GINGERED MELON

Gingered melon recipe, here are the ingredients:

1 tbsp confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
cantaloupe, sliced into wedges

Mix confectioner's sugar with ground ginger. Sprinkle over chilled cantaloupe. Serve as appetizer. Plain and simple appetiser made home style.

GLAZED CARROTS

Glazed Carrots is the best appetizer and a healthy one also. For this recipe, here are the ingredients:

3 medium size carrots, cut into 1" pieces
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
1-1/2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tsp orange peel

Place carrots and water in the casserole. Cover with tight fitting lid or plastic wrap. Microwave on high 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. Let stand for 5 minutes; drain.

Combine brown sugar, orange juice, orange peel and butter or margarine in cup. Microwave on high 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Pour over carrot. Cover. Microwave on high 1 to 2 minutes or until heated through. Serve after the last process.

CAKE FESTIVAL FOR 2010

I never thought that this kind of festival to happen in our city. I only see this kind of festival in other countries, where cakes are their passion to make. Europeans are cake lovers and they eat cakes almost every other day. But to amazement that the cake festival is here in our city. I was called by my friend who is a master baker and a chef of a restaurant in the downtown metro. She told me that there is something happening new in the city and I must come or else I will miss the first thing that I wanted to see before.

I immediately dressed up and leave the cooking duties to my other chef. But I already prepared the menu for the day. I made sure that everything will be okay before I leave the restaurant. I promised my assistant chef that I will be back immediately after I see the event. The event was hosted by Red Ribbon and Goldilucks, two cake companies that are well-respected in the cake industry. Aside from them, there are also other companies that listed as sponsors like Elba gas range, La Germania, Raffles and others more. It was held only in the mall display area and many joined the event.

The culinary school that I graduated from also send representatives to make the school known. As I enter the display area, I saw hundreds of cakes and all of them were telling me to take me I'm yours. I know I was just hallucinating about that but my interest was revive by the event. I was told by my friend that the event is only one day and that is why she called me immediately because she knew that I love cakes and bake goodies.

YUMMY CHEESECAKE

I just can't wait to share this recipe to you guys. This is my favorite among all cakes. Here is the amazing and yummy cheesecake. Here are the ingredients;

Crust:
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter

Cake:
1 pkg cream cheese
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of grated lemon peel
1/4 vanilla
1 egg

Glaze:
2 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp brown sugar

The baking proper: prepare crust, combine flour, sugar and butter. Mix it well. Press in bottom of greased 4.5 to 5 inch round pan. Bake it for about 325F oven 15 to 20 minutes or until light brown. Remove from oven.

Prepare cake: Mash cream cheese and blend with sugar, pinch of grated lemon peel, vanilla and egg. Mix well. Pour into crust and bake for about 325F oven, 15 minutes or until set.

Prepare Glaze: Mix sour cream with brown sugar and spread on cheesecake. Let it cool, then chill again before serving it.

COOKING AS FAST AS I CAN

I was in the house of my chef friend and things were getting a little bit boring. So, we decided to make something and that is a contest among us. The rule was to navigate the recipe books around and learn as many as four dishes and then cook it as fast as you can. We were around 5 in that meeting and we almost digested the entire recipe book collection of our friend. From the easy American dishes to the more detailed Italian dishes were all tackled. Our friend'c kitchen was big enough to accommodate all 5 chefs, busy and engaging in cooking.

We all wanted to make the dishes delicious and we also invited some of our chef friends in the culinary school to visit the house be the cooking judge. The cooking of the dishes started around 10 am and was done by 10:55. We cooked all the dishes that we memorized and present it in the grandest food preparation we can. There were no prizes given but only laughter.

LETS GET PHYSICALLY FIT BY EATING THE RIGHT FOODS

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of wellnessdaily.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

Whenever I prepare a dish in my restaurant, I always make sure that the food that I cook are healthy. I don't want to cook a dish that would be detrimental to the health of my customers. That is why, I prepare foods that are healthy. I use vegetables and non-fatty meats in my dishes and I make sure that fruits will always be present in every table. As a chef, I want to prepare only foods that are healthy and good for the body. I stopped cooking dishes that are too salty and oily because these foods can cause or lead to unhealthy body to my diners.

I got this idea when I was reading an article from www.wellnessdaily.com and since then I never prepared anything bad for the health dishes. I follow dietary tables and make sure that I never miss it. I also followed the advised in the wellnessdaily.com that I should should prepare foods that are right. Being healthy is what I want to share to my restaurant goers. As they eat my food, they are assured that they are eating the right one and healthy as well. Visit www.wellnessdaily.com and learn more about staying healthy and eating the right ones. Sign up and join their twitter contest. You might be the lucky one to win Jennie-O Turkey store products, coupons and a gym session that lead to a healthy body.

Speaking of healthy dishes, I also made a small recipe book that list all the recipes that I want to share to those who want to learn how to cook healthy foods. I am sure that this healthy recipe book will be very helpful to everyone.

