Foot and Fire

Meatballs: Ground beef Garlic Salt and pepper Soysauce Oatmeal Combine in a bowl. Mix and form into balls. Deepfry, drain oil and set aside. Sauce: Olive oil Minced garlic Chopped onions Cubed tomatoes Cubed bellpeppers Ground beef Tomato sauce Cheese Water Saute first 5 ingredients in a wok. Form a ring and put the ground beef in the center and cover to cook. Add tomato sauce, cheese and water. Simmer. Add salt and pepper and dry herbs. Serve on top of spagghetti... Posted via Blogaway

Please find the recipe on my other blog. Promise, this will be the first and last blunder. :) Enjoy.... http://footandfire.blogspot.com/2016/09/squash-ukoy-with-tostitos-spinach-dip.html

Please check out the recipe on my other blog. Got no time to take it down and put it here again. So please bear with me. http://footandfire.blogspot.com/2016/09/beef-and-mushroom-biryani-rice.html

Sorry, folks. I posted three recipes in my other blog. Please check out in this link... http://footandfire.blogspot.com/2016/09/peach-in-jelly-pudding.html

Peach Slices, drained Jelly Powder pack Sugar 6 cups water and peach syrup In a serving dish, arrange peach slices (Dole has these). Set aside. In a deep pan, dissolve jelly powder in a tap water. Bring to near boil while constantly stirring. Add sugar and stir. Remove from fire. Pour in the setving dish where the peaches are arranged. Let cool and chill. Serve as is or cubed and added in a cold iced tea. Posted via Blogaway

250gms ground beef Greek yogurt Canola oil 2 cups rice 2 cups water Turmeric 2 packs Asian Gourmet  spice Salt Mushroom Carrots, chopped Chopped oregano Toasted cashew nuts Marinate beef in yogurt for 10 minutes Saute beef in a little oil. Set aside. In a wok, rinse rice. Add water, turmeric and prepared spice. Bring to boil covered. Add mushroom and carrots. Cook in low heat. Add hot water to adjust rice absorption to allow it to cook. Garnish with cashew nuts and chopped oregano. Serve hot. Posted via Blogaway

Squash, grated (Use steel cheese grater) 2 heads Onion, chopped 6 cloves garlic, chopped Toasted garlic (optional) Salt and pepper Dried Italian herbs and/or turmeric Oatmeal Flour Canola oil for frying In a deep bowl, put first six ingredients. Add oatmeal until manageable to form into patties. Just add flour a little at a time to adjust. Fry each patty and drain excess oil in a paper towel. Serve with tomato ketchup or Tostitos Spinach dip. Posted via Blogaway

Kangkong Tops Black bean and garlic sauce Toasted garlic (optional) Blanch kangkong tops and drain. In a small bowl, mix a spoon or two of garlic and black beans sauce, add warm water. In a serving dish, arrange the tops and pour the sauce. Sprinkle with toasted garlic and serve. Posted via Blogaway

 Why Echegaray did not confess guilt until his death? (Reflections on how cheap lives are these days) Anyone can win any argument here whether he espouses Echegary's innocence or his guilt. But to put things in a proper perspective, under our criminal justice system, Echegaray was found guilty and thus, he was sentenced to death. But many firsthand accounts from his priest, lawyer and others who came to his side before his state-sanctioned death claim that he did not confess guilt. Since the supposed natural (and thus, expected) reaction of someone facing death is to say the truth, some believed in his innocence. But he did not confess guilt. I believe that he was guilty, and I always have in mind that his victim is condemned with the ill-effects of the gruesome crime of rape committed to her by her stepfather. But then, he did not confess guilt. If Echegaray confessed guilt, our society could have had let go of a sigh showing some relief that we did the right...

