Pump Up Your Kicks

Delightful pig out snack!

I miss listening to the radio. I am a part of the generation who grew up listening to cassette tapes, on-air music countdowns and pages of song lyrics with guitar chords on them.
The best part back then was calling the radio station, make a request and when the DJ preludes a few words with your name then play the song?! How cool was that! My classmates would then talk about it the next day.

I thought of DJs then as local celebrities, someone ought to be amazed at. Now local celebrities are a dime a dozen with the help of a little click here, a little share there and a few hashtags and tons of comments, nasty or good.

Of course, we all know that music is universal (one of five), so who knows? There may be one other person in the world who loves the exact same music as you and I. There might even be one other person in the world who loves to listen to the radio as much as I did.

Now, I use my computer to listen to an eclectic collection of singles and albums I’ve downloaded. My mix would sometimes range from, The Lions Sleeps Tonight (The Tokens), 19 (Suga Shikao), Always on my Mind ( Willie Nelson), Pumped Up Kicks (Foster the People), A Movie Script Ending (Death Cab for Cutie), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) and a little bit of Park JiYoon, Lee Min-jung, M Signal, Joanna Wang and of course Tanya Chua’s Letting Go. When it comes to music, lyrics or words always came first before the melody or tune. Now, I no longer mind that much. Partly because the songs I’ve been collecting lately are either in Chinese, Korean or Japanese. Then I’d look for the translations ( I only understand a few words of Japanese , barely Korean and Chinese). It seems that my ears knows what my heart would love and I often end up falling inlove with the songs that my ears pick up.

There is a simple solution to this “I miss listening to the radio” thing, I could just turn the radio on,yes? So why am I NOT doing that? It’s the DJs. Of course there are still a number of exceptionally witty, convincingly articulate and seamlessly entertaining Disk Jockeys out there ( Magic 89.9 DJs back in the early 2000’s) but lately there’s too much tastelessness and crassiness and shallowness and more –ness. Bleh. So sickening.

I want something comforting and greasy and easy to make. Here’s a cupful of tater tots for my convenience.

I Am Song

I Am Song

I am cloaked in music, written in white pages
Your fingers dancing to the words and rhythm
A melody that fills the air that We both breath
Lyrics that fills a space in my head
Ah, the touch of your soul and whispers of your heart
All at once

It’s hopeless to explain
The magic your song made then
Soft, steady flow underway
Every time it holds my tongue
Lip twist in a smile, limbs quiver in delight
So I close my eyes, dance round and round
Until I fall asleep at night

I am in need of that music
That song we once sang
You’re holding someone else, singing a different tune
What’s left of me, just memories
Strung in a sheet with words on my lips
I’ve moved on and so have you
but that song remains for us two

It’s almost Christmas and I miss the feel of someone’s warmth by my side. Someone other that family. Perhaps friends, temporary overs and for discussion’s sake a paid prostitute will be interesting. Speaking of which, what sort of Christmas do you like?

Winter like? (no snow but close to chilly)
Winter (real snow and all)
Summer like (I’m thinking Australia)
or anything will do?

I’d prefer cool, chilly with projected rain showers here and there. I’m not really a fan of big Christmas events. I’m all for small gathering with really good food (mostly cooked by me, of course) and good company. Booze and merry making later that night is a possible option.

Hmm…this is not going anywhwere…As I write this I’m drowsy. Drowsy to the point where I’m almost feeling a headache in my temples and all I really want is sleep. I don’t feel like chatting with anyone and all I really want is lie down, close my eyes and off to dreamland I go.

However I’m working and I have to stay awake. So I amuse myself with pretty pictures, silly old love songs and a little typing and perhaps some eating.

Here’s an avocado and mango salad for you. The dressing is a basic vinaigrette. I just tossed a few ingredients together chilled them a while, tossed it with the dressing and bam!

Serendipity and I

Yesterday, as I told Jenny of http://www.jennysseredipity.com, I wasn’t in my best. I’m choosing not to delve into the details. It was just something that hurt, really hurt. I’m not a materialistic person, I’m rather practical. I’m also the type who’d find regret unnecessary once the path I choose doesn’t go my way. I take responsibility for whatever consequence it brings. Truthfully I feel no shame, pain or doubt within me about things like that. What hurts me however is when you take my passion for granted. A passion I often regard as so much a part of me that if I lose it, it equates to losing my limbs or sight. I never asked that person to appreciate me or my love for cooking. I never even asked to be understood. I’ve stopped hoping and expecting that person of anything at all. When you stop expecting, you’re hurt less and less. But you still hurt. And I was. I am. I may not be afraid of pain but I still feel it. Yesterday I can’t even cry even if I wanted to.

So I turned to ate Jenny. At first I just wanted to browse her site and perhaps drop a few words. She replied and my spirits were lifted. Yes, we don’t personally know each other and her respose might sound generic. It didn’t matter. I think she meant it and I was glad.

