Thursday, October 3, 2013

Cheesy Garlic Potato Hotdog - The Winning Dish

In relation to my Hotdog Festival blog, I am not posting the ingredients and the cooking instructions for my winning dish:



Ingredients: 
2 small packs of Baby Potatoes (bought from Market-Market - Dizon Farms brand)
10 pcs. Jumbo sized hotdogs (Tender Juicy)
1 small bottle of Cheese Whiz
1 can of Angel Kremqueso
1 pack of Eden grated cheese
Butter
Garlic (1 head and few more cloves)
1 big White Onion 
Dried basil (McCormick bottle)
Salt and White Pepper to taste
All spice (McCormick bottle)
Sugar

Cooking instructions:

1. Wash baby potatoes. Cut in half. Seasoned with basil and all spice. Boil potatoes until cooked.
2. Cut hotdogs in 4 equal sizes. Fry the hotdogs. 
3. Mince garlic and onions 
4. After boiling the potatoes, you are now ready to saute.
5. Heat the pan, add oil and butter (keep the fire in low to medium heat)
6. Add garlic and continue mixing until golden brown
7. Add onions, dried basil, and all spice
8. Pour in the potatoes, mix until golden brown 
9. Add salt and white pepper to taste. 
10. Simmer for about five minutes and set-aside

Sauce:

In a pan, pour in Kremqueso and 5-6 tablespoons of Cheese whiz. Keep the fire in low heat. Stir until sauce thickens. To balance the strong taste of the cheese, add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. Simmer sauce for about 5minutes. Set aside and the cream and cheese settles. 

Mix hotdogs and sauteed potatoes. Pour the sauce on your dish and top it with grated cheese. You can make 8-10 servings of the dish (or more.. hahaha). 

I hope you guys understood the above... LOL.. Apologies for some terms used as this is my first time to create something like this. This is easier discussed than written. I swear. LOL.

Enjoy cooking and eating. :)

Hotdog Festival: The Great Hotdog (and Sausage) Cooking Challenge

Part of being in a team (in the workplace) is the regular weekly meeting. However, our team does a monthly meeting, when we are all complete and we have some presentations on top of the usual topic or agenda.





But what sets our team apart, is the most exciting "pot luck." Yes, you've read it right. In so much more that we are excited about games and stuff, we are more fond of eating. We actually just finished one last Tuesday and here are some of the foods we brought and munched on together (Photos credits goes to Kilven Ablaña):




  

There was so much variety that you don't even know which one to eat first. In the middle of the conversation while eating, one member of the team uttered that he like any dish that has HOTDOGS in it. 

And so another pot-luck was set, and the main ingredient is:



Each member of the team would need to cook something, with HOTDOG as the MAIN ingredient. Yup, hotdog was the KING. 

The potluck become more exciting when our boss sent an email that this potluck would be a contest and the best dish will win Php. 500.00 gift certificate. 



And now all the people from the team were searching for best dish to cook. Competitive Mode turned on. 

Presenting the dishes by the Master Chef contestants:


Hotdog Crepe with Olives and Cheese - named  DOGGY CREPE ala OLIVIER, by Junjie Aves.


Menudo-Hotdog wrapped - named WRAP-AROUND HOTDOG, by Arvy Liana Baluyot


Spicy Hungarian Sausage in Red Spicy sauce, named SPICY SAUSAGE ala BOGART, by Kris Zabala



The self-titled dish, AFRITADA HOTDOG, by Rich Chua


 

Another self-titled dish, Cheesy Garlic Potato Hotdog, minus the "ala Valdez" as the dish includes Basil as an ingredient, made by me. :)


Hotdog Hamonado, named HAMONADOG, by Vhia Carla De Dios


Hungarian Sausage Sushi, named HOT FUSION, by Brian Sotelo. FUSION is pronounced differently, you may just ask the owner how. LOL



Hotdog Embutido, named EMBUTIDOG, by Leah Mantaring.


Named CORNDOG, is a Corned Beef-Hotdog fusion by Vic De Guzman


Another fusion dish, Tuna and Hotdog named as NA-DOGGING TUNA by Raymund Austria.


Crunchy Hotdog in Menudo Salsa sauce, named CRUNCHY DOG by Kilven Ablaña.

Although some did not have the luxury of time to prepare, Ate Lalaine brought pizza and Cho Nor (Vince Balba) bought some rice:




Now the time has come for the judges to do the tasting and determine which dish tastes the best:




 

We had 3 persons who judged the Great Hotdog Challenge: Lorraine Banzon (IGS Director), Ruby Miquiabas (S3 Tech Manager), and Rhea Mendoza (INFOR ION Tech, Lead).



Prior to the announcement of winner, we enjoyed this yummy desert prepared by our manager Diana Macalino.


And the winner of the Great Hotdog (and Sausage) Challenge is  ( do you hear the drum roll? ):



My  CHEESY GARLIC POTATO HOTDOG ala VALDEZ!!! wohooooo... Thank you so much judges. hahaha.. 

Please leave a comment if you want to get the ingredients of all the dishes presented here. I will, on the other hand, create another blog for my dish' ingredients and cooking instructions. 

I hope that you were able to get an idea of what to cook for your family especially for the kids. Happy cooking! :)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Jia's 1st Birthday - part 2

Jia's kumare was introduced in part-1. That's Calista Soleil Aves aka Cayli, my officemate's daughter and the kumare of Jia Carleen De Dios - birthday princess.




















More of Jia Carleen, and some cute tricks she can show:











































But of course, these birthdays are for kids. Some games were played, and bet the tropa (Yuri, Renz, Marcus) enjoyed it well.































There was also a magic show, and a balloon twist show (just wasn't able to take pictures of the balloon twist show).




















We also enjoyed posing in front of the camera in the Photobooth:




















But the kid in me enjoyed the Candy Buffet much more than the real buffet. Don't get me wrong, as the food were all delicious.





















It was such an enjoyable day for me, and the rest of my office mates. But most especially to the family of the birthday girl.

Oh, and before I forget, if you have any events coming-up and you are looking for an events organizer, please feel free to contact the person behind this successful event:

Jazmin Dela Cruz
FB: https://www.facebook.com/rosajazmindelacruz





Jia's 1st Birthday - part 1

Arriving at the Ramon Magsaysay hall on a stormy Sunday afternoon, this welcomed me:



An Alice in Wonderland themed party. The entire hall was decorated with balloons in all girly, vibrant colors. And since I came early, I took the liberty to go around and took pictures:




The Stage: You will see Alice and the rest of the characters in all eye-catching colors. Combination of pink, blue, and purple. 



The Cake: How can you eat a cake this beautiful?

























And here are the yummy cupcakes:






Some cute souvenir items that we brought home:



















To add more enjoyable and pleasing to the eyes decorations





















What do you think of this wonderful Picture Wall? You just need to go to the back of the wall and have your photo taken and you'll have a posh foreground. Isn't it nice? :) Hello, My Lady! Killer smile, ey! :D























Why is this photo X-large? Of course, that's the birthday girl in the middle together with mommy Vhia and daddy Jinno.








































And more photos of the birthday princess with her mom, and some guests:

 




















Introducing the daddy's girls with their dads. Mark and mareng Cayli (left) and Jinno and mareng Jia (right)