I dreamt of Marilyn

Last night, I dreamt of Marilyn. No, not Marilyn Monroe or any other Marilyn for that matter. I dreamt of my mom, her name is Marilyn. She was cooking her most applauded (read:laging ubos!) dish, Pancit Palabok (hence we named it Pancit Palabok ala Marilyn). It's a different take on the traditional palabok. This could actually pass to most vegetarians (or at least to those who still eat seafoods but not pork, beef, chicken or any other meat). This dish is actually my mom's specialty, (kahit na ako ang nagturo sa kanya kung paano ito lutuin.) It is her staple centerpiece everytime there is a family gathering. She used to brag about how tedious the process of making the dish (the exact same reason why I don't cook this dish often). A week ago, we celebrated her first death anniversary, and I deemed it appropriate to have this on the table. I cooked the sauce ahead of time and just stored it on the fridge. Paggising ko kanina, bigla ko tuloy naalala may extra sauce pa nga pala so I cooked the noodle and make today's lunch (err, brunch) a feast.

Pancit Palabok ala Marilyn

Well, everyone said parang luto daw ni Mama. I just hope hindi nila ako binobola.

Pancit Palabok ala Marilyn

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo Palabok noodles (cooked per package direction)
1/2 pc tofu, mashed
1 head of garlic, minced
1 medium sized onion, minced
cooking oil, enough for sauteing
1/4 kilo fresh alamang (unsalted)
1 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 3 tbsp. water ( this is the slurry)
1/2 cup powdered tinapa
1/2 cup powdered chicharon
achuete oil (for coloring)

For the toppings:
1/2 kilo tahong steamed and taken off from shell
1/2 kilo squid steamed and cut into bite sized pieces
4 hard boiled egg sliced
crushed chicharon baboy
chopped green onions
chopped kinchay
fried garlic, crushed
calamansi

Procedure:
1. Saute garlic and onions in very little water. Add in the alamang and wait until it turns into an orangey pink color.
2. Add in the tofu and stir well. After a few minutes, add in the chicharon and tinapa and the slurry, then the achuete oil.
3. Simmer for a few minutes and you may then add this to the cooked palabok noodles.
4. For an authentic look, arrange in a bilao laden with banana leaves. Topped with the tahong, squid, eggs and the other toppings.

**Other people find the saltiness of the powdered tinapa enough for their taste while others find the need to add some more patis. Just do serve it with patis, tinapa powder and chicharon powder on the side para pwedeng dagdagan ng ibang gusto ng mas maalat. You may also omit the chicharon, so it won't have any meat products at all.

WS FoodieWednesday : Our Food-Related Quirks

This is going to be my first time to write for a topic discussed in WifeSpeaks. I have been a follower of this site and I felt sad when they were on hiatus. But the good news is that they have a new site and it's better than before.

Today, wives are discussing about food quirks, be it their husband's or theirs. My hubby is never a picky-eater. Kahit ano ang nasa mesa, kakainin nya; wag lang kahit anong pasta. It was hard to deal with it because my family loves pasta, specially spaghetti, so much. I actually discovered his "unliking" for anything pasta when we are still dating. It was my birthday and I invited him for a late afternoon lunch in our house. My mom prepared her famous spaghetti, which he obliged to have a taste (nagpapasikat eh!). Ang problema, nahihilo pala sya pag kumakain ng pasta. Good thing, kasama nya ang bestfriend nya so may nag drive para sa kanya.

To date, Hubby now finds my pasta dishes delectable. Oops, hindi ko sya pinuwersa. It would be better to say that he began to acquire the taste over the years. Just like this Penne in Tomatoes and Cream that I cooked last week.

As for me, natuto na rin ako kumain (at magluto!) ng isa sa mga paborito nyang gulay, ang Okra.

I♥Faces: Blurb Book Photo Contest

I found a great site that features faces and their emotions as captured on cam. They do have different themes every week. This week there is an ongoing contest for everyone. I find the site very educating and very interesting that I also decided to participate on it. It is really hard to choose from a lot of photos which have all been, at one time or another, my favorite. I am sharing a picture of my son when he was about a year old. I really love this picture because I think all his innocence was captured on it. I hope you like this as well.





"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."

Some Silly Moments

This week in Mommy Moments, mommies are featuring their kid's silly moments. I am sharing two, actually three, silly pictures of my kiddo. The first one was taken one afternoon just before our usual noontime nap. We were trying out the timer feature of our digital camera. I tweaked the picture a bit on Picasa, (because you might tell me I looked sillier than he does).


This second picture was taken on the eve of Hubby's birthday. Jian was with one of my younger cousin trying to prepare a surprise for hubby. Believe me, Jian was the director of the whole scene. Sabi nya, gusto nya yung mukhang pinag aagawan nila iyong papel.



I was about to hit on the enter key when I remember this last picture. This was taken a few years back,Jian was only two years old here. Kapatid ko ang salarin sa kuha na ito. Nakatulog ang bata sa sobrang pagod ng nakatayo (or mas tamang sabihin na nakasandal sa upuan).



So there goes three silly moment of my kid. For more Mommy Moments, visit this.

Mother's Day Lunch

My mom's family hails from Bicol. During my younger years, Lola used to live with us. She was a very good cook, and yes, she cooks good "ginataan" dishes. There was even a time in my life that I was getting tired of having ginataan dishes every week, sometimes even twice of them in a weeks time. But when, I grow a little older, I began to realize the tedious process of cooking these dishes and started to begin liking them. I am even popular in my friend's circle because I am the only one who can cook a ginataan dish the way a true Bicolana does it. But eversince Mom died, I could easily count in my fingers the times that I cooked these dishes. Yesterday, I was on a reminiscing mode and I decided to whip up a ginataan dish. I cooked Ginataang Langka. At syempre ang terno ng Ginataang Langka ay Steamed Tahong. We pigged out on these for our Mother's Day lunch.

Ginataang Langka

Steamed Tahong

Oh, I could still hear their burps after eating.