Quarter Baked Corn recipe

 

I found this recipe via Youtube, via Tiktok and it looked easy enough for me to make :)

The recipe I saw instructed us to season these corns with salt, peppers, and various spices (of your choice) 

Season them with salt, peppers and various spices along with olive oil and put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 430F, 220C.

This was very easy to make, the hardest step of this recipe is hacking the corn into quarters... 

The recipe called for a DIY spice... so I chose this steak seasoning from The Keg which worked very well since it contained everything I needed and more :). The highlights of this seasoning are garlic powder, onion powder, salt, red pepper and dill seed.

This is the olive oil I used, you can use any sort of olive oil to create the mixture.

Once you have rubbed your corn with steak seasoning and olive oil, you can put the corn in the oven. I wanted mine to be more flavourful, so I let it marinate for 20-30 mins. 

Set them in your oven or air fryer (both work as well). I find that every oven is a bit different... for my oven and air fryer, I put them in for 20 minutes at 430F/220C.

Your corn will curl when they are ready... they are almost ready in this picture. I took this picture at 12 minutes)

These are perfect :) These corns have the right curled curve and are ready to be eaten :)

I love how the corn kernels separate like this. This makes it easier to pluck them out with your teeth :)

They were good... the dill seeds were very aromatic and enhanced the taste of the corn :). The kernels were very sweet because they were evenly and perfectly cooked. 

Recipe Score: 8.5/10 (because hacking them to quarters requires skill and effort)

Mashed Potato Casserole recipe

(I wrote this without reviewing... apologizes in advance for any typos, grammatical errors and/or spelling mistakes)

So... I'm not sure whether I can call this a casserole, but I used a casserole pan for this dish and when I look up the definition of "casserole" this fits the description... sort of ;). 

It is winter, and it is cold. We have a whole bag of potatoes that are starting to sprout so before they all go bad, I decided to improvise and make this dish. It is a messy put-together dish but it takes little effort to make. It is also beginner friendly! I tried to be as detail-oriented as I possibly can in my instructions for those who might not be as experienced in cooking so don't let the number of steps scare you.

This recipe will make your potatoes fluffy and full of flavour. I hope you will enjoy :) I also like how the potato skin gets mashed into the mix so you will hardly notice that you are eating it.

You can do this with any potatoes. I had large and medium ones. But any potatoes will work.

Olive Oil I used

Ingredients:

• potatoes (as many as you like, but 4 medium ones (10 small ones) would be enough)
• olive oil (enough to cover all the potatoes)
• steak seasoning* 
• shredded cheese (any kind of cheese works, I used a three-cheese mix)
• optional: butter

*if you don't have any steak seasoning and none is accessible to you, then you can make your own by combining garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, salt and spice/herb of your choice (e.g. dill seeds, rosemary, oregano... etc

Steak Seasoning from The Keg

utensils and equipment needed:

• a pot for boiling/simmering the potatoes
• a masher or bowl to mash or squish the potatoes
• a casserole pan (or an oven tray)
• an oven (I used a toaster/air fryer oven)

Instructions:

1. Boil water in a large pot
2. Prepare the potatoes by cleaning/scrubbing them or getting rid of any sprouts, but keep the skin
3. Put the clean potatoes into boiling water and boil for about 30 minutes (make sure the water is boiling the whole time). The potatoes will be ready when you can poke a fork through them but the fork can't hold the potato (as in, the potatoes will fall off the fork).
   
   
   
4. Take the potatoes out and set them on a tray (for the oven) or a casserole dish
5. Mash the potatoes (in the tray/casserole dish) with a bowl or masher until the height of the potatoes is slightly lower than the rim of the tray/dish
6. Let them set for about 5 minutes (to get rid of some of the moisture)
   
   
   
7. Preheat your oven to 230/240 degrees celsius (or 450 degrees Fahrenheit)
8. Pour a liberal amount of olive oil on the mashed-up potatoes. The potatoes will absorb the olive oil but you will not need to add more olive oil. 
9. You can also add butter after the olive oil but this is optional since we will be covering the whole dish with cheese.
10. Sprinkle steak seasoning on the potatoes and make sure most of the potatoes are covered with the seasoning.
11. Cover all the potatoes with a layer of shredded cheese. You can choose mozzarella or cheddar. I chose a three-cheese mix. A pizza cheese mix or taco cheese mix will also work.
    
    
    
12. Put the tray/casserole dish into the oven. Be careful, the potatoes are heavy and the tray/casserole will be hot. Do not cover the dish with aluminum or tin foil.
13. Leave in the oven for 20-30 minutes (depending on your oven's cook time)
14. When the cheese had bubbled and started to look "done" it is ready! You can choose how golden yellow or golden brown you want your cheese to look.

 ENJOY!

Mac and Cheese from Scratch recipe

 

If I can cook, I'm sure everyone else can too! :D

The weather has been flirting with us lately... it can be 35 degrees (Celcius) a day then it can suddenly drop to just 12 degrees the next day... on colder days, my body craves comfort foods... so this is what I made!... It is a very simple recipe (and like I said... ANYONE can make this)

It took years for me to finally make a decent mac and cheese... Here's what I did! No cooking skills are required. I am terrible at giving measurements... so please adjust the amount according to your taste.

in the process... if you see your mixture looking like this, it is not ready

Ingredient list:

• water
• milk
• dry macaroni
• starch or flour
• butter
• salt
• powdered/grated parmesan cheese
• shredded cheddar cheese (if you prefer a less cheesy taste, shredded Mozerella cheese will do)

Instructions

1. Boil water and milk (in equal amounts) you can refer to your pasta/macaroni instructions on the box/bag for guidance. For example, if they call for 2 cups of water, then use 1 cup of water and 1 cup of milk.

2. When water and milk boil, add in dry macaroni

3. Let simmer and bring to a boil, if you want al dente, then let the macaroni boil for 4-7 minutes, 

4. While boiling, add in more milk, starch or flour, butter, salt, and stir. For this step, go easy on the starch/flour... if you add too much, your sauce will be too thick. (If you are into super thick sauces, then adding more than 2 teaspoons will be more than enough)

5. Once the consistency is creamy, add in powdered/grated parmesan cheese

6. Add in shredded cheddar cheese (or if you are afraid it will be too cheesy, add in a mix of cheddar and white mozzarella cheese). 

7. Bon Appetit!

Recipe: Keto Cheese Crisp's

cheese crisps

I was craving some cheese and came across these Keto Cheese snacks. These are super easy to make and I had all the ingredients (shredded cheese) so I gave it a try.

Things you will need:

• shredded cheese
• a piece of parchment paper (so it won't stick to your plate and it is easy to peel off the cheese)
• a microwave

Instructions:

Put a teaspoon worth of shredded cheese in a pile on a piece of parchment paper and pop it in the microwave for 40-90 seconds*. 

*Every microwave is different, my microwave was 50 seconds (most recipes I read had a range of a minute to a minute thirty seconds). 

I didn't expect them to turn out quite decent :P They are super crispy (if you let it cool for a few seconds) and they help satisfy your cheese craving. These are also Keto diet-friendly (for those of you who are on Keto Diets).

 

This method gets rid of a lot of the excessive oil in the cheese too :D... so you know... you will feel less guilty about eating/indulging them ;)

Single's Sliced Cheese version

I tried this with Single's Sliced cheese but it didn't work as well. (Single's Sliced cheese, for those who don't know, are those processed cheeses that come individually wrapped.)

cheese crisp using Singles Sliced Cheese (processed cheese slice)

While it does look as good as the shredded cheese version, it was less tasty. (Just leaving this here in case that is all you have... it works... but less tasty).