ILYS: A quick fix for Saturday (finally, it's a pork dish)

On non-working Saturdays, I revert to what I call "housewife mode". For people who know me as a working girl, they probably could not picture me in such a mode. Some actually can't and they seem surprised that I can do household chores. Probably because I've always been the unica hija and people probably think I live like a princess. But I know my way around the house like any pauper would.

So on weekends, even before I got married, I do laundry (at least, the laundry that we do not send to the laundry shop), put our things in order, mend clothes, etc. And now, I also cook (and yes, I don a duster to complete the housewife look, hehehe).

Just this Saturday, I did something very housewife-y also: I went to the market. I usually tagged along whenever mom goes there. But I wanted to experience doing the marketing myself so I decided to go alone. Anyway, the market is nearby, about a ten-minute walk (or less) from our house. Hubby, who was on his way to work, and I caught a backride on a trike about a quarter past 5:00 AM, and I dropped myself off at the village plaza. I didn't walk as it was still dark as night.

I was at the market very early, early enough to catch the delivery of fresh meat taking place at Boyet & Belle's, mom's preferred vendor. I think they unloaded about 5 or 6 large pigs. I waited for a while as Mang Boyet and his boys chopped the meat into the different sections and cuts (liempo, kasim, pigue, even isaw, dugo, etc.) with such ease you'd think they were working on toys.

The nice thing about going to the market very early is there is very little crowd. In fact, almost zero. Mom's usual shopping schedule is around 8:00 AM, when there's already more than a handful of people in each stall. In some instances, a certain cut of meat is no longer available, or some kinds of fish and vegetables have also run out. I must say I did my pamamalengke quite leisurely that morning. I took my time consulting my Menu for a Month copy, and comparing and selecting what I needed. I had first pick of everything, so to speak.

I would've stayed longer, but the sun was finally out. And my load was heavy. For a while, I completely forgot I was shopping solo. On top of the meat I bought, I also had a number of different vegetables, a whole piling of lacatan bananas, and a loaf of sandwich bread. I must've looked like a walking store already. =) But if I had not yet felt the load, I would've probably shopped around some more. Maybe next time I'll bring a bayong.

I made mini pancakes for breakfast when I got home. Because I also started cooking early, I finished just as my parents and brother were waking up. I haven't quite made up my mind what to cook for lunch. But despite that and the laundry I had to do, I was looking forward to a relatively lazy Saturday...

Until the doorbell rang. Surprise, we had visitors. =) In came my mom's nephew (but because of our age gap, I was often confused whether to call him "uncle" or "kuya") and his wife and their driver. They had some business with my parents. At first, I thought they weren't staying long. We served them chips and biscuits and ensaladang mangga. I still had the lesiurely feel around me. But as was always the case with relatives, a visit which is "saglit lang" would last at least half a day. LOL. I ended up suddenly snapping out of it and rushing to cook lunch.

I bought several kinds of meat and fish: a kilo of semi-sukiyaki-cut beef for gyudon and half a kilo of ground beef round for pasta sauce, a kilo of pork strips for stir-frying, a whole fresh chicken for tinola or afritada, and some fresh sapsap, one of my favorite fish, for pinangat. After quick consideration, I opted to cook Pork Stir-Fry. And ASAP!

Marinade pork in a mix of soy sauce, honey and garlic

I always like to marinade meat longer, overnight if possible. So I marinated the pork for more than 15 minutes, while I was preparing the other ingredients.

Aside from their health benefits, veggies give dishes
beautiful colors so I try to cook with more of them

The beans and mixed vegetables were "cooked" quickly in boiling water with salt. I made a miscalculation with the mixed vegetables and bought too little. What I did to compensate for the lack was dice a big carrot.

I heated oil in our trusty old wok. Although it wasn't specified, I used olive oil and it was fantastic. The pork was stir-fried in high heat.

When pork is cooked, lower the flame and pour in the
marinade (ah, this is what I did wrong...I chucked everything
--pork and marinade--into the wok at once...no wonder it
was soupy, LOL).

