On home-cooked meals

I gave up red meat in 2016. On Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. I've not looked back since.

Living in steak and burger country doesn't make it easy, but I manage. What I've really come to miss are Filipino breakfast staples- tapa, tocino, and longganisa. And the richness of entrees like caldereta, humba and sisig. Nothing compares!

For the past year, whenever I miss home, I take to the kitchen. My family loved to eat, and my mama and lola loved to cook. I grew up in a family where food was a binding force. I now live with my tita's family, and even her kids who were born and raised here are no different. Cooking for them everyday has become a labor of love. (Yes, I cook beef and pork for them.) I think it's part of being Filipino, to love food and family so much. 

If you're far from home, I'm encouraging you to learn how to cook. It's a life skill, and it can take you back home in so many ways. I'll be sharing recipes of some of my favorites. I warn you though, I cook by approximation, so my measurements are not as precise. The recipes are not always going to be Filipino. Mostly Asian, and a few from here and there. I hope it helps ease the homesickness. 

To start, I'll be sharing a beef stew recipe with a rich tomato and liver sauce, made fragrant with bell peppers and turned indulgent with cheddar cheese. I learned this one from a co-staff, Kuya Nilo. I call him Kuya (older brother), but he really is much more like a father. I've added some twists and we hope you like it.

BEEF CALDERETA NG UST NURSING
by Nilo & Cara

Fresh ingredients
Beef ribs (whole slab is approx. 12 bones and select cuts with good meat-fat ratio or marbling, if using beef cubes)
2 white onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 medium potatoes, quartered
3 carrots, sliced
4 sweet bell pepper,
sliced thin to strips

Pantry items
Garlic salt
Onion powder
Black pepper
3-4 bay leaves
3-4 tbsp sweet relish
6 oz can tomato paste
8 oz can liver spread
2 oz Velveeta cheddar cheese, cut into 2 in cubes
1 1/2 tbsp of Better than Bouillon beef stock to liter or quart of water
Sliced olives for garnish
Olive oil

Instructions
1. Brown carrots and potatoes in olive oil, season with a little salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Saute onions, garlic. Once fragrant, add bell pepper, leave a few pepper strips for later.
3. Add ribs to pot and let sit a few mins until some oil from beef is released.
4. Add garlic powder, black pepper (mix of whole and cracked), onion powder, bay leaves. Saute a bit to spread seasoning.
5. Add quart of water, make sure meat is submerged.
6. Add bouillon base, tomato paste and 2/3 can of liver spread. Add relish. Stir and cover.
7. Cook on midheat, covered for 130 mins, checking for tenderness and stirring slow every 45 mins.
8. Add cheese and allow to melt. Add remaining bell pepper.
9. Top with fried carrots and potatoes.
10. Garnish with olives and serve with hot white rice.

I never meant for this blog to have photos. But you're welcome to send me a picture or a review if you try it! 

On Gifting

I am far from home. But there are adulting things I've gotten used to doing over the years that I cannot seem to - or would ever want to- shake off.

When I arrived in the US, I searched for online services that delivered straight to the recipient without much of a hassle. Of course they needed to be able to take a secured credit/debit card for payment too. Soon enough, I realized there were really only a handful of services my overcritical self would come to trust. Most of these will work as well if you're just on a short trip perhaps or outside of Manila. Sharing some of them today for all the newbies out in open waters!

To send money
BPIExpress Mobile Banking App

You can choose to enroll all your family's accounts, but there will be occasional people/ causes (like the Marawi Siege relief program) you might want to send money to who/which aren't on your list of enrolled transfers. There's a service called Transfer to Anyone (with a BPI account) that you can enable before you leave Manila. You'll have three ways to activate it, the easiest being to go to the nearest ATM with your BPI card. After that, download the app, see your balance, input the account number you want to send it to, and transfer in an instant. It's especially useful because there aren't any fees unlike Xoom or usual money transfer services.

To send medicine
Mercury Drugstore Gamot Padala

I have a diabetic mom, and there are days when I just want to make sure she has all of her meds. Mercury Drug is pretty much the go-to pharmacy and the first to have such a verifiable online ordering system. (Plus, it's owned by a Thomasian) Mercury has three options for sending medications- by online order, phone call or local branch visit. For those out of the country, online is the only way.

On your first order, you'll need to sign up online and complete the 6-step process. You will be asked to input the medications, contact details of the recipient and your credit card. Mercury Customer Service will email you a LOA (Letter of Agreement) to charge your card, along with a quotation for your entire order. You will need to print out the LOA, sign it and then scan it back to them. After that, they will serve your first order and assign you a customer code for future orders. The great thing is you can order prescription medications too, so long as the recipient picking up the order will have the script with them. You can also select the nearest branch to your recipient for easy pick-up.

To send food
Shakeys Pizza, KFC Chicken, Red Ribbon Cakes

If you have a pizza-loving, chicken-crazy family like I do, I'm not really surprised. Shakey's Pizza offers really good Family Pizza deals especially with a SuperCard which allows you to have two pizzas for the price of one. They charge straight to your card, you can time the delivery and I can assure you that they will do their very best to get your pizza delivered. I tried the delivery service to Dasmarinas in Cavite, and they got there. They got lost, yes. But they got there.

KFC Philippines allows online ordering of their famous bucket meals (you can customize the bucket and fixins), timed delivery and payment by credit card or Masterpass. What I loved about KFC was their special delivery instructions option - which allows you to send a message or specify a delivery recipient.

The Red Ribbon Online Store is open 9AM to 8PM PH Time (8PM-7AM ET) which means you might want to order the night before your occasion. It's got all the best-sellers like the Mousse and Triple Chocolate, but you'll need to take a chance with seasonal items like the Mango or Ube Cake.

Never tried these but they seem as viable: 

To send gift cards
GiftAway PH

There's always MetroDeal and DealGrocer. But sometimes, establishment Gift Cards (GCs) from GiftAway PH are the way to go. You can send GCs for LandMark groceries, upscale restos and even laundry services!

To send them to the laboratory
Hi-Precision Diagnostics

An Annual Check-up is one of the best gifts you can give. Hi-Precision Diagnostics offers GCs in denominations of 500, 1000, 3000, 5000 or a custom amount. You can pay for it by card and your recipient gets a text/ email notification of your healthy gift.

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I'll update when I come across some more.