Philippine Inspired Marinated Pork

I have two favorite Philippine marinated pork dishes: tocino and barbecue skewers. Most recipes that I came across calls for a ton of sugar and/or lemon+lime soda. My solution to this is a recipe that I'm comfortable enough to feed to my own children.

Start with a package of pork butt or shoulder.

In a bowl add 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire and chopped garlic.

Bring 2 cups of orange juice with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar to a boil and cool.

In a separate bowl thinly slice the pork and add dry rub (1 tablespoon of paprika, 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, and 1 tablespoon of white sugar). Mix.

Add cooled orange juice to the soy sauce and add pork. Mix. Marinade for up to 2 days in advance. I've marinaded my pork and stored it both in the refrigerator and in the freezer - I prefer the freezer method.

To cook heat pan on medium. Add pork and simmer with 1/4 cup of water. Boil until water evaporates and fry until fully cooked and golden in color.

Serve with rice and enjoy.

Chocolate Workshop

My friends and I had Groupon's to a local chocolatier that we purchased sometime ago and we finally nailed down a date that would fit with all of our 'mum' schedules.

Firstly, I'll have to say that it was a very informative workshop. We also had the opportunity to taste dark chocolate from five different regions (including cocoa butter and cocoa nibs) in their purest forms. The absolute best part of the evening was getting down and dirty by making our own box of truffles.

The tempering of chocolate was briefly discussed which was a beneficial topic for myself as I've had so my challenges making ganache in the past.

Almost everyone (the exemption being my friend and I) used cutters to mold the ganache. We clearly lacked the patience and/or concentration required for the molds so we cut basic square shapes with a knife. I'm the first to admit that this was much neater process on the overall.

We then hand dipped each piece of ganache into melted dark chocolate and decorated them with strawberry flavored white chocolate petals, cocoa powder, cocoa nibs, textured and star-patterned acetate. Our truffles were collected and set in the refrigerator (or was it freezer?) for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, I indulged in a cup of dark hot chocolate with in-house made spiked marshmallows.

Lastly, we packaged our truffles. It was a great end to a truly decadent evening.

Parmesan Cheese Soft Pretzels

This was the latest variation of soft pretzels - Parmesan cheese. My husband decided to dress his soft pretzels so I had to copy him. Sometimes, he is just brilliant!

Raspberry Cream Puff

Ever since I made gougères, I've been thinking about trying it's sweet alter ego, the cream puff (also known as choux pastry).

I found the following recipe from JoyOfBaking.com and decided to fill mine with a 'raspberry flavored whip cream.' 

Happy Easter!

Gabrielle's Raspberry Whip Cream Recipe:

1/4 cup Frozen Raspberries

1/4 cup Orange Juice

1 teaspoon Sugar

250 ml Whipping Cream

1 tablespoon Confectioners Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Bring orange juice, frozen raspberries, and sugar to a boil and immediately place in refrigerator (or freezer) to cool.

Whip cream with confectioners sugar and vanilla.

Fold in cooled raspberries (as desired) and fill cream puffs.

Oven-Baked Baby Back Ribs

I often cook barbecue baby back ribs for my family and I always boil the ribs in water with a bay leaf, half an onion, salt and pepper for 1 hour. I remove the ribs, place them on a baking sheet, and brush barbecue sauce on both sides and bake them in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes and serve.

I decided to take the opportunity to see if oven-baking the ribs would make much of a difference. Seeing that I had 2 1/2 hours to spare, today would be the day!

I divided 2 racks of ribs into 5 portions. Each portion was then seasoned with a dry rub that consisted of seasoning salt, garlic powder and paprika. I wrapped each portion with parchment and foil. The ribs went into a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven and baked for 2 hours. I removed the parchment and foil (and juice), slathered barbecue sauce on each portion, and baked the ribs for another 1/2 hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

They looked identical to my boiled version and the ribs were just as tender - there is an added hint of smokiness, which you don't get when the ribs are boiled. The main difference for me was in texture. There was a thin presence of fat left on some of the ribs (which I don't care for). Unless you plan on trimming the excess fat left on the ribs, I prefer the boiled version, and it takes less cooking time!

St. Patrick's Day Theme

My daughter and I decided to decorate the house with a St. Patrick's Day theme for our dinner guests last Friday.

I was on Pinterest and saw this cute Kiss Me, Luck of the Irish poster. I printed a 5X7 poster and framed it. You can find it on http://www.box.com/shared/0esqxeb0si. 

The kids ate their dessert with a four-leaf clover toothpick which we made with crepe paper and attached with tape. We also made a larger size for the adult dessert which is seen above. We used a skewer taped with crepe paper and merely dusted with cocoa powder to get this effect.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tiramisu II Tutorial

I was on the Wilton forums a couple of weeks ago and stumbled on a thread about tiramisu. I've never even though about making tiramisu before so this was going to be a top priority dessert.

