friday fun

Nona, our friend and mananahi, and her children, of course her father in-law "uncle" spent their afternoon here with my kids. They went for a swim and I think they bonded so well as they will be coming back next week. With them is Jeru son of my 2nd floor neighbor Joy and Richie from Finissar. I cooked spaghetti for the kids, of course for the mommies as well. They must have liked it as they can't stop asking for more..... or were they just tired and so hungry??? Nona requested for pork adobo, she ate it with rice, she said she liked it... hopefully.. (LOL) i forgot to prepare her tapao, in tagalog "balot". Anyway i will prepare chicken adobo next week. We asked Joy to join our "tsikahan" while the kids were enjoying the pool. It's fun talking with these two ladies. Joy living up to her name as she is full of "joy" with all her shared stories. She cracks a lot of joke. Nona on the other hand is the silent type, although she has a lot of stories to tell as well. Sometimes it just felt so good having some people to talk to. Sharing jokes, thoughts, etc. Mauulit muli....

quote for d day

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

Pork Ribs in Black pepper sauce

The first time I tasted this recipe in one of the Chinese restaurants here, it tasted like our Filipino food "lechong kawali". The sauce is closely the same, yet they use pork ribs. I went to the supermarket and look for a black pepper sauce. I found this "Life" brand and made an experiment on it. First time i cooked it i used pork liempo, my family loved it and it has been one of their most requested meal since then. I used pork ribs as well, but i used different cooking procedure. here it is"






1 kg pork ribs/pork liempo
1Tbs Ginger (chopped)
1 pc Onion (big) (chopped)
1Tbs Cooking Oil
2Tbs Vinegar
1/2c Black Pepper Sauce
1Tbs Sugar
2C Water
1c Mixed vegetable (optional)





Heat cooking oil in a pan, put ginger then onion. Put the pork ribs, saute until golden brown. Put black pepper sauce, mix for 2 minutes. Put the water, vinegar and sugar. Simmer until the meat is tender and the sauce thickens.



Note: for Pork liempo -

Roast/deep fry the pork liempo then chop. Mix water (reduce to 1c), 1/4C black pepper sauce, 1tsp sugar, 1Tbs vinegar. Saute ginger and onion. Put liempo, mix for about 1 minute, put the mixed sauce then fry for 2 minutes until sauce thickens.



Enjoy.....



You can choose your own brand of black pepper sauce in your nearest supermarket.

Pinoy - new lead singer of Journey

Wow! I just read from http://pep.ph/ other than my youtube favorite Charice Pempengco there is one more Filipino making his way to Hollywood. His name is Arnel Pineda the new lead singer of one of my fave bands Journey. He really sounds like Steve Perry. I watched his videos on http://youtube.com/e.com/ , talagang super nakaka proud. Here is one of his youtube video http://youtube.com/watch?v=xUWJ8bf09BU

Journey welcomes Arnel Pineda with "Open Arms" to their family as the bands new lead singer.

quote for the day

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

new-found chef

We usually eat outside every weekend. Our favorite is the Wooly at Canning Garden. It's not a typical restaurant with their own specialty, but a variety of everything. Here in Malaysia they call it hawker... in Pinas we call it turo2, but all food here are freshly cooked. Since the kids got their PS2 they kinda feeling "tamad" to go out . Much as I want to just rest over the weekend from cooking, i have no choice. Last weekend I was not feeling well, my husband volunteered to cook for dinner. It's fried "liyempo" and stir fry vegie (i still don't know what its called, but i will ask my suki on my next visit to bercham). Well, the kids and I liked it. I guessed he got inspired on cooking with all the praises we gave him so he cooked again last night, his own version of the famous filipino food sinigang. I requested the sinigang since i am having trouble with my stomach and i am craving for something sour. I only want the soup, but when i tasted his sinigang, in fairness it was really good! Can't help but to eat it with rice. Kiana got 2 serving of rice, so was Kuya, Kei requested for an additional serving for her usual 2. Ethan almost finished the soup. My husband got nearly nothing left for him. I am so proud of our new-found chef @ home. He said next time he wants to try some grilling, of course i will post it here. The kids and I are looking forward to have a taste of his next menu......

oxtail soup in black beans

This is another family's favorite. My mother used to cook this recipe using pork pata. I sometimes use the same meat, but usually i use beef ribs or oxtail. i don't know what it's called so i just named it oxtail soup in black beans. She cooks this without the green vegetables, so i thought of adding the green vegie ang i guess my husband loved it.

1kg oxtail /pork pata

1 cup black beans (soaked overnight)

5 pcs Medium-sized tomato

1 pc/L Onion

1L Water

2pcs beef Knorr cube (chicken cube will do)

2Tbsp Fish sauce

2 cloves Garlic , chopped

1 bundle spinach (any type of spinach will do)

Chopped onion and tamatoes. Put Oxtail in the pressure cooker together with the water, tomato, onion, beef cube, black beans and fish sauce. Cover and let it boil in 30 minutes or until the meat is tender. In a separate pan, saute garlic, put the spinach, saute not more than 1 minute.

Serve on top of the oxtail soup.

Ginisang Munggo/Green Beans

Munggo or Green Beans, I remember my neighbor back home, this is what she cooks every Friday i guess until now. I don't really eat munggo, I just usually have its sauce or soup. People cooks it differently, some got a bit of sauce, some cooks it just like a soup. Since this is one of my husband's favorite food, I tried to make my own version of it. Timesaver, simple yet a very tasty one. Here's the recipe...

1/4 Green Beans (munggo)
1/2 kg pork ribs/ pata / etc. (any meat bones you like)
3 cups water (depends on the qty of green beans
1-2 pcs Knorr Chicken cube
1 bundle Alukbati white (Australian spinach) or any green leafy vegetables you want
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 Tbs cooking oil

Put the washed green beans and pork ribs + the small onion (chopped) with the 3C of water and Knorr chicken cube in the pressure cooker, bring into boil about 15 minutes or just about its sauce thickens a bit. Cool it down. In a separate pan, saute garlic and put the Australian spinach. Stir it not more than 2 minutes. Put the vegetables on top of your cooked green beans when serving.

Note: if no pressure cooker, bring it to boil until the meat is tender. Maybe 15 minutes longer.
Pressure cooker is a big help, it saves a lot of time. It's worth the buy.

I will try to post its pix, next time i cook it.

french open

yebah! French open has started. I started watching tennis during the days of Agassi, I was not particularly into tennis but into Agassi (LOL). Everybody was so crazy about him, his long hair, the neon color wrist bands, head bands, his looks, everything. I was a big fan. Then I got over it and i just started watching tennis again here in Malaysia, when my husband started playing it and talking about it all the tiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmeeeeeee. In fairness to my husband, he is very good at it. I guess if he had given a chance and he started while he was young he can excel on it. Everytime there is a tournament, my H/P is so busy sending SMS of each others views with my tennis-fan pal Ana. Who will win this time? I'll keep you posted.