Just because this is an HERBY dish, I decided to make this my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, which is back home in Kalyn's Kitchen this week.
Are you going to Scarborough Faire.... Know that song? That is what this dish is named after. Why? Because it has parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, of course! All these herbs we have in our garden so I thought why not make a recipe out of the song and at the same time use these individually packaged chicken thighs that Costco, our favorite store, have started carrying. They contain 5 thighs in each pack which is perfect for our family, there's five of us!
Chicken is cheap and baking is easy so a baked chicken dish of one sort or another is pretty common in our kitchen. This dish is something we came up with just to have something different for a change.
10 Chicken Thighs
3 Tablespoons Butter
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (probaby about a tablespoon each, chopped)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups Flour
1 can Evaporated Milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
Place the butter in a baking dish in the oven, heated to 375 degrees, to melt. In the meantime, season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Coat each chicken piece with flour and lay on the baking dish skin side up. Pour the milk and about half a can of water in the dish, sprinkle with the herbs, and bake for 375 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until the chicken is tender and the liquid has thickened to form a gravy.
This time served with Beet Greens with Garlic and as always, steamed rice.
This meme is from the ever creative Toni of Wifely Steps which she sent to our email group but I chose to post my answers here. I tag all of you who love food and reads this.
How do you like your eggs?
I like eggs in any form except for poached. Just haven't developed a liking for it yet.
How do you take your coffee/tea:
Like my man, strong and black LOL!
Favorite breakfast foods:
Fried Rice, tomatoes & onions, sunny fried egg, and one of these: langonisa, tocino, or daing (dried fish)
Peanut butter: smooth or crunchy?
Smooth
What kind of dressing on your salad?
Italian, Greek, or Caesar
Coke or Pepsi?
Pepsi, but rarely
You're feeling lazy. What do you make?
Ramen noodles or boiled eggs
You're feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order?
Papa Johns - Spinach Alfredo (mine), pepperoni or cheese (kids), meat lover (hubby)
You feel like cooking. What do you make?
Whatever strikes me and whatever is in the fridge. I like playing iron chef in my own kitchen.
Do any foods bring back good memories?
Yes, lots of them. Just about every memory I have seems to have food involved. Example: [Good]Kindergarten graduation, my dad took us for pancit loglog and chopsuey. [Good]When I was pregnant with my first child, I had an unusual hankering for eggs at every meal.
Do any foods bring back bad memories?
Yes, lots of them. I told you I can relate just about any memory to food! Example: [Bad]I burned my legs when I was 8 cooking lugaw (porridge). [Bad]I learned how to bake bread to get over a bad break up. During this time I also learned vodka does not freeze.
Do any foods remind you of someone?
Dinengdeng and Kamote Salad = my lola Dora
chicken feet and chicken heads tinola = my lolo (those were always his portions)
Suman = my lola Faus
Banana Bread & Bread Pudding = my mom
Pinapaitan & Dinuguan = my dad
Brazos de Mercedes = Aunt Liz, who can't cook but has mastered this
I can go on and on......
Is there a food you refuse to eat?
Haven't found food yet that is hygenically prepared and cooked well that I didn't like. I'll try anything at least once, provided it's clean.
What was your favorite food as a child?
Seafood even though I was allergic to them. I loved shrimps and crab, I still do.
Is there a food that you hated as a child but now love?
hmmm........NO
Is there a food that you loved as a child but now hate?
NO
Favorite fruit & vegetable:
I like them all, but am partial to leafy green vegetables and mangoes
Favorite junk food:
French fries
Favorite between meal snack:
Don't snack much between meals but when I do it is usually fruit and occasional chips or cakes
Do you have any weird food habits:
I don't like to mix flavors unless I know they compliment each other. Example: I don't like putting anything sweet on a plate with savory dishes.
You're on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on?
Fruits and Veggies
How spicy do you order Indian/Thai?
HOT HOT HOT!!!
Can I get you a drink?
Water for the most part; of the alcoholic type, margaritas on the rocks, gimlet, or vodka tonic
Red wine or white?
Depends on what I'm eating
We only have beer:
Corona
Favorite dessert?
Tiramisu, creme brulee, flan (or anything creamy and sweet)
The perfect nightcap?
Hot cocoa
This week, Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz, since that busy lady Kalyn is attending the Blogher conference in California.
Although the title is weekend HERB blogging, the rules just requires that the post be about an herb, plant or flower. I thought this would be a great way to show off these beautiful swiss chard. I just wish there was a way for me to preserve the colorful stalks. With the abundance of swiss chard from our garden, I have been on the lookout for different ways to cook chard. The girls tend to favor them plainly sauteed with just a bit of butter, but I like to try new recipes, and they gamely indulge me sometimes. This is one of those times.
