Macaroni Salad

A couple of weeks ago, my dad asked for macaroni salad. I said sure... when I get the ingredients. I finally have them all. It's quite easy to make, just takes a bit of time. Here's what you need:

3 cups uncooked pasta (this time I used mini penne as I tend to change it up)
2 big roma tomatoes (~1 cup)
3 carrot sticks (~ 1 cup)
2 celery stems (~ 1 cup)
1 cup frozen peas
3 boiled eggs (~ 1 cup)
1 can of spam
1/2 cup mayo
salt n pepper to taste

1. Boil the pasta first before you chop anything!! That way the pasta will have time to cool off.
2. Then chop up everything!! (If you haven't any boiled eggs, boil them second, then chop everything).

3. Just mix in all your chopped foodies into your pasta, including the spam.

4. Add in the mayo and mix well. You could always add more if you are a mayo lover. I tend to add only a little bit of mayo and then when I serve it, I either mix in more mayo (cuz it looks like it dried out) and/or some ranch or blue cheese dressing for added flavor.

Om nom nom.... I added another dollop of mayo and some black pepper for tasty. Mmmm

Handy to have these:

Pyrex Glass Measuring Bowls, 4 cups (Google Affiliate Ad)

Denby Wooden Spoon (Google Affiliate Ad)

Garlic Salt Spare Ribs

For tonight's dinner, the hubster wanted to make spare ribs a bit different than usual. We did a test batch where the ribs came out too salty but otherwise quite delicious! Here's what we did for our actual dinner:

Take the spare ribs and trim the fat and remove the membrane film thingy. Then cut into manageable sizes.

In a small bowl, mix 2 tbs kosher salt, 1 tbs garlic powder and 1 tbs onion powder. (There may be leftovers depending on how much meat you're cooking up.) Sprinkle this mixture nicely over the top of your spare ribs. If you rub this salt mixture everywhere like what we did with our test batch, it'll end up toooooo salty.

Then you'll need to mix 1/2 cup (8 tbs) water with 2 tbs liquid smoke. Ratio is 4:1.

Pour the diluted liquid smoke into your spare ribs dish. Try not to pour over your ribs as you may wash out the garlic salt mixture. It should just cover the bottom of your dish and then some.

Place in preheated oven of 350°F and bake for 1-1/2 hours. It should look like the above. PS: When it's baking, it smells like the most delicious hot dog ever... I'm pretty sure that's from the liquid smoke :D

The ribs came out amazingly delicious, perfectly salted, and very juicy! It wasn't dry at all. Definitely finger-lickin' good!

Super handy to have these:

Pyrex 4-Qt. Oblong Baking Dish (Google Affiliate Ad)

Super sharp knives (cuts through bones like paper!)

Salmon Sashimi

One of the things my hubby got me hooked on when we first met was salmon sashimi. That's right~ before I met him I was an everything well-cooked kinda gal. But man oh man, sushi and sashimi can be pretty expensive. Then we found a cheapER yet still satisfying and delicious way of fulfilling our salmon sashimi needs. Buy a regular ole salmon fillet and just make sure it's as fresh as possible... in other words, it doesn't look old.

Here's a picture of our fillet of salmon that I just had to have to fill a craving. :o)

First you need to skin it then place it in a deep dish.

Then add rice wine to cover the fish and let it soak for a good 3-5 minutes.

Dad's munchie portion... he doesn't eat that much raw meats...

My hubby's and my lunch portion. Served with soy sauce and wasabi. It was oh-so-yummy!!! And no terrible consequences afterwards if you know what I mean. Although, if it'll ease your conscience, you could always drink some kind of alcohol with this meal.

om nom nom nom :D

Handy to have something similar to this to slice your fish:

Wusthof Classic Filet Knife, 7" (Google Affiliate Ad)

Roast Beef and Broccoli Soup

For tonight's dinner, we decided to make a roast beef from 3lbs of top round sirloin, sliced in half. For the marinade, in a measuring cup, we mixed a 12 oz Samuel Adams beer, 1 tbs worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup chopped onions, 2 tbs garlic powder and 1 tbs onion powder.

