3 Sites, 3 treats for the tum!

I know I've been posting a lot of food entries lately and that's because I've been trying to expand my little stash of simple and fast recipes list. Not that nothing exciting is happening in our lives - it's just that I guess I'm more inclined to feature what I've been learning (well, more like experimenting, lol) than some thoughts. But, maybe tomorrow I can do that (do a thought post, hehe).

Before the McNally Robinson Bookstore in Stephen Avenue bid it's adieu, I was able to grab one last piece of Donna Hay's book. I can't find anymore of her fast and easy book but I am glad to have found this!

Did you know that I like cooking from books with pictures???? And, who would not love Donna Hay??? Her methods are simple and quick to follow (Trish Magwood is another one with this style) and the food that I've done based on her recipe book is just truly divine! Maybe it's the simplicity of it that's why I appreciate it too much. When you live in the Americas, every minute counts!

So I have done the Chorizo and Tomato Pasta. However, typical me - I follow the recipe to about 85% of it, then I make my own take. hahaha I did not have the canned tomatoes so I used fresh and I did not have a 'chorizo' but I have pork sausage - so that's ok, right? :) I also have feta so I used that in lieu of the parmesan. I actually have parmesan but it's just me who's eating this so naku, why bother opening the whole parmesan and grate the heck out of it when the feta is already half opened? lol I don't want the cheese to go hard from being half-eaten. Sayang! Then, although it did not call for greens, I used the rest of my arugula. O di ba, complete meal! hahaha

Then, we had potluck last Friday. I decided to try making blondies. Blondies is like brownies, except - it's not brown, it's white - blondie - gets? lol I have leftover mascarpone and I don't feel like bringing tiramisu (besides, we don't have espresso in the house nor lady fingers) so I searched the net for mascarpone recipes. And what do you know, I found the Lemon Mascarpone blondies in the net! I liked the fact that I can use brown sugar instead of the white refined (so it should not be too sweet) and that it only called for 1 cup of flour and 1 egg. Nice! So here it is before I had it cut for the potluck. It looks boring but the taste (according to my coworkers) is really good and fresh (that's the lemon for you!) I probably will attempt to do it again with B around as his opinion on sweets is really valuable! :)

Lastly, with extra corns lying around, I thought it would be a good idea to start working with it for meals and treats. I have been contemplating on making corn bread but with just B and me, this is going to be too much for us again! So I think I'm saving the rest for the real meal and about 2/3 cup I added to a whole wheat muffin recipe! ;)

See, I have been hankering for a 'kabayan' (you know, those yellow muffins with corn?) and I thought, well - I have corn - heck, I'll make one! And so I did! hahahaha I used whole wheat for this in place of the white all purpose flour and followed everything to a T from the Joy of Cooking book.

And what do you know???? The muffin turned really good - not hard from overbeating (which I used to do all the time!!!) and the corn made it special too! :)

Last but not least, I am happy to report that my first attempt with orzo was a success! I was always intimidated with this grain-like pasta as my other attempts before with other types of pasta/grains were futile. I always have it either under cooked or over cooked! This time, I had it down pat and am so happy because it just did not turn out well, it tasted delicious - thanks to Trish's recipe on this one! ;) Sorry, no pics as it got gobbled up in a jiffy!!!!

Let's eat!