Corned beef and cabbage with herb buttered potatoes!

I was really excited to prepare this corned beef dish because growing up in the PI we only had the canned “purefoods” corned beef which we prepared with scrambled eggs breakfast style.  So when my father in-law Phil brought over  this meat, I immediately looked online specifically Foodnetwork to check some corned beef recipe that’s easy (coz this is my first time to deal with “real corned beef”)..This Sandra Lee recipe caught my attention because it looked simple and I had all of the ingredients and I’ve always wanted to use our slow cooker so I thought this was perfect!  The cooking time was around 8 hours, so I prepared all the ingredients mid morning so by dinner time everything would be ready to eat!

getting ready in the slow cooker..see yah after 8 hours!

after 12 hours.

So after 8 hours, I still find the meat kinda hard so hubby suggested to add another 4 hours because he agreed that the meat is not as tender as we thought it should be after 8 hours..By this time I decided to stir-fry some easy dinner because Sandra Lee’s recipe failed us!LOL…so to conclude I will not prepare this again because after 12 hours in the slow cooker,the meat was dry and tasted awful if you ask me,hubby said it’s OK..such a waste of money and time but then I learned a thing about corned beef: DO NOT USE SANDRA LEE’s recipe!

cheesecake factory@bellevue

We had dinner @ cheesecake factory with sis in-law Julia! I was kinda worried that we will be waiting for a long time to be seated, good thing they had an alternative for people who don’t want to wait for an hour just to have dinner..We opted to sit in the heated patio section of the restaurant.  It’s always crowded at this resto, I think it’s because the food is decent and the prices are reasonable!

getting ready,someone wants to go with us!
mojito and long island drinks
tuna tartare
beet and goat cheese salad
salsbury steak
i think this is chicken bbq salad
kobe beef burger
red velvet cheesecake
cookie dough cheesecake
us
with Auntie Puss this time

foodie pics this month

Here are some of  the dishes we’ve had for march 2011!

prosciutto and salami; chili and garlic bread
sunny side up and longganisa
humba
filipino sweet style spaghetti
chocolate chips cookie
sukiyaki cut meat! my fave:)
such a loving husband!

jollibee
sukiyaki beef in teriyaki sauce
bruschetta with peppers,capers,blue cheese(Ina Gartens')
scrambled eggs with tomatoe and dried squid (nokus bulad)
panko crusted tilapia

mexican and japanese buffet!

Earlier today we went to a Japanese buffet and were kinda disappointed with the food! This is our third time to visit this place so I was really looking forward to it and didn’t expect it would turn out like this.  I was not happy with their sushi selection and the dessert part was limited to fresh fruits (helloooooo where are the chocolate cakes and fondue here, Im sure Japanese people loves chocolates too!).  I included some of the pictures of our mexican dinner a couple of weeks ago, I had carne asada my fave mexican dish..I’ve never ordered anything else whenever we go out to a mexican resto, Hubby has been encouraging me to try other stuff but I’m not yet ready to let go of my carne asada obsession! LOL..

im hungry obviously!LOL
salad bar

avocado and chocolate ice cream

Cheese Quesadillas

I didn’t plan to make this when I realized that I have lots of leftovers from our taco night.  I wanted to use the rest of the flour tortilla and shredded cheese. Perfect for a quick lunch for my home based hard working hubby!

tortilla and cheddar cheese
Panini or sandwich maker - so easy!

oopppssss!cheese all over..

mexican appetizer and thai iced tea drink = happy filipino tummy!LOL

Red velvet cupcakes, the easy way!

I Love Ina Garten!  I’ve seen all of her shows/episodes on her Food Network show Barefoot Contessa!  Aside from the fact that her recipes are easy and she’s so in love with Jeffrey!  I think she has the best kitchen on any food network show!!  How I adore her kitchen and her 8 burner stove, 2 dishwashers!  LOL..Im feeling lucky that we have a little specialty store here in Issaquah where I can easily buy some of Ina Garten’s products, although I’ve checked it online and found that you can also buy her products on the Barefoot Contessa website (I’ve never done this yet).

I made a not so yummy corned beef dish the other day, so I wanted to compensate with a yummy dessert to make up for it.  I especially love the frosting of this cupcake recipe, creamy and sweet!  You can check the recipe on the food network of this Red velvet recipe if ever you’re up for making cupcakes from scratch!

ingredients







Coho Cafe

I just love this place, simply because they have the BEST and I mean THE best slider I’ve ever had.  Their Kalbi beef short rib sliders are a must! I swear I can eat these sliders everyday.  So last Sunday after church, we had brunch at Coho and hubby really enjoyed his omelet and he had bloody mary too!  I had the sliders and a chicken curry dish:)

bloody mary
so yummy

omelet with salmon and goat cheese
chicken curry

sushi,tobiko,etc!

Last Friday we had sushi at home.  This is not the first time we did this, but I can honestly say that this was more “special.”  We made some rolls and had salmon and tuna sashimi, along with calamari salad!  I didn’t plan to have sushi that night but Hubby ordered a box of “uni” (sea urchin eggs) at our local Issaquah fish market and it’s not my fave so I suggested maybe we get salmon so we’ll have a little sushi party!  Hubby got so excited and suggested we go to the Asian Market (Uwajimaya@ Bellevue).  So off we go to the market, I stayed in the car because Riley was with us coz I dont want him alone in the house with him still recovering from his surgery!  My hubby can be an impulsive buyer! hehe, I SPECIFICALLY told him to get salmon but he ended up buying lots of fish that will last us for another day!  I ate too much sushi that night, I think I’ll have sushi again next year!

tobiko
calamari salad,my fave!
thanks to my hubby for slicing preparing the whole thing!
tuna and salmon rolls!
sushi set that we used for the first time,had this for 2 years now!

Uni