Budget Cooking 101: Meatloaf! (recipe)

As I have stated before, funds are limited. We barely have enough money for rent. So, money for food is next to non-existent. For the first time in my life, there is absolutely no rice in the house, not even those weird rice they sell at American market. If I have rice, dinner would be very easy. Rice and some sort of vegetable stir fry. See? Yummy meal. Left over rice plus left over meal equal fried rice. See? Equally yummy meal. Without rice though, I'm at lost of what to do. I have two chayote that is going bad because the only thing I know how to make with them is with rice.

With my current situation, I'm glad that it was my mom that taught me how to cook.
That means our cupboards aren't that bare, and I can whip a meal with very little. Again, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing for me as cook.

I've been thinking all day trying to come up with dinner meal plan, as dinner time comes along, I opened the fridge, for the fifth time today, to see what's inside. So, in my fridge are the following: half a pound of ground beef, some celery, some carrots, one slice of bread, 3/4 of an onion, garlic, and ginger.

I came up with two things to make: sloppy joes, but no buns, and meatloaf. So, meatloaf it was.

The way I learned how to cook was through my mom. She would sit and instruct me what to do and I would do it. The first meal i cooked was cabbage and carrot stir fry with pork. Then, I made muffin mixes from boxes. Then, I would scour the cooking books for things to make, but most of the time, my house, being asian, wouldn't have a lot of the ingredients, so I would always have to make do. So, when I cook, I rarely follow recipes too closely. As I grow older, I tend to be more and more creative and instinctive. I would replace things and come up with new ways to make certain things.

So, when ingredients are fewer and fewer. I just need to be more creative. Thus, with this meatloaf. It would be a meatloaf like no other. After just going through the fridge just pulling out what's left of all the ingredients, this is what I came up with. Remember, measurements aren't exact. Just, you know, do what "feels" right.





Budget Meatloaf Number 2

A few stalks of celery
half an onion
four cloves of garlic
half a pound of ground beef
breadcrumbs
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp molasses
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbs butter

-preheat oven to 375 degrees
-mince the onion and garlic in a food processor
-saute the onion and garlic with butter for a couple minutes
-chopped up the celery - i like to add a lot of the leafy part
-mix in well the ground beef, baking powder, bread crumbs into with the celery
-add the rest of the ingredients
-grease baking pan
-shape mixture into loaf - i made a bed of chopped celery sticks and onion rings to add a little something and i greased the pan with sesame oil
- bake for 35-40 mins

I think this meal wasn't too bad. For a side dish I blanched some carrots, saute up some garlic in oil and add about a couple of tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and a pinch of key lime peel, and mixed them together.

It was pretty good.

As always, Happy Eating!

Madeleine Muffins!

If anyone of you are a fan of French pastries, you will know of Madeleine cakes. They are more of a cookie than a cake, but it's debatable. Some people also call French butter cakes or French lemon butter cookies. Madeleines are shell/scallop shaped cookie with a crispy outside a soft inside, like most French cookies. These little cookies are a French tradition, a French favorites. They are like the chocolate chips cookies of America, the tea and crumpet of England. A batch of Madeleines and a cup of tea. There's really nothing better.


I have been wanting these since I was reminded of them during the movie Transporter - Great movie btw. Then, I got the cravings. I needed those soft buttery cookies with a hint of lemony taste. There were a few obstacles in my way. Money's a little tight lately. Milk, butter, and eggs were of sort supply. Also, there was the fact that I needed to work my head off. Rent and bills do not pay themselves. My cravings just grew and grew.

In a desperate attempt, I tried to find an eggless recipe. I have butter and I can always subsitute milk for tea. Tea gives the Madeleines a better fragrance anyway.

When I was scrounging around for recipes and ingredients, Peter proposed to go grocery shopping since he had extra money. No one could tell how ecstatic I was. An hour and a few bags of groceries later, there were salmon steaming in the oven and Madeleines on a plate.

My last obstacle was the mold. I did not have the shell shaped mold. But, my cravings got the better of me. Therefore, I took all the ingredients that make a Madeleine a Madeleine, tweaked it to make it into a muffin. Here is the result.

They have the crusty outside, the soft inside, the lemony and buttery taste. The only thing missing was that it wasn't sweet enough. Consider this though, Madeleine usually are dust with sugar. I thought maybe next time I will make a little sugary glazed to brush on top. Or just add a little more sugar.

Madeleine Muffins

1 c all purpose flour
1/8 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 c milk
1/4 cup tea
4 tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla


Preheat oven to 400F
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together.
Melt butter.
Mix well butter, milk, tea, vanilla, and egg into the flour mixture
Use a whisk to whisk the batter into a good consistency
Pour into muffin pan and bake for 15 - 22 mins

End of the Universe Melon bread!!! (a recipe)

So, I've told you about my cooking/baking adventures. In a couple hours, I will go to the store, to get ingredients, and attempt to make curry bread...that's right curry bread. As much as I do not like japanese people, their food is something, especially their pastries. Granted most of them are just their own versions of other people's, but you have to give them props even though all they do is stuff things or cover things with stuff.

Anyway, Melon bread got me, because it's a cookie covered bread. I think it's really neat. To make it truer to its name, I add a melon filling within the bread. It started out with Michael watching Yakitate Japan! There was an episode where they had to make melon bread. In the show, Kazuma, the hero of the story, made melon bread in a new way. He baked the cookie and the bread seperately and then paste them together with a melon paste.

But in the end, Michael told me to just make the melon bread the right way. So that's what I did, sort of. Anyway, it turned out really good, well, decent any way. I used all purpose flour. One because that's all I had at the time, and I think it help the cooking time with both of these. The cookie was a little soft and crunchy. The bread was soft and melts with the filling. I liked it and so does Michael and Peter.

Here's my own recipe. Enjoy!!!

MELON BREAD

Melon custard

1 cup sugar
1 tbsp of flour
pureed melon
2 tbsp butter

melts butter in sauce pan
combine sugar and flour
cook over medium heat
gradually add pureed melon
cooks until it thickens
set aside


Bread

200g (1/2 cp) all purpose flour
2 tsp dry yeast
10 g (1 tbsp) sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1 egg

mix all the ingredients
knead dough for 15 mins or until your arms get tired
let rise for 40 - 60 mins (while it rise, make the cookie dough

after the dough rose, punch it down
knead a little bit if neccessary, I like it
divide into little balls, it should make 9,
flatten each ball of dough and add filling
pinched and set aside
and let it rest of 15 mins

Cookie

200g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
60 g butter
50 g sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp sugar

cream butter and sugar
beat eggs, combine with the butter and sugar mixture
add flour and baking powder
refridgerate

when the bread dough is done
take a pinch of the cookie dough
flatten it and cover the bread dough
spread even, add a little more if neccessary
place them in baking trays or cookie sheet
let rise of 30 mins
preheat over at 375 degrees
bake for 15 - 20 mins when bread becomes golden brown


If you're brave enough to try this recipe, tell me how it went. I'm pretty satisfy with it, but as an artist told me, things can always be better. So, I will try more melon pan and see what works and what doesn't to improve my own.

Happy Baking...and Eating, of course!