Friday, my beloved day never fails to excite me. I actually look forward to getting to work (esp. on Fridays) raring it to end  and start my journey for home where I will see my littlle tiger who gives me such joy just watching him  go about his life in play. My husband who is also "so nice to come home to" [Kenny Rankine's song] usually likes to  end the week  with a goblet or two of wine, so I thought I should get him  a bottle of red we can share  tonight. I know of an Italian deli in the neighborhood of one of the schools I work in which  holds good Italian wine. While I was thinking about it I decided to get the bottle, lest the day ends without me getting it. I went in the deli and was greeted by an Italian guy inhis 50's (I guess). He looked quite serious and business-like so I thought I'd  shake him up a bit with my order. I asked for a toasted bagel with creamcheese. He asked if I needed anything else (I could almost  read his mind, expecting me to order coffee) so I said, "Oh, for my drink, I'll have that bottle of red wine (standing on the  shelf)." I watched his face closely and saw that he was  shocked but he restrained himself graciously giving me now  a curious look as he tried to figure out my person. So I added, "Yup this wine looks good---this must go good with my bagel, don't you think?"  The man said, "Oh yah, oh yah!" He was perplexed, curious, and amused all rolled into one as-if-not-affected expression. I burst out laughing telling him I was just teasing, and that I was  going to give the  bottle to my husband.  He smiled with a "Phew!" face. I hope that  brought a little sunshine to his day.
Coming home, I whipped a simple but tasty dinner called  Bistek  [in Spanish, it is Bistec Encebollado, in  English, Beef Steak with Caramelized Onions]

After dinner, I played with  SpideyBat-MAN. (He did not last long with the mask I made. The rubber bands were torturing his ears...)

Once I had a craving for a snack I used to have in childhood. It wasn't often my family made it but I remembered it's very simple but oh-to-die-for taste and marshmallowy beDimpled  look. It made an indelible imprint in my child mind so that decades after, I only need close my eyes and I see them and could almost taste them. I certainly enjoyed helping make it as a child as it needed a lot of tactile affection to reach its voluptuous form. One had to take a pinch of the doughy wet batter----ball it wih the palms and poke it with a finger to make a cute Dimple in the middle. NOw that I am older I realize the dimple was not only artful,  but also functional as it holds some sweet sauce as it travels on a spoon to meet and reward the anticipating tastebuds. So when the craving hit I did not have a choice but consult THe google, and here's what I ended with after making some adjustments to suit my taste: TADAAAA...

PALITAW sa LATIK---made with sticky rice flour, with coconut and melted brown sugar sauce and a sprinkling of reduced coconut bits. Ohhh yumm! 
Palitaw basically means to float which is exactly what these bedimpled rice dumplings do---they float to signal they are cooked and ready to eat.
It was pure bliss to eat this food again. Eating it lead me down to Nostalgia Lane where I remembered home-made Leche Flan out of duck's eggs brought by the farmhand  and  dark sweet guava jelly harvested from three gigantic guava trees my father planted beside our house and macapuno (sweetened Sport coconut strips) which came in batches after the coconut harvest....the list went on and on....while I savored this missed long lost but found fare.

 Makin' balls and pokin' a dimple on each is the funnest part

     Cooking in coconut sauce----when they're afloat, they are ready!

     Reducing coconut milk to brown bits for garnish (the most tedious part..)

                                            VOILA!  Palitaw sa Latik

                     
                                             What blissful reunion!!!

Ninth Year Anniversary
My husband and I plus our little tiger celebrated our ninth year anniversary in France the summer 2010. We rented a car and covered  some provencal areas like Marseille, Apt, Focalquier, then some areas along the French Riviera like Roquebrune-Cap Martin, Montecarlo Monaco, St Maxime, St, Tropez and lastly Paris then back to Provence----all in two weeks which was not long enough.  On our anniversary day, we decided to celebrate with a lunch dinner to make sure our little one is up and about with enough energy and happy mood for us to enjoy a relaxing family meal. However I thought, why not do a pre-celebration that is homey, quiet and simple before lunch?  Afterall, there is still a breakfast time we have to reckon with. Fortunately, our hotel has a partial kitchen enough for me to whip up a hearty breakfast that will start our  beautiful day right. Thinking what to do, I took inspiration from this tomato that I bought the day before just because I was enchanted by its beauty.

