♥ Clam Chowder

CCCP - clam chowder care package

Recently, my husband returned from a business trip in San Francisco and he had a “care package” (also called pasalubong by Filipinos) for me which was kindly prepared by our aunty and uncle. It had many of my favourite American treats i.e. Hershey, Cookies n Cream, Ghirardelli chocolate but one particular treat that I absolutely loved was enclosed – Clam Chowder (New England style). I type these 2 words with a big smile on my face. I thought to open 1 of the cans today as I thought of how much I want to on holidays again. Clam Chowder is a comfort food for me. Okay, so it’s not fresh because it’s come from out of a tin can and it didn’t come in the sourdough bread which it can also be served in but it’s the next best thing as this soup is pretty much unheard of in this city. I followed the cooking instructions, which was pretty much just heating it in the microwave or over the stovetop, I chose the latter as it felt more “cooked” that way...hehehe. I took my first bite and by golly it hit the spot! Warm and delicious, it was pretty much happiness in a soup bowl. As you can tell, I am ga-ga over clam ch-ch-chowder! ;)

For those of you who haven’t tried it, New England clam chowder is a cream-based chowder generally made with potatoes, onion, bacon, flour and of course clams. It’s served either in a normal ceramic bowl or a sourdough bread bowl with sea biscuits or lightly salted crackers to give it a bit of a crunch.

Now, the best clam chowders that I’ve tried were from the following places (in no particular order):

1.      Sky City Restaurant at the Space Needle. Seattle, Washington.

2.      Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Boston, Massachusetts.

3.      Pier 39. San Francisco, California.

4.      Bubba Gump Shrimp Co in Times Square. New York, New York.

Sky City Restaurant at the Space Needle. 

Seattle, Washington.

Note: it was THAT good that after one bite I completely forgot to take a picture of the clam chowder. 

Faneuil Hall Marketplace. 

Boston, Massachusetts.

 Pier 39. 

San Francisco, California.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co in Times Square. 

New York, New York.

So the next time you’re in one of the cities listed above, you must check out these places and order a New England clam chowder. You won’t be disappointed, well I hope not anyway because I wasn’t.

As you can see I haven’t listed any places in Sydney or in Australia for that matter, unfortunately we don’t have any here, well not in any of the seafood restaurants that I’ve been to. If you do know of a place in Sydney or in Australia, please leave a comment and let us know, as we would love to check it out. Actually, if you know of another place anywhere in the world that serves really good clam chowder please share that too so that we can check it out the next time we’re on that side of the globe - my heart always flutters for a hearty clam chowder!

Be organised, Stay organised

Whether your favourite recipes are from cook books, or you've recorded them on loose papers, or even captured them on your trusted iPad, it's always good to keep your recipes organised so you know where to search (using your "mental filing cabinet") for the recipe when you're in a rush.

As an example, yesterday I was driving home from work and received a phone call from my husband to say that he'll meet me at our local supermarket. I thought, 'Oh! What ingredients do I need for the sticky date cake I want to bake', I asked him to go to the wooden cabinet in the kitchen to go through my recipes in "My Recipes" folder or go through the loose papers. After 5-10 minutes of searching he called me back to tell me that he couldn't find it. So I called my work mate that recommended the recipe to me and thankfully, she was able to tell me the ingredients as she pretty much knew the recipe from the top of her head. So I needed to buy pitted dates and brown sugar...phew!

After coming back from the local supermarket, I went searching for the sticky date cake recipe which I knew was on a loose piece of paper. Guess where I found it, it was within other A4 pieces of paper in a basket on the dining table. Now why didn't my husband look there?! ;)

Anyways, the moral of the story - be organised and stay organised. Needless to say, I spent 10 minutes this morning getting organised again and hole-punched my loose recipes and put it in my "My Recipes" folder which I was lucky to receive during my Bridal Kitchen Tea.

Now I'm ready to go make my sticky date cake. Watch this space...

Chinese food

duck in peking sauce

salt and pepper chicken

Our regular Saturday night meal; yummy chinese food! For me it signifies no cooking. I know for a person allocated as a contributor to a food blog seems weird not akin to cooking to write about food. Hey, I like to eat though so that makes me qualified. I know what tastes nice and well not so nice. So here goes my first official restaurant review; well actually based on 3 dishes from their menu.

It's one of our local Chinese restaurant and the peking duck, salt and pepper chicken together with their fried rice is simply divine! The food is not oily or too salty but instead they provide value for money dishes and tastes beautiful. I would give it an 8/10 
If you live locally, give it a try and comment below and tell us what you think.

Restaurant: Yee's Palace Chinese Restaurant 

Location: Windsor Road, Rouse Hill NSW 2155

View Larger Map

Lamb Sausage Curry

curry

My husband doesn't cook often, actually it's a rarity. So when he said a couple of weeks ago "I feel like curry" (his specialty) I was so excited to take time off and put my feet up while he cooks us a meal for a change.

