#221_Stained Glass Gelatin Dessert

Stained Glass Gelatin Dessert

This dessert is a combination of different Jello-O gelatin flavors which make it so colorful. It is very easy to make, but the preparation takes time.

It has so many different names. Sometimes it is called "Broken Glass Dessert", or "Broken Window Glass Pudding", "Prism", "Rainbow Pudding," "Cathedral Window" , but I think "Stained Glass" sounds better, so I will call it that.

The recipe was given to me by a good friend who says every time she brings it to a pot luck, it is always a big hit. I will post her original recipe exactly the way she wrote it down for me and also my modified version.

She calls it PRISM SALAD.

1 of each. 3 oz. Jello: Raspberry, Lime and Orange. Dissolve separately in 8 or 9 inch square pans using 1 cup boiling water and 1/2 cup cold water for each flavor. Set in fridge until firm.

Lemon Jello Mixture:
1 package Lemon Jello (3oz.) dissolved in 1 cup boiling water. Add 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup pineapple juice. Chill until slightly thickened.

Prepare 1 pt. whipping cream (whip until thick) and blend with the Lemon Jello Mix.

Cut firm gelatin into 1/2 " cubes...


.....then fold Lemon Jello Mix into the cubed gelatin.

Let this mixture chill in a 9x13 pan for at least 5 hours or overnight
before cutting into squares.
Serves 20

Here's my modified version:

I followed everything on her recipe except for the Lemon Jello Mixture. I didn't have the whipping cream when I was making this dessert so I used 1 can condensed milk with the Lemon Jello dissolved in 1-1/2 cups water, eliminated the sugar and pineapple juice.

and this is how it turned out...delish but bubbly.

For Christmas you can use any red and green Jello gelatin or come up with your favorite combination for any occasion and have FUN!

#220_ Birthday Cake in a Jiffy

G'daughter Aurionna

I made this cake for our g'daughter, Auri for her 10th birthday
after running errands almost all day and running out of time to make a cake.
Super simple and super easy to do.

The cake is milk chocolate iced with Cream Cheese Frosting,
lady fingers cookies around sides and topped with Cake Balls.

You can put this cake together in 30 minutes... or maybe even less.
No kidding! I know it, because I did it.
That is excluding the baking time and cooling the cake,
and of course the Cake Balls have been made ahead of time.

Cake out of the box
Thanks to my aunt Betty (Crocker), she is a life-saver.

Frost top and sides of cake.
The frosting doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.
In fact I call this a sloppy frosting.
(click here for the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe)

Line lady finger cookies around the side of cake
or you can use chocolate bars.
My sisters who have been decorating cakes this way,
make slabs of chocolate, then cut them to sizes.
Click here to see pictures of their awesome cakes.

Layer whatever you have or whatever you want on top
such as shaved chocolate, M&M's candies,
chopped candy bars and whatnot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AURI!!

#219_Santol, A Philippine Fruit

A friend and a nice neighbor of mine, Stella Davis,
brought me this huge santol from Las Vegas the other day.
She said she got it from Seafood City.
It was huge and frozen. I have never seen santol this huge!

These pictures sparked some exciting interactions among the fans
when I posted it on my Face Book page, which was a lot fun!
To some, this made them nostalgic about Pinas,
and to some just simply miss eating the fruit itself.

the first skin is peeled off......
I didn't really need the salt

gotta chop open this baby

tada!!! pulpy seeds revealed

This fruit is like sweet and sour...
the second skin is sour but the pulps are so sweet.
nakakalaway ba? It is a salivary glands activator!

#218_ Chicken Sandwich, Pinoy Style

Here's a chicken sandwich that most Filipinos love,
the recipe of which was shared by a "fan"
of PinoyAmericanFavoriteRecipes on Face Book, Nida King.

What makes this a Pinoy-style chicken sandwich?
As you know most Filipinos have sweet tooth. We put sugar in most of our dishes, including spaghetti sauce or even in adobong isda (fish adobo).

The chicken filling for this sandwich has some sugar and some other ingredients that makes it not only a Filipino favorite but also very tropical. If you want to see the recipe she posted, just go to my face book page, then follow the thread on sandwich. See you there!

