miss kellyannfreire

Last night my Aunt Peelee and Uncle Charlie were coming down from Georgia to visit. I thought I’d do something nice and I chose to bake a cake for them. Looking through a baking book I had, the three tier German Chocolate cake looked perfect. So I made the cakes (which was a challenge in itself cause you had the dry ingredients, the wet and then the butter and sugar mixture…that wasn’t looking to “light and fluffy”) and they were looking okay. While they were in the oven I started to make the coconut part. It required evaporated milk, sugar, butter, pecans, and coconut. You basically cook it all together in a sauce pan at a boil and then let it cool and thicken. I’m making this sound easy…but it really wasn’t. Plus I’m horrible at baking. After the cakes came out started to stack them and put the coconut/pecan part in the middle. And made my beautiful three tier German chocolate cake. For some reason though, as I was soaking in my great success, I grabbed the can of evaporated milk and decided to look at the date. AUGUST 12, 2005. 

Enough said. What made it better was the rust inside the can. Goodbye German chocolate cake… I was defeated :(

For my senior trip we traveled in Europe to Italy, Germany and my favorite Austria. If I could go back right now I would. The atmosphere there was nothing like I’ve felt before. I felt like I was in the Sound of Music. In our rooms we would keep the windows and doors open all night with no problem, because it was such a safe environment. My favorite part of Austria was the food though. The fact that they have about 5 servings for one meal was awesome. 1. Appetizer 2. Soup 3. Salad 4. Entree and 5. Dessert. Everything was always so delicious! But my favorite/best thing I had there wasn’t during dinner time, instead it was from breakfast. I never liked yogurt, not the biggest fan until Austria. I had the most delicious plain yogurt I have ever had. I swear it tasted as if they just made it from the cows outside the window. I had it everyday I was there. They served it with raisins, cranberries, and granola. It was so delicious, I couldn’t get enough of it. It was sweet and perfectly creamy and smoothe. Still, I haven’t tasted that same yogurt. No matter how organic, fresh and perfect it says on the label…its nothing like the yogurt in Austria.

Thats the best thing I ever tasted :)

misskellyannfreire

I guess you can say my absence has been a bit long, but I’m gonna try harder, promise! So! Last night I went to a new Japanese restraunt called, Maido. Very small and homey feel. I believe there’s only 30 seats available! A bar to watch the one sushi chef, who is also the owner, and regular table seating. I ordered one ingredient sushi rolls - avocado roll, grilled salmon, and a spicy tuna roll. I truly can say one of the top 5 best sushi. Everything is perfectly simple.

Yum yum :) I highly recommend a visit!

I’ll be back! - I promise!

Miss kellyannfreire

My new found favorite food is sushi! Well, its not new to me, but it has now become my favorite meal. And what makes it so much better is how easy it is to make! The only items you need is, bamboo mat, seaweed, rice, uncooked fish (such as tuna and salmon), avocado, cream cheese, aspargus, pinapple, eel, japanese mayo, norman brothers mustard sauce ;), and whatever else you want. What makes this even better is, you don’t need all of that! You pick a choose what you want. On this night we were feeding seven people so we had a lot!

You start off with your bamboo mat. (Remember to keep your area dry!) Then you place the seaweed down (shiny side up!). Wet your hands to handle the rice and pat it down leave at the top a line without anything. Then you add whatever you want! My favorite is spice tuna. Lay it down the middle of the roll. You roll the whole thing 360 degrees, pinch it and then roll it out from you. Put pressure so its tight and then slice into 6 or 8 pieces!

What makes this so easy is, theres not much to cook and its fast! I highly recommended everyone to try sushi and try making it too. The ingredients vary in prices, but you can certainly make it affordable for any night!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, comment below!

-misskellyannfreire

I was asked the questions what my favorite protein, starch, and veggie was. I answered steak, pasta and peas. Now how do I make that into one meal? I’ve always thought steak was something that was seperate from its sides. Pasta could be a meal in itself and peas…classic easy veggie. But all together?

I got my skirt steak, peas and linguni pasta from work then add on some mushrooms and pesto sauce. I started with the steak - thinking it was probably the ingredient that would take the longest. Little did I know, the pasta was actually the one that took the longest. The steak took about 8 minutes to get pink in the middle (my favorite). I threw the steak in the oven to stay warm and finished up the pasta. The peas were done from steaming in the microwave. I wrapped them in wet paper towels for about two minutes. I didn’t put enough water and two minutes its too long. =/

Finally the pasta was done, I drained it and put the noodles right back into the pot. I poured the pesto and some extra, extra virgin olive oil in, mushrooms, and the peas. I mixed it all together! And after, I mounted the pasta on a plate, sliced the steaks and served to my starving boyfriend.

