Foot and Fire

Rainy Day All-in Roasted Vegetables, why not? Got to clear the fridge with vegetables waiting for me. So, here is my Rainy day Special Roasted Vegetables.  Potatoes French beans squash zucchini celery basil leaves carrots all salts I got (himalayan, black and lemon salt) black pepper A dash of chili pepper olive oil balsamic vinegar Cut vegetables in serving sizes. Put all veges in the pan, add oil and vibegar. Mix all.  In a preheated 190C oven, roast the veges for 30minutes. Enjoy.  I enjoyed this with red wine! Rain went away... 

Well, I made my  Biryani Masala  so the next good thing is to try it out even without Basmati rice. I used the stocked rice for our daily consumption. I also had roasted chicken leftover but you may use chicken parts using the yogurt marinade I used here to give the chicken some extra flavor. Of course, I used whole cardamoms to add exotic prettiness to the cooked rice. You may add cinnamon sticks too for aesthetic purpose. Of course, make caramelized onions. *Browned onion: 3 medium Onions, sliced Oil Balsamic vinegar In a pan, heat a little oil, add the onions and stir-fry. Add balsamic vinegar just enough to change its color. Stir until browned, not burnt. Set aside. **Marinade for chicken 1 cup yogurt 2 T turmeric 1 thumb ginger A handful of mint leaves Pinches of salt and pepper Chicken pieces Add all ingredients in a bowl and marinate chicken for 30 minutes or more. ***Rice: 3 cups rice 3 cups chicken broth or water Marinated chicken plus the mari...

Made my own Biryani Masala with what I have in the pantry, and of course, this is inspired by my newly arrived Green Cardamoms sent by a friend from Germany. Gather spices from your pantry. I think anise, bayleaves and turmeric are easy to find.  cardamom pods fennel seeds star anise anise seeds Bay leaves Coriander seeds cinnamon powder ginger powder turmeric powder In a bowl, gather your spices except the powders.  Heat a small amount of oil in a pan, put all the whole spices in the bowl. Stir with a bamboo spatula until browned.  In a food processor, process the toasted spices. Process until powderized. I could not powderise everything using my processor so I strained the powder and saved the husks and bits which I used to spice my roasted potatoes.  Gather the powdered spices and add the spices in powder form.  I made two batches! The first batch made it to my biryani today.  My biryani rice recipe shall follow! ✌️I ...

Been raring to make this when grapes abound and a little cheaper than usual. For my staycation, I made this to snack on. Lucky for me, I was able to buy celery last weekend so I got some to toss in. I use seedless grapes to avoid the seed crunch while eating but if you have the seeded variety, just split the grapes and remove the seeds. I also halved the grapes in this batch because it's big a piece. And I prefer the tiny grape juice to blend in tge mixture as well. Make yours and enjoy!!! 1 kilo Seedless Grapes 1 kilo chicken breast 1 pouch all purpose cream 1 cup mayonnaise or kewpie 4 stalks of celery, chopped 1/2 cup almonds (or any nuts), chopped or smashed with pestle Salt and pepper Halve the grapes if desired.  Boil the chicken breast in water. Remove when cooked, let cool, and flake using two forks.  Add in chicken flakes and cream plus mayonnaise in a bowl. Add in the smashed almonds. Season with salt and pepper.  Chill before serving.  ...

Booksale haul This past weekend, we met head-to-head the BIG BAD WOLF by accepting its bookhauling CHALLENGE. But our teen companion wanted manga and he couldn't find one in the BBW long z-shaped aisle which starts from Seattle's Best and ends in Kenny Rogers. A very long aisle indeed but I myself was disappointed  as I got nothing from their non-fic section. Evidently, the Iloilo City bookworms bought everything nice and left me nothing. So I ended up buying the augmented reality books for children. I once bought the three AR titles in the BBW online and gifted them to my nieces. This time, i'm buying it for the teen shelf in the house, and future perusal for the fun reading hours with the kids!  In addition, I ended up buying a NY travel guide and Volunteering book.  Originally, I was looking for PERU travel guide but to my dismay, there was none. The staff could not even assist me in checking if they have. "It's assorted ma'am, we don't even ...

I celebrated my 18 years of lifework this year as a public defender and finished rereading "To Kill A Mockingbird" with different set of eyes.  I read this when I was in college when lawyering was still floating on jute (Galutaw pa sa tugabang, as we Ilonggos say) or when I still has no idea I would go to law school after college.  First, it is still entertaining and I now recalled the "events" which I already forgot from my first reading as Scout is the best narrator. Second, it is full of devices that illustrate prejudice and racial discrimination, and full of questions that can hover above us.  But one hovering current event I wanted to  write something about is on Israel and Palestine and the Hamas. I wanted to grab again Yuval Noah Harari's book on challenges for 21st century (he is an Israeli political svience professor). I wanted to understand, but most of all I wanted to condemn violence.  I don't care what the Bible and what ...