I made family dinner plans with a friend and I decided to make it easy. Pizza was on the dinner menu and since that was a phone call away, I decided I would bake us dessert. This was my opportunity to make tiramisu.

I had a look at a few different recipes for tiramisu, and as you know, I've been hooked on allrecipes.com lately. I found the recipe Tiramisu II by Christine and read all of the rave reviews. This was going to be the recipe!

First thing, I had to bake homemade lady fingers. I decided to use the Ladyfingers Tested Recipe by Stephanie Jaworski from JoyofBaking.com.

I'm still a novice when it comes to whipping egg whites (especially since I majorly fouled up the macarons) but I've been more confident with the success of the orange chiffon under my belt.  

The first batch baked up beautifully. I realized that I piped the ladyfingers too fat and too long (4" long and a good inch wide). I was a little skeptical with the amount of ladyfingers so I immediately baked another recipe.

The second batch were short and skinny (2 1/2" - 3" long and 1/2 inch wide). I tried surrounding the outside of the cheesecake pan with them initially but soon realized that I was going to need the entire second batch to do this. I looked back to the first batch of ladyfingers and thought I'd cut them in half to place around the pan. This worked out perfect.

I also decided to spike my whipping cream with instant coffee, Starbucks VIA to be exact.

The ladyfingers were soaked with freshly brewed coffee and Kaluha (I doubled the recipe as suggested by a few of the reviewers). 

FYI, I decided to go with Kahlua because I walked up and down the rum section at the liquor store with no idea which one to purchase. The prices ranged from $15 - $89 and I'm not a rum connoisseur of any sort. There was a mini Kalhua bottle for $10 at the checkout, and it states that it's rum and a coffee flavored liqueur on the bottle, so that was my ultimate decision.

I feel there's something unsettling about putting the layers together and not seeing the end result until serving. I had no idea how this was going to turn out...

I'm happy to share that I was thrilled with both recipe selections and added coffee flavors - my guests also had rave reviews and even had seconds! 

I served the few extra ladyfingers to the kids which they had with fresh berries and marshmallows. 

Everyone was happy.

French Baguettes

I feel like I'm on a roll with bread making (since I successfully made soft pretzels yesterday) so I thought to make French baguettes today.

Now, who can argue with 838 reviews with a total 5/5 stars recipe? This was a no brainer. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, French Baguettes by Judy Taubert.

I added parmesan cheese and oregano to the top of the loaves.

I created a humid environment in the oven (as recommended by another recipe) by placing a pie dish filled with water on the bottom rack.

Presto, the loaves were done in 22 minutes! I give the recipe five stars.

Soft Pretzels: Bacon + Cheese, Plain and Bacon Dog

We're home bound these days and I only had 3 hot dog buns in the freezer. Between the teacher's strike, my husband running errands and being home bound, I decided I would make soft pretzels this afternoon. I read that 60 minutes is required to let the dough rise (on multiple recipes) and discussed the wait with the kids, but they didn't seen to mind.

I went with a recipe from allrecipes.com: "Buttery Soft Pretzels" by Christa Rose (with some slight modifications).

I found the dough rather dry after steps 1 and 2, so I ended up adding 2 tablespoons of water.

I kneaded the dough for 5 minutes on my stand mixer. It was still heavy and not right in opinion but I let the yeast do its magic. 

I let the dough rise for 50 minutes and halved the dough. I placed 1/2 back in the greased bowl and divided the other 1/2 into 6 logs for 6 beef wieners that I had pre-cooked.

I dipped the logs for 30 seconds in the baking soda and water and slit the logs to fit in the wiener. I also snuck half a slice of processed cheese and topped them off with grated mozzarella cheese. 

I baked them for 10 minutes and added bacon bits and more grated cheese to the top of the pretzel dogs.

I found that the bacon and cheese didn't really add anything more to the pretzel dog, but it was worth a try in my opinion.

It brings me back to the days of a whistle dogs... love a little nostalgia.

I baked miniature pretzels with the other 1/2 of the dough that was reserved in the greased bowl. I had some bacon bits and grated cheese leftover so I ended up with 2 variations of the classic soft pretzel. These mini's took about 10 minutes in the oven.

I can hardly wait to make these again. The recipe has surely earned my family's approval!

Angry Birds Fruit Gummies

Can you believe my daughter and I discovered this at the local candy shop? They sell Angry Birds fruit gummies! There were 3 of the blue boxes and we purchased 2 - 1 for each of my candy eating children. 

These birds are the latest craze so we were thrilled to find them. Here they are outside of the packaging. I think we'll be picking a few more boxes up once they're re-stocked. Who can possibly resist Angry Birds fruit gummies? Not us!