Foodie 365 | Week 17

With brother flying to Cagayan de Oro, us girls pretty much decided to enjoy eating at home and cook simple dishes. No food trips for me this week, but it sure felt great donning my kitchen tiara. :) Foods for this week:

113. Salmon Head Sinigang

23 April 2011

Sister and I was able to buy salmon heads for only p160 per kilo, and we wanted to cook immediately, but it ended up sitting in the freezer until today. I cut two whole heads in half, and with three of us eating it, sis and I decided to eat half each, and let mom eat two halves, because she just loves fish sinigang, and it's rare for the family to eat salmon. Mom ate one half that dinner, the other half she ate the next day. This was also the first time I used mustasa for the greens, which I liked - the bitterness of the leaves and the tang of the broth was a good combination. The family always use kangkong or camote tops whenever we cook fish sinigang, and knowing mustasa tastes great in fish sinigang, I guess I will be using it more often now.

114. Grilled Liempo

24 April 2011

It's Easter Sunday and sister was just itching to cook pork! :) This was a very simple and basic grilled meat - seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bit of ground oregano. Sister cooked quite a lot for lunch that time, so we decided to eat the left over for dinner, too.

115. Dinuguan

25 April 2011

The woman who delivers meat and sausages every weekends delivered a bowl of pork blood as per mom's request. She also delivered some pork, and since we didn't want the blood to sit in the fridge for that long, we decided to cook it right away. I was supposed to be the one cooking this, but sister insisted she wanted to try and cook it, so I let her. The pork cuts were quite big (almost kinda looked like adobo cuts... well smaller than that, but it was big for Dinuguan), so the meat was a bit tough, but she got the flavors correct. I personally wanted my Dinuguan saucy, mom wanted it quite dry and oily, and I think my sister did a good job of making this dish in between.

She plated this dish - well, Dinuguan is probably one of the least appealing Filipino dishes - so I apologize if I didn't photograph this quite well... my girls (mom and sis) were quite hungry already and I didn't want to hold their eating up by trying to come up with a good shot. By the way, the chili on the foreground was something from my little veggie garden. Hooray for another harvest!

116. Merced Pineapple Pie

26 April 2011

Mom went to SSS East Avenue, and when she came home, she handed me a bag of pineapple pie from Merced Bakeshop, which she bought from the canteen. It is my favorite pastry (ever), and it's so good to eat it again!


117. Fish Sarciado

27 April 2011

The night before, I fried this kind of fish and cooked paksiw na galunggong for dinner. However, we still had some left over from lunch, so we ate the left over and the paksiw, leaving the fried fish untouched. Well, like I said, we wanted to just go with simple dishes (so we could save on food budget), so I just turned the fried fish into sarciado for lunch today.

118. Sunflower Crackers (Cheese)

28 April 2011

One of the difficulties in trying to save up on foods was that I didn't have enough choices which foods to photograph. Eating left overs and opening canned goods didn't look appealing, so I just took a picture of my snack.

I initially bought a pack of these crackers for my Mango Refrigerated Cake (I don't use Graham Crackers, by the way), but I always forgot to buy condensed milk so we would just eat all the mangoes, and up until now, I still haven't done my cake. I got a little hungry, and I wasn't able to resist the temptation of eating the crackers.

119. Double Sausage Spaghetti

29 April 2011

Our rice was nearly spent (the delivery people still haven't delivered the rice, ugh), so for lunch sister and I just went for spaghetti. I used the garlicky longganisa and chicken frankfurters for this dish, which I seasoned with little salt, ground pepper and Italian seasoning. The longganisa rendered a lot of fat, and I didn't want us to put it in our body, so I discarded it and added olive oil to add a little flavor, too. Somehow I followed the Pasta Kai-Vigan served to us from Felicity Patisserie, so no cream nor milk in here, though I used edam cheese spread, which I melted in the dish. My sister loved it, which I am thankful.

