Junblog

December 13, 2010

How to Make Red Food Coloring from Red Beet Powder

Have you tried coloring food using red beet powder? Red beets contain a pigment called betanin that gives them their magenta hue and can serve as a natural organic food coloring. Red beet powder is used to color frostings, cookies, cakes, candies, and even white chocolate. It is a coloring ingredient in corning beef and…

December 10, 2010

Jigsaw Puzzles and Church Window Candies

Father and son sat comfortably next to each other in the living room — Dennis with his Diet Dr. Pepper and Art with his Glenlivet, neat. World’s Deadliest Catch was on and the two watched Captain Phil and his crew haul crab pots in the icy Bering Sea. Meanwhile, Carol and I worked diligently on…

December 7, 2010

Finding My Voice and How to Make Hoosier Pie

One of my lofty goals in life is to write a memoir. It’s probably not as lofty as my other goals like owning a bed and breakfast or a corgi farm in the country but a good friend of mine used to tease me, “do you think your life is colorful enough for a book?”…

November 23, 2010

Giving Thanks and How to Make Pumpkin Pie

Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong that day. It may sound overly dramatic but it certainly did feel that way. As soon as Stanford unknowingly knocked down my tripod and my Canon crashed to the hardwood floor, my heart sank even deeper. I helplessly yelled at Stanford while he fearfully retreated to his…

November 17, 2010

How to Make Thanksgiving Turkey Stuffing Balls

My very first Thanksgiving dinner was at Carrows, off the Strip in Las Vegas. I was a penniless graduate student at the time, fresh off the boat — fresh off the Greyhound bus, in fact — and the $11.99 eat-all-you-can special sounded so enticing. So irresistibly good. My very first turkey was, sadly, as dry…

November 12, 2010

Slow Jams Brown Sugar Pear Butter on a Slow Saturday Morning

Eight o’clock on a Saturday morning. Stanford is pacing back and forth. It’s been two hours past his usual morning walk and he wonders why nobody is up. He returns to his safe cavern underneath the bed and patiently waits. But as soon as he hears the rustle of the sheets, his grin stretches from…

November 9, 2010

How to Make Calamansi Tart with Candied Calamansi

I vaguely remember the last time I had fresh calamansi in my kitchen. It had been too long ago, I guess. I certainly miss having these tiny citrus fruits close at hand for dipping sauces and marinades. Soy sauce and calamansi juice, for example, make a simple yet flavorful marinade for meats. My mouth waters…

November 4, 2010

How to Make Chicken Arroz Caldo

When I was little, my mom used to tell me whenever I had a bad cold or a bad day in school that there’s absolutely nothing a bowl of arroz caldo could not fix. I believed her without the faintest tinge of doubt. I believed her not only because I adored her but also because…

November 1, 2010

Grilled Tilapia with Calamansi and Fish Sauce

Two things are ever-present on a Filipino table. First, there’s always a plate of rice. It’s either steaming hot or it’s fresh-out-of-the-fridge cold — leftovers from the day before, which are sometimes fried with lots of sea salt and garlic. I grew up having rice three times a day and, on occasion even for a…

October 17, 2010

The Summer I Caught a Shark, Crabbed and Clammed in the Outer Banks

It weighed a ton. I knew for certain I caught something big when I felt a strong yank at the end of my line. I reeled it in as quickly but as carefully as I could while Dennis and his dad watched intently. We were on a boat in the Outer Banks fishing for sea…

October 10, 2010

How to Make Halo-Halo

I was restless. Restless and bored. And the heat wasn’t helping at all. The poor old fan in my room had been running all day for days, humming furiously without a moment’s rest. I spent the entire morning reading and had nothing planned for the rest of the day. All I could think about was…

October 7, 2010

How to Make A Farm Wife’s Fresh Pear Tart

I wanted a simple dessert. The fresh pasta for the lasagne would take quite a bit of my time to make and so I wanted something simple. Simple and yet elegant. Store-bought gelato with almond cookies crossed my mind but I wanted to make something homemade, something with fruits. I toyed with the idea…

October 3, 2010

Flour and Eggs and Our Luxurious Italian Dinner

A precarious mound of flour, hollowed in the center, filled to the brim with eggs. I started with just flour and eggs and made something I had never made before, something I had always wanted to make. I mixed them together, very gingerly with a fork at first and then used my fingers and the…

September 26, 2010

Mastering Moroccan: How to Make Harissa and Lamb Tagine

It was so hot beads of sweat crawled down my temple. It wasn’t the heat of the sun. It wasn’t the colossal crowds — thousands of street food aficionados, crammed in a tiny city block in the Mission celebrating La Cocina’s very first San Francisco Street Food Festival. It wasn’t the barbecue grills or the…

September 22, 2010

How to Make Red Pepper Jelly

I love a bargain. I always kid Dennis that even if we ever become billionaires, I’d still be hunting for bargains. It drives him crazy whenever I shop around tirelessly before committing to a purchase. You have to make sure you get the best deal, I always tell him. Why get something at full price…

September 18, 2010

Making Pork Adobo and Starting Over in California

It was a chilly Saturday morning. The steam billowing out of my hand-me-down rice cooker kept my cold, clammy hands warm. The rice was cooking while the pork was simmering slowly in a delicious vinegar bath teeming with garlic and black peppercorns. It would be another thirty minutes or so before my pork adobo would…