Pork Belly Crispy pata style

At the party and I'm talking about my mom and stepdad's 12th anniversary we decided to have a BBQ party so everything was grilled from the pork BBQ to grilled pork belly and then there was the chicken and longaniza. Mom wanted something to be cooked different so I suggested Crispy Pata which was made from cooking the whole front or hind leg of the pork but then when I got to the supermarket all the patas where too big to fit my pressure cooker but I found another solution I simply chose Pork Belly since that was what we were preparing anyways. So I bought the belly bit it was lechon kawali style in the cut so it's a bit big. Here is how to cook this yummy dish but first the pic.

First you have to cook it in the pressure cooker to make it tender.Just follow the manufacturer's instruction for using it or if you don't have a pressure cooker you can boil it but it would take a while. Put all the meat in the pressure cooker with a lot of salt, yes you have to be a bit generous with the salt to make it tasty but you have to make sure it wouldn't be too salty either, remember you still have to fry them. After putting the salt, you must add crushed garlic then add bay leaf and crushed peppercorns. Add more peppercorns if you want it to be a bit spicy. That's all there is. Just cook it until it is tender (prick the skin with a fork to test.) Yes people there is skin and fat in this dish. The fats prevents the meat from being too dry like your eating leather not that I have tasted leather but that's what I heard people say if you chew on something hard. After it is tender you have to deepfry it in oil yes loads of oil but don't worry you can still use the oil for frying fish and other stuff. A word of warning though when you fry foods like this there will be a lot of bang and oil will be popping everywhere, the trick would be to have a handy pot cover. Don't worry you will get the hang of it eventually. Well as they say no pain no gain. hahahahahah.

Another thing too you can cook cut out pork belly like this but omit putting bay leaf and peppercorn just the garlic and salt. It would be very crispy and yummy. These dishes would go well with vinegar. You dip it and then crunch crunch as you bite into it.. Hmmm just thinking about it makes my mouth water. So enough of this... I have to remember my diet.

The forever blouse !

Finally I got to try out the crochet blouse I made and it took me like almost forever to finish it. Found the pattern online although I'd have to find the link where I got them. I started making this blouse before I made my box project and you can see the boxes at http://insanelychay.blogspot.com/ this was the project before that and it took me more than a weel to finish which was suppose to be easy. Heheheheheh I din't mind the long wait though as I think it is really really pretty how it turned out. I'm attaching a long a photo of the crochet with jeans and a skirt. I think it looked better with the skirt though.

The Beauty of nature !!

I was just browsing at my files trying to find out what to delete and I came across these two pictures and I marvel at the beauty of it. I have even forgotten that I took these in our garden. I love nature pictures and flowers. I guess I would make a decent photographer, what do you think? Aye or Nay ? heheheheh. The first picture is of a flower with a small insect and you can just see how the colors come together.

The second picture is of a flower we call "swanga" and I caught it with a grasshopper inside. Just beautiful.

Hotcake (Pancake)

I don't know if it is just with my family but we eat hotcake mostly snacktime in the afternoon rather than at breakfast. I've experimented with hotcake recipes trial and error you could say. So far everybody loved this particular fluffy recipe specially the foreign visitors we have. I hope you guys would try them too. For fluffy pancake batter is thicker.






Ingredients: makes 20 pancake (like the size in the photo)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup cake flour
6 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. melted margarine or butter

Procedure:

* Sift together flours, baking powder, sugar and salt. Set aside. Mix milk and water
* Beat eggs , add the vanilla and then add the milk and melted margarine. Mix well then add the flour and mix well until lumps disappear.
* cook as you would regularly. Stir once in a while as you cook.

NOTE:
According to my sister she cooks the pancake and then freezes them, when she needs it she would just pop it in the microwave and it turns out as if you just cooked it. Thicker batter would make fluffier pancakes. You can also add mashed bananas or cinnamon. Just experiment. Happy eating. If you don't have cake flour all purpose flour would be ok too. With the milk you can use fresh milk or evaporated. You can omit the water and use 2 cups of milk if you like.

