World Class Cuiscene

Spaghetti Meatballs

2006-12-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a spaghetti song..no, not the sphaghetti pababa at pataas but on "top of spaghetti", I cooked this recipe . While humming to the tune of the song, I merrily baked the meatballs out of these:

Meatballs Ingredients:

1 lb of medium ground pork
1/2 finely chopped onions
soy to taste
dash of ground pepper
2 tbsp of flour

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Form the misture into small balls. Arrange them in a coolie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

In a pan, put the cooked meatballs and add 1 250 ml tomato sauce. Add herbs if you want.

Cook the pasta according to packaging instructions.

Mix meatballs sauce with pasta and there you go..hum away while you enjoy.

Chicken Mami

2006-11-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

I was hunting for recipes in my directory for my Lasang Pinoy 15 entry when I came across this one. Not the kind of leftover from a sumptous dinner but does fit the definition of "recycling". What I recall was I was cutting bite pieces for my Malaysian Chicken Curry one day and I didn't need the bony parts. I therefore set them aside and boiled them for soup stock. Flesh and soup stock in a container and discarding the bones, I literally threw the container into the freezer for a rainy day.

Autumn is upon us and the weather is tricky. I had wilting carrots and wombok in my fridge and when it's cold, you hardly want to even get your feet wet. Luckily, I had garlic and chicken boullion in my pantry and a few eggs in the fridge. Voila..chicken mami cook extraordinaire I was!

Mao Po Tofu

2006-10-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

Before you say Filipino Food are yucky, let me first inform you that this is actually a chinese recipe and the recipe is not yucky at all. This time of the year, I'm busy at work so I count on packaged seasonings to lighten my "end of the day". Together with sweet and sour seasoning, and a jar of black bean sauce, I bought a package of the Mao Po Tofu. The instructions were simple and did not call very much for a lot of ingredients. I'd say it was healthy as well. Tofu and ground pork. Try it if you're busy like me and you might want to get used to it (except that these seasonings might be loaded with MSG of course).

Oh, the spiciness too just makes you have it one more time next week.

Lasang Pinoy X1-Coco juice time!

2006-06-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

Well, on this other part of the world, it's summertime. I don't intend to make our friends from down under jealous but that's how they will feel actually when I show them my coco juice and processed cantaloupe.

DYARAN......

The coconut juice is not that hard to make, that is if you have the gadget and the skill to open the coconut shell in such a way that there'd be at least a glass of the buko juice left. Also, granting that you were lucky in making sure that you chose just the right one, that is. The flesh could be mature and you're forced to just grate it for guinataan. Hey, that's another thought for something to have during summer.

Well, I am lucky in a different way. I chose a hubby who has the skill and the right tools to cut one up for me. In my hubby's hometown, buko is one of their main products. In front of their house are two "million-bearing" buko trees (???). Reachable ones. Everytime we go home, the folks make sure that they reserve the fruits for my children. My mother-in-law exactly knows when they are ready to be consumed.

I do have a problem with buko though. Because of its creaminess, sometimes my tummy acts up when I eat the flesh not cooked. They say the juice is a very good diuretic. I remember when I was suffering from a urinary tract infection when I was a kid. My mother had me drink tonnes and tonnes of this juice. I'd say it did help but it's best you consult your physician first if you're planning to have some because of UTI.

Anyway, aside from buko juice, I do enjoy grated cantaloupe with fresh milk and lotsa of ice in it. I don't put sugar in mine since the cantaloupe is already sweet. Others do however. I have yet to find this grater we use in the Philippines to make the cantaloupe flesh long but thin. For now, I just used the fork.

As for the buko, I just bought them from the Filipino store grated already. I just had to add milk in it.

Thanks JMom for hosting.

Spicy Spaghetti with Prawns

2006-06-20T23:17:00.000-07:00

Here's one I should not forget to post for future reference. Only when I try to look for a recipe that I keep telling myself I should be more consistent.

Ingredients:

1 lb of prawns, shell on
oil to saute
1 finely chopped medium onion
1 can of 680 ml tomato sauce
lotsa finely chopped garlic
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
2 tsp of chili sauce (according to how hot you want your dish to be)
salt to taste

cooked spaghetti noodles

In a pan, saute onions until translucent. Add Prawns and cook until prawns are cooked. Add garlic, oregano and tomato sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes on slow fire. Add chili sauce and salt. Pour sauce over cooked noodles and serve.

Lasang Pinoy 10 : Food Memories From Your Childhood--It's all in the milk!

2006-05-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

We all know that Baguio is known for its luscious strawberries. I knew a man who owned a strawberry stall right in the heart of the city market. He would usually bring us day-old strawberries for us to eat. Well, we're from Baguio and we're not so much crazy about them unlike the "bakasyonistas" during Holy Week (when all produce prices go up sometimes twice or even thrice their normal--and watch me roll my eyes).

Watching all these "bakasyonistas" eat strawberries straight from the baskets made me wonder whether they were shocked that strawberries are not really that good? They only looked good in pictures, that's what I think. I'm sour-graping of course because I never had the luxury to eat those bigger, pricier ones. I only got to taste the day-old ones, remember?

Okey, so how do I eat mine? Mashed! Yes, mashed with my own hands. Did I hear you say eeewwwee? And then I add condensed milk to it. Believe me, that's how I used to eat my strawberries when I was young and that's still how I eat them today. And yes, it's something I have handed down to my kids.

Now, eating avocadoes is another childhood food story I have. In my parents backyard a long, long time ago stood an avocado tree which bear fruit unselfishly. And the fruits are huge(twice as my fists put together)unlike the avocadoes we get here imported from Mexico. They were creamy as well. Just so you know, there are avocadoes which are stale-tasting. Because they were so creamy, my parents just added sugar to theirs and they were happy.

Guacamoles were never heard off in our "barangay" that's why I was so shocked when we once had a caucasian guest and she was so excited to make a concoction out of our huge avocadoes. She started asking for mayonnaise, etc and she went to the city to look for nacho chips. You could just imagine how big the question mark was in my eyes. Mayonnaise? Jalapeno? etc? Yuck! Well, imagine me rolling my eyes again. She tried to educate me a bit by saying it was called guacamole.

In my shock, I showed her how I ate my avocado. With condensed milk of course. Well, this time, it was her rolling her eyes and I thought I heard her say "double yuck!". Well, Becky still remembers me with my mashed avocadoes with condensed milk. That's how she remembers me.."the kid who ate mashed avocado with condensed milk".

Lasang Pinoy: Lamang-Loob; Odd Cuts and Guts -Bopis

2006-05-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hey I am not totally giving up on LP yet. I was lucky to get a snap shot of this pack just before my son tried to make it disappear. Dinuguan and Bopis are two recipes akin to every Filipino's menu whenever there is a party.

Bopis (right) is made out of intestines, lungs, kidneys and liver. Don't shudder if you are not familiar with this dish. Not everyone is expected to like this, even if you are a full-blooded Filipino. The pungent smell prevents me from cooking at home. The smell does stick to the carpet so I'd rather just swing by Manang's little nook and have an occasional taste of it. Manang's is not so dry, the way my father used to cook it. Father cooks it in oil until it is almost burnt. The process is long and let me relate it to you.

You see, we only have lechon once a year when I was young and that happens at Christmas time. It's a carefully planned one where mother buys a piglet about six months (maybe shorter; maybe longer I cannot recall) before then. Father and mother put a lot of work in raising the pig sometimes I wondered whether it was more economical to buy the lechon from the city market on Christmas day itself. The work was so enormous. Mother planting vegetables to feed the pig, father buying "feeds" from the store and us washing the pen or helping mother in cooking the "binugbog" were only a few.

When Christmas comes, father is not ready to give up all the odd cuts that do not become part of a lechon. Think about all the hard work we've put into that pig. After Christmas, we'd all be ready to smell the day-long process of cooking bopis. First he has to boil the innards for easy slicing, cut them into tiny pieces, boiling this time with the seasoning, and finally cooking in oil. It is all worth the wait at the end of the day. The aroma of a cooked bopis is heavenly. I do not know what makes this dish delectable. It's either we were "lechoned-out" or Papa simply cooked it in a different way.

I told you Manang's was not dry. In fact it had other ingredients that I have never seen in my Papa's. Manang put some kamias apparently to get rid of the smell. My father puts soy, vinegar, peppercorns, garlic and bay leaves in his. If you ask me whether I know how to cook this, I will honestly say I don't but I am willing to learn how to should the need arise. For now, I would just like to keep my neighbors happy!

About the dinuguan, hmmm, I am almost tempted to ask my kids to write their thoughts about it. One day..soon!

Cinnamon Rolls-LP8

2006-05-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

Way too late for LP 8 but as they say, "better late than never". My daughter baked this for breakfast(eerrr, this should have been fit for LP 7). Anyway, she lifted this from Company's Coming (Breakfasts and Brunches Edition). Ha, I'm slowly catching up.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or hard margarine
3/4 cup milk

Filling

1/2 cup ground pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp butter or hard margarine, melted

Glaze

3/4 cup Icing (confectioner's) sugar
4 tsp Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla

measure first 5 ingredients into bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Add milk. Stir to form a soft ball. Knead 8 times on lightly floured surface. Roll or pat into 10 x 15 inch rectangle.

Filling: Mix pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon mixture, keeping in from edges about 1/2 inch (12mm). Roll up from long side. Pinch seam to seal. Cut into 20 slices, 3/4 inch thick. Arrange on greased baking sheet, placing aout 1 inch apart. Bake in 400%F oven for 12 to 14 minutes until lightly browned.

Glaze: Stir icing sugar, milk and vanilla together in bowl, adding more icing sugar or milk as needed to make a consistency that can be barely poured. Drizzle, in pinwheel fashion, over buns while still warm. Makes 20.

Hello Dolly Bars

2006-05-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

It's as easy as 1-2-3!

Ingredients:

1 cup of graham crumbs
1 cup of dessicated unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 can of condensed milk
3/4 cup of chocolate chips
3/4 cup of chopped walnuts
3/4 cup of chopped pecan nuts
3/4 cup of toffee bits
3/4 cup of raisins
(substitute nuts with any nuts of your choice)

Combine crumbs, butter and dessicated coconut and press on bottom of an 8 x 8 pan. Layer nuts and chocolate chips evenly over crumbs. Drizzle condensed milk ovenly over top.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until brown. Bake for 5 more minutes if you want chewy bars. Cool before serving.

Bistek

2006-04-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

It does sound like beef steak but it isn't. Bistek is one famous recipe that Filipinos cook with their eyes closed. Did I just hear someone say that I lied? Well, I'd say most Filipinos know how to cook then.

You only need the following:

1 lb of beef tenderloin, thinly sliced
5 tbsp(or more depending on your taste) of soy sauce
3 tbsp of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp of ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together and marinate meat for about 15 minutes.

In a pan, fry the slices of meat. Ensure that the meat is not overcooked. Beef is always more tender if you cook it for a short while. Set aside. Save the juice that comes from the marinade and possibly from the pan when beef was fried.

In the same pan, saute coarsely chopped medium onion until translucent. Add meat and the juice to taste. Add green onions before serving.

Again, I am still catching up with Lasang Pinoy series and the truth is I had this for breakfast. No kidding! This is for you Jo, for my LP 7 entry. Is LP on its 15th now? Now I'm kidding.

Steamed Oysters (Talaba)

2006-03-13T20:11:00.000-08:00

I should be ashamed of myself. I was the host of LP 6 and I wasn't able to come up with my own post. I actually had something ready but I wasn't able to post it on time. Oh well, I wanted a dramatic entrance. Yeah right, so much for the excuses.

Here's mine. I steamed a few oysters for hubby's imported Tanduay. (On the side, if you guys are thinking about what to bring me for pasalubong, a 10 year old Tanduay would do. A 15 year old one would even be better. One bottle is fine. Unfortunately, we have efficient customs officers here so much so that when I brought in 2 bottles of the 10 year old export quality amounting to about $5.00, I paid import tax of about $45.00. An individual can only bring 1.2 liters of alcohol tax free and each bottle of the cherished rhum is .70 L).

I digressed but it's all in the fun of having to prepare pulutan right? I must say that this might be the easiest to prepare. Just steam the oysters for about 10 minutes, just enough for the shucks to open. Then serve with lemon juice. Ooops, save the juice. Sip it like you would with a coffee. Yummy!

Simple enough? I thought so. Just don't forget the Tanduay for me when you come visit me. The oysters will be on me.

Pasta Salad

2006-02-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

This is the most versatile recipe I ever had. It can be eaten hot or cold.

Ingredients:

2 cups of fusilli
1 lb of chicken breast, sliced in bite sizes
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup pitted black olives
1 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped
1 medium can of whole tomatoes
1 small can of tomato sauce
about 4 piesces of dried tomatoes in oil, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to packaging instructions. Set aside.

In a pan, cook chicken meat for about 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Add onions, olives and zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes. Add whole tomatoes, sliced dried tomatoes and tomato sauce. You can add cooking wine and balsamic vinegar if desired.

Mix sauce with pasta and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Chill for 2 hours is if eaten cold or serve right way.

Corned Beef with Cabbage

2006-02-18T22:08:00.000-08:00

We Filipinos are so fond of corned beef. I grew up getting used to my corned beef sauteed in onions or tomatoes or sometimes both. Other times my mom cooked it with potatoes. Because in our backyard, we grew sayote abundantly (well, they actually keep on spouting out of nowhere, she tried adding sayote to our dear canned corned beef. Of course she never tried to force sayote on me.

Anyway, now that I am the official cook in my family, coming home late from work, I asked hubby to just cook anything in the fridge. He did with a little fear. He opened the cupboard and there was one can of corned beef waiting to be opened. He opened the fridge and there was another one, a cabbage head. Guess what we had for dinner? It wasn't that bad and I actually found a way of incorporating veggies in my children's meal.

Do I need to tell you how it's cooked?

Salmon Cake

2006-02-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

Finally, I found a good recipe for a canned salmon a friend gave me a few months ago. My officemate has been raring to have us taste crab cakes from a store close to where she lives but on the day we were to have them, apparently, there were no crab cakes available. She brought in halibut fish cake instead.

I seem to have this talent of dissecting what's in a recipe as long as I see it physically and I get to taste it too. Well, I tried this and it wasn't too bad.

Ingredients:

400 gms of steamed or canned fish (deboned and flaked)
2 stalks of green onions, finely chopped
1 big potato, steamed and mashed (coarsely)
1/4 red pepper, finely chopped
1/4 yellow pepper, finely chopped
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 eggs
3 tbsp of olive oil
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Form the mixture into patties. Grill for about 10 minutes on each side. Serve with any salad. Spring mix is recommended.

LP 6: Let's wash it down with booze!!, the round-up!

2006-02-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

(My first round-up went kaput. 'must have been during the time blogger techies were doing a maintenance. I had to redo this so if I missed anyone, please let me know).

And I thought I knew everything about pulutan. When I did the round-up of all the entries to LP6: Pulutan (Let's wash it down with Booze!), I was quite surprised how people were able to come up with different recipes I haven't even heard of. Sheer ingenuity, yes that is what "drinking" can really bring out in us.

In a very intimate way, pulutan really makes drinking enjoyable and I am sure most of the contributors to LP 6 do not drink. Without further ado, I would like to present to you the contributors to Lasang Pinoy 6. Please note that there is no particular order in the way I presented the contributors.