The bella mushrooms really didn’t go well with the sauce or steak. I could have cooked those separately in some herbs. The pasta become a little dry, a little olive oil on top may have helped. The steak did fit the meal though. It gave it a hardy side.

Was it the best meal? No

Was it good? Yes, when your hungry

I’m proud with how I did on my challange. I would make Jay proud…I think!

thanks everyone!

try your own challange. Think of your favorite protein, starch and veggie and try putting it all together! Leave my feedback!

misskellyannfreire

Here in Miami we have both! I prefer a nice glass of orange juice over OJ Simpson any day.

I absolutely love orange juice and with such a strong love for it, I can get pretty picky with which orange juice I rather have in the morning.

Sadly, these two very commonly loved orange companies just don’t cut it for me. I find the taste to be very sweet - in a not freshly squeezed way. Like they had to add 2 cups of sugar. Also, after finishing drinking, I have a weird after taste that just wont go away!

This is an example of an orange juice I rather have, Simply Orange :)

Though nutrition facts vary depending on what kind of orange juice your drinking I’m going to name out a few general facts.

Orange juice has one of the most important antioxidants that helps support a healthy immune system -Vitamin C. One 8 ounce glass of 100% Florida orange juice provides at least 100% of the Daily Value.

Did you know oranges are a type of berry?

About only 20% of the total sold are as whole oranges. 80% are sold to create juice.

Oranges aren’t named after the color, they’re named after the fragrance. Orange in Tamil naru means “fragrant”.

There are three basic types of oranges - sweet, bitter and loose skinned.

My favorite type of orange are clementines :)

Have an orange today! :)

Thanks for reading

-miss kellyannfreire

I’m sorry again about me not posting so many blogs recently. Studying, working and anything else fate can throw at me is keeping me busy! This upcoming weekend and week will be bring a lot more blogs. So hang in there :)

But to show that I am still thinking of food (not that I ever truly stop thinking about it) here is a quick fact about:

Black and White Pepper

Did you know that white pepper is stronger than black pepper?

When you go out to eat and you see the pepper shaker do you notice that there are two different colors of pepper in the glass? Usually you see more black than white because of how strong the white pepper is. The black, more mild taste pepper, is there to settle down the flavor.

When cooking sometimes you need to carefully read what kind of pepper they ask for. Sometimes they only ask for black or only for white pepper. Usually the white pepper amount is going to a smaller portion. You never know though, there might be a typo and it might ask for 1 cup of white pepper. Learning that white pepper is a strong ingredient, you should start to realize…that just can’t be right. You’re meal will be impossible to enjoy.

But hopefully this quick fact was enjoyable!

I would like to dedicate this post to: Ken Goff :)

thanks for reading! there will be more post!

-miss kellyannfreire

So its been a while since I’ve been on. Sorry, if anyone is reading this. Some things came up and I was unable to keep up with it for the past week and so many days. But today, was a new day and I was ready to cook!

My mother left me out some ground beef for hamburgers and I thought I should remake my past disaster. Telling people about how I made the hamburgers they offered me two advices, 1) put an egg in the mix and 2) don’t mix wet ingredients with dry. They sound reasonable so I tried it.

I tried the same ingredients as before (bread crumbs, onion, garlic, pepper, a pinch of salt) I did take out cumin. Though one of the advices said to keep dry away from wet ingredients I still added a little bit of worchestershire.

Heated the pan to medium high with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I made five plump patties from it.

I let them brown on both sides and then lowered the heat. I used tongs to flip them.

Added my favorite cheese - American

Yay! They actually…kinda…stayed together! Maybe the egg really worked :D

Served with Tostido Chips it was a perfect lunch!

I hope the next time you try to make burgers to remember to add an egg!

thanks for reading

- miss kellyannfreire

PEANUT BUTTER! Did I actually enjoy this brownish looking, sometimes crunchy or creamy, no butter added, molasses, disgusting food?!