Let me digress and tell you the catalyst for this once in a blue moon mood for hubby to cook. We were walking around Woolworths while food shopping and this lady in the middle of nowhere in between the aisles, cooking on a hot plate were these yummy lamb sausages. As usual, hubby and the kids had a sample and totally loved the taste. So like all Woolworths tactics the sample converted to a sale and with it came the idea of "I feel like curry". Lucky for me I love curry and I love my husband's cooking. I wish he would cook more often though; well don't we all wish that.

Ingredients:
Lamb sausage
2 tbsp Clive of India Curry powder
1 Onions chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
3 Tomatoes chopped
2 large Potatoes diced
Light sour cream (use liberally)

Instructions:

Boil potatoes separately with touch of salt approx 10 min

On frying pan:

Heat oil. Brown lamb sausage
Remove from heat

Fry onion and garlic until clear

Add Clive Of India Authentic Curry Powder 

Stir for 2 minutes and return the meat on pan

Add tomatoes, boiled potatoes stir through and cook for 5 minutes

Add light sour cream and stir and simmer for 30 minutes

Serve with basmati rice.

This is a winning quick and easy camping recipe for my husband and his buddies. Adapted from Source with slight alterations.

Let me know how you like it by commenting below. Happy cooking and eating!

Just like a cobble stone street

As I rested on the couch after work, the fruit bowl on the dining table caught my eye. I thought to myself, “Eek! The 8 pears that I bought a few weeks ago are still there and aren’t looking as “fresh” anymore. I need to use them pronto!”. So I grabbed my trusty iPad and found some delicious pear recipes but there was one that I kept going back to – the Pear Cobbler recipe. The picture of the Southern baked dish I found looked yummy so it was a no-brainer that I had a to give it a go.

I modified the recipe that I found and here is my version:

~~~

Pear Cobbler Recipe

Condition of using this recipe: you must leave a comment and let me know how much you enjoyed baking and eating this dish, I’d love to hear about it! ;)

Ingredients
* 4 green pears (peeled, corked and sliced)  Note: I used pears that were a few weeks old so they were soft already.

* 2 cups brown sugar (which you will be using 1 cup at a time)

* 120g unsalted butter

* ¾ cup plain flour

* 2 tsp baking powder

* ½ tsp cinnamon

* ¼ tsp salt  Note: I used sea salt.

* 1 egg

* ¾ cup milk

Preparation

1.      Preheat fan-forced oven to 160° (Celsius).

2.      Mix the sliced pears and 1 cup of the brown sugar so that the pears are completely covered in the sugar and let it stand.

3.      Put all the butter in your baking dish (I used a 20cm wide round baking tin and place in the 160° oven until the butter has melted. Note: remove from oven once the butter is completely melted.

4.      Combine remaining sugar, plain flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt until it is mixed completely together.

5.      Add the egg and mix.

6.      Add half the milk, mix slowly.

7.      Add the remaining milk, mix slowly until it’s mixed through.

8.      Pour your mix over the butter. Do NOT stir together.

9.      Place your sugared pears to cover your mix, placing them in no particular pattern. Do NOT stir together. Note: you will find that the pear will sink – don’t panic, it’s part of the “master plan” ;)

10.   Bake at 160° for 45-55 minutes, or until it’s a lovely brown colour and the pears are soft. Note: if you used soft pears to start off with just bake until it’s a nice brown colour.

11.   Once you have removed from the oven, let it stand for 10-15 minutes. And then grab a plate and place face down on your baked dish and carefully flip over the baked dish onto the plate.

Serve warm or cold on it’s own or with vanilla ice cream and enjoy! 

~~~

As I placed my freshly baked Pear Cobbler on the dining table to get it ready for its photo shoot (for the blog of course), I noticed the pattern that it formed. To my amusement, it looked just like a cobble stone street. I had a light bulb moment, “so that’s why it’s called Pear Cobbler”...and that my friend is the end result of the “master plan”!  

Carnival on any day of the week

What a pleasant surprise to find a good ol’ carnival staple at the local Costco – “Dagwood Dogs” aka Pluto Pup and Corn Dog.

As we walked through the frozen section and saw the 2kg box (waving at us might I add), we had a quick discussion about how many dagwood dogs would be in the box, how long it would it take for 2 people to eat and if it will fit in our average-size top-door freezer - the end result was that we’re buying it! A decision made with smiles on our faces.

After a quick search on the Internet, I found that it originated from the land where many yummy foods are deep-fried, the USA. What a surprise - not! Hehehe. Now there was no particular person or company that can be praised for this food, but apparently it started around the late 1920’s to the 1940’s. So it’s been making many carnival-goers happy for a long time now.

