italian Tag

In All recipes, Dairy, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

MISO CARBONARA W/ MINI SAUSAGE MEATBALLS

THIS COULD VERY WELL BE, THE ONLY SENSIBLE THING THAT SHOWS UP HERE FOR THIS ENTIRE WEEK…

Jason is going away for this entire week. This isn’t the first time it happens, nor is it a rare occurrence. But what you’ll feel differently about this week, not including this particular post, is going to be somewhat of a breakthrough. Thing is, if you had any presumptions about me, as someone who likes to cook and carries out every meal big or small, with a sense of class and dignity, for the next 7 days, you’ll find your theory… horrifiedly misguided. Pretty scallion-oil chicken rolls on a pedestal? Gourmet popcorns to accompany DVD-binging? Pffff~ pleeease… you’re too cute.

The fault, is mine. For I haven’t exactly been honest about what goes on in here, when there’s absolutely nobody watching. Truth is, like comedians being freakishly quiet off stage, cooking for me, is a hobby that erodes with the absence of audiences. Truth is, what I “cook” for myself and myself only, is inexcusably, for lack of better words, horrendous. So here I am. I don’t know where I found such commitment, but I’ve sternly decided that we (as, you and me) have entered a phase in our relationship, where “truth” is required for the hope of a sustainable future together…

Which prompted this new segment I would call, as previously mentioned: The ~~stuff~~ Shit I Eat When I’m By Myself.

Do not be mistaken that these are products of desperations. You’d hurt my feelings. They are all – and it takes great courage to admit – “foods” that I sickeningly and hopelessly, love to eat. Regardless the fact that you may find them only socially excusable, if I was a college student who just spent the the last $20 on ~~alcohol~~ school supplies. Some of them may be accompanied with a “recipe”, as others may, thankfully, not. But whatever you will take away from this, I hope that they at the very least, entertains you.

So enjoy this one before “The Shit” hits the fan, the last proper dinner I made before the “audience” decided to leave me to rot in the land of culinary-ruin, creamy and nutty miso carbonara with tiny sausage meatballs. For this could very well be the only sensible thing that shows up here for this entire week.

11.10.2014

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

mini dumpling wrapper maple cannoli

PUFFED, BLISTERED AND DELICATE, A PERFECT ALTERNATIVE FOR THIS TASTY ITALIAN TREAT

10.20.2014

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy, Sweets, Top Posts In 90 Days

TIRAMISU CHURRO + WARM COFFEE CUSTARD

The problem with me as a recipe ~~dreamer~~ hallucinater during the still-ongoing Thanksgiving carnival is that every year, in utter rudeness, I always feel like leaving the table even before the turkey makes it out of the oven. Evidently from my premature and inappropriate blabbering of the X’mas blend coffee bars in last November while the whole town was still chattering about tweaking pumpkin pies to death, to now this uncooperative side-tracking dessert that doesn’t even rhyme with “ies” and ” akes”, it is obviously true. I have no table-side manners. Now before I leave, pass me the damn stuffings.

11.28.2013

In All recipes, Got Nothing But Time, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

THE INCONVENIENT RAGU-TH

I almost couldn’t wait to tell you all about this hysterically inconvenient ragu. I started curating its debut so many weeks ago, impatiently waited for the temperature to drop and the first damn leaf to fall, until everything… every single elements in the atmosphere ready your hearts for the most glorious, madly delicious ragu you have yet to try. I even prepared a number of high-impact vocabularies to describe its entire four hours of making, two of which involves you standing by the stove remorselessly scraping the bottom of the pot in the name of culinary commitment, because I was gonna tell you that there’s no compromise when it comes to what I call the art of harvesting caramel, and you’re going to eat it all up.

The recipe has been sitting in my cue for a week now and I haven’t been able to lift a finger. Well… you know what happened.

10.28.2013

In All recipes, Dairy, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Quick Meals, Vegatables

spicy cheesy. gochujang spaghetti

The wee-light of early morning started seeping in through the curtain, adding to my sense of unease particular to someone who knew she had done wrong and was most certainly about to get caught. Jason’s morning-siren promptly started barking at 6:30 (no, really, the alarm is a dog barking…) and was ignored for 5 minutes as usual until eventually, he turned over and witnessed my crime scene. Like the most gasping moment in a horror movie, an unsightly picture of an irresponsible grown-up, holding her i-pad with an earphone giggling like an idiot, secretly pulling a marathon on… a new-found television series. ALL NIGHT and 18 episodes in, not even of something socially excusable like Game of Thrones, or House of Cards to demonstrate depth, but a retarded high-school version of True Blood with a name too embarrassing to even pronounce… Va…Vampire Diaries! God! Just hang me by the neck!

