Learning to Cook and Other Things

I am so happy that it looks like I will be back in the blogging world for good. First, because we have somehow settled in our new place. Still in Marikina, despite our experience In Provident Village during Ondoy. Second, because my very dear children have just gifted me my very own Compaq Pressario Notebook Computer. The loving thought of giving despite the realities of the moment add to the luster of their action. Thank you, thank you, thank you, mga anak. Salamat. You have really made my Christmas a season distinctly unforgettable. And to the Lord above thank you for this undeserved grace. One prayer: Please protect my children always.

But a brand of Philippine fruit based chocolates as well! There's this new type of chocolates created by a Filipino. As i understand it, the chocolate used by this brand are belgian and french chocolates; considered to be two of the best types of chocolates in the world. Imagine ube or yam, lychee, mango, cashew and pili nuts, guava, buko pandan, muscovado sugar langka or jackfruit, mangosteen, jasmine and curiously, mungbean, fused with belgian and french chocolates shaped in delectably stunning shapes. Ooolala! Cheers! And the brand? Cunningly machiavellian -- Machiavelli of course is the modern day politician and philosopher, idolized by many political figures we know. See more of Machiavelli chocolates here and here . Where to get them in the Philippines? Please visit them at Rustan's Makati, ground floor, Essenses area, in Glorietta 4 . Their store landline is 63 (02) 4839854.

I learned that Cory was a good cook. Noynoy, her son said in an anecdote that when he felt he was doing good in his public life, food served to him was extraordinarily good. But during times when he was unsure, he noticed the food wasn't so good. And he thought, was she angry with me? Truly a typical Filipino mother! So many things have been said about her Presidency. I don't care about that. I just want to remember the good. But what I most admire about Cory is her mothering; how she exemplified sublime motherhood, sacrificing, and unconditionally giving love to her children. Godspeed Tita Cory!!!

Fair Trade Chocolate and Organic Chocolate - Organic Chocolate Brands - thedailygreen.com Posted using ShareThis

I am currently reading one food subject I like a lot . And this is about organic chocolates. Choco goodies that allow indulgence and yet friendly, both to our health and the environment. I didn't know that there were a lot of brands commercially produced, already in the market. Because I don't see them around here where I come from, I thought there were no such bananas. I love learning something everyday. By the way, for food items to be classified organic, they need to adhere to certain standards. The concept originated in 1939, when "Lord Northbourne coined the term organic farming in his book 'Look to the Land' (written in 1939, but published in 1940), out of his conception of "the farm as organism", to describe a holistic, ecologically-balanced approach to farming -- in contrast to what he called chemical farming, which relied on "imported fertility" and "cannot be self-sufficient nor an organic whole". Generally, food /food ite...

While, my children were all growing up, breakfasts were normally accompanied with sandwich fillings, specifically, peanut butter. Yes, the commercial kind. Unlike the ones that my relatives from the province brought us every summer, those found in supermarkets were either too oily or too hard in texture. But, I didn't have a lot of choices back then. Why am I talking about peanut butter today? Because, I just heard that the local Bureau of Food and Drug issued a total recall for all Samuya manufactured food products. Samuya manufactures Ludy's peanut butter. Initially, the recall was just for their sweet and creamy peanut butter lines. But latest news update, indicated a total withdrawal of all Samuya from supermarkets and grocery stores. Apparently, Samuya's peanut based products are contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonella can "cause illnesses in humans and many animals. Think typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and the food borne illness salmonellosis"....

When I recently bought my rosemary plant I also bought a pot of basil. I could not resist how cheap it was against the cost of rosemary. I have always had ongoing relationships with herbs. And so here I go again trying to re-activate those sleeping relationships one herb at a time. As wiki re-introduces me to basil it says, basil is considered the "king of herbs" by many chefs. "Basil" comes from the Latin word basilicus, meaning dragon and being the root for basilisk, but this likely was a linguistic reworking of the word as brought from Greece". As we all already know basil is most often used fresh in cooking recipes. As a general practice fresh or dried basil leaves are added last to a dish essentially because heat quickly destroys its flavour. Basil serves as the main ingredients in preparing pesto. Take olive oil, herb sauce and pine nuts and presto there's pesto. Basil can be kept fresh "for a short time in plastic bags in the refrige...

