Arrozcaldo ( Rice Porridge) and Tokwa ( Bean Curd)

I was craving for Arrozcaldo and Tokwa since last week but I can't find any glutinous rice around the area and the tokwa can only be found in the Filipino stores which is quite far from my place. Around 15 minutes drive ,hehehe! yeah right, for me it is far coz I am a lazy driver.

At last, hubby took time off from work to do some business at the bank near the Filipino stores or we calls it Filipino souq (store) in the Middle East. I asked him to dropped me off and my little boy at the store and just get back to us when he is done.

I got me tokwa for QR 12 only ( $3 ) and some grocery stuff. Then hubby came back to pick us up .Guess what I forgot when we got home? Glutinous rice... Well, what else do I have in the fridge to get a taste of that tokwa right away. I have bean sprout, carrots and green pepper. Okay, that will work. Just need some sauteing and frying to do. Here is my sauteed vegetables with tokwa.

The following day, hubby and me went to his favorite store, Megamart. I looked for some glutinous rice but to no avail so I got me something instead. A pack of instant Arrozcaldo. It is good enough for me and better than nothing. I just added a cup of cooked rice and let it boil, then put some flaked left over chicken breast and hard boil egg. I fried some bean curd too, cut into bite size then poured in the vinegar sauce, a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, a little sugar and chopped pepper.And here goes my finish product .

And my dessert was Del Monte Pineapple fresh from the Philippines.

Food I Choose First on a Buffet

Whenever I go on a buffet,  I always look for the soup first then get me another plate of vegetables and sea food. If it is a Filipino buffet the first thing I grab is the rice, laing (if there is any), dinuguan, binagoongan, ampalaya con carne, buttered crab and of course the ever popular kare kare. I usually ignores the pancit (noodles) and spaghetti because we usually have it in almost all the Filipino gatherings we are attending to.

And for other restaurant, I always get food that I don't usually eat or cook at home in small portions so I can taste all the food they are serving as much as I can. And then get me another plate or more for the food that suits my taste.

Most Expensive Lunch

What was my expensive food? I am a cheap person so I consider every food that I eat outside as expensive.

The most expensive lunch for me is every time we go to US and eat at one of the restaurants there with our 5 children.

And one of the most expensive breakfast I had was a french toast, 2 pcs of turkey bacon, one half grillled tomato, half a cup of potato wedges and a glass of capucchino from the Italian Resto at a mall 2 weeks ago at a price of QR 50 ( 600 pesos).

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

This is one of my families fave food. My hubby likes the sweet and sour taste of the sauce and pineapple chunks but really hates mushroom in his meal. My eldest son, on the other hand is not much of a veggie eater. So in order for them to eat these healthy vegetables, I thought of something to trick them by mixing chopped veggies on the hamburger meat or fish flakes. By doing this, they can eat their not so favorite vegetables without them knowing it.

Ingredients:
500 grms ground beef
1 medium size potato –cut into small sizes
1/2 small carrot –cut into small sizes
1 stalk green onion – cut
1/4 cup mushroom
2-3 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Throw all the vegetables in the food processor ( potato, carrots, green onion, garlic, mushroom). I have the small processor that I have been  using for a long time now and is really  a great help for me. It saves me time  from chopping all the vegetables very finely.

In a big bowl, place the burger meat. Pour in the chopped veggies. Mix well. Add 1 tsp salt  and pepper or according to  taste.

 Form into balls and bake at 350 degrees F  for 30 minutes.

Sauce:

• 1 small can pineapple chunks 
• 6 tbsp white sugar 
• 1 tbsp tomato catsup 
• 1 onion –quartered 
• 2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in 2 tbsp water 
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 1tbsp soy sauce 
• Pineapple chunks syrup 
• 1 bell pepper cut into strips 
• 1 small carrot cut into strips 

Stir fry bell pepper and carrots. Set Aside. Mix  water, catsup, pineapple syrup, soy sauce, salt pepper. Cook until boil. Thicken with corn starch.Add carrots ,bell pepper and pineapple chunks. Remove from  heat. Pour sauce on top of the meatballs. Serve with rice or mashed potato.

