baguio beans and spam

This is one way to enjoy Baguio beans :

Open a can of Spam Garlic flavor, divide into two, keep one half in the fridge for breakfast. The other half, dice and brown in oil, remove from pan and set aside. Prep up some onions, tomatoes and the beans.

Saute onions and tomatoes until it becomes pasty, then add beans. Add a cup of water, let it simmer. Season with salt, pepper and oyster sauce according to taste. When it starts to boil, add the spam cubes, turn down heat and continue simmering until beans are cooked.  Top on rice and enjoy!

One's visit to the Cool City would not be complete without savoring our vegetables, which by the way are grown in neighboring towns surrounding the city. If you're a tourist wanting to eat at authentic local places, soon i will post places to eat while in Baguio and Benguet. :)

white beans & sausage..

Beans are a staple food in an Igorot's diet, be it dried or fresh ones. It goes well with our etag or kinuday. The reason being it supplies the needed energy by the body in order to plow the rice fields or tend to our vegetable gardens. Also for the cold climate that we have, the energy supplied by beans help keep our bodies warm. White beans is one variety common to us, cooked into the famous pork and beans.

These white kidney beans i bought from old ladies who say it was harvested all the way from Sadanga, Mt. Province. These are the kind which are unbleached and not stored for  long. It was just the right thing to cook for my friend Lucille who requested for an easy dish.

 This is a one-pot-dish, slowcooked starting from softening the beans, then adding chicken sausage or longganisa as we call it, bought from a Magnolia chicken station at Sunshine supermart. The flavor from the sausage was enough to enhance the beans, i only added salt, no sauteeing needed. Then last to go in are the pechay leaves, bought from the SIHM store at the Porta Vaga parking lot. Cabbage or wombok may be added instead. The flavors from the sausage mixed with the creaminess of the soup makes for a yummy dinner.. Enjoy!

'tis the season o' strawberries!..

the fruit we are made famous for! yup, its strawberries.. one of the many reasons why living in the Cordilleras compare to nothing.. we enjoy the bounties of the earth! fresh produce all year round, organic vegetables and fruits, bounties from the sea are just an hour's drive away, cool weather and best of all, the warmth of the people!!

on a Sunday evening we went to the market to buy a kilo of these jewels which by the way cost us Php50, way cheaper than when tourists will be flocking to the city during the Holy Week, then prices can go as high as Php80-100.

my son Ethan loves strawberries, plain and simple dipped in salt. Washing them thoroughly and  i mean thorough, is a must, if its gonna be eaten as it is, no cream or milk or cooked. It comes directly from the farm thus expect nothing else, roll up your sleeves and start cleaning..from removing the leaves to washing it in water several times.. What i do is wash them berries until the water comes clear of dust particles and murky color..then i make a vinegar and water solution, soak the berries for at least 5 minutes..then wash again. Serve together with your other favorite fruits..and the newspaper?..well, a Sunday in an Igorota's life will not be complete without the Baguio Midland Courier.. live and love!

healthy greens..

on a Sunday afternoon after chores had been done and Sunday obligation attended to, it was a perfect time to brew some coffee..then thought of what to eat with it..

this recipe came up because of our craving for the "accidental garlic sauce"..

we used chicken breast which luckily was marinated days ago with garlic and rosemary..one could only imagine the flavors it had..then we had it simmering in a covered pan in its own juice.

the organic lettuce i bought at the LaTOP stall in the La Trinidad Public Market..

the garlic sauce recipe i repeated..

in setting up, we washed and drained the lettuce then tore them into serving pieces, next the cut up chicken pieces are laid out on top then the garlic sauce is drizzled over it..and the outcome is this yummy and healthy salad..perfect pair to an equally perfect cup of brewed coffee!

lumpiang ubod...my mama's way.

over the weekend we had the chance to go home to my parents' place in Mankayan. It was to celebrate our dad's 58th birthday. It was gonna be a simple lunch with the family. So i brought ingredients for spaghetti, then hubby made pinikpikan with a native chicken while my sis brought pork for adobo. Mama's recipe was lumpiang ubod, so lovingly and painstakingly prepared. First the young bamboo shoots are harvested, peeled, chopped then boiled with salt.

Then the wrapper is cooked one by one. The sweet sauce comes next, along with chopping and toasting the nuts and garlic..the result is a yummy treat which an Igorot like me rarely encounters in my mountains! I ate 2 pieces of the lumpia along with the lunch, whew! it was a guilt-free indulgence considering everything was naturally prepared and no cholesterol too!

malunggay-enriched pancit miki..

Dinner for Sunday was pancit miki which i bought from the BSU marketing center last week.. It is a new product which is vegetable enriched, malunggay was added thus the green color of the noodle. Since my family love noodle-based dishes, this is a welcome find..not only delicious but superbly nutritious as well. Also i was able to buy a head of cabbage which is organically grown in one of the university's greenhouses. It costs a fortune but knowing that it was not pesticide-laden was worth it..

i cooked it together with ground pork and seasonings and it was oh so delish....

my son's favorite food...(.foods for picky eaters..)

lately my son Troy has been choosy about foods he eat, and always mouths "yuck!" for every food that comes near his lips..thus it's always a dilemma for us to think of something he might want aside of course from his formula, pasta dishes and cream soups. One thing i love about him is he so loves potatoes, either fried or mashed, he will always open up to eat..

so today i decide to make mashed potatoes with a twist, i added camote or sweet potato. For us here in the highlands, we also call it the musical fruit, why? because if you eat too much it makes your butt sing a lot....=)

so for the recipe, i used 1 kilo of potatoes together with 3 large pieces of camote, peeled and cut them equally in order to be cooked uniformly. then washed and placed in a pot with enough water to cover, oh and do put a pinch of salt too..boil them for maybe 30 minutes or when you insert a fork and no resistance can be felt.

when it's cooked, drain the water and mash it up one by one in a round bowl, slowly adding butter and i also used condensed milk with it, so much for diets, its for the kids anyway. i set aside a few potatoes which i also made into chicken potato salad. but that would be for another post. so while mashing up the camote and potatoes, the butter and milk will melt into it to form one yummy healthy treat for my kids. mix it thoroughly to have a smooth texture, but sometimes i make this chunky, it is also one favorite comfort food for us...

right away Troy ate spoonfuls of this, and i am sure he will love it for dinner again. so instead of spending bucks buying baby food, why not make it at your own home, this way you will know what goes into it and to steer clear of artificial stuff. this food is a great source of energy for kids who play all day long, and best of all, its all- natural.