Addendum 2-10-10
I wasn't going to reveal the ingredients, but there's a lot of readers of this blog who have been asking me for the recipe. I'm sure Nida wouldn't mind if I post the recipe here.
So, here's Nida's recipe for the Chicken Sandwich filling:


2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
dash salt
2 tbsp.white sugar
1 can crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup broken nut pieces, pecans or walnuts
Cooked bacon, crumbled (optional, but I highly recommend)

In a bowl, mix first 5 ingredients well then add the pineapple and raisins. Mix until everything is well blended together.

To assemble sandwich:
If using sandwich bread, place a piece of lettuce on a bread then top with the chicken fillings. Garnish with nuts. Place another slice of bread on top of the fillings.

If you don't want your sandwich too sweet, just omit sugar. The raisins and pineapple have plenty of sugar in them already.

Here's a link to another chicken sandwich recipe,
it's a Chicken Salad Sandwich :
http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/06/chicken-salad-sandwich.html

Note from MaMely:
I used rotisserie chicken, but If you need to cook the chicken yourself here's how to prepare it:
Put chicken in a pot and cover with water then add crushed garlic, 2 bay leaves and sliced onion. Cook over medium heat. Skim off fat (discard the fat that's floating) before bringing it up to a boil. When there's no more of that gunk floating turn down heat then simmer. Season with salt and continue to simmer until chicken is tender.

Note:
Nida also shared her recipe for "chicharong manok". Just follow the thread on "chicharon".

4-4-11...Update:

Here's an idea you can do with the Chicken Sandwich filling

Use the chicken fillings on Ritz Crackers
For more recipe ideas go to:
http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/04/284hors-doeuvresappetizers-or-party.html

Another fan, Virgie, shared a recipe for "Pepalukluk Manuk" or "Pinaupong Manok". Follow the thread on BBQ Chicken Or "Inasal na Manok"

Ok. Here's the Pepalukluk Manuk recipe: (Pinaupong Manok) Ingredients: 1 whole chicken 5 cloves garlic (mashed) sea salt or any coarse salt 1 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil (I use olive oil) More canola oil for frying later Preparation: Rinse chicken and pat it dry. Rub with salt inside and out. Heat oil in Dutch oven or any pot that is deep enough to put a whole chicken. Add garlic and salt to hot oil. Add chicken. Cover the pot and put temperature to low. Cook until chicken is tender (about 45 minutes) but not falling off the bone. Take out from the pot and cut up the chicken. Fry in hot canola oil. Serve with steamed Jasmine rice or brown rice if you are health conscious.

Virginia Ganzon Rodriguez wrote at 6:33pm on February 7th, 2010 Ms. Mely, I have recipes at http://www.duyan.com if you want to check out some of my recipes. Delete

#216_Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Honey Whole Wheat

I'm not usually a big fan of wheat bread,
but this has become my favorite bread as well as my husband's.
We enjoy it specially when it is fresh and warm.
Although this recipe requires 3 risings, and takes 4 hours to make,
it is still considered easy to make because
the rising time is all waiting time.
The ingredients are simple, but they are healthy ingredients....
honey and whole wheat flour, what a fantastic combination!

Here's the recipe:

(a) Sponge:
1 cup warm water
3 tsp quick-rising yeast
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup honey

2 cups bread flour

Procedure:

1) Dissolve yeast in warm water in a bowl. You can use a wire whisk to do this.
2) Mix in the honey and canola oil, then gradually stir in the flour using a wooden spoon. Mix well.
3) Cover with a plastic wrap and let it proof or ferment for about 20 minutes until the mixture becomes foamy.
This is the sponge, a very wet and sticky dough, which will be mixed in with the rest of the main dough ingredients in the bread machine pan or bucket.

(b) The main dough:

In the bread machine pan or bucket, pour in:
1-1/2 cups warm water,
then add:
the sponge
1 cup bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten (edited 3-3-10)
1 tsp. dough enhancer
Turn bread machine on to dough cycle and let the machine do the mixing and kneading. This takes exactly 30 minutes with my bread machine.
(bread machines vary so, it is a good idea to get to know your bread machine first)

When the dough cycle is finished, turn the machine off, but leave dough in the pan to rise, with lid closed.

When the dough has risen, punch it down to release the air, then take the dough out of the pan onto a floured or oiled surface. Divide dough into 4 pieces, shape each piece into loaf, and place them in 4 greased 4"x 8" loaf pans.(or you can use 3 bigger loaf pans)
(here's a link on how to fold and roll the dough for bread:) http://www.artisanbreadbaking.com/discussions/folding_dough.htm)

Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Brush top of dough with egg wash then bake in preheated 350 degrees oven for 40-45 minutes.

