Adobo Flakes Hash Recipe, at last!

I started making this dish earlier this year to give the staple adobo a twist.  It has become one of hubby's favorite dishes and I got so many recipe requests from friends - yup, I'm one of those people who post photos of my cooking (and other people's cooking), in Facebook, ha!  I never really measure my ingredients for adobo, but today I did, so I can finally post the recipe in this blog.  So here goes...

Ingredients

3 skinless boneless chicken thighs

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 &1/2 cups water

1 medium potato diced

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt & pepper

Steps

1. Boil the chicken, garlic, bay leaves, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, pepper, and water in a sauce pan.

2. Simmer until the liquid dries out and the chicken is cooked.

3. Flake the chicken.

4. In another pan, fry the potatoes.  Add some salt and pepper.

5. When the potatoes are cooked, add the chicken adobo flakes.

6. Fry the potatoes and chicken until crispy (will probably take another 15-20 mins).

Serve with fried eggs and tomatoes and garlic rice.  This recipe can serve 3-4 people.  This is sure to be a hit - breakfast, lunch, or dinner. :-)

Meatless Craving: "Breadsagna"

Sunday at 6AM, deployment completed.  Check!  (deep inside, ecstatic)  Time for Sunday morning TV and Rachael Ray's on Food Network - perfect.  Lasagna made of stale bread?  Genius!  So I'm not really taking credit for this fine recipe, rather - I'm promoting it as an alternative to the usual lasagna pasta dish.  It took me 30 minutes to make it, and I only had to buy the spinach, but every other ingredient is available in our pantry.  Also, it's vegetarian, so just about anybody would love it.  I did - I contained myself from finishing the whole dish, and shared with dearest hubby.  I was sooo happy it turned out the way it did - just see the pictures below!

Ingredients for One Serving of Mushroom & Spinach Breadsagna

2 slices of stale (or old frozen) french bread cut 5" long, 1/2" thick

1 egg

1/3 cup of half-and-half

1/4 tsp nutmeg

6 pcs of baby bella mushrooms, sliced

A handful of baby spinach

1/4 cup moscato (or any white wine)

1/3 cup chicken stock

Olive oil

1 tbsp butter

A pinch of dried oregano, thyme, and rosemary

Salt & pepper

Triple cheddar cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven at 350F.

Soak the bread in beaten egg, half-and-half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

Saute the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil until tender.  Deglaze with wine and chicken stock.  Add all your herbs and salt and pepper.  Add the spinach and cook only until the leaves are wilted.

Grease your baking dish (I used a single-serve 5" x 5" stoneware) with butter.  Line with the bread first, then mushroom and spinach mixture, then cheese.  Add your second layer of bread, then top with cheese and butter.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 mins or until the cheese is melted and slightly crusty.

I must say, I was nervous making this dish - stale bread for lasagna?!  But the result definitely made me an even bigger fan of Rachael Ray.  Next time I'll try it with sausage (but this one's perfect as it is), just so hubby can get his meat fix. :-)

Accessory Making Revived

It's been such a long time since I've made costume jewelry, but it has always been a fantasy of mine (along with other friends) to make it big in this business.  It really all started about eight years ago when we called ourselves KLAD (Kristine, Love, Anna, Dianne) and sold accessories to our officemates and friends.  Yes, those accessories were made by our "untrained" but very passionate bare hands... and we selected and bought all materials ourselves - from beads to strings to chains and charms, all the way from Divisoria.   We just had an initial outlay of 1,000 pesos each and ran the business for about two months, around Christmas time.  It was a success, but we're all so busy with our day jobs, so we had to stop after the holidays.  

Five years after, we decided to revive the business, but the "K" left for Singapore so we obviously had to change our name as LAD didn't exactly sound fab haha!  We called ourselves "IF", short for Insanely Fab, because it speaks for our designs.  Definitely insane, but still fabulous!  Those were really (insanely) happy times as we were practically doing a countdown to 5 o'clock (at work) so we can rush home and create our "day-dreamed" designs.  And "coffee tayo" means let's discuss our business strategy.  Here are some cherished photos with my business partners...

Our style had definitely evolved in 2009 as we had started making "bibs" which wasn't popular back then (we'd like to think we're one of the firsts hehehe) and did more sewing than the usual stringing or wiring.  We used more fabric (some recycled), lace, appliques, and ribbons.  And our trademark?  Look below and you'll notice.  We love floral touches.  They're also our best sellers.  And, we not only did direct selling but joined bazaars - from Ayala Alabang to World Trade Center - we soared!

We had a goal, and in less than 3 months, we exceeded it.   But starting in January the following year, our day jobs got the best of us and we weren't able to spend any more time continuing the business (sigh).  To this day we still receive some inquiries and requests, but our hands are tied.  Ahhh... IF only... 

A week ago, I was feeling so creative that I started planning for home made gifts - after all, they are inexpensive, unique, and honestly, therapeutic.  Being in the US obviously did not give me many options for buying materials for my accessories - I definitely miss Quiapo, Divisoria, and Carolina's!  But I do have a special happy place here - Michael's.  Never mind the $$$ conversion, so I bought a few materials and recycled some of my old necklaces so I could come up with pretty stuff such as the one in the photo below.  I realized, I still have the "IF" in me with the bib-like design and of course, the flower!  I made this for a friend for her birthday.  This is made in the USA, baby!  Haha! :-)

I still have a few more projects in progress, but I could not post them yet as they are all gifts - I'll upload them after Christmas.  I'm getting more and more excited each day.  Let's see how it goes.