HOMELAND SEASON 4 EPISODE 1 – THE DRONE QUEEN

The first episode starts off with a bang, and a big one at that since it’s a bombing that Carrie was in charge of, a drone strike somewhere in Pakistan. The scene starts with Carrie inside a car, being driven by embassy personnel then she asks to get off as she had not been out of the embassy in days. So she walks the rest of the way, in a dimly-lit street with an armed guard until she receives a phone call and immediately proceeds to their ‘office’. Inside, she learns that an intel from Sandy confirms the presence of a highly-value target and they have to make a decision whether or not to continue the bombing. At first, Carrie was a bit hesitant since she wanted to have confirmation from a second source (she felt uneasy relying on Sandy’s unnamed operator for the past four ‘hits’ they made) and also the fact that they do not have ground intel on the farmhouse and whoever was inside with the ‘target’. But Sandy assured her that they would never get a second sighting of this individual and so she had no choice but to approve the hit. So the bombs were dropped and as the explosion occurs and the huge monitor fades to black, a cake with some candles and the words ‘Drone queen” written in it is brought in by her staff and everyone sings to Carrie to celebrate her birthday.

Carrie goes home and celebrates with some champagne and a sleeping pill (I guess) then proceeds to video-chat with her sister who tells her that she just missed her baby girl as she is now taking a walk with Carrie’s dad at the park. It seems to be not the first time that Carrie was remiss in her schedule to video-chat with her daughter and Maggie was not at all pleased with her. After some time, she goes to bed, after putting on a mouthguard, a face mask and earplugs. Then, the next scene shows the aftermath of the explosion with people getting frantic and screaming as they search through the rubble looking for bodies and survivors.

Next shown was Saul (Oh good! He’s still part of Season 4!) but he doesn’t seem to be working with the CIA anymore but some private agency who is having some dealings with government generals. In one briefing, he took a turn and spoke his mind about the kind of decisions they had been doing for the past fourteen years. His boss takes him out in private and reprimands him by saying “It’s not your job anymore to have a say in the matter.” Back at the CIA, Carrie watches a newsfeed confirming that their intended target had indeed been killed however, so were 40 other guests at a wedding...oops! Terrible miscalculation and Carrie is not pleased at all!

Meanwhile at Islamabad, Pakistan rallies/pickets have been ongoing outside the US embassy. A meeting is happening between the US ambassador, Peter Quinn and Sandy (station chief at Islamabad) and the ambassador wants to know what she can tell the foreign minister about the strike. Sandy defends that the wedding was nothing but a PR claim/bullshit and that even the Pakistani government wants the guy dead. But the ambassador countered that they are not so supportive if civilians are involved. Sandy further justifies that the civilians died on their own volition since they knew Haqqani (their target) was a marked man.

Next, a young man (named Aayan) is shown being nursed back to health. He learns that the rest of his family died in the bombing and he gets up to find the bodies of his loved ones...truly a heart-wrenching scene. (The guy seems familiar and later on with Google I find out he was the same guy in Life of Pi) In Carrie’s office, she was also surveying the scene of the bombing and their camera chances upon Aayan who looks at the sky-camera angrily (as if he knows they are watching). Then, Carrie gets a call from Quinn and she tried to reassure him that the brouhaha would soon die down since they are ‘bullet-proof’.

Saul and Mira are still together but it seems their marriage is still a work in progress since even if Saul was already out of the CIA, he still manages to miss important dinners and was still apologizing to his wife for not making her a priority. Then, Saul shares what happened at his job today how he screwed up and he feels that it wasn’t working out. But Mira insists that he apologize to his boss and fix things up. Then, on a bus back to his university, Aayan is seen crying as he holds his broken phone and watches a video of the wedding. His roommate is surprised seeing him alive and he shares to him how he lose his entire family at the bombing.

At a bar, Carrie is approached by a soldier (1st Lt. Edgars) who berates her for approving the mission the other night in Pakistan. It seems he was in one of the planes who dropped the bomb and now feels some guilt over the lots of lives lost in the incident. Carrie denies knowledge that they knew that a wedding party was taking place. He called her a ‘fucking monster’ which made Carrie angry ordering him to get the fuck out of her face. Later on, Aayan’s roommate convinces him to do something, to disprove media reports denying that there wasn’t a wedding. He wants Aayan to release the video on the internet but Aayan is too overcome with grief to fight anymore. He calls them cowards and that he is dishonouring his family’s name by keeping the truth.

The next day, before Carrie fully awakens, she receives a call from Lockhart informing her about a video that had been uploaded on the internet two hours ago. It seemed authentic and so Lockhart wanted Carrie and Sandy to spin some damage control. So Carrie heads out to Islamabad to meet with Sandy and Quinn while Saul watches the said video online and tries to contact Carrie but fails. Aayan confronts his roommate about the video going viral and demands that he take it down. Quinn tells Sandy that Carrie is arriving soon but Sandy had to go out and meet someone outside so he tells Quinn to inform him when Carrie arrives. Sandy takes a circuitous route outside the embassy (probably to evade the protesters outside) to meet a mysterious person he was texting earlier

Quinn meets Carrie at the airport and she gets briefed by Quinn about what has been happening so far. They also discuss about Sandy and how his intel had been good until now but his sketchiness in his dealings had even his superiors and case officers worried. Then, they discuss Carrie’s job at Kabul – her cold-blooded/calculated killing with a designated hit list with the help of Sandy who supplies the coordinates of whom to hit. As they were talking, they see a picture of Sandy being flashed on the TV news. Sandy heads to an apartment where he seemed to have keys but they seem to be not working so he texts the person to ask if he changed the locks but got no answer???

Quinn calls Sandy who says he was at his residence but apparently he was not as security was just there to get him and so Quinn told him that his cover had been blown and they need to take him back to the embassy. Sandy tells them his location and when he sees some commotion outside the apartment he goes thru the back door and makes his break. He manages to make it out the street but gets caught in an ambush by a mob of locals. Quinn and Carrie arrive in time to save him but the mob manages to smash the car windows and get Sandy from the car. Carrie attempts to jump out to save him but Quinn insists there was nothing they can do and barely escape the madness.