As a token of thanks. Here’s a really simple pasta dish (that I love so much) that I’d like to present as a token of gratitude. It would have been better if I made this for you in person but well…

For the recipe, click here.

Apple Pie

At times when I want to make something and it’s something that I’m doing for the very first time. I always trust my instinct. It’s not luck or anything else that almost always I make it work and no disaster comes from it. I’ve been cooking for years now and I’ve learned a lot from numerous mistakes, misses and hits to know when I can make it work or not. With instinct alone however, it won’t work that’s why it’s imperative that I follow procedure explicitly.
This apple pie recipe is a combination of a flaky pie dough recipe and an old fashioned filling.
The flaky pie dough recipe is from Aileen Anastacio of Goodies n’ Sweets (Manila, Philippines) from her Yummy magazine column May 2009. The filling is from Connie Veneracion of http://www.casaveneracion.com. Connie’s food blog is still my number one most trusted Filipino based blog. She makes almost everything and as much as she can makes international dishes using easier to find ingredients (if at all possible) in our local market.

Here’s my thanksgiving tribute to my friends in the United States.

Apple Pie

For the filling:
12-18 cooking apples, peeled and cores removed (I used Fuji apples)
juice of half a lemon
3/4 c. of sugar
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 c. of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of ground nutmeg
1/3 c. of butter, cut into small pieces

Flaky Pie Dough (makes one 9”dough)
2 ½ cup all purpose-flour
1 tsp salt
6 ounces cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 ounces shortening ( I used Crisco), cubed
¼ to ½ cup ice water

1. Make the pie dough: In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, and stir to mix. Scatter butter and shortening pieces over the flour mixture. Using a fork or pastry blender, toss flour to coat, then cut in the butter and shortening until the mixture forms large, coarse crumbs. Drizzle ice water over the mixture and toss with the pastry blender until dough is evenly moist and begins to come together in a mass but does not form into a ball. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for an hour overnight. Thaw the dough for an hour before baking. Once thawed roll out the dough into a circle (this recipe makes one 9 inch open faced pie but since I used a smaller baking tin I have extra to cover the pie) then place into a baking dish. ( I used a tin since I have no oven safe baking dish.)

2. Pre-heat oven to 177°C (or 350°F). (conversions guided by http://www.joyofbaking.com)
3. Make the filling. Cut the apples into cubes (if you can try to cut it into one inch cubes). Toss with the lemon juice. Toss. Add the sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and toss to blend well. Feel free to use your hands as I did. I was trying to accidentally bruise (even if it is unnecessary) the apples.
4. Pour filling into the prepared bottom crust. Sprinkle the cubed cold butter all over the filling. Don’t worry about the filling if it overflows. It will shrink and soften as it cooks. Cover with the remaining crust, seal the edges. Prick the top crust with a knife for the steam to escape as you bake.
5. In a small bowl, beat an egg and about 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush this all over the top crust including the edges. (I skipped this part because I forgot so a fair warning to you, do this to achieve a glossy and golden top crust.)
6. Bake for an hour to one hour and a half or until top crust is golden. Cool then chill for several hours before serving. You may opt to serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or as it is.

A tomato salsa excuse.

If it were all left in hands I’d rather have a very short and splendid affair rather than a long enduring one. I do believe in true love. I know it should include all if not every emotion known there is to humankind. I however, am also a very romantic person. Maritoni Fernandez’s line in A Beautiful Affair ( A television series produced by ABS-CBN) said, “Romance is easy, love isn’t.” I can’t remember how she phrased it exactly but that’s the closest I could get. For me however, I think romance requires more work than love, because for me love should come naturally.

Without doubt I am lead to this article by my eternal love for hellos and goodbyes and my never ending penchant for ballads. Nonetheless, my heart and mind knows the distinction between reality and fantasy. Having a little bit of both is not a bad idea, I know for sure. In retrospect, all of this probably started when I watched El Dorado. Yes, EL Dorado the Dreamworks produced movie(I really think the movie is highly applicable for my premise.).

Hmm, so what do I really want? I keep racking my brain for sweet short memories but I can’t really find one that stands out. How about that boy I met one night in a strange place with strangers (whom I was forced to spend the night with partying and having fun). He was cool and the first ever person who said I intimidate him and his card tricks won’t work on me. I really wanted to try those card tricks (the Cyril type of card tricks), darn! We left the place at dawn (it happened to be his house). Morning came and I forgot all about him. I’m pretty sure these things I’m writing now won’t sync with what I felt that time. All those tequila shots and cold burgers aren’t fit for something or anything romantic in my book.

