Ervilhas com Ovos

Hi everyone :)

Hope we are all doing great! Sorry I haven't been posting for a very long time, things have just been very hectic with school work, my birthday, Thanksgiving...which by the way I hope you all enjoyed spending with loved ones and eating yummy food :D haha.

Well the other night I tried one of my favorite Portuguese recipes called Ervilhas com Ovos, which is peas mixed with egg and chourico which is a Portuguese sausage. My Bio Odete used to make this for me all the time when I came home from school and I thought I would just love to know how to make what she made.

Okay so first we start off by chopping up some onions and tomatoes and just throw them into the pot to let them cook a little....you can even throw a bay leaf in there for some more flavor if you'd like :)

Once the onions and the tomatoes have gotten a little bit soft, you can just throw in a whole back of peas, or depending on the amount of people you are going to be feeding, you can add in another half a bag or even two bags will do...

Leave the peas to start cooking for about few minutes, you will know when the peas are cooked...when they start getting soft haha just poke one with a knife and if they are starting to get soft, make holes in the pot as that is where you are going to be putting the eggs.

Once you have cracked the eggs into those holes, cut up some regular sausage (since they don't sell chourico here in the States) and just throw them in along with everything else then close the pot and wait for the eggs to harden.

Your dish should look like this once it starts finishing up.

It is very simple and easy to make and tastes so good!

I hope you all enjoy it, sometime for Christmas I will be attempting to make Portuguese rolls for the family and I am super excited, so wish me luck! :D

One Pot Fried Sausage & Potatoe

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't been on here for a while, I have been hectically busy with school and trying to catch up on portfolios and notes and all that fun stuff! LOL

Anyway I am extremely happy with this dish I had made last night for supper. It was quick and easy and came out YUMMY!!

Potatoes
Onions
Olive oil
Kielbasa Smoked Sausage
Olives
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Eggs


Okay so first we chopped up a single onions into fine, diced pieces and threw them into a pan with some olive oil. Let those go a little bit while you dice up some potatoes as well, make sure the cubes are not too small but not too big either we wouldn't want them to be too small that the mash up while stirring them and we don't want them to take forever to cook. We used 8 potatoes total to feed 4 people we kind of judged so I'm sure you would be able to judge just how many potatoes you need to feed the whole family!

Once the potatoes are rinsed and ready for cooking, throw them in with the onions and let those cook a bit. Keep an eye on them and stir them constantly so that they don't burn but just soften up a bit. 

As soon as the potatoes start to turn soft and into a beautiful yellow/brown color, cut up some of that Kielbasa Smoked Sausage and add that into the pan. Add some salt, pepper, and some paprika if you would like.

Your taste buds are a little different to mine so you decide what kind of flavors you would like in your dish :)

While all of that is going you can throw in an egg or two and just stir to get that beautiful mixture going! And if you want, you can throw in some yummy olives just to top it all off :)

Enjoy it!! :)

Cottage Pie!

This is a very simple and easy recipe of Cottage Pie, most of you know it as Shepard's Pie :)
We always used to make this back home in South Africa and I have to say it is one of my favorite meals.

Potatoes

Onion

Ground Beef

Grated Cheese

Frozen mixed vegetables

(peas,corn,carrots)

Bay leaf

Olive Oil

As you can see, the ingredients didn't have certain amounts because with this meal, you basically just need to judge depending on how much you want to make.

Begin boiling some potatoes, I used about 8 potatoes over here to feed a family of four, you can can judge how much you want. While that is going, chop up some onions in very fine dices and throw that into a pan with olive oil and some bay leaf. Let those just sit there until they are a yellow sort of color and look softer, if they start to turn brown and if the oil is close to disappearing :P just either add a little bit of some water or you could even add a bit more oil. Once they start looking yellow, break up the ground beef and throw it in there along with the onions.

Most of you spice your ground beef before putting it into the pan, but I throw it in there and once it starts getting a bit brown then I begin to spice it. We do usually marinade the meat in the spices that morning or even the night before, then just throw it in a Tupperware and in the fridge ready to use for that night!

Spice the ground beef according to your taste buds :P...I put the usual salt and pepper, but then I also put garlic and onion powder and maybe a little bit of some Paprika, barbeque spices and maybe even some steak and chops...depends on how we feel. Once you have let the meat cook a bit, throw in some mixed vegetable if you want, or you can just leave it plain.

While you ground beef is underway, start making the mashed potatoes. To get that creamier texture add some milk and butter while mashing, add salt and pepper. Keep adding until it tastes perfect to you! :P

Once the ground beef and mash have been made, add it all in a pan but layer it...one layer ground beef and the next layer mash, but always make sure the last layer is mash. Grate some cheese and sprinkle that all over the top.

Place the pan into the oven and bake for up to 15 minutes! 

While that is going, do not forget to start CLEANING UP YOUR KITCHEN!! :D 

We all know it's not fun to clean up and we always want to start crying when we see the mess x_x but it has to be done and you will feel good once your kitchen is spotless again. 

Hope you guys enjoy the Cottage/Shepard's Pie :D

Wonderful Waffles

So since this is my first time "blogging and cooking", I thought I would try something plain and simple and what a better and easier recipe to try than waffles!!
I just love waffles and especially at breakfast time. I did cheat a little and use the box mix instead of making them from scratch, but that is a project I will tackle very, very soon! 

Okay...so as I said before, I didn't make these from scratch, I used Betty Crocker's Bisquick Original Pancake and Baking Mix, works just as great in my opinion :)

2 Cups of Bisquick Mix
1 1/3 of Milk
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Egg



Mix all ingredients together and make sure there are not a lot of lumps in the mixture and that it is mixed well. 

Take out your fancy little waffle maker and start warming it up. Mine is very small and doesn't have a high or low setting, it's just one of those that plug in and warm up by themselves...

Hehe nothing special...anyway...back to the yummy stuff!!

 When your waffle maker is warmed up and ready, pour the mixture in the center of the square with a spoon, I use a big plastic spoon, but of course, any spoon will work.

Close the lid and let the maker do its job. Check the waffles a few times and once they are a beautiful goldish brown color, use a spatula and set them aside on a plate and get ready to make the next two :)

LOL so as you can see...the first few didn't come out so great, but the ones after that came out perfect...

Now...I don't know about you, but I love a lot of syrup on my waffles with some ice-cream or maybe even some cream, unfortunately I had non in the house, but you get the idea! ;) Many people out there may love peanut butter and jelly spread all over their waffles...everyone has their own tastes. Another yummy way I like to eat my waffles is with peanut butter and banana jam spread on it or even just sliced up bananas. Try it and see what you think! <3

 
 

 

All about me as an 18 year old in training

So this is my first entry on my first blog and I have to say I am very nervous, but at the same time, very excited! I am doing this blog for a school project and I hope that it will grow into something more, not only will it be for school and to get good grades but this will also be my online journal for me to write all my experiences about cooking. The reason I chose cooking as the theme of my blog is because I have no experience in cooking and I would love to learn how to make all these amazing meals. I am half Portuguese and I will be putting a lot of Portuguese dishes and recipes on my blog, but I am also South African and I will also be putting a lot of South African recipes on here as well. 

I hope this blog turns out to be a huge success and I look forward to meeting my followers! :)