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Jan 21, 2017

Dutch Baby Pancake with Spiced Apples and Bananas

Delicious and easy to make Dutch Baby Pancake loaded with cinnamon spiced Apples and Bananas! So yummy and perfect for breakfast or brunch!

Delicious and easy to make Dutch Baby Pancake loaded with cinnamon spiced Apples and Bananas! So yummy and perfect for breakfast or brunch!

I have been desiring to make Dutch Baby Pancakes for the longest time but for whatever reason, I never got to. Sad. However,this day was meant to be the day to do it. Sophie, my little girl, approached me this morning and asked me what was for breakfast. She was usually content with cereals or oatmeal and anything with yogurt but today she requested something different. When I mentioned pancakes, she was immediately delighted. I told her, when the idea of Dutch baby pancake popped into my mind, that she may have to wait a little because this is not the regular pancake and it required some baking. She seemed excited about the idea of a new kind of pancake so didn't mind waiting a little at all.
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Apr 23, 2016

Whole Roast Masala Chicken (Indian-style)


Flavored with aromatic spices, this whole roast Masala Chicken (Indian-style) comes out so yummy! The skin is deliciously crisp and the meat is tender and moist. This roast is very easy and quick to prepare, too.

Flavored with aromatic spices, this whole roast Masala Chicken (Indian-style) comes out so yummy! The skin is deliciously crisp and the meat is tender and moist. This roast is very easy and quick to prepare, too. | manilaspoon.com

When I was pregnant for the first time 10 years ago with our eldest son, the main food I craved was roast chicken. I had a really bad "morning" sickness (of course, it could be anytime of the day!) for the first 4 months or so and nothing seemed to calm my stomach and made me happier than roast chicken! I don't know why that was but I guess I should just be happy my cravings were not too "exotic" or hard to find!
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Feb 9, 2016

Fried Rice with Aromatic Spices

Tasty and mildly spiced this fried rice is the perfect side dish for your favorite Asian food especially curries and stews. Great way to use left-over rice, too and it's gluten-free!

Tasty and mildly spiced this fried rice is the perfect side dish for your favorite Asian food especially curries and stews. Great way to use left-over rice, too and it's gluten-free! | manilaspoon.com

Since hubby came back from India last December bringing with him a good amount of spices, I have been trying to think of creative ways to use them. Since rice is a staple in our family, I thought it would be great to use these spices to add extra flavor to the usual fried rice. 
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Nov 18, 2015

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Flavored with nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon this Spiced Cranberry Sauce will blow your taste buds away. It's seriously delicious and the perfect condiment for Thanksgiving, Christmas and any holiday! | manilaspoon.com

I love cooking with spices. I just love the intense complexity in flavor that a little dash of cinnamon, nutmeg or my favorite cardamon can add to a dish. When I decided to make some condiment for Thanksgiving, I thought it had to be cranberry sauce and a spiced one, too.
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Oct 21, 2015

Dutch Apple Pie Bars

All the flavors of your favorite apple pie and the delicious Dutch-style crumb topping make these bar cookies exceptionally yummy! Easy to make as well - Dutch Apple Pie Bars!

Apple Pie....who can resist this delicious fall favorite? I surely can't! I definitely crave this delicious dessert especially in Autumn but sometimes I don't feel like going through the trouble of making a pastry dough from scratch or even using a store bought one. Thankfully, these delicious apple pie bars come to the rescue!
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Oct 2, 2015

Pumpkin Cinnamon Lassi


*These products were given to us free to sample as members of the Chobani Parents Club. All opinions are my own. #Chobani #ChobaniKids

Oh glorious autumn....the cool crisp weather, the falling leaves and the delicious flavors of the season! I am not a fan of winter at all but fall.....I love, love fall. I wish after Fall we can skip winter and proceed to spring so that after the bright reds, yellows and oranges of autumn we will immediately be treated to the delightful sight of vibrant green. 
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Apr 10, 2015

Slow Cooker Red-Cooked Chicken



I love cooking Chinese food. It really is, next to Filipino cuisine, my favorite. Whenever I crave something with Asian flavors that means family dinner will have rice and a Chinese viand. Also, it's much easier to find ingredients for Chinese recipes nowadays as chances are you are within walking or driving distance from a Chinese store. However that is not often the case with my Filipino ingredients although of late many Asian stores now carry some of the basic Filipino must-haves for cooking. For this reason, Asian night means mostly Chinese night.
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Feb 28, 2015

Beef and Bean Enchiladas



Last week I had been craving for something a little spicy. I didn't really fancy making a curry but thought I'd make it a Mexican night in our house. Before we had kids, I used to make Chicken Enchiladas for hubby and myself but have never ever done another one ever since we had kids. Wow, that's almost like a decade ago.
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Jul 19, 2014

