Spices & herbs I use

When it comes to cooking, there are two things I love to use, and sometimes, hoard – spices and herbs. Almost half of my tiny pantry is occupied by these useful gifts of nature and even if I’m not cooking, I love opening my pantry just to smell them. I guess, it has already become a habit.

I like the Indian spices just as much as I love curries, the milder versions though. I guess I’m lucky to find a spice store nearby. In this place where, as I was told, not many people like curries, finding that kind of store comes almost like a surprise.

Here’s a list of the spices and herbs I commonly use in my dishes:

Turmeric – I love the way it brightens the color of any curry dish, from chicken to lentils. The color makes the dishes even more appetizing. I also want to combine this with yoghurt, salt, and lemon juice to make a marinade for chicken fillets.

Cumin – This spice has the biggest container in my pantry because I use it more often than the others. This is a must in my chili con carne, tacos, and of course, curries.

Cumin is also a great addition to meatballs. Inihaw na pusit (grilled squid) can become extraordinary by filling it with chopped tomatoes and onion with a dash of cumin and few drops of sesame oil. Yummy!

Writing & breadmaking

Writing is like making a piece of bread…

With the right tools, ingredients, and knowing the rules by heart, you’re ready to create your masterpiece.

Don’t fret if you didn’t get it right the first time (oh, thank God, I’m not a brain surgeon!). You can always do it again. It takes practice, practice, and more practice.

In your first few attempts, you will have to follow the procedures strictly and later on, as you gain more confidence, everything flows so easily. You can try to break the rules, why not. Discover how your ordinary bread can become the world’s best.

But you’ve got to start with a vital element, the yeast. Like confidence, yeast should be just enough to make the dough rise and not to overwhelm the whole product. You don’t want your bread to taste like yeast, just as you don’t want your writing to sound too high-and-mighty.

You have to knead the dough just as you have to continue developing your writing. See? The job doesn’t stop after you have mixed all the ingredients. You have to work on it, feel it, and preoccupy your mind with it.

Sadly, not everybody will like it. But there’s always a room for mistakes and a much bigger room for improvement.

This blog turns 1

Turning a year this month, this blog may be young but I feel as though I have walked a thousand miles since that day I decided to start it. 

It was probably not the perfect time to start a blog. Or, maybe, it was.

I had just arrived in a foreign land with a language that was all Greek to me. I was shocked, confused, and homesick. I came with huge responsibilities – to be my daughter’s full-time playmate and teacher, my husband’s support ’staff’, and my new home’s manager and worker at the same time.

Being on a full-time job before, I found myself in a brand new world with brand new roles; not knowing exactly how to start. My world had a complete turnaround…almost.

As I started to face the enormous tasks before me, this blog instantly became my best friend and in the process, I gained real friends and nurtured old friendships. I felt as though I was not alone on this journey. Indeed, I wasn’t.

There’s someone out there who is just like me – a wife, mother, daughter, friend, Filipino, expatriate, writer, Bible believer, unemployed, freelancer, food and kitchen lover, amateur baker, amateur photographer, aspiring professional dancer, or just an ordinary woman with big and sometimes crazy dreams.

The gaucho

Here’s a typical gaucho in Rio Grande do Sul.  Here, it is not uncommon to see men in this outfit – beret hat, pleated baggy pants or bombacha, red scarf, a pair of knee-high leather boots, sometimes with poncho - because after all, this is a gaucho state where one can see an abundance of cattle roaming across wide spans of ranches. 

Traditionally, the gauchos, also known in the US as cowboys, are skilled horsemen.  They served their patrons, tending the latter’s cattle and provided some kind of “military” service in times of “battle”.