Now, is perhaps the best time to tell you that what I’m posting today isn’t a recipe post. The thing is I forgot where I wrote this particular dish’s recipe and I didn’t want to hazard a guess. All I remember is that this is inspired by a Mexican pop star and that it wasn’t made with all-Mexican ingredients. Let’s see… I did use very ripe garden tomatoes, garlic and some onion with small red chilies and canola (or was it vegetable?) oil. The chicken was poached and I simply added carrots, cabbage and steamed beans.

Here’s two of what I’ve created with that forgotten recipe. We did enjoy eating this too bad I can’t share the recipe.

Penne and Cheese on a stovetop

Stovetop Penne and Cheese

Ingredients:
240 gram penne
4 tablespoons unsaltedbutter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup flour
1 – 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups, or so, shredded cheddar cheese
pinch of nutmeg
1/8-1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder or cayenne pepper, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:
Boil the noodles according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the onions and sauté until soft and translucent.

Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly until lightly golden and smooth.

Reduce the heat to low and stir in the chicken stock, starting with 1 cup, letting the sauce simmer and thicken. If it gets too thick, stir in a bit more chicken stock, but remember you are about to add some cream too.

Stir in the cream, spices and cheese until melted and smooth. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Toss with the noodles and serve immediately!

Oh yeah, its my birthday!

Yesterday, since it was my birthday, I’ve prepared something special. Since 3 or 4 years ago I started to have a theme and plan a menu accordingly every time any event comes up. Last year it was Southern comfort food, this time it’s Thai! It’s a family affair plus one very special guest Shem who gave me three dark pink roses) so the meal had to be fast easy and simple. For dinner, I made moo grob (crispy pork), yellow curry with turkey, thai inspired mango and coconut cream tart and pomelo and papaya salad.

The tart and salad was something I made for the first time but it was a success, they loved it, so I didn’t mind the blackout as much.

We have been experiencing rotating blackouts since a couple of weeks ago and I had to reschedule my baking time (I’m using an electric oven) and it caused a few bumps and misses. No, my tart and chocolate cake (an extra treat!) was baked perfectly. I just had to work twice as fast because there were three (yes, three) 1 hour each blackout yesterday, at random. I thank God for making sure my tart and cake are okay. Really it was the only thing I was worried about.

Here’s a few of what I prepared yesterday, with notes and observations.

Pomelo and Papaya Salad

You will need:

The salad:
1 pomelo (approx. 1 kilo)**
1 papaya, small (green or in the first stage of ripening)
A bunch of Thai basil
1 cup raw peanuts
1 thumb ginger, sliced thinly
1 red onion, sliced thinly

The Dressing:***
(adapted from http://www.casaveneracion.com Crispy catfish and green mango salad (yum pla dook foo))

For the dressing:
3 – 6 tbsps of fish sauce
6 – 8 tbsps of rice vinegar
4 – 6 tbsps of brown sugar
2 green chilis, finely sliced
1 red chili, finely sliced

Make the dressing ahead of time to allow the flavours to blend well.
Carefully peel the pomelo using a small serated knife, making sure you don’t slice the pink flesh. Then once only the white part remains, use the pointed end of the knife to slowly prick or pull the white part out and peel by hand. This will ensure that you do not accidentally cut or slice the flesh. Pull each segment by hand, and then carefully peel the remaining white part. Divide each segment into bite size pieces.

Peel the papaya and wash, scrubbing gently. Cut in half then cut each half into half again. Then Using a peeler or a young coconut scraper, scrape papaya into strips and set aside in a separate bowl. Sprinkle a liberal amount of salt and gently squeeze the papaya strips into the salt to remove the bitter juice and the sticky bits off. Wash and set aside.

Roast a cup of peanuts. Dump the nuts in a towel, cover the nuts with the towel completely and rub to peel the nuts. Select the peeled nuts and crack.

Assemble the salad. Arrange the pomelo and papaya in a bowl. Add the ginger and onion. Pour the dressing. Toss gently. Add the Thai basil and nuts just before serving.

**I’ll be boasting. The pomelo we harvest in our farm is magnificent. It’s big, plump, juicy and sweet. If it were summer I could also have used the mangoes harvested from the same farm but well, the ones I bought, though not golden enough was sweet and firm. With the salad I combined yum Pla dook foo (crispy catfish and green mango salad), Yum som-o (shrimp and pomelo salad), and Som Tam (green papaya salad).
***This is from my ever trusted site http://www.casaveneracion.com. Her recipes never fails, ever.

Mango and Coconut Cream Tart

You will need:

Pastry Crust Ingredients:
 1 and 1/2 cups flour
 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
 1/2 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
 1/4 cup sugar (I used light brown sugar)
 1 large egg, lightly beaten
Coconut Cream Ingredients:
 1 and 1/4 cups coconut milk (first extraction)
 3 large egg yolks
 1/4 cup sugar ( I used light brown sugar)
 2 Tablespoons flour
 2 Tablespoons cornstarch

What to do:

To Make Pastry Crust:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.
2. Add the beaten egg and mix until just incorporated.
3. Add the flour and salt and mix until a soft dough is formed.
4. Form the dough into a ball and place in saran wrap in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Once chilled, press the dough into your tart pan and place in freezer for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Use a fork to prick the bottom of the crust and place into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.