At work today our sampler woman, Sandra, asked me, “Alex! Do you want to try some apple and peanut butter?” (Yes, she thinks my name is Alex. I’ve been there for almost 6 months now, so I don’t bother correcting her). Anyways, I replied back, “I’ll have the apple, no peanut butter please.” Then it clicked in my mind…wait Kelly, you’re supposed to be eating peanut butter. So I said, “Sandra put a little bit of peanut butter on it. I’ll try it.” I went over to her little table and watched her slice an apple and then cover the whole thing with peanut butter! I was like oh god! No! Not that much! What am I supposed to do now?? Well, even with the pound of peanut butter on my little slice of apple, I said why not? I took a bit and at first bite I was like oh gosh, here we go. But then as I kept chewing, I realized this is pretty good. The sweetness from the apple really went through the freshly ground peanut butter. ( I know they’re freshly ground because I watched them get freshly ground by the Juice Bar).

I gotta say, it was pretty good. So good I actually bought a tub of the peanut butter and some apples. Maybe this can be my favorite new snack? Or maybe, it was just the awesome peanut butter from Norman Brothers and this was all a fluke.

Who knows, but what I do know for sure is: I did enjoy Peanut Butter and Apples!

thanks for reading!

- miss kellyannfreire

With a patient empty stomach my house guest Gaby Losada watched and waited as I went with the flow on my salmon meal. Looking at two pounds of salmon was a bit intimidating. I mean its this huge two pound thing of pink flub. But I love salmon! Its so rich and moist whenever cooked…properly.

So going into this I hoped my outcomes would meet my expectation and especiallyMiss Gaby’s. I thought to myself would could I make out of this. I finally came up with a classic and common way to cook salmon, with Teriyaki! One of my personal favorites.

I placed the salmon into a cake pan. I added low sodium Teriyaki, lemon, ginger, and pepper. Simple! And, honestly I hate measuring. Which is why I really suck at baking, so I eyeballed it. Kinda added it all in to what looked good to my eyes and what I like more. For example, I love lemon and pepper. So, I really packed in the lemon and lots of extra pepper.

I placed the pan into my oven at 350 degrees. I put 20 minutes, checked it…not done. Another 15….getting there. 10 Minutes…almost! 5 mintutes…yes! I looks great! So a total of 45 minutes. But remember! Everyone’s oven is not the same. My 350 can be your 250 or your 450, so like I usually do. Eyeball it.

During this, I was cooking some long grain white rice. I chopped some green onions and added it to the rice. When serving I placed the salmon next to the rice. Added some extra lemon juice on top of it all and sliced the lemon to add as garnish ;).

And poof! A wonderful, and very simple meal. Yeah it was a slow cooker, but it was worth it!

I hope you all try this recipe! Trust me! Its easy!

thanks for reading

-miss kellyannfreire

You can’t always have success can you? This is a classic example of Trial and Error. I was getting pretty hungry Friday afternoon, but I refused to order in. I wanted to cook something! I mean, I’m writing a blog on me cooking, wouldn’t it be weird if I went to ordering fast food and delivery?

So, looking through my fridge I start to lean towards the ordering more and more and I noticed there wasn’t anything to eat! Until, I saw some already proportionedhamburger meat. I love a good hamburger. Thinking to myself I though, “Well, maybe I can try to make my own kind of burger. My own seasonings!” I started to look through the cabinets and started to grab anything that sounded like it would go together, I ended up with: 1 clove of garlic, half a small onion, cumin, bread crumbs, pepper, and that worcestershire sauce. Sounded pretty good to me! I was thinking it was going to be an awesome smokey heated burger. The bread crumbs would give it a crisp while the sauce held it all together. And better than anything I add no salt! Which is a huge achievement for me.

I cooked them into a skillet. I made five palm size 1/2 thick burgers. While I was cooking and trying to flip them, they started to break apart and the more and more they cooked for the more and more it looked like just a pan full of ground meat. Except for one! My little survivor made it through perfectly intact! I put a slice of american cheese on him let it melt and set him on my plate. I placed some of the cooked onions and juice from the burgers right on top. And bam! A nice hamburger! (No buns by the way) Perfect for me!

I think it was the bread crumbs that broke them apart. I’ll have to try something else next time.

If you don’t successed the first time, try and try again! :)

Thanks for reading!

-miss kellyannfreire

When finding out she had a twin going to the same camp Lindsey Lohan, in the Parent Trap, shared a bonding moment with her newly found identical looking sister by having their favorite snack, Oreo’s dipped into Peanut Butter. Maybe if I had a digital movie version twin of myself, we would share the dislike of this snack. (By the way, when this movie did come out I really thought they were twins. Someone had to crush my hopes to it and told me they weren’t! It was kinda like finding out that santa clause or the tooth fairy weren’t real).

