The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
Not every teabag contains tea. Learn about tea, its varieties and how it differs from tisanes or infusions. Then make a cup of chai or herbal brew.
It was Sam who gave us our first taste of watermelon iced tea. She cut seedless watermelon into small cubes, dropped them into glasses of iced tea, gave Speedy and me each a glass and, oh wow, were we wide-eyed with surprise! So simple, so basic, so very refreshing. How could we not have thought ... (more)
When Speedy saw Giada de Laurentiis making this spiced tea on her TV program, the first question he asked was whether we had star anise. Of course, I said, we always have star anise in stock. A couple of days later, he made the tea but didn’t bother taking photos. I felt that Speedy wasn’t ... (more)
I never liked milk in my tea. I always felt that the milk drowned out the delicate flavors of the tea. It wasn’t until Alex developed an affinity for milk tea and learned how to prepare it at home that I slowly got over my aversion for milk in my tea. So much so that ... (more)
Cold and wet day. I’ve had three cups of coffee since I woke up this morning, I wondered if a cocktail drink would be good to keep me warm but I finally decided on a hot brew. Salabat (ginger brew), often sweetened with honey and flavored with a little kalamansi juice, is reputedly good to ... (more)
While half the world must be craving for hot drinks to ward off the bitter winter cold, here in the tropics, the weather is cool and mild and iced tea is still a great after lunch or mid-afternoon drink. So, after shaving the zest off three oranges a few days ago to make the orange ... (more)
Chai means tea in several South Asian languages. Masala (literally, a mixture of spices) chai means spiced tea although many people associate masala chai with spiced milk tea. The addition of milk is a British influence. Tea has been grown in some South Asian regions for thousands of years but tea was used as an ... (more)
The lemongrass iced tea you see in the photo was made from fresh lemongrass stalks. The stalks were boiled, allowed to infuse and cooled. Then, I added honey, slices of lemon and orange, and ice. See, we stay away from powdered drinks. Not for any of the scary reasons circulating on the internet but because ... (more)
When I was in Kuala Lumpur last year, I visited a tea shop called Purple Cane in the Chinatown district. I bought several canisters of loose tea leaves and the small ones I gave away as gifts to friends last Christmas. One large canister went to my mother; another, to my brother. The last two ... (more)
Add a new depth to your usual cup of green tea by infusing it with fresh herbs and fruits. No, not by using flavored tea in teabags — don’t you taste the paper? If you watch NCIS: Los Angeles, there was an episode when G. was making a cup of tea for himself and Hetty ... (more)
Many Filipinos tend to look at tea as an instant drink largely because the tea we know comes from the West, the kind packaged in convenient tea bags. But did you know that the first tea bag was not made to be dropped into a cup of hot water? Story has it that tea bags ... (more)
The day I cooked the lechon kawali with Pad Thai sauce, I cooked a second … »»
Summer came suddenly. One day it was cool and breezy; the next day, it was … »»
The classic adobong sitaw gets more than a superficial facelift with the … »»
Inspired by a chicken soup called halang-halang, this fish dish is great as … »»
After a quick trip to the market, Speedy checked his Facebook account, … »»
Still experimenting with alternative methods of cooking, after using the … »»
If you're looking for the easiest cocktail drink recipe ever, you just … »»
A simple, easy and very tasty pasta dish that you can cook in one pan. … »»
I can't resist a good recipe when I come across one. I was browsing food … »»
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 »)
It has a graham cracker crust and it is baked but at a lower temperature … (more...)
If you Google "melon cocktail", you'll find that there are two categories. … (more...)
According to Tastefully Done, age means deep fried and dashi, of course, is … (more...)
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...)
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