Back from the dead!

Howdy Howdy! I am back and cooking again! These last 2 weeks have been quite a busy slur! We had a session of classes finish at the office, a short seminar, and the beginning of a new session all in the midst of being sick and re-occurrence of my back issues but all in the world is calm once more. 

Today I will share with you, not an actual food eating thing but I decided to go with a little different vibe for the ladies that check out my blog. Today I bring to you, *drum roll* beauty products using only things you can find in your kitchen! 

I know it sounds lame but these things work wonders for your skin and whats even better? They are cheap! 

Ok so here we go:

First up is my personal favorite. Avocado and honey face mask! Now, sounds sticky and gross but your skin will feel amazing afterwards. You take an avocado and mash it up and add about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of honey to it and spread it all over your face, leave it for 15 minutes then rinse it off and feel the wonderful softness it leaves behind! ALSO! If you want you can just rub honey on your face, a little bit stickier but it works wonders as well. 

Next on my list is baking soda micro scrub. All you need it baking soda and water. Wet your face to where it is dripping then rub a little baking soda onto your skin and it will clean out all those yucky blackheads that always show up. It does wonders for your pores. It will sting a bit but it really works! After about 5 minutes rinse it off and dry your face. 

Last on my list is a really important one. Store bought astringents to close your pores have so many chemicals that can burn your skin and eyes. One really simple one you can use is lemon juice and water! Mix about a tablespoon of lemon juice to a tablespoon of water and rub on your face with a cotton ball. It will leave your face feeling fresh. 

That is all I have for you guys today but stay tuned! I have a really yummy banana chocolate cupcake recipe as well as my once a week challenge blog in the making already!

Happy Eating! 

Amy

Zesty Chiken

Alright there is ,yet again, a story behind this recipe. 

I had late class one night and my sweet brother offered to cook dinner for my sister and I and just send it home with us in containers. Well what he made was awesome! So I wanted to try to recreate it! What this is...is not what he made...it was my attempt at it. Oh but did it turn out awesome! 

So, this is an Amy Murrell original recipe! Discovered when attempting to match another recipe from memory. (grin) 

Here we go! 

There are your ingredients! A1 Steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, Tarragon  Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary  and Chicken! Not too hard right? Right! 

I cut the chicken up in cube/spears (Just cut them in cubes, they only turned into spears because I cut weird!) then combined all the sauces together in a bowl and let the chicken marinate in the sauce for about 15-20 minutes. 

When the 20 minutes passed by, I added the herbs into the bowl and mixed it around with my hands (ewwww). After washing my hands thoroughly, in a frying pan I some oil in the pan and heated it up. When it was as hot as I wanted I added the entire bowl of chicken, sauce and all. I covered it and let it go for about 10 minutes before turning the meat. I let it go for about 15 more minutes then removed the covering and let it simmer for about 5 more minutes. By this time...the house smelled amazing! 

Once it was done, we ate it with rice and, man oh man, was it delicious. Sara gave it a 5 star again! Win! 

As promised the recipe:

2-3 Large Chicken breasts

4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

4 Tablespoons A1 steak sauce

3 Tablespoons Oyster sauce

1 teaspoon Tarragon

1 teaspoon Marjoram

1 teaspoon Thyme

1 teaspoon Rosemary

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Cut up chicken and set aside. In large mixing bowl add all sauces and mix well. Once mixed, add chicken to bowl and mix till chicken is coated and let stand for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add herbs and mix well. In frying pan, heat olive oil. Add meat and cover for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes flip meat and allow to cook for 15 more minutes then uncover. Let simmer for 5 more minutes then remove from heat. Enjoy!

Happy Eating!

Amy

Crinkles Crinkles Crinkles!

Hello! I am back from the dead! Well I obviously wasn't really dead, just disappeared from the blog world for a little bit. Real life was a little bit overwhelming to manage both!
But I am back with quite a blog too! 
Before I get into the actual blog though, I will give a little update on my way of doing things on here. It was suggested to me by my wonderful sister that I should go ahead and include my recipes in my blogs so, drum roll please, from this moment forth, my recipes will be at the end of every blog! Ok, now to begin. 
It all started like this...A dear friend of mine had a problem...a very big problem...A crinkle problem! What that means is she was pretty much obsessed with the idea of eating crinkles. It got to the point where every time I said goodbye to her I would say, "Bye!" and she would reply, "Crinkles!" We were talking one day and I mentioned how I have a cooking blog and wanted to try something with baking that I have never done. You should have seen the look on her face when she heard those words come out of my mouth! Her face lit up and she ran up to me repeating over and over again, "Crinkles!". So thanks to this wonderfully obsessed chikka, Today I am blogging about my Crinkles Experience.  
Now crinkles are pretty simple to make, they just take a while to make. They only have a few ingredients but the thing that takes the time is they must chill for at least  hours before you bake them.  This is because if you want the "crinkle effect", which is that cracked look that they have, they must be cold when you put them in the oven.