While bloghopping not too long ago I ran across a post about chard on the Scent of Green Bananas. This is where I got this idea of spicing up chard, but I used pinenuts rather than peanuts as Santos did.INGREDIENTS:
2 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
3 cloves of Garlic, minced fine
1 small Onion, chopped
1/2 cup Tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp. each of: Coriander seeds, dried red chili peppers, turmeric, curry powderSalt & Pepper to taste
Toasted Pinenuts
Swiss Chard - use as much as you like or whatever you have on hand
Heat butter and olive oil and saute' the garlic and onion until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and cook until onions are translucent and tomatoes start to render their juices. Add the spices and cook another minute stirring occasionaly. Add the swiss chard which have been washed and cut into one inch lengths. Season with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Cook just until chard wilts and sprinkle with toasted pinenuts just before serving.
Thank you, Chef Paz for hosting this week's WHB.
Kalyn who hosts Weekend Herb Blogging luckily posted this recipe a second time around and reminded me to try it out. I am glad I did because it is such a refreshing change from the usual pickled cucumber salad and it is such a perfect way to highlight the cucumbers and mints from our garden. I made a couple of modifications from Kalyn's recipe since I didn't have the green Tabasco sauce or peanuts on hand, but I think the spirit of the recipe still came through. Here's how I did mine. Kalyn's original recipe is here.
INGREDIENTS:
Cucumbers from our backyard ~ some were not very big yet or are shaped strangely, so I used about 5 or 6 cucumbers (use however many you need to make a bowlful)
1/2 cup fresh mint, coarsely chopped
dressing:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons Patis or fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. green habanero sauce
1 1/2 tsp. or two cloves of garlic puree (I ground mine in a mortar & pestle)
salt and pepper to taste
Peel and cut the cucumbers into bite sized chunks and add the coarsely chopped mint. Mix the dressing ingredients in a separate bowl to make sure the sugar and salt are dissolved. Taste and adjust accordingly. Pour the dressing over the cucumbers and lime and let marinade for about 15 minutes before serving.
As Kalyn pointed out on her post, the mint becomes overpowering after a while so it is best to make only as much as you think you can finish in one meal.
Continue to the Beet Greens with Garlic recipe.
My husband loves to tell a story of a chef who worked at one of the nicer hotels here in Durham that is supposed to be offering continental cuisine. It started out just fine for a few months but as the chef got more comfortable, the more his food started tasting like southern food until it got so southern people forgot what it was supposed to taste like to begin with! Well, that's kind of what fusion cuisine is like, which is the next topic for Lasang Pinoy.
Distincly Pinoy with a TWANG is what Ces has titled this round with, and I wish I had thought of it first, cause it's the perfect name for my blog! I think my distinctly Pinoy blog is often hit with a touch of Southern twang :-) Well, we do give every dish we prepare in our kitchen a touch of Pinoyness to it. If you do the same, perhaps you can share with us how you twist your food to give it a twang and don't forget to let Ces know when you post your recipes.
I finally got around to posting something for Weekend Herb Blogging which was started by Kalyn's Kitchen! The garden has been doing really well especially the herbs, so I thought this event would be the perfect way to feature these goodies from our backyard.
From one pack of beets seed, we've had a bumper crop of beets this season. I haven't motivated myself yet to start canning anything so we've been eating a lot of greens and beets. So far our favorite way of fixing beets is this fresh pickled recipe which I put together from several sites on the web. The addition of fresh dill is a must. 
The dill heightens the natural sweetness of the beets perfectly. We have also tried it without the dill, and the flavors were a bit flat without that extra kick from the dill so if you can, don't leave it out.
To cook the beets, first cut the tops off, leaving an inch on the roots, and reserve for another dish. Don't be tempted to peel them first as I was because this will cause a lot of the pretty red coloring to bleed out, and bleeding out is not a good thing even for vegetables. That means don't cut the root tendrils off either just wash the roots throughly and boil the beet roots unpeeled until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. You can cook them longer if you prefer them to be more tender. 30 minutes, I found, is the perfect cooking time for me as at this point they are thoroughly cooked but still have a bit of a 'bite' to them. Rinse them under cool running water, cool, peel and slice into rounds or quarters.
In a small bowl combine:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon each of salt & black pepper
about 1 tablespoon of fresh dill, chopped (add more if you prefer I was being a bit cautious this time around)
Pour the dressing over the prepared beets and let marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving.
What do you do when you have some free time? That's the topic this month at Blogkadahan.com, and I am the last to post. Here is what I like to do in the little free time that I have:
Moments of leisure are hard to come by as any working mom (whether in-home or out-of-home) can tell you. Before I got married and started having kids, my free time, as much as possible, was filled with travel; of course that all changed when my children turned my lifestyle around. Reading was another past time I enjoyed, but that too went out the window when I couldn't even keep my eyes open long enough to finish a paragraph before dozing off like an old woman.
Read the rest>>>
We had just come in from the garden and I was in a mood for a quick and light lunch. I thought what better way to use up some of the bounty we just picked from the garden than to lightly blanch them in a soup.
I was a bit disappointed when I looked in the pantry and discovered that I was out of my usual sinigang mix with tamarind and all I had was this pack of sinigang sa miso mix.
I decided to go ahead and use this mix instead anyway. What we ended up with was another pleasant surprise.
