I'm all for fresh ingredients. I'm next to a humongous supermarket which I consider my personal disneyland. But, sometimes, I have cravings that cannot wait.

Frozen Calamare Rings is just one of the products that is sanity-saviour for me.

Thaw, season with salt and pepper, dredge in flour and dry. Instant Pub Food!

Sautee in butter, garlic and onion, add a bit of cream, voila! gourmet, perfect for toasted breads.

There're just so many reasons why any fridge should have one of these babies.

Similar Recipe: Crunchy Calamari

Amazing how useful whipping cream is. Obviously, it's great for desserts, partner with fruits, even hot chocolate.

One of my discoveries is making my own flavoured home-made butter and buttermilk from whipping cream.

How to Make Butter and Buttermilk (click for recipe)

Out of one litre of whipping cream, I extracted 500 ml buttermilk which I use to marinate chicken for frying. This is also essential in making the fluffiest pancake. The butter I got from processing is a huge chunk and so it lasted us for a few days... yeah... I love butter too much. I know I might be skinny as hell but I think my heart is complaining from all the cholesterol, I'm just too young to notice.

The whole process of making your own butter and buttermilk is so much fun that I buy whipping cream a lot, looking forward to the next butter making with my boys.

I don't run out of these boxes in my freezer... buy it and try it with a little bit of soy sauce dip... you'll understand why this box is a life saver.

How many times did you get surprise visits from friends or relatives and you turn into stress freakout mode because you're frantically looking for what to serve as an appetizer while you prepare for the main dish? I'm pretty sure lots of times.

What I do is throw this in a steamer, let it steam for 10-15 minutes and put it on a serving dish with a little soy sauce dip. It gets the meal started and I'm not going to get all stress out that our guests will be hungry!

Problem solved.

Steak and Mushroom sandwich filling (click for recipe)
You should have this once a month in your fridge. You can keep this from 1 week (if there are any leftovers, doubt it!). It's perfect for midnight snack or just sudden pang of hunger.

Chicken filling for wraps (click for recipe)
Alternate this with your steak and mushroom and no one in your house will ever go hungry!

Lettuce
You can whip out a simple salad, jazz up a boring sandwich, or even use it as wrap for whatever left over is in the fridge.

Balscamic Vinnaigrette (click for recipe)

A half cup of this will go a long, long, long way... when you use this, you want to use this sparingly without overpowering the other flavours you have in your salad. You're just going to toss the salad until it's coated, not soggy, not swimming in it, just coated.

Embutido (click for recipe)

You can keep this for ages in the freezer. Defrost it in the fridge an hour or so before you want to fry it. If press for time, you can actually just fry it straight away. I tried it both and don't taste the difference.

Liver Pate
Store bought liver pate lasts for 2 months and you can always count on it when you need some surprise entertaining to do!

Tapas in the making
Stock on black and green olives, gherkins, pepperoni, salami/pepperoni, ham, cheddar cheese, sun-dried tomatoes. Just place a quarter of a cup of each type in a platter, put some toothpick and napkins and you're good to go to have nibbles for three.

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