on the menu

I cleared out several posts that I had written then decided I didn't want to post. I've been finicky lately. I've been on facebook for the most part. A friend asks me if I have privacy issues with facebook. Frankly, I don't because I try not to post anything that I really don't want out there in the first place or that people don't already know anyway. And really, can you really trust a company whose sole purpose is to make public information about you, that you yourself post? That's just silly.

Anyway, it's Sunday and Sunday is the day we both clear out the fridge of our lovely science experiments and cook a bit of a feast.

So, on the menu:

lamb roast (not sure what herbs the hubby stuck in it today)
roasted red potatoes and carrots
sweet pepper jelly
sauteed spinach with garlic and feta
caramelized onions
mushrooms with thyme and garlic (white and mini portabella mushrooms)

We'll probably open a bottle of wine too, not sure which one yet.

Tomorrow I get a day off and will probably spend the day vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom. Seems rather tedious or dull, but a day without work is always a nice day.

on the menu

We had more of a low key Thanksgiving, heading over to my SIL in South City.

Wednesday evening we stopped by a distant cousin who bakes pies to pick up two cheesecakes (blueberry and plain), and a veggie pie. She has an adorable 10 month old girl who is very sociable and makes funny faces. We end up running into my uncle and his family who are also picking up pies. My distant cousin had been baking for an entire week. She already broke her first oven.

Afterwards, since we were in the area, we headed to Shalimar, one of the best Indian/Pakistani restaurants in the area. And no doubt, when we got there at 9:30p (they close at 10:30p) the line was 10 deep and there were no tables available. The place is packed with South Asians and one or two other Asians like ourselves. We decided to take the food to go. The hubby hates crowds and he hates standing in line for food, but he's willing to stand in line for this food. The complexity of flavors and spices is amazing. We ordered goat, chicken tikka masala, lamb kabab, and some naan. We should have also ordered raita since it's also rather spicy. The hubby was sweating after a few bites.

That evening, my brother and cousin stopped by after their long drive from LA. Can you say 4 hours just to get out of the LA basin? It was late so my cousin stayed over. He was surprising his family and we'd drop him off the next day.

In the morning the hubby started roasting the duck and chicken he'd been brining for 3 days. Then after looking at all the drippings, we decided to make gravy with the giblets. Whew!

The afternoon we spent at the SIL playing with the nieces. Along with the duck and chicken, we had roasted potatoes, pancit and chicharon bulaklak. OK not the typical Thanksgiving meal, but certainly you can argue that chicharon bulaklak is only for for special holidays. One of those foods you know was way too bad for you the second it hits your tongue, but it's oh so good you have to swallow.

While the adults took an afternoon nap and the eldest niece went for a walk, the twins went quietly "hippie" on us (as my cousin puts it) by stripping down to nothing and romping around the house. It's their latest "thing" their mom tells us. Well, in the end it made it a quicker trip to giving them a bath in the evening. So far they don't do it anywhere else. We stayed long enough to put all the kids to sleep and play a few rounds of Smooth Moves on the Wii.

Friday we slept in. Made some duck noodle soup from the leftover duck. In the evening we went to the "So You Think You Can Dance?" tour in Oakland. It was a relatively small crowd, so parking was easy. Along with the top 10 they brought along 4 of the other top favorites: Shawna, Hok, Jesus, and Anya. Danny is just simply mesmerizing and Pasha is quite hot, especially when he did his cape solo. The girls screamed for Neil and he played to them by showing off his body. We finally got to see a hip hop routine by the three hip hop dancers: Hok, Sara, and Dominic. Dominic was from Sacramento so he was enjoying performing in front of his home crowd and had several comedic interludes as part of hosting the show. Alot of people in the crowd wondered where do people go after performing a tour like this. It's not like American Idol. And since it's produced by the same people, the down times were filled with broadcasts of the more recent idols: Underwood, Daughtry, Fantasia, and a twangy chick I don't even remember.

Saturday we actually went out and did some shopping over at REI for warmer workout clothes and Walgreens for household items. Although we browsed through the ads, we didn't join the shopping madness. Plus, the stuff really wasn't that much of a sale. I've seen bigger discounts in the middle of spring when there really isn't anyone shopping.

I tried my hand at baking biscuits to go with the leftover giblet gravy. And also made arroz caldo out of the leftover chicken. Needs more ginger and we need more chopped garlic.

This morning decided to continue to laze about. I guess I'll get around to doing some more chores. It's almost December, the year goes by quickly. Next weekend will be filled with a couple of wine posts with a couple of winetasting parties next weekend. Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry.

i had plans

I had plans today to do laundry, sort clothes, bake apple pie and learn to make potato gnocchi, but the morning is cold and the comforter is warm and I've barely budged.

