Pesto Penne Pasta

So here is the recipe for the PPP (Pesto Penne Pasta) that we cooked yesterday!

Ingredients:
400 g. Penne Pasta
100 g. Fresh Basil, washed
220 mL Virgin Olive Oil
25 g. Pine Nuts
20 g. Garlic, roughly minced
50 g. bottled or fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
60 mL Honey
200 g. Bacon, chopped
75 g. Sun Dried Tomatoes or Pesto Sun Dried Tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente. (around 1o minutes)
2. Blanch the basil leaves and shock in cold water.
3. Drain out excess water and place the blanched basil leaves into the blender together with the pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and half of the oil.
4. Puree on medium speed to high speed. Add more of the oil while pureeing.
5. Add in the honey and season with salt and pepper. Then transfer to a bowl then set aside.
6. Mix together the basil pesto with the cooked penne pasta and garnish with parmesan cheese and bacon bits.
7. Serve with garlic toast on the side. :)

Note:
-make sure that your basil leaves are fresh because it is the vital part for your pesto.


For the garlic toast, all you need are the following:

- butter
- garlic
- kinchay or Cilantro
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- wheat loaf bread or you can use baguette or even the regular pan bread. ^^

Procedure:
1. Place the softened butter in a mixing bowl and add the garlic, kinchay or cilantro, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the ends or edges of he bread.
3. Generously spread the butter mixture and toast it until golden brown in color.

* I did not put the measurements in because I feel that it all depends on your own preference on how you want your toast to taste like.. :)

I think we got a 97% for our pasta which is really great! :) Thanks to my group mates who made this :) I had really nothing to do with this dish.. :))

next post- story of the uncooked pizza dough! :) Now this time it is all me.. (^^)"

My Own Italy!

These are just some of the things we are cooking for our International Cuisine class and these dishes are from Italy.. :D

Penne Pesto

The-looking-great-but-with-uncooked-pizza-dough-Pizza ^^,

Stories and recipes will be posted as soon as I can do so! :)
Have a great week ahead everyone! :)

Seaweed and Egg Drop Soup 紫菜蛋花汤

While I am writing this post, most of the places in Metro Manila are still flooded and out of electricity. While I am here in my room, enjoying the cold weather. Yesterday was surely one of the worst days for everyone here in Metro Manila because almost every major and even minor roads were flooded and everyone was stranded somewhere or some other people had to walk on waist-deep flooded roads just to be able to get home!!! :\

I was lucky enough that I was coming home from school which is just quite near and that even though most areas are flooded, mine wasn't! :) Today, it is still raining! Cats, dogs, rats, you name it! And because we still have a cold weather today, I decided to warm it up with a soup that is very very easy to make! :)

Seaweed and Egg Drop Soup 紫菜蛋花汤

Ingredients:
Dried Seaweed (the thin and flaky one)
1 to 2 eggs
Dried Shrimp
Chicken Stock or just plain water! :)
salt to taste
chicken essence powder to taste
sesame oil (optional)
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

>as you can see there are no measurements here because I did not measure mine when I was making it and I just relied on my personal instinct! :))

Preparations:
- Prepare the seaweed first by submerging it first on lukewarm water and leave it there for a while and drain it by getting the seaweed out. (This will help in removing any dirt that got stuck to the seaweed when it was being dried)
- I also placed my dried shrimps on lukewarm water to give it a rinse.
- Beat the egg and set aside.

Procedure:
- Bring the stock or water to a boil and when it boils, place the seaweed and dried shrimps in. When it re-boils, pour the egg while whisking the soup with a fork to create a thin ribbon resemblance. Season with salt and chicken essence powder. When it reboils, put two- three drops of sesame oil and turn off the heat.
-When serving, top it with toasted sesame seeds :)

This recipe was inspired by this site and also this one! :)


Aside from the fact that it is easy to make, I love the fact that it is also very flavorful! You can also put some meat and even shiitake mushrooms for variations! :D My next post will be something Korean so watch out! :D

The Little Prince and School Days

I know that this book is a classic but I just got to read it from cover to cover today! School days are here again and I was all alone today so I decided to go to the best place (in my opinion) in the university which is the library! I decided to look for a great novel to borrow and take home so that it can add up to my book challenge this year! :) So while I was browsing through the books, I accidentally saw The Little Prince sitting on one of the shelves which was quite a nice accident! :) Without any second thought I immediately borrowed it and read through it. It was a very thin book (around 109 pages), so I was able to finish it in a few hours and I really like this book not because it was a classic one, but because the topic or subject being talked about in the book was far different from the books I normally read (which are mostly about love). This book reminds me to never let go of my youth and that sometimes, we all just need a short break from our being adults (or young adults) and live life carefree.

