Effortless Sundays

pretty much doesn't exist in my world. When everything is in disarray and deadlines are running rampant in my calendar. A breezy weekend has not visited me in such a long time that I have begun to wonder what it would feel like to just let the day pass by and laze around the house.



I would probably experience something short of a movie special effects when the main character is standing still and everyone and everything around him is in a continuously fast forward motion. I'd probably go insane in minutes.



Truth be told, effortless Sundays are ethereal for me. I would probably choose to have a busy Sunday rather than a lazy Sunday. But hey if I can squeeze in a cheat here and there why not? Which I rather did. And my little cheat presented itself when I decided to concoct clear pork stew for lunch. Why was it effortless?



Basically, I never realized it was what I was cooking until I started boiling the pork. And from there, things just rolled off down hill. I had potatoes, I had sweet corn, I had pechay leaves, I had time on my hands! I popped everything inside the osterizer (except of course the pechay leaves), added salt and whole black peppers. Pressure-cooked the whole batch in 20 minutes and viola! We had one delicious port stew in clear broth in no time.



As soon as I was finished pressure-cooking the meat, I added a few more seasoning, added the pechay leaves and let it simmer for a minute or two, and that's that.



Sundays can be hectic, but it doesn't mean I have to wallow in misery or frustration for that matter. Just a little bit of magic, a little bit of determination, you too can have your effortless Sundays.

How Much of a Virtue Can Patience Be?

I asked my husband what i should write about today and he came up blank. I almost cried. Was I that too much of a mystery to my husband for him to suggest a topic that I can write about? Or worse, he's just not that in to me.

I have written for a few webmasters about book reviews, cell phone reviews, bling reviews, beauty product reviews (all for a few extra bucks) and well its not a secret that writing is one of my passions. So when I asked the one person who was supposed to know more about me than any other person in this world for advise, and came up blank, well it was mostly disturbing. Let me tell you, i was ready for a good heaping of argument.

And then, after a heartbeat, he suddenly asked "Why not write about the amount of patience and understanding we're extending to each other in this time of crisis?" I came up blank again..was he serious? And then I looked into his eyes, tired and a bit sad and wispy...with a wee bit of hardpressed laughter indicated only by the little twinkle in his eyes. I knew then that my husband knew me enough to know that as of this moment, more than anything else, I want to share our hardships to the few who'd come across this post.

My mother always tells me to be patient. (Mag pa sensya ka.) We have this Filipino saying "Habaan mo ang pisi" (lengthen the thread) which basically means you have to extend what ever needs and can be extended. In my case, I need to lengthen the thread of my patience towards my husband, in this relationship, during our time of trial. My mother always tells me, when it feels like you cannot be patient anymore, that's the time that you have to force yourself to be patient.

Practicing patience is never easy. There are times when it feels like I'm going to explode and this lava of irritation, angst, anxiety and frustration would bubble over. There were times in the past when we would argue so much and say hurtful words to each other only to be consoled by our mutual silence afterwards. It left a great painful chasm in my chest. It left me feeling alone and defeated.

As time passed by, I knew we couldn't always live like this. Fight like there's no tomorrow and leave it alone to rot in our souls. Eventhough I cannot change the past, I know the future for both of us is a long way coming and its going to be long unknown road for both of us to travel. I know that if we are ever going to survive that journey, I have to always be wee bit more patient. I know that my husband knows this too. I know that he realizes we both have to work in this relationship for it to be successful.

We weren't blessed with lots of riches, but we were blessed with good intelligent minds, sound judgement and sturdy souls. Enough to let us live this life to the fullest. There will be more bumps in the road, hurdles to overcome. My patience to my husband will always be tested, but I think I'm ready.

The Accidental Chocolate Chip Cookies

Accidentally, Kelly street...Remember that song? From what, way back highschool days? Nothing I just found myself singing that chorus when I was baking my chocolate chip cookies. Why were they accidental ? Well let's just say they weren't supposed to look like...what they look like in the picture (hehe...) I wouldn't even bother you with the recipe because I messed it up so bad I couldn't remember what I did wrong or what I did right. But mind you ladies, they still taste yummy!

However, to make up for the goofy mess I did, I asked one pro blogger for her recipe of the famous Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies and she eagerly shared it with me! Goody! I will write a post about it soon! I am just going to be a bit too busy for the next couple of days to pave the way to my "wish I were a world famous pastry Chef" musings.

So anyways, I hope you love the pic! I am certainly enjoying some burnt, chewy, sweet and nutty cookie crusts in here...heeeheeeheeh!!!

Beef Pasties from Rachel Allen Bake!

