I got Sisig on my mind. . .

The very first time I tried sisig was at a little eatery in the back alley of DLSU. It was a boy whom shall forever be unnamed who convinced me to try this food. I was blown away by the taste. I didn't want to know what's in it because I know that it will totally turn me off forever to eating sisig. I often went with friends to eat sisig at Dencio's, Jerry's Grill, or that little back alley eatery at DLSU and share a jug or two of whatever's on the tap beer (usually San Miguel Beer) AND then go back to uni to attend a two-hour class sloshed and digesting the awesome sisig we just had. My DLSU days are very, very, very exploratory to say the least. . . ~_^

Anyhoo, after moving to Canada I was only able to eat sisig the odd times it would be sold at the only Filipino store that I know of around the Yonge-Eglinton area and during special Filipino gatherings at my aunt's place. Before leaving Manila, there were only two kinds of sisig that I know of: Pork and Chicken. According to the internet, there are different variations of sisig using different kinds of meat, seafood, and even vegetables.

These past couple of days I have been getting wicked craving for sisig. You could easily say, I have sisig on my mind. I was salivating over the pictures on the internet and after days upon days of talking about sisig, thinking sisig and researching sisig I finally decided that I have tortured myself enough and it is about time for me to try making it myself. I need to satisfy my craving one way or another.

I remember the taste of sisig: it was spicy, salty soy sauce, crispy, and a hint of citrus. According to my sisig research, sisig consists of: a type of protein (meat, tofu, etc.), liver, green chilies, onions, soy sauce, vinegar and kalamansi and either topped with fresh cracked raw egg served on a sizzling hot plate. I rummaged through our cupboards and our freezer and found potential ingredients for my own kind of sisig. I had chicken for protein, instead of liver I used tofu (S.O. is not too keen on eating liver), chili flakes/sirachi sauce for heat, onions, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, and other seasonings.

I was really hoping that the taste would be close enough to satisfy my craving. So I looked up several chicken sisig recipes posted online and kind of just winged it. And my-oh-my, am I so happy with the result! I can make my own sisig when the craving strikes! ^_^

CHICKEN SISIG ala Moody Pinay Foodie
Serves: 2

1 quarter leg of chicken, deboned, minced
1/2 cup minced onions
200 grams firm Tofu, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 heaping tbsp sour cream
2-3 tbsp of soy sauce
2-3 tbsp of vinegar
2-3 tbsp of lemon juice
chili flakes
salt and pepper

1) On medium heat setting, heat the olive oil in a shallow pan. Saute onion until half-cooked. Set aside.
2) On same pan, fry minced chicken until almost brown. Make sure to thoroughly drain the meat from it's broth/juice . Set aside.
3) On same pan, fry minced tofu until almost brown and then mix chicken. Fry until both tofu and chicken are brown.
4) Add sour cream and stir until melted. Add chili flakes according to taste, ( I used a tiny pinch of it). Add a dash of salt and pepper. Fry a minute or two.
5) Add tbsp at a time of soy sauce, vinegar and lemon juice according to taste. Fry it a little bit to mix the sauce with the meat and tofu.
6) Add onion. Adjust chili flakes if you want it to be spicier!
7) Serve with plain rice or as an accompaniment to your alcohol of choice.

I kept telling S.O. how I was so happy that my experiment was a success! The taste was so close enough that I knew I just had to write the recipe here for posterity's sake and also to share to people. I'm also glad that S.O. liked it too. He said that it would taste great with my home-made bun topped with tzatziki sauce! I'm keeping a mental note of that sandwich and make sisig after we do our grocery shopping sometime this week. I'll try to remember to take a picture of our sisig sandwich.

Let me know how your sisig turns out! ^_^

Tis the season. . .

It's the season for reconnecting with family and friends. . . And good home-cooked meals and dessert! ^_^

Last weekend was my S.O.'s extended Christmas gathering. It was a great night with great music, food and company.

Everyone in the family chipped in with the buffet. There were cabbage rolls, garden salad, home-made rolls (courtesy of moi!), maple ham, scalloped potatoes, pie, fudgy/bread-pudding like cake, chocolate cornflakes and wine! Everyone was stuffed and needed an hour or two of just lounging around to digest the good food.

As one of the party-goers said: "Rockin' Rick always throws the most amazing parties!"

