Ravioli with Al Telefono Sauce

I'm honestly not sure if the term I used above is correct. We found ready to eat ravioli at a shop in Molito, Alabang. I immediately bought one because it's been years since I had it at home. When we were in Singapore, I used to buy a pack from Marks & Spencer after my PT (it was in the same building). I would boil it, drain and then mix it with bottled pasta sauce. It was so easy to make!

We got spinach ravioli, but since I couldn't find any ready pasta sauce I liked, I decided to mix it with pasta al telefono (sauce). I wasn't sure if it would work, but trying was worth it! 

Here's how I made it:

Now I want to run back to Alabang to buy some ravioli to make this again, hehe. 

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/08/recipes-for-my-son-ravioli-in-pasta-al.html

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Made Chicken Paprikash Again

Chicken Paprikash is a dish that was suggested to me by an aunt a few years ago. I was looking for tomato and cream based dishes to cook at home. This one though uses sour cream instead of all purpose cream. I just researched about it and found out it's fairly easy to make. 

I'm honestly not familiar with Hungarian cuisine, so trying this was an adventure. We all liked it and it's now part of my list of dishes to make at home. It's so delicious!

Here's how I made it -

For full recipe, visit https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/07/recipes-for-my-son-chicken-paprikash.html

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Tried Making Salted Egg Chicken!

I accidentally* bought a curry plant. It's a tree now and I thought I'd put it to good use. One of the dishes we miss most from our stay in Singapore is salted egg chicken. We usually buy it at a stall in Food Republic (Vivo City). I wonder if the stall is still there. 

I found some recipes and made it with Miggy. We decided to bake the chicken instead of deep frying it. We don't like oily food, so thought that would help. It turned out tasty!

We didn't make it too spicy. Just add more chili flakes and sili if you want it spicier. Here's how we made it:

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/07/recipes-for-my-son-salted-egg-chicken.html

Let me know if you'll try to make it!

*Garden nursery dupped me. I was aiming to buy lemongrass!

Found Some Dalandan, Made Spanish Chicken Adobo

I made Spanish Chicken adobo whenever we buy dalandan. It's always a big hit and I remember Tito Mon would hide it when I bring it for parties at home, haha. We bought some dalandan in Tagaytay a few weeks ago and I immediately planned to make some Spanish Chicken Adobo. 

Full recipe is on my recipe blog: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/07/recipes-for-my-son-spanish-chicken-adobo.html

Here's how I made it (this time, Miggy did the cooking coz that's how we roll nowadays):

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Our Bistek Tagalog Recipe

Bistek Tagalog is one of the dishes I learned early on. I prefer making dishes that are marinated first since it allows me to rest between preparing and cooking. I've also been just preparing and having Miggy cook lately since he likes cooking. 

Here's our recipe:

500 grams beef (I normally use sirloin)

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 cloves garlic

3 to 4 calamansi

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 medium onion

And here's how we cook it -

It's very easy to make and that's why it's a staple in our home cooked meals!

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Parmesan Crusted Garlic Cream Cheese Baked Salmon

It's a mouthful to say out loud, but this is one of my favorite baked salmon recipes. I learned it from Chef RV's baked seafood video. My twist is adding parmesan after lathering it with the cream cheese+ mayo mixture.

I have a video of how I make it, but I'm so behind with editing videos, haha.

Coming soon!

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Scallops in Pink Pasta

Sweetie told me to cook the easiest seafood meal today. I proposed baked salmon with garlic cream cheese, baked salmon sushi or scallops in pink pasta. I chose pasta since we don't need the oven for it.

I made it a bit spicy this time around to give it a kick. We like adding tajin while eating it. We both feel BR now after eating a hefty serving, hehe.

Here's how I make it:

https://youtu.be/ScXnm5BUz7U?si=zpDDnqJpgnK8llZg

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Homemade Bistek Tagalog

I made some bistek Tagalog last night, but used thinner beef strips. I think it's the one they use for samgyup. 

I only marinated it for 15 minutes and it was already very tasty. Cooking didn't take a lot of time. Dinner was sumptuous indeed.

Here's how I usually prepare bistek Tagalog:

https://youtu.be/iS6aHdw_C8o?si=WKqJj4BhlICZI1F0

Nomnomnom!

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Made Atsara

I quickly looked at what I could do with the papaya we harvested from our tree. There were two and one was still green. We also got two small bell peppers and have a number of ginger in pots. I did a quick search and found out that I could actually make atsara from our harvest. 