Quinn and Carrie drive back to the embassy in silence and upon arriving, Carrie is all seriousness and wanted to head straight to the briefing with the ambassador but Quinn wanted to have a minute to compose himself after all that happened. Carrie and Quinn then get into an argument as she said they could have done more but Quinn disagrees and tells Carrie off. She demands that he get inside in five minutes and before the episode ends, Carrie is shown in a bathroom numbly wiping blood from her face. I guess this just shows that we now see a different Carrie – someone totally emotionally detached from what she is doing – after all it is the only way for her to keep sane and still be working for the agency that was responsible for killing the man she loved.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – OVERNIGHT OATMEAL WITH STRAWBERRIES AND CINNAMON

This morning when I woke up at 5:00 a.m., since I was not able to make my overnight oatmeal last night (I forgot eh!), I hurriedly mixed up a cup of rolled oats, some leftover strawberries (from the hubby’s recent trip to Baguio), cinnamon, maple syrup and low-fat milk which I then popped into the fridge while I exercised some thirty minutes on the stationary bike. After an hour of mommy duties (cooking, cleaning stuff) I took my bath, got dressed and took a ride to work with my baon/breakfast in tow so that when I arrived at the office at around 9, my overnight breakfast oatmeal is ready to eat...just like it was prepared the night before - yummy! (the strawberries were a bit sour though maybe because they weren’t in season. Next time I’d try putting them in syrup the night before to make them sweeter.)

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 3 – FOUR WALLS AND A ROOF

The episode starts where the last episode ends with Bob still as Gareth’s captive and him waxing philosophical to Bob about why all these (eating people) is necessary for survival...(particularly theirs) then he tells Bob that he was gonna hunt down all the members of Rick’s group and eat them all after what they did - destroying Terminus and killing his mother (Helen). He is particularly salivating for Carol’s blood and Gareth continues by telling him that Sasha would probably taste better than him since she is pretty. They have this theory that pretty ladies taste better than men. At first Bob was just whimpering in pain and revulsion then later on he convulses into unmistakable fits of laughter and when the hunters find his laughter uneasy and circle around him like vultures he gleefully reveals that he had been bitten by a zombie and that he is now – TAINTED MEAT! (Huh! I was right!) Gareth, in his rage, kicks him unconscious and tried to placate the rest of his group who were by now gagging up all over the place, by telling them they cooked him so his meat must already be safe to eat.

Next scene shows Sasha using her night vision scope to look for Bob then she is followed by Rick and Tyreese who informs her that Carol and Darryl were also missing so they must have been together. Sasha angrily returns to the church and demands from Father Gabriel where their missing comrades were. Sasha feels that Fr. Gabriel had something to do with the others that had suddenly gone missing and Rick wants him to come clean with whatever it was that was obviously bothering his conscience. Father Gabriel insists that he was alone, always had been...then he breaks down and tearfully admitted that when the people outside started turning into walkers, he locked his church doors and refused to open them again even to families and other members of his congregation who came to the church hoping to find sanctuary. They begged for mercy and continued to scream and damning him to hell and now he is convinced Rick and his group has come to punish him.

Then, suddenly they hear a low whistle outside and they see a body on the grass outside. They also see some walkers about to approach the body and so the group run out and see Bob without his legs. They carry Bob inside and get rid of the walkers, not seeing the blood red letter ‘A’ sign painted on the side of the church. Inside, Bob explained what happened to him – how he was at the graveyard and somebody knocked him out then next thing he sees they were eating his leg and he also tells them that Darryl and Carol drove off together somewhere. Then, when they try to provide him some painkillers to ease his pain he sits up and reveals to everyone that he had been bitten during that time at the food bank. They try to make Bob comfortable and sit him on the couch at Fr. Gabriel’s office and leave him with Sasha.

Father Gabriel admits knowing where the schoolhouse was located that the Hunters had been hiding out in and so Rick and the others try to make plans to run after them. But then Abraham insists that they should instead leave now for DC while they still can and avoid the threat, anyway, they already fixed up the bus early this afternoon. But Rick demands that they wait for Carol and Darryl (who by the way saved all of them at Terminus) but he says they may not be coming back at all and he has a mission to take Eugene to DC so they could save the entire planet. Glenn steps in saying they all need to stick together and convinced Abraham to stay the night, help them fight off the Hunters then tomorrow he could leave with Eugene on the bus. But Abraham countered that he would only leave with Glenn, Maggie and Tara the next day. So against Rick’s wishes, Glenn agreed. It was interesting to note though that when Abraham asked Eugene to get ready he was a bit hesitant to do so...maybe in due time they would learn how much of a fraud he truly was. (just like in the comics)

They come up with the plan to attack the Hunters at the schoolhouse. Sasha insists on coming with them as she wants to take revenge but Tyreese advises her to stay with Bob as he has little time left. Instead, Sasha leaves Tyreese her knife with instructions to put it into Bob’s brain when he turns. So the group with Rick, Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham and Tara leaves the church to find the Hunters while Fr Gabriel, Carl, Tyreese, Rosita and Judith are left behind inside with Bob. Then, the Hunters are seen next walking down the road towards the church which they effortlessly enter. Inside, they identify and taunt the ones left behind saying they knew that the others had already left on a senseless mission to look for them (or so they thought!) But just as the Hunters had finally decided which door to open (as they heard Judith cries from beyond the door), two of the Hunter’s heads suddenly exploded and Gareth’s hand gets blown off. It seems Rick and his group only appeared to leave but doubled back to the church. The remaining three men and a woman were made to get down on their knees and Gareth tries to reason with Rick telling him that he would not hunt his group anymore that can still go their separate ways but Rick learns his lesson by letting Gareth go once before.

Besides, he already made him a promise before that to kill him with his red-handled machete and proceeds to just hack down the poor guy. Sasha also guts Martin with her knife repeatedly while Michonne and Abraham also kill/hack their two captives. During all these bloodshed, Maggie, Glenn, Tara, Rosita and Tyreese just look on in horror. Then, Michonne sees her katana with the girl she just killed and pulls it out from her but with a bit of hesitation since as she said during the last episode, she doesn’t really miss the sword. Rick and Sasha counters that they only did what they did to defend themselves...as they look at all the blood and gore that now desecrated the church. Father Stokes cried, ‘This is the Lord’s house’ but Maggie replied the episode’s title, ‘No this is just four walls and a roof.’

The next scene shows everyone saying their goodbyes to poor old Bob and when they were all turning to leave, he called Rick to thank him for taking him in at the prison and giving him a chance to find love and be part of a family. He also tells Rick to not lose hope and hold on to his humanity because this nightmare is going to end (this was a continuation of their conversation in Episode 2 while on their way to the food bank). Sasha says one final goodbye to Bob and as she sobs uncontrollably and holds her knife to his head, Tyreese comes in and does it for her. So Tyreese is now definitely over that phase of his life and could now confidently kill walkers again.

Then, Sasha is shown setting up a cross for Bob’s grave, wearing Bob’s jacket. After that the bus is shown all set to leave - with Abraham, Eugene, Rosita, Glenn, Maggie and Tara. Abraham hands over to Rick a map to D.C. and tries to convince him to follow. Rick says he would and smiles a bit upon seeing inside the folded map an apology from Abraham – “Sorry I was an ass. Come to Washington. The new world is gonna need Rick Grimes.” Then Rick sees Tyreese digging more graves (probably for the Hunters) and he comes over to help him. That night, Michonne is sitting outside in the moonlight with Father Gabriel who confides that he can’t sleep as he still hears the voices of the people he kept out of the church. Michonne tells him that in time, all that will fade and it provided him some small comfort.

