Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

Credits to Dang Dupale for this photo Posted by a Facebook friend, Dang, this photo reminds me of one of my posts ( The Birth of a Hobby ) as a new blogger two years ago, where I featured about how I came to like plants. This hobby inspired me to get involved in the Exaltation Ministry in our church. Together with former church gardener, Raffy, I used to grow potted plants, water them every Saturday in preparation for the Sunday Worship Service.  Through the years, however, changes in the volume of my domestic responsibilities no longer allow me to be involved in ministries that require my physical presence in church. At one time, I became church treasurer, a ministry which called for keeping track and recording of all church finances on top of counting tithes and offerings every after church services on Sundays.  A heavy responsibility eh!?  At another time I became church secretary. This ministry entailed preparing minutes of all church meetings and pu...

The countdown is on... it's three days before Christmas! Everybody just seems so busy with last minute shopping. I see picture greetings of loved ones and friends on blogs I follow and on FB! Family pics in front of the Christmas tree, stockings hanging on the wall, more and more colors of the yuletide season.  My last post entitled, " Colors of the Yuletide Season: Sauteed String Beans with Tuna " was inspired exactly by everything I see these past days and weeks. Towards the end of that post, I said next time I'll use coconut milk. And that's just exactly what I did! So here's another variant of the dish --- with coconut milk and Spanish Sardines!                                Ingredients: 2 tbsps olive oil from the Spanish sardines 1 clove garlic, minced 1 small onion, sliced thinly 1 piece Spanish sardines, flaked 2 bunches of string beans, cut 1/3-inch long 1 cup coconut mil...

Wow, I see red and green --- colors of Christmas anywhere! Looking at the photo I'm about to post here, gave me the title for this feature in an instant. Thanks to all the posts I read about the season... decors, gifts, food and all!  Inspired by a dish I tasted in a conference I attended in Bali, Indonesia last month, I made a very simple dish for lunch today. I couldn't move on thinking of all the green string beans I saw on that large platter. Too bad, I couldn't get a shot of it while finding my way through the queue.  So here's a very simple version of the dish.  Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic 1 medium onion, sliced thinly 1 tbsp ginger, sliced thinly 2 bunches of string beans, cut 1 tbsp shrimp paste salt and pepper to taste 1 large tomato, sliced 3 tbsps left-over scrambled egg with tuna  Steps: Saute garlic, onion and ginger in olive oil. Add string beans and shrimp paste.  Season with salt and pepp...