Headache dream into reality

Yesterday I had a bad headache and it was all thanks to my awful dream. The dream started with me witnessing someone getting murdered in the pool of our house which was a house I have never seen before but I knew it was our house. There was lots of chaos and so I went to some sort of office where I saw my real dad who looked so stressed out and worried and so I went over and touched his arm trying to comfort him when he just snapped at me and told me I was useless and to get the hell away from him. I was really really really hurt by that. I ran out the door and went to our backyard and cried my heart out. After a few minutes I stopped crying and my headache began which usually happens after I cry and I woke up at that point and then the headache never went away.For the whole day my head ached like crazy.

Darn why didn't I bring my mobile phone?

Today I went to town, to colon exactly to buy some stuff for my new project. My mom and I will make a Belen in preparation for christmas. I bought an illustration board since that is thick and would be suitable for the project. Elgen was with me, she is our househelper. We got off from the jeepney and stepped into the sidewalk where people were bumping on each other to be on their way when I happen to glace on a little stall where people repair watches, I know filipinos would know what I mean by this. The drawer was potruding and I saw a child sleeping inside maybe about 2-3 years old. And very soundly mind you. I was like berating myself for not bringing my mobile phone as I would have been able to take a picture. I laughed not at the situation but at how soundly he slept even with the husle and bustle of the crowd around and not to mention the music that is loudly playing on the speakers where music was sold.

I envy this child, he is at peace with himself, even with the world that is often cruel just hanging around ready to pounce. It made me wish I was a child again.

My Lola's Rose peanut candy

My mom wanted to eat the family's rose peanut candy so she told me to make it. It takes a lot of effort to make this dessert. First you have to buy raw peanuts then roast it just like the pic above then after roasting you have to peel it and grind it and then add the other ingredients and then cook it. Here comes the most difficult and tiring part of this dessert. I would get blisters from stirring this because you have to cook it and not stop stirring until the oil of the peanut comes out. It is sort of like peanut butter but thicker and as it gets thicker it gets heavier to stir.I would always remember this dessert. No wonder my grandma would not always make this hahahha I know now the reason for that so when it is cook you must first let it cool a little bit then from this :

It will become this:

Isnt it pretty? I'm sure when my sister reads this blog her mouth will water.

Remembering a good friend

It is September once again and it is during this month that I remember a good friend. His name was Jonathan Kitulagoda but we called him JK for short. Yes, you read it right, was. He was killed in afghanistan because of a suicide bomber. He was from England and he came over a few years back, and he was still in his early 20's. He was in a what he called territorial army.They were sent there not to fight but for peace keeping or something like that.

He was a student of Anton. He came over to visit us when we were still living in B. Aranas Ext. , and train escrima the Doce Pares way with John my stepdad. He was half English and half Sri Lankan. He was a handsome guy, tall , masculine and got a really nice ass...heheheheh which I used to pinch whenever he passes by.He was a really a nice guy, a bit conservative too. He loved my family like his own and vice versa. Since my Aunt Gigi lives beside us he was renting a room there, but he always ate and chatted with us at our house. I remember one time Mommy Gigi was wondering what the white specks on the floor of his room was when she to inspected it. She asked him and we discovered that he always puts on baby powder on himself. Heheheheheh so that was why he always looked fresh and smelled really good. My Aunt also liked him a lot becuase he was neat and tidy. He stayed with us for a month so we have really gotten to know him well. If we don't go out he also wouldn't because he said he partly came over to be with the family and not to just to roam around. See how good of a guy he is.

He also was a victim of our rainshower which in our dialect we call "taligsik". We told him never to go out without an umbrella or a hat whenever it is drizzling because he would get sick but he boasted that it always rained in England and he was used to it. We just laughed it off and insisted that the rain here is much different. He did get sick. At first he was trying to brave it out but then when he didn't notice we had leftovers from lunch for dinner and he liked it he said, that's when my mom told him to go with her to the doctor.He went as a good son would follow his mom. All went well then.

