Christmas Feast

Here's our simple Christmas feast at home.  The great thing about celebrating Christmas at home is that, you can  prepare whatever  you  are in the mood to eat.  Mind you, there's only four of us but  we all have  different cravings.

Instead of cookies, we  made some puto.   Don't confuse the word puto for the  Mexican word hehehe.  Puto is a Filipino  type of steamed rice cake usually served as snack or as accompaniment to savory dishes such as dinuguan or pancit.  That's why yopu will see  a pancit (rice noodles) dish  in this post.

 My daughter love  this pasta salad that I always make for her school lunch so I made some too  just for her but of course we had some too.

 Chocolate crinkles is the only cookies we baked this year.  We don't really bake too much cookie during the holiday, we only make those that we really want to eat.  I will post the recipe  of this on a separate  post, we  used the  Betty Crocker recipe for this one and it's really good.

 You can never go wrong  making  pancit bihon (rice noodles), it's always a hit in my family.  The good thing about  this is, we can always eat the left over for breakfast, it's a win win situation for me.

 We gotta have rice to complete the  meal.  I made  some BBQed ribs to go with  it.

 My husband was craving for some lumpia (spring rolls) so I fried him some.  I  made these  few months ago and freeze them.

 On Christmas day, I made some spaghetti for  dinner.

So there you go, our little Christmas feast.  Even the dogs enjoyed some of the left overs.  

Believe in the Magic of Giving

Today is the first day  of Winter, it is hard to believe since we have been having  bitterly cold weather for  weeks now.  After the last day of  school, my daughter was yet again  hit by  cold.  It's the second time this winter so I stock up on  some citrus  and we are also drinking some tea with  lemon  to strengthen our health against  sickness.  

"Believe in the Magic of Giving", I borrowed that line from Macy's because I do believe in the magic of giving.  Glutino sent us extra  gluten-free products for Christmas so I decided to give some to friends as well.  I gave some of  it to our family friend and some to my daughter's piano teacher.  We've come to love the gluten-free products  from Glutino and we want to share   the goodness to others as well.  

I divided the  goodies and the coupons to the above mentioned parties and I hope that they would enjoy it as much as we enjoy  Glutino  products every month.

I want to thank Glutino for  providing us gluten-free  goodies  this whole year, we  appreciate it so much.  I look forward to working with them next year if given a chance and  also to share how good their products are to other people. 

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Christmas is the Perfect time to Indulge on Festive Foods

As Try the World puts it "If there's one thing that links all holiday  celebrations together, it  is the incredible FOOD and good cheer." to which I agree.  I am super excited to received this Holiday Box from Try the World .  With this holiday box,  Try the World and Michelin came together to curate  this unique box.  It's  complete with  Rich Hanukkah desserts and  pastries and cakes for Chinese New Year.  I love the selection really!

 I have tried two of these products before in a different box  so I am kind of familiar how they are, the tea and the  ginger snaps.  However, the rest are all  pretty new to me.

 I am planning to bake this Pain d'epices or spiced bread baking mix.  It is from a small french company, Marlette.  This is a traditional French holiday  cake that's made  with freshly milled, organic flour and a variety of baking spices.  Oh I can't wait to try  baking a french bread/cake.

 I am not sure with this Truffle sauce but I am sure  willing to try it. It says that you can mix this into dips or spread it into crostini or even fold it into omelettes.  I might try it with omelettes this weekend.

My daughter already tried this date spread and she said  it's really good.  She is the type of person that sticks to what she knows and like when it comes to food but  that doesn't mean she is not willing to  try other foods.  Yesterday, she made a toast and spread this date to it and then she gave it a thumbs up.

"A symbol of good luck, dates are popular holiday food throughout the Mediterranean.  This date spread is made with ripe fruit grown on a community farm in  Israel, and the packaging process that follows provides working opportunities for disabled  individuals in the community."

These mini pineapple cakes are really good, one of my favorites in the holiday box.  The mini cakes are buttery and filled with sweet and tangy jam.  Pineapple cake is an ubiquitous pastry in Taiwan.