I follow a new goddess...and her name is Rachel Allen. You can check her out on Discovery Travel and Living : Rachel Allen Bake! every Friday at 7 pm. I have been meaning to make these pasties (empanadas) since God knows when. I have all the ingredients really (from a previous failed enterprise which i choose not to elaborate on) but I guess i just procrastinated so much that I just decided to make a few today. It was now or never. A do or die feat (well not exactly!) I had to make use of the ingredients I have since they are slightly different from the ones Rachel made, so for my version I used:



Filling :



200 grams of ground beef (you dont necessarily have to use the very lean ones)

a few grams of frozen green peas

a tbsp of butter

3 cloves garlic minced

1 red onion minced

1 jalapeno pepper minced

1 tbsp of Thai hot sauce

1 tbsp of Britt brown sauce

salt and pepper to taste

a tsp of cumin powder

a tsp of chilli powder (cumin and chilli powder makes all the difference)



Pastry



3/4 cup all purpose flour

3 tbsp shortenning

1/2 tsp baking powder

a tsp of cumin powder

a tsp of chill powder

a tsp of salt

under a cup of water

1 egg



Directions:



Again, take everything out of the fridge an hour before baking. This makes everything easier to manipulate.



Prepare your pastry first. Combine all your dry ingredients. Add in the egg and shortenning until your pastry resembles course crumbs. Knead with your hands as much as possible. Add in a few drops of water to let the loose crumbs adhere to the dough you're making. Knead into a flat dough and refrigerate until you are ready to use for the pasties.



Next you cook the filling. Sautee the garlic, onion and jalapeno in butter. When onion is transparent mix in your beef. Add the cumin, chilli, salt and pepper. When beef is brown and cooked through, add the hot sauce and brown sauce. Add the green peas. Simmer uncovered for 15-20 min.



Note: I didnt have tomato sauce handy at that time so i wasnt able to include it, however I strongly suggest that you follow Rachel's way of cooking and add in at least a tbsp or two of thick tomato sauce.



Once filling is cooked transfer to a bowl with sieve so that the juices can be strained and wouldn't run over your pastry. Next take your dough out of the fridge and flatten using a rolling pin (about a few cm thick) Get a bowl that you can use to cut circles through the pastry. For the pastry that I used, it yielded 6 large beef pasties (using a bowl about 2 inches in diameter for the pasties). Once your circles are ready, scoop about a tbsp of your beef filling onto each of the pastry circles. Fold and crimp the edges with a fork. Brush with beaten egg yolk if you have once.



Pop in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve hot with iced tea.

Mommy Moment : When B first ate on her own

This was trully a very happy moment for me. B gestured that she wanted to hold her spoon. So I spooned a few of her food (mashed brocolli with cheese) and gave the spoon to her. She gave me a smile and placed the spoon in her mouth. As if to show off her milestone, she gave me these magnificent smiles. Wonderful!

Finally had the guts to make chicken pastel

Whew!...finally..well as what I have written down on my not so previous post, I had a very relaxing (not!!) weekend over at my parents' house. So for this Monday, I finally found the energy to make this long standing recipe of chicken pastel (woot! woot!**)

For this dish I used:

1/2 kilo of thigh fillets (chopped into bite size pcs)

2 small onions

3 cloves garlic

salt

pepper

about a tbsp of butter

2 pcs medium sized carrots chopped into bite size pcs

2 pcs medium sized potatoes chopped into bite size pcs

a can of mushrooms

milk

cream

flour

For the pastry

about 1/2 cup of flour

about 2 tbsps of shortenning

about 1/4 cup of water

Preheat over to 180 C

All things needed out of the fridge, openned, drained and chopped.

Heat your pan. Melt the butter. Add garlic and onions until former is browned a little and the latter transparent.

Add in your chicken fillets. Let cook through.

Add your mushrooms

Add the carrots and potatoes

Season with salt and pepper

You can add a chicken boullion cube to enhance flavor

Pour about a cup of water. Simmer for 20 minutes, covered.

When fillets are firm yet tender, add in your milk, cream and a little bit of flour to thicken the paste.

Simmer for a few more minutes then take out of the heat. Transfer into your ramekin.

For the pastry:

First combine the flour and your shortenning. After both ingredients are incorporated to resemble course crumbs, add your water a little bit at a time until your dough is formed. Roll it into a flat pastry enough to cover the lid (which in the picture was not enough..i should have rolled it further flat).

Smear the top with butter.

Pop into the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the pastry has cooked through.

Serve piping hot.

Enjoy!

Trully, there's no place like home...

I strive everyday of my life to make something out of myself. I got married, had a child and am a mother now, but trully, there's just no place like home -- where I grew up and learned life's first lessons. Over the weekend, my daughter B and I went to visit my parents and younger sister and we stayed over night. When we got home, it was the usual hustle and bustle of taking care of B (since i don't have a helper). I didn't mind. I was home and with the company of people I love. I would have loved to share with you the highlight of my visit (food, what else!?) but my forgetful mind left the battery to my camera so I wasn't able to take a picture of anything except, my breakfast on Sunday (which is still somewhere in cyberspace).

