New York New York

I’m sooo craving for the New York New York sandwich from Almon Marina! I used to have it all the time, especially when I used to go to Fitness First in WestGate. And I can’t have it now because  Manila is thousands of miles away.

*sigh* That’s the downside of being away from home. No matter how good you have it here, home will always offer more. Not just food, mind you, but the comfort that being in your home turf can bring. The familiarity of everything you know just gives you confidence. And I think you’ll only fully realize it once you’re away.

I think it’s part of human nature to want to go away, start anew, try a new life. But being home – nothing can beat that.

Is it wrong that one of my main motivations to go to work before 9 am is to buy my breakfast sandwich which gets sold out if I get there too late?

Pesto and hummus

A week ago, I bought a blender, thinking I’d make some pesto and hummus. And this weekend, I finally got around to doing it!

Yesterday’s experiment was hummus. Got chickpeas from Giant, tahini paste and lemons from FairPrice, and voila. I made the mistake of putting too much in the blender though..it was around 3/4 full, and it took me so long to blend it, and I ended up having too much hummus. It doesn’t taste the same as the one I love from Cafe Med, but I suppose it’s close enough.

I used it to make grilled chicken tortillas, and my husband loved it! The last time we had tortillas, I used Tostitos medium salsa and grated Kraft cheddar cheese, which was pretty nice as well. But yesterday’s was pretty nice too.

And today, we bought some crackers from the supermarket and used it properly, as a dip. Yum yum.

I also bought spinach from FairPrice to make pesto. I know, I know..pesto is traditionally made from basil, but our supermarket always seems to be out of stock of basil whenever I go, and I remembered that you can also make pesto out of spinach. So with the pine nuts already at hand, I was all set to go.

After pulsing it in the microwave, I mixed it with my spaghetti and prawns, and it was really nice. My husband thinks I’m on a roll. Heh.

Pinakbet

I am so craving for pinakbet right now. And with bagoong in my ref courtesy of my parents’ visit last week, all I would need to do now is to collect veggies from our friendly neighbourhood supermarket.

I’ve never tried pinakbet before, though, so this will be my first experiment at cooking it. That’s the nice thing about experimenting with food…you’ll always get, ahem, productive results, one way or another!

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Update:

Went down to the supermarket after posting this entry and bought the ingredients. I got to buy pork belly, ampalaya, okra, kangkong, and French beans. Too bad the supermarket didn’t have squash or eggplant on stock..but anyway, the dish still turned out to be yummy! And it’s easy-peasy too!

Boil the pork belly, chopped up into thin slices, for around 30 minutes. I prepared the rest of my ingredients while boiling to save time. I was already hungry! Haha.

Then I panfried the pork slices before adding the garlic, onions, and tomatoes. Saute until they are all wilted.

Add around 3 to 4 tbsp bagoong (or to taste), and let it simmer after adding 2 cups of water.

Add all the veggies, except for the ampalaya. Saute until cooked. Finally, add the amplaya. Let it sit there until all the veggies are cooked.

And voila! Home-cooked pinakbet!

dinner!

Tried my hand at cooking again today, since H was saying again how much he loves eating the food I cook. He’s been craving for pulutan food, even if he doesn’t really drink anymore, so I scrounged around for nice dishes.

Voila! Tonight’s dinner: garlic rice, nilasing na hipon (crispy shrimp with Stella Artois batter), and sisig. It was pretty good, but entailed a lot of work. My hands hurt chopping up the pork belly into teeny tiny pieces, our help had to get the grill out, oil popped from the fryer…but the end result was worth it.

Success!

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OT: Today marks the first anniversary of my unemployment! It’s been one year of laziness, nyrrhh.

Adobo

I’m so excited for lunch. Now, that makes me sound like a glutton, doesn’t it? Heh.

But really, I am, and it’s because I cooked chicken adobo!!! The last time I had authentic Pinoy adobo was when I first got back to Pinas, and I’ve had bouts of cravings for it ever since. It’s really one of my favorite dishes, and after texting my mom to confirm that I’ve got the steps and ingredients right, I did it!

It looks so yummy that I can’t wait till it’s time for it. Yum.

M&Ms

I’m an M&M-aholic. Seriously.

I’ve cut down SO much though. I severely ration my M&Ms fix, and I don’t even have any packs open even if I have some waiting for me.

But a few weeks ago, I just couldn’t resist trying M&M’s Pirate Pearls. Basically, it’s white chocolate M&Ms…yummy!

So that reminds me…when you were a kid, did you also just call it MMs too? As in..em-ems?

And when did you first start calling them M and M’s?

But whatever you call it, they’re just sooo addictingly good. Mmm.

lemon chicken

So was it just a coincidence that I happened to sit right in front of the lemon chicken, one of my fave dishes at Super Bowl? Had a yummy dinner there tonight to celebrate my friend’s birthday. The food there is really just dee-lish, how could I even think of resisting? Anyway, happy birthday, birthday girl!

tuna patties

I cooked tuna patties tonight. I got to watch one of those Saturday morning cooking shows on local tv this weekend, and I saw them make this. Since it seemed pretty simple to make, I decided to give it a go. The only problem was, they pretty much rushed making it in the show, and they didn’t actually go into the process of making the patties; merely showing the different stages of the recipe.

So while there were a lot of questions in my mind (e.g., how did they make the mashed potatoes in the microwave? just pop it in and mash it, or mash it beforehand or something? Also, how come it was so hard to make the patties gel together? Stuff like that), I still managed to come up with a finished product. Drizzling the cooked patties with some sort of buttermilkcheese sauce, I served the dish to my family, who, surprisingly enough, enjoyed it!

I guess it just goes to show that there’s no harm in trying. Thank God we’re all still alive.