And your bird can sing A review by Gerlie Uy "Why watch this film?," JFF asked. And I answered, "I watched it because I fell in love with Hakodate in Hokkaido during my recent trip to Japan." So, while watching the film, I spotted three familiar spots, the train station, the railway of the tram along the main road, and the spiral walkway leading to the skywalk and overlooking the ocean. I was happy to spot these three because I knew them when we were able to circle Hakodate's main thoroughfares at night. Of course, I was expecting more scenes featuring the place but the film is something about feelings, not visuals. My impression of the Japanese when I visited is that they were polite, kind and helpful. In my two-week vacation, I am in awe with their attitude and consideration of others. But I also observed shady nightspots in Shinjuku when in trains Japanese men are polite and even look sideways when we accidentally look eye to eye, side dishes ...

Lonely Glory A Review by Gerlie Uy This film is about a sister whom we may call ambitious as she is the type who goes out of the house early on in her life and venture outside.  She is also a machiavellian type as her actions gear towards the end justifies the means even if it can be in utter disregard of the other person's feelings for which the Japanese are known to be very considerate of. The supposed "attitude" portrayed at her workplace in the introduction is not enough reason for me to create a judgment whether she is "user-friedly" kind of person. But when it was followed by the fact that she missed her father's burial and she went home when her mother died because she had to settle the inheritance affairs so she she could get a share and start her business venture, I got the impression. But wait, I actually started to rally behind her at this point. The movie started with the main character saying "I don't know anymore what I...

OTARU, HOKKAIDO, JAPAN. What we missed that day (and more photos of Otaru)!!!  We were early in arriving at the train station but the 8 am sunlight was so intense at the Otaru canal, the heart of the city, we missed many things to do by avoiding the sun. So on your own trip, please nevermind the sun and do these three things we missed right away as they vanished at around 3pm when we returned. Our bad!!! 1. Have your portrait with the canal as background sketched by the Japanese artist. If  I still recall it correctly, he only asks for 1,000 yen and it could be done in 10 minutes. This could have been a great trip souvenir. Grrrr!!! 2. Buy a stained glass art with the canal view as subject made by the artist himself right there. Sells affordably too but I needed more time to choose and thought that I would do that later. Ugggh!!! The music boxes @the music box museum. Your box, your music as it can be custom-made. 3. ...

1 kilo radish 1 cup water 1/2 cup vinegar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 tsp turmeric Wash, peel and Slice the radish for about 1/16th of an inch, not too thick and not to thin is what we like. Wash again and let drain. Set aside. In a glass or plastic bowl, combine water, vinegar, sugar and turmeric. Stir until lump disappears. Transfer in a coated pot (not steel) and let boil in medium heat while stirring from time to time for about 20 to 30 minutes. In glass jars, arrange the sliced radishes until all are set.  Pour the liquid mixture in the glass jars with radishes and seal with lids. Repeat until all are covered. Let cool and refrigerate. This keeps long in fridge, (but it won't as I eat them faat) serve as refreshing and crunchy side dish. 

One of the things we enjoyed in Japan was the stamps upon arriving at the train stations. Some stamps are in plain sight after the gate but some stamps have to be asked from the train attendant or officer manning the gate booth.  Eki is the japanese word for it but I failed to use that word as when I say stamp with a gesture of a fist over an open palm, they easily understand me! Stamps are available for ordinary train stations but there is no stamps for shinkansen or the bullet trains. The Japanese would cross their arms each time to tell you "No."  At first, I was able to label the stations we were in but later, I got a few unlabeled ones. We uncovered that not only do train stations have stamps but also the Information Centers, and some of the sites itself.  Sometimes, we just enter a building and our moods lighten up every time we see a stamp.  We did not take the Hakodate Ropeway because we wanted to explore its vicinity at night but we w...

I am no egg lover but in Japan, eggs are tasteful and creamy you can just add it to your rice so I was converted. They call this scrambled egg but it has yolky creaminess in it, a far cry from my own scrambled egg.  I was not expecting that the buffet breakfast in Japan would comprise some soup, salad fried noodles and eggs. I thought it would just be a simple coffee and toast. They serve it at 6.30 or 7 am to 10am so we can always have it for 15minutes before starting our wandering. This baked egg or steamed egg is good too but I dont like the sweetness added to it.  Egg Quiche is tasty too but I still miss the "scrambled egg" the Japanese Style. Our view while having a very quick breakfast from our Keisei Narita hotel The Japanese-style scrambled egg Radish in the salad Memories of our breakfast