Kitchen Experiments

Now, I am no culinary expert. The closest thing I have to culinary expertise is having a boyfriend who graduated with a Culinary Arts degree. 😉 Just the same, I like to think I am not totally helpless either since I can whip up a couple dishes and feed the family if need be. My tuna spaghetti was decent enough for said finicky boyfriend to eat a whole serving without complaining (I don’t want to think he didn’t complain just because he loves me too much to hurt my fragile ego 😛 ).

Anywho, baking has always been one of my biggest frustrations. Having no functioning oven is a big hindrance. Tsk. Oh well. Since the stuff I wanna bake are mostly of the sweet variety (dessert and pastries) I content myself for now with making no-bake goodies. Most recipes call for a lot of mixing and since I have no blender, food processor or electric mixer, I do all the mixing manually. Good workout for the arms, I tell you. 😉 But the other week, a cousin gave me an electric hand blender, bless her good heart!

So naturally, I was so totally itching to try it. I had the opportunity when we made leche flan last week for the fiesta. I was able to use it and it totally made the mixing easier. The resulting custard turned out smooth and we couldn’t be happier! 😀

Feeling kinda adventurous restless last night, I decided to forage into the pantry and see what I could literally whip up with my mixer. I ended up doing torta which turned out as omelettes. 😀 It’s funny really, since I have attempted to make omelettes before, but it wouldn’t hold its shape so I was left with something in between scrambled eggs and torta. Frustrating. Last night, I was resigned to making sausage torta. But when I tried to flip it, it just folded in half and held its shape. I was in wonder–so much that I nearly let it burn as I just stood there gaping. 😛

As you can see, my ahem, omelettes look nowhere near perfect though I must say the eggs were beaten well into submission. I added some of the barbecue sauce from the sausage and I guess I should have put in a bit more since it gave the omelette a rather interesting flavor. Maybe next time. It was actually yummy and Francine nearly finished one by herself. Based on that alone, I consider the whole thing a resounding success! 😀

However, the night was still young and I was still hyper as ever. I made barako coffee ice cubes in the afternoon for the sole purpose of using it to make a coffee-based shake or slushee or something last night. Much as I wanted to follow the myriad recipes I saved to my Pocket app, I was severely limited by whatever ingredients I could find on hand. So several spoonfuls of condensed milk, an ice cream stick (sans the stick of course), some leftover chocolate chips and a bit of water later, I had myself a cup of mocha chocolate chip frappé.

Once more, my dear daughter liked it thank God! So much that she kept the cup to herself after letting me take a coupla sips. She even asked for more after she finished, but alas, there’s no more ice cream!

I mentioned that I made barako coffee ice cubes. I kept the used grounds and added honey to make an all-natural scrub. I used some of it this morning on my face. The grounds were quite gritty and a bit coarse so I had to take care to scrub very, very gently. Still, I liked the way my skin felt after. The honey acted as moisturizer too so my face didn’t feel dry even after scrubbing. Not bad, though I would probably use it a maximum of just twice a week since it was a little too good at exfoliation. 😉

How about you, what are your latest kitchen adventures? 🙂