Because scallops have a natural sweetish flavor, I didn’t want to overpower them with a heavy sauce. I started by sprinkling them with a little salt and pepper. Then I mixed together some olive oil, chopped basil leaves, garlic and onions. I placed a teaspoonful of the mixture on each scallop then baked them in a moderately hot oven for about two minutes—just long enough until they turned opaque. Scallops cook fast and the meat toughens when overcooked. So, two minutes in a preheated oven was just about right.
Baked scallops
A culinary adventure in Pililla
Published on October 12, 2006 in the Life & Travel Section of Manila Standard Today FIRST, a confession. I don’t like ornamental food–those made to look good to compensate for what they lack in flavor. I prefer real food. Real grub–the kind you can dig into and enjoy without ceremony. Just like allowing the senses ... (more)
Dill flowers
Dill is an herb. GardenGuides.com says the botanical name is Anethum graveolens while Botanical.com says it is Peucedanum graveolens. Whatever. Dill is so easy to grow. Sturdy too–mine survived typhoon Milenyo. Dill flowers are small and white. They don’t usually droop like they do in the photos but these were taken after a downpour. They ... (more)
My daughters and their music
I’m pondering on the nature versus nurture thing again. Siblings raised in the same household, by the same parents and with the same set of rules… well, one would think they’d have more than a few things in common. I have two daughters–Sam, 14, and Alex, 12–and their similarities and differences just amaze me. They ... (more)
Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’
In most of the interviews I have done in the past, one recurring question was “What is a sassy lawyer day like?” The question is probably borne out of the curiosity to find out if I do much else aside from blogging considering how much output I could churn out in a day. Well, I’ll tell you a secret. I can speedread. My mother insisted I take speedreading lessons the summer before I entered the College of Law. That’s how I can write so many things in a day. More often the not, the output is directly proportional with the input.
In short, while the computer stays on most of the day, I am able to do a lot of other things. I have to, really. Until about two months ago, we had no househelp for almost two years. Had I been spending each weekday doing nothing but sit in front of the computer, we would have starved, we would have been wearing filthy clothes, etc. etc. Why am I writing about this? The title says Alfred Hitchcock… yeah, yeah… I’ll get to Hitchcock. I just want you to picture how things were when I stumbled onto Hitchcock’s 1963 film “The Birds”. So bear with me.
Aklatang Pambata
The things I discover now that I have changed gears. I found the Aklatang Pambata website through a button on Jillsab‘s sidebar. Its main thrust is to establish, develop and improve community based libraries in the Philippines. Part of its mission is to “make teachers, parents and community members partners in promoting reading in children.” ... (more)
Lasang Pinoy 14 (A la Espanyola): My father's sarciado
About my father’s sarciado… of course, I had enjoyed this dish countless of times when I was growing up. But the day my husband ate my father’s sarciado, it became his standard for sarciado. I had just given birth to our firstborn, Sam, and on a visit, my father cooked his sarciado and a clam soup with malunggay. My husband couldn’t stop talking about the sarciado for days.































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