Warm Soup Helps

I had quite a bit of drama in the kitchen this afternoon. My husband was there too preparing for pork ribs to cook. I am sick, taking care of the baby at the same time and I was starving. So I went to the kitchen trying to see what I can prepare for warm soup.

I felt like having real freshly cooked warm soup so I asked some of pork ribs and boil it. While preparing for ingredients, I told my husband, "times like these I wished I had my mother over here". He was kind of surprised by that statement for he knows I don't get along well with my mother. I explained that if she was here, I don't have to do the cooking myself when I'm sick because she can cook what I want to eat.

Anyway, that soup I cooked turned out pretty yummy. I satisfied my craving, even my big girl loved it and ate some veggies that was in the soup. Warm soup truly helps when you feel cold or when you're feeling ill. It made me feel a bit better.

Baked Chicken Drumsticks And Bibingka

I found a healthy way to cook chicken. I always wanted to eat fried chicken but to fry them on stove top makes a lot of mess that is why I rarely do that. Besides, eating fried chicken often is unhealthy. So last night I searched on the internet an alternative to frying chickens, baking them instead! Photo below is my baked chicken drumsticks that turned out to be yummy. My husband and daughter both loved it weeww! I followed a recipe from cook.com. 

..... here's some of freshly baked bibingka that I had for dinner to go with my chicken drumstick. They may not as yummy looking but I can assure you they sure taste really good and bouncy! 

Something Fishy

I have had these dishes few days ago. As soon as it cooked, I posted these photos in my food album on Facebook and got a lot of people drool over these delicious fish recipes I have. These are perfect in cold weather especially the soup. Foods like these are what many of my friends crave for. 

I consider myself lucky to have found this kind of fish at the Asian market. This is something I missed a lot because of its taste and texture of the flesh when it is cooked. 

........my paksiw or inun-unan in our dialect cooked in vinegar, olive oil with eggplant, onions, garlic, finger peppers, ginger and a dash of salt.

Been In The Freezer For Too Long!

I've had this danggit fish in our freezer for two months. I didn't know I had them until yesterday. I thought they were a different kind but when I cooked them this morning, I found out they were actually danggit. Not bad, because I love danggit very much. What disappoints me is that knowing that they've been in our freezer for too long they are no longer good to eat.

When it was cooking the smell of the fish was just awful (good thing it was beautiful outside, cooler temperature so I got to open windows and front door) to let the smell out. No matter how much spices and garlic I put in the fish still the smell was there and ewwww we ate it anyway. I still got some more in the pot left for me to eat in the next meals. No choice but to finish them, I hate throwing away foods that's why.

Good Food

One way of pleasing myself is eating good food. Good food to me means cooking my own food (home cooked meals) at home. This way I know what goes into my food and ensure it is clean. I don't like the idea someone else's hands messing with my food so I usually do my own cooking.

With that said, this is what I had this morning and dinner. A good pork chop, grits and fish soup made by yours truly. I am happy knowing that I can eat whatever I wanna eat (well, except for fresh seafoods) in this area for the Asian market is just 15 minutes drive away. Trust me when I say this porkchops I cooked this morning is so insanely delicious that makes you wanna ask for more. My technique is to leave some chops for my next meal, because they're too tasty to be eaten all at once.

I'm Always Hungry

"You're always hungry", that's what my husband said. While it's very true, I have my reasons why I am always hungry. I am eating for two, haller?? When I browse photos of people in my Facebook lists, I can't help but drool over their food posted in their albums. When I feel like cooking, I cook some but to improvise its taste, I refer to my favorite cooking website which is PanlasangPinoy to achieve the taste I want.

Like this adobo and and fish cooked in vinegar in the pictures, I know I've been cooking these dishes for years but then I realized that I can do better with my adobo and inun-unan so I opened PP site to see how he does it. I followed his instructions and guess what? I achieved that ever delicious taste of adobong manok and inun-unan.

My First Try... Not Bad!

I take pride in my cooking especially if it's my first time to cook or prepare certain dishes or desserts like this one. It's a leche flan dessert made with eggyolks, condensed milk and melted sugar.

I've never done this before but then I literally dreamed of it, so one morning I woke up... I decided that I will just go ahead and make some to please myself. It was rather a success experiment. I will just adjust the milk and the sugar next time though because it's a little bit too sweet for me.

Kudos to PanlasangPinoy.com for I could have not done it without it's step by step video that he provided on his site.

I Can Follow A Recipe

A few times I have tried cooking for special dishes following a recipe and I shall say I can definitely do it as long as there are proper measurements or list of all ingredients needed for a certain dish to be so tasting great. I usually cook Filipino foods at home but I seldom use a recipe, depends on the mood or the kind of dish I long to eat. I meant to share this delicious Chicken Afritada recipe to my readers days ago but I got pretty busy outside.

Here is a photo of my own cooking that I can proudly say "lamian gid". I followed the recipe that Panlasang Pinoy has provided. There is a step by step video of how the dish is done so there is no reason you wouldn't get the right and exact taste of his afritada. Happy cooking everyone!

My Lunch

I can't ask for a better and perfect lunch than this sauteed long yard beans with shrimp and pork slices. I got the taste so perfectly right,  trust me "makapangiyod kas kalami"! I had a big bowl of rice and this delicious beans right there that I find it hard to breathe afterwards.  Not only that, take note I also cooked some shrimp paste with pork which is shown below...

..shrimp fry with tomato, onion and pork! oh la la la!

Chopsuey, Yummy!