Anyways, my daughter also had a blast, running like crazy around the house, making everybody's backs hurt because everyone has to catch up with her. Im so thankful that my younger sister is so much more patient and loving to my daughter than I was when I was her age and I was trying my very best to take care of her.

In a way, it was healing period for me to go visit my parents. Eventhough we didn't do any more than sit back, tell stories, watch over B, and drink coffee (lots of it...). For me it was more than enough to renew my spirits and envigorate my soul. Like a rebooting of some sort. This week is surely going to be another grind, I don't mind. I know that I can always come home to my mom and pappy and sister and it will be as if nothing has ever changed.

Lesson Number 7 - Let your children paint on walls

I apologize but I have forgotten the name of the man (who is also a father), who has said these words during an interview with Oprah. This man has (or had) cancer and he gave some very insightful advises on child rearing. Considering that he has had a terminal illness, he has decided to turn things around and focused instead on the present and how families should value each day they're together and be grateful for being given another day to love, cherish and take care of each other. He said his parting words would be "let your children paint on walls".

His words touched my heart because it implied that we constantly try to keep our lives balanced. House cleaned, bills paid, cars washed, children bathed and fed, taught their ABC's and 123's, and played with at the park or inside the house. And because of this balance, we sometimes forget that being spontaneous, can also be fun and liberating. When children play, when they do something ridiculous or say something hilarious or do something awesome like paint on walls, they do so without thought or heed for cleanliness or order or without hope of acceptance or fear of rejection. They just do. More often than not, we as adults are the ones who are afraid of chaos or disorder in our lives. And with good reason of course ( i dont have to elaborate). But sometimes, a little dose of impulsive behavior will do wonders to our soul.

Life is too short to waste stopping your child express herself. Yes we need to keep order, but equally yes, we need to harness these little artistic endeavors, this little bursts of freedom to just do. Yes my daughter has not yet painted on my walls, yes i'd probably be a little angry if she did because what if there were unexpected guests arriving? Or what if I had been too tired already to think about cleaning it? I say, now, I love my daughter. A little work of art on the walls will surely not be the end of me.

College Days, a Ref Cake, and Nasty Co Interns

I was in my 5th year in College, which was basically, my intern year when I had to travel and live in certain provinces in Luzon where our university has affiliations to clinics offering rehabilitation medicine. It's a basic requirement for all graduating PT's in the Philippines to practice theoretical and clinical applications in standard, controlled and actual environments.

It also means, having to cohabitate and tolerate other interns from other universites. It also means having to tolerate untidy habits like unthrown garbages, the smell of left over beer wafting through the air when you wake up in the morning, having to wait for over 1 hour in line to the bathroom because a couple is sneaking a "quickie" inside. It also means you have to get along with the whims of your classmates like a night out everynight, food trips, unplanned beach hoping, wasted nights and mornings after a drunken tirade and having to kiss ass to our ugly, overbearing, conceited, did i mention ugly...? CS's.

How did this ref cake fit into the picture? I was having a discussion with my one of my barkadas one night and we were talking about what to prepare for a dinner on a Friday night. We agreed that we'll make carbonara, some grilled fish, grilled pork and i offered to make a ref cake. When all of a sudden, this co intern and a board mate (we live in the same boarding house), just blurted out "Ref cake? Eh ang dali lang gawin nyan eh. Kahit sino pwede gumawa nyan" (Ref cake? That's just so easy to do. Anybody can do that), all the while smirking, and grimacing, belittling my effort. Since Im the type of person who will not speak to you if I dont like you, i did not honor her snide comments with anything and basically ignored her existence. She could have dropped dead in front me and I would never have given a damn about it.

So actually, yes its true, it affected me more than any other comment or actions Ive experienced in the past. Why? Because ive always known that I love to bake, cook and concoct delicious goodies. That particular memory made me averse to making ref cakes from then on. As if making ref cakes (mango creme pies, banana creme pies) would suddenly poof her in front of me. Needless to say, I hated making creme pies because I remember that night and the snide comments of an untidy, dimbo who's a poor excuse of a food critic.

Until recently when our office sponsored a summit to Boracay and we drank this smoothie in Jonah's called choco banana peanut smoothie. And it was hands down the most delicious, sweetingly tempting, banana smoothie Ive ever had the pleasure of tasting. After that trip a friend of mine (Ross) decided to make a choco banana peanut cake. I saw the picture and it looked so yummy, so asked for the recipe. And she said it was actually a ref cake. OK...a ref cake..Was I ready to let go of the past to satisfy my sweet tooth cravings? well, what the hell I wanted to make one.

