Elena's Recipes

I am pretty sure that my love of cooking comes from my mom. She cooked. Boy did she cook. When her friends had parties, she was the one they called to cook. Her Philippine Club had a picnic it was my mom who roasted the pig. Once when I was a young teenager, she had brought home a baby pig, for the picnic. She wanted me to hold it while she slit its throat.........I ran as far as I could and I never ate barbque pig after that. Even today. But the Philippine foods she would cook, oh it was always soooo good. I have memories of weekends sitting watching black and white TV while mom was in the kitchen cooking up a storm and all the windows were fogged up. Pepsi was always on the table. Philippine friends were always over speaking Tagalog with mom. And the house was filled with her laughter. I miss moms laughter and cooking.

This year, I had my daughter and her boyfriend Mike over for dinner and I invited my brother and his family too. I made some of my mothers famous recipes. Many childhood friends now reacquainted on Facebook all commented on how they loved the things my mom cooked. So for the second time in my life, I made Panciet and Adobo, Leche flan and Lumpia.

I cooked all night, the Moday before the dinner. Just like mom did. I had the music on and it was exhausting work!!! But then Jerry Vale started singing and I knew, mom was there looking over my shoulder. Jerry was her favorite singer.

So here is the copy of recipes I shared with all the women in the family Tuesday night so they can practice cooking like their Grandam Elena.

Lumpia

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 pound ground pork

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup minced carrots

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/2 cup thinly sliced green cabbage

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon soy sauce

30 lumpia wrappers (eggroll wrappers)

2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1.    Place a wok or large skillet over high heat, and pour in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Cook pork, stirring frequently, until no pink is showing. Remove pork from pan and set aside. Drain grease from pan, leaving a thin coating. Cook garlic and onion in the same pan for 2 minutes. Stir in the cooked pork, carrots, green onions, and cabbage. Season with pepper, salt, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Remove from heat, and set aside until cool enough to handle.

2.    Place three heaping tablespoons of the filling diagonally near one corner of each wrapper, leaving a 1 1/2 inch space at both ends. Fold the side along the length of the filling over the filling, tuck in both ends, and roll neatly. Keep the roll tight as you assemble. Moisten the other side of the wrapper with water to seal the edge. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap to retain moisture.

3.    Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat, add oil to 1/2 inch depth, and heat for 5 minutes. Slide 3 or 4 lumpia into the oil. Fry the rolls for 1 to 2 minutes, until all sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Pancit

Ingredients: 

1 8 oz. pack rice  noodles

1 cooked chicken breast, shredded

2 cups of chicken broth or 2 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in 2 cups of water

1/4 cabbage, sliced into strips

1 onion, pealed and sliced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced

1/3 cup scallions, cut into pieces

1 carrot, sliced into strips

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

3/4 cup diced celery

3 tablespoons soy sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Soak the rice noodles to soften for 10 minutes

2. Grease a large pan or wok with oil. Sauté garlic and onions.

3. Add the chicken broth, the shredded chicken breast and all the vegetables until cooked.

4. Mix in the rice noodles and add the soy sauce, cook for about 5 minutes or until the noodles are soft.

5. Salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken or Pork Adobo

1 chicken pieces pork peices

5 or 6 large garlic cloves  (chopped)
  vegetable oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
4 whole black pepper cloves
3 dried bay leaves

   shredded fresh ginger
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup vinegar
7-up or Sprite (optional)

Remember to wash your chicken very well. We recommend using   lemon to scrub all over the chicken parts and rub some salt into it as well.

Heat oil and add all of the garlic, and cook until garlic is lightly browned. Add chicken and sauté until the chicken is beginning to tenderize.

Add ground black pepper, whole black pepper cloves, bay leaves, soy sauce, and vinegar, and let simmer for 25-35 minutes or until chicken is done.

Taste and adjust to suit your taste (should be a bit tangy). When chicken is tender, you may add some 7-Up or Sprite if you prefer a sweeter taste, and let simmer for 5 more minutes.

Serve over rice.

Leche Flan

Caramel:

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Put sugar and water in a saucepan. Caramelize in medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour into flan molds or custard cups, tilting the mold to make sure the whole surface (about less than 1 cm) is covered. The more caramel you pour into the molds the sweeter the leche flan.

Custard:

8 egg yolks
1 can evaporated and 1 can condensed sweetened milk
1 tbsp. vanilla

1. In a large bowl, combine all custard ingredients. Stir lightly when mixing to prevent bubbles or foam from forming. Strain slowly while pouring into caramel lined flan mold.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cover mold with tin foil. Put molds into a bigger tray filled with water. Bake in oven for one hour or until mixture is firm. cool before unmolding on a platter.

Put molds in a bigger tray/ baking pan filled with water.

Bake in oven for one hour or until mixture is firm. Cool before unmolding on a platter.

Mom (Elena) covered with mandarin oranges.

It was really hard work and I couldn't wait to melt into my memory foam, in anticipation for the next day. The dinner was really nice. The food turned out really good. It was wonderful to spend time with my family and we went through my mom's small suitcase of pictures that I recently was reunited with. Baby pictures and wedding pictures. For a short time the windows were steamed up and there was laughter in the house.

So Simple and So Good!

