Salmon Patties

I know I have been neglecting my blog for awhile and I hope there are still people stopping by here. I am so sorry about that. Well, I have been very busy for the past 6-7 months, with my home business, then my trip back to Malaysia and after I came back I have to preparing for our moves to another house. So, that was what happening to my life all within a few months. With now settling at a new place hopefully I can get back to my routine of blogging and cooking again. I was just telling Carlos how much I miss doing it.

Anyway, here I am trying to catch up with all the backlogs. There are so many pictures to edit, so many recipes to type out. Let’s start with these Salmon patties which I made some time ago. I like making these patties when salmon fish goes on sale. I will grill a few extra pieces just so I can make these.

Spaghetti with Easy Cherry Tomatoes Sauce

My cherry tomato plants gave me some bumper crop last season. Carlos is not a fan of cherry tomatoes so I am the only one eating it. I like eating them raw and sometimes I just cut them up and put it in my pasta. This is a very fast and easy meal to prepare. While you are boiling the pasta you can prepare the sauce and when pasta is ready all you have to do is mixing it into the sauce. The juicy sweet cherry tomatoes burst open in warm olive oil, creating a luxuriously silky sauce and voila the meal comes together in less than 20 minutes.

Ham and Corn Croquettes

I don’t make this often but sometimes I do crave for it. I prefer Croquettes made from béchamel sauce rather than potatoes. I like the soft, creamy and buttery interior that oozes out of the crispy breadcrumbs when bite into it. The mixture is quite soft to handle, so it is better than you let it cool down really well in the fridge before handling it. These savory patties are good as an appetizer and you can mix anything in it into the béchamel base.

Quinoa Patties with Broccoli

I made these patties to share it with one of my Zumba buddies. She was telling me that she is not a fan of quinoa and she finds them too bland and boring. I don’t blame her as I find them tasteless and boring too. So I invited her over to try these patties out. Guess what, she loves it. She had a few and I packed some for her to take home too.

I’ve made this before but this time I added some steamed broccoli to it. You can actually add other type of veggies like carrot, grated zucchini, chopped spinach and other cheeses to it. Get creative! I pan-fried these as I prefer them this way but you can always bake them in the oven until golden brown. You can serve this with salad or have it as it is.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Carlos is not a fan of cauliflower and I hardly buy any of it but when I saw them on sale for $0.99 each, I just have to buy a couple of it. I roasted some and used the rest to make this soup. The weather here is getting much cooler so it is always nice to have some warm soup with crusty sour dough bread in the evening. I like my soup to be light and not too creamy so I make a slightly healthier version with more chicken stock and less dairy. Well, is not completely healthy as I add some bacon for the topping :)

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Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers

I just love these cute mini sweet peppers. They were so colorful and I just can’t resist buying it. Carlos has been putting them in his salad but I am not a fan of eating them raw as I can’t digest it too well. I will be repeating it the whole day. So I decided to stuff them with some ground beef and baked them with some marinara sauce.

You can serve this as an appetizer, a side dish or like us we have it with some toasted bread for our dinner. They were so good as the pepper turns out so sweet after roasting in the oven and the meat on inside stays moist. In fact Carlos asked me to make more the next time so he can have the leftovers the next day…. Enjoy!

Baked Pasta in Creamy Pumpkin Sauce

Is fall season and there were all kinds of pumpkins around and they were really cheap too. There are only two kinds of pumpkins that I like. One of it is Kabocha and the other one is butternut squash. I don’t buy them too often as Carlos is not a fan of it so if I cook it I will be the only one eating it. Pumpkin is not only good for pies or dessert but they can be used for savory dishes too.

 I am a bit under the weather because of the intense heat here in Northern CA and I am craving for some creamy and comforting food like pasta but not too keen of adding too much cream or tons of fat in it. So pumpkin comes to the rescue. Pumpkin puree make great base for pasta sauce as it’s naturally creamy so it gives you an alfredo like texture without any heavy cream in it. I like penne pasta so I used it in this dish but you can use any type of pasta of your choice. As for the pumpkin try to use fresh pumpkin instead of the one from the can as I think fresh one taste so much better.

Baked Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

These easy to make hot wings are crispy without being fried. With the sports season around now they are great for snacking while watching the game. All it takes is just 10 minutes to prepare, an hour to marinate and then stick it in the oven for an hour and it is done. I like it spicier so I added a bit more hot sauce to it but you can adjust the amount to your liking.

Ingredients:

10 chicken wings
Some celery sticks

Spaghetti and Meatball Sauce

I made this a couple of month ago. I don’t prepare dish like this often but if I do I will usually make a large batch of it and freeze some of it up. This way I can just warm it up and have it with spaghetti or make it into meatball sub. Instead of just ground beef I added some ground turkey to it too. It turns out really nice. Mmmm feeling like having this today. Maybe I should thaw out some and have it for dinner tonight.

Squash Blossom Frittata

One of my favorite to do during summer is to visit all the farmers’ market around my area. I just love the vibrant colors of produce the local farmers were selling. Each time I am at the farmers market I will be on a look out for the bright orange squash blossoms as you would rarely come across it. These blossoms are too fragile and don’t last too long for most supermarkets to handle so you can only find it at farmers’ markets or some upscale grocery stores. These blossoms are generally from zucchini plants, though the flowers of other summer squashes may be eaten, as well. The blossoms have a subtle squash flavor.

