#44: Cream of Celery Soup

30In the past entries, I have shared soup recipes like Leek and Broccoli Soup and the Pumpkin Bisque. This time, I'm delighted to introduce you to another creamy soup that is both hearty and refreshing for the palate because of featured ingredient: celery. I know some people are not fond of the flavors from this family of vegetables. Cilantro, parsley, along with celery just taste too much like freshly cut grass for some. But this soup will give this vegetable a new face and will easily become a family favorite. Gone are the days when you can only use it in pansit or chopsuey. You kids will not notice that they are gulping a good serving of celery in each serving. 

I tried to do that "heart-shaped sauce" trick  move but  I think
I failed to make it look like a heart but more like a guppy.

#43: Spicy Stir-Fried Pork

I am slowly warming up to experimenting on Asian flavors. It's ironic that I am Asian yet I am totally foreign to the flavors of our neighbors like kaffir, galangal, coriander, rice wine, lemongrass, cardamom, and many others. What I usually find in groceries are ingredients that lean towards Western cooking. So in a quest for new flavor dimensions, I recently tried an Asian-inspired salad and this delectable stir-fry dish.

This flavorful stirfry may take some time to prep but is a breeze to cook. The secret to quick stir-fry meals is having ingredients that are cut in smaller pieces so the heat can go through it quicker. Guess what else?

#42:The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The Good:
Any special breakfast that I spend with my husband is bound to be good. I received a Flapjacks coupon for a chocolate pancake because I stuffed myself with 2 breakfasts' worth of pancakes the 3 days before. Since I love special serene breakfasts, I invited my husband to share it with me with bottomless coffee, coffee, coffee... aaah!


So flapjacks had this Halloween promo wherein they served chocolate pancakes. I thought it will be blah, after all it's free. But you see the syrupy chocolate on top of my pancakes? That was really good! It's rich and creamy and it has none of those cheap, oily-tasting chocolate syrup that you get from sundaes from fast-foods. This one that they got is the real, dark, melted chocolate ganache type. And the pancakes were fine as well, not too sweet and it blended with the creaminess of the whipped butter (after all, butter goes well with ANYTHING!). 


Their bottomless coffee was a bit bland though. Good thing my husband was there to make me forget that the coffee was not remarkable. The conversation was good enough, indeed.


Now for what happened 3 days earlier...