Crispy Orange Beef

Ingredients

For Stewed Meat:

1 lb stew beef
flour (for dredging)
cooking oil (to sauté meat)
dash of salt and pepper

For Sauce:

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon flour
juice of 1 orange
zest of half an orange
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
pepper, to taste

To prepare meat:

Season stew meat very lightly with salt and pepper and lightly toss in flour. Shake off excess flour. Coat a shallow pan with cooking oil and gently pan fry stew meat. (I prefer the shake and bake method where you throw the meat, flour, and salt and pepper in a baggie or a tupperware and shake it all up, otherwise this could take awhile if the meat is in very small pieces.)

Drain meat and set aside.

To prepare the sauce:

Add cooking oil to sauce pan and gently cook garlic. Add flour to garlic and oil; cook to remove the uncooked flour taste. It will look pasty at first.

Stir in soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, whisking to prevent lumps. Add orange zest, orange juice, pepper, and all sugars.

Allow sauce to come to a boil and it will thicken. Cook to desired consistency. Toss stew meat in enough of the sauce just to coat it. Serve over rice.

This recipe definitely curbs your appetite when you are in the mood for Chinese food, and it cost me about $6 to make 2 large plates of it.

The Best Ever Flan

This was my first attempt at making my own flan, and it was the best one I have ever tasted, and many of my Cuban family members also agreed. It was also very simple and I had all of the ingredients already in my house. This recipe came from one of my coworkers, so thank you Frances!




Ingredients:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 can of evaporated milk
1 block of cream cheese
4 egg yolks
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat the sugar on medium until it melts and caramelizes. The sugar will go from brown, to golden and then to red if it burns, so keep stirring and keep it in the golden shade. If there are a few small lumps remaining, that is okay because they will melt in the oven.

2. While the sugar is melting, turn the oven on to 350 and place your 8x8 square or round pie pan in the oven to keep it hot. If the pan is hot, then the caramel will not harden as quickly. Pour the caramel into the hot baking pan, and smooth it around until the bottom is completely coated.



3. As the caramel cools, you can begin making the custard. Blend the two cans of milk, the vanilla and the cream cheese together in the blender. Drop one egg yolk at a time into the blender and blend for a few seconds in between the yolks.

4. Pour the custard mixture into your baking pan. This pan will need a "water bath" for best results, just like most cheesecakes and custard desserts. To do so, simply use a larger lasagna size pan (9x13 or so) and fill it with enough water so that the water line is halfway up the side of the flan.



5. Bake at 350 for an hour. Let it cool for 15 minutes and then place in the fridge to chill for 3 hours or more. To serve, invert the pan with a large plate and shake the pan to release the flan. We didn't do this part, we just ate it from the pan because everyone was too impatient. It got rave reviews and I will be bringing it to every Noche Buena celebration from now on.

Our First Christmas as Mr. and Mrs!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! Today we celebrated our first Christmas as husband and wife, so I thought I would share a few traditions that we follow.

The first tradition is one that not to many people have heard of, except for anyone with German heritage. I participated in an ornament exchange this year, and the ornament that my elf really wanted was the pickle ornament. I was very excited that someone else knew about this tradition and wanted to partake.

Here’s one version of the “pickle legend” from a website that sells ornaments: “A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.” This Christmas pickle story, with a few minor variations, can be found all over the Web, in printed ads, and inside the ornament package. It says that Germans hang a pickle-shaped glass ornament on the Christmas tree hidden away so it’s difficult to find. The first child to find it on Christmas morning gets a special treat or an extra present.

Here is a picture of the pickle ornament that hangs on my parents' Christmas tree.




Every year on December 24th, my father's side of the family gets together to celebrate my cousin Christina's birthday and Noche Buena. We play board games, drink heavily, and pig out on roasted pig, rice and beans, yucca, salad, and birthday cake. This year, I tried making my very first flan for dessert. Flan is one of my favorites and I have no clue how I went this long without trying to make one. The recipe will follow in the next post. The "cousins" consist of myself, Christina, Amy and Monica. We were inseparable growing up, and although we don't get to see each other too often anymore, we know we will be together on December 24th and we will have to take our "cousin" picture. Here is this years'.



We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house so that we could all open presents together in the morning. Charles came along with us for the festivities. Normally we would go visit Ollie's family in the afternoon, but they went to North Carolina to celebrate a very white Christmas with a few feet of snow.












We don't have too much space in our house but we did do a little bit of decorating. We had to make sure Charles' first Christmas was a special one!





Our First Christmas ornament, given to us during the ornament exchange. Thanks Gladys!



Our stockings hung off the audio pier... can you guess whose is whose? The one with the "A" belongs to Charles. Doesn't make much sense, I know.



The Mr. and Mrs!

My hubby and our kitty

I got my eyebrows threaded!

Holy cow, what a life changing experience! I have never had such perfectly shaped eyebrows in my life. I think my range of facial expressions just doubled. I decided to try threading because my skin is way too sensitive for waxing (need I remember what happened the week before my wedding? shudder....) and with plucking I can never get my eyebrows to look even. It only took 10 minutes and I did it on my lunch break yesterday. I wish I could have watched what she was doing to me, but I had to keep my eyes closed so I am not exactly sure what went down, so I googled some info if you don't know what threading is (info from WiseGeek.)

Threading involves twisting a piece of thread, usually cotton, into a double strand. This double stranded thread is used to pick up a line of hair and then remove it, creating a very clean, precise hairline. Threading is the technique preferred by Indian movie stars, who are often distinguished by their crisp brow lines. Threading can be used to eliminate a unibrow, raise the arch of the eyebrow, or add shape and definition to the brow. Because it removes hair by the follicle, it is a reasonably long lasting hair removal technique as well. Repeat visits after three to four weeks are standard. The technique is also not terribly expensive because it is easy to do quickly and does not require costly chemical ingredients. For women who would like to pursue a more natural beauty regimen, eyebrowis a good choice, since it does not use harmful products.

Done with my holiday baking!

Organic Laundry Detergent

I have been introduced to making my own laundry detergent from my friend Jenise. It is even organic too, if you are yuppie like that. I didn't realize how easy it was and it looked like a fun project. Most of the ingredients were found at Publix, but I had to go to Whole Foods for Dr. Bronner's soap, or you can order it online but it isn't really cheaper.

1 bar Dr. Bronner's castile bar soap - finely grated (or you can just chop it up with a knife into small pieces like I did. Jenise's favorites were peppermint and lavender, so that is what I bought as well.) Cost: $4.19 per bar, the most expensive part

1/2 cup Washing Soda Cost: $2.19 for the box

1/2 cup Borax Cost: $3.99 for the box

1/4-1/2 cup Baking Soda Cost $.69 for a small box

In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda, baking soda, and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat. This makes your whole house smell so fresh and so clean.

In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well.

You can also add 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil.

Use 1/2-1 cup per load, shaking or stirring soap before each use (it will gel a little).

You can buy jars or containers and package this up very nicely to give as gifts. Great idea for the person who is everything or if you don't know what to get someone. Who doesn't use laundry detergent?