ALMOND COCO ICE CREAM

Almond is one of the best nuts that are present in all supermarkets. The taste of almond really rocks my world and placing it in a home made ice cream is better as always. Here are the ingredients for this wonderful dessert.

1/4 cup chopped toasted almond
1/3 cup toasted shredded coconut
1/2 tsp almond flavoring
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened

This dessert is very easy to do. All you have to do is combine the almond and the coconut. reserve 2 teaspoons for topping. Fold remaining nuts, coconut and almond flavoring. Spoon into 8 paper cups. Sprinkle with topping. Place in the freezer until ready to be served.

THE KEY TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL CHEF

I noticed there are many graduates in the culinary school and yet few among this graduates reach the chef level. Many students think by just graduating from the culinary school makes them automatic chefs. But that is not the case for all. To be chef or reach the chef level, you must be able to gain enough cooking experience and further your cooking studies. Having a masters degree in cooking is always a must in order to become a chef.

Here are the things that you should do before you become a chef.

1. You must have a preparatory studies before taking up the culinary studies proper. The course that one should take must be hotel and restaurant management. It is because this course have the the preparatory cooking lessons that are much needed in the culinary school.

2. Select a culinary school where you will be studying. I would suggest that you select a culinary school with an international affiliation with other culinary schools abroad. The director of the culinary school must be well respected in the culinary industry and a master chef already, a level that is earned through years of experience in local and abroad cooking studies and practice.

3. Enroll again in further cooking studies. Baking and other learning studies will do. But make sure that the school that you will be entering again as an international accreditation from all culinary schools.

4. Try to work in a hotel or a high level restaurants. This will train you more in cooking. You get to develop your skills in cooking further. Chefs are highly in demand right now locally and internationally. So that means, you won't have any problem with the hiring and experience. Do not just accept any company that will give you cooking experience. You must always consider the gravity of the cooking experience.

5. Try to study again and enroll yourself to gain more cooking knowledge and experience. Learning to cooking is a never ending learning. Here, you must be able to get your masters degree in cooking. This time you can consider yourself a chef already.

These are key steps to become a successful chef. Always remember that the more you gain learning in cooking, the more you become qualified to be called a chef.

RECIPE HOLDER IS VERY IMPORTANT IN EVERY KITCHEN

Have you experienced cooking and holding a heavy recipe book in your arms? Well, that is what I experience often. We chefs always consult our recipe books whenever we cook dishes. I may say, that is our bible in cooking. It is not enough that we just place the recipe book on a plain surface and glance every time we look at the procedures. To solve this heavy burden of carrying the recipe book, I bought a recipe holder.

A recipe holder is a thing that holds the recipe book while a chef do the cooking. Instead of carrying the heavy recipe book, a recipe holder makes wonder and the pleasure of holding the recipe book. The recipe holder is very useful because it make cooking a lot easier than holding the recipe book. In just a glance, I can check the recipe book immediately without perspiring due to the heavy recipe book.

The recipe holder is very much available in all kitchen ware departments. There are several sizes that you can choose from. There is the small, medium and large sizes, depending on the recipe book that you are using while cooking. Me, I have 3 pieces of this recipe book holder. My kitchen is like a cooking library but is very convenient on my part as the chef to make the cooking.

ALMOND MIX

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1-1/2 cups skim milk
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tbsps flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond flavoring
4 almond shaves

Procedure;

Beat eggs thoroughly in top of double boiler. Add milk constantly, stirring continuously. In a bowl, combine sugar, flour and salt. Add egg mixture and mix well. Cook over hot water, stirring constantly until mixture coats spoon and is slightly thickened. Remove from hot water at once and add almond flavoring. Let cool, then chill. Garnish with almond shaves before serving.

NEW TABLES FOR MY RESTAURANT

I just renovated my restaurant to make the place more attractive to all my customers. Everything inside my restaurant I changed, from the dining chairs, dining tables and even the utensils that I place in the table. Many of of my loyal restaurant eaters were asking me about the renovation. Actually the renovation in the restaurant is very timely since I needed to change all the things and the ambiance inside.

I want to pump fresh ideas and inspirations inside the restaurant. The menu book was also changed and the counter. The dishes in the restaurant will be more European and American dishes. These dishes are the most ordered in the restaurant. Beside, majority of my customers are Americans and Europeans. They really like the dishes that I cook and prepare in my kitchen. They even nominated me as the best Asian chef. But I am very flattered about that.

Aside from that, I am expecting foreign chefs this week. They will be inspecting my restaurant and rate it. The ratings are from the world chef association and it will serve as an accreditation of my restaurant that it passed international standards in the restaurant level. The dishes that will be prepared in the kitchen will still have the same taste since the chefs that will be doing the cooking are still the same. I also bought new recipe books for the restaurant use. Few days to go and everything will be completed.