Keeping with the season of home-cooked meals, S.O. and I are currently on a tight budget and so we haven't had the chance of buying a lot of pre-made food. I have been cooking and baking so that we needn't spend money on take-out or junk food.

Today, I have made shortbread cookies, insta-cookies (dr. oetker) and chocolate doughnut holes ala TimBits! ^_^

I have made the shortbread cookies and has been a hit with S.O. and this is a huge thing as he doesn't really like sweet or sugary stuff. . .

SHORT BREAD COOKIES

1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 stick (1/4 cup) cold butter, diced (I used salted butter)
6 Tbsp Powdered Sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Sift flour and powdered sugar.
3. Mix butter with dry ingredients using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingertips until cornmeal like texture. Make sure not to overwork dough.
4. Pat dough into an 8-in diameter circle on an ungreased cookie sheet. Pierce the dough in different places to allow even cooking.
5. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until light brown.
6. Cut into 8 triangles. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan then transfer to wire rack.

I have been craving timbits for quite a bit these past couple of weeks and since money is tight I just thought of making my own home-made timbits!

I got this recipe from smittenkitchen quite awhile ago. Since I have been home quite a bit these past couple of weeks (Left my job. . . long story!), I have time to cook and bake and so I made this and they are quite scrumptious!

CHOCOLATE DOUGHNUT HOLES

Yield: 2 dozen

1 cup + 6 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 T + 2 tsp sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 Tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled


1. Sift all dry ingredients together.
2. Beat eggs. Add sour cream and melted butter.
3. Add dry ingredients in three parts.
4. Chill dough for an hour up to 3 hours.
5. Generously flour work surface, pat dough and roll into 1/2 inch thickness. With a 1 1/2 in diameter cutter (I used a shot glass) dipped in flour, cut-out dough. If dough begins to get sticky or hard to work with, transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and pop in the freezer for a couple of minutes.
6. Heat deep-fryer to 375F/190C. Deep fry doughnuts for a minute on each side. I was able to fit 9 doughnuts in one batch. Make sure that you bring the temperature back up to 375F for each batch.
7. Drain using paper towels and cool.

Sugar Glaze  *Optional*

4 ounces powdered sugar
2 Tbsp water
couple of drops of vanilla extract.

1. Mix powdered sugar, water and vanilla extract until smooth. Add a drop of water or two to thin out glaze. Roll cooled doughnut holes into the glaze. Transfer to wire rack to set.

Since I'm home for quite a bit, until I find another job, I'll be posting more recipes since I've been cooking a lot. Unfortunately, I sometimes forget to take pictures but if ever I do I'll post them with the appropriate captions! ^_^

Glazed Chocolate Doughnut Holes

Unglazed Chocolate Doughnut Holes

Money Saving Idea: Menu Planning

Hello Folks!

It has been awhile since my last entry. I have had quite a busy month and a half with work and other things which prevented me from blogging. But I am back and, hopefully, the entries would be more frequent and with substance.

Before I get to the main topic of this entry about stretching those hard-earned moolah, let me give you a glimpse of one of the awesome summer days I had these year:

My First Trip to S.O.'s Dad's place

Mid-August, S.O. and I went for a trip to attend S.O.'s Dad's (which from now on, I shall name: Rockin' Roll Daddy) post-wedding celebration in his place way up north in Eugenia, ON an hour or two away from Owen Sound, ON. As both S.O. and I do not drive due to the fact that we live 10-minutes away from the  nearest subway station and there's a bus stop in front of our building's driveway, we took the public transit which consisted of a subway, train and bus ride to Orangeville, ON where we met Rockin' Roll Daddy. It was quite an adventure as we've never really travelled that far in the west end. It took us a total of 4 hours from the moment we stepped out of our apartment until we got to Rockin' Roll Daddy's place which, by the way, is such an amazing and beautiful place with a lot of space. There were two major structures in the main house which is a bungalow style, 3 bedroom, finished basement and laundry room with an attached two door garage and the shop which is a huge structure, almost a house in itself, where Rockin' Roll Daddy's tools, John Deere and other stuff are housed in. That shop is kind of like a man-cave but filled with tools.

Roaster/Smoker. Lechon Baboy (Roasted Pig) ala Canadiana.

We had a pig roast, corn, salads, cake, adult drinks and plenty of good times and laughter. I would post more pictures but I need to ask the photographed people's permissions first out of respect for people's privacy. We also had a big bonfire. . .