Then, Michonne hears some rustling in the bushes and goes to investigate while Father Gabriel runs inside the church. We see that the noise came from Daryl so Michonne immediately asks, ‘Where’s Carol?’ Then, Daryl suddenly has this unhappy look on his face before calling out to whoever was behind him to come out...then the scene fades to black and it was another cliffhanger ending that the TWD so loves to foist on us! They are so fond of doing that - making us wait and cringe and wait some more until the next episode arrives! I just wonder who really was behind him – is it Carol? Or maybe Beth? Or worse...new enemies who have managed to capture him and make him lure them back to where Rick and his group are hiding? But I don’t think Daryl would do that... I sure hope I am wrong this time! This scene is definitely not in the comics so there’s nothing I could look back to that would give me some clues...and so just like everybody else, I am also completely clueless and couldn’t stand the one entire week of waiting for Episode 4. Adios Bob...

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – EGG N TUNA LETTUCE WRAP

The hubby arrived late last night from a short overnight trip to Baguio and, of course, aside from the usual strawberries and ube jam pasalubong, he brought home one of our family’s favourite vegetable – the lettuce. He brought home two kinds – the iceberg and the much healthier romaine...and so for dinner tonight I decided to make/add this egg-tuna salad with lettuce wrap. This dish is relatively easy to make and is just like your usual egg-tuna sandwich dressing with chopped white onions, chopped hardboiled eggs, tuna flakes (without the oil), mayonnaise, plain yogurt, some salt, pepper and sugar. Then, the hard white parts of the lettuce is cut off, washed and served with the egg-tuna mixture on the side. To eat or serve, the egg-tuna mixture is placed inside the lettuce, then the leaf is rolled much like pita bread and then entire thing is eaten like a burrito – a healthy one at that!

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 EPISODE 2 - STRANGERS

Well, after last week’s exciting episode of the group’s breaking out of Terminus due to Carol’s heroics and the tearful reunion between Rick, Carl and Judith, Carol and Darryl, and Sasha with her brother Tyreese, this episode was comparably mild but still thought-provoking. The episode starts with the group shown going out on the road again. Rick talks to Tara and tells her he understands that she didn’t want to be there, with the Governor at the prison. He thanked Tara for saving Glenn and she responded that he also saved her and welcomed her into their group. Carol and Tyreese are filling bottles of water in a creek and he wants her to let the group know what she did at the prison. Carol says they don’t have to accept her but Ty thinks they would as he did but he would rather not let them know what happened to Lizzie and Mika as it is something he himself wants to forget.

The group continue their journey thru the woods and that night they make camp in the woods. Rick talks to Carol and thanks her for everything. Carol counters that it was Tyreese who was at the prison and saved his daughter. But Rick insists that he regrets kicking her out and now they have to live with her on the road if she’ll have them. Carol accepts Ricks apology and pulls out his watch that she got from Terminus. Later in the woods, Carol and Darryl find themselves alone and after a long silence, Carol says she doesn’t want to talk about it since she just needs to forget it. Darryl relents but hears a noise and after a while figures it was nothing but something or some shadow actually ran off.

The next day, the group continue on their journey and as they walked Darryl tells Rick that he did not find any tracks from the movement that he heard last night, but he still stands by the fact that he felt someone was watching them. Abraham tries to talk Rick into heading north and finding a vehicle once they hit the road. Suddenly, the group hears a cry for help and they rush in to find a man up on a rock surrounded by walkers. The group immediately dispatch the walkers to save him and after he pukes, introduces himself as Father Gabriel. Father Gabriel says he has no weapons and he says the word of God is the only protection he needs. Rick proceeds to ask him his three basic questions – How many walkers he killed? How many people he killed? What he has done to survive? By the way, this scene of meeting Fr. Gabriel happened in Volume 61 of the comics and their meet-up happened just about the time they encounter the cannibals so they feared he was somehow connected to them.

Father Gabriel admitted he had not killed anyone or any walker, he had sinned but he would only confess his sins to God and not to any stranger. He tells them that he has a church nearby and the group agreed to go there with him. They enter the church cautiously and see lots of emptied canned food, drawing on the walls and bible verses written on notebooks. The group agreed that the place was clear and settled in for some rest to regroup, gather supplies and ammunition before they decide what’s next. Rick finds out from Fr. Gabriel that the reason he survived for so long was due to the numerous canned food donations and that there were more where he was supposed to bring them before the ‘madness’ happened but there were walkers inside so he never ventured in. Rick decides to bring a few people and the priest to said place to get the much needed food supplies. But before he leaves, Rick tells Carl to always be on guard as he still doesn’t trust the priest as he knows he is hiding something from them. Carl counters that not everyone can be all bad and that they could still be strong and continue helping people.

Carol and Darryl go out to fill up some water in bottles and they both decide that they both need to start over. They see an abandoned car on the side of the road and check it out but it seemed lacking in fuel but it was still working. They decide to leave the car there for back-up in case things get bad at the church. Tara, Glenn and Maggie are on a mission to find ammunition and they hear Glenn making a ruckus inside a gun store and he admits sheepishly that he tripped over a mop but found some silencers. Rick and his group reached the food bank and they find walkers wallowing in icky chest-deep water in the basement where most of the food supplies are kept. They go down and use the shelves as barricade while killing off the walkers one by one. Gabriel reluctantly goes down with them but after a while he panics seeing someone he used to know and tries to climb up a staircase that suddenly breaks and he ended up falling in the water. Rick saves Gabriel and Sasha saves Bob from being bitten by a walker who was immersed in the murky water. The walkers in this scene are kind of gory, much like the one they made in the well scene (back at Herschel’s farm) with drooping faces and their skin and flesh almost falling off after being immersed in water for so long.

The group eventually come out of the food bank with carts full of food and as they walked back to the church, Fr. Gabriel says he was sorry for panicking. Rick also asked Michonne if she missed her sword but she says she didn’t, she missed Hershel and Andrea though. When they reach the church, Rick finds Carl at the back of the church and shows to Rick some scratches near the windows signifying that someone may have wanted to get in. They also see a scratched in sign that reads ‘You’ll burn for this.” That night, the entire group is celebrating with much food and wine (from the church). Abraham proposed a toast for them all for being ‘survivors’…then he asked them to consider if they just want to be mere survivors or follow him and Eugene to Washington to finally get rid of the walkers. They believe there’s a facility there with plenty of food, ammunition and they would be able to save the world for baby Judith. Rick says that if Judith is in then he is in and they all applaud and agreed to go to Washington to save the world.