Brother will be back this Monday, so I will be sharing the kitchen with him... but it feels great being in the kitchen again, though we surely need to make trips to the market often, as it was difficult to cook meals based on the foods in our fridge and pantry.

*** Jenn ***

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Mussels Relleno

One afternoon, mom came home with some mussels and asked me to cook it the usual way we do it (boil with some ginger), but since I just finished testing a recipe from FOOD Magazine Eat & Run, it made me remember a recipe using mussels, so I set aside five mussels to try it out.




Mussels Relleno

{6 Servings}

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo mussels
• 2 cups water
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 cup ground beef
• 1/4 cup chopped raisins
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

How to Cook:

• In a casserole, boil mussels in water until all shells are opened. Discard unopened shells. Remove mussels from the shells and reserve some of the shells. Chop the mussel meat.
• In a bowl, combine mussel meat, onions, garlic, ground beef, raisins, green peas, and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
• Spoon filling into reserved shells. In a wok or deep frying pan, heat oil and fry mussels until top of filling is golden. Drain on paper towels. Garnish with parsley before serving.

Note(s) to Consider:

• Be sure to buy mussels that are tightly shut.
• Mussels are best bought early in the morning, when they are very fresh.

Cooking the dish, I got a little disappointed that my mussels became really brown, compared to the very light ones printed in the cook book. Giving me some sort of comfort, brother said pictures from cookbooks and magazines are more likely styled to look great in pictures. As for its taste, I loved it, and my mom loved it, too. Well, we had other dishes for dinner that night, I just made this to try the recipe, so my siblings and cousin Jayson ate the other dishes. The only problem I had was that the filling was a bit difficult to take out from the shell, but I guess it wouldn't matter that much because it tasted good. :)

*** Jenn ***

ps - The recipe calls for parsley as garnish, but we didn't have it that moment, so I just used grated cheese to garnish the dish, and I think it added a different taste to the mussels. Of course, you can try and use it, too, or just stick to recipe.

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Namit!

Ted's Oldtimer La Paz Batchoy
Level 202, Lower Ground Floor SM City Fairview
Quirino Highway cor. Regalado Avenue, Quezon City
28 August 2010


Brother was in Cagayan de Oro that time and sister was at work, so it was just mom and I that weekend. We pretty much decided to eat anywhere since it would be a bit awkward eating at a new food place without brother and sister, but when we passed by Ted's, mom told we haven't eaten there yet. Thinking bro and sis wouldn't mind us eating there without them, we decided to enter and eat some snacks.

The place was small, but they really made use of the space given to them. Quite a lot of tables, but it wasn't really crowded. Actually, I like the whole vibe of the place - it was like eating at a karinderya where people can eat and chit chat like they're at home. Don't get me wrong, I also love a solemn food place, but I guess knowing that this is a batchoy place, and Ted's traces its roots at a small food shop in La Paz Market, I already had a feeling that this isn't a very solemn high end place.

My mom and I found a table near the counter. As you can see, prices were very right on the budget, but what I liked about the place was like it felt as if we were eating a branch in Iloilo (though I still haven't been there the time of this food trip), because the staff were (most, if not all) Ilonggo and they communicate using their dialect. Pretty amazing! :)

Our foods:

Boneless Bangus Namit Meal (p120). Mom opted to go for their rice meals because she feels it's having the best of both worlds - eating rice and viand plus a small bowl of batchoy. Mom liked the bangus - she said the flavors were good, and the batchoy provided a good balance to they "dry" meal.

Extra Super (p85). I went for the bowl of batchoy because this is the main product of the store. I asked the cashier the difference of each, and she told me this had all the the toppings. I immediately chose it for photography purposes. She did tell me it will have slices of pork liver, but I still went with it because I knew it would make the bowl of batchoy look good. Just so you know, apart from the noodles and the broth, this had pork, liver, and intestine slices, as well as crushed chicharon, toasted garlic, and spring onions.