And slept under the stars in a tent. It was my first time sleeping in a tent and it was a little bit unsettling as S.O. kept shoving me out of our air mattress. But it's something I would venture trying again sometime.

I had a get-together for my Chica Bonita's birthday where I taught her how to make bread and fed her my first time chili which she raved about and wanted to learn how to make as well. Unfortunately, I had such an amazing time that it never occurred to me to document the events. At least, this entry would serve as a reminder of that day.

Anyhoo, on to our main topic for this entry: Money Saving!

I was never any good in money and, unfortunately, due to some bad choices have a limited amount of resource. Due to this fact, every dollar I earn needs to be stretched as much as possible. As I am in charge of taking care of groceries, I have to make smart and healthy decisions for our meals. S.O. works in a physically-demanding field and needs to be fed nutritionally adequate meals. Unfortunately for both S.O. and I, our work schedules are literally day and night. And meal prep can sometimes be a hassle which brought me to browse around the net on how I can make preparing economical meals in an easy-almost-hassle-free way. Viola! Menu Planning!

I've read a lot of single/two family/mommy blogs swearing by menu planning. I tried it a couple of times and each time it helped me budget things and track my grocery spending. And I think I'll try my hardest to keep with this thing and, hopefully, save money.

I have had some experience that I have picked up from my old life in the restaurant business but it is very different making my own menu. When I used to plan menus for our restaurant, I had a consultant with me building the menu that would be approved by either my mom or my dad. I am used to other people telling me what to do and I guess you could say, I am quite a little bit overwhelmed by the many possibilities of food that I can make with a little budget and with me having the last say on the menu.

And so, this is how I started building my menu. First, it is based on what S.O. and I like to eat. We are meat-eating people. Yes, we love our meat. We love steak, pork chops, chicken, shrimps, venison, etc. We like them grilled, baked, roasted, braised, stew, etc. Second, it is also based on what we hardly eat: veggies. As we are not getting any younger, I am trying to put more colour into our meals and adding essential vitamins that our body needs. Third, what is on sale. Meat, fruits, veggies, cold-cuts, etc. If it's on sale, I'll try to incorporate it into our menu. The only thing, I don't buy on sale is bread as I make my own.

Keeping these three things in mind, I have built a two-week menu which consists less of frozen entrees and more of soups, salads, stir-fries to the next-level Kraft Dinners. Here's a picture of my hand-written menu:

09.24.2012 - 10.05.2012

I find that on the weeks that I make menus, I actually follow through with it and it helps S.O. know what he'll be getting for dinner. I also notice that I keep the impulsive grocery trips down to a minimum.   Making the menu also gives S.O. and I time to spend with each other.

On the weeks that I make menus, I typically spend around $160-180 for a two week planned meal. Without the menu, our food bill would probably be at least $120 per week as S.O. and I (mostly S.O.) would buy prepared food or order in.

I will try to continue this new menu planning kick and hopefully be able to save a little bit of money to be used for entertainment or maybe a new kitchen gadget! ^_^

Anyhoo, I have bored you long enough with my ramblings. . . Goodnight and happy Menu planning! ^_^

P.S.
Since I'm making quite a number of new meals, look forward for more posts in the coming weeks. . . 

Hola! Como estas? (Hello! How are you?)

Oh wow! It's been awhile since I last wrote an entry. It's not as if I've stopped my journey into the culinary world, I have been cooking and baking a lot since I started this blog but I keep forgetting to take pictures of my food. Lol!

Anyhoo, just like the other nights/days that I cooked and intended to write a blog entry, I totally forgot to take pictures of my home-made dinner with S.O. But, I'll write about our experience about it. 

We had crispy lightly breaded chicken thighs and potato wedges.  I marinated the chicken thighs before dredging it in a no-name brand coating mix. The potato wedges were dredged into a home-made coating mix that I made. It was a way cheaper alternative to KFC fried chicken and some bar's $6 basket of potato wedges. ^_^

Lately, I've been experimenting with different things in my cooking by taking an adventurous trip into the exotic spices that my palate's not accustomed to. I have been making a two-week menu as a guide for our meals. So far it has worked pretty well. 

It might sometimes be a pain to make your own meals but it pays off in the end. Making your own meals saves you money, helps you learn new things and techniques to make things palatable, and the safety of knowing what is in your food. 

