Do you kowtow to your boss all the time ?

Was  kinda down this weekend.  Cleaned the office, kitchen area, bathroom and eating area at work.  Boss wasn´t happy, said that I had missed the table.  I retorted back and said that he was always criticizing my work.  He went on the defensive and said things like he paid me so much and wants perfect work.  Well, in actual fact, I am not paid much and I do all the dirty work while his sister sits on her big behind and socializes with friends while at work.etc.etc.

Am getting over it now... felt better this morning.  Sorry, can´t post any nice things this day.   But nevertheless have a nice week.  God bless.

Back from Singapore

 On the weekend of National Day, my brother-in-law drove us over the causeway for some really delicious Korean Bar-B-Que.  There are appetizers from the popular kimchee to other vege delights.  The meal was finished off with fruit or ginger tea.

Our morning walk with former colleagues of Temasek Polytechnic.  I was the only one unprepared for the walk.  So next year, I will have sneakers for the morning adventure.

 The walk started from Great World and we followed the Singapore River to its mouth at the Fullerton Hotel and we had to make a quick U turn because one of our colleagues had an important meeting that morning.

 My first big meal with mom and my siblings.  Dinner in open air in one of the many neighborhood eating places.  Economical and delicious, that feed nearly ten people and did not burn a big hole in my sisters´pockets.

Breakfast of mee rebus at Toast Box.  Barley cooling drink for breakfast.

Eating dinner at the Food Republic at 313 Somerset.  Perhaps one of the most central getaway where they serve delicious local fare and great atmosphere to catch up with old friends.

A visit to Singapore must have chilli crab.  Spent en evening with dear friends at Sentosa Seafood Republic.  Great company and great food, was pleased.

Singapore also boast a mix of great Japanese restaurants, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Chinese restaurants.  I skipped the dim sum from DinTai something because I was never lack of good dim sum in Singapore... still great dim sum you still have to head for Hong Kong!!!

Heading to Singapore for Vacation

Dear Friends and family,

I leave tonight at midnight to catch a bus to Madrid and from there a plane to Dubai.
I will be visiting my mom and Singapore family for the month of August.  This trip, I am unfortunately going alone.  Wish I could take my family with me, but we had a great time last year.  We went as a family.  Our two older kids had a great time because it was their first time back to Singapore after being away for twelve years!!!
This trip is both recreation and adventure.  I will be scouting for new and exciting dishes and learning to cook them myself.
Have a great vacation everyone see you soon in my blog!

Where did my weekend go?

As they say, "Time flies when you are having fun!"  And especially during the weekend.  We are already summer heat of 37 degrees... had to drink lots of water and lemonade to cool down.
On Saturday, helped clean the stake center and found a lot of discrepancies.  Things were not properly organized so we made do with whatever we could find.  Finished cleaning in one hour.  Jonas and Henry came and helped as well.
Sunday night, fixed glutinous rice with dried shrimp and pork.  What was missing was shitake mushrooms. (Will include foto in my next cooking attempt)
A wise advice is not to eat it before sleeping, it takes a long time to digest.  Glutinous rice is good for breakfast or lunch.  The rice harvesters in Thailand would pack glutinous rice in the mornings and stay at the rice paddies and not return home until sundown.  Or there is a vendor on his little motorbike selling glutinous rice steamed in bamboo.  So when you buy them at the paddy fields he will split them open and you can eat it with some packed condiments or fried fish, etc.  They spend the whole day at the paddy fields and no time to go home for lunch!
A word of thanks to my friends who have seen my blog.  Please leave a comment next time adios for now.

Fabulous Weekend

 Saturday morning, woke up to a beautiful sunrise.  This is the view from our bedroom window!  The view is overlooking an artificial park with lots of rose bushes and  coniferous trees.

 I woke up early,so  I had some time to spare. I fixed french toast for the family.  Since there were so much bread accumulated during the week, I decided to put the bread and some eggs to good use.  I used farm fresh eggs given to us by Ana´s uncle who likes to buy ecofresh eggs.  With three eggs, some milk and a pinch of salt, the mixture was ready for some bread dunking.  I had the frying pan warmed up with a few drops of vegetable oil and within a few minutes, I had a batch of french toast for breakfast.  We used imitation maple syrup for the topping.  Those of you who are lucky, there is nothing like Aunt Jemima´s syrup.  I went to work this morning with a smile on my face and greeting the morning with a yelp of joy!

Sunday dinner was a simple affair with Broccoli and chicken.  Since we had some left over bamboo shoots from the other dinner, I threw everything into the mix.  But first, I marinated the chicken with oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, wine and some sesame oil.  Next I heat the wok and add two tablespoons of peanut cooking oil.  The best cooking oil in the world.  For the sauce, I added a cube of Avecrem and a teaspoon of cornstarch.

Curry Singapore Style

This is what´s left from last night´s dinner with the missionaries.  We were able to feed four missionaries with huge appetites and a family of five.  All the ingredients were gathered from local stores and supermarkets.  This time Ana and I went all out to get the ingredients to fix an authentic curry Singapore style.  She bought a whole chicken, potatoes, carrots and onions.  I went to the local Chinese store and picked up some curry powder, red chilli powder and a can of coconut.  Interestingly enough, Ana also bought a can of coconut milk from a German Supermarket.  So, I used her´s to try it out.  BTW it was both imported from Thailand.
Prepared the potatoes first by peeling them and cutting them into chunks.  Next I added 300gms of sunflower seed oil and fried the potatoes.  When the potatoes turned slightly brown I set them aside.  Next I fried the chicken which was cut into parts by the butcher.  I cooked the chicken till it all turned white.  With a clean wok, I stir fried, garlic, shallots and onions then I quickly added three tablespoons of Madras curry powder and a teaspoon of red chilli powder.  The fragrance of the curry powder enveloped the whole kitchen which means time to add the coconut milk.  Furthermore, I added two more "cans" of water with a chicken stock thrown in.  The liquid should be plentiful, so add some milk and additional water if necessary. Finally, I added the cooked potatoes and let the curry cover the chicken and potatoes.  Allow twenty minutes to cook all the ingredients and there you have it: Curry Singapore style!  I serve with hot bread.