Taste wise, it wad definitely better than the regular mami I have eaten. The broth was comforting, the noodles were perfectly cooked and the pork were so tender. Well, I don't eat liver, so I just took it out and placed it in mom's bowl. She was actually laughing because her batchoy got upgraded instantly. :)

I also ordered a pack (4 pieces) of puto (p15), which was a great pair for the batchoy.

We initially ate there to have afternoon snacks, but the foods we had was quite filling, we decided not to eat dinner anymore. We had a great time eating there, which made me more excited for an upcoming trip to Iloilo.

*** Jenn ***

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Orange Juice

"O" is probably one of the most difficult letters, food wise, because it's quite difficult to think of foods starting with it. I have already done oysters in the previous ABC Wednesday rounds, we didn't have any olives, and I didn't go out to buy an orange, so I just went for the next best thing - orange juice. This picture was something I took last January, for a photo blog meme asking for a "drink / beverage" picture, but I didn't use this particular picture because I realized many participants would use the same shot (pouring the beverage into the glass). I did like this picture... and I didn't want this one to be sitting inside the folder, so I figured I would just use it here.

There are quite a lot of quotes that go with orange, orange juice, or simply juice... but I chose this one because it was inspirational... I think. Well, I think you would agree with the quote - if you are squeezed, that's the time you let go of things you don't realize you can do... like when you're in a very tough situation and you think you can't handle it, then after everything, you will just be amazed that you were able to get past it - as long as you don't quit, of course.

Well, this may not be 100% orange juice because this was already processed and packaged, but then again, this is still orange juice, and a whole lot of squeezing has been made just to make this refreshing drink.

*** Jenn ***

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Lemon Meringue Ice Box Pie

Have you seen Paula make this on Food TV?  She is awesome right?  She is most certainly not the first one to make Lemon Pie this way but she does it with southern style right?  LOL!  I love her.

My mother is a Lemon Meringue Pie traditionalist.  She wants the old fashioned Lemon Curd style pie.  Please do not put that condensed milk in her pie thankyouverymuch!!!!  LOL.  But for us, we are perfectly happy with our pies made this way.  I find it much easier to do.  So if you are coming to our house and Lemon Pie is on the menu, expect it to be this one.

Pie Filling:
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 egg yolks

Crust:
1 (8-inch) prebaked pie shell or crumb crust
     or
1 box of Lemon Cookies
4 Tablespoons Butter/Margarine, melted
4 Tablespoons Sugar

Meringue:
4 egg whites, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

• If you are making your own cookie crust, puree cookies in mixer until finely ground.  
• Add melted butter and sugar until mixture stays together when pressed between your fingers.
• Dump crumb mixture into greased pie plate and press to sides.
• Bake for 10 minutes.  Take our and cool.
• Note: Use any cookie you like.  Pamela's Lemon Shortbread is nice, I have used Mi-Del Pecan or KinniKinnick has Graham Crackers that would work nicely also.  

• Next, the filling.  In medium bowl, combine milk and lemon juice
• Add in egg yolks and combine well. 
• Pour into cooled crust.

• Finally the meringue. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add egg whites and whip until soft peaks from. Soft peaks are when the eggs become white in color and when you pull beater out of eggs the egg pulls out to form a peak and then bends back over slightly.
• Add in the sugar and continue to whip until stiff. Still is the peak is able to stand up straight on its own.
• Spread over filling making sure to seal to the edge of the crust.  I actually seal mine to the pie plate itself because its difficult to do so with a cookie crumb crust sometimes.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until meringue is golden brown.

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My Top 10 Favorite PC Game (Food Related)

With so many things to do, my way of taking a break was to play games. Since the family started having computer, games have been part of our daily routine, and I for one just can't get enough of it.