Let's start with our star Baby Rambutan with her Chitterlings. They're literally flowery pork intestines. Forget about what you're thinking. It's all worth it when You go and visit Stel's site.

Lutong Disyerto tweaked a tuna recipe he used to have on Saturday nights while in college. Find out how an ordinary skyflakes can make a century tuna appealing especially when you're tight with your budget.

JMom remembers her Dad's younger days when Kilawen na Kambing(goat) is the in thing.(Well, it still is). Having moved to North Carolina, goat meat has become a rarity. Just what can she come up with "when the goat is away"? I guess the chicken can now come into play..teehee..

From an Ilocano country, bagis to us was intestines. Well, in the Tagalog region, they call it otherwise. Find out from CeliaK's kitchen what it is.

Now this is Bagis to me, Iska's Adobong Isaw. My father used to cook this but is served dry. As I was reading Iska's, they do use the same ingredients.

When Lani said she was going to prepared adobong bayawak, she really had me twiddling my thumbs. Aside from bayawak being an endangered species, I have yet to see one even in pot. Guess what, I knew I was in for disappointment when she prepared kalderetang kambing instead. It's alright. I am still hoping that I will taste one soon.

'ever wondered why Joey's site is called ChichaJo? Well, it's all because of these crackling, deep fried pork rind that Joey describes sinful and yet satisfying..

Shrimps is a very versatile kind of food. They can fried and seasoned with salt. Yes, just like that. Mirsbin was more in the mood and came up with Shrimps with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

I have to warn you that this is not for the faint-hearted dog owners. No, Marketman did not cook his labrador for this event. Well, I was in for another dis

appointment when someone promised to give me an entry about his pulutan. I guess he was ready to give me one especially when he learned that this event was circulated world-wide. We do have dogs for pulutan but then again not everyone is into it. Marketman has his own take about pulutan when he said "I understand the argument against eating anything that is endangered or anything that appears to have more intelligence than many fellow humans, etc. but if you strip away a lot of the noise, it’s just protein, fat and calories. And for some reason, eating unusual protein or strange animal body parts is often accompanied by a beer or other alcoholic drink.". Really, sometimes it's the culture too.

And yes, they do have tuwalya and laman-lamanan in Antibes or is it in Greece? Well, both. Schatzli talks about how pinoy wherever they man be always have the knack for entertaining themselves with gusto.

Karen of course came up with Sisig Paro complete with explanation how its name came about.
Impress yourselves with Karen's entry. It definitely reminded me of the different terminologies we have of one thing despite the fact that we all are from one archipelago like the egg is called itlog in Baguio but once it reaches Pampanga, has become ebon.

Relly will surely break my kids' hearts when they find out about her Stewed Rabbit recipe. We own two dwarf rabbits that have perpetually looked like bunnies even after 5 years. I have to admit that my father used to cook adobong kuneho when I was young. Thanks Relly who is new to Lasang Pinoy.

Who can beat the most classic pulutan called pinapaitan? Kai has the talent to even come up with a very vivid description of how her townsfolk plan anything just to have kambing.

Full marks of course goes to Ces for coming up with Kilawen na Tuna. I do not know about you but I love raw fish and shrimps and I always get warned by my mother-in-law not to indulge so much in anything raw as my stomach might churn. But like Ces, this is my ultimate pulutan.

How my son prepares our sandwiches

2006-01-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

Can you spot the difference?

My son has a very personalized way of preparing everyone's sandwiches at home. If there's one expert sandwich maker I have come to meet, it would be him

He prepares our sandwiches exactly the way we want ours to be. We all want meat, so the meat is on. He also knows exactly how to layer the vegetables so that the tomatoes wont make the bread slices soggy. The cheese should be on the other side to protect the pickles also from well...making the bread soggy.

Now here's the funny part. He puts as many or as little pickles as you want. Sometimes, when we have pickled jalapenos at home, he exactly knows who want jalapenos in theirs and how much. Isn't that neat?

Guess which one is mine?

Pata Tim

2006-01-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

One more try on Pata Tim, this time, a diner friendly one. I had to debone the hocks since I had a few oldies for guests. I was also lucky to find "mustasa" from the Filipino store. You will have to pardon me because I actually cook without measuring my ingredients. We call this cooking talent "tancha-tancha" in Pilipino.

Maybe, I should just tell you how I cooked this. First, I boiled one big hock in a pot adding a few star anise seeds, soy sauce and brown sugar in it. I added about two cups of water. I was more generous with the brown sugar this time. I think I actually put about 1 cup of it. The soy sauce is of course depending on your taste but in mine, I might have added about 1/4 cup. Once it was tender, I asked hubby to debone the hocks so that the taste will stick to the meat. I had to simmer this on low heat for about 2 hours. In fact it is better to cook it in a slow cooker but I cannot remember why I didn't use mine that time.

Once it is tender or even better if it could melt right in your mouth, add the mustasa before serving. Do not overcook the mustasa. I made this a day earlier because with pata tim, the taste improves if left overnight in the fridge. Make sure though that the mustasa is added only upon serving.

Lasang Pinoy 6 : Let's wash it down with booze! !

2006-01-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

(Logo courtesy of my kasaya, Mike Mina of Lafang)

With the holiday season over, I am sure you guys have a lot of stories to tell. Yes, the tender kilawen na kambing that your brother-in-law prepared, the sweet dilis you received as a present from a classmate, the inihaw na bangus you bought from Aling Vering and even the dinuguan when Mang Tomas butchered the pig for lechon.

In the Philippines, drinking is a past time, a way of unwinding (for the men anyway). It's a person's way of de-stressing from a hard day's knock. Not that it is not in other countries, but there is an added twist to how Filipinos enjoy drinking. More often than not, they always have a pulutan to go with their drinks. Sometimes, the reason why a drinking spree is unforgettable depends on how good the pulutan is. Only in the Pilipins, so they say!

So what exactly is a pulutan? Well, out of curiosity, I googled it but even wikipedia did not describe the way I have known pulutan to be. I shouldn't say that. It is a finger food alright but I am sure there is more to it than a finger food, literally. Maybe we should add to wikipedia's with an intimate description of it.

Pulutan is a kind of food that is served as accompaniment to a drink. It comes in different kinds like meat, fish, nuts, chips. It's prepared in different ways...raw, fried, steamed. Basically, it is anything that makes drinking enjoyable. Even a pet might start to look as a pulutan depending on the level of alcohol drinkers(I call them "bingeirs") have had but that is a different story I would not even like to touch.

Pulutan has evolved in a hundred ways. When I was young, I was made sure to understand that pulutan was only for men, drinking men--hands-off that saucer served in front of those drunk men. Of course there were no comprehensible reasons given to me and I wasn't allowed to ask why, lest I'd be sent to bed. In many occasions, I always ended up dreaming about how they tasted. Now that I have reached the age of reasoning, I believe that had the drinking men allowed me to eat their pulutan, I would have finished the pulutan all up before they even got drunk. Drinking wouldn't have been fun for them then.

As street-hawkers and restaurants mushroomed, so did the meaning of pulutan expand. Pulutan is now served as a delicacy and specialty in reputable restaurants, not as a pulutan per se but as appetizers. From a simple dinakdakan, evolved "crispy sisig". I couldn't even draw the line between ingenuity and poverty when it comes to pulutan anymore. The chicken feet that my father used to throw away when he cooked tinola are now delicacies called "Adidas" and you will find out from my round-up why. If you're walking down the streets and see IUD-like barbecues, well they are called IUDs indeed made out of chicken intestines. They do make drinking enjoyable whatever they're made out of.

So, let's not waste our time. Bring out all the pictures we took during the holidays to show-off how we enjoyed our boozes or bring out the pots and pans and cook one up if you haven't done one yet and let's re-live the holiday feeling over again.

Do you want to join? Here's how it works. Write your thoughts about pulutan on or before January 31. Post them in your blog and send me an e-mail at lasang.pinoy@gmail.com or ting_aling@hotmail.com so I could include you in my round-up. You don't need to be a Filipino to join. Yeah, tell us how your trip to the Philippines was, that's alright!

Take it away!!

Lasang Pinoy 5: Impromptu Christmas Dinner

2006-01-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

Ola and cheers to everyone straight from the Philippines. Behind all the revelry, remind me next time not to go shopping for Noche Buena on December 24 itself. The que was just unending and you have to ready to stand behind the lines for an hour just to pay. But then again, our Christmas this year was something unusual. We just arrived from the province, tired from a celebration happening 2 days prior to Christmas eve. My brother's birthday is on the 24th so he was given the task of cooking for us. We were'nt difficult to please. Exhausted, we didn't mind whatever he prepared for us.

My sister who attended the grand celebration herself also had it. She wasn't ready to touch anything in the kitchen despite the fact that we were having the birthday celebration at my parents' house where she lives now. Father does not live there anymore. Since mother passed away, he decided to retire in the province, 6 hours away from the city. The cold water, the weather, the travels we had made us all contented with whatever was on the table. And oh, the helpers gone as well to celebrate Christmas with their families. (sigh!)

I decided to prepare something light myself. I bought a few pieces of Malaga and steamed them. I seasoned the fish with sauteed ginger, soy sauce, knorr seasoning and garnished it with finely chopped green onions. Brother prepared dinuguan from the lechon. My sister prepared lychees with gelatin and ordered a tray of macaroni for the kidlets.

Well, this was our Noche Buena but we had a better one the next day.

Kids were happier the next day. They got to meet cousins from afar and played different games. And this is how it is every year no matter where we are. Same place, same day and same time but maybe not the same people. The host never leaves her post for it has been a tradition as far as I can remember. We know where to go if we happen to be in Baguio on Christmas Eve and Day, for my family anyway.

Hors d' Oeuvres for everyone

2005-11-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

Well friends, this might be my last post for this year depending on what kind of internet connection I will be getting in the Philippines.

I hope the prosciutto, smoked salmon and sushi(not to mention the wasabi) will all keep you inspired to keep cooking this season.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. It's been a great year coming to know you all guys

Have a great one everyone!

Lasang Pinoy 4: Sotanghon--my all time soul food

2005-11-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

I have been under a lot of stress lately, a family crisis (not in my family but in my clan); preparing for our trip to the Philippines; hubby undergoing minor surgery; and finishing up a big project at work. The family's food for the past 3 weeks were nothing but food bought from KFC, McDonald's, Wendy's and A & W. There were days I just had to give my son money to buy lunch from school. Yes, it was that bad. Didn't you notice it in my blog? Some did anyway.

This post is but an evidence of what I've gone through. Very timely indeed. I got through one crisis last Thursday and I told my hubby I needed a warm, home-cooked meal (aside from the warm hug I've been looking forward to). I wasn't keen on having rice. I wasn't keen on having soup either. I wanted to cook something that reminded me of home. Afterall, I was closely in contact with my aunts in the Philippines almost every hour that time. I tell you, the time difference was really killing me. Every hour counted.

Out of nowhere, I went to the Filipino store. Browsing, I could have bought stuff easy to cook..hmm like daing na bangus, canned corned beef..haha. But then, I missed my aunt and everytime I remembered her, she reminded me of her sotanghon. When I was young, sotanghon was always part of her "handa". When we had a reunion in New Jersey, she again cooked her sotanghon. When I was talking to her over the phone, she reminded me that when I go home, Christmas Day celebration was going to be at her house because it's been a tradition. At that point, the picture of her sotanghon recipe just flashed in my mind and I guess this is what drove me to go to the Filipino store.

Hibe and Tenga ng Daga was what made her sotanghon different from sotanghon recipes I've tasted. I had to go to another Filipino store to find hibe. Hubby asked me nonchalantly "I thought you don't want to cook?". Well, to cut the chase, I cut the vegetables on my own which I normally ask my kids to do for me on ordinary days. I cooked the sotanghon without any complaint. I ate at my own pace, my own time. Everyone was sensitive to one another's feelings. In my heart and mind, I knew my family was relieved..they had warm home-cooked meal and home felt home again.

Bulong Unas

2005-11-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

My mother called this "bulong unas" (sugar cane leaf) because the fish resembles that of a sugar cane leaf. In Sto Tomas, La Union, they dry this fish like they normally would with all other fishes suited for drying. Once dried, you normally deep fry this to make it crunchy. It's so good especially if dipped in vinegar.

I like mine fresh though and I cook it the way I cook adobo. I add a little oil to prevent it fron sticking to the bottom of the pan. Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Black Pepper, Onions, a little bit of sugar (no water, please!) . Let it simmer on slow heat for about 15 minutes until it gets dry. Keep in the fridge overnight and eat it for lunch the next day. Now that's what I call a perfect meal.

Igado

2005-11-03T22:38:00.000-08:00

One familiar recipe from almost any part of the Philippines. However, I believe that you have to have the right mixture of everything to get the right taste. I never tried to cook this until my family went to visit my brother in New Jersey. He's married to a Kapampangan but from what I gathered, my sister-in-law is not really good in cooking. He was counting on me to cook this with all the ingredients ready. He was quite surprised to find out I didn't know how to cook it so he had to cook it himself.

From our visit, my husband urged me to learn how to cook it. What was even well "insulting" was he wanted me to cook it the way his mom cooked it. I tried and I succeded!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 lb of pork, thinly sliced
200 gms of kidney, thinly sliced
200 gms of liver, thinly sliced
200 gms of lungs
1 large potato, julienned
1/2 red pepper, julienned
1 small carrots, julienned
1/4 cup green peas
1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
5 tbsp of vinegar
soy sauce and salt to taste

Saute onion in a saucepan until onion becomes translucent. Add pork and simmer for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Add potato. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add carrots, pepper and raisins or cranberries adding only a small amount of water if necessary. Add kidney, liver and lungs vinegar and cover pan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add green peas and cook for another 5 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2005-10-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

You can count the number of times I bake. This is just one of the few. We're trying to cut on sugar and fat but we just can't resist this recipe from the Best of Bridge Series.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
sugar for coating

Cream together butter and sugars. Add Peanut Buter and mix well. Add egg and then the dry ingredients. Roll into ball and then in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Salay with Tausi

2005-10-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Called Yellow Striped Trevally, this fish simply called Salay in Pangasinan is one of my husband's favorites. He admits that it's one of the familiar fishes he knows his mom served him when he was growing up. You should have seen the glitter in his eyes when I brought home a pack one day from the Filipino Store.

Ingredients:

Oil for frying
1 lb of Salay, gutted and cleaned
1 can of Temple Black Beans (Tausi)
1/2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1/8 cup of lemon juice
2 stalks of green onions finely chopped

Fry the salay in a frying pan and set aside. Pour water over black beans to rinse. On the same pan, saute onions until translucent. Add the black bean sauce and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the lemon and fried fish. Garnish with green onions and serve.

Antipasto

2005-10-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

This appetizer was something I have tried from a friend's friend Donna. Over the years, I have been canning this for friends. Oh, they really are great christmas gifts for friends. However, I took a rest because this really entailed a lot of chopping. Choppers are no help either. Now that my kids are older and are now becoming good kitchen helpers, I am back to making this. In fact, my son had a great time chopping the ingredients with his special chopper from Alaska.

Ingredients

1 cup of olive oil
1 head of cauliflower, finely chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 250 ml of pitted greed olives, chopped
1 can of mushroom stems, chopped
1 liter of mixed sweet pickles, chopped (save the liquid)
500 ml of hot mixed pickles , chopped)
750 ml of ketchup (quality)
1 can of anchovies, chopped
2 cans of solid tuna

Put all ingredients except tuna in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally. In the meantime, pour boiling water over the tuna to rinse. Add to mixture and simmer for 10 more minutes.Serve with crackers.