And just like any gorgeous fruit that I am about to consume, I honor it with a portarit to immortalize and remember its beauty by.

So it ended on our breakfast plates along with fluffy scrambled eggs laced with smoked salmon, green and nicoise olives, a small round of cheese accompanied by ciabatta bread and a slice of cantaloupe.

For our drink, we had ice-cold coffee which the day before was our coffee granita. It complemented our savory breakfast which was quite hearty and healthful. My best memory  about this breakfast anniversary meal was that we ate it on our hotel's rooftop (which we had to ourselves) overlooking the Meditteranean.
What a blessed day!

As hot as habaneros are like summer, this carefree season will never be complete without them red-orange spicy jewels so I plant a few pots that give me my (habanero) provisions for the  year.  What I do with them primarily is infuse my apple cider vinegar to satisfy my everyday affair with "sawsawan". We Filipinos always have dipping sauce for our meat, veggies and fish. The habaneros take  vinegar to a new level of  sour sweetness.
On the side I make my spicy entrees and desserts laced with habaneros. YYEEOOWW!!!

                        Chicken Tikka Masala Biryani                   
                      

                     Jump-in-the-lake Shrimp Curry....Whoa!

               5-Alarm Habanero Heartburn                                 

On my lunchbreak I decided to stop by a Patel Brothers grocery to search for spices to make a tikka masala chicken biryani for my husband  Steve. As I passed through the vegetable section, I saw four baby jackfruits staring me in the face telepathecally screaming my name to pick them up and so I did. They did not look very pretty but they sure brought me back memories that made my mouth water. My mind whirled in excitement for it's been eons since I last ate young jackfruit salad that my sister-in-law Gina back home in the Philippines used to make a lot of. Driving home my thoughts rushed in a whirlwind trying to recall the ingredients for  young jackfruit salad.  I remember she used  to make this  scrumptuous salad extra spicy, I could not stop eating them. It's been years since I last had a bite of it and so re-creating this dish is somehow a feat for me.
Envisioning how the salad looks like, pictures of little squares of red bell pepper and spicy  pepper danced in my head, soon followed by the imangined scent of ginger and vinegar in my nose. Of course, the white milk of coconut and that makes up its sauce. Coming home, I went straight to the kitchen and started my adventure.

Young Jackfruit Salad

young jackfruit
a can of coconut milk
red bell pepper cut into small squares
spicy red pepper
ginger minced
half cup vinegar
salt

Peel the  jackfruit and slice into bite-sized pieces. Boil in water. When cooked, let cool down. Squeeze the water out of the jackfruit and reconstitute with the coconut milk. Add the rest of the ingredients . Add salt to taste.

Isn't she a beauty? I just had to feast my eyes on her awesome orangeness and repeatedly sniff  her citrusy scent . I marvelled at the touch and sight of her I thought  this beauty warrants a pictture.  My inner shutterbug got the better of me and did three -leveled shots. After I have immortalized her beauty, I feasted on Ms. Grapefruit and relished every juicy bite that bespoke of  a summer having more of them. I was in grapefruit heaven. Upon finishing my last bite, I stared at my pile of  peels and thought, "How can I throw this away (I was simply enamored with her color)."  The next thing I knew, I started scraping her pith and slicing the peels in slender strips. Grabbed a pan and boiled water to cook the peels in. Added sugar and  voila!

                                         Candied Grapefruit Peel

Months after, I came across the pictures of the  grapefruit that gave me  such delight, I thought to enjoy her beauty once more and everyday.

ADDENDUM:
I planted two of its seeds and now have this grapefruit  plant growing. Unfortunately I am in the East Coast and  I can't bear to leave it out in the cold so I put it in my kitchen table and hope that it will make do with the warmth in our house and the little light it gets  through the skylight.