My Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

I have made many made-from-scratch goodies before, but I have never made cookies before, in this case, sugar cookies (actually, I take that back...I have made red velvet cookies for Christmas before). I think the reason why I haven't is because my daughter is the cookie expert in our home. They're her thing, and I did not want to take from that. HOWEVER, I have a friend who makes - and decorates- holiday cookies. She makes them really nice and pretty, and I badly wanted to do some, myself. Luckily for me, she agreed to teach me, and boy did I learn a lot from her! I will forever be thankful for the time and energy she spent on that.

So, without further ado, here are my first-ever attempt at making and decorating cookies, just in time for Valentine's day.

creaming the butter and sugar...

if you think the dough looks somewhat dry, that is because this one is...i followed this recipe to a tee, which my friend warned me was a bit off, and she was right. i made a second batch with slightly modified measurements...and, that came out really good!

this is the dough from the second batch...

still, this is the same dry dough from the first batch...

but, as you can see, this dough is much better...

cookies, baked and ready to be decorated..

now, making the Royal Icing...

in the end, four colors were used to decorate the cookies, with two different kinds of icings...these ones are slightly stiffer for piping edges...

and these ones are slightly runnier for flooding..

so, after 2 days of prepping everything, I was finally ready to do some decorating...the fun could finally begin!

and, voila!!!! aren't they pretty?? my favorite ones are the XO in pink, white and black..

I made quite a bit that I had my husband and kids, and myself, hand them out to friends...and they were happy to get some. ☺

Filipino Beef Empanadas

Growing up in the Philippines, empanadas have always been one of my favorite foods. As a kid, I never seemed to get enough of it, but unfortunately, empanadas were a treat that did not often come by. And, althought I had a grandma (my dad’s mom) who made them very well, she never did leave anyone in the family her recipe…she took it with her to her grave. 

Well, I have been making attempts to broaden my culinary skills lately. For a very long time, making dough was something I just shied and stayed away from…and, if you know empanada, you know that it’s the crust that makes it…I always say that the filling is the easy part. But, thank god for the advent of the internet, more specifically, youtube…there is all kinds of tutorials on that site!

I have to say that I was very diligent in learning this particular pastry. I tried and failed at it many times, but I refused to give up. It was getting frustrating, UNTIL one time, I finally put together just the right “stuff”, and my dough/crust was exactly as I wanted it to be. You can just imagine my delight! J

Having said that, here are a couple of pictures that I took on that glorious day. My children absolutely love them, and is the reason why I keep making them whenever I can.

It’s all in the dough, I tell ya! ;)

Love my empanada mold…so nifty!

Ready for the oven…I can feel the anticipation!

Voila!! They were yummy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

      Here they are…my homemade red velvet cupcakes! I am not sure why this is such a popular flavor. I mean, they are good, but all they are are chocolate cupcakes whose batter is drenched in red food coloring (also, with a simple addition of some sour cream). But, contrary to what you might normally see at more-commercial shops, however, red velvet cakes are not really bright red in color, at least not the ones I made.  I dont know what the whole color discrepancy is about, but I can tell you that even though I [intentionally] exceeded the suggested amount of red food color, they still came out very dark red. Maybe the color serves as an indication as to how they were prepared, either commercially or homemade??

     Anyway, the cream cheese-based frosting definitely put it over the top, and added an extra layer of flavor to them. All in all, they came out really good!

     Attached to this blog is a link to the recipe that I used to make these.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/red-velvet-cupcakes-3/

My Very First Made-From-Scratch Chicken Pot Pie

Making chicken pot pie from scratch has crossed my mind for some time now, and today, I decided this was the day.

I have been doing research online - mostly on youtube - on how to make the dough for the pie crust, but I have always shied away from it. The whole notion of it just seemed daunting and intimidating, not to mention that I really don't have the proper apparatus to make it. But, I figured, if I don't conquer this apprehension now, I just never might. So, I just had to go for it (and besides that, I found a recipe that I thought I could handle ☺)..

Here's my recap on how it all went down:

I ended up making the dough by hand with the help of something called the dough/pastry cutter. I followed the recipe as best as I could, and when I was done, it appeared to have turned out okay. I made enough for the bottom and the top. 

The filling, itself, was quite simple...the most challenging part was the cutting and dicing of the veggies. I just seasoned and pan-fried some chicken breasts, sauteed the veggies, added flour, cream, and chicken broth..and voila! I had my filling.

Then, I was ready to put my pie together, and baked it until the crust was nice and golden brown.

Drum roll..............the pie turned out really good and tasty! It came out exactly as I had hoped and envisioned! It was firm enough -not too soupy or gooey- so that when I cut into it, it kept its shape and everything stayed intact, and the flavor was really good. As far as the pie crust went, however, it was also tasty and flaky, like I wanted, but it was a little bit on the thick side, which caused parts of it to be a little under cooked, and it could have been softer. There is still much to learn about the proper technique to making the perfect pie crust dough, for sure...but, all in all, I'd say it was a success! Considering that it was my first time ever to make chicken pot pie, and all from scratch, I was definitely impressed and proud of myself! Seeing my family enjoy it was such a reward for all the work that went into tonight's dinner (I also made mashed potatoes and a side of corn to serve it with)....I cannot wait to make this again! :D

Anyway, I took pictures to show how everything looked...

**This entry originally posted on my other blog, on May 11, 2013…

Biscuits

My fascination with biscuits began years ago when my sister-in-law’s husband had spent the night with us one night and made biscuits from scratch for breakfast the next morning. He insisted that they are pretty simple to make, and I must say that he did a really great job making them.

Now, years later, after learning how much my husband and kids love biscuits, I re-visited the previous desire I once had to try to make them, myself. I referred to my trusted Betty Crocker cook book (given to me by an old friend for Christmas some time ago). It took a couple of tries to really get the hang of it, and make them the way that my family prefers them.

I am happy to say that making biscuits has now become something that I can do, even in my sleep. Like my brother-in-law had promised, they are pretty simple to make, and I make them quite often.

There are two ways I make my biscuits: the “classic” way if I’m making them for breakfast, or the cheesy-garlic way for our pasta/Italian nights. But, regardless of how I make them, they are always a hit in my home!

These pictures are from my first time (ever) trying to make biscuits. I have learned a couple of things since then. For one, I switched from doing the buttermilk kind to just doing regular - using only milk...I found that biscuits turn out softer and better. Second, raw biscuits are supposed to touch each other on the baking sheet to get that crispy-on-the outside-but-soft and chewy-on-the-inside result. Third, I now use shortening instead of the butter that you see in the picture.

These are my breakfast biscuits:

as you can see, this was before I discovered this thing called the baking mat which is an ultra clever little gadget made of silicone one can use for rolling out and kneading dough/pastry.

here, you can see how far apart the raw biscuits sit from one another...if I had done a better job reading through the directions of the cook book, it clearly stated to have them touch each other...live and learn!

These are my dinner biscuits:

I did them exactly the same way, except I added garlic powder and a couple handfuls of grated parmesan cheese...