09.13.2013

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Vegatables

Improved Smoked Cheese Risotto

I have a severe case of post-vacation depression. NOT that I don’t miss my kids achingly on each and every trip, and want to tell’em about places where they could potentially live in the next life where they’d be allowed into every eateries (woof!) and ~~crumbs shops~~ PATISERIES (woof! woooof!). But for reasons beyond me, they instead insist on residing in a city that I loathe full-heartedly. Not an uncommon problem among modern parents I guess. So every time I return home, my kitchen becomes a laboratory for recreating things that I crave from each trip to ease the symptoms (which, if left untreated, could develop into doomsday-scale meltdowns). The shwarma sandwich from Paris. The laksa from Malaysia. Bonci’s pizza bianca from Rome. Oh, right. Rome. Well, about that… I haven’t told you everything yet.

01.24.2013

In All recipes, Meat, Quick Meals, Snacks

Fully Loaded Baguette

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Wow! What a weekend last Saturday, uh?! Golden Globes? Did you watch it? What a fantastic sequence of showmanship one after the next uh? First came Jodie Foster’s neurotic ramblings of a speech though I’m not going to argue with the world who apparently thought she was phenomenal. Then Oh-glory’s-the-name-of-vengeance Ben Affleck won best director and fired a bullet with his love-declaration for Gardner right in the heart of who else but J “LOW”! Oh snap!! And how about Ann Hathaway giving all she’s got on an AMAZING performance acting surprised at winning supporting actress! Flaaaaawless! That’s another award in itself I’m telling ya. OH oh and Kristen and Will’s HILARIOUS little team-up was PURE comedy gold! Missed it? Geeet ooout of heeerree!! Finally FINALLY Tina Fay and Amy Poehler’s opening act was marriage made in heaven… come on… I laughed the tears out of myself!

01.18.2013

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Snacks

Slice of Bonci’s

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I assumed that by the time this post is published, the world has crossed into the year 2013. So happy new year, guys. I hope that against all odds, fireworks were ~~blocked~~ enjoyed, champagnes were ~~spilled~~ popped, strangers ~~fought~~ kissed, and resolutions ~~dismissed~~ fulfilled. But truth be told, I am never one to celebrate the fact that another year has eloped with my remaining inventories of collagen, and as far as a new “symbolic reform” goes, I never understand why I have to wait for December. Who’s got time for that? The hope of a new beginning must start now if not last minute, so it could get killed before noon the next day. Last night I said “ENOUGH!” to my thighs and tonight I have lychee gummies on my night stand. Efficiency.

01.02.2013

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Vegatables

Spicy Green Pesto + We’re off to…

Oh YAY! SHORT POST! Good for you because “Gawd! she’s finally gonna shut up…!”, and great for us because from here and here you can guess… yes, (whisper…) vacatiooon…. Can you guess where we’re going? Hint hint… what are we having here? No, not the poblano. The PAASTAA… shh… I think I just made me jealous of myself….

12.14.2012

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

“C” Is For Cold Capellini

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Despite the respectable effort of window displays everywhere and pretty little fashion magazines who would like us to believe that the next season is upon us and seduce us into stocking up on goose-down parkas or snuggy scarfs, the truth is that the chances of heatwaves is right around the corner on any given Wednesday, and will last well into October for the freakier parts of the world at least. This is a confession coming from a dark corner inside a pre-season shopaholic who, almost every year, excitedly opens a box full of winter goodies sometime in September while sweating profusely in her tank-tops and couldn’t stop the idea of downing a bowl of something really cold… ANYTHING cold.

09.03.2012

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice

A Roman Daydream

So, here it goes.

I’m going to start this story by making a confession. I have…never been to Rome.

I forged this recipe after the Rome episode from my favorite travel channel host, Anthony Bourdain’s show, “The Layover“. His show is one of the humble luxury I have being here, that I get to pay $20 on iTune which would otherwise be free in the US. No no no, Slingbox doesn’t work here. If the internet in China is personified it would be a 800 year-old granny with walking stick that is broken.

04.05.2012