I have quite a sensitive stomach so knowing what's in my food is increasingly becoming important to me. But, mind you, in spite of this fact I still do grab a bite to eat every now and then from one of the popular food chains or a mom and pop shop. Cooking our own meals helps me learn to not be too afraid in the kitchen. . . Even though at times I fail making the recipe by substituting ingredients too much, cooking the food too long or simply we do not like the food, I still try to make a home-cooked meal. 

I love it when S.O. gives his hearty big burp of satisfaction after a meal (Yes, we are neanderthals. We burp and fart around each other.). Him falling a sleep after a meal is just a big pat on my back. :D

I apologize for not blogging quite a bit these past couple of months. I'll try to churn out more entries as the days go by. Next big grocery shopping trip is soon to be had this weekend so I'll probably be posting some of my dishes next week. But for the meantime, I'll just ramble on about Other Things. :D

Random Picture of Bunny and Moody Pinay Foodie

Homey and Comforting

When the words "homey" and "comforting" are uttered, I usually see in my head my mom cooking in our kitchen the favourite foods I like. Today, I made one of her famous recipes -- her Christmas Ham. I also made a loaf of bread and homemade chewy granola bars. One of my co-workers liked it so much that she even asked me for the recipe. Thank goodness it was an easy-peasy one and I, miraculously, remembered it!

Unfortunately, my version of Momma Bear's Christmas Ham was a big fail. It didn't taste like how my mom makes it. Mine tasted like boiled Ham. Edible but blah in taste. I paired it with Garlic Fried Rice. 

S.O. didn't really say if he liked it but I definitely have to ask my mom how to make it and if it is a success, I'll post the recipe for it. For now, let's file my Christmas Ham into the Fail File. 

On the bright side of things, the white sandwich bread recipe I lifted from Farmgirl Fare is a huge success that I am thinking from now on, I will be making my own bread. Economical for us as we go through at least two loaves a week. S.O. a huge sandwich eater. He even makes sandwiches in his sleep! (S.O. has this weird habit of sleep-eating, he literally is sleeping and eating at the same time!) 

Click the link to Farmgirl Fare's Farmhouse White bread for the recipe. I only did one loaf of bread as it has been awhile since I made bread and I was afraid I was a bit rusty with kneading. ^_^ But, it turned out well! It was fluffy, soft, with just the right amount of chew in the crust. It would hold a nice amount of peanut butter or a good slather of mayo.

Look at the fluffiness!

Thank goodness I work in a grocery store as I was able to nicely ask our store manager if I could use our bread cutter to cut my own bread and he said no problem! So my bread is sliced evenly which makes it look like those store bought breads!^_^ S.O. and I might have to invest in a nice bread knife and maybe a baking stone. . .

Not too much air bubbles. . . Better for holding P.B. & J.!

It pretty much took me half the day to make the bread but it was worth it. I am seriously considering making our own bread every week. It's way cheaper than store-bought bread and kneading was quite relaxing! Kinda just released all my pent up anger into kneading this bread! 

Since I was in a baking mood today, I decided to make some homemade granola bars to for myself and to share to my co-workers. I just lifted the recipe from the marshmallow packet I had on hand and gave it a little twist and viola! A raving success! ^_^ I'm calling this Roaring Chewy Granola Bars!

Homemade Roaring Chewy Granola Bars

Roaring Chewy Granola Bars

1/4 cup unsalted butter

250 grams marshmallow

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups rice krispies

2 cups granola

1 cup chocolate chips

1) Line an 8 x 8 pan with either food-grade plastic film or parchment paper. 

2) Melt butter in low heat. 

3) Add marshmallows. Constantly stir for about 3-5 minutes or until all marshmallows are melted. 

4) Stir in vanilla extract. 

5) Remove from heat. 

6) Add rice krispies and granola to mixture. Making sure all dry ingredients are coated. 

7) Once the new mixture has cooled down a little bit, stir in chocolate chips. 

8) Transfer to prepared pan. 

9) Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or until set. 

10) Cut into desire length. 

11) Wrap individual in food-grade plastic film or store in a container with a lid (add parchment paper in between layers). 

There's something about baking that eases my stress. It just puts away all my worries for a brief moment. Sharing what I made and people appreciating it makes it worth it too.  

BBBC Stir-Fry

Ba dam ba dum. . . Ho Lee Chow!!!