The hubby had to go to work today and I watched him do sit-ups (an odd thing for him to do.) But sometimes there's no need to question things.

We babysat the nieces on Friday evening while the parents had a date night. One bawled at the idea of the parents leaving, the other casually said goodbye and kept playing. When I was a kid, I was the bawler afraid of my parents disappearing into the dark night.

We let the twins stay up late to finish watching TV. Apparently they had expected to watch Barney, a routine we were not informed about. We had deprived them of Barney (thankfully for me). They actually copy the movements from the sign time dvd. And they ask for more though I'm not sure more of what?

Saturday we helped a friend close his recently deceased father's store. It was a 99 cent store full of all sorts of random items. Even we bought off some of the items: crayons and pens to stock the elementary school in the province and votive candles for the church there. We personally stocked up on wrapping paper, gift bags and greeting cards. The store was his father's life, a life his sons must now disassemble and sell off.

60 Minutes did a story on the Millenial generation, those who came of age after 2000. How this generation jumps jobs every year perhaps finding their "calling". Adulthood apparently doesn't start until 26/27 and the stigma of living at home after college is barely a scar. They say that some of them are truly hard working and talented and resourceful while the other half is incorrigible with no sense of others because it's about what everyone can do for me.

My cousin dislikes illegal immigrants and thinks they should stand in line just like everyone else. Like many immigrants his view of America is contrasted by the Philippines and its lawlessness. America is a place of rules and of order. Illegals in his mind are going against the American grain. And yet, when I meet illegals, I find them to have a sense of America as the land of opportunity moreso than any other group. They know this is borrowed time and that they must leverage this moment for all that it's worth and yet not do anything to call attention to themselves. They are here for their families, for people they may never return home to see. I admire them for their bravery, it's not that easy of a life when you know it could be gone tomorrow.

I chatted with a cousin looking for work in Dubai. Her job as a sales associate barely pays for a bed to sleep in. She wants to come here or maybe Canada. But for now, must wait. Her boss is Canadian. She wants to help her parents and siblings. She is trying to be patient and have faith in God and God's plan for her. She wants to go back to the Philippines to perhaps score a chance to go to another country.

My parents will soon be getting dsl and off the dial up and even wireless. It's funny us kids can't live without high speed now. Complete junkies to the download of information. Though my cousin asked if I could video chat, but I could not. Maybe I'll set up my parents to video chat so they can learn to skype.

And I'm still in bed, watching the minutes go by and the plans I had for today as my muscles laze into the warmth of the blankets. Hell, I'm typing lying down. Too bad I can't adjust the screen to read sideways. Sometimes things just have to wait, sometimes we just have to wait.

on the menu

I've finally gotten a chance to browse through the various cookbooks we've bought or be given over the last couple of years. My staple book that is already showing it's wear and tear is America's Test Kitchen.

I used to order from a company that preps meals into ziplock bags so you can freeze them and cook them when you see fit. And based on what I learned from getting those meals, I'm trying to think of how I can do the same thing with these recipes. Obviously stews, casseroles and stir frys are quite good for this kind of thing. And why not prep a week, maybe even a month's worth of dinners in the fridge for an easy quicky stir fry. And if I can do all the prep on the weekend when I actually have time, all the better.

The first step in doing that was to make homemade pesto, which I've never done. We recently unpacked a mini-prep machine we received as a wedding gift, so it was the perfect time to learn to make pesto. I didn't know how much 4 cups of fresh basil was, so we bought excessive amounts. And I forgot to buy pine nuts, but then remembered reading somewhere that pistachios, which the hubby serendipitously purchased, could be substituted. It was enough for three batches, two of which I popped into the freezer and one I added the parmesan to for dinner that night. It worked out well and it was enough pesto to slap on some roast chicken for the rest of the week. yummy! and way better than the jarred variety, which we still have from costco.

Also on the cooking list that night was carrot bundt cake. Before the hubby would buy apple pie or other dessert for the week, but now I'm into making cakes. So far I've tried bundt cake, banana bread, and now carrot cake. I've cooked banana bread and carrot cake before so pretty easy, though it took me 40 minutes to grate the 1 lb of carrots in the batch, but it was worth it. I'd like to try the banana bread and bundt cake again as they turned out decent but not as good as I would have liked.

