'Very kid-friendly' archive

My daughter’s 14th birthday

My daughter, Alex, had a few classmates over yesterday. They were supposed to do an ecology project but since yesterday was also her 14th birthday, a few other friends, non-members of the ecology group, joined us and we had pasta, chicken, toast and cake for merienda. The menu might look like fastfood fare, the stuff kids love, but the chicken was NOT fried, the toast was buttered whole wheat bread, the pasta sauce was all-natural and the cake was made with frozen — not canned — blueberries…

Spaghetti with longganisa (sausage) meatballs

A Jamie Oliver inspired dish. He made meatballs from Italian sausages; I used longganisa — the garlicky kind.

The first time I cooked this spaghetti with sausage meatballs dish, I used longganisa hamonado — the sweet kind. It didn’t work. The sauce was a mongrel of flavors that seemed hell bent on fighting with each other. Salty, garlicky longganisa works best.

Corn dogs

I used to make these using pancake mix. But I was able to buy yellow cornmeal recently and I decided to make some corn dogs the traditional way. I searched for corn dog recipes online, found one at the Food Network, tried it and, oh boy, what a disaster. Not only did the cream style [...]

Choco butter cupcakes

For those of you who made the buttery cupcakes and found them a bit too heavy, here’s good news. I found another basic yellow cake recipe which I adapted and baked into cupcakes. The result was a lighter texture with the same crusty, slightly crisp exterior.

This is based on a recipe from The Joy of [...]

Scrambled eggs with ham and onions

I always try to have a prepared meal for my kids when they arrive home from school. A few days ago, I cooked paksiw na pata and all that was needed was to reheat it so that the kids could have an early dinner. But the house helper not only forgot to reheat the paksiw [...]

Oven-fried potato chips

It wasn’t my turn to cook, being a Sunday. Sunday is daddy-in-the-kitchen day. But my husband is such a cheat when it comes to cooking. If we don’t eat out, he has a never-ending supply of SPAM. And we were supposed to eat out tonight but one thing led to another and I ended up [...]

A side dish: buttered corn and carrots

When my kids ask for fried chicken — and they do about once a month — I try to vary the side dish that I served with the chicken. The same rule applies with grilled or roast pork or even fried fish. Grilled or fried meat or seafood is always better when there is a [...]

Easy dessert crepes

I found a recipe for crepes at the back of a Maya pancake mix box and I’ve been having crepes for breakfast for two days. The batter is really just a diluted pancake batter with an additional egg. Of course, I never did it the easy way until two days ago. I used to make [...]

About Pinoy Cook

• About the author
• Cooking philosophy
• Food photography
• Where I cook
• Where I used to cook
• The noche buena section
• Product review policy
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Recipe archive
• Published articles
• Food from all over
• E-mail the author

House On A Hill

Noche Buena

• Ernest’s pancit canton with bacon-cut pork
• Blueberries and cream
• Adobo, quail eggs and rice
• Chili garlic prawns
• Pork ears barbecue
• Cucumber and coconut smoothie
• Ox tongue with gravy
• Rice pudding with custard topping
• Fresh tropical fruits salad
• Chicken embutido

How to cook

• Sauteing basics
• Braised bangus (milkfish) fillets
• 1 kilo of fish equals soup and spring rolls
• Aromatic (and tastier!) spring roll wrappers
• Homemade broth
• Stuffing a duck with aromatics
• Making the most out of pritong isda (fried fish)
• Reheating fried spring rolls
• Sweet and sour fish: don’t forget the ginger
• Tips for cooking Chinese-style fried rice