In went the the bell peppers and mushroom. Then later, during the last few minutes of cooking, the rest of the veggies.

Serve warm.

Wow, ready in a jiffy. =)

I immediately made a disclaimer that it was my first time to cook the dish. The fast stir-fry was received well by my family and our guests. I recall my cousin's driver commenting, "Sira ang diet ko dito." Mom assured her it was OK because I used olive oil. Of course, I cannot answer if the amount he ate was OK even if I used olive oil. ^_^

It was remarked that the dish tasted like higado. I'm thinking perhaps it was the amount of bell pepper I used.

Pork Stir-Fry
Recipe on Yummy.ph or Menu for a Month

*BB*

WCS: Cookie cheat

Each person has his fear. Or fears. Me? I have two main fears: I am afraid of (1) fire, and of (2) tight, enclosed spaces. The fear isn’t really of the abnormal sort, not enough to call me a case of pyrophobia and claustrophobia. I’m just afraid of fire. Period. It took me a long time to learn how to use matches and light candles or the stove. And until now, I never use lighters (good thing I don’t smoke, else I’ll probably always have a box of matches, which doesn’t seem very fashionable). I’m uncomfortable with enclosed spaces, for fear of getting locked in and suffocating (which is also connected to my fear of drowning). Morbid.

However, the combination is most unfortunate because:

Fear of fire+
Fear of tight,
enclosed spaces=
Irrational fear of ovens

Yes, I’m afraid of ovens. So if you’ve criticized my posts, you now know why they only relate action on the stovetop. I am irrationally afraid of the oven. I have this lurking feeling that either Hansel or Gretel will push me in and shut the door.

It’s a real misfortune for me because I love baked things: cakes, cookies, casseroles...  and the fear has barred me from learning to bake.

But early this year, I promised myself that I will learn to bake. Force myself to learn if need be. I want to be able to bake the delicious cakes mom and dad make, and all the cookies, pies, casseroles and baked things in the world. Mom herself doesn’t turn on the oven. She asks dad to do it. So perhaps, I’ll get dad to teach hubby to light the oven, too. LOL

And this evening, I am happy to report that I have kicked off my baking career. And what better way to do that... than by making NO-BAKE cookies!

Cheater. Hahaha!

Thanks to my beloved Yummy.ph, I secured a recipe for No-Bake Oatmeal Drops. Great, since we have a pack of oatmeal nearing expiration. Hahaha! The other ingredients are equally commonplace, so I didn't need to drop by the grocery anymore.

Combine 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, and 1/2

cup milk* in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and

and remove from heat. (*I used evaporated milk)

Add 3 cups quick-cooking oats, 1 tsp. vanilla

and 3 tbsps. peanut butter. Mix well.

Drop in heaping tablespoons on a baking sheet lined

with wax paper*. Allow to firm before serving. (*As
seen here, I used a plate lined with a torn glasserine
sandwich bag. What a cheap cheat.)

The recipe yielded almost 30 cookies (my output was 29, LOL, perhaps there were a few pieces that were too thick). I finished the recipe in less than half an hour, just in time for dinner.

Assembly took most of the time, as I really made effort

to make the drops more presentable, using a spoon to
to smoothen the edges. Still, the recipe is very easy.

I left the cookies on the plate where I formed them and ate my dinner of sinigang na isda and rice. Mom and dad were looking at the drops with some sort of suspicion, and were surprised that I was actually already finished. "Hilaw?" mom asked me. "No-bake," I emphasized. "It's a no-bake recipe nga e."

The no-bake cookie was moist and chewy. And very

oatmeal-ly rough. Like eating whole wheat bread. It
looks like kakanin here.

I cut the sugar, so it isn’t very sweet. Good thing i did it. The peanut butter was of the creamy sort and was sweet enough to compensate for the reduction.

