Catfish Belly Adobo And Mungbean Soup

I love catfish adobo and when I see just bellies I always get them. To prepare marinate the bellies for an hour in vinegar, garlic, salt, extra virgin olive oil and kikkoman soy sauce, drain and fry in hot olive oil until brown. Then boil the marinade until thick, and pour over the fried bellies, yum, yum, yum. BoiI the mungbeans with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 2 smashed garlic cloves and 1 chopped onion, add 1 teaspoon sea salt when fully cooked, then add malunggay leaves (horseradish tree) which I get frozen from the Filipino grocery. I drizzle more extra virgin olive oil before serving using only Spanish or Portuguese olive oil as they are more robust than Italian or French.

I also made a Chinese vegetarian stir fry using canned vegetable mix and flavored gluten for non fish eaters.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

For my lunch today I made grilled cheese sandwich (for grown ups) with sliced fuji apple, manchego cheese and fig preserves on country rye bread, with tomato slices on the side. I got this idea from the Washington Post food section a while back, can't remember when, my version is butterlesss. I prefer this sandwich just with the apple, fig preserves, and cheese. The rye bread and the combination of sweet , salty and crunchy is just perfect, and an icy bottled water completes this meal, there's no need for dessert (there's no room anyway). Burp.

You can try other cheeses, I think seriously sharp cheddar, young Edam or Gouda will be good.

Nonstop Ice Cream Machine

My Cuisinart ice cream maker has been churning nonstop for oh about 3 months now, it must be exhausted. Which means we have been eating ice cream nonstop since. I didn't eat this much ice cream in my life until now. Most ice cream here are overly sweet for me including Ben & Jerry's and several brands have thickening agents. Even Breyers that used to advertise using just milk, sugar and natural flavors and fruits now uses that gum thickening whatever. By making my own ice cream I am able to reduce the fat by half and sugar by 60%. I don't use those horrible tasting sugar substitutes, I just reduce the sugar. It's also great to be able to prepare Pinoy sorbetes. The very first one I made was macapuno, then, let's see, I have made ube, queso (grated cheddar cheese), halo-halo, coffee (topped with mangosteen preserves), mango using Philippine mango puree, sweet corn with coconut milk, and today langka. Please, somebody stop me, this is so addicting! Or, maybe not. Can someone suggest other Pinoy flavors that I may have missed?

Italian Honey Figs And Golden Honeydew Melon

These figs are so aptly named, they taste as if they are dipped in honey, really. Thank you Wegmans for making these wonderful fruits available every summer. I have 2 fig trees growing in pots at my back porch, an Italian honey and a black fig, so far they have given me only 4 fruits per tree. I recently read that they need to rest during the winter months inside the house in order to produce more fruits in the summer. I'll do that this year and we'll see if they will be more generous next summer.

A lady was handing out samples at the Wegmans' front door and I took a bite. The flesh is pale yellow and very sweet, indeed, I like it. I was never into honeydew melons, it's just too bland. This golden one caught my attention, it is round in shape rather than oblong and has a very bright yellow skin. I'm taking advantage of all the luscious fruits summer has to offer and purchased a few kiwis which also never appealed to me before, will try them though, if I still don't like them I'll dry them to add to cereals.