When I took my first bite into the Oreo with some peanut butter on the top, I said to myself, “This isn’t too ad either, I don’t really taste the peanut butter!” But, like the banana, once I kept chewing the Oreo and it got to side with the peanut butter I got a wave of goosebumps and wasn’t enjoying myself anymore. I’ve heard its supposedly tastes like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but obviously I’ve never had one. So, I asked my mother to try it out. Surprisingly she was hesitant. She finally tried and shruged her shoulders and said, “It kinda does.”

Still, no improvement on the taste buds. I still don’t like peanut butter.

In my earlier post this morning I had said I would be trying my Grandpa Harry’s favorite, Peanut Butter and Mayo sandwhich, but I think I’m going to wait on that one. It’s a bit advance for me.

Thanks for reading!

-miss kellyannfreire

Taking a break from the peanut butter adventure (thank God) I decided to cook up a dinner for some friends that we can all relate to, the Florida Keys. Living in Miami we do love our citrus’. Limes, Lemons, Grapefruit, Oranges, and many more.

This meal was the easiest yet, though I’ve only cooked up one other meal for this blog. Just in a general life this was really easy and anyone can find the ingredients in their fridge. Boneless Chicken breast, lime, ginger, garlic, crushed red pepper, and an orange. Plus, I served it on a bed of rice.

First you put the garlic and chicken in a large skillet on medium high for about 12-14 minutes. While its cooking zest the limes, and juice them into a bowl. Add ginger and crushed red peppers and leave on to the side. Peel and slice an orange. When the chicken is almost done add the lime juice and oranges to the chicken. Cover with top and leave in for 2 to 3 more minutes. And thats it! Easy as that.

At the end of the meal everyone was sitting with empty plates so I think it was pretty good!

Today I go back to my peanut butter…I think I’ll be trying it like my Grandpa Harry used to eat it.

Peanut Butter….and Mayo.

- miss kellyannfreire

The main ingredients in the famous Elvis Presley sandwhich are not so famous in my heart. Yes, I did eat this and yes, I did not enjoy it. I must admit though, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. The mild taste form the banana settled out the stronger taste of the peanut butter. Sadly, once the banana flavoring was gone and all was left was the peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth, I wanted to gag! I think I have Arachibutyrophobia: fear of peanut butter being stuck to the roof of your mouth. Every single time it happens I start to hysterically laugh and I hate that feeling that I can’t speak! There are probably other people out there that go through some serious anxiety attacks over it, but I sure don’t find it fun.

Ugh, peanut butter…somehow I find no liking in it, but maybe I will find it to be somewhat enjoyable after this :) I mean, my own dogs love it, why can’t I?

Send me in any of your favorite and weird peanut butter snacks and I’ll try them :)

Thanks for reading!

-miss kellyannfreire

Before matching up to my competitor, I wanted to know, what is peanut butter really?

Did you know?

Peanut Butter goes back all the way to 1884.

There is no butter in peanut butter. It is named after the same texture and how it is spreadable like butter.

Surveys say that woman and children choose creamy and most men choose chunky.

It takes about 550 peanuts to make one 12 ounce jar of creamy peanut butter.

Dentist around the 1890s would use it for patients with bad teeth.

Peanuts are actually not nutes! They are legums. They originated in Brazil.

I never knew any on these facts. Quite interesting things, but I’m still not a fan.

Watch my video on my first day eating peanut butter! A spoonful of peanut butter would never make the medicine go down.

Thanks! and I hope you enjoy the video!

- miss kellyannfreire

I was raised with my parents, two brothers, and my abuela and abuelo (fathers parents). While I was younger, my parents both had full time jobs and when my bother was born with medical issues, they focused a lot of their time on him. Now, I’m not here to start saying how my parents never loved me, because they did. They were just busy people. So, my grandparents took care of me. Now, both of them are from Cuba, and came to Miami Florida when they were in there thirties. Both are strong hispanics! Neither eat peanut butter! Or at least I never saw them eat it. I was never served a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich by them. I was served avocado, croquettas, and yellow rice! MMMM…now that sounds good! But two pieces of bread with this chunky peanut butter and grape jelly…yuck! So, I guess you can say, I was just never into it.

Now, my mother and younger brother on the other hand, they eat it from the jar with a spoon. I hate walking into the kitchen and i get this wall of peanut butter smell. Then I see them with a spoon, sometimes with just their finger, and dipping into the jar. I have a serious problem with peanut butter.

So, here is my next little mini goal during this journey! To MAYBE enjoy the taste of peanut butter! I’ve heard that if you eat something 10 days straight, you’re taste buds adapt to the new taste and you begin to like it. So starting today, i’ll be eating something with peanut butter. ><

Cross your finger! I hope this will work!