To process, make sure that your jars are sterilized. Pour cooked antipasto in jars and let boil in a large pot. Make sure that water is tree quarters of the way up the jars. Boil for at least 20 minutes. Once cool, tighten lids and store in cool dry place.

Canning

2005-10-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

So what have I been doing last weekend? I canned antipasto, Bangus in Olive Oil and Salmon in Olive Oil.

Canning of Antipasto was something I learned from a friend's friend and the Bangus and Salmon were just something I thought could be done after observing that they're sold in stores. Oppss, just the bangus. The salmon was something suggested by another friend. The antipasto recipe will follow very soon.

Processing food is not something you should dread as long as you're following the instructions properly. One thing I found out is you can only can freshly cooked food. Make sure that you boil the jars with the food in them for over 20 minutes. Especially with the Bangus and the Salmon, make sure that the mouths of the jars are free from oil drippings when putting fish in the jar before putting the lids on. You will definitely have a hard time sealing the lids if you don't wipe the oil drippings.

Lasang Pinoy 3: Pinoy Street Food

2005-10-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Filipinos are fond of street food. Kai who happens to be the host of Lasang Pinoy for the month of October has actually given a total picture of what street food means to every Filipino. Way back in high school, my friends and I frequented this corner along General Luna Road in Baguio City which sells fishballs. As far as I can remember, it is the only one I bought fishballs from. Not that I was very fuzzy or what but since my mother was a health worker, it's an exageration to say that since birth, she never failed to remind us of the dangers of buying from unsanitary places.

The corner called "Hang-out" was owned by a doctor, so we expected that he would have taken extra measures to keep his space clean otherwise he will see the end of his career. Hang-out was not an ordinary place. It was actually a casual place to dine-in but just before you enter the place, there was this teenie corner where fishballs were cooked. I think I always had fishballs for lunch because for 1 Peso, I had 20 fishballs. Back then, they were being sold for 5 pieces for 25 cents. Hmm, don't ask me what year it was, because I am not ready to tell you.

Hang-out had a simple recipe for its sauce: Soy sauce, vinegar, onions, sugar and garlic. Back then, Hepa-B was not yet a big concern but mother was already concerned about me dipping my fishballs in one big jar where others dip theirs as well. She suggested that instead of me buying from the corner, I should just buy the uncooked one from the market and cook them at home. Yes, it was such a bright idea.

Having fishballs at home is definitely a two-thumbs up for my kids, nieces and nephews. It's one of the things my kids look forward to everytime we go home to the Philippines. It's at the toppest part of our "To eat list". There's so much involved in cooking fishballs for a bunch of kids...emotionally, that is. By the time one kilo is gone, someone would be crying for not having his equal share of the fun. Another one would be crying for stolen pieces he's left in the bowl (to absorb more sauce); or someone else has picked someone else's skewer. I personally think that there's more to than just having fun when I see them rush to the bowl to dip theirs in. It's a priceless moment to see everyone bonding just because of fishballs.

Just before I bring out the skewers I never fail to lay out my only simple rule: NO DOUBLE-DIPPING. ATTACCKKKKK!!!!

Salmon in Olive Oil, Spanish Style

2005-10-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a friend who was a recipient of one of my favorites, she asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to try cooking salmon the way I cooked my bangus. She had a point. Salmon was in abundance when she suggested it to me.

Out of curiosity, I escaped from hubby and went to buy salmon one night. He gets suspicious everytime I become uneasy. Luckily, the fish was gutted and dressed so all I needed to do was slice the fish and cook it. It wasn't bad considering that it was my first time to try it. I also had the chance to can my second try and gave away some jars to my friends. This reminds me of the "Mackerel" in cans we used to have when I was young.

Ingredients:

5 lbs of sliced salmon (steak)
10 pcs of bay leaves
10 pcs of hot chilies
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 tsp of peppercorns
1/4 cup of sweet pickles
1 1/2 tbsp of sea salt (adjust to taste)

Arrange sliced salmon in a pressure cooker. Add the rest of the ingredients. Add olive oil half an inch of the way up the pile. Cover the pressure cooker and bring oil to boil. Bring heat to medium once pressure cooker starts indicating that it has reached the pressure where it creates that funny sound(a little comedy here) . Cook for about an hour.

To process: Arrange cooked fish including oil and other ingredients in jars and put in large deep pot. Add water three quarters of the way up the jars. Cover and bring water to boil. Simmer for at least 20 minutes. Let cool. Tighten lids and store in cool place.

Liver Steak

2005-10-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

I had to hide the liver with tomatoes and onions so my kids will eat it. It's actually one of the best sources of iron but you should have this only once in a while because even if liver is rich in iron, it is also rich in cholesterol.

I used to hide my share under the chair when I was young. I had a sister who was sick of leukemia and my parents were advised to serve her liver because it's rich in iron. Over the years, I have learned to like this and to this day, I love cooking it.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp of ground pepper
1 lb of beef liver, thinly sliced
oil to fry
1/2 cup of flour
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

Pat the liver dry with paper towel. In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, garlic, ground pepper and lemon juice. Marinate liver with the soy mixture for about 10 minutes. Dredge liver slices in flour and pan fry. Set aside. Do not throw soy mixture away.

In a separate pan, saute onion and tomatoes. Add the fried liver slices. Season with the soy mixture set aside earlier. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Serve.

Shanghai Lumpia

2005-10-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

I know I should be talking about my thanksgiving dinner but after preparing for two turkey dinners this weekend, I am so turkeyed-out, I hardly even want to say turkey anymore.

Today, I prepared Shanghai Lumpia for a cousin for a change. She hasn't had any turkey so far and she was expecting me to have one for lunch. Normally on Thanksgiving Day in the past, we always have one at home . Too bad. She had to make do with the left-overs but I made sure the Lumpia would compensate for whatever she was craving for.

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground pork
1 medium onion, finely chopped
5 tbsps of soy sauce
2 eggs
2 tbsp of corn starch
1/2 tsp of ground pepper

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Wrap the mixture in lumpia wrappers. Deep fry. Serve with sweet and sour sauce. Relax and enjoy the company of cousin.

2005-10-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

Just having a good time!

Lasang Pinoy Series

2005-10-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

(button courtesy of dexie)

Some of you are wondering what Lasang Pinoy is all about. So what is Lasang Pinoy? Lasang Pinoy is a monthly Pinoy food blogging event aiming to discuss about Pinoy food in general. Theme for the month will be decided upon by the blogger host. A theme could be about Pinoy food ingredients; memories or any pinoy-food-related item but not necessarily edible.

Each Pinoy Blogger will take turn in hosting such event, with a roundup of all the entries at the blogger host's site. It is open to all pinoys, even readers who are not bloggers, and bloggers who are not good in cooking but have definitely something to share about Pinoy food.

This event aims to create awareness that there are interesting Pinoy Food recipes on the net not just on published recipe books and TV shows. It also aims to promote Filipino cuisine internationally; to Filipinos who have been away from the Philippines, Filipinos who were born and raised in foreign countries and others who just want to learn the basics of Pinoy cooking.

Should you want to be a "host-for-the-month", please send your intents to lasangpinoy@gmail.com and state your intended theme.

Here are the round-ups for your reading pleasure:

Lasang Pinoy 1- Launching on Ninoy Aquino Day ; My contribution

Lasang Pinoy 2-Cooking Up a Storm; My contribution

Lasang Pinoy 3 - Pinoy Street Food; My Contribution

Tofu, Shiitake Mushroooms and Vegetables

2005-10-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

One of my kids favorites. You don't need a lot to prepare this sumptous recipe.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of cooking oil
4 tbsp of hoisin sauce
4 pieces of deep fried tofu
2oo gms of shiitake mushrooms
1 medium onion, quartered
1 medium carrot (I was a little inspired in cutting mine)
1 250 gms of canned young corn
100 gms of snow peas

Heat the cooking oil in a pan. Add the hoison sauce and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the deep fried tofu making sure that you flip the tofu on each side in a careful manner so as not to crumble the tofu blocks. Add the shiitake mushrooms and the onion and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced carrot and the young corn. Cover the pan and cook for about 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the snow peas last making sure not to overcook the peas. I sometimes adjust the taste by adding a bit of black bean sauce.

Dilis

2005-09-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

Sweet Anchovies is a delicacy in Korea, Japan and China. In the Philippines, what I can remember is our anchovies, even though they are sweet, they're coated with I believe sugar and flour and deep fried.

The anchovies I used here were imported from Malaysia. I saw it already cooked at the Korean Store near our place. It reminded me of what Japan Airlines serve to their passengers on long trips. I don't have a fixed measurement guides here as I was only experimenting.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of cooking oil
1 100 gms bag of anchovies
2 tbsp of honey
1 tsp of dried chili powder
2 tbsp of vinegared chili paste (or more if you want it spicy hot)

Fry anchovies in oil for about 5 minutes. Set aside. On the same pan, combine honey, chili powder and vinegard chili paste. Bring to a rolling boil. Add the fried anchovies making sure that the anchovies are coated well with the honey mixture.

Enjoy it as a "pulutan" or an appetizer.

Lasang Pinoy Round 2: Daing na Bangus and Tuyo

2005-09-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Celiak is the host of Lasang Pinoy (Round 2) and wants us to fascinate the world with tales of how we survive every storm that visits our beloved country, the Philippines. From what I know, Philippines suffers from 10 to 30 storms of varying strenght every year. Sometimes, they're devastating, sometimes they're not.

Typhoon season in the Philippines is a mixture of welcome and unwelcome feelings from me. In Baguio where I grew up, it means being isolated from the rest of the Philippines. It also meant that our food supplies coming from the lowlands would possibly be cut off brought about by landslides making our roads impassable. Out of desperation, sometimes farmers try to risk their lives to transport their goods to at least recover some of their farming costs.

It's not altogether bad when news of typhoons reach us. Why? Usually, the news would either be a hit or miss, what with the outdated weather radar our government had at that time? Typhoons are categorized I believe in four signals: 1) Signal number 1 meant that the force of the wind and rain was not truly devastating. Elementary students are still required to attend their classes; 2) Signal number 2 meant that classes in high school are cancelled and chances are, the winds and rain will be quite destructive; 3) Signal number 3 meant classes in colleges and universities are cancelled. You'll have to brace up because the strength of this typhoon is ravaging; 4) It's devastating and deadly.

There were times that PAG-ASA, our weather bureau would announce that the forthcoming storm is categorized as signal number three. Well, that meant all schools were cancelled only to find out that students are having a good time in movie houses because the weather is not that threatening at all. It's shining brightly outside.

There were instances where the storm was categorized as signal number 1 and yet it's raining cats and dogs and you could hardly stay dry and cover the rain with your umbrella.

Now, every time there is news of a strong typhoon hitting our city, milk fishes from fishponds in Pangasinan are often harvested prematurely because chances are these fish pens are going to be flooded anyways and the fishes washed away by the rain. Owners usually harvest them and bring them to Baguio and sell them for a bargain. It won't be any help for us to stock pile them in our freezers because there's a big chance that our power will be out anyway because of strong winds.

Mother always had a brilliant idea of buying them and filleting them while they're still cheap. She would then marinate them in lots of vinegar, garlic, pepper and soy sauce and fry them. When marinated, these bangus would last for a few days. In fact, the taste gets better if marinated for a few days. She would make sure that she bought enough to last us a few days days before the storm calms down and market stalls open again. We call it daing na bangus.

We would usually have sinigang na bangus on the first day of the storm. The next day, we would have fried bangus and the third day, daing na bangus. Better enjoy them while they last because once business is back, their prices would skyrocket.

What about the monsoon rain? It's not definitely a welcome one for me. First of all, the rain never stops for weeks. I remember when I was young; it would rain continuously for over a month. Of course because it's only a monsoon rain, classes are not cancelled. As soon as you get out of the house, your pants and runners are already soaked. Drying your clothes takes forever. Because we don't have dryers in Baguio, sometimes-even electricity, we hang our clothes to dry. It takes about 3 days to dry them and the smell is always unwanted. Well, it would be a mixture of a rotten smell with food that you've cooked for the past few days. Because prices of goods during this time is really high or sometimes because we're isolated, supplies of vegetables from the lowlands is scarce, we depend on canned goods and dried fish for sustenance. Cooking dried fish inside the house when all windows are shut will make you think twice before cooking dried fish. For some reason though, it is when the weather is cold that dried fish taste so good.

There is this part of the city that gets flooded everytime our city gets hit by a storm. It's literally a hole with no drainage. The water level sometimes gets to their rooftop and it takes days for the water to subside. But Baguio City is above sea level, you might say? Rescue operations are often focused on this part of the city. I have reached a point in my life where I basically lost sympathy for the people who lived there. They seem to not have learned their lessons but who are we to judge them. A friend told me that it's the only property they have and their only way of staying in the city.Well, when the storm calms and we're ready to pick up the pieces, sometimes mother prepares arroz caldo for us. She however makes sure that the chicken she buys from the market are not "double-dead".

Picadillos

2005-09-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

I am sure this is a common recipe in the Philippines but not everyone know how it's called other than "giniling". Even in our Filipino Restaurant here, the cook still calls it "giniling". Giniling in Pilipino is ground.

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground pork or beef
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large potato, cubed
1 medium carrot, cubed
1 medium red and greenpeppers, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup green peas
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup of tomato sauce
1/4 cup of water
salt to season
1 tbsp of sugar (optional)

Cook ground meat in a saucepan until brown and dry. Add cooking oil. Add onion and cook until onion is translucent. Add the sliced potato and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the carrots and the raisins. Cook for another 3 minutes. Once potato and carrot are cooked, add the tomato sauce and water and cover pan and let boil. Bring heat to medium and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add peas and peppers. Cook for another 1 minute. Season to taste.

Variations:

You can add paprika and cumin for color. Some add liver. Others add catsup. Be bold and try anything. Others call it picadillo, others call it picadillos. Hey, you're more than welcome to say it the way you want to say it.

Pancakes with Sausages and Eggs

2005-09-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

So what are pancakes, sausages and eggs doing in this row of sand sculpture pictures? We planned for a weekend trip to Harrison Hot Springs where the World Sand Sculpture Competition happens every year. The judging has happened already a week ago but they keep these sculptures for exhibition for a month. The organizers must be praying for just a bit of rain now to keep the sculptures intact and minimal sunshine to keep the sand from drying and being blown away by the wind.

Again, why the pancakes, sausages and eggs? Well, we meant to stay at the resort overnight. Our place is about 2 hours drive to the resrot and so we decided to stay in a hotel so we can pass by this school to visit a friend's son who just entered the seminary the next day. He was a friend of my kids byt the way. It was quite an adventure right from the start. My kids have other plans for the weekend with some friends but already, during the week I was keen on going to see the sculptures before the weather starts changing so they weren't happy.

We started late with a busy Friday night, we slept in and travelled late. Kids were of course disappointed with my plans so they weren't looking forward to this trip. We bought a dozen corn on the way from a place known for its corn mazes. The lake was not difficult to find. Check in time at the hotel was at 3:00 pm and so we decided to walk around the area first. We had a favorite Japanese Restaurant where we live and apparently the owner of this restaurant moved to the Lake to start his business so we started looking for him, starved and tired. We did not find him but we decided to eat at a Japanese Restaurant near our hotel.

