Versatile Blogger Award

A few days ago, I received a lovely surprised. My first blogger award.
Thella of I love. Therefore, I cook has honored me with the Versatile
Blogger Award! Thank you so much Thella. I am grateful and honored
that you consider me as one of the bloggers worthy of this award.

As part of accepting the award, I have to follow these guidelines:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award:
again, maraming salamat, Thella.

2. Share 7 things about yourself:

- i love the smell of freshly mowed grass

- i find it difficult to express myself in writing. My sister, Gay of
A Scientist in the Kitchen introduced me to blogging.
This helps me practice my writing composition.

- my favorite comfort food is Chicken Adobo sa Gata (chicken adobo
in coconut milk) and inihaw na liempo (grilled pork belly)

- i love watching NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service)
and NCIS: Los Angeles tv series

- we don't have a food processor and oven at home. i would love
to have my own oven so I can bake and bake and bake

- i am more productive in the afternoon.

- i have difficulty keeping my rosemary plant alive.

3. Share the award to 15 other bloggers who you have recently
discovered and think are fantastic. Link to each of the recipients and
let them know they've won. I find this so difficult since there are so
many awesome blogs out there and am passing this award to those
I have recently discovered. In no particular order they are:


The Witchy Kitchen : Brew - Taste - Smile

Liv Life : Our attempts at living life to its fullest through food,
photography, and travel!

Foodiva's Kitchen : Adventures in my Haute kitchen.

Tes at Home : Home Cooked Food and Family Time

Speakeasy Kitchen : Law-abiding lawyer by day, renegade chef by night.
Food-obsessed at all times. I've dabbled in a lot of things over the years,
but one thing stays constant. I need to feed people almost as much as I need to eat.

Sheng of Anything goes...

My Delicious Life in San Francisco : Eating. Drinking. Loving. Living.
In the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area that I call home.

Joy's Misadventures

Surviving Suburbia : the job... the marriage... the kids... the mortgage...
life changes. but it doesn't have to stop.

The Mom Chef : Taking on recipes one magazine at a time

Christine's Kitchen Chronicles : A collection of recipes that will tickle
your taste buds and leave you wanting more

Jun-blog : San Francisco Food Photography

Liz' Test Kitchen : Family-tested food from a multitude of sources....

Kitchen Confidante : sharing taste and inspiration

Val and Mani of The Little Things

WHB - Cheese Sticks

During my visit to General Santos City, I was able to watch my friend
Sheng prepare cheese sticks for her kids. I didn't realize it was easy
to do. Instead of wrapping the cheese in spring roll wrapper, she used
molo or siomai wrapper instead.

Sheng preparing the cheese sticks

Last Sunday I decided to make some cheese sticks for afternoon snacks.
I added some herbs (tarragon, dill & mint) with it to make it more exciting.
I made several herb combination and my favorite is tarragon & mint
cheese sticks.

mint, tarragon and dill on my cheese sticks

You will need:

Siomao or Molo wrappers
cheddar cheese , cut into 1/4 inch thick
herbs of your choice
watter
oil for frying
cayenne pepper (optional)

Wrap each cheese sticks in Siomai or Molo wrapper, together
with the herbs, folding the edge and sealing it with water. Fry
the cheese sticks until golden brown and drain oil in paper
towel. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper if you like before serving
it with mayonnaise. This is great for snacks or appetizer.


Cheese sticks goes well with


Salay Tea (Lemongrass Tea)


This dish is shared to all Weekend Herb Blogging(WHB) followers.
Thanks to Haalo who is managing the event and to Huan of Eat.Read.Live
who is our host this week.

PPN - Pinoy Style Spaghetti

Pinoy (slang for Filipino) Spaghetti is sweet. The usual tomato
sauce is replaced with Banana catchup, which makes the sauce
sweeter. You may see someone pouring catchup on his spaghetti,
don't be surprised. He is just trying to "sweeten" it. I do this
sometimes :). Our neighbor like it so sweet that they add
condensed milk in the sauce (no kidding!).

Besides being sweet, what makes Pinoy Spaghetti special is the
presence of hotdog, along with ground pork or corned beef.
In kiddie parties, your dish is not "special" if hotdog is missing in it.
Pinoy Spaghetti is also commonly served with the pasta and sauce
already mixed.

There are many variations in cooking Pinoy Spaghetti but my
favorite is my Dad's. I requested him to cook for us last
Father's Day. He agreed as long as I provide his favorite
San Mig Lite Beer.



Dad's Pinoy Style Spaghetti

250 gms spaghetti
2 bot 300 gms UFC or Papa Banana Catsup
1 can 150 gms corned beef
3 pcs hotdog sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp soy sauce
pepper

Cook pasta according to package direction. In high heat,
saute garlic until light brown. Add onions and cook until
onions are limped. Add corned beef, hot dog, soy sauce
and pepper. Stir for 1 minute. Add banana catsup.
Simmer for 3 minutes. Add pasta and mix well.
Remove from heat and serve with grated cheese on top.





My first time to link to Foodie Friday: http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/








I am also sharing this to all pasta lovers thru
Pam of Sidewalk Shoes who is hosting
this week's Presto Pasta Night(PPN)




You might want to try some of my PPN entries:




Sauteed Flat Noodles
(Stir fried noodles)








Batchoy Tagalog
(Have you tried pig's blood in your dish?)








Ginisang Kalabasa
(Sauteed Squash)

WHB - Nilaga w/ Spinach

Probably the easiest Filipino dish, Nilaga (boiled) is usually found
in every Filipino home. Everything is boiled in a big pot and cooking
time varies on the ingredients. Beef or pork as meat with choice of
the ribs, pata (leg) or brisket part. Common vegetables used are
potato, cabbage and pechay (bok choi). Others also use carrots,
malunggay and in my case, spinach.

I bought a bunch of spinach a few weeks back and planted the stalk.
After my vacation from General Santos City, I was happy to see
my spinach thriving beautifully. I decided to use it for my Nilaga.

Pork Ribs Nilaga w/ spinach

1 K pork ribs
1/2 k marble potato
1 large onion, quartered
2 Tbsp fish sauce
bunch of spinach
salt and pepper
3-5 cups water
ginger (optional)

Boil pork ribs in a cooking pot together with the onions, ginger
(optional), pepper and fish sauce until tender. Add marble potato
and simmer until cook. Add in spinach and simmer for about 2
minutes. Season with salt and pepper before serving hot.

I am sharing this dish for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB),
an event started by Kalyn, now being managed by Haalo.
This week's host is Anh of A Food Lover's Journey.

Try my other WHB entries:


Lemongrass Juice



Smoke Fish w/ Cacawate