A Hearty Dinner :)

One of the activities I look forward to during weekends or whenever I don't have work is experimenting in the kitchen. I have been doing this for a long time now. I have not mastered the pots and pans, the slicing, chopping, mixing, garnishing and all things related to a successful cooking or baking. But I enjoy every minute of it. It's tiring and I am a mess in the kitchen but it's fulfilling.

I have always dreamed of a spic and span clean kitchen while I am cooking in the same way as how we see it on television. Think Rachel Ray, Giada, Barefoot Contessa and Ellie Krieger. No sweat. I don't think I can talk much while I'm preparing ingredients and focusing on the simmering mixture. Oh how I love to be like these great ladies in the near future.

Later this afternoon I tried my hand on a recipe from Yummy Magazine - pork binagoongan sa gata (pork in shrimp paste mixed with coconut milk). I am not that confident as how it will come off. I just cooked the way it was directed.

I love the smell of sauteed garlic, onion and tomato. Adding bagoong (shrimp paste) made it all the more appetizing. I have to say that for some people I know, the strong pungent smell is repulsive. Making the coconut milk is what I found a little hard. This was the first time I squeezed the juice of coconut using a cloth. I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing. I just squeezed and squeezed until there's no more juice to squeeze.

We still had dinner on time, a little past seven in the evening. It took me an hour to prepare everything. It was my first time to hear an honest to goodness praise in my cooking. Even my daughter liked it. :) And so that capped our Sunday. Everyone's resting now. My daughter is sleeping. My husband's watching a Mark Wahlberg movie over at HBO and I'm blogging about my successful dinner. :)

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Mood: Accomplished.
Music: Tell Me Something I Don't Know, Selena Gomez (from my daughter's music files)

Abe

I would like to share one of our weekends at Abe in Trinoma where we had gastronomic feast on choiced Filipino dishes. Surprisingly my daughter loved the morcon better instead of her all time favorite sugpo (giant prawn). I guess it's the way it was cooked. She loves her prawn simply as sinigang (cooked in sour soup) or just plain steamed dipped in lemon-butter sauce. The prawn we had was dipped in coconut milk. The funny thing is she chose to have a chocolate drink to go with the food. But then there's water after.

As for me and my husband, we love Abe's crispy tadyang (deep fried beef ribs). I wonder how they make this. It looks burnt but it's actually crispy in the outside but so soft and chewy in the inside. The wonders of cooking.



Sugpo sa Gata (Prawn in Coconut Milk)

Crispy Tadyang (Deep Fried Beef Ribs)

Morcon (Beef Meat Roll)

My drink and hubby's

Chocolate Drink
For rice eaters, you may order their rice per bowl good for one serving or their unlimited rice where you just call on the server if you want some more. There is not much difference with the price.

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Mood: Giggly.
Music: Summer Breeze, Jason Mraz