Mourning is a personal closure, since it brings humans to a full circle of birth and death, of comings and goings. When I saw the headline that a sister whose brother was missing during the Martial law era said that "Buti pa si Marcos may bangkay," (Lucky is Marcos, he has a cadaver) I just can't shake it off from my thoughts. I lost my father this year and I am still finding myself some comfort in knowing that he rested from the physical pains. I know he died and I know we ushered him to a resting place. These thoughts actually comfort me. Thus, putting myself in that sister's shoe, I just can't imagine myself mourning without a closure. Perhaps, she will always mourn until she can no longer mourn. There are many personal stories of loss and unnecessary deaths during the Marshal Law that we just cannot close our eyes and say that the past is past and we should move on as a nation. No, we cannot just do that because there was no positive action from the fam...

My friend in Paris sent me Pine nuts when she saw me posted pesto using almond s as the base nut of the pesto. Since the original pesto uses Pine Nuts, she wanted me to create the real thing. So when I had the chance to get fresh sweet basil leaves, I immediately used it. Pine nuts is quite expensive if found in our grocery stores, so I also recommend the almonds in lieu of this rare one. Almonds in the pesto is dry while pine nuts is much more nutty and blends well. At any rate, the aromatic sweet basil is the base of it all and I loved both ways! 4 cups sweet basil 3-4 cloves garlic 1/2 cup Pine Nuts Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup reserve 1/2 cup grated Parmessan In a food processor, place the first four ingredients. Blend well while slowly adding the half cup Olive oil. Transfer in a glass bottle and Add Parmessan Cheese. Put the remaining 1/4 cup of Olive oil on top of the mixture. Best served as as sauce for pasta. Also serve on top of crackers as appet...

Milkfish, cleaned and sliced Water Tomatoes Onion Jackfruit, unripe and sliced Chiles Salt and pepper Camote tops Boil water, add tomatoes and onions. Bring to boil and add the jackfruit and cook till tender. Add fish and chile and bring to boil again. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add camote tops and cover. Remove from fire. Use tamarind, batuan, lemon or kamias to add sourness to the soup.

Fruits

Small Fishes Apple cider Vinegar Ginger, chopped finely White Onion, chopped Chile, sliced or chopped Salt and pepper Soak small fishes in vinegar and debone. Discard remaining vinegar. In a glass bowl, place the deboned fishes, ginger, white onions and chile. Add vinegar up to half part of the mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Serve chilled. Optional Coconut milk, ground peanuts and tomatoes may be added. Use cubed slices of bigger fishes like salmon or tangigue

Two days before your third month away You were back. The vacation must be good: I did not notice your white hairs or your blackheads. And I did not even look at your belly, or your battered hands. I just immediately saw you with your robust cheeks, all reddish and radiant. I missed you but longing melted right away when I held your warm hands, and you transfused to me your joy within. Did I just see eternal peace? By Gerlie M. Uy Copyright June 2016 **** With my father, 15 April 2016 You were lying on your bed, And playing with Lola Epyon. Crisp laughter I heard; I am not mistaken. I was surprised you were around And I came near you. You stood up beside me; I touched your bloated belly. Is it still painful 'Tay? You said, "Not anymore." "Oh, in heaven the pain is gone, But your belly is still bloating," I teased. Then, I held and kissed your hand; It was warm and aliv...

Our relationship with our father was one made of love and hate. We loved him deeply for taking care of us first. He wanted to be a teacher but stayed in the well-paid job of being a policeman until he retired. He proved that work can go well with family first policy. That is why with his salary and loans and augmented by our mother's, he raised us all five children well with good education. He was a devoted husband to our mother, a gift he also indirectly showered us. He was a generous giver because it was a joy for him to give us P500 or P1000 every time he received financial blessings. He made our education a priority, a lifetime investment he staked in, that he even extended that to our relatives who wanted to study. He loved to put us to his “fattening” or “feeding” program because he enjoyed cooking for us because according to him we should be well-fed and not sickly (and grow up tall), a way of living he shared with us until he was diagnosed with canc...

