Glazed Chicken Kebabs and Does Your Word Build You Up?

A tongue has no bones but it is strong enough to break a heart. Be careful with your words

 What the heck! Ooopss! Did you just catch me saying a bad word? Heck, is it a bad word? I am actually very averse of bad words spoken. The people who say them are not bad but somehow it is their way of expressing themselves.  I believe that we have to express ourselves freely but we have to be careful on what words come out from our mouths.

Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they can only be forgiven, not forgotten.

When my son was little, I was so mad at him that I said  he is stupid. He reacted so pitifully and he said, you just called me stupid and he hysterically cried. Writing this right now, just made me cringe on how awful I felt that day.How careless I was. Although I can justify the emotion that I felt that time, I cannot justify the " name" that I called him. That was the first and that was the last. It took me a while to undo the words that I have spoken. In fact, right now I am still making it up.

A lot  parents just casually call their children  names, as if it is normal. If you do, please stop it right now. Also, they utter words that curses. And even blasphemy.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Because words are powerful, it can break or make a person. Much worse, it can break the person who had spoken them - through karma. The Bible said, You will reap what you sow. This apply in all our daily dealings like work, relationship and our words. have you ever noticed that when you say kind words, the other party cannot help but respond to you kindly? But when you are mean, the other party will be defensive? To be honest, when I hear a person spew out bad words, I pretty much conclude that, that person does not have enough vocabulary to express himself aside from curses. For me, if one wants to be cool, he/she should have enough words other than bad words to express himself, right?

Below are the collection of verses regarding the power of words.

Matthew 15:18 - But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 


Proverbs 18:21 - Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Proverbs 16:24 - Pleasant words [are as] an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echos are truly endless

Here is another healthy meals I am going to share to you today. I am going to share to you this chicken kebabs recipe. Pretty much, you just need a grill or broiler and hands to mix the ingredients and you are set. This will also be perfect fort that football parties you are planning on. There is a ginger taste on this kebabs and sweet and sour feel in your taste buds, that will make this dish a staple of your table conversation. Make this and get popular to you friends.

Glazed Chicken Kebabs

1. 1/2 " of ginger root 
2. 3 garlic cloves
3. 2 tsp soy sauce
4. 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
5. 2 tsp olive oil
6. 1/8 cup ketchup
7. 1 1/2 lb chicken cutlets
8. 1 red bell pepper
9. 1 yellow bell pepper

Place ingredients 1 to 6 in electric food chopper or you can chopped them manually.
Transfer the spices in a bowl and add in ingredients 7 to 8
Marinate overnight or an hour
Thread into metal skewers and grill or cook under a pre heated broiler for 12 to 15 minutes turning frequently until chicken is cooked through.

Serve and Enjoy

Lechon Kawali Recipe and Tien Sauce

If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down

Brace yourself. This will be a long post since I am going to take you to a memory lane where names and memories from the past are reminisced and shared.

When I was in college, which was a very loooooooong time ago, there was no ATM nor bank to bank deposit yet. So, my mom sent my monthly sustenance/allowance by boat.( I can just imagine  you calculating how this long time ago means.) My mom sent my allowance through Toto. Now, it is official, the long time ago means during the inception of Dorothy from Wizard of OZ - that was during 16-00 -----when Dorothy's dog, Toto existed. No, this is not Toto the dog but Toto the name of  the man who is the bearer of my treasure. Each month, by instinct, I go to Pier 3 (where the boat dock), and here I am accepting the treasure that was handed to me. I was instantly rich!  Oh my, as I was writing this line, I am kind of embarrassed on how ancient that time was.

Now, what should I do with all the money? I go to a restaurant named Broadway This restaurant had tons of Filipino foods lined up in it counter: lechon, (whole roasted pig), pancit ( noodles), adobo, sweet and sour dinuguan ( blood stew?) and all types of different foods. Last but not the least,  lechon kawali. Their lechon kawali was so crispy and delicious that I frivolously spent my whole month's allowance in that place. Pretty much, I had nothing left in that allowance when I got out from that restaurant. It was that good,that I am willing to get hungry throughout the month.

