How do you like your French fries?
It might interest you to know that French fries might not have originated in France but in that part of Europe that eventually became Belgium. There are newspaper accounts of Belgians selling fried potatoes at fairs during the 18th century. Of course, they weren’t known as French fries then. The “French” part came much later. During World War I, British or American soldiers tasted the fried potatoes and, because French was the language spoken in Belgium, called them French fries. You can read all about that in Wikipedia which provides great sources in the footnotes for further reading. I’m not into food history but the “French” part did interest me. I have to say that I experienced some sort of déjà vu when I thought about how American Indians came to be called as such after some ignorant explorers thought they had landed in India when, in fact, they reached another part of the world.
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(Something like) pasta a la putanesca
With the interval of postings on this blog, you’d think we haven’t been eating at home. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking; it’s just that I haven’t been blogging too much lately. At least, not in my personal blogs. There’s this project in my kids’ school and I was focused on it for the [...]
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Fish fillets in white wine and cream-and-cheese sauce
This dish was made from leftovers. I had some excess cream-and-cheese sauce from the two trays of baked macaroni that I cooked for my daughter Sam’s best friend’s birthday party and for their class Christmas party last weekend. I kept the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge. I had forgotten all about it had Sam not rummaged through the contents of the fridge last night.
The fish, on the other hand, was the third of three fish fillets that my husband bought recently. I used two to cook fish fillets with sweet and sour sauce for last night’s dinner. The third fillet was today’s lunch — this fish fillet with white wine and cream sauce.
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French toast in 3 steps
When I made some French toasts for breakfast a few days ago and took so much pain taking photos, I did wonder what I was going to do with all the photos. I was sure I have more than one French toast entry in my blog but I took the photos just the same. I’m glad I did. I scanned my archives and it turned out that although I have three French toast recipes, I don’t have any entry with the basic recipe. What I do have are the cinnamon-flavored French toast and two rather fancy variations — the ones stuffed with cheese and ham and another which is a variation of the classic Monte Cristo sandwich.
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Fish fillets in white wine
What I like best about whole fish fillets is that you can add almost any vegetable to them. Spinach leaves happen to be my husband’s favorite. He likes his fish fillet dishes light and uncomplicated. What I do is add a generous amount of olive oil, the juice of one lemon and lots of white wine and it’s instant dinner. Believe it or not, that is the recipe in that last sentence. But, of course, I can be a little more detailed than that. Maybe, in five sentences?
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Herbed fried chicken
I don’t know what it is about fried chicken but kids find it irresistible. Boneless or bone-in, breaded or plain, it’s always a hit which should explain why it’s a staple in children’s parties. In short, fried chicken is a good vehicle to introduce children to new flavors and aromas. Take this breaded chicken fillets, for instance. The bread crumbs were made from whole wheat bread (which most kids detest), basil, tarragon, parsley and garlic. Isn’t that a great way to teach kids about how a few pinches of herbs can transform what would otherwise be plain fried chicken fillets?
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Baked scallops
Because scallops have a natural sweetish flavor, I didn’t want to overpower them with a heavy sauce. I started by sprinkling them with a little salt and pepper. Then I mixed together some olive oil, chopped basil leaves, garlic and onions. I placed a teaspoonful of the mixture on each scallop then baked them in a moderately hot oven for about two minutes–just long enough until they turned opaque. Scallops cook fast and the meat toughens when overcooked. So, two minutes in a preheated oven was just about right.
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Real cream of mushroom soup
I actually cooked this cream of mushroom soup a few months ago, the same week that I made the pili nut butterscotch brownies, smoked salmon and kesong puti salad, the egg-stuffed relyenong bangus and the green tea and rambutan dessert. I suppose I got a little inundated with my cooking that week and forgot about the humble but utterly satisfying cream of mushroom soup. 
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