I decided to try the FIRST time when I didn't have exactly what I needed...notice the word first...this thing took 2 tries! I mixed in all the ingredients but realized before that I had no baking chocolate. So, what did this brilliant chef in training do? I used a substitute! I substituted the chocolate with unsweetened cocoa and oil. Mistake...It does not do the trick. I mixed everything together and let it chill over night and the next day tried to bake it. I told my sister, "I am just going to make 1 batch and then try it and see if it is actually good then if it is, then I will make the rest." Long story short...I only made 1 batch. They tasted like dirt...or what I imagine dirt tasting like. So what did I do? The next day I went to the store and got the chocolate I needed, tried again and got it perfectly right! 

I was so excited because I remember how hard it was to make them during Christmas helping mom in the kitchen. I was plesantly surprised when I made them and it was super simple! I mixed everything together, let it chill, rolled them into balls, rolled the balls in powdered sugar, put them on the cookie sheet then BAM!

Perfect crinkles! :) They looked beautiful! I definitely suggest trying these! I got the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (Here is a link to their super amazing online recipe section!). The recipe goes as follows:

4  Eggs
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (the white kind :D)
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
Powdered sugar

directions

1.In a large bowl, combine eggs, granulated sugar, melted chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Gradually beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours or until dough is easy to handle.

2.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet; set aside. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl. Shape one portion of dough into 1/2-inch balls. Shape the remaining portion of dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar to coat generously. Place balls 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.

3.Bake small cookies in the preheated oven about 8 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry. Bake large cookies about 10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry. Do not overbake cookies. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. (Cookies will deflate slightly upon cooling.) Makes about about 72 small and 36 large cookies.

Happy eating! 
Amy

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Nail art on a food blog?

As most of you already know I am a fan of nail art! I have a sister that does amazing nail art herself! In fact I had a post specifically about that recently. Well Once again I am stepping outside of my usual posts and posting about digits again but this time it is a give away by a very talented nail blogger!
GnarlyGnails is having a give away because so many people follow her! Woohoo! Go check her blog and website out! Her giveaway like is also here! So go check it out!

Bloglovin!

Woohoo! I have bloglovin! :D I have to claim my blog somehow. I have so many blogs to post just no time to sit down and write them down right now. Stay tuned for a flood once again! Keep cooking!
Happy eating! 
Amy

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4893543/?claim=agmbuzw95vk">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> 

Let's take a break for a moment!

Hello everyone! So I know that this is a food blog but guess who else has a blog??? My fabulous sister Rachael! She does amazing nail art! Super elegant and beautiful nail art! Her blog is called "The Nailinator"! Clever! You should check it out here!
Well this week she joined a nail art challenge on Facebook :) Everyone needs to see this manicure! It has a super elegant Navajoe/tribal vibe. Take a look right here. If you just so happen to like the nails, like the picture too! It is a challenge after all :D!
Go vote! :)

I took a break this week from cooking so far because we have been so busy! Please bear with me. I promise I will cook and post this week sometime!
Happy Eating!
Amy

1st Weekly Challenge :D

After arriving home from the office Sara and I were trying to figure out what to do for dinner and neither of us wanted to go out to get any groceries so I came up with a new weekly challenge for me!
Here is how it goes...you make dinner...with what ever you have in the house! Unoriginal? Yes I know. Cheesy? Just a bit but oh boy was it fun!
I am proud to say that this brand new challenge for tonight earned me a 4.5 star and Sara's only complaint was that the potatoes could have been a bit softer. In my defense...I knew they would be but I was so hungry!
Anywho, as usual, I shall explain. My ingredients were beef broth, tenderloin (pork, of course :D), carrots, potatoes, soy sauce, oyster sauce, corn starch, garlic annnnd flour. All very common things in my house!
When I started, I looked in the cabinet and I saw mixed veggies and thought...I could do something with that...then I realized, nah! I decided to not go with a CAN of veggies when I saw I had a fresh carrot and potatoes! That is like sacrilegious to use a can of vegetables when you have fresh ones! (juuuust playing) After I decided I was going to use the fresh vegetables instead I saw frozen chicken and frozen tenderloin. I could have used either of them...The deciding factor? The tenderloin was not as solidly frozen! Ha!