Chicken Tinola

My godson Caleb and his parents visited us last week. My kids were really very happy to have visitors in our house. They brought Tinola to cook for dinner and I cooked my mothers adobo recipe. Mushroom and rice wash are all new to me for a tinola and the taste was really good. Thank you Van for sharing with me your recipe.

Chicken Tinola

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken - cut into serving pieces 
• Green papaya(medium size) 
• 3 pcs Shiitake Mushroom 
• 1 Bell pepper 
• 1 Jalapeno pepper/siling pang sigang 
• 1onion(medium)-julianne cut 
• 4 cloves Garlic- minced 
• 1 small piece ginger- julianne cut 
• 5 cups rice wash/hugas bigas 
• 2 tbsp fish sauce 
• Salt pepper to taste 
• 2 tbsp cooking oil 

Direction:

1. Heat oil. Saute garlic, onion and ginger. 
2. Add chicken, stir fry for about 10 minutes. 
3. Add patis sauce Add rice wash. Cover and let it boil. 
4. Season with pepper and salt according to your taste. 
5. Add papaya and mushrooms. 
6. Simmer until the papaya is done. 
7. Add the bell pepper and jalapeno before turning off the fire. 
8. Serve hot with rice.

Birthday Cake

My kids and me was invited to a birthday party last thursday at Mc Donald. It was a 7th birthday of my friends daughter. The celebrant looks gorgeous on her beautiful dress. The children enjoyed so much at the party and all of them wanted to win the games.

What amazed me so much was the birthday cake. I know that it is not unusual now a days but it still caught my attention. I was wondering how did the cake maker copied a celebrants pictures using icing on top of the cake. The picture was as clear and colorful as the original photo.

I was really wondering how was it done. So I searched the internet and I found out how. It is like printing a copy out of the scanner using gadgets especially use for cake making only. And these are the Edible Printing Systems, Edible Ink, Cleaners and Icing Sheets.

Caramel Popcorn

This morning my son made popcorn for snack while watching TV. He went into the kitchen .Pulled out a pack of popcorn in the cupboard. Read the instructions written on it .It says 2-5 minutes. Put the pop corn pack into the microwave .Set it to 5 minutes. Ran back in front of the TV .Then checked the popcorn after 3 minutes.The result was this.

Burnt Pop corn

He was so scared trying to hide it from me but not the smoke all over the kitchen. It is his first time to make his own pop corn so I got another pack and showed him how to do it right.

Left over popcorn, what do you do with it? Try to make caramel coated popcorn out of it. Your kid will surely like it and saves you a lot of money than buying a packed.


Caramel Popcorn

1/3 cup white sugar
2 tbsp butter


Melt butter in a big pan. Stir in white sugar.  Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly until the sugar melt well with the butter  and you get a smooth consistency and golden yellow color. Turn off fire. Pour popcorn over the caramel syrup. You can add peanuts and raisins too if you want. Continue mixing until the popcorn  is coated with caramel and started to harden.

Beef Bulgogi

This morning, my two sons and I went to the mall. It was my eldest son's one week Spring break and he asked me if we could go out. We left home at around 8:30 am and had breakfast at Mac Donald first before going to the shopping mall. As usual my son's last stop was at his favorite store- Virgin Megastore. While waiting for him I decided to stop by a coffee shop and order me some French toast and cappuccino. We went back home to meet a friend at 12 noon.

Hubby came home from work at 1:30 pm and I cooked him an easy to prepare lunch. He had mashed potato, baked beans, sliced tomato and beef bulgogi. He said that the beef is pretty good. I told him I cooked it with love that is why it tasted good.

Stir-Fry Beef Bulgogi 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo beef (tender loin or any cut beef will do) sliced in thin strips 
• 2 tbsp sesame oil 
• 2 tbsp sugar 
• 3 tbsp soy sauce 
• 5 cloves garlic minced 
• 1/4 cup green onions chopped 
• 1/2 cup carrots, julianne cut (optional) 
• 1 onion sliced (optional) 

Direction:

1. Mix all the ingredients together except carrot and the green onion. 
2. Marinate for 2 hours but since I am in a hurry, I did not have the time to do it. 
3. Stir-fry the beef mixture,cook until its done. 
4. Add carrots and cook for another 2 minutes or until it is half cooked. 
5. Remove from heat. Add the green onions and serve hot.