Birthday Party

I appreciate the guest post, Lindsay Valdez

I can’t believe our little squirt is turning two! It seems like yesterday he was born, and then again, it seems like he’s always been here with us. To celebrate, we are having a dinosaur party. He loves dinosaurs and I know he is going to be over the moon when he sees the cake and decorations. We rented out the pavilion at the local park, and are planning to cook out and let the kids run around on the playground. I am praying the weather is nice because we really don’t have a backup plan. We are inviting a ton of people, and there is no way they could all fit inside our house. I’m using our satellitestarinternet to check the weather every day. They give you the weather prediction 5 days in advance now. So far, it says Saturday will be sunny, but that could still change. If it rains, I really think we will just have to reschedule. Either that, or just hang out under the pavilion awning, but that wouldn’t be much fun.

White Beans With Malunggay

Hubby and I love beans like pinto, mung beans, navy beans, white and black beans. He said he grew up with beans and potatoes and I grew up with beans and rice, lol! What a pair! Both of us are not so picky with foods as long as it's not spaghetti for him and not pork for me. I used to like pork but I gave up eating it six years ago due to health issues. I prefer healthy foods for me and hubby.

I cooked this white beans with malunggay a few days ago. I always love to add veggies with my beans. If malunggay is not available then I add ampalaya (bitter gourd) and since I don't eat pork, I added ground beef instead.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pack white beans (soaked overnight)

1/2 lbs ground beef

2 medium onions (sliced)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

ginger (crushed and sliced)

fish sauce

salt

1 bunch of malunggay

water

Directions:

1. In a frying pan, put oil and saute the garlic and onions. Add the ground beef, fish sauce and cook until brown. Remove from fire.

2. Put the beans in a pressure cooker with water and salt. Add the beef, ginger and cook for 40 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker, use regular pot but cook it longer around 1 and 1/2 hours or until soft.

3. Add the malunggay and add more water if needed. Add fish sauce depending on your taste. Cook for another 5 minutes. Serve with rice.

A Toast To Celebrate

To be honest, I don't drink because I don't like the taste and the effects afterwards especially the hangover. People drink, and it’s usually for a reason like celebration, loneliness, depression, insecurity, stress, or the worst of all, boredom. I’ve rarely seen people drink for reasons other than those. Some people drink because it goes well with food, and that isn’t bothersome to me. If you drink and you’re happy about it, then that’s great for you. I recognize that there are benefits to drinking as well. Sure a glass of wine a day is supposedly good for you. They said that the best bite of your steak is the first bite because steak coats your tongue in a film that inhibits taste. Red wine dissolves that film. The only time I use wine is when I make a fruit cake, lol!

If you want to celebrate, then here's a toast for you. Be sure you can control yourself and don't put the wine into your head. Below is the history and fun facts about wine,


Brought To By Wine.com, Purveyors of Fine Wine and Champagne

Buridibod, Ilocano Style

Malunggay is in season once again and we have one at the back of our house yielding lots of malunggay every other day. My brother climbed our roof top and got lots of malunggay so we can cook buridibod, an Ilocano recipe. I am an Ilocana so I love this recipe so much. Even my hubby who is a Caucasian learned to love this food. He can eat a lot of malunggay, and he calls it now green hotdogs, lol! We got that name from Aika because that's what her hubby calls it. In fact, while we were eating the malunggay, we were thinking about them. Hope they are here with us so they can enjoy too eating buridibod.

INGREDIENTS:
4 pcs camote
6 pcs eggplant
10 pcs malunggay fruits
alukon (baeg)
samsamping (Ilocano word, don't know what they call it in Tagalog)
fried fish or ground beef (I used ground beef)
shallots or onions
patis
fish sauce
water

DIRECTIONS:
Peel the camotes and cut them in to cubes. Clean and wash the samsamping and alukon. Peel and cut the malunggay. Brown the ground beef and put patis and the chopped shallots or onions. Then boil some water in a pot for the fish sauce. Add the ground beef and the camote cubes and let it cook. Here, you can prefer your buridibod somewhat drier or soft and pulpy. if you want a pulpy buridibod, boil the camotes some more or you can mash it by using a ladle. But mash it not too mushy so enough broth remain. you have to retain enough broth for your souping purposes. when the camotes are cooked, put in the malunggay, eggplant and samsamping and alukon and let it cook for some time. Serve with rice.

Chicken Dumplings Salad

I learned this recipe from a good friend of mine more than four years ago in Texas. I have made it several times already and it was a hit to my hubby and also my friends. The recipe don't need a lot of ingredients because if it does, I don't like to make it. Lots of ingredients turns me off. So this recipe is so simple and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

2 cans pineapple chunks
2 cups chicken breasts, cubes (cooked)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 1'2 cup seedless red or green grapes
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Dressing:
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp half and half or evaporated milk
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tbsp apricot jam
salt and pepper to taste

Direction:

Just mix all the ingredients and the dressing. Refrigerate for an hour before serveing.