I liked Chef Tatung's recipe since you actually cook the atsara. The other recipes I watched only poured boiling vinegar on the veggies. I figured the result would be tastier if I cooked the veggies together. The recipe was also on one of the first Simpol cookbooks, so I got to work last weekend.

Using the food processor was really helpful. I'm a klutz when it comes to using knives. I just cut the veggies and fed them to the food processor. Preparing everything took longer because I took videos, haha. It was easy to make and I'm glad I had everything on hand. Maybe next time I'll make more when we have a bigger harvest and I'll share it with friends. 

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/01/recipes-for-my-son-homemade-atsara.html

Here's how I made it:

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Tried Making Pickled Onions

I learned to love pickled onions when it was served as part of taco Thursdays at work. You had to build your own taco and you could add whatever ingredient you like. I kept experimenting until I found the best mix for me. The only other place I'd get to eat pickled onions is when we dine out and it's part of the side dishes offered. 

I honestly haven't seen pickled onions sold in groceries. A friend sells it, but she lives far away and we're only able to order if she has delivery in our city. I figured I can just try making it at home. It's much like how my Dad would make pickled cucumber. To make it scarlet you just need to add beet root and that's what I did. 

Here's how I made it:

The day after making it we made taco at home and it turned out pretty great! Yum!

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Made 3.3 Kilos of Cat Food

I've been meaning to make cat food for our fur babies. I was supposed to make it when Grogu went home from the vet, but, alas, I've been unstable. Finally got to it early this week with Miggy's help. 

We boiled, chicken liver, gizzard, chicken breast and squash. Once it was cool, I broke it down with a good processor. Easy ready!

It was our biggest homemade cat food to date at 3.3 kilograms! Miggy always weighs and stores it in heatable containers. The broth is also set aside to help keep them hydrated.

The cats will all be happy. Here's how to make it 😁 

https://youtu.be/NeBHa2aPXEA?si=KksWDZbRDacxLrpH

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Tried Making Pasta ala Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan

We like Yellow Cab's Charlie Chan pasta/noodles. Lately it became too spicy for us, so I did some research to see if I could make it at home. I found a recipe by Lee Kum Kee and adjusted it to fit 3 people (their recipe required 500gms of spaghetti noodles, but very little sauce!). I also wanted more chicken since we were going to consume it at home. 

Here's how I made it:

The boys liked it and said I should do a repeat performance. I'll probably do some more adjustments to the recipe next time and make it a bit more spicy (na-over mild naman). Miggy helped me halfway while cooking since I ran out of energy slicing stuff (haha). Happy to have an assistant cook at home :)

Try it? Recipe is at https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2025/07/recipes-for-my-son-cabin-pasta.html

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My Yummiest Potato Salad to Date

It's been awhile since I made potato salad at home. I "learned" it from Mom. She gave me a list of ingredients and told me to just "mix it up". The list did not include measurements (as usual), so I have been winging it.

Found some potatoes in the fridge. I planned to make afritada, but the other ingredients weren't fresh anymore. Potatoes last longer, so I popped everything in a pot and boiled it. Sweetie helped peel and dice it. I took care of slicing the other veggies. 

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl, then added the diced potatoes. Added a bit more mayo and put it in the fridge. I forgot to try it before storing it, so I was really surprised how good it was when we had it for dinner. Yum! Yum! Yum! It tasted like Dayrit's/Makati Supermart Coffee Shop's potato salad (I usually get these when I'm lazy to make). Of course, it reminded me of the potato salad we'd usually have during family reunions. 

Here's how I made it:

Recipe here: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2025/06/recipes-for-my-son-moms-potato-salad.html

Let me know if you try making it based on what I have figured out how to make a proper 80s potato salad. :)

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Bottomless Soup for Our Pork Sinigang!

There's a few restos where you can get a side dish of Sinigang soup. It's never enough though and we started to crave for it when it rained during election day. It's one of our favorite comfort food dishes. I managed to get some ingredients during our grocery run (minus Gabi since I couldn't find any), so I made some last night (even though it's not raining!). 

It's one of the dishes that's just right for my energy level to cook. I managed without Miggy's help, but they still hovered around to help anytime I needed it. I have no idea how to use kamias or sampaloc, so I just always use Sinigang mix. I like the Knorr Sinigang mix better than other brands since it's really sour. 

Here's how I made it:

We all had happy tummies after dinner last night and I definitely slept soundly. Too soundly, I missed pulmo rehab again, haha. We still have some left over and I might have some soup later!

