Tag: recipes

You Don’t Know Jack

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Well, at least we didn’t, until this week. I’m talking about this interesting little fruit we learned about while exploring Filipino recipes, the jackfruit – but more on that in a minute. We wanted something sweet to go along with our baked tahong and after Kay over at Pure Complex posted her Friday recipes last week, we knew a meal of appetizers was going to fit the bill. That’s when we came across the recipe for Turon Saba, a sweet banana (plantain) and jackfruit (or langka) spring roll, often served as a street snack in the Philippines.

The recipe seemed easy enough. We just needed plantains, jackfruit, brown sugar and spring roll wrappers. Miss A and I were really excited when we found the jackfruit at the grocery store. We had no idea that this even existed before this week, and yet here it was right on our grocery store’s shelves. And what was even better, the spring roll wrappers were right next to the jackfruit. So with all of our ingredients on hand, we started by peeling and slicing the plantains and laying out the jackfruit. 

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Rockin’ the Pumpkin

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We’ve got one more pumpkin recipe for you before we head back to sampling recipes from the Philippines. This particular dish makes use of the leftover roasted pumpkin we had from our risotto and makes for a great lunch or side salad. If you don’t have any leftover pumpkin on hand, it’s simple to roast up a fresh batch, just allow for an extra hour of cooking time.

So what is this easy, tasty and refreshing pumpkin recipe? The Pumpkin and Couscous Rocket Salad. Yep, it’s healthy and offers some much-needed freshness after all the Halloween sweets and treats. We started by preparing our couscous. We used a whole wheat couscous, chicken stock, dry white wine, fresh sage, lemon zest and lemon juice. 

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A Shining Date Night

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We interrupt this regularly scheduled Filipino recipe week for a few seasonal dishes. Now pumpkin has been all over the blog world for weeks – pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin bagels, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin-banana bread….I could go on and on. So we figured we’d jump on the band wagon, for the rest of this week anyway.

Last night’s Halloween festivities were a blast. The kids had so much fun collecting candy, playing with their friends and having a pizza night. Mr. N was our brave knight this year, 

and Miss A, well I’m sure you can guess what she was for Halloween. A princess of course. Continue reading →

Quest for the Best Banana Bread Gets Bewitched

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We have recently seen some banana bread recipes floating about with pumpkin added to the mix. Now while that sounds totally interesting and very Halloween-y, we’re keeping our banana breads on this quest simple and pure.

Our eighth banana bread recipe on this quest came to us from Sally at Bewitching Kitchen. Now for those of you that don’t know Sally, she is an amazing cook and a bread baker extraordinaire. So you can bet we were excited to try this recipe.

Miss A was again at the ready for another banana bread baking adventure. She did a great job mashing the bananas and mixing them together with the buttermilk. 

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May I Have Seconds…Make That Thirds Please

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I’m assuming from the title you can guess this is a meal that we enjoyed. We chose another Filipino recipe, Pork Estofado. Raymund at Ang Sarap has been a wonderful inspiration for our Filipino food selections. He made a version of this back in September and I was completely intrigued by cooking bananas in a pork dish.

It’s been a hectic week and we’re all fighting off colds, so no one is really running at full steam. We also wanted something that was going to be easy for a weeknight full of the kids’ activities. That’s why we opted to make a few adaptations to this dish, one of which was to make use of the slow cooker.

We started by bundling our spices and seasonings, including bay leaves, peppercorn, minced garlic and star anise in a cheesecloth.  Continue reading →

Jeet?

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Or in non-Rhode Island speak, have you eaten yet? Yep, it’s state night and we’re sticking with our “island” theme for the week. Okay, it’s not an actual island as Mr. N now knows, but we’ve already done Hawaii, and besides we miss New England.

As for Rhode Island, well we knew right away what meal we’d whip up for this adventure. Any guesses?

Alright, how many of you guessed Rhode Island Clam Chowder? If you did, yay! You’re right. Now, how many of you knew that Rhode Island Clam Chowder is not a red chowder, not a white chowder, but traditionally a clear broth chowder? That’s right, tourists often go for and favor the traditional New England white clam chowders, but Rhode Islanders can be found digging in on a version that puts the clams center stage.

Now a true Rhode Island Clam Chowder uses quahogs, but we couldn’t find any so we’re making due with chopped canned clams in clam juice. Continue reading →