Another incident, our mosquitoes got to him. I didn't know a person could be allergic to mosquito sting but aparently he was , his ankle got so swollen it looked like an elephant foot. He would always put on a mentholated ointment we called Betit or was it spelled betet? I can't remember the exact spelling but that was what it was called.We all had our share of laughter and good memories.We were sad when he went back home but he already had a plan of coming back the following year but it was not meant to be. He died January of the following year after his visit. We were able to talk to him when he was in afghanistan because he called. He was even able to send us all Christmas gifts. It arrived after his death but when we looked at the postage stamp it was dated before he died. You can just see how thoughtful a person he was.

I don't know why or if you guys would believe me when I say something would always happen during Jan. and Sept. to make me remember him. I can even say that he came and made his presence known to me before we got the call that he died. Let me tell you the incident that lead me to that conclusion... John and I were cooking little colored puto (dessert made from flour,sugar,baking powder and cheese) for our little business. It was the night before we got the call of JK's death. I was busy taking out the putos from it's little containers, it was about midnight. I suddenly felt all the hairs on my head rise, it's kind a likethe feeling you have when you get goosebumps but its just the hairs on my head. And so I kept patting it down as if they were really all standing up. John finally noticed and asked me what was wrong. I told him that all the hairs on my head were standing up. He was puzzled, there was no breeze in the room infact it was so hot from all the cooking we were doing. I told him that I never felt anything like that before. Eventually the feeling stopped so I just thought nothing of it then the following night we got the news and that's when I knew that he was there with me that night. Unbelievable? You can say that again.Here's another incident and this happened on a september. I was washing the dishes (still at the old house) and near the sink is a door going towards the bathroom. My nephew and his nanny was on the other side of the room at the little sari-sari store I had, then my mom and melody and John were there somewhere. I was just washing the dishes when suddenly the bathroom door opened and I saw a dark man's handpushing the door, and so I waited for someone to come out. A few minutes passed by but no one came out so I peeked inside and nobody was there. So I went around and asked if somebody used the bathroom but they said nobody did then bells started to ring in my head it's september and that's when I remember JK's birthday . So you ask me why Jan and Sept? Jan was the month he died and Sept was his birthday.

I know it really seems unbelievable but these all happened to me. So I am writing this blog in dedication to a lost brother and friend. Love you JK. We will always remember you.

MAMA 2

As I sat down at the computer I was just staring at the screen, I don't really know what I'm going to write so I just sat and stared while eating my sliced apples. Just then thoughts and images came to my mind and I started to giggle. I was remembering my nephew Carl, he turned 4 last may but he is very intelligent for his age. He lives with my aunt since his mother Brigitte who happens to be my cousin is working in Dubai right now so she can provide for her baby boy who uncannily looks exactly like her at that age. He is very close to my heart because I was the person who took care of him when he was born since his mom had a c-section and my aunt had a bad cold at that time so this tiny beautiful baby was mine to take care of.

There was this incident at the hospital which was so embarrassing because he kept crying and crying and crying and it wasn't as if we were the only ones there but there were many other mothers and children there. The nurse told me to go to the nursery to feed him since my cousin was still recovering. And so there I went with the wailing baby to the nursery. When I entered it was very cold and you know what my angelic nephew did he stopped crying instantly which embarrassed me because I was prepared to say that he was crying and crying and crying and wouldn't stop but then where was the proof when he was so happy there. Bummer.

Even when we went home from the hospital I still helped out in taking care of Carl. He was just so cute as all babies are when they are born. Often times I go to their house which is just connected to ours via the backyard door so I can play with him but you know what my mischievous nephew does every time I hold him he goes right to sleep...it was like I was some kind of sleeping pill for him. My Aunt explained then that he knew my smell from when he was born (I sure hope I didn't smell that bad hehehehehe) and we bonded. So hence the name he calls me MAMA 2.





I do so love Carl like my own. In fact a lot of my pictures are taken with him in them. Isn't he just so cute? He was 3 months old in that picture. He would always say the darndest things but then that would be in my other blog. heheheheheh. Well what do you guys expect? If I put everything in now, what else would I be writing about?