Chicken Cacciatore

Source: www.foodnetwork.com
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentis

I always love to cook and eat Italian food. Since the beginning of the week I've been already planning to cook chicken cacciatore. At first I saw this recipe from Fabio Viviani online but I decided to use Giada's recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken thigh
2. Red bell pepper
3. Red onion
4. Flour for dredging the chicken
5. Olive oil for frying the chicken
6. Dry white wine (but I used red wine instead)
7. Diced tomatoes with juice
8. Garlic
9. Capers
10. Dried oregano leaves
11. Salt
12. Pepper
13. Chicken broth
14. Basil (for me it was optional)

Direction:

1. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and dredge it in the flour, coating lightly.
2. In a medium pan fry it in olive oil, 5 minutes each side or until chicken is brown. Set aside fried chicken.
3. In another pan, sauté onion, red bell pepper, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add the wine and simmer it for 3 minutes.
5. Add the diced tomatoes with the juice, broth, capers and dried oregano.
6. Place the chicken on the pan and turn it to make sure it's coated with the sauce.
7. Simmer the sauce over medium heat until the chicken cooked through.
8. Using the tong, transfer the chicken on the plate and spoon the sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

Strawberry Filled Vanilla Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe from www.theovenmitt.com

Last night I baked a Devil's Food (chocolate) Cupcake out of the box but tonight I tried to make cupcakes from scratch. I'm glad to have already some of the equipments for baking such as cupcake baking pan, spatula, mixing bowl, measuring cups, cupcake paper liners (I bought measuring spoon since I still don't have those) and previously bought ingredients so it saved me money this time.

For ingredients and direction please visit or go to this link: http://theovenmitt.com/2012/04/26/strawberry-filled-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

Devil's Food Cupcake

Okay, this is my very first time baking cupcakes. In the first place I am no fan of sweets except for ice cream (to be specific, rocky road ice cream). I do not have a sweet tooth. I am more on the salty side. Cookies, cakes, candies: you can have it for yourself. However I thought of making cupcakes instead of making a brick chicken tonight just to practice and to experience the feeling of baking. So please excuse me on how my first batch of cupcakes came out.

One more thing, I thought putting icing on cupcakes would be easy but I was wrong (in my case as first timer) so I ended up with an ugly cupcake icing or frosting whatever it is. It was frustrating actually. The cupcake itself turned okay. It's moist and (thanks god it wasn't burned) But hey, practice makes perfect or atleast maybe close to it.

Sautéed Bok Choy in Garlic and Ginger

I still had left over of Bok Choy in the fridge when I made salmon sinigang the other day. I don't know what to do it. Then it reminds me of Asian style cooking of Bok Choy.
It was just simple. I sautéed minced garlic and grated fresh ginger in a wok. Once it brown, place the Bok Choy. Cook it for like 3 mins. Season with salt and pepper. Then add 1/4 cup of water or chicken stock just enough to soften the vegetable. Do not overcook or the Bokchoy will turned dark green and looks wilted. Season with sesame oil.

Sicilian Tomato and Onion Salad

My aunt had theae really beautiful tomatoes and red onions that she left before they left before going on vacation. I knew it will just rot in the fridge so I thought I should do something about it before it goes to waste. I came up with a salad and one of the recipes I encountered online is this Sicilian Tomato and Onion Salad. I thought its perfect so I should make one.

Ingredients:

1. 3 ripe medium size tomatoes, sliced into bite size
2. 1 medium size red onion, julienned
3. Fresh basil leaves (thinly sliced)
4. Salt and pepper
5. Garlic powder
6. Dried oregano
7. Olive oil

Just mixed the ingredients tossing lightly and let it marinate for an hour before eating. You can also serve it with Italian bread or make it as an appetizer.

Filipino Beef Steak (bistek)

A co-employee had beef steak for lunch one time and I thought, maybe I should cook it Friday night for my boyfriend and besides it's been a long time since I had beef steak or bistek as how Filipinos call it.

This is the first time actually I cook this one so it may not be perfect yet. Below are the ingredients and the pictures. I don't normally measures the ingredient so excuse me for not putting exact measurements or if I'm not too specific with the details I'm gonna enumerate below.

Ingredients:

1. 2 lbs. thinly sliced chuck steak
2. Soy sauce
3. Lemon
4. Vinegar
5. 2 tsp. sugar
6. Minced garlic
7. Onion, thinly sliced
8. Oil for frying
9. A dash of Cheyenne powder for heat
10. Freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1. First I sliced my beef into pieces about 2x2 inches
2. Then in a bowl I made by marinade by mixing soysauce, lemon, garlic, onion, pepper, and vinegar.
3. Pour it over the beef
4. Marinade it overnight ( in my case I marinade it only for about 6 hours.
5. In a pan heat the oil and fry the beef. Do it by batch so it won't be crowded and each piece should be cook properly. As soon as each batch of beef is fried, put it in a plate. Do not discard your marinade.
6. After everything is fried, set it aside.
7. As the last batch is cook, sauté remaining onion and garlic in the pan until onion is Caramelized and garlic is brown.
8. Place the beef and sauté it for 5 minutes.
9. Pour the marinade into the beef in the pan and let it cook for 10 minutes or until the marinade reduce.