At dad’s suggestion, I popped a few pieces in the electric oven (still not the real oven, LOL) and toasted them for less than 10 minutes at 175°C. But he didn’t get to try it as he already brushed his teeth.

Baked no-bake oatmeal drops. I just browned it a bit.
These actually resemble the photo on the recipe at
Yummy.ph compared to the no-bake pieces.

So I just tried it myself.

The toasted cookie was still chewy, but a bit dry and
crumbly. This really felt like cookies in the mouth.

The baked cookie (right) appears to have “risen”. If you ask

me which is better, I think I prefer the baked one. Of course,
the brand of oatmeal might have something to do with the
texture, as the one I used is one my family doesn't really like
(kaya nga meron pa e, enough to make 3 cups).

I immediately reported to hubby, who’s on night shift, that I made cookies. He immediately asked, “Paano ka nag-bake? Marunong ka na magbukas ng oven?” I just told him I’ll let him sample when he came home in the morning. I didn’t tell him that I cheated. Hahaha!

Little brother came home late tonight. I let him try a piece of both the original no-bake and baked versions, and sure enough he preferred the latter. So I finally decided to toast all the others. Little bro ate a couple more pieces while updating his Facebook page. It seems like he likes it, since he would normally stop at the first piece he tried if he didn't.

I wasn't eating everyhting tonight so I stored the
remaining drops in one of my trusty Lock 'n Locks.

The oatmeal I used is a brand my family doesn't like much, one which I bought because I expected it to be good--mainly because it's branded. Turns out, my folks prefer SM Bonus. Hahaha!

Hmmm...maybe I will try using SM Bonus next time. =)

P.S. (3/16/2011): I brought a few pieces as baon, just to see how it'll be if not eaten at once and stored for a while. Will post a follow-up to this. ^_^

No-Bake Oatmeal Drops

Recipe on Yummy.ph

*BB*

ILYS: It's chicken day once more

19-20 FEBRUARY 2011. I promise myself to cook a bit more beef, pork or fish next time. Because today, it's chicken once again.

I was finally able to try Chicken Satay with Cucumber Salad recipe on Yummy Meals in Minutes. I got myself to buy--at last--a bottle of satay sauce, a small bottle of which costs P98.00. Ouch. O_O I also purchased breast fillet at SM Southmall supermarket on my way home after work on Friday.


Saturday found me in the kitchen once more, bent on finally cooking this dish I have earmarked a long, long time ago (since I bought the cookbook, so that's more than one year ago already).

The stage is set for another yummy meal.

Cut the chicken breast fillets (skinless, 1 kilo) into
bite-size cubes and wash 'em real clean!

Although I find the nutty scent of satay sauce yummy, my mom was alarmed by it. Even hubby thought something smelled spoiled. =)

Prepare the marinade. Combine 1 tbsp. chopped garlic,1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup peanut butter,
1/4 cup satay sauce, and 2 tsps chili-garlic sauce.
Season with sugar, salt and pepper as needed.
Mix 'em real well!

Toss the chicken cubes in the marinade.

Make sure the chicken is mixed well in the nutty marinade!
Set aside for about 15 minutes.

Easy cucumber salad. Combine 2 diced cucumbers,
2 tbsps lemon juice, 3 tbsps minced red onion
and 1/4 cup sesame oil.

Hubby joined me in the kitchen after a while. He wanted to help out so I requested him to do the frying. I think it would help to use a non-stick pan. The one we used was no longer non-stick, so the marinade did stick until there was an accumulation which soon toasted into a black mess inside the pan (some of the chicken had burnt spots on them).

Pan fry the marinated chicken.

This dish deserves porcelain plating. Dinner time!

Long after I managed myself to stop scooping rice into my plate, I still found myself popping chicken pieces into my mouth as we were still hanging around the kitchen table listening to mom's story (I think it's one of those from her dalaga-days again, which we've heard a half dozen times already and which she is repeating for hubby's benefit). It's addicting. Ang sarap papakin. Hahaha! And the cucumber salad really goes well with the chicken.

