baby rambutan

everything’s been cleaned up and wrapped up. hope everyone had a smooth Thanksgiving day, with family and friends all around. i didn’t have too many mishaps, just a couple of burnt pastries here and there from too much watching the macy’s parademulti-tasking.

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and panic, i try to avoid-eth…

classic, traditional (easy!) pumpkin flan

lobster and corn chowder based on a recipe from “The New England Clam Shack Cookbook,” by Brook Dojny

an extra special appetizer, orange spiced pecans from Bon Appetit. this link is just for “orange pecans” but add nutmeg, cinnamon and cayenne pepper (just a pinch) and there it is. an interesting mix of flavors.
links will be up soon are up. gotta get to sleep now, big dinner tomorrow….

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i think it’s so great just to meditate on the colors of Thanksgiving dinner.

cranberry sauce with port and orange, from BBC Food.
the recipe is here.

my once-a-year treat, yummy corn relish with roasted red peppers and scallions. a great anti-turkey ( you know, as in antipasto?:glasses-slip:) side dish.

i’m done with these two today, and tomorrow i’m off to watch my #2son be a native American and offer seeds to the pilgrims in the school interpretation of the first Thanksgiving of 1621 in Plimoth (Plymouth) Plantation….he insists that to have our family party be authentic i must serve lobster, fish, Indian corn and turkey. wha? darling boy i’m lucky if i can get half of my planned menu off the runway.i find the prepping a lot of brain stimulation and the scheming fires up my wannabe chef impulses (o sige na nga i’m a control freak) but on the big day itself i don’t eat much….tasting the dishes as i go along seems to curb my appetite on the big day. i ought to imitate the real chefs and keep a pocketful of disposable spoons on my chest pocket and taste and spit out and discard….oooooh sorry too graphic ha.

what i do is eeny meenie miney moe plan the menu and decide which ones can be prepared days ahead, which ones can be frozen, then make the shopping lists. then i pray a lot that my guests won’t arrive too early and that everything is healthily edible and no one will go to the hospital because of my food.
anyway, i like being “it” for Thanksgiving.

i gotta have some, sunshine i mean. but it hasn’t shown up here for a while now. Miss Sun! where are you?

you gotta find your own then. and i find something cheery on youtube (where i’ve been wasting timehanging out quite a lot lately)…

two legends together!

wedding song soundtrack? makes grown men cry…

chaka dancing something funky here…but a sweet thing song nonetheless: sweet thing.

then i gotta feed my family something different for a change. i still have some of that excellent duck confit from mirepoix usa, and i found this recipe from epicurious.com. et voila! heto na!

pasta with duck confit and savoy cabbage

a thick and hearty pasta

tasty shredded duck leg confit

duck leg confit cracklings, duck “chicharon”

i couldn’t find the campanelle (bell shaped pasta) nor the garganelli (?) but the local Italian grocery had this unusual cock’s comb shape tucked away behind the shelf…i thought it might do. it was a hit with the kiddies! a very welcome change from the usual bolognese and cheese, and a delightful way to showcase the duck leg confit. i was very lucky to have a supply of it in the freezer and to be able to test out a new recipe, especially one without beans for a change (refer to here and here for past experiments). i must say: it would be nice to have duck confit as a pantry staple, a must-have like bacon or ham or pancetta.

meaty, salty, deep, textural…it had hints of adobo flavor and thyme. i think it could also stand in for sausages.

a restorative soup for when you’re feeling exhausted-tired-cranky-grouchy-crabby. this is from Grace Young’s Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. she says it is popular particularly in Shanghai…. (more…)

stewed pork with pineapple (more…)

yippeeeeee! bluer than blue!
we have cleaned up the House. congratulations to the winners. the Commonwealth of Massachusetts now has its first African American governor, and the House has a Madame Speaker, for the first time! yehey!.

anxiously awaiting the election results (painfully remembering the dark nights of two elections past), and therefore needing comfort food… i made bibingkang malagkit, sweet rice cake, not cheating this time and making a true topping. but! having run out of dark brown sugar and with only barely a quarter cup of light brown, i added granulated white, and the topping came out blonde.

so now the blonde is a celebratory cake! yehey ulit… (more…)

a truly quick and easy meal for a certain someone who’s growing so fast he needs food constantly. the recipe is based on one from epicurious.com. i have never seen the likes of guanciale (bacon from the pig’s jowls) around here so i substituted what’s abundantly available, Smithfield bacon.
spaghetti with carbonara sauce

a friend who invited me to her little party asked, do you like pork? i had to laugh out loud. “only from snout to tail!”

this one is the cartoon essence of love and joy.

recently i found the old Sesame Street songs that they don’t seem to show anymore. or maybe because we don’t get to watch it much nowadays? i’ve been spending a lot of time lately watching old missed videos from here, and new demented ones, and segments of Pinoy lunch programs and talent searches…nakakapangulila!! homesick, me!

i was so torn up inside…i deeply wanted to fry the little fishie. (more…)