Sunday afternoons are my favorite. It's when the three of us do things together. We go to church in the mornings, eat out for lunch, go home and take a family nap, eat after-nap snack, hang-out or go for a stroll on the beach and catch the sunset or drive to Barnes and Noble. This afternoon, I excused myself from the walk and decided to make my childhood merienda with Zachary. Palitaw is made with sticky rice cooked in boiling coconut milk and brown sugar. When the bedimpled pieces float, they're cooked. Palitaw basically means to float.

making (mochiko) rice balls

the fun part--- poking a dimple on the rice ball

drop the be-dimpled balls in boiling sugar-coconut sauce

stir (without the britches)

when the palitaws float up to the surface, they're cooked

plate the palitaw

and eat

I don't like big chickens. I am suspicious of big chickens. With all the talks about anti-biotics and growth boosters,  my  usual gusto for eating them is just not the same when I  have them looking so plump and juicy, like this one---no matter how USDA says it is organic. Anyway, this baked chicken (the legs) will first be eaten as is...then the leftovers (one chicken breast) will morph into  chicken panini sandwiches slathered with habanero-cilantro sauce. Meanwhile, the carcass, bones and the other breast will make some pearl-barley-lentil chicken soup.  Goes a long way, doesn't it?

 This is pinatisang manok---chicken slathered with olive oil, drizzled with fish sauce, slathered with strips of ginger and mesquite and slow-baked  for two and a half hours.  (I swear I cut off the rear end of this big bad boy ...BEYOND  its heart-shaped perimeters, but I don't know why in this picture it looks like it's still there...ugh!)

Zachary snacking on PB & J and  choco-soy milk while I baked the chicken and puttered around the kitchen

Still in pre-school, but already reading independently.

The fruits that keep the "achoos!!!"  away. In this picture, the papaya and pineapples aren't ripe yet.

Both pineapple and papaya are so sweet and juicy

 

Imam Bayildi with Leek Foccacia

Italian eggplants make  delicious  Imam Bayildi

Imam Bayaldi
(The Priest Fainted)
Story goes---the Imam fainted because the dish is sooo delicious.
Another story goes--the Imam fainted because  his  wife used too much of the expensive olive oil they can hardly afford.



leek foccacia




Hot pink  radishes make a good  salad



radish, tomatoes and granny smith apple

Butterflied Biya

I bless the hands that butterflied, cleaned up and dried these teeny-weeny fishlings as I eat them one bite at a time. I truly appreciate all the effort put in the  preparation especially that the bag  was only a dollar and fifty cents each.

fried dried biya

                     

butterflied biya



butterflied biya flipside



watercress and radish salad goes well with the dried fish and rice