I did not really get to learn to cook lechon kawali when I was in the Philippines. I just learned it when I moved here in the US. Before, I cooked the meat by deep frying and it was an agony to do this. Hot oil splattered everywhere and my arms, neck and face never came out not burned; so I refrain from cooking it until Amy, my good friend, told me to bake and broil it. I am going to share to you how to do just that.

On another note, Tien is not actually a fish sauce brand but a human who happens to work with my husband. He is an young engineer. He was born in Vietnam and moved here in the US when he was 12 years old. He interned in Bombardier (my husband's workplace) and he got hired after graduating. That is an amazing feat  for a young kiddo like him. Currently, Tien had just clenched the "nook of fame in my house." This means he is ever present in every lecture I give to my children. Aside from my husband, he is the other guy who I want my children to emulate. Being an engineer, I thought he is smart too. Honestly, I think engineers are smarter than the rest of us. Imagine making a living by solving problems, analyzing  and doing those through numbers, and doing these everyday, that is something else.

One day, Tien gave my husband a white squash ( upo in Filipino)  which he got  from his parents garden .It was as tall as I am, that I do not know what else to do with it. He  is generous guy. He also gave my husband this fish sauce recipe which I appropriately called Tien's sauce in his honor...

When my husband came home from work one day, he cannot stop raving a certain sauce that Tien brought to work. I was surprised that somebody will bring  a fish sauce at work. In the cafeteria. Should I say, how brave is that? With  this, I pretty much conclude that Tien is a courageous guy who doesn't mind what people think of him. If you have smelled fish sauce aroma, you will understand why I said this.

Lechon Kawali and Tien Sauce

Ingredients:

2 lbs pork belly slice in a long 1" strips. (have the butcher do it for you or you can do it yourself) It should be bacon size length but 1 1/2 " to 2 " thick.
salt


Direction;

Put water, salt  and meat in the pan and bring to a boil and cook until soft. When done, let it cool and place in a zip loc. Refrigerate until you are ready to cook it.

Preheat oven at 350  F
Place pork belly in a baking pan line with the oil drain and bake for 45 minutes or until the belly looks golden brown. Change oven  into low broil setting . Broil at low until the belly looks crunchy. Make sure that you will not burn the meat.

Tien Sauce

1 lemon
5 cloves garlic
1/4 water
3 tbsp sugar
Bit of chili pepper ( depending on how spicy you want it)
2 cups Fish Sauce ( Make sure that the sauce is the one pictured above. It is available in Asian store. It has different tastes from Rufina and Teparos brand)

Lechon Kawali

Put water, salt  and meat in the pan and bring to a boil and cook until soft. When done, let it cool and place in a zip loc. Refrigerate until you are ready to cook it.

Preheat oven at 350  F
Place pork belly in a baking pan line with the oil drain and bake for 45 minutes or until the belly looks golden brown. Change oven  into low broil setting . Broil at low until the belly looks crunchy. Make sure that you will not burn the meat.

Tien Sauce:

Crush the garlic and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Place into a bottle or a container. Refrigerate.

Note: If you prefer to just try the sauce first, make a smaller batch  and just tweak the ingredients depending on how you want the sauce to taste.

Tien's sauce is perfect for any dish like fried fish, grilled fish grilled chicken but the sauce fits like a glove when paired with lechon kawali. It is like pea in a pod comb

10 Minute Meal Project # 3 Sweet and Sour Ground Pork

Kindness is loving people more than they deserve

-Joseph Joubert

Hello! Today is the 3rd 10 Minute Meal Project. I have fun doing this thing because it really surprises me that meals can be prepared so quickly.

This meal is reminiscent of the the sweet and sour fish  my mom prepared before when I was still in the Philippines; only, she used vinegar to create the sour paste and she added some carrots to neutralize the vinegar's sour taste. Boy, I remember how good it was...

