2019

 

Following traditions. Dark leafy greens, black eyed peas, round fruits for luck and prosperity.

Life feels very turbulent, yet not moving. If that makes sense.

Sorry, just feeling mopey.

Here's to a new year.

Media Noche (Filipino New Year's Eve)

Just a snap shot of the food my family had for NYE. Just like Christmas, the lineup was sparse, but people made sure to bring all the traditional dishes served for the holiday. I'll post more pictures of them later this week.

We also do this thing where you have twelve different types of fruit and you eat them at the start of the new year. They have to be round, no idea why. If you cound the fruits in the fruit salad, we just had enough.

And I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that ate twelve grapes. I better win the lotto.

Friday... Back At It

Hey look here... scenes from yesterday. But you would have seen those already if you follow me on Instagram. Sometimes I wonder if a blog is necessary when you have that. Blogs are words pictures. Instagram is nothing but pictures with words. Eh.

Friday after the gorge fest and I'm at work. Turkey coma... not that I ate too much of it. I didn't really eat all that much, now that I think about it. One of the perks of cooking everything I suppose. I should keep at it. Big high school reunion milestone next year.

Don't get me started.

Work has been steady, which I expected. Because people don't take a holiday from being sick. For? From? Whatever. I woke up nice and early this morning for the drive up. Not too bad, perhaps slightly more busy than usual.

I need more coffee. And a warm blanket. And a nap.

Or... I'll just keep online shopping. Probably my best bet.

Sidesgiving

Because I am heading home tonight and M has to work the holiday, we had Thanksgiving dinner last night. Since he's a vegetarian, he prefers sides, but I did buy him a meat-free "turkey" to round out the meal. The brand is Gardein, which I bought at Honest Weight. I have to say... it was pretty good. Could have done without the cranberry stuffing, but I will probably buy this again for him for Christmas.

Our dinner -

• Green bean casserole - tried and true. First time I added soy sauce... or maybe I always have and just keep forgetting. Either way, lovely.
•  Cornbread stuffing casserole - M wanted Stove Top, but then had mentioned a co-worker had tried the Trader Joe's version and liked it. So I went with that, using vegetable stock for the liquid and added a tablespoon more butter than the recipe called for. Pretty good, I had to stop myself from eating all of it. M does need leftovers for tomorrow.
• Gardein savory stuffed turk'y - So much better than tofurky. So. Much. Better. It does have a weird taste that I couldn't place, but it wouldn't stop me from having it again. It also comes with gravy packs which helped me out since I couldn't find a veggie friendly pre-made gravy.
• Corn - nothing fancy, just heated up.
• Mashed potatoes - instant, I cheated. Fancied it up with cream and extra butter. And the gravy from the turk'y helped.
• Bloody Mary's - why not? Plus I needed to kill the last of the vodka that's been sitting there. Extra horseradish. Because. Yes.
  

Total price for this dinner, excluding drinks, was ~$24.00. All but the stuffing and turk'y was bought at Dollar Tree. So now you know, a holiday dinner is possible from there. Slightly more expensive than if I had bought it from Walmart or perhaps the supermarket, but if it's the closest place... do what you gotta do.

Hello 2016!

Most people celebrated the new year last night. My family celebrated this afternoon. Just family. I think the reason we pushed it back was because my grandma just got back from the Philippines and wanted to give her time to recover. She's okay, but my uncle that accompanied her came home pretty sick. But we celebrated anyways.

I wanted to make at least one Filipino dish. I ended up making bopis, which apparently is also called igado. Pork heart cooked until tender and then chopped fine and simmered in a vinegar/annatto sauce with chopped chili peppers. Lots of oohs and ahhs, and all that remains is just a little for my sister when she gets back from work.

I decided to break tradition and made a non-pancit dish - jap chae. The sweet potato noodles made for a nice change from the usual rice noodles we eat. Several people asked for the recipe, but it can easily be made without one. Cook the noodles according to the package. Drain, rinse, set aside. Wilt a dark green vegetable (I used kale) and chop to bite size pieces. Sauté vegetables in a little oil and sauce made of soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, chopped garlic, and white pepper. Sauté the kale in the same way and with the sauce. Add everything to the noodles and mix to combine. Top with scallions and sesame seeds. This disappeared quickly and I was asked to make this again for the next gathering.

My mom asked me to bake a cake for an aunt to celebrate her birthday. She ended up not making the party, but my cousin brought a slice home so she can enjoy. Nothing fancy, plain yellow cake. Made a stabilized whipped cream frosting, mixing in some cherry preserves for the middle layer. Never heard of a stabilized whipped cream? It's just whipped cream with gelatin added. Another request to make this for the next gathering.

Another Filipino dish, fruit salad, that my dad used to make for parties. Cream base is made up of cream cheese, condensed milk, and whipped topping. Fruit cocktail, tropical fruit blend, and maraschino cherries comprise the fruits. I should make this into an ice cream.

There's some karaoke action going on now... time to hide.

Happy New Year!