Sweet-and-Spicy Chicken and Steak Taco Bar





My husband and I love spicy food! We prefer food that has complex flavor, full of yummy spices that delight the taste buds. When we came to the USA, over ten years ago, one of the first things we looked for was a good Indian restaurant as we love Indian food. Unfortunately, at that time, there wasn't any reasonably good Indian restaurant where we resided so we were quite sad and thought we may no longer have our favorite food for a long time (unless we visited another city). Thankfully, the situation all worked out well as that motivated me to learn how to cook. If spicy food won't be readily available, then I must do something about it. I am glad that because of this I learned how to cook curry and other Indian and even Thai specialties. Necessity is indeed a good motivator!
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Jun 4, 2014

Grilled Sausages with Peppers in Sweet Chili Sauce


My husband is British as you probably already know especially if you are a regular follower of this blog. That means, like most, Brits, he loves Sausages. So when summer comes, you can be sure we'll be grilling aplenty. Oftentimes, there are left-overs and we love it when that happens! The reason why? This recipe!
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Apr 8, 2014

Chicken Rogan Josh


Last December 2013 my hubby had the opportunity to visit India! Of course, he was excited as he'd always wanted to travel to India to see this amazing country, taste his favorite curry and experience its culture. He was invited by a friend to speak and help out in their annual church conference and he readily said yes. Of course, I was excited for him but nonetheless, because he would be absent for 2 weeks, I was kind of scared, too. I told him to make up for it - he'd better bring me home some of India's best spices!!! :)
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Mar 28, 2014

Spicy Coconut Pumpkin Soup




Nowadays, I am in-love with anything that has coconut in it. Perhaps because I do miss my lovely island of Marinduque where we are surrounded by towering coconut trees. I have so many lovely memories of my childhood that involves this amazing tree and of course, it's delicious fruit. My parents own some piece of land in the barrio (small village in the outskirts of our town). Most of the land is devoted to rice fields but the mountainous areas are all covered with coconut trees. My parents have tenants who stay in the land either for free or for a very low rent and in return cultivate the rice crops among other things. Occasionally, we visited and to see how things were going, if the harvest would be plentiful as the rice that we ate then really came from these fields (well, when I was young I really didn't care for that but my parents did, of course.) For me, I was more concerned if we would either be able to ride the carabao (our beast of burden and really the farmer's best friend in the Philippines) during the visit and if they would be willing to give us some fresh coconuts straight from the tree. 
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Feb 15, 2014

Sweet Potato and Ginger Soup (Yummy Recipe to help cure the Flu)


So my dear hubby has the flu.....I feel so sorry for him. I don't like it when he is unwell as it not only makes me sad, I don't like to see him suffer and look sick. But this is one of the hazards of winter that cannot always be prevented.

Being the resourceful person that he is, hubby researched for a more natural remedy to help cure the flu or at least hasten his recovery. He showed me this cooking video from a nutritionist who suggested that this is a wonderful cure for flu. I was skeptical but indulged my honey and watched the video anyway. I was of course intrigued. I like that all the ingredients are natural and for me has the potential of something flavorful.   Sweet potato, ginger, chili pepper and mushrooms to name a few - this concoction must at least taste nice and if it helps cure the flu, even better!

Hubby says, he did feel better after having some. He felt boosted though he's not completely recovered yet. Well, it's only been day 1 so perhaps tomorrow and the next day and a few more cups of this yummy soup then he'll be back to his full healthy self. At any rate, I am sharing this because I actually loved this soup, yes, I had some already - quite a thick one, almost like a puree - it's so flavorful and I agree with the nutritionist, this is a perfect curry base! I will definitely use this recipe for a curry next time. Enjoy!





Ingredients

4 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 inch-ginger, finely chopped*
1 red chili pepper, with seeds*
1 large red Onion, chopped
1 large Sweet Potato, chopped
Shiitake Mushrooms (fresh - 4 oz / dry 1 oz), chopped*
Vegetable Stock or broth (32 oz)

*If you don't want it too gingery, you can just use the 2-inch one. That's how I measure my ginger, by it's length and not by tablespoons.

*Hubby only got 1 hot cherry pepper so that's all that I used but feel free to use your favorite hot pepper and adjust the heat to your taste.

*If using the dried Shiitake mushrooms, make sure to rehydrate them first. Just add them towards the end of cooking.

Procedure

Please watch the short video for the full instruction on how to make this flavorful soup. Hope you all feel healthy this winter!

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Nov 28, 2013

Spiced Molasses Cookies



I used to be not a fan at all of spiced cookies. It's not because I think they have a funny taste or anything like that but because of sheer unfamiliarity. I guess Filipino cuisine, though it has its sweet side, does not have many cookies perfumed or flavored with sweet spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. But since this is a quintessential winter and/or holiday cookie, I thought I ought to give it another try. I don't like a cookie though that's super heavy on ginger taste (though I love ginger and often use it in cooking - for savory food mostly though!). Just not my cup of tea. But when I saw that this cookie has pretty much an even distribution of spices, I thought why not?
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Nov 23, 2013

South African Bobotie


In 2007, we had the privilege of living in South Africa for a few months. We were previously in this beautiful country way back in 2004 for our honeymoon in Cape Town. We absolutely loved our time there. How can we ever forget this country? It has so much to offer.....majestic scenery like that of Table Mountain.....
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Oct 30, 2013

