Thanks God it's Friday! Here is this week's 4 Foods questions:

#1. What’s your favorite cereal?
I'm not a big cereal fan, but I do get a craving for some frosted flakes once in a while.

#2. What do you use to flip food on the stove?
I've been known to make a mess with a skillet, so I stick with a spatula now. But tongs work best for fried foods.

#3. What’s your favorite type of donut?
Again, I'm not that big on donuts, but when I do indulge I just get the glazed ones. I get the cream or custard filled ones once in a while.

#4. Share a rice recipe.
You have got to try this Vietnamese Style Fried Rice. My 15 year old daughter's specialty.

Click on the photo for the recipe

Want to play along? Visit the Four Foods On Friday #71 page to see other participants.

Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about

It's time for Four Foods on Friday! I know, it's only Thursday, but I'm playing catch up :) I'll post another one tomorrow.

So here are this week's 4 questions:

#1. Olive oil. What kind do you prefer to use?
Extra Virgin. I used to keep regular and EVOO but I found that you can use EVOO for pretty much everything you'd use regular on so now I just use EVOO. I buy the big jar from Costco.

#2. Meatballs. Do you make them from scratch, buy premade cooked or buy premade frozen?
I do both. Of course, from scratch is preferred but I found that the frozen ones from Costco ($11 a bag) come in handy for the girls' lunch, after school snack and for something quick for dinner. I recently made albondigas soup with the frozen ones and they were delicious!

#3. Do you use napkins at home? Paper or cloth?
Paper on most days. When we do a dinner where we set the table and pull out the tablecloth, then we also pull out the cloth napkins.

#4. Share a recipe for a white sauce.
This is a very easy white sauce that, with the addition of garlic and parmesan cheese, easily turns it into a quick alfredo sauce. Perfect for weekday meals like this one on the photo, served with parmesan tilapia and asparagus.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cloves Garlic, minced
4 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
Freshly Cracked Black Pepper

Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Add the garlic, cook for a minute until fragrant. Add the flour and stir around until it's no longer powdery. Slowly add the milk and bring the mixture up to a low boil/simmer, stirring all the while to incorporate the flour. When the milk is hot and starting to thicken, add the cream and parmesan cheese. Stir and it should be now thick and saucy. Crack some black peppers on it and add your choice of pasta.

You shouldn't have to add salt as the parmesan cheese is pretty salty, but if you feel like it needs a little more salt, then by all means adjust it to your taste.

When you have fresh herbs like Italian (flat leaf) parsley or basil, sprinkle some over the pasta for added flavor.




Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about

I have seen food bloggers participating in the Four Foods on Friday meme for a while now and I have been meaning to participate, but I just haven't had the time or just not been organized enough to post on Fridays. Anyway, this is the 30th edition of FFOF, but this is my first, so here goes. All you have to do to participate is answer the following questions:

#1. What’s your favorite white beverage? If you don’t have one, what’s your favorite beverage with something white in it?
My favorite white beverage, although more on the cloudy white rather than pristine white spectrum, is coconut juice. NOT coconut milk the white stuff that is rendered by pressing the mature flesh of the coconut, I'm talking about the naturally sweet and refreshing juice that bursts out when you cut open a young coconut.

#2. What’s your favorite white gravy, sauce, condiment, dressing or topping?
Bechamel Sauce. Learn how to make this one sauce and you can do just about any other sauce there is. If you're still wondering what makes the greatest mac and cheese recipes great, it's this sauce. It is the starting point for a great cheese sauce to lather your macs with.

#3. What’s your favorite white item from the refrigerated section?
Cheese. Jack, mozzarella, swiss, provolone, cheddar, brie, feta, parmigiana, and on and on...

#4. Share a recipe for something white.
Try these delectable delicacies called Puto or rice cakes.

Visit our new blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about