S.O. and I have been ordering at Ho Lee Chow for our Chinese food fix for a couple of times now.  We both know that it might not be the best Chinese food but it fares well to our tastebuds (which really are not that great!).  We always order Beef with Broccoli and I figured it's really not that hard to make it and so, I decided to make my own version of it.

And so, once again, I scoured the internet for recipes of Beef Broccoli -- compared, contrasted and figured out the measurements. Once I have a pretty rough idea of what I wanted, I made my own recipe and here's the result . . .

Moody Pinay Foodie's Beef Broccoli Bok Choy Stir Fry

Presenting Moody Pinay Foodie's Version of Beef Broccoli Bok Choy Stir Fry:

1 lb quick serve beef slice
2 cups mini bok choy
2 cups broccoli florets
4 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp onion powder
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp chopped onion
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup water/ stock

1) Mix flour, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
2) Cut quick serve beef into about finger-length size.
3) Dredge beef into flour mixture.
5) Fry beef into 2 Tbsp heated oil.
6) Remove beef and fry onion and garlic.
7) Add broccoli florets and fry for 2 minutes.
8) Add beef and mini bok choy and fry for 2 minutes.
9) Add oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce. Coat veggies and beef with the sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes.
10) Add water and simmer for 5 minutes.
11) Viola! Ready to be served with rice.

I have never really worked with Bok Choy before.  I rarely eat veggies but since I am getting up there in age, I realized that I might need to make some healthier choices when it comes to eating. And since I work in a grocery store, I have a plethora of veggies to try out and explore.  I have seen quite a number of folks buy Bok Choy and so I thought I'll buy it and see how I like the taste.

It's a pretty neutral vegetable. It doesn't leave a weird veggie taste in your mouth. It's crisp and cabbage-like. I cooked it until it's a little bit wilted. It paired well with the broccoli florets.

I asked S.O. if this one's a a keeper and he enthusiastically said Yes! with a huge smile on his face.  So, I guess, this will be part of my few dish recipes and a staple in the dinner menu choices. ^_^

SUCCESS! ^_^

What's for Din-Din?

Salmon Steak and Uncle Ben's Fast and Fancy Garden Vegetable Rice

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Did you drink a pint or two of green beer? ^_^ Did you remember to have dinner at all?

Every night around 8:30 p.m., if and when I'm home, S.O. would ask "What's for dinner?" Today, I beat him to it by asking him what he wanted for dinner. S.O. , typically, lets me decide what we were going to have for dinner and since I get off late (10 p.m.) I decided to just get some fresh salmon and some instant flavoured rice. 

Mind you, we have a huge bag of Jasmine rice but for some reason I felt like trying out Uncle Ben's Fast and Fancy Garden Vegetable Rice. It was an o.k. rice -- not great, not too bad, just average. You can taste that it's instant rice for sure. I don't think that this instant rice will be a staple in our cupboard. I'll probably just buy it for those really long days and late nights for a very easy/ lazy dinners or when S.O. cooks, which is almost never!

The fish was great though! It was swimming in it's juice and butter. Seasoned with cilantro, tomatoes, onions, fish seasoning, garlic, lemon juice, sirachi sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper. I know it sounds like there's too much going on with the seasoning but trust me, it all ties together nicely. 

Moody Pinay Foodie's Funky Salmon Steak

250 g or 1/2 lb Salmon Steak 

Aluminum Foil

1 Tbsp onions

1 Tbsp tomatoes

1 Tbsp fish seasoning

1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

A squirt or two of sirachi sauce

A splash of soy sauce

Couple of sprigs of cilantro

1 Tbsp butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

1) Pre-heat oven to 375F.

2) Prepare enough aluminum foil for your salmon steak. Remember to make enough room so you can fold the edges into a pouch. 

3) Put salmon steak in the middle of foil. 

4) Add onions, tomatoes, fish seasoning, garlic, lemon juice, sirachi sauce, soy sauce, cilantro. 

5) Add butter, salt and pepper. 

6) Fold the edges of the foil to make pouch. 

7) Bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes (depending on size of salmon).

To know if your salmon is cooked, it should be light pink and flaky. If it's white, you've overcooked it but it'll still be edible. If it's black. . . well, you know what that means. . .

I was supposed to make dessert but I just don't have the energy for it. So I'll probably just eat some strawberries with whipped cream (with a splash of vanilla extract) and drizzled with maple syrup. 

Goodnight folks! Hope you enjoyed your dinner tonight -- that is if you were still sober by then!