I think that's a line from a song popular while I was growing up. But this is not about a song. It is about, yes, you guessed right. It is about a Mediterranean culinary herb called rosemary. Yes from the mint family and said to be commonly found near seas. Rosemary is "a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves", and grows up to 5 feet tall upright". It thrives as a trailing, too. I can't believe it bears white, pink, purple or blue flowers which comes out winters or spring. The first time I tried to grow rosemary was a disappointing experience. That plant died, you see. That was almost 7 years ago. Today, I will try to grow one again. Here's another interesting fact: "rosemary is easily pruned into shapes and has been used for topiary". Awesome! "When grown in pots, it is best kept trimmed to stop it getting straggly and unsightly, though when grown in a garden, rosemary can grow quite large and still be attractive....

Did you know that unwanted bacterial pathogens may probably be in your veggies? Of course, we all know that, so, please take care when preparing vegetable salads, particularly. Note the following: 1. E.coli 0157:H7 - cabbage, lettuce, cress sprouts, cilantro 2. Salmonella - tomato, alfa alfa sprouts, cabbage, chili, eggplant, spinach, fennel, parsley, strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupes 3. Bacillus cereus - cucumbers, mustard sprouts, soybean sprouts, cress sprouts 4. Clostridium botulinum - cabbage, mushrooms, pepper. 5. Campylobacter jejuni - green onions, lettuce, mushroom, potato, parsley,pepper 6. Listeria monocytogenes - bean sprouts, cabbage, chicory, cucumber, eggplant, salad vegetables, radish, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes. 7. Staphylococcus - alfa sprouts, carrot, onions sprouts, radish, parsley Contamination can occur in the field, during harvesting, post harvest handling, processing, storage or marketing. The most common sources of contamination being: 1. Fec...

Other food preparation tips my mother used to teach me as early as when I was still in middle school and which I now remember and follow whenever applicable. 1. Store fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator with temperatures ranging from 0 to 21 degrees Centigrade. If you intend to freeze vegetables or fruits, blanch or fully cook them first. Also, make sure they are bought fresh. 2. Fresh fruits and vegetables must be washed using cold but fast running water. The friction of running water helps reduce bacteria. Fresh produce must never be soaked because nutrients can be lost in the water. 3. For best quality, buy vegetables that's usable within 5 days only. Most veggies do not stay fresh after. When buying packaged produce, store and keep in the refrigerator in their original wrap. This helps maintain quality and freshness. Use pre-cut produce as soon as possible. Quality will not last long once the package is opened. Before using all pre-cleaned and previously trimme...

Hello again everyone. Trying to make do with whatever time I have with this laptop to make at least a post about the things I do in my kitchen. The economic downturn is definitely impacting on so many things about our lives. Take for example the case of our food budget. Homemakers are scratching their heads wondering how to make ends meet and yet maintain the same kind of menus their families have all been used to. In your case, do you scrimp, reduce quantity or accept less quality. Health concerns however bars us from resorting to such tactics. Healthy food always require quality ingredients, proper food handling techniques and deliberate menu planning. In my kitchen, I make it a standard practice to ensure that food will remain healthy and appealing from the marketplace to the dinner table. And what better way to do this? Ensuring safe and healthy meals requires practical food handling in freezing, thawing, cooking, cooling and finally, serving. Safety rules that affect storage...

Our former neighbors, a nice Korean couple, gifted us recently with fruits that to me seemed unusual. This was the first time I ever came across a fruit called persimmon. A persimmon, known to the ancient Greeks as "the fruit of the gods" is an edible fruit of a number of species of trees of the genus Diospyros. (i.e. Dios pyros (lit. "the wheat of Zeus"), hence the scientific name of the genus.) The word persimmon is derived from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, from Powhatan, an Algonquian Cree and Mohican) of the eastern United States, meaning "a dry fruit". Persimmons are generally light yellow-orange to dark red-orange in color, and depending on the species. There are different species of persimmon: 1.Black Persimmon or Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna) is native to Mexico. Its fruit has green skin and white flesh, which turns black when ripe. 2.Mabolo or Velvet-apple (Diospyros discolor) w hich is native to the Philippines is bright red when rip...

Are you changing your life's priorities because of the global recession? Here, locally, I believe it is already starting to hit hard. Surely, it affects us all. To stave off the hard times what aspects of your life are you trying or planning to scrimp on? What are your choices? Spend less on the essentials or reduce expense on say, entertainment, travel or clothes? What about medical expense and food? These to me without a doubt are basic necessities or expenditures? Many economic researchers claim that with respect to household spending on food - it will not change much. However, these same researchers also found that majority of families , low-income as well as middle incomed, astonishingly relied more on low-cost, high-calorie foods during difficult times. Does this mean that starches and dairy will remain in most household menus? Starches, say like, noodles, rice and pasta? Of these three, noodles appear to be the cheapest. Look, rice does not get advertised much on...