So I did! And here it is....

My version of choco banana peanut creme pie

About 7 pieces of Dole banana

2 packs of chocolate cream (nestle)

About 1/2 cup of condensed milk

About 2 tbsp of white sugar

Crushed Graham crackers

About 2 tbsps of brown sugar

About 12 pcs of choc-nut (locally made chocolate with peanuts)

Cut the banana into bite sized pieces about .5 in thick. Set aside and place inside the ref covered.

Beat the chocolate cream, 2 tbsps of white sugar, and condensed milk. Set aside or place in the ref to cool.

Combine the graham crackers and 2 tbsp of brown sugar. Add a few crushed choc nut.

Crush the choc nut with your fingers. Dont forget to lick them off your fingers after doing so! Yum! (wash your hands afterwards of course!)

Now your ready to make your creme pie.

Place a layer of crushed graham crackers at the bottom of your pie dish(you can use the uncrushed whole crackers if that's the beat of your music *wink). Then take out your chilled chocolate cream. Mix in the banana slices. Place a dollop on top of the crackers, then layer with crushed choc-nut. Next layer again with crackers, banana cream, and choc nut until you fill the brim of your dish. For added pizaz, layer in additional slices of banana and uncrushed choc nut.

Place in the chiller or inside the ref and let sit for 4 hours. Serve! With whipped creme and coffee!

Sitting in front of our teli, with a serving of the choco banana peanut cake (creme pie), i couldnt help but remember that co intern. Funny thing is since I never gave her a second look, I coudnt remember what she looked like, much less what her name was (she was named Broomhilda for all I care) and I thought to myself, i am bound to meet people like that along the way. That wouldnt be the end of that. People who dont have anything good to say to others. People who I just cannot bring my self to get along with. Im bound to stumble upon nasty "co interns", even now that I am a mother already. Question is, if i would let myself be affected by their annoying presence.

Yeah, anybody can do a ref cake, but Id bet my bottom dollar, she can't do s**t about anything, she cant make ref cakes as deliciously and awesome as I make 'em. (Or she could probably be the Head Chef of a 5 star restaurant, or a multi-awarded pastry chef..who cares? She aint pretty like me...=P)

Peppered Chicken and Potatoes with Salty Lemon Butter Sauce

My first masterpiece. I wanted to do something this saturday other than my usual mommy duties. I noticed that I still had a kilo of chicken wings stocked in the freezer. My husband M asked what was for dinner (as what husbands usually ask their wives, although im pretty sure its not asked to annoy us, or make them sound like a broken record) and I automatically answered "Sinigang, may natira pa kase kagabi" ("Sinigang, there's some left overs from last night"). He answered "ok" and just when i was turning to look at him, I saw a tiny wee bit smirk from his face. Knowing that my husband would never impose requesting that I cook another dish for tonight (considering that we were both very tired from the day's work), I decided to make use of the chicken wings. We can always eat the left over Sinigang tomorrow lunch.

So I set about preparing the chicken. Firstly, I marinated it in some very simple mix of lemon, salt and pepper. I used only about 1/2 a kilo by the way and to this i added the juice of 2 lemons, their rind, salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I set it aside for about 20 minutes. When you're running low on time, you can use McCormick's lemon pepper chicken mix and it will do wonderfully as well.

Next I washed the potatoes and cut them into halves, skin on.

Next I prep the oven, 200 degress C.

After about 20 minutes, you can place the chicken wings at the bottom of your ramekin or baking pan. Next put the potatoes on top. Then put about 2 cubes of unsalted butter on top then place in your oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

I thought about the greens I will use for this dish and remembered that I only had native spinach in the ref (an all time favorite of my mine by the way since I was little). Since I didnt have anything else at hand to use as a dressing I decided that I will just add in the spinach when Im ready to serve the dish.

So I boiled about a cup of water. When water is boiling, turn off flame and add in the spinach to the pot of boiling water. After about a minute or two, drain the pot and put blanched spinach onto a bowl of cold water to stop it from cooking further.

After 40 minutes of baking take out your baking tray or ramekin and see how the chicken is cooking. Sometimes, it will not brown as quickly or nicely as you expect. So you can put the dish back in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes more.

After this you can be sure that the chicken is already tender, the juices have come out nicely and the potatoes are baked to a firm and chewy texture. Transfer the chicken and potatoes into a serving tray. Arrange nicely not forgetting to include your blanched spinach.

The tray still has ample juice from the chicken left and I used it as the gravy for this dish. Ijust put in a little bit of flour and cooked it over low heat until it thickened.

M certainly did not have a smirking face when dinner was set. I asked him if it was true that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and as an answer, he looked at me and gave me a sweet nice kiss on the lips.