Happy Easter!

I'm downstate once again. But thought I would drop a line and hope you are all doing well and enjoying the day. It's a bit overcast here, but temperature wise it's been decent. Not that I've really enjoyed it - I've been catching up on my television watching. 

The Easter ham is done and ready for carving... once people show up.

I think they're running on Filipino time.

And... here they are.

False alarm. Just my sister.

Damn Filipino time.

My "What I Want for Christmas, But Will Wait Until After the New Year When it Goes on Sale" List

As the gift giving day rapidly approaches (three more days!), I figured I should make up a list of things that would be nice to have. Do I need these? Not really, but they would be nice to have. In my family we do Secret Santa and many of these popped up on my wish list.

1. Macaron Baking Sheets - No more having to draw circles on parchment paper! And an excuse to bake even more egg white based cookies!

2. Silicone Baking Mats - No, they aren't silpat, but these can take a beating. Not to mention it saves my parchment paper for other things (mostly cakes).

3. Gel Paste Food Color - I have Wilton gel colors at the moment, and they are perfectly fine. Except they are in those itty bitty pots. Squeeze bottles are easier, and (I'm sure it isn't but go with it) more uniform portions if I ever have to repeat creating a color hue.

4. Kitchenaid 5-Qt Stainless Steel Bowl - It's part of the Pringles curse - you can't have just one. It makes sense really, having another bowl to help make baking more efficient. Having another set of hands to help makes things efficient as well, but that isn't on the list.

5. Pouring Shield for Kitchenaid Mixer - It's inevitable that flour/powdered sugar will spill out of the bowl. Should be just a bit. With me, it seems at times like it's a lot. Enough to have me screaming and cursing the baking gods for giving me such bad luck. So I've resorted to slowly stirring by hand. Won't have to do that anymore with this.

6. 7000 Islands: A Food Portait of the Philippines - I'm Filipina and I like cookbooks. That's enough reason.

7. Stainless Steel 6-Wheel Pastry Cutter - Shortcuts. And straight lines. And time saver.

8. Capresso Stainless Steel Conical Burr Grinder - Years ago I found a Cuisinart coffee grinder on clearance but passed it up because M was making a fuss. To this day I regret leaving the store without it. I want my beans freshly ground. Is that too much to ask? Is it?!?

9. Cards Against Humanity - Come on... it's a fun game. And all the expansion packs!

Hoppy Labor Day

I hope you enjoyed your day off. I know I did, but I somehow managed to injure myself. Not sure how it happened, but it's making tonights project a little difficult.

And what is that project? Brewing beer. Yes, M and I are at it again... and hopefully we don't screw it up. M's trip out to Michigan for the annual Homebrew Festival and hanging out with Brian Wiggs from Dark Horse brewery may have been the catalyst for his wanting to break out the kettle, but I know the hop picking for Saranac is what did it for me. That was last week and I still need to write about it.

And I am pretty sure I will at some point. I don't have to point out the obvious, but I haven't been writing much. Oh sure, I posted some crossfit workouts (which I stopped doing but may start up again)... but I just wasn't motivated. No spark... nada. But this month let's see. Maybe I can get things started again. I would think so, since I have some interesting food related things about to start. On Wednesday. 

So you'll have to wait until then. 

Back to the beer. My sister purchased some hops and yeast for M earlier in the year and we are finally breaking into the stash. We acquired some fresh hops recently and M is just about ready to "wet hop" them. Which is what you call the addition of fresh hops. Why they don't just call it "fresh hopping," I don't know. It would be understood. But I am new to the brewing thing. Maybe I'll buy a book. Or if SCCC was cool, they would offer a beer making class... or classes. There is that one school in the area that will, and the CIA is opening a brewery. Gotta jump on while it's still hot... right?

Chinese New Year Dim Sum

For those of you that celebrate the Lunar New Year, gung hay fat choy! M and I decided to head over to Ala Shanghai for a light lunch and welcome in the year of the snake. And just as expected, the place was packed. Most people made reservations, but luckily there was an open table for us.

The meal was primarily vegetarian, but I had to get the pork soup dumplings. I mean, come on… soup dumplings. Delicious as they should be. I didn’t realize it before, but one of the little dishes of sauce was on the sour side. Perhaps it’s a dark vinegar? Better on the spring rolls than on the dumplings.

 

Soupy dumplings aside, the rest of the dim sum consisted of scallion pancakes, spring rolls, and these vegetable dumplings. I may have had them before, but I can’t remember. I didn’t like these at all. The filling is minced, which is fine, but it was a bit on the mushy side and too mushroom heavy. It tasted like they used reconstituted shitake mushrooms, which unless really drained, has a weird taste to it. The spring rolls were crispy as they should be, but the inside was mush. And it’s mostly cabbage in there… and mushy tasteless cabbage is the worst.

I didn’t think the dim sum would be enough, so I ordered some vegetable lo mein. A safe enough option for a picky eater, but it was pretty underwhelming. It reminded me of pancit canton (which basically that is) only it needed more seasoning. Maybe if I had some chili oil or chili paste I would have sung a different tune.

