Right. I haven’t blogged in absolutely ages. I don’t know. Maybe because I’ve been a teeny bit busy. Not an excuse, I know, but there it is. I’ve been cooking a lot though so I’m sharing random food pictures.
Tuna melt 
Gooey cinnamon rolls.
Well, roll, really. I used a different recipe but I loved the way the dough for the bread tasted so I’m just going to keep the dough recipe and find a way to improve the cinnamon syrup bit.
I feel like such a whiner these days. I’ve been complaining about feeling ill for so long (3 weeks and counting now) that I’m beginning to irritate myself. Easy solution, I guess you’ll say. But stopping myself from complaining (audibly and inaudbily) is easier said than done. I mean, I have to vent, don’t I? Right…I’m whining. Again.
I was exposed to a lot of heat yesterday. And I seriously need to start being more careful. Being from a tropical country, I always thought I’d be able to deal with the heat here in England. I mean I come from a country that thinks 30°C is relatively cool! We have summer temperatures that can reach up to 40°C!
Anyway, I’m digressing. I was overheated yesterday and didn’t know it. Maybe because the air here is dryer than what I was used to. In the Philippines, if it was hot, one would sweat, profusely. Here, while one does feel the heat, a cool wind blows making one think it’s not as hot as it really is.
I felt really bad last night. I must seriously be more careful when going out. These are tips from the NHS for dealing with the impending heatwave:
I’ve been going through a rough patch the past few days. Last Friday was the worst. I couldn’t keep food down. Even water was making me sick.
I’m slowly recovering now. I’m not eating much though, which is a bit worrying. I keep trying to make light of it by saying it’s enforced dieting. But I’m a little worried that I’m not keeping any food down–apart from being worried, I’m completely hungry!
Here’s to hoping I’m much better soon!
On my sister’s recommendation I’ve gotten Mandy Moore’s new album and have put the darn thing on my ipod (which is filling up! I must seriously revisit the songs and figure out which to keep and which to just keep in my computer!). And now, I have her last 2 albums on permanent shuffle. There’s something about Mandy Moore’s latest offerings that are balms to my troubled soul these days.
I’ve been feeling completely unspecial (maybe because I haven’t been feeling well lately. Hugging the toilet seat most days can and will make you feel slightly yucky, to say the least!). Maybe it’s a delayed quarter-life crisis (I have, after all, lived a very sheltered life and am only just now living my life completely in the way I want to, well not the way I want to, but am now living away from my folks, which is, while self-imposed, still a shock to the system)-8 years late! I try not to engage in metaphysical self-quizzing these days. Sometimes, when I allow myself to go down the “what am I doing?!?” route, I tell myself to turn right back around and march myself out of that train of thought. Not that I’m afraid of what I’ll find at the end of that road. I’m just not sure that being morose and allowing self-doubt to creep in is productive at this stage in my life. I’ve got to keep myself positive.
I’ve found a Mandy Moore song has become a mantra. It’s her song Extraordinary.
I was a bay tree, quiet and unseen
I lived in stories but inside I kept a mystery
I was a starling, nobody’s darling
Flying in perfect circles just for company
And now I’m ready
And now I’m ready
And now I’m ready to be extraordinary
A midnight airplane, a window blowing
I know I am another sparkle in the sky
I shine on copper, still undiscovered
But you might see me in the corner of your eye
And now I’m ready
And now I’m ready
And now I’m ready to be extraordinary
Waking up to wake up someday
I am my own parade
Stopping off at a sidewalk cafe
Wind is playing in the trees
Kick up confetti leaves
Seems as if it’s all to say
And now I’m ready
And now I’m ready
And now I’m ready to be extraordinary.
I liked listening to a lot of ballads when I was younger. And Celine Dion was big then…and I’m not ashamed to admit that I listened to her songs over and over. It was a sentimental, melodramatic phase in my life. Also, my sister and I were addicted to these Japanese drama shows that were dubbed in Mandarin. No, we didn’t speak a bit of Mandarin, but we still watched these shows for some reason. I can’t tell you the series title, but I know that one of these Japanese shows used Celine’s To Love You More as their theme music.
For some reason, once in a while the melody of Celine’s Fly pops into my head. I had a moment today. I thought I’d read the lyrics again.
Fly, fly little wing
Fly beyond imagining
The softest cloud, the whitest dove
Upon the wind of heaven’s love
Past the planets and the stars
Leave this lonely world of ours
Escape the sorrow and the pain
And fly again
Fly, fly precious one
Your endless journey has begun
Take your gentle happiness
Far too beautiful for this
Cross over to the other shore
There is peace forevermore
But hold this mem’ry bittersweet
Until we meet
Fly, fly do not fear
Don’t waste a breath, don’t shed a tear
Your heart is pure, your soul is free
Be on your way, don’t wait for me
Above the universe you’ll climb
On beyond the hands of time
The moon will rise, the sun will set
But I won’t forget
Fly, fly little wing
Fly where only angels sing
Fly away, the time is right
Go now, find the light.
I love buying fresh food! Last Saturday, we went and bought fresh fruit and meat at the Ipswich market. We bought cherries, mangoes and strawberries. And let me tell you, Manningtree strawberries are amazing! They were ever so sweet!
Anyway, we bought pork ribs with the idea of making chinese spare ribs. I was looking forward to making the spare ribs, and if I’m completely honest, I was also dreading the cooking. I love the frozen ribs that you get from the freezer section of the supermarket. I was worried that my (spare) ribs wouldn’t come up to scratch.
But cook I did. And it turned out really, really well! I was ever so proud of myself! I never really expected the ribs to turn out this well on my first try. And, I managed to take a picture of the ribs (finally!).
