Minestrone (with how-to)

I came across this recipe in Simply Recipes. This is another case of my mom really wanting something and asking me to make it. However, to have the skill to make Minestrone is not bad (vegetables are good for you), it's just... The long hour or so of boiling. I think of the fossil fuels. Anyway, it can't be that bad, and after all that time, you can feed a LOT of people. As you can see, those are halves of pan de sal, toasted, just for humor.

The process isn't hard, but if you don't have a system for chopping/ slicing/ dicing vegetables, you have no business trying to make soup. Practice, practice, practice.

So, as usual, get all your ingredients at hand for preparation. You can see I have a bag of powdered chicken broth. Nowhere near as good as the real thing, but you already know I don't like cooking for long hours. Think of the environment! I've washed the beans (minimize the toot-toot), opened cans, washed vegetables.

I thought of making a demo on how to chop vegetables but I guess it'll have to be another day. This is the chopped zucchini, carrot, potato, and minced garlic (onion not yet done), ready to go.

Oh, yeah, while I'm chopping, the beans are already on the heat. Multitasking. There's chicken broth and bacon also in there.

So, after cooking the garlic, onion, carrots, potatoes, and zucchini for 5 minutes, I dump the rest of the chicken stock and diced tomatoes in. And then I begin to study...

But I'm interrupted as the beans are done. I puree half of them in a blender, then put it back in the bean pot. I also fish out the boiled bacon and dice it.

Once the vegetables are tender (oh, about 40 minutes), I add the contents of the bean pot and the bacon, then cook for a few more minutes. Done! Finally.

Pond's Age "Miracle"

August 28, 2007 EDIT: I've now concluded my experiment on Pond's Age Miracle. See my report here.

August 2, 2007 EDIT: I realize this page pops up a lot when you look for resources on Pond's Age Miracle. The folks at Pond's don't even put up a lot of helpful information on their website regarding their products, just a lot of fluff you've already seen in their ad. I'll conduct an independent experiment soon and post the results on this website. I'll first have to BUY the stuff and I'll update you.

I just saw Rissa Mananquil's (beauty and fashion columnist for some newspaper) new ad for Pond's Age Miracle. She claims she and 2 friends applied it to halves their faces to test its effects. In less than 7 days (the promised time to effect), they saw results IN HALF OF THEIR FACES. I tried looking for a picture or a screenshot or video, but looks like I'll have to follow it up. Anyway, on TV it showed their "old" face, still intact, with unsightly spots (looked like liver spots from where I was looking) and noticeably darker skin.

Okay. they have to show a disclaimer that the effect is SIMULATED. Because there is no way these girls walk around Manila's hotspots looking like fucking harlequins. Truth in advertising, folks. Don't be so obvious.

Galette Ananas (with how-to)

Pineapple Galette

I got the idea from Flo Braker's The Simple Art of Perfect Baking, but I used a different recipe for pâte brisée, one that I already used before. This dessert has no added sugar; in fact it would have no sugar if Del Monte would not add heavy syrup to every living thing. I understand they need it to preserve the pineapple, but I guess that's my fault for not wanting to use a fresh pineapple. Braker also wanted the slices in concentric circles; I used a spoke design because it looked prettier in my head.

Pâte Brisée means broken pastry in French. It's supposed to be tender and flaky. Here in the Philippines, temperature is close to body temp, so making pastry is hard but not impossible. All you need to remember is to work quick and not to overdo it.


The first thing to do is to prepare everything (in cooking, always use the principle of mise en place-- everything in its place. It will save you the scurrying later). Cut the butter into cubes and place in the freezer. Everything has to be cold when making pastry, and some even put the flour in the freezer but I find that excessive. While waiting for it to get stone-hard, place the dry ingredients (flour and salt) in a strainer. Don't sift until just before you start so the particles are well-aerated and won't form lumps (thus harder to work in).

When ready, take a small bowl of ice water and keep on the side. Sift like mad. I use a pastry blender with rigid tines (flexible tines are useless).

Cut in the butter with the pastry blender (force the flour in between the cut flakes of cold butter) until the particles are the size of small peas and coarse crumbs. It's better to have large pieces of butter than to overdo it. The idea is to form lamellations of butter and flour to create a flaky pastry, not to make it homogenous like a cookie. If at any time the butter becomes too soft, put it back in the fridge until it's firmer. Also, that means you've been taking too long. It shouldn't be more than a few minutes. Use your forearm muscle!

