Paula Deen

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

My grandmother loves watching Paula Deen on the food network. She loves to cook southern food, so she likes to cook most of Paula Deen’s recipes. She says that she watches her show at the same time everyday and tries to write down all of her recipes. However, she said that sometimes she does not write fast enough and she does not get all of the ingredients written down. I told my grandmother that she should be able to look up all the recipes online. She said that she does not have the internet and she does not even know if she can get the internet at her house. I told her that she should Get Wild Blue internet. She asked me more about it and I helped her schedule it to be set up. After she had internet at her house, I showed her how to go to Paula Deen’s website, as well as a bunch of other websites where she could find recipes. Now, every week my grandmother calls me and tells me about the new recipe she is trying and how happy she is that she has the internet.

Johnsonville - locationville

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Johnsonville Sausage. All opinions are 100% mine.

My parents used to love sausage particularly the Johnsonville bratwurst and every special event/occasion that we held in our home my parent would always prepare at least one ingredient for Johnsonville sausage. She cooks them with spaghetti and sometimes just grills them. Anyways I like the flavor when they come off the grill. They are so tasty and it melts in your mouth. I’m a real fan of any kind of sausage. I like to have sausage for my breakfast with eggs and hash browns potatoes. The first time my wife tasted the sausage was when we went over to my sister’s house for dinner and she made her favorite dish spaghetti with mild Italian Johnsonville sausage and garlic bread. My wife loved it so much that she made me drive to our local grocery store and buy a pack of Johnsonville sausages. Ever since then she’s been hooked on Johnsonville.

Johnsonville is having a contest called "Share Your Ville" Video Contest. All you have to do is share your story about Johnsonville products on how you eat it, either with your friends, family, events etc… There will be 5 winners who will share the $21,000 in CASH and Prizes from Gander Mountain, Coleman, and Hefty. Just visit their website for further details. Remember the contest runs until July 20th 2010 only, so hurry!

Perfecting my gravy recipe

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Club House. All opinions are 100% mine.

One thing i enjoy doing is cooking for my family but i'm not the perfect chef and sometimes my cooking doesn't always come out right. Usually if i make chicken or some kind of roast, i'll make mash potatoes and some gravy with it. But, my gravy is not the best so it's a good thing that i found this great gravy tips video that will help me to customize my gravy recipe. If there's one thing that my family loves with their mash potatoes and meat, it has to be gravy. Making a quality gravy from scratch can be a challenge depending on the ingredients you have or don't have. But now you can make a quality gravy for your holiday meals with no fuss or stress using the club house gravy mixes recipes. I just love this and i'm going to try this for my family because my kids and wife love gravy on their meat and chicken. Just check out the video and when your finished, don't forget the newsletter sign-up and contest entry. I think i will surprise my family with this recipe and see their reaction on their face when they taste the flavor and aroma of my gravy.

How to make lasagna in your dishwasher

I just couldnt believe this when i heard it but someone actually was able to make italian lasagna in their dishwasher. Now isnt this the strangest thing you've ever heard? No joke but someone actually was able to do it not that i would ever try it. I havnt tried to cook lasagna yet but i think i'll stick with my trusty oven.. hehehehe Here's the low down on the recipe. Bon apetit!

Set dishwasher on normal cycle and select 'heated dry' and 'sanitize' for extra heat. This cycle should take about two hours. Once the cycle is completed, let the lasagna stand for a few minutes before serving. partselect.com I wonder how much idle time the person who discovered this "cooking method" had on their hands.If (for some crazy reason) you want to try your hand at dishwasher "baking" check out their recipe for dishwasher lasagna florentine.

Hot and spicy szechuan chicken

I finally got to get back into the kitchen again and play the family cook. Tonight i made Hot and spicy szechuan chicken but i used the packaged brand of spices and just added the vegetables to the spice package and stir-fry the vegetables and mix everything together. It came out pretty good. My wife and i really liked it but my son wasn't to hip about it. But then again try to get any 2 year old to eat when you want him to I'll be very surprised. I miss the kitchen but the last few days i didn't have to cook because we went out for dinner last night and i buy my lunch for work yesterday. Oh well, its the only day every 2 weeks that i get this special treatment. I want to make some fresh pan de sal or dinner rolls but i need a mixer with a dough fork attachment. I wonder what that will cost me? Anybody have any ideas how i can make fresh bread without mixer or where i can find cheap mixer?