We further decided to try checking in earlier so we can enjoy going around with no more luggages in tow. For some reason, I happened to mention to the receptionist about our search for this Japanese Cook and found out that he was in fact living in the same complex, at the back apartments of the hotel. Apparently, he owned the restaurant where we ate but did not stay long in that business and sold it to someone else.

Anyway, when we got into the hotel, it did not smell good. Son said it smelled like a hospital. Already, the kids with heavy hearts were not happy with the smell. Add to that the weather condition. It was not sunny, nor was it raining. It was just cloudy and the place was cold. We decided to just head home and we got home late. Daughter thought that pancakes, sausages and eggs would make-up for that trip and so she cooked some this morning, at home.

Well, here are a few of the pictures I took. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.

The sand sculptures from the viewing stage

An entry from a chinese delegation
chinese sculpture

Arabian Nights

Campfire Tales. This is my favorite. I failed to take a picture of the kids listening to the storyteller.

Seeing Through My Hands

Japanese Sculture

Castles in the Sand

unicorn heads

2005-09-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

Something I shouldn't be proud about..Alfredo's Sauce in jars. But I was really busy the past few days and it's a good thing I had some smoked ham in the freezer, a spare jar of Alfredo's sauce in the cupboard and my ever stack of spgahetti noodles.

Plums and Nectarines

2005-09-13T01:11:00.000-07:00

Just a few more signs that summer is over on this other side of the world. Today, when I went to the store to buy some fruits, the apples, plums, peaches and nectarines dominated the stalls. I got a little curios of something new in the market, the dinosaur plum. Out of you may call it ignorance, I bought one to taste. And then I started to think how each of the other varieties compared as far as taste go.

I liked them all but I loved the dinosaur plums best. I prefer the nectarines over peaches as well but I want my nectarines firm, juicy and sweet. For the prune plums, I prefer them a bit over riped otherwise, I'd eat them as dried prunes instead. These are good laxatives. When I gave birth, i had dried prunes to ease me from all the hassles of you know what.

They don't stay very long in the market. Peaches especially get rotten easily. I also found out that the quality of peaches depend very much on the weather. The hotter the summer is, the sweeter they are. They could flood the market but that doesn't mean that they're sweet. I haven't any peaches yet this year. I had a bad experience last year when they were so grainy.

Nilagang Manok

2005-09-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

Ready or not, here I am again presenting to you this time an all-time family favorite, nilagang manok. Baguio is known for having a very temperate climate in the Philippines and this is what we usually have when the rainy season strikes. Now, don't say brr..

2 tbsp of oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
about 2 lbs of chicken, chopped into small piesces
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1/4 tbsp of finely chopped ginger
6 cups of water
1/2 lb of green beans
5 pcs of potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/4 lb of cabbage
salt to taste
etag-optional

In a sauce pan, heat oil. Saute garlic until lightly brown. Add Etag and chicken and cook for about 5 minutes or until chicken becomes dry. Add onions and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes. Add water and let boil. Add potatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes depending on how tender the chicken is. Add the vegetables and season to taste. Make sure that the vegetables are not overcooked. Serve hot.

The etag really adds flavor to the soup. You should really try making this and store the meat in a plastic wrap in the freezer once the meat is cured.

Tagged again

2005-09-08T00:33:00.000-07:00

Tagged one more time by JMom, now I am supposed to tell more about my life. Bear with me.

20 Years ago

I was chasing this guy inside our campus. Cute, chinese looking guy. He was a neighbor and a friend's friend but I guess he's never set eyes on me. Not true! He actually did too but he never was a gutsy man.

At the same time, I had a barkada who people thought was my boyfriend but never was. Never had the nerve either. Girls were head over heels with this barkada of mine but I guess he liked me better than them. The truth is, he never had the nerve to tell me how he felt towards me because he knew I was head over heels with the guy I was chasin' around. 'confused yet?

Menu of the year? Chicken mami.

15 years ago

My husband and I moved to our newly built house built out of our own sweat. No financial help from our parents. Yipee, I am so proud of ourselves. Mortgages suck though.

My son was born 2 days prior to the killer quake that hit Baguio City. Daughter had a scar on her forehead as a result of her running out of the house when she felt the earthquake. She was only one year old.

10 years ago

Instead of going home to the Philippines for Christmas, I opted to spend Christmas with my brother in the States. My first time. A few cousins I grew up with in the Philippines were also with us. It was like being in Baguio City again except that there was snow all over the place. Despite the weather, cousins and I went shopping at the nearby outlet. Reality bites. Christmas sucks if not celebrated in the Philippines.

The Twin Towers were still standing then. I have not realized that I had a picture with the towers as my background until my children pointed it out to me.

5 years ago

We had to leave the Philippines on December 31 because there was a change in our flight schedule. Kids packed their stuff up with heavy hearts and left Lolo with new year goodies he was meaning to serve us on New Years Eve. As a result, i had a big fight with the person who was in charge of letting people go inside the airport terminal. He wouldn't let us in because our flight was supposed to be on the 3rd of January. In order for me to have our flight fixed, he wanted me to leave my kids outside with no guarantee that my kids will still be there when I got back.

We celebrated New Year at home in our pajamas and kept on swearing at how our city sucked. It was the only city I guess which did not participate in the celebration of the New Millenium with fireworks. Our city officials were too afraid of bomb threats and lawsuits.

1 year ago

'started planning for a very special occasion comin' up this Christmas.

Yesterday

Ironed out all the kinks for this upcoming event. Philippines, here we come.

Last night

Boo hoo. 'slept early. 'had a headache.

Today

'finished all the things that kept bugging me for the last three months. Woohoo!!

Next Year

'will start to save up for a new car.

5-10 years from now

I am hoping that my daughter will be a doctor and my son an engineer. Crossing my fingers.

I am tagging Sari, Bugsy and the Ca T

Childhood Food Memories Meme

2005-09-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

Tagged by Obachan and Kai this time, I am supposed to talk about the 5 childhood food memories that I miss. I am going to modify this meme of course so that I can talk about 5 food that reminds me of my childhood. Not food that I miss necessarily, but they simply remind me of my childhood.

1. Abal-abal

When I was a kid, my siblings and I would alternate in spending summer with my maternal grandparents in the province. It is the time when all of our cousins from urban places spend time and have fun together. It is also the season when abal-abal are in abundance. We would go to a place near this river where trees abound and where these abal-abal thrive at night. Abal-abal are beetles living in burrowed ground and come out at night and stay on trees. We would shake the trees vigorously so that these beetles will fall off the ground. We'd have to move as fast as we can to pick these beetles up and put them in covered containers or else they will go back to the ground. My grandpapers would roast them in a pan. Crunchy and creamy but I don't think it was really something I enjoyed eating. I enjoyed going with my cousins at night that made this food memorable to me.

2. Simut-simot

My mother was stationed in a place about half an hour from the city when I was young. The place was not so remote but for some reason there was no electricity yet. Mother was entitled to a supply of power from the mining company but she opted to live the way the people in the community lived. It meant us using Petromax (gas lamp). There is a certain month during the year that these simut-simot would come out. They are termites living off rotten trees. Father would bring the lighted lamp out and put it on top of a big basin filled with water. These termites would be attracted to the light and when they start going near the lamp we would try to drive them towards the basin full of water. Father would then roast them and try to get rid of their wings. Like the abal-abal, it's also creamy. Again, it's the fact that we get to play in the dark and do away with our homeworks that made it fun.

3. Chicharon (Kropec)

Nothing extra-ordinary about this one. It's made of flour, shaped in a rectangular form, and deep fried. We would buy a bagful or more of this and me and my siblings would go to our balcon to eat these. My brother will appear with a bowl of vinegar and hot pepper and we would all race to dip our chicharon in the bowl. By the time we're done, our lips would all be white. We introduced this idea to our "city cousins" and my paternal grandmother would always tell us to stop eating them because they're made of "tsinelas ti intsik"(chinese slippers). I still do not get it up to this day why she didn't want us to have some

4. Adobong Palaka

Okey, palaka is frog. Adobo is a way of cooking a meat with vinegar, garlic, soy and pepper. My father's eldest brother has left for the US at a tender age of 21 or younger. The first to join the US Navy in our clan actually and he is about 80 now. He lived his most productive life in the US and as far as I can remember has only gone back to the Philippines 4 or 5 times. During those times, we either visited him in Subic because the ship he was on was enroute somewhere else or he would come up to Baguio for 1 or 2 days. With such a tight schedule, he would request that we cook pinakbet for him and adobong palaka. I was quite amazed because mother or father would scour the market for palaka just for him. It has puzzled me what is in a Palaka that makes him request for this evertime he comes home. No, I am not complaining. 'just wondering.

5. Dinengdeng

Does this surprise you? Well, when I was little, my parents were given a very huge property by a wealthy Igorot. It was free as long as mother served his community. Disgressing a bit, I wouldn't mind going back to that place again but it's a lot different now, I heard. It was massive, really massive. Mother and father were able to raise pigs for Christmas and special occasions. The food to feed these pigs were taken from their garden. Name all the vegetables you can find in the market and mother had them all growing in her garden. Bananas, Guyabano, Calamansi, Avocadoes, oh we had them in our backyard. My parents gave these all up when we started going to school and my parents believed that we needed better education than what the community had. The property was still ours but when my mother died, there was just no reason for us to go back to that place anymore. At that time, city-living was a lot convenient for us.

Anyway, because our house was next to the school, teachers coming from the city would bribe my mother with fried bangus(milkfish) so she can cook fresh dinengdeng for them. The teachers would send a few students to pick the vegetables from my mother's garden. Mother would then cook these vegetables for lunch. Our house would be like a party house all the time. Ah, I miss those teachers very much.

Phew, that was such a mouthful. Now my turn to tag. I am tagging all those readers whose names start with C. No hiding now.

Promoting Filipino Cuisine

2005-09-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Promoting Filipino Cuisine is our topic for the month at Blogkadahan. See what I have to serve to my international audience

Sockeye Salmon

2005-09-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

It's salmon harvest season and I was lucky to get a freshly caught sockeye piece for a good deal. I had to roll my eyes when I heard that it was $10.00 a piece, about 6 lbs. I wanted to buy some more but I always fall into this trap of storing so much in my freezer and the whole family gets overwhelmed everytime they search for something else inside the freezer or they want to put something in.

Well, the fish was not dressed and gutted so I had to do it myself. If you bought them from the store dressed and gutted, they would have cost me $5.99/lb. Putting a price on my catch, I would have paid between $25 and $36.

I must be the last person in my family who loves to gut the fish. Everybody thinks it's gross. I am also good at filleting. My daughter was just having fun watching me not wasting any part of the fish.

Really, nothing gets wasted if I do it. I had fillets for baked salmon, steaks, bones for chowder and other soups and my infamous sinigang and adobo.

Black Eyed Beans

2005-08-31T13:25:00.000-07:00

I know I have had a few versions of this in my previous posts. Nothing extra-ordinary really about this, except that I added some snow peas in it. What I usually do is cook a bunch of these beans and freeze the rest.

When I get to one of those busy nights, I just thaw a container of the frozen ones and just add some vegetables and my favorite seasoning, Patis

Ah, just perfect when the temperature is just starting to get to our bones. Brrr

-------------------------

The Recipe as requested by a reader (Note-the measurements are approximate depending on the number of people who are going to be served)..will write you a note sometime :-)

250 gms of dried black eyed beans
250 gms of ham hock, sliced into bite sizes
200 gms of snow peas
300 gms of napa cabbage, sliced into 1 1/2 inches length
1 medium onion
2 tbsp of cooking oil
Salt or fish sauce to taste

Boil about 6 cups of water. Add the dried black eyed beans and the ham hock simmer for about an hour in low heat. Once beans and hock are tender, set aside.

In a pan, heat oil. Saute onion until translucent. Add the boiled beans and hock and add water if necessary. Let boil. Add napa cabbage and let boil for about 1 minute. Add green cabbage. Season with Salt. Serve hot.

Shabu-shabu

2005-08-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

This is something the Filipinos learnt from the Japanese. I got the idea of preparing shabu-shabu from Toni when she had her birthday. I know that shabu-shabu is not a soup. Ideally, you should have a bowl full of soup stock on a portable stove and this should be boiling right in front of your two eyes. The raw meat(paper thin) and vegetables are put in that bowl and should be lifted from the bowl in a few seconds. This is how my Japanese friend Nori eat hers. She says that usually, with the aid of chopsticks, you pick the vegetables from the serving plate, dip the vegetables in the boiling soup stock in a swish-swash and that's it. Aren't the Japanese known for eating raw food by the way?

Well, I didn't trust myself to come up with an acceptable soup stock for this one so I quickly went to an Asian store close to our place and bought a "hot pot soup stock". Instead of making the "swish-swash thing", I cooked ours a little bit longer. And since hubby is so fond of soup, I turned my shabu-shabu into a shabu-shabu soup. Now I call it the Filipino shabu-shabu. How's that?

You don't need much here. Vegetables and meat of your choice will do.

Time to wrap summer up for me and my family

2005-08-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Normally, this is what you will see from our location. Clear, blue sky. Lately, the weather started acting up and I knew it was a sign that summer is almost over. I welcome the change of course, even the rain. It means I am going to slow down again and re-energize. This summer was easy for me. The kids are on their own and you don't know how liberating it feels. Ah, the packing alone. Each one has an assignment now. Who packs the rice, who's in charge of the picnic basket or even the lighter that we use to start the charcoal going.

Notice the difference in the pictures? The clouds are just rarin' to come down. The sea breeze was not yet that dreadful but it was colder so I decided to have miso soup, right by the sea and a fried perch. People passing by were wandering whether the fish I was frying was something I caught. Yes fishing is allowed here and people actually get tonnes of smelts. I don't think we were geared to fish..the water was just cold but clear.

I meant to cook sweet and sour fish but we got a surprise caucasian guest who stayed with us until we packed-up. We got free loads of history. Man he did his homework well. 'could even remember when WW1 erupted.

It's the re-opening of school the week after next week. Kids are going to be part of a cottillion 2 Saturdays from now. That's what kept them busy this summer, practising. But I'll still be here focused on my monitor.

Palabok with Imitated Crab Meat and Smoked Salmon

2005-08-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

This is something you might want to try. Palabok with Imitated Crab to substitute your shrimp meat; and Smoked Salmon to substitute your tinapa like the one I have here.

Your will find the procedure here. I had to mince the imitated crabmeat and this time I chopped the eggs finely to go with the minced imitated crab. I used a lot of roasted garlic. Sometimes I substitute the thick palabok noodles with bijon noodles. My daughter really loves the bijon better.

Sinigang Na Baka with Okra, Radish and Long Beans

2005-08-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since I started my food blog. About this time last year, I cooked the same recipe but with different vegetables in it. It must have been the weather. I got bolder with my recipes. Food blogging has really evolved. When I first started, I was only a Sassy fan. Manang Kusinera was I believe the second Filipina food blogger I have come to know. I could be wrong but I could only count them with my ten fingers. And then JMom had hers. She first featured her harvest from her garden and then she took a rest. There was someone else from Taiwan(her name eludes me) and then she moved. I lost track of her afterwards.