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Made Four Cheese Mac and Cheese

Another cool day today since it rained. This meant the kitchen was more welcoming than usual for me. I finally got to make some Mac and cheese. This time I used 4 cheeses, gyuyere, mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan.

I just followed the recipe I used for homemade mac and cheese. We got the gyuyere cheese from a shop in Molito and it was so good (but crazy expensive for a small piece!). Anyway, it's just for us, so we can indulge once in a while. Here's the recipe I used.

https://youtu.be/Y1Mgsjfuzfk?si=uZPGP7zhe0T3pNQR

I'm also planning to make some potato salad in the next few days weather permitting!). Good thing it rained because that meant I could use my gardening energy to cook.

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Made Some Beef Tapa

Since the past few days has been cooler and not horridly warm, I decided to do some cooking. 

I marinated some beef last night and Miggy cooked it today. 

The recipe I used is just like Jollibee's beef tapa. Its really best to marinate it overnight for beat results. Miggy has perfected cooking it and I just do the marinade. Here's the recipe -

https://youtu.be/ra7pXgfEt54?si=efl_KoVxuv63J59H

Yum-yum!

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My First Cookbook

I think I've just sorted the last box of books. I was so surprised to find my first cookbook! 

I recall going through it, but I don't remember cooking anything based on the recipes from the book. I learned how to bake first and it was only decades later before I learned how to cook, haha.

Ate taught me how to bake peanut butter cookies and I watched her bake apple pie. I didn't learn how to cook because I was traumatized when our stove malfunctioned. It was like a fire breathing dragon and that was so scary for me. 

I still bake peanut butter cookies and here's how I make it -

https://youtu.be/BPtt63o4CH4?si=WGqIGeJY6wlb5mtD

I eventually learned how to cook (to survive!). Nowadays, Miggy cooks more than me. I've been documenting our favorite home made dishes on "Recipes for My Son". It helps us whenever there's something we want to cook again.

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Cooking, Some Gardening and Still Sorting

I had a busy day today, but I allotted some energy to cook pink pasta. It's been a few weeks since I last cooked, so thought it would be a good day to make something easy. 

It turned out a bit too orange though, haha, I think I used a bigger pack of tomato paste. Still delicious and filling nonetheless.

Here's how I usually make it -

Pink Pasta Recipe

I did some gardening too. Sweetie reported seeing some caterpillars on the gumamela. I guess the rain washed off the Neem oil I sprayed the other day. I also planted two stems of philodendron cuttings. After that I watered some plants with rice water which will help keep them healthy.

Sweetie helped with sorting today. He took care of the electronics boxes. I'm glad we finally found Daddy's old cameras. I asked him to keep it in a box first. I'll check it out eventually. The treasure I found today are a bunch of sea shells which I think we collected over the years. Some are probably Miggy's when we used to go to Pasacao. 

Time to rest now, tomorrow will be another busy day.

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Learned to Make Real Mac and Cheese

TBH, we always make ready to cook mac and cheese. I never tried making it with real cheese. A friend brought several pieces of cheese. Another friend explained what they were good for. One was gyuyere cheese which I learned was good for pasta. 

I watched a couple of videos to learn how to make mac and cheese. I chose to adapt Chef Tatung's Mac and cheese recipe. He used regular boxed cheese and mentioned you can add other cheeses. I used the food processor to grate the gyuyere cheese and found some leftover mozzarella cheese in the fridge. 

It was fairly easy to make and my boys absolutely loved it. Miggy said it tasted like mac and cheese from a restaurant we ate in once. I was so used to regular boxed mac and cheese and Kenny Rogers mac and cheese, it never occurred to me to try making it with real cheese. It mega leveled-up! Now I don't think I'll buy boxed mac and cheese anymore, LOL.

Here's how we made it at home:

Full recipe at: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2024/09/recipes-for-my-son-mac-and-cheese-with.html

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Homemade Pasta Al Telefono

Felt a bit better today, so I whipped up some Pasta Al Telefono for dinner. I used rigatoni noodles this time to make it a bit authentic. Since it doesn't have any meat, we ordered Baliwag chicken for our protein needs. 

Glad it turned out well. The secret is to use cherry tomatoes. I tried it with regular crushed tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes made this dish perfect! 

Here's how to make it:

https://youtu.be/l28qB9pt7xI?si=-ly4J9YpfozY0z1a

Now I have an excuse to go to Alabang again to buy some canned cherry tomatoes, haha.

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