Creamed aubergine Food we had on Valentines Day, gustoed, somewhere where I didn't have to cook:-) COOL! Penne Breaded fish fillet and spaghetti

I have been remiss in citing my Top Entrecard Droppers for the last few months. I am really, really very sorry. It is just that access to a computer was truly difficult to find. For the month of January however, please allow me to mention them all here. THANK YOU so very much to all my top 10 EC Droppers: 1. Wineworld Winesworld is a friendly wine guide for amateurs, by amateurs. It is a blog about Scandinavian travel, including food & wine and other Scandinavian ways of doing things. 2. Tasty Thoughts Your home to the best news and views about cooking, restaurants, and food. 3. Vigltd Site about being smart because it is not smart to always play it safe. 4. Positivemen Blog about being positive in all aspects of our lives because it can bring wonders to ourselves and others. 5. Fermentedly Challenged A beer blog focused on the variety and enjoyment of good craft beer. Reviews, news and brews. Talks about pairing beer with great food. Video brewery tours and festival revie...

Getting paid to review anything on the web has never been this easy. Because just today, I found myself on the Paying Pos t site. Actually, I was just curious. It has been sometime since I did a paid post. I found it really easy - hassle free. After reading the rules, I registered one of my blogs. Perhaps, it helped that I was using blogger, because in a jiffy, I got to embed the Paying Post code into my blogger template. And now here I am doing this opportunity. That wasn't too difficult was it? Truth be told, I have been doing some paid posting last year. For some reason, I stopped. But when I read about in one of the blogs I subscribe to, I said why not try? I actually miss doing the posts on sites I really liked. And I miss making some little money too. I think both advertisers and bloggers have everything to gain about paying posts as a way of advertising products and services. Not only because these are hard times and everyone could use a little savings, inc...

Have you eaten frogs, I mean frogs legs? Well, I have :-( Accidentally. My late father did me in. That was way back. I was about 9 years old. And we were spending our summer vacation in Nueva Ecija, his hometown. It was cooked " tinolang manok " style. Something like an American chicken soup. Strictly, Asian and Filipino in flavor, it is 'light and refreshing. A simple broth with chicken, sauteed in ginger, shallots, garlic, with green papaya', and chili leaves added near the end of cooking time. At that moment, I thought that was a good dish. Eaten with a hot and generous serving of very white rice, broiled milkfish, red eggs with green mangoes.. on a hot summer lunch. And I thought it was chicken I was devouring. Afterall, it did taste very much like chicken. Aarrgghh! Wikipedia says that: Frogs' legs are one of the better-known delicacies of French and Chinese cuisine. They are also eaten in other regions, such as the Caribbean, the region of Alente...

Some local celebrity mentioned on local TV about grapple. After googling the word I saw this entry from wikipedia . "Grāpple (pronounced /ˈgreɪpəl/) is the registered brand name for a commercially marketed brand of Fuji or Gala apple that has been specially treated to make the flesh taste like a grape. The product is created via a patented liquid infusion process which includes concentrated grape flavor and water as its primary ingredients. Contrary to popular assumption, it is an externally flavored fruit product, not a true hybrid of two fruits". My partner and I were worried that it would have been a genetically modified fruit. And without a doubt, that's something which, for awhile will remain alien, at least for us. But, surprise! It is not. But, is it something more questionable, because it is externally flavored? What does "specially treated" exactly mean? "Using a secret process, mature examples of the Washington State Extra Fancy Fuji apple are...

My apologies to my blogger friends, and everyone who took the effort and take the time to pass by. Our laptop conked out just after Christmas. Only after my son re-installed the OS that things have started to become better. And that was yesterday. Some of the posts in my other blogs you may see, have been blogger scheduled according to the days they all happened but posted just about this morning. Another topic, I am saddened with google's "gift" for the new year. It was totally unexpected, and just when this laptop seems to be coming through, I find my page rank decimated totally: from 2 to N/A :-( Beat the crap out of me please. I truly will never understand. My first instinct was to stop blogging, but then again my partner says, why and what for? Who cares about PR? I do! (hurrrr, sob) Enough said. What I really and had been hoping to do since December 31, 2008 was to greet everyone : A Very Prosperous and Happy New Year!!! May all the impending gloom of 20...