baby rambutan

try your luck with the cookbook raffle!!!

i consider these to be a “mestiza” tart of the Eurasian variety…sweetened flaked coconut+almond paste+cherry-pie-type-filling on a butterlicious shortbread crust.
somehow it works!

measuring things out always de-stresses me somehow, and with the rainy gloomy day outside and two boisterous boys (#2son and a favorite pal) playing inside…it was calming and relaxing to make these bars.

the recipe is at my favorite almond paste headquarters.

raffle reminder!

George Clooney-ish salt ‘n pepper na rin siya…talking about the guy in the middle. i can’t say his name out loud….it’s Mike Monserrat!!!
just ignore the blather at the last few minutes. enjoy the dance! wow, when i grow up i wanna be a Penthouse 7 dancer!

here they were 30-odd years ago…

o di ba sya ang pinaka-graceful?

Ideally we should all be showing our love for our mothers or for the mothers-in-our-lives everyday.
Still, one day that is set aside especially just for her is a truly meaningful way to celebrate mama love.
I know that this is one of the biggest holidays for restaurants in the United States. The second Sunday of May is a wonderful day to celebrate the woman who nurtured and shaped, cajoled and cared for and wiped up after us.
To me, having raised my children here for the last 19 years, this time in May means lilacs, lavender, budding roses–springtime finally arriving.
My husband and his siblings take out their mom for a treat with the whole family.

But for those of us who are far away from mom, and who long to shower them with love and affection mother’s day can still be all of the above with just a quick phone call.

Make the Most Important Woman in your life happy with a bouquet in a basket or a pot, a longer-lasting plant, or even fancy chocolates delivered straight to her door.
I think my Ma would love this:

*raffle! raffle! reminder *

a bunch of blue she-crabs!

i was STUNNED at how the prices have gone up everywhere. $100 of groceries used to be quite a few heavy bags of substantial food–chicken and seafood included. now the bags are few and they’re light-as-a-feather.
it was even sadder to see that even the signature blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay area, though still affordable, have gone up in price.

enjoy now while they’re still here i say–these were heavy with crab roe and sweet meat. perfect, just steamed with rock salt and served over hot rice with a dipping sauce nearby (lemon juice and patis for me).

*raffle! raffle! reminder *

finally we made it out to the Minado Seafood Buffet restaurant in Natick! we’d been “sitting” on a joint birthday gift card from the lovely and generous “GooGoo” (auntie) A. for almost a year. (although we missed the lunch sitting and decided to go malling next door at the “Natick Collection” and run an errand or two at the posh town of Wellesley.)

i must admit i had very little confidence in a sushi/sashimi buffet. it seems to be an irreconcilable notion, antithetical. buffet means food sitting in chafing dishes waiting to be scooped up, instead of being served at the exact point of readiness.
it seemed an impossible notion. how fresh could it be?

answer: incredibly so!
above is as neat a plate i could compose for my first nibbles. i just kept portions bite-size and sample-size.
one of my favorites was the ceviche of a seafood medley. hmmm. the salmon tataki with cilantro sauce. the salmon roe and uni rice rolls, the sushi and sashimi, although not quite impeccably-cut by samurai-knife-wielding sushi chefs, were of pristine quality.
for those who don’t eat raw fish (por que por que???) there are various types of teriyaki and lots of fresh salads (seaweed and jellyfish among them) and a hibachi grill too (which i ignored but husband said was more than passable).
the surroundings are kept clean, spills being immediately cleaned up and platters constantly refilled.
they need more oyster shuckers i think–the “raw bar” was the bottle-neck-traffic congestion area of the whole place.

this photo is for my #1son who could not dine with us (he’s not on spring break, but we promised to go back with him VERY soon)–the cute petits fours (tiny frosted cakes in carrot, green tea, mocha, chocolate, raspberry flavors) were just heavenly! carrot, green tea, red bean, and mango ice creams, pineapple sorbet, cookies and jello…my younger two were quite appeased after a hard day’s malling; i must confess my eyes glazed over after a half-hour at the stores .
i fervently hope we won’t be disappointed on our return visit.

