Comfort food for the tummy and soul

Living in the tropics, you get the usual monsoon rains, but last month the Philippines have been battered by 3 raging storms Ketsana, Parma, and Lupit (in the Philippines their names are Bagyong Ondoy, Bagyong Pepeng and Bagyong Ramil respectively). The Philippines especially the people in the island of Luzon is still reeling from these storms. Everyone is trying their best to get back on their feet again, and help each other.

This is a video of how the first storm hit our place, at 3:26 of this video, you will see the damage done near our place in Pasig. We live real close to Marikina City and our place was waist to chest deep in flood water.

 

We maybe badly hit by the storm, but everything seems so much better with some hot soup or “sopas” as we call it here. Working on what few ingredients I have in my pantry, I made this milky soup that my aunt and cousin from Montalban (who were neck-deep in flood when Ketsana arrived) shared together, as we exchanged stories of what happened when the flood rose. This is a one-pot soup I learned to make while watching my mom in the kitchen.

Simple Sopas

250 g. Macaroni Noodles

2 tbsp butter

2 medium-sized Onions, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

125 g ground pork

1 cup leftover chicken, shredded

1 cup vienna sausages, sliced

1/2 cup milk

1 liter of water

2 pcs. chicken bouillon cube

1 tablespoon habanero sauce (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. In a big casserole, saute onions and garlic in butter. Add the ground pork and allow the meat to brown a little. (I usually add in a dash of pepper here because I love how it smells)

2. When the meat is all done, add in the vienna sausage and chicken, and stir a little. Turn down the heat and try to remove some fat rendered by the ground pork. Add in the milk and stir. Then add in the water. Give a little stir, and then turn the heat up. We need this to start boiling so we could add in the macaroni noodles. (Sometimes I cook the noodles ahead of time, and set them aside so I can add them later, but I had only had this one pot to use and the relatives were coming so I had to do this quick)

3. When the soup is boiling, add the macaroni noodles and stir occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Add the chicken bouillon cubes. and habanero sauce (optional) Let it boil for 5 minutes then turn the heat down and cover the casserole. You can add in more water if you want. Season with salt or pepper.

4. When the noodles are cooked, you can start serving.

This would be even better if you could add in some carrots, celery, and red & green bell peppers. But we had none at that time, so we had to make do of what we have.

Eating this soup, and talking about what happened was really comforting. The warmth in my muddied kitchen, the conversation and smell of the soup in the air, and knowing your tummy is all warm and full really makes you feel that everything will be okay. We braved the pouring rain to go to mass later that evening. I prayed to give thanks, to pray for those who suffered like us, and also prayed for strength that our country can overcome all these trials.

There are different ways you can make soup. And here are some of them courtesy of Foodista.

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Many Filipinos still need help right now. Please if you can, send a little love to all these displaced families. You can send the donations to Worldvision foundation. Manuel L. Quezon III is a celebrity advocate for Worldvision. I trust him esp. since he is related to my former boss Sir Nolo Quezon-Avancena. Let me just quote what he said about Worldvision Foundation:

I can vouch in behalf of Worldvision that donations that are made listed for the Relief Operation Fund will go to the typhoon victims. Please remember too include this note in your donation.  All monetary donations must be accounted for in order for it to be used immediately and for the purpose it was made.  Unaccounted donations will float in the account unused for 6 months so please indicate all cash donations for the Relief Operation Fund.

DONATIONS TO WORLDVISION DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION INC.

Donations in kind are welcome & can be sent directly (door-to-door) to their Quezon City Headquarters in

WORLDVISION DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION
c/o David Liban
389 Quezon Avenue corner West 6th Street,
Diliman, Quezon City Philippines

Please send an email to wv_phil@wvi.org or call +632 3727777 to inform them about this donation including all the details of the shipment and you will receive a letter of acceptance will be given as well as proper coordination.

Worldvision will make an inventory of the donations and coordinate directly with the DSWD for declaration as well with the local government units (LGU) for distribution.

Those abroad who wish to send in monetary donations to this organization are also encouraged in order to avoid the hassle of shipping.  This is a Christian, private and credible organization that uses up only 6-8% of annual financial contributions for administration expense while the rest goes to beneficiaries.