The recipe above was for 1 kilo of chicken. As we're a family of five (hungry people), I used about half a kilo more (so if you'll do the same, just adjust the measurements). There was still more than enough of it until the next day when my kuya's family came over for lunch, and even for our breakfast on Monday. =)

Chicken Satay with Cucumber Salad
Find the recipe on the Yummy Meals in Minutes book


*BB*

SQF: My chicken is Italian

2010 JULY 11. My parents were leaving me, little bro and hubby-to-be home alone. A cousin who lives in Makati is celebrating her birthday. I had to pass--even if a quick trip to Market! Market! was tempting--because of colds and my still-heavy head.

I intended to cook Italian-Style Chicken Wings for Monday evening, but I didn't want to eat sardines or corned beef just now. This is the first recipe under the "Take 5 Ingredients" section of Meals in Minutes. This is actually the first recipe I earmarked, but because I kept on using the spaghetti sauce for pasta or chicken wings were constantly absent from our freezer, this got delayed.

The Italian-style sauce is composed of sauteed garlic,
sweet-style spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning. I also
added a dash of cayenne pepper powder. So easy, right?

I prepared the sauce. I guess I didn't mince the garlic enough. LOL. Also, the recipe called for 500g of sweet-style spaghetti sauce. I only had 250g, so I added a 250g pack of a Three-Cheese version, which did make the dish a bit cheesy.

Coat the chicken wings with breading mix and fry.

Frying the coated chicken took a long time because I made the mistake of using a small pan. And I didn't want to deep-fry. Hubby-to-be already arrived; good thing he ate before he left. But little bro was starving. I decided to toss the cooked ones with the sauce while the last few pieces were still cooking so we can already eat.

Voila! A great alternative to your usual fried chicken.

The dish was simple but flavorful. I was already full after just two pieces as I ate a lot of rice with it. Three pieces were left for dad's lunch tomorrow. Later, I texted sis-in-law, who also owns a copy of Meals in Minutes, to try the recipe. Sayang, my baby nephew can't try it yet. I'm sure he'll love it.

Italian-style Chicken Wings

Find it on Yummy Meals in Minutes

*BB*

ILYS: Seafood Fried Rice

2010 JULY 10. This dish is self explanatory. LOL. My stupid colds is making me tamad...

Azumi trying to supervise my progress. I'm wondering
if she made any progress with that herself.

Anyway, I also planned this ahead of time. The thing was, I left my Quick and Good on my desk in the office Friday. Hubby-to-be, who was on night shift, wasn't able to retrieve it; maybe it got lost amongst my pile of to-do's... so I'm perfectly sure I didn't follow the recipe. LOL

My take on Seafood Fried Rice.

Seafood Fried Rice

(serves 4 and a bit more)

1 medium onion

1 head garlic

half a pack of frozen mixed seafood (got this from Shopwise Alabang)

half a pack of frozen mixed vegetables (got from the takal-takal section of SM Supermarket, cheaper than frozen)

soy sauce

oyster sauce

hoisin sauce (a teeny bit; not necessary kailangan lang gamitin dahil mage-expire na LOL)

chili garlic sauce

leek (actually not necessary rin, decoration lang LOL)

2 eggs, cooked scrambled and sliced

*BB*

SQF: Seafood Sunday

27 JUNE 2010. After Charlie Tsong was eaten and the leftovers stored in the fridge, we were resigned to have a the rest of the Sunday in peace. Mom got out a whole fresh chicken from the freezer, ready to be turned into afritada for lunch.


But then, Aling Toning, a vendor with whom my mom is a suki, came ringing at our gate. We bought some vegetables form her. Aling Toning was with another lady vendor who brought fresh seafood in timbas like galunggong, clams, mussels from Cavite, dulong, alamang among others.


Now, it's been a long while since I had tahong; we're constantly in a red tide alert, although there's usually none. Hahaha, paranoid.