Celiak is one who comes to mind. She initially started her blog more for her kids' use. Slowly, Sassy was introducing other Pinay Food Bloggers through her blog including Stel.

Now I cannot keep track of all the Pinoy food bloggers anymore. And dami natin. I do visit your sites guys even if you don't find your site on my list. Minsan, nalilimutan kong i-note yung sites niyo.

Here's my anniversary recipe. Sinigang na Baka with Okra, Radish and Long Beans. The process is really easy. Make sure that your beef is tender , really tender before you add your vegetables and sinigang broth. The trick is cook your vegetables first before you add the sinigang broth.

Bulgogi

2005-08-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

(Our bulgogi about to be cooked and ready for our prying eyes)

I finally got what i had been wishing for for the longest time. A Korean cast iron "grill" (I will have to wait for Ms. Anna Banana to tell me what they're called in Korea) that I can just put on top of a stove. It's not grilling because I put water around the "ring plate" to keep the meat from drying(that's what I think the purpose is). It's not grilling the meat the way you do with a barbecue either. Anyhow, I'm happy I finally found one for a reasonable price.

On the day I had this, I right away made my first proper bulgogi. Not that I haven't done one before but I cooked it in a pan.

Paper thin sliced beef with lotsa onions, mushrooms and green onions. I used a garlic marinade, naturally with lotsa finely chopped garlic. I used a lot of mirin, about 1/4 cup, 1/4 cup of teriyaki soy sauce and I can't remember if I added ground pepper. I always want my bulgogi sweet.

If you have a portable stove, it's great but I used my realible element for now('gotta get one of those too, depending on hubby--he pays the bill you know).

You have to be very careful to start cooking it just before dinner. You want it hot and right off the cast iron when having this because it doesn't taste as good once it's cold. It's a good way of imrpoving group dynamics in your family. Your patience is tested while waiting for the meat to cook or keeping your temper from boiling when there's only a few slice left and the other person beside you grabbed them before you did and damn, you had to wait for the next batch.

Hey don't fret. The meat cooks faster than you think.

Achara

2005-08-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that had I known Karen was going to come up with this, I should have paid more attention to this history when I was young. I was one young girl rarin' to finish my career so I could hit the highway so to speak.

When I first heard that Ninoy was coming home from his exile, we were at the cafeteria by the university campus having our lunch. I was on my 2nd year in college. It was one of those days my mother was not able to prepare lunch for us. She was agitated with the fact that the whole nation was expecting something untoward was going to happen to Ninoy.

It was a day I had to have my lunch at the cafeteria of a dormitory owned by a Kapampangan. I loved the way she prepared her Achara with Barbecue. Kapampangans love to add a lot of sugar to their meat dishes. Atching was one of them.

Atching at that time just sat down not minding her customers. She was worried herself because a cabalen is coming home and she knows that as soon as Ninoy's plane touches down, he'll be dead. The nation just knew it. Indeed, a lot believed that Ninoy's homecoming was going to change the potical situation of the country. Twenty two years after, I still could not tell where our country has gone from there. Well, that's all I can remember folks but I could definitely remember atching's anxiety.

My post therefore is not directly related to Ninoy's death but something that reminds me of his death because of how a cabalen truly felt for him on the day of his death. I should say something about a particular song. Remember "Tie a Yellow Ribbon"?(hum if you do..come on..). That's how yellow has become the prominent color at that time and why most of Ninoy's banners are in yellow. I stand to be corrected of course. It might just have been a coincidence. And oh, Kris Aquino was such a very young kid at that time. Such a naive kid in her long hair often seen with Cory praying not only for Ninoy but for the whole nation. I often felt bad that she lost a father at an early age. And Times Square, yes Time Square was a street inside Phil-Am Subdivision in Quezon City where Cory lived. That house has become a symbol of refuge at that time. Peace Rallies usually started there to Sto. Domingo.

Back to Atching and her faous delicacy. Acharang Papaya (Pickled Papaya) is a kapampangan delicacy if you ask me. And I love mine sweet. It goes well with Barbecues just as the sauerkraut is with kielbasa in Polish. Here's how I do mine as taught by a kapampanga friend Manang Olivia.

Ingredients:

1 kilo of unripe papayas, cleaned and shredded
1/2 of medium red pepper, julienned
1 piece of medium carrot, thinly sliced (with designs if you're artistic)
100 gms of pearl onions
3/4 cup of white sugar
2 cups of cider vinegar
1 tbsp of coarse salt

Achara is a good accompaniment to Tocino (also a kapampangan delicacy); barbecues of any kind; longganisa and other meat products.

In a saucepan, add the sugar, vinegar and salt and let boil. Let cool for about 2 minutes and set aside.

Mix the vegetables in a bowl. Fill washed, clean jars with the vegetable mixture and adding the vinegar mixture allowing a head space. Remove air bubbles with non-metallic utensil before applying lids and screw bands. Allow at least a week for the recipe to cure. i would recommend curing achara inside the fridge.

Pakora

2005-08-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

One of the ethnic foods my system had a hard time getting used to when i first arrived here was the East Indian Cuisine. It must be that the spices were truly strong that I sneezed a lot everytime I went near one.

My cousin who lived near their "territory" took me to one of their festivities when I first set foot here. She was really enjoying their samosas and their soup. Over the years, as I got introduced to different cuisine either from work or friends, I have learned to like well not everything Indian but particularly some of their favorites too.

This pakora is one of them. I believe this is deep fried. When I get to compare this with our Filipino Cuisine, the mixture is almost similar to our Ukoy. Eggs, vegetables, etc. What I like particularly about this is the sauce that goes with it. My officemate from UK said she was going to teach me how to make the sauce. When she was growing up in the islands of Trinidad, she had an East Indian neighbor who taught her how to cook their recipes. 'looking forward to it.

Spicy Seafood Soup

2005-08-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

Back in the Philippines, I have never really been adventurous as far as cooking is concerned. If the recipe is called Pinakbet, I'd stick with what should be included in a pinakbet. If a sinigang calls for tamarind soup base, i'd stick to the tamarind soup base. And if the ingredients are not available, i'd change my mind and cook another one where ingredients are available.

It was only when I have tried other ethnic recipes that I have learned that you shouldn't live in a box. I can cook a spicy soup like the one above with basically nothing but leftovers. Whatever is found in the cupboard, I'd live with. Take the case of this recipe. I cannot tell whether this is A Filipino dish or not. I used a little bit of tamarind soup base, a handful of calamari squid, a handful of prawns, a few slices of carrots, a few oyster mushroom and a few snow peas. I had fish sauce to put a little flavour to it, lots of ginger, a bit of chili powder. It was enough to keep my hubby happy.

I wonder if anyone (except Sassy) has tried making a sinigang out of what we call "Baguio Vegetables" in the Philippines. I told my sister about it but all she asked me was "anong lasa?"(how does it taste like) with a little skepticism in her tone. Oh well, she's got to try it so she knows what I'm talking about. There'd be a lot of cooking lessons for my sister when we go home this Christmas.

Another fun weekend!

2005-08-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

(Our tents under the trees)

My family just came back from a much needed R & R. It was a picnic/camping with some friends a few hours drive from the border. Phew, tomorrow's gonna be back to normal again. Im re-energized. The place reminded me so much of Baguio City and Camp John Hay. After all, this is also a US military recreational facility like Camp John Hay. The area was so massive, really huge!

Food was overflowing! This is the pinikpikan with a lot of Chayotes and Pechay in it.

..and remember my post about this? Notwithstanding the technology that the US has these days, we kept our tradition of preparing our food the Igorot way.

Just before dinner, we had a few games, the most popular of which is the "Tug of War".

...beyond the horizon just after sunset. What's your interpretation of the cloud formation?

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

2005-07-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Karen is jumpstarting Lasang Pinoy in an effort to promote Filipino Cuisine around the world. Hey, you don't need to be a food blogger to join. Here are the quidelines. (The idea was Karen's and Stef's, but the title "lasang pinoy" was mine..*wink..wink*). Of course before the inception of this project, it was a series of discussions among Filipino foodbloggers like JMom, Celiak, Stel, Thess, Ajay, and many more..tumatanda na ako)

Food embodies the culture from which it developed. To know a culture, one can start with food. The past year has seen the food blogging community grow tremendously. Each month, I look forward to the Is My Blog Burning? events which reveal some facets of other cultures through their food and eating habits. The sub-events have grown in number, with themes based on ingredients, aesthetics or culture.

A lighthearted discussion of the above, among others, between Filipino food bloggers has kindled the desire for Filipino food to make its mark on the world culinary map. Thus was born Lasang Pinoy, which could mean it "tastes of something Filipino" or short for "the Filipino taste". Launching Lasang Pinoy on Ninoy Aquino Day

The year 1983 was a turning point for the Philippines. On the 21st of August was the culmination of a man's fight to gain his country's freedom. The day Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. died, Filipinos everywhere were at last emboldened to find their voice to break from the shackles of fear. Ninoy joins the ranks of our greatest heroes in giving us the legacy of our freedom. On his 22nd death anniversary, we celebrate his heroism and dedication to the Filipino nation. In him we have a modern-day hero whose self-sacrifice is worth emulating especially during these days of instability.

For their part, Filipino food bloggers the world over will launch on Ninoy Aquino Day the first Lasang Pinoy Food Blogging Event which aims to bring attention to Filipino food. Just like how Ninoy had much faith in the Filipino, enough to die for us, we are proud to be Filipinos.

All Filipino food bloggers are highly-encouraged to join the event, be they in the country or abroad. Non-food bloggers of Filipino ancestry are also invited; no matter how many generations they have been out of the country or who have never been to the Philippines but still identify themselves as Filipino (or part Filipino, married or related to Filipinos). Entries from other Filipino food and culture enthusiasts are very much welcome. Non-bloggers may also join as long as their entries are hosted in any blog.

Entries should be about food the participant associates with the years (1982-1986) immediately before and after 1983. It could be about food Ninoy ate in prison, family dinners while watching President Marcos on TV or listening to Radio Veritas, food eaten during blackouts or in rallies and the like. (This applies to anyone on either side of the political fence in those days.)

However, for participants who were away from the country at that time, or too young to remember 1983, entries can be about any food they associate with the Philippines or Filipinos and what makes them proud to be one. Tell us what your parents say about Ninoy and his times. Creativity is highly encouraged.

For those who identify themselves as Filipino but believe they do not know what Filipino food is, thoughts on this issue are highly encouraged to be written about. The Filipino is still on a quest to find his/her identity, food included.

Entries have to be posted on or before 18 August 2005 (your own timezone) and the round-up will be posted online by 21 August, Philippine timezone. This announcement may be completely posted on any blog or forum. It would be very interesting to read a blogger discuss the topic with his or her regular readers. However, permalinks of the entries should be e-mailed to lasangpinoy@gmail.com with the blogger's country of location. Bloggers who post this announcement are also kindly requested for an e-mail for coordination purposes.

Leche Flan

2005-07-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Daughter learned how to make this from my cousin. I know this is probably a trade secret because she usually makes this and sells it to her friends. Instructions are from my daughter. I have a lot of objections when she makes this. Nothing to do with the cost but I just find it rich and creamy (and yummy too, I have to admit) and I am trying to keep my kids healthy as much as I can. I couldn't resist posting this though. You only need a few ingredients. Prep time is very minimal and all you needed to do is wait for an hour. Hey, laundry is just half an hour and the dryer about an hour.

When she made this last week, I took the opportunity to buy Halu-halo mix so I can put the flan on my halu-halo. Ah, that's what I call a double whammy.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp of sugar
12 egg yolks (save whites for lemon merinue pie)
1 can of carnation evaporated milk
1 can of Carnation condensed milk
1 tsp of vanilla
lemon zest

Preheat Oven at 350-400.

Caramelize sugar in moulds. You will need two moulds for the above amount of ingredients. Set aside.

Put egg yolks in a bowl together with the milk, vanilla and zest. Stir gently and set the mixture aside for a few minutes to allow the bubbles brought about by stirring to a minimum. In the meantime, fill a foil pan with about 2 cups of water and shovel in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Strain egg mixture into the moulds to eliminate the zest. Place moulds into the foil pan and cover the foil pan with aluminum foil before shoveling it back into the oven. Bake for about an hour. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Let cool and chill before serving.

Blueberry Cheesecake

2005-07-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

Crust
1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
3/4 cup sugar

Filling
1 (113-g) package lemon pie filling
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 large egg, beaten
1 3/4cups water
1 (250g) package cream cheese

Topping

4 cups (about) freds brueberries divided
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 //2 cups whipping cream, whipped

For crust, combine crust ingredients and press on to bottom of 10 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake at 375 F for eight minutes. Let cool.

For filling, combine pie filling, sugar and salt in saucepan. Stir in egg and water. Cook over low heat for about five minutes or until thickened., stirring constantly. Beat cream cheese until softened, then beat into lemon mixture until smooth. Pour over cooked crust.

For topping, sprinkle two cups berries evernly over lemon filling or enough berries to form one layer.

Combine sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Stir in water. Add remaining two cups blueberries and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until clear and thickened. Remove from heat and add lemon rfind and juice. Let cool.

Spread sauce over filling. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled.

Just before serving, spread with whipped cream. Makes 12 servings

more views from afar...

2005-07-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

these chicken wings were begging to be eaten...

and on this side of our secret spot is a bride...

yes, a reception was held at this place for free.... as long as you come early.. no reservations needed and no fees required.. just come casually..neat idea! there is actually a playground and a garden behind the bushes...

it could get windy, so a light jacket is always a good idea to have

French Version of World Class Cuiscene

2005-07-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

How cool is this? My blog can be read in French. Now this truly makes my blog a world-class one.... (wink, wink). Have you got one? Don't ask me how..I discovered it by accident. Please don't leave comments in French or I'll close shop (LOL).

Oh, I now know. Most of my readers are referred by google. I get about 200 searches a day from google including searches in Spanish and French. 'about time I start learning how to speak in French huh?

My husband had a sunny birthday party!

2005-07-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I finally was able to get a day off this weekend from my normal day off anyway. I have been trying to keep my head above the water for quite sometime. This summer was unusually busy for me at work. In prior years, summer was slack and work starts to come only in fall, just as the rain starts pouring too until the end of well, springtime.

Friday was hubby's birthday. I planned and promised myself I will take a break on Saturday and spend the day at the beach with my family. .. and so we did. Came Saturday. It looked like a storm was about to run amuk. I felt good because I had to go to the office to rush something for my boss for a Monday deadline. As soon as I was done, the sun shone.

Of course my daughter was a big help to me. She had all the marinated meat in the cooler, the goods she baked for her dad on Friday and all the picnic stuff we had to tow. We had to be early to be able to get parking and to get our bestest spot. Hey, enjoy the rest of my story, will you?

Notice my stove? It's a one piece metal that replaced my clay stove from the Philippines. It's quite a neat project my hubby made for me. Everytime I go home to the Philippines, i always bring a stove made of clay back with me. They don't last very long though and they break. Hubby had a chance to make a project and he never had to think twice. This is so handy in campings and picnics. The barbecued pork was what I meant to call your attention to though.

I prepared a few vegetable kebabs..were they ever sweet and juicy?

The inihaw na baboy waiting for us to enjoy. Greek Salad was waiting to be served and so was the rice while waiting for the chicken wings to get cooked. What is a birthday party without a birthday song? All four of us sang the happy birthday song to my husband's chagrin..what with all the people around?

