Pasta anyone...

I usually cook during the weekends. I guess it has somehow served as my outlet for either good or “not so good” emotions. Definitely, cooking at the height of good emotions would result to a more delicious outcome. Spaghetti, Filipino style (sweet tasting), is the usual recipe I deal with. That would mean that we have to drop by the Pinoy store to buy Eden cheese, spaghetti sauce, evaporated milk and condensed milk. Hmmnn, the last two may be something not known to many. (I learned this from my friends here in Taiwan and I tell you, the taste resembles that of Jollibee’s spag). On Sunday, I thought I am tired of that taste and remembered the pasta one of my friends serve to us several months ago. The taste lingered not only in my tongue but in my mind as well. There were few attempts to cook it but not having the ingredients stopped it from happening. But last Sunday, the drive was there. I thought there is no need to go to the Pinoy store this time since the grocery near us offers a variety so off we went to check what we could get from there and indeed, we found all that we need. The good thing that came with it is the bottle of 2L coke that was sold at almost 50% off its selling price.

For a change and for easier presentation, ito na ang aking tag-lish recipe na maraming side comments. Di ako particular sa exact measurement, basta tantiya-tantiya na lang.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg pasta
1 1/2 butter (use Anchor para masarap talaga)
Ginger cloves, minced
Onion, minced
Salt to taste (di kasi enough ang taste na bigay ng butter, kahit ung salted)
Black pepper, ground
1/4 kg chicken breast (boneless), diced
200gms shrimps, peeled and diced (can I say diced?)
Italian spices (rosemary, basil, thyme leaves)
1 tbsp olive oil (para mas masarap and healthy – you can use more that 1tbsp)
Parmesan cheese (optional, naka-sale gamin isunga naggatang kamin ah)

Cooking directions:

1. Cook pasta as usual (ano kaya ung usual ano? Hehehe). Ung usual ay may asin at mantika para di magdikit-dikit ang pasta. Dapat al dente ang pagkaluto, di under-cooked, di rin overcooked.
2. While waiting for the pasta to be cooked, heat small pan to melt 1 butter (di ko alam kung ano ang measurement nya eh, di naman cube or kg, hahaha). Set aside.
3. Luto na ba ang pasta? If yes, drain and mix with the melted butter. While mixing, sprinkle desired amount of spices. (not too much kasi maglalagay pa ng spices later sa pagluto nung halo). Pwede nang tikman ang pasta sa stage na ito, masarap nang kainin actually pero wait mo na lang muna ung iba. Set aside pagkatapos mailagay ang butter sa pasta. HHmmmn, ang bango.
4. Heat olive oil in a separate pan. Add 1/2 butter. (Masusunog kasi kapag butter lang ang ginamit). Add onions and garlic. Add chicken and wait until tender.
5. Add shrimp (madali lang kasi maluto ang shrimp eh). Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Add Italian spices as desired. Ito na ung last na ilalagay mo.
7. Mix the cooked ingredients to the buttered pasta and toss well.
8. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese before and while serving.

Variations: pwedeng lagyan ng mushroom or brocolli.

Ito na yun. The whole family enjoyed the meal, and so did the usual friends. Of course, the priceless feeling that came after it is the joy seen in Jade’s face while eating the pasta together with Mommy and Daddy even if she has already consumed her bowl of porridge 30 minutes earlier than us. J She does have her own way of showing appreciation to what I cook. The more inspiration I got to experiment on other recipes.

Side notes:
My next target is pesto pasta kasi mura lang dito ang fresh basil leaves at simple lang din ang recipe.
Ang pinakamadaling pasta recipe so far na natutunan ko kay sa aking friend housemate sa Cavite ay ginisang corned beef pasta, mas maraming sibuyas, mas mabango at mas masarap. Chunky corned beef ang masarap ihalo.

Another side note:
Unlike the paella recipe, I was not able to take visuals of my pasta. I will do that next time.