Let bread cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes before slicing.

(I made 2 batches, 4 loaves from each batch. As you can see one was already gone as soon as they were out of the oven. This is the beauty of making your own bread at home, you can be the first one to eat and enjoy them while they are fresh out of the oven.)

Enjoy with butter and jam or with more honey!

A note from MaMely:
The dough can be made the night before then baked in the morning. Or prep the dough in the morning and have some freshly baked bread for dinner. Allow about 1 hour for the first rising, and another 1 hour for the second rising. Rising time depends on the temperature of your kitchen.

To do this, I use regular active dry yeast instead of instant or quick-rising. Follow the steps up to the point where you have the dough in loaf pans. Cover with plastic wrap, then put them in the fridge. In the morning (after 8 hours) take them out and set them on the counter for about an hour before baking them.

Addendum:

You can also use this recipe to make wheat rolls (picture on the left below)
or wheat Pan de Sal at right

#215_Bibingka

For the love of Bibingka....

In the Philippines this type of bibingka (rice cake) is made and sold along the road sides specially at night. It is baked in makeshift ovens with embers from dried coconut shells with husks still intack. The embers are placed on top and at the bottom of a clay pan with the bibingka batter in it.

Just visualize a clay pan containing bibingka batter sandwiched between 2 burners! That's best way I can describe this method of baking the bibingka to somebody who hasn't been to the country and haven't seen it done.

I really wanted to make my bibingka that way, but I know it is impossible unless maybe I'd do it in a camp ground and would use charcoals.

What I'm going to post here is not a recipe but rather the method by which I baked the bibingka. Out of desperation, I came up with the following idea, and of course done indoor.

In an attempt to make an authentic bibingka just like the way they make it over there, I turned to this portable 5th burner ( electric burner) to use as the top embers. Am I being creative or insane?

First of all, I bought some terra cotta planter saucers, lined them with banana leaves, then ladled some bibingka batter into them. Talk about authenticity!

I placed the clay pan right on top of the stove (that's supposed to be red, not purple, bytheway). I then placed a tin pan over the clay pan containing bibingka batter....

.... then placed the "5th burner" upside down onto the tin pan, so the burner was sitting right on the tin pan.

Ten minutes later.....

Voila!! bibingka!!!

Although the bibingka might look good and authentic enough, unfortunately, I wasn't satisfied with the texture. I'm not too sure if this was due to the method I used or the recipe, whatever the case was, I will be doing some more experiments on this matter.

#214_Masikoy: A Variant of Palitaw

Masikoy
(pronounced: mah-si-coi, rhymes with McCoy)

Like a plant that is indigenous to a certain region,
Masikoy is a kakanin that is a native to Pangasinan.
It is a variant of palitaw made with sesame sauce.

Masikoy is one of my favorite merienda items when I was growing up. The reason why it had become my favorite is perhaps I had aunts who made it every day to sell during merienda time and I had the privilege most of the time of being the first to buy a bowl of it from them before taking the freshly cooked masikoy to their stall. (buena mano daw!)
The only regret I have is that I didn't learn how to make it from them. Luckily, a few years ago a friend of mine was so nice to give me a recipe.

To make the masikoy easier and faster, we need to prep the sesame seeds first, even days ahead as this is the time-consuming part of the process.

Raw sesame seeds don't have much flavor until they are roasted.
Roasting the seeds is what releases their natural oil
resulting to their amazing aroma and nutty flavor.

There are 2 ways to roast the seeds:

1) Oven method:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the seeds in a baking sheet and roast them for 5- 10 minutes.

2) Stove top Method:

Pour the seeds in a dry (no oil) heavy gauge pan (I use a regular Philippine kawali) and roast them over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the seeds turn brown or amber in color.(edited) This process takes me about 30 minutes of non-stop stirring.

The key to a good and flavorful Masikoy is in the roasted sesame seeds. If the seeds are not roasted right, the sauce will not turn out right. Make sure not to over roast the seeds, otherwise they will taste bitter. I'll say practice makes a perfectly roasted sesame seeds.

grind roasted sesame seeds in a coffee grinder
(sorry, this color is a lot darker in this picture than the actual color,
this may be due to poor lighting in my kitchen)

Unlike my aunts who used mortar and pestle to pulverized the roasted sesame seeds, I am grateful that I have a mini coffee grinder that I use only for grinding spices, otherwise it will take me all day to prepare this food.