Why didn't I ever think of this before? It is so simple and yet soooo delish.  I was hankering for Christmas cut out cookies so I know, I know, I made some last night. I knew in the back of my cupboard somewhere I had sprinkles. How old? Oh I don't know, OLD. Then I remembered, I have some candy canes so I crushed them in a zip lock and sprinkled them on the cookies as soon as I iced them. Sprinkle fast as the icing hardens rather quickly.  Ice, sprinkle, ice, sprinkle. It's almost as good as Peppermint Bark, my other favorite.

Ingredients

• 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•  Icing, recipe follows
• Candy Canes crushed in a zip lock bag

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time to make a stiff dough. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll out a portion of cookie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheets. I use parchment paper, bake untl lightly golden, about 10-15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through cooking time. Cool completely before decorating.

Colored Icing:
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons water or milk use your judgement
In a small bowl, mix sugar and water to form a thick, smooth icing.  Drop icing onto cookies using a small teaspoon and smooth with the back of the spoon. 

Dreams shattered? Pick up the peices......begin again.

You haven't heard from me in a while because I thought.....well the main reason for this blog, my attempts to live sufficiently at most, in the woods, a long time dream....was shattered. As long as could remember, I wanted to be just like my mentor and my hero Anne Labastille, I read all her Woodswoman books. I wanted to be her! She lived in the woods with her German Shepherds, that WAS ME!!!

 I felt for so long I had moved toward this dream and in one weekend, it disappeared and I was kind of lost, and just floated along not sure where to anchor.

Well, it seems that it was a combination of situations that Thanksgiving week that now, weeks later I can observe with better knowledge at what may have happened.
The first reason was the week before our Allegheny vacation it was all over the news about a 92 year old man that was missing in Allegheny State Park. He was never found. I was there only the second week of this and knowing he was out there just hung eerily in the background of my mind.

My mind. That week, I know now, I was NOT stable. I am giving you too much information, but here it is. My calendar said that week I should have my monthly female "you know".  It worried me only because of Bears or wild animals, could they "tell"? and find me? A week or two before that I started getting these "glowing" feelings, since then I have just installed a large fan on the top of my desk for these glowing things we now call hot flashes. That week in Allegheny was the beginning of my menopause. Yep. Now that I can look back on it. That was it. So now that I have voraciously scoured the Internet on information on menopause, another symptom is anxiety attacks. Which is what scared the daylights out of me by 5 pm every evening because it was so dark out, and I was alone in the woods like a nut. hahaha

So I came home early, dreams shattered. Not sure if I could ever live in the woods alone now. And as I said, I just drifted through it day after day, kind of in a limbo, not sure what to pin my hopes and dreams on. I am a Capricorn and we always have to have a goal. I was goal-less.

So this Christmas morning I woke up and turned on my fake electric fireplace and put the Yule log on TV and sat down to read in my favorite corner of my couch. I did not want to finish reading New Passages by Gail Sheehy. It is a very good book and gives us hope for those of us in mid life. But not on Christmas. I wanted to read something more "winter-y". So I picked up We Took to the Woods by Louise Rich. Now that my panic over menopause is over. I have come to accept my hot flashes and am alot more stable and I am taking some herbal remedies, eating healthy and exercising somewhat regularly.......I started reading Louise's words. Slowly, she brought me back into her world, I could almost hear the crunch of the leaves under my feet walking in the woods, I could smell the wood burning in the fireplace. Oh how I envy her! Did I just say that? And in that quick of an instant, I had realized that I still want to live in the country, maybe not alone in the middle of the woods like Anne or Louise, but pretty close to it. One day. No more fake fireplaces I want my own wood burning stove. I want to walk through the crunchy leaves to the wood pile to gather my wood for the day. When my boys have lived a good and happy life, I WILL get a German Shepherd puppy. I am pretty sure that when I retire, I will be in a cabin somewhere......

December? Already?

December? Is it really? I am just not in the December winter mode. Even with the light dusting of snow on the ground and last weeks traumatic events of people stranded on the thruway just miles south of me.....I just do not feel, well, winter-y.
I was thinking of getting out the Christmas decorations. Maybe that will help. It is the last month of the year and I guess I should be making my goals for 2011, which I did think about when my daughter told me she had her goals for 2011. But my recent vacation in the Allegheny cabin has thrown me for a loop and I am in this weird limbo of my life. For the longest time I thought I wanted to live in a cabin in the woods. I thought about saving up to buy land and build a small cabin in the country. Close to the man I love so it would be easier for us to see each other. And I do not want to jinx our future by "assuming" anything, but if I don't "assume" am I manifesting that we would not live together or get married? I am in a juxtaposition. So as a Capricorn and an analyst, I tackled my goal like a "project". Doing lots and lots of research, even creating this blog to share what I learn with others that wish to do the same. To build a self-sufficient lifestyle. I even got caught up a little in the "survivalist" mode for a little while.
Don't get me wrong, I still plan on the Self-Sufficient lifestyle. And I will keep water, canned goods, etc. stocked "just in case". But I think I have watered down my plans a bit. I do love the cooking from scratch methods. But after 5 or 6 tries for some reason I just can't bake a good bread!!! It has disappointed me! I want chickens and goats but I could never handle it if something killed them. I know I could live with less electricity off grid on Solar. So I am not abandoning my dreams. I will just work toward them slower than I had planned.
I still love my life. I am the most blessed woman I know! The house I am currently in is the most comfortable I have been in for years now and really feels like a home to me. And as long as Wegman's makes all kinds of fabulous bread, I really don't have to wait 2 days to bake my own. As a Capricorn, I will continue to trudge on like the mountain goat that I am climbing those mountains. I am just not sure what mountain I am on.