Daughter and I had a very relaxing afternoon lying under the sun reading our books. Intriguing books.

...while he was enjoying a nap! nooootttttt...

and then the boys got bored and thought of a funny idea. Let's hit the cruiseship! Just kidding! Okey, let's see how good marksmen we are! It will be quite a challenge since the cruiseship is quite a distance from our beloved spot. The final decision was to hit the things on top of the log..hehe, they're only a yard away..

so he decided to go pick up some rocks..

for this much needed ammunition..

Ready, aim fire...(there's our treasured uninvaded space..so far..i felt like we were constestants from the reality show Survivor..what with how colorful our Mexican blankets were..)

.......before we called it a night!

Now, if life was like this..we wouldn't need a visa card (Visa ought to pay me for this)!

On second thought..maybe not..

..and yet another tag from Stel!!

2005-07-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

1. total number of cookbooks i own

Must be about 20. They're all over the place. My daughter was trying to find out what she can bake for her Dad's birthday and she got so panicky and took all the books out of the shelf.

2. 'last cookbook I bought..

was.."deliciously tempting chicken dishes"..it was on sale for $1.49

3. ' last food/cookbook read..

"The best of the best". Simply easy recipes to follow if you guys don't have this yet. Unfortuately, it doesn't have too many images to support the recipes, but they're easy and yummy just the same.

4. 5 cookbooks that mean a lot to me.

Cooking with Nora Yap Daza, The Best of the Best and The Best of the Rest.

5. 5 other people whom you'd like to see fill in this tag

I am afraid the tag will end with me, unless you guys are willing to wait 'til I finish my bloghopping to find out who hasn't been tagged yet.

Oh no, I got tagged by Mutti!

2005-07-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

What are the things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play?

SHOPPING! SHOPPING! SHOPPING!

What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it in your journal.

Mellow Music, Music of the 70s and 80s and Piano Music. It doesn't matter whether the song was song by Victor Wood, engelbert and Humperdink or Yoyoy Villame. I used to think that these singers were so baduy then but now that I am older and a little wiser (no violent reactions please), I try to remember why those particular songs were sung and they usually reminds me of my childhood days. As I try to compare the past with today, there was nothing like the days when my childhood was purely "unadulterated".

*Tag 5 friends and ask them to post it in theirs

Hmm...Mutti, mag bla-bloghop pa to see who hasn't been tagged yet, okey?

Etag

2005-07-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

When cured to perfection, these pieces of meat will make your pinikpikan heavenly. The slabs of meat are rubbed with coarse salt and usually dried under the sun for about three days before they get kept in a jar called "gusi" for curing. Curing takes about 3 weeks at least and I would say 3 months at the most; otherwise the meat will start to taste bitter. (the slices of meat in the picture are only 2 days old--i sprinkled them with ground pepper)

Etag is a must have in any Igorot canao. This is actually the one that makes your otherwise bland Igorot meal superb. I do not remember very much if the Ibalois made these but I know the Bontocs do. After all, I learned how to prepare this from an "Ibontoc" friend. I do remember my father making these from his "afag" during canaos but most of the time, we were laughing at how he tried very much to become an Igorot. I must admit that from the very little memory I have about etag when I was young, the legumes he cooked with these meat tasted really good.

I am guessing that the origin of etag started way back when there was no electricity in the remote areas of the Mountain Provinces that makes freezing the meat impossible. You see the "highlanders" as we sometimes call them were hunters back in the olden days because of the Mountain Province' geographical location. I am also guessing that if they caught an "alingo" (wild boar), they would try to preserve it for as long as they can to stretch out the days when they can enjoy having meat in their meals. Of course that is just my wild guess, which might just be true. Etag is perfect with "cardis", which I was told is of soya variety.

So how do you make etag? Where I am, sale of meat is very much regulated for health and sanitary reasons so much so that the skin usually has already been discarded even before the meat make it to the shelves. However, an etag is not complete without the skin so I try to buy meat from fly-by-night Filipino meat vendors (shhh). The best part would be the bacon side but a friend of mine actually can make a good etag out of bones attached to even just the tiniest piece of meat.

Rub the meat generously with coarse salt and dry the meat. Please bear in mind that the meat will attract flies so when drying in open air, cover the meat with a screen to keep the flies and bees from contaminating the meat. If you are not very careful, the bees and flies will cause growth of worms that will render your meat worthless.

I dry mine right underneath my oven blower. In that way, I am assured that there will be no flies flying around my science project. Dry for about 3 to 5 days and then keep the slabs in a covered container undisturbed for at least 3 weeks. The meat will turn yellowish when cured.

I hope you'll have the guts to try it.

Seafood Curry Rice

2005-07-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

A little daring with my experiments. I had seafood curry a few weeks ago. I wasn't able to get enough of it so I tried cooking it again. I was at the same time thinking of preparing Java Rice. We'll what's wrong with making Java Rice and Seafood Curry in one dish? Nothing, so here I am, presenting to you the outcome.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
400 gms of seafood mix
1 carrot coarsely chopped
3 cups of cooked rice
1/2 green pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1 tsp of curry powder
1/2 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of salt (adjust to taste)

In a fryng pan, heat oil. Add sliced onion and cook until translucent. Add the seafood and cook for about 5 minutes. Add carrot and rice. Cover pan, stirring occasionally to make sure rice does not stick at the bottom of pan. Add the rest of the ingredients. Easy!

Inlambong

2005-07-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Boiled pork in English. Another "delicacy" from the Igorots. If I had to rate this from easy to difficult as far as preparation is concerned, I would rate this not just easy, but super easy. You see when I was young, my mother had to serve in the rural areas of Benguet. That meant we had to live in the community ourselves and interact with the people within the locality.

My mother was not an Igorot but we were welcomed as part of the community and they treated us just like one of them although I can tell that there was this very thin line that separated us when it came to observing their traditions.

In a canao, even if you were an ultra rich Igorot, you would cook all your meat the same way as a poor Igorot would if he had to hold a canao himself. Although food is important to them, the highlight of the canao is the dancing. I could be wrong but that's how I saw it.

I could only speak of one particular tribe with fondness. The Ibalois are natives of Benguet. When I was young, there was this very rich man who owned a lot of cows. You see, in that place, cows were loose and could graze anywhere like the whole barrio was their ranch. I was then a little girl, about 6 years old when one day I saw a lot of people going after these cows. I later on learned that the rich man's daughter was getting married and she was going to have a "boda" for 7 days. Yes, depending on how rich you are, pre-wedding celebrations are celebrated endlessly.

Each day, they would butcher 5 pigs and a cow. They have this tradition to distribute to each house in the area a piece of meat, of about 2 lbs. We were not that many in the community then and we all knew one another. Although my father had a little Igorot blood, he did not practice as an Igorot because he basically grew up in an urban setting. Besides, he was pre-dominantly Chinese and Ilocano.

Everytime we got our share of the meat they called "afag", he would shake his head and say how much meat the host was wasting. Father cooked the chinese way and he came up with too many dishes from our share with nothing else but chinese spices.

You see, Igorots do not cook their meat like other people do in a party. All they do is burn the pig, butcher it, slice it into small pieces and throw them into a big, big pot of boiling water. Once done, they put the cooked meat in a big basket and serve them to the people with salt and chilies. Together with the meat would be basketfuls of rice and boiled yams.

Now, this does not only happen in weddings. Even in funerals, people distribute meat to the community as well. My parents were very much concerned about hygeine but I guess it was the community's least concern. I cannot remember any instance when their food has gone bad or anybody getting sick in their celebrations.

It is so nice to remember all those things. I have to admit that I miss that community. When my brother went home to the Philippines, he set aside a time to go and visit the people there. Some of our parents' contemporaries have all been gone. However, my brother met a former classmate who was still there and is now a teacher herself. My sister who is a nurse herself did a community service there together with her husband's classmates' wives.

Pinikpikan

2005-07-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

Not for people with weak hearts.

Ever heard of pinikpikan? This is one of the most exotic food of the people from the highland provinces of the Philippines. Sometimes we call it the "killing-me-softly" recipe because of the way this is prepped before being cooked.

We recently attended a canao, an igorot celebration and I took home some leftovers. We don't get this very often but it was something that me and my husband has learnt to have since we both worked in the mining industry back in the Philippines. The following may not exactly be the way the Igorots do it but this is my son's instructions the way my son saw the guys prepared it.

Put one wing of a chicken on a flat surface. Hold the head, one wing, and the legs in the one hand. Using a club softly beat the other wing from the inside. Beat it so it does not break the bones. Beat the wing from the inside to the tip, and then back again. You must do this twice. Repeat for the other wing. After beating the wings, lay the head of the chicken, on the flat surface, facing one way. Beat the neck from the top to the bottom. You may probably wonder why the chicken has to be beaten. The reason to beat the chicken is to make the blood coagulate on the wings and on the neck. The wings get thick and look big when cooked. It is said that it tastes better as well. Another reason is when the blood coagulates, you then have to butcher the chicken, and blood does not drip as much. If done right, there would be very little blood dripping to the ground.

Now you must kill the chicken. To kill the chicken, hold the chicken firmly by the feet and wings in one hand. Use a club to hit the back of its head, just below the comb. Not too hard, or the chicken will bleed. One blow should do it. Use a torch or fire, burn the feathers off. Keep burning the chicken until it starts to look a little bit burnt. Don't worry, the burnt look is only at the surface because it was only the feathers that got burnt.

Once the feathers are burnt off remove the remaining feathers. Use tweezers if necessary to remove the roots of the feathers. My dad is not an Igorot that's why he does that, but the real Igorots don't bother removing them anymore. Clean the inside of the chicken and then cut the chicken into medium sized pieces and put them into a pot. Add etag if you have any. Cook on high heat until meat is tender. When the chicken is done, add chayote or any vegetables of your choice into the pot. Add salt and remove the pot from the heat. Keep covered. Leave for four minutes minutes. Stir the soup and enjoy.

** To make etag, get a side of bacon and slice it into squares about an inch long. Dredge the meat in coarse salt and put in a ceramic bowl. Cover it and let it dry in open air for about 3 days. Keep in a dry container for about 3-5 weeks.**

You see, back when I was a child, it was explained to me by my father that the Igorots do not use seasonings other than salt. They believe so much that meat is better when seasoned only with salt and chilies.

2005-07-12T21:48:00.000-07:00

From my frozen stack of foods, I found cooked mung beans from our dinner a few nights ago. Very helpful if you cook them ahead of time and freeze them. I've said it several times. You see in the Philippines, I have been so tied up with just one idea. Only green leafy vegetables go well with mung beans. Other than that, it's not how you cook mung beans.

I have proven myself wrong. With no vegetables found in my vegetable crisper but celery and carrots, I was doomed. Not! I thawed one of my stacks and warmed this in a pan. Added the carrots and the celery in. Seasoned it with patis. I'm stuffed, need I say more?

Tortang Talong

2005-07-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

It must be one of the easiest to prepare for some but quite complicated for others. I do not cook the perfect tortang talong but I take pride in the way my husband and children clean-up their plates everytime I cook this. I add ground pork in mine and uncooked finely chopped onions before I fry them. I think its the chopped onions that give the recipe the perk.

My mother used to just mash the eggplants before folding them into the beaten eggs. It works just as well. Sometimes though, it's nice to add a little look to it. I do it once in a while when I am not really pressed for time.

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants
250 gms of cooked ground pork
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 eggs
2 tbsp of flour
salt to taste

Broil the eggplants in the oven toaster. Once cooked, peel the eggplant and flatten them with a fork. In a big bowl, beat eggs. Add the flour, cooked ground pork, onions and salt.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour about half of the mixture in the frying pan and then slowly add the flattened eggplants. Pour the rest of the mixture on top of the eggplants. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the bottom is brown. Flip the eggplants over and cook for another 5 minutes.

I was going to say that you should be careful in flipping the eggplants over, but this was of course just for presentation purposes. Whether it comes out with a good appearance or not, I believe that the taste stays the same.

Spinach Enchiladas

2005-07-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

When I had my a surgery in February, a friend of mine brought this to my family for dinner. (Read. My family will starve without me) It was probably the best I ever had while recuperating.

Simple, filling and healthy. A vegetarian officemate loves this so much that she even asked for the recipe. Why should I be surprised? She was not a very friendly figure in the office. I would say this was a gateway to a very good relationship I eventually had with her.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of cooking oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 200 gm bag of ready to eat spinach
1 250gm tub of ricotta cheese
1 bag of tortilla wrappers
355 ml of salsa, spicy
250 gms of cheddar cheese

In a pan, saute onion. Add the spinach and cook only for about 2 minutes. Discard the juice that comes out of the spinach. Turn off stove and mix the ricotta cheese.

Wrap the mixture with the tortilla wappers. Arrange in a baking pan. Spread the salsa on top of the wrapped spinach. Bake on 300 for 20 minutes. Top it with cheese and bake for another 10 minutes.

Starbucks Coffee

2005-07-07T01:18:00.000-07:00

So what's you favorite at Starbucks Coffee? Mine is black regular coffee. Plain, no nothing. Hubby's has a sachet of brown sugar and usually a bit of half and half.

Daughter ordered Vanilla Bean Frappuccino

Son had Java Chip Frap. Well, when we had this, he went for Java Chip but normally, he will have Caramel Macchiato.

Uhmm, all I can say is Starbucks' beans are burnt and they do this intentionally. As with the Frappuccinos, I find them both rich. My boss usually orders mistoe (I don't even know if I spelled the name right..oh well. You can order special coffees or frappuccinos with low fat in them as long as you say it in advance.

These pictures are sentimental to me. Not that we do not go to Starbucks very often. I took these pictures when an important occasion just before the schoolyear ended this year. I opted to keep the reason to myself and a few. If you're one of the few, cheers! Cheers to those who don't too! I was a happy momma. Now you know.

My Cooking Meme

2005-07-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Celiak about my cooking meme. I might have a few and don't get me started because I can be talkative. For now I'll behave.

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

There might have been times earlier than this but I can vividly remember when mother asked me to cook mung beans in our dirty kitchen. When the mung beans were cooked, I intended to transfer the contents of the black pot to a cleaner pot but I accidentally spilt the whole thing in a pan of coconut milk my mother was trying to reduce to an oil for her kakanin. I couldn’t save hers but I did with mine and actually it turned out delicious.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

My father, being of chinese descent had the biggest influence in my cooking. He cooked recipes my mother never heard of. For Ilocano dishes, it would be my mother and my maternal grandmother. When I visited her in the province when I was young, she used to cook everything outside. I would grab anything, like yams I can thow in the fire and she would gladly cook them for me. It was not so much of whether it turned out delicious or not, but she had a way of telling when the stuff is cooked already or not yet.

Do you have an old photo as "evidence" of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?

Not during my time. We had black and white then and somehow my parents gave me the impression that it would cost us a fortune to have our films developed. Me in my apron would be something my parents thought was just a waste of another film.

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

Yes, I seem to be doing alright if I am cooking in small amounts only. But everytime I cook in big amounts, they always turn into a disaster. I always have the best intentions though. My husband knows me very well and so he thinks that I should invite only a few guests at a time. He equates it to fewer guests, more quality time with guests, and better food.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?

My garlic press is my biggest let down. I love using garlic in everything I cook that calls for garlic-fresh or fried. My sister bought me one but when I first used it, the handles broke right away so I went back to my most reliable Henckel’s knives to do the coarse or fine chopping.

