I Won!

Tuesday is supposed to be the day when I talk about my siblings' foodie adventures, but I just can't wait 'til Saturday before I post this, I being the owner of this blog, I'm just going to use this day to share this very wonderful news.

It was early May when I read about the Yummy Blog Contest through Facebook, and upon browsing the recipes from the May 2010 issue of the magazine, I decided to join. I basically tried three recipes in the magazine, first of which was the Saucy Chicken with Mango. My brother also tried three recipes, and knowing that it was already June (the contest ended 31 May), brother asked me last night if I already had news who won. I told him Yummy Magazine just released the winners of their Chef Tony's Popcorn contest, so it might come out anytime soon.

During night time, it was my brother who uses the PC, so imagine our surprise when he opened his Facebook and this come out on his homepage:


Talk about great timing! We were just talking about it and after a few minutes we already found out who won... and the best thing about it was that I won! :D Super thanks to Teacher Julie for writing on my Facebook wall just to tell about it. I asked brother if I could use the PC for a while just to thank them. I immediately hopped on Fran Haw's Blog, and she also had posted the announcement in her blog. It was through her blog that I got to learn about the contest, by the way.

I won 6 months subscription of Yummy Magazine, a 2000 GC from Mr. Jones. It felt really great to be named the winner. Now that I have started cooking again, the magazine subscription would come in really handy. And of course, eating at Mr. Jones would also be a great foodie experience... that would mean another food trip for me.... and my family of course, as I do plan to share the winnings to them.


Aside from winning the prizes, I was also ecstatic to see my name and my blog's link at the Yummy Magazine website. Being the winner of Yummy's first blog contest, it all felt great. I am thankful that I was able to hear about this contest, because it has brought me back to the kitchen. Not only was I able to test new dishes, I was also able to feed my family with great tasting food, and it also made me go back to food blogging. This blog had been on a hiatus and I planned of closing it, until the contest came. All have come full circle, and I was really thrilled with how things turned out.

Thank you all!

*** Jenn ***

Chicken with Pineapples

It's been so long since I last made a post for Yummy Sunday, and since I have finally created the line up of what to post for each day here in my blog, it's time for me to go back to Yummy Sunday again. From here on out, this is where I am going to post dishes I cooked - either based on recipes handed down to me, or recipes I took from different media, or dishes created in my kitchen.




One time last month, I decided to cook the chicken just like what I did with the pork belly dish I created last December. My curiosity of adding pineapples (which was supposedly my dessert) gave birth to a new dish, and here was how I did it...

Chicken with Pineapples
{serves 2}

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces chicken thigh fillets
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• juice from 1 medium lemon
• chopped garlic
• salt and pepper
• oil for pan frying
  
• 1 small pack pineapple tidbits (with syrup)
• a dash of Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
  
• chili flakes (optional)

Directions:

• Marinade chicken in milk, garlic, salt and pepper for about an hour.
• Pan fry the chicken pieces until golden brown, set aside.
• Heat a small pan and pour the marinade then add the pineapples with syrup. As it simmer, sprinkle a dash of Italian seasoning, then add the cheese and the cornstarch diluted in water and wait until it gets to the consistency that you want. Season according to your preference.
  
• Top the sauce in the chicken and sprinkle with chili flakes, if desired.

Personal Notes:

• You can also sprinkle cornstarch with minimal seasoning in the chicken pieces before frying.
• This dish can be served with rice or garlic bread, or can be eaten as is.
• Use white pepper for this dish. I used black pepper and the speckles of pepper can really be seen. :D
  

The addition of Italian seasoning was something that came out to me as I cooked the sauce. When I tasted it, it sure tasted okay, but somehow I felt it lacked something. At first I hoped that me sprinkling Italian seasoning won't ruin the dish, but as I eat it, the dish somewhat tasted like pizza - without the crust. I certainly had a great time eating it, and I was proud of this little kitchen experiment.

