Pasta ala Sardines and Quickmelt Cheese

The inspiration for this dish came from Home Cooking Rocks’ Pasta ala Puttanesca. In case you haven’t known, my siblings and I are sworn pasta lovers. Usually during my restdays we cook it for dinner. Whatever’s left, we have it for midnight snacks. But after years of experimenting between tomato-based and cream-based sauces, we decided it was time for a change.

Sheila had always been fascinated about cooking pasta with only a few ingredients. A dish that’s less messy, much cheaper (at least for us) and easier to prepare. But the thing is, because other ingredients are hard to find, we usually end up substituting them for cheaper (but practical) alternatives. Take for instance this recipe. Parmesan cheese is too costly since we’re preparing this for just the three of us. So we opted for Quickmelt instead. We might try kesong puti next time just to be more innovative.

Pardon the photos, I cannot plate to save my life. It’s another art that we have to master in the future.

I have found my calling! Okay, sort of…

You see after weeks of practice, I realized I will never be as good as my sister behind the camera. I suck at finding the perfect angle. Portraits aren’t my thing. But thankfully, I seem to do well with food photography. See? This is why I’m getting fat.

 

 

It’s too bad we forgot to bring Yogi when we tried out Spaghetti Factory last Saturday. Sheila had Boscaiola while I chose Carbonara Alla Elizabeta. The servings were generous and we were quite fascinated with their pepper shaker. (I thought it was a baseball bat!) We didn’t even have to wait that long for our orders to be served. Pretty efficient. So yes, we’re definitely coming back one of these days. I, for one, cannot wait to try out the other pasta dishes in their menu.

This is my story (and yours too!)

We finally had the chance to watch Crazy Little Thing Called Love this evening. I’d been seeing the title for quite sometime in message boards I visit although I never really paid attention to it. But thanks to FunnySexyPH, I was finally convinced to give this movie a chance. Hey, it’s Mario Maurer (who reminds me of a younger Francis Magalona) after all!

It’s easy to see how this became a hit by word of mouth. The characters are people you can relate to. Never mind if Pimchanok Leuwisetpaiboon (Kim Chiu, is that you?) is just too cute to play a plain Jane character. My sister and I found ourselves laughing at almost every scene. It was like being transported to high school and reliving all those memories you both cherished and would rather forget. Who never attempted to pass by their crush’s classroom (at the pretext of going to the comfort room) just to steal a glance? Or who never secretly squealed, in one way or another, when he actually acknowledged you for the first time?

How come we never make films like this? And no, I’m not talking about those teeny-bopper flicks. I’d like to see a Filipino rom-com flick make it big in other countries because really, there’s more to the Philippines than poverty, prostitution and homosexuality.

I’d like to say we all had a Chon in our lives. Someone who made us look forward to everyday life despite the disasters that come along with it. But like Nam, no one gets a happily-ever-after in a snap. Others wait for years. My own Chon might just be right around the corner. But I’m in no hurry. He'll come around. For now, I simply enjoy the company of my friends and my dearest family.

Online Assistance for Unresourceful Children

"S is the quintessential overachiever, who excels at almost everything in school. C is her brother, an average student."

I have nothing against helping students with their homework. But when it goes down to actually "doing" the assignments for them, then I think we have a problem. Who would find it cute when you get a text at 10PM for an assignment that is due the next day? My own parents would never have allowed that. What's worse, these kids aren't even resourceful enough to consult the library first before running to their elders for answers.

It's frustrating really. For a Grade 5 and a Grade 3 pupil, we shouldn't be spoon feeding them answers. Homework, after all, is there to gauge how much the child has learned from his/her lessons in school. How hard can it be for parents to realize that? I don’t want them to grow up thinking this is a practice worthy to be emulated. This Online Assistance for Unresourceful Children has got to stop.

Trailer: The Kennedys (TV Movie)

Can April 3 come any sooner? Reelz saves the day for The Kennedys, the ambitious 8-part miniseries about  America's political family. The TV movie was without a network for quite sometime after the History channel decided not to broadcast it. I can overlook the fact that they cast Katie Holmes as Jackie O because the actors playing Jack and Bobby more than compensate for that lapse. This family’s story never fails to be interesting. Anything about them will always be controversial. Would you watch this if you had the chance?