What's for Brunch?

I used to hate Sundays. Sunday used to signal the start of another work week and my need to commute from Bataan to Manila. These days however, I enjoy it more than any day of the week. Gary rolls up all the window drapes early in the morning while I make my shopping list. Everything's bright with the sunlight hitting our white furniture and fresh air circulating from our porch. We head out for the Asian store where we buy fresh meat, vegetables and seafood. We also tidy up the place and do laundry on Sundays then go to church at night. I guess I appreaciate Sundays more now because I feel productive and so much more connected with my partner. Today after our grocery run, we were both starving and needed a quick meal so I took the palabok sauce that I made yesterday out of the fridge and assembled pancit for brunch. The sauce is fairly easy to make. I saute onion, garlic, tiny cubed tofu, ground pork and finely minced shrimp. On two separate pans I boil eggs and shrimp for garnish. I use the shrimp stock to dissolve 2 packs of Mama Sita's palabok mix and two cans of cream of mushroom. I add that to my pan, throw in the ready made tinapa flakes that I get from the Asian store and some fish sauce and pepper to taste. I wait for the sauce to thicken and that's it! So I cooked the noodles and transferred it on my serving dish, lather the sauce on top, sprinkle the surface with ground chicaron, line up my shrimps and egg slices and top with onion leaks. I paired this with the ripe mangoes that Gary and I picked up today at the store and voila! A hearty Sunday meal 😊

What's for Dinner?

I am inexplicably addicted to the cheap jambalaya that they serve at Popeye's. So the other day, realizing I had mussels, shrimps, sausages and a chicken thigh sitting idly in my freezer, I decided to do a rice dish for dinner. Last minute jambalaya meant I still needed to do my internet research and go to the store to get the right spices and I didn't have the time, so I decided to make it easier on myself by making paella (or close) using my imagination.

Gary and I went to King's Seafood to buy saffron (I didn't think the tomatoes would make the rice red/yellow enough) but they wouldn't let me use Visa for anything under $15 so we went to the tiny Filipino store by Duane instead.

When we got home, I started to cook rice (using uncooked rice on my "paella" seemed too complicated) and boil the chicken while we watched TV Patrol. By the end of the program, I was chopping garlic, onion, tomatoes, green and red bell pepper, the seafood and sausage while my rice was happily getting cold in the freezer. I stir fried everything, fished the stuff out except for the sauce after 10 minutes, then dumped the rice in my pan. I added a chicken-flavored cube dissolved in my chicken stock, the saffron, red chili pepper and some fish sauce and then assembled everything in my baking dish.

Voila! My makeshift paella that earned me heart-warming praises from the boy. Beginner's luck, so I have no idea how I'd manage to do it again--as obviously there will be requests to have this dish on the table in the future :P

Going Domestic

Gary and I made our usual Saturday drive around town and came back with some stuff to add to our place

The husband got his latest man-toy, a really cool bench press that he's been eyeing for quite a while. The porch is now judiciously divided into two sides: his exercise equipment and scooter on the left, my old sofa, table and the blooms I picked up today at the orchard supply to the right. I also got some wall decor for our bedroom.