And suddenly, aha! We declared it Seafood Sunday. I immediately requested my dear fiancé, who was to quietly spend Sunday with us, to buy quickmelt cheese somewhere on his way here. We ended up inviting big brother and his family over for lunch as well.


Using a recipe on Yummy as a reference (which we didn't entirely follow anyway), we set to work making Mixed Tempura out of the shrimps we bought and a couple of carrots and an eggplant we had in the fridge.

Veggie tempura

Honestly, our Ebi Tempura ended up looking more like
Camaron Rebusado. LOL! Will have to study the tempura mixture...

At the same time, we portioned the tahong: half was steamed and set aside for another meal, the other half was baked for lunch.

Sobrang cheeeeeeeeeeeeeesy!

Big bro's family arrived to find mom, husband-to-be and me in a mess in the kitchen, halfway through the tempura so big bro was able to help out. I had big bro sample Charlie Tsong, which he found good.

Behind the scenes...

My lovely family + a great quick-fix meal = perfect Sunday. =)

Baked Tahong
serves 4 and more (in our case, it served 8)
1 kilo fresh mussels (tahong)
1 small box quick-melt cheese
1 head of garlic, sliced into fine bits (or maybe you can use garlic powder)
Dash of ground pepper


Mixed Tempura

serves 4 and more (in our case, it served 8)

1 kilo fresh shrimps (I prefer good-sized suahe)
Sliced vegetables (we used carrots and eggplants, but you can also use sweet kamote)
(about) 3 eggs Egg
(about) 1 cup flour
(about) 2 cups Japanese breadcrumbs


Photo credits: my sis-in-law! *BB*

Weekday Cheap Shots (WCS): Turning Japanese...almost

26 APRIL 2010. I did something unique today. Right after dinner, I still had a bit of time. So I cleared a space on the table to make what I called sushi peke...because it was a fake sushi recipe. LOL


I think it's called Spicy Tuna Sushi in Yummy: Quick & Good. Instead of the usual raw stuff inside (I really don't like my food raw), the recipe used a can of spicy tuna. As it was, the recipe was already "fake", but what made it even more fake was that I skipped the wasabi (because I don't like wasabi as well) and in place of Japanese mayo I used Miracle Whip!

Will have to master the wrapping.

But the dish was a miracle. It made even my dad, who was already in bed contentedly waiting for his favorite late night Koreanovela, get up and go to the kitchen for a few pieces (he had to brush his teeth again afterwards).


Wrapping up the nori was a bit of a challenge. Good thing I bought me a sushi mat. Still, I ended up with deformed logs which were a bit too big in diameter with the rice (which was not Japanese rice, not even malagkit!) not very intact. Then all our knives weren't very sharp. Slicing became a bit of a chore, further making the pieces go out of shape. But the taste was good (despite the omissions and substitutions) and I found the rolling quite fun. For two days, I brought my sushi peke as baon to the office.

Packing up

Will surely do this again. =) *BB*

I Love You Sabado (ILYS): To bread for the first time

24 APRIL 2010. Since I started taking cooking to heart, I always looked forward to Saturdays (Saturdays with no work, of course). It's a day for me to practice. Sundays are hectic, as my brothers and I have church commitments in the morning.

The day began like any other day, with me waking up to the tune of my baby nephew's meowing in the other room. Played with him for a while and went down to get ready. I already knew what I'd be doing today.

I liked eating breaded stuff: breaded chicken, breaded pork, breaded fish, breaded whatever. But I've always thought breading is difficult. It seemed like such a hassle. So, back then, if you'd ask me to cook breaded chicken, I'll just fry the thing and say I didn't hear you say "breaded".

My nephew asleep in his carrier on the dining table while
I was cooking, oblivious to the chaos I was making in
the kitchen.