Delectable Chocolate Chili


Fall and winter calls for comfort food that will not only keep you warm but also make you feel really good - to help battle the winter blues! And we all know that kind of food has got to be Chili! I have already made a chicken version last year so I thought it's about time I make a beef one. I have seen some recipes that use unsweetened Cocoa powder to add more flavor to their Chilis and I thought it was a wonderful idea. So here's my version of a Chocolate Chili that uses cocoa powder to add more flavor to your regular Chili recipe.
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Sep 17, 2013

Chicken Chili


 
Just a few weeks ago, we were invited to dinner by some friends from church. We always love gatherings like this for it not only presents a great chance to visit friends but it's a wonderful opportunity to get to know each other better and with great food at that. Needless to say part of our menu was this amazing Chicken Chili dish! Naturally, I asked my friend to give me her recipe and she willingly obliged. I was so happy to try it. It was wonderful as I expected! What's even greater you can also do this in the slow cooker!
 
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Feb 20, 2013

Coconut Chicken Curry



Having grown up surrounded by coconut trees in our little island, called Marinduque, in the Philippines I love anything with coconut flavors. And we do use coconuts (tree and fruit) for everything that you can imagine. I don't know how our country will survive without this towering plant from the Palm family. We use its logs to build houses, leaves for roofing, oil for cooking and making our hair shiny, coconut husks for charcoal and of course it's meat for snacking, baking and plain eating. In the midst of a heatwave in the Philippines, nothing can be more refreshing than fresh coconut juice from a freshly opened young coconut! The possibilities are truly endless and I haven't even mentioned coconut milk!

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Aug 25, 2012

Indian Butter Chicken


To say that we like chicken curry is an understatement. We love curry to the max! Whenever we travel, whatever country that may be - the first restaurant we always try to look for is an Indian curry house.  

Before I got married, I wasn't a major fan of anything spicy. In the region (Southern Tagalog) where I grew up, spicy dishes are not really a big thing. We usually love sweet, sour and salty but spicy, not too much. But then I met my British husband who is into everything spicy. I was converted by him. He loves chicken curry. When we were still in England we used to visit Brick Lane in East London for some curry therapy. If you are ever in London, this is the place to go if you want to get curry. There are rows upon rows of curry houses there. I miss this place!

However there is one special curry place for us and, no, it's not in India or the UK or even the USA (truth is, there is no Indian restaurant where I live).  Sad, isn't it. We found it, of all places, in Vietnam! While it may take years before we go back and eat there again, we have fond memories of Vietnam and most certainly the curry we had there. Here's a photo of myself in front of the restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. It's not much to look at but the curry is great, if you are able to wake up its owner to cook for you! Seriously, it was great and the best we have tasted! Check this out when you find yourself in the streets of Saigon.




And for good measure, here's another photo of me and my hubby in Vietnam. Photo was taken while we were cruising the Mekong Delta. Happy Memories!




Before I get any more sidetracked, here's one of our favorite curry dish - Indian Butter Chicken. This is a mild curry so feel free to up the heat to your desired spice level. Enjoy!


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Ingredients

5 pieces Roma or plum tomatoes - or 2 (14oz/410gr)  cans of diced tomatoes (fresh is better though!) 
2 Tablespoons oil and 5 Tablespoons Butter 
2.2 pounds (1 kilo) skinless but bone-in chicken thighs (boneless are fine but they tend to fall apart)
Thumb-size peeled and chopped fresh ginger or 1 tsp of ground ginger
3 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
2 teaspoon each red Curry powder, ground Cumin and ground Paprika
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 ½ - 2 tsp salt, or to taste      
¼ - ½ cup of plain Yogurt (you can use heavy cream, if you prefer)                
Freshly squeezed lemon juice (a must for me!) 

Procedure 

If using fresh tomatoes, cut-up the tomatoes and then place in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth (puree the canned tomatoes too, if using this instead). In a deep pan, heat the oil and butter on medium to low heat until the butter melts. Stir in the spices, and let sizzle briefly, for a minute or less. Add the salt and brown sugar and stir until combined. Immediately, add the chicken pieces and coat them with the spices.

Mix in the pureed tomatoes. Though the mixture may seem thick at this point, it will thin out as it simmers. Bring to a quick boil and then cover the pan and gently simmer for about an hour or until the chicken is tender, occasionally stirring it. It is done when the chicken is tender and the sauce is medium-thick. It is already good and yummy at this point but if you like a creamier sauce, add plain yogurt or heavy cream and then squeeze some fresh lemon juice, to taste. Cook a little further without boiling just until the cream is heated. Garnish with coriander/cilantro leaves. Serve hot with freshly steamed rice (basmati or jasmine are the best for this!) and some green veggies on the side. Curry heaven!


Note: While the chicken curry tastes great already on the day it is cooked, it may be done a day ahead and chilled on the fridge so the flavors continue to infuse overnight. Even better the next day!

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Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8




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