The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
Vegetables = fiber = low fat = healthy. We are told that it is good to have one or more servings of leafy, green and yellow vegetables daily. Does that mean salad, salad and salad? No, of course not. There are unlimited ways of incorporating vegetables in our meals -- from soups to stir fries to cheesy bakes. Here are some of them.
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)
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)
When I first came across this spinach recipe in The New York Times health section, it was labeled as an appetizer. The recipe itself was not all that simple — the dressing had to be boiled and reduced. Wondering if there were simpler versions, I searched around using “Japanese spinach sesame seeds” as a key ... (more)
Eggplants. Inexpensive. Filling. Easy to prepare. Versatile. Cooks in a jiffy. Eggplants are moist and succulent and, if you’re lucky to have Asian eggplants, sweet. What’s not to like? The trouble with eggplants is that cooking them can be tricky. Undercook them by one minute and they would be too tough. Overcook them by a ... (more)
I introduced my daughter Sam to Pinterest and she now treats it as a “menu” — she repins all the food pics that she likes (and in just a span of one week, she already has an amazing amount of posts in her “Fooodddduh” board), she shows them to me then insists that we replicate ... (more)
A little chicken goes a long, long way. Two well-seasoned chicken thigh fillets were cut into bite-size pieces, stir fried with garlic and ginger, tossed with silken tofu and blanched spinach. A drizzle of fish sauce, light soy sauce and lemon juice were added and lunch was ready. Sounds simple, right? And it is. The ... (more)
Among all the varieties of cabbage that I have tried, pechay is my favorite. Yes, pechay is a cabbage variety. When I was a kid, it was a mainstay in all nilaga (boiled beef or pork, generally) dishes. Later on, I would learn how good it is in stir fried dishes. Earlier today, our former ... (more)
About a week before Christmas a Chic-Boy branch opened a stone’s throw from the Rizal Capitol Building, about five minutes from our house. It was the formal opening, actually, as the “soft” opening took place several days earlier and Chic-Boy had been serving Antipolo customers since. On the day of the formal opening, Speedy and ... (more)
I love mashed starchy vegetables — mashed potatoes, mashed squash (kalabasa), mashed squash and potatoes… I suppose it was only a matter of time before I tried mashed sweet potatoes. I read that it’s a “classic accompaniment for traditional holiday dishes like roasted turkey and chicken.” And when I finally made mashed sweet potatoes, I ... (more)
Inspired by a dish that chef Luke Nguyen cooked in his TV show, this stir fried beef and chayote combo is another example of the yin-yang concept that is found across various Asian cuisines. The ingredients are simple, few and inexpensive, the seasonings are minimal, and yet, the aroma and flavors are so complex, one ... (more)
"Tie-dye" is a process of dyeing fabric so that unique patterns are formed … »»
When does your weekend start? Like most Filipino families, ours used to … »»
Don't confuse Filipino-style picadillo with the Mexican and Cuban picadillo … »»
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...)
Conversations