*** Jenn ***

Gummy Love

For the past few weeks, I have been scribbling notes trying to come up with a good set of what to post for this blog. I wanted to update the blogs once a day, but being the thematic person that I am, I wanted something specific for each day so my mind won't get mixed up. Checking the pictures I have on file, I noticed that there are certain food pictures that don't fall into any of the categories, so after checking the list, I decided to use the "uncategorized" food pictures for Food Friday. This is now where I will post my artistic (ahem ahem) take on foods; a little statement that I certainly can play with my foods. :)




I came up with this picture February this year when I joined Kristi Sauer's February photo hunt. One of the items she had was "Something Romantic," and being a person who's always at home, I decided to just create an image instead of hunting down couples and take a picture of them in their romantic ways. :)

I love eating gummy bears, and after taking a picture of the bears December last year, I decided to make them my models again. The shoot I had that time was some sort of a wedding shoot of the gummy bears, I have a picture of them on either sides of the ring, as if they were exchanging vows.

The only difficult thing I struggled with the shoot was that I was holding a flashlight on one hand, and the other hand taking pictures. And because I am right handed and the source of light had to be on the right side as well, I had to extend my left arm (the one holding the flashlight) just to do the shoot. Tedious, but I had fun. I might do another gummy bears shoot in the future, I just love them!

*** Jenn ***

Tri Mo, Try Ko!

I have heard friends telling me about Tri Mo Shawarma Co., which according to them serves the best tasting shawarma. Even in the forum I belong to, people have high raves about their shawarma, so when we were traveling home from the neighbors' outing in Antipolo... we asked if we could pass by the food place because it was already 9PM, we've been traveling for more than three hours and our last "big" meal was 10AM.

We opt to take home the shawarma because the place was just a few minutes away from home, and giving myself that very first taste, I felt as if I am one of those characters in the Japanese Anime, "Yakitate Japan," when they give a food a taste. It was really delicious!

For PhP65 for the beef shawarma special (with cheese), it was the biggest of its kind I have seen, and the one with the most meat in it. The meat wasn't fatty, too, which was a plus, and that the sauce was really good. I actually had to place my shawarma on a plate and eat it with a knife and fork because I just couldn't seem to get how can one eat it using the hands.

If there was any complaint to it, it would be the bread - it wasn't as tasty as I hoped it was, and that there were quite few veggies inside. One of the reasons why I love eating shawarma is because of how the cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, beef, and sauce taste together... and this not having a lot of beef and less of the veggies, I felt it didn't have the balance.

Checking the pictures I took, I think I will just have those add-on veggies should we eat there again. Is this the best shawarma I have tasted? I certainly cannot answer... because this one goes head to head with Khaleb Shawarma, which was really, really good, too!

*** Jenn ***

T - Tacos

Last February, before I traveled to Baguio City for the 2010 Panagbenga Festival grand street parade, I first went to the Coca-Cola office in Makati to attend the awarding of the Coke Zero resolutions contest, of which I won an iPod Nano and a Nike sports kit. Wrong choices of transportation modes made me late for the awarding, but I was able to catch the group pictures, so all was good.

The team has prepared some snacks for us, too... and these tacos were one of the foods on the buffet table. I always have a hard time eating tacos (it was quite messy to eat), so I didn't get one of these, but I did try other foods they had. However, something inside me was hoping I could taste it, too. I love Mexican foods!

*** Jenn ***

Grill King

Like what I have said the previous post and in posts from my other blogs, we packed slices of pork belly, chicken, and liver as our food. Brother marinated the slices from the night before, and rented a grill from the resort so we could have freshly grilled meat for lunch. I hindered brother to take a dip in the pool, it was just okay.

To help brother, I sliced the tomatoes and chopped the green mangoes as well as the onions to go with the grilled meat. Lunch was really, really good! Brother chose good cuts of pork belly - it wasn't really fatty, although the slices were too thin, in my opinion.

Thank you for taking the effort to grill the meat slices, brother.

*** Jenn ***