Next up after I season my pastry board, I'm going to try making pizza dough to compliment the pesto and challah bread. But it also means to look to purchase a couple new things for the kitchen including a kitchen scale (for the bread making) and a roaster, which is what the hubby would like to do more of. Which means I need to rethink a few of the kitchen cabinet spaces to better organize them for what we need and to use up or get rid of things we haven't used.

on the menu

The hubby was fiending for some Asian home cooking so off to Ranch we go:

-Sinigang with salmon heads and bok choy
-Beef tendon and daikon, carrots with hoison sauce

As with most Asian dishes we got a few ideas for the recipes and then winged it with a couple of flavor packets. We called up my mom on speaker phone as we stared at the pair of salmon heads staring back at us as she described the kitchen scissor techniques on how to quarter its head. We recommend getting kitchen gloves for this tactic. The hubby commented that it seemed so much easier when he was thinking about cooking it than when actually cooking it. We omitted the tomato (as that's very gout inducing). Our Filipino cookbook said 20 minutes, while America's test kitchen said 5-8 minutes for poached fish. We went with America's Test Kitchen, betting that Filipinos would undoubtedly overcook the fish. After 7 minutes, we took it off heat and added the bok choy so we'd get a crisp taste in the veggies. While the hubby took out the trash, I was left to adjust the patis ratio. The packet gave it a tangy sour, a bit sharp, so I added a half serving spoon of patis which left the sour, but cut down on the sour hit giving a bit more savory flavoring. Mental note patis cuts sour, in the similar fashion that sugar enhances salt. The hubby came back to try it and gave the thumbs up! yay!

I've come to learn in cooking the few Filipino dishes I've tried out thus far that many of the dishes are a balance of sour, sweet, and salt, in varying combinations and controlling the relative levels of these flavors makes all the difference. And if you can learn what to add to back pedal from overshooting, then you'll be a pro.

This is our first time cooking beef tendon as well. We had to guess how long it takes to pressure cook beef tendon as there wasn't a whole lot on the net about how to cook just beef tendon. We'll see how it goes. And we'll see how well they go with the Mouton Cadet, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, the 2002 Bordeaux we opened yesterday.

on the menu

Chili
iron skillet corn bread

I had a craving for chili and not the canned variety. It's relatively easy to make, chop, chop, dump, saute, can, can, can, dump, simmer. Nice part too about chili is that you don't have to be super dainty about whether the ingredients are chopped to a similar consistency. Though once I did it with chunks of sirloin slightly charred.

Maybe I'll eat the chili Tennessee style with corn chips at the bottom of the bowl.

Now that I'm avoiding Bisquick and the boxed cake mixes, I'm finding that breads and cakes are the same basic ingredients over and over with slight variation: flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, oil/butter, and milk/buttermilk. I also figured out that I can just buy the small pint sized twist top milk containers instead of the full quart which we never finish drinking.

From the time I got back to the store, it took about 45 minutes to get everything to the simmer and bake point. Not bad. Pretty quick.

on the menu

On the menu tonight: chicken salad

Defrosted 3 chicken breasts, boiled it with the juice from the canned pineapples, chopped up celery and grated carrots and pineapple. I put a touch more mayonnaise than i would have liked, but I can mix in some pasta later to balance it out.

I took the leftover water and pineapple juice and boiled a bunch of bowtie pasta and made a slightly sweet soup that was balanced nicely by a few spoons of patis.

I tried making some apricot cobbler the other day, and thought I could get away with not adding sugar to the apricots which are tree ripened from my parent's backyard tree, but alas, it needs sugar though the biscuit topping turned out well. It could use some whip cream. It kind of tasted like apricot rollup. Hmmm...I'll have to try that again.

Saturday there will be quite a bit on the menu, including the hubby's tritip bbq and a chance for me to learn how to make puto (the bisquick way).

on the menu

Every 7 weeks I get a new wire for my braces to shift my teeth some more. Each time they put in a larger grade (ie thicker, springier) wire. It's no wonder people with braces lose weight, every 7 weeks you're back on a liquid diet as your teeth are sore from the shifting. You know it's bad when McDonald's is too "hard".

Thus on the tonight's menu is breakfast for dinner:
blueberry pancakes (first time I made them from scratch and not from bisquick)
scrambled eggs

The pancakes turned out really well and surprisingly easy to make from scratch. Why did I ever need bisquick? I mean how much time does it really save me? In reality, not much considering I can use the same ingredients to cook more than just pancakes and biscuits. D'uh!

Scrambled eggs, I didn't quite get the proper technique of pushing and lifting in the pan and they became slightly overcooked. I'm striving for that nice creamy but not chewy scrambled eggs, but perhaps I need half and half according to one cookbook.

I've been quite inspired from the successful strawberry cheesecake from a few weeks ago and now that the seal has been broken on the mixer, I feel like I should bring it out more often. Nice part is that decent baking pans don't cost an arm and a leg like decent pots and pans. My only issue is counter space.

Next up, I'd like to try my hand at making bread without the breadmaker appliance. Seems ambitious, but we'll see.

saturday at home

The hubby went north on his trek to find the rest of his mother's family tree. He found a relative who has now traced the family back to the 1850s. They certainly weren't a family of sharecroppers.

