Good food, great writing, decent photos. Yes, that's about right.
The avocado was supposed to go into sushi but I cooked all the Japanese rice we had to make oyakudon. Sam looked at the lonely avocado ruefully, suggested that we make a salad with it then she commandeered my computer to search for recipes. But I didn’t need any recipe. I knew exactly how I ... (more)
Sam likes buying those frozen seafood balls in the grocery — fish balls, squid balls, shrimp balls, prawn balls, crab balls, lobster balls… I always ask her to choose fish balls over the others because I am allergic to crustaceans. Last time, she wanted lobster balls and she couldn’t be persuaded to choose something else. ... (more)
It has a graham cracker crust and it is baked but at a lower temperature and without the baine marie. It has all the traditional ingredients for a cheesecake — cream cheese, cream, sugar and eggs. Yet, it is not a cheesecake. It’s a pie that is not as dense as a cheesecake yet it ... (more)
Commenting on the deteriorating interest in home cooking, the program mix on The Food Network and the Cooking Channel, and the general dumbing down of the public, Seattle Times nutrition columnist Carrie Dennett says: More than half of these shows are “food-related entertainment,” not “instructional cooking programs”… One visible fallout from this loss of basic ... (more)
If you Google “melon cocktail”, you’ll find that there are two categories. The first is an alcoholic drink; the second is a dessert. This falls under the second category. But while most melon cocktail desserts simply used balled melon and a sprinkle of mint leaves, this is something more. Yep, the grape syrup which I ... (more)
According to Tastefully Done, age means deep fried and dashi, of course, is the stock made with bonito flakes and kelp. Hence, agedashi tofu. For me, it’s the queen of tofu dishes. Squares of fried delicate soft tofu served with a light salty-sweet sauce. Two characteristics make this dish stand out. First, the contrasting textures ... (more)
When Sam’s in the mood, she makes magic in the kitchen. She browsed the web for instructions on how to make mochi, I gave her a bag of glutinous rice flour and she made pink mochi with a bowl, a fork, the microwave oven and red food color. The first time she gave me a ... (more)
Saturday night, we went out to see The Avengers. Alex had seen it with her school friends on opening day because, well… she had to be among the first. It’s a Robert Downey, Jr. thing. She’s smitten. Speedy and I, on the other hand, hate seeing any movie on opening day. We don’t like jostling ... (more)
Okra has a bad reputation in our house. So bad a reputation that I’m the only one that eats it. Speedy’s and the girls’ complaint? Okra is slimy. Okra makes them think of snot and that’s not edible. But okra is so good and I’ve been trying to convince them to try it. To no ... (more)
From the moment he saw the recipe and visual guide for making a cowboy's … »»
Dinner doesn't have to be labor intensive -- a sandwich can be filling, … »»
Speedy cooked this delicious dish of fish and chips. The batter used for … »»
With the scorching heat of summer, I often feel that life sucks in a huge … »»
So, I mentioned the other day that I made a huge pot of broth by simmering … »»
I've been dreaming of making this for weeks. But since we started making … »»
If I had access to kale, I'd have used a bunch in lieu of white cabbage. If … »»
In a post I published four and a half years ago, I mentioned that everyone … »»
There are two earlier version of this recipe for steamed fish with tausi … »»
Casa is Spanish for house. CASA is also an acronym for Connie, Antonio, Sam and Alex. We are all surnamed Veneracion. We all love to take photos -- of anything that catches our fancy. It's a family obsession.
This is a journal of how we live, eat, learn, play and have fun. Work? Work is part of playing and having fun. Seriously.
In 2003, a time when I hadn't heard of the term "blog", I started a recipe website at cooking.houseonahill.net using a now defunct content management system that ran on ASP. Ok, never mind the geek talk, I'm sure you're not interested in that. The contents easily multiplied and, in 2004, I moved the food site to pinoycook.net. Always unhappy with the fact that the dot com versions of houseonahill and pinoycook weren't … (click here to read all »)
Okra has a bad reputation in our house. So bad a reputation that I'm the … (more...)
When I first came across this spinach recipe in The New York Times health … (more...)
This is an updated version of a recipe originally published on September … (more...)
In the Philippines, melon usually refers to the cantaloupe or rockmelon. … (more...)
A one-pot dish that's a breeze to prepare. The sausage meat makes the broth … (more...)
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