Red Velvet Crinkle Sandwich

I love baking! And I'm really glad my hiatus has ended. I guess those Chocolate Chip Cookies set the mood back.

Since the ber  months have started, I think anything Red Velvet will be a good idea. Thus this Red Velvet Crinkles with Cream Cheese Filling.

Crinkle recipe is from Cooking Classy while the cream cheese frosting is adapted from Martha Stewart.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I've mentioned how we loved the chocolate chip cookies from π Breakfast & Pies, and I've been craving for more after that visit. Add the fact that I sort of missed baking. Good thing we didn't have anything planned last Saturday so after some wife and mama duties, I went on with baking some of these goodies.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Recipe, but I lessened the amount of sugar a bit for my little tot. I also made the cookie dough ahead of time and stored it for about an hour in the ref. The cookies turned out really soft and chewy, not too sweet and most of all, super chocolate-y.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups All-purpose Flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

1 cup Packed Light-Brown Sugar

1 tsp. Salt

2 tsps. Pure Vanilla Extract

2 large Eggs

2 cups (about 12 oz.) Semisweet and/or Milk Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. 
2. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Beef Sukiyaki

We love Japanese! :) But Mr. T likes the sushi, sashimi, grilled meat side of Japanese food while I love the noodles, soups, ramen and the rest that's in a Japanese menu. And since I am the one in charge of cooking, I cook what I like. Lol.

For today's recipe sharing, I will share with you my own version of Beef Sukiyaki. See, I still take into consideration Mr. T's preferences even if I cook dishes that are really not up for his taste buds. I cook them in a way that he won't mind if I cook them again. Hah! And of course, this recipe is also BLW friendly for my darling daughter of course. :)

Ingredients:

500g Beef (Sukiyaki or Breakfast Steak cut)

2 medium-sized Onions

1 medium-sized Carrots

1 can Shitake Mushrooms

1 Chinese Cabbage (Pechay Baguio)

50g Sotanghon Noodles

1/3 cup Kikkoman Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Mirin

2 liters Water (or Light Beef Broth)

Pepper

Cooking Oil

How to Cook:

1. Sauté onion over medium heat. Wait till it's soft and cooked (but not browned) then put in the beef. Cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Take out (strain) the beef and onion from the pan and set aside.
3. With the beef broth still in the pan, pour in the water, soy sauce and mirin. Boil for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the beef and simmer for about 2 minutes. Then add the sotanghon noodles and let it simmer until the noodles are slightly cooked.
5. Add the carrots and mushrooms. Then add the cabbage and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Season with pepper.
7. Serve and enjoy over a cup of rice. :)

*You can also add tofu to this recipe but unfortunately, I didn't have tofu available last night. The original recipe also calls for brown sugar but Mr. T doesn't like anything sweet for a main dish. The amount of soy sauce in the original recipe was at 1 cup (?) but since we're cutting down on salt for Ava, I reduced it to 1/3 cup instead. It's always fun to adjust recipes for you and your family's liking. Oh the joys of cooking. :)

In the Kitchen: Stir-fry Mung Bean Sprouts with Tofu

I recently tried cooking this dish and found out that my daughter loves mung bean sprouts (togue). We tried it again last night and she still ate it! :) Now, this is gonna be a staple dish for our family. :)

This is a very easy recipe I picked up from the net. Since we are practicing the Baby-Led Weaning approach in feeding Ava, I skipped some seasoning and made the dish more BLW friendly. :) Let me share with you my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 pack Mung Bean Sprouts (I got the packed ones from SM, 30Php per pack I think)

250 grams Tofu, 1/2" thick sliced

1 medium-sized Onion

1 medium-sized Red Bell Pepper

1 medium-sized Green Bell Pepper

2 medium-sized Carrots

1 cup chicken broth (please use real broth, not bouillons)

1 tbsp. Oyster Sauce

Garlic Powder

Ground Black Pepper

Cooking Oil

How to Cook:

1. Heat your oil in a pan over medium heat. Add your tofu and cook until brown on all sides. Cool down a bit then slice into cubes. Set aside.
2. While frying the tofu, you can slice your onion, bell peppers and carrots into thin strips (juilenne cut).
3. In the same pan, sauté onion.
4. Add the chicken broth (or you can just add plain water if you don't have chicken broths available) and the oyster sauce. Add the carrots and mung beans. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Then add the bell pepper and simmer for another 3 minutes.
5. Add the tofu, a dash of garlic powder and ground black pepper.
6. Simmer for about 2 minutes and then it's ready.
7. Serve hot and enjoy! :)

*Best paired with Fried Tilapia. ;)

In the Kitchen: Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

This is a quick and easy recipe I adapted from (where else?) Martha's recipe. :)

The recipe originally calls for half a cup of raisin which is what I did the first time I tried this recipe. This is the ingredient that's pretty flexible, so you can try anything you think will work best with an oatmeal cookie. It also said rolled oats and not the quick-cooking ones but I used the latter since it was what I have that time. One last tweak I had to make was reduce the sugar by a quarter of a cup because I don't think Mr. T can handle a mother-daughter-sugar-rushing-till-dawn tandem kind of night in the middle of a workweek. :D

So here it is..

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 cup figs
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

How to Bake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together oats, flour, raisins, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Gradually add oat mixture; beat just until combined.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto two baking sheets. Bake until cookies are golden brown but still soft, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

In the Kitchen: Crispy Kulitis

If I have to choose which of the wife duties I love the most, I will pick cooking in a heartbeat. Just about anything that has something to do with preparing and making meals for my little fambam, I enjoy a lot. Probably because the hubee is such a foodie and the little miss A is looking like becoming one as well. Happy tummies equals a happy family. :)

While I have my typical go-to recipes, every once in a while, I would try and cook something new just to give our palates something different. Or sometimes, the folks will bring some fresh goodies all the way from Nueva Ecija - longganisa, fish but veggies most of the time. Just recently I learned how to eat Kulitis (Chinese Spinach) leaves so my dad would bring me some everytime they're in Manila for a visit.

The only way I know how to cook it is to sauteé with garlic, onion, tomato and mackerel or sardines. And since my dad brought heaps of these greens last weekend, I think someone will eventually complain if I cook it that way over and over again. So I thought maybe I can make a Crispy Kulitis just like the Crispy Kangkong. :)

And here's what I came up with.

Ingredients:

50 pieces of Kulitis leaves

(Choose the big ones, wash then lay flat on a plate)

For the batter:

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1 cup Ice Cold Water

1 Egg

1 cup Cooking Oil

How to cook:

1. Start by heating the pan with the cooking oil.
2. Combine the flour, water and egg then beat until the lumps of flour are gone.
3. Hold the stem of the kulitis and brush both sides of the leaf in the batter until completely covered.
4. Cook until it turns slightly brown.
5. Remove from pan and transfer to a strainer lined with a tissue or coffee filter to absorb oil.
6. Serve and enjoy. :)

I made two dips:

1. Mayonaisse, dried oregano, dried basil, salt and pepper.
2. Soy sauce, lemon, garlic powder and sesame oil.

Recipe adapted from Crispy Spinach Recipe by Panlasang Pinoy