Tara sits beside Maggie and she was with the group of Governor who raided the prison but at the time, she did not know who he was or what he was capable of doing. Maggie gives Tara a hug, in a way forgiving her for her association with the man who killed her father. Rick approaches Gabriel and thanks him for the hospitality and the communion wine. Rick warns Gabriel that he knows that he had something to hide and if that secret would hurt the people here he considers his family, then Rick will have to kill him. Carol goes out to fix the car and Darryl sees her asking where she’s going. Then they see a car speed by past them and Daryl sees it’s the car with the cross that took Beth and so they get in the car and follow it. Bob meanwhile, goes out of the church and weeps as he looks at the people inside. Then, someone smashed his head from behind and he blacks out.

Bob wakes up with a group of people around a fire and he sees it’s Gareth and the people from Terminus. Gareth explains that they did not want to hurt him or pull him away from his group…these are things they need to do to survive since he and his people took away their home. Now, they have to hunt and once they devolved into becoming hunters and ‘eating people’ they can’t ever go back, not like the way Bob wanted them to. Then as he explains this, he starts eating a little piece of meat and Bob realizes that he is missing his left leg and he sees what’s left of his foot on a BBQ grill. Gareth assured him though that he does, in fact, taste better than they thought he would. In the comic book, this exact same scene happened in Volume 63 of the comic book, the main difference is that it happened to Dale. Then, in the comic, the group belatedly realizes that they are actually eating tainted meat since he had been bitten (that’s why he was going off into the woods to die by himself---maybe why Bob was crying, too???) Ohh..this is exciting! Then in the preview to the next episode, the group realizes that some of them (3, actually) had gone missing and they feel like being watched. I wonder when Beth will return???

Here are pics of the actual comic page where some of the scenes of this episode were lifted... the first page shows the group meeting Father Gabriel and seeing the church...looks familiar, huh? (Volume 61, dated May 2009)

Meanwhile, here's the story of how they met the Hunters...the man cannibalized in the comic was Dale though, not Bob but you would notice that even the dialogue that Chris/Gareth says is the same...(Volume 63, dated July 2009)

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – KANGKONG IN OYSTER SAUCE/BROCCOLI SOUP/CHICKEN FILLET IN HONEY-ORANGE SAUCE/HERBED SOY STEAMED CHICKEN/DULCE DE LECHE AND CHOCOLATE COOKIE TRIFLE

This was our dinner last night, as it was our weekend at home again, I decided to make something special for the kids n the hubby. I started cooking the vegetable entree which was quite a simple dish really as one can often see this dish as an appetizer in Chinese restaurants – KANGKONG IN OYSTER SAUCE. I used shredded chicken that I sautéed in garlic and onions before I added the kangkong then some water and oyster sauce. I let the kangkong cook for a few minutes then I turned off the fire and kept the dish covered so that the lingering heat would continue cooking the vegetables enough but not make it wilt as I still have more dishes to cook. (in picture collage, lower left)

Next in line was the BROCCOLI SOUP, I chose broccoli since my daughter loves this vegetable and quite nutritious too. This is another easy dish that simply requires frying garlic in a few teaspoons of butter then adding the broccoli and some more shredded chicken. Then, when the vegetables have softened I added chicken stock, let it boil for a few minutes and turned off the fire. The next step is not actually required but I liked doing it since it gives my soup a thick creamy feel but for others who may just want their soup to remain chunky, this step may be skipped. The next step entails the aid of a blender in order to puree the broccoli with about a cup and a half of the soup stock. Then, the greenish pureed mixture is returned to the remaining soup, placed again on the stove, add a cup of milk (any kind) let it simmer then before turning off the heat, garnish with chopped onion leaves and voila! – healthy green soup! (no picture)

Next item on the agenda is the main meal, which in this case, is the chicken fillet. I wanted to stick sana to my healthy food theme for tonight but it seems I can’t because for one thing, I would not know how my family would react to this steamed chicken recipe as I know they are such ‘fried fanatics’ and so I opted to just cook the chicken in two different ways – steamed and fried. About three hours before cooking time, I marinated the HERBED SOY STEAMED CHICKEN which I also scored diagonally so that the marinade would seep through. I browsed the internet for recipes but found none where I had the complete ingredients with and so I decided to just mix and match what I had in my pantry at the time – of course – salt, pepper, basil, rosemary, ginger, calamansi juice, soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil. Then, come cooking time I just placed the chicken fillet, together with its marinade, in a foil packet and placed in a steamer for 30-40 minutes. (in picture collage, lower right)

While the chicken fillet steams, I also cooked CRISPY CHICKEN FILLET IN HONEY ORANGE SAUCE. It was a recipe I got from “Mga Luto ni Dennis at iba pa” blogsite, just check out the complete recipe at his website. The chicken fillet was cut into serving pieces, marinated in salt and pepper. Then, it was dredged in a mixture of flour and cornstarch then deep fried until golden brown. To make the sauce, sauté ginger, garlic and onions in a little oil then put some orange juice (the original recipe called for fresh orange but I did not have any, so I just used the powdered kind). Season with salt and pepper then add a bit of cornstarch and some honey to thicken the sauce. You may return the chicken fillet in pan to coat them in the sauce or choose to serve it on the side to use as dip. (in picture collage, upper right)

The final dish that I prepared for tonight is of course, the dessert and this time, I got the recipe from Casa Veneracion and it’s called – DULCE DE LECHE AND CHOCOLATE COOKIE TRIFLE. If you want the complete recipe just hit the search button of her blog – suffice it to say that the dessert was such a big hit! My family just loved it...and I loved it too since it required no baking at all, just mixing and mashing of ingredients and then some layering of cookies and cream. (BTW, her recipe called for cream cheese which I did not have at the time and so I just substituted chilled all purpose cream and it still came out tasting great!) (in picture collage, upper left and center left photo)

THE RETURN OF THE WALKING DEAD (SEASON 5)

Finally, after seven (was it just seven? It surely felt like forever!?!) months of waiting, it’s finally here! The much-awaited season premiere was shown yesterday (Monday) at 11:45 a.m. and again last night at 8:55 p.m. in Manila but just too bad I was not able to watch both…boohoo! I was then waiting in line at the HPO clinic from 11-2pm yesterday to seek treatment for my recurring cough and so I was not able to watch the 11:45 showing that jived with the US timeslot. Then, again at the 8:55 pm showing, I was unable to watch because WE DON’T HAVE CABLE ANYMORE…another boohoo! And so I waited until this morning when Raymond, our resident ‘pirate’ arrived and gave us copies of the episode which he downloaded from the net…thank God for kind souls like Raymond. What’s more he also gave me 3 episodes of Homeland Season 4 (which is not yet showing in the PH, by the way, I wonder why???)…yippee! But I will write about that in a separate post…here’s the synopsis of the TWD’s Episode 1, aptly titled – NO SANCTUARY.