Filipino Adobo

You know i just love to cook. Today i tried to cook some Filipino adobo but even following the recipe to the 'T' it still came out pretty bad. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of vinegar, 2 cups of water, 2 tbls of soy sauce and 5 basil leaves. It didn't taste good at all because there was just too much vinegar. I got the recipe online but the vinegar was just too much. I had another recipe for chicken adobo that I've been using for awhile now and my wife loves it. I thought i would try a different kind but i failed miserably. Oh well. I think I'll stay with my original recipe and play it safe..

Have you tried Salmon Grillade yet?

Have you heard about Great American Seafood cook off? If not then you should check it out you might want to join their cook off competition if you got what it takes. If you have some recipes that you would want the public to taste it might as well join cook off, who knows you will be the winner. I was told to pick a recipe from the five seafood recipes available at the website. Anyways, my favorite seafood recipe for today is sockeye salmon grillade. The recipe is from Alaska and the chef who prepares this fine feast is none other than Robert Kinneen from Alaska. He's been a professional chef cooking in restaurants for 15 years .Why did i choose salmon? Because i love fresh fish and i especially love sockeye salmon. Its so healthy for you too. Another thing i like about this recipe is the sausage with red eye gravy. I'm a sausage lover and i cant get enough of it with savory gravy. A compliment to this dish is the Hoppin John prepared with black eyed peas, Worcestershire sauce, Roma tomatoes and scallion which is another one of my favorites. In the red eye gravy i would like to modify this recipe by using chipotle Tabasco sauce rather than just the regular kind. I'm definitely going to try to make this recipe for my wife and i because we both love to eat salmon and its rich in omega 3 fatty acids which are good for your health. We get our salmon fresh from a friend who works in Alaska and has it shipped by freezer truck right to her house. She usually just gives it to us still frozen. I recommend you get your fish from a major food market chain because its really guaranteed to be the freshest. I invite my friendly bloggers to come check out this recipe at www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com as well as the other recipes and vote for your favorite seafood recipe with the chance to win a trip to New Orleans prize package.

Beef Kabobs With Grilled Onion And Zucchini

I found this recipe online for beef kabobs and tried it and it was just so delicious i had to share with my blogger friends. The beef was very tastsy and moist. I modified the ingredients alittle to give it more flavor and taste. I would recommmend this recipe to anyone who enjoys beef roast. I served it to my wife with white rice but only because she's filipina and filipina's love white rice but you can serve it with just about anything you want. This is just the best beef i have ever tasted. Yummy yummy with white rice and alittle soy sause on the rice.

1 3/4 pounds beef tenderloin roast, trimmed
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon of pepper

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 (1/4 inch thick) slices red onion
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 medium zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick lengthwise

1 tablespoon of hot chili garlic sauce
Cut beef into cubes. mix together soy sauce, lime juice, salt, hot chili sauce, and cumin in a bowl and add beef, tossing to coat well. Marinate beef, covered, at room temperature 2 hours.
Prepare grill for cooking (make sure coals are nice and hot)
After beef has been marinating for 2 hours, lightly brush onion rounds with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill onion on a well-oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over hot coals, turning once with a metal spatula, until lightly browned and tender, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate and keep it warm in an oven or warmer.
Arrange zucchini on grill and grill until lightly cooked and brown and just tender, about 1 minute on each side. Transfer to platter and season with salt.
Pat beef dry with paper towels and toss with remaining oil. (Discard marinade.) Thread 4 pieces beef onto each skewer and grill, turning occasionally, until charred, about 5 minutes total for medium-rare.
Serve warm kebobs with onion rings and zucchinin slices

