FOODIES

You guys know how much I love tortang talong. Mom made it for us for dinner last night, along with several yummy dishes such as sinigang na baboy, humba, and bico. Here are some photos of the making of the torta.

Before mom could start the torta, dad had to grill the talong.

This is what the grilled talong looked like.

Then you open up the talong to prep it for the rest of the ingredients.

The scrambled eggs hold the ground pork in place. It binds the meat to the talong.

So when you flip it over, it doesn’t fall apart.

This is what the finished product looks like.

Here’s mom making some more. BTW, mom did a fantastic job on dinner last night. Everything was delicious. Even the bico, which I don’t normally eat, was very good. I actually took some leftover bico with me. I shared it with a couple of my coworkers this morning and they loved it too. I think I’m going to have to ask mom for the recipe and instructions.

We normally only have two major celebrations on Christmas weekend: Christmas Eve with the Alonsos and Christmas Day with the Brubakers. This year Jen and Armando invited us to their house on Christmas Day also. It provided another opportunity to eat more Filipino food.

I didn’t get to take pictures of all of the dishes (and there were several) because we arrived late. It was seafood central at the Teves-Allison residence that day, though. Jen served the prawns pictured above, mussels, and at least two different fish dishes. Ferj made humba, which I loved because it had a ton of sabaw. Arvin made his signature dish lauya, which is like nilaga only a dozen times better. Instead of being somewhat bland like nilaga, it actually had really great flavor. I didn’t have it on Christmas Day, but I had some the day after when we came over to Jen and Armando’s for leftovers. It was super delicious! Both Ferj and Arvin did a fabulous job on their dishes.

Jen also had a pineapple chicken dish that was yummy and green beans and corn and a carrot salad. I’m sure there are several other dishes that I’m missing here. There was so much food at Jen and Armando’s, you’d think they were feeding all of Bel Aire. Anyway, I was so stuffed from all the eating I did on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning that I didn’t really have room for any more food. I couldn’t pass up the prawns, though. I think I had six or seven of them. They were so good!

I also had the strawberry shortcake dessert and more mimosas. As though I hadn’t had enough from earlier that day. LOL. There was some really good eatin’ that took place over Christmas weekend. I can’t wait until next year to do it all over again!

These are just some of the foods we had on Christmas Eve. Nom, nom, nom…

Mom made lumpia and pancit.

She made some fat noodles too.

She made mongo without ampalaya (bitter melon) because I hate that stuff.

I’m not quite sure what this is, but I ate it also.

She had some ham and brisket also, but I wasn’t really interested in those. Christmas Eve to me is a time to pig out on my most favorite Filipino food dishes that I never get to eat any other time of the year. I love, love, love stuffing my face with Filipino food!

Mom made sure that my Filipino food craving was satisfied at Thanksgiving by offering a variety of my most favorite Filipino dishes. We had pancit…

Humba…

Menudo…

Banana turon…

…which I am not really a fan of, unless you lace it with jackfruit and serve it a la mode. Vanilla ice cream makes everything ten times better. LOL. No offense to my mom, because she really does make good turon.

Mom also made fruit salad and macaroni salad.

Jen Teves’ friend, Georgia, made a couple of dishes that they serve in Cyprus where she is is originally from. She made a main dish and a dessert dish that resembles what we call maja blanca in the Philippines.

We also had some American foods like ham, turkey, stuffing, and corn on the cob, just to cover all the bases.

Ate Lou made pumpkin cake.

Jen Teves brought cake from Bagatelle.

Ching did not make anything. LOL. I brought some wine for everyone to enjoy (but mostly Jen Teves and me because we have similar taste in wines) and also champagne for our mimosas.

I picked up Korbel Sweet Rose from Extremo Vino at Shane’s recommendation and it turned out really well. I will have to remember that one.

As if that weren’t enough, we had Thanksgiving part deux at the Feifel’s. Needless to say, we ate way too much that day. I’m amazed that I didn’t fall asleep at the wheel on the drive to Kansas City.

We had a wonderful dinner at mom and dad’s the other day. Mom made lots of delicious food.

She made sinigang, one of my most favorite Filipino dishes.

She made fried fish for Jen Teves.

Brian got his Filipino breakfast – tocino and fried eggs and white rice. There was something for everyone! Mom even made some humba. I didn’t get a picture of it, though. I love, love, love going to mom and dad’s and pigging out on Filipino food!