I have created a monster!

Today is Monday 7th of May and I am heading back to work.  Some people might call it a grind or  aday void of challenges,or some are just happy to go back to work.  For me Mondays and Saturdays are not happening days.  Days that are challenging for me are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  On these days, I get to fix appetizers, sandwiches and salads for the clients.  I have a fan club that adores my creations.  Well, at about half past twelve till one o´clock, I serve appetizers, light healthy snacks.  For spring and summer, I prepare lots of fruits and juices.  For most of these tentalizing treats, I use fresh fruits and fruits that are in season.  Like for spring I use a lot of strawberries.
This past week,  I built a monster sandwich.  Some of you might be familiar with  those humongous hamburgers or sandwiches, but my boss haven´t heard of it.  Anyway, this is how it all began.
My colleague asked me to fix her a whopping sandwich.  She was hungry and she had a verocious appetite.  So  I took three slices of bread, prepared a tuna mixed with mayonaise, cut up a hard boiled egg and shredded some lettuce.  All three slices of bread have a coat of mayonaise, the first layer has lettuce, then I topped it with tuna mix.  On the second slice of bread, I added the two slices of ham or turkey and topped it with four slices of hard boiled egg.  (The slices have a round shape so it is easy to sit on the sandwich) I interweaved the ham with slices of cheddar cheese. The last layer of bread is to "seal the sandwich."  The option here is to add a slice of fresh green tomato, the kind you use for salads.  And there you have it a whopping Triple!  This is the code word from my colleagues.  "Jeff fix me a "triple."
So my boss walked into the kitchen felt hungry and asked me, Whose sandwich is this?"  I said, "It is for Maria!"  He asked if he could have it.  I said go ahead.  He ate the sandwich in two seconds or shall I say two mouthful or bites.  He asked me what do you call this sandwich?  "It is very good."  I said,  "It is a monster sandwich!"  Will attach a photo soon.  Have a great day!

Today is Monday 29th of April,2012

Today marks the end of the April Fair in Sevilla.  Lots of hoos and aahs but nothing has changed since the inaugaration of the April Fair many, many years ago.  The origin of the April Fair was a get together to show  off their livestock.  For more information about the history and its origins of the April Fair, please go to Wikipedia. Personally, I am not a big fan of the fair.  The objective is to visit the fair get drunk and pay for the rides on the amusement park type rides.  

For me, I used Friday to prepare the marinate for the char siew and on Saturday I fixed Won Ton noodles for my children.  The wonton and charsiew were successful except for the sauce that goes with the noodles.  On Sunday, I baked chocolate chip cookies and used chocolate chips made and sold by a local supermarket called Mercadona.  Since I didn´t have enough chocolate chips, I managed to use old easter eggs and the chips turned out brown in color.  All in all, I had a productive weekend.  I saved some chocolate chips to give to a colleague who is having her birthday this week.

Will include pictures of my cooking adventure soon!

Spring is here

The seeds are budding and the flowers are blossoming.  Birds are chirping merrily and the air is fresh with the smell of Spring.  As we kiss winter goodbye, we embrace spring with a gladsome heart and a joyful smile.  Winter was a tough one for a lot of us, some go through a depression others are still looking for work.  My advice is look to spring and clean out the cobwebs and renew ourselves for a better tomorrow.  First, we thank God for his gentle hand in guiding us and protecting us.  In providing us with food and a place to sleep.  For that we are grateful.
Saturday, spent some time with Gabriel, my number two son and made some chocolate chip cookies.  Not that it came out straight from the box, I prefer to bake things from scratch.  Hard to find chocolate chips here in Sevilla. The ones for baking I mean. They have it in Madrid. People here I guess  tend to eat  chips ahoy, etc. Even the big supermarkets like El Corté Ingles don´t have it on their shelves.  I mean the semi sweet one like Hersheys, etc. The cookies was a small batch.  It turned out okay not burnt!! It was gone the next morning.  Not bad but prefer Mrs Fields´recipe. Will have to make more this week.

We had a tough week.

Just got word that one of our close friend´s son-in-law has Hodgkin´s Lympoma at 2nd stage.  We were stunned.  We hope and pray that with chemo and radiation treatment this yound man will see full recovery.

Our second son, Gabriel who turned twelve last November, received the Aaronic Priesthood and is set apart as Deacon´s Quorum President.  We are proud of him.

Carolina our oldest girl went on a weekend trip to Granada and brought us back some delicious pastry called "pioninos"!  Very sweet.

Daniel,our number one son is occupied with lots of exams, this year he attempts the entrance exams.  Hope he gets in the university and major in something that he has a passion for, physics and computers (informatics).

I have been busy clearing the storehouse at work to make way hopefully for a yoga room.  Meanwhile, at work I have been busy fixing soups and soups for the clients, to keep them warm for the freezing winter.

Looking Forward to Spring.

We are approximately two months shy of Spring.  Hope everyone had a great Chinese New Year feast.
This year we welcome in the Year of the Dragon, the year of the Water Dragon.  Hope it brings in more liquid, the kind that fills our pockets and not make us feel damp!
Have a great year ahead, will be back with more recipes.  In the meantime, eat lots of soup!