The latest game I am playing is the Hotdog Hotshot. The video above can give you an idea of how the game goes, and right now I getting a little crazy because I already had everything in the cart, and with the customers ordering quite a lot, I can say I am having difficulty playing the game now. As stressing as it can be, I just couldn't stop playing it because the pace of the game will always "keep you on your toes." Currently, this is the only game installed in my netbook, and I am hoping to find copies of other games because I have the tendency to lose interest in the game after I finished playing it.

Now, for my Top Ten (and Top 2 as well). In many years as a computer user, I have played quite a lot of games, and for this edition, I just want to highlight the food related PC games I have played.

1) Hell's Kitchen. Patterned after the reality-TV show of the same title, gamers can get to experience how it is working for Chef Gordon Ramsay. The object of the game is to make sure all foods come out of the kitchen at the same time as possible, so you really have to manage the time wisely. I surely had a difficult time playing this, especially in the later rounds. Quite stressful of a game, but it surely does feel great finishing a round.

2) Diner Dash. Very famous of a game, there are now many versions of the game, including one for Nintendo Wii. Well, regardless of what version it is, it was such a joy to play, though I have experienced failing some rounds. I think all in all, I have played three versions of this, all made for PC.

3) Pizza Frenzy. When we were still using dial-up Internet here at home, the only way I could think of playing games was to download the trial version (1 hour of gaming) from Yahoo! Games. This was one of the many games I downloaded and although I couldn't play continuously after that 1 hour, what made me finish the entire game was that the game resumes where you left off, and the 5 minutes game given was enough to make me enjoy the game. My siblings loved the game, too, and we were continuously looking for a copy of this, but we still couldn't find one.

Anyway, the object of the game is to deliver pizza. Quite easy, yes, but you still need to have some sort of a gameplay because you need to collect enough money to get you to the next round.

4) Ranch Rush. Long before Farmville and all the farming games out there, there was the Ranch Rush, a time management game where the player is given an order slip and must complete it before the time expires. The very first version of the game was quite difficult for me, as I kept on failing on this one order. Just last month, I was able to play the newest version of Ranch Rush, and as nice as it was, I found it too easy to play, though I loved the fishing mini-game after each week.

5) Farm Frenzy 2. A neighbor friend was the one who introduced me to this game, and it was really addicting. I think this was one of the very few games that I kept on playing long after I have finished the entire game. It was quite simple - just provide the things needed by feeding the animals and collecting raw materials to be used in different products. It was a game that anyone can play, but I guess the thrill of the game was to finish the round as early as possible, because finishing early will give you points that could help you upgrade certain things you needed to advance in the game.

A few weeks before my net book was reformatted, I installed the Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party. Same objectives but different products, but I wasn't able to finish it. Looks like I need to re-install it.

6) Bigby's Donuts. Another one of those "old-school" games that I played thanks to Yahoo! Games. Very simple - just collect the donuts and line them up to get three or more donuts of the same color.

7) Hotdog Hotshot. This was my opening paragraph, so no need to repeat, I guess. :)

8) My Farm Life. My cousin Jayson gave me a copy of this game, and it seemed to be a lot like Ranch Rush, so I loved it from the get-go. However, there were glitches in the game copy so I wasn't able to finish it. I still am looking forward to playing it again, because I just loved it.

9) Burger Rush. Like Bigby's Donuts, this is another "match 3 or more of the same item" game. Difference is that you need to choose which ingredients to match because you have burgers on order you need to finish. It's a great way to wind off time because there wasn't much challenge in this game.

10) Chocolatier. My brother was the first one to play this game here in the house, and at first I couldn't understand why he can actually sit for hours just playing this game. I found it quite boring while watching him, but when I tried my hands on it, I understood why he liked it. I guess the story of the game was the one thing I love in this game besides the actual making of the chocolates.

There are still so many food-related games out there, and I so want to try them all, but if given the chance, the games I want to play the soonest possible time are: Stand O'Food, Top Chef, and the other Farm Frenzy and Diner Dash I still haven't played.

*** Jenn ***

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