Foot and Fire

Typhoon Odette (international name Rai) left us no choice but to cook all of our fridge goods and two kilos tofu became my next target after our Tangigue slices from our Sipalay trip. As someone who loves cooking, food waste/spoil is a no-no. I usually airfry but no electricity made me go for deep fry. Also, I do not use butter in my cooking but since I was gifted with a can of butter from New Zealand, I am using it from time to time.  Tofu, sliced to small bits Oil for deep fry 1T Butter or a little oil 6 clovrs Garlic  minced 2 Onions, chopped 2T Rice vinegar 2T soy sauce 2T fish sauce 4T worcestershire sauce Pepper Bayleaves Mushroom seasoning Chilis 1T chili garlic in oil (I have my homemade, check previous entries please for recipe)  Garnish: Mayonnaise Lime Fried egg Deepfry the tofu or airfry them until a bit crispy.  In a wok, put butter, garlic and onions. Stir fry until transluscent. Add the fried tofu and stir fry for 2 minutes.  Add the s...

Fresh mango and watermelon shakes, Chicken wings and Quesadillas and crunchy battered fries at Nataasan Beach Resort in Puntaballo (white sand area), Super fresh Grilled Fish and red fish Tinola at Tay Oming's at the city proper (not good iced coffee though but I can smell baye-baye while sipping it which must be good, right?) Saucy delish Caldereta nga kanding (goat with tomato sauce) by Tita Basyon (not a resto though) Not so good grilled pecho (chicken Inasal) as it's dry and tasty sotanghon guisado at the Inasalan Park, city proper where bands play every Friday. Super full at Perth resto with its Sotanghon guisado, fish sinigang and the only pic I took, Fish Sisig. Fresh mango shake is highly reco. Fresh fish from the market cooked and eaten by the seashore of our chosen resort. We have tales on blue marlin and milkfish to tell. At the sugary sand area. On our way home, we had Arroz Caldo with a view of the mountains at Abaca Cafe in Ca...

I got tired of overnight oats after a while, and I did not get to grow my own yogurt nowadays. To make use of my rolled oats and nuts, I made granola bars which everyone in the house loves to bite.  In the past, I used guava jelly, blueberry jam and strawberry jam but I ran out of them today so I used coco sugar. The bar still held together real good. Feel free to experiment but the peanut butter must not be the usual sugared ones, otherwise, try to skip the sweet ingredients.  5 C of Rolled oats, Cranberry, Raisins, Walnut, Almond and Chia seeds 2 C peanut butter (I used Skippy) 2 C coco sugar or 1 C jelly/jam of choice Preheat oven for 10min at 190F. Toast the roalled oats, nuts and berries for 3 min. Transfer in a deep bowl. Add coco sugar and mix well. Add peanut butter.  In a container that can fit in your freezer, layer the mixture just about 3/4inch thick. Press together. Put plastic (I used my coco sugar packaging) to separate another layer until all m...

1t Paprika 1t Cumin 1t coriander powder 1t  turmeric 1/2 t himalayan salt Dashes of Pepper Virgin Coco oil (optional) 2 Cups Macadamia Pre-heat oven at 190F for 10 minutes. Mix spices in a small bowl. In a big deep bowl, put the nuts. Add the spices and mix well. In a baling sheet, spread the spiced nut. Add small amount of vco oil. Toast for 3 minutes and let cool before storing.  Macadamia nuts usually have their own oil, so the addition of vco is optional. 

       The books I dearly hold at the moment. A Lecture on Feminist Ethics  What are the words that come to mind when we hear the word, Femininst? Girl, Female, Woman, Womanhood, Feminist, Maternal, Matriarchal, Herstory These are the words we associate with our being a woman. I wish I have another word    to set myself apart from the rest of the pack. But the reality is, I am not an original. I immensely benefitted from the thinking and story weaved by women who fought for what I enjoy right now and men who supported those thoughts and story. We are the fruit of the struggles of the past women, and the men who supported them. The online poster the Communnications and Technology students came up with. But why do I have the desire to set myself apart? With the informations we are fed each day just by checking our social media or hitting google search and Wikipedia, we think that the answers to all our questions relating to WOMAN had ...

As promised in my previous post using half of the squash I harvested from the garden in my katsuobushi Squash soup, here is the recipe for squash ukoy or fritters. In the Philippines, we love fritters. We have cassava fritters, banana fritters, sayote fritters, sweet potato fritters and the list can go on.  1 cup flour 3 eggs, beaten Salt and pepper Water 1/4 kilo squash, french fries cut Garlic and onion Oil for frying In a deep bowl, put the flour, beaten eggs, salt and pepper. Adjust consistency with water. Mix well and avoid lumps.  Add the squash, garlic and onion. Mix well. In a frying pan, heat oil. Fry into a pancake 2 tablespoons of mixture until golden brown. Repeat until all is done. 

This is exciting! Our first squash from our only grown plant right now was harvested by me earlier today. It weighs a little more than 2 kilos though it has not mature yet as evidenced by its seedless core. I am so happy, as this will become squash soup and ukoy or fritters. 1 kilo Squash, cut into 3/4 thick pieces 25g katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) Garlic and onion, chopped Salt and mushroom granules 4 cups water Soya milk (garnish/add upon serving) Put all ingredients in a soup pan but save some katsobuoshi for garnish, let boil for 10 minutes or until the squash is tender enough to mash. Let cool for 10 minutes or more. Set up blender and blend two cups first until smooth. Pour to the soup pan. Do the next batch again and pour on pan.  Serve hot or cold. If hot, reheat first then add milk of choice and garnish with katsuobushi. Do not put milk first, it will break or curdle. If cold, serve in a bowl, add milk and garnish.  Makes 5-6 cups. Serve ha...