I love cooking with "uling"(coal). When I was in the Philippines, I loved to cook kare-kare using uling so I have this clay pot stacked outside our house. My mother-in-law thinks that I am weird. What with all the latest models of gas and electric stoves coming out in the market and here I am stuck with my clay pot? If I ever had you for a guest and you knew I cooked the food using my clay pot, that means I cooked it with love just for you. I did bring one here but it cracked after a while. My husband made me a stainless steel one with the same idea of fueling it with coal and believe me, it has attracted attentions here and there. I carry it with me all the time, in the park during picnics, camping, etc.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like and probably no one else.

Adobado. I love adobado. I heard about it from my sister-in-law but actually got the idea of how to cook it from a Filipino Restaurant near our place. Unfortunately, the adobado had a history to it that my kids are connecting to, that’s why they do not like it. It is not the taste definitely but how it was introduced to them. Weird? Sometimes, my kids associate their love for food with the people they meet or interact with. Tama na baka mabasa pa niya.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don't want to live without?

Rice, tuyo, and dessert. My meals are not complete until I wash the food with coffee or tea and anything sweet. It could be fruits, cake, chocolates but please, I want something sweet.

3 quickies:

favorite ice cream

Hazel Nut Praline

you will probably never eat (again??)

Snake is supposedly an exotic food in Japan and China but I will never try it for the life me. Rats, yes field mice are eaten in Bicol apparently.

signature dish … My Thai and Malaysian Chicken Curry.

Tag 3 people...hmm will think of someone.. how about Stefoodie, Karen and Dexiekins??

Into the Savory World of Food Blogs

2005-07-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

Ms. Annalyn Jusay of Manila Bulletin has included my blog in her section Blog-O-Rama. Yes, get into the savory world of Food Blogs according to Ajay.

Read more about it here.

Steamed Rice

2005-07-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Rice is something we Filipinos cannot live without, even now that I am out of the Philippines. I think it is equivalent to potatoes and bread to the Americans and the Canadians. This reminds me of one funny experience I had with my son's friend.

We invited my son's friend, (a caucasian) camping three years ago. I wasn't quite sure if his mom was going to allow him to join us so I did not include him in my plans. This camping was an all-Filipino camping. Just a day before we left, my son got a call. He was joining us afterall. I rushed to the grocery store to buy bread and hotdogs particularly for him.

Well, in our cooler, I had tocino, longganisa, marinated tapa, daing na bangus and a few canned goods. Our friends brought tuyo, dried squid and daing.

Our breakfast on our first day was tuyo, longanisa, you know the usual Pinoy stuff. He was shocked we had rice for breakfast. That was not it. There's more. Because there were rows and rows of campsites, to get to the lake, my son and his friend would pass through our friends's sites and they would be invited for breakfast. Ah of course, camping to us is indulgence. It's where we could have our tuyo cooked without worrying that the smell would stick to the carpets.

As the day progressed, he noticed that everyone seemed to be eating all the time. In one of our friends' campsites, they got invited for breakfast. He secretly asked my son if it was dinnertime already. "Are you kidding? It's only 10 o'clock in the morning!" is what I heard my son say to him.

He was even offered a fried dried squid. He was a little mortified to eat even just a tiny piece but he tried anyway. "Tastes like chicken" was what he said. Of course, a friend suggested that he try it with rice.

Slowly, as the days went by, he was getting acculturized. No, he was polite enough not to ask for bread but I made sure that he knew that we brought bread for him if ever he was going to find a need to have bread.

I haven't seen this kid for a long time after our camping but latest I heard from my son is he preferred rice over bread and potatoes now.

Seafood Curry

2005-07-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

On my way to Indonesia a couple of years ago, I had a lay over in Singapore. In one of the fastfoods in the airport, I had this. Seafood is big in Singapore or that's the impression that I got. I tried it at home and it worked. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of cooking oil
1 medium onion quartered
200 gms of shrimps, shelled and deveined
200 gms of big squid, cut in bite sizes
200 gms of baby octopus
200 gms of abalone
1 medium carrot sliced in serving sizes
1/2 of green peppers, cut into bite sizes
1/2 of red peppers, cut into bite sizes
200 gms of baby corns
1 tbsp of curry powder
1/4 tsp of turmeric
2 tbsp of fish sauce (patis)
1 tsp of corn starch dissolved in 1/4 water

In a frying pan or wok, heat oil. Add onions and cook for a minute. Add the seafood and carrots and let cook for about 5 minutes. Add the baby corns and peppers. Season with fish sauce. Just before serving, add the corn starch. Stir to make sure that the corn starch does not stick at the bottom of the pan. Test if corn starch is cooked before serving.

Strawberry Smoothie

2005-06-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

Just around the block where we live is a newly opened Bubble Tea store. When I first tried its stuff, I was totally hooked to it. You see, we live just "across the bridge". That's how we intimately call our place when we talk to our friends who live at the other end. Across the bridge from us is very Metropolitan, where real business happens. On our side is where all the people working in the metropolitan area go home to at the end of the day. We are centrally located in this city.

Back to the bubble tea store. Because we live right in the heart of the city, after dinner, we'd go out for a walk and more often than not, spend a few bucks at this bubble tea store. I once watched intently how they made their smoothies. Well, there was nothing complicated about it. A tablespoon of caramelized sugar, strawberry flavored syrup, a few strawberries, a few ice cubes and a couple of tablespoons of Coffeemate Creamer. Turn the blender on for about 2 minutes and voila..sttrraaawwberryyy smooothie!

Coffee Creamer? Oh, so that's why it was so tasty! That just put me off actually. I love fresh milk in mine. So what I did just before the onset of summer where strawberries were in abundance was bought tons of strawberries and froze them. I am guessing that they will be gone just before autumn. My son has become an expert on preparing this that just right after dinner, he'd be offering to serve you a glass of strawberry smoothie.

There is no set measurements when making a smoothie but here's a more or less workable guide:

To make 4 glasses you will need to put the following into the blender:

12 pcs or more of frozen strawberries
4 glasses of 1% milk
a few cubes of ice cubes

Turn your blender on until the strawberries and the ice cubes have turned into what else but a smoothie?

I do not add sugar to our smoothie.

Beef Kaldereta

2005-06-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

All Filipino Foodies have this in their blogs. It's one of the more popular recipes you'd ever encounter in every Filipino gathering, believe it or not. Oh well, where I am anyways.

I should not be posting this but I still would like to add this to my collection of recipes for my children's sake. My daughter is not really into cooking and everytime I ask her to prepare some ingredients for me for a particular dish, you'd hear her whine about how she doesn't know what should be in this and that recipe. Thanks to our ever improving technologies. Well, now she doesn't have any alibis anymore. All I ask her to do is log in to the internet and get it from my blog. Brilliant, huh? She's more into baking, and yes and she can follow instructions to the dot.

My son is more the daring type who wants to believe that he can do it just by watching me. Well, it doesn't turn out to be that easy. I still see him go into my blog for instructions so here you go guys, have fun cooking this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 lbs of top sirloin cut into cubes
6 pcs of bay leaves
1/4 tsp of peppercorn
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium onions, quartered
1 500 gm can of stewed tomatoes
2 pcs of medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 pcs of medium carrots, cubed
1 tsp of sugar
about 200 gms of olives
100 gms of green peas
Red peppers (see my note below)
salt or soy sauce to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan. Add beef and saute until brown. Add the bay leaves, peppercorn, garlic and onions. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water and stewed tomatoes. Cover pan and let boil. Lower the heat to a minimum and simmer for about an hour or two or until beef is tender.

Once beef is tender, add potatoes and carrots and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add sugar, olives and green paste. Add salt or say sauce to taste. I added about 3 tbsp of liver spread but this is optional. Usually the taste improves if left in the fridge overnight.

Note: When I served this, I realized I forgot to add something and my husband quickly added that I should have added red peppers. So there you go guys.

Lunar Rhubarb Cake

2005-06-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is a long overdue promised recipe to Mrs. Tweety. Unfortunately, I lost my recipe when I moved offices or shifted to a new computer, I do not know which is which. Anyhow, it took me a long time to ask for a recipe from my boss' wife. As soon as I got it, I right away baked it and decided to post this right away for fear that I might lose the recipe one more time. I know Rhubarb Season is now over but hopefully Mrs. Tweety, you will still find some rhubarbs in your Mother-in-law's backyard.

Since I have been making this for a long time, my boss' wife just dictated the measurements over the phone.

I heard that the reason why this is called lunar rhubard cake is once it's baked, the top resembles the crater of the moon. I haven't been there so I cannot attest to that. I can only say that this recipe is a hit.

Here we go Mrs. Tweety:

You will need:

For the cake:

1/2 cup of butter
1 1/2 cup of white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp of Vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups of chopped rhubard (about 1 cm)

For the topping:

1/4 cup of butter
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of brown sugar

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Add Vanila. In a separate bowl, mix flour, soda and salt. Add to the creamed butter and sugar adding 1/3 of the butter milk at a time. Dredge rhubard in flour before folding into the mixture. Pour mixture in a 9 x 13 greased pan.

Cut butter in brown sugar and cinnamon powder until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal. Spread evenly on top of cake mixture and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

My niftiest toy

2005-06-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read it right. This is my niftiest toy. I love cooking hamburgers on coal but only when I am outdoors and the weather is fine. There are days when it's raining and I simply want a homemade hamburger.

This one is smokeless and teflonated so I don't have to worry about cleaning so much afterwards. What's cool is this is dishwasher safe.

The downside? I can't cook sweetened barbecues. They burn right away.

I have had a few experiements with this griller. I also cooked longganisa and various sausages here.

I am a true Filipino

2005-06-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

This season at blogkadahan, our topic is about being a Filipino. Guess what? It's my turn, so I'll see you there.

'just to let you know too, we played a game at blogkadahan. I started a story, Tito Rolly picked up my last line and added his own until we were able to come up with, i'll say a short novel. It was funny and fun at the same time. Each individual came up with his/her story that highlighted his/her personality.

The story is not over yet. If you were going to add to our story, how would you have done it? Maybe you can give me an ending to this story.

Manggang Hilaw

2005-06-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

So how else is mango eaten? If it's not ripe, we Filipinos eat the mango with bagoong or salt. Mangoes are sour when they're not ripe yet.

There is this belief that the first indication that a woman is infanticipating is when she craves for "mangga'ng hilaw". For me it is all myth. I heard it before that the craving for sour things has something to do with the biological changes in your body when you are expecting or even when women are about to go through their monthly cycle. I will have to leave that to the people who have something to do with Science.

These mangoes were apparently green when they were shipped from Mexico. I knew I was in for luck when I saw them still green. Oh they might be expensive if I had to convert my money into Philippine peso but there was just no comparison between saving your money as opposed to having the most sought after fruit during this season.

(O hayan Manong Techguy..me manggang hilaw na ako, me bagoong pa).

Dessert Comes First

2005-06-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Check this out. Another foodie. Well actually, a food magazine writer. She thinks dessert comes first before the main course. How 'bout that? She specializes in dessert reviews from what I gather from her site. Unfortunately, I will only have to look at the pictures. I can't have a cake bigger than my palm. Blame it on slow metabolism and age. I will just have to find out where to go to for the best desserts while in the Philippines.

Avocadoes

2005-06-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

These avocadoes were smaller than the medium navel oranges that we bought. I was telling my children that in the Philippines, these avocadoes would have been 3 times this size. What was amazing was how expensive these avocadoes are where I am. A piece was almost equivalent to Php 45. In the Philippines, I could have had as many as I wanted for free, right in my grandmother's backyard.

Back in the Philippines, avocadoes are eaten as a dessert. Right, where you just add sugar and evaporated milk in the middle where the seed came from and then scoop the flesh with a spoon, making sure that by the time your done eating, the milk and the sugar are gone as well. I have yet to think of a time when we used it in salads. As I moved outside of the Philippines, I discovered that you can do other things with avocadoes other than having it for dessert.

Others make guacamole for chips, some use them for sushi and still others mix them in salads. My father mushes them though in a glass complete with condensed milk.

Avocado is high in cholesterol but it is the good cholesterol we are supposed to have. Phew!

Nachos

2005-06-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is more expensive to prepare this at home than to buy it from your favorite restaurant. However, we were so desperate to have something to munch on while watching TV one night and I just threw in whatever I found in my fridge.

I love preparing Greek Salad and so it wasn't difficult to find tomatoes and olives in my fridge. I also was in luck to find a teeny weeny bit of sour creme from a lasagne I earlier cooked. I'm also a lover of Ceasar's Salad, thus the bacon bits. Melted cheese!!! Yes, that's what I missed. It was fun and I am sure my family did not mind.

Remember to put the chips in the oven toaster for about 10 minutes at 250 just to keep them crunchy. Finely chopped green onions and mild salsa add a lot of zing to your nachos. Chili Beans are also helpful. If ever you cook chili con carne and have some left-overs no matter how small the amount is, I recommend that you put them in a Ziploc and toss them in the freezer. They might come in handy on desperate nights when convenience stores are already closed and you're just craving for nachos.

Seafood Kare-kare

2005-06-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

This is one of my memorable dishes when I was dating my boyfriend, now my husband over 17 years ago. This is easier to cook than you think.

You see when you're cooking the beef Kare-kare, the one that really takes your time is making your meat tender. Here, all you have to do is steam your shells and any other seafood you would like to add like squid and shrimps and then add them to your kare-kare base.

Ingredients:

10 pieces of mussels
10 pieces of clams
10 pieces of prawns
1/4 cup of slices of squid (the one you normally use for calamari)
1/4 cup of abalone (optional)
or any other seafood you want to add

10 pieces of long beans cut into 1.5 inches long
1 medium eggplant
1/4 tin of canned banana blossoms
4 tbsp of peanut butter
1 pack of Mama Sita Kare-kare mix (yes, I cheated), diluted in about 1 cup of cold water

Steam the seafood for about 8 minutes or until shells slightly open. Set aside.

In a saucepan, saute the eggplant and long beans for about 5 minutes. Add the banana blossoms. Add the diluted kare-kare mix and the peanut butter. Let boil for about 1 minute and then reduce the heat to avoid the mix from concentrating at the bottom of the pan and getting burnt eventually. Add another 1 cup of hot water. Sitr in the steamed seafood. Cover the saucepan and let it simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve hot.

And I made sure that Techguy will not ask me about the bagoong again. Don't forget to serve your kare-kare with bagoong like the one above. (Okey ba manong?)

Poutine

2005-06-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

To some who are not familiar with this recipe, 'thought this might help

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And you thought that poutine can only be ordered at A & W or New York Fries? Think again. This poutine was homemade with whatever I can grab from the fridge. This was my son's bowl. It's a crime to our palate but there is such a word as "splurging" which we're entitled to once in a while.

I had a bag of fries in the freezer for quite a while and I thought I needed to get rid of it without throwing the bag into the garbage. Well, I also call myself lucky because I had quite a few bacon bits from a Ceasar Salad I prepared for our office lunch earlier; hmm....leftover gravy from a pot roast dinner and a bit of mozarella from a burger dinner, some green onions too? Phew, New York Fries call this "The Works"..I call it "Mommy's work

Words of caution: You can add anything you want. My picture is only a guide. Diced tomatoes can help. A little bit of olives as well. Lotsa cheezeee.. Just don't forget that too much carbo is not good for you. And don't come back to me saying that there is such a word as "splurging" because I told you there was so.