To know more about Worldvision Dev’t Foundation, you may check out their website.

For monetary donations made through bank deposit, instructions are listed on this page.

For online donations to Worldvision, click here for the online form.

Pine nuts leaves you with a bitter taste

I love making Pesto! I love it in pasta, over toasted bread, and even in chicken recipes! I just couldn’t get enough of it. To make pesto, all you need is parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, basil leaves, and pine nuts. However, I just recently found out that pine nuts can leave a nasty bitter taste in your mouth!

This is what I found from wikipedia re: Pine nuts

Risks of eating pine nuts

The eating of pine nuts can cause serious taste disturbances, developing 1-3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. A bitter, metallic taste is described. In general, a minority of pine nuts on the market present this problem. Though very unpleasant, there does not seem to be a real health concern.

This phenomenon was first described in a scientific paper in 2001.[6] Since the article, experiences of the phenomenon have been reported by hundreds of people worldwide (US, Canada, South Africa, Finland, Iceland, Germany, Ireland and many more).[7][8]

In the US, most of the pine nuts available in the markets, come from China, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Vietnam, and Korea. It actually takes a while for these products to get here and the reason why these pine nuts leave such a bitter, mettalic taste in our mouth is because they have already gone “bad” or “rancid”.

I don’t know about you, but why is it when there is a food scare, “China” always seem to be right smack in the middle?

You can’t tell just by looking at the packaging if the pine nuts you have are already rancid. Some have eaten or snacked on pine nuts, but suffered no ill effects, but there are some who do, and the numbers are growing.

The good thing about this is that this bitter taste dissapears in a few days.

For some it may take weeks for the bitter taste to disappear. One known alternative to dull this bitter taste is by slowly drinking tomato juice. Just let the tomato juice stay in your mouth for a few minutes before you gulp it down. It may not completely wash away all the bitter taste, but it won’t be half as bad as it was.

If you still want to make pesto, but can’t use your pine nuts. Other alternative include, walnuts, peanuts, or almonds. Here is a recipe from Foodista using walnuts:

So be ever vigilant when you eat outside.when buying pine nuts, read the packaging carefully, or ask your grocer where they get their pine nuts from. There is no report yet if eating pine nuts can be deadly, but better be safe than sorry!

Watching movies for free

When Sunday comes along all I want to do is just relax, put my feet up, and drink some ice cold martini while Huz is busy firing up the grill…ahhh that’s life!

But what actually happens on a Sunday is cleaning the house, planning and scheduling next week’s work, going to church and getting the laundry done…*sigh* if there is one thing permanent in every household it’s laundry! Don’t you just wish we had self-cleaning clothes?

Now when all the work is done. We do relax. Sometimes it means going on a road trip, especially when the weather is nice and sunny. Or, we just lie in bed and watch some movies online for Freeeeee!

Thanks to my twitter friends I discovered this site where I can watch some really great films. I’d like to share the sites with you.

First is Justin.tv

I’ve been on Justin.tv since March 2009. I can keep abreast of what’s happening in NY by watching the local TV channels there. I can get a preview of the coolest video games as the players broadcast their game. I can watch movies, stand up comedians, and documentary films too. Just last night, I watched GI Joe…although I didn’t enjoy it as much because I didnt like GI Joe when I was young…it’s a girl thing.

The other site I go to is watch-movies-links.net

You can watch the latest movies here and they have a great selection of documentary films too! Last night I watched the Orphan and it really scared the beejeezus out of me! It’s one of the best scary films I watched in a long time! I also watched the documentary of BBC called Meerkat and it was so wonderful! The children would love it! Timone from Disney’s Lion King is a meerkat and I love him!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. And while you’re watching a movie at home, here’s a drink I’d like to share to all of you. Cheers to Summer!

Balancing work and social networks

Working at home has it’s usual distractions: the mailman, dogs barking, house chores. But when I’m on my desk and start to “work”, I instinctively pull up facebook and twitter and “bam”… I lose my concentration.