Place the halved roast in a 9x11 inch pyrex pan and liberally salt (we used kosher salt).

Pour in the beer mixture on the sides. Cover with foil.

Place in preheated oven of 275°F and bake for 3.5 hours. 

Once we removed the meat, we decided to crack in eggs to see if it would cook. We ended up turning the stove on low and covering again with the foil. It cooked nicely.

We served the roast beef with the eggs and rice and broccoli soup. The broccoli soup was made with the remaining sauce and broccoli. We just pureed the broccoli into the sauce with a hand blender. This was one super filling and delicious meal! Om nom nom.

Super handy to have these on hand:

Pyrex 4-Qt. Oblong Baking Dish (Google Affiliate Ad)

Pyrex Cooking Solved 12-Pc. Glass Mixing Bowl Set (Google Affiliate Ad)

Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender (Google Affiliate Ad)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cheesecake

I had been meaning to make a pumpkin cheesecake for a long long time. The trouble was finding enough time. This memorial weekend was the perfect time to test one or two out :D

For the graham cracker CRUST (yields two 8-inch pie pans):
10 whole cinnamon graham crackers, finely crushed
6 tbs unsalted butter, melted

Mix together, then pack it tightly into your pie pans. Bake in preheated oven of 325°F for 7-8 minutes. Then set aside.

For the coconut flour CRUST (if on keto diet) (yields two 8-inch pie pans):
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature mixes easier
2 eggs
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup coconut flour

Mix first three ingredients and then add the coconut flour in approximately three stages until it is well incorporated. Then pack it tightly into your pie pans. Bake in preheated oven of 400°F for 7-8 minutes. Then set aside

For the FILLING, you will need the following (yields two 8 inch pies):
24 oz cream cheese
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (not used if on keto diet)
1.5 tsp lemon juice
8 tbs granulated sugar (6 tbs splenda if on keto diet)
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 oz evaporated milk (4 oz heavy whipping cream if on keto diet)
2 tsp pumpkin spice
a pinch of salt (optional)

"Regular" pumpkin cream cheese cheesecake

Keto friendly pumpkin cream cheesecake

Here's what I did:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. In a mixer, mix the cream cheese and 3 eggs. Then add the vanilla extract, lemon juice and sugar. Mix together until all ingredients are well incorporated. (This is pretty much the cream cheese cheesecake batter.)
3. Then, add 1 cup of the canned pumpkin. Mix well.
4. Then, add the last egg and 4 oz of evaporated milk OR heavy whipping cream and 2 tsp pumpkin spice and pinch of salt (optional). Again, mix well.
5. Pour the batter into your cooled crust.
6. Bake for about 1.5 hours or until done.
7. Let it cool for about 10 minutes and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

I have to be honest and say that the splenda version has more pumpkin taste to it whereas the "regular" version is a bit dry (maybe add more evaporated milk next time?). Nevertheless, they are both still tasty for not being an exact recipe since I basically combined my go-to pumpkin pie recipe with my cheesecake recipe. heh.

Here are pics of my attempt at making mini pies instead of a second "regular" cheesecake:

They cracked horribly because they were baking on the top half of my oven whereas the bigger pies baked in the middle shelf...

Covered the cracks with amaretto whipped cream*. All better! :D

*Amaretto whipped cream is just heavy whipping cream, a bit of powdered sugar (or splenda if on keto) and Disaronno (not for keto diets). 

These are pictures of my second keto friendly cheesecake:

5/29/13 update: I froze the "mini pies" and it turned out delicious! It's kind of like an ice cream substitute, but with a bit of pumpkin flavor. Also, next time I make the regular version, I will try it out with brown sugar. It might help bring out more of the pumpkin flavor.

