Hello earthlings!! Today's vlog is about what I cooked and baked at home. This is the first time I vlogged since September. I was in a sad point of my life since the pandemic started but I think I'm getting better now. It has come to my realization if I let sadness and stress take over my life. My mental health won't just suffer but my overall health as well and it will cause me more problems later on. Please if any of you are facing some serious problems or an illness. Seek help.
I truly believe that inspiration can come everywhere and in different forms. It might be an experience trying out the first fudgy brownie or a painting in a museum that urged you to start painting but never had the courage to do so. When you encounter something and it sparked inspiration to keep you going is so precious and makes you feel alive again. Whatever that feeling maybe take good care of it and just keep going. Don't let fear hinder you from achieving the possibilities.
The videos I share are mostly for entertainment and fun and hoping to inspire you make something at home or remind you that we can have fun in the most simple ways of our daily lives. I remember a quote that says...
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| Mireille Guiliano |
For someone who is living in our current global state there are many factors that's blinding us to to see the joy and goodness of what life can offer to us and the precious little moments in our lives like being able to wake up every morning, to enjoy home cooked meals, to breathe fresh air and the list goes on. I know we are all different but one thing I'm most certain of is that we have the power or the ability to change on how we look at things.
It's okay to be sad but please remember these things are only temporary. At some point we have to start living again. Of course there are days when I still struggle to find joy in my life but I really try my best not to dwell in it. I'm not the best person to explain these things but please don't feel weary when you struggle to find happiness in your life. There are many ways we can practice happiness and take great pleasures in our everyday lives. It took me a while to blog again and get back to the groove of things. It wasn't an easy journey. What I'm trying to say here is. Always prioritize what is good for you and practice finding joy in your daily lives. Hopefully you get my point here.
Alright. Going back to vlog.....
Just a quick disclaimer: I'm not a professional baker or cook. The recipes I shared here are just for my own preferences and have used it many times already. There are professional bakers and chefs that can show you how to make the foods I made on this vlog :-)
Easy homemade pizza
Pizzas are one of those foods that's very easy to make and it is another way to utilize your leftover meats and put whatever toppings you want. Share them with another person who prefers a different sauce or toppings and still enjoy one whole pizza together. You can also drizzle or dip them in sauces like ranch (I recommend dipping them in ranch), barbecue, honey mustard basically any sauces and it will instantly amp up the flavor. Some people may not like this idea but I do. I learned this from my friend when we were eating at Round Table. Pizzas are also forgiving you can't really make any mistakes.. well besides making your homemade pizza dough. Lols.
Be honest with me what's your least favorite pizza flavor? Mine would be Hawaiian pizza. The idea of biting into a juicy pineapple on a savory food isn't appealing to me. Does anyone here agree with me? Hehe. It's not that I will never eat it but either you will see me removing each pineapples or choose to eat a different flavor.
Homemade pizza dough is the best but I didn't have any at home. The pre-made pizza crust we bought from the grocery store was a bit sweet for my liking. I believe Trader's Joe has a really good pre-made pizza dough but we don't have anything ready so this is the best we could find.
It only took us less than an hour to prepare and cook the pizza. You just assemble and leave it in the oven to cook. You can still do other things while waiting. After 8-12 minutes, the pizza was ready and we enjoyed every slice. It was so goooood. It was an overloaded pizza and it wasn't oily at all. I made another one after but it was only mushrooms and cheese. The next time I make this I will make my own pizza dough. Any pizza recipe dough suggestions?
My go-to pizza if I don't want to spend so much money is Costco pizza. Lols! It's very accessible to get it in our area. Hopefully when things are better here we will have the chance to try out pizzerias here. For now, we'll just stick with homemade or Costco pizzas! :-P What's your favorite pizzeria in your area?
Pesto Shrimp Pasta
Pesto sauce is one of those sauces that can be used in many dishes. It can be put in pizzas, flat pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, or as a marinate. Although I haven't tried using it as a marinate but I saw videos in the past that used it in baked chickens. The base ingredients for making a pesto sauce are pine nuts but since they're a little too expensive some people use pistachios instead. Then we have basil, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper for seasoning. I even saw people used avocados for pesto sauce I haven't tried this yet but will do one day. If any of you have tried it, please let me know how was it.
For now I just bought this pre-made pesto sauce from Sam's Club and I'm quite surprised how flavorful and good quality ingredients they put in the sauce. They had pine nuts in it. This is such a great sauce to keep at home all the time.
This dish is so quick to make if you don't have asparagus. You can use spinach and for the meat you can use shredded chicken breast or tuna. Just sauté everything and it will be ready in no time.
Peach
Peaches are great to have them as snacks or desserts at home. If I'm craving for peaches I buy a dozen and eat them as snacks or put them as a topping on my yogurt. It's easy and healthy too!
Homemade Filipino bread rolls "Pandesal"
I remember three years ago my husband and I attempted to make our first pandesal. Back then we didn't have a stand mixer and we were only starting to bake breads. The first time wasn't the most pleasant experience because hand kneading it for over five minutes was already tiring. We didn't also know when the dough was ready and when to stop kneading. So we were just kneading until we were satisfied on how it looked like. The flavor was there but the texture wasn't great. It was hard as a rock and it wasn't fluffy. Although it was a nice bonding for me and my husband but the cleaning part wasn't. Loooool.
Since then I was always hesitant to make homemade breads because I didn't know anything about yeast, gluten, kneading etc. But the interest to learn was always there. I just told myself if I will do it again I should be more prepared and do my research about kneading and the yeast I should use for a specific recipe.
One day I will try to remake the pandesal we made at school and hopefully it will work out so I can share it here.
So here are the things I learned baking homemade pandesal....
I was able to make between 16-18 rolls for this recipe. First of all make sure to get the right yeast the recipe is asking for. In the US, there are rapid-rise/quick-rise yeast (I believe this is the instant yeast) and active dry yeast. Here is a link of explaining between the two and which one is best for baking breads.
Second, make sure you proof the dough correctly. Don't underproof and overproof it. Sometimes proofing will depend on how warm your place is. If it's very warm then the dough will quickly double in size and it will be ready. Keep in mind every bread recipe is different. Since I live in Southern Nevada, summers here are very very hot. I leave my dough in the garage area or in our patio and it works great! It's like an oversized oven at home.
Third, before I used to just eyeball each rolls and the results were not pleasing. Uniformed doughs will have even baking so every time I make pandesals I weigh each roll about 55-60grams. You can't even notice the difference when one dough is over two or five grams. So this is the measurement I personally use for our pandesals. It made my life so much easier.
And lastly the air pockets. One of the indications of a good pandesal dough is seeing air pockets when kneading. To make it short if you want to achieve this kind of bread, make sure your dough has air pockets. Not all breads should have air pockets. It will depend on what kind of bread you will make. So make sure you read the recipe before trying it.
For this specific recipe. This is how I achieved a fluffy and soft pandesal by having air pockets and kneading the dough correctly. Thanks to my trusted KitchenAid mixer who did most of the work! On our first and third attempt, we didn't have air pockets and we under proofed our dough. It had a vinegar-y taste to it. It was horrible. Fortunately after many practices I finally perfected my pandesal recipe. Thanks to my old culinary notes, internet and my stand mixer. Lols.
If you have anymore tips to add please comment them down below. I would love to hear them and I still want to improve my pandesal recipe. Thank you! I know I didn't fully explain the process of making pandesal but this is all I know so far.
Vlog 13:
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