On the left is my Aunt Imelda who inspired this story  while the woman on the right is my mother.  Both turned 75 and 65 this year.  Photo taken in Taoist Temple in Cebu City last year. I was so sure that my father's zest for education led me to my profession. Become a lawyer so that your signature turns expensive, he would say . But it turned out that I was only partly correct. I learned later on that my story also started from my maternal side through my aunt. My lola married my lolo, who was ten years her senior, at the age of fifteen. They begot her in 1941. Being the eldest to a stern uneducated farmer and a chinese-garter-playing teenager was a challenge. As parents, they were unorganized, dominant, and unreasonable. It was because they were uneducated . My Lolo finished just his Spanish alphabet equivalent to grade one while my Lola, her grade three. "Education in my family is a family history. It is worth retelling to a generation which neg...

At the house. One day, Bulawanon engaged the help of Tikum Kadlum, a hunting dog with the gift of sensing the spirits, in cooking rice for his husband Paiburong and his brother Dumaraog who will be going hunting. When the rice was cooked, the brothers ate fast. Then, while Bulawanon packed the betel nut for her husband, Paiburong and Dumaraog dressed themselves, with Dumaraog suggesting they match their sashes and belts, since he is his brother's loyal protector. To complete their hunting preparations, the two brought out their long-bladed sharp knives, shields, spears, and lances from their gold chest and wall hanger. When everything is set, Paiburong bade goodbye to his wife, Bulawanon, who reminded her husband to be careful as he might meet in the forest one named Makabagting, who is accompanied by a man-eating woman called Muwa. Makabagting is a nobleman and a warrior who is widely known as having tasted human flesh. Paiburong went out of his house, and he heard a sound. It...

Tikum Kadlum is the first epic out of ten epics of Panay as told by the Panay Bukidnon of Calinog, Iloilo. This is my first read. There are ten (10) books all in all which are all interrelated. I believe each epic can be told independently of the others but the whole story can be appreciated if read according to the sequence of the series. Like when I finished Tikum Kadlum, another character Amburukay is introduced and thus, the book two is titled in her name. The book is presented as a transcription of the chants as told/sang by GAMABA Federico Caballero and his sister Teresita Caballero-Castor in archaic Kinaray-a. In a table form, the archaic kinaray-a is then translated to contemporary kinaray-a, then Filipino, then English. The single best accomplishment of this book is that it is a published documentation of the chant in archaic language. I am not sure if it can hold the interest of those who reads in Filipino or English because as for me, I appreciated the reading...

I did not know  that you were aching  to see my spotted Samson-like muscles  in your waking hours.   Each day, I pass by your shore  and I do not mind you  because I am on a mission. I am no Samson of your circus;  I was born to filter the waters  that is the source of your life.  I am nature's Ecosystem Engineer. Yet you simply admire my monstrosity,  and perhaps, you are only attracted  by the danger attached to my last name.  Do not be fooled.  My bloodline is sure made to fiercely bite while I was created to humbly clear your waters.  You lure me with your tiny reddish catch everyday  and I tend to heed your altogether generous and alluring call. You captivate me, I must admit. But I have to quickly shake myself  from this madness:  If I continue being with you this way,  I will let your waters get red.  And I will lose you. Slowly...

Owing to the new year's long holiday, I was able to watch "In the Heart of the Sea"  (2015) which is a fictional narration of a true event that is supposed to be the inspiration of Herman Melville's book we now know as "Moby Dick." It is a story of how sailors braved the seas searching for oil by capturing whales and extracting oil from them on board only to be met by a big whale that destroyed their ship. Some sailors survived, but not without doing the unthinkable. By the end of the 1800's the whaling industry which provided whale oils used for oil lamps and soap is already giving way to kerosene and vegetable oils by the start of the 1900s. Whaling is now generally banned worldwide. The movie made me think back to the Whale Sharks of Oslob, Cebu, Philippines. I did not swam with the Whale Sharks or Butandings after reading an article that such tourism industry being promoted by Oslob is actually not animal-friendly because it makes the whale sha...