Here is how it goes together. Cut up all the veggies and meat and set all of it aside and make the sauce first. In a small bowl add beef broth, soy sauce, and oyster sauce then mix it up. Set that aside and in a bigger bowl, add some beef broth, the meat, corn starch and flour and mix it up. A lot like you do for the sweet and sour pork. This batter is a lot thicker though. Once that is mixed up, fry it in oil.

Once it is all fried, set it aside and add a small bit oil in the bottom of a pan, add veggies and garlic. Stir around for a bit then add the sauce mix, cover then let steam for a bit. Stir now and then so it doesn't burn but leave covered for as long as you can so the potatoes get soft.

After about 20 minutes, add the meat and let simmer for about 10 minutes, thicken the sauce with corn starch! And there you have it! A 4.5 star recipe that tool less than an hour to come up with! I was so hungry that I almost forgot to take a picture of the final product! Thankfully there was some left over (:D)

I really enjoyed the "challenge" aspect of this meal. I used no recipe and had no planning ahead involved. On the spot creations! Yay! I encourage you all to get in the kitchen and try this challenge now and then!
Happy Eating!
Amy

Pork with Broccoli

I decided tonight to try something I have never tried all the way from scratch. It is a play on "Beef with Broccoli" but since beef is so expensive over here, I used pork. I tried this before using a seasoning packet from the grocery but this time, I was determined to get it all on my own. (With the exception of Sara helping me cut the meat because we were short on time! She is wonderful!)
I had to wait for Sara to get back from a grocery run before really getting into everything with the cooking for this one so I started out with cutting up the garlic and making the sauce for this stuff. Like the last recipe I used a recipe for inspiration but ended up diverting away from it almost completely by the end of it. The sauce had oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and chicken broth in it. Super easy to mix. No catches. By the time I was done with this Sara was back with the meat, broccoli annnnnd...the onion...
Me and onions...we have a history. All I have ever done to an onion is cook it and love what it does to my food. With all of this love I have given it, you know what it does to repay me? Every time? Regardless of the circumstances? Makes me cry like a little girl! I have tried everything from chewing gum, cutting it under running water (big mistake by the way) to even trying the wearing goggles! It always gets me!
This time it waited till I was sauteing it to attack!

I decided not to put a picture of me crying on here for fear of scaring you guys away (just kidding :D). I sauteed the onions and garlic in olive oil (or sesame oil) then set it all aside. The next step was the meat. You brown the meat and sprinkle however much salt and ginger you desire to have on it, on to the meat while it is browning. Then about half way through you put about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce in it and brown the rest of the way.

Once that is done you add the onions, garlic, broccoli and the sauce then you cover it and let the heat steam the veggies into the wonderful tenderness we all know and love in beef with broccoli. Once that is done you add a little corn starch to thicken the sauce then it is yours to consume.

I had quite the group of critics tonight. One of the critics was this little cutie! My niece Lily <3

After dinner was done, all the consumers (how official sounding) gave it a 5 star! I think I am on a roll here y'all! 3 for 3!
Let me know if you want my recipe!
Happy eating!
Amy

Pork Stew!

After a long day at the office cleaning and organizing yesterday, Sara and I were trying to decide what to do for dinner and I said, "Hey! I can make something to blog about!" So I did! I took 2 "stew" recipes and did what I do best :P. I Frankenstiened them!
I got this new wonderful app on my iPod called "What's for Dinner?". Basically it takes all the well known apps and combines them! You can search for a single ingredient and it pops up all sorts of 4-5 star rated recipes! You can also do meal planning if that is what you are wanting but it is an all around cool app. If you are interested you can find it here in the app store.
Anyway, the recipes I took it from pretty much were used as...inspiration. (Ha!) It took a lot more ingredients than I was really expecting but it was totally worth it.

I used the basic staples of stew (Broth, Potatoes, Carrots, Onion and some meat). I started it all out with cutting up the veggies.

