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Photo by jspad on Flickr

Can you believe it? Just a few more days…36 days to be exact, and it’s Christmas!!!

I love Christmas because it’s cooler here in the tropics. I look forward to the “Simbang Gabi” or Midnight Novena Mass we have before Christmas. I love that friends and family members who work abroad come home for reunions.

After being hit with the flood though, and with oil prices and goods sky rocketing this holiday season. I feel it would be better if we celebrated this Christmas with less spending on decorations and think more about sharing what we have to kids or families who are still trying to recover from the flood. I feel it is our responsibility, for those of us who can give, to really help out the people around us who need it the most.

Back when my husband and I were renting a small room in Cebu, our Christmas feast consisted of a homemade ham I made myself, Filipino-style spaghetti my husband made, a nice bottle of wine, cheese, a big chocolate bar and a can filled with chocolate chip cookies. And this was cooked using a small rice cooker and a small electric stove. Cooking inside the room wasn’t allowed, and it was good that the people in the next room wasn’t there when we were making these It was a simple feast but we loved it because we made it ourselves.

This Christmas would be our first Christmas in our house. We already have a Christmas tree with only some lights as decorations. A Santa poster hangs outside our door, and my son and I made a red Christmas stocking to hang on the stairs. (Since we have no chimney) I have to make two more for me and my husband.

Christmas doesn’t have to be too expensive. What is important is being grateful for what you have and passing the love around.

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!

I looked at the calendar today and was confused…what the…its July already?

OMG, just 5 more months and it will be Christmas! Five months!!! Christmas in Five Months!

Okay, calm down, half a year has passed, and I still haven’t done anything exciting for myself…*sigh* now I’m depressed. When I’m depressed i think of food…food makes me happy…think happy thoughts…think food!

Now these babies would be perfect for the fourth of July…some good ole barbecue ribs

If there was a salad that I love eating it’s this when I was pregnant with Gabby, I had this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

It’s not food, but these hot humid nights make me want to drink gallons and gallons of this

These wouldnt hurt too

Nom nom nom…happy thoughts

Saw this on CNN today…

Canned Cheeseburger!

But the cheeseburger isn’t as pretty as this inside…

photo from www.fahad.com

a $6 cheeseburger that could last for a year…

All I could say is…eeeew!

Do you like potatoes? Me, I LOVE them! Love em deep fried, baked, boiled, mashed, roasted, stuffed…i just love em! My earliest memories of them was when my Mom took me to the market and asked me to fill the lady’s little basket with these wonderful, lumpy, soil-covered potatoes. I thought they were rocks back then, but when my mom washed and peeled them, and I saw their lovely yellow color…I fell in love. I remember digging through our backyard afterwards hoping to find these “rocks”.

As I got older, I tried different ways of making potatoes. But I usually just baked ‘em and add a little salt, butter, and pepper. But there are some recipes that I absolutely love and if you have time, I hope you can try them out too. Here are some of my fave potato recipes from Foodista.

You can never have too much potatoes

The weekend is almost here and I’ve been looking inside our fridge to make a list of things to buy at the market. Lo and behold! I see some leftover ingredients here! A lonely carrot, some celery, a cup of milk, and an odd looking veggie here and there, you run out of ideas sometimes on what to do with them.

This is where  comes in handy!

Just go over at Foodista.com, type in the ingredient you have in the house, click search, and in a few seconds they will show you all the recipes that they have that includes this ingredient!

So, what am I going to do with my leftover carrot and celery?

I’m making a delicious carrot salad with them!

Carrot salad by psd from Flickr

Yummy!

This is just so awesome!

The creative team of Foodista has come up with a way for recipe lovers and contributors to personalize their recipes! Yay! this means that YOU have the choice if the recipe you submitted can be changed or modified by other people.

When you submit or share a recipe, you canselect this entry as a public recipe (where everyone can edit) or personal recipe (where only you can edit). To know more about it, do visit Foodsita here. You can also know more about the projects in store for Foodista through this link