Miela Tahril

If you’ve worked in restaurants before, you know that every night before service the staff sits down to what’s called the “family meal.” One of the younger cooks is usually charged with scraping together something filling and, more importantly, not expensive. It was during one of these meals that I first had adobo. When I worked at the Carnelian Room in the late 80’s, much of the kitchen crew was Filipino, so chicken and pork adobo was a very common dinner. One of the dishwashers made a particularly...

After five years, and a few thousand requests, I’m finally posting my “ultimate” ranch dressing recipe. What makes it the “ultimate?” Nothing, except that’s what I’m calling it, and in the world of dips and dressings, that makes it so. By the way, ignore those other roughly 65,000 “ultimate” recipes; this one is the actual “ultimate” ranch dressing. It’s been ages since I made homemade ranch dressing, and I’d forgotten how much better it is than the bottled stuff. Don’t get me wrong; I like high-fructose...

When I was asked to join some of my fellow foodies on YouTube, to produce a video for a special seasonal playlist called “Halloween Sweet Treats,” I sat down and considered all the scary sweets recipes in my repertoire. After several minutes of deep thought, I realized I had nothing. Not to sound like a curmudgeon, but sticking broken pretzels into a marshmallow and calling it a “scary spider,” just isn’t my thing. So, instead of trying to figure out how to make a chocolate truffle look like a bleeding...

I’m going to be posting a seasonal pumpkin recipe on Friday, and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy deciding on which food wish to do. I get tons of pumpkin requests this time of year, and while I’m not going to spoil the surprise, I can tell you that the venerable pumpkin roll didn’t make the cut. Maybe next year I’ll do my take, but in the meantime, here’s a video from my friends at Allrecipes.com, featuring one of their highest-rated versions. Enjoy! Click here to get the ingredients and to read...

As I enjoyed this very tasty Brussels sprouts with warm bacon dressing recipe, I was reminded Thanksgiving side dish decision time is rapidly approaching. It’s that annual dilemma where we’re forced to choose five or six recipes among hundreds of potentially awesome options. What makes this decision so tough is that you want things that are traditional and comforting, but at the same time, want to keep the menu fresh and interesting. You love those buttery mashed potatoes, and yet you’ve wanted...

On this occasion I want to share about how to make popular posts widget appear more attractive. Actually, this widget is the widget itself belongs Blogger added some CSS code to make it look more attractive and the other from the other. Screenshot : How do I make it? Please observe the steps below: 1. Log into your Blogger account : 2. Click the Design & Edit HTML 3. Click the Download full template as a precaution in case something goes wrong later in editing. 4. Please find...

I don’t do a lot of sandwich recipes here on Food Wishes, mostly because, well, they’re sandwiches, but today I’m making an exception. On Thursday, I participated in a sandwich making contest sponsored by Columbus Salumeria, and I wanted to share what turned out to be the winning concoction. Columbus sponsored the #TopWichSF event to promote their new line of Farm to Fork Naturals, and things got off to a appetizing start as Sean Timberlake, from Punk Domestics and Hedonia, treated us to an array...

There’s a fairly large population of folks who just don’t like fish. I’m not talking about people with allergies, but those poor souls who’s worst nightmare is arriving at a dinner party, only to find out the main course is fish. Their reasons are as diverse as they are unfortunate. Well, this broiled red snapper recipe may be just what the doctor ordered. Normally we don’t want to cover up the delicate flavors of the seafood, but in this case, we have no choice. It’s not like you can’t tell you’re...

With the holiday entertaining season getting closer with each falling leaf, it’s time to start thinking about those easy, yet still kind of fancy, snack recipes. These sweet, salty, spicy, party nuts are simple to make, and will rival those expensive blends at the local Foodies-R-Us. I find this technique much easier than the stovetop pan method. You’ll get beautiful, perfectly frosted nuts that are roasted evenly, with no bitter burned spots. Speaking of which, I played it pretty safe with the...

After using Merguez sausage in this beautiful stuffed acorn squash recipe last year, I got a bunch of emails saying, “I can’t find that anywhere! Can you show us how to make it?!” I generally ignore those, since it’s usually just people not looking hard enough (I’m looking at you, Mr. “I can’t find Panko”). However, in this case, I realized that Merguez is not commonly stocked at the grocery store, so I decided to come up with an easy home version. I didn’t bother with the casing, as these were...

I was browsing the web for some pumpkin recipe ideas, when came across this lovely looking stack of pancakes. I clicked the image link to see who was responsible for such sexy seasonality, and as I watched some blog called “Food Wishes” load, I realized I'd clicked on one of my own recipes. I guess after doing over 750 videos I’m allowed to forget about one once in a while. Besides, the beautiful photography threw me off. Anyway, I figured it was the universe’s way of telling me to repost...

I’m not sure when this relatively new tradition started, but for whatever reason, I like to come up with a new and interesting coleslaw to serve at Thanksgiving. With all the rich, heavy foods that the holiday table brings, I really enjoy the contrast these cold, crisp, bracing salads provide. I’ve been doing this for five or so years now, and this may be my favorite version. Just adding the always interesting Asian pear to a standard coleslaw would’ve been a nice enough touch, but what made this...

When ONE.org asked me to help raise awareness about their campaign to fight chronic malnutrition, using the humble sweet potato, I had one important question…if I agreed, would I get some kind of tote bag? When I was informed there was no tote bag, I decided to check out their info anyway, and I’m very glad I did. While I was shocked to learn that millions of children die each year from malnutrition, it was heartening to learn what a huge difference this delicious “super-food” could make.To help...

This shining example of what a few well-placed ingredients can do to a plain piece of meat reminded me of a couple very important things. By the way, if you’re new to cooking, being reminded of stuff is one of the best parts. First of all, it had me recalling the old, “if it doesn’t have a bone in it, it’s really not a chop.” Of course, search engines being what they are, we were forced to use the oxymoronic “boneless, center-cut pork chops” instead of the traffic stunting “pork medallions.” Not...

As you may have noticed, we are smack dab in the middle of televised sports season. Baseball playoffs are starting (Go Giants!), football season is in full swing (Go Giants!), and basketball is just around the corner (Go Warriors??), so you’re going to need some delicious dips to help soak up some of that beer. As I’ve said before, the cornerstone of any proper game-day buffet is the dip selection. Here are a few of our favorites. Just click on the recipe name in the caption, and as always, enjoy!Baked...

I always feel a little guilty when I post one of these technique videos, which is kind of strange since I get just as many “wishes” for this type of demo, as I do for straight recipes. People seem to like them, and I’ll get lots of comments asking for more of the same, but there’s just something about not being able to take a bite out of the final product that leaves me slightly unsatisfied. Of course, I could have eaten some more cheese balls at the end, but you know what I’m saying. Anyway, lack...