Waldorf Salad

An American classic salad that was created by Oscar Tschirky (he was in-charge at the Waldorf hotel restaurant) at the Waldorf hotel in New York between 1893-1896. The original recipe do not have grapes but the updated versions of the recipe add some ingredients like grapes, turkey, chicken etc. The classic recipe is so easy and simple, and I love to eat this salad, it is always serve over an arranged lettuce leaves. Now let us have a taste of this classic salad by making some and here is how to do it.

Ingredients:

1 red apple (sliced)
2 stalks celery ( sliced)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons mayonaise
3-4 lettuce leaves

Procedure:

1. In a big bowl  mix all the ingredient.
2. Arrange the lettuce leaves in a serving plate.
3. Put the waldorf salad and enjoy it.

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Chicken Macaroni Salad

I always have this every last Sunday of the month during my college days, that is why it s one of my favorites and learned to cook it with my college peers during our acquaintance party, where we were assigned to make this. Since then I always make it every now and then so that I will not forget the recipe and here it is.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo elbow macaroni
1/4 kilo chicken breast ( cooked and thinly sliced)
1 tetra pack all purpose cream ( 250 ml) nestle cream or light cream
1 cup cheese (diced)
1 pack mayonaise (200 or 250 grams)
1 small onion ( minced)
1 small size carrot ( small diced)
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Cook the elbow macaroni according to its packaging procedure. (drained )
2. Mix all the ingredients.
3. Chill or put in the refrigerator before serving it.

Potato Wedges

Simple and easy European side dish, this potato wedges goes well with steaks, fried meats and some other main dishes. A British friend ( Mr. Malley) introduced this to me. It can be baked or fried.
Here is how I did it.

Ingredients:

2 medium size potato
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Cut the potatoes into wedges
2.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper
3. Heat the oil and deep fr the potatoes.
4. Serve it hot with your main dish

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Green beans with ground beef

One of the vegetables that I like is green beans, because it has its own natural yummy flavor. It is also crispy. The secret of keeping the natural color of the green beans even if its already cooked, is to cook it over high heat and do not cover it, while you are cooking or else it will be greyish. Here is m simple sauteed green beans with ground beef.

Ingredients:
1/4 kilo green beans
1/2 cup ground beef
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 small onion
half of a small size red bell pepper

Procedure:
1. Slice the green beans as shown in the picture.
2. Saute the garlic and add the ground beef, simmer for few minutes.
3. Add the soy sauce, simmer for few minutes
4. Increase the heat and add the green beans and bell pepper.
5. When it is already crispy and tender, it is ready to be served :)

Food decoration 1

A little decoration in your food will add attractiveness to the dish, so I will be sharing this simple flowers made from carrot and cucumber. I hope you will like this one. :)

By using a peeler, make a nice ruban slices from carrot and cucumber.

This is a ruban kind of slice

http://melyskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/different-cuts-of-meat-and-vegetables.html
To form it into a flower , we need to twist it one by one like this,

Then we need a toothpick to  arrange this together like this,

put a base for the toothpick to stand, then arrange four twisted ruban carrots to form a flower like this

the same process with the cucumber

That's all, have fun :)

My cooking utensils

These are the cooking utensils that I used in my cooking. Just an ordinary ones, I don't have golden ladles!:-) I will post more pictures soon:)

Tablespoon and Teaspoon

Pan

Chopping board

Rectangular Baking bowl

Pasta ladle

soup ladle

Common ladle

Frying ladle

Spatula

Tongs

Garlic crusher

Cheese Grater

Slicer & Shredder

Peeler

Knife

Cups

Cabbage Roll with Tomato Sauce

It’s been a long time that I wanted to cook this dish, but every time I put my cabbage leaves in the refrigerator, when my companions are cleaning the fridge, they always throw it because they’re thinking it’s a trash hahahahahahahahaha. This is called Sarma in Turkey, although they have different ways of cooking it, but the process of wrapping the meat with cabbage is the same. Most people think this is the same with another dish in Turkey which they called dolma,  because the process is almost the same but, we should not be confused because in dolmas, grapefruit leaves are used in wrappng the ground meat and sarma used cabbage.  I am glad that I was able to cooked this :D and I am excited to share it with all of you. This is a good treat for your loved ones. Since this is requested by my Filipino friends I made it Filipino style.

Ingredients:
some cabbage leaves
1/4 kilo ground beef or pork
2 tablespoons flour
1 beaten egg
1 med. size potato ( minced)
1 small carrot (minced)
1 onion ( half minced, half strips)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon calamansi or lemon juice

Procedure
1. First we need to blanch ( banlian in Tagalog) the cabbage leaves and set it aside.
2. In a bowl mix the meat,  minced onion, calamansi, carrot, potato, egg,  flour, salt and pepper. Mix it well.
3. Wrap it using the blanched cabbage leaf, as shown in the picture.

4. After wrapping all the meat, put the onion strips and black pepper in a pan where you are going to cook the cabbage rolls.

5. Arrange the rolled cabbage properly, put the tomato sauce, and the water.

6. Cover and let it boil , when it is  boiling lower the heat to cook it slowly without drying the soup.
7. Serve it hot and garnish with ring onions.

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