Evie’s Chinese Spare Ribs
2 lbs pork ribs, sliced into individual ribs
1/4 cup soy sauce (I use Blue Dragon)
1/8 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons caster sugar
20 cloves
3 star anise
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste
2 tablespoons cornflour
1. Marinate the spare ribs in the 1/4 cup of soy sauce. I use Blue Dragon because the flavour is in between the dark soy sauce and the light soy sauce. I also find it sweet enough so I don’t really have to add as much sugar and it’s got a good balance of sweet and salty. It’s best to marinate the ribs overnight so the pork can really absorb the flavour of the soy. Or if you’re in a rush, at least marinate for 2 hours.
2. In a stock pot, heat vegetable oil (or you can use any oil that does not have a strong flavour) and add the sugar. Swirl the oil around the sugar to keep it from burning. Once the sugar is a golden caramel colour, add the ribs. Make sure the ribs are coated with the caramel mixture. Add the soy sauce that you marinated the pork in. Allow the sauce to boil briskly. Once the soy sauce-sugar-oil mixture has started to boil, add enough water to cover the ribs. Add cloves and star anise. Boil for 1 hour covered. Make sure you skim the stock for any scum that floats.
3. Lift spare ribs out of the stock. Set aside. Pass the stock through a sieve to remove the cloves and star anise and any scum that might be left. Add salt to taste and the oyster sauce. Bring to a brisk boil. Add a little water to the cornstarch to make a watery paste and then add this mixture to the boiling stock. Stir until thick.
4. Dip each rib until well-coated by the sticky sauce and place on a baking pan. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes.
Enjoy! Try the recipe and don’t forget to tell me how it turns out, please!
Well, that’s my opinion anyway. I’m feeling slightly clever about how I’ve deconstructed a choker necklace and turned it into a bracelet and one of the mother-of-pearl links into a semi-matching (but can also be a wear on-its-own thing) pendant.
I know, I know! It’s not exactly rocket science or brain surgery (and yes, I’m laughing to myself because I’m remembering a That Mitchell and Webb Look sketch), but it’s a craft project that I’ve managed to actually finish (and not just in my head, I might add!).
…dress! 
I saw this on the Oprah website (yes, I am such a fan that I have her newsletter sent to my inbox, and I get inspiration from Oprah everyday!). I am going to start small. Apart from wanting to make sure that I have all my accountabilities covered, I’m going to start rebuilding my wardrobe! And this is going to be a dress that I’m going to hunt for. It doesn’t have to be the dress from TheLimited.com, but it definitely has to look like this!
I haven’t been myself the past few days. I’ve been fairly morose. But for some reason, today, I’m feeling a little better. I’m feeling a little more cheerful and a little more hopeful. I guess I just need to make sure that I remember to take care of my spirit.
Yesterday, I was craving a little bit of home cooking, Filipino home cooking, that is. So I wanted to do something that reminded me of home. The easiest thing to do was Bistek Tagalog (which I think is a Filipino contraction of Beef Steak Tagalog). It’s really, really easy to make and can be eaten with rice and veg. Alternatively, you could also have this with mashed potato and steamed vegetables.
Ingredients:
300 grams of frying steak
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce (I used Blue Dragon Soy Sauce)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 medium onion, sliced into rings
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
salt to taste
Instructions:
1. This step is optional, especially if you have a good cut of beef. But to make sure that the meat doesn’t feel too gristly, with the back of a knife or a meat tenderiser, pound the slices of frying steak until they’re slightly thinner than when you first started off.
2. In a zip lock bag, combine the soy sauce and lemon (if I were in the Philippines, I would use about 3-4 large calamansi instead of the lemon juice. This is why I want to get a calamondin plant, because calamondin IS calamansi!). Add the tenderised meat and marinate for at least 2 hours.
3. In a frying pan, add the butter and cook the steaks according to taste. Keep marinating mixture. (Since they’re relatively thin, it’ll take only a few seconds to cook. What I usually do is once the meat changes color slightly, I flip the beef slices to cook the other side as well). Put the cook meats to one side and add the cooking oil to the same pan and add the onion rings. Once they are translucent and have separated into individual rings, add marinating liquid and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes, making sure that the liquid doesn’t evaporate too much (feel free to add more soy sauce and lemon juice if it does evaporate. The ratio has to be 1 is to 1). Add salt to taste. Add the beef and mix until the meat slices are covered in the sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes and serve hot.
I really must start taking pictures of the food that I cook! But mostly, I’m happy I can cook food from home. It makes it easier to deal with homesickness. I mean, I’m happy to be where I am, but sometimes, it’s nice to eat something that’s culturally familiar. It makes the feeling of being out of place a little easier to bear.
I’m trying to improve my reading average and my reading speed. There was once a time when I could sit down (in my case it was mostly lie down and curl up in a fetal position) and read a book and finish it in under 3 hours-4 hours if we’re talking about a book as thick as, say, Harry Potter’s 7th installment. Really. I don’t skip pages and neither do I scan. I would actually read every single word. I thought I was amazing because I had complete comprehension too.
But in the past few months, I’ve noticed that my reading skills are rapidly declining and I can’t, for the most part, just lie down and enjoy the book that I’m reading. My mind can’t seem to focus on the book and flits.
I’ve begun reading Sophie Kinsella’s Remember Me?, which I’m, for the most part, enjoying (mainly because, I am a Sophie Kinsella fan). My goal is to finish the book by Friday so I can then begin reading Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I got this book on Saturday at a discounted rate from WHSmith because we bought the Saturday paper (The Times). Hmmm…that’s not entirely right. I got the paper because if you did, you could buy the book for only £3.99. I can’t resist a book bargain!
I’m raring to finish my book du jour (the Sophie Kinsella one) because I want to start on the Guernsey one. With a title like that (it’s a mouthful, Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) how can you not feel curious about it?
Wish me luck!