PS.
I claim this as my own and original recipe because I can’t find one on the net as of yet. Patented kumbaga. Hehehe. But you are welcome to implement this in your kitchens. I’d gladly like to know how well you enjoyed it.

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Your life has ceased but not the good memories you have instilled in our lives...

Part of my usual lunch break activities is to surf the net where friendster.com is one of the sites I frequently visit. I usually do not look at the the posted bulletins but yesterday, a post entitled "In memoriam - R.B." caught my attention. The post came from a former colleague way back my BCF teaching days, I gave it a second look and yes, the name placed after the first two words is somebody I know. A former co-teacher that belonged to the same group that I have been part of for a while. Somebody who was fun to be with and who seemed to be carefree. And yes, he has passed away. For whatever reason, I was told it's no longer important to know. What's significant is that he has now gone into rest. I remained in a state of shock for a while, and when it sank into me, I cried inside. I realized once again that one will never know when earthly life will come to an end.

To you whose life has cheered and inspired others, go rest in peace now. Thank you for the good, though brief, camaraderie you have shared. See you in the other life.

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Sepat is over

Typhoon Sepat is over. Thanks God, we (on the northern part of Taiwan) were spared from its fury. Sadly, the southern provinces have been badly hit. Hopefully, fast recovery will start from here.

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Monday, July 2, 2007

I am officially back to work today after a two months vacation leave. Hurray, I am happy to hear from my colleagues that there are no big issues concerning the projects I left behind. People in my RD team now leaves the office at 10pm whereas they used to get home from work past 12MN. Unfortunately though, this means that we don't have new projects coming. On the other hand, this entails that I can go home exactly at 5:40pm everyday, yehey!

Hmmn, several things have changed in the office area. The layout of the RD lab infront of our office area has changed, half of my RD lab is left unoccupied, breakfast meals are sold in the vegetarian canteen (instead of the store), the store owner is new (or maybe just a reliever), two guys behind my office seat have left the company, there are new two faces I see around, one of my PM colleagues has transferred to sales and hey, my boss has also been changed. Oops, the 1pm bell rang already, got to get back to reality.

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Xinhai...

Before the "heat wave" strikes again, we decided to bring Jade to the Taipei Zoo in Muzha, found at the outer rim of Taipei City. Our zoo trip is one story, a mountain with most part of it turned out to be a cemetery, found along the MRT ride to the zoo, is another. The images seemed to stick to my mind and led me to surf on the net articles about it. I found two personal stories related to it, both of which mentioned about the place being haunted. The cemetery is actually on the mountain itself and underneath the mt. is a tunnel, the Xinpai tunnel that connects central Taipei (city that is) to the outskirts. One story mentions that drivers had their own shares of scary experiences while driving on the said tunnel. Then I remember that two years ago, the first time our Taiwanese friends brought us to the zoo, we past thru the said channel on our way back to Taipei City. Twas already a late afternoon trip back to town so I was so sleepy that I thought the "buildings" I see on top of the mountain are houses but then I thought I appeared like a ghost town. Indeed it was!

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Images long time ago...

A friend forwarded me a retouched picture showing how Session Road looks like decades ago.
On the other hand, I grabbed a photo of the old church in Tublay, my hometown, from a friendster contact.

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What it takes to say YES and what it means to say SO...

YES - Indicates an affirmative response...
AFFIRMATIVE - Expressing or manifesting praise or approval
APPROVAL - Acceptance as satisfactory
ACCEPTANCE - The act of taking something that is offered
SATISFACTORY - Meeting requirements
REQUIREMENTS - Needs

It is so easy to say YES - but the question is that, is YES given as an answer just a simply way of ending a conversation, an argument, a request, a demand, a question, a statement...

What if YES given today or minutes ago suddenly turns out to be a "NO". Then again you'd get an affirmative answer, that is, YES. Word uttered as it is but the ACTION is the other way around.

What does it take to say YES such that the outcome is as required?

...such is for somebody who so easily says so but does the opposite

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