So it's been awhile

I started this blog with the highest of hopes, because it would force me to practice my hands at the arts I love the most, most notably photography and culinary arts. I'm not formally trained in anything, just a girl stumbling along, documenting the learning process.

Then last year, my father died. I shut down. From that dark day in June until after New Years 2013, I don't remember much about anything.

Arts wise, I continued with my ceramics class and made a beautiful garden lantern as well as a whimsical teapot set, both of which I will post about later, and I also took an entry level drawing class, which has helped me immensely.

I am now in a place where I feel less vulnerable about the death of my father, and I think I'm where I can start sharing again. I take each day one at a time, and I make sure that I am taking care of myself as well. Dad's death nearly killed me. I was in horrible physical and mental shape immediately afterwards. I'm much better now, in a beget head space as well as over the initial bout of grief that comes after the death of somebody so close.

I also started eating a ketogenic diet, which is a variant of a low carb diet, so I'll have more recipes to share as I experiment with low carb variations of foods I like.

2013 is a promising year, and I look forward to expanding my horizons and documenting the learning process.

Life is beautiful.

Afritada

The Filipino people have a long history, starting with their indigenous native people, then being conquered and colonized by the Chinese, the Moors, the Spaniards, and then the Americans in the earlier part of the 20th century.  Their culinary style reflects all of these influences, and the food is rich with history and various flavors.  The Philippines is an archipelago of about 7000 islands in the Southeastern China sea, and it sits right on the equator so unlike the cold and seasonal climate of most of Northern Asia, the Philippines is hot, humid, and is the home to some of the world's most prized tropical beaches and rain forests.  From dishes cooked with native coconut milk and seafood, to spicy curry style foods influenced by the Moors, and more importantly, the tomato and spice braised meats and stews based on the cooking methods of the Spaniards, there is something for every palate in the Filipino culinary repertoire.

Afritada, or apritada, is a dish that was influenced by the Spaniards, and perfected in the province region of Pampanga, where my Dad hails from.  It's a dish of braised meats and vegetables in a tomato based sauce, and it's rich and wonderful when served with rice.  The most popular way to make it in the Philippines is with pork, since it's more readily available than beef, but the version I made is with beef.

Simple baked salmon & salad with home made croutons

Such a simple, simple dinner.

Baked salmon & salad.

The salmon fillet was drizzled lightly with olive oil, and lightly sprinkled with kosher salt, black pepper, and herbs du provence before being baked in the oven. Once it comes out it's going to get a light sauce of fresh lemon juice and melted butter.

The salad is a simple lettuce leaf salad with a good quality bleu cheese dressing (I don't make that on my own... yet) and the croutons were made of a crusty french baguette cut into cubes. I put the cubes of bread into a ziploc bag, and into the bag went 1/8 cup of good quality olive oil, 1/8 stick of butter, two cloves of garlic finely minced, a pinch of kosher salt, a pinch of herbs du provence (to tie it into the salmon) and a few cracks of black pepper. Close the bag, shake together to make sure each cube of bread gets some of the butter/oil, and then bake at 400F until toasty.

Simple dinners are sometimes the most satisfying.

Basic Stir Fry

You want stir fry? I got your stir fry right here.

This has no name, because it's just your basic protein stir fry with mixed veg. Recipe after the jump. I also don't have photos for this because my Nikon is in the shop getting a tune up and sensor cleaning. My last trip to Big Sur introduced dirt onto the sensor that the camera couldn't self clean, but anyway, I digress.

On to the food!