#RibEyeSteak #MashedPotatoes & #MeatTenderizer

Have you ever bought beef in large quantity?  We have a friend who owns a farm and they raised cows.  They always  offer us  to buy  beef whenever they will have to butcher  one.  I tell you, it is the cheapest way to buy and stock beef in the freezer for future use.  We use a lot of  ground beef for cooking so a lot of cut we order is  ground beef.  We only buy a quarter of the  whole cow and  it last us  a good amount of time to consume it all.  

 Anyway, the other day, I made some  rib eye steak and mashed potatoes.  The rib eye steak is a lot thicker than I would like so I used the  meat tenderizer that I got from Cave Tools.  This blade  tenderizer is a great little tool to have in your kitchen.  

Not my Photo

With this blade tenderizer, the meat cooks faster  and more evenly.  And because the blades break down connective tissue, the meat absorb marinade even deeper which makes the meat a lot tastier.  This is best to use when you are planning to make country fried steak, cordon bleu, or weiner schnitzel.  I love that it is dishwasher safe, so you can just toss it in  the dishwasher after you use it.  

 I couldn't be more happier having this because I like meat  that are tender  when cook.  Not all cut of meat  is tender when you cook it so a little help to achieve that is great.

For $12.99, this  meat tenderizer is quite helpful.  You can  use this coupon code,  TENDER15 to enjoy a 15% your purchase via Amazon .  When you buy this, ypu can also download the  free  recipe book that comes  with it.  

 Some people or maybe most people like their steak  rare but I  am  the other way.  I can't eat meat when I see  pink inside it so I like mine well done.  Most  professional chef would consider my choice  as sacrilegious in their   culinary profession but we all  have  our own preferences, right?    How about you, how do you like your steak??

 Mashed potato is the best pair for this kind of  meat so here you go.  I would prefer some greens but hubby love  mashed potatoes so that is what I made.

Don't forget to use the coupon code if you decide to purchase one.  Trust me, it's a must have in  every kitchen especially if you love meat!

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the complimentary product/s mentioned  for testing purposes and to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

New Year Celebration at Home #Macaroni SaladRecipe

Happy New Year everyone!  Howe did you celebrate your new year.  Did  you go to  New York City and watch the countdown till the ball drop?  This year was bitter cold so we decided to stay at home and be cozy.  

I usually  clean the house on the  31st of December so that  it would be clean and organized  at the start of the new year.  Last year was no different, I started early in the day and did not get done until around 2 pm.  I even forgot to set the alarm clock for the  morning mass so we attended  in the afternoon.  Anyway, after I cleaned, I cooked some food that we could eat  while waiting for  the new year.   Again, these are some Filipino dishes favorites.  Macaroni salad, fruit salad, and arroz caldo.  

Macaroni Salad Recipe:

• 2 cups macaroni
• 2 chicken breasts, shredded
• 2 stalks of celery, cut up into small pieces 
• 1 medium carrot, cut up into small cubes
• 1/2 cup of raisin
• 1 cup of miracle whip
• 1 cup of avocado mayo
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Boil the macaroni according to direction on the package.  Drain and let it cool.
• On a separate pot, boil some water and  drop in a chicken cube.  When the chicken cube is dissolved, add the  chicken breasts until it's cooked.  Shred it and set aside.
• Blanch the carrots in hot water for about 30 second.
• Combine all the ingredients in a big bow and chill  in the refrigerator for an hour.  

This fruit salad is so yummy.  It is a bit different from what I used  to make in the Philippines because I use fresh ingredients there and the major  ingredient there is young coconut.  Over here, I prefer to use the canned fruits because it is cheaper that way, it has everything you need.  You can also use fresh fruits for this  though.  Fruit salad is  one of  my daughter and husband's favorite dessert.  Check out the recipe here.

  One of the traditions we do have in Filipino Culture is to have a bowl of  fresh fruits in the  table at the start of the new year.  Each  fruit represents something but I can only remember some of them.  My mom used to tell us that the  cluster represents family togetherness, the pineapple's eyes represents our awareness to watch out our health, and the rest  is for  abundance of blessings.

 You can check out the recipe of arroz caldo here.  You can always  modify the ingredients, sometimes I make it differently like this one.

 How about you guys?  Share some  thoughts or recipe through the comment.  Happy New Year!

