When Tristan Mirasol of Ten Minutes Tops e-mailed and invited me to join the Bloggers Buffet last Thursday, I was hesitant for several reasons. First, my food blog is a Filipino food blog, and I would like to stay away from non-Filipino dishes as much as possible in order to remain faithful to my niche. Second, my food blog is a recipe blog, which makes it different from many local food blogs out there. I only feature a few selected restaurants here and there because I would like to maintain at least ninety percent of my blog posts to be purely recipes. Third, there was a deluge in the entire Metro Manila because of a severe weather disturbance.

Needless to say, I couldn’t say no. This is because, despite my love for Filipino food, I still jones for a hefty serving of good ole’ American food every now and then. And this is what Carol’s Texan 5 is all about.

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Watching kids compete in a reality show is not exactly my cup of tea. I always believe that kids should stay in school away from the television, unless they’re watching reruns of Batibot and Sesame Street, which I believe are two of the best kids’ TV shows of all time. But that’s another story. What I’m saying is that, education should be the top priority for children.

But I’m not a parent, and I should never be considered as the person in authority to tell you what’s best for your kids. However, I’m sure we all agree that children should develop their skills and talents at a very young age without being forced by anyone. This way, they can be masters of the fields they have chosen as they slowly become adults while enjoying what they do without sacrificing the innocence and fun of being a child. They should be allowed to do what they do best — being kids.

This is what I admire most about GMA 7′s Amazing Cooking Kids.

Unlike any other talent and reality shows, the Amazing Cooking Kids was produced to showcase 12 very young Filipinos (ages 9-12), not to sing or dance, but to cook and prepare delectable meals. The reality show encourages the kids to hone their skills in the kitchen as they progress and surpass their weekly challenges. I must tell you, this is no ordinary cooking show. To give you a clearer picture of what I’m saying, allow me to give you 5 Amazing Things About Amazing Cooking Kids:

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This recipe is probably an exemption to the not-so-strict rules of this blog. I once mentioned in my introduction that I won’t be using canned sauces on my recipes. Everything would be traditional as much as possible, which means no shortcuts. But for obvious reasons, I cannot apply that rule here. And besides, it’s my food blog — I can always break the rules. Hah!

Seriously, the reason is Filipino Style Spaghetti is always prepared with canned tomato sauces. If I use fresh tomatoes (which I do sometimes with olive oil –> yum!) alone, it won’t be Filipino style anymore. Tomatoes are not naturally sweet, at least that’s not how we acquired the taste; It may be too sour for our palate. Hence, we add some sugar and banana catsup to balance the sweet, sour, and savory flavor. Why? Because that’s how we like it! It’s like Spaghetti Bolognese, but sweeter.

So my brother cooked Filipino Style Spaghetti yesterday, Sunday. I took some pictures, but it’s pretty much my own recipe inspired by my Tita‘s. My Lola was not a huge fan of spaghetti. She would rather eat Chinese noodles. Some credits also go to Joe, a college friend, who told me to add milk to the sauce to make it creamier. And, yes, it’s just so much better! If you have kids, I’m sure they will love this one.

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I tried something new yesterday. I made an experiment to check if I could make a homemade ice cream without using any special equipment, such as an ice cream maker. Guess what? I never thought it would be this easy.

My mother buys fruits every now and then. This weekend, we had mangoes…lots of it. And avocados. I love mangoes and I’m sure my family does too. However, there are some instances that for some reason, we fail to consume all of them, hence, they are just put to waste. So I decided to make something out of it — a homemade mango ice cream.

Like what I said, we don’t have an ice cream maker at home. We also don’t have a blender nor a food processor, although we have this hand-powered machine mixer. You know, the one that you see on TV shopping channels with the handle that you turn to mix the ingredients. So that’s what I used.

But then again, if you don’t have any of these fancy machines, you can always do it manually. Mango meat is soft and none of the ingredients are hard, so it’s really easy to incorporate everything. Just minced the mango and use a regular egg beater just to aerate the mixture. That is, to make the mixture fluffy.

You may also want to top the ice cream with your favorite fruits. Just make sure that they’re in season. Or you may want to add caramel syrup (perfect with mangoes) just to add some extra sweetness and flavor.

Nutritious and full of yum, this homemade ice cream is surely an awesome and inexpensive way to stay healthy without sacrificing good taste. I hope you’d enjoy this recipe!

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I was home alone most of the day today. I decided to prepare Pork Giniling because the only food I found in the fridge were a kilo of ground pork and a bag of potatoes. I thawed the meat, chopped the potatoes, onions, and tomatoes. I turned the stove on and placed my favorite skillet on top. I then added some oil and started frying the potatoes. I went back to my laptop to check my e-mail and the rest of the Internet.

Then it started to rain.

I love rain. It’s an oasis in the Manila heat. It bathes the entire city while cooling down the air it breathes. I looked outside the window and noticed that there were clothes hanging on the clothesline. I hurriedly ran outside to bring them inside the house. After saving the last piece of clothing from the rain, I smelled a pungent odor coming from the kitchen. My potatoes were burning!

To make the story short, I was able to salvage at least half of the potatoes. The rest were pure charcoal. Good thing I did not chop all the potatoes. But this time, I decided not to leave the kitchen anymore while frying them.

So that’s the most exciting part of my day so far. Anyway, going back to the recipe, Pork Giniling is very important to learn. This is because it is part of the procedure of some other recipes, such as Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelette), Empanada (stuffed bread), and as a palaman (filling) for your sandwiches. Giniling in English translates to “ground,” as in ground pork.

The directions to prepare Pork Giniling is similar to our Pork Menudo recipe. But this one is much simpler and easier to make. Check out the recipe below.

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