Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

Hello! I've been silent for a week, yes, but to tell you the truth, I've been containing my excitement the whole week through! At last, now I could write about the reason why.  Here, let me tell you. Close friends and family know that I like green. Mint green, apple green, lime green, I love them all! That's why the first time I came across Patricia Wells' Zucchini Carpaccio with Avocado and Pistachios  featured by Kristen Miglore in her foodie blog, I so fell in love with how it looks. I kept dreaming about it but I couldn't complete the ingredients as avocado was not yet in season then. Until one day, a friend gifted me with a bunch of avocados. (Thanks to Ruby!) So there, I remembered the zucchini with avocado salad.   I'm not very good at choosing good avocados and deciding when they are ready to eat.   I just learned that there are several varieties of avocado . Definitely it's not the Hass variety because this type turns purple to blac...

     Two weeks ago, my post talked about Aling Charing's recipe book (" Masasarap na Lutuing Pilipino ni Aling Charing ) that I have always used in the kitchen when I was a young wife. Today, I'm posting about my other favorite kitchenmate, Del Monte Kitchenomics.      I got my very first Del Monte Kitchenomics recipe from SM Grocery store. My husband got it from among the Del Monte products on the shelves. Reading through the very first copy I had paved the way for me to become a member of the Del Monte Kitchenomics Club . This entitled me to a regular subscription of their recipes by postmail. See some of these in the collection I have made through the years--- Credits to Ana Cristina (my youngest daughter) for the photo      I have more of these but these are just a few of what I have actually tried. Oh, I just found those recipes very useful. They kept me company while my two kids were growing up. Del Monte Kit...

       Another foodie blog to bid this weekend goodbye. This post features a very popular Visayan dish---Arroz Valenciana, which you will find in almost every home during fiesta, weddings and any special occasion in my hometown in Negros Occidental.      I have seen various forms of this recipe. Some use coconut milk. Others would use tomato sauce, resembling paella. No wonder! This dish is referred to as Poor Man's Paella. Why is that? Arroz Valenciana is a variant of Paella, a famous rice dish originating from Valencia, Spain.     The major difference between Paella and Arroz Valenciana is the manner of preparation and the ingredients. While Arroz Valenciana is basically cooked on stove, paella is baked, using special ingredients such as wine,  seafoods, vegetables and  the expensive spice, saffron .          Now, for my Arroz Valenciana, I usually use the following in...

     Hello there :) Had a busy week, going home very late for three days straight so... I feel I need to give myself a pamper today. I didn't go to the market today as I usually do on Saturdays. Instead I took hold of my crochet needle and ventured on a new pattern I've been wanting to work on for the past weeks. Will feature that in a separate post next time.      Meantime, I just would like to share quite a number of digital frames I made out of just one photo. Here's the original photo (credits to the official photographer of the participants of the 14th Cardiovascular Nurse Practitioner Program! I like this! :) Thank you!)      Here are all the digital frames I made out of this one picture.       There they all are... quite a number, yes, I took time to explore the different designs of Photo Frames...