IN FAIR VERONA!!!

Earlier, I said that I've become my family's semi-permanent maid, but not to make it official or anything, I just whipped up what I think may be the best masterpieces I've ever created in my whole life! For two days in a row, I have actually perfected two dishes (as in aprub sa aking sibs and hopefully kay papa, i haven't checked yet): BEEF and Mushroom with gravy and BABY BACK RIBS!

beef, mushroom and gravy

beef and mushroom rice topping!

the perfect gravy!!

beef and mushroom again!

with butter!!

ribs broiling!

juicy!!!

the marinade with tarragon bits!

the yummy finished product!

Hindi naman sa nagyayabang pero in all the years that I have been cooking (yehes, matagal na? haha), never have I cooked anything as sumptuous and mouth-watering (and to think that I haven't cooked in a while because I was too busy in school and all).

Story behind Beef and Mushroom:

Back in high school, we loved these rice meals sold at our canteen. My personal favorite was their Beef and Mushroom with gravy and butter! I know I've tried this recipe a few times but I have never perfected the gravy! For some reason, the gravy always tasted too bland no matter how many seasonings I add into it, but last night, I don't really know what has gotten into me, but it tasted like heaven! weh! HAHAHHA EXAGG! as if I've ever been there. I cannot describe how I felt perfecting the thing (siguro dahil effective nga na isama mo yung tapa meat juice na natira dun sa frying pan). Then I added milk, cornstarch and voila! We have a very tasty gravy!!

Story behind Baby Back Ribs:

This one I cannot really believe I cooked. My mom makes this, but I should say that mine tasted better! hahaha!! PEACE MAMA! So I took out this frozen meat from the freezer and not knowing what exactly it was, I let it thaw while I watched Doraemon and downloaded apps for my fone (which was addicting btw). When I found out that the meat was actually pork RIBS, I had this idea of making baby back ribs! So I looked up a few recipes on the internet (btw, I didn't know that baby back ribs was just meat slathered with BBQ sauce! I thought that there was some secret sauce or something, MEGANON?). Unfortunately, we didn't have BBQ sauce here so I looked for an alternative. Then I found this recipe with ingredients that I can manage to substitute with whatever stuff we have here at home.

So the recipe says to make a marinade out of: Worcestershire sauce, onions, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar etc...

The dilemma: I didn't have any of those, so I made a marinade out of the following instead: Ketchup, white sugar, good ol' soy sauce, osyter sauce, tarragon and cayenne pepper (the beef and mushroom I cooked last night was a bit  sooooo spicy so I didn't add as much cayenne pepper this time!)

I boiled the meat before marinading in the improvised sauce and put it into the turbo broiler! And about 25 minutes later, we now have the BEST TASTING-made-by-an-amateur BABY BACK RIBS!! In fair Verona (in fairness!), this tasted deliciouso!! How I wish I could cook this again another time and not be just a one-time-bigtime chamba!

So there you go, I still have laundry to do so adieu!!! Have a great day!