It took a long time to get that all done which was really not what I was hoping for. You might notice I did not peel my potatoes. I never do! You cheat yourself out of so many good vitamins just from the skins. I just wash them and cut them. They are fantastic!
The next thing I did was I cut up the meat in cubes. I used tenderloin again because it is my favorite cut of pork. It is good for if you want an easy cut of meat you don't have to tenderize. I put it in my pan with some bay leaves and a bit of oil to make sure the meat didn't burn and browned the meat. Once it was browned I added my sauce. My sauce was just pork broth and Worcestershire sauce. Once that was mixed in I added the needed sugar, paprika, salt, pepper and ground cloves (believe it or not).

By this time...the house smelled...intense! I was already hungry so it made cooking hard. The recipe I was using said to take out the bay leaves but I decided to wait till after I was done to do that. Then it was time to add the veggies. After I got those in there it looked so pretty!

Then I just covered it and walked away...not entirely though. Had to come back and stir every now and them but it was suppose to come to "an intense boil" while it was cooking. It took about 30 minutes for the veggies to get tender and after they did I added the corn starch to thicken it to "Stewy thickness".

After that I let it go for about 10 more minutes then Sara and I feasted on this wonderful recipe of stew! She took a little taste of the soup and said, "If it tastes anything like the soup, you have another 5 star here." She then took a bite then held up 5 fingers nodding her head. This is a keeper recipe!

We had it with rice and, oh my my was it good. Like i said in the last blog, I am not shy to share my recipes so if you want it just ask!
Happy Eating!
Amy

Sweet and Sour Pork :)

Alright here we go! So last week I made my sister Rachael's favorite thing I make! Sweet and Sour Pork. This is originally a recipe from an old school Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from my mom but we have tweaked it to perfection.
Now here is how it happened for me this time.
After getting home from the office I was trying to decide what to make and so I got my "Dinner Spinner" app out and started looking. I looked for a good half hour and then just decided to go with something I knew!
I went to the grocery store and got what I needed.
When I got home I got right to work of cutting up my veggies. In my family, we like to "flower" our carrots.

Basically you cut 4 small groves in the carrot all around before chopping. After I got done with that I just set all the veggies aside and started on the meat. I am not a huge fan of cutting meat BUT, I got it done. I cut the pork tenderloin into cubes and set that aside. I then prepared the batter (Flour, cornstarch, and beef broth), the pans (Frying pan and larger pan for deep frying) and got all the other sauces (Soy sauce, vinegar, beef broth, and sugar) ready.

If you noticed, I really like having everything before hand. Makes things simple when you are starting to actually cook. Another thing I am not fond of is measuring stuff. I like to just estimate. I have cooked enough to know what a teaspoon of this and that look like :). I have not failed yet!
I started my oil for deep frying the meat and then began the dirty work! When you are cooking you have to be willing to get your hands dirty right? Well In this case you use your hands. (Wash them first please. We do not need any extra minerals :P)

Using my hands I mixed the batter onto the meat and then once the oil was ready I just put as much meat that could decently fit into the pan in the oil.

While this was going on, after getting the batter off my hands, in a frying pan, I put the oil, carrots, bell peppers and the garlic. I turned the fire on and start the cooking of the veggies. This smelled amazing by the way! I do not know about you but I love the smell of cooking bell peppers and of cooking garlic! Once they were tender I added the sauce into the pan.

Once I added the sauce I knew I was in business! It started to smell right! After it started simmering I added the meat and then I added the corn starch. It did not only smell amazing but it looked so great! I have done this recipe many times but it is still amazing when you get it right.

As we ate this wonderfully beautiful dish the "mmmm"'s and "yum"'s I was getting from the girls made me so happy!
I asked the girls to rate it for me 1 star being awful and 5 stars being amazing and without hesitation Sara said 5 and Rachael gave me a 20 out of 5 stars! :D How about that?!? I say this was a win!
This is a must try!
If you would like to try it tell me, I will give you the recipe and you can tell me how it turned out for you!
Happy eating!!!
Amy

Back from outer space!

Howdy howdy from my humble kitchen in Cebu! It has been far too long since I have been on here and blogged about anything, food or otherwise! A lot of stuff has been going on but thanks be to God all is well and I can get back to the cooking that I love! 

When I started this I was going through a couple of cookbooks but now that I am super blessed and have an iPod I have access to so so soooo many cooking apps. I really enjoy being able to view blogs and apps that have a reviews section! So what I will be doing is I will just pic a recipe from any form of cookbook and make it so (grin). I am notorious though for throwing my own twist into all the recipes I do. Just how I roll! 

Please feel free to comment or, if you feel so inclined, try them out yourself and tell me what you think. 

Happy cooking!