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I Turned My Kitchen into a Laboratory this New Year!

Happy New Year to all! Last Christmas Eve, I turned my kitchen into a dance floor. This time, the New Year's Eve preparation has turned my kitchen into an experimental laboratory.

If you have read "MY PROFILE", it says there that I'm fond of making experiments especially in my kitchen. What are examples of these experiments? Well, certainly not the ones using test tubes and flasks. The usual experiments I make are on veggies and salads. I would either follow or modify the ingredients by adding or subtracting based on what's available in my refrigerator or cupboard.

For this new year, here's how I ventured into some recipe tests...

Experiment #1: Potato turned Pesto Potato Salad
My husband requested potato salad for Christmas Eve but I reserved this menu for the New Year. Inspired by Betty Crocker's Pesto Potato Salad, I made some modifications in the usual Del Monte Kitchenomics Fiesta Potato Salad recipe I used to do with the following ingredients:


1/2 kg (500 g)
potatoes, cubed
1/4 kg (250 g)
Baguio beans, each cut into 6
3/4 cup (118.5 g)
green peas, froozed/cooked
1 pc (50 g)
red bell peppers, cut into strips
1 pc (50 g)
green bell peppers, cut into strips
1 can (439 g)
DEL MONTE Pineapple Chunks, drained (reserve syrup)
2/3 cup (185 g)
mayonnaise
1 tbsp (16.2 g)
calamansi juice
1 tbsp (15 g)
pineapple syrup
1 pc (30 g)
small red onion
1 tbsp (2.9 g)
parsley, optional
1 tsp (7 g)
iodized fine salt or iodized rock salt
I made it simpler this time:
  • lesser ingredients  (I didn't include the Baguio beans, green bell pepper, calamansi juice and pineapple syrup)
  • Made replacements: Del Monte Pineapple Tidbits (because I prefer smaller cuts) instead of Chunks,  sandwich spread (to get more of the pickle flavor) instead of mayonnaise, and
  • Added sweet pickle relish (left-over from the chicken-ham macaroni salad dish) and a few tablespoons of the Cheesy Pesto Pasta Sauce to give it a new flavor which I still haven't tried in any of my potato salads before.

Experiment #2: Veggie salad

I wanted to make a combination of these two Betty Crocker salad recipes...

but since I only had romaine, tomatoes, grilled chicken, shrimps, Parmesan cheese, walnuts and Thousand Island, French and Ranch dressing I had to make do with what I had on hand. I decided to use the Thousand Island and French with Garlic dressing. And this is what came out from what I did...



 
Experiment #3: Buttermilk substitute
Very early this morning, I baked bread for the Lord's Table celebration in our church. After that, I also baked banana bread (using Marly's recipe, the one I featured in my previous post) which I plan to bring for my colleagues tomorrow. As I prepared the ingredients for the banana bread, I realized there's no more milk! Oh my! :((  I suddenly felt the surge of adrenaline but as I didn't have much time to go out to buy one, I tried to calm myself down to see if there's anything I could use just to get on with my banana bread. Good thing I had powdered milk. I had no time to go over my electronic files to find the exact measurements for buttermilk substitute so I played it from memory. I made a glass of milk using the powdered milk and added 1 tablespoon (yes, I was quite sure it's 1 tbsp.) of vinegar and presto! I had buttermilk! Going over my files just now gave me this recipe for buttermilk substitute
Ingredients:
  • Milk (just under one cup)
  • 1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice
Preparation:
1. Place a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup.
2. Add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line.
3. Let stand for five minute. Then, use as much as your recipe calls for.

What a very nice feeling I have at the thought that my memory still served me right with this buttermilk recipe recall. What I failed to do though was to wait for five minutes to let the milk-vinegar mixture stand before adding it to the banana bread batter.

In my previous post, I mentioned about having my next banana experiment smelling and spelling S-U-C-C-E-S-S. Well, that remains to be seen… I mean, I'll see if my colleagues will like it tomorrow. See this?

    Till my next post! Have a blessed and abundant life this new year! :))

Comments

  1. You are great! I am truly impressed with your resourcefulness Eve. And you did it just right! Your banana bread looks very good: sweet smelling and moist. Wish I were there to taste it!
    Good job!...very good job! Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, this is better than my last try. More moist. Thank you for the recipe! I'm forever indebted! It doesn't seem to show that I already cut the other end of the loaf? Of course, I tasted it first before publishing this post. :) But my colleagues haven't tasted it yet as I planned. I got sick the following day so I've been on a two-day leave. Sooo, it still remains to be seen really! Thank you for your comment, Maam!

    ReplyDelete

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