I say I am no expert when it comes to cooking nor do I have culinary skills but at least when I crave for something I am able to satisfy my craving. I usually cook my own foods at home. I love veggies a lot. I do experiment throwing in some veggies into a frying pan and I am not afraid whether the food comes out good or not. If it the result is good then I am very happy, if not then what can I do? I hate tossing out foods so whether I like it or not, I must eat the bad food that I make. Anyway, it is part of my learning and it is one way of cooking food to perfection. 

One of the many dishes that I like is this chopsuey. Proudly say it tastes so delicious cooked in our own kitchen stove.  When I crave for something, I try to cook it right away to please my hungry stomach. 

........color chopsuey although it doesn't contain all the ingredients that a chopsuey should have but at least I got all the basic ingredients for me to call it YUMMYLICIOUS!

The Best Afternoon Snack

When I think of something yummy, one of the many things that come in my mind is this deliciously cooked very warm "binignit" complete with all the ingredients that make it more drooling. One boring afternoon, I laid down in bed and it suddenly popped in my mind and so I got up went to the market, bought the ingredients for "binignit" and cooked a pot of it. I plan of making this snack before I leave for Texas.

.......... just looking at these photos, it make me want to eat it again right now..

Eel

Here is a photo of the eel I had last night in Buagsong, Cordova. So nice of my friend for bringing in that place where they cook live eel only for you so you get to eat it fresh and new. I have been thinking about eating eel and I was able to eat it yesterday at long last. Filipinos love eel including me. It is known to be an aphrodisiac for men. Eel can be cooked in four different ways, boil, grill, fried and what they call "larang" as shown in the picture above with all the spicies to make it taste even better.

Fresh Seafoods

I took my family out for dinner the next day I arrived home. I want them to celebrate our safe arrival with me by treating them out. This happens only once in a blue moon and I am glad I did. In our meal, I ordered one kilo each of these foods shown below. We had lapu-lapu fish soup, squid adobo and grilled danguet. It was yummy and what made the dinner so special is that my whole family was with me except my brother Wing2x who is not in the country and my other younger brother Anderson for he had a class at that time.

These are the types of foods I so long to eat. This is something I cannot get from the Asian Market in Texas. Thank God I was able to satisfy some of my cravings. I better be prepared for I got plenty of time to stay here and pig out.

Pochero

When I arrive to my native land I promise to myself that I am going to eat  anything I wished to eat. No matter what the effect may be, gaining ten pounds or more I don't care.  One of the many Filipino dishes I have been craving so much is this Pochero dish right here. I've had this during my last visit in the Philippines over a year ago. Looking at it makes me drool! I know exactly  where to go to have this mouth-watering pork marrow soup with bokchoy and corn on a cob...at a restaurant nearby across Save More mart.

Mouth-Watering Shrimp

In the morning I feel lazy that I don't want to stand and cook my own food. If I had a choice I wouldn't do that but I have a baby too. I have to get up anyway, do something in the kitchen in the hope of making different recipe each day so we won't get tired of eating the same food everyday. I cook whatever I can grab from the freezer.

One of the many quick fixes I can do is this fried in butter shrimp with seafood sauce, lemon, diced garlic and voila! We have a good breakfast best paired with brown rice. I am just one lucky momma for having a baby that can eat almost anything. She eats whatever I eat so that's a big bonus already. I don't have to cook two separate dishes each morning.

Noodle Soup With Chopped Celery

I made a lot of mouths drool over this deliciously cooked noodle soup here with chopped celery and pork meat. I have an exclusive food album on Facebook which I now have more than 30 photos of homemade foods I do in our own kitchen. The latest addition to it is the food above which every Filipina loves to slurp during cold Winter days. Admittedly, I liked it too. It was tasty and I paired it with brown rice and corned beef Philippine brand. I ate this noodle for two days in a row and I tell you what I never get tired of eating it.

Chinese Food

Being practical means cooking a lot of food at home. I do crave for Chinese food sometimes but we don't go out that often anymore. What I do is that I try to cook my own stir fry noodle at home, though it won't be as tasty as the ones in the buffet but it's good enough to satisfy my craving. I am just lucky to have found the dried noodles used to make a stir fry.

Easy Fix Salmon Fillet

This was my dinner last night. My husband grilled it for me but I was the one preparing it. For those who like salmon fillet and want to have a quick fix of the fish, here's what you do... sprinkle a bit of salt on to the fish, ground pepper and a green onion, lather with mayonnaise and put in tin foil. It should be done with in 7 or ten minutes. Yum!

Making Up With Him

I WOWed my husband when I cooked him this big meal for his breakfast. This was during his day off, I sort of make it up with him every weekend because I don't usually cook his dinner when he comes home from work. For some reason I am not used to that ever since I came here to join him.

Here in this photo are scrambled eggs (3 pieces) with tomatoes and onions, two pieces of bread (toasted) and two eggrolls. Guess he must be hungry that time for he ate it all!

Hungry But I don't Want To Cook

It is only ten o'clock in the morning and I am already starving. I am very hungry to the point of not wanting to cook anything for I am simply not in the mood to do anything in the kitchen right now. I got loads of things to do. But should I just let this hunger pass by?

I got a few things in my mind that I want to eat right now. They are Pinoy style corned beef and chicken noodle. They are a quick fix kind but that's all I can have for now although I really want to sip some really hot and good soup just like in the photos attached below. They were my dishes from the past days, I forgot posting them here. But anyway, let's drool over these yummy and tasty foodilicious here...

...... above is my shrimp sinigang..I used freshly squeezed lemon juice as an alternative to using a vinegar or tamarind soup base mix...and the second photo is my adobong pusit. For some people it is disgusting to look at...but not for Filipinos....for us it's the best!