"In Taiwanese, pineapple is called and pronounced as Onglai, which is similar  to the phrase for "the arrival and prosperity and fortune."  This hidden meaning makes it a popular gift during Lunar year."

Here's my daughter who  got attracted right away with the packaging.  We all love fresh pineapple here at home so she was curious how it tastes like.  She loved it!

These classic shortbread biscuits from Sprucewood Handmade Cookie Co from Canada  are good too.  It's rich  and buttery, perfect for dipping in  coffee or you can top an ice cream sundae with it.  It would also  make a cute cookie cookie sandwich.

My avid taster daughter tried this one as she was curious about toffee.  She said, it is more salty than sweet lol.  I tried it and I think it is delicious, rich, and creamy.  It is made of  pure butter from Darling, a south African town  known for its excellent butter.  You can melt and drizzle this over an ice cream or enjoy it as a midnight snack.

I had these ginger snaps  before.  They are good with tea or coffee.  You can enjoy this  ginger snaps  from Sweden  with mulled wine or dip it into a hot cider, or if you want to be an adventurer in baking, you can crumble this in pie crust.

I have tried this mind-awakening Yerba Mate holiday energy teatonics  before and thought it's pretty good.   It's really good in the morning, it would jump start your day.  It is  great with honey and  lemon or you can serve chilled with ice.  This is great especially during winter times.  I wake up at 4:30 on weekdays with my husband and sometimes, I feel  so sleepy, this teatonic is my go-to to  fully wake me up.  

"Born from a passion for natural ingredients and mindful living, Teatonics combine the British love of tea with organic aromatics from around the world to create delicious infusions.  Their tea blends are ground by hand and filled with healthy micro nutrients and antioxidants.

This box comes with an entertaining holiday stories and it also includes recipes.  So if you want a unique  gifts for food lovers this Christmas, this is a perfect option.  You can enjoy a 15% off  gift with promo code DEC15.

I ordered an  Italy box, I am giving it to an Italian friend  for Christmas.  I tried this box before and love what's in it. Hopefully she would love it too.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

Homemade Tocino #Recipe

One of the many  Filipino  dishes that my husband and  children likes is the tocino.  Tocino is one of the many popular pork dishes in the Philippines.  If you are Hispanic or know Spanish language, tocino means bacon.  It is a sweetened  cured pork.  We seldom have tocino because we buy it at an Asian market in Pittsburgh.  However, I learned how to make it at home  through watching YouTube videos.  Below is the recipe.

Ingredients

1/4 cup soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced (you can use garlic powder as well)
1/4 cup sprite
2 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup pineapple juice (optional)
salt & pepper
1 lb pork (sliced thinly)

1 cup brown sugar
artificial food color (optional)

Instructions

• Combine the ingredients: brown sugar, food coloring, soy sauce, garlic and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Put the sliced pork in the bowl and rub the mixture liberally on all sides of the pork.
• You can either use a zip bag and put all the pork and mixture or in a tupperware container for curing the pork.
• Put inside a refrigerator and cure for 2 to 3 days.

• After curing the pork, you can either fry or grill it.  Or you can  divide it  and put them in  ziploc bags and freeze it for late consumption.  At least that's what I do, I make a big batch then freeze them.

Cooking

• Warm a pan in a medium high heat, laid out the tocino strips, put the juice in it too.  
• Let it cook until the juice caramelized then add  3 tabsp oil and continue frying.

You can serve it with fried rice and fried eggs.  Filip\inos  popularly call these food combo, tosilog (tocino, sinagag, itlog - tocino, fried rice, and egg).  I love eating mine in a plain steamed rice with  salsa.  

#Tocino and #broccoli... #homeMadeTocino #veggies #homeCookedMeals

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Oct 14, 2016 at 1:58pm PDT

You can get creative with it.

#bonapettit🍴 #tocino #rice #coleslaw #tomatoSalsa

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Sep 28, 2016 at 1:57pm PDT

If you have left over, you can use it as toppings for your quiche.

