Revisiting Asia

While we took a break from Dine&Jam I thought I'd take a break from cooking pasta, too. Steph and I found ourselves eating a lot of asian food. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Persian, Pinoy. Mama and I revisited some of the recipes we hadn't prepared in a long time. We were reminded we could put this stuff on the menu, too! Here's an asian spread Steph, Sarah and I prepared one December night. We took a few shots while waiting for Mama & Papa to come home and then we tucked in and demolished the spread hehehe.

Thai Bagoong Rice

Bulgogi (Korean beef stew)

Thai Pandan-Wrapped Chicken

Remodeling

MacGuyver's Kitchen has seen more MacGuyver out of me recently than it used to. Or I should say a different kind of MacGuyver. I've always tried to bring as much creativity resourcefulness into the kitchen (anybody remember spaghetti in Lipa?) -- the same creativity and resourcefulness that I try to bring to bear whether my current project is food, home repairs, electrical, telephone or cable TV wiring, lighting & sound design and whatnot. The past two months, because we've been remodeling the house I've been less involved with cooking and more occupied with everything else. Fettuccine, rigatoni, penne, fusilli and caserecce, olive oil and parmesan gave way to tekscrews, U-bolts, uPVC pipes, THHN wires, enamel paints and red oxide primer.

Sometimes I have a little fun with both worlds. That's me cracking chestnuts open with a pair of slip-joint pliers last Christmas eve hehehe.

Now that the bulk of the work is done I'm ready to cook again. I've been doing occasional test runs in the new kitchen, and acquainting myself with the new layout. The other week I made a simple quattro formaggio pasta (for the curious, it was edam, parmesan, romano, and blue cheese (not gorgonzola--I wish!)) and last week I made chicken provençal (thanks again for the herbes de provençe, Margie!) and polenta.