When I asked M what he thought of the place, he said he really liked the scallion pancakes and that was it. He also said if we were to go out again for dim sum, we should go somewhere else. And as much as I hate to admit it… I agree with him.

Sorry all you AS lovers out there, it’s just not our thing.

Happy Christmas!

We were awoken by a chorus of "Ho ho ho's."

"It's Santa!" M cried. He put on his glasses and ran down the stairs. I decided to sleep in a while longer because well... waking up early really isn't my cup of tea. But I had a lot to do before we headed downstate, so I slowly made my way downstairs, hoping M started a pot of coffee.

No coffee, but there was a package by the fireplace with my name on it. What could it be?

A five quart Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer! So. Stoked.

I have plans. Big, big, big plans for this baby. I took a quick look through the accompanying manual/cook book and made a mental note of all the things that I'd want to try out. Onion mushroom tartlets? Hell yeah! Oh and milk bread... which would put all that milk in the fridge to good use (why I have so much milk in the fridge, I can't tell you... maybe I just knew).

I asked M what we should name it. His response?

"Mark."

Welcome to the family.

Working Meal - Holiday Edition

Saving lives people... I'm saving lives here. Not time to make a meal from scratch. And then there was the thing about me trying to make it to ShopRite before they closed. But Merry Christmas!

By the time I got there, they had closed. It was 6:30.

The sign on their door said they were open until 7.

I may have yelled in frustration has the staff yelled to me through the doors they were closed. And I may have angrily told me walking toward the store to not even bother... they decided to close early.

Let it slide, girl. Let it slide.

(deep cleansing breath)

Anyways, that drive to Albany ate up what little break I had between cases so I made a pit stop at the golden arches just so I wouldn't pass out. Cheeseburgers, fries, chocolate chip cookies, and a coffee. Not the most nutritious, but it was quick and easy to eat while driving back to work.

Did I regret it? Absolutely. I'm still burping up that onion smell, and just thinking about what I wolfed down this evening makes me feel sick to my stomach.

But you do what you gotta do. And try your best to remember to bring some healthy foodstuffs with you the next time you're on call.

There ya go... got a resolution for the new year. BOOM.

Preparation For the Feast

M and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving early this year. He unfortunately has to work the holiday and I am going home for the rest of the week. I originally planned for this HUGE fest and invite people to come over and gorge out on our vegetarian meal. 

But then I got lazy, and figured people wouldn't want to stay out late on a Monday night. So I scrapped that plan and figure hey... make a tofu turkey.

Then I saw the recipe. A two day affair? Pass.

I ended up making vegan oat burgers, which I plan to use for vegan stuffed cabbage rolls to bring home for Thanksgiving. It's actually pretty good, I may make this stuff more often.

M made some mac & cheese. I don't know why he's been on a M&C kick, but it's here and made it for dinner. I left him alone with that because I really don't think he would appreciate me looking over his shoulder making sure he's following the recipe correctly.

How'd it turn out? In M's words: "I can't follow a recipe."

Seasoning was an issue, but it was okay! Just couldn't eat too much of it. Oh well.

Maybe we'll try again for Christmas.

My Memorial Day

No grills. No fireworks. Not even real meat - these are Boca burgers. But M was leaving and I really don't think 4 patties is enough reason to burn some propane. Surprisingly, I liked these. They were the original ones, and reminded me of a Burger King burger. And I do likes those from time to time. Now I wish I had bought more when they were on sale. 

Greetings From Jamaica

Yes, I have been neglecting my blog lately. And I regret to inform you that I'll be neglecting it even more this week as I am currently on vacation.

And so far I am loving it.

posted from Bloggeroid

Shortcut Wonton Soup

With all the food we had last night, I'm surprised I wanted to consume more, let alone think about cooking.

The Final Countdown

Of 2011.

And I am exhausted.

Wontons

I had leftover filling from the lumpia, so wontons for new years

posted from Bloggeroid

Family Traditions

It's not Christmas without cut throat bingo

posted from Bloggeroid

Kilawing Kambing

We may not have had turkey, but goat was the key player of the night's dishes - caldareta (meat stew), papaitan (offal and bile soup), and kilawin (ceviche style meat and offal).

The goat kilawin caused a bit of a debate, since kilawin is traditionally made with seafood. Can you actually call it kilawin if it's made with meat? I said yes, because kilawin is cooking raw meat with vinegar. I suppose technically it isn't since the goat skin and meat were cooked... but that's just splitting hairs, isn't it?

This stuff was fantastic. Slightly smoky taste from the butcher taking a torch to the skin to remove the hair. Spicy from the thinly sliced jalepenos, and slightly sour from the vinegar. If I threw this on a hot plate it would be sisig. Perfect with beer and rice (I'm Asian... I had to.)

I'll Get You Next Time Turkey

I really hope the reason there was no turkey this year wasn't because I couldn't cook it.

posted from Bloggeroid