Grind the seeds ahead of time

then put it in a jar with tight-fitting lid so you can have them ready to make the Masikoy.

The only down side of using this electric grinder is that it pulverizes only about 60 % of the seeds, unless maybe you process it over again.

Making the rice dough is exactly the same way as the Palitaw

except they are shaped into disks instead of oval.

Disks of rice doughs floating

Follow the steps of making the rice doughs (see previous post, recipe #213, click here.) up to the stage when the doughs start to float, leave the doughs in the pot, then gradually pour in the sesame sauce mix (below). Stir to blend all the ingredients. Simmer for about 3-5 minutes longer. That's it! Really easy!

Sesame Sauce Mix
In a bowl, mix together:
3/4 cup white sugar, (or more if desired)
1/3 cup ground sesame seeds
1/4 cup rice flour

#213_Palitaw or Unday-Unday

Palitaw 1
Rolled in fresh grated coconut
then topped with Macapuno Balls
Palitaw 2
 Dredged in freshly grated coconut, then sprinkled with
toasted, ground sesame seeds with sugar.

Palitaw is a very popular snack item in the Philippines and I bet that most Filipinos know how to make it or have eaten at least a variety of it.

There are several variants of this type of kakanin, one of which is the Bilo-bilo, (glutinous rice balls) click here. Another one I know is the Pangasinan's Masikoy of which I'll be posting next. Actually this Palitaw post is a prelude to the masikoy recipe post, click here.

These three snack items, palitaw, bilo-bilo and masikoy, are basically made with glutinous rice flour and water and are made the same way by dropping them in boiling water.

When first dropped into the boiling water, the shaped rice doughs will sink all the way to the bottom of the pot, but it won't take very long before they come up floating to the surface, thus the root word litaw, a Tagalog word meaning to emerge or to surface, where Palitaw got its name. "Lulobog, lilitaw".....what goes down must come up!"

In the province of Pangasinan, where I am from we call this Unday-Unday. Unfortunately, I don't know what that means.

Palitaw is very easy and super simple to make with only 2 ingredients:

2 cups of glutinous rice flour

3/4 to 1 cup water

Mix well to form a soft dough, gradually adding some more water if the dough is too dry and hard. Pinch off little pieces at a time and roll into about 1 inch balls between the palms of your hands, flatten into oval shapes, then toss them in rice flour to prevent the formed doughs from sticking to each other.

In a pot bring about 8 cups of water to rolling boil then drop these rice doughs into the rapidly boiling water. When they start to float, they are cooked, but I like to simmer them uncovered for about 3-5 minutes longer, then take them out with a slotted spoon onto a platter. At this point, it is not a good idea to eat them because they are bland and it would be like eating spaghetti without the sauce or like eating rice without ulam or viand.

For toppings:

In order to put some good flavors into these rice doughs, you need to dredge them in freshly grated coconut after taking them out of the pot, then top them with anything you like such as macapuno strings; toasted, ground sesame seeds with white sugar; toasted black sesame seeds with white sugar or just plain sugar and grated coconut.

My father liked soft bucayo on top of his palitaw. This soft bucayo were made with young coconuts and white sugar and were sold every morning at the market.

ENJOY!

#212_Cheese Balls

One of the appetizers that I served both on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve was Cheese Balls.

On Christmas Day I served the ones from Hickory Farms (store-bought kind) which was a bit disappointing because they were hard as a rock even after microwaving them.


So for New year's Eve, I decided to make some from scratch.... custom made. One good thing about making them yourself is that you can put anything you like and anything you want to with the cream cheese.

I made 2 kinds of cheese balls from the same mixture. On one of the cheese balls I added some Sambal Oelek (chili paste) for the ones who like their food spicy.

Here's the recipe:

2 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature-soft
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 oz of Ranch Style Dressing mix (powder)
1/3 cup finely chopped cooked bacon
about 2 drops of worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 tsp. chili paste, optional

2 cups chopped pecans or almonds

1) Toast nuts in 350 degrees oven for about 5 minutes. Let cool then chop. Set aside.

2) Stir the cream cheese first with a sturdy wooden spoon or electric hand mixer until smooth then add the rest of the ingredients except the nuts. Mix until well blended together.
Form into 2 balls, then roll each ball into the chopped pecans. Wrap in plastic wrap then
refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Take out of fridge 1/2 hour before serving.

Serve with your favorite crackers.