Black Eye Beans with Katuray

2005-06-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

I was a little bold with this recipe. I cooked some black eye beans with a piece of smoked hock the night before but forgot to buy the vegetables appropriate for this kind of beans (if there is such a term). In the meantime, I asked daughter to prepare some katuray and tomatoes as a side dish. Daughter obliged but we were both running out of time. In half an hour, we were supposed to be at her school for a concert. It was too late to run to the grocery store to buy some vegetables.

I tried being creative. I sauteed the tomatoes and onions and then added the beans and the sliced hocks. I added the katuray and seasoned the dish with bagoong. Ah, I am glad I did it. It was such a perfect combination.

Salmon and Halibut Fish Trims

2005-06-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

When I first moved to this other side of the world, the world's western hemisphere quite a few years ago, fish heads and tails were being discarded or sold for fishing or crabbing purposes. You can even get them for free from the fish market if you were friends with the vendor.

Time surely changed. As more Asian immigrants arrived, the vendors have learned that there was gold in these trims. I used to frequent a tourist spot downtown for these trims. However, last summer, I was stunned that they were sold out first thing in the morning on sunny weekends. It used to be that the trip was all worth it. We had to take a ferry from our parking across to the island.

Anyway, someone asked me what I was going to do with all these "nothing-but-fish bones" thingies when I was buying them. I told her that I could cook a lot of dishes like salmon adobo, fisherman's stew, and many more. They were not mere fish bones. They were salmon and halibut fish bones and lots of flesh on them. The fishbones on the picture was enough for a potful of fisherman's stew.

I gave her my blog address and told her to go see my recipes. I hope I have contributed something to humanity by doing this.

Tuyo't Tinapa atbp

2005-06-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Another meaning of "indulgence" to me. Tuyo (salted dried fish), tinapa (smoked fish), itlog na maalat (salted eggs) and kamatis. Tuyo is ideal when the weather is balmy or rainy and cold. These are best eaten without using any cutleries. Yes, you got me right. You eat them with bare hands. Make sure you wash your hands and have a chair where you can raise your leg while savouring these food...'nd lots of water to wash the saltiness of the tuyo.

Yellow Tail Merlot

2005-05-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Lookin' for a good wine? My husband is not a "tomador" but he can down a bottle of wine in a jiffy. Not quite true. He does drink occasionally. He is fuzzy when it comes to wines and hard drinks. Whever we go out for fine dining, he tries to observe what good restaurants serve. Usually, he thinks that good restaurants do their homework of finding good wines to compliment what they serve. It does makes sense, doesn't it?

Anyway, during my daughter's sixteenth birthday, he discovered this merlot called Yellow Tail imported from Australia. The cost of a glass was half of what you had to pay for when you buy a bottle of this from the liqour store. Think about how many glasses there would be in a glass.

My husband has become wiser. The other night, he bought steaks and a bottle of wine and we had fine dining at home. How's that for indulgence?

Philippine Mangoes

2005-05-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

They do look like Philippine Mangoes. In fact they're tagged as Manila Mangoes. But when you look at their small stickers, they're imported from Mexico. It is my second year to find these in the market. Fairly young. Should I be happy or should I be sad?

First, I am happy. The mangoes taste the same as what we have in the Philippines, particularly the ones from Zambales. The texture, the grain, the juice, the sweetness. Just right for my tastebuds. That means I don't have to crave for these anymore. They're readily available.

I am however sad for my country. My caucasian friend once told me that the best mangoes he's ever tasted were the ones from the Philippines. I thought this is just one of the opportunities that my country has missed, exporting something like this one. Now Mexico has looked into this, and given its accessibility to the US and Canada, it will definitely bite my country. If only my country will pay attention and give a closer look at what it is missing in terms of exporting opportunities. If only the leaders of my country stop the bickerings and start thinking about what is good for everyone. But I am glad to find out that bickering does not only happen in the Philippines but where I am as well.

By the way, I am a little bit surprised that my officemate of Polish origin appreciated very much when I showed her how to eat mangoes.

Arroz Caldo

2005-05-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

Arroz Caldo is a comfort food for me. When I am tired, when I am sick, when I just do not feel right, I think of arroz caldo. Of course, the day I came home one day was just one of those days. I right away thought of cooking arroz caldo.

Once I stepped in, I boiled 8 cups of water, threw the bones and other parts of chicken breasts I always saved from other recipes while I changed into my home clothes. I set the stock aside, separated the bones from the flesh and discarded the bones. I set the meat aside.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of oil
2 chicken bouillon
1 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp of finely chopped ginger
1 finely chopped onion
1 cup of uncooked glutinous rice (malagkit)
6 cups of water from the chicken stock
patis to season
5 tsp of finely chopped green onion
calamansi or lemon

In a saucepan, saute the garlic until lightly brown and set aside. On the same pan, saute the garlic and onion. Add the boullion. Add the stock set aside from boiling the meat . Add the rice and the meat. Cover pan and simmer for about 20 minutes making sure that you stir the pot once in a while. Season. Serve in a bowl. Sprinkle with the sauteed garlic and green onions.

Calamansi would help enhance the taste of your arroz caldo. Also, some add boiled quail eggs to theirs.

Indian Chicken Curry

2005-05-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

Officemate says this is called chicken masala. I must warn you though that loving this recipe does not happen overnight. For some, it's an acquired taste. It wasn't a popular one at the office initially.

Ingredients:

5 tbsp of olive oil
1 kg chicken
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsps chilli powder
2 tsps coriander powder
Salt to taste

1/4 curd or yoghourt

Cut chicken into pieces and marinate with curd and salt for about an hour. Set aside.

Heat oil in a sauce pan. Add onion and fry till until translucent. Add turmeric, ginger and garlic powder. Stir well. Add chilli and coriander and about 2 tbsps water. Stir well until the oil comes out clear.

In the same saucepan add the chicken. Cover and simmer on gentle heat till chicken is done adding about 1/4 cup in the process.

Serve with rice.

Satay Hot Pot

2005-05-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Another acquired taste for me. It took me sometime to love the taste of the base. I first tasted this in Indonesia the other year. Apparently, the base seems to be common in Malaysia and Singapore as well.

The base can be prepared ahead and can be frozen. I used a blender to mix the following ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic
2 inches of cinnamon sticks
5 cardamoms
thumbsized peeled ginger
1 mace
1/2 tsp of peppercorns
2 coarsely chopped medium onions
5 bay leaves

Blend the ingredients until you reach paste-like consistency. Use only an amount enough to give flavour to your soup. Wrap the left over in plastic wrap and freeze it for future use.

Now here's what you need to prepare the Hot Pot.

1 cup of fish head with flesh (white preferably)
1 cup of mussels
1/2 cup of prawns (optional)
about 1/4 cup of peeled radish
1/2 cup of snow peas, cleaned
1 cup of green leafy vegetables

In a saucepan, boil 3 cups of water. Add the soup base. Season with salt. Once the water boils, add all the ingredients at the same time putting the green ones last or on top. Watch that once the soup boils, you have to take the saucepan out of the burner and pour the soup in a serving bowl.

Serve.

Why do you blog?

2005-05-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

Dinner scenario at home is now slowly changing. Two weeks ago, my son was away for his sailing lesson. Last weekend, he went for a YAG cruise required by his being a sea cadet. I find that weeknights are slowly changing as well. If a few months ago we'd eat together at dinnertime, not anymore. My daughter goes to her piano lessons on Thursdays so I'm forced to do side trips for cooked food so she doesn't have to rush. Oh and many more in between.

So when I used to cook for dinner, sometimes I now blog and blog hop. Blogging is so fun. So how did I start blogging?

Rewind, a year and a half ago. I was looking for a recipe on the net and guess what? I found this blog originally known as the Radical Chef. What was impressive was that the cook was not only a good cook but also a lawyer. It used to be that whatever she had the night before would be our dinner the next day. I've literally watched her blog grow to what it is now. I have not met her personally as other bloggers have, like Jet and Jay but someday when I get to meet her, I am sure we'll have so many stories to share.

Sassy as I fondly call her (lifted from her journal) has at some point put on her sideblog a list of other Filipino Bloggers. One click did the trick and led me to Doc Emer's blog. Wow, so even a doctor has a blog! I would read comments on his posts and Tito Rolly, a teacher would be one of them. Curiosity killed the cat? Nope, the cat has nine lives and so Doc's blog led me to the rest.

The fun did not end there. I was able to become part of a Food blog circle. I've been to different kitchens, stealing recipes or exchanging ideas with them. We do cyber parties now too.

Starting was not easy. Blogging does require a lot of your time. Since I concentrated on my food blog, I made sure that I made a photo of everything I cooked, which made my family wait forever before they could start to taste my recipe. It's all right because they learned the art of anticipation and cooperation. They would prepare my camera while I am cooking and grab the appropriate plate or bowl so that all I need to do was just scoop into the plate or bowl what I cooked, take a picture and eat away.

Blogging is very rewarding. I've even met people from different countries like Mrs Tweety, Fish Fish and Obachan. But the most rewarding part of it all is I became part of this and I got a beautiful template for free from her.

It is intimidating at first. You don't know what to expect. But you know what? As long as you do your blog to your heart's content, you'll be fine.

It's your turn. Why do you blog?

It's my turn at Blogkadahan

2005-05-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Okey, today's my turn at Blogkadahan. Remember about my invitation in March?

For some who do not know what Blogkadahan is, it's a group of eager, happy bloggers but not necessarily famous ones. It was initially a group of bloggers who in one way or another shared similar interests in various ways and points. Eventually, the group has grown and a brilliant idea of making it into a mega-blog was hatched. Because of its rapid growth, the group put a halt into accepting more members with the idea of managing the small group first and eventually grow again. When? I have no idea but logistics are being put into place now.

The group did not mean to leave others out. In fact it welcomes the idea of others to form their own groups. We are aware that a lot of our readers have expressed interest in joining us. Hey, there might be some light to your wish one day. Everyone is always welcome to say something there.

A reader e-mailed me to write in English so he can understand what I was saying. Mark, I will with our next topic but I am a little bit pickled on this....the next topic deserves to be written in our mother tongue.

Remember..come and visit me at Blogkadahan and when you do, don't forget to leave a trace.

Lobsters for May 25th

2005-05-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

Okey..the list is getting longer..hmmm..mrst is coming..karen too..don't miss the boat guys!

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I hope you guys will come prepared to feast on these lobsters. The timing couldn't be better for Mama Stel's party. Kamayan is allowed, I hope. Time to take off those manicures, just for a day. Mama Stel, just be ready with a bowl of water and sliced lemons in it please to keep their fingers from the smell afterwards. And oh, the towels Mama to wipe their hands dry after.

We get these lobsters for a low price during the month of May. In fact, there is a store here which sells them at half the price on Mother's day. For three years now, we've made it a tradition to indulge on seafood on Mother's day. I saved some for Stel's party of course. The steamed ones on top can be enjoyed with a small bowl of vinegar, salt and minced garlic. That's all you need. Sawsaw galore.

Wait don't go home yet if you don't want the steamed ones. You get so disappointed easily. I really plan to come prepared. Here's for you guys who are "seafood-cooked-in-coconut-milk" lovers. Paborito ni Tito Rolly 'to. (Tito Rolly puwedeng kumanta ka na lang. I'll take care of the food)

I cooked these with lots of finely chopped ginger, minced garlic, 2 tbsps of alamang, finely chopped medium onion and a can of coconut milk. I made sure that I reduced the coconut milk from a can to almost 1/4 or lesser by letting it boil for quite a while. And then I added the rest of the ingredients and cooked them for about a minute or two. 'added the lobsters afterwards. I seasoned the dish with love (and a little salt if needed, otherwise the alamang will do it).

You see, our friends are so used to this package deal when inviting us. I mean, when one of us in the family is invited, everyone goes. I had to warn my family that they can't join me though because Stel's is quite a ways. With the fare alone, I'd go bankrupt.

Anyhow, to appease my son, I let him take pictures of the lobsters. I left 2 pieces for them, don't you guys worry.

I can't wait. My barkadas will be there: JMom, CeliaK, Mommy Beng, Ms Thess, Annabanana and Schatzli. Of course I am so excited to meet Cacofonix, Stef, Atinna and Cheh. Others are still welcome. We've got lots of time. Right Mama Mia?

On a side note, you guys are invited to my house warming next month. Mommy Beng made a complete overhaul of my kitchen. She's moved the pots and pans around. I plan to hold a barbecue party. Let's have a casual get together. Barbecue, Wine, Cheese. Hey, Tokwa't Baboy will be nice.

How do you like my new template?

2005-05-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Oh please spare me! It is not my fault that I get a lot of oohs and aahs today. Blame it on Mommy Beng, a computer-savvy, first class web-designer, focused and determined techie to create a template for me.

I did not ask for it. Well, it's a lie. I did envy her web templates and I kept rubbing in that I wanted one too every time I went to her site. She used to claim she was just an amateur, one learning how to get around the designing of pages. LIAR!! Look at what she did to my site? She made it look like it was made by a pro. Now I have to cook something to fit this classy template!

Just to warn you, this cost me a lot. A lot of sleepless nights of excitement, that's what. She hinted that she was going to make me one awhile back and I knew she really meant it.

Anyway, so much for bragging. Thanks for this classy template Mommy Beng. May I have more templates to come from you! Mommy Ting loves you.

PS: Did I tell you guys that I had this for free?

Garlic Flavoured Mashed Potatoes

2005-05-18T06:17:00.000-07:00

This is my daughter's masterpiece. Thanks to numerous unannounced visits from friends and relatives. I have had short notices in the past and usually, they're just laying off for a few hours in our city before they move on to their next leg.

Usually, I do not want to pass up the chance to spend even just a few minutes with them especially if I haven't seen them for ages. Given such short notices and usually I work from 9-5 and my daughter usually is home before 4, she has more time to go to the grocery store to buy potatoes, fresh beans and a whole chicken.

Aha, there you go. Mashed potatoes go well with baked chicken and steamed vegetables like carrots, beans and cauliflower. What makes her mashed potatoes taste good? Club House Garlic Plus Seasoning and a couple tablespoons of margarine and her gravy sauce.

I have taught her once to make gravy. I must say she's been good in keeping notes because she still has that note to keep her company in the kitchen. She has modified my initial recipe and I admit that hers is better.

Dare to have an unannounced visit? Well you know what to expect.

Egg Fried Rice

2005-05-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

My officemate one time asked me why I always take home the leftover rice everytime we have a "chinese dish" for lunch at work. See, my officemates throw them out. Not me. My parents have always taught me not to be wasteful. Mother always reminded me to think about the people starving in other parts of the world whenever I threw out food.

Now that I have a family of my own, oftentimes I seem to mimic what my mom used to tell me. Well, I've become more creative than her. She often fried the rice just with garlic. I fry mine with garlic, egg and green peas. Other days I add diced ham or whever I have leftover barbecue, I add it too.
The process is really easy.

Here's what you need.

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
2-3 cups of leftover rice
1 egg
1/2 cup of green peas

In a pan, heat the oil. Saute the garlic until brown. Add the rice. Create a hole in the middle and add the egg, cooking it for about a minute. Mix the rice with the egg. Add the green peas and cook the rice for another 3 minutes stirring it occasionaly making sure that the rice does not stick and burn at the bottom of the pan.

Serve hot.