It's a Delight!

Wee! One of our fave fastfood restaurant is here! I'm talking about Hainanese Delights. We first tasted it in Baguio in one of our regular Christmas vacations. Then we started secretly wishing for it to have in Manila. Yes, they have it in Manila now and it's in Mega Mall. We get to eat there every Sunday right after the church service. Life is good!

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My Version of Pumpkin Soup

I wish I knew how to make pumpkin soup when the kids were still small. Wearing eyeglasses could have been avoided. I started doing it only a few months ago and they love it. Every now and then they request me to make this soup for them. I don't use pumpkin though but squash. If you ask me the difference between the two, I'm sorry but I don't know. What I know is that they are different varieties of a winter squash, I think ^_^ .

Here's how I did it. I boiled the squash with garlic and onions. You are supposed to use chicken broth, but if you don't have one, Knorr Chicken Cubes will do. I blended it to become puree. Put back in the pan, if you need more stock, you can use the water where you boiled the squash from. Add cream, basil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. That's it!

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Appetizer Recipes

I was jumping with joy when I found this website with appetizers recipes. Honestly I want to learn. I only get to taste appetizers whenever we dine at hotels. We don't do it at home, we have soup, salad, but never the appetizers they serve in hotels. I think I want to try and make one for the weekend. Frittatas sound yummy and it's actually easy to prepare. I just hope the kids will like it, like I told you, they are not used to having appetizers at home.

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My Own Version

It's my first time to actually prepare it. As usual I first tasted this at a japanese restaurant I frequent. I was like, mayo spaghetti? How does it taste? Out of curiosity, I tried it, and boy was it yummy! I actually do not know how to make it step by step nor the ingredients. I made a wild guess though when I made my own version. My ingredients included japanese mayo, nestle cream, olive oil, bacon, asparagus and garlic. That is the most I can come up with. Of course they won't be telling their trade secret, so it's up to me to discover. So far, so good, coz my family really loved it. And that's what matters most.

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Sizzling Plates

It's been my dream to purchase at least 10 sets of sizzling plates. I actually do not know where to buy it so I had to ask my MIL where. She told me that it's available in Quiapo. So off we went to Quiapo and was able to purchase it. I already used it trying to copy the recipe we had at one of the food chains. The kids said that it was close to what we had. Of course the food chain will not share their secret, it's up to me to discover.

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Salad for Lunch

That's what I had 3 days ago, with a piece of meat to go with it. I didn't have rice, just that. And what do you know, after 5 minutes I went hungry, came down and gulped a glass of milk. I wonder if I can still go back to the days when all I eat for lunch and supper is just a plate of salad. Yeah I did that for 2 straight weeks and I lost weight. Oh I have to get used to it again. For lunch I again had salad with fried chicken on the side. Again I didn't eat rice, but this time I didn't drink milk either, haha success! I wish to do away with the bulging tummy in time for another dance recital. I hope I can do it.

It's actually very easy to prepare a salad. Here I used 2 kinds of lettuce, apples, oranges, black olives and bacon bits. And here's how I made the dressing. Mix together olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add sugar and salt. That's it. You can add ground black pepper to your salad if you wish.

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UP = Street Food ^_^

squid balls & carioca

When N mentioned to me that he was going to have a prenup shoot at UP (University of the Philippines), I didn't have second thoughts of going with him. Aside from helping him bring his stuff and assisting him, I had a different thing in mind. I was dreaming of eating squid balls and carioca. It's only in UP that I get to eat those kinds of stuff, it's really scary buying them from the carts roaming the streets. They say that in UP, those vendors get a health certificate or something, I dunno what it's called really, before they can sell something. So it's always at the back of my mind that it's cleaner compared to those ones roaming the streets. So there, I got to eat my favorite squidballs dipped in sweet chili sauce and carioca. Carioca is made from glutinous rice (ground rice), boiled then fried with lots and lots of brown sugar. YUM!

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The Steak That They All Love

If you ask the members of my family what they want for lunch or dinner, they would all recite in unison "STEAK". Whenever we eat out, the first thing they look for in the menu is steak. Yes, they don't get tired of eating steak. So I thought, why not learn how to do steak right at my own home. So I did. I usually buy it (tenderloin, sometimes ribeye) from Monterey. But today we are lucky, my SIL arrived from the States and she brought us some. Yippee! And here's how to do it.

Continue reading HERE.

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Takatak Queen

Oh yes I'm the "Takatak Queen" in the kitchen, "takatak" meaning I put in a dash of herbs and spices to what i'm cooking (it's more like open a bottle of thyme and "taktak" in the pan ^_^ ) And did you know that I'm not one who measures ingredients? N has been constantly reminding me to write down how much of these and that did I put for a certain recipe, so the taste would be consistent, and he always says who knows one day you're gonna put up a restaurant. And did I buy that? Nope! Me and my stubborn self, or is it more like lazy? I always have a ready answer for it. I only cook for the family and more or less I know how much to put in every recipe.

So here is my recipe in photos of Prawns in Lemon Butter Sauce. (Go figure how much to "taktak") Click on the photos to enlarge

the ingredients
don't throw away the shrimp heads, they're yummy

Note: the hungry people in the dining table could not wait for me to get a fresh battery for my camera so I will be able to take a shot of the cooked prawns. All I hear is "hhhmmm...Mom, this is so yummy". Shhhh, just between you and me, Josh finished 9, and Ish about 5. N had 3 only, but almost finished all the heads (he knows how to pick the yummiest). This recipe goes well with garlic rice.

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