Embutido Sandwich

Everybody loves delicious, hot, fast, and cheap eats, who doesn't? That's the reason food trucks are becoming more and more the favored lunch providers of office workers and students. Food trucks have been around here in the US since the 50s but only became extremely popular in recent years, even the superstar Spanish chef José Andrés who owns several high end restaurants in the Washington D.C. area and in Los Angeles has joined the food truck mania with his own Pepe Truck. Yeah, that's how hot food trucks are nowadays.

photo R. Lopez

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Homemade Oat and Quinoa Cereal with Crispy Marshmallows

Have you had Lucky Charms® cereal? I haven't and don't intend to try them but when I saw the recipe for the crispy marshmallows similar to the ones in Lucky Charms, I just had to make some to add to homemade cereal. The recipe says it takes 4 to 6 days to make [and it is a veeery involved process] but my inner ocd kicked in and after 6 days, voila! Crispy cereal marshmallows. I love them with homemade lightly sweetened preservatives-free oats and sprouted quinoa cereal. However, if I get lazy next time I crave for these crunchy treats, I'll just buy from here. 

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No Rise Pizza Dough

I was curious when I saw the no rise yeast for pizza dough and after baking one yesterday I can say it's not good at all. The dough doesn't have much flavor nor chewiness; it's just like ordinary bland white bread. I don't recommend it and I believe there is no instant pizza dough that you can mix, knead for 4 minutes, and ready to form, top, bake right away and have a great tasting pizza with the correct texture. Peter Reinhart's Neapolitan Pizza Dough is still the best in my honest opinion. Retarding the pizza dough in the refrigerator for at least one night makes the best tasting pizza dough.

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Nasty

Above is a screenshot of a comment left on my post Milo Shake by a nasty reader [probably from Australia] looking for Milo Shake recipe. My recipe doesn't have ice cream. Why does he/she have to call me names for his/her own reading comprehension disability. People nowadays are rude and leave nasty comments on blogs, never revealing themselves by commenting as anonymous. Thank goodness for comments moderation and spam folder where this comment now resides. I have several of those which interestingly all came from Filipinos, one from the Midwest USA added pweh (act of spitting) on a fish dish cooked in sherry wine sauce. These people should get a life or hobby other than being blog trolls.

Here is the recipe guide the nasty one called me an idiot for. There is no ice cream anywhere in the recipe. So who's the idiot now? Sheesh!

Milo Shake
6 tablespoons Milo malted powder
3 tablespoons cold sweetened condensed milk
2½ cups cold whole milk
3 tablespoons cold heavy cream
1½ cups ice cubes
Milo malted powder for topping

• In a blender, blend on high all the ingredients, except the Milo for topping, until thick and frothy. Pour into 2 tall glasses. Top each glass with 2 tablespoons of Milo. Sit back and enjoy your shake.

Sprouted Seeds Shoots with Yogurt Dressing Salad

salad of green pea and daikon shoots, fresh pineapple, cucumber ribbons, 

halved cherry tomatoes, and dried cranberries with Asian yogurt dressing 

I started sprouting seeds again when I saw organic radish seeds for sprouting at the grocery store. The packet promises a lightly spicy daikon (radish) flavor which can be eaten raw in salads and sandwiches or lightly steamed and added to stir-fries. Indeed, the sprouts and shoots are very very flavorful and I love them on top of sandwich. I also got a packet of green peas for growing into shoots. I buy the shoots when available from the Asian grocery store but I want to try them raw in salads, when very young and only about 3½ inches tall. They are a little grassy when eaten raw but I like them when added to salad with Asian yogurt dressing.

sweet green pea shoots

daikon seeds shoots

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