The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
It has always been my opinion that to become a good cook, one has to be confident about his skills and taste. And by that, I don’t mean professional training. No, not at all. Rather, I mean the ability to think outside the box, to never feel limited by the lack of access to certain ... (more)
Siblings don’t always have similar tastes and preferences. Just because two people have the same parents, were raised in the same house, went to the same schools, etcetera etcetera, it doesn’t mean they’ll turn out the same. Sam and Alex have different tastes in music, in food, in entertainment and in a lot of other ... (more)
A play on the rice dish that Filipinos call arroz a la Cubana, these tacos are filled with beef and sausage stew, raw onions, cucumbers and tomatoes, and ripe mangoes. On the side, a fried egg, sunny side up, and slices of golden saba bananas. We had this for our late lunch while watching the ... (more)
Speedy drove the girls back to the condo late last night. The third term of the school year officially begins tomorrow, January 4, and the girls were supposed to spend today clearing up their class schedules and finalizing their enrollment. As I watched the pick-up pull away from the front door, a wave of sadness ... (more)
New Year’s Eve was family day. It always is. And while we don’t do traditional stuff that are associated with superstitious beliefs, there are some traditional activities that we take part in. Like attending an annual reunion of Speedy’s clan (on his mother’s side) for lunch. While it’s always good to see the same old ... (more)
Have I mentioned that when my daughters are bored, they go into the kitchen to make something? Not a case of food craving since Speedy and I are often left to finish what they have made. It’s more of a need to create something with their hands. And it doesn’t really matter what time it ... (more)
In the sticky rice congee post, I mentioned how Alex got really ill after a hectic theater production. The production was Hedda Gabler. I offered to write a review, I think Alex was worried that I might lambast it, she said no review, so I didn’t. There were certain aspects of the play that I ... (more)
Speedy and I are nursing a sick daughter at home. Alex has a cough that’s been going on and off for weeks. She’s lost weight, she feels weak and her much-needed sleep is often interrupted by her coughing. Speedy took her to the hospital, had her x-rayed, and tuberculosis and pneumonitis were ruled out. According ... (more)
When the girls arrive for the weekend, everything begins with unloading bags of dirty clothes from the pick-up which get dumped in the living room until they can go into the washing machine the next day. Along with the bags of clothes are camera bags, laptop bags, folders, papers and every imaginable thing that college ... (more)
Last Monday, when Sam was craving for a bacon fix and was asking if we had bacon in the freezer, Speedy and I told her about an extraordinary way to cook bacon that we saw on TV. Bacon tempura. Thin, thin strips of belly bacon dipped in tempura batter and deep fried. It’s crispy bacon ... (more)
Marikeños like to say that waknatoy is a dish unique to Marikina. Well, … »»
Every culture has its version of boiled meat and vegetables. So I said in … »»
It's not like I don't have a chicharon entry in this blog. I do. An old one … »»
Achara, or atsara, means pickled green papaya. I had an earlier recipe for … »»
An updated version of a recipe in the archive. Now includes additional … »»
No, I've never been to P.F. Chang's although I read that the U.S. food … »»
The most serious reason I missed my pressure cooker was because I love, … »»
The last time I heard the word batotoy, I was buying longganisa (native … »»
After a quick trip to the market, Speedy checked his Facebook account, … »»
Still experimenting with alternative methods of cooking, after using the … »»
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 »)
The avocado was supposed to go into sushi but I cooked all the Japanese … (more...)
Sam likes buying those frozen seafood balls in the grocery -- fish balls, … (more...)
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...)
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