To Make Coconut Cream:**
7. Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together in a heat-proof bowl.
8. Then add the flour and cornstarch, whisk again and blend well.
9. In a separate saucepan, heat the coconut milk to a gentle boil. Its ready when the sides start to bubble gently. Remove from heat and pour slowly into the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly to ensure even mixing and the yolks are heated evenly as well.
10. Pour everything back into the saucepan. Heat again over low heat until it reaches a gentle boil. Continue stirring for until it becomes thick, it took me probably 2-4 minutes (less if you see that it has reached a thick consistency). Remove from heat and cool completely.

To Assemble Tart:***
11. Spread the cooled coconut cream into the pastry crust.
12. Slice each side of a ripe mango. With the flat side down, make thin ( or in my case slightly thicker) diagonal slices.
13. Arrange the thin mango slices on top of the coconut cream tart in a circular pattern, working from the outside in. I chilled the tart prior to serving but you may opt to enjoy it immediately.

Recipe from Rachel Cooks Thai
**I didn’t like how it smelled like well- cooked coconut cream but it tastes good. Perhaps I’ll find something, like vanilla maybe to add in it next time.
***The tart recipe was divine!

Nigella’s Devil’s Food Cake

Recipe by Nigella Lawson (no alterations were made to her recipe; please go to TLC’s website for details.)

You Will Need:

For the cake
• 50 gram(s) cocoa powder (sifted)
• 100 gram(s) dark muscovado sugar
• 250 ml water (boiling)
• 125 gram(s) unsalted butter (soft – (plus some for greasing))
• 150 gram(s) caster sugar
• 225 gram(s) plain flour
• ½ teaspoon(s) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
• 2 medium eggs
For the frosting
• 125 ml water
• 30 gram(s) dark muscovado sugar
• 175 gram(s) unsalted butter (cubed)
• 300 gram(s) dark chocolate (finely chopped)

What To Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
2. Line the bottoms of both sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.
3. Put the cocoa and 100g dark muscovado sugar into a bowl with a bit of space to spare, and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix, then set aside.
4. Cream the butter and caster sugar together, beating well until pale and fluffy using a hand mixer or freestanding mixer, if you have that.
5. Stir the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together in another bowl, and set aside for a moment.
6. Dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar – mixing all the while – then drop in 1 egg, quickly followed by a scoopful of flour mixture, then the second egg.
7. Keep mixing and incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cake, then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture, scraping its bowl well with a spatula.
8. Divide this batter between the 2 prepared tins and put in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
9. Take the tins out and leave them on a wire rack for 5–10 minutes, before turning the cakes out to cool.
10. As soon as the cakes are in the oven, get started on your frosting: put the water, 30g muscovado sugar and 175g butter in a pan over a low heat to melt.
11. When this mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with heat, then leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.
12. Leave for about 1 hour, whisking now and again.
13. Set one of the cooled cakes, with its top side down, on a cake stand or plate, and spread with about a third of the frosting, then top that with the second cake, regular way up, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides, swirling away with your spatula.

I had a bit of hard time making this because I had to convert her measurements to cups and tablespoons otherwise it was all good. I didn’t have to chop the dark chocolate for the frosting because I was able to find chocolate chips in the supermarket and when I watched the episode where she featured this it was one of her suggestions to makes our lives easier.

So anyways, I didn’t find the time to take a selca (hehe, taken from Korean entertainment’s pop culture reference to “self-capture”). To be honest, the day itself wasn’t anything at all. Personally there was nothing eventful about it. Really. All I was concerned about was the food I’m making. All I wanted was to make sure they all turned out all right. That’s it. I’m satisfied.

Oh yeah, before I forget I didn’t buy myself an electric sewing machine as planned, the portable kind. I was able to get myself the latest Lenovo (in our tech market anyways) Idealpad, a Samsung galaxy pocket and an oven but let the sewing machine go. I was contemplating but as soon as I touched the sewing machine for the second time I knew there would be another, even better, sewing machine somewhere so I went ahead and bought a phone. After (more or less) five years of being cellphone-free I bought one solely because of instagram. Yes, instagram. I’ve installed it in the phone (including those damned angry birds of course) but I have yet to sign up. About the netbook, you see I thought of buying the thin, black Asus that was available in the store couple of weeks back but when I came back and saw the Lenovo S110, I was like, “But this is so pretty!” I gave in, eventually.

That’s it for now, try the recipes, enjoy and thanks for all those who became a part of this blog!