Stress-Free Meals at Christmas #MetalMeatRakes

One of the many things that I miss celebrating  Christmas from my home country is the presence of my family.  We always come together and cook food that we all love to eat.  We  sing karaoke and catch up, I miss that so bad.  We used to do it too here when my father-in-law was still  around but now that he's gone, we  kind of drifted off and have our own.

I don't cook much because it is only the four of us so there's no sense of cooking so many food that we won't be able to consume.  In a way, it is a stress-free   way of celebration because I only have to prepare some of our favorite Filipino food.

This Christmas, this pair of metal meat rakes from Cavetools is a great tool in preparing our Christmas  breakfast and dinner.

I made my version of shepherd pie for brunch and shredding the beef was a lot easier with these pulled pork shredder rakes.

This is a heavy duty version of the meat handling claws that I also got from them a while back .  My favorite part of that  one  is the  handle, it's a lot easier to shred meat  than this  rakes.  However, this can handle really heavy meat so it has it's advantages as well.

This shepherd pie was so  good.  It was so cheesy that my son asked for another serving after he ate his first.

I made some  lumpia or eggrolls.  This is always a hit with the kids and hubby.  These are so good to dip in a sweet and spicy sauce or  you can make a sauce that you would like.

On Christmas  morn, I woke up at 3  o'clock and could not go back to sleep.  So after an hour of tossing and turning, I got up and  cook.

For dessert, I made  some sweet rice.  Almost all of the food I made  was Filipino dishes.  My family doesn't mind.  We eat more Filipino food than American food here at home.  Hubby got so accustomed with the Asian food when he was overseas  so it was never a  challenge  for me to  make dishes.

Some freshly baked  dinner rolls to go with the  rice noodles.

If you want to purchase a pair of this awesome meat rakes,  here's a coupon code to use for a 15% off  via Amazon, just enter MEATCLAW15 upon checkout.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the complimentary product/s mentioned  for testing purposes and to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Sugary Treats During Falloween at St. Joe's

There were tons of  sweet treats during the Falloween celebration at St. Joseph School on October 31st.   Everyone had a blast especially the little ones.  They wore their  favorite costumes and  got lots of treats from the  tables that were set up by the parents.  If the candies were not enough, the  cookies and donuts  completed the sugar rush that everybody, young and adults, want.  Well, here are the selection of sweet  treats from the event.  Enjoy!

 

I hope that we will have this  again next school year.  This was another  event that the new school administration have implemented.  I think it is great to have this kind because  parents, grandparents, and friends come to school and  watch the students interact with everybody. 

Question:  If you were to pick  a sugary treat, which one would you choose among the choices  above?  Would you go for donuts or cookies?

Breakfast at Denny's in #LasVegas

Our Vegas trip was fun.  Our hotel accommodation did not include a complimentary breakfast so we tried to find a place that we can all eat and not break the  bank and we found that Denny's  was the most fitting for what we like and it is within our budget.  

We ate at  IHOP one time also but we did not like their food and their price is more expensive than Denny's.  When we went to IHOP, I did not eat because I ate something from the hotel so I was surprised to see that the bill was  the same as what we pay at Denny's with  the four of us eating.  So we never came back to IHOP lol. 

I like  Denny's because their  employees were very friendly.  One time,  we can tell that our server was a Mom because she was very caring towards our kids.  My son  wrote her a note and  we gave her a little extra tip because we loved her service to us. 

The portion of their food is always  big and we couldn't ate it all so we would always put the left over in a box and feed the birds outside or  at the garage of the hotel where birds are hanging out. 

We love the food at Denny's, everything we tried there were delicious.

While my husband is a  potato, egg, and sausage kind of  breakfast lover, I always go for their salad.  I love the fact that they have  healthy options if you want to avoid the sugar.

My kids love their pancakes and eggs.  The reason why we tried eating at IHOP is because they are known to have  the best pancakes but it was disappointment because the  pancakes that my daughter received was under cooked in the middle.  It was burned on the outside but  wasn't fully cook inside. 

Whenever we go out and eat, the  first thing  that we looked into is their food but the service being rendered by servers are equally important too.  It impacts my decision whether or not to go back to that place.  

To the Denny's employees  at Las Vegas Boulevard, thank you very much for your  warm and great service.