-miss kellyannfreire

Hey everyone! I just got finished with cleaning up my first meal! I had tenderloins, 7 spice pilaf, and a fruit sundae. I must say, I did a pretty good job for the first meal! There were a couple of bumps in the road and there is lots of room for improvement.

First off, I had no idea how exspensive tenderloins are! I didn’t even know what the crap they were! When I saw the price I just had to bite my lip and say to myself, “Its worth it!”  For being about 2 inches thick though, they cook real fast.

Another thing is…what’s cooking oil?! Is there a specific oil that is just simply called “cooking oil”? I don’t know, but I used Olive Oil. Turned out fine, I doubt anyone would be able to notice anyways, right?

I did forget one or two things. It didn’t ruin anything, but if I were to have those ingredients, I know it would have stepped it up. For example, my seven spice rice pilaf needed raisins. The rice with the seven spices (nutmeg, paprika, cumin, corriandor, cinnamon, condmom (sp?)) has a very earthy rustic kind of taste. The cinnamon really stuck out. It was great! But the sweetness of the raisins would have been perfect. Something to settle it. Another thing was, I only had six spices! I couldn’t find condmom…I think thats how you spell it! I was looking everywhere for it, but nothing.

With the tenderloin it had green onions, mushrooms, rosemary, and some garlic. I hate mushrooms, weird texture and I can’t ever put my finger on the taste. I gotta admit it though, they weren’t that bad with the whole meal put together. Which is great! Thats one thing I want to get out of this, appreciate food! I hope to like foods I didn’t before.

At the end, it was time to make my fruit sundae. Such an easy dessert! Waffle cones and fruit. First you have to blend up a cup of strawberries. Sadly, my mother ate my strawberries without knowing I needed them. I was trying to look for some other berries but nothing. So I saw in my freezer I had pineapple icecream! So I let it sit till it became soft. While it was softening, I chopped up apples, peaches, bananas, and tangerines. I threw all the fruit into the icecream and mixed it together. Then spooned it into the waffle cones. Super easy! I really liked it, it was so fresh and a perfect sweetness. Charlie my boyfriend wasn’t a fan. But you can’t please everyone right? At least he tried it :D

It was a great sucess! Not too hard, but I was a bit tired afterwards. I’m really excited to be doing this every week. I’ll be looking around and set up the new menu for next week.

Thanks for reading! Hope you keep following!

-miss kellyannfreire

Hi everyone and anyone! My name is Kelly Ann Freire. This is my new and first blog. I will be trying to cook a new recipe at least once a week. Yes, like from the movie Julie and Julia I will be cooking and blogging let you all know how it went! Unlike her, I am a poor college student and cannot afford to cook every day. Nor am I cooking from just one book. I will be trying different books, styles, cultures and even anything sent in to me.

So you know a little about myself, let me reintroduce myself. My name is Kelly Ann Freire. I am currently a student in Miami Dade College. I am majoring in Business Administration, but still doesn’t know for sure what I want to be when I grow up! I currently work in a fresh food store called, Norman Brothers. So obviously, I do like food. I live at home with my mother and brother. I have a cat named Penelope, but we call her Peepee. I also have two dogs named, Chester and Emma. I play the Euphonium in the Greater Miami Symphonic Band. If you don’t know what a Euphonium is, it’s kinda like a little Tuba. I do have a boyfriend, his name is Charlie. We are now going on 2 1/2 years. He has his own website called Yourwiseguy.com. Check it out!

Nothing special :)

What I hope to get out of this is to have fun! To expanded my look at food and different cultures. I hope to learn some tricks, styles, and experience. I do know how to cook, but its usually the basics. So, I want to try out of the ordinary things and make those my basics.

Tomorrow will be my first day of cooking. The book I am taking the recipe out of is The Big Book of 30-Minute Dinners! Now, it says 30 minutes…I’ve tried in the past Rachel Ray’s 30 minutes meals and those things do not take 30 minutes. Not once have I made one of those meals that quick. It usually takes like an hour. Sure, her show is thirty minutes but cooking it in thirty minutes is different. They must be doing some serious editing.

Here is the menu:

Entree - Tengerloins with Rosemary and Mushrooms

Side Dish - 7 Spices Rice Pilaf

Dessert - Fruit Sundaes

Hopefully its all going to work out and maybe take more or less 30 minutes!

Thanks for reading my first blog, I hope you follow me through this mission and have some fun with me!

-miss kellyannfreire