The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
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)
I’m not a fan of Jose Rizal in the national hero sense. I will always feel that there’s something wrong with his “national hero” status — a status granted by an American-formed commission. From Renato Constantino’s “Veneration without Understanding”, Dissent and Counter-consciousness: An American-Sponsored Hero We have magnified Rizal’s role to such an extent that ... (more)
Back in the days when I was running around with a bunch of photographers, I went to a photo shoot for a potato contest. Let me explain. There was a contest, the feature was potatoes and photographers were shooting potatoes in the context of Filipino life. Every shot taken was staged, young kids were dressed ... (more)
In an article entitled Ampatuan clan the biggest winner in May 2010 elections, there was a reference to the “clan’s nation-wide, if not global, infamy.” Well, it appears that the infamy is global, it has reached Hollywood and you know how pervasive the American entertainment culture can be. If you’re a fan of NCIS: Los ... (more)
Last night, after dropping the girls off at the condo, I checked my watch while we were driving along Ayala Avenue and I told Speedy it was still early enough to catch CSI: Miami on AXN. Speedy replied, “Ma-traffic,” and started to drive slower. I giggled. The truth is, Speedy would rather sleep than see ... (more)
For the past few months, I’ve been tempted to conduct a survey among parents with teenage kids. The question: has Glee invaded your home? It sure has invaded mine. Because of Alex, not Sam. Sam is nuts over Adam Lambert. Her classmates say that if Adam comes to the Philippines to do a concert, Sam ... (more)
It started casually enough. A cousin-in-law, Candy Cruz Datu, renamed her cat from Persia to Tombei the Mist, announced it to friends and family on Facebook and, from there, it was a trip down memory lane toward the world of ninjas and the fabled land of a thousand and one Arabian Nights. Tombei the Mist ... (more)
A couple of days ago, Speedy and I were watching a TV program on Bio Channel about a man and his daughter who were reunited after many, many years. The father and his wife separated when the girl was just a toddler, both eventually remarried, and the mother refused to allow any contact between father ... (more)
In the age of mass media, and the internet, people have developed the “scoop” mentality. Everyone wants to be the first. Media outfits will pay good money to get the scoop on an event and internet publishers sometimes try to out-scoop media. The more serious movie goer and book reader do it to their peers ... (more)
When I was a student, Home Economics was exclusively for girls. We cooked and sewed while the boys had their Automotive class. That was then. Cooking is now part of TLE (technology and livelihood education), a subject that boys and girls alike are required to take and complete. Our conservative society is finally embracing modern ... (more)
Except for those required grade-school essays, I don’t remember jotting down New Year’s resolutions. This year though, I will. I have three in my mind right now, the list is likely grow longer as the year progresses, but three is a good number to start with. 1. Stop trying to make sense of Philippine politics. ... (more)
Late on Sunday evening, I was able to catch the last portion of the most recent of the 2009 Intelligence Squared debate series on BBC News Network. The title of this column is a recast of a statement in an article in Current.com, “TV doesn’t always suck,” describing the debate. The topic of the debate: ... (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 … »»
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