I also like a certain line which I quote from the book, "One must demand of each and every one what he or she is capable of. Authority is first and foremost based on reason." -The King from The Little Prince || This somehow reminds me that I am no perfect person and that I also have my limitations which I have to accept, my own weaknesses I need to improve and change. :)

The Little Prince is truly a book for all ages and Antoine de Saint-Exupery has written something that is simple and easy to read but will stay with us for a very long time. :)

For a net version of the book click here. :)

School days are back and I am going to be a very busy bee this semester with all the study and work I have to do! I just hope that I can continue updating this blog and I hope that I can finish my book challenge this year! :) Till' next time...

Free Drink from CBTL

just click on the picture to register! :)

端午節

In the Lunar Calendar, today is the 5th day of the 5th month, where we also celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival or 端午節.. It is one of the festivals where everyone eats at least one Zongzi or 粽子.. It was said that this festival has a lot of origins, but when I was still in high school, we were told only one of the origins which I think, makes a lot of sense too.. :) It is the story of Qu Yuan (屈原) who was a poet and committed suicide in a river and since the people there loved him very much they threw zongzi all over that river so that instead of eating his body the fishes would eat the zongzis ^^,

Zongzi or 粽子

Aside from eating, there are other activities that are done during the festival like the dragon boat race.. :) I have never since any live dragon boat race in my whole life but it is definitely on my list to do before I die.. ^.^ I just know that it would be such an exciting event that will make me so happy and I can even already imagine myself cheering out loud... '0'


I think that this is my first time, where I ate zongzi on the exact day of the festival :) But, it's just that, here in the Philippines, or even anywhere in the world (I think), zongzi is available all year-round that is why I don't put too much importance to it. But this year is begs to differ because I was quite glad and even proud that I got to celebrate it today.. :) Our Zongzi had pork slices in it as well as a piece of shiitake mushroom. I like eating it with sweet not spicy sauce and a bit of fresh garlic! :) You can also eat it with hot sauce or even ketchup! :)


I'm not sure if this festival has any cheerful essence in to it but I know that it is a holiday in China and Taiwan and I just really want to greet everyone 端午節快樂 (happy dragon boat festival) which is just like 生日快樂 (happy birthday)!! Do people say this??? :))

Happy Birthday!! :)

It's my best-ever friend's birthday today and this post is for her!!! :) HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jeannine!! You are such a great friend/half-sister :)) I love you and now that you're 20, well.. You're older than me!!!! :))) (I just want to rub it in haha) Wishing you more birthdays to come!! more than 20 years more!! okay?? :) Always stay happy, strong, beautiful and YOUNG! :) God bless!!! :D




Strawberry Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen (Trinoma).

This Afternoon...

So I finished my 5th book today and I was so glad that it took me less than 24 hours to finish it. Actually it shocked me more :) The book was "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks which was one of my cheap buys when it comes to books! I must admit that I really am starting to like his books a lot! Though in my opinion, this was surely a light read even though I heard other people say that, people who read this will cry.. Well, I didn't cry, maybe it was because of the fact that I was expecting myself to cry.. hahaha.. I am a bit excited to watch the film this time because the ending in the book was quite intriguing. It made me think a lot on whether Jamie really died or not even though I already know that she died in the film.. What do you think? Did Jamie die in the book?? :) I am excited for my 6th book and 7th and so on.. I just hope that I can beat my goal last year!!

Aside from finishing a book, I was arranging my stuff (again) and I came to a book where I forgot that I placed some flower petals in between to let it dry.. When I found those petals, they were already dry. I forgot what this thing where you dry the petals are called and I'm lazy to even search about it, so if you know what it is, please do tell me! :) Here are some photos I took with it.. enjoy...





Lastly, while I was still arranging my stuff, I came across recipes that Angellyn's mom gave me last week, which were magazine cut-out recipes she used to have... I was thinking of keeping it where it was but it bothered me a little so I decided to think and an idea did came to my tiny mind... :)


The idea was to paste the recipes on a magazine (where it originally came from..)! I used a glossy magazine, double-sided tape, and scissors for this 'project'! I do recommend that you use a glossy magazine so that it will be easier for you to correct a misplaced recipe! Unlike if you paste it on a rough textured magazine, it will immediately stick and you can't do anything to fix it anymore.. So remember: use glossy magazines! And do use magazines with language that is different from the language used in the recipes.. I used a Chinese magazine that I was about to throw away (good thing, I didn't). I even trimmed the recipes to make it look neater when placed on the magazine.. :) Do you think it's a good idea?? do you??


So this is what I did this afternoon.. :) Happy weekend everyone!

Another Dining Experience at Manila Hotel

A must-try at the Manila Hotel is their Spaghetti with Meatballs! :) What I like about it is that it has that perfect sense of a Western pasta which has the mix of being a little sweet and sour at the same time.. Unlike what we have here in the Philippines where most of our Spaghetti's are plainly sweet.. The garlic toast beside it was also great... It was crunchy and flavorful at the same time which truly complements the pasta dish!!! :) So far, I'm loving Manila Hotel's dishes.. "so far".. :>