When I started this project, I just randomly chose which meal recipes I have to follow, so I did not really know how they will turn out. I buy the ingredients and cook away. Of course I expected the recipes to be good since they were published in the cookbook so I expect good results. They say taste is subjective. The food may be good for you and not good for me. Everyone's taste is different.

After two successes from the 10 Minute Meal recipe book, I was expecting success on this one but I was disappointed with this recipe in terms of taste. The ground pork with pineapple juice plus the bell pepper did not make a good combination for me. The taste  was too sour  and the ground pork was so crumbly and dry.

It is an irony that I place kindness quote on top but I just cannot say something good about this meal, so I do not recommend it to you my friends. Yup, my family ate it, but it sat on the fridge for like three days before I finally have to shove it in my mouth so as not to waste it. I say this post today is pretty useless, unless you want to try it at your own risk. Sorry!

VERDICT:  Fact that you can cook this meal within 10 minutes but the taste was BLAH.


10 Minute Meal Project # 3 Sweet and Sour Ground Pork

1 tbs cooking oil
1 8 oz can pineapple chunks
1 lb lean ground pork
1 bell pepper (sliced in chunks)
1 onion ( sliced into small chunks)

Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp black soy sauce
2 tbsp white vinegar

Drain the pineapple from the can and reserve the juice. Set aside the pineapple.
Put the sauce ingredients in a deep bowl and  whisk in the juice, mix them completely and set aside.

Heat cooking oil in a pan over high heat.
Add the pork and onion and stir fry for about 4 minutes until pork is cooked through.Add in bell pepper and let it cook for two minutes then add in the sauce cook through until the sauce thickens. Serve immediately.

10 Minute Meal Project no #. 2 - Thai red Beef Curry

The things you take for granted, someone is praying for..

Hello, guys! It is the 10 minute meal project once again, and to those who are not familiar with this, this is my project which sprouted from me buying a 10 minute meal cookbook. I want to see if the author's cookbook is a myth or a fact.  I also want to know if these meals are good or not. 

It starts with preparation of the ingredients and when everything is ready, I set my timer to ten minutes. So here goes...
I set the pan and the fire on high heat and turn my timer on. I started with heating the oil and and browning the beef then I added the other liquid ingredients. I never cooked as fast as this. I feel like I want to give the book's author the opportunity to shine and  not challenge her claims of a ten minute meal, by me scampering to get this done within 10 minutes.

Because I was trying to beat the time, I am kind of worried that the meat will not be cooked but it was already brown by three minutes. I added the rest of the ingredients, let them boil and I got done at 9 minutes!

VERDICT : FACT

I think the secret is to set the fire on high and beef meat are really easy to cook as well, so the author is not lying. And the taste was very delicious. It is the first time I tasted red curry paste because I detested its color. It looks so spicy and gooey but I was wrong.Rather, curry paste was sweeter and it was not spicy .The combination of the curry paste, coconut milk and beef broth made this meal set apart from the rest of the Asian foods I tasted. It has a unique taste in it that I cannot describe. This one is oh so, delicioso!!!!

Next 10 Minute Meal Project # 3 : Sweet and Sour Ground Pork

1 tbsp peanut oil or any type of oil will do
1 1/4 lb beef strips
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
3/4 can coconut milk
2/3 cup beef stock
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp prepared chopped ginger
1 lemon grass stalk (pound/ bruised)
2 cups diagonally sliced snow peas
1 cup bean sprouts ( I skipped this one because my store does not have bean sprouts)
1 tbsp thai fish sauce
small handful fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat
Add the beef and curry paste and stir fry or about 2 minutes, until beef is slightly brown

Add the coconut milk,stock,sugar,ginger.
Bring to a boil,then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes until snow peas are tender

Remove the lemon grass from the curry and stir in the cilantro

NOTE: If you have left over broth and coconut milk, just put them in a container and freeze them for future use.