In the meantime, I stayed at home to do homey stuff since it feels like I haven't been home the entire week. I was thinking about going to a martial arts gathering this morning in downtown Oakland, but instead I crushed graham crackers for my strawberry cheesecake crust. I had seen a recipe for the ultimate cheesecake on the Food Network once and since then, I had been wanting to make cheesecake. I even picked up a spring form pan earlier in the week and finally opened our cuisinart mixer we received as a wedding gift.

I don't like cooking as much as I like baking. And it was a rather simple recipe. Instead of the blueberry topping, I decided to make a strawberry sauce from the berries we had picked up from the market last week. That was alot simpler than I had thought it would be and it looks like a basic recipe I could use with any berry.

It was fun finally unpacking the mixer. And I thumbed through the enclosed recipe book for the next thing to make.

While waiting for the cheesecake to cook, I rearranged a closet, folded some clothes and went through a few more boxes. I know I did alot, a part of me feels like I barely made a dent, but that may be because I wasn't touching the piles I had been avoiding. sigh. Then again, I ended up doing alot of stuff around it. OK, I'm going to have to suck it up and set the timer. In the meantime, the strawberry sauce is cooling, and I wait for the neighbors to finish drying their clothes and think about how nice it would be to live in a single family home with a garden and kitchen counter space.

on the menu: surf & turf

with 5 days to go we have to eat out our fridge to consume all the perishables before leaving, but if not, there are relatives who have been given full "shopping" range in our fridge.

on the menu:
red-wine marinade beef, medium rare
garlic prawns
pasta
salad
asparagus sauteed
bread and italian cheeses

still thinking about which bottle to open as that may not be finished this week (where's the chatelaine, when you need someone to drink your wine?)

indian food for chinese new year

-Chicken Tikka Masala
-Naan
-saag (from The Dinner Source)
-Olive bread
-white rice with cashews, raisins, and spice (from The Dinner Source)

Dessert
-Pomelo
-Banana Nut Bread (Arizmendi Bread Co-op)

Other items from the Farmer's Market this morning.

on the special menu tonight

I was going to try to see if I could score a take out dinner from Gregoire Restaurant, but I thought of that too late and had to figure something else out. (In the end, they did have extra dinners, but I was well into plan b).

Plan B came from the SF Chronicle tips on a last minute Valentine's meal. So I headed over to Safeway to prepare this meal:

Appetizer-
Bread, smoke salmon and cheese
Spaghetti and prawns (which is actually a leftover from last night)
Entree-
Cumin Lamb Chops with Yams and Tomato-Ginger Chutney
Sauteed spinach with garlic
Dessert-
Mini-Dove bar ice cream bites of various flavors

And I'll probably open a bottle of wine, though don't know which yet.

I was hoping to make it a little bit more romantic and set up a table in the middle of the living room (as an incentive for me to clean up the living room), but my lack of planning left me without a table large enough for the both of us, even though I cleaned the living room anyway or at least tidied it up.

For decor on the table, I'll use our candles from our wedding and an orchid that's still in bloom since November.

OK, the hubby just called and he's coming home early of course! Got to get dinner ready!

On the menu

leftovers
shrimp and bok choy stir fry with ginger and garlic

on the menu

Last year I was busy on Monday and Wednesday evenings learning French. Now that those classes are done, the hubby is occupied on those evenings. So, we're back to Friday evenings as our time together night. In the meantime, I'm busting open the America's Test Kitchen cookbook and hoping to put something on the menu every other week or so.

I like cooking deserts (I would love to learn how to bake, but will stick with the mini-bread maker for now), and can do a decent vegetable stir fry with oyster sauce. Once a year we usually try to learn a new Filipino dish which have included attempts at pancit, lumpia, paella.

The hubby tends to cook the Filipino dishes as he grew up learning the palate of a proper peanut butter balance in karekare. I know how to cook Ninong Abe's Filipino desert with the flan topping and my aunt's mochiko and a friend's beloved leche flan recipe. I still have to learn my grandmother's biko. I once assisted Ninong Abe in a pot of lechon paksiw that lacked the key ingredient of lechon sauce which could be found no where in the house and I began to understand the art of creating that subtle balance of sour and sweet.

On today's menu:

Roasted Cornish Game Hens
Roasted baby yellow potatoes
Sauteed asparagus

On Wednesday (dessert):
Apple Pie (still not up to actually learning to make the pie dough, so I just use the store bought roll out kind)
homemade whipped cream

In regards to the clean up afterwards, baking soda paste with water does create a great solvent for degreasing an oven. Ok, so it will take more time to get to the subsequent layers of oil and blackened grease but it was nice to not feel woozy from inhaling stuff in a confined space. The only odors I want coming out of the kitchen are yummy delicious ones.