The episode takes off from where the last season ended when the group of Rick and company find out that Terminus offers no real sanctuary for any of them. So the group decides to get ready in case any members of Terminus men come in to get them. They fashion crude weapons from belt buckles, zippers and whatever comes in hand. But when somebody finally comes for them, it was not a person that came in but a gas canister. Next scene Rick is shown being dragged outside by a Terminus tough guy in a gasmask and placed inside a room with about 7 other men, including Glenn, Darryl and Bob.

A body is being cut up in a separate table while they were tied and gagged in front of a stainless steel trough. Then, the killing begins – four strangers were hit in the head with a baseball bat then their throats are cut and gutted like chickens. Next in line is Glenn then Gareth comes in asking for an inventory of the shot count from the two men conducting the killing. Rick takes out a weapon and waits for an opportunity to break free. Bob talks to Gareth and pleads for the group’s life claiming that they have a man, who knows a cure. But Gareth says it’s too late for that, he talks to Rick and asks what was in the bag he had before coming in to Terminus. Rick tells him it contains guns, the ones he will be using to kill Gareth. The executioner gets ready to hit Glenn with the bat when suddenly they hear a loud explosion outside and more shots are fired. Gareth tells them to stay behind while he goes out to find out what’s going on.

Earlier, we saw Carol and Tyreese with the baby walking towards Terminus. Carol tells Tyreese that she will help them get there but won’t stay (after what happened with Rick). She kills a walker who walks up behind them because Tyreese still can’t bring himself to kill after what happened in the cabin (with the 2 other girls). Then they see a horde of walkers approaching and they take cover in a nearby trench. They hear gunfire and see the walkers also headed in the same direction. They decide to go a different way but still proceeding towards Terminus. The two chance upon a Terminus guy out on patrol, looking for supplies and setting up firecrackers to distract walkers. They also hear him talking on the radio about the kid with a hat and the chick with a sword so Carol holds a gun to his head, tie him up and ask him where their friends are. But the guy refused to talk so Carol heads out on her own and leaves Tyreese and the baby with the man inside a cabin.

Tyreese is left alone in the cabin with Martin, the Terminus guy while Carol disguises herself in walker blood so she can walk with them inside the compound. Martin tries to convince Tyreese to just get up and leave with the baby in the car outside as he will surely die outside anyway, being too kind a person. Carol approaches the fence and sees Rick and the others being dragged from the boxcar. She also sees some of the Terminus residents trying to repel a bunch of walkers getting near the fence but they got panicky seeing there were so many of them. So Carol shoots at the propane tank to make it leak then fires a skyrocket into it to make it explode.

Inside the execution chamber, Rick quickly makes his move when Gareth leaves. He stabs one of the executioners in the head and the other one he stabs in the stomach and left him to die and turn. Carol gets inside the perimeter, still disguised as a walker. She sees a Terminus soldier firing at the group of walkers she is walking with so she hides and shoots him in the head. Meanwhile, Rick and the others enter the butcher’s room where they see human torsos hanging on hooks and they get some knives and machetes to defend themselves and free the others. Carol enters a room and finds clothes, jewelry (including Ric’s watch), weapons (including Daryl’s bow) and children’s toys. She takes the bow and the watch and enters the candle room where she meets Mary (the woman who welcomed Rick and his group) ordering her to turn around and drop her guns. Carol manages to shoot the woman in the leg and asks her why they are doing this. Mary explained that Terminus actually started out as a true sanctuary but evil men came and tortured/raped them. They fought back, won and now adopted the mantra – ‘you’re the butcher or you’re the cattle.’ (which explains the writing on the walls – NEVER AGAIN / NEVER TRUST) Carol did not kill her but instead lets walkers enter the room.

Back in the cabin, Tyreese hears walkers approaching and goes to the window to look out, providing Martin the opportunity to get near Judith and threaten to snap her neck if he does not go out to where some walkers await. With the sound of walkers attacking Tyreese, Martin tries to contact Terminus but fails. Suddenly all becomes quiet outside and Tyreese bursts back into the room, overpowers Martin and beats him. Inside the boxcar, the group gets agitated with the gunshots and noises that they hear outside but Carl assures them that his dad will come back for them. Sasha asks Eugene to tell them how to save the world in case he dies. But he explains that the process of fighting ‘fire with fire’is complicated that even if he left detailed instructions with pictures and videos, they still would not be able to reverse the process without him.

Meantime, Rick and the others battle walkers to get to their boxcar. He sees some of Gareth’s henchmen shooting at the walkers and takes the opportunity to get their guns and shoot them with it. They finally get to the others and they shoot/knife their way out to jump up the fence and get into the woods. Rick sees Gareth and his men still busy battling with walkers and shoots at him, wounding him on the shoulder. The group circle the woods to search the cache of guns and supplies they hid before entering Terminus. Rick tries to convince them to go back and kill all of them but Maggie and Glenn reason out that the place is already being run over by walkers and gutted by fire so they should just leave. Then, Daryl suddenly sees Carol going towards them and he hugs him with tears in his eyes. Rick, realizing that it may be Carol (whom he banished from the prison) who saved them hugged her also to thank her.

She takes them back to the cabin where Rick and Carl excitedly run towards Judith. Sasha and Tyreese also tearfully reunite. While, watching the heartwarming reunion, Rosita and Abraham talk that they need to tell them about something, but just not yet. Rick decides that they need to move on, away from Terminus instead of going back to destroy it. As the group leaves, they see a Terminus sign that Rick wipes down with mud and instead writes NO SANCTUARY to make other people stay away. Then, a flashback is shown (which was also by the way shown at the start of the episode) wherein the people of Terminus that we met were themselves inside the boxcar and some other men came inside to torture and rape their women. Gareth then vowed that they would fight back and regain Terminus back. In all, it was a good first episode…at least they’re all back together again (well, except for Beth). It’s also great to have Carol back as she was able to redeem herself quite well and save them all …then in the teaser for the next episode, it seems that they shall be meeting up with Father Gabriel (from the comics) and I just hope that he has Beth with him.
(photo grabbed from AMC)

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – PORK AND PINEAPPLE STEW

This is another recipe for baon that I got from CASA Veneracion…you may have noticed by now that I usually do recipes that would require some pre-cooking or even marinating overnight because I like how the flavors develop and become more infused into the meat if it lies in seasonings overnight. It saves me some time too when I pre-cook or pre-boil meat and let its flavors seep in. So that in the morning, I would have less to do for their breakfast/baon… and I can have more time to do more things around the house.

Just like this next dish I cooked this morning for the kids’ baon. I marinated the meat last night in some soy sauce and BBQ sauce (the actual recipe called for steak sauce but I did not have any e) Then, the next day I boiled the meat together with its marinade. In another pan, I sautéed some garlic, onions in butter, added some tomatoes until they softened. Afterwards, I poured the sautéed mixture into the pan with the boiling pork, added some salt and lots of pepper, lowered the heat and let the pork simmer for an hour until tender. When the meat is tender, I added the pineapple tidbits and the calamansi juice then let it simmer some more for another ten minutes. And voila! Another tasty and nutritious baon for my kiddos!