Add ice water a tablespoon at a time until it just comes together. Any more and it will be soggy. In our humid climate it only takes about 3 tablespoons. As you can see, I've pinched a small mass there-- good enough to roll out.

Lay it out in a mound on the counter.

This technique is called fraisage, or milling. Basically it means squishing your dough across the counter in a few strokes to spread the lamellations, making it more stable. It's not a "must" but if you have a juicy filling, it helps so the juice doesn't seep out through tiny cracks. I used my left hand because I'm taking pictures. I got some of the dough on my watch.

After two cycles of mounding and fraisage, I formed it into a 4-inch disc, wrapped in plastic wrap, and...

... wrapped in foil and dated. I did this about 2 weeks ago. It will be fine for a month so the date on the front is important! It's great for making ahead of time.

For the pineapple, I cut each slice into 2 through its width, so I had double the quantity of thinner slices. After draining, I put it back in the can with its top still mostly on and put it in the fridge upside-down in a bowl overnight. When it comes to making pineapple pastries, you want to get rid of excess juice so you don't steam or boil your creation. However, draining on paper towels overnight would just rob it completely of its juice. In the morning, I just roll out my thawed dough, arrange the slices, then bake.

Easy as pie, isn't it? Well, IT IS!

Stylish Chip

I'm not a regular chip-eater; in fact I try to avoid it, because, duh. I did buy a few singles to keep myself awake during duty nights (and to ward off the hunger). Some of my favorites were Jack n' Jill's V-Cut (original is best, but Sweet Chili is not bad) and Oishi Natural Potato Chips. The nutrition information claimed that Oishi didn't have any saturated fat. I think for some reason it now does.

On a whim, I bought Kettle Brand potato chips because the packaging was beautiful (hey, a designer has to judge a book by its cover), and it came in Honey Dijon-- one of my favorite flavor combinations. Never mind it cost P70 ($1.40) for 2oz. It toppled all the pedestals (?) I put my previous chips on. And I was brainwashed-- I always say now that it's not worth it to spend your money on any other chip.

I had to tell my family about my discovery-- at the same time, selling that it had no trans fats, blah blah blah. Eventually we bought other flavors: Thai Spice (fiery hot with a hint of ginger and lime, yum yum), Cheddar Beer (reminds me of why I hate beer), Yogurt and Green Onion (tastes too much like other brands' combinations), Lightly Salted, Classic Barbecue (one of the best barbecue chips I've tried), Sea Salt and Vinegar (addictive), Buffalo Bleu (not bad but I prefer classic barbecue), and Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper.

Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper is just a step above Honey Dijon for me. Many posters on the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Letters forums actually say that it's one of the best chips they've tasted (some other imported brands and Terra Blue also were mentioned).

So, I learned something. Pepper is everything. I experimented on a bag of Ruffles (bleagh, too salty) by adding Cayenne Pepper and Fresh Ground Pepper from my mill. The third pepper in the spice mix of Kettle Chips is ground Jalapeno, but I don't know where to get that. Anyway, I added it to a small batch, shook to distribute, and behold:

Instant improvement in flavor. Not as great as Kettle, but at least I got rid of the boring taste of salt and oil. As you can see, it's not mixed well enough (some spots of red there), but working in small batches should help. TRY IT with your next plain chips. I don't think you'd want to eat your chips any other way afterwards.

Unless you are a vinegar fan, which I am not.

Carrot Cupcakes

I made some carrot cupcakes for Genie's study group, also because I had extra cream cheese frosting tucked away. I once said the only thing I need an assistant for is to wash dishes-- I also need them to grate carrots! I was manually grating them so there was a lot of slippage. This is Ina Garten's recipe. I omitted the walnuts because I don't like them that much (read: if I bake it, no nuts, if others bake it, it's fine). I omitted the raisins because Genie hates raisins (unless it's in Baguio Country Club raisin bread, I told her, "that's kinda specific!"). I didn't add crushed pineapple because it's risky (not a popular addition), even if I like pineapple. They were very moist despite this.


That is NOT the photographed color of the carrots, I had to manipulate it on the computer. I wonder what I was thinking when I bought a bottle of creamy peach. Duh. It came out a creamy peach, not orange. Also, it's warm as usual so the leaves I piped with a leaf tip might as well have been spooned on. SIGH! I should have taken a rest and chilled everything.