The Covert Housewife

We recently moved out of our place to move to a temp condo.  As we'll only be staying at the temp place for 6 months I really don't plan on getting huge and/or permanent items. We have a smaller space in the current place so I had to be creative with organizing my stuff.  Unlike our old place, this new one doesn't have a shoe cabinet.  So what I did was to convert the linen closet to a shoe closet (it was the most convenient location).  The only problem I had was the shelves have so much space in between each other making my shoe space limited.  So what I did was to search for a shoe rack that would serve as an "extension" of the current space. I checked Ace hardware but didn't find anything.  Luckily, my instincts told me to go to Japan Home - you know that place that sells everything for only 88 pesos?  And guess what? I found what I needed! They actually had a shoe stack but it only fit a pair so I bought the generic space expander and ...

This is a super fast and easy to do pasta recipe.  Another good thing about this is that you can do it in advance and store in the fridge. My stored bottle only lasts about 1 week but I reckon it will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge.  You just have to watch out for the basil leaves and make sure they're not too wilted. Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Ingredients: 300 grms of Sun Dried Tomatoes - I just use any brand that's available 1 pack of sweet basil leaves - I just buy the pre packed ones at the grocery, the more basil leaves the more flavorful 1/2-1 cup of grated parmasean cheese - better to use fresh but the dried bottle ones work too 1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil - can be adjusted depending on how much basil leaves you use Salt & Pepper to taste Angel hair pasta (or any kind of pasta) Procedure: Grind sun dried tomatoes (with oil) and basil in a food processor, put in EVOO if mixture gets too dry.  Put mixture in a bow...

I bought crushed graham crackers from Rustan's the other day and thought of trying out the no bake recipe on the package. It seemed pretty easy enough so I decided to just make revisions to the recipe as I went along.  Besides I didn't want to keep left over crushed graham crackers so I did 2 batches and modified with whatever ingredients I could find at home.  The receipe is below with my modifications in magenta. :) ps. Mr. Man enjoyed these - as usual he ate them with ice cream :) MY San Graham Brownies (CovertHousewife version) Ingredients: 1 Cup (10 crackers) M.Y. San Graham Honey, crushed (1 pack 200g Crushed Graham Crackers) ¼ cup peanuts, toasted, chopped (1/2 cup crushed cashews) 2 TBSP Confectioner’s sugar (none – didn’t have any) 1 TBSP Peanut butter (2 TBSP Peanut Butter) 1 TBSP Condensed Milk (4 TBSP Condensed Milk) 2 TBSP White sugar (2 TBSP Caster sugar) 3 TBSP Cocoa Powder (6 TBSP Cocoa Powder) ¼ cup butter or margarine, melted (1/2 c...

Years ago, I did a bit of research on how to make healthy lasagne.  Since then, I can say after several experiments that I finally got it :)  This dish is a staple in our household and is often made when people are "dieting". :) I don't like measuring stuff when I cook (non dessert dishes) so it was a bit of a challenge to approximate this recipe.  In any case I did my best and I think the recipe is pretty accurate.  Just a warning though, I couldn't find my camera the time I made this dish so all the photos were taken with my webcam.  I often just use an entire pack of Spag Sauce just cause I don't like storing left over unused sauce in the fridge.  I forget about those pretty easily so my solution is to just cook all of it. You can also use fresh Spinach if you prefer. I've used fresh Spinach before but I find it too tedious to clean them.  I don't have a stay home helper so it's really more convenient for me to just buy th...

I came across Fuji Mama's Blog Site over the holidays whilst looking for a new Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.  I was so intruiged cause she made a side by side comparison of the differenct cookie recipes she experimented with. Apparently less butter makes for softer 'chewier' cookies! Who knew, right? So inspired by her experiment, I made some tweaks on the final recipe Fuji Mama ended up with by changing and addingsome of the chocolate and changing the flour.  Since I had some wheat flour, I decided to use that for the cookies (I was kinda worried that they were going to get rock hard but I crossed my fingers and it worked)! Click on the link to Fuji Mama's blog at the top of this post for the full review on the Nestle Toll House Cookie Recipe.    The original recipe is found below with my tweaks in pink font. @nestlefoodie’s Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe from Chris Garboski , adapted from the Original Nestle Toll House Chocol...

Before 2011 ended, my team (yes, work team) and I did a year-ender R&R.  Since each member of the team gets to pick his/her R&R of choice when his/her turn comes, we really couldn't say no when one of our team members decided to sign us up for a cooking/baking class.  Personally I thought it was apt since the NY was just around the corner and I could use new recipes and tips to jazz up my dessert menu. This post would probably be pretty short - no recipes, just photos.  Since we bought the recipe and my friend uses these for her business, I won't be posting the recipes for you guys.  Instead, I will just post photos of my finished goods which I made for my fam.  I'll also post details on how to order these cakes from my friend at the end of my entry. Mango Cake (not sure if it's called Mango Cobbler but that might be it)  This is my version of the cake - at this point it was getting ready to be transported to my dad's place.  The plati...

Here's my recipe for brownies that I customized from the recipe on the actual chocolate package.  The difference here is you will have to use Mini Chocolate Kisses instead of choco chips.  Since I can't find the original recipe, I'll just post the one that I made.  Again, if you want to try the original recipe, just buy a pack of Hershey's Mini Chocolate Kisses and read the recipe on the back of the package. Ingredients 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margaine , melted 1 cup brown   sugar 1 cup honey* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2  eggs An entire package  (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S MINI KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates       * You can substitute all honey if you don't want the brownies too sweet or just opt for 1 cup of honey and just take out the additional 1 cup of sugar. Directions Heat oven to 350°F...