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – CHICKEN A LA POBRE

This is another tasty dish from my favorite food blogger, Connie who has a website named CASA Veneracion (just check out the exact recipe at her website). It was also easy to do since I marinated the chicken overnight then the next day, I simply browned some garlic then removed the chicken from its marinade and fried the chicken in the same pan. After that, I removed some oil from the pan, let the reserved marinade boil then I returned the chicken pieces making sure each piece is rolled and covered in the sauce. When it was done, I placed half the chicken in a serving platter, the other half went to my daughter’s lunch box and topped with toasted garlic.

I also bought some for our lunch and my daughter and the hubby said that the flavor was good it’s just that the chicken was a bit tough to chew, I guess I overcooked the chicken… hehehe. Oh well, next time I know better and follow Connie’s instructions to just cook the chicken for only a few minutes each side. Or maybe I will try using chicken fillets next time. Here’s a pic of my chicken ala pobre. By the way, I googled the term a la pobre and though its Spanish translation means ‘poor’ this is definitely one dish that both rich and poor would surely appreciate. But Connie said that the term ala pobre is in reference to the cheaper cuts of meat that the dish ala pobre uses as opposed to steak cuts…so there, some trivia for us to know. Thanks again Connie!

ISDAAN FOR A BFF’S BIRTHDAY

It’s my best friend’s birthday today and lucky for me it fell on a Sunday so I was able to go ahead and visit her at her restaurant at Isdaan, Laguna (finally!) The restaurant had been operational for I think three years already but this shall be the first time that I will be visiting her there…in fact, she has two restos already. The first one is in Tarlac but sad to say, I haven’t been there yet (hehehe) I guess it’s just too far for me to come visit but I do hope that the next time I go to Baguio, I will definitely make it a point to visit her resto.


It was also a good thing that my eldest son was still in Manila and so he and his baby boy (my grandson) were able to come with us. Expectedly, the hubby got left behind the house as it was too far away for him to drive us…besides, we may be getting home late as the invitation was for dinner and so it was around 2pm when the kids and I met up with eldest and his baby boy at the DLTB bus terminal at Cubao, EDSA. Then, we had to wait a bit before the bus left because there was a shooting of a GMA 7 teleserye with Katrina Halili and so we also watched a bit of the shooting before the bus finally left.


The trip took us more than two hours and we finally arrived at Isdaan, Laguna at around 5 and the waiters were expecting guests for her birthday (but I guess not just this early!) and so we were led to the big nipa hut where her birthday boodle fight shall be held. The head waiter told us that ‘Maam’ will be out shortly. In the meantime, we savored the sights and had our pictures taken with the humongous statues that littered the restaurant – there were giant buddhas, a humongous King Kong, Shrek was also there plus a lot of other cartoon characters that would surely delight the kids. She took us on a personal tour of the place and showed us the lagoon where the kids (even adults) can go boating, the taksiyapo wall where she made us try breaking some dishes (for free!), the fishing bridge (where one can have an entire bucket of tilapia for free if he/she succeeds in crossing the teeny-weeny bridge) and the numerous other things that one can do while waiting for the food to be cooked.


After some time, a few other guests arrive, including her family (her sister/model, her mom and dad), the hubby’s children and his kids from his previous marriage, some of our friends in college (UP Manila), and some other friends/business associates. Then, the boodle fight started and we were all treated to all the gastronomical delights that the restaurant had to offer – there was chicken tinupig, pancit, inihaw na tilapia, grilled liempo and of course, lechon! The food was great and it was fun eating over banana leaves and engaging in a boodle fight with the others at our table.


The dinner and chikahan would have lasted way into the night but alas we had to go home early because my grandson was getting restless and there was work tomorrow. So we reluctantly bade goodbye at past nine and thankfully, the traffic was a bit less (although we had a bit of difficulty getting a ride home as there were no more buses passing thru Isdaan so we had to take a jeep to Calamba first). It was around 12 when we finally got home to our place in Bulacan, but I felt happy finally seeing my good friend again and thankful that the kids still take the time to spend with me in visiting my good friend. I sure hope that they would continue going with me in my future visits. It was good bonding like this with my kids…being with friends, sharing stories, while savoring the sights and flavors of Isdaan. Thank you dear friend…till next year!

MY TRAVEL BUCKETLIST

I guess I have grown tired of making yearly resolutions already…since I never get to accomplish most of them anyway. So this year, I decided to just make my very own TRAVEL WISH LIST OR A BUCKET LIST, so to speak. But this does not mean that I intend to accomplish all the travelling I want for 2014, oh no, I don’t think I have the budget for that. It would, in fact, go beyond 2014 since we all know how expensive it is to travel and it would be lucky for me if I get to strike off two places in my list every year. But then again I also realize that I am not getting any younger and so I have listed down the places I want to visit before I am too old and gray to enjoy anymore travelling. Next time maybe I will come up with another list of the ‘daredevil’ things I want to do before I am fifty…hehehe but for the meantime here’s the list:


1. I consider myself a beach/water person but surprisingly the first place on my list is a mountain – the Banaue Rice Terraces. It is already considered a World Heritage Site so all the more reason why we must go and visit and gaze in wonder at the magnificence that the early Igorots have made in the countryside of Banaue and Ifugao. I had hoped to do this maybe next year, when the weather is cool and hopefully take along the older ones with us even if the trip requires a bit of trekking. Anyway, they can always stay at the hotel because even there they can gaze at the magnificence of the terraces in the comfort of their own rooms. Relatedly, I also want to include in this item the town of Sagada in Mt. Province. Though I know visiting both places in one swoop would be far-fetched, I still want to take a peek at the famous Sagada hanging coffins someday, even if it will be a different trip altogether.


2. Next place I want to visit, or maybe rather re-visit is Coron, Palawan. I had been there before way back in 200? But only with the hubby with the FAS for their teambuilding and the utter serenity and beauty of the lakes just made me want to go back again and again and take my kids with me, of course. But this would entail a lot of money as the island hopping tours are even higher than that of Puerto Princesa so I guess we all need to pool resources on this in order to make this dream happen.


3. The third place is one I consider close to my heart – the place of my dad’s birthplace and one place (aside from Baguio) that I frequented as a teenager – Cebu. There is another reason why I want to take my family there, so that they would be able to immerse themselves in the Visayan culture and way of life and get to know the people I have found dear and whom I consider my second family there. Besides, the beaches there are just divine and the food too! I just wish that when the time comes, I can have Mike there with us, as our tour guide to show us around.


