Lifechanging Oven Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

Since I missed out on posting anything in the last few months and wasn't able to give you my warmest greetings for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, well it goes without saying that I am in time (okay a couple of few weeks early) for Valentine's Day! LOL

Now that the Princess is in Kindergarten, life has just been busier.  (And she is just in Kinder! LOL) 

I've mentioned to you in my last post about being a parent classroom volunteer in her school once a week AND I am happy to share with you that I am now doing part time work (I am on call) for the school district! So yep, I guess life just got busier!  And I will tell you more about this in another post (abangan ang susunod na kabanata!)

I haven't been able to try out new recipes as much as I want to but this recipe that I tried a few days ago deserves to be shared.  I tried this recipe out of necessity actually, haha.

My sister in law brought home pints of cherry tomatoes and I don't know what to do with them.  And since they are organic, I had to act fast!  But being the procrastinator that I am (I am putting this AGAIN in my New Year's Resolution!  HAHA), I did wait for a few days and in the process had to throw "let go" (haha) of some of them.

What is the best way (read: fast and easy) to deal with all of these tomatoes?!  ROAST THEM!

And since I love sundried tomatoes, roasting them makes more sense.

There are so many recipes online but I chose to do Rachael Ray's version because it has Balsamic Vinegar in it.  I love balsamic vinegar!  Besides, it's about time to open that bottle of balsamic vinegar which has just been sitting in the pantry, haha!

This recipe is simple, quick, easy to follow, healthy and tastyyyy!!!

LIFE CHANGING.

For the complete recipe, please click on this link

*The original recipe doesn't include garlic but hey, in my book, GARLIC (like butter!) just makes everything better!

*Adjust salt to suit your taste.   

All you need is right here in the picture: Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Garlic, Kosher salt and pepper!

Roast them at 425C for 20 minutes or more (if you like them a bit more dried up)

You can enjoy oven roasted tomatoes in different ways!  You can enjoy them as they are, put them in your salad, Bruschetta (with your favorite cheese) or put them in your bowl of pasta (which I did).

Pesto and Oven Roasted Tomatoes are a match made in heaven!

Happy Roasting and Happy Eating!

Of Waffles and Red Velvet Cupcakes

I can't believe I wasn't able to post anything last December!  I thought it's a month where I can blog a lot of things, but well, it didn't happen. . . again! 

So for 2015, I am starting my blog post with some love by sharing (because "Sharing is Caring") with you a couple of  my kitchen-tested recipes.  They are not my recipes.  I don't (and I can't, haha!) come up with original ones, I just follow them and do a little bit of tweaking if needed, haha!

Last Christmas, a family member gifted me a waffle maker!  I've been wanting to buy one but never got around to get one so I am soooo happy when I opened my gift!  Woohoo!

So I googled for a waffle recipe (yes, I prefer making pancakes and waffles from scratch!) and found "THE ONE"!  Truth be told, this is the first waffle recipe I've tried but it is a keeper so I'm going to stop looking and trying.  (Just like the "BEST EVER" Banana Bread recipe I posted earlier.  By the way, I gifted some family and friends with the Banan Bread and I'm happy to say, they ALL loved it!  Yayyy!)

The waffle recipe I tried was by Ree Drummond (the Pioneer Woman) because I am a fan!  I like her food because they are easy to make and I see myself eating them  . . . meaning I don't find them too fancy, haha!  Her food is all about home cooking love and family.

This recipe is easy to make but requires some eggs (4 eggs where you will only use 2 yolks so that means you have 2 unused yolks after doing this recipe) and a little bit of extra effort (you got to beat the egg whites until they get stiff).  But don't worry, everything is manageable!

At the end you will be rewarded with a good and tasty waffle!!!!  Oh and some scrambled or an omelette on the side. . . from the unused yolks, haha!

My Princess loved this waffle so much that a) she prefers waffles over pancakes now and b) she has been eating waffles for three days straight, haha!

For the complete recipe, please click on this link which will lead you directly to the Pioneer Woman's blog because she does a good job of explaining the recipe (complete with photos!).

For the second recipe, I finally found one for Red Velvet cupcakes which was easy to do and which gave me cupcakes that were moist and spongy!  *Insert Dance of Joy here*  

If there's one thing I learned from reading and trying baking recipes, the use of yogurt (I use Greek vanilla yogurt) in your batter does make a difference!  They do make the cake moist!

I'm not really fond of frosting in cupcakes but I can't imagine Red Velvet cupcakes without the cream cheese frosting, haha!  Making this frosting is a first for me and I'm glad it turned out pretty well too.

For the complete recipe of this Red Velvet Cupcake (By Averie Cooks), please click on this link.

For the cream cheese frosting, I followed this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction.  Sally's blog is blog is down at this moment so I would just listing down what I did

1/4 cup of butter - softened to room temp

4 oz of Cream Cheese - softened to room temp

1 cup of Confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tbsp of milk

Cream the butter and cream cheese together and mix it well.  Then add a cup of Confectioner's sugar and whisk or beat it with an electric mixer and add the vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of milk and beat it on high for at least 2 mins.

If you don't have a piping bag for the frosting (like me! haha), just put your frosting inside a ziploc bag and cut one of it' bottom corner and start frosting! =)

Hope you would like these recipes too!

Happy Baking!!!