The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
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)
Yesterday, because the temperature was soaring, Speedy said there was no need to bother with cooking and we could just have sandwiches for dinner. That was a win-win suggestion — I wouldn’t have to toil in the heat in the kitchen and he wouldn’t have to sweat over washing the pots, pans, plates… Since we ... (more)
Still experimenting with alternative methods of cooking, after using the pressure cooker for a couple of recipes, I now turn to my slow cooker. It’s probably not the most energy efficient cooking method but the convenience of being able to leave the dish to cook by itself for hours and hours — no stirring nor ... (more)
I caught a bug. First, an annoying ache just below the back of my neck that spread to the shoulders. Then, a persistent stomach ache. Then, fever. Yep, some kind of flu. But, these days, because the flu virus has mutated in so many ways, it was hard to tell at first. Or, maybe — ... (more)
If you ask me what my favorite salad green is, I’d tell you it’s arugula. If you ask me what my second favorite salad green is, I’d say lettuce. If you ask me what kind of lettuce, I’d tell you any kind except iceberg lettuce. If you ask me what other vegetables I want in ... (more)
I’d call it chicken Parmesan but, apparently, the term chicken Parmesan is often used interchangeably with chicken parmigiana (see the pork version). So, since this dish has neither tomato sauce nor melted cheese topping, to avoid confusion, I’m naming it Parmesan-crusted chicken. It’s chicken katsu with a twist. Chicken fillets are pounded to about a ... (more)
Now that we are again able to successfully make dulce de leche at home, my mind’s running wild with all the desserts that I can make with it. Trifles, truffles, brownies and blondies… I’m hoping that these mini cheesecakes will only be the first among many dishes that I can create with homemade dulce de ... (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)
After spending almost the entire afternoon managing the traffic to and from the grocery and bakers’ supplies store, and my house, and still managing to sneak in a very late lunch, I got a text message that I would have some unexpected guests yesterday. These people are friends and family but their every visit to ... (more)
Fondue, hotpot and shabu-shabu all refer to a dish that consists of a communal pot at the center of the diners where small pieces of meat, seafood, vegetables, fruit or bread are dipped. Fondue is Swiss in origin (some say French); hotpot is Chinese; shabu-shabu is the Japanese version of the hotpot. While the Asian ... (more)
If we’re going to be precise, this is a quiche and not a pot pie. The filling is really an omelet mixture — eggs, milk and cream cheese with spinach, bacon and onion — so, it’s technically a quiche. Except that a quiche is nestled in a crust rather than covered on top by a ... (more)
It is said that Antoine Alciatore, the creator of the original Oysters Rockefeller recipe and founder of Antoine’s in New Orleans, took his secret to his grave. The chefs at Antoine’s say there is no spinach in the recipe but many copycat versions, including this one, contains spinach. I’ve never been to New Orleans, I ... (more)
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 »)
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