4. The fourth place I want to go to (again!) is Davao. I have been there (I think) in 2008 but that was a working visit so I never really got to savor everything that Davao had to offer and so if there was one province that I want to take my kids in Mindanao region – Davao is it! I intend to take them to see the Philippine Eagle and maybe, if possible, have a peek at the majestic Mount Apo, our country’s highest mountain.


5. The fifth place on my list is one I have not yet been to but the place just beckons to me with its clear blue-green waters and like the fish that I am…I just seem to have no choice but be hypnotized by its awesome beauty – the Caramoan Islands of Bicol. I know the place had already achieved international recognition after being featured (not just once) in the Survivor series but I still hope it remains pristine as it is and not as commercialized and crowded (like Boracay)


6. The next is a place the family and I have actually been to when the kids were still young, way back in 2005 (I think) but at the time the kids were still small (Keith was 10 and Kaye was just three years old)…so I think they do not truly appreciate then the rich heritage that Ilocos had to offer. On that future trip, I intend to take them to as far up as Pagudpud (like we also did the last time) and take in as many local sites as possible including another World Heritage site Vigan, the historical city known for its Calle Crisologo, Paoay church, the Malacanang of the North, Batac, former Pres. Marcos burial/tomb, and new ones we weren’t able to visit like Chavit’s Baluarte, among others.


7. Another place that I want to visit is Batanes…although I know this would cause quite a considerable dent in the pocket since the airfares alone is not something to scoff at (10K each person, last I heard). But still, the place is breathtaking (in photos at least) and one that I also wish to bring my family to if not just to savor the sights but also the taste of its rich cuisine.


8. Another place on my bucket list is Romblon, yup that place of marble fame although that is not exactly all they are famous for – they have marvelous beaches and amazing caves…definitely a place I would want to visit. I just wish they would address the security concerns of the place because I heard that tourists who go there are not exactly satisfied with the brand of hospitality that they receive.


9. Up next on my list is the mystical island of Siquijor, nope it is not because of the proliferation of ‘ghostly spirits’ that I want to go there…partly lang siguro but the main reason is that Ateng (my father’s kasambahay) hails from that place and she had long been inviting us to visit her house which is just a stone’s throw away from the beach…how is that for being cool! Huh! Maybe we just might take her up on that invitation someday!


10. Lastly, of course, I also want to visit someday the overhyped beaches of Boracay. But not during summer…maybe when the place is not teeming with crowded tourists. I hate it already when a place becomes so commercialized that going there becomes a nightmare and totally un-enjoyable…so yes I still will go to Boracay but not to party like most tourists do…but to enjoy the fine white sands and explore the pristine beaches and fun activities that the place had to offer.

Ok so that’s it for now… I guess I’ll just add/update the list as more places crop up. After all, our country is made up of 7,100+ beautiful islands to explore. Next time, I’ll probably make another list of foreign destinations naman…

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - TORTANG LUNCHEON MEAT

Everyone has a saturation point when it comes to food… and I guess when it comes to luncheon meat, my family had already reached theirs. Whereas before, they had been satisfied already when I serve fried luncheon meat or sometimes if it is dipped first in egg before frying…but I guess they have reached their limit…same thing with hotdogs, tocino, and other processed meat. This is a good thing, actually, because that would mean they have started to shun processed food so maybe I can start introducing healthier food for them. And so on rare occasions that I am forced to serve them processed meat, I only do so sparingly and instead add more vegetables and spices to the dish in order to infuse it with flavor.




This is one such dish, I only used ¼ of an entire can of luncheon meat and yet I was able to make a torta that could fill a 9-inch plate. The idea was taken from a recipe that I read from the blog 'Mga Luto ni Dennis at iba pa'…the main difference was that I added potatoes, omitted tomatoes (because I didn’t have any on hand) and it was fried not baked. I first fried the diced potatoes, luncheon meat, and onions in a non-stick pan. Then I stirred them together, seasoned with salt and pepper and finally added the beaten eggs. Before the eggs have set, I dropped the cubed cheese and covered the pan. With lowered heat, I waited until the torta is half-cooked then I turned it over onto a plate and cooked the underside. After a few minutes, I flipped the torta again onto a plate and served with catsup.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – Burger steak with mushroom gravy

My daughter’s all-time favorite food is Jollibee’s burger steak so I would often try to replicate this dish using home-made burger patties and gravy. For the burger patties, I simply combined ½ kilo of ground pork, minced carrots, 2 medium onions, salt, pepper, magic sarap, 2 eggs, bread crumbs and a bit of flour. Form into patties and fry in a non-stick pan over medium heat. While the patties are frying, I started doing the gravy. In a separate pan, melt butter and pan-fry the mushrooms then set aside. Melt more butter, add flour all at once, then pour in broth (if you have any) or even plain water will do. Stir continuously and season with salt and pepper to taste, add a bit of soy sauce for some color. I let the burgers cool for a bit, packed it in my daughter’s lunchbox and topped with the mushroom gravy sauce. I just hope that my daughter likes it!

P.S. She liked it!

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - CHICKEN AND BABY POTATOES IN CREAM

This is another recipe I got from Mga Luto ni Dennis at iba pa blog…it is basically like chicken a la king but the main difference is the addition of potatoes instead of mushrooms. The dish starts with salting the chicken pieces lightly then they are fried in a bit of butter. Set aside. Then garlic, onions and ginger are sautéed, chicken added, then after a while a cup of water. When the water boiled, the baby potatoes are added then allowed to cook. When the potatoes are still firm, I added the all purpose cream and green peas. I let the mixture boil some more until the sauce becomes thick. Another option is to add some cornstarch diluted in water if you want a thicker sauce. I adjusted the seasonings – added more salt and pepper and served this as our lunch today…yummy! Thanks again Dennis!