Anyway, I know that this food-on-a-stick is just a hot dog coated in batter and then deep fried in oil but you must admit it brings back good memories of a time you were at the local carnival or Sydney Easter Show. But lucky for us, we have it in our freezer so we can have our very own carnival at home on any day of the week! ;)

Cupcakes

cupcakes

My workmate gave me some cupcakes (for free!) today to help her friend out get some exposure to his cake business. What a great way to start a Monday! The purple one is ube flavour which my daughter absolutely exclaimed, "this is awesome, mum!" I think that translates to very yummy! 10/10 for these cupcakes!

Caesar Salad with Roast Chicken

caesar salad

For dinner tonight, I merely prepared caesar salad with roast chicken for hubby and me. The kids had baked lasagne which I did not get a chance to take a photo of as they were starving (mum!) and to take a photo before serving it would have been pretty much suicide. So back to our light dinner for the adults. To offset the somewhat heavy eating yesterday, we opted for a very light dinner. Okay, I know the recipe for this one: (duh!) 

* baby cos lettuce

* 1/4 roast chicken (already cooked from Woolworths)

* bacon bits (from Woolworths Deli section)

* parmesan shredded cheese

* PRAISE croutons

* PRAISE caesar salad dressing

* a huge bowl and a healthy appetite

Preparation:

* throw everything in a huge bowl and DEVOUR!

Filipino Party Food

spring rolls

fresh lumpia

menudo

kaldereta

fried chicken

green salad

The rest of our party food from yesterday's celebrations: fried spring rolls, fresh lumpia with special sauce, pork menudo, beef kaldereta, the king of heart stoppers deep fried chicken and just for the heck of it I thought I'd throw in green salad just so there is something healthy in a somewhat very heavy table! Sadly, I can't cook any of the dishes, well maybe the green salad but that's about it really so I can't really share any recipes. Lame I know! But if you like the look of the dishes and let me tell you all were so mouth watering-ly yummy, I can hook you up with our Chef extraordinaire Salve! 

breakfast, lunch and dinner with a side of bubba

They say nothing says I love you than sharing your food with another.

The truth of these words became even more apparent when I became a mum.

There are many remarkable things about being a mum but I have to say; there is nothing more basic and more gratifying than feeding your baby. The simple act of watching your baby take their first drink of milk is amazing. The thought that this little creature is dependant on you, looking at you for their most basic need is a powerful, frightening and humbling feeling. They need you for everything. They need you for love, affection, safety and sustenance.

As many parents can attest, feeding time can become a source of obsession and pain for most mum and dads. We're lucky that our little bub is what they call a 'good eater'. He can eat anything - fruit (cut up bananas and apples are a favourite), vegetables (carrots, peas and even cucumber), the Aussie breakfast staple butter and vegemite on toast and even Filipino party favourite the spring roll. I love it and yes it is a bit of an obsession. I love watching my little toddler's face when he tastes a new food for the first time. He scrunches up his little nose, screws up his face then after a breathless moment from his mum and dad he'll chew, swallow, open his eyes and his mouth and ask for more. And if he really doesn't like it? Well, you won't have to wait too long to find that out as our poor, and now badly stained, carpet can vouch for! Food gets tossed over the high chair, flung on your clothes and rubbed into his own hair. But I guess that's part of the adventure. Some foods are a hit and others, not so much.

I jokingly say to people that as a mum, I haven't had my own plate of food since my son started eating solid foods.

When he first started eating proper food we bought all the accoutrements that go with it - his own little spoon and fork, his own bowls even his own little butter knife (it came with the set - maybe in case he ever wanted to cut up his own steak?!) Regardless, we soon learnt that nothing tastes better to our son than when food comes straight from mummy and daddy's plate. So I did away with the separate little bowl and special little spoons and forks (less washing that way anyway) and my plate became OUR plate. Except for when I'm away at work, every plate of food I have is no longer exclusively mine. Every other spoonful of oats, every crust of bread, every juicy sausage, every piece of cake, every slice of orange - all of it - is shared with a tiny little hand and a tiny little mouth.

Nothing says I love you like sharing food with another. Yep, it's true. And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

Starting with noodles

pancit

It all starts with pancit, a Filipino dish that is made of noodles, lots of it! As our inaugural blog I thought we should start with the dish that started the conversation of documenting our food diary. We had a family party to celebrate September-born celebrants. In true Filipino style we must serve a noodle dish to represent long-life i.e. noodles that never end so to speak. Sure it's fried, sure it's oily but is it yummy? You bet it is! Oh there are good bits like veggies and meat too. A true favourite at any birthday party; can I see a two thumbs up for the traditional pancit?