All I did for this soup is to boil about 6 cups of water and add about half of the pack of mix, then added the shrimps and vegetables. As soon as the vegetables were cooked, we had our delicious and healthy soup! Lunch in less than 30 minutes.
Vegetables we used: swiss chard, turnip greens, green beans and topped with sprigs of cilantro or coriander.
Filipino Cookbooks
I can't remember exactly where I read it now, but I remember reading sometime ago about House brand Mabo Tofu so when I chanced by it at the oriental market, I decided to give it a try. I almost followed the instructions on the back of the package exactly, but I just couldn't leave enough alone, so of course I tweaked the recipe a bit, and I am glad that I did. I found the original recipe a bit bland, and I still needed to have a vegetable to go with the meal, so I decided on adding the napa cabbage.
The instructions on the package said to brown some ground meat, dissolve the sauce mixture in a cup of water and pour over the meat then add the tofu slices and cook additionaly just until the tofu is warmed thru.
I followed the instructions up to this point and tasted it, but it really did taste a bit bland so I added a teaspoon of fermented bean paste and a teaspoon of chili paste just to kick up the flavors.
I then poured the mixture over napa cabbage that have been sauteed just until they changed colors but were still crisp. It was ok, but I have never been a big fan of mixes and this one was a bit disappointing. I think next time I will follow a recipe from scratch.
Filipino Cookbooks
I have a new frock! Thanks to Charles for running a contest and was nice enough to let me win by default, thanks to Duke having the right answers but has her blog on WP. Serendipity, coincidence? Whatever it is called, I'll take it! Now I have been madeover and have this new retro look. Like it?
Thanks again, to Charles who got right on it and was finished in record time!
Thank you all who participated in this round of Lasang Pinoy. What a great treat it was to continue reminiscing about summers past and at the same time learn about so many coolers and refreshing recipes. Visit these great bloggers to read about their summer experiences and maybe even find a recipe you would like to try.
A sunny summer breakfast by afbeercan of Eat Matters presents Roasted Pork loin Hash with Raspberry Poached Egg and a second post on relaxing with Stella Artois (and no, Stella is not a girl), and reading a good book under a tree.
Manang Kusinera is back to blogging with a vengeance and contributes two entries for Lasang Pinoy. Who can forget ice candies in the summer and Palitaw made from scratch!.
Luchie the Pinay Foodie from Singapore reminisces about a summer she spent in the province which awakened her palate to new sensations.
Iska from Beijing writes about Saba con Hielo (bananas with ice) which she enjoyed as a child and still does, for her LP11 entry.
Julius, who thought initially that Lasang Pinoy meant a drunk Filipino (lol!!) joins us for the first time from Vancouver, Canada and decided to pursue his initial intuition by offering something to make us drunk instead of just tasting like Pinoys. Have a sip of his sumptuous looking Lychee Colada!
Mike of Lafang not only remembers his summer rituals as a child, he also presents us with a range of summer time favorites including the Pinoy ice cream sandwich! 
Ting of World Class Cuiscene offers two more refreshing coolers, cantaloupe and coco juice!
Ces of essenCes has more cooling refreshments and memories of summers spent playing childhood games. See if you remember any of the games yourself. For your enjoyment she offers the mouth watering green mango shake and dalandan juice. Ces also offers another cooler, mais con hielo.
Mita, the Unofficial Cook offers a refreshing drink of cucumber and coconut juice along with memories of summers at the beach with her family.
As a last hurrah to the end of summer in the Philippines, Macky of The Edible Garden contributes Batida, a coconut drink that is sure to mellow you out while you sit and gaze at the beach one last time.
Market Man offers something that I wish I could taste, coffee ice cream and mangosteen jam as a cooling refreshment for summer!
Mira at Mirsbin’s Kitchen laments not having tasted much street-food during her childhood, but her mom made up for it by giving them delectable treats instead. She shares her mom’s mango tart for this round of Lasang Pinoy.
LANI of Chibog, Chika, Lakwacha atbp remembers the summers spent with her grandparents in Bulacan and the bounty of summertime treats to be had. Just like many of us who spent summers being fed by our grandparents, these are the most memorable to our senses.
The super mom (my idol) and self-proclaimed perfectionist, Stef of Stefoodie.net, as usual treats us to a great essay on summer and being Pinoy; which of course means that food always plays an important role. She also promises of a part 2 which we will add to this list as soon as she is finished with it.
Finally, you have me your host, who kicked off this event with fried fish and eggplant salad and ended with two posts on Sauteed Chayote Squash which always reminds me of my childhood in Baguio, and a cooling drink of Cantaloupe juice which is perfect for the hot humid days back home and here in the South. Thank you all for joining, it was a great pleasure to host this round of Lasang Pinoy.
Join us again for the next round, watch the website for the next topic.
While I'm compiling the round-up for this round of Lasang Pinoy, I thought I would post this recipe, another Filipino dessert made of coconut and cassava or kamoteng kahoy. I was prompted to give this recipe a try by Manang Kusinera on her post on Palitaw which is similar to this but is made of rice flour instead of cassava.
Click here for the rest of the Pichi-Pichi Recipe
