget...

I tweeted this pic shortly after purchasing it yesterday. Excited? Why, yes I am! I'm a dark chocolate kind of girl. Did you know it's healthy for the heart? So eat up and merry!

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!

Production Eats - No. 18

It's been a while since I've done a production eats post. I  haven't been able to work on shows as much in the last few week. Luckily, I worked on two shows this week amidst another project I'm working on. I'm glad about that.

First up, Bones. On this day we filmed on the Fox Studios lot, so I was left to get my lunch from the Fox News Cafe which was close to where we were filming. I liked the food there before, so why not go there again.

I order from the pizza area. A veggie pizza.  It originally comes as a whole "personal" pizza, but a whole one was way too big for me. At first look I was a bit sad as I wouldn't be able to get it. Luckily, the guy behind the counter, slightly took pity and gave me half. Woot! Hooray for puppy dog eyes. It was good. Bell pepper and red onion. The crust wasn't greasy at all. It had a slightly char to it, which I like.

I had it with a side of Caesar Salad with Shrimp. Added a couple slices of cucumber. some fresh corn and edamame.


Next, I worked on Flash Forward. A couple days before, I had gotten a new phone (BB). So I was excited to try it out. The last phone I had didn't have a camera. (yeah...I know, it was my fault for getting the business edition) I knew that my upgrade must have a camera. It would save me from lugging out my point and shoot whenever a given moment arises. I have had many instances where i really needed a camera and didn't have one. Plus, it would be useful for these production eats. Having people stare at me for taking pics of my food was amusing. The expressions on their faces are priceless.  Though, I didn't mind it to begin with. All the better to spread the word about B + B. But it's a bit more handy as I have my phone on me at most/all times. Rather than having to run back to my stuff.

Anyway, this was a night shoot. I was at the location from about 3pm to a little over 3am. I would have stayed a little longer, but my body was telling to volunteer to go home. I didn't want to push it. Besides, I had a meeting to get to a few hours later.

From top clockwise: Veggie lasagna, dinner roll, boiled broccoli (There were some carrot slices in there, too), rice with some black beans.

It was near 10pm by the time lunch break came around. I didn't want to eat too much, even though I was starving by then, There was also BBQ ribs and chicken and scalloped potatoes. I think there was some other pasta dish there, too. I didn't have a good look as there was quite a lot of us, so we had to move quite through the line.  I was worried that they might run out of certain items, but luckily the catering people had just replenished the food just as it was my turn to get my share.  The lasagna was a little reminiscent of pot pie in a way. It was tasty. I sort of wanted to go back for seconds.

With the main plate, i had a side salad with some fresh mushrooms and a slice of cantaloupe and for dessert a nice piece of cinnamon crumb cake. The crumb part was really thick and firm like a cookie and the cake part was slightly moist and chewy. A nice contrast between the two.

Lent Recipes in Review

So with today being good Friday, which would signal the ending of Lent. Actually lent ended on Palm Sunday, but I tend to take it all the way to Easter. I thought I'd do a little round-up of recipes that I cooked up. Now remember I promised to give up meat and chocolate the entire time and I'm glad to say that I've happily made it through alive. Phew! There were temptations here and there. I almost caved at one point. I really did. To the point of nearly eating a piece of chocolate cupcake. Anyway... There's only so much you can do with veggies and I tried my best to make it somewhat interesting to eat rather than having them plain steamed, boiled, or roasted. As well as some seafood and fish dishes added into the mix. I need my protein somehow.

Bake Lobster Tails

Banana Nut Cookie

Shiitake Onion Panini

POM Ginger Vinaigrette

Spinach Mushroom Tortilla Pizzas

Slightly Tropical Quesadilla

Homemade Baked Tortilla Chips

Crab Salad Tostaditas 

Cream Cheese and Mushroom Tartlettes

Homemade Potato Chips

Sweet and Sour Crunchy Salad 

Macaroni Salad

Open Faced Poached Egg Semi-Pesto Sandwich

Sweet Potato Cakes 

Pomegranate Lemonade 

Banana Nut Donut Muffin 

Grilled Cheese with Tomato, Bell Pepper and Onion 

Baked Tilapia Enchiladas 

Crisp Cheesy Breadsticks

Egg in a Nest 

Coconut Lemon Bars

Four Cheese Spinach Bake

Guinness batter Fish and (Baked) Chips

Pineapple Almond Bars

Sweet Potato Bake (Pizza Style?) 

Sukjunamul - Korean Bean Sprout Side Dish

Guinness Battered Fish Sandwich 

Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette (with a crunchy salad)

Sourdough Bread Pizza 

Calzone

Creamy Mushroom and Orzo pasta 

Tomato Avocado Sandwich

Twisted Breadsticks

 

There you have it. The recipes I cooked up this whole lent. There were days when I just posted random stuff, I didn't include those. Not a piece of meat or chocolate to be seen. To be quite honest. I don't really miss either one. What?! Gasp!!!!!  I know. I know. I still love both. Chocolate even more. It's just I've gotten used to the routine. That in no way means I'd give it up completely. Heck no. It'll just be a once in a while thing. Now with Easter just a two days away, I need to figure out what my menu will be. I've been to busy these past couple of weeks that I nearly forgot what my menu will consist of. 

Chocolate will be a must!!

Bento

I know today's April Fool's Day, but I'm horrible at playing tricks or making jokes.  I'm usually the recipient of the trick/joke. But today is a bit of an off day for me because yesterday was in no way a day for cooking. Over the weekend, a close relative's mom had passed away and the funeral was yesterday afternoon. So it was a bit of an emotional day for me. I gave my first eulogy ever. Extremely difficult to do especially when I'm talking through tears. But I'm glad I did.

So for today, I'll leave you with a really cool video on "how to make a bento." There's even a really cute doggy in it. I've always had a fascination with bentos. Not just because of the delicious eats people pack into them, but also the different containers they come in. Whenever I travel to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, I have the habit of checking out the different styles of bento boxes. Maybe I should start a little collection. :)