Blogging has brought to us a lot of benefits; for instance, we have finally found a way to organize and track our recipes. The biggest bonus though is that we have made new friends from far away places. Places we would have never imagined having a friend in. One very generous banana sent these delicious crunchies that tickled not only my palate but my memory as well.

I remember buying these from street vendors back in the Philippines. These were our favorite after school snack then, and it turns out, it is for my girls too! They devoured these in no time. Thank you for the delicious, garlicky corniks, Tita Santos!

I am doing some spring cleaning of our photobucket, and realized here's another un-posted recipe. Another one of our stir-fry standby, when we can find fresh shrimps, that is. These shrimps were not the largest, but they were fresh Carolina shrimps, and they were quite flavorful. For this version, these shrimps were stir-fried with bok choy, snow peas and carrots, along with garlic and onions. Flavored with a bit of oyster sauce, and black pepper, it's another quick and easy meal.

There are many variations of succotash, depending on region, but basically succotash is a vegetable stew. There are really no rules to which vegetables to use, just use what you have on hand. This may be the simplest of versions, made simple by the use of frozen mixed vegetable. The mix I used is called vegetable soup mix. It has lima beans, green beans, carrots, corn, and okra. Usually succotash is stewed with a cured meat like ham or bacon, but this version is meat free. I simply sauteed 1 clove of garlic and a half of chopped onion in a bit of olive oil then added about 2 cups of the mix. Add a half cup of water, season with salt and pepper and cook until all the vegetables are tender. Like the sauteed cabbage below, this is great with fried meats like pork chop.

This is another recipe from my mother-in-law, Momma Dot. It pairs up with most meals, and it's easy, non-fuss recipe. All you need is cabbage, sliced thin. Boil about a half cup of water, lightly salt, and add the cabbage. Let cook until the color turns brighter green or as tender as you wish. Most southern cooks, like my late step-father Walt, like their cabbage well cooked, almost mushy. Whenever we cooked cabbage, we would take out our portion just as it becomes tender, and leave his portion to cook an additional 30 minutes or so, until it is totally limp. Momma Dot, to my relief, liked her cabbage "just cooked" but still slightly crisp. One thing that she did after the cabbage has cooked is to add a tablespoon of oil and stir it in. I found this practice odd at first, so I used to omit this step. However, the taste was not quite the same, so I started doing just as she did and haven't looked back since.

Bistek or beef steak Filipino style is quite easy to make. The marinade is simply a balance between lemon and soy marinade, fried at high heat and topped with sauteed onions. My good friend Stel cooked bistek recently, and she prompted my taste buds, especially as I had been eyeing the Radical Chef's version for a while now too. This version was served with fried potatoes and sauteed green beans, but it would have been just perfect with steamed rice, too.

Pork apritada is a Filipino pork stew, better described by the Radical Chef, in relation to other tomato based stews common in the Philippines. I used her recipe and a simpler version from my one of only two Filipino cookbook, Let's Cook with Nora by Nora Daza, to come up with this version. I usually cook chicken apritada, but this time I thought I'd try it with pork.

Continue to the Pork Apritada Recipe.