I love it when I get tweets about cool links, or some juicy news about celebrities…even mundane questions like “what are you eating for lunch” has got me scrambling to tweet the delicious recipe I found at Foodista. And facebook…oh dont get me started with how I’m so hooked on facebook. For months I played Mafia Wars and have ventured out to not-so-violent games like Farmville and Buddy Barn…then I got so pissed at all the stealing in Buddy Barn that I killed my account there! So there is just Farmville and Mafia Wars…and then there are all these invitation to join different causes, some are political, some about charity, some about animals, the environment etc…I feel guilty when I click the ignore tab…I mean, I feel for these causes but my personal advocacy has always been with women and children. And so, I have to decline some of these causes and unload my guilt by taking out some weeds from my neighbors farm in Farmville..and did you know you can also get ribbons in Farmville now!

Now going back to Twitter, I read in Mashable that tweets come mostly from people in the 25 – 55 age bracket…that means office workers, yuppies, or dads and moms  like me tweet more than teenagers. I know a lot of teenagers tweet, but I know they do most of this on their phones…and I think they text more than they actually tweet…esp if they dont want their moms or dads to know what they’ve been up to. And my guess at why most tweets come from this age bracket is because at work, people like me could pretend we are actually working…busy typing reports and stuff, when actually, we are sending tweets to our girlfriends. Good thing my work also requires sending out tweets to encourage more traffic to our website.

Twitter like any product, has its good and bad points. Do you have more than one twitter account? If you tweet a lot, I guess you should have a public account and a private one too. Imagine what it would be like if suddenly you tweet: “work sucks”, forgetting that your boss or a friend who knows your boss is following you. that’s goodbye promotion to you.

It’s a great tool, if we know how to use it well. Use it to build credibility, put your best “tweet” all the time instead of typing in some mundane things like “im bored”, or “im thinking of having beer”…

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

I grew up on this

but now we have this

2010 sure seems a long way off.

I remember how much I loved watching Disney’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland…the lessons I learned from it, most especially tweedle dee and tweedle dum’s story about the walrus and the carpenter

Here is Tim Burton’s take on the twins

The new movie is slightly different from the Alice in Wonderland that we know so well. Alice is a lot older, and all is not well down the rabbit’s hole. I really look forward to watching this film. Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter is the “off with your head” -Red Queen, and Anne Hathaway is the White Queen. Australian beauty Mia Wasikowska beat Lindsay Lohan in playing Alice here…which is not bad I think.

Oh, and I also feel that Tim Burton should try using a different font on his movie posters…if you look at his other films, it’s the same old font. He is way too creative/talented to be using the same style over and over again.

Harborscope

Ahoy landlubbers!

Just want to spread the word about the Philippine’s Maritime Newspaper- Harborscope.

Harborscope’s been in the industry for almost a year now, carrying news about the Maritime Industry in the Philippines and abroad. Though the printed copy is available in some news stands in Manila, you can also view and download your copy on this link – http://issuu.com/harborscope/docs/harborscopev2n5

http://issuu.com/harborscope/docs/harborscopev2n5

It’s quite surprising that we only have a handful of newspapers like this in the industry, considering that the Philippines is a country made up of 7,100 islands and our history is rich with stories of navigation and trade.

My great grandfather (according to the stories from my father) traveled from China to the Philipines on a two-masted Chinese junk ship.

And when he lived here, he became a merchant and traveled to different places on his riverboat. He was one of the early maritime entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

It isn’t surprising why I like knowing what’s going on in their industry, esp when the pirates in Somali was all over the news. But Harborscope gives good news and I hope they can churn out more stories too.

Historical Sunday

Allow me to veer away from my foodie posts and share with you what I discovered today. Aside from my love of food, I love “old” things. I love old houses, museums, antique shops, anything that carries with it a sense of history. Back when I was in school, I love my history lessons (although I’m not crazy about memorizing dates). This became one of my passion, discovering history, which was why I traveled and stayed in Cebu…to discover our history in the Queen City of the South.

I came across an awesome video in youtube about what Manila was like before the start of World War II – Andre dela Varre’s “The Screen Traveler”. This film was taken during the 1938. I’ve only seen pictures of old Manila, but never a movie about what it was like back then.

There are other old films from De la Varre from all over the world.