Chips & Dip/Monday Mellow Yellows

A fresh, tasty salsa dip of tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lemon juice and olive oil with store-bought high-fiber tortilla chips.

Linking to Monday Mellow Yellows

Baked Potato/Blue Monday & Monday Mellow Yellows

Before I baked potato with butter, ham and cheese.

Linking to

Monday Mellow Yellows

Blue Monday

Breakfast of Champions

sauteed corned beef with potatoes

I don't know about you but I am always hungry when I'm on vacation, especially at the beach.  I have always been a late riser that breakfast is either rushed or skipped.  But when I'm on vacation, I look forward to late, slow and heavy breakfast to get me going.

This was our breakfast when my friends and I were in Subic recently.  We had a 7-year old bodyguard---the corned beef omelet and Spam were prepared for her.  The fried tuyo was a special request by yours truly. Since mom's elevated BP in December, there has been a total ban on all kinds of dried fish at home as well as bagoong, and fish sauce---my mom's favorite side dishes.  

These were the answers to my salt craving.

   

Still smacking my lips thinking about fried tuyo dipped in spicy vinegar, fried rice and brewed coffee.  I know I should stay away from salty foods, and I am really trying.:p

the main attraction!

Linking to Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

Valenciana/Mellow Yellow Monday

A bowl of Arroz ala Valenciana  my brother cooked.   The glutinous rice turned yellow from turmeric.  Looks good, right?  It tasted even better.:p

Arroz ala Valenciana is a Spanish dish popular in the Philippines.  The dish consists of glutinous rice cooked in turmeric; the rest of the ingredients such as chicken, Chorizo de Bilbao, pork, chicken liver, green peas or garbanzos are sauteed in garlic and onion.  Garnish with bell pepper and raisins.

Linking at Mellow Yellow Monday

Kinilaw na Dilis

My cousin Mark's specialty--kinilaw na dilis (anchovies salad).  The raw, deboned anchovies were marinated in coconut vinegar for a few minutes then lightly squeezed to take excess vinegar.  Then the fillet was tossed in coconut milk, onions, ginger, kamias, tomatoes, black beans and crushed peanuts.  Spicy chili is optional.  This was a scrumptious appetizer over bottles of beer and kwentong barbero with my cousins.

Join us at Food Trip Friday and Food Friday

My sweet camote

You can always tell when I'm on diet--I got a hungry look on my face.:p  Recently, a friend told me that camote (sweet potato) is a good substitute for rice so I bought a kilo to try it out.  But boiled camote and sinigang na baboy?    It's a weird combination.  Grilled fish and boiled camote---they just don't taste good together.  I ended up eating boiled camote with my coffee, and my nephew said he feels sorry for me!   So I mashed it (with feelings :p), added some condensed milk and grated cheese on top and chilled it.  It was a hit!

Join us at Food Friday

Beef Pacham

This is something I concocted and my nephew called it Beef Pacham (patsamba).  It's marinated beef strips in salt, black pepper and soy sauce sauteed in garlic and onions.  Beef strips were cooked in the marinade until tender, added oyster sauce.  Added carrots, corn kernels, green peas and red bell pepper---aside from the fact that the mixture added texture, it also made my beef pacham colorful.  And it wasn't bad at all.:p

Join us at Food Friday

Cheesy shrimps

@ mirandablue

Cheesy shrimps---something I cooked at home and brought to a potluck for a friend's "welcome home" party after a long stay in the hospital.  This dish was doubly delicious because it was shared with friends.

Posted for Food Friday hosted by Maiylah

Callos ala Monserat

@ mirandablue

I planned of cooking callos on Sunday--I had been craving for it the past few days.  I had all the ingredients ready. Unfortunately, I woke up late on Sunday morning and my mother was already cooking for lunch while I was making coffee.  I am a firm believer of  "too may cooks spoil the broth" so I let her be. This is my mom's version of callos---and her name is Monserat.  She added the bacon but not the Chinese sausage which she claimed she didn't notice in the chiller.  I know she prefers Chorizo de Bilbao. My mother, a stickler to her own cooking style, didn't add white wine, either.  The result was still callos...it was missing the flavors that I craved for, but I couldn't complain, could I?:p

Callos is a stew of ox tripe, sausage and chickpeas.

Join us at Food Friday

Ground Beef Torta/Frittata

@ mirandablue

Bought half a kilo of ground beef for a pasta dish that I planned to cook for the weekend.  But I got lazy (not surprising :p), and forgot about the ground beef 'till my mother discovered it while stacking some old bread in the freezer. And look what she made---*drum roll* ground beef torta (or frittata), my favorite, made more delicious with sweet chili sauce.


Its got a mixture of diced potatoes, carrots, corn kernels, green peas, red bell pepper, raisins, flour and eggs. Salt and pepper to taste.

I'm linking to Maiylah's Food Friday.

Pan-grilled Cream Dory

@ mirandablue

I was in the mood for fish, and remembered I had some frozen cream dory in the fridge.  Thawed the fish fillet and marinated it with salt, pepper and chopped cilantro.  Pan-grilled the fillet after two hours, sprinkled some chopped cilantro, and served it with lemon-butter sauce.  Light and easy.

Join us at Food Friday

Crab with coconut milk

@ mirandablue

We had this for dinner at home a few nights ago---crabs with squash, string beans and chili peppers cooked in coconut milk.  The crabs were not huge but they were fat and succulent!:p

My contribution to Food Friday hosted b Maiylah

Pasta Bolognese

@ mirandablue

While I am posting this pasta bolognese I cooked on Christmas day, the olive oil, garlic and cheese from my pasta dinner are still singing flavors in my mouth.  It's true what they say--no woman is lonely eating pasta, I am paraphrasing.:p

I've been following this bolognese sauce recipe since I learned how to cook pasta.   But instead of  bacon (which I forgot to buy), I used ham.  The other ingredients are ground beef, carrots, celery, garlic, onions, tomato sauce, cream, red wine, salt & pepper.  I added fresh basil and button mushrooms.  This was the first time I used conchiglie or shell pasta, a pasalubong from my sister.   I thought the conchiglie was a bit strange for bolognese sauce.  But the shell-shaped pasta was actually perfect to hold the chunky sauce.  The burst of sauce when you bite into the shell pasta was quite enjoyable.

Posted for Food Friday and Food Trip Friday

Kare-Kare

Kare-Kare with spicy bagoong (shrimp paste) 

 "Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm." ~Ambrose Bierce

Posted for Food Quote

Everyday Life: Local Food

Theme:  Local Food

Gising-Gising, a spicy dish made of sauteed swamp cabbage (locally known as kangkong) stalks, shrimps and green chili peppers, simmered in coconut milk.

I cooked this dish at home inspired by the delicious Gising-Gising I had at Abe-Serendra.

Posted for Everyday Life ATW