Category Archives: Eating

Eating

They finally like dim sum!

The boys have come along way when it comes to dim sum.

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When we first brought them, they were very leery of the food that did not look anything like chicken and rice, or noodles, or nuggets. Chris, however, warmed up to it quickly, and was soon devouring everything that had shrimp in it — the har gow, the shrimp balls on sugar canes, the fried won tons. But, Michael and Elliott had a harder time getting into it.

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When we went again the next year, they looked really unhappy to be there for my Mother’s Day Saturday brunch. Sigh.

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I don’t know if it we have learned what the boys will actually eat (and yes, we do choose places based on what we know they’ll eat, unfortunately), or that they finally learned to enjoy dim sum. Either way, I’m just glad everyone enjoyed themselves for once.

Filipino torta, quiche style

I love me some torta, a Filipino dish akin to a stuffed omelet. But there’s a technique to it that I just cannot master — the pan flip. It scares the hell out of me, so I’ve avoided cooking it for years because I cannot do the pan flip. Above, on the left, you see an intact, traditional torta. Here’s what one of my fails looks like:

IMG_2072See the break toward the right? It is an offense to my Filipino heritage. So when I finally figured out, a few years ago, what a quiche was, I thought to myself — that doesn’t sound so far from a torta; why can’t it be made like that?

I have finally developed a recipe for a quiche-style torta. It’s a combination of the recipe my sister developed from the memory of my mom’s torta, and a crustless mini quiche recipe from Will Cook For Friends.

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Our Strawberry Festival adventure began with a 20-minute bus ride from the Camarillo Outlets. It was the boys’ first time riding “loose,” aka, without being strapped into a car seat. Chris was very concerned at the experience.
Mike, on the other hand, had a ball riding loose.
It took us a while to find the main attraction from the entrance from which we entered. But finally, we found our desired destination — the food booths.
There were so many food booths, it was a little difficult to decide what to partake in first. First thing we did was eat chicken skewers — which are not pictured because we ate them right away.
When we first walked into the festival, we ignored a couple of strawberry smoothie booths because we didn’t want to be spending too much time at the porta potties. Finally, we gave in and the smoothies were SO GOOD.
Mike playing with the hay from the bales we were sitting on.
It was early, so there weren’t as many lines here.
I really want to know the recipe.
Strawberry pizza was basically pastry bread cut into a triangle, topped with cut strawberries and lots of whipped cream.
Mike and Chris were all smiles when they saw it, but…
…all they wanted to eat were the strawberries…
…and the whipped cream.
Basically, they left me to eat all the strawberry pizza.
We partook in some of the free kiddy rides. Again, Chris is concerned.
Mike really enjoyed the plane ride.
He enjoyed it so much, he didn’t want to get off, so they rode it a second time.
Chris got into it a little…
…but he was mostly concerned.
Later, we got strawberry nachos and strawberry snow cone. The strawberry nachos were really good — crispy cinnamon sugar chips, topped with strawberries and whipped cream, of course.
By about 1 p.m., Chris was acting quite crazy because of fatigue and he passed out on my shoulder as we waited for the shuttle back to the outlets.
Mike passed out in his bed.
Chris passed out in his crib. I think he even slept an extra hour.

Slow cooker Kalua Pork

After posting this picture on Facebook and Instagram, I’ve gotten quite a few requests for the recipe. Honestly? It was a super simple recipe I found on Allrecipes.com (here’s the cached version; Allrecipes was down for maintenance while I was writing this post). It consists of a 6-pound pork butt roast, 1 1/2 tablespoons of Hawaiian sea salt (we found this at Cost Plus World Market) and a tablespoon of liquid smoke — we opted for the mesquite.

First pierce the roast all over with a barbecue grill fork (you know, the massive fork that comes with your grill set?), then rub the sea salt all over (get inside those crags!), then rub the liquid smoke all over it. It is very effective smokiness.

We then set the roast to cook at low for 10 hours. At the 10-hour mark, we turned it, then let it cook another six hours. After the roast came out, we separated as much fat as possible from the drippings, then added the shredded cabbage to the slow cooker until it was a little bit wilted. After the cabbage was cooked, it was mixed in with the shredded meat!