LIFE OF PI – a movie review

The Life of Pi was our chosen movie today…we started watching the movie after breakfast/brunch at around ten am. I thought my daughter would soon get tired of the movie because it lacked some action and was only about a young boy’s adventures on a boat…but I was wrong since she watched the entire film and was really interested with what happened to him in the movie. The movie is actually about an Indian boy named Pi Patel, he tells his story to a novelist/writer in Canada and he starts about his childhood in India. Pi relates that his family owned a zoo and that he was particularly fond of animals, in particular a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. One day, he tried feeding the tiger but his father angrily shoved him away and told him that the tiger is dangerous. As proof, he made Pi witness the tiger killing a goat and made him promise not to go near it again. But then his father came home one day with sad news that the municipality cannot support the zoo anymore hence they needed to sell the zoo and its animals. The family will be also be relocated to Canada and so they rode a Japanese ship. One night while Pi is on deck, the ship is met with a heavy storm, he tries to find his family but a Japanese crew member throws him out into a lifeboat and he watched as the ship sinks killing his entire family. The next day, he discovers a zebra with him on the lifeboat. They later discover an orangutan floating at sea who they also take into the lifeboat. Then, suddenly a hyena emerges from under tarp covering half of the boat and kills the zebra. It also kills the orangutan and tried to approach Pi when suddenly a tiger comes out from underneath the tarp and kills the hyena. So Pi decides to get out of the boat and use the flotation device to stay at a safe distance from the tiger. He gets some emergency food rations and water that he found on the boat. He starts to fish and also collects rainwater for him and the tiger. After many days, Pi teaches the tiger to accept him inside the boat and it was then that he realized that caring for the tiger was what kept him alive. But despite his survival efforts, the two almost die of starvation until later on they reach an island filled with many edible plants, fresh water pools and thousands of meerkats. They eat and drink what they could find in order to regain their strength. But come nightfall, they soon discover that the island turns onto a carnivore, since Pi sees dead fishes floating in the now acidic water and discovers a human tooth inside a flower. So the next day, he and Richard Parker decided to leave the island. Soon, they reach the coast of Mexico and as Richard Parker walks away into the forest, Pi looks on and expects him to look back at him to acknowledge him. But instead, the tiger walks on and goes into the jungle. Pi cries as he is rescued and brought to a hospital. After some time, insurance agents come to interview him but do not believe his story and ask him to relate what really happened and so he makes up a story about being on the boat with his mother, a Buddhist sailor with a broken leg and the cook. In this story, the cook killed the sailor in order to eat him and use him as bait then Pi's mother pushed her son to safety on a smaller raft before the cook stabbed her and threw her overboard. Pi later returned, to kill the cook with a knife. Pi then asked the writer what story he prefers and he responds ‘the one with the tiger’ as it is the better story. Later on, he sees the insurance report and notes that the insurance agents wrote that Pi survived 227 days at sea with an adult Bengal tiger so I guess it seems they believed his story after all. What was originally a quite boring story about the adventure of a young boy with a tiger came truly alive with the 3D effects that this film used. In fact, many critics described the movie as a 3D masterpiece since you just don’t watch the movie, you live it. The film is visually amazing, the effects that Ang Lee made in the sky and the water makes it so much interesting. The movie is filled with so much marvelous things that you may even doubt what you are already seeing with your own eyes. And in the end, it makes you even wonder if you have seen anything at all. In fact, if you read the making of the film, the tiger and all the other animals in the film is not real at all and just the product of magnificent visual effects. But then again, this draws us back to the story’s real ending – which is the story that truly happened? The one with the tiger? Or the one with the humans? But I guess it does not really matter, as it depends on what you prefer to believe as a moviegoer: if you are someone who only believes what he sees and touches or someone who believes in miracles and accepts things based on faith. What matters is that the movie made me believe in the majesty and miracle of God and believe in something that would have been thought of as impossible.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - BACON AND TOMATO OMELETTE

This was supposed to be a frittata…but the ingredients came up short and I could not make it fill up a 9-inch plate and so it became an omelette. I used the same ingredients though and practically the same process – I started out with frying the bacon in a bit of oil, none at all if using a non-stick pan. Then I sautéed the garlic, onion and tomatoes and removed from pan. Next is beat three eggs in a bowl, dropped the sautéed ingredients, added some grated cheese and then I reheated the pan. If cooking as a frittata, you just let the eggs set in the pan and when it seems solid enough invert onto a plate and return to the pan to cook the other side. But since my ingredients would not fit the entire pan, I decided to cook it as an omelette, I just dropped half of the mixture into the pan and folded the egg in the middle until the edges are set. I did the same to the other half of the mixture and then served with rice or bread.

SAM’S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Sam turned seven today and in a way it was a reunion of sorts... because my long-time college friend Mia came (she is also a friend of my brother and my two sisters...it's a long story how but it just is) then an aunt who had long been 'missing in action' in some of our family gatherings arrived with her kids in tow and we we were quite glad to see her. We all chipped in something just to ensure that Sam’s birthday will be really special! The night before, I went off in search of bread sticks, marshmallows and choc-o sticks just for my special contribution for Sam’s party – his very own choco fountain! Ma cooked some spaghetti and fried chicken for the kids…and we all went there at around 4pm to have fun with Sam and his friends. His mom Vanj was here in Manila and she prepared a few somethings too and some of the other guests brought some cake and ice cream… I know what we shared was just simple things but collectively I am sure we made one little boy’s day truly special…Happy Birthday Sam!

P.S. Credits go to Vanj for the photos that I grabbed from her FB account.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - GARLIC KANGKONG

Here’s a new twist to the classic kangkong favorite…usually when we have fried fish dishes we pair it up with steamed kangkong or kamote tops, whichever is available, and have as our sawsawan some bagoong and/or toyo with calamansi --- yummy! But last week, the boss treated us out to a Chinese buffet restaurant somewhere in the Timog or Quezon Avenue area (I forgot na e!) but all that I remember was that it was located within Aberdeen Court. Their food was OK and quite affordable pa but what really got my attention was the kangkong dish that was smothered in garlic and cooked briefly in oil (can be olive if you have it) and I vowed to try and replicate the dish at home. And I did! And the family loved it! I just sautéed lots of garlic in oil then I added the kangkong (that was already previously blanched in boiling water) then when the leaves have wilted, served immediately and add more fried garlic bits as garnish! It tastes really good…and healthy too!

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - SWEET AND SOUR TILAPIA

This is another fave dish that I got from Mga Luto ni Dennis at iba pa…it was a new way for me to cook tilapia because I knew the family had gotten tired of the usual fried, inihaw or pinangat that we cook around the house. It is really actually just frying but afterwards, sweet and sour sauce was added that made all the difference and a totally new experience for our usual tilapia fare. For the complete recipe please just check out Dennis’ blogsite…all I did was after cleaning and scoring the fish, I rubbed some salt and pepper and let the fish rest for a few minutes while I cut up the vegetables. While the fish fries in a pan I sautéed the ginger, garlic and onions. Then I added the carrots, red bell pepper and tomato catsup and seasoned the dish with salt, pepper, brown sugar and some cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken the sauce a bit. Finally, I poured the sauce over the fried tilapia, garnished with chopped onion leaves and served with hot rice for another yummy lunch! Thank you Dennis!

OUR WEEKEND FOOD TRIP

During weekends that we stay at home and we do not have much to do…just the regular chores and review of my daughter’s lessons, we usually watch movies either on USB or regular cable. And during those times…we do nothing much but EAT! And EAT! And EAT MORE! So it is expected that I stock up on food that we can munch on or sometimes my daughter and I make some sweet desserts (either baked or not) to have our own kinda fun in the kitchen…it’s good therapy really…Of course, it is expected that there will be a lot of mess to clean up afterwards but still it’s a good way to bond and develop camaraderie with my kid! And so this weekend, we bought some chips, fish crackers, Indian mangoes and bananas…we bought this at the local tiangge market then later on we’d be getting more from the grocery store… here’s tp a yummy weekend!