#quiche with #leftOver #tocino #bonapettit🍴 

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Oct 1, 2016 at 5:57am PDT

 My daughter love it with mushroom and risotto.

Enjoy!

Fruit Lovers #GrouponCoupons #ad

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are mine.
My children love brownies and they also love  fruits like  different kinds of  berries.  I remember sometime in July, I made them these Brownies topped with fruits and it  went out  very fast lol.  The cherries and the strawberries were great compliments to these treats for my sweet tooth kiddos.  

They also loved these strawberry pie that we brought for  my FIL during his birthday..  The sweet tooth  is a trait they  inherited from their Dad and the love for fruits is something that was conceptualized ever since they were babies.  I  introduced them to fruits early on that's probably why they love just about any kind of fruits.  

On another note, we are  11 days away till Christmas and  as I was  browsing through the selection of Groupon Coupons, I came accross this Shari's Berries.  There's   a bunch of available coupon there including a 58% off birthday cakes.  My son is celebrating  his 10th birthday  next month and I am thinking of ordering him some  chocolate dipped strawberries aside from a birthday cake.  I think both of them would love these treat!  

I also found  great selection of coupons for The Popcorn Factory.  Both kiddos love popcorn and  this might be a good  option.  They offer free shopping in there too.  Shopping during the holidays and other special occasion can be  expensive but if you are resourceful enough, you can buy the things that you like at a discounted price.  I highky recommend checking out Groupon Coupon website, they have a ton! Why pay the full price if you can get them  cheaper right?

Thanksgiving with some Gluten-Free Goodness

We used to celebrate Thanksgiving day at my father-in-law's home with the rest of the family but ever since he went to a home, we started our own family tradition of celebrating it at our own home.  There's only four of us so I only cooked an amount that the four of us can consume.  There are, however, a certain amount of different desserts.  I don't cook these American foods very often so I prepared them for Thanksgiving, so my husband could have his favorites.  I am sure he is missing them, as I always cook Filipino food on a day to day basis.

On the morning of Thanksgiving, I made us as Gluten-free, English muffin sandwiches for breakfast.  I love this English muffins from Glutino because not only they are gluten-free, it is also multi grain!  

The sandwiches turn out really tasty with bacon, eggs, and lettuce.  The trick to these  muffins is  to put them in an oven toaster for   a couple of minutes  to make it softer because if you don't, it is so densed.

One thing I  quickly learned when I became part of  the Cottrill family was, they love sweets!  So every holiday, they have different kinds of dessert.  

My husband and daughter  bought the carrot cake and  pumpkin pie  from the store.

I am not very fond of pumpkin pie so I made an apple pie using the gluten free pie crust mix from Glutino.

#Homemade #applepie🍎 #Thanksgiving #food #glutenFreeCrust @glutinofoods

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Nov 24, 2016 at 8:04am PST

U also baked some dinner rolls.

The baked beans was really awesome with bacon in it.

But I think my favorite was the  green bean casserole.  I haven't made this dish in a long time so I kind of miss it.

We're not crazy about turkey so we bought a ham.

By 3 o'clock, all the food was done and we ate  an early  Thanksgiving dinner, just the four of us.  This was our first Thanksgiving here at the new home and glad to spend it here.

The only thing I don't like about  holidays is, even though I only cook just  a small amount for the four of us, there are still left overs.  The  good part about it is, I don't have to cook the next day lol.

We had an awesome first Thanksgiving here at home and I can't wait to celebrate Christmas here too.

Glutino went all out with their Thanksgiving  supply, these were the ones they  sent me for November.

My kids prepared these gluten free box to be given to the police here in our area.  They also made  some notes and drawings for them thanking them for their services.  With all the the bad things happening to the police worldwide, we feel like it would be great to let them know how we appreciate their job protecting our community.

 Anyway, we went there  the day after Thanksgiving but the office was close so  we might  go back again  this weekend and see.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.