make it easy bread

Baking is somewhat therapeutic. It relaxes your nerves when making one. Here is a fast and easy recipe. Ingredients are as easy as 1-2-3. We do not have a conventional oven at home so i pan fried the dough and made it into nice rotis.

what's good with this dough is that you can add herbs and spice to have wonderful flavors infused in the bread. i have some dried oregano and add some into the dough. you can add other herbs like basil, oregano, pepper, fried onions, garlic or just plain sea salt.

Easy Bread

1 cup lukewarm to hot water
1 tsp sugar
2 Tablespoon dry yeast
3 cups flour
herbs for flavoring

mix hot water, sugar and yeast. set aside for about 15 minutes for the yeast to awaken. mixture should be frothy after. if not, yeast is stale. discard the mixture and make a new one using new yeast.

in a big bowl, sift the flour. at the center, make a well. pour the yeast mixture and slowly mix by hand. knead dough until it forms into a smooth ball. add more flour if dough is too sticky. consistency should be firm and does not stick on your hands.

to rise, grease a bowl with shortening. put the dough in the center of the bowl. roll around the dough in the bowl to coat the dough with the shortening. The light shortening that smeared the dough will prevent it from drying up. cover the bowl. let the dough rise in a warm place. I place my dough on top of the ref near the heating element found behind it. let the dough rise for about 1 hour. it should double in size.

with generously floured hands, transfer the dough on a floured table. sprinkle dough with flour. shape the flour into desired sizes for baking.

For conventional ovens, place them on cookie sheets. let the dough rest some more for about 5 minutes. Place them in the oven in slow to medium heat until the dough is golden brown.

For pan baked bread, shaped dough should be generously covered with flour for it to be handled easily and prevent it from sticking on the table. dough should be flat to evenly cook the insides of the bread. let the flat-shaped dough rest for about 5 minutes. heat pan in low to medium heat. cook the dough until dark spots appear on the crust of the dough. turn the dough over to bake the other side.

after baking, let the bread cool for about 5 minutes before serving. this will help the bread cook through the dough and set the bread properly. Enjoy and be proud of what you have made!

surviving on food from nowhere: wanna bet, kiss my pakbet

pakbet is a native dish composed of native vegetables which are available all year round. we cleaned our ref last night and found these vegetables lying around.

wanna bet, kiss my pakbet

12 pcs long sitaw (green string beans)
3 pcs small eggplants
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 small onion, chopped
3 small tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons shrimp chili paste (bagoong)

saute garlic in little oil till golden brown. add the chopped onions and cook till translucent. add the tomatoes. cook till the tomatoes are very soft. add the bagoong to saute. chop the sitaw into 2 inch lengths and add it to the pan. add very little water to steam through the sitaw. after 8 minutes, add the talong that was cut into 1 inch lengths. cook in low to medium heat until the vegetables are tender and done. serve with rice. Salt may not be needed as the bagoong is already salty.

dinner at superbowl

last night, my hunny treated me at superbowl.

we had braised tofu - superbowl style and seafood congee. these are simple dishes full of flavor and at a very affordable price!

for dessert, my hunny gave me chocolate coated raisins.

eggplant in coco cream

we went to a cool pakistani party one time and different flavors were introduced. one was the eggplant with the coco cream. we tried to imitate the food but we did not get close to what they had served. I suspect they used yoghurt on the recipe but we had a good try.

eggplants in coco cream

8 pcs round eggplants, cut in quarters
1 cup heavy coco cream
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 medium onion, finely chopped
200 grams diced pork
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
chili flakes
salt and pepper

saute garlic till golden brown. add onions. add pork. simmer till pork is tender. add the eggplants. when the eggplants changed color, add the coco cream and curry powder. simmer in low heat to reduce the cream. adjust salt and pepper to taste. serve with white steaming rice.

rosemarie pork medallions

i went to the supermarket last night and got a nice cut of pork. i believe this is the small part near the pork chops.

rosemarie pork medallions

3/4 kilo pork meat, cut into 1/2 inch medallions
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 egg
rosemarie
parsley
ground annato seeds (atsuete)

clean the pork. add salt and pepper and let stand for about 15 minutes.

prepare the batter.
lightly beat the egg. mix the flour and cornstarch. add a pinch of ground annato seeds to improve color. mix until smooth and free of lumps. add water if too thick. add a pinch of rosemarie and chopped parsley into the batter.

heat pan with about 2 cups of oil or enough for the pork to fry evenly.

coat pork slices one by one evenly on both sides. slide into the hot pan with oil. fry in medium to high heat till golden brown. dry the pork medallions on paper towel. serve hot.

dipping sauce may be any sauce found in your food cabinet. we used vinegar with chopped fresh garlic and crushed black pepper.

just flew in from my flu

i was sick for the past week. it's really difficult to be sick. can't do anything productive. just stayed in bed all the time.

good thing my hunny took good care of me.

