Recent meals and snacks...

A few weeks ago, KD gave me these lovely things....

which are passion fruits. It was my first time eating a real one,instead of a flavor that's been infused in syrup, iced tea, or ice cream...

A friend of hers had a vine and gave her quite a few; KD was kind enough to share them with TORC and myself. We were told to wait until the fruits got wrinkly and then we could eat it. I don't know if I waited too long or not long enough. It was a bit dry inside. The innards were a bit slimy looking with edible black seeds. The aroma that hit the air as soon as I cut into the fruit was amazingly intense. I now want a passion fruit vine for our backyard garden so we can enjoy these fruits!

A few weekends in a row we visited Seafood City. This is what the parking lot looks like on a Sunday late morning after all the Filipinos are done with 10 o'clock mass.

That weekend was one of the hottest we experienced. Unwise me decided to make chicken tinola a Philippine ginger based soup n a sweltering day because I was craving something with ginger and chayote (seen below). TC was excited to see lychees at Seafood City. I was excited that they were $1.59 a pound!

The next wekeend I tried looking for the lychees again. They were all gone but instead, I bought a bag of Jujubes which we'd never tried before. Let's put it this way, I either got a bad bag or if this was a good bag, then these fruits were probably one of the worst I've tasted. They were small and kind of hard when you squeeze them. They don't have a fragrance or any type of taste. They were dry and crunchy and not juicy at all. I only ate one while TC had a couple and thought they were okay.

I also bought a huge 4.5 lb spaghetti squash. You bake it whole in an oven for about an hour, wait for it to cool down, then scrape out the inner flesh. This was the work of Bert, who is very methodical. He actually quite enjoyed scraping every last bit of that spaghetti squash until the halves were clean shells. He was also quite good at getting out the stray seeds.  I seasoned this with a little bit of olive oil and butter along with the everyday seasoning from Trader Joe's. This lasted for the whole week and served as my 'non-rice' accompaniment to my proteins.

Here were some fish from SC that we bought - one package of tilapia fillets, one salmon chunk (skin on) and a package of what they call 'salmon slice'. The tilapia fillets were baked with a bit of lemon and salt and pepper.

I would end up baking the salmon fillet brushed with honey mustard dressing and topped with Panko crumbs.

The salmon slices were prepared with a simple marinade of calamansi juice (homegrown), teriyaki sauce and minced ginger. I baked this at 375F for 15-20 minutes.

I loved the salmon slices the best of the three fish dishes I made that week. It was so tender and flaky and even though I had to pick out some bones, was almost as good as the fish my mom makes.

That same visit we got a few snacks. The fried chicken skin is one of my latest vices.

Yes....ice cream bars....

Plus canned coffee from Fresh & Easy (first seen on Darlene's post). These were $2.49 each. Of the four, I liked the salted caramel the best.  The Double Espresso was too bitter and the Mocha, surprisingly enough, tasted too metallic for me. Bert ended up drinking 95% of these.

Also from Effin' Easy were these clearanced pastries - a chocolate chip Liege waffle, croissants (chocolate with hazelnut and almond and almond plain) and a maple pecan braid.

Of the four, I liked the chocolate croissant with the two types of nuts the best. Hazelnut AND almond for the MF win, yo!  I was pleasantly surprised by the Liege waffle. It crisped up nicely in the toaster oven and I loved the crunchy bits of the pearl sugar in there. I haven't seen it since and I'm kind of bummed because I wanted to get more. Poo.

Bert brought these blue potato chips home during an outing to Big Lots. He went to get some household item and found these random, not-very-popular-brand-so-that's-why-it's-in-Big-Lots. The chips were cut pretty thick and yes, they were quite blue indeed. I really liked these and wouldn't mind having them again.

Another time we were down south and had a quick bite at the neighborhood sushi joint, Tomodachi. This time we tried a new roll (the special request rolls are named after customers), Peter's.

The Peter's roll was practically two orders and it was ovenbaked and served warm. Loved it.  TC had her usual - tempura crab and her Cali roll.

Was texted and sent pix from Cathy and also from Darlene their experiences with the Danish Kringle at Trader Joe's.  Darlene had a sample while Cathy actually bought one. I hadn't had a Kringle in years and noticed this was the same bakery that made the one I was gifted during Xmas 2007. That one was pecan while the more recent one from TJ's was pumpkin caramel. Me being the mostly pumpkin hater did end up buying it and liking it. It has a nice flakiness but is super sweet and not meant to be eaten as a huge honking chunk but maybe more like a dainty thin slice to savored and enjoyed. Bert and I presliced this in a plastic container and put them in the freezer.  This, by the way, is pretty huge.

The guy working at TJ's said the Kringle was a great deal at $6.99; if you buy this online it would be $19.95 and that's without shipping and handling. Yikes. During the holidays, TJ's is supposed to get more, but in almond flavor. I think I will like those much better.

Pappardelle noodles with sauteed red onions, peas and spinach mixed with a Korma simmer sauce (it's like a yellow curry) from F&E. This was a meatless dish and I was pretty happy that both Bert and TC liked this.

A few other SC purchases - canned green jackfruit and fresh bamboo shoots. I sauteed ginger with onions and added the bampoo shoots and jackfruit. It was seasoned with pepper and oyster sauce and garnished with sliced green onions. Another meatless dish that was enjoyed by the husband and teen.


Despite the hot weather, TC was craving sinigant so I made it. This was the version with pork ribs using tamarind powder.

Sinigang is so easy.  Brown the meat, then add water and skim off any foam from the broth. Add one chopped onion, a couple of small tomatoes and vegetables of your choice. In my case, I used the traditional vegetables, okra, Chinese long beans, Chinese eggplant and a few hot peppers to spice it up. I went 'non-traditional' by using kale from my mom's backyard instead of using bok choy.

This is a dish you have to let simmer for more than an hour. The vegetables are added in increments with the harder vegetables going in first, then gradually adding the softer vegetables and the leafy ones towards the end.

Sinigang with pork ribs is one of my favorite dishes to make and eat.

Bert was picking up TC from a late dance practice and passed by the fairly new Sonic in National City that evening. He brought home a variety of items, a cheeseburger (looked kinda blah to me), a bacon topped hot dog (super salty), onion rings (decent), and a chicken sandwich (very bland).

The food wasn't piping hot when he arrived. Perhaps the 15 minute drive home contributed to the lackluster taste, but I can now cross Sonic off my list. I wasn't too impressed. The only think I really liked were the rings.

Hope everyone is enjoying October so far!