Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

Hello everyone! It's been more than a week since my last post and I've been dying to share my latest works (both in the kitchen and crochet)! Well, since I can't feature both here, let me deviate from Olive and Yummy Foodie Mags for a while and share one of my re-make dishes from my favorite kitchen buddy, Del Monte Kitchenomics, which I also featured in two posts last year ( Stories from the Cupboard 1: My Kitchenmates   and Stories from the Cupboard 2: Vegetable Pastel ).  Cheesy Eggplant Layers by Del Monte Kitchenomics is a lasagna-inspired dish. Here are the ingredients: 4 medium eggplants 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup bread crumbs (which I combined with Crushed Graham) 1 pouch (250 g) Del Monte Sweet Style Spaghetti Sauce (but for my own version, I just used Del Monte Tomato Sauce) 1 cup grated cheese (I made a combination of Queso, Magnolia Quickmelt and Mozarella) 1 medium green bell pepper, diced The original recipe calls for the ...

Preparing for a Rummage Sale sponsored by our church two Saturdays ago caused our whole family to search for books, clothes, CDs, kitchenwares, etc. from the bookshelves, closet and wherever. Doing so brought to my attention a recipe book given to me as a birthday gift by my youngest daughter, Ana Cristina, a few years back. It's a Del Monte Kitchenomics Cookbook Volume III issue in celebration of their 20 years of creative cooking. Page 64 of the cookbook features Samosas , a dish my husband and I ordered when we went out for a family dinner at Banana Leaf last Christmas season. I mention this in my post entitled, New Year Greetings from my Family to Yours . My Del Monte Kitchenomics Cookbook In my excitement to try it, I immediately bookmarked the recipe and prepared the following ingredients: 8 pc large square lumpia wrappers, each piece cut lengthwise into 4 Filling: 1 pc medium onion, chopped 350 gms ground pork (but I substituted chicken) 1 pc medium...

 “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , The Little Prince Happy Saturday, everyone! Woke up this morning to accomplish my first goal, that is, to accompany my husband for his regular blood examination. On our way to and from the laboratory, while my husband was driving, I was able to crochet 3 rosebuds--- yellow, orange and blue. Wow, I missed doing that for several weeks now, after the Christmas holidays! The truth is, I still owe a few friends the crocheted give aways intended for them. The back-to-work load in the office has been piling up faster than I could catch them, so I badly need a breather at home. That's precisely the reason why I've been posting only about food for several weeks now. Now, rose garden here we go... my new batch of roses in different colors... inspired by the rose buds from Fiber Flux Luggage Blossoms which I featured in my post entitled, Rosebuds...

In my December 31 post , I mentioned that this will be a part of the repertoire of dishes I will prepare for the New Year's Eve. Honestly, I was attracted to the sight of the dish while browsing over Olive Magazine for the first time.  Leek - Mushroom - Spinach Souffle Omelette from Olive Magazine Here's the recipe... Ingredients: 2 handfuls of spinach butter olive oil 1 small, sliced leek 1 handful, chopped button mushrooms 2 eggs, separated 1 tbsp parmesan, finely grated Steps:   Put the spinach in a sieve and pour over boiling water. Cool and squeeze out moisture. Heat a little oil in a non-stick pan, add a slice of butter, the leek and mushrooms and cook until soft. Remove and set aside. Whisk the egg yolks with 1 tbsp of water in a bowl and season. Whisk the whites until they form soft peaks and fold them into the egg yolks, keeping in as much air as possible. Add more butter to the pan, then add the eggs. Cook for 1 minute...

Last December 14, Garden Chef's Needle and Pen was awarded a Liebster Blog Award by Elisabeth of Elizy Art in her post entitled, " Elizy Art: Liebster Blog ." Elizy Art features handmade crafts and arts .... from the heart. Elisabeth posts about her creations and things of crafty nature, including crochet, her passion! Elisabeth obtained her liebster blog award from Anna of Hindustanka's Sunny Indian Days. Exciting, yes, as this is the first Liebster Blog nomination Garden Chef has ever received so far since it started November last year! :) Yehey, Garden Chef is 1 year old! :)  A newbie in the blogger world, this site is just taking off, exploring bloggerdom, getting the joy of sharing ideas, crochet crafts and food experiments. Thank you, Elisabeth, for your act of love... as you said, this is bloggers' way of spreading some love.  Well, the Liebster Blog Award is not without its own rules. Here they are:   Answer the 11 questions posed by the per...

Garden Chef was featured in 26 Random Acts of Kindness - Blogger Style   by 4 You With Love last month! Sorry if this came late. I prepared this last month but the holiday activities prevented me from finishing the post :( 4 You With Love blogged about the tragedy that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary last month.  A gunman was able to take 26 lives in that one horrific act and so  she challenged herself to do 26 random acts of kindness in her December 21, 2012 post. She did this by going through the posts that have linked up at  Link Party With a Cause  and selected 26 blogs with fewer than 200 GFC followers (or Facebook if GFC was not listed).  Then, gave these bloggers the gift of following them.  So that's how Gardenchef's  Retro Neck Band came to be featured in her blog (click here to view other featured blogs).  Here's the Retro Neck Band featured in 26 Random Acts of Kindness - Blogger Style by 4 You With Love. My R...

Happy new year to all! In my blog entitled, One Yummy and Healthy Idea a Week: A Year-Ender Resolution I made mention of three foodie magazines introduced to me by my younger daughter, Ana Cristina. One of these is the Yummy Magazine featuring easy meals and simple dishes for mothers who have no time to cook.  Photo from Yummy Magazine The whole magazine features pages full of "yummy ideas" including meal planning tips and tricks! I ended my post with an assurance that I will give you an idea of the meals I will be trying in my upcoming posts.Well, that's exactly what I will be doing right now and in the coming days! So keep coming and watching out to get experiential insights on these dishes :)  Ready for now? Let me start with Yummy's Olive Oil and Spanish Sardine Pasta recipe.  Yummy Magazine October 2012 issue page 18  Ingredients: 2 tbsps olive oil 2 tbsps reserved oil from bottled sardines 1 tbsp minced garlic 1/4 cup diced tomat...

Happy New Year to one and all! How was your New Year's Eve celebration last night? Here's a healthy easy-to-prepare dish for a mom with a very hectic schedule this new year 2013. I made this last Sunday when I was so in a hurry to finish my household chores before running to attend the last Sunday Service for 2012 in our church. I just call it Fish-Veggie Mix. It can pass for a short order in a Fast Food Chain.  Ingredients: 1 tsp butter 1 tsp garlic 1 pc onion sliced 1/2 cup tuna chunks 1 tbsp oyster sauce pinch of salt and ground pepper 1 medium carrot sliced 1 cup broccoli florets 5 thin slices of zucchini 1/4 cup red and green bell pepper sliced 1 tbsp leeks Steps:  In a skillet, saute garlic and onion using butter.  Add tuna chunks. Season with oyster sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until tuna chunks are almost cooked.  Add carrots and broccoli. After one minute, add bell pepper and zucchini. Simmer for another minute.  Sprink...