Minado Seafood Buffet
1282 Worcester Road (cross street: Speen St.)
Natick, MA 01760
Phone: (508) 647-0495

sorry, please forgive me, for not being able to do the rounds and return the visits, but i really do appreciate all the support for my silly little entries to Litratong Pinoy. i know it takes so much time but you all made such a great effort while i just could not manage to return the favor. thank you thank you.

ipagpaumanhin po! patawad po! hindi ako nakapag ikot ikot o sagot man lamang sa mga dumalaw dito nitong mga nakaraang Litratong Pinoy. maraming salamat sa pag-ukol nyo ng panahon dito sa bugnuting kusinerang t.h..

heto na lang, ang hirap mag isip,
sana nga eh isang buong pirasong HILAW na liempo
pero baka may magkasakit

pangpatawa, heto ang buntot ng aming kuting na pagkalikot likot at napakaharot.

if, like me, you are a mommy who has spent sometime at a children’s library or at the children’s section of the great Big Bookstores then you’re familiar with DK Publishing. they publish lavishly photographed books–we have one that is now so well-worn, a volume that taught my #1son to tell analog time at a very early age. our other favorites are the world atlas and multi-cultural books for kids.
well now i’ve discovered they’ve got wonderful cookbooks, two of which are now featured in the website:
Spain , and the World Table

i just love cookbooks that are generous with illustrations and photographs. escabeche and tapas dishes abound. a lot of the recipes we are already familiar with, but there are also a lot of new and intriguing dishes (stuffed figs with blue cheese!)
Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas

just in time for barbecue season…today it was 80F in the metropolitan Boston area, and we all quite forgot it is just April. everywhere people seem to have dug out their shorts and bright cotton shirts! if you are into wood-fire-grilled pizzas (who isn’t?!) then this cookbook is just the ticket.

so, would you like to win one of these cookbooks?
yes? then if you can answer this very easy question (easy, if you’ve been a faithful and loyal reader of this horribly sporadic and moody blog): what fruit from the Philippines does my #2son and i crave more than any other fruit we can think of? (hint: it is green and it is sour!)

email me drstel@yahoo.com with your answer and preference for either cookbook and we will raffle it off…deadline for submission is May 15. contest is open to everyone as long as i can afford the postage and packaging!!

good luck!

hummus on feta cheese and kalamata olive bread

i don’t know why it is. the crocuses are peeking out, the lily of the valley shoots are all over, and even the old hundred year old maples’ leaf buds are shyly unfolding. i should be leaping for joy now that we’re finally crawling out of the winter that seems to have lasted six months.

instead i don’t have any appetite, and have no desire to cook. cookbooks are “falling” from the sky into my lap. my food magazines still get delivered. lucky for me i have a husband who likes to experiment in the kitchen/lab and who has taken this week off to hang out with our kids on their spring break.

lucky for me too i have the bread machine to play with, it is just about the only thing drawing me in to the kitchen.
i’ve made five loaves so far: white bread, sweet bread, whole wheat, feta cheese and olive, and brioche. yes! brioche! i’ve labored over that dough–it usually takes me 2 days for each attempt (gooey sticky buns; ensaymada). it is my favorite one so far, and it is all i can do to stop myself hugging my R2D2–for that it what the Dak auto bakery looks like.

we have just a small loaf each time, but it’s just right for sampling and because of the ease of use, i am contemplating the possibilities, of all the fresh hot loaves i can make. daily?!

it’s almost enough to shake off these springtime blues.

bigla kasi akong ginutom at ang pinanggigilan ko ay adobong baboy, liempo sa katunayan…

yung talagang tabain at may balat pang mangangatngat? paraisong parisukat? bawal na pag-ibig ko?
paano na lang ang buhay, kung bawal itong pagkasarap sarap na barbeque at adobo at sinigang at….haaaaay.

hala bilis inom ng gamot na pangpababa ng cholesterol….

this is my entry for Litratong Pinoy #3…a square/a cube of fatty pork belly, which i will put into my adobo pot along with some chicken thighs.

i thought a bread machine would be fun to have in the kitchen.
i wanted a Japanese one..but have you seen how much those cost? i couldn’t justify spending too much on a brand new Zojirushi that i might not use much in the end. or that i’d feel pressured to use, to make it worthwhile…so i turned to eBay. i got really lucky and got a barely-used Dak (out of business, but parts are still available). i made our first bread machine loaf the day it arrived…

it was a bit alarming in the beginning, with all the noise it made. but 3 and a half hours later i got the best surprise…

it worked! and it was beautiful, moist-inside-crusty-outside kind of loaf. oddly shaped, but the magical way that it kneaded the dough, “fermented”, baked and cooled it…all you do is measure everything in, in proper order.

freshly baked, i slathered on some carabao butter…*sigh*
thank heavens for all the people who share recipes (the machine didn’t have its original cookbooklet)–i hope to try out as many as i can, who knows how long this machine will last?!