Cheddar Cheese n Spinach Quiche

I had earmarked this recipe a long while ago and have finally made time to make it. I hoped it would be as delicious as the savory baked egg custard and am glad to say that it is! But I think next time I make this, I'll upgrade the frozen spinach to fresh spinach :o)

To make this quiche more keto friendly, I used the following:

4 eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoons coconut flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup minced onions

8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
8 ounces frozen chopped spinach (rinsed and drained out as much water as possible)

1 previously made coconut crust (unbaked and frozen)

If you're making a keto friendly meal, you can go here for the coconut flour crust. The yield is one 8 inch pie shell. I used it for a 9 inch pie pan because my hubby doesn't really care for a crust so it ended up being really thin.

1. First off, preheat your oven to 400°F. Once preheated, bake your coconut crust for 7-8 minutes and then set it aside. Then, lower the oven temperature to 350°F.

2. In a mixing bowl, mix the eggs, whipping cream, coconut flour, salt and garlic powder.

3. Then add the remaining ingredients.

4. Pour the egg mixture into your pie pan.

5. Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until top is golden brown.

This quiche is super moist and delicious and very decadent. It's even more awesome when served with a dollop of sour cream (not shown). YUMMY!!!

6/5/2013 Update: Just made another one subbing the cheddar cheese with 4 oz Jarlsberg and 4 oz mozzarella AND it was crustless. It was just as amazing as the cheddar one. Mm-mmmm!

Steak n Salad

For tonight's dinner, we had a good old fashion American dinner. I'm guessing that usually means steak, right? Anyhoo, we had steak and salad. My hubby usually makes the steak via Alton Brown style (mostly cooked in the oven), but tonight he tried it Gordon Ramsay style (cooked entirely on the stove top).

First, you need to bring your steaks out to room temperature. Let it sit out for about an hour or so before you cook it.

When your steak is at room temp and you're ready to cook it, heat up a cast iron skillet on high. Then, sprinkle your steaks with salt (we used sea salt) and freshly ground pepper.

Once your cast iron skillet is hot, add oil. Then place your steak in the skillet. Sear each side for 3-4 minutes for medium rare, then flip the steak. About 1 1/2 minutes on the second side, melt butter into the pan.

Finally, serve on a bed of lettuce (or on the side) and let it rest for 10 minutes.

above: the hubster' steak

and mine (I did a halfsie with my pops & my hubster kindly (and without asking) sliced up our steak. It was mm-mmm delicious)

Super fast and super simple. Even I could make it! :)

Gordon Ramsay's youtube vid.

Gordon Ramsay's website.

Best to have one of these: Lodge Logic Cast Iron Skillet - 15 1/4" - Lodge Logic (Google Affiliate Ad)

Oreos n Chocolate Swirl Buns

These buns are as tasty as they look and oh-so-decadent. I merely made a modification to this recipe. I used to do this recipe by hand because I did not have a mixer, but (hooray) now I do! So if you currently do not have a mixer, you could try out my version.

This time around I did two batches. When I only do one, they are always gone so quickly. Also, I made two batches because one batch is for a bday celebration this weekend. Yippee!

The first batch is pretty much the original plus 2 handful of walnuts and lots more cinnamon bc this household loves cinnamon and nuts. Also, since the very first batch I made was really sweet, when making the filling, I only added 2 tbs of granulated sugar instead of 1/4 cup (which is 4 tbs).

And for the second batch, I merely subbed some of the chocolate chips with oreos! It turned out to still be 1/2 lb of goodies :D Plus, I also only added 2 tbs of granulated sugar instead of the 1/4 cup.

Can you say SA-WEEET! :o)

Super useful to have these on hand:

Mixer: Kitchenaid Classic Plus 4.5-Qt. Stand Mixer (Google Affiliate Ad)

Kitchen Scale: Salter Aquatronic Electronic Kitchen Scale (Google Affiliate Ad)

Serrated Knife: Wusthof Gourmet Serrated Bread Knife - 8" - Wusthof Gourmet (Google Affiliate Ad)