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Do you love nuts? I love nuts so much. It’s a private joke among my relatives that I probably became nuts because of eating nuts.

Pun intended, of course. It’s a long-standing, good-natured joke among us. Ever since I was a kid, nuts have been my favorite things to nibble on. Whenever I eat dessert with nuts like nut-sprinkled donuts, I always made sure mine had extra. And I don’t love just one type of nut. I love everything! Now that I am a few years older, I still love nuts. I always find the excuse to add nuts on everything.

Whenever I make a cake for example, it has to have nuts around the frosting or just included on the cake itself. My husband finds it amusing, but he doesn’t tease me about it. He has his own food quirks and they’re worse than mine. And we never really made fun of anything about food because we don’t want our children to think that it’s okay.

This pecan pie bundt cake from Bake or Break is a classic example of how I want my desserts. It’s full of my favorite pecans and it’s just so addicting! I couldn’t stop with just one slice; I eat about three slices of this cake.

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Quick Tip: Let the glaze cool a bit so that it will hang on to the cake better.

When I make a cake, I always make sure that my family will love it. It’s really different now.

When I was younger and the thoughts of having a family haven’t even reached my mind, I cooked for myself. Living with a few friends in an apartment during college was just that. We rarely even saw each other because we have part-time jobs and different class schedules. It was really more of a survivor thing going on back then. My priority now is my family.

As long as they appreciate what I make for them in the kitchen, I don’t really mind about other things. Seeing their happy faces as they enjoy the food is reward enough for me. It’s a different game though when it comes to large gatherings with relatives. You have to make sure that everyone will enjoy the dish that you prepare regardless of age and gender. Makes sense, right?

During the last reunion, I was one of those assigned to make a dessert. Since I know what my relatives mostly like, I settled for a classic. I made this cinnamon roll cake that has the creamiest frosting. And everyone just wanted to have a piece! It was gone in minutes! I had to go back and make another one that we could serve for dinner.

Yes! It was that good. And if my family loved it, I know yours will too!

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Quick Tip: If you’re a fan of cream cheese, you can use cream cheese glaze for this instead.

I absolutely love coming together with family and enjoying childhood recipes of old. 

One of my favorite recipes to make alongside my sisters is this one for tuna patties.  We used to make tuna patties almost every day as our protein.  My mom said we were so picky as children, it was incredibly difficult to find us something that we would all love and enjoy, so instead what she did was make us these tuna patties that my grandma used to make her.

Apparently being a picky eater runs in our family.  We used to give my mom a hard time and according to my grandma’s stories, my mom used to give her a difficult time with eating.  We were all so different and wanted French fries or rice for lunch when my mom and grandma wanted us to eat more filling things with protein.

Well, after trying so many different things, one day they decided to make tuna patties and they were a hit.  They think it was because they were fried and a little golden brown, making them look like fries.  We loved them so much, we ate them well into our teen years and still do!

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Quick Tip: Serve these over mashed potatoes.

Every time I host a Super Bowl party, I end up so exhausted. 

After not watching the game because there were so many things keep up with and attend to, I always tell my husband this is the last year I host it.  Well, year after year, the Super bowl comes around and I fall into the trap once again of hosting. I cannot help it, I love to cook the food! Sure, I would like to watch the game, too, but just doing the cooking is more than fine by me when I really think about it.

Well, I signed up to host the 2017 Super bowl party and I could not be more excited.  I am mentally preparing myself for not watching ANY of the game, so if I get to watch any little piece, I am happy and satisfied.  Now comes the fun part: deciding what to serve.

I have a Pinterest board full of recipes, but I have to narrow it down and this one made the cut! It is full of all types of cheeses, Thousand Island dressing, some corned beef and then I like to top it with bacon.  What could be better than that?!

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Quick Tip: Leave this in the crock pot to stay warm.

I have a habit of putting together everything I have in the fridge to make one casserole dish.

But unlike one of my aunts, I make sure that the ingredients I will put together compliment each other. I experiment a lot, yes, but I make sure my experiments are probable. I never liked wasting food. I can’t help but overestimate most of the time, so we have a lot of leftovers. Because for me, it’s better if there is plenty of food instead o a scarcity of food.

Most of the leftovers for dinner usually go to a breakfast casserole the next day. This usually happens if there are meat and pasta on the fridge. Just add a little bit of cheese and it’s almost always good to go. I usually serve these breakfast casseroles with homemade bread fresh from the oven. I also roast or blanch vegetables and serve them as side dishes. My family loves casseroles and they eat even the side dishes.

This roasted potato casserole breakfast is an example of a really good breakfast casserole that my family loves. It has everything they want on a dish. There’s potato, bacon, and egg! It’s a complete meal that everyone will truly appreciate. Add the cheese and you have your rich breakfast with you. You can even adjust the ingredients based on your preferences because this is a pretty flexible dish.

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Quick Tip: If you want a touch of Tex-Mex, add a can of drained Rotel and swap chorizo for the bacon.

I love visiting my friends most especially during the weekends. Just like me and my husband, my friends get their free days only during weekends.

And free days usually mean kitchen days. My friends stay in the kitchen and cook or bake anything under the sun. It’s their form of relaxation. They find solace inside the kitchen. By the end of the day, they always have two or three creations that they made the whole afternoon. Last weekend, I dropped by at Anne’s on my way back home from the mall.

Since my husband was at home, he’s on kid duty. I needed to talk to Anne regarding one of our friends’ engagement party and that was the only time I had free. Anne was in the kitchen when I arrived. The smell was so wonderful I felt like I floated from the living room to the kitchen. She was making something and it smelled so heavenly!

It was caramel lava cake. I tasted a lot of these before, but I never tried making them at home. My family is a fan of chocolate and not caramel, so I usually make chocolate lava cake. One bite of this cake and I knew that my family and I are missing a huge part of our lives by not making this. It tastes so heavenly and so divine! I couldn’t imagine I haven’t made this!

So if I were you, get a hold of a copy of this recipe on the next page. You can’t miss this!

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Quick Tip: When you revert the mini cakes, it’s totally normal if they sink in the middle. The caramel egg is simply collapsed.

These pork chops are lip-smackin’ delicious!

I hate frying. If I could only wear a full-body armor suit, I will. I am kind of scared of the oil splattering everywhere because that thing is incredibly hot! If you visit my kitchen, you’ll notice that most of my pots and pans are nonstick. That way, I don’t need to use oil in frying. But there are some dishes that’s worth risking everything for such as pan-fried pork chops. I couldn’t fry pork chops without oil because even if they’re being cooked in a nonstick frying pan, they become really dry and that’s not what I want.

I want a juicy pork chop, a tender one that’s easy to bite and that doesn’t get stuck between your teeth. I found this pan-fried pork chop recipe over at The Pioneer Woman. I now christened this as my lazy day simple pan fried pork chops because I make them every time I want something savory and tasty, but doesn’t take much of my time or my effort.

They’re a bit messy to make because of the flour and all, but that can be remedied if I’m careful. All I wanted was a recipe with less preparation time and cooking time so I can just be lazy after preparing it. Cleaning the kitchen takes much time and we all know it! Try this recipe if you feel similarly!

Photo and recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman and Thankn’s Kitchen.

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Quick Tip: When sourcing for pork chops; just look for the thinnest cut—bone still in—as you can find.