It is a wonderful exprience to have at least a dozen of Dill in my garden. Imagine, I grew them for two occasions in the past but they gave me one or two growths. Nothing memorable to do about the sparse harvest. But now, I was able to make a third batch of spread. It's a good thing that I was able to buy Smoked Salmon. I really loved the combination of it and dill. Dill smells sweet and delicate to me. Got me some cajun for that complete smokey feels. Here's the recipe: Dill and Smoked Salmon Spread Smoked Salmon, flaked Cream Cheese Yogurt or milk Dill, chopped Salt and pepper {optional} Cajun powder  Mix all ingredients manually or in a food processor. But is you will use food processor, just mix in the dill manually and as last step. I love it to look strandy in my toast. Use as toppings for soup, and as spread to toast or biscuit or dip to vegetables and chips. 

Food brings us to places and it is definitely one of the things we can bank on to "travel light" or to travel with light carbon footprints" which we were fond of before the pandemic.  When you travel for leisure post pandemic, I suggest that you make it a food trip with the aim of recapturing and sharing it at home so friends and family can enjoy them without making more carbon footprints. I realized now that that was what I was doing all along. This is why I made some chili because I remembered how much I loved the chicken bits in chili oil which I tried in Beijing which I wished to replicate. Below is  a chili-garlic that I made out of my chili from the garden which I dried in the air {meaning, leave it on a platter to dry in air temperature} and a bulb of garlic which I airfried to dry.  I blended them all using canola oil as oil base. Please  Check Vid in my Instragram  of me blendering the mixture. Here's the simple recipe: CHILI GAR...

After three months of waiting, my BIG BAD WOLF book haul last July, when they had their online sale, arrived. It's free shipping for orders of at least P3,000.  I got 6 Hippo Magic books which I will gift my three nieces this coming December. It has this Virtual Reality version when an app is downloaded in the phone. I am excited for these finds. See photo below: I also scored a Big Book of Christmas Board games which has delightful figures and illustrations. We will be using this when everyone congregates for the holidays. Got me a coloring book filled with creatures of ENCHANTED FOREST. See photos below with the red book as size reference. See, both are big books indeed. Below is a thick but small book of well, 1001 WAYS TO SAVE THE EARTH. I can share tips from it with you soon.  Well, I finished the trilogy of books, read the bio of Stieg Larson and now Im intrigued how this author continued the saga in this last i...

The Aswang Inquiry Frank Lynch S.J. Illustration and Retelling by Gilda Cordero-Fernando Got this book because I liked the title. Also, the intent was to write a book for teens about Aswang because most of them read about dracula and Frankenstein but nothing about our very own.  My Stars go first to the illustration as it is stunningly creative as Fernando depicted Aswang in an "Aswang wears Prada" way.  As to the narrative, I can say that it's not comprehensive and kind of written from the desk of a school principal rather than from the desk of Sherlock Holmes. I think I can do better telling of Aswang incidents as I grew up with a lola and lolo from Antique, mingled with sakadas or sugarcane workers from Antique who worked in Negros when I was a kid and heard tales from my ancestors about tales when towns were still uninhabited by humans. I even accompanied someone "nga gina Kuno nga aswang" (rumored as Aswang) who went to Mindanao as s...

Carbo-loading can also be an interesting meal when done once in a while and in a creative way. Well, that's what the title of my blog suggests. My Modified Korean meal: Spicy fish and rice cake stew, kimchi with cucumber slices and noodles with veges Noodles with Veges Instant Korean noodles Water Coriander Lettuce Cut laver or seaweed Heat water to boil. Add noodles with its prepared flavoring, and chopped coriander. Serve in individual bowl. Garnish with lettuce and seaweed on top. Serve hot. Streetfood Stew 1 C water Rice cake Fish Cake Fish Tofu  Chives Coriander Onion Garlic Hoisin sauce Chili garlic sauce Heat water in a shallow pot, let boil. Add rice cake, fish cake and fish tofu which should be cut in serving slices. Let cook for 2 minutes. Add chives, onion and garlic. Stir in hoisin and chili garlic sauces gently. Let cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from fire. Serve hot. Napa Kimchi Sliced cucumber In a bowl mix nap...

I salivate over chicken wings sold everywhere online lately but I always end up not liking the sauce or powdered flavorings. Worse, the chicken is overcooked so that it's dry. Chicken wings cook easily as compared to thick drumstick cut. The secret is to just deep fry it in a hot cooking oil for 3 to 4 minutes to achieve consistensy as to doneness.   1 kilo chicken wings 2 cups Whole wheat flour 1 cup Starch  Salt and pepper water 3 eggs Cold Water Canola oil Clean the chicken wings and cut between the first fold to separate the bigger fleshy part and the smaller bony part.  In a deep bowl, mix flour and starch plus the salt and pepper. Make a well and add the eggs and the water. Adjust water by adding little by little until the batter is not thick and not watery. Add the chicken to the batter.  In a deep pot, add a big amount of oil that would cover the chicken when placed for frying. Let the oil get hot. To test, sprinkle some salt. If it sizzles g...

Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson Hardbound This book is a quick read and very simple way of assessing self when faced with a big C, Cheese which stands for CHANGE in our job or personal lives. It's a motivational book for those who are afraid of or pushed to no choice but to change.  Yes we all know that Change is constant. And No one admits he's afraid of Change. But Most of us want to nurture constancy and famiarity. In this book, we will assess ouselves in how we are accepting of change.