I never knew about this delicate delicacy until I came to America. I was walking around the Farmer’s market at Union Square New York and saw these bright orange flowers in one of the vegetable stand. I thought nothing of it until I saw a chef on the Food Network use it in one of his dish. From then on I was obsessed of it. It is pretty expensive but that doesn’t stop me from buying it. I just love to eat the blossom. I normally will make omelet out of it but occasionally I will stuff them with cheese and fried it. I tried planting some zucchini this year but I doubt it will give me enough blossoms for me to make a dish out of it ha ha.. Well, I found some of these blossoms at our local farmers market last week and I grab 2 bags without giving it much thought and get it cooking that very day. I used half of it to make this frittata and with the balance I might make some Korean pancake.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

With the cold winter weather I like making soup or stew for our dinner. I found some very nice beef short ribs at the supermarket the other day and decided to make some stew with some leftover red wine. I love cooking with wine. You can get some real cheap wine online from Jims Cellars which is great for drinking and also for cooking. I love dishes like this as it is hearty and full of flavor. The short ribs are cooked in an aromatic broth for a good two and a half hours. By the time it’s done the meat literally falls off the bone. I added some carrots chunks and potatoes to it as I am too lazy to cook any other dish to go with it. There were some leftovers and it taste even better the second day.

Beef and Spinach Lasagna

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas celebration with family and friends and in a few days it will be the end of 2013. I hope year 2014 will be a better year for us. We won’t be doing much for the New Year as Diana won’t be home. I miss that girl. I wish she live nearer to us :( It will be a low key affair for us except I am looking forward to indulge myself with some Caviar that I ordered online.

I will be flying back to Malaysia in January and looking forward to spend some time with my family and I too hope to meet up with my blogging friends when I am home. Enough of my ranting and let’s get on to this awesome pasta.

I made this with Diana when she was home. I am not a big fan of lasagnas that are loaded with too much meat or cheese so I decided to add some spinach to it. It has a good balance of cheese, meat and veggie in it. I cheated a bit and used a good quality store bought marinara sauce as a base. You can always use homemade one if you have it.

 

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Glaze

non-halal

Pork tenderloin is one of my favorite cuts of meat. I love how tender the meat is and I can marinate and glaze it with anything and it will cook in no time. I will usually throw it onto the grill and let it grill on all sides. As for the marinate it can be anything seasonings of your choice and for the glaze I used pomegranate juice with a few other ingredients. It turns out really good and flavorful. It is super easy to prepare and quick cooking…I mean grilling! And the best part…no pots and pans to wash!

 

 

Roast Chicken with Orange Mustard Glaze

This is our all time favorite roast chicken. It is easy and a complete meal on its own as I usually added some vegetables to the roast. I will usually roast a bird once every 2 weeks and it can last us for a few meals. With the leftovers I make it into sandwiches, pie and the bones for stock. The mix of orange juice, honey, chili powder and mustard to the glaze added a wonderful flavor to the chicken.

Ingredients:

1 roasting chicken, around 3.5 – 4 pounds
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
2 tsp paprika
3 tbsp butter – room temperature
3 sprigs thyme 1 small orange – cut into quarters
Salt and pepper to taste
Some vegetables of your choice – peppers, potatoes, carrots and onions

Honey Yogurt Chicken Kebab

Let’s take a break from MFF Event today and feature this chicken kebab. This is one dish that you can prepare the night before and grill it the very next day. It will become handy if you want to entertain a large number of guests. Marinating the chicken overnight allows the yogurt to tenderize the chicken and also it won’t dries out when you grill it. I just marinate it with whatever spices I can find in my pantry and served them with some tomato salad but you can have it with bread or even rice.

Quinoa Patties

After all the CNY indulgence it is time to have some healthy. I’ve been adding quinoa into our diet a couple of months ago since it is much healthier than rice. You can read more about Quinoa here and here .

We like having these quinoa patties. They are hearty and savory which is a great accompaniment to any soup or salad. I don’t mind not having meat at all as I think this is great replacement for the meat patties on a burger bun. I like to cook the quinoa in a low sodium chicken or vegetable broth as it adds more flavors to it but you can always cook it in water but remember to add a bit of salt to it.

New England Clam and Corn Chowder

This is a traditional cream base chowder with ingredients like onion, potatoes, clams and additional of corn in it. I made it a wee bit on the healthier side by using half and half instead of heavy cream. I always like clam chowder especially the one served at Boudin Bakery in San Francisco. Their clam chowder is the creamy kind serves on sourdough bread bowl while the Manhattan clam chowder is with tomatoes. Both are just as good as it is simply a matter of taste and preference. I used canned clams but you can always use fresh clams to make this. It’s serve piping hot with some crusty bread and just great for cold winter evening.

Pasta Fagioli

I don’t cook a lot of soup but it is always nice to have a bowl or two during winter. This soup was one of the many Italian dishes that I learned from a friend many years ago but I never thought of making it again until my good friend Shereen tasted it at Olive Garden. I told her I know how to make this soup but it might not be exactly the same as the one she tasted but I will try to replica it. So this here is the recipe and hope it is what she is looking for.

Braised Beef Ragu with Rigatoni

This was the very first dish that I learned from my ex a long time ago. He was an Italian Chef and he can cook some mean Italian dishes. I like cooking this dish as it freeze really well. We love this slow braising beef in rich tomato sauce and it so tender that it falls apart when you break it with fork. It is simple, rustic and delicious. I usually use some of the sauce and freeze the rest for another time. The sauce tends to thickens when you reheat it so remember to add some water or pasta water to it until your get the consistency that you like.

Fruity Roasted Beet Salad

I know some of you are not a fan of beet but I just love it. I can have it in my juice or salad anytime. I will have it fresh in my juice and for the salad I will usually roast it up. Roasted beets are delightful, sweet but very earthy and aromatic. I planted some beets this year but it didn’t grow very well. I think the soil is too hard so next season I need to buy some extra soil to top it up. Anyway, I took them all out last week as I won’t have the time to water them as often as we will be travelling again soon. I just roast them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and eat it with some salad. This beet salad is full of bright colors, refreshing and sweet earthy flavors.