Now that I actually tried breading, I found the FEB (flour-egg-breadcrumbs) process quite entertaining. I thought before it was a hassle. Well, there were a lot of soiled plates and bowls after, but it was cool. Used to a workplace where the Toyota Production System is standard, a simple setup for cleaning up while cooking is in progress became second nature. It was of course quite tricky when doing breading, as you need all the containers at the same time and you finish using them at the same time. But it was OK.

OK, so they're supposed to be golden brown,

and they're just, well... brown. LOL.
Hey, there's my reflection on the kettle! 

I finished frying the breaded breast fillets... and it turned out we didn't have rice yet! LOL. So I took a break... to fold up some clean laundry and finish washing my own clothes the moment my sister-in-law vacated the sink (talk about multitasking!)

My Meals in Minutes propped like the Holy Bible next to the stove.
Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze on page 31.

Just as the rice was almost done cooking, I made the lemon glaze. I didn't exactly follow the quantities here, though, as my 3 lemons yielded 2 extra tablespoons of juice (I just needed 6 tablespoons). So I just made mental calculations on how much more water and honey I should put.

And voila! My first breaded project was plated, drizzled over with sweet-sour lemon glaze and topped with not-so-very-finely chopped parsley (OK, tinatamad na ako, noh! Gutom na ako!).

Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze

Dad was the first to have a bite. Was quite flattered when he said I can already cook for a restaurant (palakpak ang tenga, hehehe). =) I also got positive comments from my mom, older brother (who cooks better than I do and is very hard to please when it comes to food) and his wife.

Baby can't eat with us yet, so he settled for his favorite finger food.

Personally, the dish was OK. I think I should season the chicken a bit more. I was also afraid to dump the entire all the glaze on the chicken when I served it. I was thinking that it might be too strong, but I put some on a small bowl and served it on the side. As it turned out, we ended up pouring spoonfuls of it on our plates like soup and I had to refill the bowl. =)

I started prepping for this dish past 9:00 AM. We ate by 12:30 noon. Not bad, as I had to wait for the rice to cook (which involved some bumming around and lying on the bed) and did laundry and cleaned up and had to call my parents several times to come to the table. 


Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze
Find the recipe on On Yummy Meals in Minutes


*BB*

Everything must start somewhere...

Key performance indicator for a kitchen beginner:"If it looks like it, then you must have done it right!"

I guess it's true that a lot of extraordinary things happen on ordinary days. It was just any ordinary day for me. I woke up--not sure if I had work on that day--and the realization just came to me like divine inspiration.

I'm getting married.

And, Lord God, I don't know how to cook.

Sure, I know how to fry. But I guess everyone can do that. I know some recipes taught to me by my mom. She insists that I learn because I will eventually have to cook for my own family, etc, etc. But as she is always the automatic cook at home, I don't get to practice all the stock knowledge, resulting to my always mixing up ingredients (if I actually know the ingredient at all) and never getting the sequence of steps to stick to my head. Reading cookbooks and online recipes didn't exactly help me; I didn't understand the terms and all the prepping involved disenchanted me...what the hell is a slow cooker?!


And now I'm about to cross the border to a new life. I guess I must've panicked, I don't know... My fiance and I, as per our plans, will be moving to our own home a couple of years after we get married. But I found myself thinking, what would I feed my husband? My kids? Myself?


Then one day at work, I saw an officemate going through the pages of a small cookbook. It turned out to be the first issue of the quarterly released Yummy mini cookbook. I also took a look, saw how easy it was to understand (there were even recipes that can be cooked under 10 minutes, and some having just 5 main ingredients) and was delighted at how handy the book was (it was small enough to go into my bag).


Not long after, I came home with my own copy of Meals in Minutes and it was the first cookbook I ever owned in my entire life. And not long after that, my mom accompanied me to South Supermarket in Alabang to shop for ingredients--the first time we ever bought olive oil in the house! More first-ever times followed, until the first time I whipped up breakfast all by myself--and it was pasta! (I food I've always been fascinated with as I thought it was complex)


And so began my romance with the kitchen, and so begins the Beginner's Bible (read more). *BB*