During special holidays, we often cook Chicken Relleno. Just this last Thanksgiving, we roasted a total of three of these deliciously stuffed chickens. With Christmas and New Year’s Day nearing, we’re expecting to cook even more.

Chicken Relleno is a roasted chicken that has been deboned and stuffed with a mixture of ground pork, Filipino hot dogs, and eggs. The pork stuffing is the key component to the dish. I first learned how to make the pork stuffing recipe from my Dad. With Chicken Relleno, the hardest part is to debone the chicken. Once you’re able to do that, this recipe is fairly simple to follow.

Continue Reading » Cooking Chicken Relleno

This recipe is from my Aunt who used to make coconut macaroons at home in the Philippines. She would make different sweets all the time. Everything from leche flan to pastilyas, she would do. I remember bringing her treats to school with me and selling them to my classmates. My favorite is still her coconut macaroons. I like making macaroons using her recipe because they come out of the oven nicely toasted on top, yet still remaining soft inside.

Ingredients
2 Cups Shredded Coconut
1 Beaten Egg
1/2 Cup Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
3 tbs. Sugar
1 Cup Condensed Milk

Steps
In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix together. All of the ingredients should form into a thick batter like mixture.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Get a 24 cup mini muffin baking pan out and place muffin paper cups into each hole. The paper cups keep the macaroons moist inside and they make cleaning up much easier. If you don’t have a muffin baking pan at home, do what I did and just buy 2 or 3, 12 cup disposable muffin pans. They work fine. Take spoonfuls of the macaroon mixture and place them into the cups.

Bake the macaroons for 20-25 minutes. You will know they are done by the golden color that forms on the top of the muffin cups. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes.

Making these macaroons always brings back good memories for me. I can look back at when I was younger, sharing these treats with my friends.

Yesterday afternoon I went cherry picking at Chavez U-Pick Cherries in Brentwood. It was a warm sunny day and great to be outdoors. Being at the farm allowed you to pick out your own cherries. This way, you can try to look out for the more sweeter ones. The best part is, you’re supporting a local farm and having fun at the same time.

The cherries cost us $2.50 a pound. We bought about seven pounds. They are absolutely sweet, plump, and juicy. When we got home, I wanted to try to make a simple dessert with the cherries. Besides Egg Custard Pies, I don’t do much baked desserts. So, I went came up with a basic dough that is similar to Polvoron. Polvoron is a Filipino pastry treat that is made with flour, sugar, butter, and milk.

Continue Reading » Baked Cherry Crumble

You better get your oven mitts for this one. I’m about to show you my recipe for an Egg Custard Pie. Egg Custard Pie is very similar to the Filipino dessert, Leche Flan.

Continue Reading » Egg Custard Pie