I'm now back in shape and ready to go.

sardines on a rainy day

weather today is totaly rainy. ankle deep flood is on the streets.

i made a nice sardine meal for my hunny. it's her request for today's lunch. this is a simple food readily available anytime. I'm not really sure on why this meal is better eaten on a cold rainy day.

easy sardines

1 tablespoon crushed garlic
1 medium onion, sliced in thick rings
1 can sardines
oil, salt and pepper

in a pan, saute garlic till golden brown. add the sliced onions. saute till soft. add the small can of sardines. mix carefully preventing the fish from being deformed. Serve with a nice garlic fried rice.

surviving on food from nowhere:two dish veggie

last night, we looked around our ref and found two different kinds of veggie dishes.

one was a leftover from one of our chinese restaurant dinners. this is a hunan tofu stew mix. this is tofu sauteed in black mushroom ears, carrots, bell peppers, green chili peppers with oyster sauce as base.

the other is a sauteed sayote and carrots with ground pork as the flavoring. this veggie dish came from the leftover lunch of my hunny at office.

we first heated the sayote in the hot pan. then mix the hunan tofu on the same pan. mix and heat until the flavors blend as one. yeah!

40 years anniversary

my mom and dad celebrated their 40th year wedding anniversary. my hats off to them. we had a simple dinner. we had a bucket of kfc, laing, adobo, fish and a good enchilada.

surviving on food from nowhere: spanish open omelette

i woke up late and still very sleepy. i need to prepare packed lunch for my hunny. i again did my routine of rummaging through the ref and found various small food items around. it seems that these are enough to make a good omelette. but time is not on my side, this omelette needs an adjustment applying a technique to cook everything fast ... the egg is mixed together with the filling!

spanish open omelette

2 eggs
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 stalk leeks, sliced thinly and diagonally
1 small tomato, chopped in chunks
1 half bell pepper, chopped in chunks
3 hotdogs, chunky sliced diagonally
oil, salt and pepper to taste

in a wide pan, drizzle oil around. on one side of the pan to where most of the oil settled, place the chopped garlic. on the other parts of the pan, arrange and place the chopped leeks, chopped hotdogs, chopped bell pepper and chopped tomatoes.

do not mix them together. make sure that each ingredient has its own territorial place in the pan. arrange the ingredients in such a way that all of them is touching the hot pan. allow the pan to heat through the ingredients without mixing them together.

when the garlic is golden brown, mix now the ingredients together. in the mean time, lightly beat the two eggs together adding about 2 tablespoons water and a pinch of salt. add a little more water if you want the eggs to be fluffier. milk is a good substitute for water. but i have none, so i stick with plain water.

back to the pan, gently pour the lightly beaten egg evenly around covering the bottom of the pan. swirl the pan to let the eggs distribute nicely. cook for a minute or two until the eggs are done.

easy and fast. now we have lunch for today. prepared in just 10 minutes.

tuna sausage surprise

this is a surprise meal made from different stuff from our ref. it started on an idea of my hunny adding vegetables on a can of tuna. as the vegetables piled up the pan, it turned out to be a very wonderful dish.

tuna sausage surprise

1 can tuna (solid in oil)
1 german sausage
1 small bell pepper
2 tablespoon garlic
1 medium onion
1 can straw mushrooms
1 medium carrot, sliced into rounds.
1 small potato, cubed.
1 stalk celery, cut into 1/2 inch chunks.
chopped parsley

boil the german sausage till soft. cut into rounds. set aside. chop the bell pepper into squares and pan fry in little oil. set aside. pan fry the cubed potato. set aside.

add about 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan. saute the garlic till golden brown. add the onions. saute till translucent. add the sausages and tuna. drain the straw mushrooms and add it to the pan. Add the carrots. stir fry for about 2 minutes. add the potatoes and bell peppers. add the chopped celery. saute for about 2 minutes for the flavor to develop. adjust the salt and pepper to taste.

wet inside the building

we went in the office finding the place very wet. apparently, a pressure pipe burst on the floor above us and leaked tons of water over the centralized air conditioning ducts.

worst hit was the transformer area where water is dripping directly on top of it. luckily, piles of old files cover the transformer which absorbed the water.

another area hit was a computer behind me. good thing the server was not hit which is just a few inches from the damaged computer.

leaks stopped at around 10:30 am. however, elevators are still not in operation.

breather...

i went outside the closed building for a breather.

shook off the tension and walked around the bland makati streets.

went back... still feeling the same...

nothing new...