Filipino Pancit

Today when i went to work, i bring leftover Chinese food for my lunch. i ate chowmein noodles and it was tasty and i eat the whole dish. I was hungry boy because I'm working so hard today. I work in transportation industry in San Diego, CA for a company that provides bus service to the city so really I'm bus mechanic and i do heavy work repairs on buses and build up appetite. Anyways, I love to cook and I've been in the kitchen lately cooking for my family instead of my asawa and one thing i really like is pancit with vegetables. I cook chicken adobo last week and my asawa love it so much she save the juices so she can use it for some other dish. Funny thing is i don't know how i made it taste like that and i have hard time to replicate it. Anyways, i visit some blogs today and found one for pancit and it look so good i want to learn how to make pancit like that. Hopefully, i will be able to do it someday. till then, I'll continue to experiment with my chicken adobo.. thats all for now.....

Why not become a Professional Chef?

I'm a frustrated cook hehhehe. When i was in navy i used to be a cook and somehow no one complain yet. Well it wasn't that hard for me to cook that time because everything was preserved and ready to fry or something that is why no one complained about the taste. But that was a long time ago when i was still young and single. Now that i have my own family i tried to learn how to cook the right way and why wife suggested me about looking for a culinary schools in our area but i told her that it's so hard because i have a secular job and i worked full time. So i thought i could find some culinary school online. And so i did, i found this culinary-school-finder.com and they have chef school online which i think is cool. They offer a lot of cooking schools by City and by states as well.

Beef broccoli stir fry (Asawa's version)

Man! My wife made the bomb dinner the other night. I don't know what she did but it was so tasty i was licking the plate after i finished the hard core pieces. It was some kinda stir fry I've never seen before or tasted for that matter. I think she slaved over the stove for about an hour chopping this and that and anything she could find in the refrigerator vegetable section. Not only did i have it for dinner but i took it to work with me the following day for my lunch. It's best served on top of a bed of fresh white rice. I like alot of my foods spicy and hot so i thru in some sweet and sour sauce i got from home. Geez, these are some good tender viddles. Thanks honie for taking care of your hubby. There's one saying that i truly believe in. I don't know who made it up but I'm sure many of you asawa's out there know the saying. " The way to a man's heart is thru his stomach" God bless the person who made that one up. here's the ingredients she used to make this work of art:


Beef cut into strips
broccoli
onion
garlic
red bell peppers
potatoes cut into little cubes
tomatoes cut into little cubes
various seasonings (my wife's secret)

Fresh Fried Shanghai Lumpia Filipino style

I don't know about you but I'm a lover of fresh Filipino lumpia shanghai style. I just love the taste of lumpia that's just come out of the frying pan when its nice and crispy, pipping hot with some sweet and spicy sauce. I learned how to cook lumpia from a friend in our congregation about 6 months ago. I've mastered the technique down to a science. Me and my wife sell it sometimes to make a couple of dollars but for the most part, give it away to friends and family who really enjoy it. I've had nothing but great compliments on my lumpia since we've started making it. it's a time consuming recipe from start to finish but in the end, it's all worthwhile. it may take 2 hours to make it. everything from accruing all the ingredients to rolling it, to frying it. if your having a party with friends over it only takes a matter of minutes before they are all gone. that's what happens to me and my wife every time we have goody night at our book study every third Thursday of the month. we've bring lumpia and in just a matter of minutes they are all gone. I'm proud to share my recipe of Filipino lumpia right here for those who don't know how to make it. i hope you enjoy them as much as my family and friends do. instead of all pork, we add half of ground beef since its a Little cheaper that way but its up to you.


1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 1/2 lbs ground pork
3 cups of coarsely grated jicama
2 large carrots coarsely grated
1 cup coarsely grated onion (about 2 small onions)
1 clove of fresh garlic
2 eggs
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 pkg of lumpia wrappers (panama style brand)
1 bottle of panama sweet & sour chili sauce

Mix all ingredients together, add more salt and pepper if desired crack 1 egg and separate the egg white from the yoke. put the egg white into a small bowl which will be used to seal the wrapper after its been rolled. refer to the package for wrapping instructions. wrap the lumpia filling. deep fry in canola oil until light golden brown. serve while hot and crispy with chili sauce.
watch them disappear. yummy!!!!!!