Art: 1st Grade Photography

It's a great day to teach the kids photography today.

 

I decided we need to do Art class outside for a change. The weather was good and it's a wonderful opportunity to observe different elements, shapes, colors, and textures in our surroundings.

 

Equipped with our basic point and shoot camera and a list of items to take pictures of, we were ready. I made my 1st grader read each item on the list (for reading practice). My 2 kids took turns taking pictures of the different items.

 

One item was something with a straight line.

 

 

  Another was something red.

 

 

Our list had something orange...

 

 

and something circle.

 

 

I showed them the all the pictures they took when we were done. I was pretty amazed with the photos they took. I think this is a great activity to do with kids- whether your homeschooling or not!

Art: Lost in NYC

On Wednesdays, we do Art in our homeschool.

For Art today we drew pictures of the buildings in the city. 

Materials we used are black construction paper and some oil pastels.

We began by reading the Kindle book Max and Mr. Bow Wow (Lost in NYC).

The kids made their drawings as they listened to U2 songs- New York and City of Blinding Lights. After all, art isn't only visual.

Art: Pizza Collage

Wednesdays is art day in our homeschool for my 1st grader and pre-school kid. We made pizza collages. We started by tracing diner plates for our pizzas and then we cut up the toppings using different colored paper. The kids enjoyed decorating their pizzas.

Before the craft, we read the story "Party!" by Marianne Mcknight. I had my first grader read this story aloud.

The pizza collage craft idea came from this Art teacher's blog. She has some awesome ideas.

Pork Giniling (Sauted Ground Pork Pinoy Style)

It's been a long time since I added a recipe to my blog.
Pork Giniling is one of my favorite filipino dishes. I love eating it with rice and tomato ketchup. Ketchup? You say. Yes, ketchup. Try it and maybe you'll like it too.
We have moved back to Manila and all my previous entries were written in the States. This means that I can be authentic with my ingredients but I will still try to cater my dishes to those that I know don't have access to Filipino ingredients.
I have been craving rice for meals since we moved back to Manila. I thought that I have already been "Americanized" in that I can live without rice in my diet. Anyway, today, I decided to make Pork Giniling (or Sauted Ground Pork Pinoy Style). I think it is similar to Pork Picadillo.

I know that some add diced potatoes to this dish but I don't just because I think you will already get enough starch from the rice which this dish is served with.

Pardon my ingredients list but some of them are approximations because I find myself adjusting my ingredients to taste.

Here are the ingredients that I used:
Vegetable Oil - You can use whatever oil you have. I only used a little bit just to grease the pot because the pork will give out a lot of grease as the dish is being cooked.
Onion - 1 medium and diced (With the one I made, I just sliced the onion)
Garlic - approximately 1 tablespoon
Ground Pork - 1/2 kilo
Tomato Sauce - approximately 2 tablespoons
Carrot - 1 piece diced
Raisins - approximately 1 tablespoon
Salt and Pepper to taste

To start, I greased the pan with some oil and then waited for it to get hot over medium heat. Once hot, I sauted the garlic and onion until they started smelling good. And then, I added the pork. I tried to flatten the ground pork in the pan to make sure it doesn't bunch up as one big piece as it cooks. I then added the diced carrots. Midway through the cooking process of the meat, I added the tomato sauce. After the meat is cooked, I then seasoned with some salt and pepper. I serve this dish with rice.

Potato Skins - Baked

Again, I hated to waste our idaho potatoes going bad so I thought about making this baked potato skins. I found this recipe from recipezaar and by some accident I didn't fully follow the recipe but still it turned out really good. Here goes the recipe.

These baked potato skins are great with grilled burgers. I love them because they are baked and not deep-fried.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized baking potatoes - baked (see baked potatoes recipe), cut in half and with the inside of potato scooped out (You can leave as little or as much potato you like - quarter thick. In our home, we leave a lot of potato)

3 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese - grated

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 cups Cheddar cheese - shredded

2 tablespoons Bacon bits (or more if you like)

1/4 cup chives - sliced (or yellow onoins)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Combine vegetable oil, parmesan cheese, salt, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Brush all over the potato skins (top and bottom).

3) Lay potatoes upside down (skin on top) for 8 minutes.

4) Top with the cheddar cheese, bacon bits and chives/onions and bake for another 8 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Filipino Egg Pie

For my 1st LaPiS entry I made a Filipino Egg Pie. Thanks to Manang for the recipe. This was the first recipe that came to mind given the Easter Egg Hunt theme. It's such an eggy recipe but you can barely taste that eggs are in it (that's what I think).

First time I did this recipe, the taste of honey became overpowering and the top didn't really brown but on this second attempt, it was perfect (soft, moist, not too sweet, just right) even if I forgot to add the cornstarch. Next few times I make it, I will try to experiment with the use of condensed / evaporated milk instead of fresh milk. There is a different kind of sweetness to the egg pies sold in the bakeries in Manila. The use of canned milk might make that difference.

As a kid, egg pie really wasn't one of my favorites although my mom often buys some for our merienda. I rarely ate it when I was still in Manila. But as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Having no access to this kind of pie (and many other Filipino dishes), I missed it and it became one of my favorite pies / comfort food.

Spinach Lasagna

Making lasagna is tedious that is why I really would rather use the frozen and ready to cook kind. However, I think this recipe is simple enough. Plus, it's much healthier than the beef kind. Each lasagna roll is so filling. A piece would probably even be enough per person. (Sorry for the photo. Forgot to take one right after it was cooked so all the pieces where the filling sort of pop out in the side have already been eaten and this was the only piece left.)

Ingredients:

6 lasagna noodles (I use whole wheat kind)

2 tablespoons butter

3 teaspoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup ricotta cheese (add more if desired)

10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup parmesan cheese, shredded, for filling and 3 tablespoons for topping

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

1 cup mozarella cheese, shredded

1 cup Marinara sauce (whatever kind you like)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Bechamel Sauce:

Melt the buter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Whisk in the flour and slowly add the milk. Let simmer and let the sauce thicken. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Lasagna Filling:

Combine egg, ricotta cheese, spinach and parmesan cheese in a bowl.

Noodles:

Cook noodles based on instructions in box but add a tablespoon of oil in the water used to cook the pasta. Drain and lay individually in a tray with paper towel to prevent from sticking together.

Assembly:

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and spoon bechamel sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the filling in each end of the lasagna noodle. Roll the noodle up to the other end. Lay in the bowl. Do the same thing with the other noodles and have them lay on the bowl alongside each other but not touching each other. Cover with marinara sauce when done. And then top with mozarella cheese and a little bit of parmesan. Tighly cover the baking dish with a foil. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. And then remove the foil cover and let cook for another 15 minutes or until the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and let stand for another 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!