One more serving of tasty home cooking
A hearty breakfast before our road trip to Nor Cal. My Ninong’s chicken adobo, rice and a hardboiled egg.
July 25, 2008
May 28, 2008
Meat and More Meat
My last meal in Vegas: rice, chicken and beef adobo plus lamb shanks. This beats any meal off I-5!
April 1, 2008
Pulao
I don’t think I can survive without rice. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Rice goes with anything and I’m always learning new ways to enjoy this personal food staple. My cousin and hubby gave us “Seductions of Rice” for Christmas. It’s a big cookbook with beautiful pictures on how rice is used around the world. I love trying out the book’s tasty recipes for rice and other dishes. A few weeks ago, I whipped up this Low-Country Pulao with Chicken and Bacon.
March 11, 2008
Feeding the Soul
I’m waking up with aches and pains from our snowboarding weekend in Tahoe. I will post video, pix and thoughts about our snow adventures later.
A couple of weekends ago, we went to mass at St. Ignatius in the City by the Bay. It’s a beautiful Jesuit church next to the University of San Francisco.
March 4, 2008
Back to Home Cooking
I try to find new recipes to try out on my weekends. I’m thrilled with the huge kitchen space in our Vacaville home. There’s plenty of room to spread out my herbs, veggies, meat and cutting areas. Sometimes I have my PowerBook open to a tasty online recipe. When I’m prepping meals, sometimes I stare out at the backyard and watch my Daisy defend the house against blue jays, squirrels and pedestrians.
After almost a decade of cooking, I still feel like a novice in the kitchen. I think that’s cool because I’ll always find something new and challenging to tickle my taste buds. My love of culinary adventures goes back to my family. I’m happy we had a chance to return to some good home cooking for the P-Day Weekend.
I loved my dad’s home cooking: fish, laarb, fried rice and more. He’s the first one to teach me how to cook. During my 2nd year at Cal, he showed me how to make chicken adobo in the our tiny dorm kitchen. Little by little, I got more daring in the kitchen. Sometimes I had misses when it came to my cooking. Other times, one bite showed me that it was all worth the time and prep invested in the dish.
January 31, 2008
Random Thoughts on Balut
I’ve been thinking about Balut. I think it’s time I try this Filipino delicacy. Hell, Mark already sampled it.
I wonder if this is a good price for the half-hatched duck eggs. We found this vendor at the Fremont Farmers Market last September. Sadly, I had to catch a plane to Kansas that day…so we passed on the Balut.
This week, I stumbled on this informational blog entry on Balut aka Hot Vit Lon.
I remember eating them with my siblings, tapping on the egg shell with a spoon and then breaking the membrane underneath to sip at the flavorful liquid, which was broth like. Then we ate the solid stuff, which basically was the embryo. I don’t recall beak, bones or feathers, but they can be in there, depending on the age of the egg. We didn’t eat the hard white albumen. It was a kind of weird dare and that was it.
OK — some day I will try Balut. Maybe on my next trip home to LA…we’re thinking about doing a quick visit on President’s Day weekend. I know that falls in the middle of sweeps, but I happen to have that holiday off. Neato.
January 16, 2008
Stumbling on New Comfort Food
I’m enjoying my Sunday with some indie rock/pop/electronica on KSPC. This weekend, we started covering our bare white walls with posters from Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. We also started hanging up pictures from our wedding day. I get all warm and fuzzy inside watching this space transform more into our home.
My vampire shift for work is physically and mentally challenging. So, I try to find balance on my days off: going to yoga classes, catching up on chores, playing with the puppy, meeting up with friends and trying new food spots.
In San Francisco, Susan and Tom introduced us to Farmer Brown’s a few weekends ago. It’s all about local, organic farm food with a Southern twist. These angel biscuits mixed cornbread with a touch of jalapeño. The honey butter spread nicely complimented the sweet and spicy tones.
December 19, 2007
California Eats
I called my dad about my first experience using the live chopper for a breaking news segment this morning. It was a crazy time. Thankfully, folks in the booth didn’t let me crash the segment (not the chopper…the actually show). My dad said I sounded happy. I am happy. I’m still training but I’m thrilled with everything I’ve gotten my hands on so far.
So far so good.
My dad and mom checked out the outside of my new job a few weeks ago. We’re grateful they came up from So Cal to help us unpack our insane number of boxes. This is our first dinner inside our new house. We picked-up duck, sesame chicken, green beans and beef and chicken noodle soup from the Golden Palace.
People from the California Wine Bar and work all recommended Tapa the World in Midtown. We had a fantastic spread of little Spanish dishes like these olives and paella. The light green ones had a buttery aftertaste. Yum!
December 5, 2007
Korean lunch in Davis
Eating bibimbap at Manna in Davis. Very tasty, hearty Korean food. My dish had beef, fried egg, veggies and rice. Yum!
December 4, 2007
Homecoming
I woke-up in Vacaville this morning. It’s wonderful to be back in California. I know it’s grey, raining and a little dreary outside…but I’m thrilled to be home.
I couldn’t have made this trip without Mark. He has been the road trip leader and our home provider. He’s been our rock. I’m grateful for his strength on this trip and for the next chapter in my career.
On Day 3 of our Road Trip — we had a beautiful start in Salt Lake City. We were surrounded by salty water and shores after driving about 30 minutes away from the city. We also passed a few salt factories, like Morton’s, sitting on the far edges of the lake.
